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

Today we have a quick show with some podcasting news. First we hear that Radio Industry blog Radio Survivor has named podcasting one of the most important radio trends of the last ten years. They state that RSS podcasts feeds made it much easier to index podcasts and create easily searchable online directories organized by genre [...]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

Where is Podcasting Going in 2010? Well I’m going to state the obvious. Yes iPods and portable media players are wildly popular, but after purchasing a Droid phone, I now see clearly how everything is going to end up on your phone. I’ve known this for years, but didn’t really “get it.” I used a program [...]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

Is podcasting for free a good idea?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

People always ask me “What is the best plugin for Podcasting.” Originally I said Podpress, but the develop got too busy (and probably tired of working for pennies) and abandoned the plugin. I love the 1pixle player as you can change the color of the player to match the theme of your wordpress blog. I've been a fan of Powerpress when it first came out, as they added more functionality (to tie it in with the blubrry.com network) I kind winced a bit (I loved it simplicity). However, recently updates to the powerpress plugin have made it my official plugin of choice. They added the 1 pixel player (and four others) to the mix, so customization is at your fingertips (and without a huge learning curve to figure out how). To me, this makes Powerpress, THE podcasting plugin. I still use Feedburner for my iTunes stuff, but I love the ability to have different players, and the ability to offer a download link, a streaming link, and a “Play in new window” link. I don't use Blubrry.com for hosting (nothing against it), but they do have some great tools to make things simpler. Todd Cochrane, Angelo Mandato and the crew at blubrry deserve a round of applause for listening to their audience and over delivering on what we wanted. Check it out at http://www.blubrry.com/powerpress/ Other Plugins I Use WordPress Automatic Upgrade is a great plugin. I know this is part of WordPress out of the box, but I like the plugin as it reminds me to back up my blog. WordPress Autmatic Backup is a great plugin that e-mails me a backup of my blog on a weekly basis. All in One Seo Pack is a tool that allows you to add additional meta tags, and customized titles to your blog. I like this plugin, it is easy to use, but it seems lately it needs upgraded about once a week. This is annoying. The upgrade simply takes you to the page in the plugin that asks for donations. Tweet Meme is an interesting plugin that allows people to “retweet” your blog post. They click the button, enter their twitter information and boom, they've retweetted and put a link back to your blog (through bit.ly if you want so you can keep track).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

On today's brief show, I explain how I took the name “Podcast Fast Pass” (say that out loud) from the “Fast Pass” idea at Disney Land (where you can legally cut in line). Well after a year or so, I finally changed the name as I had to over-pronounce the name every time I used it. My consulting service is not under Podcast Mechanic at www.podcastmechanic.com Which makes more sense to people. Everyone understands what a mechanic can do for cars, etc. and that's what I do for podcasts. I also revisit the “podcasting is dead” discussion. I do not have a feud with Leo Laporte. I just hate it when anyone says podcasting is dead as potential podcasters may change their mind about starting a podcast. Here are some new Podcasting Statistics On 9/24/04 a search for the word “podcasts” resulted in 24 hits. Now it returns 60,700,000 results. To bad Leo Laporte thinks podcasting is dead. I’m sure he’ll say it again at the blog world expo in a few weeks. Well a new report from Wizzard Media shows that podcast listeners are up from 15 million to 18 million. Here are some samples of that report: Wizzard Media (NYSE Amex: WZE), the world’s largest podcasting network, today announced that for the third quarter of 2009 the Wizzard Media Network saw total podcast download requests of 332 million vs. 287 million in the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 45 million. The number of podcast shows on the Wizzard Media Network grew from 11,600 at the end of the second quarter of 2009 to 12,281 shows at the end of the third quarter of 2009. Podcasters pay Wizzard Media to use its publishing platform and work with Wizzard to monetize their show through brand advertising and more recently, content sales (Apps). Adam Corolla got fired from radio (After replacing Howard Stern) started a podcast and never skipped a beat. To bad podcasting is dead. Oh wait, the same company that fired him is now co-producing his podcast and will help sell sponsorships. Carolla is averaging 130,000 listeners. In the third quarter of 2009 Wizzard delivered over 12.7 million podcast advertisements, its second-highest quarterly total on record and an increase of 130% from 5.5 million ads in the third quarter of 2008.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

How do you generate lots of traffic, and get people talking about you? You state in a conference from a podium that “Podcasting is Dead,” or you make a blog post that “Podcasting is Over” etc. Then all the podcasters get bent out of shape (and I count myself in that category) and we all stand up and say “NO IT's NOT.” So here I am saying “No it's not.” The interesting thing is Leo Laporte stated he was getting $70 CPM on this week in tech. Hello? Can you show a better example of how valuable podcasting is in selling to a niche? Radio is getting $15 – $40 cpm. -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

