You took the very first step and created your podcast. The podcast sounds professional, you have an RSS feed for it, you posted it to your website and even added one of those cool “RSS” feed buttons that people can subscribe to.

But wait, there is one problem, you don’t have that many (or any) subscribers. How come people are not flocking to your podcast and just subscribing to it? The content is professional, it’s what everyone wants hear (or see), but no one is knocking at your door…err…RSS feed! Why?

Marketing! Marketing! Marketing! You need to market your podcast show. It doesn’t matter how great your podcast sounds (or looks) and what great topics you cover, if you don’t market it, they shall not come! So let’s look at some ways you can market your podcast to help grown your audience.

iTunes - The King Of Podcast Directories

This is the king of podcast directories. If you are not in iTunes, you are missing a great opportunity to get hundreds (if not thousands) of new listeners or viewers to your podcast.

To get started, you need to have an iTunes friendly RSS feed (to do this, I highly recommend you “burn” your feed with FeedBurner.com). You also need to make sure your podcast show has the appropriate keywords so that your show can be found in the iTunes directory. I highly recommend you do a search for a similar podcast as yours to see what keywords people are using (for example, if you do a search Final Cut Pro in the iTunes store and click on all podcasts, you will see that my podcast show, Digital Media Quick Tips, comes up in the list.)

Submitting your podcast to iTunes is very simple. You will need to have an account in iTunes, so if you don’t have one yet, go and get one. Just click on Sign In in the iTunes player (you need to select the iTunes Store), then click on “Create New Account” and follow the instructions. Once you have your account, log in and navigate to the Podcast directory inside the iTunes Store (iTunes Store–>Podcasts)

In the center of the podcast store, you will see a big “Submit a Podcast” icon. Click on that icon, enter your podcast feed URL and then click continue. After a few seconds (and if the feed is a valid one) you will get a screen that lets you verify the information about your podcast. If it is, just click on Finish and you are set.

Now comes the waiting time. It usually takes around 24 to 48 hours to get approved (sometimes longer and sometimes you may get approve in a few minutes…I guess it depends how busy the staff at the store is at the time you submit it).

Once approved, you will get an iTunes URL that you can then post on your site so that people can subscribe to it. The big question that everyone wants to know is “How do I get my podcast on the main page of the iTunes podcast store?”. There is nothing you can do except create a really great podcast, make sure you have a fantastic podcast cover image (the icon that represents your podcast), a great name and some great keywords. It is really up to the iTunes store staff to pick what they want highlighted in the front page. It’s not an easy thing to do (I tried everything, even sending them cookies, but that didn’t work). However, if you are lucky enough to get highlighted you are pretty much guaranteed a bunch of traffic! So make sure your podcast is perfect before you submit it to iTunes.

Other Podcast Directories
Many people submit their podcast to the iTunes store and think their marketing job is completed. Wrong! That’s just the beginning.

There are many listeners and viewers that don’t go to iTunes for podcasts, so you need to submit your podcast show to as many podcast directories as possible. Below is a short list of some other major directories you may want to consider submitting your podcast to:

• Podcast.com (http://www.podcast.com/)
• Digg (http://www.digg.com/podcasts)
• Podcast Alley (http://podcastalley.com/add_a_podcast.php)
• Podcast Pickle (http://www.podcastpickle.com/cast/add/)
• Zen Cast (http://www.ZenCast.com/)
• Yahoo Audio (http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit?)

There are hundreds of other podcast directories which you might consider submitting your show to depending on the topic of your podcast, the demographic you are trying to target, the geo (location) you want to go after, etc. To get a list of many more, just drop me an email and I will send you a document with many more directories.

Social Networks
Social networks are not for your teeny boppers anymore. They are a serious business development and marketing tool that you, as a podcaster and “media mogul”, should immediately jump in and learn how to use to promote your podcast.

