Podcasting Helped Leslie Samuel Land His Dream Job
Leslie Samuel of interactive-biology.com and becomeablogger.com shares his story how he used his podcast as a business card to get his foot in the door and become a college professor. How did he do it? By getting a meeting with the right people and showing them what he was doing on his podcast. In the end, he didn't have all the credentials that they thought they needed, but he had the passion and ability to explain biology to students and he got the job.
12 Reasons NOT to Use Blog Talk Radio – UPDATED 11/20/15
At one point Blog Talk Radio was horrible. Their audio defined “Bad Audio,” their terms of use were confusing and more that I will leave here (but cross it out). Then Andy Toh from Blog Talk Radio came up to me at Podcast Movement 2014 and said, “I want to thank you for your post” (this one that trashed them). We have it posted in our lead developer's cubical and we are going to knock off each complaint one by one.
And they did.
So here is my official opinion: If you MUST have a call in number for your podcast, Blog Talk Radio is the best sounding, easiest to use the system for the call in shows. With this in mind, this means you (the hosts(s) ) are NOT using the phone (only your audience). When they launched their beta program, I was a tester. It worked great and sounded great. There are other systems out there, but they neither stream your audio or have an easy to use interface (or as easy…). Yes, Blog Talk Radio is more expensive, but there are two sides to podcasting. You have cheap and technical, or more costly and easy. The key is if you are wanting to take live call ins during your show. If that is not you, there are other services I would recommend. If you do sign up, you need to be on the beta program to sound good.
The other thing that made me give them a thumbs up for those wanting to have a live call in show. Is that Jay Soderburg told me that if (for whatever reason) you want to leave Blog Talk Radio, they WILL redirect your current feed to point at your new location.
OK, I've spoken about this a lot in the past, but its always been a little here, and a little there. This post will be used to send people who want to use Blog Talk Radio, and I can say go to this post and read it. Here are 11 reasons NOT to use Blog Talk Radio.
Note: When I originally recorded this podcast, I had eleven reasons. This podcast has brought people to me who have provided additional reasons.
1. It's too expensive.
They charge you $40 a month for a website that is sprawling with advertisements (that you may or may not get a piece of). You can host your website at services like Host Gator or Bluehost for less than $10 a month and get a dedicated media host like Libsyn.com or blubrry.com for another $15 (and get RELIABLE stats). You can get 25% off at Host Gator using the coupon code ” podcastcoach “.
2. They have bad web design.
When you go to their website advertising videos automatically launch. If you are going to someone's website while you're at work, everyone knows that Herb in cubical 13 isn't really working on the quarterly report (as the ad comes blaring out of his speakers). All audio should be put on a website that the visitor has to click on something to hear it. Put the power in THEIR hands.
3. Horrible, HORRIBLE Audio Quality
Most people when they record their audio record at CD quality. In a nutshell they take a picture of their audio 44 thousand times a second. With blog talk radio, their sample rate is 11 thousand. If we use the analogy of painting a house this means you have 75% less paint on your brush.
When you then take the audio that you capture you export it at different levels. 64 kbs is CD quality if your podcast is mono. This is why music podcasts are often 128 kbps (they have a left and right channel both at 64 kbps which makes is 128 kbps). Blog talk radio uses 32. This is 50% the quality of a CD. So you started off with 75% less “paint” on your brush, and then painted twice as fast (so very little paint gets on the house).
4. They list Themselves as the Title of Your Podcast and your user name as the author
If you search for your name in iTunes, you may not come up. Why? Because where it typically lists YOUR NAME as the author, it now shows “Blog Talk Radio.com” or Blog Talk Radio Feed
5. You can't leave without losing a portion of your audience.
If you let blog talk radio submit your podcast to iTunes, there is NO WAY to move to a new service and have ALL of your subscriber automatically be updated to your new home. This means you WILL lose subscribers. They will HAVE TO resubscribe. You can beg, you can plead with your audience to follow you, but in the end you will lose at least 10% (more likely 20%) of your audience.
6. They take 65% of the advertising revenue
You can sign up to be a partner on their advertising programs. If you do this you receive 35%. Why not start your own website, and keep 97% (assuming you have to pay paypal).
7. Part of your monthly fee goes to pay for advertising
You get X amount of impressions on their site. With this in mind, you are paying to advertise on their site. This is not optional. When you sign up, you are going to get promoted on their site (assuming people can find your banner amongst all the other banners).
8. You're paying for things you don't use
You pay for enough storage space for 2 hours of recoding a day. Most podcasters publish content on a weekly, bi-weekly basis. If they do a daily show, it's not 2 hours. I would love it if they gave you a storage allocation and you could decide what quality of audio to use, but they don't.
