Podcast Help Desk™: Recent Episodes
Mike Dell
Companion show to Podcast Insider by Blubrry, Weekly Podcasting tips, opinions, gear, technology and news from a Veteran podcaster of over 16 years. Have a podcasting question? Ask here at the Podcast Help Desk.
This is the first post on the new Podcast User blog. This website is going to be the home page for the Podcast User blog, Podcast and YouTube channel. I will be doing reviews of podcast apps, Podcast listening platforms and technology that podcast listeners care about.
The plan is to do demo and reviews of Podcast Apps, Directories and Networks. Also some how-tos and podcast history articles. All from the listener side of things.
Thanks for checking out Podcast User!
Should you do live video?
If so, where?
Facebook, YouTube, Others.
Riverside.fm, streamyard or direct.
Podcast Movement Review
Website caching. Getting a bit geeky.
This podcast is posted on PodcastHelpDesk.com. Go there and subscribe!
I had the opportunity to talk to Dave Jones from Podcast Index and the Podcasting 2.0 show about PodPing and other podcasting stuff.
itunes:subtitle, itunes:summary, or description tags - Today I talk about Episode Notes tags (Show Notes). This is part 1 of an experiment. Please email me and let me know what app or apps you see this in and what tags (at the top of this text) you see and where.
This is a LINK to something cool.
https://mikedell.com
One thing you can always say about how podcasting works, it's always changing. The last couple of weeks it seems that there is a sort of shift in how it works on basic levels. Or, does it work the same and only some apps are changing?
Apple changed Subscribe to Follow for free podcasts. Apple added "Subscribe" for premium podcasting. Spotify say "Me too!" and adds Premium Podcasting for a very limited number of people. Apple may have changed how their app works when it comes to "followed" (ie. subscribed) podcasts work. *still not sure about that Apple really hid the "Add show by URL" function in Apple Podcasts.
What do we indie podcasters have to do to insure our shows remain free of gatekeepers and the cancel culture?
This podcast is posted on PodcastHelpDesk.com. Go there and subscribe (or Follow)!
Apple announced "Subscriptions" after changing the name of subscribing to a free podcast to "Follow". We have more details about that system. Today I will attempt to tell you, technically, how this is going to work and what it will not do.
I love it when people correct me! Andy Lehman tells me all about what I didn't get quite right about the Podcast Namespace.
In the history of podcasting, there have been a few Namespaces added to RSS to make podcasting work. Apple added the namespace, Google added the namespace and even Blubrry added the namespace. Now there is a new one done by independent podcasters, app developers, companies and other interested people called the namespace. It's done by the Podcast Index people at https://podcastindex.org.
I explain what a namespace is and go over the new tags being added by the "podcast" namespace.
Today I want to go back to the REAL basics of how podcasting works. So, without going into a history lesson, podcasting has worked the same way since it started 16 years ago. (some say longer).
In 2020, the podcast industry added over 1 million shows. Out of 1.7 million shows listed on Apple, 60% (ish) are inactive.
Here is what I do. I do more show prep. It seems I get more motivated to podcast if I do show prep on a show I'm about to record.
There are lots of apps you can use to play podcasts. As a podcaster I'm sure you are also a podcast listener. Here is my top 6 (in reverse order of use).
RSS is what powers podcasting. In fact, this is why podcasting even exists. The enclosure tag in RSS2 allows you to “attach” a media file. Mainly an MP3 but you can also attach just about any media like a video file, a PDF or ebook file. “Podcasting” is mostly audio but there are some that do video via RSS.
I failed miserably at completing the NaPodPoMo 30 episodes in 30 days this year. OH well, Such is life getting in the way. The Good News and part of the "big" announcement I teased is this show is going 2 times weekly starting on Dec. 16, 2020.
I'm not only a podcaster, but an avid podcast listener. I have something like 30 shows that I subscribe to plus I listen to a lot of one-off shows that I don't subscribe to. Here is my top 8 (as of late November 2020) Also, not in Rank order.
Keeping it simple makes it easy for you to produce your podcast and not worry about waisting a lot of time if you don't have a lot of time.
So, who exactly is your show for?
When you try to make a podcast for EVERYONE, you really are making a show for NOBODY.
There are many things about a podcast that a podcaster needs to know even if you don't do everything for your show. A lot of indie podcasters do everything. Prep, Talent, Recording, Editing, Producing, Publishing, Booking guests and ALL of it. Some only do the parts of it. Sometimes it's a whole team. BUT, YOU as the owner of your show, need to know some things no matter if you do them or not.
As a Podcaster, your RSS Feed is your connection to the world for your podcast. The transmitter for your "Radio Station". Your RSS feed address is just like a "Frequency" Like "101.9 FM".
There are reasons you might want to number your episodes in the title of your post. Also, there are reasons you might not want to.
We talked yesterday about why you need a website. Here are my top 6 web hosting platforms and why (Plus a few I don't recommend).
How long should your Podcast Episode be? Only as long as it needs to be to get what you want to say, said. Period.
Do you need good shownotes? Yes, you should put SOMETHING for the search engines to find.
Today I talk about keeping your podcast simple. Simple to use, simple to subscribe, simple to produce, simple to post and keeping the website easy to manage. Complicated always turns out to be harder than simple.
I go into the history of Podcast Help Desk and why I am doing #NaPodPoMo in 2020.
This podcast is posted on PodcastHelpDesk.com. Go there and subscribe!
I I will be joining with a bunch of other podcasters this year doing National Podcast Post Month in November. That is 30 episodes in 30 days for the entire month of November.
This will be the 4th or 5th time trying it for me. I've succeeded once a couple of years ago on Mike Dell's World.
On November 30th I will tell you some exciting news (To me anyway) about Podcast Help Desk going forward.
Check out NaPodPoMo.org for what it's about. You may want to do it too!
See ya on the 1st!
napodpomo
Just a quick note to let you know I will no longer be on Spotify with this show. IF you are listening there, please go to podcasthelpdesk.com and resubscribe using another platform by September 7th, 2020.
Thank You!
I took my portable setup on a walk in the woods in a industrial park. I talked about RSS, big shows vs. Indie shows, Joe Rogan's deal with Spotify and a bunch more.
Recorded using a dynamic clip on microphone from Shure. (SM11 - Not 10 something like I said in the show)
More from the studio on the next episode!
The results are in! Thank you for those that reported what you saw in your app of choice.
I put different images in different places. I put a Green logo image in the ID3 tags (embedded in the mp3 file), A Blue logo image in the RSS image ( Called "iTunes image" in the item level of the RSS feed) A Green and blue imgage in the body of the post (Featured image) and the feed has the normal Orange logo image for the overall podcast artwork.
Here is what we have found so far: (will be updated as I get more info)
This is from Episode 129
Apple Podcasts (on Mac and IOS): No episode artwork shown (other than directory search under episodes results which show the RSS image) iTunes desktop software (on older Macs and Windows): No episode artwork shown (other than directory search under episodes results which show the RSS image) Antenna Pod (Android): Shows artwork from the post (Weirdly) and then in the player shows the RSS image Podbean Player App (Android): Main show artwork. No episode artwork shown. Himalaya (Android and IOS): RSS image shown Spreaker Player App: (Android and IOS): RSS Image Shown Google Podcasts (Android and Web): Main podcast Image Shown everywhere. No Episode image Pocket Casts (Android, IOS, Web): Main Podcast Image shown. Strangely, it does show featured image posted in the post as well but only the main image in the player. Podcast Republic (Android): RSS image shown Podcast Addict (Android): RSS image shown. Also image from the body of the post shown. Beyond Pod (Android): Featured image shown in the episode list and the main podcast image shown in the player Overcast (IOS): ID3 tag image shown in the player, if you click show image in the shownotes, the featured image will show Updated! Spotify (IOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Web): RSS image on all when playing the episode *** Also RSS image in the embedded player form Spotify (Thanks James!) Stitcher (IOS, Android, Web): Only the main image shows everywhere Tunein Radio (IOS, Android, Web): REALLY Old main image only (they didn't update my image for over a year!) Pandora (IOS, Android, Web): RSS image shown iHeart Radio (IOS, Android, Web): Main artwork shows everywhere Deezer (IOS, Android, Web): Main artwork shows everywhere Skipcast (IOS): Main artwork shows everywhere CastBox (IOS, Android): Featured image in post shows everywhere Blubrry Directory (Web): Main Image only TechPodcasts.com Directory: (Web): Main image only New! iCatcher (IOS): Uses the Main image for streaming but the ID3 image for downloaded episodes. (Thanks Jeremy!) New! Player.FM (IOS, Android): Uses RSS image in the player and the featured image in the listing for the episode (Thanks Michael!) New! Podchaser.com (web): Uses RSS image in the player and the featured image in the listing for the episode. (Thanks Dave!)
If you have seen anything different than this list or have another player I didn't list, let me know. mike@mikedell.com
Bottom line. If you are going to put in an episode image. The best places to do that is in the post (featured image or the first image in the post) and the RSS (iTunes) image at the episode level. ID3 tag image only shows up in 2 places. Overcast and "iTunes" desktop (which is dead other than windows and older mac OS). Maybe still worth doing in the ID3 if it's not too much work.
In today's episode I am testing what episode artwork shows up in which apps and directories again. Things are changing and I want to see what apps show which artowrk.
I have an RSS image for this episode with blue type, an ID3 tag image with Green Type and the normal orange type from my logo in the main show level artwork.
Let me know which one you see. email Mike@mikedell.com
I will report back what I have found.
I am going to leave PodcastHelpDesk active. Just going on 'indefinite Hiatus" or "once in a while" mode. So no expectations of an episode every week or even every month, but I will put stuff in this feed once in a while. Stay subscribed!
Thank to everyone that contacted me and your thoughts and suggestions were appreciated!
You will always be able to find me at MikeDell.com and PodcastInsider.com
Looking for some help here. What do you think I should do with this podcast? I am not consistent (as you can tell) and I want to pair down the number of shows I feel obligated to do.
Should I leave it online and just let it podfade and exist? Or should I kill it and erase it’s existence? Let me know, mike@mikedell.com
I will continue to do Mike Dell’s World (mikedell.com) but as for the rest of the shows, I don’t think so. (Of course, PodcastInsider.com will continue)
What is going to happen to podcasting in 2020? Who knows, but i make some predictions and ramble about podcast topics at random in this informal Podcast Help Desk episode.
Catch me on Evo's Podcast Pontifications as the Guest-host.
Use my promo code at Blubrry.com for a free month.
Catch you next year!
This is typed into the Post Content box in WordPress ***
Please let me know what you see above this line in the "show notes", "Episode notes" or "Description" on your app and what app you are listening on. mike@mikedell.com.
This should be a live link
Today I talk about Anchor, Spotify and if they are "bad" or good, and if it's good to have one dominant platform that people listen on. You should promote your own website for your podcast and give everyone links to the platforms you are on from there. Do not send people to a particular platform.
Every part of my studio, other than the mic boom and cable is new. The Rodecaster Pro has replaced a whole rack of stuff. I gush about how much Love this thing. It may not be perfect but man-o-man does it make things a bunch easier for most average podcasters.
I also talk about the other podcasts I'm doing including the new (ish) one I'm doing for Blubrry Podcasting called "Podcast Insider" (www.podcastinsider.com) with Todd Cochrane and sometimes Barry Kantz or MacKenzie Bennett. It's the Official Blubrry Podcast.
I talked about Podcast Movement 2019 in the Sauna that is Orlando in August (Lucky there was no Hurricanes coming).
Also much more!
** Note: the intro was inspired by Brett Butt (http://thebuttpod.com/). Check out his occasional podcast :) Also "Corner Gas" now available in the US on Amazon Prime Video.
A quick update of what is going on with Podcast Help Desk and Blubrry.
Will be at Podcast Movement with "Podcast Help Desk" office hours. Stop by the booth if you need some help with your show's tech. Win a Rodecaster Pro by entering Blubrry's record a promo contest at the Blubrry booth. Podcast Help Desk News RIP. I killed it. It was fun while it lasted on Alexa.
Check out Blubrry's new official podcast at PodcastInsider.com
Today I go through what I'm using currently for podcast production. Here is the list:
Mackie 1202VLZ4 Mixer Behringer Composter PRO XL 2 channel Compressor, Limiter, Gate Denon DN-300R Rack Mount Digital Recorder Heil PL-2T Boom Heil Shock Mount (normally for a PR40 Mic) Electrovoice RE-20 Mic and/or Audio-techincia BPHS1 Headset Mic Zoom H5 Handi Recorder Behringer XM8500 Hand-held Mics for extras or portable
Software: Auphonic Leveler (desktop version) Adobe Audition
Do you need all this stuff? NO! This is just what I use currently.
The single best way to make sure your Title is what you want it to be EVERYWHERE is to use it as the blog title (assuming you are using WordPress to publish your podcast) or the TITLE box in whatever podcast service you are using. The Best way to make sure your "shownotes" are the same everywhere is to use it in the main post content box.
There are, in Theory, ways to specify for different places different titles, post content and whatnot, but Apps do not have to follow those extra tags. RSS is a standard and apps and directories can choose what they want to use and what they don't.
Apple, for instance, does not USE the Apple Title tag in "iTunes" desktop or the web preview of Apple Podcast listings. Only in the IOS App. (weird I know). They also do not use the "iTunes Image" tag ANYWHERE in their system other than maybe search preview. No way to force it.
Sorry for the mini-rant.
This is Wednesday's episode of my Alexa News Breif Podcast Help Desk news.
In addition to killing off "iTunes" on the Mac Desktop, Apple is also changing up the categories. (Later this summer)
Also adding some search and photo settings.
Your podcast companies did not know about this ahead of time and will (the good ones anyway) be up to speed by the time this gets implmented at Apple.
One of the questions I get a lot is how to change your podcast's title.
In this short episode, I explain how to do it and why you might want to. Also some of the things that won't change because you change your title.
As some of you might remember, this podcast used to be called "Podcasting Tech Coach" Back in Episode 13, I changed it to Podcast Help Desk
Here is a link to that episode PHD013 - Rebranding
This podcast is Sponsored by Blubrry.com - Hosting - Stats - Web and More!
For those that do not know me, I’ve been podcasting since 2005 and made every single mistake in the book. I’ve also worked in support for a podcast company for 10 years (as of next month). I think I might know what I’m talking about, at least about these topics.
Know that Podcasting is PULL technology. All apps, subscribers, and directories PULL your RSS feed from wherever it lives. That means when you publish your podcast, there will be a delay between publishing and when that episode makes it to the directories. Your subscribers (in most apps) will get it as soon as their local app PULLS your feed. Know what your RSS feed address is and know how to check it. CastFeedValidator.com and Podba.se/validate are the only 2 validators that are podcast specific. Any other validator is not meant for podcasting and will tell you something is wrong when it’s not. Know that RSS is important and if you generate it via your website, you can not move to another website without redirecting the feed to the new feed. I’ve spent a lot of time explaining to podcasters why they lost all their listeners because they decided to move their feed without letting anyone know. A 301 redirect is needed no matter what anyone else tells you. If you want to move to a different website or a different podcast host, please contact your current host to let you know what steps are needed to not lose your listeners. Your only link to them in the RSS feed. Know that Ratings and Reviews in Apple Podcasts (NO IT’S NOT CALLED iTunes ANYMORE) do NOTHING for your ranking in Apple Podcasts. They are great to have and are great social proof, but your ranking or findability have nothing to do with them. Trying to game the system by stuffing keywords everywhere in Titles, Author tags and other places will get you delisted from Apple. Believe it or not. What hosting company you put your MP3’s on will do nothing to improve your success. As long as the host can deliver the files fast and reliably, you are good to go.
There are a lot of other things I could write here, but these are the top 6 I wish people would learn. IF you are going to podcast, you REALLY need to spend a little time learning the basics.
Here is a little form you should print out and fill out for your podcast for your information: PodcastInfo.pdf
Apple seems to have backed down on Episode Numbers in Episode Titles. Here is a partial quote from the email they sent out... We’ve received a lot of questions about metadata best practices on Apple Podcasts. We want to provide more details and clarification as you think about improving your show’s metadata.
Your Show Won’t Be Removed for Having Episode Numbers in Episode Titles
Starting with iOS 11 in September 2017, we introduced modern RSS tags to improve podcast metadata. These tags include support for seasons, trailers, and episode numbers. The new tags help us present your show to your listeners on Apple Podcasts and present listening data to you in Podcast Analytics. Be sure to listen to Episode 117 for the first part of this story...
Here is a list of the apps/directories that are using the Apple Tags and not using the Apple tags.
Apple Podcasts - iTunes title (of course) Itunes desktop - main title ‽ Blubrry - main title Google Podcasts - main title Pocket Casts - iTunes title Podcast Addict - main title BeyondPod - Stripped out the number but uses the main title ?? Spotify - main Title Tunein - main title Stitcher - Not updating :( Overcast - iTunes Title Himalaya - iTunes Title
Apple sent a letter to podcasters today (It was a bulk email NOT just to you). The big takeaway is that you need to remove episode numbers from your titles. I have a way of doing that and keeping them in your blog titles (as you can see above) and Keep Apple happy.
Here is what they sent: Dear Podcast Provider,
To improve your experience with Apple Podcasts, we want to share the following information and updates.
Optimize Your Show’s Metadata
The metadata of your show is your product packaging. It includes all of the details about your show — such as title, author name, description — that potential listeners will see on Apple Podcasts. High-quality metadata can help your show be discovered and grow your audience, as it ultimately determines whether it appears in relevant user searches.
Conversely, poor-quality podcast metadata may affect new submissions as well as active shows to ensure our platform meets Apple’s quality standards.
Here are some things to avoid:
Including placeholder text from your hosting provider. For example, descriptions such as “Podcast by [author name],” “New podcast weblog,” “Cover art photo provided by [name],” or “Description goes here.” Verbatim repetition of the title or author name in the description. For example, “The Very Hungry Tourists by Dr. María Sánchez and John Appleseed.” Incorporating irrelevant content or spam. For example, show titles like “The Very Hungry Tourists | Travel | Explore | Learn” or author names like “Dr. María Sánchez, coach and travel enthusiast.” Adding episode numbers in titles. For example, show titles like “The Very Hungry Tourists Episode 01” or episode titles like “01 Broken Heirloom.”
These practices could result in your show being rejected or removed from Apple Podcasts.
Review the resources below to learn more:
Podcasts Partner Search Podcasts Connect Help Apple Podcasts Marketing Best Practices
Resubmit RSS Feeds in Podcasts Connect
Users now have the ability to resubmit rejected feeds.
Should your show fail our review process or be removed from our catalog for the reasons described above, review your RSS fields to ensure compliance. Then, revalidate the feed and resubmit it via Podcasts Connect.
Is all Podcast advice applicable to your goals in podcasting? Be careful about who you are getting your advice from. Do they have an agenda? (most do) Do they match YOUR goals in podcasting? Not everyone wants advertisers. A lot of advice given on the Facebook groups is not applicable to the person sitting next to the water heater in a basement studio.
This is my little rant/brain dump on the subject of advice.
Be sure to listen to the last episode with Paul Culligan as well.
Paul Colligan is a Podcast Pioneer, Marketing guy, Podcaster, Author and Speaker who was around in the early days of Podcasting. Paul sat down with me and we talked about, you guessed it, Podcasting (duh!). Paul's Links:
PaulColligan.com The Podcast Report Paul's Twitter Paul's Facebook Paul's books
Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an Episode!
What does this accusition mean to the average independent Podcaster? Not much is my guess.
This is just me doing a bit of a brain-dump about the big news of yesterday. Is it good for Podcasting in General? Is it Good/Bad for Indy podcasters? Who knows? We will see how it shakes out.
Also, I talk about a new App called Himalaya You can go over there and claim your show. I'm testing it out as a listening app. I will let you know what I think in a future episode.
In the show I couldn't remember the domain I used for PHD News :) You can get there by either going to PodcastHelpDesknews.com or adding it to your Alexa flash briefing.
Elise Escobar stopped by the Podcast Help Desk a while back and we had a great conversation about podcasting (what else?) and what she is doing in podcasting.
Elsie is a Hall of Famer, Podcaster and Social Media at Libsyn - The Feed and She Podcasts.
I also talk about Podcast Help Desk News Alexa skill (and now REAL podcast).
Do you want to separate your blog posts from your podcast posts on your website? It might be a bad idea. First - How to do it if you really really want to in WordPress
Create a category for the podcast. DO NOT USE "podcast" as a category. Enable Category Podcasting in PowerPress Settings (at the bottom of each setting page) In the Category Podcasting menu (found under PowerPress in the sidebar) tick the box that says "Strict Categories" Save settings. Back in the category podcasting menu, Add Podcast Settings to your Category All your podcast related settings go in the category podcasting settings for that category NOT the main PowerPress settings. Once that is all set up, make a blog post. Select the category for your podcast in the right sidebar AND in the podcast episode box. The podcast episode box category setting is for the RSS feed and the sidebar is for the website. You must do BOTH. In the Appearance > menus menu, add your podcast category (not called podcast I hope) to the menu where you want it. Categorize your blog posts in a single category and add that category to the menu as well.
There is one more way to do it explained in the Podcast called Post Types. I don't recommend that method. Why you do not want to do separate blog posts from your podcast posts People that want to listen to your podcast, and show up on your website, wouldn't they want to maybe read your blog posts (without clicking another menu)? Wouldn't people that read your blog want to listen to your podcast? Why go through all the BS separating them?
- Never Promote something you do not own. Send people to your website and then give them all the choices you can reasonably.
Apple 🍎 Google Podcasts (notice I didn't say Google PLAY‽) 💻 RSS 🖥 Tunein 📻 Spotify 💩 Android 📱 Stitcher 🎧
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Having your RSS feed come from your website with YOUR domain in it will help you in Google search.
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"Write your show notes for Google Search. Make your show audio for your listeners." - Todd Cochrane 🚒
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Don’t try to game the system. The more you try to game the system, the more likely it is you will get removed from some directories for whatever rule violation. Just make good content and repeat often. There is no shortcut.
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Ratings and reviews DO NOTHING to promote your show. Period.
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Being in the top XX list on Apple Podcasts will not help you much if at all.
Please use the promo code HELPDESK at checkout at Blubrry.com to support Podcast Help Desk!
I got to chat with my old friend and podcast pioneer, Evo Terra. We talk a bit about the good old days of podcasting and some about what is going on now. Just a couple of old guys chatting it up.
Some of the things Evo is doing or has done:
Co-author of the first versions of Podcasting for Dummies Host of ShEvo vs. The First World Former Co-host of The Bangkok Podcast He owns Simpler Media at https://podcastlaunch.pro Also, make sure watch his facebook for Podcast Pontifications, a video series that is NOT a podcast about Podcasting.
Be sure to come to PodcastHelpDesk.com and push the appropriate button to subscribe so you don't miss a show!
Episode level images. Only some apps use the images and those apps use different images if they do. Here is a list from an experiment I did on my podcast Mike Dell's World. Episode 308 has episode level images.
One image is embedded in the mp3 file in the iD3 tags. It is white with red writing.
The other image is in the tag on the episode level in the RSS feed. It's green with white writing. Results:
Apple Podcasts - Does not use either image. Just the main artwork for the feed. (But does use the RSS tag in the search in the iTunes desktop software) Google Podcasts - None just uses the main image Overcast for IOS - Uses the id3 tag image for the episode Pocket Casts - Uses neither image Update, uses the RSS image tag (thanks James) Podcast Republic - Uses the RSS image (Thanks Chris Miller) Podcast Addict - Uses the RSS image Beyond Pod - Uses the ID3 tag image Stitcher - Uses the main image (none of the episode level images) Spotify - Uses the RSS image on some versions of the App, but not on the Web Version. (Thanks Emily Peck Prokop! ) Yes, it does work in SOME** apps.
Let me know what you see in your app if you are not using any of the above Apps.
Random place in the podcast: 1:30
It seems that Apple is getting more picky about Titles and Author tags in Podcast Feeds.
Titles should be just "the title" like - Podcast Help Desk. Not "Podcast Help Desk | The best place to learn to podcast like Dave Jackson and Daniel J. Lewis"
Also, the Author tag should be: Mike Dell Not "Mike Dell, Talking about podcasting like Zig Zigler, Tony Robbins and Pat Flynn talk about business"
In other words, use the tags for what they are for, not for some gray-hat SEO within Apple Podcasts (no longer iTunes)
CastBox.fm seems to have hijacked a bunch of feeds. If you are listing on CastBox, please visit PodcastHelpDesk.com and make sure you are subcibed to the real thing and not some cheap copy of the shows I put out.
I have a website for each of my shows for a reason! I don't mind at all that someone lists my shows on their directory, app, site or whatever, but DO NOT REMOVE the links to MY site! That is a violation of my rights as a content creator. I don't think castbox.fm was TRYING to hijack feeds, but who knows? But the result is, they did. They are working on it, I guess.
ARGH!
This is the first test recording using the New Denon DN-300R recorder. Having the digital recorder mounted in the rack and always hooked up seems to be a better plan (for me) than using a portable recorder as a backup.
I also talk briefly about the new Google Podcasts "app" on Android.
Hi all! Yup, still here. Been busy with other projects.
Lots going on in the podcasting space. Google's new podcast strategy, Spotify and other things.
Good to get back behind the mic here.
I was the featured speaker at The Columbus Ohio Podcaster's Meetup in March. Today's episode is the recording of that presentation.
It's all about Beginner Podcasters Tech Mistakes and how to avoid them. It was held at the RawVoice Inc. / Blubrry Podcasting HQ in Columbus Ohio. More information about the meetup here.
I've been having a few things on my mind so I figured rather than write it out and rant on Facebook, I would flip on the mic and just speak it.
This is a somewhat different episode. It's me rambling on a bit about Passion for podcasting. Also about learning your craft. Even the techy parts.
The main things I tried to get across is this: Learn how this stuff works. Not the super geeky bits, but the basics. Spend the little bit of time it takes to understand what is supposed to happen when you post an episode. Learn how to check your RSS feed. Learn what an RSS feed is (Hint: it's a special text file sitting on a server somewhere). Learn how Apple, Google, Stitcher, Tunin, Android Apps and desktop podcatchers work. Learn how to encode and post your MP3 files.
Again, that is why those of us who try to support and teach people how to podcast do it. Be a good student of your craft.
Next time I will be off my soap box.
Today I talk about recording your episodes. It's an off the top of my head episode about how I record, some tips for recording.
The main points are:
- Find some quiet time in a quiet space.
- Allow enough time for re-dos and editing (while it's fresh).
- Don't overthink it.
- Get comfortable with the tech and talking on the mic.
- Don't be afraid to do 2 or 3 retakes if needed.
I also tell you about how I started a new show (Fast Food History) and how it's a bit out of my comfort zone and I'm not taking ALL of my advice. But, I think it's going to be a good exercise for me to experience starting a show that has nothing to do with Tech or Podcasting.