If you don’t already have accounts in and pages on any of the following social networks, you need to create them immediately:

• Facebook (http://www.FaceBook.com)
• My Space (http://www.MySpace.com)
• Bebo (http://www.Bebo.com)
• Twitter (http://www.Twitter.com)
• Linked In (http://www.LinkedIn.com)
• Friend Feed (http://www.FriendFeed.com)

The key to each of these social networks is to build up your list of friends. However, don’t just add any friends, the key is to become friends with people that you feel is your target audience. For example, the podcast shows of my website PixelHeadsNetwork.com are geared towards digital media creators, so I seek out and ask to be friends with people interested in web design and development, eMarketing, video editing, motion graphics, flash development, digital photography, etc. You can easily search by keywords that will return both content and people that match those keywords.

The key is to offer real valuable information in your social network. Don’t just sell. Make sure you have some real information that you offer so that people have a reason to accept your friendship.

Once you’ve built up your friends, in the case of FaceBook, make sure you update your status with valuable information often (don’t update it with “I’m drinking coffee now”…really…no one cares…) so that people know that when they see an update from you, it will help them out with something.

Hyper Syndication
No, you don’t need a pill for Hyper Syndication. It’s not a bad condition. Hyper syndication is the process of submitting your video to many distribution sites such as YouTube, HowCast, MySpaceTV, Bip, Viddler, Yahoo Video, MetaCafe, AOL Video, etc.

Some of these sites can bring you many new viewers and it’s worth taking the time to upload the videos to each of these.

I can hear you saying already “I don’t have time to upload the videos to each of these sites!”, neither did I, that’s why I subscribed (for free) to a great site called TubeMogul.com which allows me to upload one video to as many video sites (that they support) at once. It was a great time savings and I recommend you to check it out.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to get new viewers. Hyper syndicate your video today!

eMail Lists
Do you have a list of people you usually send emails to? If so, make sure you send them updates on your shows. Whenever you have a new episode out, you should send out an email to update your audience.

Will you have an important or special guest in 2 weeks? Send out an email to your list to create the sense of anticipation. It’s important that you keep your audience well informed (but don’t over inform them, or they will want to opt out of your list).

Blogs
I hope you have a blog to promote your podcast, if not, you better get one pronto! Blogs are a perfect way to communicate information you are passionate about and love; therefore, it’s the perfect vehicle to promote your shows. Every time you have a new episode out, you should have a blog entry with show notes (show notes are very important to have). This allows people to see what’s in the show without having to play the entire episode (to see if they are even interested in listening to it) and it works wonders with your SEO (search engines love blogs!)

eMail Signature
If you don’t already have your show name, a short description (1 sentence) and a link to your podcast as your email signature, go add it now. You probably send out hundreds (if not thousands) of emails per month correct? Why not have your show as your signature so that people see that. It’s free advertisement. Those that are interested will click on it, those that are not will ignore it.

Your Audience
Yes! Your audience can help you get more audience! How? Ask them to invite their friends. Throw a quick contest and give something away for free that’s valuable to the person that gets the most friends to sign up. It worked for AT&T with their friends and family campaign, why not for you?

Guests
People love to have their 15 minutes of fame, so if you have a show that has guests in it (interview style), then ask them to send out a press release or an email newsletter when they appeared in your show. You’ll be surprise how many of the guest I’ve interviewed on Meet The Experts (http://www.MeetTheExpertsShow.com) have emailed their email list and posted it on their blog. This not only helps me from an SEO perspective, but also from a marketing perspective since they are marketing my podcast to their people which in turn gives me new audience members.

Press Releases
Every time you release a new episode, you should make a story out of it and create a press release. Will you have an important guest on next week? Create a press release about it today and then next week when the episode is live! Press releases are read by not only the media, but also by thousands of people worldwide, so make sure you create press releases as often as possible.

In Conclusion
Who said marketing your podcast was an easy job? It’s not, but as you can see, there are many ways for you to use the power of the Web to market your podcast without spending too much money.

Of course, this article briefly touched on a few ways to market your podcast. With a little imagination and lots of time in front of your computer, you will be able to come up with other great ways to market your podcast. If you do, please drop me a line at Marcelo@PixelHeadsNetwork.com. I’d love to hear what you are doing and share your ideas with everyone in a future article.