When done correctly, podcasting can be an effective way to build an audience. When done poorly, you can turn off your listeners very quickly. Many of the mistakes that podcasters make are relatively simple to spot and correct. Here are a few of the most common podcasting mistakes, along with tips for avoiding them.

Microphone and Positioning

You don’t need studio quality for your podcast, but if your listeners would need to strain to understand your speech, then you need to buy a real microphone. Any microphone that came with a computer isn’t going to be of sufficient quality; the same goes for your iPhone microphone and any microphone that came with a cheap headset.

Also, make sure you are positioned correctly. If you are speaking too close to the microphone, it will pick up spitting sounds and the sounds of your lips opening and closing; too far and your voice will sound muffled. Use the levels gauge to see whether you are too close or too far. Position the microphone slightly to the side rather than right in front to avoid popping sounds.

Long-Winded Introductions

Podcasters who don’t get to the point within the first three minutes are going to lose audience. Don’t spend too much time introducing yourself, your topic, selling the audience, etc. Your audience knows who you are and is there to hear the content. Don’t keep them waiting.

Unscripted Podcasts

Recording a podcast completely off the cuff just doesn’t work. Having a script can really help smooth out your presentation. A “script” in this case is just a list of topics and main points in those topics. Never script out an entire conversation, as your audience will easily pick up rehearsed content. Instead, by having a list of main points ready, you will be able to create a smoothly flowing conversation without ever stumbling on what to say.

Monotone

Having a monotonous podcast is another guaranteed way to chase away your listener base. For one, doing a podcast solo is much harder than doing one with a co-host. A co-host provides another voice and another perspective, which is much more entertaining to the listener than just one voice. If you insist on doing a solo podcast, however, make sure to modulate your voice. Take on different emotions, different stances and different personalities to keep your audience engaged.

These are a few of the most common mistakes podcasters make. Make sure you have good sound by buying and properly using a good microphone. Get to the point quickly. Have a detailed outline of each podcast before you start. Finally, keep your audience engaged with different voices, opinions and emotions.

Podcasting, when done for the right audience, can create a powerful two-way bond between host and listener. Unfortunately, podcasting isn’t for every website. Read on to learn more about which websites are most suited for podcasting.

Start with an Audience

Podcasting as a marketing tool is a bit of a misconception. Podcasting is just not great for generating new traffic, especially in the beginning. On the other hand, podcasting is a very effective way of delivering new, regular content to a loyal base of listeners. If you already have a bit of an audience and want to strengthen your bond with them, then podcasting is a great way to go about it. If you are trying to build a new audience from scratch, then you might want to approach it from another angle.

Are They Tech Savvy?

In order for someone to subscribe to your podcast, they first have to know what a podcast actually is, as well as how to subscribe to and download a podcast. It might seem simple to you, but that is actually beyond the technical knowledge of a lot of people. If you’re creating a podcast on the best way to plan for retirement after fifty, you probably shouldn’t use a podcast.

How Much Time Can You Afford?

Podcasting takes a lot of time. First, you have to plan out the podcast. Then you have to record the podcast, which could involve multiple takes and/or coordinating with a co-host. Then you have to edit the podcast, which takes at least twice as long as the actual podcast itself. Finally, you need to upload the podcast, make sure everything went up properly, and then promote the podcast.

Before you start a podcast, realize that it is a long-term time commitment. Assume that you will need to spend at least five hours a week for the next year to keep your podcast up and running smoothly. If and only if you are willing to make that commitment should you start a new podcast.

Blogs Work Best

Podcasts work best on RSS feeds. While it is possible to run a non-blog website and still use a podcast, it becomes a lot more unwieldy. If you run a blog, all you need to do is post a link to your podcast on your blog and the RSS feed will pick up. It will then proceed to send the podcast to all your subscribers. On the other hand, with a non-blog site, you will have to create a separate blog just so you can create an RSS feed.

These are a few considerations before starting your podcast. First determine if it is right for your audience based on existing traffic and whether they are tech savvy, then figure out if it is right for you based on time commitments.

If it is not easy to buy from your website, you are going to lose sales. Many websites experience shopping cart drop-out rates as high as fifty percent. That means that as many as half the people who have decided to buy never actually finished the checkout process because they got bored or frustrated and left. There are a few simple things you can do to help prevent this from happening on your own website.

Make the Checkout’s Design Continuous

If your checkout page looks drastically different than the rest of your site, you’re probably going to experience higher shopping cart drop-out rates. Customers want to feel that they are buying from you. If the moment they click the buy button they are suddenly taken to a page that looks nothing like your website, they are probably going to feel less comfortable submitting their credit card information. Some shopping carts such as 1ShoppingCart offer a lot of customization, making it easy to match your checkout page to the rest of your website. Others, such as ClickBank or 2Checkout, make it a bit harder.