9. They boast large guests on their website
This has nothing to do with the platform. Michael Butler is the host of the Rock and Roll Geek show and has TONS of great musicians on his podcast.
10. Their Chat service is flaky
When I recorded an episode to test the system today I couldn't get their chat system to work.
11. The file naming convention does not signal the end user that this file is about my podcast. For example the file for this podcast is SOP346_031113 (School of Podcasting episode 346 for March 11 2013). The file I got from Blog Talk Radio is show_4523051.mp3
12. You lose control of your content. That's right, they own your stuff. However, if you pay them $249 a month to get a premium account you can own your own stuff. I didn't believe this myself until I read it in their support area (http://blogtalkradio.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/837051-are-pro-accounts-different-than-premium-or-premium-plus-packages-).
Skype Now Comes with Office 2013
If you're business uses Microsoft Office 2013 you will get 60 minutes of premium skype calls a month with your subscription.
Last 5 in 5 from Leslie Samuel
What were the last five podcasts you listened to?
Mentioned on the Show
Giant Squid Audio Lavalier Microphones
Dave,
great episode your content quality is ramp-ing up all the time.
If someone a wanted to produce a podcast as a hobby and they lacked the required confidence and experience in getting behind the mic and making the magic happen, I don’t think it would be so bad to use blog Talk Radio to practice and rehearse – use this time to build up both skills and confidence. Just a thought about getting your feet wet.
Byron,
Great point. Just DO NOT list your podcast in iTunes while you’re on their platform. Great point!
If you use BTR’s call-in-to-record feature, do they allow you to download the audio file later if you decide to leave? If they hold it hostage, that’s one more hurdle to migrating your show away.
They don’t make it easy to download, but you can “reverse engineer” the file and download it. In a nutshell its far from easy. I had to do this to get a version I could play in the podcast (they give you an m3u file that you have to download to get the actual location of the download file.
Dave – why don’t you start your own platform like BTR and put them out of business? 🙂 BTR is respected in the industry, and yes, they have some issues, but nothing that can’t be overcome. I have NO problem downloading my shows and saving them, and I do it through itunes and I then take them and put them in my website premium membership for later use. I have never had any problem with their chatroom in the two years I’ve used them. I have also made back from their program, about 1/4 of what I pay in a year for their service, which considering the cut you get, isn’t bad. I did a two hour a day show for well over a year, so I’m not the norm when it comes to podcasting, but I see your point with the space. They can improve on somethings… HOWEVER, I think you downplaying their massive audience basis is a mistake. It’s because of the audience they pull, that I have the largest audience I have ever had in any platform. Libsyn allows pedophiles to host podcasts, which is why I left them. I know you like to promote them, but I can’t in good conscience give the people there my money knowing they affirm pedophiles. FWMOPIW. 🙂
I completely agree. I used to use blogTalkRadio back in 2010, when things were more lenient, but then in February 2011, they changed all the rules. I used to be able to host a two hour show per day for like when I want to have parties, not anymore folks. I get 30 minutes a day max. Also, what I found extremely disappointing is their lack of accessability for blind and visually impaired people. I am blind, and it was ok in 2010, but after they changed their web design and rules entirely, it is pretty much impossible to find the link to schedule shows. So I switched to a much better service called spreaker. Spreaker is very accessible to those with blindness and visual impairment. Yes, it’s 30 minutes per show for the free plan, but unlike bTR, u can broadcast an unlimited amount of times a day provided you don’t exceed your limit, which is 10 hours of space for the free plan, which is fine by me. Spreaker also has an app for IPhone and IPad which is completely accessible. I have a friend who is totally blind and he broadcasts off his IPhone all the time. Works well with IPhone and PC. And if I want to do something quick, there’s no need to schedule it. I’m really happy I made the switch to spreaker. The quality is better, the sound is better, and overall broadcasting experience is better, right from the web browser. Plus I can do podcasts if I choose. So I definitely know where my loyalties lie. BTR is not for me.
Getting ready to leave BTR. I wish I would have found you before I decided to podcast for my business. I just signed up for Libsyn and working on getting past episodes housed there. I will lose a portion of my audience but I have announced on my last few episodes that I will no longer broadcast episodes on BTR so they should go straight to my blog to access episodes. I’m not sure if I should totally delete my BTR account in a couple of months or leave it. I tried contacting iTunes to remove the feed but it’s been a headache and the rep has no idea what he is talking about. I totally just gave up on iTunes customer service because I ended up schooling the rep on what an RSS feed is. Anyway Dave, I love your podcast and listen to you everyday. You are hilarious and a great teacher. I will comment on another post later. You haven’t heard the last from me. Keep on inspiring:)
To Your Success,
Stacie Walker
Woman in Leadership Founder
I look forward to it. I would keep the show at BTR while you move. Then later go back and see what kind of stats you’re getting.
