School of Podcasting - Learn To Podcast » Podcasting

Great Resource For Great Podcast Content For Free

Dave Jackson — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:44:58 +0000

I have said that one of the easiest ways to grow your audience is to do interviews. Why? Because the person being interviewed (in theory) has people who follow them. So if you interview someone who writes a book about getting more traffic to your website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and your website is about podcasting you may have found a great win-win situation. Why? Because people interested in more SEO (followers of the author) may have never thought of starting a podcast. Meanwhile, people who do have (or are starting) a podcast (my listeners) will want more traffic to promote their podcast. An author of a knitting book has readers who are interested in knitting. When they appear on the knitting podcast, it’s a win-win. The podcaster gets great content and exposure to fans of the author, and the author gains exposure to the fans of the podcast.

Two years ago I met Mark Levine at the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop. He is a book publisher, and I am a podcaster. We did some brainstorming, and Mark was smart enough to run with the ball. The result is published.com You think of it like a dating site, except instead of pairing up potential couples, it is pairing up podcasters/bloggers with authors. The part is it’s free.

Instead of trying to figure out who the publisher is, trying to get some contact information, published.com gets you the correct contact information. When you sign up (now as a blogger, but in the future there will be a “podcaster” option) you create a profile page, you put in what types of books you’re interested in and start searching their directory. I was amazed at the number of books available. When you find a book you think fits your podcast, you can request more information and you’re off in the right direction to get an evaluation copy of the book, interviews, etc.

There are tons of genres to pick from (you can have more than one genre that you’re interested in). When an author signs up, you will be notified via email that there is someone who matches your criteria.
Check it out at www.published.com

Thanks to Jessie, Emily, and Mark for their time. Even though we were all very tired, it was one of the funnest interviews I’ve ever done. Thanks for all the laughs

Podcasting For Free- Good Idea?

Dave Jackson — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:06:07 +0000

I had a listener ask me for my opinion on using Free Media hosts such as Podbean.com While I understand that some times there is no budget and free is your only option. For the record, podbean has some nice features and they make things easy. I also know people who have grown in and out of podbean (and moving is no fun). If free is your only option then I would recommend www.mevio.com (although they may insert ads into your show, and you won’t get paid. However, you are getting free bandwidth, storage, and stats).

I look at it like moving into a house. You can move into a starter house with one bedroom, etc. Then later if your family grows you can move into a bigger house. If you had the chance, and could afford it, wouldn’t rather skip step one? After all moving all your stuff is no fun.

Likewise when you set up a podcast on a free account, in some cases they set up an RSS feed for you (bad) and set up your iTunes listing for you (very bad), and then you are set with limitations (storage, etc). In other words, you get what you pay for.

If you can afford $10 a month for hosting your website (I use Hostgator - affiliate link), and $12 a month at Libsyn.com then that would be the route I would go. In some cases I’ve seen people host both their website and their media on Host Gator. This works, but you will have to struggle to get some stats, and if you get really popular you will be asked to move your media.

The other thing to consider is many free sites go out of business (forcing you to move again). If you can avoid it, I would. People go in with a negative attitude. They say, “What if nobody listens?” To this I ask, “But what if they do?! – you will want a more powerful site with more features.”

Plan to be successful. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can grow an audience with a little promotion.

Looking Back on 200 Episodes

Dave Jackson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:12:02 +0000

Well this is my 200th episode of this podcast. Let me say up front, just becuase there are 200 episodes does not mean that these are great episodes or I am better than any other podcaster. It is a fun to listen back on some of the old episodes. I play some clips from my first podcast (for the musicians cooler).

