School of Podcasting - Podcast Tips to Plan, Launch, Grow Your Podcast

There are a number of things you need to be successful in podcasting. Great Content Great Sound Great Promotion Great Attitude No matter how great your show sound, and how much you promote it, without great content, it won't succeed. No matter how great your content is, if it is painful to listen to, or you have to constantly adjust the volume, nobody is going to listen. No matter how great you sound, and how great your content is, if you don't promote it, your growth will be slow. Without a great attitude, you won't be able to handle it when things don't go according to plan. You have to be able to roll with the punches, dodge the trolls, embrace constructive feedback, celebrate other's success, and remember to always serve your audience. It is easier said than done. Jump Starting Your Year There are a number of people who can help you launch a great year. Michael Hyatt has your best year ever. John Lee Dumas can get you where you want to go in 100 days with his Freedom Journal (and yet I bought a copy).  Today we have Tarun Stevenson of  leadcommunicategrow.com is hear to help us keep our attitude in check, and to make sure we set realistic goals. Avoiding Burnout When you lose hope its a very dark place to be and want to quit. Business without purpose can lead to you throwing in the towel. We look at where we want to be, and then look at where we are, and instead of feeling gratitude for what you have, you get discouraged. You have to value your current situation so your attitude can stay positive and allow you to make it to the next step. An App that Dave has been using is Gratitude Journal . Take A Look At Yourself Look at last year and figure out what worked, and what could be done better. What experiences help you grow more? When we develop small habits they can lead to giant success. Goals Be sure to have specific goals, and make sure the goals push you out of your comfort zone. Make sure they are realistic. Instead of focusing on the goal, focus on the actions that will lead to achieving the successful goal. Instead of focusing on our stats, focus on the actions that will lead to more downloads. Anything of value takes time and effort. A garden of weeds takes no time or effort. Your successful podcast will require time and effort, but it will be worth it. Becoming a Person of Influence Operate with integrity Help other people, and deliver value. Listen to people, and be interested in other people. Follow Tarun on twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn Details Goal Setting & Free Audio Teaching on the 15 Laws of Growth www.leadcommunicategrow.com/growme   Mentioned in this Episode How to Influence People: Make a Difference in Your World (John Maxwell) John Maxwell Books at Amazon You can also get a free John Maxwell Audio Book when you sign up at Audible. Alternatives to Recording Skype On the Ask the Podcast Coach show this week we were joined by Josh of Zencastr.com and this is a great tool that allows you to record NUMEROUS guests and all your guest has to do is click a link to join. When the call is done, their file is uploaded to Zencastr. You get a copy of each person's file, and a combined version. There are popping out of the woodwork. I also just heard about www.epishow.com/ which is basically the same thing. Both are free, with Zencastr almost ready to come out of beta and start charging. Omny Studio Media Hosting I want to upload a file and have it come down the way I uploaded it. I want a media host to support me, and provide stats. Omny studio is different as they have some of the features are radio specific. They do have some unique features as you can edit in the cloud. You can upload your intro and outro and record your podcast with your phone and it will splice the intro, your content, and your outro together. The bad news is there are no ID3 tags. While 70% of podcast listeners may not notice they are missing, anyone listening to your podcast in iTunes on the desktop will notice the lack of information (and you look like a hack). If you care, they also rename your file. They charge $9 a month for unlimited uploads and downloads (which is a disastrous business plan), and provide basic stats. There is a free plan if you want to kick the tires. I did an in depth review on my blog with a video. Ready to Launch Your Podcast and Get into iTunes?Mentioned in this episode:Can You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards2025 Audience Survey

Today's episode is a special "Dual Episode" as Dave and "The Real Brian" from Profitcast take on the subject of what is needed to make money with your podcast. We got together to talk about three bullet points: Abundant vs Poverty Mindset 8:10 Identifying the type of client or listener you want 23:50 Invest in yourself and value yourself. 29:31 In the process of going into these bullet points, I expanded the talk to include a discussion of looking at our podcast. There are two sides of podcasting Podcast is the wild, wild West - and you can do WHATEVER you want. You need to focus on delivering value to your audience. So this leads us into uncomfortable places as we love to be encouraging, but we need to be honest and let people know that podcasting does require work (especially if you're trying to deliver value for your audience).  