Looking at results from various web site statistics, the duration people stay on a web site is mostly at around 60 - 100 seconds.

As the result, as a web publisher, creating a page that is easy to read and deliver the right message to the audience is utmost important.

According to Jakob Nielsen, a web usability expert, web users don’t read. In Alertbox for 1st October 1997 — I know it was old, and I predicted the numbers are even worse nowadays — 9 percent of test users always scanned any new page they came across, only 16 percent read word-by-word.

As a podcaster who also publishes episode notes to the blog or podcast site, you need to address this problem. Doing this correctly allows you to convert more web visitors into listeners and listeners to podcast subscribers.

Here are the tips to create content that works for scanning readers.

• Bulleted lists (like this one). People like to scan through list. It allows them to locate each different points easily. If the bullet is long, it is also helpful if you combine this with the right format such as highlighting key points in bold.
• HTML formatting. Most common formats and typeface variations, such as bold and italics can be used to emphasize on key points efficiently. Readers usually stop at these words and read. They may decide to read on if they find the point interesting. If you quote, make sure to format is as with the right tag (blockquote). There are some other tricks but these are the basic.
• Short sentences paragraphs. Readers tend to skip long paragraphs and see passages that are easier to read. Breaking down long sentences and paragraphs into two or more helps a lot. The idea is to present only one idea per paragraph and make it as relevant as possible.
• Sub-headings. Use sub-headings to give a hint about that particular section. Title gives the whole idea of the content, and sub-headings focus it more to the section level. In HTML these are the h2, h3, and h4 tags. Sub-headings are useful for long content. They give users the time to rest their eyes and draw attention to the content that follows.
• Deliver key points quickly. They call it the inverted pyramid style. It means that the greatest content weight should be delivered immediately. What follows after it is the rest of the content that is less and less important. Another variation is to put more important points again during the end of the page to capture readers who go directly to the end.
• Grab attention quickly. Another way to draw readers in is to start with compelling reasons why they should slow down and read carefully. This trick is what I learned from copywriting, which almost always starts with a story instead of asking for the order right away.
• Include supporting images. Images can be distracting but used properly they are also great eye candy. When people stop at the image, it is another opportunity to grab their attention. It is best if the image is supportive to the content.

Practicing how to format podcast show notes are important. After all the hard work and time you’ve spent to get traffic, the next thing you want to focus on is conversion. Don’t turn your efforts into fruitless activities by making this small mistakes.

Design of the page, while important, is less critical than readability. That may be surprising for some readers, but that is just the truth. The number speaks for itself.

Finally, podcast episode notes are also important component of a podcast to drive traffic from search engines and convert visitors into listeners and podcast subscribers. Read the podcast promotion article to get more ideas about promoting and marketing your podcast.

We can certainly learn from newspapers. The main topic or major headline appears at the top of the page, the part that is “above the fold.” People who are in charge in newspaper layout design know the fact that people may only glance at it for a few seconds, especially on a newsstand.

For a web site, what appears above the fold is the title or heading of the page, and perhaps a few first paragraphs of content. This virtual real estate is so important that some copywriters spend as much time on the headlines as with the body copy.

Headlines, or titles, are like the ad for the content. It draws people into the body copy. According to master direct marketer and author Ted Nicholas, a good headline can outpull so-so headlines by 1700 percent.

No matter how interesting the content is, no one will read it unless the headline gives them a reason to read.

What titles are for?

Image credit: estribiyo.
Titles are very important in many facets of online publishing and marketing.

1. Search engine results
The title of the podcast page will appear in search engine result pages. It has to be interesting enough so that people click to visit your page instead of any other options in the search results.

2. Search engine optimization
Search engines pay attention to the title of the page. It is part of the equation to determine the topic of the page. People will often link to the page using the title of the page, which is critical for search engines to pick up and weight your page based on the keyword or keyphrase. Using keywords in the title is very important if you want to rank high in those keywords in search engines.

3. Podcast directories
In many podcast directories, they show only the title of the podcast or episode and nothing else. What makes people choose your podcast over the others? What makes them listen to this episode instead of that?

4. RSS feed syndication
RSS allows anyone to get updated content without having to visit a site or blog regularly. The title of your podcast episode has to compete with hundreds, if not thousands of other headlines. Each title only gets at most one or two seconds so make sure it is good or the readers may overlook it.

When RSS feed is syndicated to other sites, the title functions to grab readers attention to click through, just like in search engine results.