I used BTR earlier this year and I’ve been really interested in figuring something out….Before I tried out the Premium Membership, I was getting about 70 to 90 listens a week from people in my social media network. Then, one month I decided to try the Premium membership and immediately the listens went to 600-2000 listens a week. I kinda sensed something fishy about it, because the members in the “latest listeners” section were all people in my social network. If these were real people listening to my radio show, where was their footprint? There were no likes, favorites, or any other activity from anybody outside of my social media network. There were also no increases in hits on my webpage which we promoted on the show either… Does anybody know what is up with that?
This is a great article. Thanks so much for steering me in the right direction!
People. I am an occasional listener. It is very difficult to find a show when the default search on this site is OR!
Yeah, not AND, but OR! When I put a first AND last name in the BTR search box, I get thousands of results more than, if I just put in either first or last name.
That is so stupid! How well you think that would go over if the major search engines had two or more words with OR as the default!!!
I contacted BTR last year ever since they ‘updated’ the site and when the searching became crap! Here we are today… the SAME CRAP!
In addition, some results do not come up. I did a search on this person, and some results popped up as 3 months and older. Yet, I go to this person’s site, and he lists his latest appearance on this particular show on the BTR site. I click on the link, and there it is! Only 2 weeks old, yet upon searching by date on BTR, it is not there!
So, if some BTR broadcasters are wondering why a listener drop-off since last year… The searching is stupid. Intentional? If not, how could they have not fixed it by now?
Add another reason, although I am a premium member and have paid $249/month for over three years, one credit card run did not go through (I switched cards and forgot about this), they cancelled my account claiming they sent me emails informing me of this (I have no knowledge of receiving these alleged emails) and were not real nice on the phone when I asked why someone wouldn’t call me first when I have paid over $9,250 to use their service over the years. The guy said “oh we would not be able to do that…..” Instead, they just shut me off with literally no emails that I ever received notice of. Talk about lack of customer concern. Now that I think of it, I could have probably built my own radio station with that amount of money.
Ok – you convinced me not to use BTR to create a live radio broadcast…but you didn’t give me the best alternative for a content marketer. Spreaker seems to be new on the scene but from what I’ve read it’s more for Music and not content marketers.
Why do you want to go live? For many people I say start of with a “normal” podcast and move to lvie after you have an audience. -dave
thank you for the article. i actually used it to create a service unlike BTR. I used their service and everything you stated is very true. They still owe me 109.00 for a refund for their crappy service.
take a look at my new service at http://www.patriotfbradio.com/products/ If I am missing anything please feel free to let me know.
From a listeners perspective I’ll give you another reason. When you’re listening to a broadcast some of the ads contain audio that startup automatically. Audience members have to pause the broadcast and wait for the ad to stop playing just to hear and it’s very annoying. The absolute worse thing about BTR is their sound quality. It’s horrible. If you’re going to download a broadcast you better use a third party application like orbit downloader or real download because it’s way better than the copy you get using their download link. They really need to just upgrade their platform and work to fine tune and make audio quality a priority. For crying out loud it’s a “Radio” platform, all we’re relying on is the audio so why screw us over with that?
Looks like July 16, 2014 the link you noted on #12 on your list was updated to say you get control of your advertising content, etc. It no longer says you own the rights to your show at that level in that forum.
After scouring the user agreement, I can not see anywhere where blog talk claims to own the rights to your content. DO you see it? If so, where? Please point it out.
Several years ago we were on Blog Talk Radio when it was mostly free. Once they implemented a full paid strategy and reduced the benefits of a free account, we could clearly see we were not going to be paying for a quality product. It was okay to put up with 11kbps audio when it was free, but when you’re paying $249/mo and the audio doesn’t improve, that’s of no service at all. Blog Talk never shared revenue with us, they never actively helped to promote us, and ran ads for shows that competed against us at the same time.
We made the decision to pay for somebody to help produce our shows, deliver a live stream at 128kbps (or, any audio quality we want), upgrade to video podcasts if we needed, schedule and run shows any time we want (none of this “locked out of prime time” business). We pay $100/mo for a dedicated web server with 1 TB of bandwidth a month, 1 TB of storage, direct access to the main Internet networks for fast delivery, and $60/year for a Skype account with Skype-out and an associated telephone number for guests and hosts who only have a phone. We now produce shows 7 days a week and have an audience far larger than what we had on BTR. We couldn’t be hapier.
Kevin,
Thanks so much for sharing.
I agree blogtalk sound quality is crap. I just looked at an mp3 file i downloaded of a recent show and it shows the sampling rate as 44100. Joint stereo, 128kbps. My question is: why does it sound so bad? It should sound quite good, given the above (although i don’t know why they do stereo, the sound would be MUCH better if it were 128kbps mono).