If your show fails to deliver value, then nobody will buy your service either. How to Overcome Negative Podcast Mindsets If you take the time so that you KNOW you are delivering value, then you are confident in your content. If you are "guessing" that your audience will enjoy/grow your content, then your confidence is not as solid. How to Identify Your Listener There is no easy way around this, and it will probably get tweaked over time. You need to go out and meet your audience. This can be online, or in person, but you need to go meet your audience and make sure they exist. When you talk to people and you hear what they need, then you can deliver the best content. How To Invest in Yourself My first piece of advice would be to turn off the television. Television delivers very little value when it comes to helping your podcast earn money (unless you're watching Shark Tank, or The Profit). There are many ways to do this that require no money: Taking time to read blogs Going to Meetup Getting books from the library Watching relevant video on YouTube All those things can benefit you in your understanding of your content, your market, and help keep you focused. There are tons of different courses. If you find one that you feel fits your needs, then take the course, and throw yourself 100% into it. Don't purchase another course, book, CDs, DVDs, until you finish that course and put those strategies into action. Ready to Start a Podcast? Check out www.theschoolofpodcasting.comMentioned in this episode:2025 Audience SurveyCan You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards

I recently was very concerned when I saw a video from a company call Glycast.com It stated, "“It’s a new approach to podcast advertising. This is how it works. You give us your podcast feed, and we give you a new one to distribute to your audience. ”" I could tell by the video that the person was more of a podcast listener and not an actual podcaster. I didn't think he was out to hurt podcasters. But I could see where there was a chance for people to get their RSS feed hijacked with now way to get it back if Glycast went out of business. This video explains it all. So my first reaction was to tell everyone the house was on fire, and to be careful. My second reaction was to contact the company and get their side of the story. I was BLOWN AWAY when I got this response. My name is José Pablo Fernández, I live in London, I started coding when I was 7 years old, I also started my first business around that time. I worked for Google some years ago. For the past 4 years I been running a startup I co-founded, first as CTO and then as CEO: Carousel Apps. This company is launching Glycast. I co-founded Hear a Blog, a podcasting-related product, some years ago, and we got selected and Seedcamp Paris finalists. In my video for investors I talk more about my background: https://carouselapps.wistia.com/medias/pv06qw6ap5 We have the core tech for Glycast but not everything, so, we'll build whatever is required for both parties to be happy. We want both parties to be happy, so, if you are not and you want to leave us, we won't stop you. If you require us setting up a redirect of your feed to another system, we'll implement that feature and everybody will have it. I'm thinking of actually recommending people of using Feedburner, so as to have a setup such as this: main rss -> glycast -> feedburner -> audience You give the feedburner RSS to your audience and while Glycast is there, then you have ads, if one day you want to move away, then you just switch your Feedburner account to read directly from your main rss like this: main rss -> feedburner -> audience and voila. You don't even need the redirect. Nobody will notice any difference at all. Depending on what systems people are using we may also develop plug ins. For example, we can have a WordPress plug in that makes your feed look like if it was serve from Glycast, with the ads, but on your feed on your own server. That shouldn't be that hard to implement. About who is on your show? Do you mean about which ads are played and which ones aren't? I'd love to implement something like that. It'll probably be something like this: if you don't approve any ads, then all ads are approved, if you approve enough ads to take care of your inventory, then only those ads will appear. If there are not enough ads, we'll send an email with an alert. Those ads pay for our hosting and bandwidth so we can't run without ads for long periods of time, but I don't want any podcaster ever to be unhappy about the ads they are getting. About how much money, I don't know yet. The market will define this over time. I could look at the current expenditure in podcasts but since our model is quite different, it doesn't really apply. When you buy ads in a podcast today you are most likely buying that spot forever, while with Glycast, the spot keeps passing around from advertiser to advertiser over time. Eventually, I think we'll have a bidding system, similar to Google's Adsense, so that the pricing adjusts over time automatically. About the video. I'm not here to harm anyone. I'm here to make a product to help podcasters and advertisers connect, be more efficient. I'm building whatever podcasters will need to be happy. I understand your worry and your desire to warn your audience that might not understand RSS distribution and make a bad decision now that will cost them a chunk of their audience later on. That's not something I want to do and I wouldn't be happy with any company holding an audience hostage like that. I do want to work with you, and other podcasters, to make sure I meet your needs of an excellent platform that will help monetize your podcast, whatever your size is, whatever your topic is, and focus on your craft, on what you love, on podcasting. I'm an avid podcast listener, consuming more than 20hs per week of podcasts and every time someone announces they are going off the air because they need to focus on other things to pay the bills it makes me sad... and whenever I look at my feed and I see all the podcasts that silently stopped putting out updates it makes me even