Should I Start a Podcast? Some people wonder, “Should I start a podcast?” and they wonder if they have the material. I am always amazed at the number of people who give away a free newsletter, but don’t turn that exact same material, record it as audio, and turn it into a podcast? As most of you know I recently got married and have three wonderful step-children. As I have never had children before I decided to read up on the subject and was advised to read “The Successful Stepfamily” by Ron Deal. So far I am very impressed with the book, and may actually lead a study of the subject at my church next year. I went to his website at successfulstepfamily.com and was surprised that while Ron had books, he was a speaker at conferences, he offered personal coaching, he did not have a podcast. Was it that he didn’t need the publicity? I typed “Stepfamily resources” into Google and did not find him on the first, second, or third page (so I stopped looking). While podcasting will not boost your Google rankings, it will boost your exposure to people who may link to your website which may boost your Google ranking. I contacted his company, and after some thought they decided not to go in that direction. What a shame they have great content. If you have a newsletter, and you have content that is worth people reading, that should be a podast. All you do is read the newsletter into a microphone (be sure to add some inflection so it doesn’t sound like you’re reading), write a quick blog post, upload and attach the audio to the post. Yes, it’s that easy. How much does it cost to start a Podcast? Most of my recommendations at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/equipment but if it’s just you recording its going to cost around $250. If you’re on a tight budget, about $125 to start, and an ongoing fee of $5-12 a month.  Meanwhile a membership at aweber.com (a popular email client) is about $200 a year. Why people think e-mail is better? The nice thing about email is you can get your reader one click away from buying your product (if your email promotes a product). The bad news about email is people get so much email. I can’t remember the last time I purchased something from an email. Don’t get me wrong, email is still the top way to communicate for a business. I just know more and more I’m going to my inbox, highlighting a number of emails, and pressing delete (before I even read them). But that’s just me.  In terms of getting your potential customer 1 click away, email does that splendidly. Give Your Content in the Format That People Want Movies are delivered on the big screen, then movies on TV, then VHS, DVD, now blue-ray and movies available for download. Why? Because good content is good content, but some people want to see it on a big screen, some people want to watch it at home; some people want to watch it on the go, etc. So instead of forcing your potential customers into a channel they don’t want, why not give the content in a format they will enjoy. What podcasting has over e-mail The first podcast I created was and is  for Musicians. Before it was a podcast it was a newsletter delivered via email. At one point that newsletter had about 1200 subscribers. I turned it into a podcast and it has around 800 downloads per episode (some higher some lower). However, as a newsletter only I think I sold about 2 copies of my book in a year. As a podcast I sell about 1 a month. Why? Because it has a tone of voice, and has made me more human. The podcast has enabled me to build a relationship with my listeners. If I travel I know of different cities where I have open invitations to stay at people’s houses, get tours of cities, etc as these listeners are more friends than potential customers. Am I going to retire on my 1 sale a month? Absolutely not, but I don’t do the podcast to sell books, I do it because I love the subject (and make more money via sponsorship of the podcast). However, don’t over look the fact that marketing via podcasting is more effective (from my chair). The Best of Both Worlds The good news is you can do both. You can use free services such as feedburner, and have people that sign up for your email list be notifed when you do a new post (with or without a podcast). Now you have your product one click away, and they have the ability to listen (or watch) you talk about the topic. The Bottom Line Podcasting allows you to reach a global audience that wants to listen/watch (not read) content. If you have content already (articles, newsletters, etc) that you give away for free you can distribute that for next to nothing and build a relationship with your readers. If I was Ron Deal I would promote my email list in your podcast (along with your speaking engagements, and how the new book was coming), and in the email newsletter I would promote the podcast. You can always offer exclusive content that is only available in that format to get them to sign up for both. Spoof Testimonial Thanks for Chris from www.fillupuripod.com for taking the voice over I sent him and turning it into a “spoof” testimonial. Hillarious.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

