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At its core, a podcast is an audio track published online for audiences to listen to at their whim. They come in a wide variety of genres. Any podcast online falls under one of these categories: history, comedy, politics, spirituality, science, news, technology, nature, sports, and more.

Reasons More People Have Started Enjoying Podcasts

Radio used to be and continues to be a popular platform that audiences enjoy in consuming live audio content. Podcasts turns this kind of entertainment and information into something that you can listen to online whenever you have the time.

Other than convenience, podcasts usually have less advertising than commercial broadcast radio, allowing the audience to enjoy the content with fewer interruptions. Podcasts also allow their audiences to pause, play, forward and rewind the content whenever they desire.

Podcasts online have the added advantage of involving a much broader demographic of listeners, including a range of ages, genders, and interests. Listeners have widely listened to podcasts while multitasking from the comfort of their homes or workplaces. Podcasts can be informative, such as news or nature shows, or can be entertaining, comical, or contain sports content.

Informative podcasts include news, politics, and business topics. The best business podcasts are beneficial for both listeners as well as businesses. A podcast hosted or sponsored by a business can push more traffic to the company’s website and informs the audience about their available products and services. Free or highly cheap marketing strategies are intelligently buried under the impressiveness of the best business podcasts in the market.

Companies can have an alternative source of income if the podcasts do well with the audience. In the past, audiences have had to derive a brand’s identity, voice, and tone merely from their advertising posters, images, and videos. Having an audio platform extends their ability to establish their voice and what they stand for among their listeners. It also encourages more employees to work efficiently, as it allows people to listen to their podcasts while simultaneously completing their work or household chores. Business podcasts give an added element to the personification and personalization of a brand.

Choosing Podcast Topics

Before choosing specific podcast topics, it is essential to establish what genre the podcasts will be about. Not sticking to a particular genre can hurt listener traffic and confuse the audience. Once the genre for the podcasts is set, the first thing to do is to define the audience you plan to reach out to and impact with the content.

Do enough research on the topics you are contemplating covering to figure out which ones you think you will be able to speak about best. Choose topics based on what you think your listeners will enjoy but make sure it is something that interests you as well. Not being interested in the content you talk about can often be detected by the audience and can reduce traffic to your page and content. Talk about something that you believe in and speak to your listeners.

If you feel that a particular topic seems too broad to fit into one episode, consider making it a two part or multi-part series or divide it into major subtopics that you can cover over more than one episode. Make sure not to cram too much information into a single podcast episode and help your listeners have a better listening experience with more information that they deserve.

Based on the topic you plan to choose, consider the option of having guests who have expertise in that field or opinions to share on your show to be interviewed or have a conversation with you on each topic.

Benefits of a Podcast

Podcasts have proven to be highly beneficial to their listeners in a variety of ways. Informative podcasts have made easy learning “on-the-go” access to anyone with access to an internet connection. Podcasts are personal in nature and often help the listener feel heard and understood. It also makes the listener feel like the person on the other end of the mic is a genuine friend or trusted expert speaking directly to him or her.

Along with the benefit of being digital, the myriad of freely available streaming platforms in today’s world help podcast listeners cut costs when it comes to content consumption. Some podcasts have also been proven to help people fall asleep more quickly while keeping others company. At the same time, people can actively do other work, while passively engaging in the content of the podcast, making podcasts portable and highly time-efficient. Being an on-demand kind of content provider, podcasts give their listeners more control and influence than standard radio.

With the emergence and the sudden boom of podcasters and their popularity among its listener base, more people have started to wonder whether or not radio is dead. Although many, including the generation of today’s young world and others who have been more linked with the digital world, may assume that radio is still not dead as it gives an entirely different experience compared to podcasts and is still very much alive to a whole other demographic.

Podcast VS Radio

Podcasts and radio are very different in their styles and platforms aside from the similarity of the two being audio programs. Podcasts are recorded, edited, and published onto a streaming or on-demand website to be listened to by the audience whenever they desire. On the other hand, broadcast radio is a scheduled live audio program that allows the listener to tune into the station at any time, even though some may have missed a part of the show. Because of this fact, radio broadcasters have found the need to reintroduce themselves, their guests, and the topic from time to time to ensure everyone listening has caught up.

Audiences listen to podcasts online using one of a streaming service or podcast aggregator, whereas broadcast radio is listened live from a radio station. Radio shows are almost always produced and recorded by more prominent companies, but any group, organization, or individual can record podcasts. Individuals with no experience who want to share information with or entertain their audience often opt to register and post free podcasts online to publicize on other social media platforms for their audiences to see.

Radio stations appeal to a much larger group of people as compared to podcasts which are more niche. Radio shows are planned according to the locality, city, or country’s interests and requirements. By contrast, podcasts can be listened to by anyone in any part of the world that shares the same views and interests as the podcaster.

Producing Podcasts

Starting a podcast is not as technical as people think it may be. It involves planning a genre, theme, and concept for your series as well as episode length and target audience. Themes can range between a large variety of existing options based on what interests listeners the most – religion, science, sports, movies, comedy, technology, art, environment, news, and more. Once you have planned out what you want to focus on and your brand, you need to start planning out your episodes. Next, you need to plan the format in which your podcast will be recorded – interview style, more than one host, documentary style, narrative style, solo style, or a hybrid style. Record and edit the audio pieces and ensure you have a few episodes ready to post well in advance to be prepared for any issue that may arise in the future.

Once you have a couple of shows ready, find a preferred hosting service, such as VoiceAmerica.com, to host your podcast files. We can syndicate your audio programs into an RSS feed and can then distribute it to the major podcast platform of your choice to post your content to and where your listeners will find you easily.

Outsourcing Podcast Production

Podcast production services, which include the VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network, are often hired by businesses or organizations that want to start their podcasts to advertise the products and services they provide. These service providers can assist anyone from the beginning of the planning through the production process to the final product. They help the individual or company develop a concept for their podcast that aligns with their brand identity and personality. Before this, they do ample research to understand better the person or company they are working with to turn their message or concept into a podcast that their audience would be more interested in and inclined to listen to.

Podcast production services like VoiceAmerica can also help their hosts find guests or prominent speakers to grace their show and simultaneously boost the podcast’s listens and shares. They also help the company or organization work with deciding who should host the podcasts according to how well they capture and portray that brand’s voice. They ensure that listeners resonate not only with the speaker but with the organization or the brand as a whole. The podcast production service providers can take care of all the podcast’s technical aspects, such as editing the audio according to the requirements established by the client and taking care of the podcast distribution onto the streaming platform of their choice. They can also help edit soundbites as promotional content to be posted on the client’s social media pages for their audience to be notified about their upcoming podcasts.