Agree also that searching on the site sucks big time.
BUT… the thing about blogtalk is that it isn’t just a podcast producer. I’d like to find a replacement but the things this article mentions are only for podcasting and blogtalk does MORE than that. They have the whole call-in facility (and a pretty nice interface for that) for doing a live show. I’d like to find something comparable to blog talk (but better) not just something to host podcasts.
Hi. I just read 11 reasons not to use BlogTalk. I have been getting dust rated with them. I just signed up for the revenue sharing, however there service never works. I am a rookie podcaster. I have been using Spreaker.com for two years and they so much better.
I’m new to the whole podcast radio gig. I’ve been using blog talk for a year now and would like to find something better to use. I see you gave sites of Blubrry and hostgator for webhosting, but i’m not familiar if there is a difference. Blog talk is a webhosting site as well? I would like to be able to stream live as i do with blogtalk, but have the rights to my shows without paying extra.
can someone please direct me to a suitable blogtalk replacement and brief explanation why?
Thank you!
Areyou looking to take phone calls?
So I have had a show going since Jan of 2007. I started out hosting it on my own site, then I wanted to see about getting folks calling in for some live interaction. I looked at a variety of ways to do this and blog talk radio seemed like the easiest solution – despite the cost.
Now the tools available make it easy to do shows live (Mixlr) and taking live calls is fairly easy with tools like skype.
Now the big question is, what is the best way to liberate my show from BlogTalkRadio? I realize they own the shows I have done, but do they own the show name? Can I move on and do my show without worrying about them coming after me for something?
My reading of the terms of use leave me thinking that once I leave, I am good to go. They don’t own the show name, just the shows I did on their system.
It might also be interesting to note that when I went from just hosting my show as a podcast on my site to hosting it on BTR, I did not see a leap in the number of listeners or subscribers. My listenership continued to grow, but at the same pace I had been seeing for the years leading up to the move to BTR.
So from my perspective, its hard to say that they got me more listeners. The vast majority of my subscribers appear to have found me via my site and iTunes.
Would still love to get your thoughts on the smart way to migrate off of something like BTR an on to something else.
Thanks,
R
Do you mean HORRIBLE AUDIO at Blogtalkradio like you can barely hear on this tape?
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2015/02/09/marylovesjustice-prayer-meeting-giants-among-men
(Advance the tape to the 8.15-minute mark to hear the delivery is barely above a whisper with your volume on the highest setting.)
I suggest that there is something else happening other than glitches and poor sound quality. I suggest that Blogtalkradio and other media companies intentionally censor free speech around certain issues, especially having to do with African Americans, the prison industrial complex, and Christianity.
MaryLovesJustice
What platforms can you use to set up a studio through your computer. That is my only hesitation about leaving BTR. I want to go live and I want to take phone calls. Is there another program that would enable me to do that, with better sound quality? I have a site to publish the mp3 of my podcast to, I just don’t have the studio aspect to do a live show with a soundboard. Thanks!
That is the thing with BTR. They make it easy. The only alternative is callinstudio.com You pay $6 a month for the phone line and then a few cents a minute for each caller (including yoruself). My largest bill was around $10-$15 for the month. You can use that, a mixer (or another ocmputer) and use mixlr.com or spreaker.com
Is there another service like blogtalk that gives you the call in capabilities, screen feature? The biggest drawback to BTR is no app.
Blog talk makes it easy. Their biggest drawback is they control your feed (and currently their sound quality is awful, but should be upgraded). If you use callinstudio.com its cheaper, but not as easy as you have to have a mixer. Not impossible, but its an option.
Hi, and thank you for this … I am sooo glad I found it before I went ahead with BTR. However, I have a couple of questions I’m hoping you will answer …
1. Do you have suggestions for alternatives to BTR?
2. Do you think it’s better to start with a podcast sent to your list and accessible on your site so people who come in can access the podcasts?
3. Where can I find these answers, and the answers to a lot of other questions? I have spent ages looking for answers and the only thing that keeps appearing is BTR!
Thank you so much …
Awesome! Itts in fact awesome article, I have got much clear idea
regarding from this article.
I firstly would like to take this opportunity to applaud you for your show. I am so glad that you talked about Blog Talk Radio. The sound is horrible!!!!! I am working with former correspondent Tom Osborne of ABC TV from back in the 80’s and 90’s who worked with the late Peter Jennings on World News Tonight. We are looking for an excellent venue to podcast from . We recently did a podcast on Blog Talk Radio with a former diplomat and foreign minister of Bosnia. The sound was horrible!!! I was in total shock after hearing it!!!
