Check out these Podcast Resources!

"When you participate in a mastermind, you cut your learning curve by at least 75% and acheive your goals at a rate far quicker than trying to do it on your own." Heidi Richards

Dave Jackson the Personal Podcast Coach and Founder of School of Podcasting was our guest expert this week for session three of our book mastermind. He was a delight and had some wonderful tips for everyone.

Many thanks to Roy Montero, The SEO Guy of Verbal Networking (http://www.verbalnetworking.com) for recording yesterday's session and also for saving the text chat notes for me to send to you.

We asked Dave what we needed to record a good podcast and here are some of his suggested resources:

Microphone is number one the most important! Get a mic for about $60 - MXL - AudioTechnica About $99

Also need a cable- 3 foot cable $10 - $15 and a stand for mic $10 - $15

He recommends a mixer too - it powers the microphone and helps you tweak your voice and with Berringer model 802 you can plug in 2 Mics (cost about $50)

PodProducer is a software that will help you produce and record your podcast and it's free

Editing software:

FREE http://audacity.sourceforge.org – download it here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

FREE - Wavepad Recording and Editing Program

Sony Sound Forge Editor is about $70

Check out Dave's Weekly Web recommendations for more podcasting tools at: http://www.weeklywebtools.com/

Place for storing your podcasts (server) http://www.libsyn.com unlimited bandwith (unlimited listeners and storage – you can upload podcasts per month - they move to a holding area so you can upload new ones monthly ) costs up to $20 per month

Some more sites for finding posdcasts:

http://coolerwebsites.com,
http://www.podcastpickle.com
andhttp://www.podcastalley.com
http://www.podcastfastpass.com
http://www.121podcasting.com – also has a forum

Some of the Podcasts Dave listens to include:

This Week In Tech
InternetBusinessMastery
RumorGirls

Dave also mentioned inexpensive places you can Buy jingles:

SoundDog.com
PodsafeMusicNetwork is mostly free when you find music you want to use, you simply mention who the music came from.

When asked about the 2 or 3 biggest mistakes podcasters make Dave said:

1. Not realizing how big (important) podcasts could be

2. Finding a balance and pacing yourself in each episode.

3. Trying not to give it all away in one session.

The key to podcasting is great content and quality – quality is QUEEN!

BTW, If you are a member of the Book Mastermind, you automatically get a copy of the audio file as part of your registration. If not, you can still sign up to receive the audio program and all audio files we make from our various weekly masterminds. You can go to Women's Writing & Publishing Summit to sign up today.

Thanks to everyone who participated and expecially DAVE Jackson!

Heidi Richards, Founder & CEO - The WECAI Network™

Being a Guest on OPP - Other Peoples Podcasts to Promote Your Book

"We are expecting podcasting to be additives on both the revenue and profit lines in 2006." Audible.com

Today The WECAI Network™, ™ again hosted a great eWednesday Chat mastermind session featuring Roy Montero, THE SEO Guy (and Verbal Networking sponsor) who discussed "How to promote your books on Podcasts - Being a Guest on OPP - Other Peoples Podcasts to Promote Your Book" without all the work that goes into production.

During our almost two hours together, Roy talked about what podcasting is, what types of programs work best, how to upload them to your site, where else to submit your podcasts, and mucgave some excellent resources to check out (listed below).

I would like to also thank Jerry Leventer of Red Apple Tutoring who shared his expertise on Podpress.org. He showed us some great tools on Podpress that we can use to upload our audio files and more.

In addition, Sheila Finkelstein of EteleTours and Natures Playground deserves a big thank you for once again recording the audio portion of our program. You can access it at: http://sheilaf.audioacrobat.com/download/WECAI-podcasting80807.mp3

Special Thanks to Roy Montero for again hosting the session on Verbal Networking and on his teleconference bridge line. Roy is our #1 Sponsor!

If you attended today's session, you know that there is "homework" for next week. Your assignment, should you decide to accept it (and you plan to attend next week) is to go to Odeo.com and set up an account and record a 30-45 second commercial that you can share with us next week. In addition to that, you are asked to get yourself "booked" on a talk radio podcast show and let us know about it. We will help promote the program during the session and also on this blog.

Now for the resources mentioned:

Book -- Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide by Todd Cochrane

Listen to an interview with Roy on the Let's Talk Marketing Radio Show with Cathrine Franz - it's available on the Let's Talk Marketing Radio Show website. Here's the link: http://www.letstalkmarketingshow.com/. The interview is in archives section on the website.

