Podcasts have been popping up all over the Internet in the past year or so. I have come across podcasts on anything from the latest tech gadgets to gardening tips. With millions of listeners out there and plenty of new people listening to podcasts every single day, now is a great time to start your own podcast and make some money along the way.

So far podcasts sound pretty similar to an Internet Talk Radio Show. Even though the two have many similarities, there are also quite a few differences. Podcasts are unusually not as structured as an Internet Talk Radio show. The tone of a podcast is very informal. Podcasts are usually on blogs and are also available for automatic download to your mp3 player through RSS. Podcasts also don’t have guests on every show. The host of the podcasts does a lot of talking to him or herself. Podcasts are shorter or just as long as a talk radio show, plus they can vary in length from one show to the next.

There is a little bit of both hardware and software you will need for a good sounding podcast. Podcasts are usually broadcast as mp3s, so you need some sort of software to record your show as well as a decent microphone. Plantronics has some great mikes available. You can either use software like Allrecorder or a complete service like AudioAcrobat that will also host your audio files for you. Having your files hosted through a service like audio acrobat has the added benefit that people listening to and downloading your podcast will not eat up your bandwidth. This may save you quite a bit of money in hosting fees. You also don’t have to worry about troubleshooting when there is an issue with the audio files.

How you can start making money with your podcast. Your two main sources of income will be paid advertising and affiliate programs. You can sell 30-60 second ad spots on your podcast, as well as advertising spots on the site that links to the audio file of your podcast. 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.

Another, newer source of income for podcasts that’s starting to pop up is sponsorship. Companies will pay good money to be mentioned as the main sponsor of the podcast both on your podcast website and in the show itself. Once your podcast attracts some listeners and you start getting some publicity, it should be easy to attract a corporate sponsor. In the meantime you could contact a few small businesses in your target market that may be interested in sponsoring your podcast for a few months.

Now sit down, grab a pen and paper and come up with a great topic you can talk about for hours. Jot down a few ideas and start recording. Before you know it, your first podcast will be up online.

Motherhood is one of the most gratifying and remarkable years of a woman’s life, so it can be hard for a mom when faced with the thought of having to go out and find a job, to bring in extra money. There are options out there for Moms who want to work from home in their own hours, so they can still enjoy the most important things in life- their children. Below are some solid informational tips for stay at home moms on starting their home based business in 30 minutes a day. 

The idea is to create a niche market, or find a market that is missing something that you can provide, and market this over the internet. To begin with you should consider some things like, what are you really good at? What would you love to do for a full time job? These two questions are really important to finding your niche market, if you don’t like what you do, you might as well not bother doing it, look for something that you love doing, like talking about your kids? 

Whatever it is, research it, find out what your industry is missing, it could be anything, lack of information? When you have determined this you have found your niche. Write down ideas as you get them about your niche market, it doesn’t matter what they are, just write them down so you don’t forget them, then you can ponder them later. Here are some more ideas for finding your niche market: Modifying an Existing Market. 

Modifying an existing market, is there a product that you could make better, for example imagine gaining weight, if you could make products that could help people who are struggling to gain weight, had all of the nutrients and minerals in to help people gain healthy weight, and you could produce this at a competitive price, you would really be on to something! Modify an Existing Market

Modify an existing market, or change something about a product to make it more marketable, a good example of this is making a lactose free  ice cream that tastes just as good as a regular ice cream and marketing it to people wanting to enjoy ice cream without having abdominal discomfort. Although this has been done before, it was a good idea when it was new. Repackage a Product

Repackaging a product, this can be good, but competition is fierce, as a lot of people are already doing this. A good idea is not to limit yourself to just one product, offer a few repackaged items, for example ebooks to your niche market. Find solutions

 Find out what people are talking about in your niche market, find a solution to their problems , or what is missing in the industry and develop a service or product that will fill the need. A good way to find out this sort of information is to visit related message boards, forums and blogs to see what people are talking about. Tap into a Trend

Tap into a trend, keep an eye out for what’s hot, what are people interested in, there are trends starting every day, all that you need to do is tap into them, and you have a ready market or a demand, begging for a product or service. Once you have found your niche market, and found which angle you are going to market it from, it is time to start work on how to get your new niche market internet business off of the ground.