I started this podcast back in October of 2005. Since then many other podcasts about podcasting have come and gone including:

Podcasting for Dummies (last show 11/19/2008)
Today in Podcasting (last show 10/21/2008)
Podcaster Confessions (all episodes have vanished)
Behind the Scenes (last show 1/6/2007)
Podcasting ABP (only did two episodes)
Learn to podcast (apple – ended 2006)
Podcasting 101 – (last episode 7/13/2008)
Podcasting Step By Step (Gone)
The Podcasting Blog ( 8/2008)
Podcasting Demystified (ended in 2006)

Also the yahoo podcast directory came and went (and people said “Podcasting is dead”). Software titles like “podcast station” and “mix craft live” have both gone away. In the mean time podcasting continues to grow, ways to create and receive them (phones, etc).

I am still here and ready to help you start a podcast no matter if you want it to do it yourself, or if you are looking for a podcast consultant to coach you through or do it for you.

One podcast about podcasting is the Podcasters’ Emporium. Anybody know of any others?

Last 5 in 5 From Fred Castenada

www.noagendashow.com
www.tech5.mevio.com
www.schoolofpodcasting.com
www.betterdave.com
www.businessweek.com

Fred has launched a new podcast at www.finance4startups.com in addition to his www.strugglingentrepreneur.com and www.gaincontrolofpyourday.com

Podcasting Reaches a Global Audience

We have a lovely note from my friend Lynn Pearson who sent in a message from Scottland.

Thanks to all the people I’ve helped get podcasts off the ground, and to everyone who listens. You guys/gals are awesome. Special thank to the 2godcicks.com and Chris from the www.fillupyouripodshow.com

Podcasting is Dead – Again

Dave Jackson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:58:05 +0000

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.

One can see that Leo is talking about a new network he wants to launch like CNN.

I would agree that more people will be streaming podcasts in the future. I am working on an iphone application for the School of Podcasting. So yes, more people will be handling podcasts on their phones.

What I hate is when people hear that “Podcasting is Dead” they think “Well I’m not going to start one.” NEW MEDIA is not dead, and how we receive it is going to change. Much in the same way we have evolved in the way we receive television. But people have not stopped making shows. People aren’t going, “TV is Dead.”

Leo said that Podcasting is too hard. BS. Go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/itunes and click subscribe. Was that really so hard? Will Grandma be hip enough to have iTunes installed? Don’t know, but I’m not worried about Grandma. She’s is not in my demographic. She can sign up for newsletter reminders.

Podcasting growth has slowed? While it was easy to see spike of listeners when you had no competition, this is not the case in 2009. You need to promote your podcast to keep the listeners going up and up. I spoke about this in my last podcast. Feedburner reports the number of subscribers to podcasts, for which his company is managing feeds, is growing 20-30% a month.

Podcasting is not dead, and shame on all who use it as a publicity stunt. There are headlines that say Leo is trying to trademark the phrase “netcasting.” Could this be another reason why Leo wants to phrase “podcasting” to go away?

Cool RSS Reader

When it comes to show prep an RSS reader can go out and bring you back all the latest news from your favorite blogs. I previously used feed demon, but they “updated” their software to synchronize with Google reader (and in the process lost some of their key features). I am now using Great News RSS reader. It allows me to tag and save individual blog posts (which makes organizing information for your next podcast a snap). The only down side is it is a desktop application, and if you want to read your blogs at work, at home, on the laptop, you need to install the software three times. If you are interested in a web based RSS reader then you might try Bloglines.com which allows you to make “Clippings” of blogs and put them in folders (where each folder could be a podcast or topic).

Feedburner Says My Feed is Too Big

Dave Jackson — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:18:06 +0000

One of the issues that Podcasters who have been podcasting for a while are starting to face is that feedburner has a limit to how big your RSS feed can be. When this happens your new shows fail to show up in your RSS feed.

I found this out when all the sudden my downloads got cut in half.

THE SOLUTION

If you go into your wordpress and go to settings, then click on Reading. You can limit the number of posts that show up in your feed. Mine was set to 200. I set that to 100, and went into Feedburner and went to troubleshootize, and then did a resync. It’s fine.

The effects of this is when a new person subscribes to the podcast (Building a Better Dave in this instance) they only see 100 (keep in mind many podcasters never make it past 7 episodes).

