Feedback from Last Week's Show About Video Podcasting
Free Websites For Those Podcasting on a Budget
I had someone contact me this week. They were on SoundCloud, they didn't have a website, and yet, they wanted to end up making a living from their podcast. Their topic was “talking about movies and video games with my friends.” Not to say that you it is impossible to do this, but without hearing your show it I would say it is highly unlikely.
Why do you need a website to do a podcast?
1. Easy Clicks
If you are going to force people to search for the item that will bring your revenue, you're making it too hard. It has to be easy – peasy.
2. Email List Growth
IF you want to build an email list (and as they say the money is in the list, why? Easy Clicks) you have to have a sign up form. No website- no form.
3. Reputation
It's $10 a month if you go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/hosting and go with the cheapest plans it's around $9. If you drink 5 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew a month, you have spend close to $10 on soda. Switch to water, and you have the money. Would you buy a car from someone selling it out of a tent (and it looked like they were going to bolt the minute they got your money). You don't date someone who is going to leave it two weeks. You get the point. In a nutshell
If you don't have $10 a month (.03 a day) then don't start a podcast expecting it to pay your mortgage. Seriously. In the immortal words of Mick Jagger, “You can't always get what you want.”
4. Ease of Listener Subscriptions
When you have a website, you can put a link to your iTunes listing, and make it easier for people to subscribe in iTunes, Stitcher, etc. Without a website, you're saying things like “Find my show in iTunes.” Have you tried the iTunes search? I've typed in the exact name of someone's show and still had zero results.
5. Easy Contact
The one page you need on a website is a contact page and and about page. We all want interaction with our audience. While you can say your phone number and email address in your podcast, when it is a clickable link on your websites, it's super easy and requires no memorization.
I Am Always Open To Other Points of View
So when a client told me they were using Tumblr as their website I thought, “Really?” Then I looked at the website notold-better.com and yeah, that's a free tumblr website. Now to be honest, he had his graphics made by a graphic designer, and that graphic matches the artwork of his podcast.
So if you have 2-3 hours to learn how to adjust a tumblr site, check out their themes, and go from there. Keep in mind, you won't have all the flexibility of a WordPress site, but you will be saving $9 a month. You can even put Google Analytics code into a tumblr site for stats.
So if someone is really pushed for a budget, or they just wanted to test the waters, I would Tumblr is a platform I would recommend.
Time Saving Tip Using Libsyn
If you decide that you are going to use Tumblr as your website, you could use Libsyn as your media host (use the coupon code sopfree to get a free month at Libsyn.com) and Libsyn will automatically publish your content to Tumblr.
One More Thing about $9 a Month
Just so I know we're on the same page, you say you don't have 30 cents a day to spend on your podcast. Thirteen dollars a year on a domain (another .03 a day), and you'll use Canva to make your artwork for free, and you want the product and art you provide enough income to generate enough money to live on.
Can you please enlighten me of anyone who has put out no money, and generate a business that provided enough income to live on? Even a lottery player has to buy a ticket, and the chances of you spending no money and generating a podcast that will generate enough income to live on is about the same odds as winning the lottery.
Not Updating My WordPress Cost Me $200
I've always said to keep things simple. Remove any plugins or themes you are not using on a WordPress website. I thought I had done that, but I forgot to do it on one website. I do a show about Jillian Michaels. She has raving fans, and they love to buy her stuff. The best part is most of that is sold through places that have an affiliate program. When her book came out on Audible, I made a four figure affiliate check. You can be an audible affiliate by clicking here.
Well on my website for Jillian Michaels I had been using the Thesis theme years ago. I now use themes from Appendipity which runs on the Genesis Framework. I never removed the Thesis theme, and my site got infected with Malware. I got blacklisted by Google. I went to my hosting company who in 2013 DID remove the malware for free, only to find out they no longer offer that. I went to a few different places, and could not find anyone who did a one time cleaning. I ended up going with sucuri.net who (like everyone else) charges $200 for the year. It's a great system, and they keep me more than updated on the status of my site. They even have a security tool to help block hackers.
If you're website is healthy now you might look into the plugin Wordfence. It can help keep you safe (and it's free).
Podcasting Pulling in Some Big Names
Tony Robbins (famed motivational speaker and New York times best Selling Author) now has The Tony Robbins Podcast.
Jeffrey Glaser who has quite the TV resume. He oversaw such hit shows as “Glee,” “Empire,” “Arrested Development,” “Modern Family,” “New Girl” and “American Horror Story” at the network’s production arm, and guided more than 25 shows to syndication. He has been named president of content at podcasting network Wondery, spent 19 years at 20th Century Fox Television, where he oversaw many hits and guided more than 25 shows to syndication. More info
The New York Times has launched a podcast team. Full Report. They launched a Modern Love show that is getting 300,000 downloads a week.
Podcast Rewind
I appeared on the Podcaster's Roundtable where we talked about Show Prep
I appeared on the first episode of the Podcast Producers
Jessica Rhodes is the person behind interview connections, and she has her own Rhodes to Success podcast, Corey is the man behind Podfly.net a podcast editing service.
Thanks for the iTunes Reviews
I was turned on to SOP by Daniel J. Lewis, Cliff Ravenscraft, & Ray Ortega. Dave's content is solidly produced from a technical POV. Great audio as one would expect from a podcast about podcasting. The flow of the show is superior and feels like radio but no commercials 🙂 As I've made my way through the back catalog I am picking up so much information as I look to take my own podcast, House of #EdTech to a higher level! ~ Chris Nesi Host, House of #EdTech Podcast chrisnesi.com
To leave a review go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/itunes (view in iTunes, and then rate and review).
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Ready Start Your Podcast? Get the Planning Your Podcast Course For Free!
I have a course on the education website Udemy called, “Planning your podcast.” Take that course and when the doors of the School of Podcasting open in June, forward me your receipt after signing up for the School of podcasting, and I will refund you purchase of the Planning Your Podcast
You absolutely want to keep everything updated and remove unused stuff. Sucuri is awesome (and included with WP Engine hosting… something to take into account when comparing cheap vs more premium hosting! And there are a lot of other advantages too, including a lot of hardware and software blocking of attacks built-in.).
Also, if HostGator was better in the past, but isn’t as much anymore, this might be why:
http://researchasahobby.com/full-list-eig-hosting-companies-brands/
Basically, there is a HUGE mega-corp that buys up hosting companies and then does the whole maximize profit thing, often resulting in fairly poor service. Apparently HostGator was acquired mid-2012. (That’s a while back, but maybe takes a while before some of the effects start showing up.) I think that article is a bit overblown (clearly that guy doesn’t like this EIG corp), but it’s something to keep in mind. (I’m kind of with the the author though, in that I’d probably recommend something like SiteGround for less-expensive hosting… but I strongly recommend managed hosting like WP Engine or Page.ly, etc. It’s just worth it unless you have super-high traffic with no way to monetize.)
re: Handbrake – I’ve been using it for years to compress our DVDs (that we own) and put them on our home media server, but yea, it can do a great job on other video too. I’d do some testing though, as sometimes recompressing (which I think YouTube does) something already highly compressed can have less than optimal results.
I should clarify, that Sucuri isn’t “included” with WP Engine as in the plugin (where you’re saying it shows scans and such), but they are the service WP Engine uses, and WP Engine does all kinds of blocking/scanning, and will involve Securi to fix/clean your site if you have any issues. (I’ve taken advantage of this a couple of times over the years… super fast and excellent!)
I use WP Engine for the School of Podcasting