Nicole Simon, whom I met at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo, gave some tips on why podcasters should cater to an international audience at the International Podcasting Expo.
Nicole said that because people are very interested in things happening outside of their local area, this is the main reason why podcasters will discover people outside of their country will take an interest in their shows.
Some other tips from Nicole:
- Enter yourself into international directories. You may be #1 in Google US, but nobody in Google UK. Ask your listeners what directories they use and they’ll help you out.
- Get a Frappr map and encourage your listeners to pinpoint where they are. This helps build a community around your podcast.
- iTunes displays podcasts according to the the listener’s country. That means that your #1 listing in iTunes for the Canadian store won’t be #1 if the listener is based in the UK. So don’t be too quick to brag about it.
- In terms of payments or donations, PayPal is the best to use since it accepts worldwide payments.
Maybe I should be clearer on this – it is not about language learning per se but using the different language in the podcast to have a double effect – you hear something you like (and understand) and at the same time have a language training.
It is on a much higher level than what you describe with your french. 🙂 Make that like taking a semester outside of your own language – you do not do this unless your grasp of the language is high enough to follow the content in the seminars.
I often listen to French podcasts, however, I only listen once to see if I can understand the host. If I can, I smile, pat myself on the back, but I rarely ever return to the podcast.
While I do agree that some want to experience the language heard in another podcast, it’s not a compelling reason to build an audience. Not unless it’s a podcast where the host is providing lessons on how to speak in another tongue.
Thanks for your nice summary; let me add one reason: People just like to experience the language which is a good excuse to speak more ‘basic’ from time to time with reference from them. Your local audience will benefit from this as well.