I Will Sponsor Your Podcast

Dave Jackson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:12:11 +0000

In today’s episode I talk about how I’ve been earning three figure incomes using affiliate marketing. You can find products that fit your audience at places such as Share a Sale and Commission Junction. You are assigned a specific URL so that when people click your link and then purchasr that product, you earn a commission.

Well it just so happens that the School of Podcasting has an affiliate program that currently is paying 30% of the sale when anyone signs up, and 10% for every month they stay signed up. I also have an affiliate program for another membership site I have is at Marketing Musician where you earn 20% for every person that signs up.

So many people want to try to sell advertising on their podcast like radio does. PODCASTING IS NOT RADIO. Let’s talk about advertising. You can get help, or you can do it yourself. Let’s take a peak.

Well the problem is many people think Podcasting as if it is Radio where you might get $10-$15 per 1000 listeners. The key point is, you have to have the radio on at the time, and be listening. If not you miss it - you miss it. With podcasting that advertisement will be there tomorrow, and it will be there a year from now. People find a podcast and go back and download all the old episodes (with the advertisement). So if they think a podcast is the same as radio, they are HORRIBLY mistaken.

There are other things to consider. Will you put a link to their website on your website? Is there an image, banner, etc. You can use these to negotiate price with the potential advertiser.

YOU need to prove that you are sending the advertiser traffic. I recommend getting some sort of click tracking software ( I’m a big fan of the pretty links plugin ) so I can say “I’ve delivered 152 visitors to your site). An alternative is to have the advertiser set up a landing page (www.theirwebsites.com/podcast) so they can see the traffic and KNOW it came from you. You might also see if the advertiser has a way to produce a coupon or a special deal (again so they know that when this coupon was used, that customer came from your podcast). You have to provide the proof.

I am actually making more money with affiliate marketing instead of selling CPM (cost per thousand). When the visitor buys using a unique link from me, I get a commission. This works when you find the right product that matches your audience. You can find affiliate program at places like Share a Sale, and Commission Junction. You also need to make it easy to get to your affiliate link. So you can set up a subdomain on your website that redirects to your affiliate link. You can also set up an entire store if you are using Amazon.com’s affiliate tools. To see this in action go to http://shop.growyourchurchshow.com (however Amazon requires a TON of traffic to make any significant money).

As for how much to charge, if you’re going the CPM route, somewhere around $15 – $20 CPM is unfortunately very low, but typical (well actually a pipe dream). I feel this is because people don’t understand that the advertisement is permanent (unless you go back and edit it out). This model pays the bills when you have 10,000 listeners per episode. That works for a chosen few podcasters.

Doing a quick google search on CPM pricing for radio. I found the following:

according to an August study from the IAB and Bain Capital, the average CPMs on ad networks ranged from 60 cents to $1.10

$9 CPM for a radio spot

$1-$2 per CPM
So you can see where when I say “$10-$15″ per CPM, I’m already getting more than radio. The bad news is I don’t have the audience of radio.

On the other side, I got a $200 affiliate check last week. If I was selling CPM at $20 (again, some would call that a fantasy) I would have had to have 10,000 downloads. As most of my podcasts have about 500 listeners that would’ve taken me about 5 months or $10 a show. The good news is I’ve been promoting this program for about two months (not five). I’ve done 8 shows in two months, so that means I’m getting paid $25 a show (or $50 per cpm 25/500 X 1000 – I think my math is correct)). I won’t retire on this, but with affiliate marketing I make just as much (if not more) than CPM, and its ever green. I get paid whenever a visitor acts (not if the advertiser decides to renew their agreement).

Just remember if you have advertising, you are going to have to prove that you sent them traffic (if you want them to renew their advertising when it runs out).

