(Direct) Thank you, Steve Jobs and the iTunes Music Store, for a jump in podcast downloads. The Pew Internet & American Life Project discovered in a recent poll that 12% of all U.S. Internet users had downloaded a podcast by August 2006, compared with just 7% who’d done so by last April.

True, the Pew survey also found that only 1% of the audience download a podcast every day. But that’s the whole point of podcast listening — it lets you time-shift content consumption to suit your schedule rather than the broadcaster’s.

Pew said longtime Internet users are more likely to download podcasts than those who’ve been online three years or less. According to online marketing firm Oneupweb, that ability to attract veteran Web surfers such as technical or expert audiences could be why podcasts are an effective tool for business-to-business marketing.

For b-to-b merchants that want to open up the audio channels to their customers, Oneupweb founder/CEO Lisa Wehr has some tips for creating a podcast that can both offer value to listeners and help build those business relationships:

Balance the newsy with the useful. Podcasts last a long time on the Web, so publishers that offer only content related to the news of the moment will see their audiences fall off more quickly than those that mix current affairs with evergreen topics. For technical audiences, consider podcasting the white paper you’re already offering as a PDF download.

Cater to the lunch crowd. Business podcasts are downloaded mostly during lunch hours, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in each time zone. The second busiest time slot is around 4 p.m., when users download content for the homeward commute.

Get the word out early. Oneupweb promotes clients’ podcasts in banner ads, press releases, and e-mail newsletters that appear in the first half of the week, and most of the downloads it tracks occur on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Directories help. Most professional listeners still find podcasts through iTunes, although other directories — Podcast.net, Odeo, and the like — also draw some following. Oneupweb customers have had success embedding a customized Flash media player on their Websites to enable immediate listening.

Follow people home. Like any other marketing tool, podcasting is most useful when it’s measured and tracked. One of Wehr’s clients found that its podcast had a strong following among schools and government sites; another discovered that it was pulling a large audience among Harvard University students.

Another way to find out where your listeners are coming from, and what they like and dislike about your podcasts? Pair them up with a blog and encourage listener feedback.

Thank you, Steve Jobs and the iTunes Music Store, for a jump in podcast downloads. The Pew Internet & American Life Project discovered in a recent poll that 12% of all U.S. Internet users had downloaded a podcast by August 2006, compared with just 7% who’d done so by last April.

True, the Pew survey also found that only 1% of the audience download a podcast every day. But that’s the whole point of podcast listening