RSS feeds are like a bag of Flour – PHD044

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..”

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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)

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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)

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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:

1. If you haven’t done so already, sign up with Bing Webmaster Tools.
2. Add the site that hosts the Podcast RSS/feed and verify ownership of the site.
3. 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)

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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. It gives you the MOST control over the contents of your flour err.. RSS feed short of rolling your own.

To keep with the analogy up, hand coding your own RSS feed is like growing the wheat, harvesting and grinding the wheat into flour. I personally like going to the store (blubrry) and buying my flour all ready to bake with.

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Blubrry tip of the week

Question from Kathy, from specialmouse.com
My problem is that I updated my blubrry plugin (powerpress) in on my WP site and my player disappeared! My episodes can still be downloaded or played in a new window, but I can’t figure out how to get my player back.

Answer: Most of the problems with the Powerpress players are Theme issues. In powerpress’ settings, in the media appearance tab (Advanced mode) there is a place where it asks “Having Issues?”. You can select No, Yes, please try to fix or Yes, alternative fix. Once you select one of the YES options, save your settings and RESET your cache both on your website (if you are using a caching plugin) and your browser to see if the player shows up.

If this doesn’t work, go through the troubleshooting to check for a plugin issue. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/using-powerpress/diagnosing-feed-andor-player-issues-with-powerpress/ )

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Podcast Starter – Thanks again to Daniel J. Lewis from the Noodle.mx network and the Audacity to Podcast for pointing out my mistake :)

http://podcaststarter.com/ is a site (that I don’t recommend). I mean, some of the info is good, some of it I wouldn’t agree with. I’m not going to say too much about it as I didn’t get too deep into it.

The Upshot of this is, I’m rebooting my “starter” series. First off, if you know me, I tend to be a ready… fire…. aim type guy. I launch things before totally figuring it out. That’s good sometimes and sometimes it’s not. In this case, i didn’t research enough for the name.

The new series is now called “Podcast Help Desk Beginner Series” and will re-start in the next few weeks. I want to make the the screencasts and the audio at the same time so I won’t be doing them every week, I will likely do 3 or 4 at a time and post them all at once. It’s an experiment and permanent resource for podcasters. Stay tuned to Podcast Help Desk for updates.

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New PROMO code for Blubrry. helpdesk 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, I am available and my prices are less than most of the the other consultants out there. This doesn’t mean my advice is less valuable, it just means I have enough other jobs that pay the bills and can charge you less.

Morning Rock Radio vs. Podcasting, The Interview – PHD-043

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

The Meaning of Life, The Universe and everything – PHD Forty Two

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!
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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.

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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?

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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.

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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!

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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!

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Podcast Starter 2

Recording your First Episode
ORGANIZE
Make a master folder for your podcast
Make a folder for your episode (each time) in the folder for your podcast
Put any intro/outro music or files in the master folder
Put any clips or segments you record in the episode folder

2. Outline your episode
make an outline (not a script) of the points you want to talk about in your episode.
I use Google Docs / Drive for this.
ALMOST nobody sounds good when they are reading word for word on the mic.

3. Record to .wav file (DO NOT UPLOAD THIS WAV for your podcast)

4. Listen to your recording and most likely throw it away (yes, sometimes you have to test several times before you get things to sound like you want them)

5. RE record or edit
once you are more or less happy with your recording, edit it if you need to
Don’t be TOO picky. It’s better to put something out that isn’t exactly perfect than it is to edit for hours and hours and get tired of it and forget it.
Your FIRST episode will not sound as good as your 5th which will not sound as good as your 25th and so on. You get better as you go.
Content is KING.. If you have good content, the quality doesn’t have to be AS good.
Quality is Queen. Yes, improve as you go but the first step is start!

6. Encode to mp3
Do this either using iTunes (on your computer) or in Audition if you have it. This uses a much better encoder than Audacity uses.
Tag your file in iTunes (on mac or PC)
7. Get ready to upload

We will talk about websites and media hosting next time

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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

Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

Do It Right The First Time PHD041

phd300_2014

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!

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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.
  • – Once you have the outline “done” figure out the title for the episode
  • – Create featured image artwork for the episode (you can skip this depending on your wordpress theme)
  • 2. 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.

    3. 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
  • 4. 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 !!)

    5. 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

    6. 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.
  • 7. 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)
  • 8. 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. .

    9. 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

    10. 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. Like Pages is one “type” and “post” is another type. Custom Post Types are new types. With their own “loop” in wordpress.. It’s almost like a second wordpress install in wordpress Multi-user.

    You have to use a plugin to add a post type
    The best plugin for post types is “Types”. CPTUI isn’t as user friendly, but also works.
    You have to make sure “Has Archive” is set to YES for it to work.
    You have to use Permalinks in wordpress for it to work.

    My new podcast series that I’m going to to produce is using a post type called “Starter” (podcasthelpdesk.com/starter/) more on that at the end of the episode.

    I started another one on Mikedell.com which was for test and for my mental health called Mike Rants (http://mikedell.com/rant/) that one is using post types as well *** Not completely work safe!

