Podcasters Roundtable
When I had lunch with Ray Ortega at BlogWorld in NY, he had thrown out the idea of a Podcaster's Roundtable and this past Thursday he made it happen. We used a Google Hangout and once we got the technical issues behind us, it was pretty cool. It was myself, Ray, Daniel J Lewis, and Michael Bell from Blubrry (who will be launching a new podcast about podcasting soon). You can watch it at http://www.podcastersrountable.com or on youtube
Appearance on Dan Lyons “How to Podcast Like a Pro” Show
I recently appeared on the “How to Podcast Like a Pro” show with Dan Lyons (who I met at BlogWorld). We talked about the top podcasting questions. Listen to it here.
Pepsi Jumps Into the Podcast Sponsor Pool
Its been reported that Jay Mohr has a deal with Pepsi Max. Mohr provides Pepsi with a targeted audience of males 18-49 and even has a strong female following. Fans can go to http://www.JayMohr.com or http://www.mlb.com/pepsimax for more information.
In addition to being a comedian/ actor he's kind of a renascence guy. The cool thing is that the Cola companies are now starting to sponsor podcast so that's a good thing.
Why PodPress is a Bad Idea
Back in 2005 we needed a way to input iTunes tags, we wanted a player on our websites, and PodPress delivered. It was supported y by Dan Kuykendall (who I interviewed back in April of 2006). The plugin took off, and its been downloaded over 800,000 times. Word press was releasing updates on a super regular basis. I made a video for version 4.1 to help Dan with some of support questions he was getting.
Then when WordPress 2.6 came out things went bad. Very bad. When I did some research I found a post where a user stated, “I upgraded my WP to 2.6 and now I cannot write a new post, new page or even edit a post/page without IE7 crashing.”
The worst part of it, was everyone's site broke at the same time. We all needed Dan to update PowerPress. Dan was gone. I don't hold this against him (OK, maybe a little). You see most people never donate to the plugin developers. We should, but we don't. Dan had other priorities (that helped him pay his bills). I understand why he abandoned this plugin, what I have a problem with is the way he did it. H just left.
Finally Angelo Mandato answer the call that everyone was making and developed PowerPress. A plugin that is super easy to switch from PodPress to PowerPress. While some might argue that we are again are connecting with a plugin that is supported by one person I would point out a big difference. Angelo works for Blubrry.com a Podcasting community that provides media hosting, downloads stats, advertising deals, and exposure for podcasters. In the horrible event that Angelo would not be available to continue developing PowerPress, I'm sure Todd Cochrane (Ceo of Raw Voice) would find someone else to support the plugin and continue with its development.
For a long time choosing to use PodPress would be like choosing to buy a Pontiac G6. Pontiac (the company) went out of business. If there is a problem with your G6, anyone who works on your car you hope has some experience with this model. In reality if it breaks the person fixing it will first have to spend time understanding how it works, so they can troubleshoot whatever is wrong. I say this because my wife drives a Pontiac G6. We will be looking to sell it soon. Knowing that there is no more Pontiac. There is no Pontiac (official) parts, I'm not sure people would hurry to buy this car. I'm sure there are still parts stores that carry parts for this car, but eventually things are going to get ugly.
Even before Dan left, PodPress stats caused websites to have issues. It caused conflicts with other plugins. Let's not paint a picture here that is not accurate. It was a great plugin, but it was far from perfect. PodPress has a new person(s) who is maintaining the code. It was last updated in February of this year.
For giggles, I installed Podpress. When I went to the player settings there was still a drop down list that included the words “Podango.” The interesting thing is Podango was a free media hosting site that went out of business in 2008/2009. For me, this points out why I'm not using this “updated” plugin. It's showing information that became outdated 3-4 years ago.
Meanwhile PowerPress is utilizing some of the latest features in iTunes. That is why I use PowerPress
My wife's car is a Pontiac G6, now for those of you outside of the States, Pontiac the actual car company who's been around forever, they went out of business. There is no Pontiac anymore. So you might imagine when you own a Pontiac and it breaks down you hope to find somebody who knows that model. And it’s kind of that way now with PodPress, if you use PodPress and it breaks again there is someone there to fix it who knows the plugin.
What causes plugins to break? Worpdress updates. How often does wordpress get updated? Often.
You Are The Media
When you are a podcaster you have a responsibility to get your facts when you talk to your audience. You have a certain status. This status can also open doors for you. On the latest episode of the Power of Podcasting Fred Castaneda was able to interview two people who were important to his life. How did he break through the barriers? He used his podcast. Listen to the story here.
We are the people who are on the trenches and we're talking about what's going on but you better make sure you get your facts straight because people will question you on it. And that's fine, that's one of the things that doesn’t happen in the news right now we're not questioning our leaders.
I'm on this newsletter thing from podcasters and a person wrote said, “hey, I would promote your podcast and here's my website. It was basically somebody making a podcast directory and he said, “we are not pay for play”. And so I went over and I submitted my podcast and said it was free for the first month. So I went over and I just replied back and I said, well its free for the first month. I did have my screenshot ready.
And he said, “where are you getting this information from, where are you getting this information from?” and I and I gave him my exact steps and he said, “oh, gosh that's an old directory we shouldn’t have done that.” This person had gone and looked at some of my comments in this newsletter group and he said, “you seem rather negative” and I said,”No, I did my research. When the “podcast expert” for about.com had no album art and I took my screenshot I had proof here. The so called expert doesn’t have album art in his iTunes.
When Allen Hunkin had a book about podcasting and he said he'd been podcasting for 14 years, I pointed out his math was very wrong.
I like to use these things called “Facts.”.
So you are the media have your facts straight and the great thing about being the media there are bonuses to that, Michael Butler is the guy that does the rock and roll geek show and he's got into different places with a press pass.
You can be the media. Be sure to accept your responsibility and get your facts.
I have a personal relationship with the marketing manager at a soda company and I had tried to pursue a sponsorship through them, but they didn’t seem interested.
Now that Pepsi is getting into the game, it might be time to reapproach my friend!
It probably doesn’t hurt that Jay is in the top 10 of iTunes