Also, check out Blubrry's #BuildYourBlubrry give-aways in December! Go to FACEBOOK Page or TWITTER Page for more info. Use the promo code HELPDESK for a free month of anything we sell at Blubrry.com
News: Blubrry/RawVoice has acquired Cast Feed Validator (castfeedvalidator.com)
Recording Equipment
You do not need anything a smartphone to start podcasting. Some people have good luck with just a smartphone and if done right, they can record a good show with just that.
Microphones. I suggest NOT getting a USB Condenser mic Go for a dynamic mic. ATR2100 is a good starter mic if you have to use USB. You can go with a more expensive microphone and use a USB interface. Mixer - You don’t have to have a mixer, but it can help. It allows more than one mic to be plugged in. It has mic Preamps. The little more expensive ones will allow a Mix-Minus. (a whole nother episode) Software Audacity is free, Garageband is free with a Mac (so not free). Audition is $15 a month. Hindenburg journalist is expensive. You really don’t need much else.
The whole idea is to get something that will give you a clean audio recording. No need for the fancy stuff.
If you want to get fancy
Compressor limiter gate Equalizer Sound treatment External recorder deck / Portable recorder Boom arm for the mic Broadcast headset (with or without mic)
What equipment you get is totally dependant on Budget and what type of podcast you are going to do.
If you are going to have a remote co-host or if you are going to interview people, I suggest a real mixer (not the cheapest one). You really don’t want to depend totally on software to record skype.
Auphonic is a great way to level your sound out after you have edited.
Planning your Podcast
- Pick a subject
- Pick a title
- Get a domain name
- Figure out ahead of time how you are going to do the RSS feed a. WordPress/PowerPress b. No website but use RSS from Media host c. Roll your own XML (rss) feed d. Proprietary service (Soundcloud, Podbean, others)
- Get ARTWORK - VERY SPECIFIC ARTWORK SEPCS
- Show format
This show is brought to you by Blubrry Podcasting - For a free Month of Podcast Hosting, Stats or Deluxe PowerPress Sites, use the promo code HELPDESK at checkout at blubrry.com
News:
Podcast Movement 2017
Shows I’ve started. (starting in April 2005)
Benzoid Report / Mike Dell’s World (93 episodes of BR and the rest MDW) Your Podcast by Blubrry Traverse City Podcast Geek of the North What’s Up With That? Quick Hits 5 Min with Mike RetroTech Strange Today Today in Aviation History Aviation History This Week Ham Radio Podclass Guest on several shows. And a few more I forgot :)
Best I can guess I’ve done somewhere around 2700 episodes Some of the cool things that have happened because I started my podcasts.
Radio show on WNMC 90.7FM in Traverse City Guest News guy on WKLT FM in Traverse City Omelette and Friends (now Omelette Radio on Podcasting!) MC for a Catie Curtis Concert Interview with several bands/performers on the radio Full-time Job with the BEST podcast company in the world! (Blubrry) Meeting all kinds of Podcasting Royalty Got meet and know all but one of the Podcasting Hall Of Fame podcasters Traveled to many Podcasting events all over the US Reporting for Geek News Central Reporting for Podcaster News Meeting 100’s of other podcasters from all over the world
The lesson I would say you should take from this is “Do as I say, not as I do”.
Future
Since the next episode will be 101, I’m going to start from scratch in starting a Podcast if I were to do it all over. Each episode for the next several will be the steps I would go through to start a podcast. The PHD 101 series.
News:
Messengers movie available for Pre-order at iTunes Soundcloud is dying. Run for your lives! (really, make other plans if you are on soundcloud). Audioboom makes deal with Deezer (or is it the other way around?)
Q: Why is XXX (Blubrry, Libsyn, Spreaker) so much more expensive than Soundcloud?
A: Because, businesses that host podcasts have to buy bandwidth. Bandwidth costs money. If you charge less than it costs you and don’t make a profit, the business won't stay in business. This is why Free or cheap hosting will never be a long term plan. If a company charges enough to make themselves a profit, they will stay in business. Simple as that. Soundcloud spent more money than they took in for a long time and it’s now catching up with them. There have been 100’s of free or cheap hosting companies come and go over the years. Unless you enjoy changing hosts every so often, pick one that has been around for a while, not one that just started and seems too good to be true.
Topics:
Do you do too many podcasts? - I know I try to do too many. It normally doesn't work out. Do you have too complicated of a website? - I can't stress enough the importance of having a clean, easy website for your podcast. Too many times I go to someones "podcast" website and I can't find their podcast. Not only does it make it hard for listeners, but it makes it hard for the podcaster to maintain.
Blubrry Tip :
PowerPress Sites Deluxe is up and running. It's a no-worry WordPress Site, for your podcast, that you do not have to do updates, security and it won't go down. Try it free for a month at blubrry.com use the promo code HELPDESK Your Podcast by Blubrry - Blubrry's podcast about the podcasting business, tips for your podcast and some inside blubrry information. Every other week at PowerPressPodcast.com
Also check out the PowerPress Podcast with MacKenzie and her guest hosts along with a PowerPress tip from Shawn every other week.
Also:
I am working on an Amazon Alexa Skill for Podcast Help Desk News that you will be able to add to your flash briefing in Alexa. It will be a 1-2 minute tip or news item from the world of podcasting. ( Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment ) It's just something I'm playing with. Stay tuned!
Here are the things I DO NOT worry so much about in my Podcasting:
- My Statistics / Numbers
- My Reviews, Ratings and Rankings
- iTunes
- Audio Perfection
- Being Absolutely Everywhere
- MP3 File Names
Things I do worry about:
- Audience - Give them a reason to listen
- Knowing my listeners
- My RSS feed address
- Being everywhere that matters
- Ease of use for my listeners and web visitors
You will have to listen to the show to find out more :)
He's Baaaaackkkk! :)
Today I give a bit of an overview of what you need to do BEFORE you put out your first episode of your podcast.
- Pick a Topic
- Pick a Title (for the show)
- Pick and get your domain name
- Figure out how you are going to do your RSS feed
- Setup your site and feed
- Figure out how and what you are going to use to record your podcast
- Test record to make sure you know how to use your mic, software, devices and whatever else you use to record and edit your files * USE MP3 for Audio, USE MP4/M4V for Video *
If you disagree with me or have a question, please send in a voice comment to mike@mikedell.com or Podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com
My Predictions from 2015 in podcasting for the Year 2016 I Made some guesses on what was going to happen in 2016 back in Episode 71. Now we find out just how wrong I was.
Soundcloud will no longer be a podcast media host (Wrong, they are still here)
Soundcloud is still here and still nobody has bought them and they haven’t gone out of business (yet)
There will be at least one new podcast media hostt (Right)
Dan Benjamin's Fireside along with a BUNCH of others that didn’t really make a splash yet.
There will be at least one new podcast media host go out of business (??) At least none that I know of. I'm sure there were some, but they went out with no splash just like they came in with no splash.
I will release “The NO BS Guide to Podcasting”. No Really…. I am going to finish it (wrong)
It will come out sooner or later or never :)
Feedburner will still exist all year long. (Right)
Yup.. Still a pain in my side.
Podcast Movement will be a big success. (no brainer) (right)
PM16 was great! The first one I went to and it was a ton of fun. Reminded me of the good old days in Ontario.
Blab will start charging “something” for service or will start some sort of advertising. (Not talked about in the show) (WTF? They went out of business)
They are just gone. So I don’t know if I was right or wrong. I guess wrong, they didn’t start charging, they just went out of business. Free is a lousy business plan.
A major player in the podcasting space (company) will change names / rebrand. (wrong)
At least, not that I know of. Blubrry went through a sort of re-branding. It’s now “Blubrry Podcasting, a RawVoice Company” in communications. But, really it was that all along.
There will be a major Movie announced that features podcasting in the central plot. (not a documentary or independent film) (Wrong - As far as I know)
Also not that I’m aware of.
Howard Stern will still hate podcasting. (Right)
HAPPY 2017!
- DO NOT Host your mp3 files on your own webserver
Hosting your files on a webserver is the single quickest way to get kicked off of your web hosting server. Plus, if you get popular at all, your mp3 downloads will compete with your website and your RSS feed. It’s simply not a good idea.
- DO NOT Use Feedburner (or feedblitz or any other 3rd party RSS feed service)
We have beaten this dead horse but I get calls every week from someone who is on feedburner and something goes wrong. Eliminate that problem by eliminating feedburner from your system. You give Feedburner a feed to “burn”, use that feed directly.
- DO NOT Use your hosting company’s RSS feed
Using a feed that doesn’t have your domain name in it simply means you do not own that feed. Your hosting company does. It’s like email. If you have aol.com or hotmail.com in your email address on your business card, it makes you look stupid. Or at very least, unsophisticated or too lazy to do the work needed to have your own domain in your email. Same goes for feeds. If you run your feed from your own domain, it looks better than yourpodcastname.hostingcompany.com/rss. Plus, if your hosting company goes out of business (which DOES happen and has happened in the past) you will have trouble getting your subscribers back.
- DO NOT Listen to anyone that tells you that WordPress Feeds are unreliable
There is a very well known podcaster / podcasting company rep that is spreading the BS that WordPress Feeds are unreliable. The simple fact that it’s WordPress does NOT make it unreliable and the fact that it’s from said hosting company, does NOT make it reliable. They have their feed problems too. Just like any system, there can be problems. (If there were no problems ever, why would they need a support department??) This person (and others) are using it as a marketing tool to make you think that if you host your own RSS feed, you are somehow more likely to have problems. That is simply not true. I know of several networks that are running WordPress feeds (many of them!) from one WordPress site and have no problems. It’s more about the server than it is about the system. This Hosting company (and the one I work for by the way) have very reliable and robust servers that cost a lot of money to maintain. A $3 a month shared hosting plan on a Web Server is not very likely to be able to handle a ton of traffic. That’s because it only costs $3. You get what you pay for, as the old saying goes. If you get really popular, you may need to step up to a higher level server. I run Podcast Help Desk and all my other sites save one, on Godaddy’s mid-level Linux servers. Yes, it costs more than $3 a month. But not that much more and my sites have never gone down. I don’t get Serial or NPR level’s of traffic. If I did, I could get a much bigger server, still run WordPress and be just fine. You can’t expect a 20 year old Toyota mini truck to haul the same load as an 18 wheeler, so you must get the vehicle that is needed for the job at hand. Same with webservers. But as I said # 3, it is worth the trouble because you want own your own brand, your own platform totally without any 3rd parties in your way.
- DO NOT Use anything but MP3 for an audio podcast
I’m sure I will get some “feedback” from my friend Charles on this one, but Do NOT use another file format other than MP3 for your audio podcast. At least not at this time. AAC (or Apple’s M4A) format is great for music. Great for iPods, iPhones and the such, but it’s not great for older mp3 players that people still use. It also does not work as well for web players. Does it work? Yes, 90% but mp3 works 100%. Stick with that until something better comes along.
- DO NOT Encode your MP3’s any bigger than 128kbps Stereo
In fact, most of the time, 64kbps Mono is good enough. (Constant bit rate too). Anything bigger is just wasting your hosting space and your listeners data pla...
Blubrry Podcasting has released Post to Social so you can post your episodes to Social Media (YouTube, Facebook and Twitter) from your Podcaster Dashboard at blubrry.com
See the announcement here: http://www.powerpresspodcast.com/2016/12/13/5327/
Find out how to do it here: https://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/post-to-social/
News:
Spotify NOT buying soundcloud after all
Was your show canceled by the Podcast Authority?
Listener Question
Q: Is a Blue Yeti a good microphone to start out with?
A: NO
Now, to be fair, the Blue Yeti is a nice microphone and would be a great mic for someone that has a very quiet recording environment and/or is willing to put in the time to learn how to use it properly. Is it the best? No, is it the worst? Sometimes.
What is a podcast?
noun a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically. Can be Audio, Video or Text (yes, PDF’s and Ebooks can be a “podcast”) verb make (a digital audio file) available as a podcast.
A podcaster is:
An independent content creator that makes Audio or Video available as a podcast. A host (or co-host) of an Audio show or Video show that is later turned into a podcast. A company that produces Audio or Video that is distributed as a podcast
Simply making an Audio or Video show is NOT podcasting.
There is a former local AM Radio talk host in town here that moved from Radio to Podcasting (so he says) but what he’s doing is live streaming his audio show and then making the MP3’s available for download on his website. He does not use RSS and his shows are not available as Podcasts. It’s not a bad show, but it’s not a podcast.(Norm Jones Show)
Another former radio host in town here DOES now podcast. He makes an audio show 2 times a week and it IS available as a podcast.(omeletteradio.com)
There is a distinction between to the two approaches. Nothing really wrong with either, just different. One is a online radio show with Archives and one is a Podcast.
Audible ‘channels’ are not podcasts XM on demand are not podcasts Putting audio on a website is not (necessarily) a podcast
Blubrry’s NEW PostToSocial (or post2social)
For a free month of hosting at blubrry.com, use my Promo code HELPDESK
Today I talk to MacKenzie Bennett from The PowerPress Podcast about her journey in podcasting as a beginner. MacKenzie is the Affiliate and Services Coordinator at RawVoice Inc. and Blubrry Podcasting. You can contact MacKenzie at mackenzie@blubrry.com or on twitter @MacKenzieB6
I also went on another rant about Feedburner and the few podcast "gurus" out there that still say you should use feedburner.
If you would like a free month of Hosting or Stats at Blubrry.com, use the promo code HELPDESK at checkout.
I got to chat with Gary Leland from, originally, Podcast Pickle and a bunch of other sites, podcasts and businesses in the Dallas / Fort Worth area of Texas. We also got into a lot of the "back in the day" about podcasting and generally have a great conversation.
You can find out about all that Gary does here: Gary Leland dot com
Also here: https://fastpitch.tv/, Fast Pitch Radio Network and a few other places found on GaryLeland.com. It was a fun conversation.
Check out my other podcasts.
Podcast Quick Hits Mike Dell's World Geek of the North Traverse City Podcast
Subscribe in Pocket Casts
I’m back after taking the summer mostly off and I have a lot of news in this episode along with some things to think about when you are doing your website for your podcast.
NEWS
IAB Podcast measurement guidelines released
Overcast Ads?
Patreon Launches Private Feeds
International Podcast Day
IPD Gratitude Awards
Website website website! Do you need a website for your podcast? YES!! Here is why: 1. Google - People can’t find you on Google or Bing if you don’t have a website.
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Having a central place to find your show and you is essential if your podcast hosting service of choice goes down or you want to move.
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It’s just cool to be able to make the site look the way you want it to rather than how the podcast host’s listing looks.
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Own your own brand. It’s important to have your own domain that is your brand for your podcast. Using someone else’s brand to promote your show, promotes them, not you.
Blubrry Tip of the Week
Blubrry Listings are not automatically populated from your Blubrry hosting account. Follow the video below to make sure your listing is in Blubrry.com’s directory:
Bad advice PowerPress vs. Locked in services
It’s just RSS. That is all you need. iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Tunein Radio and all the podcast apps are using RSS, Not RSS + something magic that only company X can give you to list your podcast. Locked in services want you to use their RSS feed instead of your own RSS feed because it’s easier for them to support their own system and it gives them exposure by having THEIR domain name in your feed address and on THEIR player. With PowerPress, the RSS feed is the RSS feed that everyone looks at and it has YOUR domain in it (if you choose). It works for Google Play, Itunes and every other podcast app that allows independent podcasts in it.
Subscribe in Pocket Casts
Today I recap Podcast Movement 2016 in Chicago.
I also talked with Rae Palermo from Strawberry Hill Prodcutions and Podcast2Radio.
I'll be back around the middle of September with a full episode and will resume my weekly schedule.
Tunes Listings for Podcasts are updating slowly
It's a known problem at apple. They are having issues keeping listings updated. They know about it and are working on it.
The iTunes store listing and what appears in your feed are two different things. People that subscribe to your feed in iTunes will get the new episodes as you post them but the listing at iTunes can lag by a few days (or up to a week or so) behind your feed. This is normal.
People get the wrong impression that your RSS feed PUSiHES to iTunes. It does not. iTunes (when it sees fit) PULLS your feed. It asks for your feed when it gets around to it and PULLS your feed to update your listing. Your subscribers (even in iTunes) subscribe to your feed and after that never really touch iTunes (the service) again. They are just subscribed to your feed directly in the iTunes software. As long as when you publish an episode, you get it if you are subscribed, everything is working. It works the same as every other directory or app.
There is nothing we or you can do to make that faster. It takes whatever time it takes and if you want it to go faster you have to go to iTunes and refresh your feed manually.
Deezer sells Stitcher to Midroll / E.W. Scripts
PowerPress 7.0 is out!
The answer to that question is... I don't know, but I'm going to try it for the summer.
That's right, Podcast Help Desk is on Vacation. I'm taking the summer mostly off from this podcast. Instead of trying to put out an episode every Friday during the busy, project filled summer, I'm going to just say, the episodes will come out when they come out.
My plan is to write more on this site. Podcast news, Tips, Tricks and other tidbits. AND, I will put out some episodes as I get them done, or something really important happens that I need to talk about.
So, is this a good idea? I don't know, but, as I said, I'm going to give it a try for the summer.
Stay up to date by subscribing to my text blog feed at http://podcasthelpdesk.com/feed/ in a feed reader.
If you would like an invite to the Blubrry PowerPress webinar that I will be doing every other week, email me here at podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com or at mike@blubrry.com
I sat down and had a great conversation with Shawn Thorpe from HyperNonsense.com, PodcasterNews.com, Shawn.mx and GeekNewsCentral.com. On top of all that, Shawn is a colleague of mine over at blubrry support.
Follow Shawn on Twiter @shawno We talked about all kinds of things.
-Web Hosting -Podcasting (Duh!) -Recording -Life -and more podcasting :)
Enjoy!
News:
Radio Station Hijacked with Explicit Podcast Content 2016 Podcast Awards Rules
6 things to Uncomplicate your podcasting
- Organize your episode show prep
- Once you have your recording setup figured out check it off the list
- Once you have your RSS feed / website set up, check it off the list
- Don’t try to game the system. Just make sure you have great content and market it normally. No need to worry about things like N&N or review snapping.
- Once you have a workflow that works for you, stick to it.
- Have Fun. If it’s a struggle, you won’t want to stick to it.
Danny Stern (no relation to Howard) and the Art Dealer Show
Blubrry Tip
New player is here!
To use the new blubrry player, you have to be a blubrry hosting customer (my promo code is HELPDESK for a free month).
For the time being, to use the player you have to do it as an embed. Post your episode as normal.
Let your blubrry listing update (normally a couple of hours or less)
Go into Podcaster Dashboard at blubrry.com and go to “manage episdoes”
In there you will see “get embed” by the episode you want the player for. Copy that link
Paste that link into your site.
If you are using PowerPress, enable the media embed box in the basic settings. You will then have a box to paste the embed code in your podcast episode box in WordPress posts.
I will be hosting Geek News Central on Friday April 15th. Come check me out doing someone else’s show :) Should be a good time!
New PHD Slack group
I’m starting a listener slack group. It’s going to be kind of a free (yes free) mastermind group. I’m going to limit the number of people in it to 10 (plus me) for now. If you would be interested in joining, email me PodcastHelpDesk@gmail.com and I will send you an invite. It will be a way to interact with me and fellow podcasters that listen to my show. Should be an interesting experiment.
News:
Academy of Podcasters, Hall of Fame 2016 inductees
New Media Europe in June
People's Choice Podcast Awards needs your help
Some of the biggest lies in podcasting
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You must have a big launch.
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New & Noteworthy at iTunes will guarantee success in podcasting
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You only have 8 weeks to be in N&N
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Someone can be #1 in N&N - Daniel J. Lewis' Article
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You must Pay BIG BUCKS to learn how to podcast
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You need a Heil PR40 Microphone to podcast (substitute any other Mic)
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You don’t need a Website to podcast. Just use XXXX Hosting service instead.
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WordPress feeds are unstable
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You need a different feed for each different directory
Testing a couple of new Blubrry products on PodcastHelpDesk.com
Blubrry is now the largest independent podcast directory in the world. 300k+
Apple introduced a new way to manage your Podcasts on iTunes. Access the site here: http://podcastsconnect.apple.com
I go over what you should use it for and what you should NOT use it for.
The Good:
- Submit your podcast to the iTunes podcasts directory via the web rather than the iTunes desktop app
- Ability to change the feed address that iTunes pulls to your LISTING (listing only, see below)
- Another vaildator for podcast feeds
The Bad:
- Ability to really mess up your listing
- Must have an Apple ID to use (including a credit card on file with Apple)
- The "mirror" feed URL is mostly useless and in my opinion, should not be used. Will cause confusion.
The Ugly:
- If someone else submitted your podcast, you can not move it to your Apple ID (yet)
- Changing the RSS feed has no effect on your subscribers. Still need to do a 301 redirect from your old feed to the new feed to get your subscribers to move to the new feed.
Just remember, iTunes is important, but it's not "podcasting". At most, it's 50% of most podcaster's audience (some more some less). Don't just rely on iTunes. Be everywhere.
I talk to Charles Wiltgen from PodBase and Farstuff Podcast
I will be talking about the iTunes changes next week.
I had a nice chat with Colin Gray from Podcraft and The Podcast Host. Another podcaster about podcasting.
I guest hosted The PowerPress Podcast this week. Lots of info about the new Apple Podcasts connect and the new version of PowerPress (Please update!) Also, if you love PowerPress, Please rate and review PowerPress here: https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/powerpress?rate=5#postform
I also co-hosted The New Media Show #120 with Todd Cochrane this morning. The show should be out by the time you listen to this or it will be soon thereafter.
If you want to check out how podcasting was "Back in the day" check out my latest Mike Dell's world where i kicked it old school. Podcasting Live to the Hard Drive like back in 2005 :)
News:
Happy Birthday Dave Jackson and Happy Show 500 for the School of Podcasting! http://schoolofpodcasting.com School Of Podcasting 500 - A launch story/
Public Radio Podcast Measurement Guidelines
RawVoice Inc. Responds
Deep Dive on Blubrry Podcast Statistics
Google Play Podcasts this month?
Soundcloud may have to close soon
Blubrry ads another conduit to getting your show on Spotify music service 1.Login to your blubrry.com account, or create one 2. If you have a show listed at blubrry.com that you put there just click go here: https://publish.blubrry.com/connect/spotify.php 3. If you didn’t list your show on blubrry.com search for it in the blubrry directory and claim your show. Do this by clicking on the more info link at the bottom of the artwork and then click on claim your show. 4.Then go to the link above.
News:
Apple TV update now includes the podcast app
Amazon is gearing up to add podcast content to Audible. They are hiring comedians
Nick Quah, Creator of Hot Pod Newsletter (http://hot-pod.squarespace.com/) is leaving Panoply to do Hot Pod full time
From the newsletter “Quick announcement: I'm leaving Panoply, which has so far been referred to in this newsletter as my "day job employer." This is my last week as the company's Audience Development person, broadly speaking, which has been a strange, amorphous, confusing, and sometimes thoroughly enjoyable job, and I'm glad to be the first person I know who has such a position in a podcasting company.”
More on Workflow
There are many ways to do podcasting. Jim Collison
You can find Jim Collison at http://averageguy.tv and on Ask The Podcast Coach on Saturday’s at 10:30 Eastern US time.
Today I go into my Workflow for making a podcast episode.
Here is my checklist:
- Shownotes - Everyone has trouble with shownotes but I my system, I get them done first. Using Google Docs I make a new document with the number of the show and save it to my bookmarks bar in my browser. That way, when I have an idea for my next show, I open that doc and write it down or drop a link or whatever in there.
- Show prep - I take that document and organize it and open any links in my browser. Normally just an outline or highlights of what I want to talk about and in the correct order I want to do.
- Get my recording software and equipment turned on and test. I record several test recordings making sure nothing changed in my setup. I try to get the recording levels at -12 to -3 on the meter.
- Record the intro segment
- Record the other segments for the podcast. I do it this way, but there is no reason you can't do all the segments, or the whole thing "live to the hard drive" as we used to say.
- I open a multi-track session that has my intro and outro (not the one I recorded, but the one with the real announcer voice and music)
- I place the intro I recorded and the segments in place and line them up the way I want.
- I drop in the bumper music (if I use bumper music for that episode) in between the segments.
- I check the transitions making sure everything sounds good.
- I render it out into a Wav File. In the case of this episode that wav file is called "phd077_mixdown.wav"
- I run that wav file though Auphonic making sure it stays as a wav. That file is called "phd077_mixdown_auphonic.wav"
- I open the auphonic wave file in Audition and check listen to bits and pieces to make sure nothing went wrong.
- I save that file from audition as an mp3 file. 44.1khz , 128kbps stereo.
- I upload to blubrry hosting using the uploader in PowerPress which writes my ID3 tags to the mp3 file for me.
- Paste the show notes from the doc into the WordPress post.
- Title the post and publish
That's it.
Next week I will talk about what to check to make sure your feed is working correctly and your audio is sounding the way you want it.
New Magazine about podcasting: http://podcasternews.com/2016/01/22/podster-is-a-new-magazine-about-podcasting/
what is an RSS feed?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
Why is it so important for a podcast?
Think of your RSS feed as your Radio Station’s Transmitter frequency. So if you are on 97.5 FM with a radio station, that is where people tune in to hear your programing. The RSS feed is very much like that for podcasts. It’s where People, Apps and Podcatcher software “tune” to hear (or download) your episodes. Without that transmitter working well, people will have a hard time hearing your Radio Station. Without a good efficient RSS feed, your podcast will not be heard or if it is, it might not have everything needed to be found or understood by the software that needs to “hear” it to download your episodes. The difference is with RSS vs. Transmitters, your content on a podcast is on demand. Sort of like a DVR for your TV, but for Radio.
Beginner Series
Today we talk about how to get your first episode posted to your new WordPress site.
Today we go though the basics< of setting up PowerPress on your new WordPress website.
We will go into a more in-depth tweaking of PowerPress settings in future episodes.
Next time we will go into how to post your first episode. (With our without Blubrry Hosting)
Today we go into installing WordPress on your web hosting plan. Check the sidebar for deals a Dreamhost or Bluehost for your WordPress hosting.
OR Go to Godaddy.com and get a LINUX shared hosting plan. (no affiliate code here)
Next episode we will install and configure PowerPress
For the next 4 episodes, I'm going to give you the quick and dirty "how to get started" in podcasting.
Start from nothing and have your podcast on iTunes in 4 episodes.
Today I talk about picking your podcast topic, recording (Very basic) and some basic equipment (Microphones) info.
