These days, almost every Internet marketing professional uses a blog as their main base of Internet operations, for the ease of updating their information, an interactive way to keep in touch with their audience and to increase their branding worldwide. Done right, blogs are also a powerful targeted traffic magnet that can bring in prospects then funnel them to the desired product, service or affiliate link.

What many are missing, though, is the added targeted traffic draw of podcasting on their blogs. A podcast is simply an audio version of some information, usually an article or blog post. This additional format is an important accessibility aid as well, for people with poor eyesight and for those who speak the language but aren’t cognizant with it in written form.

Preparing a podcast is simple – just read your post into your microphone or headset and record it. For the optimal ratio of file size to quality,  try recording it at 44.1 Khz in 16-bit mono and saving it as an MP3. Those suggested settings are somewhat arbitrary though, so if you’re not familiar with the technology just record your post or article at your computer’s default settings.

For use with a WordPress blog, look through the various podcasting plug-ins in that section of their site. One important concern is whether the plug-in creates a separate RSS feed for your podcasts – if it doesn’t, you’ll want to set one up manually. If you’re setting up the podcast RSS feed yourself, there’s a great tutorial for it on the iTunes website – look for the ‘Submit Your Feed’ link.

And that’s the other purpose to using podcasts – listing your RSS feed in directories like iTunes, PodcastAlley and PodcastReady will expose your work – and your site link – to a much wider audience. Millions of people use these directories to download MP3’s to their players, their phones and their computers each day, and you want to tap into that upscale market right from the start.

As a side bonus, the plugins will usually also add a player to your blog post itself, giving your visitors the choice of reading the post or listening to it. For those who choose to listen to it, hearing the words in your voice, with your inflection, will help them connect to you as a person, as opposed to an author on yet another Internet marketing blog.

However, it’s important to remember it doesn’t NEED to be your voice – you can just as easily outsource the reading of your articles to a professional ‘voice’ – voiceover talent that specialize in that well-known radio type of broadcast voice. Numerous sites offer this service, so a search for ‘voiceover talent’ should get you started in the right direction.

Overall though, the benefits derived from greater accessibility and the greater potential targeted traffic you can appeal to make podcasting a well-worthwhile addition to your Internet marketing arsenal. Start adding podcasts to your blog today!

By now, many people have caught on to the benefits of downloading music online. In fact, music downloads have changed the way people perceive the accessibility of music. Yet countless others still remain in the dark, missing out on an array of perks. Still, it’s never too late to take advantage of downloading music over the internet – and the best part is, it’s now easier than ever to do so.

So what are some of the most prominent benefits of downloading music? To begin, it’s incredibly convenient. Anyone with an internet connection and a media file player can access music from all over the world, within seconds. Consumers don’t have to physically visit a music store to find what they’re looking for, because all the music they could hope for is available at their fingertips through a computer. Search facilities often make it incredibly simple to search for songs and artists, usually requiring minimal information to return accurate results. Once a consumer finds the music they’re searching for, downloading is both fast and simple – usually taking just a few moments.

Another advantage to downloading music over the internet is that you no longer have to purchase an entire album to get that one song you like. You can mix and match from virtually countless songs, genres, and artists to come up with a collection of music that you’ll truly love. And because you can listen to a sample of each song before actually downloading it, you can be sure you’ll get exactly what you’re expecting.

And finally, one of the biggest advantages to downloading music is that music downloads transfer easily to MP3 players – so you can download tunes and take your music with you instantly, without the need to burn anything onto a CD. MP3 players are also compact and easy to carry around, and they don’t require you to switch CDs every time you want to listen to a new mix or artist. Of course, this also means you’ll never have to carry around all that extra music on CDs. With MP3 players, you can create and enjoy a mix on the spot, and all you’ll ever have to carry around with you a compact player – nothing more.

With so many advantages to downloading music online, it’s no wonder so many people are utilising the internet to access their favourite music. It’s never been easier to download songs for use on computers and MP3 players, significantly altering the way consumers seek, access and listen to music.