“SREBRENICA GENOCIDE:TWENTIETH ANNV.” – “IRAQ THEN AND THE US/ IRAN TALKS TODAY”
You can go to this on Blog Talk Radio and see just how horrible it sounded.
I will continue from this point on to listen to your show. We could sure use your wise council. Thanks you so much.
What other medium wld I use instead of blog radio? I wanted tmo have a sports call in radio show as well as interviews. I thought blog was the way to go.what wld you suggest?
John,
I need to update this post. BTR no longer (or ever) owned your content (their terms were very confusing) they have completely redone their technology and their sound is awesome.
let me add to that.
their customer service is non-extant i.e. they don’t care. I have been with BTR since 2009 and every time I try to build my show, they change the main BTR page and bury my show deeper to make it harder to find.
I even found out recently as a friend of mine is an owner of one of those popular shows that the “staff picks” is done solely by the staff computer. needless to say, she was not happy.
and recently, they dropped my premium account claiming that there was a problem with the payment. I checked the bank records and things were going okay. but instead of even trying to get a hold of me, e-mail etc. they just changed me to a free account.
–I lost some of my audio
–their “renew” link does not work. they claim that it is because of cookies. I tried 3 different browsers and another computer, still could not get it to work.
— tried to find a working e-mail. took two attempts. got a response from customer service who said that I am welcome to sign-up again at the newer price. sorry for your luck, and clear your cookies 😛
–I tried calling customer service. they said to go to my studio and use the support number, I did, and it said to press option 3 for customer service, to which the recording said that it was a number that was not in service and hung up.
months ago, they sent out a change of Advertising notice to everybody stating that all advertising has to be preapproved. Myself and a few others who have larger programs tried contacting the people to “get approval” and got no response back.
It’s really a shame because the format in general, in other words, the idea BlogTalkRadio is a great one it’s just that as far as management goes and how they care about their customers… They sucked big time.
Hello John, Dave, or School of Podcasting;
Thank you for your post. Kathy and Mandelin, in customer service, used to help me. Mr. John Sweet was kind and responsive. Do you know who is in charge these days? Is there a phone number, now at which a host can speak to a live body and receive answers to questions via telephone? I have been paying for a premium account, and have some concerns. My plans do include taking live calls during my show. Are you available for a phone conversation? Have a wonderful day.
Kindest Regards,
Kathryn Resendiz
If indeed all those cross-outs are true, this is great news. My personal pet peeves are (1) this United States company insists both on using “International Time” for their podcasts and embedding the date in the show link, thus ensuring that every. single. time. I have to explain to people why the date is “wrong.” “No, I assure you, the show IS happening on Monday, but it’s Tuesday in Europe” (I do my shows at 9 p.m. on Mondays from NYC); and (2) they have no interesting in licensing music or offering an option of some sort, which rather limits my ability to interview jazz singers/musicians (one type of show I do) and play samples of their music, unless their songs were written before 1924. I understand the latter is probably an expensive option, but it would really open things up.
Andrew, I am told it’s still not available to the public yet. (as of 1/15/16) you have to ask to be a beta user.
Kathryn,
As far as I know there is only email support.
Wow! This is excited to hear – that Blog Talk Radio will redirect my feed in iTunes. I’m having trouble figuring out how to do that. Any tips or tutorials to refer me to? Thanks!
Lorraine,
You have to ask the to do it. Please, please, please, let me know if you ask and they don’t do it. They’ve promised they would.
Hi Dave! Love your show 🙂 Wanted to ask you: I am working with two VERY successful women who do infant consulting. I am trying to convince them to allow a “trial” of a podcast radio call-in show that we could use to perhaps show to mainstream talk radio. They both are kind of anti-technology, and I will need to present then with an option that is clean, easy, and no-fuss. Where do I start? I almost went with BTR just to do a few trials, but I am confused and don’t want to dive into something with them that is going to be a headache later. I am extremely easy to teach…could probably learn how to easily use mixlr.com or spreaker.com to mix if we went with an alternative. Could you just offer me a few tips for the best route to take, here? I will do all the leg work, and I believe this thing will take off, but I just have to be able to say, “Okay ladies, for around $20 a month, we can take live callers, in your living room (in your pjs – even better), and all you do is sit right here and speak into this mic that I’m going to hook up to the computer.” Where do I start? What do you recommend for a basic “give this a go” type of platform. Like I said, I’m not afraid to watch youtube tutorials or do some more background leg work to get into something that will be “worth it” later. They have a very successful website and social media following. I think a call-in podcast is the next direction to go…just have to make it easy for them. Thanks for your help 🙂
Ashely, you could schedule a coaching call at http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/schedule and we could get into the details
I was listening to the last podcast on Podcasters’ Roundtable Ep 75 and someone mentioned episode numbers and dates for the podcasts. I can attest that it would have made listening to this episode much easier. First I found this episode by searching Google. I started listening on the website on my phone and then had to stop listening because of plans. I came back later to finish listening (I had mentally noted about how many minutes I was into the episode). Then when I hit play again on your website I couldn’t move forward/backward within the podcast player. I’m using Chrome on an iPhone 6S. I then found your podcast on the Podcast app on my phone but I couldn’t find this specific episode because there’s no episode number or date. I tried searching iTunes for the title of this episode but without luck. Eventually when I have time I might finish listening.
