If you are hearing advice on podcasting, and someone tells you to save your file as Mono instead of stereo to make your file smaller, you need to find a new source of advice. I’m working on a youtube video for this, but you can do this at home. Take any file and mix it down to an mp3 stereo file. Then take the same file and mix it down to mono. You will see the file size is exactly the same. The file type that mono and stereo make a difference is in WAV formats (not mono).

From Listeners

About the show where I had tweaked and tweaked my sound (to the point where people said it sounded weird, and not natural) Will King writes in, “I want to add a contrarian viewpoint — keep overediting your sound.
I listen to podcasts often in noisy environments (shower, while freeway driving, while walking along noisy streets). Podcasts that allow a great deal of dynamic range are often unlistenable in such situations. People naturally speak in low tones when being interviewed, and those comments are often inaudible in such situations. I understand that some people listen in setups where they can appreciate the dynamic range, but I prefer audio that keeps the audio loud for all vocal situations because of the environments in which I listen. For my two cents, it’s not too much tweaking. ”

Q:Whoa! Congrats on the new video format! Look out Paul Colligan, Gideon Shalwick and Dave Kaminski et al!!!
Will you be giving video tips? I hope so!
Gene

Yes I will check out my youtube channel for podcasting One of the most important parts of your video is your audio. I’m using the Audio Technica ATR 3350

New Podcast Directories

Blackberry phones now have a free ap that makes subscribing to (and downloading) podcasts a snap. To get your podcast into the directory go to

http://rimpodcast.quickplay.ca/rimpodcasting/

I will add this to the list at the School of Podcasting

Some other directories you may want to add your podcast are:

http://www.stitcher.com and http://getmiro.com/publish/guide/

More Podcast Money Update

As of this writing, I will be using Create Space to self publish my new More Podcast Money book which is almost finished (be a beta reader and have your name in the book).

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Ray over at www.thepodcastersstudio.com for the advice on the Audio Technica ATR 3350 Lavalier mic (which I will be using for Video)

Why do people use this method? Often this is done by people who are recording their podcast “live” (meaning they mix in their intor/outro music and sound effects as they record their voice). The issue is they want the person they have called on Skype to hear the music and sound effects as well. This problem is solved by having any sound effects saved to another device (say an mp3 player, or burned to a CD) and those devices are run into the mixer. You have instant volume control of the music and sounds with whatever device you are using.

My method involves taking a $5 cord and plugging it into your headphone jack. Then plugging the other end into a device you are using the record. This could be another computer or a portable recorder such as the Zoom H4, H2, or the new Zoom H1. However, with the cord plugged into your headphone jack, you can’t hear the person you have called. The solution? Since the sound is going into the recording device, plug the headphones into the recording device.

All you have to do now is check the recording levels, and whatever you hear in your headphones – is what you are recording. You can adjust the volume of the person you called (for example if you called someone on an actual phone), in skype (see video to see how to do this).

I would recommend that if you are doing an interview, forget about recording live and focus on the interview. Capture it, and then later add your into and outro. I will add my two cents about podcasting live (including a lvie chat) in the future as well.

For today, I wanted to let you know there is an EASY way to record a skype call that doesn’t require diagrams, or an extra set of hands to pull off.

If you do not have another recording device, I’ve used powergramo.com software in the past. It works, but I never trust it 100% (I trust it 98%).

If you’d like to start a podcast, and want to learn how the easy way to start a podcast, I encourage you to join the school of podcasting today. I look forward to working with you.

There is a program called Feed For All that allows you to create an RSS feed. When I started back in 2005, I had created my website in dreamweaver, and I created my RSS using Feed for all. It was double the work. When I switched to podcast I would go in and edit the website, it automatically updated my RSS feed. WordPress automatically creates your RSS feed. This saved me huge amounts of time, and made life very easy. This is why WordPress Rocks.

Podcasting Answers

Q: My name is is Randy Harkness and I live in Dawsonville Ga. I have listened to logical weight loss for over a year now and found your school of podcasting podcast about 6 months ago. I have wanted to produce a podcast for a couple of years now but didnt know what to do or how to get started. you sop is great for us low budget podcasters (deputy salary) I have looked at epodcast creator. Is it a good program? Hard to use? If not would the Sony acid that you spoke about in an earlier podcast be a better choice?  the podcast that I want to make is similar to www.destinfloridapodcast.com but info about the north GA area. Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

A: Wow, you are dusting off some cobwebs. I haven’t heard “epodcast creator” in a long time. I remember not being very fond of it. It tries to do everything, and ends up doing everything so-so. Your RSS feed will be generated by WordPress, You can use Sony Acid (Free) to created the podcast. Once things get going you can always upgrade to the paid version of Sony Acid Music Studio for $55 Most of my recommendations for equipment can be found at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/equipment

Listener Comments on Over -Editing your Sound

Last week I shared how I had tweaked and over tweaked the show and Rich Palmer from Audio Gumshoe said that I do not need to tweak the sound so much, and that whatever back ground sound I’m talking about – he doesn’t hear it. In other words, people want things to sound natural (not so “broadcast-like).

