Most bloggers recognize the importance of sharing their content with as many social media outlets as they can get their hands on. It seems there’s no end to the number of sharing, microblogging, and bookmarking services to sign-up for. Social networking tools are a bloggers best friend and they can be used to provide a constant stream of traffic to your blog.

Karl Foxley of FMSSEO, highlighted the value of YouTube and podcasts in 30+ Ways To Generate Traffic To Your Website. By adding podcasting and video sharing sites to your portfolio of social networks, you’ll expand your reach to potential subscribers from new audiences in the quest to attain higher Alexa rank, and ultimate blog supremacy.

I suggest you create your own how-to or introductory podcasts to improve your brand recognition and boost your credibility. Post videos on your blog, but also increase your chances of going viral by adding it a plethora of sites including YouTube, iTunes, Vimeo, and a string of others. Another benefit is that some sites, like Blip.tv offer the possibility of additional revenue streams by adding sponsored clips to your content.

You can create video, and also audio podcasts or you can do both. I prefer using video mostly in the form of “how-to” screencasts. Here’s what you need to get started with screencasting:

• Recording Software
• Mic
• RSS Feed for distribution

Here’s a short screencast I created to demonstrate the recording interface from the Screentoaster.com website:

When you are done creating your video, you are ready to share it with the world. Register with video sharing sites like some of the ones I joined:

Blip.tv
Daily Motion
How Cast
Metacafe
Vimeo
YouTube
Zoopy

Next, sign up for TubeMogul, where you can save lots of time by uploading your video once for simultaneous distribution to all of these sites for maximum access to a multitude of new subscribers. In my last post Promote Your Blog With a Podcast I talked specifically about how “creating an account and uploading videos to Blip.tv sends an RSS feed directly to iTunes”, and how the use of video is directly responsible for a significant increase in my traffic. Additional resources and tutorials are listed on my blog as well.

What are your podcasting experiences? What useful resources you’re aware of?

This is the first guest blog post for Ileane from Ms. Ileane Speaks. Ileane and I have been Twitter and blogging buddies for a while now and now she is branching out into podcasting. You can find Ileane at http://ileane.wordpress.com or subscribe to the podcast at http://msileanespeaks.blip.tv/ Her debut tutorial which includes the podcast Screencasting 101.

I’ve personally learnt a lot from Ileane, she’s a great blogger and person. So make sure you check out her blog and podcast!

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