This podcast originates at http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com

My Gmail Was Hijacked

Dave Jackson — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:11:12 +0000

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/contact

WordPress Tip

If 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.com

New Listener Survey

http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/survey

The Slow Burn of Podcasting

Dave Jackson — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:32:37 +0000

This show originates from www.schoolofpodcasting.com

Today I play a clip from the Internet Marketing Podcast (a favorite of mine). In it the hosts and guest explain how they ARE seeing results from their podcast. They are being asked to speak at events, and they are getting clients. However, it is not something that happens over night.
Andy is from www.ai-digital.com and www.academyinternet.com you can subscribe in iTunes

I totally agree. You have to build the trust with your audience. Then when they need the information or service that you provide, they think (an order) from you. If you are looking to put out a single podcast and have it create a flood of traffic, 99.9% of the time its not going to happen.

Last 5 in 5
We also get a last 5 in 5 (which makes it a last 10 in 5) from Dave and Kim from the wordcast podcast (a great podcast about wordpress). Check it out at www.wordcastpodcast.com

Dave’s Last 5 in 5
Buzz out Loud from CNET
Sporecast from Spore County
Pink PPT show
Gadgets Show from CNET
Daily Giz Wiz from Twit

Kim’s Last 5 in 5
Wordcast Podcast
Sporecast from Spore County
Jake and Amir
You Suck at Photoshop
Buzz out Loud from CNET

Don’t forget you can start your successful podcast to day by going to start.schoolofpodcasting.com Use the coupon SANTA and save 25% off now through the end of 2008

Create Custom WordPress Themes in Minutes

Dave Jackson — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:09:59 +0000

I’ve been waiting years for software like the tool we have today.

I just found Artisteer at artisteer.com which is a phenomenal software that allows you to create a wordpress theme from scratch. I am completely blown away. If you’d like to see a quick overview I jsut did a quick video at http://www.weeklywebtools.com

You can download a trial version at artisteer.com there are two version starting at $49 (home version). The “standard” version is $150 and right now is on sale for $99 (you get more graphics and effects). I am amazed at the control you have when creating a wordpress theme, and how easy it is to master.

Listener Questions
Q: Dave I don’t see my album art when the podcast downloads and I play it.

A: There are two places to use your album art. One shows up in the iTunes podcast directory, and then each episode has the album art “inside” the mp3 file in the ID3 tags. If you don’t tag your file, it won’t show up (it only takes a couple of minutes).

Q: Is wordpress.com a good solution for podcasting?
A: WordPress.com is like buying a “starter home.” It’s a good place to live at first, but as soon as you grow you will more than likely want to move. The last time I checked moving is always a pain in the rear end.

Ready to Start Podcasting?
Check out the School of Podcasting and learn to podcast today.

Evo Terra Author of Expert Podcasting Practices

Dave Jackson — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:50:47 +0000

#122 This podcast originates at http://shownotes.schoolofpodcasting.com

Today we have an interview with Evo Terra who is the Author of Expert Podcasting for Dummies (as well as Podcasting For Dummies) and one of the master minds behind Podiobooks.com (Please note a new updated version of Podcasting for Dummies is coming out this fall).

In today’s show we talk about what to expect from Expert Podcasting For Dummies (you are read the Table of Contents at Amazon.com ).

We also hear how Authors are giving away their ENTIRE book and still making money. (some very interesting numbers on the number of books sold, and how podcasting is leading to being publsihed).

Find out “All things Evo” at his site www.funanymore.com

Evo mentioned buying a domain. You can buy a .com domain name for $6.95 a year using the Godaddy Promotional Code “cooler3” at www.godaddy.com

I first heard a great interview with Evo and Fred Castenda at The Struggling Entrepreneur at http://strugglingentrepreneur.com/2008/01/19/evo-terra-author-and-wwwpodiobookscom/

Have a show promo? Submit your podcast to the Podcast Promo Show coming 2/14/08 at www.podcastpromoshow.com I also have an article “15 Tips For Better Podcast Promos” at the Podcast Promo Show Website – This show has since podfaded

If you are looking to start a podcast, or take your podcast ot the next level in record time check out our website www.schoolofpodcasitng.com