Free sound editor - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Excellent site listing hundreds of tutorials for audio and video - http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=audacity

For wordpress plugins - http://www.wp-plugins.com/

Free account for recording - http://www.odeo.com/

Google reader to read the feeds from the rss you subscribe to - http://www.google.com/reader/

Feed editor - http://www.aweber.com/

Where you upload your podcasts - http://www.podpress.org/

Roy says, "RSS your home page first and then just the pages that need to be RSS, you don't have to do all the pages, especially if you have 200 or 2,000 pages http://www.wordpress.org/

Load iTunes onto your computer - http://apple.com/itunes

Wave pad sound editor - http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/

A few places to look for shows to contact for interviews:

Lillian Cauldwell – Global Talk Radio http://www.globaltalkradio.com/shows/thelilliancauldwellshow/
The Podcast Network - http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/
Podcast.net - http://www.podcast.net/
Podcast DirectoryPodcast awards - http://www.podcastawards.com/
Catherine Franz - http://www.letstalkmarketingshow.com/
Coach of the Airwaves - http://www.coachoftheairwaves.com/
World Talk Radio – http://www.worldtalkradio.com/
Heal Yourself Talk Radio - http://www.healyourselftalk.com/

For music to add to your podcasts and recordings:

http://www.podsafeaudio.com/ (free)
http://www.musicbakery.com/ (paid)

OPUZZ.com offers a CD with 10 songs for $59

BE sure to join next Wednesday at 12 noon Eastern Time at http://www.blogger.com/www.verbalnetworking.com for another lively discussion.

If you are writing a book, have written a book or are considering writing a book, then this mastermind group may just be the place for you!

Wishing you a terrific day... and then some.

Heidi

Heidi Richards, Founder of the WECAI Network™,

Promoting Your New book - 13 great ideas!

“Writing a book is a creative act. Selling a book is a business. A finished book is a product.” Dan Poynter, Author – The Self-Publishing Manual


Today, we had our first mastermind session on book writing, publishing and promoting.

Mostly it was about promoting. There was some excellent advice given by many of the women who joined us.

Catherine Franz of AbundanceCenter.com and Let's Talk Marketing Radio Show is an expert Marketing Guru and has helped literally thousands of books get noticed. First and formost she recommends everyone create a marketing strategy for your book. Here was more advice from Catherine:

1. Use talk radio shows as your marketing avenue
2. Create a 15 minute audio, reading part of the book, not necessarily the 1st chapter either and put it on your web site.
3. Sell your book, a license, to a book club that has your type of books, you can sell 5,000 or more copies in one shot instead of one book at a time.
5. Sell your book at your garage sales (don't discount, sell regular price) - autograph them to add value.
6. Tap the library market (must have index and no forms in the book) - The major distributor to libraries is Quality Books, here's how to reach them: Quality Books, 1003 West Pines Road, Oregon, IL 61061, I think their phone number is 815-732-4450
7. Give out flyers in your neighborhood
8. If you have a children's book, go to book stores and unannounced with a few kids and begin reading, other children in the store will join in for sure
9. Do readings at Libraries
10. Read the article 28 Reasons Why Publishers Will Buy Your Book at http://ezinearticles.com/?28-Reasons-Why-Publishers-Will-Buy-Your-Book&id=3354

BTW, you can reach Catherine at (304) 724-8901, or visit her online at http://www.abundancecenter.com/ and http://www.letstalkmarketingshow.com/.

11. Elizabeth McElrath said: I have seen books for sale on ebay in some stores...

12. Jane Carroll said I have books at gift shops and even a dress shop...I have found local festivals are not good...

13. Heidi Richards says, "JOIN a MASTERMIND!"

I'm off to part two - 5pm Mastermind. If you were unable to join us... I will post more tomorrow as well as books by women who attended.

If you are interested in attending future mastermind sessions, let me know by sending me a message to heidi (at) wecai.org with "Book Mastermind" in the subject line. I will send you details.

Warmest regards,

Heidi

Heidi Richards is the Founder of the WECAI Network™, President and CEO of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets, Publisher and President of WUN Publications, Inc., a professional speaker and author/co-author of eight books, five internationally distributed e-magazines, several ebooks, tips booklets and special reports. She is also the Editor-in-Chief for WE Magazine for Women.

Promote Your Expertise on the Women in Business Podcast Directory

"If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. " Chinese proverb

Throughout my lifetime, I have learned that one of the best ways to get an education is to surround myself with people who are smarter than me. If they gave out Ph.D's by learning from others, I am sure that I would have earned several by now.

In fact, one of the most exciting thing about learning new things is to share that new-found knowledge with others. So I wanted to tell you about a great new resource you can take advantage of in more ways than one!

My friend, Penny Haynes, President of 1st Podcast Publishing has a great resource for women business owners. It is called the Women in Business Podcast, Tips for Women In Business. This site hosts both audio (podcast) tips as well as the written version. It is a wonderful place for you to learn from other women as well as post your own tips for Women In Business. If you don't have a blog, you can become an instant rss success when you participate in the Women in Business Podcast.

With Women in Business Podcast not only do you get a chance to showcase your own expertise on their forums, you have an opportuntity to promote your own website or blog because Penny invites you to put a link to your website at the bottom of every post to help increase your search engine ranking!

My Tip: Using the Power of Masterminds for Business Success can be found here:
http://www.womeninbusinesspodcast.com/ and if you click here, you can listen to the audio (podcast) of the tip http://www.byoaudio.com/play/W1Sj9ybX now! The audio tips are under 5 minutes and filled with easy to implement valuable information to help you in business.

I recommend you sign up for the Tips for Women In Business Forum and start participating and promoting your site today! When you visit the site, there are also instructions to record your tip.

The mission of The WECAI Network™ is to "help women do business on and off the web." and when we discover great resources offered by members like Penny's that can help us achieve our mission, we want the world to know about it.

Wishing yo much success... and then some.

Heidi Richards