Audio-Technica ATR2100 - USB / XLR mic ( this is what I use for portable Podcasting)
Predictions from Last year:
Second Podcast movement – Less “Entrepreneur” focused - SORT OF NMX/NAB – Best podcast event ever! - Was good, but the best? Might have been the last one :(
I will release “The NO BS Guide to Podcasting” in March and it will reach #1 on Amazon for Podcasting. (yes, bold and wishful thinking!) - BONK! nope…
I will Produce 50 episodes of Podcast Help Desk in 2015. (Leaving myself room to skip a couple but maybe even 52) - Nope… 37 This will be the year of the Story-telling podcast copy-cat. Like 2014 was the year of the Entrepreneur podcast. - Sort of At least one popular Entrepreneur podcast will pod-fade (likely 100’s of copy-cats as well) - Several have pod faded, not sure about any major ones Soundcloud will be sold and their Podcasting “Beta” program will be turned off. - Not yet, but we still have a few days left in 2015 Google will announce that Feedburner is going away in 2016 - not yet Google will announce a Podcast listening app and directory for Android. (Crossing my fingers) - DING DING DING! Google Play At least one “podcasting company” will shut down unexpectedly. (Not much of a stretch because it happens at least once every year) - We have had several shut down In April, I will celebrate my 10 year anniversary in podcasting (Not sure of exact date) - Ding ding ding ( April 2015 was my 10 year anniversary in podcasting)
Predictions for 2016 in Podcasting
Soundcloud will no longer be a podcast media host There will be at least one new podcast media host There will be at least one new podcast media host go out of business I will release “The NO BS Guide to Podcasting”. No Really…. I am going to finish it :) Feedburner will still exist all year long. Podcast Movement will be a big success. (no brainer) Blab will start charging “something” for service or will start some sort of advertising. (Not talked about in the show) A major player in the podcasting space (company) will change names / rebrand. There will be a major Movie announced that features podcasting in the central plot. (not a documentary or independent film) Howard Stern will still hate podcasting.
Blubrry Tip / News UPDATE POWERPRESS PLEASE!
Personal Goals this year.
Finish the book Continue to improve Podcast Help Desk and Geek of the North Figure out how to get more feedback on the show.
Links from the show: Using Seasons in your show - PowerPress Podcast
Dave Jackson Paul Colligan Daniel J. Lewis Colin Gray
NEWS
Serial season 2 , episode 1 is out. The rumors are true, they are doing the story of Bowe Bergdahl, the US Army Sgt. who was captured by the taliban in 2009 in Afghanistan https://serialpodcast.org/2015/12/season-two-welcome
I interviewed Victor Cajiao (Caa Hee Ow) -- @victorcajiao
Victor has been podcasting since 2005 but took a hiatus for 3 years and is back with a new show. http://www.terratech.tech/ We talk about the good old days of podcasting, some current things Victor sees as changes in the space. It was a great conversation! Great catching up with some of the pioneers of podcasting, and Victor in particular!
Some of Victor’s past shows were: Typical PC User Typical Mac user Typical Shutterbug Adventures in Immigration
More News
Blubrry and Live365 announce Podcast2Radio
See the Blubrry Test station here: (PHD is one of the podcasts on it) http://www.live365.com/stations/blubrry Check out how you can get your own station at http://blubrry.FM
Blubrry tips of the week
Can you use Squarespace with blubrry hosting / Stats?
Victor, who we just talked to uses Squarespace for his website, terratech.tech. He sent me these instructions on how to use blubrry hosting with a squarespace website.
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Select the audio block from your post
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In the audio block select “External” and put in the Blubbry URL you get from the Blubbry website after uploading your file there.
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Put in the podcasting information on the Podcasting tab, for iTunes, medatadata etc
THAT’s IT , it works for me and I get stats from the Blubrry website.
Also, UPDATE YOUR WORDPRESS AND POWERPRESS!
WordPress 4.4 update broke PowerPress - New update for PowerPress is out to fix the problem. The issue was with how WordPress dealt with feed titles. They would show as blank. Please update both WordPress AND PowerPress if you haven’t already. Also, if you updated PowerPress and not WordPress (and were using feature episode or FeedMaximizer) , you could have run into the same problem. The latest version of PowerPress is 6.2.3 (released Thursday right after releasing 6.2.2 on Wednesday) If you are using the latest PowerPress then you are OK using an earlier version of WordPress, but why would you? Update to 4.4!
Just a little more News
Gimlet Media takes $6 Million in an “A” round of funding http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/12/hot-pod-panoplys-parent-company-takes-a-stake-in-gimlet-media/
Even the best get hacked - WPEngine users continentals were leaked.
I just want to clarify, from last weeks show, when I say promote your own site, I don’t mean don’t be on other platforms, I mean point everyone back to your site and link from there. Be everywhere you can, just point everyone back to your site in your podcast and anywhere you promote.
Thanks for listening and supporting the show!
News: Levelator now works in OSX 10.11 - Doug Kaye from Conversations Network did a small update on Levelator, a free audio levelling software that has not been maintained since 2012. He said he just wants to make sure it still runs on all modern OS’s. Levelator is available for WIndows, Mac and Linux here: http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator (make sure you get 2.1.2 if you are on a Mac)
*** Bumper Music by Airmen of Note affiliate link
Promote YOU or Your brand, Not your podcast company’s brand!
What would you rather have on YOUR website?
I like the PowerPress player I use, much better :)
Review swaps - UGH!
Someone asked me to be a guest on their Blog Talk Radio show. They sent me a “Guest Intake Form” to fill out and part of the form is a $10 payment that YOU have to pay to be on their show. I didn’t fill it out.
Blubrry Tip
Handling Stats redirects in PowerPress
The way PowerPress works with the statistics redirect with a single show is that you sign into your blubrry.com account from the services and stats area of the powerpress settings (in advanced mode). This automatically puts the stats redirect in front of your media URL. This only works this way if you only have 1 podcast coming from your wordpress site.
If you have more than one coming from your wordpress site using categories or channels, ALL podcasts from all categories or channels get the redirect from the show selected when you signed in to your blubrry.com account from PowerPress.
If you don’t mind your stats all in one account, you can leave it like this. If you want them separate, you must do one of two things.
Option 1. Create another listing for each show (category or channel) at blubrry.com and the main one will still catch all shows, but you manually put the redirect URL for the show you are posting in front of the media URL when posting. That way you will have 1 catch all that gets all the stats and another stats account for each of your shows that are separate.
Option 2. Unlink your blubrry.com account from your wordpress blog. Then, put the redirect in manually each time you post. This option also requires that you come to blubrry.com to upload your file if you are using blubrry hosting.
Soundcard bingo
I got a Behringer UCA222 Soundcard to replace one of my Griffen iMics so i could tell them apart. On the Mac, the sound cards are named by the system and you can’t change them. So having 2 soundcards with the same name was screwing me up when I tried to do skype interviews using mix-minus (I will go over mix-minus again in a future episode).
Problem mostly solved with the UCA222 and 1 iMic. now I have a very slight (you might hear it, you may not hear it) ground loop hum now. I just ordered a Boss B25N RCA to RCA Ground Loop Isolator for the setup, so that VERY slight hum will be gone by the next episode.
Did You Plug it IN?
News and Articles Move over Millennials, Seniors Are Discovering Podcasting, Too http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2747478 Howard Stern (again) http://cccnews.info/2015/11/17/howard-stern-demonstrates-the-value-of-live-radio-over-podcasting/ 38 podcasts so meta… https://medium.com/@harryduran/28-podcasts-so-meta-they-all-cover-the-topic-of-podcasting-itself-da977dcf3c3f
Inverted Audio problem
Thanks to Daniel J. Lewis from The Audacity To Podcast for helping me figure out what was wrong.
I THOUGHT I had the portable recorder problem figured out. I bought a new cable and the plug end for the 3.5mm makes it so it doesn't go in the socket all the way (Size does matter I guess:) ). Anyway, it gave me a mirror effect left to right. SO when it is played on a mono speaker (iphone, ipad and others) the left cancels out the right.
***UPdate! It wasn’t the cable after all.
It was the setting on my recorder for Mic Type. It was set to Stereo and to fix it, I had to set it to Mono. Ugh!
Tech Support - Did you plug it in?
Why those of us in Tech Support ask the simple questions first.
Blubrry Announcements of the week
PowerPress supports in Feed fundraising links for certain apps http://www.powerpresspodcast.com/2015/11/04/powerpress-podcasters-can-now-crowdfund-their-podcast-directly-to-subscribers/
Clammr Player Plugin integration with PowerPress. http://www.powerpresspodcast.com/2015/11/16/clammr-wordpress-plugin-supported-by-powerpress/
Blubrry Partners with Trition with a private plugin for Blubrry Pro customers for Ad management.
http://www.powerpresspodcast.com/2015/11/19/triton-tap-plugin-powerpress/
Appendipity themes player bug in PowerPress 6.2 which caused some themes issues with the player. Angelo is working on releasing PowerPress 6.2.1 as I record on Friday. Should be out Friday evening so if you are having player troubles with your theme, it will be fixed SOON.. Update your PowerPress whenever it’s updated.
***update, I'm testing 6.2.1 now and it should be out tonight (11/20/15)
Support the show..
See everything on the left sidebar of the site (in a computer browser).
Had some trouble encoding this one for some reason. *** Update! It works now thanks to Daniel J. Lewis from Audacity to Podcast figuring out what was wrong with the file. I figured out WHY it was wrong and fixed it :)
Let me know if this one works for you :)
From the road.. Short version of Podcast Help Desk this week.
I go over my mobile setup and talk about safety while podcasting and driving.
For those who want to map this, I was on M-32 (Michigan Highway 32) between Atlanta and Hillman MI.
See you next week with news, views and reviews about podcasting! Warning Don't try this at home! Podcasting while driving can be dangerous. ***
NaPodPoMo 2015
Hello to listeners Peter DeMott from http://www.equinephotographerspodcast.com/ and Lester Graber from Texas. Thanks for listening guys!
Rob Walch from Libsyn said some very nice things about me on the latest episode of The Feed - Thanks Rob! (Around the 1:07:00 mark)
That Ain’t Radio! - A Dinosaur speaks out about podcasting
http://www.radioink.com/article.asp?id=2991720&spid=24698 (article by Fred Lundgren )
Blubrry Tip of the week
Adding a second podcast to your wordpress site.
USE CHANNELS! Be OK with mixed up stats did I say use CHANNELS!
You can have a podcast about anything! http://newmediashow.com/2015/10/18/nms-104-harry-duran-of-podcast-junkies/
First thing. I want to say THANKS to Steve and Dave Lee from Modern Life Podcast Network for the opportunity to have Podcast Help Desk there as a trial. We decided that PHD wasn’t really a good fit for the network as I’m promoting my own stuff and I wasn’t so much a part of the network as the other shows there. That being said, I enjoyed being affiliated with MLN. So much so, I’m re-starting a long-dead show which will be on MLN fully. Geek of the North will be on MLN starting next week. Steve and I did a little intro show to get the feed started over there. I still have the domain name so I pointed it at the network page where it will live. Check it out over at GeekOfTheNorth.com
News:
Google Play is now taking submissions of podcasts to go into the google play store and their podcast listening app that will be coming out in about 4 months. (YES, 4 Months). So no hurry, but check it out if you want to submit your RSS feed to them. http://g.co/podcastportal
Soundcloud: Something is happening over there and I don’t really know if it’s incompetence or just plan old dirty pool, but, for some reason, they are changing the links to people's media files in their feeds. I had a podcaster who was using powerpress for her podcast and using soundcloud as a media host. All of a sudden, with no warning, her media file links all changed. That broke her podcast. We figured it out. I’m not sure, but it seems as though Soundcloud is trying to push everyone using them for hosting back to using the feed that soundcloud owns, not your own feed. Yet another reason to use a PODCAST media host like Blubrry.com.
NMX - Rick Calvert has been heard from. He sent an email to everyone that had a VIP ticket telling them that he just checked out for a while, and is now back. We still don’t know if NMX is coming back next year. I hope so, as it’s a great place to hang out with a bunch of podcasters in one place.
BACKUP YOUR SITES!
I had a bit of a scare this week as I was moving everything back to podcasthelpdesk.com from modern life podcast network. I deleted the folder on my webhost by accident. I then realized that I had not been backing up my wordpress database!! Well, Good thing is, my database lives somewhere other than the folder that PHD’s website was in. After contacting my webhost, they told me about “history mode” in the file manager. So I went back a day and restored the folder, but it made me think of both security and backing up. So, here is a list of the things I do at PHD to keep it secure and backed up:
Plugins I use for security in wordpress:
Disable XML-RPC I’m not really sure of the geeky reason this is important but it does eliminate another way your wordpress can be hacked. It’s enabled by default in wordpress now. Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC
Limit Login Attempts This simply limits the login attempts so that a brute force attack can not work on your login.
Rename WP-Login.php This lets you change the login page to anything you want. NOTE: it says it’s not maintained but it works fine.
For backup I do 2 things.
I manually backup the folder where my wp install lives. I do this once a month or so. This saves the files and whatnot, but not the database. Not sure it’s needed, but from now on I’m doing it.
WP-DB-Backup by Austin Matzko - This is a Plugin. I have this run once a week and email me a backup of the database to a gmail account. That way I have a recent database backup. this is in case I have to reinstall wordpress. Then I can copy my wp-content and everything back in and be back up and running quickly.
Blubrry Tip of the week
Get your RSS feeds into the blubrry directory. Especially if you host with blubrry.
Launch strategy 101.
You will hear from some so-called Podcast Gurus that you need to launch with at ...
This is the final in my "Podcast Guru" interview series. Today I have Rob Walch. He is the creator of Podcast411 (one of the first podcasts about podcasting) and the host of the very popular Today in IOS show. He is also the VP of Podcaster Relations at Libsyn.com.
We had a very good conversation. (only half of it made the show)
If you want to get a hold of Rob, you can email him at rob@libsyn.com
You can also hear him on: Podcast411 Today in IOS The Feed
He is the producer (and proud dad of Porter) of "Porter's Podcast"
"Normal" show next week. Get your questions in for the Podcast Help Desk!
I was on the Powerpress Podcast this week. Listen to that here: http://powerpresspodcast.com
I’m going to be speaking at Converge South 2015 at Wake Forest University next Friday. There will likely NOT be an episode.
This episode is a bit Blubrry Heavy (as you can imagine)
I got a chance to have a conversation with Todd Cochrane who is my boss at Rawvoice / Blubrry. Todd is a hall of fame podcaster, CEO of Rawvoice Inc (parent company of blubrry.com) and executive producer of Geek News Central (which I write for and will have a new show on coming soon!).
You can follow Todd and GNC on Twitter @geeknews and find his main website at GeekNewsCentral.com
Use Promo code HELPDESK at checkout for a free month of anything blubrry.com sells.
International Podcast Day
I was on WKLT in Traverse City talking about International Podcast day. I Opened for Paul Stanley of KISS :)
IPD was trending worldwide at #1 on Twitter for a few hours on the 30th.
Steve Lee was in the New York Times!
I will be on the Powerpress podcast (the official Blubrry podcast) next week. If you want to check out our REbooted podcast over at blubrry, check out PowerpressPodcast.com
Rob Greenlee - Head of Content at Spreaker.com Host of Spreaker Live Show at http://spreakerliveshow.com/ http://www.robgreenlee.com/ Twitter.com/robgreenlee http://newmediashow.com/
Blubrry Tip of the week.
Even if you are not interested in using blubrry hosting or statistics, you should really get listed on blubrry.com’s directory. It’s easy, free and it gives you another place on the net to be found and seen.
What makes blubrry’s directory different is that they are the ONLY directory on the web that encourages you to subscribe via something other than their platform. With a blubrry listing, it encourages your listeners to subscribe to YOUR rss feed, not ours.
News:
Powerpress 6.0.5 is out - bug fixes.
Powerpress Podcast Relaunched - http://www.powerpresspodcast.com/2015/09/10/powerpress-podcast-relaunch/
Bowe Bergdahl on Serial Season 2 ? http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/upcoming-season-of-serial-covers-bowe-bergdahl.htm http://gizmodo.com/the-second-season-of-serial-will-be-about-sgt-bowe-ber-1732551462 l
Undisclosed Podcast - http://undisclosed-podcast.com/
The Powerpess Podcast is relaunched. Find it at PowerPressPodcast.com - Mackenzie Bennett is the new host and she will have on someone from The RawVoice/Blubrry team every other week. I was down at the Columbus office last week to help setup the studio.
Daniel J. Lewis from The Audacity to Podcast
Some of Daniel's sites are:
My Podcast Reviews (affiliate link) Podcasters' Society Noodle.mx Network
Double Ender Recording
The interview with Daniel J. Lewis was a Double Ender recording.
What that is, is that he recorded his end, and I recorded my end and we communicated via Skype. Then I edited it together so it sounds as though Daniel is in my studio with me. This is a great way to do it if your guest has the equipment to record on their end.
Please support the show. Use the Promo Code HELPDESK at blubrry.com for any of the services. Check the sidebar for more ways to support the show.
Today I talk with Dave Jackson, Mainly of the School of Podcasting and a bunch of other places.
Other places to find Dave:
DavidJackson.org Ask the Podcast Coach
It was fun having Dave on my show for a change. I've been on his shows a few times.
News
Stephen Dubner from Freekanomics Radio starts a new daily podcast called "Question of the day"
Pocket Casts for Android now Supports Subscribe on Android.com. Get your subscribe on android button now at subscribeonandroid.com
1 tip for podcasting.
DON’T RUSH!
Fully listen to your podcast BEFORE you hit publish.
As you my notice, last week's episode was marked “Repost”. this is because I hit publish before I had listened though the podcast. Steve Lee (my boss at the Modern Life Network) emailed me that there was a problem with my file at the 12 minute mark. I was listening at the time and got to 11:30 in the podcast. Sure enough, at 12 minutes, a segment from the last episode got mixed in with the new episode. Oops.. My bad.
Blab.im - Great fun and maybe useful! I will be doing "Blabs" on there about podcasting at various times. Watch @mgdell or @podcasthelpdesk for times and links
Blubrry Tip of the week
MASSIVE update to the look and feel of the blubrry.com website. Now to include the backend. All the stuff is there, but moved around in (what we hope is) a much better layout.
Also: Cathy, Our Social media goddess at blubrry posted this article that the whole team worked on.
Why TO use your wordpress feed for podcasting
Interview with Ray Ortega from The Podcasters’ Studio and Podcasters’ Roundtable
Support the show. Use promo code HELPDESK at checkout at Blubrry.com for any product.
International Podcast Day September 30th.
Please review Podcast Help Desk in iTunes and Stitcher to help me win the International Podcast Day Gratitude Award.
News:
Soundcloud Takedowns purging a TON of files. If you host your podcast there, BE CAREFUL not to include any copyrighted material. http://podcasternews.com/2015/08/24/soundcloud-takedowns-trigger-massive-purge/
Panoply acquired by AudioMetric.
http://podcasternews.com/2015/08/12/panoply-has-acquired-audiometric/
Followup from Ahmad about his hiss problem.
Hi Mike,
I can't thank you enough for answering my question here and on your great show. That's awesome.
I waited until I listened to the episode and the demo you made.
Regarding the hiss issue, please have a listen to the attached audio clips -NOT to be published :) All clips are recorded in Adobe Audition and from their saved as mp3.
I also want to mention these points about the hiss I'm getting:
-
It's not a buzz or hum. It's just a white noise just like that you get from a cheap mixer pres when you crank the gain all the way up. May be I'm being an audiophile. I just don't hear such a noise in your recordings or in any other advanced podcaster's. My podcast is about podcasting :) and I want to get as clean audio as I can.
-
It's probably less hiss than that in your demo. It's like the one in your demo but after your have applied the noise reduction process.
-
The Mackie interface I'm using is powered via USB only. So, the ground issue is not likely to be the cause although I get another buzz when my Macbook is charging in 120v only. I managed to deal with that either by unplugging the charger or using the 3 to 2-prong adapter you mentioned.
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It's not the Mackie fault because it is present even if I plug the AT2005 via USB directly into the MacBook.
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I use a Planet Waves XLR 3-foot cable. There is no power cables near my setup, no power supply bricks in the room. I also tried a different Audio-Technica cable just to make sure.
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As I said, it's like the noise from a preamp. But the Mackie Onyx Blackjack has a clean preamps. I think your mixer has the same Onyx ones. They are very clean up to 60dB which I never go above. After that you get a really annoying noise.
-
I suspect that it is the dynamic mics as they tend to be gain hungry and never have enough gain.
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I tried the noise reduction tool in Audition and though it removed the hiss completely from silences, I didn't like the over all result that it gave my voice. I think it negates the idea of having a professional setup. I sounded like talking with a cheap headset.
My question this time is that: If I add a gate like the Behringer you use or the DBX 286s, will this kill the noise?
Thank you so much.
Keep the good work.
Best,
Ahmad
A: Ahmad, I have to say all three of the samples you sent me seem great. I’m not hearing much in the silence so whatever it is you are hearing is not nearly as bad as you think it is. It might be you are getting a bit picky (which is normal for podcasters to do). You might just be hearing the room noise, even though it seems very low / non-existent to me. In that case, a noise gate such as the Autocom Pro XL I have, or the DBX box would silence the blank spaces in your audio file. It might be worth a try. The compressor, limiter, and expander functions are handy in some situations, but I don’t really use that part. Just the gate function. I then do my compression and such in post editing along with normalizing using Auphonic.
Do you need Media hosting?
Did I hear you say on a recent podcast you don't have to have a hosting account with a Libsyn or Blubrry to link a podcast to iTunes? If so, how do I go about submitting an rss/feed to iTunes and other podcast directories. Great show.
Dan
A: no, you don’t NEED Libsyn or Blubrry to generate an RSS feed. In fact, the best way (contrary to SOME beliefs) is using a wordpress.org website (Self hosted, not Wordpress.com) and using powerpress to generate your podcast-compliant RSS feed.
International Podcast Day is September 30th
International Podcast Day is coming September 30 and you can help celebrate the day-long event by purchasing the first ever #PodcastDay shirt. And because the celebration happens every year on September 30th, your shirt will be good for years to come. Go to: http://internationalpodcastday.com/shirt and start the conversation.
Question from Ahmad
I'm struggling to get rid of "hiss". Here is my setup: - Audio-Technica AT2005USB mic or Rode Procaster dynamic mic into the Mackie Onyx Blackjack audio interface connected to MacBook Pro via USB. I record in Adobe Audition. I start with the gain at "0" then go up tell I start hearing hiss then I go down a little. When I raise the gain, it introduces hiss, so I keep it down. But when I record and try to add just a little normalisation or compression, just a little, I start hearing a background hiss. If I keep it without post processing, the sound is too low.
The hiss is definitely NOT from the room, I'm in a very quiet room.
How can I fix this?
Thank you very much.
A: What you describe sounds like a ground loop hum or a noisy preamp for the mic. I’m not familiar with with the Mackie interface you are using but for the most part, Mackie makes a very good (and Quiet) preamp.
One thing you could try is isolating the ground to the power supply to the interface (if it has one). In the US, and I’m not sure where Ahmad is, we have 2 prong AC plugs and 3 Prong AC power plugs. In the hardware store, there are these little adaptors that you can plug a 3 prong plug into and it allows you to plug it into a 2 prong outlet. This will remove the ground from a 3 prong cord. Maybe you could send in an audio clip so I can hear what you are talking about.
In the mean time, you can use Noise Removal tool in Audition. You leave some quiet space in your recording and in the tool you highlight the noise and click on “Capture noise Point”. Then select the whole recording and apply the “Noise Reduction Process. You may have to experiment with the settings a few times to get it just right.
Paul Colligan came up with a perfect statement about Apple iTunes N&N.
"Starting A Podcast To Hit iTunes “New And Notable” Is Like Launching A Business To Get Into The Phone Book"
I’m going to give Paul a SMALL amount of crap for getting the name wrong. it’s new and NOTEWORTHY. (only a little crap because I do the same thing)
Hear the whole show at http://thepodcastreport.com/58/
I’m going to be Guest Hosting Ask the Podcast Coach Tomorrow morning. (Saturday the 15th) at 10:30am Eastern. Dave Jackson will be speaking at Podcamp Pittsburgh and may call in remote, but Jim Collison and I will be holding down the fort. It will be found at askthepodcastcoach.com/live/ or look for Ask The Podcast Coach on your podcast catcher of choice. Sorry for the short notice.
Blubrry tip of the week.
The hits keep on coming! Blubrry launched a redesign of its main website and the directory. This is all part of the prep to launch the Powerpress sites feature and the expanded directory. This is not really a tip other than to say that instead of “manage account” you click on “Podcaster Dashboard” from the home page once you are logged in to find the settings. The backend (the manage account area) hasn’t changed yet, but will when all the new stuff is live. Very soon I’m told.
Use my promo code HELPDESK at blubrry.com for a free month of Podcast Hosting, Stats and SOON, Wordpress hosting via Powerpress sites.
Patreon for the Modern Life Podcast Network https://www.patreon.com/ncs
Check out the new show on Modern Life Podcast Network. The linkedIN Lady http://modernlifepodcastnetwork.com/linkedinlady/
RANT. Certain podcast hosting companies has a war on wordpress going on.
For a free 10 day trial at Lynda.com go to http://modernlifepodcastnetwork.com/lynda
News: Podcast Movement and the Academy of Podcasters Awards are going this weekend in Ft. Worth Texas. Mackenzie and Todd from Blubrry are there to tell everyone about Blubrry’s new stuff. I will go through that a bit later in the show. If you are there, or went, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it this year. Hope to make it in the future. I will be at NMX/NAB in April of next year.
Why do I podcast? (And why you might want to)
Several reasons people do podcasts….
To tell the world what you want to say. To promote a business To entertain To play with audio gear (yes, there are some that love to play around with this stuff) To make Money $$ (well $) To become an expert in something Because they got fired from Radio
The reason I do podcasts.
It’s fun I like to help others learn new things and I learn just as much by teaching I meet lots of people because of my podcasts I like to play with the gear.
Reasons people give for NOT podcasting
It takes time It’s expensive They don’t like the sound of their own voice Mic Fright Too Geeky
Blubrry introduces Powerpress Sites - http://turnkeypodcasting.com
Blubrry also (by the time you listen to this) will have Subscribe by Email in powerpress
Blubrry directory expanding / being redesigned
Ask me a question! With the dog days of podcasting here this summer, the questions have slowed down. Get them in now while I have time to get them into the show.
231-421-4490 or use the “Leave a voicemail” link of the website. You can also email me your question, text or audio to podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com
Today I talk a lot about iTunes.
iTunes limiting listing to 20 episodes.
Also Happy Birthday MP3!
Geek of the North Returning
Sorry for the lame shownotes this week
PHD054
News:
iTunes glitch limits LISTINGS to 20 episodes
WNYC Podcast Accelerator
More speakers for Podcast Movement
Blubrry soft-launches a new site It’s another way to subscribe to podcasts via email. Similar to the feedburner email subscription in one way, but different in another way. This one is for your listeners. They can subscribe to as many podcasts as they want via email and they will get a daily digest email with all the episodes put out that day, sent to their inbox. If no episodes come out that day, then they don’t get an email. As a podcaster, you can hit the podcasters link on the site and make your own subscribe by email button for your site. If you use powerpress, it will be added to powerpress on the next release. There will be metrics and such added later for the podcaster. Hence the “soft-launch” Check it out at http://subscribebyemail.com/
Bad Advice
I’ve had a rash of people come to me after getting very bad advice from so-called podcast Gurus. Some of the gurus are charging a TON of money for their advice. Sometime the old saying that “you get what you pay for” isn’t really true.