Reuben,
Thanks for the feedback. I plan on refoing the website in the future and dates will be added. I will also art putting the episdoe number in the show notes.
I checked into BTR. I am new to podcasting. The audio wasn’t very good on the programs I listened to. I am going to Try Talkshoe. It is free and I can take calls and chat with listeners.Thanks, Dave for all the help!!!!
Talkshoe isn’t any better. When you use the physical phone lines, the sound is going to suffer. You might try something like Ringer http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/podcastcoach
Hello,
I am really looking into coming on board with using Blog Talk Radio with my Podcast Radio set up. I am out of North Carolina. I am needed some advice on what phone lines do you use for your Podcasting. I wanted to know if the phone service included or handled by BTR. I really need some guidance here. I did contact Vontage and there answer was they did not support Podcast or Live Streaming.http://swallowinc.com/
Thanks,
Tyrone@Swallowinc
Roy,
If you’re using Blog Talk Radio, I would not recommend using their phone to podcast. The results, well, sounds like the phone, and when everyone else is NOT using the phone, you stand out in a bad way. Get a microphone, record to your computer, and upload to a media host. If you need a live call in option, that would be the only way I would use BTR
BTR is full of sh*t. They disabled my account and not give me a reason why.
OMG they charged me for 4 months after I cancelled the service without even offering a refund, stay away people stay far far away from this company what a scam!
I have repeatedly left email’s to Blog Talk Radio asking pre-sales questions.
1. What is the streaming bit rate
2. What is the hard limit for simultaneous listeners be that connections or transfer.
3. In their account ad’s they state things like 250 guests yet have no mention of whether that means “hosts” or hard limit for listeners.
They list no details what-so-ever. Very deceptive and for the last 3 days, not a single response to repeated emails. Not a single response to phone inquiries.
Thats rather important information.
If your going to pay $250 a month for a service and they cap listeners and cant give you a single tangible piece of data but instead avoid the topic says a bunch.
Unless they use cloud based hosting there will ALWAYS be a hard limit on connections to listen to podcasts (live or not) and they are being completely silent about it.
Does anyone know of an alternative to Blogtalk that also has the conferencing built in?
I have been trying to experiment with Spreaker using Free COnference call and and Uber conference but run into issues with my callers not being able to hear music or sound effects through my headset.I would rather not have to use the internal mic on my computer. If any one can be of any assistance please let me know.
Well, where should I begin? I have had my blogtalk radio show Higher Consciousness since October 2012. In the beginning, the support staff was very helpful and accessible. I even received a telephone call from one of the staff members regarding one of my concerns. However, in the past 2 years, the customer service, professionalism, ethics, and integrity have diminished dramatically.
I have had problems creating my show for at least one year. I have a weekly show, so it has not been unusual to have problems creating my show at several times a year, sometimes in the same month. I type the description, upload photos for the slideshow, adhere to the posting guidelines, and the Create red button becomes gray and nothing happens. This has happened several times close to the date of airing the show.
The most recent episode happened New Year’s Eve. I tried for hours to create a show for the following Monday. The Create button would not turn red, which would allowed me to create the show.
I tried to create the show at least 10 times. I sent over seven emails to blogtalk; one of the support staff only responded after I posted my dissatisfaction to blogtalk’s facebook page. She then responded as if she didn’t know anything about the problem. I mentioned that this was a recurring problem. She responded that I was the only person who had experienced this problem. She also stated that the engineers did not know why I was unable to create my show. The staff person asked for screen shots to corroborate my statements. All the screen shots confirmed there was a problem with blogtalk’s platform. I even had my HPP support person check out the issue. She confirmed that it was a blogtalk issue.
Additionally, the staff person conceded that it was a technical issue on their side and that she would create the Monday, January 7th show for me since I had been unable to do so. I sent her the following attachments: description of the show, tags, pictures for slideshow to be uploaded. The staff person lied and stated that she never received the description, only the short pitch line. Her statement was completely false. The pitch line was WITHIN the description that she chose not to include.