5. Social bookmarking sites
The social media trend is on the rage right now. People use and share their bookmarks of interesting content through del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and many others. Often they also provide review of the page, but what remains is the title of the page.

Unless the page is interesting, people may not click through if the title doesn’t intrigue them enough to slow them down.

Tips to create great title for your podcast pages

Image credit: apurdam (Andrew).
As part of publishing a podcast, you also write or blog a page that contains notes related to the episode. There are many strategies podcasters use to draw attention to the podcast pages with titles.

What’s considered good titles are subjective. Although there certainly are titles that are more compelling than others, they don’t guarantee more readerships. A copywriter may claim that certain words always improve clickthrough by xx and yy percent. It may be true, but what’s even more important is the underlying principles that makes the words work.

Following are different tips to create strong podcast episode titles. These tips also apply to the title of the podcast and episode notes.

1. Short and simple
A title should be simple and short. While long titles work, sometimes better, you want to stick with shorter ones because of the limitation of space in podcast directories and search engine results. Keep it around 40-50 characters.

Headlines for sales letter copy is different in this case, because when people come to the page, the only headline that demands their attention is the headline of the page.

It is also better to be clear rather than clever. Remember that most people scan on the Web so they may not understand instantly what’s in it for them in the podcast when you try to be too clever. The international audience may not know about the podcast if it uses slang.

2. Attention grabbing
The title should grab attention and stop the readers in their tracks. Dramatic headlines often work and if you know what the readers are most interested in, you can create a promise that will draw them in. Of course, you have to keep up the promise and deliver it in the page or in the podcast.

Good titles set the podcast or podcast pages apart from the crowd. In this era, nothing happens before a user pays attention.

One effective way to grab attention is by using benefit-laden titles or headlines.

3. Know your keywords
Keywords are the building blocks of a web site. Search engines use them to determine what your site is about, and specifically what the content of a page is about.

Using keyword rich title can help because it allows readers to relate to the topic they are searching in search engines. This is also very helpful for search engine optimization. Ranking in search engines for the right keyword is important for traffic.

Titles should satisfy both human visitors and search engine spiders.

4 Describe and reveal
A title should be able to tell what the topic of the podcast is. Unless your brand is popular and everyone knows about it, you should focus on clarity. Even so, a title should also reveal what is in the podcasts.

Most readers need to know what’s they are going to read before they actually click and read further. Titles should grab attention, but they also need to reveal or describe the pages.

The trick is to treat your title as mini advertisement for your podcast and podcast pages. What good is a podcast or podcast episode without people listen to it? Studies showed that you can increase readership tremendously just by changing the title.

So make sure you spend some time with it to make is as engaging as possible.

Worth reading: Podcast Promotion.

A topic such as the length of a podcast, in my opinion, will result in endless — or if I can be bold, I will say useless — debate.

This is not to say that knowing the right length for a podcast is not important. Quite the opposite though, I think optimal length could result in more consumption and higher response rate.

What did they say about podcast length?

Image credit: Mark_W.

For the past few years, many podcast experts and podcasters have chimed in with their own opinions about this. Some have done research with their audience and concluded that the right podcast length is 20 minutes.

Other experts argued that to be anywhere useful, the magic number has to be around 40-45 minutes.

I bet you have heard other podcasters swear by a shorter podcast — perhaps 5-10 minutes per episode.

Each of them have different theories about why that specific length works best.

Which one is true?

In my humble opinion, all and none of them are. The length of a podcast depends on many factors and no podcast is the same. They claim that a specific duration works for them because it just works. But it isn’t necessarily for every podcast.

What makes an optimum length

There are a number of ways of looking at it:

• Listeners or viewers attention span. In this case, podcasters have an advantage over web publishers. Several researches have shown that people have very short attention span when it comes to browsing on the Web. People tend to scan quickly over the content to see if anything grabs their attention.

  Scientific tests have shown similar results. You can verify this by looking at the bounce rate metrics of your web site in the stats. Although bounce rate doesn’t always mean attention span, at least it shows you how quickly people make a decision after arriving at a site. Also pay attention to the time average visitor visits your site.

  Back to the topic, podcast consumers can’t just skim from the first to the end of a podcast in a few seconds but this doesn’t mean podcasters can get away with low quality content. Nowadays consumers have more choices so quality is not an option anymore. The attention span of people who are listening to a podcast, especially on a portable media player, is going to be longer.