Examples: One such “guru” says you should ignore the Parental Rating setting in Powerpress and in Libsyn (they call it something else) This is just a bad idea. Yes, you CAN ignore it, but you should not ignore it. In the US, Canada and Brazil, there is a law called the Vchip law. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-chip). Basically, this allows parents to block shows by their rating for anything that goes on a TV… This includes smart TV’s (apps on the TV that play podcasts for instance) and set top boxes like Roku, Apple TV, FireTV, boxie and others. If your podcast goes on one of these devices, and it’s not rated, it could be blocked, or if it’s rated G and you drop an F-bomb, you could get in trouble. It’s best to set that field for the right rating.
Another “Guru”, who we have talked about in the past, is still telling people to use Feedburner.
One of the worst pieces of advice I’ve heard in a long time is to NOT have a link to your RSS feed on your website. (REALLY???) and the best one yet is Don’t bother to have a website at all, and send all your listeners to [insert podcast hosting company site here].
Audio-Technica BPHS1 Headset Mic
I’m testing out a new microphone. The Audio-technica BPHS1 Headset mic. It’s a dynamic mic and good headphones which is normally used for sports broadcasting or broadcasting in a noisy environment.
In fact, I did the last episode using it.. Did you notice any difference from the PR40? Likely there is a bit of difference, but I think it’s acceptable for what I’m doing. And it lets me podcast standing up… I am going to also test it in the car (with one ear open for safety). I will put that in the podcast at some point.
Blubrry tip of the week
Using the PowerPress subscribe buttons with a feed not hosted on your website.
Enable podcast channels in powerpress > general settings tab go to channels under powerpress in the wordpress sidebar Edit the “default” channel click on the feeds tab and where it says “Feedburner feed” (with warning) put your off site feed address in there.
Save your settings and your subscribe buttons and links will now point to that off-site feed.
Mark Whitney - Genius
A client of mine is just now getting into podcasting and he is one interesting dude. His shows may not be everyone’s cup of tea and they are not family safe, work safe but if you are into his type of humor and commentary, I think you will enjoy his podcasts. http://markwhitney.com Whitneyland. He has the best way of telling people about subscribing to a podcast.
Mark's other podcast Bring Your Show
This podcast is likely to be Bi-weekly for the summer.
NEWS: Instacasts Dead
Brian Williams demoted to MSNBC
Gimlet Media is hiring
Finding, Listening and Subscribing to podcasts for listeners
First. Why subscribe?
When you subscribe to a podcast that you like, you will get every episode automatically delivered to you when it comes out. With all the smartphones and tablets out there these days and Wifi or Cellular connections everywhere, there isn’t really a reason not to subscribe.
Finding Podcasts to listen to
Google is your Friend - Even though they seem to hate RSS iTunes / IOS Podcasts App (Duh!?!) Stitcher Your App’s directory - Most Apps have a directory associated with them. Likely pulled from Apple’s API or in some cases their own (Like Stitcher)
Other independent directories / networks
Blubrry Directory Libsyn’s direcory https://directory.libsyn.com/categories Tech Podcast Network Modern Life Network Two Thumbs Up Media Podcast One NPR Many many others
Ways to subscribe (Apps/devices)
Back in the day there was an iPod… Now we have MANY devices. Every smartphone and some not-so-smart phones support podcast listening. (even blackberry).
IOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch)
Podcasts (by apple) The default app Pocketcasts (my new favorite) Downcast Others
Android Podcast Addict Podcast Republic Simple Podcatcher Pocketcasts Others
Windows Phone 8 / Tablet / Desktop (I assume Windows 10 will be the same)
Podcasts (Default Windows Podcasts app) Podcast Lounge Podcasts! (note the exclamation point) Pocketcasts Now available
Blackberry (They are still around??)
Podcasts (I’m sensing a theme here) https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/2857/?countrycode=US⟨=en
Web
Most podcasters (at least the ones that listen to me) have a player right on the website.
Pocketcasts has a web Podcast player that will let you subscribe and it syncs with all your devices so if you listen on your iphone and pause the show. Then pick it back up on your computer in the web browser right where you left off.
Blubrry Tip of the week
Listeners, this one is for you!
Blubrry has a great directory to find and subscribe to podcasts.
Using “MyCast”. You can also “watch” podcasts (both audio and video) on the Blubrry Roku App, Boxee app, Google TV (or whatever they call it these days) and some Samsung Smart TV’s.
Rant / Bonus content
When you are just starting out in podcasting, it’s easy to get over enthusiastic about podcasting and do what my friend Dave has called “Casterbating”.
There is also a good chance that you will want to start 5 podcasts. Resist that urge! Do one podcast. Don’t go too many times a week. 1 time a week is harder than you think. Put all your eggs in that one basket for the time being and get good at it. Work all the bugs out before going on to a second, third or 15th show.
You can get caught up in the excitement of a new thing (podcasting) and either over-think things (casterbating) or scatter-brain everything by trying to do too much too quickly. All the successful podcasts and podcasters I know started with one show (or learned this lesson) and stuck with that one until they got all the bugs worked out. Those people tend to stick with it for a while. The ones that scatter-brain it, tend to burn out and go away, or Pod Fade some or all of their shows.
News
Academy Of Podcasters Hall of Fame
Academy Of Podcasters Awards Nominees
David Auge asks a question
Question: I have a Berhinger Q802USB to a Heil PR40. A friend of mine wants to sell me his PreSonus FireStudio audio interface...should I get it? Would it make any sort of changes? Do you discuss this in a previous episode?
Answer: The PreSonus looks nice, but it would be kind of a lateral move for you. The Berhinger mixer is also a very good piece of gear. I would say unless there is some feature you just have to have with the PreSonus, there is no reason to change. If you are getting good audio you are best to leave well enough alone.
10 Reasons to use a platform you OWN
Deb Ng (Ange) over at the Blogworld Blog (the people behind NMX) has a great article about owning your own brand in podcasting.
http://www.blogworld.com/2015/06/03/10-reasons-why-its-essential-to-host-content-on-your-own-platform/
Blubrry Tip of the week - Show Listings
Among all the things that blubrry does, it is also a podcast directory. With the changes coming to the blubrry directory (see: http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Blubrry+to+Expand+Directory+with+Easy+Access+to+Hundreds+of+Thousands+Shows/10450085.html) it’s important to update and maintain your listing at blubrry.
To do this, login to blubrry.com. Go to manage account > settings and look for program listing settings. Make sure you have all the blanks filled out.
Go to service settings and make sure you have “Publish from your own WordPress blog with PowerPress plugin (Recommended)” if you are using powerpress.
To check to see what your listing looks like, go to the link in the program listing settings on blubrry.com. If something doesn’t look right, make sure your info is setup correctly in the Feeds, iTunes and Artwork tabs of powerpress. Then go to blubrry.com > manage account > settings and click on “Refresh Program Listing”
Your blubrry listing address will be http://blubrry.com/YourProgramKeyword in my case it’s blubrry.com/phd
Podcast Nomenclature
I have had lots of trouble lately with people using words when asking for help about podcasting that are not really what they mean. I want to go over some of those.
FEED = RSS feed. this is the RSS link someone would use to subscribe to your podcast.
iTunes Feed = NO SUCH THING! Stop it!
iTunes subscription URL = The URL that apple sent you when your podcast was first were approved in the iTunes store. It will look like this: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/title-of-podcast/id000000000
Podcast = The overall show. Or series of Episodes. Example: Podcast Help Desk is my Podcast
Episode or Podcast Episode = One entry in your series of podcasts. Example: Episode 52 (this episode of the Podcast Help Desk)
iTunes Podcast = Again, no such thing. it’s a podcast AVAILABLE via iTunes, but not an iTunes podcast. Stop it!
Welcome to Podcast Help Desk now part of the Modern Life Network Check out more great shows over at modernlifepodcastnetwork.com
Also, part of the Tech Podcasts Network - If it’s tech, it’s here. Check out more family freindly shows at techpodcasts.com
Even though this show is now part of a network, you can always find the full shownotes at podcasthelpdesk.com
Now, on with the show…
NEWS
“The Trolls have won - TWIT Network stops live streaming and Chatroom. The shows will be streamed after they are edited instead of live. TWIT will still do live specials. The behind the scenes at the TWIT Brickhouse Studio will no longer be streamed or shown at all. http://podcasternews.com/2015/05/27/twit-to-shutter-chatroom-format-change/
Apple shuts down podcasts@apple.com for iTunes podcast support. They are now directing you to http://support.itunespodcasts.com/ for support.
“Dear Podcast Provider,
The email podcasts@apple.com is now closed.
Please direct all inquiries to http://support.itunespodcasts.com for questions and concerns about your podcasts on the iTunes Store.
Regards,
The iTunes Podcast Team”
The link goes to a Zendesk page. Zendesk is a support ticketing system. Hopefully they will be more responsive.
USB Mic Question from Andrew from Creative Writer’s Toolbelt at http://ajc-cwt-001.podomatic.com/
Q: Here' a problem I've been having for months, and I suspect others do too. I have a PC, and I use this with a Rode Podcaster mic and Audacity to record my podcasts. I connect the mic via USB on my new Dell - so I think it's a USB3 connection.
Most of the time my mic works really well, and the PC always shows that it's connected. Then suddenly the mic seems to stop picking up sound, or it will pick it up faintly. Everything is still showing as connected, and if I wait a while / disconnect and reconnect everything it all starts working again - for no apparent reason. When my Rode mic stops working, other mics like the one on my $10 gaming headset and mic are still working fine.
I had the same problem with a Samson mic I bought, and thought the Rode would solve it but I'm guessing it's a connectivity or sound card issue.
A: I'm not a windows expert by any stretch. What I would do is see if there is a specific driver for your device. Or make sure your USB drivers are up to date.
This might sound funny, but I've also heard that if you change which port you have it plugged into, it may help.
Sorry I'm not much more help than that. Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer of your device (Rode).
Android
From Todd Cochrane, CEO of RawVoice Inc, Parent company of Blubrry.com
“If you do not think the Android platform is important, and those corresponding listeners are not important. Here are three takeaways from the Google I/O conference this morning.
"Eight out of 10 phones that were shipped" last year "were based on Android”
There are over 4,000 distinct devices you see in Android.
Over a billion users each for Android, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, search, Chrome.
Now how are you adding Android listeners? Are you supporting One Click Subscribe on Android? Are you making it easy for Android users to subscribe to your show? If you are scope locked on iTunes I suggest you think about the 8-10 devices sold last year running Android.”
2014 1.2 Billion phones sold Likely 2.5 Billion phones out there in use. Not counting Tablets or Old phones not activated but in use via Wifi.
That means there are nearly 2 billion Android phones! Compare that to IOS phones (iphones) 500 million or so (Numbers not exact)
Mobile Podcast Downloads in May from a pool of 63,152,570 81.4% IOS 14.3 Android 4.3% “other”
- iPhone 33.5%
- Podcast for iOS 31.5%
- Android Mobile 8.7%
- iPad 7.0%
- Stitcher for iOS 4.3%
- Downcast for iOS 3.1%
- Beyondpod for Android 2.5% 8.
NEWS
Midroll - 7 Reasons why podcast ads are effective
Spotify adding podcasts
Episode Artwork??
Podcatchers (iTunes, Podcasts App, Downcast and so on) all use different parts of the feed or the ID3 tags for different things.
What the apps do with it once they get the rss feed is totally up to them.
Think of your RSS feed as your transmitter for your radio station. You can have your transmitter to broadcast stereo in hi fi. BUT, if your listener decides to listen to your broadcast on a pocket radio with a 2 inch speaker, they are not going to hear it in hi fi. You have no control over that. You just have to make sure your feed (Transmitter) is tuned up the way you want it to be, with all the artwork, tags and such and what the podcatchers (Radios) do with it is really out of your control.
Feedburner AGAIN?
I’ve had a rush of clients with feedburner issues.
Cliff Ravenscraft - The Podcast Answer Man Still recommends feedburner John Lee Dumas - Recommends using a libsyn feed (better than feedburner!) Pat Flynn NO LONGER RECOMMENDS FEEDBURNER!!
Pros and Cons of Joining a Podcast Network
Pros:
A group of podcasters coming together for a common cause Cross Promotion opportunity A group of content creators to bounce ideas off of Distribution opportunities Another point of presence Possible Add deals Accountability Website and Hosting provided by the network
Cons: Creative control (Rules) Personality conflicts Ad deals
Podcast Help Desk is joining the Modern Life Podcast Network - modernlifepodcastnetwork.com
My friends Steve and Dave Lee, formerly of Netcast Studio, have re-branded their network and invited me to join them at the all new Modern Life Podcast Network.
See the Show listing at MLN here: http://podcasthelpdesk.com/mln
Recorded Live to the Hard Drive PHD049
News: Rob Greenlee is now the Head of Content at Spreaker.
Podcasting as a Business
Abner from Boston asks about making a business for your podcast (legally)
I’m setup here as a DBA (Assumed name) and a sole proprietor. (Boonadello Marketing). TWIT uses an LLC. I know of lots that use a C corp or an S corp. I’m not a lawyer or a tax adviser, and I don’t play one on the interwebs :)
MasterMind Groups (WARNING, Opinion coming)
Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of talk about Mastermind groups. I have strong thoughts about this.
NEVER pay for a mastermind group
A group bigger than about 10 is unworkable
An informal group of friends or colleagues is the best bet.
NEVER PAY TO BE IN A MASTERMIND GROUP
If you are in a group (formal or informal) make sure you contribute to it. Don’t just take but give freely.
Soundcloud - Should you use it?
Soundcloud: The new shiny object
Thats just one of the reasons I don’t recommend soundcloud as your primary host. There are others (listen to hear those)
Blubrry tip of the week
Because blubrry has so many ways to use it’s services, it can be a bit more complicated (but not really hard) to set things up. You have to do things in order to get everything to work the way you want.
Example:
To host your media with blubrry and run your RSS feed from your own website, you need to do it in this order…
Setup your wordpress site and install powerpress Configure powerpress settings (switch to advanced mode recommended) Go to http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/ and order your hosting. (use promo code HELPDESK for a free month) When setting up your show at blubrry.com be sure to use your Podcast Only feed (found in the feeds tab of powerpress settings) DO NOT USE CATEGORY FEEDS. In powerpress settings in the services and stats tab, configure blubrry hosting (big blue button). Upload and post your first episode.
Once that is done, look at your feed in FIREFOX (no, other browsers won’t work for this step) and make sure the artwork shows up. Make sure the post title is correct and that there is a media file attached.
Then you are free to submit the feed address to the directories (iTunes, Stitcher and others)
Subscribe on Android now implemented in powerpress
So far, these are the apps on android that will work with Subscribe on Android or will soon.
Podcast Addict Ver 3.0 - Released Beyond Pod - Implementing Podcast Republic - Released Simple Podcatcher - Released Podkicker Pro - Implementing Podcatcher Deluxe - Released PlayerFM – Implementing Spreaker - Implementing Pocketcasts - Implementing
First, beating a herd of dead horses
Today, I want to beat some dead horses. In case you are a new listener (and I’ve had a good blast of new listeners lately, welcome) I want to go over some of the things that should be common knowledge by now.
But first…. A disclaimer:
Even though I am part of the Blubrry and RawVoice support team, the advice given here is MY educated opinion based on 10 years of podcasting and is given freely and without regard to my relationship to any podcasting host or service and would be the same if I didn't have that relationship.
Now some news
News: Soundcloud Podcasting is out of beta (open to everyone) http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/28/soundcloud-opens-its-podcasting-features-to-everyone/
Sarah Koenig makes Time’s Top 100 influential people. http://time.com/3823276/sarah-koenig-2015-time-100/
Podbean now allows 301 redirects of feeds! (from Daniel J. Lewis from the Audacity to Podcast)
"Just wanted to let you know we've already updated the 301 redirect feature, so it is now available for Podbean users wishing to easily redirect their feeds when moving to a new service."
Feedburner
Feedburner is the best of 2006 technology. While it does still work, it causes more problems than it solves. I think the word is getting out there that you don’t need feedburner to podcast, some “gurus” still say to use it.
It used to be the #1 support question but now it’s down to maybe #10. Not that Google has fixed anything, just podcasters are getting smarter about it. (I will take some credit for that). Along with my Colleagues Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting, Daniel J. Lewis of Audacity to Podcast and Todd Cochrane of The New Media Show, Geek News Central and the CEO Of Rawvoice Inc. (parent company of Blubrry)
FREE hosting
We had another “Free” podcast hosting outfit pop up last week. Podcasts.com (Great domain). Just remember, if the service is worth money and you pay nothing, you are the product.
Podcasts.com is owned by http://www.emergemedia.com/ which also has the great domains Translate.com, brands.com and a bunch of other high profile domains. My guess is there are only into it for the money and will figure out that free is a lousy business model. Other companies have tried this and failed. Mevio.com (Podshow), Podango.com and a few more.
iTunes
RELAX - iTunes listings are what they are, you should worry about keeping your RSS feed healthy. The rest will follow.
Category Podcasting
I had an episode of QuickHits about this and I’ve talked about it here, but Unless you have a need for it, don’t use it. Use channels or post types instead.
Top 6 things to keep your wordpress podcast healthy
1, Make sure you are on a good webhost. Godaddy LINUX, BlueHost (use my link), dreamhost and many others. Just make sure you can install wordpress from the control panel.
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Keep everything updated as soon as an update is available. There was a Wordpress problem lately, so if you haven’t updated, do it.
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Don’t get too fancy. Make sure your podcast works before you worry about how the website looks. If you HAVE to have a complicated website, maybe you should install a second wordpress install to power your podcast. This also includes keeping the number of plugins low. The more plugins the more stress you are going to put on your webserver.
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Test everything when you add a plugin, update a plugin or update wordpress. Here is my checklist for double checking things are working: Do the episodes still play Look at your RSS feed in FIREFOX (other browsers won’t work as well) and see that the title and artwork are correct. Also make sure each post has a media file. Every so often, go to your blubrry listing, itunes listing, stitcher listing and any other directories you are in and make sure everything looks good and is up to date.
A quick hit talking about the #1 tech support issue I have. Category podcasting.
One line can sum it up.... Don't use it unless you have a REAL good reason for it. Use channels or the default feed from powerpress. It's much more bullet proof and channels have all the features included whereas, category podcasting feeds do not include everything powerpress can do for you.
That is all!
Podcast Patent Troll Beat by EFF
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-busts-podcasting-patent-invalidating-key-claims-patent-office
NAB / NMX Wrap Up
Congrats to the Podcast Award winners! Brian Ibit, Brian Brushwood and Tom Merritt.
The end of FM Radio?? http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/norway-first-country-end-fm-790131
Nobody accidentally listens to a podcast.
Audacity Website move.
Something is happening with Sourceforge.net I guess. Not sure what the story is, but if you are looking for Audacity - The Free audio editor, go to http://web.audacityteam.org/ instead of the old site at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Is your podcast website mobile friendly ? https://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
Blubrry Tip - New stuff from Blubrry
Android One click subscribe
Evergreen podcasting
Expanded directory BB
Q: I updated my wordpress and my media players have disappeared. HELP!
A: Wordpress sometimes tweaks how it does things and surprises Plugin developers. Powerpress has you covered! Login to your wordpress dashboard and go to powerpress settings > media appearance and where it asks “Having issues?” Select one of the 3 “Yes” answers. Save your settings.
I’m going to have Angelo Mandato (The Blubrry CIO) on the podcast soon to explain the geeky reason for this, and more. That should be in the next few weeks.
Tired and glad to be back home after a week in Vegas!
Please use my Promo code HELPDESK at blubrry.com for 1 month free service for media hosting or premium podcast statistics.
I'm going to call this my 10 year Anniversary show. I'm not EXACTLY sure, but I think I recorded my first podcast episode around the 15th of April, 2005. If anyone ever finds Benzoid Report #1, please send me a copy or a link! I talk about how podcasting has changed for me and for podcasting in general over the last 10 years +
Maybe no show next week as I will be in Vegas for NMX. If I get a chance, I will put updates at mikedell.com/blog/ (both audio, text and photos)
Please use my Promo code HELPDESK at blubrry.com for 1 month free service for media hosting or premium podcast statistics.
I’m doing an experiment this week. I’m doing minimal post-editing and podcasting without fancy intro, outro and bumper music. As we called it “back in the day”, live to the hard drive. This is not a format change. It’s just to show you that you don’t need to do all that fancy stuff to put out a good podcast. In fact, I’m recording from my mobile studio (my van) using the mobile setup.
Just a bit about my “Real Radio” guest hosting the other day….
Apple changes the artwork spec (again)
New Software out for podcasters
New Version of Audacity 2.1.0
New version of Powerpress 6.0.2
Complicated does not mean good
Sometimes complicated makes things better. Sometimes not.
Complicated web sites do not get your more viewers to your website and can cause operational problems with your podcast
More complicated production of your show won’t get your more listeners (most of the time)
Better mic might help if your audio is crappy. but once you get a good sound, go on to the next thing
Find a workflow that you are comfortable with and then concentrate on the content rather than the tech.
The default feed from wordpress and powerpress is best. Channels are second best. Post types (even though they are complicated to setup) are 3rd best followed in LAST place by category feeds.
Don’t start a Network when you are new at podcasting. Start with one show and make it Good. Then maybe start other podcasts.
Don’t start by trying to do interviews by skype.
Don’t try to make everything perfect right away. Your first show is going to suck compared to your 10th, which will suck compared to your 45th (I hope) :)
Blubrry Tip of the Week
This one is for the listeners. Blubrry is 3 different things. 1. Podcast Services company - Powerpress, Hosting, Stats 2. Podcast Directory - http://www.blubrry.com/explore/ 30k+ podcasts 3. Podcast Advertising Company
I’m going to talk about the #2 thing as you already know about #1.
MyCast Group your shows into 1 feed Watch or listen to your podcasts on Set Top boxes (Roku, Boxee, Samsung TV and more) Subscribe to all your podcasts easy with one RSS feed
For podcasters - Get your podcast listed on the blubrry directory FREE! :)
RSS Feed size. Does size matter?
This is for those of you that have been podcasting a while.
itunes feed size limit is 512k You don’t want your feed to take a long time to load.
Ways to limit the size of your feed. Limit your feed to the last 50 episodes (299 is the limit in iTunes) Use Feed Maximizer tool in powerpress
New Media Expo / NAB Show April 13th - 16th at Las Vegas Convention Center and Westgate Hotel and Casino
I will be at the Rawvoice / Blubrry booth (N7709) in north hall at NAB / NMX at LVCC. Stop by and say Hi if you are going to NABShow
Catch me next time.
New PROMO code for Blubrry. HELPDESK/strong> the Old code, nobs will also work, but I figured it would be best to better brand my promo code :) (you can also use mike if you want)
Also, you can support the show by going to PodcastHelpDesk.com and on the right sidebar (on a desktop/laptop browser) there are some banners there. Amazon is one. If you shop at Amazon, and everyone does, click on my banner first and then go do your shopping. It doesn’t cost you anything more and gives me a little kickback. Also, if you are going to start a podcast, you need web hosting. Click my Bluehost banner and get hosting there (very good hosting for Wordpress sites). Let me know you did that and I will give you a free hour of consulting to help you setup your podcast website and RSS feed.
Speaking of Consulting, if you have a problem with your podcast and need some one-on-one help,
News:
Update your Yoast plugin (if you use it).
iTunes down: Having Issues March 11th
Goes to prove that even the mighty Apple is run by humans and computers which are subject to “issues”.
From Todd Cochrane, of Geek News Central and the CEO of RawVoice Inc.
“Hey bit of a heads up! I hope this is an isolated incident. Every podcaster should go over to YouTube and search for their show. It seems in at least one instance, someone went to the trouble and made a channel for a podcast, and then uploaded all the episodes. They used album art from the podcast and monetized the channel. The podcast host did not authorize this, nor does he have access to the YouTube account. This looks as if a bot did it. Please spot check and make sure there is not some rogue element out their doing this. Todd..”
Question from John Morgan: (Answered from the car)
http://LetsTalkMetalDetectingAndTreasureHunting.com Question: How did you post process the audio of you podcasting while driving and make it sound good?
Answer: I’m just that good :) (Listen for the REAL answer)
A voice comment from MR. Jim Farley from Musicalworld.us
I will be Guest Co-hosting and reading the news on Omlette and Friends on March 24th from 6-10am EDT on 97.5 FM / 98.9FM in Northern Michigan or on the web at WKLT.com (or Tunein Radio, search for WKLT)
Want to get in the Microsoft Podcasting App? (and whatever else they are doing?)
From Microsoft:
Thank you for your interest in podcasts. We are no longer supporting an active database of podcast feeds for Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8.0 or Zune. Please see the instructions below for enabling podcast discovery in Bing.
Windows Phone 8.1 Windows Phone 8.1 uses a Bing-enabled search mechanism to locate podcasts. To improve the search results of your podcast, add "feed:podcast" to your keywords tag within the RSS podcasts feed. Podcasts can also be located by entering the RSS feed directly into the podcast app search window.
Improve Bing-Enabled Podcast Search Results By using Webmaster Tools, you can tell Bing about your site. In return, Bing Webmaster Tools tells you how well your site is performing in Bing and Bing-powered search and keeps you up to date about issues we see on your site.
To inform us about sitemaps or RSS feeds, including those containing podcasts, follow these steps:
- If you haven’t done so already, sign up with Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Add the site that hosts the Podcast RSS/feed and verify ownership of the site.
- Use the Submit Sitemap tool and submit the full URL of the RSS feed containing the links to your podcasts.
Within a few hours, you’ll see whether Bing successfully downloaded your sitemap or feed so that it can be indexed.
Another reason to A. Put an RSS link on your website
AND B. Not use feedburner feeds, libsyn feeds or any other feed that doesn’t have your domain name in it or is on a site you don’t own. Your podcast will likely not be in Bing/Microsoft’s platforms. To be fair, I think Libsyn does have an agreement with Microsoft to include it’s shows in the microsoft podcast app (whatever it’s called)
I get this question a lot.
Q: Why does my iTunes listing look this way? This goes for Stitcher, Windows Podcast App (Still not sure what it’s called), Downcast or any other directory. The truth is, there isn’t a way to control how someone uses your RSS feed in their app.
Think of your RSS feed like a baker looks at a bag of Flour
iTunes makes cookies, Stitcher makes bread (and we don’t even get to pick the kind of bread!) and the rest make whatever they want with your Flour. It’s your job to make sure all the sprinkles, seasonings and other things are in the flour, but what everyone bakes out of it, is up to them. That’s why I say use Powerpress with Wordpress.