Ease of Navigation

Another key factor is the ease of navigation throughout your website. Make sure all the products are easy to find. Use a breadcrumb system so people can find their way back to previous pages quickly. Place buy buttons in prominent places throughout the website. The moment someone decides to buy, it should be dead simple for them to find a buy button and click on it. Have a friend of two browse your site and buy a product. Watch them throughout the process. Look for where they get stuck or snagged and aim to improve the process.

Accept All Forms of Payment

Different people prefer to pay in different ways. Some people like to use their credit cards; others to use PayPal; still others prefer a personal check. Make it easy for your customers by accepting orders of all sorts. PayPal isn’t difficult to set up. Taking checks takes a little bit more effort, but in the end it is worth it. Make sure to also make it easy for American Express users to buy from your site. Furthermore, if you’re selling high-end items, consider offering a payment plan. A payment plan could drastically increase your sales simply by helping more people afford your product.

Making It Easy to Buy

The hardest part of selling to a customer is getting them to want to buy. Don’t let the process get snagged up by something as simple as the checkout process. Make your shopping cart’s checkout design continuous with your site. Make it easy for customers to find the buy buttons and make your payment options friendly to as many people as possible.

More than anything else, credibility determines whether or not people buy. You can make a claim as big as you want, but if you don’t have credibility, people aren’t going to purchase. On the other hand, if you make just a moderate claim, but people believe you one hundred percent, they are much more likely to buy.

Credibility is both conscious and unconscious. Part of the brain consciously decides if they trust you or not; while another unconscious part of the brain just feels the “vibe” of the website and decides whether it trusts or distrusts you.

Here are a few smart ways to increase your website’s credibility:

Hacker Safe, BBB and SSL

Three logos that have been demonstrated to improve conversions are the Hacker Safe logo, the BBB-approved logo and the SSL encryption certificate. These logos can be quite costly to acquire. For example, with Hacker Safe, you need to pay a one-time up-front fee plus a monthly fee to have Hacker Safe test your system for security vulnerabilities. If your website is established and has enough volume to justify these investments, the increase in credibility will often pay for itself.

Feature News and Celebrity Relationships Prominently

If you have been mentioned or featured in magazines, radio shows or newspapers, feature that prominently. Put their logos above the fold on your website. Just the fact that you have been mentioned in the New York Times is often enough to get someone to switch from closing your website to reading more carefully. Another powerful credibility point is celebrity relationships. “Celebrity” doesn’t mean Hollywood personalities, but the important people in your industry. For example, if you run a cooking website and a world-champion chef gave your techniques a thumbs up, put that on your site.

Smart Use of Testimonials

Your main page should have just one or two choice testimonials that pack an emotional punch. Don’t cram your site with testimonials or you will come across as a hard sell. On the other hand, your sales page can have a lot more testimonials. Once someone has decided they want to buy, they are a lot less likely to be turned off by testimonials. Conversely, they now want to know exactly what kind of experiences others have had with your product.

Utilize Related Statistics and Studies

Even if studies haven’t been done on your product, a lot of related studies can be used to boost your credibility. Let’s say you’re selling a speed reading program. You could prominently feature a study done by Harvard University that showed the average student could increase their reading speed by 127 words per minute in just two weeks with proper training. The study wasn’t necessarily with your program, but the study of your industry will still lend credibility to learning from your techniques.

These are a few smart ways to improve your website credibility. What all these techniques have in common is consistently and intelligently showcasing the most compelling and trust-building aspects of your business. As always, remember to split test to see what’s really working best.

Knowing exactly who is visiting your website can give you a lot of insight into the best ways to communicate with them. It can tell you which pages on your site people like and don’t like, it can tell you what kind of audience you are attracting, and it can even tell you about what they are thinking when they land on your site.

Here’s how to find out more about who is visiting your website.

Bounce Rates, Return Rates and Length of Stay

These statistics will tell you a lot about what people are thinking about your content. If a lot of people land on your pages and leave right away, then you are probably not catching their attention. If a lot of people land on certain pages and stay for a long period of time, then that probably means that your visitors like your content and are staying to take it all in. If most of your visitors just visit once and never return, then that probably means your content isn’t really appealing to your customers. If they return often, then that means they like your content and want to come back for more.

Keywords

What keywords are people entering to get to your website? If you run a finance website, but find that most of your visitors are landing on your website through keywords related to refinancing credit cards, then you might want to do a special article series about credit card refinancing. The keywords people land on your site with can tell you a lot about what kind of information people are looking for when they come to your site.

Most Popular Pages and Posts

Which pages on your site get the most traffic? Again, this will show you what kind of information people are most interested in. If a page is often referred to or revisited, that probably means it is the kind of content that your users want to see more of.

Traffic Sources

Finally, look over your traffic sources regularly. If other websites are sending you traffic regularly, see if you can get in contact with those sites. If smaller search engines are sending you traffic, see if you can optimize for those search engines. If a lot of people are coming from direct type-in traffic, that probably means your offline marketing or branding efforts are working. Find out what is working, and then put more time and energy into making it work even better.

These are just a few ways to use your analytics and data to figure out who is coming to your website and what they want from your site. Review this data regularly as it can change quite a bit in just a short period of time.