sadder. If the problem is funding, I want to help. What amazed me was why this information was not on their website. José has a great resume, and with some insights into who and what I'm looking at, my fears are much less. Future Podcast Related Companies: Listen Up We've all worked hard to build our audience, and the last thing we want to do is create something that will make them jump through hoops, or damage the quality of our content. It's is ALL about the content. I don't want to put a Home Depot commercial in my "Teen Mom" podcast. I want to know who you are and why I should do business with you. I want to know WHERE you are, as they may effect support. If you anything that adds to my process, I want the ability to leave your service with zero effect to my audience. Don't try to charge me $30 for something that takes 5 minutes. We are not stupid. We all talk to each other. You mess with one podcaster, you mess with the community. If you mess up, admit it, say your sorry, and explain the steps you've taken so that it won't happen again. Lastly, if you are designing a product for podcasters - you might want to talk to us to see if we even want your product. The $57 Dollar Interview Guy Shares His Story 17:10 When I first heard that Aaron Janx was charging $57 to be interviewed on his show. If you have him on your show then he charges nothing. I thought, "Wait, a guest is bringing their content to YOUR show, if anybody is getting paid it should be the guest. After all, no guests - no show right? Well not completely, but my original reaction was this was a bunch of crap. If you've never read it, there is a great book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Habit 5 is Seek to Understand before being Understood. You can get the book for free when you sign up at Audible. Aaron got flack for having the word "War" in his title. No his show is the Aaron Jax show. Aaron's show is about how to win the War of Success. Winning those little battles in your life to be successful. Some people don't want to answer the questions as we get into the nitty gritty. There are some motivational talks on the show as well. Check it out at www.socialspurs.com as well as in iTunes Here is a Screen Shot From Aaron's Listing on RadioGuestList.com In the interview we hear that: Aaron has done hundreds of interviews and had a large amount of people who would not show up (no call, no notification). He asks people that approach him (people he doesn't have a relationship with) to pay $57. This way they are more than likely to show up. Some might say they have "Some skin in the game." He found that people offer to come on the show, and then disappear. This is a tremendous waste of time. Aaron is not trying to earn a living from his guests, but basically trying to weed out "the men from the boys." Aaron shared where John Lee Dumas is charging $700 to appear on his Entrepreneur on Fire podcast, so this is not a "new idea." The person who sent out the $57 to be on the show (the ad above) has been sacked. Cancellations ranged from 30 - 50% of the time Aaron was also assuming his guests would promote their appearance (and they often don't - Check out Jared Easley's new book Stop Chasing Influencers which explains how Jared had tons of "big" guests - but it didn't turn into subscribers. Scheduling Tools Schedule once starts at $5 (but you probably want $9) Calendaly.com is $8/month Appointlet is $15 a month and allows you to charge Bookly is $46 (once) it's a Wordpress Plugin Live365 Has Left the Buidling Live365 (a streaming provider - traditionally for music) tried to get into Podcasting, and stories have now surfaced that they are all but done. This is partly due to fees going up on Licensing music. Full story is here. If you want to create a streaming version of your show, I use Abovecast. I have found people don't listen as long (about 5 minutes) so I make snippets and point people to my website. Much like a podcast has to be listed in directories (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn) so do streaming channels. Here is a default (boring) default page. Free Poddcast Editing If you are done with cutting out "ums" and want to just create content and let someoone else handle the editing, check out www.podcastmechanic.com I'm ready to take on a few clients. Ready to Start a Podcast? In today's show you hear how Marcy Rosenbaum had an idea went out and bought some equipment (bought the wrong microphone) and was just lost. She purchased some one-on-one consulting and her show was in iTunes in a few weeks. Schedule your coaching call today. If you'd rather go "Self-paced" check out the School of Podcasting. Join risk free with out 30 day guarantee.Mentioned in this episode:Can You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards2025 Audience Survey

in no particular order) 01:25 Exponent - the nuances of tech strategy - Submitted by Max Flight of AirplaneGeeks.com, TheUAVDigest.com, and PaxExPodcast.com 2:48 Up In Your Business - brings in inspiration to help you to create a business - Submitted by Chris Lewis of www.dadspotlight.com 4:33 School of Podcasting - All Things Podcasting - Submitted by Craig from inglespodcast.com and 08:06 Kenn from blackmanwithagun.com 09:53 Ask the Podcast Coach - Your Podcast Questions Answered - Submitted by Dan Lovallo from http://headlinehistory.libsyn.com/podcast 11:18 We Choose Respect - Teaches kids to be respectful - Submitted by Erik K Johnson from www.podcasttalencoach.com 13:35 You Must Remember This - Golden Age of Hollywood - Submitted by Emily and James of www.classylittlepodcast.com 16:40 Canada Land - A deep dive into the media world in Canada - Submitted by Francis McGrogan from www.standcurious.com 19:10 The Mentee - surround