I had a prominent guest scheduled for the show. We decided to do a dry run in light of all of the technical problems I had experience. The dry run before the show was to determine if there were any more glitches. There were. He was unable to plug into the dry run because blogtalk does not support the cell phone carrier. Additionally, I was unable to plug into the show because blogtalk had changed my pin # without my knowledge. The recording stated the pin # I have used for six years was not a part of their system! My prominent guest cancelled due to this serious issues. Also, I had advertised to my audience around the world. I had to hurriedly send show cancellation notices to my audience, some of whom I missed because I don’t have their email addresses.
Additionally, I continued to send messages to the support email for blogtalk regarding these serious issues. They have now blocked me! Additionally, they blocked me from the Facebook account. They also stopped including the social media websites links on my blogtalk page.
The customer service is awful! There is no direct number to contact anyone at blogtalk and the customer service staff is very arrogant and unresponsive to email messages. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! I have been a customer in good standing for six years with the $39 package. I chose NOT to increase my package after several requests from them. Then, I started having unexplained technical difficulties that could NOT be resolved.
So, I am contacting the president of the company and going to social media. If you use them, it will be at your own risk.
I am a former podcast listener on BTR,was listening to Leslie Saeta’s Artists Helping Artists. Two weeks ago the firm began blasting loud, annoying commercials when I pressed the “play” button.Instead of hearing a podcast, I was being blasted with loud commercials, unrelated to the program.This blasting of commercials is unremittant on both the android and the Apple platforms, to the point that I can no longer listen to Leslie’s podcasts, which I value so highly..Customer Service has not been helpful.First they denied it and said their may be an ad.Then they said they cannot reproduce what I am hearing.I am forced to leave BTR because the commercials are intolerable.They are played both at the beginning and end of the cast.They cannot be turned off but play over and over again.
Those are dynamically inserted ads. As you have discovered if Lesley and the ads are not using proper recording levels it creates a horrible experience for the listener.
They suck again. Can’t upload. Not reliable. Horrific sound quality. Down more than up. Cannot connect two mics. Absolutely ZERO customer service. More wrong than right.
Hi Dave!
Thank you for providing so much great information on BlogTalkRadio. When we were doing research on this, we got a lot of valuable insights from your review and comments. Really appreciate it!
I work for Castbox, and we recently launched a new feature called Livecast. It’s very similar to BTR, but the best part about it? It’s completely free! I was wondering if you could give it a try and give us some feedback about it?
I think we definitely want to make sure this tool is useful for any broadcasters out there. I am hosting a show myself on it, and so far I’ve had a lot of fun using it. I can engage with my audience directly through call in functionality. They can also type text, if they are too shy to call in and speak. I’m also able to earn virtual hearts and gifts from listeners, which can eventually be exchanged for cash. And it’s available on both web and our app.
Anyway, wanted to share with you and if you get a chance to try it, please let us know what you think. Once again, thank you for all of your valuable information!
Thanks,
Calvin
They charge me $39.99 a month but give me $19.00 service. It skips and the audio is not good. There was the one time that people could not dial in. They answer your email with general answers. I’m frustrated with it as I pay for it out of my own pocket and not my ministry. I think they take advantage of the word, “Radio.” I have to find a new platform. God bless you for this post. I thought that it was just me or that I was being targeted somehow. Sorry to sound paranoid but it’s aggravating.
Thanks ever so much for sharing
Hey there, blog talk radio have begin to purge old archive content without people notice and it due to a bad decision by making enforcing the 30 hour. It also force people to pay premium if they want there episodes back.
Thomas makes a very valuable point.
I’ve been a very loyal customer of BlogTalkRadio, and I’ve been on there for years — since 2007.
In fact, I’ve hosted two shows over there, Stop Sugar Shock Show and the Gab with the Gurus Show.
Now, today, I got an email about having to pay much more money for my shows or else they’ll delete all but three of my shows. (As I recall, that’s not what they said before.)
Here’s an excerpt of the email I got. Absolutely NO thanks for being a loyal customer ALL those years. No discounts. Nothing. So today I had to pay a lot of money.
From: BlogTalkRadio
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2020 9:08 PM
To: XXX
Subject: Urgent: Limited Time To Fix Payment Info
BlogTalkRadio: Limited Time To Fix Payment Info
Dear Gab With the Gurus,
We had tried charging the card on file for the premium services and the payment did not go through. We would like to help you keep your premium services, we know how important your show is to you and we value you as a broadcaster.
…You do have 24 hours to complete this process so hurry or we will have to downgrade your account to the free plan with limited storage and limited air time, and all but 3 of the audio clips will be deleted….
Sincerely,
The BlogTalkRadio Team
Did you get that?
Unless I paid TODAY, all but 3 of my audio clips will be deleted!!!! So I had to pay twice for both shows.
