Odiogo is an exciting service that makes that possible. Odiogo essentially turns your blog into a podcast. It uses text-to-speech technology to offer a natural sound to your visitors. Your visitors will have the option to listen to your posts when they don’t have time to read them.

In order to get started with this service, you are going to need a valid RSS feed. Once you supply that to this service, it will provide you with a feed ID that you can use to add a listen button to your posts. Don’t forget to download Odiogo’s WordPress plugin to deploy your service on your site.

Once you download this plugin, you can add Odiogo’s listen button to your site by dragging the appropriate widget to your sidebar. The text-to-speech technology used in this service is not perfect. But it does a decent job giving your content voice.

Have you tried Odiogo on your website? If so, please share how it has helped your business.

Most bloggers are always looking for ways to make more money from their work. Adding podcasting to your arsenal can expand your reach and open up new opportunities for your business. A good number of top publishers use professional podcasts to keep their audience engaged and coming back for more. Those of you who have done podcasts in the past know too well how time-consuming developing each episode can be. Standing out in the crowd of podcasts available in some niche markets can be quite challenging too. Here are 5 ways you can take your podcast to the next level:

• go premium: there is nothing wrong with getting paid to develop high quality podcast episodes. The trouble is not many folks are willing to part ways with their money unless they are getting something valuable in return. Many professional podcasters offer their paid customers superior audio quality, better archives, and a whole lot more. You can use your free podcast as a hook to get people to try your premium services.
• mix-in video: listening to great audio material can be quite gratifying for your audience. That does not mean you should not produce video content. You don’t have to necessarily show your face in your videos though. If you are too shy, you may want to use your voice combined with engaging visuals to develop high quality videos for your business.
• build a network: I have seen this done in the past a number of times. If you know other podcasters who share the same interests as you do, there is no reason not to join them to form a podcast network. That way you can pool your resources and realize synergies while offering your audience more content to get their teeth into.
• get started with livecasting: livecasting can be quite challenging for those who are used to doing things at their own convenience. There are so many things that could go wrong during a live broadcast. Nevertheless, there is something special about listening to a live broadcast. Trying this once in a while to get your feet wet won’t hurt.
• bring guests on-board: I have listened to many podcasts that are done by the same band of characters everyday. In order to grow your podcast, you will have to keep things fresh for your audience. Bringing well known guests and adding guest hosts to your podcasts are simple ways to do just that.

Not many folks have become millionaires out of their podcasting efforts. But it is a fun activity that may help your blogging business reach the next level. It gives you a whole new way to stay in touch with your audience.

Podcasting is a lot of fun if you are passionate about your topic. But it won’t put food on your table unless you treat it as a business. These days, people are looking to the Internet and other sources to find content to consume at home and on the road. A killer podcast can not only help you take your blog to the next level, it can give you a legitimate chance of making it as a professional content publisher.

Unfortunately, you can not create podcast episodes as fast as regular blog posts. Podcasters need to do a lot of work to create high quality content. While not everyone makes it big with a podcast, there have been people who have gone on to start their own TV shows or syndicated radio programs. You won’t get there overnight. But you’ve got to start somewhere. Here are 5 ways you can go about starting your podcast business:

Create Unique Content

Nobody likes to hear the same old things over and over again. People are not going to stick around if you can not produce high quality, unique content on a consistent basis. Let’s keep in mind that you can’t expect to have too many bad days as a podcaster without losing some listeners. Even if you are talking about topics that others have covered in their work, it never hurts to come at those from a different angle.

Have Your Own Style

Not everbody is going to like your podcast. That does not mean you should not try to have your very own style. You have probably found some podcasts very tough to listen to in the past, no matter how good the content. Your talking and programming style does matter.

Brand Yourself

If you want to build a business around your podcast, you need to brand yourself. Everything you do to create and promote your podcast should be aimed to enhance your brand. Giving your fans your branded merchandise would not hurt either.