Today is a SPECIAL episode of Podcast Help Desk.
We have a joint interview with Omelette from the morning radio show "Omelette and Friends" on WKLT FM in Traverse City, Michigan.
The fun part was we recorded this in HIS studio at the radio station and it was sort of me interviewing him and he was interviewing me. It takes up most of the hour and there are some real gems that apply to Broadcasting and Podcasting.
Tune in next week for a more NORMAL Podcast Help Desk.
Be sure to visit Steve's website (and soon podcast) at omeletteradio.com
PHD042 - The Meaning of Life, The Universe and everything
DON’T PANIC and don’t forget your towel!
Being the big geek I am, I have to do this every time I get to episode 42 on a podcast I do. It’s, of course, a tribute to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Nowadays, we say Don’t forget your smartphone instead of your towel and the Hitchhikers Guide.
Now on with the REAL content for this episode!
Correction:
As you heard, last week I had an audio problem. I could have fixed it by re-recording those segments. I felt the content was good enough to put up with the little popping sounds.
Also, on my checklist, I have removed the part about audacity. Truncate Silence. It’s too easy to screw something up for me to recommend using that.
Recording only with an iPhone?
Yes, you can record only with an iPhone. There are several good ways to do it.
Boss Jock Studio - Play clips, record and edit. Saves in mp3, ready to upload.
Mobile Podcaster. AAC only
Voice Memo - Stock iPhone program by Apple. Very good for quick notes and recording segments. BUT, saves files in AAC format instead of Mp3 so you should edit them and re-encode to mp3.
You can add a professional mic to the iphone using the “camera connection kit” usb adapter. or you can use the mic/headphone jack with a splitter. Rockit Headphone/Microphone Splitter
While I’m playing with it, How about a mic shootout using the studio mixer?
Q: I uploaded my show yesterday, it’s still not in my Podcast Listing at iTunes… HELP!!
A: RELAX! 2 things to do to help you not worry about this “problem”
Look at your RSS feed in FIREFOX (other browsers do not work the same) and verify your latest post is in there with it’s media file. Subscribe to your podcast in iTunes (on your computer) or the IOS “podcasts” app. Verify that your new episode shows up. If 1 and 2 are OK. RELAX and give iTunes up to 3 days to list your show. If it takes more than 3 days, email Apple (podcasts@itunes.com) and give them your listing address and your RSS feed. You may get a run-around or a form response. Reply to that with the same info. Sooner or later they will have a human answer you.
Podcast on Radio? Then the recording of the podcast on radio, on a podcast?
At the risk of generating at vortex here, I’m going to play one local radio show’s take on my segment about how lame music radio can be from Episode 36.
As heard on the Omelette & Friends radio show on WKLT in Traverse City (1 day after they interviewed Bob Seger!!
Next we are going to have the Guy behind the mic at Omelette & Friends, Omelette Himself on this very podcast!
Blubrry Tip of the week
Teach your listeners how to subscribe and make it easy for them.
In powerpress 6 there are 2 new ways to get your listeners to subscribe.
One is the Subscribe page. If you go to podcasthelpdesk.com/subscribe you will see that I have a neat page there that makes it easy to just press a button on a smartphone and subscribe. It’s easy to set this up with powerpress. Make sure you have everything including the iTunes subscription URL block filled out in the Feeds and iTunes tabs in powerpress.
Create a blank page called Subscribe (or whatever you want to call it) publish the page and go into edit it again and write down the page ID. Go into powerpress settings > media appearance and where it says “Subscribe Page” Paste the page ID in the block and save settings. Go back to your page and you can edit the words in there as you would like.
The other thing that was added is the subscribe sidebar widget. All you have to do is go into your widgets area and find the subscribe block and drag it to the sidebar. You are done!
Podcast Starter 2
Recording your First Episode ORGANIZE
Do it right the first time - Changing things later isn’t hard, but it’s not instant.
Replacing a file after publishing it is easy, but not instant or fool proof Get EVERYTHING correct in your site and feed before you submit to iTunes, stitcher and other directories. Changing things later isn’t hard, but it’s not instant. Take the time to make sure things are correct before publishing. Create a checklist. Download mine here (***Mine is complicated, yours doesn’t need to be.) POSTS! Not pages! Do not Post WAV files!
Podcast Help Desk - My Sample Workflow Checklist (with explanations)
1.Create an outline for the episode (beginning shownotes) - - I use Google Docs (Drive) for this. I make a document with the episode number and through the week make notes of subjects I want to talk about. Some people use evernote for this.
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Once you have the outline “done” figure out the title for the episode
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Create featured image artwork for the episode (you can skip this depending on your wordpress theme)
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Record - I start with the intro and just record this segment. then I go through each item I want to talk about in my outline and record that segment. Saving all the files (as .wav) in a folder I create for this. If you just do “live to the harddrive” then record your whole episode.
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Edit - You can do a lot of editing or just a little Run segments though Audacity “Truncate silence filter” (removes log pauses while I think when recording)
Assemble the segments (if you do it this way) in Adobe Audition (Audacity will work) at this point I also apply some compression in Audition or audacity. Add bumpers, intro and outro
Render to .wav
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Post Process Run .wav file through auphonic. (I use the desktop version but the online version will work if you don’t mind waiting for the upload/download) Spot listen to the file to make sure it came out the way you wanted it. (!! important !!)
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Render to MP3 ( I do this in audition) You can do this in iTunes desktop program as well. I use 128kbps Stereo but you could do it compressed more if you want to save file size. Don’t go above 128kpbs
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Tag mp3 file I do this using Powerpress and Blubrry Hosting online so at this point I just skip 6
You can do this in iTunes Desktop by importing your mp3 into iTunes (I use a playlist called EDIT) so I can find the file. Right click and select info. In there you can fill out the tabs and add artwork.
- Upload and Post Shownotes Make sure you make any links you referenced in your show “live” in your shownotes
upload featured image
publish (set date ahead if you are scheduling your post)
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After it’s published, download and listen to episode Make sure you are subscribed to your own podcast in at least 1 podcast app. (I use Apple’s Podcasts app on iphone) I also test the player on my page at this point. I listen on my computer speakers, my headphones in the studio, on earbuds from my iphone and in the car using bluetooth on the stereo (over the next day or so) just to make sure it sounds good in all those places. .
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Verify it made it to all your distribution channels (24 hours after publish) check iTunes listing check stitcher check blubrry.com listing check Tech Podcast Network listing Check Roku TPN channel
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start next week’s “Shownotes”
For a 30-60 minute episode, from the time I record the first segment to publishing (or scheduling the post) takes about 2 hours but I’ve been doing it a while. You should figure about 4x recording time for the whole process.
Now for something GEEKY! - Post Type Podcasting
This is not for the Normal podcaster but the GEEK who wants to Tweak things.
I’m still learning, but here is what I know so far….
What is a post type? It’s not a post template. it’s not a display type in wordpress, it’s a second blog, so to speak.
News
Academy of Podcasters Awards announced for Podcast Movement on July 31st.
Including a Hall of Fame. Should be interesting watching.
Google Kills Another Service
Google Helpouts are dead.
I, along with a LOT of other “podcast gurus”, have predicted that feedburner is next. I’m not saying that if you use feedburner you should get off now….. Ok I am, but if you don’t plan on moving, at least have a plan in place for WHEN (not if) Google kills it. Just sayin!
Facebook Pages
Facebook has added a new subcategory for pages called “podcast”. To find it, create your page and don’t worry about what category you put it in because it won’t matter right now.
Once you get it setup, go into your page and where it says “category” select edit. Then select “other” as the main category and podcast as the subcategory. That’s it.
Podcasting On the Cheap
There is a podcaster I know (who shall remain nameless) who podcasts for “free”. Yes, of course he had to buy a microphone and a computer. I’m guessing he also pays for a connection to the internet (Although you could get that free if you want to travel to it). It is doable.
His setup is kind of cool, but he is worried about part of his system. That part…. FEEDBURNER (we don’t talk about that enough :) ) He uses blogger for his webpage and runs 3 podcasts off of it. The problem is that Blogger (also owned by the RSS Hating Google) doesn’t have a podcast compliant feed. He stores his files on Archive.org and puts them in the feed at blogger and uses feedburner to add the tags needed to podcast correctly. Feedburner still does that correctly (for now). So, he is (mostly) podcasting for free. It is possible.
Another new friend of mine, Stan, Podcasts cheaply using Buzzsprout. He’s on the $12 per month plan. But thats all he has to pay. He can upload 3 hours of podcasts per month for that (they charge by the hour, not filesize) He uses the buzzsprout page as his website and to generate his feed. Yes, there are problems with that setup, as with the friend on blogger, but it works. His podcast is #1 in his niche! All this from buzzsprout which is a service that most will poo poo (including me). BUT, It can be done. (Check out stan’s podcast about the App CyberDust here: http://cyberdust.buzzsprout.com/ ) There are “other” reasons why you don’t want to use buzzsprout but I won’t get into that here.
I guess what I’m getting at is, a lot of us “Gurus” get wrapped up in how to set things up using the “best” way we know for growth and future proofing your brand and your system. The point is, that isn’t necessary in all cases. What I teach here is for the Advanced Amateur podcaster or for the beginning professional podcaster. If you use my methods, your podcast can grow to unbelievable size and you won’t have to change any of the technology. That being said, what I teach here is certainly NOT the only way. I’m learning that it might be good to help people at all levels of expertise and budget levels. (I still think feedburner is a bad idea) When you really get down to it, Content Rules!
Blubrry Tip of the Week - Getting support
When requesting help with something. PLEASE include the login email for your account at Blubrry.com. We do not need your password.
Include your Feed address, your website address and your iTunes listing address if that is what you are asking about. It would save several emails back and forth on the email system or it would save time in the forum to answer your question.
Blubrry, unlike other platforms, leaves a lot of the setup to you, so YOU own it. We don’t control your feed so we can’t fix it. BUT if you give us the feed address, we can help YOU troubleshoot it.
IF you are a paying customer of Blubrry, we will provide email support. Otherwise, if you are using the free products,
Change of schedule
It seems life and other work requirements are getting in the way of my normal Sunday and Monday recording times so I’m going to switch it up to Record / Release the podcast on Tuesdays for now. Not that it matters too much, but I want to keep you in the loop.
Follow up from my favorite snow covered mailman, Abner from Boston.
Android podcast listening
Question for you, my listeners… Do you use Android to listen to podcasts? What software do you use (podcatcher)?
I gave my last remaining android device to my Nephew at Christmas time. I don’t really see a NEED for me to have one.
Dynamic v.s. Condenser Microphone?
On facebook there was someone asking about microphones (isn’t there always?). There was one guy that was insisting that dynamic mics pick up more noise and that his condenser mic didn’t. I was saying he has that backwards. He couldn't be convinced. So I’m going to demo the difference here.
The first was a condenser mic (actually 2 of them on my R-05 recorder)
Podcast Channels vs podcast category podcasting in Powerpress
Voicemail from Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting.
Podcast Channels - Good for a second podcast feed on the same wordpress site. Also good if you do Video and Audio. You can have an audio channel and a video channel feed. Much more robust than Category Podcasting. Less room for error. Also the BEST way to add a second podcast to your site after you have established a podcast on the default channel.
Category Podcasting - not a fan. You can run more than 1 podcast from one wordpress blog with categories. Not needed if you only have 1 podcast on your site. Will not work if you want to keep your default podcast feed and want to add a show. All shows will go out via the default feed no matter which category you have them in. You can still use channels with categories. Just use your category to organize your posts and the channels for your rss feeds.
Question from Shannon
Question: Transitioned to a new website, and trying to change the URL that our podcast pulls from. It comes from our old site but I can't find a place to update it to the new platform - currently using Soundcloud for files. help!
Answer: It totally depends on what feed you submitted itunes and all the other directories. If you sent them soundcloud’s RSS feed, then you would need to contact them to forward your RSS feed to your new website’s RSS feed. If you just moved from one wordpress site to another. then you can do a 301 redirect of your old RSS feed to your new RSS feed.
Blubrry Tip of the week
Post Type Podcasting? - What is it good for?
Post type podcasting is something relatively new to powerpress. What post types are is a little hard to explain but here I go.
If you look at your wordpress dashboard’s sidebar, you see where it says “pages” and where it says “posts” Well, in way, the “posts” are a post type. So in theory, you can add a post type (using a plugin that adds these) so it would say something like. Pages, Posts and another one with say “Shows” (don’t use podcast because of the slug problem). So when you want to post a show, you would make a new post in the shows area instead of the Posts area. This posts area would have a feed for the text of the posts similar to your site feed in wordpress for posts. Powerpress would add podcasting and a podcast only feed.
I’m just beginning to experiment with this feature so I don’t have all the answers yet, but it has some interesting uses (I think). I will report back when I’ve played with it more.
Bad iTunes reviews?
Ok. My normal advice is to not even acknowledge bad reviews if they are not constructive or helpful. I have no problem with people calling me out on something I said that is wrong,
Podcasting news:
Sarah Koenig from Serial will be the closing Keynote for Podcast Moment in Texas this summer
Dennis Miller and Emily Morse to host the podcast awards 2015 - http://www.blogworld.com/2015/01/21/dennis-miller-emily-morse-to-host-the-10th-annual-podcast-awards-at-nmx/
Podcast Awards are open for Nominations - http://podcastawards.com/
NPR’s new Podcast Directory - http://www.npr.org/podcasts/
Comment from Lester
Listened to show number 37 today and I want to comment on the controversy about the RSS button. YES! You need that button! Not all of us use Itunes and I use the rss to subscribe. Without a button it is hard to find your feed and the podcasters that don't have it; I tend to move on to other podcasts just because they make it hard for me to subscribe to them.
I Agree!
Question from Abner (Audio Feedback)
Abner had GREAT audio quality whatever he was using!
Casterbation - (Coined by Dave Jackson January 2015) Casturbation Defined: 1. Verb: Producing content with no real value for your audience. To record for the sake of hearing one’s own voice. To record for the sake of keeping with a self-inflicted schedule. 2. Verb: Participating in activities that provide no real value to your podcast. See the article at: http://davidjackson.org/2015/01/casturbation/
Blubrry Tip of the week
Transferring your media to blubrry has never been easier.
Go to your wordpress dashboard and select “Migration” under Powerpress in the sidebar. It will take you through the 3 steps.
Request migration Wait for migration to complete (might take a long time depending) Update the site with with just one click
Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
I announce the winner of the Beginner's podcast rig (Mic, Mixer and Cables)
Question from a listener:
Wayne Brooks - Most of my podcast I listen to on iPhone sound distorted and at a high speed. Is there a setting on my phone or itunes software that I can adjust. Or is it the Broadcaster?
Click the lower left hand side of the screen where it says 1x,2x, 1.5x or .5x speed until it says just 1x speed. It worked and he's listening to me (and other podcasters) in Normal mode :)
Moving from BTR
Paul Kennedy asks a question about moving from Blog Talk Radio:
Audio comment in the show and the answer in the show.
Should I have a link to my RSS feed on my website? Should I even have a website?
Yes and Yes (more details in the show)
Contest winner Announcement:
First, how I made the drawing truly fair. I put all the names/email addresses in random order using https://www.random.org/lists/.
Then I put them back into a spreadsheet in that order and then put the numbers of lines of the spreadsheet into random.org and and did it one more time.
The first name/email address on the random list was the winner.
AND THE WINNER IS: Corey Fineran! Congratulations.
From Corey:
I'm emailing to introduce myself (and to get my name in the drawing a 2nd time). After the introduction, I'll explain why I'd like to win the mixer and mic.
I'm Corey Fineran and I've been podcasting for six years. My main podcast is Ivy Envy, which covers the Chicago Cubs. We were Podcast Awards finalists last year (lost to ESPN). When we started, we basically took our backyard BBQ conversations on the Cubs and put them in podcast form. Over the years, things have changed and we're now recognized by the Cubs are legitimate media for certain events. We've been invited into the front office and been able to interview personnel from players to ownership. Of course, the most important thing we've been able to accomplish with Ivy Envy is to form an incredible community of Cubs fans around us. Podcasting has changed our lives through them.
A few years ago, I was able to take my hobby of podcasting and turn it into a career. I am in education and work with special education students and helping them transition from high school to post-high school life, primarily though employment. I pitched the idea of a podcast to my employer and they loved this idea of connecting with high school students through a medium they are familiar with.
I do The QC STEP Podcast in video and it started out just being shown in 14 high schools in our area. Since it started, I've been asked to present at conferences around the state of Illinois and now schools all around the state (and some in surrounding states) are using this pre-vocational podcast to educate their students.
The reason I'd love to WIN the mixer and mic is that my wife (Tawny, co-host of Mommy's Cocktail Hour) have been asked to teach classes on podcasting at a local public library. One of the classes will be geared towards teenagers and the library would like to set up a podcast studio for public use, so teenagers can have podcasts and record them at the library and not have to buy the equipment for themselves. Obviously, I don't need the mixer for myself, but I would love to donate it to help raise up the next generation of podcasters.
Thanks for the podcast and I'll have my fingers crossed when I listen to the winner being announced on your next episode!
Disclosures needed in Forums and Facebook/G+ groups?
*** Disclosure: Even though I work for Blubrry and RawVoice Inc., the advice given here is my educated opinion based on 10 years of podcasting and is given freely and without regard to my relationship to any podcasting host or service and would be the same if I didn't have that relationship.
News Redit’s new podcast, “Upvoted” https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/upvoted/id954162809?mt=2
Another story about podcasting becoming popular http://depauliaonline.com/artslife/2015/01/11/podcast-popularity/
8 Rules for podcasting in 2015 http://podcasternews.com/2015/01/05/8-rules-podcasting-2015/
Question from Dan Kramer from the Miskatonic University Podcast http://www.mu-podcast.com/
Q: Hi Mike. I was wondering how you've like using the Auphonic desktop program you got at the end of the year. I've been considering purchasing it myself, but the hefty price tag and the no returns policy keep stopping me. I've had the same issue as yourself with upload times to use the online version.
Thanks for your show. I look forward to seeing new episodes of the Help Desk show up in my podcatcher.
A: Love it. Yes it’s a bit expensive ($89US 69euro) but it works great and not having to upload 1gb files is great! I found out that Auphonic uses the lame MP3 encoder which (as you know) is LAME! :) So I just use Wav and then convert to mp3 using Fraunhofer MP3 encoder (found in iTunes or Adobe Audition)
IS BROADcasting dead? (or Dying) (Editorial)
All Music Radio sounds the same All Talk radio stations/shows sound the same. All Sports radio sounds the same Local TV is only good in local news (sometimes) Local Radio is good for news and live sports (thats about it) Cable / Satellite TV / XM/Sirius is sucking people dry with their “bundling”
Blubrry Tip of the week Category Podcasting with Powerpress
Category podcasting is NOT the best way to do multiple podcasts from one wordpress site using powerpress. There are several reasons for this.
IF you are using blubrry stats, there is no way to separate the stats from each other. All “shows” will use the same redirect code. (not ideal) Categories are easy to mess up. If you already have a podcast using the default feed, your new category podcast episodes will go out on the feed also. More complicated URLS to the feed.
I would (and do) use podcast channels. You can still break up the posts on your site by category using channels. See http://mikedell.com/blog/category/hamradio/ this is a second feed on my main MikeDell.com site for the Ham Radio podclass. I posted the posts to a category, but the podcast is in it’s own channel. Much easier to keep separate when posting..
Microphone and Mixer give-away. I’m giving away a http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/XM8500.aspx Behringer XM8500 dynamic Mic (brand new) and a slightly used Behringer UB502 Mixer (plus mic cable and computer hookup cable)http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UB502.aspx to a lucky listener. (US/Canadian Listeners only) I will also throw in an Hour of Consulting (via Go-to-Meeting) to help you get started. The ways to enter are simple. 1. Sign up for the newsletter mailing list (no spam) found on the sidebar of PodcastHelpDesk.com 2. Send in a voicemail comment either by dialing 231-421-4490 (either a question or comment for use on the show) or use the send voicemail tab on the site or email (either audio or text) to podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com with a question for the show. 3. Send me an email telling me about your show and a little about yourself You will get 1 entry for each thing you do above (limit 3 entries per person) I will use a randomizer site to pick the winner on January 19th 2015. Deadline to enter is January 19th 2015.
Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
2014 - Year in podcasting
PCN Relaunches as a Podcast news site (March)
iTunes surpasses 1 Billion (1,000,000,000) Podcast subscriptions (July)
Adam Carolla settles the Patent troll suit against him. (August)
NMX Announces move to April in Vegas along with NAB (August)
1st Podcast Movement (August) in Dallas
Podcast Awards sold to NMX (September)
Serial / Startup / Gimlet Media (September)
Stitcher bought by Deezer (October)
Dave Jackson named Head of Podcasting Track at NMX (October)
Stats: - In the US 15% of the population has consumed a podcast in the last month - 67% of podcast listeners don't mind ads compared to only 6% liking advertising in television or radio. - The percentage of Americans who have ever watched or listened to a podcast is 45% this is around 70 million potential listeners in the US only. - The podcast audience used to be “early adopters” and now are just “normal” people. Not Super Geeks - Podcast listeners/viewers continue to prefer consuming content at their desktop, not on dedicated media players, but mobile phone media consumption is surging. - Two-thirds of podcast consumers have listened to digital audio files in their vehicles by connecting a mobile device (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, iPad, tablet or ipod) to their car audio system. - On September 28th, 2004 Doc Searls found 24 “hits” on the word “Podcasts” in Google. Today it’s About 130,000,000 (!)
2015 - Predictions for podcasting in 2015
Second Podcast movement - Less “Entrepreneur” focused
NMX/NAB - Best podcast event ever!
I will release “The NO BS Guide to Podcasting” in March and it will reach #1 on Amazon for Podcasting. (yes, bold and wishful thinking!)
I will Produce 50 episodes of Podcast Help Desk in 2015. (Leaving myself room to skip a couple but maybe even 52)
This will be the year of the Story-telling podcast copy-cat. Like 2014 was the year of the Entrepreneur podcast.
At least one popular Entrepreneur podcast will pod-fade (likely 100’s of copy-cats as well)
Soundcloud will be sold and their Podcasting “Beta” program will be turned off.
Google will announce that Feedburner is going away in 2016
Google will announce a Podcast listening app and directory for Android. (Crossing my fingers)
At least one “podcasting company” will shut down unexpectedly. (Not much of a stretch because it happens at least once every year)
In April, I will celebrate my 10 year anniversary in podcasting (Not sure of exact date)
Tim of WPMasterdesign.com asked about if he should have his podcast run from his main website or should he set it up on another website.
Microphone and Mixer give-away.
I’m giving away a http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/XM8500.aspx Behringer XM8500 dynamic Mic (brand new) and a slightly used Behringer UB502 Mixer (plus mic cable and computer hookup cable) http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UB502.aspx to a lucky listener. (US/Canadian Listeners only) I will also throw in an Hour of Consulting (via Go-to-Meeting) to help you get started.
The ways to enter are simple.
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Sign up for the newsletter mailing list (no spam) found on the sidebar of PodcastHelpDesk.com
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Send in a voicemail comment either by dialing 231-421-4490 (either a question or comment for use on the show) or use the send voicemail tab on the site or email (either audio or text) to podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com with a question for the show.
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Send me an email telling me about your show and a little about yourself
You will get 1 entry for each thing you do above (limit 3 entries per person)
I will use a randomizer site to pick the winner on January 19th 2015. Deadline to enter is January 15th 2015.
Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium
phd-034
News
Slate: Ten Years in your Ears - Special Podcast issue
Mobile Podcasting Revisited
John Morgan from letstalkmetaldetectingandtreasurehunting.com sent in a voicemail question to the new Voicemail hotine:
I use (currently) a Roland R-05 recorder with an XLR to 3.5mm stereo cable from a Audio-Technica atr2100 mic. The trick I learned is to turn the gain WAY down when recording and get right up on the mic. This keeps the background sounds down a bit. Then in post-production, I boost up the volume using Audition after applying a bit of compression (not too much) and leave the background noise as it is. A little isn’t bad. There is not really a good way to remove it without making the audio sound un-natural.
Complicated website?
Here is an alternate way to do it.
Install a second wordpress install on a subdomain or a folder on your domain. Setup as a simple site with no crazy formatting. (2014 works great) You use this wordpress install to generate your feed and then use the embed code to put the player in your much more complicated website. That way you can do whatever you want to the main site. You don’t even have to have it in wordpress, and it will have no effect on the RSS feed.
Microphone and Mixer give-away.
I’m giving away a http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/XM8500.aspx Behringer XM8500 dynamic Mic (brand new) and a slightly used Behringer UB502 Mixer (plus mic cable and computer hookup cable) http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UB502.aspx to a lucky listener. (US/Canadian Listeners only) I will also throw in an Hour of Consulting (via Go-to-Meeting) to help you get started.
The ways to enter are simple.
Sign up for the newsletter mailing list (no spam) found on the sidebar of PodcastHelpDesk.com Send in a voicemail comment either by dialing 231-421-4490 (either a question or comment for use on the show) or use the send voicemail tab on the site or email (either audio or text) to podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com with a question for the show. Send me an email telling me about your show and a little about yourself
You will get 1 entry for each thing you do above (limit 3 entries per person)
I will use a randomizer site to pick the winner on January 19th 2015. Deadline to enter is January 15th 2015.
Powerpress 6 is out!
I’ve been running powerpress 6 beta for a month or two on Podcast Help Desk. now it’s out for the masses!
There are a few really cool features to set up once you upgrade.
Subscribe Sidebar Widget - You will find a new widget in your widget area of the appearance settings in wordpress. This makes it easy to find your RSS feed, itunes and a link to your new….. … Subscribe page. Powerpress will generate a subscribe page for you now. All you have to do is start a new page and then put the page ID in the powerpress settings, under the Media Appearance tab and it will populate a page for you. Playlist shortcode. This will list your last xx (where xx is, it whatever number of episodes you want) episodes in a playlist. Very cool! Podcast SEO
See the announcement here: http://www.powerpresspodcast.com
Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
New Voicemail Feedback Phone Line! - 231-715-1366
Geek News Central #1000 - Congrats to Todd Cochrane for reaching show 1000 on Geek News Central!
Podcast Answer Man - 9 Years of podcasting! Congrats to Cliff Ravenscraft! Listen to his VERY first episode in podcasting here: http://gspn.tv/plusaccess/001-lostcast-12-16-2005-413-521-0958/
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Patent Troll Update http://www.gamepolitics.com/2014/12/15/eff-challenges-personal-audios-podcasting-patent-claims-uspto-week#.VJCF62TF9Ns
http://consumerist.com/2014/12/15/u-s-patent-office-to-decide-whether-patent-troll-company-actually-owns-podcasting/
Powerpress 6 coming soon! Beta 3 was released today to testers (including me) and if no trouble, it should be released to the public this week! I will have a full rundown of it's features in a future episode.