Save in August

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I was interviewed on the Podcast Advisor show with Andy White. I answer some questions about what I get out of Podcasting, what gear I use, what hurdles I’ve come across and more. Andy is great guy.

Adam Curry is slowly exiting Mevio. One of the things he will be focusing on “The Big App” show (which is getting 150,000 downloads. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get the Big Show App using the button below.

Over Editing Your Podcast

I had a few people mention that my show has been sounding different and wanted to know what I had done to my sound (they didn’t like the direction I was going).

I have been using Adobe Audition and have been running my fules through their noise reduction, then I would compress the vocal track and add some EQ to add clarity. Then I would compress all of the tracks when I mix the file down to the mp3.

Today’s show has no compression. You are hearing me go straight from the microphone to the recording (except for when noted).

You will hear me record a file.

When I remove the noise it doesn’t sound that different. Then I compress the vocal and add some EQ to brighten up the sound. That sounds different. I then take the file thats been “noise reduced” and “compressed and EQ’d” and run it through a multi band compressor. This makes it sound big and very broadcast-like. However, my listeners are saying its too much tweaking.

Going forward I will remove a few of these steps. Just because you can do all these fun things to your audio, does not mean you should.

What do you think of the final output?

30% Off the School of Podcasting using Coupon Code BTS

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Who am I? I’m Dave Jackson and I’ve been podcasting since 2005. I have a bachelor’s degree in Education specializing in techncial education, and I feel I can explain anything in terms that make it easy to digest.

Who should Podcast? Anybody with passion for a subject and wants to reach the world

What?
What is a podcast? It’s an audio, video, or PDF file delivered via RSS
What is RSS? It stands for real simple syndication. In the same way that every radio station has its own frequency, a blog running WordPress (which is a free software program that allows you to update your website and pdocast at the time) has its own RSS feed automatically.

When?
Podcasting started in 2004, and the numbers have grown every year. When should you start one?

Where?
Where do I find podcasts? Podcastalley.com podcast pickle.com itunes.

Where you should learn how to podcast? My site the school of podcasting. We have step by step tutorials and resources to get you going in the right direction.

Where can I get my podcasting questions answered? Webinar?

Why?
To be seen as an expert. To get the word out. To build a community. To boost sales. To reach a global audience. To keep your team up to date. To keep your brand in front of your customers.

When you have a topic you are passionate about and want to reach the world.

How?
How much does it cost to start a podcast? Around $200 if you’re going to do it right (one time fee). About $20 a month after that. Keep in mind this is to reach a global audience.

How techy do I need to be ? If you have ever sent a picture or an attachment via email, you can be a podcaster. You know how to type, and you know how to manage files 9via attachment).

There is free software to use.

Summer of Podcast Promotion

Your code is “learn”.

Check out his league podcast at www.aihlhockey.com and his video game podcast at gamehounds.net

Podcast Advertising Up at Blubrry.com

Podcasting community blubrry  announced a 31 percent ad revenue increase for the second quarter of 2010, reflecting new ad buys on 27% more shows hosted on Blubrry, Tech Podcasts Network and other RawVoice subsidiaries.

CEO Todd Cochrane attributes the increase to podcast advertisers seeing a healthy return on their investment and because of their podcasts’ availability on multiple platforms.

“Our strategy of multi-platform distribution is exposing new audiences to our content creators on venues that accommodate their lifestyle needs,” says Cochrane. “We are continuing to focus on multi-platform distribution for the shows that are part of the network

The Good Side Of Forums

1. Great source for show topics.

2. Great networking tool for listeners/viewers which helps build community.

3. Most forums have the ability to be monitored via RSS (instead of having your inbox filled up).

4. There are free tools available (or you can go with vbulletin which is a great professional grade forum script).

The Bad Side of Forums

1. Some popular tools like phpbb are free, but often are targets of spam robots (this has improved over the years).

2. If you don’t have at alst 1000 listeners, 2000 visitors to your website, or a REALLY active smaller audience your forums may look like a ghost town.

3. Flame wars – just because people get to network together doesn’t mean they will like each other.

4. You need to nurture forums, and provide topics to get people talking.

Turn Your Blog Into a Forum

There is a great plugin for WordPress called “Subscribe to comments” that can alert people when a new comment was posted. This may trigger them to come back to your blog and leave another comment (so it spurs time shifted conversations – which can then be used for show topics).

BlogWorld Expo Early Bird Pricing Ends This Week

The blogworld expo early bird pricing ends July 15th. Use the coupon code ” ebird ” and save an additional 20%.

Podcastclicks.com returns to Free Service

After switching to a fee based podcast promotion tool, podcastclicks.com has returned to being a free service.  What is it?

It is a banner exchange program where you upload your banner to your website, sign up at podcastclicks.com and create an account. Then you copy and paste some code on to your website (typically into a text widget in your sidebar). When you show a banner on your site, your banner is shown on another site. We’ve delivered 9720 click in July of 2010.

The advantage of podcastlicks.com is you are getting your podcast information in front of people who are already consuming podcasts.

