Major players take podcasting seriously
The headlines below reveal that podcasting is a viable business and entertainment tool. Anyone can create and download a podcast. And major companies want to take advantage of that.

APPLE to make iPod podcast-friendly
CNN - USA
Popular audio files, which can be played on any MP3 player, said to be easily organized on iPod. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc.
...
<http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/23/technology/personaltech/apple_podcast.reut/>

GARAGEBAND.COM Adds Podcast Studio Functionality The Mac Observer - USA ... bills itself as a "grass roots community" devoted to giving up-and-coming musicians exposure, on Monday announced the addition of GarageBand Podcast Studio to ...
<http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/05/23.12.shtml>

Podcasting levels the playing field
You don't need money or an audio engineering degree to create a podcast. You need something worthwhile to talk about. And you need instruction about how to do it affordably.

Why aren't you podcasting?
If you are reading this post, you can podcast. If you have a phone line, you can podcast. If you have something to say, you can podcast.

It's an inexpensive way to self-promote. Create good content in a professional manner, and you're on your way. The real issue is desire, time, and knowledge about how to create a podcast.

Join us for our free podcasting seminar
We are offering a free podcasting seminar at Co-Op World during their Summer Sizzler event. You can attend in their audio conference room. http://co-opworld.com/member/50522/?summersizzler
If you can't attend, contact me via the QMTP box on this site, and I'll tell you when the next seminar will be.

Podcasting is just the beginning
Once you begin podcasting, this opens the doors for you to create audio seminars, audio books, and more. The key is learning how to do it well - the first time around. If you want to learn how to create a podcast without the trial and error, learn more here.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon - literally!

Penny Haynes
http://www.Create-A-Podcast.com

"Firefighters Featured in New Podcast May 19, 2005 The Firehouse Radio podcast is giving firefighters and paramedics a show of their very own. "Firefighters and paramedics are in the news every day," says show creator Jim Goetz. "Firehouse Radio is a combination talk radio and news blog for them - firefighters doing radio right," he continued."

Podcasting News: Firefighters Featured in New Podcast

You know, I thought about going down the street to the local fire station and asking them to share stories, and adding that as an inspirational section of Your Voice, but I never did it...partially out of fear of rejection (can you believe that?), and partially because of lack of time. Who could you interview locally (or virtually) that would have interesting stories?

There is a woman in our town who is giving her daughter's kindergarten teacher a kidney...I'd love to create a podcast from that story too. I really need to interview them...let's see if I have the time and dedication to do that!

This is an interesting article - tell me what you think about text-to-speech podcasts. Do you think people will accept them in place of real human voices? I found out that people would rather pay a little more for a human-read audio book than less for a text-to-speech generated audio book. I had been thinking about doing a podcast on business news, since that's really all I have time to study. I have to think about whether or not I would be willing to listen to it via computerized voice.

By the way, you can create such podcasts yourself with a product called TextAloud - they have some great voices, and I think I will let you hear what this would sound like with one...I'll try to create a podcast with Text Aloud this weekend.

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"New Services Translate News Feeds Into Podcasts May 19, 2005 As interest in podcasting builds, news services are emerging to help deliver web-based text information as audio podcasts. Two new services, Talkr and Speakwire, promise to take RSS news feeds from blogs and other sources, and convert them into audio podcasts. The services provide a new option for creating podcast content and generating audio versions of web content."

Podcasting News: New Services Translate News Feeds Into Podcasts

As you can see below, the networks are picking up on the power of podcasting! Why would the big boys create a podcast when they have all of those money-making sponsors already??? There must be a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow somewhere, or why would they be publishing a podcast? Just my opinion...What's yours?
Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing

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ENTERTAINMENT Podcast
NBC5.com - Chicago,IL,USA
Brad, Jen, Paris, Tom, Britney and MJ. What do these people have in common?
You just might hear what they've been up to on our entertainment podcast.
...
<http://www.nbc5.com/entertainment/4437014/detail.html>

RUSH Limbaugh Announces Podcast
Podcasting News - Des Moines,IA,USA
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has announced that his site will begin offering a commercial podcast starting June 3rd. ...
<http://www.podcastingnews.com/archives/2005/05/rush_limbaugh_a.html>

Des Moines,IA,USA BitPass has announced BitPass Unplugged, a new service that will give content providers the ability to charge for their podcasts.

This bit of news tell us that if you create a podcast, it is not a pipedream to hope to be able to profit from it at some point. Not necessarily like Rush Limbaugh, who even if he charged only $1/month, could make $25 million dollars. But if you know something that others will pay to learn or enjoy, then you may be able to create a podcast around that niche or market.

What do people want to know? And what do you know that meets that need? Recording a podcast just to hear yourself speak will not get you there - you need to record and edit a professional sounding podcast that deserves payment.

If you'd like to know more about how you can create those professional podcasts, check out 1st Podcast Publishing's new Complete 'Create A Podcast' Handbook - 5 week seminar.

Des Moines,IA,USA Infinity Broadcasting's KYOURADIO, the world's first podcast-based radio station, is set to launch on Monday, May 16 at 9:00 AM, ET. ...

What does this tell us? Someone must think there is money in creating a podcast. I have a friend who is inviting podcasters to sign up for internet radio, and when I asked her why a podcaster would pay to be on internet radio, she stated that it was a chance to get sponsors to help pay for their costs. That made me wonder why sponsors would not want to get on board a popular podcast. If you create a podcast that is popular, I would think that sponsors would want a piece of the action, don't you?

Let me know what you think...

Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing.

May 13, 2005

Microsoft has announced that it has acquired MessageCast, a leading provider of automated alerting and messaging technology. MessageCast technology currently supports Microsofts MSN Alerts service.

MessageCast has also announced that its LiveMessage service now supports podcast alerts. LiveMessage is a broadcast application that sends out alerts when information is updated. The LiveMessage service is being used by some podcasters to communicate with listeners via alerts.

With LiveMesssage alerts, users can pick and choose among various delivery options including cell phones, PDAs, and desktop alerts..

This acquisition extends MSN Alerts to new content channels, helping to expand the ability of MSN to connect consumers to the information and people they care about most.

"Microsoft and MessageCast have created a significant information channel for consumers," said Royal P. Farros, the co-founder and chief executive officer of MessageCast. "It's incredibly innovative and effective, leverages RSS, and the best part is the customer is totally in control. This is obviously a significant milestone, and we're very pleased to join the MSN team."

MSN Alerts lets consumers receive time-sensitive information from sources via any combination of MSN Messenger, Microsoft Windows Messenger, e-mail and text messaging on mobile or handheld devices that are compatible with MSN Mobile. The service is currently offered in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, and is available throughout the U.S. as well as select markets in Europe and Asia.