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iTunes New & Noteworthy? It’s not that important! - Listen to hear my opinion on this based on some facts.
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Feedvalidator.org - Check your feed… yes. BUT, don’t always trust feedvalidator.org. Feedvalidator.org is hopelessly out of date. It will help you to roughly test your feed. A more up to date validator is castfeedvalidator.com
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Blubrry Tip - Feed Size
iTunes and many other users and apps of RSS require a feed size of less than 512k (yes, only ½ a megabyte). If you have 50 or 60 episodes, your feed may become too big. This all depends on how big your shownotes are.
Using powerpress, you can “maximize” your feed items using Feed Maximzer. this will let you have more items in your feed while keeping the feed small. It does this by removing a lot of the not needed things in your feed for items 11 thru however many you have. The first 10 items will be full featured feed items.
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Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
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How to get support / help, The RIGHT way (mini-rant)
You get what you pay for (most of the time)
Free product = poor / non-existent support
Cheap product = Some support, but don’t expect that spending $5 will get you $1000’s in personal consulting
RTFM! (Read the fracking manual
Using the words “ASAP” and “Fix it IMMEDIATELY” does not help
Using a private podcast coach (me or any of them online) can save you time and flustration.
Go back to PHD024 (http://podcasthelpdesk.com/24 for lots of places to help you
Places to learn about how to podcast:
FREE:
HERE! PodcastHelpDesk.com
http://podcastanswerman.com/learn-how-to-podcast/ (ignore the part about feedburner)
http://create.blubrry.com/manual/ Lots of great background info on how things work in podcasting.
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-start-a-podcast-podcasting-tutorial/ (Also ingnore anything about feedburner)
Paid but inexpensive: http://schoolofpodcasting.com (affiliate link)
Paid AND Expen$ive (but good from what I hear) http://podcastingatoz.com (ignore Feedburner part)
Can I Charge for my podcast? - PHD032
News
PodcastOne demands their podcasts be removed from Stitcher
PCN Interview with Norm Pattiz of Podcast One
The Rise of podcasting. I’m not a fan of infographics, but this one is good. It’s over at Socialfresh.com. by Nick Cicero
MarketingPodcasts.com ____________________
Paid Podcasting?
I’m not a fan of paid content in podcasting. It does work for a select audience, but it does nothing to gain listeners.
Most podcasters have enough trouble getting listeners when it’s free and easy.
You can do it using Wordpress plugins for a subscription (paid) site such as Wishlist member and others.
It does work for bonus content but In most cases, this does not need to be in podcast form. Videos / Audios played or downloaded from within a protected page seems to be less troublesome to setup.
____________________ Question of the week from Mike Winter
Q. I have a RadioShack four channel mixer with a left right one quarter Jack Output. I've discovered that I can't record onto an iPhone. So I tried a digital recorder, and discovered it only recorded in mono. Is that a problem? Is there a way to record in stereo?
A. There are several ways to go about this.
Record to 1 track and then convert to True mono or Joint stereo in Audacity or other audio editing software. Get a mono to stereo adapter. Get a Y adapter (2 mono ¼” to 1 3.5mm stereo) aff. link: Pyle-Pro PCBL43FT3 12 Gauge 3 Feet 3.5mm Male Stereo to Dual 1/4-Inch Male Mono Y-Cable Adapter Connect your mic directly to the digital recorder (not using the mixer) using an adapter, either xlr to 3.5mm stereo or ¼” mono to 3.5mm stereo adapter depending on your mic cable
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Blubrry tip of the week. - Stats
Blubrry Stats Compared
Blubrry Stats FAQ
Media Stats vs. Web Stats - Blubrry Podcast Manual
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Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
The Old Podcasting Geezer here :) See Quick Hits 1 for that story. __________________________
File format mp3 for Audio and mp4 for Video. Other formats have limitations.
Audio formats other than mp3 that will work (sort of) m4a/AAC works on Apple devices, Android and most PC software. May not work on Microsoft Phones, Blackberry or other media players (mostly older ones)
Ogg/vorbis - Mostly a linux / open source thing.
WMA (Windows Media) Works with Microsoft products/software. (Not recommended for podcasting)
.wav, flac and formats like that will not work (and are many times larger files than mp3)
Bottom line, Use MP3. I suggest either 64kbps Mono or 128kbps Stereo encoding @ 44.1khz. At 128 Stereo, you get about 1mb a minute of audio. At 64 mono, you get about 2min per mb.
Video Formats other than mp4 that will work (sort of) M4V This is Apple’s version of mp4. It’s almost identical to mp4, other than it adds extra “stuff” for iPads, iPhones, AppleTV and iTunes.
Ogg Theora. This is the Linux / Open Source video format.
FLV This is flash video. Not great for podcasting. It used to be good for websites, but will not work on iThingys or android (most of them)
WebM (VP8) This is Google’s supported HTML5 video format. Hasn’t really gotten too much traction but if you are doing video, it’s not a bad idea to make a version of your show in this format for supported browsers.
Bottom Line, Use mp4. (with maybe a webm/vp8 version for the player on your website) Encode using h264 and AAC audio. .MOV and mpeg files will not work.
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Blubrry Tip of the Week - Service Settings and Program Listing settings
I don’t know how many times I get someone that asks me a question that requires me to look at their feed and when I look at their blubrry.com listing, they didn’t include that in the settings. It causes a few back and forth emails that could be avoided.
The other reasons for having your blubrry.com “Service settings” and “Program Listing settings” filled out:
Your blubrry.com listing won’t be populated unless you give us your feed address. It’s kind of pointless to be listed and have nothing there. People that use “smartcast” (Which is a lot) won’t be able to subscribe to your show in that feature. Your show will not be included in the Set Top Box and Android Blubrry App
The Service settings let our system know if you are going to be using the blubrry.com provided website and feed (Yes, you can do that but it’s not recommended) or if you are on your own Wordpress Blog using powerpress. These settings customize the menus you see at Blubrry.com in the manage account area and tell us in support how you are setup. You will get much quicker service if you do this.
Service Settings (hosting users only)
The 3 selections you have there are:
1.Publish from your own WordPress blog with PowerPress plugin 2. Publish from Blubrry to homepage provided by Blubrry 3. Publish from Blubrry to your own blog
* Do not use the 3rd option unless you REALLY know what you are doing. It has to do with the “Meta WebLog API” which almost nobody uses.
Program Listing settings
These are just simple info about your podcast. The RSS Feed URL and you iTunes listing URL. (basic stuff) and the Category you want your blubrry listing to be in and the Parental rating. There is more things here if you are going to be using Blubrry’s feed (again, not recommended) where you can put your artwork and a few other settings.
Even if you don’t use blubrry.com for anything, it’s a good idea to have your show listed in the blubrry directory (Explore Page).
_____________________ Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs. _____________________
Be Everywhere?
As Paul Colligan said on his show “The Podcast Repor...
In a word, yes!
Daniel J. Lewis in The Audacity to podcast episode 199 did a review of Audello and before he did, he talked about us Podcast Geezers being stuck in our ways.
Well, it's true, I admit it :: I'm a podcast Geezer. I think my way is the best way to podcast (for me and as many people as I can convince) . Do I think that will always be the case? No. Do I see it changing anytime soon. Maybe, but Audello isn't really it (just from what I know now).
I'm thinking we should have T-shirts made up for the New Media Expo for us "Geezers".
Happy Podcasting!
What do you think of the new Music? I was thinking that Jazz might be more my style. I have a kind of relaxed delivery, and a more relaxed theme song might work. Let me know. As with most things about podcasting, everything is changeable.
From Last Week:
I got a note from Paul Figgiani who was THE Senior Audio Engineer at IT Conversations. He was commenting about the audio loudness standards and knows a metric TON about this stuff. I’m hoping to convince him to come on the show and talk about it some more. It would also be fun to talk to him about the Podcasting World of 2004. He was there from the beginning (maybe even before the word “podcast”).
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Even the US Air Force uses the Wordpress 2014 theme! (see: http://airforcelive.dodlive.mil/) If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for podcasters.
Along those lines:
If your website is existing and you want to add podcasting. If you require a complicated wordpress theme or are on a different platform.
Build a landing page. A separate wordpress install for your podcast in either a sub-domain or a sub page. This way you can use powerpress and all the other standard plugins for your podcast.
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Scam Alert:
Not podcast related, but, Maybe? FYI Windows Users: Microsoft will NEVER call you on the phone about a virus. If you get a call from someone at phone number 949-000-7677, just hang up. Or do like I did, and said "Oh really, My Mac has a virus?" They hung up on me
_________________________ News from Apple’s Podcast Team:
Dear Podcast Provider, To improve your experience with podcasts, we've introduced the following updates and features: · Podcasts App Included in iOS 8 · Updated Cover Art Requirements · iTunes Affiliate Program · Custom Episode Sequence Podcasts App Included in iOS 8 The Podcasts app is now included in iOS 8. To help you reach this larger audience more effectively through search and browsing, be sure your podcast's metadata and cover art meet Apple's technical specifications.
Updated Cover Art Requirements To submit your Podcasts to the iTunes Store, you must have cover art of at least 1400 x 1400 pixels in the RGB color space and in the JPEG or PNG file formats. Additionally, the server hosting your cover art image must allow HTTP HEAD requests.
iTunes Affiliate Program The Podcasts app now supports HTML links in podcast and episode notes. This new option also supports iTunes affiliate links. The iTunes affiliate program allows you to track downloads of free items and earn commission on items purchased by customers, including on the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store. Learn more about the iTunes affiliate program. https://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates
Custom Episode Sequence By default, podcast episodes appear on the iTunes Store in reverse chronological order based on the tag value. You can change episode order by setting the tag value to the order in which you'd like the episode to appear. For example, for an you'd like to appear as the first episode of the podcast, use the number 1 as the tag value. If the same order number is used by more than one episode, those episodes will revert to chronological order based on .
For more information about these new features and requirements, see Making a Podcast.
Regards, The iTunes Podcast team ________________________
iTunes updating your LISTING
I uploaded my new episode and it’s available on stitcher and it’s not on my iTunes listing. Whats wrong?
The iTunes store listing and what appears in your feed are two different things. People that subscribe to your feed in iTunes will get the new episodes as you post them but the listing at iTunes can lag by a few days (or up to a week or so) behind your feed. If you think there is a problem at iTunes please contact Apple Support at podcasts@apple.com
Staying consistent with your update schedule (episode schedule) will make it qui...
From last week…
Update on the Scammy Spammy podcasting service I wouldn’t name. Well I’m naming it this week. Audello. The service doesn’t seem unreasonable other than the price, but the claims the marketing of it makes, just make me feel icky. Dave Jackson did a video review of Audello and he had not much good to say about it. ALMOST everything they claim the software does can be done with a little learning for FREE. Sometimes paying to save time isn’t a bad thing. But with Podcasting, it’s really not THAT hard and it’s worth putting the time in for more reasons than just saving money.
I’ve been around the internet for a long time. Before the web in fact, and I’ve seen scams come and scams go. Internet marketers, as a rule, can get sucked into promoting something that isn’t the best because it offers the best commissions. I think you are going to see a lot of that coming soon.
My rules for internet marketing pitches are this:
- If the checkout system they use is Clickbank, 9 times out of 10 it’s not worth your time or money. (Audello is through clickbank)
- If the price ends with a 7, it’s likely not worth it. (Audello is normally $297 “on sale” for $197) 3.If they have a time limit before the price goes up, it’s not worth it. (Audello’s price WAS reported to go up in 3 days, 1 day, several hours and it changes every time you go to the site. It’s now $297 with an add-on $97 commercial license)
- If there is a video on every page with a british voiceover, it makes me think scam. (see audello’s video marketing)
I’m not saying that audello is a scam, but it sure isn’t the deal that you are going to hear all the hype about. Just be careful. You could spend that $400 on something MUCH more useful for your podasting adventure such as a New Mic, Mixer, Recorder, Proper hosting or some cool artwork.
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Auphonic
Last week I talked about the Auphonic leveler web service (auphonic.com). Last episode was “leveled and processed” with it. This week I’m trying out the desktop software. This may be a better deal. It’s $89 (notice no 7) and $399 for a commercial license. (they define a commercial license is for people or companies that make more than $20,000 directly from their processed audio) Most podcasters can get away with the $89 license.
I will let you know if I buy the desktop license or I sign up for a monthly plan for the web service. I’m leaning toward the web license for now.
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What’s in a Name? (or title)
Back in the olden days of podcasting everyone put the show number in their title. I’ve been doing some thinking and even though I did this myself for as long as I’ve been podcasting, I’m changing it up.
I will continue to put my show number in the title, but I’m putting it at the end. You might notice, if you are looking at my feed, that I renamed all of my episodes to that format. Subject first then the podcast episode number. I’m still going to name them with the show number. This helps me keep them straight on my computer and on my server (and stats).
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Wordpress Default Theme 2014 - My 5 reasons to use it over custom themes.
- It’s FREE! We know that free isn’t always good, but in this case, it works.
- Most plugins are tested against the default themes in Wordpress. This means you are less likely to have issues with plugins. Powerpress is tested against 2014 first. When troubleshooting issues (if you have them) it’s one less thing that could be the cause. I would say about 25% of the support calls I get due to feed issues, it’s the custom theme someone is using that caused the problem. It’s a lot like the reason to use mp3 instead of m4a for your audio files. m4a will work, but it can cause problems for some users.
- It looks good, it is “Responsive” and it’s simple. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
- It’s customizable enough. With some tricks using the header image, you can get it to look very custom.
Why show zero?
This is so that when you are setting up your podcast feed, you can get the feed going with a short show introduction. This is good for letting everyone know what your show is going to be about.
Your RSS feed isn't valid until you have an episode in it. This will give you something for your feed so you can submit your feed to iTunes, Stitcher, Blubrry and wherever else before you officially launch.
This show is going to be 1 - 5 minute, single topic quick hit tips about your podcast, your podcast website and news items for the podcasting community. It will be released as produced on no particular schedule..
Be sure you subscribe to both, this show and to the main Podcast Help Desk feed over on the subscribe page.
PHD - 028
The Podcast Help Desk is where we go deep into the technology of podcasting, help you with the problems you may run into and when we have a chance, review new gadgets, services and solutions for podcasters.
This is not to say that the why and how of podcasting isn’t important. There are other podcasts that cover that part better than I do.
As they say, “Content is King”. So if you have something to say, start a podcast.
To keep your podcast running smoothly and get it out to your audience takes some tech. Thats what I’m here for. I will try to smooth out the geek-speak and put it in (more or less) English.
The main audience for this podcast is those of you who have podcasts and want to tweak the tech to get better sound, a better website, a more reliable RSS feed or a more streamlined workflow. Also, those of you thinking of starting a podcast and don’t want to make all the mistakes that those of us that have been doing it a while had to make. I will help you avoid those along with some scammy, spammy or downright bad services that have been out there or will be out there. I’ve made all the mistakes so you don’t have to.
Podcast Help Desk is a Proud member of the Tech Podacst Network over at techpodcasts.com. If it’s tech, it’s here!
Lets get started…
You might have noticed I’ve changed the intro a bit. No music (although I’m going to have a new intro soon) I’m working on my mission for this podcast. During these unscheduled breaks, I’ve had time to think and tweak my content and to figure out my place in the world of Podcasts about podcasting.
Tom Magliozzi, Broadcaster, podcaster and Car guy dies at 77
Stitcher get bought by Deezer
IOS 8 is out. IOS 8.01 is out (ooops) IOS 8.02 is out. IOS 8.1 is out!
Also Yosemite is out for Mac. It’s been a big month for the Apple Fans out there.
Dave Jackson named Director Of Podcasting for New Media Expo! Congrats to Dave! He will do a VERY good job with it and NMX this year is going to be a fantastic conference for many reasons, but first on my list is if Dave is selecting the speakers on the podcast track, It’s gonna be the bestist ;)
Congrats to Todd Cochrane for 10 years of podcasting!
Google releases Inbox by Gmail app
I know, not really directly podcast related, but I figure a lot of podcasters use gmail. First person to leave me voicemail on the voicemail link on the side of Podcast Help Desk will get an invite to Inbox from me. (let me know your gmail address when you do it)
New loudness standard for podcasting
Podcasting Standard -16 LUFS (?WTF?)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Loudness, K-weighted, relative to Full Scale (or LKFS) is a loudness standard designed to enable normalization of audio levels for delivery of broadcast TV and other video.[1] Loudness units relative to Full Scale (or LUFS) is a synonym for LKFS that was introduced in EBU R128.[2]Loudness Units (or LU) is an additional unit used in EBU R128. It describes Lk without direct absolute reference and therefore describes loudness level differences. LKFS is standardized in ITU-R BS.1770.[3] In March 2011, the ITU introduced a loudness gate in the second revision of the recommendation, ITU-R BS.1770-2.[4] In August 2012, the ITU released the third revision of this recommendation ITU-R BS.1770-3.[5] The EBU has suggested that the ITU's changing the unit to LUFS as LKFS does not comply with scientific naming conventions and is not in line with the standard set out in ISO 80000-8. Furthermore, they suggest the symbol for 'Loudness level, k-weighted' should be Lk, which would make Lk and LUFS are equivalent when LUFS indicates the value of Lk with reference to digital full scale.[6] Since ITU-R BS.1770-2, LKFS and LUFS are identical
Powerpress 6
Check out podcasthelpdesk.com for a look at how powerpress 6 will change your website (if you want it to). I’ve been testing Powerpress 6 beta. Check out the subscribe page,
PHD027 - Living Under a Rock?
iOS 8 Update with “podcasts” app included. - Make sure you podcast is ready by Shawn Thorpe
CBS loses suit by patent troll, Personal Audio National Podcast Day! - September 30th New Podcasts about podcasting (new to me anyway)
The Podcast Report - Paul Colligan
The Podcast Reporter - Fred Castaneda
Keep it simple stupid! -
I’ve gotten a bunch of questions about some of the minutia of things that most people won’t see or need to worry about. Such as the feed address. Normally in powerpress the feed address is http://yourdomain.com/feed/podcast/. If you want to change that you can start a new channel with what you want at the end such as http://yourdomain.com/feed/mygreatshow/ but that adds complication to everything. I’ve even had people worry about the links under the player having a different text color than they want for the link. Another way is to add the static feed plugin. That way you can make your feed address http://yourdomain.com/whatever-you-want.xml . I’m sure someone out there will want to get rid of the .xml but sometimes you can’t have what you want. The important thing is that your feed functions and updates when you put out an episode. The address doesn’t matter much. It’s good to have your own domain name (as I always said) but the rest of it is kind of picky. Stop it! 99% of the people that subscribe to your show in iTunes, Stitcher and wherever else will never see the feed address or the feed itself.
I guess the brings up a bigger problem I see with a lot of podcasters. They get all caught up in the tech of it. Focusing on the tech when everything works is the wrong way to go about it. Believe me, I know how that can be. I’m all about the techy side of things. The most important thing about your show is your show. Make good content and have fun with it. Don’t worry about the minor picky things. Once you get your feed working and your website working, go about the business of producing your show. Promote it everywhere you can, and as long as people get your content, how they get it is beside the point. It is interesting, but not the most important thing.
Along that same line…
Podcast Review swaps. by Dave Jackson on Podcaster News
Question of the week
Q: I use audacity to record/edit my show. I notice the default setting for mp3 is 48,000hz sample rate at 128kbds bit rate. Is this a good setting for podcasting?
A: Well, no. Let me explain. The standard for MP3 in podcasting (no, it’s not that other rates won’t work) is between 64kbds and 128kbds. So that part is good (although a bit large file size per minute). It’s the 48000hz sample rate that should be changed to 44.100 to be the most compatible with players out there. IF someone has a really old mp3 player, 48000hz will sound distorted where 44100 will not.
A bigger problem with audacity is the “LAME” mp3 encoder that comes with it. Just as the name implies, it’s lame. At least at a constant bitrate (in your case 128kbps). It sounds great with variable bit rate for music, but for voice and podcasting, you want to use a constant bit rate. The easist way to get a good sounding MP3 is to use iTunes to convert your file from wav. To do this, first in your itunes settings, make sure in the import settings, you have mp3 selected. Then out of audacity, save the file as a .wav file. Drag it into iTunes and right click. Select “Make MP3 version”. Then put your iD3 tags in that file and use that for your podcast. By default, itunes will make a 44.1khz 128kbps file. If you want to save on file size, and have the software (Adobe audition and others) save the mp3 at 96kbps or even 64 if it’s mostly voice. This can save on hosting costs and make your shows quicker to download for your listeners.
Powerpress 6
Take a listen or watch the latest update in the powerpress podcast. If you are using powerpress, it will be in your dashboard.
The company Personal Audio, The people claiming they have a patent for podcasting, that were suing Adam Carolla have tried to drop the lawsuit. They claim there is “no money” in podcasting. Adam has decided to not let it drop just yet and is keeping his counter-claims. His goal is to invalidate the patent. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. He’s raised nearly $1 million to fight them. I was listening to Adam Curry on No Agenda and he (the podfather) said that he thinks Corolla should give the cash to the EFF who is trying to get the patent invalidated. I’m not exactly sure what to think about it. Read more about it H E R E
Hosting
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people who have been asked by their webhost to upgrade because they are hogging all the CPU on a shared server. (a good problem to have)
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Not all webhosting is created the same.
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I would use the big guys for shared hosting. I’ve had the best luck with either Bluehost (you can help me out by using my affiliate link if you are going to go with Bluehost) or Godaddy hosting. (this podcast website is on Godaddy Linux hosting)
Bluehost just introduced their “Optimized Hosting For Wordpress” (use my link code) which would solve the problem.
-Wordpress takes some CPU to generate your feed with powerpress. PHP is used to generate your feed on the fly. When someone requests your RSS feed, it pulls a little bit on the server’s CPU. Get too many requests at one time and your site can slow down a bit. The way it does that is PHP.
From Wikipedia: PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. As of January 2013, PHP was installed on more than 240 million websites (39% of those sampled) and 2.1 million web servers.
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Say you have 1000 people that listen to your podcast every time you put out an episode and of those 1000 people, 50% are using your RSS feed, either with iTunes, the iOS Podcasts App or some other podcast app or rss reader. It’s not just 500 times does your feed get queried. It’s ever xx amount of time, it gets hit 500 times. over a week, if the podcatchers ping once a day thats 3500 times. Most of the time, most people (lets say 400) have it set to ping every hour. That would be 67900 times! If your show keeps growing, it won’t take long before your webhost will say that you are using too much CPU and ask you to leave. Hopefully they are nice enough to ask you to leave.
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There are many ways to fix this problem. Only 3 of them make any sense to me. As you know, I am a firm believer is owning your own brand and controlling your feed.
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Upgrade your hosting. VPS, Dedicated server or Wordpress optimized hosting. Bluehost just introduced their “Optimized Hosting For Wordpress” (use my promo code) http://www.bluehost.com/track/mgdell/ which would solve the problem.
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Create a static feed. I would (and do) use Static Feed plugin. at https://wordpress.org/plugins/staticfeed/ . ignore the part about it not being updated in over 2 years. It works and it is supported (by me and Angelo) so don’t worry. I’m hoping Angelo will update it just to get rid of that warning. :)
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Use a caching plugin. (not my favorite choice but it can work)
Others may tell you to use Feedburner. That will ‘sort of work’. It does take the load off your webserver, but you give up much more so it’s not worth it.
Still others will say, use your hosting company's RSS feed. Both Libsyn and Blubrry offer a feed with a hosting account. I wouldn’t use that feed from either of them (although you could do worse since both companies will redirect your feed if you change your mind).
I’m going to be having another “off week” next week. So I will be back and we will continue the zero to itunes podcast series. Thank for listening! Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 mo...
The podcast Help desk is taking a short hiatus. I will resume the weekly schedule on August 3rd (a Monday).
I'm switching the schedule for a Monday release. That gives me time over the weekend to catch up if I got busy during the week.
I will be continuing my series on zero to podcaster with setting up Wordpress.
Thanks for hanging in there!
-Mike
Followup from last weeks show.
I did have a chance to listen to more of the podcasts in the list from last week. I have to say, that one of them seem a bit pushy selly. (if that’s a correct term) What I mean is that this show seemed more like an infomercial for consulting, affiliate program links and lacked useful information. I’m not going to call out this podcaster as I may have just caught a show that was more like that than normal. I will keep listening. It was entertaining and well produced, so I’m not saying it was bad or useless, just not my style. Enough on that for now. Film at 11 :)
Val, from the comments for Episode 23 asks: Q: This all sounds fine…but I am a bit slow. I have a mp3 file I uploaded to my site how do I get a feed to be able to sent to Itunes? I tried wordpress free version but the powerpress plug-in is disabled. I tried feedburner but it tells me that it cannot find my audio I missing something??
A: Well, there are a couple of things going on here. The first thing is there isn’t really a good way to to do podcasting from Wordpress.COM (notice I said wordpress DOT COM). Wordpress.com is a service of a company called automatic. They are also the people behind the open source blogging software called Wordpress.ORG (or just wordpress). They are not the same thing. Powerpress will not work with free (or paid) wordpress.com sites. It only works when you buy your own domain name, install wordpress.org on your webhosting account. There are ways to to podcast from wordpress.com, but they are not great.
One thing you could do is get hosting at Blubrry.com. With your media hosting they provide a website. (use my promo code NOBS for a free month) But, as always, I recommend your own domain with wordpress installed on it. You can (but not a long term thing) host your media on your webhost if you want. It will work while you are just starting out, but if your show grows quickly, you will want to get the media off your webserver. One place that will allow it is bluehost. They have some good deals on webhosting over there. Godaddy hosting is also a good place. They have tools that make it real easy to setup wordpress.
So, my advice to Val is to get your own domain, install wordpress and powerpress. See episode 1 of Podcast Tech Coach (Podcast Help Desk) for step by step instructions.
From a smart-aleck Jeffrey Powers, from Geekazine Via Facebook comment: Q: What chair do you use?
A: I know Jeffrey was trying to be funny, and of course, I am in a squeaky chair in Northwest Lower Michigan… But that does bring up a good topic. That is Studio comfort.
If you are uncomfortable or your gear isn’t organized, your podcast won't be as enjoyable to produce. Make sure you chair, desk, table, keyboard and everything else is setup in a way that you are relaxed while podcasting.
Today, I want to start a series on going from zero to a fully ready to go podcast website complete with RSS feed and iTunes and Stitcher listings. I will also be making these into screencast videos which will be available on YouTube and on this site.
Today’s topic: Selecting the domain name and getting web hosting account. Domain names are the heart of your branding for a podcast. Selecting one is something you should only have to do once
Heil PR40 - $327.00 - my Old standby Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
This may seem counter-intuitive, but I only want you to have as much info as you can. My fellow podcasters that podcast about podcasting have a lot of great information. There isn't any real competition in this field. We all have our own take on things and for the most part, everyone puts out great advice. Personalities and styles are quite different and you might not like someone's style so here is the best (in my opinion) of the people you should also listen to.
