Although podcasts allow anyone to quickly distribute information online, audio recordings lack one major element. They cant be read by search engines. Without the benefit of text for search engines to read and store, its effectively impossible to search podcasts using Google or Yahoo the same way that you would search blogs or other online content. Effective podcast producers use three different ways to let listeners search podcasts.

First, many listeners can search podcasts by looking for meta terms and other material encoded into an MP3 recording. When listeners search podcasts at directories like PodcastAlley and PodcastDirectory, the additional information helps them find the podcasts they want much more quickly. Leaving this information out of your podcast recordings could leave your podcast adrift among thousands of other nondescript feeds in the directory servers.

Second, a growing number of websites let listeners search podcasts based on automated transcripts. AOL and PodScope use speech-to-text technology to convert podcast sound files into readable scripts. However, speech-to-text systems still cause a handful of errors in every recording, and not all podcast recordings may be clear enough for the servers to fully recognize each word.

Therefore, many producers are turning to the most effective way to let listeners search podcasts providing transcripts of their own. Transcribing a podcast can be a time-intensive chore. Even if you remember most of the words you spoke during your podcast recording session, it can be challenging to keep pace with yourself, especially if you type much more slowly than you speak.

Podcast producers can find willing professionals to transcribe recordings so they can be searched. Many transcript services can convert podcast speech to text for about two dollars per recorded minute. While commercial podcasters might look at those fees as the cost of doing business, hobbyists and creative audiobloggers might cringe at such a price.

Clever entrepreneurs have taken up the challenge of providing affordable podcast transcripts. In addition to the bidders at freelance work sites like Elance and RentACoder, the creators of the CastingWords service offer inexpensive transcripts, starting at 42 cents per recorded minute. At this rate, you can create searchable text for a ten minute podcast for less than the cost of most fast food value meals.

CastingWords uses a unique system to create podcast transcripts cheaply. Using Amazons Mechanical Turk to divide the files into smaller chunks, CastingWords can have dozens of independent workers tackle pieces of a project at the same time, assuring quick turnaround for producers that want to let listeners search podcasts.

Marshal Sandler 2006 for all podcast secrets by eContentCafe