Podcasting can be a powerful tool for building your reputation as a guru and expert in a self-help niche. They allow your audience to get to know you and your skills in a way that is hard to duplicate. They can help you to generate traffic. And they can be used as a product or to generate products.

And they are as easy to do as 123.

In this article I'm going to show you how to create a podcast in 3 easy steps. Now of course, I'm keeping this simple. So you may want to add some tasks to make sure you are always creating quality products. But these are the basic steps.

Step 1. Write your podcast.

Some people believe that experienced podcasters just sit down and crank out a quarter hour podcast based on the thoughts they had at breakfast a half-hour ago. Just sit down with the barest idea of a topic and talk away.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Podcasting, like a teleseminar or a webinar needs to be planned out. A detailed script isn't necessary unless you are just starting but certainly a detailed outline is. So start from your basic idea and then identify three things you want to discuss about that subject. Now for each of those major points, identify three sub points you want to discuss. Two is acceptable but will leave you short. Four is too many. Trim it down to three. Now add an introduction and a conclusion.

Step 2. Record your podcast

You'll need a headset, a computer and sound editing software. Windows comes with sound recorder but I prefer a tool called Wavepad. Grab your script outline. Stand up. Smile.

Now start talking. Start with your introduction. Make it strong and interesting. Controversial is good. Make it roughly thirty seconds in length. But don't stress yourself over the time. Next you need to welcome everyone. Introduce yourself and the topic you're going to cover in this podcast.

Now go through the points you've listed. Begin with the relationship between the three major points. Talk for about one minute. Then take the first of the major points and expand on it. Discuss the relationship between the three sub-points. Explain the major point. Don't worry. You only have one minute. Your may have a problem in knowing when to stop. Then discuss each of the sub-points for one minute.

Continue until you've talked about all of the points for just one minute. Guess what? You've got a fifteen minute podcast recorded. All you need to do is save the recording in MP3 format.

Step 3. Put it up on the web.

Now all that's left is to post the podcast to your website or your podcasting host. Sign onto your host and use their web based uploading facility to upload the MP3 recording.

If you're using a blog such as WordPress, sign on, create a post and then upload the media file.

If you're using a web page, it's slightly more difficult. Use whatever tool you normally use to create web pages. Then upload it using FTP.

Do you want to learn how to create information products (learning content)? Check out my new free eBook "7 Myths and Seven Tricks in Nine Steps": http://www.learningcreators.com/myths.htm.

Do you want to read more free information like this? Go to my blog: http://www.learningcreators.com/blog/.

Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.

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