yourself with heavy hitting mentors - Submitted by Gretchen from www.alwaysalesson.com 20:10 Learning Leader - focuses on leadership in every field - Submitted by Gretchen (Schultek) Bridgers from www.alwaysalesson.com 20:40 Duncan Trussell Family Hour - have a good laugh every once in a while - Submitted by Harry Duran of www.podcastjunkies.com 21:56 Mat Men - I love wrestling and this network - Jeff Bradburry from www.teachercast.net 22:30 The Morning Stream - a great mix of humor, news, music, pop culture - Submitted by Jeremy Denise of transmissionspodcast.com 23:33 Bowery Boys - New York City history - Submitted by Jessica Bailey of www.funkyfitnessnow.com 24:34 Art of Manliness - Great advice for Men - Submitted by John Overall of Wordpress Plugins A to Z 26:18 Finding Christ in Cinema - tease out the bits of movies that relate to Christ - John Wilkerson of www.thewiredhomeschool.com 28:10 Grit and Hustle - full of interviews with startups who've had overcome all kinds of obstacles - Submitted by John Livesay of www.sellingsecretsforfunding.com 28:47 The Ferderalist Radio Hour - They talk politics. They talk policy. The host is is absolutely brilliant - Submitted by John Tsarpalas of www.commonwealthy.com 30:38 48 Days to the Work You Love - shows tough love to his listeners and doesn't sugar coat things for them - Submitted by Judy Graph of www.farmandranchcountry.com 32:04 Snap Judgement - great stories, music behind it, the history, and other off the wall stuff - Submitted by Ken Kastler -of www.bountifulproductions.com 32:55 Steal the Show - the most unorthodox marketing program - Submitted by Kim Kracji of www.onthetablepodcasts.com 33:53 Mac Power Users - their recommendations have never steered me wrong - Laura McClellan of www.theproductivewoman.com 36:30 Mad at Dad - If you're married and if you have kids, you probably go through the same thing - Chiaki Hinohara of www.metalmoment.com 40:19 $100 MBA - - the perfect combination of book smarts and street smarts - Submitted by Michel Nelson 0f www.byhyu.com 41:35 Art of Likability - educational podcasts that are also entertaining - Submitted by Michel Nelson 0f www.byhyu.com 42:45 Stacking Benjamins - interesting stories around the finances - Submited by Steve Stewart of No Debt, No Credit, No Problems 44:44 Writing Excuses - really gets deep into the craft - Submitted by Maya Good of www.literaryroadhouse.com 45:50 Podcast Talent Coach - amazing information that has really helped me improve my show - Submitted by Steave Stearns of  www.outsidehealthandfitness.com 47:43 Security Now! - information that comes out is very timely and relevant to my day job - Submitted by Rich Warfield of www.loudpipes.net 50:05 Tim Ferris Show -  He interviews top performing people from all different categories - Submitted by Scott Johnson -of Computer Tutor and Ultrafinishers 52:03 99% Invisible - Talks about all the obscure, unique things - Submitted by Sharon Marrel of www.uuperspective.com 53:25 Daily Tech News - excellent technology information that I find extremely interesting - Submitted by Al Holtz of thelastshippodcast.com & learntoselfpub.com 55:01 Thomas Jefferson Hour - life through the eyes of Thomas Jefferson - Submitted by Terry Noorda of discoveringamerica-history.com 56:05 New Media Show - Great Content You Can't Get Anywhere Else - Submitted by Dave Jackson (me) Have a Great 2016 Thanks to everyone for a great 2015. I look forward to watching the growth of podcasting in the future. If you'd like to have episodes of the School of Podcasting show up on your iPhone go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/itunes and subscribe today. If you're on an Android you can Subscribe on Android. If you'd like to get the show notes delivered to you for free, sign up for our newsletter. Check out Dave's Books More Podcast Money My Favorite Podcast 2014 My Favorite Podcast 2015 Join the School of Podcasting www.theschoolofpodcasting.comMentioned in this episode:Can You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards2025 Audience Survey

Because of My Podcast the Creator From the Blacklist Gets Interviewed on Podcast Troy produces numerous podcast, but today he is talking about the Blacklist Exposed podcast he had the creator of the hit NBC show contact Troy on twitter and ask to come on the show. While he was on the show he made announcements that were then used in Press Releases that had all the press releases pointing at Ttoy's site theblacklistexposed.com Tory point out that: The Creator of the Show Called THEM. It took three seasons (it didn't happen over night). Make great headlines. Evaluating Your Podcast Year My stats are basically flat from the start of the year to the end of the year. I had a bit of an upswing in the middle of the year, and I'm up a bit from last year (kind of following the trends of podcasting up about 3%). Here are some things you can look at: See what episodes were downloaded the most See what episodes had the most comments See what pages had the most visit (check your Google Analytics) See what got shared the most ( I use Social Warfare for this) Then look at what didn't do well. You want to do more of what seemed to resonate with your audience and less of what didn't. Seems obvious, but without a time to evaluate what is working you could be going deeper into the wrong direction.   Top Ten Episodes of 2015 The Journey of Podcasting Starts with a Single Episode- Profitcast's The Real Brian Taking Phone Calls On Your Podcast What to Do If You Can't Pick a Podcast Topic What Podcasters Can Learn From David Letterman Podcasting's Most Frequently Asked Questions Making a Living Talking about Horses - Glen the Geek is Never Boring Audio Technica BP40 - Electrovoice RE320 - Audio Technica ATR2100 USB Microphone Shootout Jeff Brown Shares 26 Years Of Experience Behind the Microphone 8 Ways a Stranger Can Help You Grow Your Audience   Honorable Mentions The Most Addicting Social Platform Ever What Every Podcaster Should Know About Stalkers Is Soundcloud A Legitimate Option for Podcasting?   