The Rules of Podcastclicks.com

You can only have one banner on a page (in other words, no cheating).

You have to accurately list your podcast (all banner listings are moderated).

No animated banners.

No porn.

For podcasters only.

The Catch of Podcastclicks.com?

To help pay for the bandwidth and servers for podcastclicks.com will feature one banner for the school of podcasting in each category. If that bugs you, and you don’t want more listeners – don’t use it.

Same Day Music Lets You Pay Half Now and Half Later

When it comes to getting all your gear to start a podcast, you might be putting out close to 200-300 dollars. Don’t have that kind of cash? Same Day Music Now has a way to help you afford your initial start up costs. You can pay half now and half later. Here is the “small print.”

After 30 days there’s a nominal fee of .01%, just to make sure your card is still active. SpeedPlay Payments are available on most orders of $249 or more, and are limited to $3,000 in merchandise. Any amount over $3,000 will be added to your initial payment. SpeedPlay is available to customers within the 50 United States. There is a  one-time processing fee charge is $4.00. SpeedPlay Payments are available on most orders of $249 or more, and are limited to $3,000 in merchandise, and it makes it affordable to all your gear.

Another great bonus of Same Day Music is that they do not charge sales tax (unless you live in New Jersey).

Another Podcast About Podcasting

Last week’s episode on Freemium resources I talk about other Podcasts about Podcasting. Well I’ve been alerted to add The Podcasting Advisor (www.podcastingadvisor.com) to that list. This features Andy White of the Internet Marketing Podcast (a great podcast).

Freemium Resources

When you provide a free podcast to promote a service that people pay for, this is called “freemium” approach. You provide free information hoping they will pay for your premium services. Christopher sent an email about wanting to start a website where people pay for the podcast, there is a forum for the community, and what hosting I would use.

The “Cadillac” of premium podcasting is premiumcast.com. You can sell digital downloads, create coupons, it has a built in affiliate program, and it does something that all other membership scripts that work with WordPress don’t. That is the ability to create podcast episodes that are NOT tied to WordPress. So you could have your information on your website, and then have episodes that are not seen on your website (and only consumed via RSS feed). Premiumcast.com has a monthly memberhsip fee to pay for the upgrades that happen on a regular basis (making it even more powerful).

If you do not want a monthly fee, I’ve been using WP Wishlist which is a very powerful membership script for WordPress. If I started the School of Podcasting today, I would be tempted to use Wishlist. There are also wordpress plugins for affiliate programs, and shopping carts. Many of these are listed at the Weekly Web Tools Resource Section.

Managing Email Tips

If you are using gmail for your pdocast, you can create labels for emails. I use one now called “NEXT PODCAST.” If someone sends me an email that I want to comment on in my next podcast, I apply the NEXT PODCAST label. Then when I get ready to record, I bring up all the emails with that label, print them out, and remove the label (and archive or delete the email). It makes show prep a breeze.

Podcasts about Podcasting

If you are looking for additional podcast about podcasting. Here are a few to consider.

The Power of Podcasting (a podcast focused on the results people are achieving with their podcasts).

The Podcasters Studio features tips and insights from a Ray who is making a living doing more video work.

Podcast Answer Man – Cliff Ravenscraft talks about his passion for podcasting.

The Audacity to Podcast from Daniel Joseph featuring tips on Audacity and other podcasting topics.

The Morning Announcements – This podcast where I talk about planning, producing, and promoting your podcast.

Learn to Podcast

Ready to start podcasting? Sign up at the School of Podcasting today!

While I had been using a free plugin that backed up my wordpress database, its not the easiest tool to restore (put back) all the files you have backed up. Then I found out about a premium plugin call backup buddy. This plugin makes backing up your system a snap (it can store your backup via ftp, via email or now via Amazon S3), it can also backup your ENTIRE WordPress system, or just the updates since your last backup. that is cool. However, many of the free systems will backup your WordPress (not all of it, but most of it) and email it to you.

Backup Buddy makes its super easy to restore your files. You simply upload two files (one is kind of a “starter” file, the other files is your backup) and it recreates everything. You can specify your WordPress database, and it does the rest. It is $45 for a single user license, but well worth the peace of mind it delivers.

Free Tool To Create Logos

I recently discovered www.logosnap.com as a tool for those who have no budget and need a logo for free. It’s “OK” at creating logos. I might investigate other Royalty Free resources for crating a logo, but if you have zero budget – this might be a solution. For more resources, join the school of podcasting.

Site Mentioned In This Episode

Comments came from Lin at www.effectivechildrensministry.com and Sally at www.podcastasslyum.com (I accidentally said I’ve known Sally since the first “WordPress Expo” I meant to say “Podcasting Expo” if you want to attend this year’s podcast go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/expo 

Looking to make your current theme WordPress 3.0 compatible, here is the link Sally sent me. http://millionclues.com/problogging/wordpress-tips/make-your-theme-wordpress-3-0-compatible/)

If you are looking for a tutorial on iThemes Builder, I did on at www.davidjackson.org

WP Wishlist insider at insider.wishlistproducts.com

I’ve been attending free seminars at webdesign.com