What if I’d been sick with the Coronavirus and hadn’t seen that email until more than 24 hours had passed.
Don’t I even get a discount for having been a long-time user??
What else? Let me try to remember all the hassles in the past 2 days:
1) I’ve been having major hassles reaching anyone on customer support. They say they take 24 hours to get back to you, but they are on EST and I’m on PST. So I had to wait 27 hours for support to get back to me.
2) As I said earlier, I have to pay more and more money, especially since I had two shows or else they would DELETE my shows. This sentence was in red ink: “You do have 24 hours to complete this process so hurry or we will have to downgrade your account to the free plan with limited storage and limited air time, and all but 3 of the audio clips will be deleted.”
3) Suffice it to say, that they’re holding both my podcasts hostage.
4) I didn’t get receipts for both of those shows so did my money go through or not?
5) Yesterday, despite repeated attempts, I could NOT sign off of my BTR account. Then, when I was signed on, it said I only had 39 episodes, which is not true. Finally, I discovered that somehow my second (my current Gab with the Gurus Show — which has 255 episodes) was intertwined with my first Stop Sugar Shock Show. Are you confused yet? So was I?
6) When you set up BTR shows, not all photos can be downloaded. It exceeded their capacities. This has happened a number of times previously. So BTR would take all the photos my guest provided so I had to spend lots of time to find photos that worked.
7) What else? Now for the clincher…
The MOST embarrassing thing that happened is today I was supposed to interview one a big mover and shaker — one of the most empowering, wonderful, well-known experts, and I could NOT get into my account. I kept signing in and I just couldn’t get in. They changed the phone number listed on the site but didn’t even specify the new number above. Then I got bounced off my account three times, I believe.
The challenges went on and on and on.
8) Oh, and why the heck don’t they take PayPal like most companies?
I’ve been a big fan of BlogTalkRadio because of the simplicity to use, especially for us non-techy people, but not anymore.
Look forward to getting help from you, Dave.
9) I forgot challenge # 9. They took out photos of the experts I had on older episodes. I always ONLY use photos of my guests and maybe their books. Why the heck did they plaster photos of me on all these old shows???!!?? Huh!!!! I NEVER use photos of myself in episodes during which I interview other experts. Here’s an example of how they removed poor Gary Ryan Blair’s photos? So for a few years, they took out https://www.blogtalkradio.com/gabwiththegurus/2009/01/07/new-years-resolutions-get-secrets-to-make-2009-a-success-with-goals-guy-gary-ryan-blair — They removed photos for years! Aargh
Agree do NOT use BlogTalkRadio. They were a nice free service early 2000’s but now they want money and their service still blows! If you leave them they make you manually remove all your shows down to 30 hours or they continue to make you pay!
Blog Talk Radio decision to wipe Archive content unless you pay extra is a terrible idea.
Sadly they wipe episodes of my deceased friend made back in 2013 to 2015 who died back in late 2018.
Sadly i don’t think it possible to bring them back now he passed on a while back.
regardless it was a corporate decision based on spreaker guidelines.
These people have no respect for it customers at all nor the people who have been royal to them by paying premium options.
BTR being bought by spreaker have cause nothing more than a lot of greed corporate related issues.
Before the 2019 policies in the free version and etc, there was no hour limit at all.
You can have 5 callers and 30 (Length of Aftershow 45 minutes) minutes of show time.
In the spring of 2019, they change it 1 caller and you also have to 15 minutes of show time.
A lot of the options were change and somewhat made it way too expensive and silly.
Premium options were also downsized then previous changes.
Blog Talk Radio is not worth using nowadays since it quality is very low in today standards and it also still around 11 hz sample rate.
It not worth using, you are better off making a talk show in Youtube via Free Conference Call which it also free and reliable.
It is sad but a relief to know that I am not the only one experiencing what is by far THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE of any company I have ever dealt with in 15 years online. I have been dealing with a privacy issue for nearly 2 months and I cannot get any resolution to a serious matter, no replies for days, or none at all. I was a guest on a show and have a serious matter where I need to remove an old show I was featured in (as the only guest) and they are refusing to take it down even though it goes against legal and privacy rules. My host also tried to reach out to them and likewise got nowhere as she was unable to remove the episode herself. This service is the most unprofessional and lacks any kind of quality or integrity. I have wasted so much time dealing with them and accumulated so much stress, I cannot imagine ever being an actual user or paying this company a cent. My recommendation: find an alternative and spare yourself the stress and hassle of ever needing to deal with them for any problems that arise.
BT purposely makes it very difficult to find the cancellation button and THEN in order to cancel they require that you, the client, remove all but 30 hours of your content. RUN FROM THESE PEOPLE.