Start a Membership Site

One of the most significant steps you will take in your podcasting career. Those of you who have been podcasting for long can take your previous episodes and let people download them on-demand as long as they join your membership club. Of course, you want to offer additional content and value to those who spend money to join your club. Running a membership website is not going to be that easy. But it can guarantee you a certain amount of revenue on a monthly (or annual) basis. That allows you to focus more on generating powerful content instead of focusing on other things.

Give Away Full Episodes For Free

One of the best ways to promote your podcast is by giving away full episodes for free. A few advanced podcasters have adopted freemium business models. Essentially, they give away an hour of each podcast episode for free and ask their listeners to join to download the second hour. This business model may not be right for you. But you can’t expect to go far if you decide to charge for every little thing you offer.

Starting a business around your podcast takes some time. But if you take a long-term approach with your pod-cast, there is no reason you can’t go on to build a highly successful audio-publishing business.

When choosing a mixer, you want to make sure you get one that gives you the biggest bang for your buck. Some mixers allow you to conduct interviews with multiple people on the line. Some allow you to record your podcasts to your iPod. Whatever the case, you want to make sure you know exactly what you need for your podcast and choose your mixer accordingly. With that in mind, here are 5 mixers that can come in handy for podcasters.

Belkin TuneStudio Portable Digital Multitrack Recorder: pound for pound one of the best podcast mixers around. It’s not only capable, it’s very portable as well. Great for the road trip.

Behringer DJX700 Professional 5-Channel DJ Mixer: a pretty affordable mixer for those who are just getting started with their podcast. Comes with 4 dual input stereo channels, 1 ULN microphone channel, and high quality audio.

Alesis iMultiMix 8USB: an innovative mixer for podcasters that let you record your content on your iPod without having to worry CDs, DVDs, and so on. Comes with 100 on-board, 28-bit studio quality Alesis digital effects.

Numark iDJ2 iPod Mixer with Scratch Control: another cool iPod mixer that lets you connect not only your hard drives but also your hard drive to record your content on the fly. It supports multiple audio formats to help you set up your podcast as you prefer.

Behringer 2442FX 24-Input 4/2 Bus Mixer: not exactly for beginner podcasters. It comes with Studio-grade 24-bit stereo FX processor with 100 awesome presets. It’s pretty affordable considering its feature set.

What’s your favorite podcasting mixer?

Having a decent microphone is a must if you intend to talk for more than 5 minutes in your podcasts. It’s always tempting to go for a cheap microphone, but there are real voice quality differences between cheap microphones and those premium ones. If you are looking to start your own podcast or take it to the next level, you should try getting one of the below microphones:

Audio Technica AT2020USB Condenser USB Microphone: it’s the microphone I use for my projects. It’s not super expensive but the quality is very high. It does the job well and comes with its own stand and support for USB.

Shure 55SH Series II Microphone: I am not a musician, and at some point better quality doesn’t justify the price for me. At the same time, for bigger podcasting projects, it is essential to invest in better equipment. Shure 55SH Series II is actually a bargain and a killer microphone.

Samson CO1U USB Condenser Mic: another decent choice if you are looking for a fairly high quality Microphone. For most podcast projects, this is enough.

Samson G Track USB Microphone and Audio Interface: a very high quality microphone for pod-casting and video-casting. It comes with USB connectivity (a must), a computer audio interface, and a stereo headphone jack for no-latency monitoring. It’s not that expensive either.

Snowball USB Microphone Bundle: this sounded like the perfect microphone for me until I realized that it was not compatible with my Vista 64. If you are still using XP, this will work just fine.

Blue Microphones BlueBird Condenser Mic: a bit more expensive than some other microphones available on the market, but you can’t argue with the quality. Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz.

I do recommend going for a bit more expensive microphone in order to avoid having to re-invest in a new one soon. Once your pod-casts grows, you are going to need better equipment. By investing a bit more up-front, you can provide better quality pod-casts and worry more about creating high quality content than your equipment.

Your take: what brand of microphone are you using for your pod-casts or video recordings?