Archive for the 'RSS & Podcasting' Category

If you are like most RSS Feed users, you’ve found that it’s too easy to subscribe to a ton of feeds but way too hard to keep them organized.

The folks at Bloglines have released their newest feature: Drag ‘n’ Drop Feed Management.

So many no-names, have become superstars overnight in the world of podcasting. For example, 26 yr old Sebastian Babolat started recording French lessons (FrenchPodclass) from his living room, and within a few months he had over 10,000 subscribers.

That’s when the advertisers will start flocking, and circling like vultures. And, that’s when a podcaster can start to make serious money. For example: Volvo recently spent $60,000 for a six-month ad sponsorship of Autoblog.com’s Web site and podcast.

So, how to start podcasting?

Podcasts are easy to create. All you need is a computer, microphone, and software (Audacity is free). You’ll also need a place to host your podcasts. There are regular web hosting accounts that can get very expensive if your podcast becomes popular. So, there have sprouted specialized hosting companies like Liberated Syndication that charges $10/month, or OurMedia.org which will host your podcast and store your archived shows for free.

There are Podcast kits that include everything like Podcast Factory ($179) which includes a decent microphone, external interface with controls for input and output levels and jacks for headphones, speakers and instruments, and copies of Audacity and Podifier…programs for publishing your podcast. As an extra, you might want to get an audio mixer (TAPCO $120).

Basically, you’ll need to export the audio file as an MP3, and turning it into a feed for people to subscribe to.

Podcast tips:
1. Keep it under 30 minutes.
2. Write a script, and stick to a regular agenda for the show.
3. Get a good microphone. It makes a big difference in your show quality, and people won’t think your broadcasting from your garage (even if you really are).
4. Create your feed with Feedburner, and validate your feed with FeedValidator.
5. Create an eye-catching logo design that will attract listeners.
6. Lastly, post the link on iTunes and other directories.

Who knows, pretty soon, you too might become a Podcasting superstar.

Google’s RSS Reader is available, and they’re making it very easy for everyone to use. As a matter of fact, they have made it so easy, that it will be interesting to see how long it takes before Google has as many, or more subscribers as Bloglines or NewsGator.

Here’s what they cleverly did. They issued their own RSS subscribe button. You know the type. Those cute little rectangular buttons that everyone seems to be putting on their blogs. The Google RSS button reads: Add to Google. But, that’s not what is going to cause the market share balance to tilt in their favor. It’s what happens when someone clicks on the “Add to Google� button. You get sent to a webpage that gives you two choices. You can either Add to Google Homepage, or Add to Google Reader. You can see this functionality on my blog: www.shimonsandler.com/wordpress .

Additionally, Google has made their Reader searchable for new content. So, if you’re thirsty for some more information on any given topic, you can enter the term into a search box, and the results will be relevant content from the web. The best thing about this specialized search, is that there will be a subscribe button next to each on of the search results. Google has made it so easy to use a RSS reader, and search for new content. And you can use labels to categorize your feeds, just like Gmail has labels.

If you like an item in any feed, you can choose to Gmail it to someone from a dropdown menu in the reader, and a small window will open which is the new Gmail message with the feed item pasted in the body of the email. Similarly, you can choose “Blog This� and post directly to your Blogger blog.

Something different from Bloglines (which I use) about the items in each feed, is that they don’t just disappear after being read. I’m not sure if this is an advantage or disadvantage. Personally, I like the items to disappear when I’m finished with them, and don’t want to save them. But, since this in in beta, so we’ll just have to wait and see what they decide to do.

It seems as if everyone is jumping on the RSS bandwagon. Microsoft has incorporated RSS into their browser. Firefox has an RSS reader. There’s Pluck, FeedDemon, Bloglines, My Yahoo, NewsGator, and all the other smaller players.

When choosing your RSS reader, be aware that there are web-based readers, and client-based readers. If you are using the reader at work, and at home, it probably makes sense to use a web-based reader rather than a client-based reader. The client based reader needs to be installed on an individual computer.

Podcasting, a new technology that lets anyone create and distribute radio shows automatically over the Internet, is showing no signs of slowing. Since the beginning of the year, the number of podcasts has jumped 25-fold to 5,302 feeds in mid-May. This is creating opportunities to target advertising to niche market segments.
Remind anyone of the early days of the World Wide Web?

Source: Feedburner

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, which deliver up-to-the-minute headlines to readers, have caught on in recent years as a way of staying abreast of news, blog posts, and even podcasts. The growth in the number of RSS feeds available is showing no signs of slowing down. From just July to August, over 1.5 million new feeds came online — more than twenty times the number added during the same period a year before.

Source: Feedster Inc.

Google Base is Google’s latest project in an effort to organize the world’s information. It isn’t in Beta or Alpha yet. They are still developing it. I wasn’t able to get much information from my sources at Google, but I’ll tell you what they told me. Basically, Google Base will present feed results on the results page. The feeds will probably be 1-3 results, and either presented above or below the horizontal sponsored ads. I asked if the feeds will include podcast feeds, or just RSS feeds. My source wasn’t sure. Will they be sponsored ads for feeds, or just what Google considers relevant? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Check out all the noise here:
Search Engine Watch

Google’s Beta RSS Aggregator
by Shimon Sandler

RSS IS STILL IN AN early-adoption stage. And, if RSS is a game of follow the leader, then MSN and Yahoo! are the leaders and Google is the follower. But, look out. In their usual innovative fashion, Google has incorporated an RSS reader into Gmail. It’s called Web Clips, and it’s on top of the screen. Not everybody has it. Google automatically subscribes you to the RSS feeds from Ask Yahoo!, Engadget, and Reuters: Oddly Enough. Of course, Google rotates sponsored advertising from Adsense throughout the feeds. However, Web Clips doesn’t have all the features of a typical RSS reader. Basically, the only thing you can see is one feed headline at a time, and Google decides when and how to alternate them; the user does have the option of adding personal feeds. All in all, it’s a pretty weak excuse for an RSS aggregator. But look out…
My guess is that we are getting a taste of what’s to come. In its present form, Google’s Gmail Web Clips is lagging behind the pack. So, what does Google have up its sleeve?

Possibly, they might roll out a robust RSS aggregator that will be integrated into Gmail where you can get your e-mail and RSS feeds from one platform. No one has that. If Google went this route, they could take advantage of their search technology to implement an advanced search function for all RSS feeds.

Who knows, maybe Google will start indexing RSS feeds for a sort of vertical search engine. How about giving us the ability to subscribe to any RSS feed by just one click. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Rumor has it that Google has a new Web browser. What if Google integrates Gmail and RSS into their new browser? Look out Bill Gates.

Also, Google recently launched AdSense for RSS publishers. So, what if Google develops contextual RSS feeds that appear in your RSS aggregator in a similar fashion as Adsense appeared in Gmail when Gmail was initially launched. It seems like a natural evolution of Adsense.

As you can see, the possibilities are numerous. The 800-pound gorilla of search is poised to become the 800-pound gorilla of RSS.