New Tools I Started Using this Year Intelliplayer is a great tool that allows you to add calls to action to YouTube Videos, as well as get more stats than you get in Youtube. Convert Kit  - A great email marketing tool that gives great insights into your email subscribers Nimble - This is the tool I use to keep in touch with the members at the School of Podcasting and Consulting Clients Social Warfare - Sharing buttons on steroids for Wordpress. Simple Podcast Press - For me, the best "Advanced Player" out there. The ability to add an email sign up form AND any button I want, makes it a no brainer. Cover Genie Pro - Makes great covers, ebooks, and a whole lot more. *Note some of those links are affiliate links. Tools I Will Stop Using Soundcloud.com It may be cheap, but I'm getting zero return for my money. Lead Pages - Great tool, but the tools I'm using it for (squeeze pages) I can do with Convert Kit. I was going to use their lead digits, but I then realized that I would be marrying myself to the service as my phone number would be in my old episodes. The One Thing Other things I've noticed looking back at this year is a pile of training materials that I never went through. I bought them to "watch later" and then went on my ways doing things in a manner that I'm sure could be more efficient. I've used Asana for years. It's a great free project management tool. I've never really mastered the software and its capabilities. This will be the first thing I work on in 2016. Get organized and then identify the ONE THING that I will do next. I've heard about the book The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results on how you should pick the NEXT thing that you will be working on and do it. Then the next, then the next. All the while making sure yo are only working on ONE THING. Don't Forget to Celebrate the Accomplishments While I could look at the things that didn't work this year (podcasting for free proved -as I thought - to be a bad experiment), don't forget to look at the things you tried that worked (using blab.im for Ask the Podcast Coach has really made that show fun). By focusing on my next meal, I've lost over 20 lbs in the last three months. Check out apps like the Gratitude app, or the Way of Life apps to help keep you focused and engaged. In Between The Stats While we can focus on the download numbers, and the amount of revenue we generate, this week showed me my greatest asset. My audience. After many years of therapy and making each other miserable, my wife and I dissolved our marriage. I wasn't looking for a pitty party when I announced it on Facebook, but the support that flooded in via email, voicemail, etc was baffling. I felt like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life." I've had numerous pep talks, and some great conversations. I'm as fine as one can be in this situation. I'm waiting for the dust to settle, but I'm looking forward to a much more quiet future. While I've now been married twice (and for all purposely, my last), I have no children. I have ex-step children who I do miss, but nobody will be carrying my genes. Again, not looking for a pitty party, but just stating the facts. I have always felt like podcasting was a calling. It just fits me like a glove. It allows me to be creative, to teach, to help, and to use technology. It scratches every itch there is to scratch for me. So I look forward to creating deeper connections with my audience in 2016. I look forward to being focused, and finding more effective ways of getting the word out about the School of Podcasting. I look forward to serving you as we move forward. Ready To Launch Your Podcast? Join the School of Podcasting and get instant access to step by step tutorials, a private Facebook group, and "office hours" webinars where you can get your question answered live in addition to email support. If you're not happy within the first 30 days, I'll refund your money. Sign up at www.theschoolofpodcasting.comMentioned in this episode:2025 Audience SurveyCan You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards

Creative Ways to Get Your Advertisers to Promote Your Podcast Glenn made quite a splash when he was on the show earlier this year (it's the most shared episode on the site). 7:02 "Glenn the Geek" is America's Horse Husband and founder of the Horse Radio Network recently had a special holiday program where they streamed live for 12 hours. Here are some stats: 12 Hours Live20+ Hosts30 Scheduled Guests including Charlie Daniels, Robin from Disney World, Monty Roberts and American Pharoah Trainer Bob BaffertCrashed live feed during Bob Baffert, everything else worked all dayOver 100 listener voicemails with songs, poems and holiday greetings.200 calls during the day (Not all got on air)Gave away $3,000 in prizes including $1000 Grand Prize17 Sponsors Strategies For Doing a Radiothon He started planning months in advance when he was face to face with the sponsors. Sponsors who won't sponsor on a weekly basis, may be interested in doing a "one off." (who later turn into a weekly sponsor). Glenn uses Callinstudio.com to take phone calls and streams via mixlr.com He put it in the contract that the sponsors had to publish the radiothon on their Facebook page. He utilized relationships to get great guests. Glen says "It's not who you know, it's who knows YOU." He got his audience involved who sent in songs, poems, shout outs and more (it took 20 hours to edit together). They got Charlie Daniels by using the contact form on their website. They had a title sponsor who was mentioned every hour. Another advertiser sponsored the email section. Other advertisers were tied into give aways. Results of Horse Radio Holiday Radiothon He mad 50% of what he makes in a month in ONE day. It was a lot of work. He picked up new sponsor who decided to sponsor this one day, are now sponsor weekly. Proof You don't have to have huge numbers to sell advertising. You have to have huge numbers to sell to Ford and Chevy. For more information about the Horse Radio Network check out www.horseradionetwork.com Podfest Event 29:55 Podfest is in February at Tampa Florida at podfest.us For the 2nd year in a row, Podfest is the gathering place for long time podcasters, new podcasters and those who are thinking about starting podcasts.  