I suggest you pick a few other shows and sites from below to round out your podcasting education. Podcasts about podcasting in no particular order: ( I randomized it) Listen to the show for my comments about each of these links (agree or not they are well thought out) Ask the Podcast Coach - Dave Jackson
The Audacity To Podcast - Daniel J. Lewis
Podcast 411 - Rob Walch
More Podcast Money - Dave Jackson
New Media Show - Todd Cochrane & Rob Greenlee
Start Talking and Recording today - Nick Seuberling
Podcasters Roundtable - Ray Ortega + others
The Powerpress Podcast - The Blubrry Official Podcast
Podcast Talent Coach - Eric K. Johnson
Podcast Answer Man - Cliff Ravenscraft
Podcast Quick Tips - Ray Ortega
Podcaster's Studio - Ray Ortega
School of Podcasting - Dave Jackson
The Feed - The Offical Libsyn Podcast
The Podcast Review Show - Dave Jackson (paid reviews) Podcasting Resources (Most all the Podcasts above also have written and video resources) How To Record Podcasts - Jeffrey Powers
The Podcasting Manual - create.blubrry.com
Blubrry Podcasting Forum - forum.blubrry.com
Google Plus Podcasters Community - https://plus.google.com/communities/102333709604116814839
Google Plus Podcasting Technology Resorces - https://plus.google.com/communities/116202273138313720302
Facebook Podcast Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/PodcastCommunity/
How to Start A Podcast - Patt Flynn
Podcasting AtoZ - Cliff Ravenscraft
Podcasts about Podcasting list - Dave Jackson
Podcast Places - Daniel J. Lewis
Apples "Podcast Specs" page for iTunes Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
Apple's "Podcasts" app on IOS crashed for almost everyone yesterday.
Apple is going to be making the PODCASTS app, one of the default aps in IOS8! Good news for podcasters!
Soundcloud for podcasting
Why you shouldn’t use Soundcloud (or any other proprietary service) as your only point of presence for your podcast.
it’s in beta (after 3 years?!?!) I don’t trust beta.
It costs some money and it’s limited on the TOTAL uploads, not monthly like other services (like blubrry or libsyn)
They mess with your file. What you upload is not exactly what your listeners will download. (even if it is just a filename change)
If you use their RSS feed, you will have trouble keeping YOUR audience when you decide to leave.
One cool thing they do have is the player, but I’m guessing there will be players like that coming out for other services / systems soon.
Q: My latest podcast episode is not listed on iTunes and it’s been a week. What’s going on?
A: In the case of this questioner, it was their feed size was too big.
Here are some ways to make the feed size smaller: 1. Reduce the number of episodes in the feed 2. Write less text in your posts for podcast episodes 3. In powerpress, turn on “Feed maximizer”
I know most people want to have EVERY episode in the feed, but in most cases it’s not needed.
Q: If I’m going to add a digital recorder to my audio chain, why not use one of the cheap recorders like the Zoom H1 for $99?
A: There is no reason not to use the h1. But, look at the recorder specs of any other cheap recorders and make sure it has 2 things. 1. Line level input 2. Records in Stereo in .wav format (uncompressed) Recording to mp3 can cause quality problems. Even on the more expensive recorders. The Zoom H1 would be a great little studio recorder for backup or even the main recording.
R-05 for $199
Q: What is the best Microphone for me?
A: I get this one a LOT! It depends on your voice, your studio, your budget and your preferences. We talk about this a lot and we podcasters (most of us) are gear heads. If your budget allows, try a bunch of mics.. you can always trade, sell them later.
I’m going to test 2 inexpensive mics here. You tell me if you think it was worth the $300 for my PR40 (other than it looks really cool).
The first one I’m going to test is the $59.99 ATR2100 from Audio-Technica
The other one is even cheaper!
The $24.99 Behringer XM8500 The cheap mic :) Love it anyway.
As you can see, you can go as cheap or as expensive as you need and still do a great job of podcasting with good audio.. No excuses for crappy audio :)
Heil PR40 - $327.00 - my Old standby Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
This week I had a lot of questions from new and prospective podcasters that show that, even though podcasting has been around a while (10 years), people seem to have trouble with how it works.
So I am going to explain it in very basic terms. This would be a good episode to pass on to people you know who ask you about how podcasting works, what it is, and how it DOESN’T work.
Ok, The first thing about podcasting you should understand is, that it is driven by the RSS feed. What is an RSS feed? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What that means is that it’s a file on the web (either static or dynamically generated) in XML format. It contains “posts” or “items” in reverse order newest first and oldest last. RSS is a standard where the content is not formatted in a particular way as how it’s displayed. It’s just the raw content (mostly text) and the receiving program (RSS Readers) format it for display on a screen. The raw RSS was never meant for humans to see. It’s meant for machines to see, interpret and display as they see fit.
For podcasting, Dave Winer (who invented RSS) added some magic to RSS to allow “enclosures” which can be any sort of file that once delivered to an RSS reader would download to the local users device (at that time computers only). This is what allows us to enclose our mp3 files in the RSS feed for delivery to our listeners. (works the same for video files)
So basicly how this works for Real people is like a Radio. Your RSS feed is the transmitter and the listener’s Podcatching software is the receiver. They “Tune” (subscribe) to your RSS feed just like you might tune your radio to 98.1 to listen to the Bob and Tom show on your local radio station. The difference is you can “Tune” your podcatcher to more than one station at a time and it “records” (downloads) the show for playback later kind of like a DVR would for a tv show, that can be played back at a later time.
The podcatching software all works a bit differently from one another, but uses the same basic method to get your podcast files to the listener. Some now allow streaming of your files so instead of downloading the whole file before you play it, it plays it on demand. Apps like Stitcher, Tunein and even Apple’s “Podcasting” IOS app can do this. (I prefer to download the files so I don't’ have to use up my data plan when I’m away from wifi on my phone)
The import part is to have your RSS feed formated correctly so that all these podcatching software apps can read it correctly.
In 2005, Apple added podcast support to iTunes and we have never been the same since! The only issue at that time was they added some iTunes specific tags that needed to be there for the podcast to look right in iTunes. If you use a plugin like Powerpress, and fill out all the settings, all those tags will be there in the correct place and your show will look right on those apps.
While we’re on the subject of iTunes, I want to re-iterate that you do not UPLOAD to iTunes. You do not have an iTunes feed. Just because the iTunes store doesn’t LIST your episode, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. People get so worried about what iTunes shows in their listings they don’t realize that the listing isn’t the important part. It’s the RSS feed. People who subscribe to your show in iTunes are subscribed DIRECTLY to your rss feed. The iTunes store (where your listing lives) doesn’t update in real-time. If I put out a podcast at 3pm on Friday afternoon, at 301pm it will be available to be downloaded via someone subscribed in iTunes. The listing might not update for 2 hours or 2 days.
Media Hosting / Web hosting
Your web page (if you are doing it the way I suggest) is where your RSS feed lives. The place where your media files (mp3’s) live can be anywhere that is accessible on the web. To be included on iTunes, there are some other requirements for the server, but if you use a good media host (such as blubrry.com) that is all taken care of. In fact,
Recovered from the great basement flood :)
Q: My podcast artwork doesn’t show properly in iTunes / Stitcher / whatever other podcatcher
A: There are 3 places in your feed that the image needs to be.
-
Is in the mp3 files itself. A image bigger than 600 x 600 needs to be in the iD3 tags of EACH of your podcast mp3’s. I do this using iTunes on my computer by dragging the mp3 into a playlist I called “edit” and then I right click on the mp3 in itunes and select “Get Info” In there is some tabs. In the Artwork tab you can upload your image there. Also fill out the “info” tab while you are in there.
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RSS2 image - 144 x 144 px image (or larger) I just use the same 1400 x 1400 image for all 3 items. Saves time :) http://example.com/image.jpg Your Podcast Title http://example.com
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iTunes image - 1400 x1400 px, RGB jpg or png (I recommend JPG for file size) and under 500mb.
If you use Powerpress with wordpress (Like I recommend) you can just fill out the “Feeds, iTunes and the Artwork tab in powerpress settings. (Have your image or images ready)
As always, give iTunes (especially) at LEAST 3 days to update and it can take longer (like 3 WEEKS!!).
Along a similar line:
Q: How do I force iTunes into updating my image. I changed my image over 7 weeks ago.
A: Well, as I say over and over, you don’t force Apple (iTunes) to do anything. What you can do is trick it into thinking you have a new image. Do this by changing the name of the images in your feed. This will sort of force iTunes into updating your image.
Q: Where do I find someone to make my Podcast Artwork?
A: What I use is fiverr.com. It costs $5 for someone to make your image. You might have to spend $5 a few times, but it’s much cheaper than hiring an artist to do it for you. I’ve had great luck with fiverr for images and intro voiceovers.
Q: I can’t find my podcast in iTunes by searching for my keywords.
A: iTunes SEO (thats what I call it) is much the same as Google except iTunes seems to (and nobody outside of Apple knows for sure) also weigh the search results by how popular your podcast is (how many subscribers and reviews you have). It’s not an exact science and it’s competitive. It also take a LONG LONG time to show any improvement.
Last one for this week, Q: Do I need to have my post “published” before I submit my feed to iTunes?
A: Duh! (this is why I don’t use names often in my Q and A’s ) :) Yes, for a podcast feed to be valid, you MUST have published at least one episode. Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
Due to flooding in my Studio (see picture) and the fact that Servpro has about 20 fans and other noisy equipment running in my basement. I'm not able to do a full episode this week. The file I have with this episode was recorded from my iphone and sounds like crap. Sorry about that! I will be back with Episode 21 next week as long as the river doesn't rise again :)
Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
Today was a mobile podcast and I touched on a lot of stuff. Even some safety tips if you are going to drive and podcast at the same time :)
I also talked about (in no particular order!)
Todd and Rob's New Media Show interview with John Lee Dumas. Cliff Ravenscraft's rebuttal to Spenser Haws' blog post called "Why You Should NOT Start a Podcast" on the Podcast Answer Man # 355 Dave Jackson's NPR style podcast about podfading at School of podcasting. Podcast advertising How FREE is not a good business model Feedblitz?!? (This was a question from a listener)
Better show notes for the next show! Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
Today I wanted to take a few minutes and re-introduce myself and this show for the many new listeners that have joined in the last few weeks that might not have gone back to the old Podcasting Tech Coach intro show.
First off, Who am I?
I’m Mike Dell. Not the guy that started Dell Computer company, but the one who has been podcasting for 9 years on various shows. I am located in Northern Michigan and do my show from a squeky desk chair in the basement of a 1940’s log cabin in the woods along the shores of Lake Michigan.
I started my first podcast, The Benzoid Report, (named for the county I lived in at the time called Benzie) in Summer 2005. I started it using a $10 headset mic with my old Dell laptop. It sounded awful! (at first) but got better with time and experience. If anyone has copies of the first 40 or so Benzoid Report podcasts, let me know. That podcast is still around at Mike Dell’s World and is over 200 episodes now. I don’t do that one too much, but every once in a while when the mood strikes. (www.mikedell.com)
The second podcast that I did, I did with a co-host and it was called the Ham Radio Podclass. It’s where John Martin and myself helped people pass their US Amateur Radio (Ham) license tests. That one was very popular and we had 1000’s of people email us their new callsigns after they passed the tests. Due to the work involved with producing that one and the fact the FCC changes the question pool (and the subjects covered in the test every 3 years) we quit doing it. If anyone is interested in downloading the episodes, they are still available at http://geekofthenorth.com/ham-class-files/ for the Tech and General. Lots of good information there, but a bit outdated.
My wife and I did a podcast called “Strange Today” which was a daily podcast about strange history. We did it for a year. That was enough. I don't recommend doing daily podcasts unless you REALLY have a commitment to doing one.. Even if it’s short. Ours almost never went over 5 minutes, but was still a lot of work to keep going. That one is in the bit bucket.
I did another Daily , turned weekly called Aviation History today and then Aviation History this week. That is another one that I didn't save any episodes of.
I had / have a tech podcast called “Geek of the North”. I’ve podfaded it, but it still exists at geekofthenorth.com and it may come back someday. I’m keeping the site online in case.
I’m sure I’m missing a few shows I've done, but that’s the main list.
What makes me qualified to give advice? Well, it’s quite likely, if there is a mistake to be made, I’ve made it. If I didn't make it myself, I’ve helped other podcasters undo their mistakes.
For 5 years now, I’ve been the tech support guy for Rawvoice, Tech Podcast Network and Blubrry. I have answered 1000’s of questions from podcasters both about Rawvoice services and podcasting in General. I’ve also consulted with a bunch of podcasters to get them started in podcasting on my own. People pay me to get them out of trouble.
What is this show all about?
Well, about 2 years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to have a podcast about the technology of podcasting. The plan was to take the questions I was getting at blubrry/rawvoice and answer them in podcast form. It took me almost 2 years to get to episode 12. The problem was I wasn’t doing it my way. This show was never the official blubrry support podcast or anything like that, but it was too focused on tech issues. When I rebranded to The Podcast Help desk, I figured I would branch out more and discuss anything that has to do with podcasting that will help people learn about podcasting. Sure there are lots of podcasts about podcasting out there already, and they are great. I want to put my spin on it. If you notice, I have a very down-to-earth view of podcasting and a rather laid back style. I’m not going for the slick radio show type program.
How to get your podcast kicked off of iTunes (and other things that will tick off your audience or get you sued)
Before I start, I have to say. I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on the radio. Also, what I’m about to talk about applies to the USA. I’m not sure how all this works in the rest of the world. If you have any questions, please seek out legal advice from a qualified legal professional.
Patent troll story
The first part is about your rights as a content creator. You own the copyright to your creation as soon as you publish it. You don’t need to do anything to gain that copyright.
In the US, your copyright is in place just by the fact you produced some content. This just means someone can not copy it and take it as their own work. Of course you have to defend it if it happens. There are ways to make it “official”. I’m not up on that as I never saw the point for what I do. Maybe for what you do, it might apply. Seek advice from a qualified lawyer.
Back in the day… (I know, overused) a lot of podcasters used a creative commons license for their shows. That works too. I always say that this podcast is free to share and if you are going to try to make money on it, I want my part and give me credit for it. The creative commons license can be setup to do that. Again, I never really saw the point with this either for me. Your mileage may vary..
Sleazy Podcast Aggregators trying to make money off your content. There have been a few. As podcasting gets more popular, there might be more. Keep on the lookout and get ready with a cease and desist letter (email) if you don’t agree to it.
Things to avoid as a podcaster:
Music. Be sure to use only Podsafe music in your podcast. Podsafe music is just any music that you have secured the right to use in your podcast. You can get this in many places. I’ve gotten music from The Podsafe Music Network (music.podshow.com), http://incompetech.com/ (Royalty Free) which is where I got my intro music. I’ve also gotten music directly from the bands and promoters. If you are doing a music podcast you will likely be in touch with bands and promoters soon enough. I do a radio show on a local college station so I get emails all the time with tracks to play. On my other podcast, I’ve been known to play a lot of music also..
A couple of friends of mine have made deals to play licensed music in their podcasts. Brian Ibbott from Coverville has a deal where he pays royalties to the RIAA and others to play licensed music. (See coverville.com for info about that). Another friend uses “Taking care of business by BTO” for his intro music. He pays Sony (I believe) a small yearly fee to use that.
Just be careful. Fines can be HUGE from the RIAA if you get sued. If you are in doubt, don’t play it.
Trade Marks
Lately there has been a lot of activity with take down notices being sent to iTunes to have podcasts removed from the directory for trademark violations. Mostly by TV Networks and sports leagues (Like the NBA, NFL and MLB) So if you do a sports FAN podcast, be sure if you use the name of a team in your title, also use “FAN or UnOfficial” or something of that sort to make sure you are not seen as official. You should also put that in the content of your website and your audio/video.
Your cover art needs to NOT have any sports team logos or league logos in it. A lot of podcasts have been taken off iTunes lately because they used the MLB logo or a baseball team logo. Daniel J. Lewis has a post on Audacity to podcast about this right now. Audacitytopodcast.com
iTunes Explicit tags
Although not exactly a legal issue, make sure you set the explicit tag for itunes if you are going to talk about anything “adult” like Sex, LGBT issues or just plain cussing. IF you don’t, and you talk about that kind of thing, iTunes will de-list your show. Along the same lines, if you are on Blubrry.com,
This week I’m going to answer a bunch of different questions that have come up over the last week or so.
Q: My RSS feed looks funny. I want it to look good like a web page.
A: An RSS feed is supposed to look funny! :) It was never supposed to be looked at by humans. Feedburner (back in the day) tried to make it human viewable and they did a good job. But as I always say: You don’t need feedburner to podcast and don’t worry how you RSS feed looks. Worry about how it works.
RSS feeds are the lifeblood of a podcast. The format of the feed tells directories such as iTunes and others how to present the information. The important things are the tags in the feed. There are iTunes tags and other tags that give feed readers and directories the info they need to populate certain areas such as title, RSS2 image and so on.
The best way to look at your feed and to verify that it will work is first to look at it in firefox. Firefox also does a sort of feedburner type thing when it comes to displaying a feed in a more human friendly way.
The second thing is to use FeedValidator.org. Even though this site hasn’t really been maintained, it is a good way to make sure things check out correctly. If your feed checks out, you will get a Congratulations!
This is a valid RSS feed.
You will also get some recommendations. You can ignore most of this as this is where feedvalidator shows it’s lack of updates. If you are using powerpress (as you should) it will complain about the Ravoice Namespace… Ignore this.
Other things that can cause feedvalidator to fail your feed is the iTunes order tag. This is where you can have iTunes put your into episode at the top of the listing so people will hear this one first no matter how many other podcasts you have. Feed validator doesn't know about this tag and will say your feed is invalid. Ignore this as long as it doesn't have any other problems showing.
Q: I’m just setting up my Wordpress / Powerpress website for podcasting and when I try to validate my feed, it comes up 404.
A: This is quite normal. A 404 error means “page not found” or more accurately, file not found. The way powerpress and wordpress work is that they generate the feed on the fly. Instead of a static feed (like I use here) the feed doesn’t get “written” until someone asks for it. If you try to go to a feed with no items in it, there will not be a file there or will there be a file generated. You have to have at least ONE podcast episode published to your site before the powerpress podcast-only feed will be there. If you have posted your first episode and the feed still comes back 404, then double check that you have the right feed address. If you do, make sure you have your podcast media file in the post correctly.
Other things that can mess up your feed are other plugins or your theme.. To troubleshoot, deactivate ALL plugins other than powerpress and change to the stock Wordpress theme. IF the feed comes back, go to your normal theme.. If the feed is still there, turn on your plugins one by one until the feed goes away again. That will be the one you need to delete or find an alternative for. Also, it’s a good idea to email me (mike [at] Rawvoice.com) so we can troubleshoot and see if there is a workaround for that plugin working with powerpress. We have been lucky so far, there has only been a few that have caused problems like that.
Q: I’m moving my podcast to another site. How do I move the RSS feed that everyone is subscribed to from the old site to the new site?
A: As with most things, there is more than one answer to this one.
If you are moving from one website you own to another one you own, a 301 redirect of the old feed to the new feed. (listen to episode 14 for details on a 301 redirect). One thing is you need to move all the posts from the old site to the new site before the 301 is in place and relink the episodes to your media on each post.
This is show # 16 for April 25th, 2014 - Podcast Statistics and the top 10 ways to grow your audience
Today I’m going to answer a couple of questions to do with stats and growing your audience.
Q. What is the best way to track how many people have downloaded my podcasts?
A. Get free stats at Blubrry.com :) or, if you are hosting at libsyn, upgrade to their stats package if your plan doesn’t inculde stats. Even if you are at libsyn, you can add free blubrry.com stats (or premium stats if you want). I believe podtrac also does free and paid stats. Not sure on that one..
Q. My google analytics (or other webstats) say that my mp3 was accessed 30,000 times, but my media stats only say I had 302 downloads? What Gives??
A. Web stats are not designed to measure media files. The way media files are served (called byte range requests) cause the file to be requested multiple times per play or download which register as a “download” or a “hit” to webstats. Media Stats such as blubrry and libsyn take that into account and know that even though a file gets 30 requests from the same IP address while downloading or streaming the file, it only counts that as one. It is a much more accurate measure of the number of downloads. If you are going to have advertisers, it’s much better to tell them the truth about how many downloads you have rather than inflating the numbers. If you tell and advertiser that you get 12,000 downloads when you only really get 1000, they will think that even with 12,000 downloads, we are only getting the results for like 1000. It make everyone in this space look bad.
Q. Feedburner says I have 200 subscribers, What does that mean?
A. You should, by now, know my feelings about using feedburner or any other 3rd party feed services. BUT, I will try to explain this one anyway. The “subscriber total” that feedburner reports is of little or no value.
What Feedburner reports to measure is “subscribers”. What I would think that to mean is how many people, using feedreaders or iTunes, are subscribed to your podcast RSS feed. What it really measures is how many different ip addresses “hit” your rss feed in a 24 hour period. It can vary wildly from day to day. It might give you a very rough idea, but it’s just that a rough idea. Also, if you are using feedburner, you have a base feed that is feeding feedburner. Some, if not a significant number, of people could be getting your podcast directly from your base feed. (likely the feed from your website) It’s even worse if you use a captive host such as Blog Talk Radio, podOmatic or TalkShoe because these sites also submit your “podcast” feed (from their site) to itunes and other directories. SO, your feedburner stats will be less accurate and not catch everyone.
To switch gears a bit. I get this question a lot….
Q. How do I grow my audience?
A. This is a BIGGIE… There are a 1000 ways to promote your podcast and even more ways to NOT grow an audience.
Let me start with The top 10 that will help you gain listeners.
Be yourself. don’t try to be the big-shot radio guy (or gal) and make it seem as though you are Broadcasting to the little people out there. That is unless you are a broadcaster :) The great thing about a lot of podcasts are their authenticity. If you seem fake, people will pick up on that and will not be long-term listeners. Be patient, it takes time. Communicate with your listeners. Try to learn the names and a little bit about as many listeners as you can. Always answer your email, twitter, facebook and other forms of communication. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Just in last weeks show, I had an editing error that caused my voiceover lady to talk over me while I was talking. I didn’t catch it until after the episode was published. I decided I wasn’t going to fix it. For two reasons.. The first one was I didn’t want to have a bunch of you download the episode again for a little mistake...
This is show # 15 for April 18th, 2014 - Podcast Workflow at PHD
Today I am answering a question from Mark.
Mark Writes: “I am just thinking of starting a podcast and would really like to hear what goes into the production of your podcast. What software, hardware and workflow do you use?” I am going to answer your question step by step. I start out a few days before I record with an idea of what I’m going to cover in the next episode (most of the time). I begin by creating a document in Google Drive with the show name/number. I then paste in any questions I have received relating to that topic. This will be the basis of my Show Notes for the episode. I don’t really use it as a script. Just sort of an outline (which is mostly good enough for shownotes).
As far as equipment I use, I record mainly into my computer. I have a 27” iMac with Adobe Audition. I have a Mackie 1202VLZ3 mixer, Audiocom Pro XL Compressor, Limiter Gate. Hooked into that is my Heil Pr40 mic on a boom. To hook that to the computer, I use a griffen iMic for the Aux channel (the sound effects if I want to go live to the harddrive) and I use the line input on the mac from the mixer’s output. I also plug the second output (the tape out) on the mixer to my Roland R-05 digital recorder. I use that as a backup recording. As a lot of people will tell you, you shouldn't rely on your computer because if you do, you will, someday, lose a recording. If it’s just you, that isn’t so bad, but if you are recording an interview, you may not be able to re-do it. I would say 90% of the time, I don’t need the backup recording and I delete it after the episode is released.
Here is where I do things one of two ways… I can, and sometimes do, record live to the hard drive. This is an old podcasting term for recording as if the show was a live radio show. Putting in the intros and other sounds in as you go so that when you hit stop, you are done. Very limited post-edit needed. The way I get the intros in is via that griffen iMic hooked to the mixer on another channel. I use a program called SoundBoard (for Mac) that I can load up my spots, music and whatever. It plays out the iMic and into the channel on my mixer and gets recorded on the computer and the recorder.
The other way I do it (and this is most of the time) is record segments. Then in post edit, put in the intros, outros, ad spots and other things in post-edit. Either way is good and I have it setup both ways.
In setting up the compressor, limiter, gate, I only use the Gate portion. This is the reason you don’t hear anything when I’m not talking (or playing a track from the Soundboard program). It cuts the mic off at a certain level. It keeps the room noise off the recording when I’m not talking. This works well in a moderately noisy room, but will not sound right if there is too much noise in the room. Recording levels are also something you should watch for. I record at -12 to -6 db peaks. Then when I process the file, I add a little compression to the finished file and boost up the level to -3 on the peaks. This is the level that most radio stations (other than NPR) use for voice. The music on music stations sometimes pushes -0 on the peaks.
I edit (if needed) in Audition. You can use Audacity (a free cross platform audio editor) and encode my mp3 at 96khz @ 44100hz sample rate. (not quite CD quality which is 128khz). This keeps the file smaller and I don’t think anyone is going to notice on a voice only file. You can even go as low as 64 if you are tight on space for hosting.
Once I have the file done, I take it into iTunes to write the ID3 tags. I made a playlist called “edit” and I drag it right in there. Right click on the file in itunes and select Get Info. I fill in the “info” tab and the “Artwork” tab (uploading my image to the file)
Once I close the window, I am done and I upload and post the episode in wordpress using powerpress.
This show brought to you by Blubrry.
This is show # 14 for April 11th, 2014… iTunes Revisited
Here we go again!
I get a TON of iTunes related questions so I’m going to revisit what iTunes is when it comes to podcasting. How to get your show listed. How to KEEP your show listed. How to make your listing say what you want it to and other issues with the #1 place people find and listen to your podcast.
Q. I uploaded my latest episode today and it’s not in iTunes.
A. The iTunes store listing and what appears in your feed are two different things. People that subscribe to your feed in iTunes will get the new episodes as you post them but the listing at iTunes can lag by a few days (or up to a week or so) behind your feed. There is no way to automatically tell iTunes that your feed is updated since they have removed their ping podcast feature. If you think there is a problem at iTunes please contact Apple Support at podcasts@apple.com
Q. How do I get my podcast to show up under XXX keyword in search on iTunes?
A. SEO on iTunes is a bit of a mystery, but, as near as I can tell, it works about the same as Google SEO but you have to wait longer for it to improve. Also, Apple gives more weight to shows that get a lot of subscribers. The best I can tell you is be patient and make your show title and description keyword rich like you would for google and bing.
Q. When I upload my episode to itunes……
A. No you didn’t! Stop it! … You do not UPLOAD to itunes. It is done by your RSS feed. You upload you show to your media host and you make a post on your website (if you do it the way I suggest) and your RSS feed, feeds iTunes and all the subscribers using iTunes.
AGAIN!!! YOU DO NOT UPLOAD ANYTHING TO ITUNES… STOP IT!!