  The greater the attention span, the longer a podcast can be.

• The publishing schedule. The theory goes like this. Podcasts that are published daily should be shorter than those that have longer publishing schedule. If it is a weekly podcast, the consumer has a full week to find the time to listen to the podcast. For daily podcast, most consumers have to listen on that day because the content is timely and it was designed as such. There are exceptions to this though and you should adjust it as necessary.
• Topic or genre of the podcast. The topic of the podcast episode often determines its length. For example if this week a podcast features an expert, it may be a 45-minute to one-hour interview. During an event or seminar, the content may come shorter but more frequently.
• Segments of the podcast. The original podcast may have a pre-determine set of segments of which each of them only a few minutes long. But as the podcast goes, at certain week of the month, the podcasters may get more questions than other weeks. The podcaster may decide to answer the question in the Q&A segment over several weeks in different episodes or they may just extend the length of that one episode segment. As a podcaster, you are the one who decide which route to take, whether you want to stick with the time or you want to respond to your listeners as fast as you can.
• Entertainment value. Needless to say, podcasts that have high entertainment value should be longer because people seem to never get enough of them. Although podcasters should also take other factors into account, like the time average consumers spend on a podcast, generally if the podcast is interesting, people are going to spend more time on it. On the other hand, people can’t stand boring podcast and will stop listening before the podcast ends, even if they still have time.

It’s about the audience

Image credit: kirtaph.

At the end of the day, what’s matter is the audience. You can’t possibly come up with an optimum podcast length without testing it.

The length should be different from one podcast to another, because the audience has different preferences and available time to enjoy the podcast. Even in the same podcast, you can’t get the whole audience who agree on one duration of the podcast.

When I listened to some podcasts, I always skip several minutes into the content right into certain segment, but I can’t say that the other segments that I skip is not interesting because if they don’t, they should not be there.

While in a blog you can vary the one post to another, podcast is more limited. In blogs, you can post five times a day, of which two of them are quite comprehensive but the others are just two or three paragraphs. But in a podcast, you should be more predictable. You can’t publish as often so more thorough planning it necessary.

After podcasting for some time, you should get feedback from the listeners. You can take feedback and adjust the length of the podcast accordingly.

For now, start with the length that is comfortable for you. The market will tell you if they don’t like it. It is the only way you’ll know.

Also read: Podcast Tutorial.

Unless you know how to make it interesting, your podcast may not grab the attention of listeners long enough, let alone subscribe and listen to it regularly.

Introduction

Image credit: RrossoGialloBianco.

Podcasting is not only about talking into the microphone and publishing random thoughts for others to listen to. Of course, this may be acceptable for some podcasts which exist just for the sake of hobby.

For anyone who produces and publishes podcasts for business purpose, podcast format is one of the biggest things that should be planned carefully. Very few of us have the capability to speak impromptu without leaving any missing parts and still maintain good quality.

Like any other media, podcasters should adhere to “editorial calendar” to distribute the right message to the audience at the right time.

In several format of podcasts that mainly cover news, the calendar may be much more flexible but still there should be some plan to follow.

Why podcast format is important

When you are starting a podcast, you may tend to decide which format your podcast based on what you have listened and liked so far. Perhaps you like the idea of a talk show. You may have wished for your own radio show for a long time.

There is nothing wrong with this approach. Modeling a working format can certainly work if you do it right and is certainly better than no format at all.

I recall the time when podcasts were still very intriguing. Back then, if you have a podcast, site visitors and blog readers will listen to it just for the sake of curiosity. People care less about the format, quality and other things but mainly content.

The days are gone though. Even for people who have just known about podcasts, they will soon find out there are many options and the only thing that they are lack of is time.

Random musings from the author, unless very popular or provocative, is not going to get a lot of interested and loyal listeners now.

Boring podcast is also part of the past. Quality of content and interesting delivery are two factors that are no longer optional.

Another benefit of planning a podcast format upfront is that you know how to allocate resources as necessary. If the format requires a lot of research, you’d better have time to do it or delegate it to others. The first thing you want to avoid is podfading before you get into it enough to see results.

How to choose a format for Your podcast

Image credit: iandavid.

How do you create a great podcast format? Here are some questions you need to ask to create an engaging podcast:

• Will you have other hosts for the podcast or will you do it alone?
• What will the average length of the podcast be?
• What is the publishing schedule of the podcast? Daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or regularly but without a schedule?
• Will you include intro and outro music? What about sound effects and background music?
• What different segments do you plan to have in the podcast?

