Because of my Podcast… I got to Meet a Mentor and Be Seen as an Expert
Ben from Modern Self Defense where he was asked to teach a class, meet a mentor, and then he had 20 peopel fly in to meet HIM. This great event gets better, they have already asked him back to do another class. Ben is doing his podcast as he wants people to be safe. Fin him at modernselfprotection.com and in iTunes.
How to Create a Protected / Premium RSS Podcast Feed 6:37
I've had a few people ask me this question so thanks to Nick at spnt.tv, Jason from matttalkonline.com and Randy from Leaning Towards Wisdom (itunes)
I use Digital Access Pass to accomplish this through some short codes. Then anyone who is subscribed can access their special version of the RSS feed (and other can't). If they cancel their account their RSS goes dead. I have a video on my Patreon page that shows how this works (sign up for $1 and get access to bonus videos). Here are some tips and insight into having premium content.
1. If you are creating premium content for your launch, remember you don't have an audience yet and you may be doing “double the work” for an audience that doesn't exist.
2. When you get into ecommerce, you enter the world of paypal. Some people love paypal, and others refuse to us it.
3. You will need to be able to support your members. Its not a set it up and watch the money come in. They will occasionally need some help.
4. If you can keep the free items completely separate than the premium your life will be easy. I'm in the process of moving the premium content from the School of Podcasting to a completely different website. This makes keeping things “straight” a WHOLE lot easier. If you mix the premium and free content together, it can be quite the headache keeping everything separate (the easiest way to to just keep them separate).
5. If you are trying to make it so that there is NO WAY To steal your content, then you will have a long day. If your product is digital, people can steal it. That's a fact and in the end you have to end up trusting your customers. Don't get hung up on that. People will pay for items in money or time. There are those people who have more time than money and can go to great lengths to get your content (and there are some customers who will share it with others – welcome to 2014).
Post Rewind [17:45]
I appeared on the Podcaster's Roundtable where we talked about platforms for podcasting. Listen/Watch it here.
Izzabela and Mike Russel produce the Branding Cow podcast where you can have Izzabela go over your website from top to bottom. In one episode the podcaster was using the Website host to host their media and Izzabela mentions how it took almost 10 minutes to download the episode. You can find the Branding Cow podcast at www.brandingcow.com
Mike and Izzabela run Music Radio Creative and recommend using Spreaker as your media host. Music Radio Creative are responsible for the “Podcast Rewind” voice over as well as the “Ladies” who sing “The School of Podcasting with Dave Jackson.”
Speaking of using your Web Hoist as a Media host I interview Ralph from thesdrshow.com on episode 419 where he talks about the horror of having to move to a “real” media host after launching his podcast (his web host even told him it would be fine – then it wasn't). You can hear that episode HERE (if you want a free month of hosting at Libsyn.com or blubrry.com use the coupon sopfree ).
Spotlight Podcast: Adopting and Fostering in Faith [22:56]
Today we spotlight a new podcast “Adopting and Fostering in Faith from a new member of the School of Podcasting Robert Gelinas. This podcast is all about inspiration, information and resources for Christians who desire to care for orphans in their own backyard (and beyond). I love it as Robert is an expert (he has five adopted children) and he is using the podcast to help others with questions about fostering and adopting children. Check out his website at http://fosteringandadoptinginfaith.com/ and find his podcast in itunes
Last 5 in 5 from Ben Branam [29:46]
Ben Branam from Modern Self Protection (No One SHould Live in Fear) shares the last five podcasts you listened to:
HipCast Podcast Media Hosting Review [34:15]
I am getting a bit tired of reviewing media hosts as there are new ones every day (hour?) I was asked to look at Hipcast.com. My criteria includes:
1. Don't mess with my file (they do) – although you are allowed to rename your file once you upload it. They transcode your file as well.
2. Give me a way to redirect my feed (they don't).
3. Don't limit my bandwidth (they pass)
4. Give me stats (their stats get a D+ – very, very basic)
5. Give me unlimited storage (they pass)
They list features on their website that aren't really features (“We back up your files” – really? I hope so). Their online recording tools didn't work with my machine (they didn't recognize my microphone). The recording from your phone produced a quality that I feel is poor at best.
You can read my review of other media hosts here. I recommend Libsyn.com and Blubrry.om (who meet all my criteria) get a free month at either site using the coupon sopfree
As Tim is doing a video podcast and he wants to put out an hour-long video, I ask “Does it really need to be video. There are people who do videos for YouTube and then put the audio out as a podcast. Cali Lewis use to do this (and might still be doing it) for geekbeat.tv
What some people will do is create a smaller version to be downloaded
640 x 360 (16:9)
Or
640 x 480 (4:3)
Then upload the HD version to Youtube and put the Youtube version on your website and put the smaller version into your feed and let people watch YouTube on your website. This reduces how much space you need for hosting. If your show is NOT visual (talking head) I would recommend this.
Mentioned on this Show
Good episode, Dave. I did want to weigh in a little on the topic of self-hosting. You referred to Izabella’s review of Mommy’s Cocktail Hour.
In no way do I evangelize the idea of self-hosting audio files. When people ask me to help them get their podcasts going, I always tell them to host the audio files through Libsyn. I have self-hosted audio files because I didn’t know any better when I started 7 years ago.
So I think the idea is that eventually, your hosting company is going to lay down the law and that’s the main reason to not self-host. I think it’s common for people to think you can fly under the radar, but eventually it will catch up with you. Well, I wouldn’t say our podcasts are flying under the radar. I’ll give some stats to put this into context.
In total, our podcasts have been downloaded 1,069,029 times. Over a million downloads isn’t really flying under the radar of our hosting company. We’ve also had extreme spikes that they would surely notice. One of our podcasts was getting 30,000-40,000 downloads an episode. The highest episode was 58,000 downloads. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that we weren’t skirting through with 50 or 75 downloads. We have never been contacted about our traffic and usage.
Also, Izabella talked about how long it took her to download a MCH episode through with their fast internet. I’ve never noticed any of our podcasts taking longer than anything else to download through the podcast app I use, Pocketcast. I believe she said it took her 10 or 15 minutes to download an episode. I tested with our slow rural internet and their latest episode that is 70mbps took me just under 4 minutes to download.
Like I said before, I’d never suggest to anyone that they self-host. In fact, I’ve recently started a Libsyn account for Ivy Envy and I plan to eventually move all of my self-hosted podcasts over to Libsyn. But I thought I’d share my experiences of self-hosting.
Interesting. Kind of like Jay-walking. Technically against the law, but you have to get caught. Very impressive numbers.
I’ve always enjoyed your lessons and the insights you share on podcasters roundtable and your own site. I finally got around to subscribing to your show and you ruin things by advising people to obey the cops so they won’t get shot.
Certainly you can see how such a statement will be seen as insensitive at this time. Whatever your personal feelings about this topic a wise person would have kept them private, discourage especially when they’re not relevant to the topic at hand.
Seriously reconsidering if I should continue following you.
I apologize, you’re hear to learn about podcasting. The interesting thing is I thought I had cut this out. In the end I only cut out the second half. I had originally said, “If someone says put your hands up, I would do it (I’m paraphrasing), and then I added, “and if you shoot a suspect how about calling for help immediately…” My intent was to cut this out completely. I will edit and repost tomorrow. It is a tragedy and my apologies for offending you.
Thanks Dave for clarifying things. Your show is great and your information has been very helpful. We all make mistakes and I do believe you’re a decent man.