Q. My show description / image / host name/ etc… won’t change. I changed it 2 weeks ago and it’s still the same as it was.
A. Apple takes it sweet time updating things like show information, Cover Art and Host info. Be patient. I’ve see it take up to 3 weeks to update things. On the other hand, I’ve seen it take less than 3 hours in the case of Podcast Help Desk a couple of weeks ago. As long as your feed looks right, iTunes will update. It does seem that putting out a new episode will help speed up the process. Also, the more consistent you are, the quicker it will update things like that including your next episode.
Q. Can I track how many people are subscribed in itunes?
A. No, not really. You can not really track “subscribers” to your RSS feed or in itunes. You can, however, with Blubrry and Libsyn stats, figure out a rough guess. The more important stat is downloads. I will have another show focusing on stats soon, but the answer to the question is no..
This show brought to you by Blubrry.com Media Hosting….
Use the promo code nobs for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com
The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
That will do it for this session. The Podcast Helpdesk is now closed until next week.
If you would like me to answer your question, please email your question to podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com or use the speakpipe “Leave a voice comment” tab on the website. You can also tweet your question using the hashtag #podcasthelpdesk.
I’m Mike Dell. Catch me next time!
This is show # 13 for April 1st, 2014… No Joke!
This is the first “rebranded” show, now called Podcast Help Desk.
Today I’m going to tell you how I rebranded this show including the website address, RSS feed, iTunes listing and everything. Step by step.
First thing I did is get the new domain name. PodcastHelpDesk.com. I use Godaddy to get my domains and host my websites, but you can do this part using any registrar and host I’m sure. I had podcastingtechcoach.com going for a year or so and wordpress, powerpress and all my other plugins were installed and configured. Instead of starting from scratch, I decided I would just re-use the site I had and re-name it.
Once I got the domain name, I went into the hosting part of godaddy and pointed the new domain name to the same directory as PodcastingTechCoach.com. At this point you could have typed “podcastingtechcoach.com’ or “podcasthelpdesk.com” and you would get to the same place. (once the change propagates) It’s called domain forwarding in most hosting control panels.
The next step I did was to install a plugin called “Static Feed”. I configured it to take my powerpress feed (/feed/podcast/) and make it an xml file called Podcast.xml and put it in the root directory.
I then made a 301 redirect in my .htacess file. Example below: RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^feed/podcast/ http://podcasthelpdesk.com/podcast.xml [L,R=301]
What this does is make sure that if anyone hits the old feed which was podcastingtechcoach.com/feed/podcast/, it forwards it to the new feed at podcast help desk. It also tells iTunes and anyone subscribed in other programs, that the feed is changed permanently and to change where they look for new episodes.
Stitcher is a bit different. If your show is listed on stitcher, you need to go in and manually tell it about the change. Just login to your partner account and edit your listing. It’s not too hard.
Blubrry and Tech Podcast Network. Both of these will pick up the change sooner or later, but I would (and did) go in and update it manually.
In my case, it took iTunes just 1 day to pick up the change. Your mileage may vary with itunes. I’ve seen them take up to 3 weeks to pickup a 301 redirect. I suppose they are getting better.
After all that I went in and did the rest of the rebranding on the website. Changed the title, tagline graphics and colors. This would also be a good time to change the theme in wordpress if you wanted. But be careful! Some themes do not play well with podcasting so be prepared to check things out before pressing on.
Other things to think about is if your show has Twitter and facebook accounts. You will want to start new ones or rename the ones you have. Since this show isn’t really about social media, I will leave that one up to you.
This show brought to you by Blubrry.com Media Hosting….
Use the promo code nobs for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com
The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.
Tip of the week:
This is more for listeners than for podcast producers. I’m sure most of you are listeners as well.
Say you want to get a list of all the podcast feeds you listen to so you can subscribe on a new device or new podcast catching program. If you are using iTunes, just go to the podcasts area on your computer and right click on the title and select “Copy Podcast URL”. Then you can paste it into a doc or into your other program. If you want to get them all in an OPML format (Which most podcast catchers can use) Go to the View menu and make sure you have the sidebar on. Once it’s on, right click on the word “podcasts” in the sidebar and click export. Then choose the format of the file you want. Save that to wherever you would like and you can email it to yourself so you can put it on your iphone, ipad, android tablet or phone. The OPML works with most podcast apps including the Apple P...
As I talked about in the last episode, The Pocasting Tech Coach is being rebranded. It's now the Podcast Help Desk. I'm going to focus more on answering your questions about podcasting. The whole subject of podcasting and not just the technology.
Over the next few weeks, I will be working on the total rebrand. New artwork, new intros and everything!
Look for the name to be changed in Stitcher, Blubrry, Tech Podcast Network and iTunes over the next little while. I will also be doing an episode about how to change your feed address with all these places.
Until then.. Happy Podcasting!
-Mike
Today I took a road trip to demo my Mobile podcasting rig. My rig consists of a Roland R-05 recorder, An XLR to 1/8 mini stereo cord and the ATR 2100 Mic.
I will also be "Rebranding" Podcasting Tech Coach soon. Don't worry, if you are subscribed, you will get the new rebranded shows.
Get 30 days free when you signup for Podcast Media Hosting at Blubrry.com. Use my promo code nobs or just click the links below.
Blubrry Podcast Hosting: http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=nobs
Blubrry Professional Statistics: http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-download-statistics/?code=nobs
Today I covered several topics and even a rant of sorts.
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Where should I host my website / Media? - Blubrry Create Podcasting Manual Hosting
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iTunes (again) - iTunes Podcasting Specs
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Your RSS feed is the life-blood of your podcast... Own it, protect it and try not to make it so complicated.
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Buzz, Hum, Cracking and popping audio (not my voice :) )
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Be nice to your Tech Support people! The word ASAP! should never be in your first contact with Tech support. Also, GOOGLE is your friend!! Use it! If you are going to podcast, you WILL have to learn something or pay someone to learn something for you.
Podcast directories / Apps We talked about iTunes last week. But, if you don’t know how to submit your podcast to them, just go to your iTunes app (on a computer) and then in the store, find the podcast section and click “submit a podcast”. Give them your RSS feed and that should be about it.
Windows Phone / Zune / ?? Microsoft - Email your podcast info to Rob Greenlee at v-robgr@microsoft.com
Blackberry Podcast App - http://rimpodcast.quickplay.ca/rimpodcasting/
Stitcher Radio - http://www.stitcher.com/content-providers
Tune-in - Submit an email to broadcaster-support@tunein.com and be sure to give them the Name of your Podcast, a description, and your show’s RSS feed.
PocketCast - Submit an email to hello@shiftjelly.com and be sure to give them the Name of your Podcast, a description, and your show’s RSS feed.
Doubletwist - Submit an email to support@doubletwist.com and be sure to give them the Name of your Podcast, a description, and your show’s RSS feed.
Blubrry.com - http://www.blubrry.com Roku, Boxee, GoogleTV, Samsung and other set top boxes.
TechPodcasts.com - http://www.techpodcasts.com (Tech related shows only and you have to be approved before your listing will show.) Also, they have a TOS agreement.
Miro - http://www.miroguide.com/accounts/login/
http://mixlr.com/ Also MAYBE, you can get your show in the I Heart Radio app.
Propodder top 50 podcast directories - http://propodder.com/2011/10/top-50-podcast-directories/ Rob Welch’s Directory of Direcories - http://podcast411.com/page2.html Podcasts about Podcasting from Dave Jackson at School of Podcasting - http://podcastsaboutpodcasting.com/
Welcome to the REBOOT of the Podcasting TechCoach show. I’m Mike Dell. I’ve been podcasting since the beginning of time…. Well, since early 2005 really…
Today I’m going to talk about what iTunes is and how it works. More importantly, what it is not. But first the news…
Garage Band 10 looses it’s enhanced podcast features http://www.macworld.com/article/2060742/garageband-10-review-logic-light-is-a-great-tool-for-musicians-sorry-podcasters-.html
Most people do not use the enhanced podcast features. What that is, is chapter markers and images that show up on an iPad, iPhone or ipod (and some web players) during an audio podcast. I never thought that enhanced podcasts were worth the trouble. I think that Apple came to the same conclusion. This doesn’t mean that you can not use Garage band to make normal MP3 podcasts. I’m sure it’s just fine for recording as it always was.
Will Frank Zappa Save Podcasting? http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Column/T.0/Will-Frank-Zappa-Save-Podcasting-92954.htm
Looks like Frank Zappa might have come up with “podcasting” before the Patent Trolls at Personal Audio. According to Marc Maron, who interviewed Moon Zappa (You know, the Valley Girl from Frank’s Valley Girls song and Franks Daughter) says a fan, reading Franks Autobiography, found where Frank figured out a way to distribute content via phone lines. Hopefully, this will be just another example of prior art that can be used by podcasters to defend against these lawsuits. Podcast Awards Voting ends today (November 15th) The 9th annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards voting ends today at 9pm eastern time. I guess this isn’t ‘in time” news, but I’m just re-starting this show. Anyway, congrats to those shows nominated and I will be watching the awards presentation at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas on Sunday Jan 5, 2014. To check out who was nominated, go to podcastawards.com Now for the meat of this episode…….. What is itunes really? iTunes is an application that people have on their Macintosh and Windows PC. It is also a store from Apple to sell you Music, Movies, TV shows, Apps for your iThingys. For our purposes, it’s one of the main ways people still use to find and listen to podcasts. It’s not the only way and it’s not even the most used way anymore. Other apps have come along (including Apple’s own podcast app). The good news for us is that if you get your podcast listed in iTunes, it’s also listed in the Apple Podcasts App and some other apps for both iOS and Android that use Apple’s directory API’s for their list. So, in a nutshell, it’s important.
It’s not a place to “Upload my podcast”. It’s not a feed and it doesn’t generate a feed. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ITUNES FEED! I repeat, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ITUNES FEED!. The only thing called a feed in podcasting is your RSS feed. We will be talking about feeds a lot in the future, but when it comes to itunes, just don’t forget that iTunes is not a feed or even a type of feed.
How iTunes works… For podcasting, iTunes has 2 parts. The first part is your show’s listing. This is kind of like a webpage inside of the iTunes store. In fact they do have a webpage for every show listed on top of your listing page inside the store. This is good for SEO. The listing webpage for your show looks just like the listing page inside the store so they are really the same thing. You show will be listed in iTunes after you have submitted your RSS feed to iTunes and they have approved it. To get to this point you have to have at least one episode in your feed already and when you submit it, you must have your media hosted on a server that will deliver your media properly. I could go into the geeky bits about how the server is configured. What this really means is you have to have a real media hosting account and/or a really good web hosting account. We will go in depth about media hosting in another show.
I have been missing in action. There will be new episodes starting in the first part of April. If you would like me to cover a topic, drop me a line by either recording by clicking the speakpipe wiget at the left side of the site, or by emailing me mike@mikedell.com
Talk to you soon!
-Mike aka Your Podcasting Tech Coach
Today I play an excerpt of Todd Cochrane's Podcasting Awards announcement (found here if you would like to see the whole video).
Todd went though the stats on the shows that were reviewed for this year's Podcast Awards. There were some very interesting stats about how people setup their website.
You will also find some familier advice (Did i say that before?) :)
Anyway, catch you next week!
-Mike
Before I go into feedburner, a bit of news about it. Google Announced a year ago, that the Feedburner API was going away next month. (Oct 2012). Does this mean feedburner is going away? Maybe and maybe not. Just something to think about.
Feedburner started in 2004 as a feed management service. Back in the day it was the easy way to add all the tags that iTunes needed for podcasting (after itunes started doing podcasts in their iTunes store). It was started by Dick Costolo who is now the CEO of Twitter.
In 2007 it was acquired by Google for $100 Million. Google quickly made the stats and “my brand” service free.
What does feedburner do?
Feedburner basically takes an RSS feed and “burns it” What that means is it adds all kinds of things to the feed to make it compatible with feed readers and other services. It also redirects your feed from an unformatted XML file to a Web-friendly page with subscription buttons at the top of the page. So if someone goes to your feed with a web browser, it doesn’t look like Gibberish.
What about podcasting?
Back in 2005, when podcasting started, there wasn’t an easy way to edit your RSS feed (XML file) so you either had to write your own using a text editor and hope you got all the tags just right, or you could just write a simple feed and let feedburner do the tags for you. This is now known as “Smartcast”. This allows you to have a very simple feed that you redirect though feedburner and then feedburner formats it for podcasting in iTunes and other services.
Reasons NOT to use feedburner....
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Feedburner is a 3rd party service. Yes, it’s owned by Google, but, it can (and will sooner or later) shut down.
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You do not OWN your feed if it’s on feedburner. It’s owned by feedburner / Google. Now, most of the time, Google will allow you to redirect or download any content you might have on a service they have shut down (such as WAVE and BUZZ). and WHEN (Not if) they shut down feedburner, they will likely to do the same. There is a redirect option now that I’ve been testing and so far it’s working on a couple of feeds I had there from way back. I will let you know how long that works and if I had any trouble.
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Branding. You want all your URL’s to be your brand. You paid for your domain name, you might as well use it. Instead of feeds.feedburner.com/mypodcast/ You can have MyPodcast.com/feed/podcast/. Much better to have your own domain. You can setup feedburner to use your domain, but it’s cumbersome and of little use if the service goes away.
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Feedburner basically hasn’t updated anything in at least 4 years and maybe longer. It doesn’t take into account, changes in the RSS2 specs, and more importantly for podcasters, itunes changed podcast specs.
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Their stats service is of little or no use. All they track is hits on your rss feed. One week they will show that you have 1000 subscribers and the next 200. Trust me, neither one of those numbers is close. What you want to track is downloads of your podcast files.
Reasons to USE feedburner?
Only one I can think of. IF, as we discussed last week, you HAVE to use a free or cheap podcasting service, you should use feedburner to make sure you own (at least a little bit) of your feed. But as I said before, this is only if feedburner stays around.
There is an email subscription service attached to feedburner that is kind of cool, but with all the disadvantages that feedburner has, I would use something like MailChimp or Awebber. There are lots of mailing list services out there.
Question of the week:
Q. I am using blubrry powerpress on my wordpress blog for podcasting. My blog’s name is not the same as my podcast show name but my Podcast only feed does have the same name. How do I change the name of my podcast feed without changing my blog’s title?
A. In blubrry Powerpress, you need to enable podcast channels. This is at the bottom of the main powerpress settings page in your dashboard.
“Free” podcasting services
Free podcasting. Is there such a thing? Well, in a word.... Yes... BUT!!!! Not really...
Over the years since podcasting started, there were several “free” podcast hosting and total solution podcasting services that have come and gone.
Today, there are some services out there that are “free” podcasting sites. They do it all for you. You either upload a podcast that you record or you record right on the phone. Some of them even let you take callers and live stream. Sounds cool doesn’t it? Well, it is sort of. The problem with all of these services is that they OWN your content. It’s hosted on their website, they host the RSS, they put in the the iTunes listing for you. If you are not a paid member they even put ads in your content for you (and you don’t get paid). On top of that, the sound quality stinks! There isn’t a better way to say that...
http://www.talkshoe.com/ http://www.buzzsprout.com/ http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ www.podbean.com
In reality, it doesn’t cost too much start out right. Instead of starting out on a free service and then realizing you want to stick with podcasting and having to go though a big pain in the rear to switch.
The same can be said for paid services. Some of them will hold your feed captive. What I mean is they will have your feed submitted to iTunes (and other directories) and when you quit paying them, not only do all of your episodes go away but your feed goes away. They will not redirect it to another feed so your subscribers are just left hanging and you have no way to tell them the new feed.
Services like Blubrry.com and Libsyn.com can do everything for you and if you want to change later, they will put in a redirect for you. Places like podbean will not.
This week’s question comes from someone with the problem we have been talking about.
Q: “My podcast is hosted on Podbean and I want to move to blubrry.com and my own wordpress site. How do I keep my subscribers?
A: IF the service you are on will do a redirect, have them redirect your RSS feed to your new feed once you get it setup on wordpress. In this case, because I know that podbean will NOT redirect and since you haven’t made the move yet, we can save most of your subscribers. Or at least the ones that are really engaged with your show.
- DON’T Cancel your podbean account yet.
- Get your wordpress / powerpress site setup and your blubrry hosting setup.
- Post your show in BOTH places but in the version you put on Podbean, put an announcement in the beginning and at the end that says the show has moved and after X date, you will no longer get new episodes on this feed. If you are hearing this announcement you need to re-subscribe at (give website address) *** Make sure you have a big SUBSCRIBE message at the top of your page for the people that come over from hearing your podbean episode.
- Post in both places for at least 4 episodes (or 1 month)
- Submit the new feed to itunes and other directories using a slightly different title and description
- After itunes accepts your new show listing, go in and change the title and description of your new listing and click on “report a concern” and select Out of date on your OLD show listing.
- Delete your podbean account.
It will take several weeks or even months, but at some point, itunes will delete the old listing and you will be free of podbean. (or whatever other captive service you were on)
There are free “podcasting” type things that I like to compare like blogs are to twitter, these services are like twitter for podcasting. Kind of a social micro-podcasting thing.
These are AudioBoo and iPadio. These are kind of an addition to your podcast if you choose to do it and shouldn’t be your MAIN podcast.
If you would like me to answer your question on the show, call in a voicemail at 702-757-1104 or click on the voicemail tag on the side of the website.
PTC 004
iTunes Listing VS. A subscriber in itunes
iTunes started supporting podcasting in June 2005 with version 4.9. Once that happened, podcasting took off! iTunes can get very confusing when you upload an episode to your media hosting provider and it doesn’t show up in your itunes STORE listing. By the way, notice, I didn’t say UPLOAD TO ITUNES.
The term “iTunes” can mean 3 different things.
- iTunes the Application that you have on your computer
- iTunes the store on the internet that your iTunes application uses for you to discover music, video and apps (and whatever else they sell there)
- iTunes the server where music, movies and apps are stored (but NOT podcasts)
The way the itunes APPLICATION works on your computer is you find a podcast in the iTunes store, you click ‘subscribe’ and it then sets up a listing in the podcast section in your music library. The last episode will start downloading. You will also see all the rest of the episodes in the feed you just subscribed to. You can click the “get” button next to an episode and download that one also. You can click “get all” to, well, get them all. At this point you are subscribed to the RSS feed of that podcast in iTunes. You are NOT however downloading those episodes FROM itunes. You are downloading that media from that person’s media host server. From now on, your itune application on your computer only talks to the feed you subscribed to. Not back to iTunes store. Your itunes app will check that feed every so often and when something new shows up in the feed, it will download it for you and have it ready the next time you plugin in your idevice or want to listen on the computer in the iTunes Application.
Your iTunes store LISTING is totally different then the RSS feed coming from your website. The listing will reflect what is in your RSS feed the last time iTunes checked it. This is where it gets a little weird. iTunes (the store) will check your feed every so often. I say “every so often” because there seems to be no rhyme or reason for when and how often they do this. On some podcasts, they do it within an hour. Others it takes a few days. The nice thing is, and something you need to keep in mind, that even if the store listing doesn’t have your latest episode in it right away, your subscribers will get the newest one. AND, if you have a new subscriber they will get it too. The last episode listed in the store listing isn’t necessarily the last episode. (since it’s looking at your rss feed instead of what itunes has listed in the store) In other words, don’t worry so much about it.
Now, if you have some sort of feed problem, itunes may stop pulling your feed for a while. It could be 2 weeks or a month before they try again. If your feed is fixed by the next time, they will update your store listing based on your feed. If it’s still screwed up, they won’t. After so long they will pull your listing all together. SO it’s a good idea to check it 2 or 3 days after you post a new episode just to make sure things are working. Also, it’s good to go to FeedValidator.org after you post and make sure your feed still ok. This will prevent itunes from getting stuck.
A little editorial about itunes...
A lot of podcasters nowadays think that if they are in iTunes, that is enough. On average, my podcasts get downloaded in iTunes only 40%. SO, the rest of the time, people either listen on the website, though blubrry.com, Techpodcsts.com, android or IOS apps and more. So the importance of iTunes isn’t as great as some think. It’s still important, but just don’t think of it as the be-all-end-all of podcasting. They are a good place to discover podcasts, but more than 50% of your listeners (or viewers) will get your content in some other way. So it’s very important that you keep your feed in good shape.
I had a question about feeds and itunes just the other day from a Client of Blubrry.com
The question was: “Why is it that my itunes listing ...
Configuring Wordpress for Podcasting with Powerpress
Listen to the new intro I have this week.. cool huh? That was provided by Greg Rempe from the BBQ Central Show.
Today I’m going to talk about how to fully setup your wordpress site for podcasting using Blubrry’s Powerpress podcasting plugin. I will go through the steps you NEED to take to get the basic podcast RSS feeds and a few little tricks I’ve learned over the years for best results.
I do plan on adding a screencast demo soon of this process. Look for that in the coming weeks.
Last week we installed wordpress. How did that go? Feel free to ask questions that we can go over on the show here.
Now that we have the basic wordpress installation online we are ready to get things ready for podcasting. At this point, I wouldn’t worry about how things look. You can work that out over time.
Listen to the show for details! (I will post better shownotes here soon)
Catch me Later!
If you have any questions or comments, email me mike@mikedell.com or call the voicemail hotline at 702-757-1104 and I may include your question on the show.
Setting up your website and where do you host your media files
If you are going to start a podcast, you need a place (or places) on the web where your podcast website and your media will live. I recommend using a self-hosted wordpress site as the base for your podcast.
Wordpress is the most popular system for blogging. There is such a thing called Wordpress.com which is a free blogging system hosted by wordpress itself. The company behind wordpress is called Automatic. Automatic does the hosting and you end up with an address like http://mypodcast.wordpress.com You don’t want this so forget about wordpress.com for podcast website hosting. The best way is to use Wordpress.org. Wordpress.org is the open source version of the same (well mostly the same) software that is used on wordpress.com. With your own installation on your own domain name, you have much more flexibility to have the design look the way you want it. There are many other advantages of this that I am sure we will talk about in future episodes.
Setting up your own wordpress site is easy nowadays with MOST web hosting companies. Today I will focus on 2 of the most popular web hosts. Godaddy and Bluehost. (Disclaimer, i have an affiliate relationship with bluehost and if you buy though my link, I get a commision. You don’t pay any more, but it helps the me out)
Godaddy hosting is somewhat easy to setup. They have this thing called “Hosting Central” and when you login to your hosting control panel there is a link to hosting central. With Godaddy, you also have to buy a domain name (which is extra). Once you have all that all you have to do is find wordpress in hosting central and click install. You answer the questions that come up and in a half hour or so, your wordpress site will be ready for you to configure for podcasting.
Bluehost uses a thing called Cpanel. This is a very common interface for a lot of web hosting companies so if you are using someone else, the procedure should be about the same. The nice thing about bluehost is that the domain name is included in your hosting plan. CPANEL uses a thing called “simple scrips” to install wordpress. Same as godaddy, it will install and configure your site by asking you some questions and then just putting it online. One word of caution, do not install wordpress in a folder. IF it suggests a folder (on both Godaddy and Bluehost) just blank it out. Install wordpress in the root of your domain. This is, of course, assuming that your podcast will be the main thing on your site. If you need it installed in a custom place you might want to hire someone to do that for you. (Plug one on one consulting here:) )
The next thing is Themes. There are 1000’s of free themes out there for wordpress. They will make your site look just about any way you want it to look. There are paid themes also. These are much more configurable than the free ones in most cases. I use one called Thesis on podcastingtechcoach.com. It costs about $70 and it very customizable. You don’t HAVE to pay for a theme if you can find one you like in the free themes area. To check out the themes go to your dashboard in wordpress hit appearance and then Themes and “Install Themes”. You will get a search box and a whole lot of options to find the theme you are looking for. You can install one from there. Another word of caution, some themes will cause issues with your podcast feeds and on site players. It’s not common, but can happen.
A word about Media hosting:
Yes, you CAN just upload your mp3 to a folder on your website hosting account and it will work..... UNTIL you get popular. Once that happens, your website will be competing with media downloads and will become VERY slow on these cheap shared hosting plans. The hosting plans are great for a website / wordpress blog but were never meant to host large files for download. This is where you need a dedicated media hosting account. Yes, it is another expense,
Today I’m going to talk about getting your first episode recorded. What steps you have to do to make your first episode a good one.
Podcasting Tech Coach is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network, find this and many other family safe and work safe tech related podcasts at techpodcasts.com
Today’s episode is brought to you by ME. Mike Dell, your podcasting tech coach. To hire me to help you one on one, visit geekofthenorth.com/coaching that’s Geek of the North dot com slash coaching
8 Steps to make your first episode a good one.
- Get your mic, mixer, software and everything setup in advance. (Show zero anyone?)
2 Relax! You can re-record as many times as it takes and you can edit if you want. This is not like Radio or TV. Don’t be nervous.
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Have your subject outlined. If it’s a free form podcast, have at least and idea of what you are going to talk about.
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Make sure you press “Record” and test out the audio levels before you commit to recording the whole episode.
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Set your environment. Quiet, phone off, dogs fed and happy. It’s a lot easier to NOT have to “fix it in post”. The best way to record is get it right the first time. (or the final time)
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Don’t be overly picky either. As long as the audio is decent quality and you don’t sound like you're nervous, put it out there. Everyone’s first episode sucks when compared to their 20th episode.
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LISTEN to your recording. Make sure something didn’t go wrong before you publish.
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Have Fun! That is what this is all about. If it’s not fun, you won’t continue to to do it.
Next week, I’m going to tell you what steps I use to get my wordpress site up and running (just like podcastingtechcoach.com). What plugins you will want, a little about themes and what plugins you don’t want.
If you would like to help out the show, please consider using my bluehost link on the right sidebar of the website at podcastingtechcoach.com for some prime shared hosting.
Also, if you are going to buy anything at amazon.com, please click the banner at podastingtechcoach.com and then do your amazon shopping. This will give me a little kickback and will not cost you any more. Just one more way to help support this show.
Today’s show is show zero. Why would you need a show zero and what does it do for your new podcast?
I will go into that and do a little introduction of myself and my past in the online new-media world of podcasting. I will also tell you what this podcast will be about.
Why Show Zero?
Podcast episodes are distributed by a internet protocol called an RSS feed. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. People subscribe (For free) to the RSS Feed in what is known as either a feed reader or a podcatcher. The most popular one is Apple’s iTunes application (and now the IOS “Podcasts” app). There are many other podcatching programs and apps out there that we will go into on a future episode, but the main thing is the RSS feed.
To get your show listed in the iTunes store and other podcast directories you need to have an active RSS feed WITH enclosures. Enclosures are an mp3 file or video file that is a podcast episode. You must have at least one enclosure for itunes or any of the others to list your show. Doing a show zero does this so that when you launch for real, your show is already listed in the directories.
Please hit the play button above or better yet, subscribe to the podcast at http://podcastingtechcoach.com/feed/podcast/