Who will be the host?

Most podcasts are solo podcasts. Only one person gets in front of the mic and talk. Other podcasts have two hosts discussing certain topic in turn. I have also found podcasts with a team of hosts discussing a topic at the same time.

If you are working alone, this doesn’t mean that you can’t co-host a show with someone else without physically meeting him/her. Conference calls now enable moderators and participants to involve in a group for discussion. Simple recording device can be used to record such conversation. Some conference call services provide recording as an option too.

Skype is a VoIP (Voice over IP) software that allows you to call people at the other end and establish a conversation for free across the Internet. In this kind of setup, you can co-host a podcast with anyone and record it as long as both of the hosts connect through the same software.

Another popular format is interview. You can schedule an interview with experts in particular industry. This will not only make the podcast more interesting but also less work on your part because mostly the content are from the interviewee answering the questions.

There are benefits and drawbacks for every one of them though. If you decide to do it yourself you are less bounded with the schedule, but you may find it harder to come up with ideas and there will be more work involved to create a podcast.

With a co-host the show could become more lively and many listeners find the interaction more interesting than just one person talking.

The average length of the podcast

Unlike radio, you are not limited by time. Your podcast can be as long as you want or just a few minutes.

The flexibility is yours, but you should also look at different factors. Every decision you make regarding your business including this should be based on the audience. There is no use in publishing one-hour podcast if most of the audience will stop after 25 minutes.

The best way to find the “sweet spot” is to let the audience decide. Once you have been podcasting for some time, you will know it based on the feedback you get from the audience (listeners or viewers). For now, you should start with anything you feel comfortable with.

Another thing worth mentioning is the size of the file. The longer the show, and the higher the quality of the show, the larger the file. This means that it takes more disk space and time to download.

Also note that you need to spare some time to research, plan, record, edit and publish a podcast. A 20-minute show can take up to 1 to 3 hours to finish. Sometimes much longer. You may want to take that fact into account before rolling your first podcast.

The publishing schedule of the podcast

Image credit: Davic.

This factor has to do with the topic, the expectation of the audience, your work schedule and the purpose of the podcast.

If you are podcasting about very popular topic that you will have something to say everyday, you should do it daily to get people interested and come back because you are the source they can rely on.

Weekly podcast is more common. Once you stick with the schedule, do your best to keep at it because once you have followers and loyal listeners, they expect to get new episodes regularly. If you fail to provide content too often, they may decide to leave.

Some businesses publish a podcast to keep in touch with prospective customers. In this case, they must stay in contact with the listeners to keep them interested in what they have to say including the products and services they offer.

Music and effects in your podcast

Music can make a difference in a podcast. It can change the mood and make the podcast sounds professional. Some podcasters decide to put sound effects in the podcast to keep things more lively.

Leading music are common, but there are podcasters who use it in the background too. Music is also great transition between segments.

There are services that will make podcast theme music for you if you don’t want to use existing royalty-free music.

There are some legal considerations when you use music in your podcast. There are many royalty-free music available but some require you to request permission from the author before you can use it.

Podcast segments

Podcast segments allow you to mix and match different type of content into a single podcast. Like in newspapers and magazines, there are featured articles, jokes, reviews, and so on.

Creative use of different podcast segments can help you keep the audience listen to the podcast longer than if there are only one single, boring and long segment.

Some ideas for podcast segments are:

• Welcome message
• Tips
• Reviews
• News
• Announcements
• Questions and answers
• …. of the Day/Week/Month
• Discussions
• Interviews
• Feedback from audience
• and much more…

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am going to say it again. Keep it simple upfront. You can change different parts and structure of the podcast later. Believe me, it will change anyway. But it is important to keep it simple first to get the right momentum.

Summary

Interesting podcast format can make the podcast enjoyable to consume. Ordinary content can become interesting because good format can change mood and engage listeners.

On the other hand, quality content can become dull and boring if the podcaster can’t delivery it properly.

Take this article as a guideline to plan for your podcast format. But don’t hesitate to change things to suit your needs because after all, you are the one who know your audience best. Based on their feedback, you are going to create a podcast that is most welcomed by the audience.

At the end of the day, the audience is what matters and they are the only reason this article exists.

Must read: Podcast Tutorial.

]]>