If you love talking and have a lot to say about a particular topic, you may want to consider broadcasting an Internet Talk Radio show online. Quite a few of these independent shows have been popping up over the past year on a variety of topics from parenting to scrap booking to car repair. Internet Talk Radio shows are usually anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours long and are available to listen to and for download 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some broadcasters offer a new show every week; others are on a bi-weekly or monthly schedule. Its up to you to determine how often you would like to create a new show. There is a little bit of equipment and software that you will need for a professionally sounding show. You will need a computer with a decent soundcard. Most new computers have pretty good sound cards build in. Of course you should also have a microphone. Skip the cheap $10-15 models and go for a good headphone microphone combination that will record less background noise than a basic desktop microphone. Plantronics has several good models available. To record the show and add the audio to your website, you will need software, or preferably a service like Audio Acrobat, that will allow you to record from your computer, or call into your own phone line and record the show this way. For a monthly fee audio acrobat also hosts your audio files, which will come in handy when you start to get a following of listeners. The large audio files can eat up quite a bit of bandwidth. You will save on your website hosting, because you will use less bandwidth by hosting the audio files with Audio Acrobat. If you would like to be able to edit shows, you can download a free piece of software called audacity. You can edit your show; fade in and out of music and more. Once your done editing, you are ready to upload your show, get some listeners and start making money. So, how do you monetize an Internet talk radio show? Your two main sources of income will be paid advertising and affiliate programs. You can sell 30 60 second ad spots on your radio show. Some Internet Talk Radio Shows (mainly those that already have a good following) will also charge guests to come on the show and promote their product. As far as affiliate marketing goes, you can promote related products on your website and mention them in your show. If a listener follows your recommendation and buys the product through your link you will make a commission. If youve always dreamed about being on the radio, having your own Internet Talk Radio Show may be just the thing for you. Give it a try, the start-up cost isnt very high and Internet Radio is fast growing industry. |