It's a special forum that brings you actionable and strategic education, unique opportunities to connect and collaborate with your fellow podcasters and speakers and access to the best podcasting resources out there! Use the coupon code earlybird before the end of the year and get $100 off. Because of my Podcast: Glenn The Geek 2:10 Glen mentioned a kickstarter program for a product that fit his audience. Glenn mentioned them on his show, and they were able to meet their funding target (with one audience member giving them $1000) and now that product is sponsoring Glenn's show. Brian From Profitcast Brian was asked to moderate a panel and interviewing the actors of his favorite TV show. I'm a Verb! 38:27 On Profitcast Brian has now made my name a Verb. As in "I'm going to Dave Jackson this..." (meaning I'm going to interrupt a voicemail to talk to the person). Streaming Radio Stations Live365 has a new tool for Podcasters to Create a streaming radio station. They are charging $89 but you get unlimited listeners. Their system is easy to use and more complex than a system using the Centova system (I currently use Listen2myradio). I do like the way you can drill down and see where people are coming from, and they have a system in place for you to make money with your stream (at the rate of $2 for every thousand ads that are played on your station). You can also make money with having people sign up to be a VIP. It's interesting, but I'm not sure the average podcaster will chip in $89 for all the bells and whistles when you can $37.50 for 50 listeners. On my live streaming station,  over the last 30 days I've had 66 listeners with the highest number listening at the same time of 10. Mentioned on this Show thepodcastdigest.info Callburner Hindenburg Journalist Software Launch Your Podcast Check out http://schoolofpodcasting.com/become-a-member/Mentioned in this episode:Can You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards2025 Audience Survey

The Podcast That Has More Audience Participation Than Any Podcast I've Heard Rob Walch is the VP of Podcast relations, but he started off 11 years ago as the host of Podcast411. In 2007 he started the then Today in iPhone (later changed to Today in iOs to include the iPad) and Rob has more audience interaction than any podcast I've ever heard. Here are some things I noticed about his show. Rob mentions and ASKS for feedback and provides his email address and phone number many times through the episode. He states it, and moves on. He gets his community involved by asking them to contribute original music and artwork He offers them free apps from developers looking to promote their app to their target audience. He offers objective viewpoints (he's a fan boy, but realizes integrity easy to lose, and hard to come by) about Apple products. He uses his sponsors so he can talk about them first hand. When someone sends in feedback he religiously refers to this person by name. He reminds his audience that he is "going back to the mail bag" to remind them to e-mail in their comments/questions He doesn't pretend to know it all. If he doesn't know it, he throws it out to the audience to answer (and they do). He uses a Google community (with 2500+ members) to community outside the podcast He uses the same segments for each show, and yet every show is different due to news, apps, and upgrades. So you know what to expect, and still have no idea what to expect. Every episode is served with a side of snarkiness. Rob is sarcastic and that is the part that I love about the show. His segment "How wrong were they" is always good for a chuckle. I play a small "behind the scenes" conversation I had with Rob back in January of this year when we were talking "Twitter bombing" 1:10 Because of My Podcast I'm on FM Radio - Mike Dell from Podcast Help Desk Mike Dell from Podcast Help Desk explains how his podcast lead to him getting a job as a regular on a local Radio show. Find Mike at podcasthelpdesk.comMentioned in this episode:2025 Audience SurveyCan You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards

Increasing Your Podcast's Audience Engagement With Better Calls To Action We love our audience, and we want to connect. We want them to take steps to deepen their level of engagement. We want them to take actions. These often include: Subscribe, Rate & Review in iTunes Follow us on Social Media Join our Email List Buy products Shop At Amazon and that's just a few. Determining Your ONE Call To Action Your call to action will be unique to you. We all have different needs, and different motives. There is no one size fits all, but in the end you need to STOP and THINK, WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THIS PODCAST. Them figure out the roadmap to get your audience from point A to point B. If you are in podcasting "Just for fun" you probably still want people to tell their friends. That is a call to action. Now if I was to honest here, I would say I want everyone to join the School of Podcasting. I need to look at this realistically. This may be the first time you've been on my website, or heard my show. That seems a bit forward don't you think? You don't ask someone to marry you on the first date, so you might not want to close the deal on the first contact with you audience. The cool thing is it is YOUR call. You want to ask someone to marry you on the first date, you can do that.  But you might be less intimidating to have them sign up for your email list. From there you have another opportunity to provide value. Notice what I said here, you have an opportunity to serve your audience. Figure out where you want to go, and the figure out how you're going to get there. It sounds easy, but you might find it difficult. The bottom line is you need a plan. Tips For Creating a Call To Action As I said before, you need to figure out what you want your audience to do Be clear and concise Be repetitive if necessary Tell them HOW (sure you know how, but they may not) Make it E A S Y (don't make them hunt for buttons, or type insane website addresses) Eliminate competitive calls to action Explain how they will benefit (not how you will benefit) Explain exactly what will happen Explain why they need to do this now Remove the Fear. Try to avoid words that might seem much of a commitment. BUY NOW vs Add to Cart. Maybe we should be asking people "Get the back catalog" instead of "Subscribe." Explain how they can cancel at any time, and it is free. Place it in two places on your post. One near the top of the page ("above the fold" and once near the bottom). In the end, a call to action should convey value, and provide a sense of urgency. Because of my Podcast - Jeff Steinman Jeff explains that how launching a podcast boosted his book sales, brought him more traffic, and boosted his interview skills. You can find Jeff at howtoquitworking.com How To Quit Working: A Simple Plan to Leave Your Job for a Life of Freedom Podbean's CrowdFunding Platform For the sake of this argument, let's say that the bar is set at Patreon.com They are the first at an ongoing crowdfunding platform. Others have come and gone, and they are still here. Podbean (a media host) recently launched the ability to have crowdfunding. I went over to check it out. Here is what I found. It's easy to setup, but in some cases impossible to edit. With Patreon it's super easy to create a post (think of it like a Facebook Wall) and choose who can and can't see that post. I don't see that option. With Podbean you have a comments section that doesn't seem as robust. When I watched their video on this, I did notice that their example video shows that all the rewards are outside of the crowdfunding area (bonus content, newsletters). I have an email into Podbean for clarification. I noticed on their demo video someone asked the same question (how do I create a piece of content for a certain support level) and it hasn't been answered. Podbean does have some badges (something I wish Patreon would provide) that make it super easy to copy and paste and have them appear on your website. the one feature that Patreon has that Podbean didn't event mention is scarcity. In other words you could setup a reward amount and say "Only 5 people can be VIPs." I didn't see this as an option in Podbean. One of the issues I had with Podbean is not their fault. I was using Feedburner for the Podcast I setup. Feedburner (shocking) had a problem with the artwork. Podbean pulled this artwork (or lack thereof) and uses that in your listing. There is no place in Podbean to change that. With a properly working feed, I wouldn't have had this issues, but I had no way to edit it. After I updated the feed, the image never appeared. Like Most Humans - I Stuck With the Comfortable I have a Patreon account for the School of Podcasting and another one for the Ask the Podcast Coach show and I understand the Patreon platform. They also seem to be working on adding more features to the Patreon platform. Create Clammrs From Just About Anywhere Clammr has been adding features. Clammr is a tool that allows you to share up to 18 seconds of audio and put it on twitter, Facebook, email, etc. Anyone can listen to the whole episode, or like it and receive the details of the audio clip via email. Recently they announced the ability to integrate with the PowerPress player (something I will report on in the future), but they also had it easy to create clammrs by sharing an audio clip and sending it to clammr. In my testing it seemed to work a bit more reliably if Clammr was open already and then you went to your podcast player and clicked the share button. From there you will record your audio and be taken to the clammr app where you can fine tune it before publishing it to your clammr account. For more information go to clamrr.com and to here what people are clammring, check out the clammrcast top 20 countdown. Ready To Start Your Own Podcast?  Mentioned in this episode:2025 Audience SurveyCan You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards

I've been talking about your podcast from TOP to Bottom over the last couple of weeks. Sometimes its good to go back to the basics and reexamine our shows. The first week we talked about Headlines (the title of your show notes), and I provided a free guide with tools to help you write better Blog Post Titles. Last week we talk about the importance of your introduction and how it is your first impression. This week we are talking about the meat and potatoes of the meal. Your content. Because of my Podcast Jason Marshall Jason from the We Don't have Cookies podcast  tells a story that has lead him to get a job on radio, as well as appearances on television all because of his podcast. Be Part of Our Last episode of the Year Answer the question, "My favorite podcast is.." and explain WHY leave your answers HERE (deadline 11/31) I've mentioned the book [easyazon_link identifier="0849921902" locale="US" tag="sop2-20"]Secrets of Dynamic Communications: Prepare with Focus, Deliver with Clarity, Speak with Power[/easyazon_link] available at Amazon which is a great book for shaping your content. I've always said that before you press record you should ask yourself, "What about this topic is going impact my listener enough to want them to tell a friend?" If you can't answer that, then maybe you shouldn't press record. Here are some questions to ask yourself: Do I have a crystal clear objective about this topic. How do you get crystal clear about a subject? By knowing your audience and what they need or want to hear. What points do I need to make to obtain my objective? Don't worry about what they think about YOU, instead think about THEM. Get To the Point With Thanksgiving right around the corner when I to my Grandmother's house it was great seeing all my cousins, it was great smelling all the food, it was great eating crackers or whatever little munchies they had out out, but for the most part I wanted the TURKEY and HOME MADE MASHED POTATOES. It was the same at Christmas. My Grandfather would read the Christmas story before we opened presents (a tradition my brother continues). Then we had to sing some Carols. THEN, FINALLY we would open presents. Your audience is here for the presents. What do you have a hard time waiting for?Mentioned in this episode:2025 Audience SurveyCan You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards

Last week we talked about the importance of headlines, and I gave you a free resource to help you make better headlines. Now in Podcasting you headline is your "Show Notes" title. You can get the free resources at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/headlines Your Podcast Introduction People are busy. We hear activity like a badge of honor. How are you ding Bob? BUSY! I'm backed up. I don't get to take lunch. I'M SWAMPED! So with this in mind it is my opinion that your intro should get to the point quickly and answer the following questions: Who am I listening to? What is this? Why do I need to listen to this now? Get to the Punch Line? Put Yourself in the Shoes Of Your Listener When they do a search in Google, or iTunes, etc they see your information and they are asking: Should I listen to this podcast. Should I keep listening to this podcast? Will I come back to listen to this podcast Today I play intros from the following Shows The Podcast Report Podcast Producer 5 Minutes in Church History 317 Podcast Your Intro is Important Mark Ramsey said at the new Media Expo that unlike radio, every podcast listener starts at the beginning. Make yours count, hit them hard, hit them quick, and let them know what they are going to get. [clickToTweet tweet="Does your podcast intro move people to push STOP" quote="Does your podcast intro move people to push STOP"] Get Exposure For Your Show 26:45 November is almost over. Each year I ask you to answer one question. What is your favorite podcast and WHY. Be sure to tell us where we can find your podcast (and what it's about). I'm really interested to see WHY. You can record/upload your answer at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/favorite. There may be a prize involved...... Andrew Hellmich Refused to Podcast For Free - And it's Paying Off 27:48 Andrew Hellmich is from the Photo Bizz Exposed podcast (http://photobizx.com/) and does a podcast about boosting your wedding Photography business. Andrew launched a premium version of his show - when he launched. He knew the podcast would take time away from his business, and with a family to feed he couldn't podcast for free. The other thing Andrew does well, is provide value. He knows people will not pay for horrible content. In this interview you will hear: Andrew has hundreds of people paying for his membership He didn't start in the direction where he landed. He didn't wait to get it perfect. He launched and tweaked. His current strategy is to have 5 episodes available for free, and if you want access to the back catalog you need to pay Andrew $20 a month. Passive income is not always passive. Andrew has been podcasting for three years (this didn't happen overnight) You will hear how Andrew is not afraid to try new things. Andrew loves using Hindenburg Software to edit his podcast. Do You Need a Good Podcast Introduction? If you ever wonder where I got the female singers, or who did the intro to Andrew's show check out Music Radio Creative you get the top voices from all over the world, and years of experience. They can help you shape your message (for those who are marketing challenged). It's a great service. Ready To Start Podcasting? Join the school of podcasting and avoid the common pitfalls of podcasting. You will learn How to shape your topic What is the best equipment to choose (Without blowing a fortune) How to build your website (or resources to have someone else do it) How to record your show and get it into directories like Apple iTunes How to promote your show and get exposure You also get access to our private facebook group, and monthly  "office hour" sessions where you can get free consulting. There is a 30 day money back guarantee. If you join and are not satisfied, I will refund your money.Mentioned in this episode:2025 Audience SurveyCan You Do Me a Favor? Vote For Me!This only takes a minute, if you could go to www.podcastawards.com and vote for the School of Podcasting in the education category -it would mean the world to me. Podcast Awards