Here are my likes and dislikes of 2008 In 2008 I was glad to see the enhancements of great tools for podcasters. Wizzard put out their new player, and Paul Colligan and crew continue to add more features to premiumcast. I like the fact that in 2008 whenever I spoke to a group and ask "Who has ever heard of podcasting" almost all hands were raised, and almost as many when I would ask "How many have actually listened to a podcast?" That trend is continuing. I disliked that in 2008 my audience didn't seem to grow as fast as it did in 2007. It was a slower, gradually climb as apposed to 2007 which had more spikes. On the other hand I'm doing less to promote my shows. In 2008 Podshow changed their name to Mevio, and changed their payment plan to me. I can't discuss the details, but as I'm listing it as a dislike you can figure out how it affectd me financially. What I do like about Mevio is they have given me the potential to earn more money using their sponsors and my own in the future and I now own 100% of my show. So there is a mixed bag that will hopefully blossom. In 2008 I am sad to see and hear podcasters selling out for much less than they are worth. In many cases an advertisement will be in your show for life. I had one company offer to pay me 7 dollars for a link on my site. A link that had to be permanent, and more insane things that totally devalued my listeners and visitors to my website. While I have made decent money using affiliate marketing and podcasting, I am bummed that so many people want to use the CPM method which only works if you have mammoth audiences. Which leads to me one of my biggest disappointments In April I was told that Podango was working on fixing their show builder lite software that helps you create your podcast on the fly. Then if you get a new sponsor, the new sponsor is inserted into the back catalog. This is HUGE for people trying to sell advertising . While their system is easy, and if you have the time to republish all your old shows  - it work, but I'm frustrated that their system (which from what I understand was much more fragile than expected when they purchased it from Gigavox). I'm even more frustrated that no company has developed a competitor for the podcaster with a few hundred listeners, and would love to have a dynamic version of their podcast. I like that the uber-hype of podcasting has crescendo'ed to a bit and people are realizating that in the same way that VCR's didn't kill the movie business, Podcasting is not killing radio. People are starting to understand that Podcasting is a phenomenal channel (just like email, fax, and print) to get your message out to the world. It also is probably one of the most effective and cheapest. I disliked that when the economy took a hit that I had members of the School of Podcasting left. However, I did like that in the midst of the panic, more companies hired me as a podcast consultant to just "do it for them." While I don't own an iPhone, I am very happy people can download a podcast without even being near a computer. This is HUGE. My biggest dislike was having three websites hacked, and one gmail account hacked (that for the record I've know been without for 14 days) My biggest like was emailing, communicating, tweeting, with great people like you, and the members of the School of Podcasting. I recently updated all of our wordpres tutorials to show version 2.7 and in the process streamlined much of the learning curve at the School of Podcasting. If you've been thinking of signing up, now would be a great time. Don't forget about that coupon code SANTA to save 25% now through the end of the year. There will be no extension. I want to thank each and everyone of you for listening, and contributing over this year. I would deeply appreciate your feedback at dave "at" schoolofpodcasitng.com or call in your comments at 888-563-3228 or go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/contact for the many other ways of chiming in with the podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts on 2008. Comment out at the blog, and let me know. Speaking of that, I will be taking next week off and I will be switching my feed from one website to another. Now the good news is 99% of you have subscribed to my feedburner feed and shouldn't notice any change. All I'm doing is switching the original RSS feed (which came from Libsyn) and substituting my RSS feed from the School of Podcasting. I've migrated all of my old posts and when you go to shownotes.schoolofpodcasting.com you will now go to the School of Podcasting instead of the old Libsyn site. In doing this I've already seen an increase in traffic to my site. Hopefully it won't cause any issues with you my loyal subscribers. Thanks to all. Have a safe and happy Chrsitmas season, and have a blessed new year. Please start living a life worth podcasting about, and until 2009 - class dismissed.  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

This show originated from www.schoolofpodcasting.com where you can save 25% off using the coupon code "SANTA" now through the end of the year. My Gmail Account Was Hijacked.I was very surprised when I couldn't login to my gmail account that I've had for two+ years. Confused, I went through the hassle of having my password sent to me. The problem was when I went through this step it sent my password to an email address that wasn't mine. Huh? That's right I had lost control of my gmail account. Now when I go through the procedures to have my account returned, I get this message from Google, "Thank you for your report. For account security, we limit the number of requests that can be processed about the same account. Please wait a few days and try filling out the form again. " I loved the Gmail service, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Thanks google can you be a little more vague? In the meantime I've set up a new email (connected to my website) and a feature where people can upload audio comments.  See it all at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/contactWordpress TipIf you have a large archive, go into your widget and have it displayed as a drop down menu. This tip came from Dave Moyer of the Wordcast Podcast at www.wordcastpodcast.comNew Listener Surveyhttp://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/survey 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

This show originates from www.schoolofpodcasting.com This is show number 146Today I play with my new DBX 286A compressor/deesser/enahncer/noise gate that I bought from www.schoolofpodcasting.com/bsw I really like it (its around 200, I got it for $150).Previously I was using a Behringer Composer Pro XL which I got for $99I typically by my gear from Same Day Music as there is often free shipping, and (unless in New Jersey) no tax. If I can't find the product there I go to BSW When playing with new gear don't be afraid to twist knobs and see what sounds better. Likewise don't always judge what you hear live, but listen back through your stereo (so you can pay attention to listening only and not talking). I'm really happy with the unit except its mono, and there is no on/off switch (no big deal). LAST 5 IN 5 From Dan Lewis at http://www.theramennoodle.com/ and www.djoseophdesign.com 1. Podcast Answer Man - www.podcastanswerman.com2. Sci Fi Show www.scifishow.com 3. Woot www.woot.com 4. The Onion Radio News Network - http://www.theonion.com/content/radionews5. Journey Inside my Mind - http://jimmpodcast.blogspot.com/If you are ready to start your own podcast, come and visit us at www.schoolofpodcasting.com 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