Anyone Use Podcasts Successfully to Build Their Business?

Hi Warriors,

Ok, this is a bit of a continuation of my previous thread but I'm going in a slightly different direction with this question and I didn't want it to get lost in the haystack. So, separate post.

I was asking about creating an online radio show, but what I really meant was a podcast I guess. Now, "podcasting" never interested me per se. It all seemed a bit techie to me, even though I have iTunes on my computer and an iPod and use both frequently. But I mostly listen to music I've downloaded and don't listen seminars, shows, episodes, podcasts or whatever you call it. I don't subscribe to podcasts either -- I don't even know how to go about looking for interesting podcasts in iTunes.

But that's recently begun to change as I've started loading the audio portion of business products I have into my iTunes library and onto my iPod. I thought that was cool and yes, I know I'm waaay behind the times.

Anyway, I'm thinking of recording a short audio tip (probably weekly or every other week) and making it available on my site and through various audio-sharing sites -- a podcast. It would basically be an audio version of my e-zine -- short and sweet. I look at this mainly as a marketing and list-building tool. I don't intend to sell things directly in the podcast.

In fact, I don't even intend to call it a podcast. I'll probably just say "audio tip" or something similar. Hopefully that will appeal to a wider audience and seem less techie (like it seemed to me).

So my question is two-fold:

1. How far-reaching and effective are podcasts as a marketing/communication tool? It would seem to me that podcasts would appeal mainly to a younger audience, but Jason Moffatt recently posted that his YouTube audience is surpringly mainly middle-aged males. So what about podcasts?

2. Have you done this sort of thing to build your business and did you see real, bottom-line results from it? I'm VERY interested to know.

Thanks,
Michelle