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    Blubrry Tip of the week – MP3 Tagging

    Here is something I wasn’t doing until recently. That is tagging my MP3 files using powerpress and blubrry hosting. (as far as I know it only works if you are uploading from WordPress to your blubrry hosting account)

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    Podcast Starter 1

    Pick a Topic and secure the brand.

    Pick a domain name – Buy the domain name
    Make sure it’s something that you have a passion for and that lends itself to continued content.
    Don’t pick something just because it will “make money”
    Get a webhosting account (I recommend bluehost.com) and install wordpress from the control panel.

    Next week we will talk about recording your first episode

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    This weeks Bumper music is by Bobby Yang as performed in my Studio while I was interviewing him on WNMC in Traverse City a couple of years ago. Bobby also played the National Anthem for Monday Night Football last October. (NFL – 49ers vs. Rams)

    Podcast Help Desk, Your place for Strange music and some Podcast Advice :)

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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

    Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

    Podcasting on the Cheap and Getting Support – PHD040

    phd300_2014

    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!

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    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.

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    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!

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    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, please use the forum. The forum is also a good place to ask general podcast questions. It doesn’t have to be blubrry related. The forum can be found at forum.blubrry.com and (soon) you will be required to have a free account at blubrry.com to sign in.

    We are working on the forum and the ticket system so that a lot of those questions will be required but it’s still good advice for any customer support situation.

    The Company I work for just hired another person for our social media support. So you can also ask The Company I work for specific questions in the facebook and google plus groups and someone will get to you as soon as we can.

    One other word of advice when you are asking for support from any service you might get free or pay for. Saying “As Soon As Possible” out loud doesn’t sound bad. Even typing it out it doesn’t look too bad. BUT, when you put ASAP in a support request, it looks like you are being very demanding. I don’t do this, but I know of some that do (not at The Company I work for ). When they see ASAP, it automatically puts that inquiry on a 4 hour wait. Just be aware there is a human at the other end of the email, in most cases.

    A lot of this stuff isn’t as user friendly as we would like it to be. Don’t be “that guy” (or gal) that acts like an a**hole to the support people.

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    Twitter and Paper.li

    I’ve also added a new Twitter account. @podcasthelpdesk and a Paper.il newpaper at: http://podcasthelpdesk.com/paper/ called The PHD Podcasting News. In there I’ve populated it with podcast related twitter accounts so you should see some great articles about podcasting or at least from popular podcasters and podcast gurus.

    While I’m at it, check out the facebook page here; Check out my new Facebook Page http://facebook.com/podcasthelpdesk

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    Podcasting from Scratch
    Starting next week I am starting a new segment which I will put at the end of the episodes. Podcasting from Scratch. I’m going to go through step by step how to get started in podcasting.

    I’m also going to put this segment out as it’s own feed (more on that next week) This will take you from zero to a fully ready to go podcast website that you can plugin your great content and go! I will update these separate episodes as things change or I find a better way to do it.

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    Music for this episode was by Todd Taylor, the banjo man.. Guinness world record fastest banjo player in the world.

    Todd Taylor on Wikipedia
    and
    Todd’s Homepage

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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

    Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

    Dynamic vs. Condenser Mics, Category Podcasting, Bad iTunes Reviews – PHD039

    phd300_2014

    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.

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    Follow up from my favorite snow covered mailman, Abner from Boston.

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    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.

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    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)

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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, or for some other thing that they genuinely don’t like. But I got a review that was just one of those “no duh?” moments.

    The guy (I’m assuming it was a guy) said that my podcast was more opinion than fact. NO S#$% sherlock. I just want to say for the record, this podcast as long as everything else I write on Facebook, G+, Twitter on my blog or anywhere else is MY OPINION. I’m am the number 1 expert on my opinion and that’s what I give you here.

    And, if anyone thinks I have a bias, it’s true. I’ve said that 1000’s of times. 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 my 20+ years in TV and Radio Broadcasting 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.

    ——————-

    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

    Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

    Podcasting or Casturbating ? – PHD038

    phd300_2014

    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

    Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

    And the winner is… – PHD037

    phd300_2014

    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.

    —————–

    Blubrry tip of the week:

    Feeds. It is possible to use blubrry.com hosting without a website of your own and use it’s feed as your podcast feed.

    There has been a lot of discussion lately on the forums and groups between people connected with various podcasting services regarding whether or not you should host your feed on your own wordpress website.

    My analysis on the show.

    You CAN use a feed generated by blubrry.com for your show if you host at blubrry.com. Just the other popular hosting companies. I don’t personally recommend it, because I always want you to own your own feed, but the option is there.

    —————-

    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

    Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

    Is Broadcasting Dead?- 8 Rules for podcasting in 2015 (well 10) – PHD036

    phd300_2014

    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

    Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

    Review, Stats and Predictions for the New Year – PHD035

    phd300_2014

    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.

    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 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

    Blubrry Media Hosting statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

    Going Deep into theTechnology of Podcasting
http://podcasthelpdesk.com/
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