Jeffrey Daniel Frey’s Blog

Today I’m basically going to run through my iTunes list of podcasts about podcasting and document them here. I’m always on the lookout for more podcasts for podcasters (and podcasts about podcasters), and I check in with my pod directories about once every two weeks to see if podded (popped?) up. I hope you find these as useful as I do. As always, I’m looking for more and will update this as needed… email me your suggestions.

First, the tutorials and how-to podcasts. Podfading has taken it’s toll on a number of these, and some are dated… but I still save them and use them as resources for people who ask.

• http://www.seeitdoit.tv/podcasting/free.asp - See It Do It TV - there were three video blogging / podcasting tutorials released on 3/14/06.
• http://homepage.mac.com/ilife06/learn/learn-to-podcast.xml - paste this url into your favorite podcatcher and you’ll get 8 videos from Apple about iLife ’06 released on 1/11/06.
• http://www.frenchmaidtv.com - I know it’s sad for me to list it, but I’m going through my iTunes list, and I am subscribed. You can’t tell me you don’t learn something by watching :).
• http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0471748986,page-1.html - I’m a big fan of the dummies book, and there’s a link on this page to subscribe to the podcast (a companion to the book)… works for me!
• http://amoore3.podOmatic.com/rss2.xml - another paste into your podcatcher link. It was done a while ago, but there’s a good Audacity tutorial in this feed.

Second, podcasts about podcasts. These just keep me informed about who’s doing what in the podcasting world.

• http://www.podcast411.com - this podcast interviews other podcasters… a must listen to… though it gets a bit long at times.
• http://www.podcastsalad.com - all about video podcasts. Subscribe today; it’s still not too late to watch every episode.

Third are the tips, tricks, and other podcasting podcasts.

• http://feeds.feedburner.com/PublishAPodcast/ - this is based on a seminar addressing questions about podcasting and the how-to’s of starting your own podcast.
• http://www.podcastingunderground.com - Jason Van Orden’s news and tips on podcasting. Listening to this podcast could distinguish whether you’re podcast is a marketing success or failure.
• http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com - Some people I’m met love it, and some people don’t. I’m a subscriber! I don’t have time to listen as they come out, but I do queue them up for a while and then listen to a bunch of them during a car or plane ride.
• http://www.podcastpickle.com/casts/4/ - Today in Podcasting - I haven’t quite figured this one out yet :).
• http://www.profitablepodcasting.com - Paul Colligan’s podcast concerning issues about the profitability and monetization of podcasting where he interviews people doing it and runs some numbers.  I’d put this on your must listen -to list, unfortunately it doesn’t come out often enough.

Fourth, and last, the must see / must listen-to podcasts that keep me going. Even if you listen for a few weeks and don’t hear anything you like… there will be that day when someone covers something that you just couldn’t have done without.

• http://pa.gigavox.com/series/podcastacademy.html - I heard these in person, took notes as best I could, but I’ve listened to them all a once or twice since and have found new things to focus on.
• http://www.thepodcastbrothers.com - don’t miss the podcast, and sign up for the Podcast and New Media Expo next year. The forums are already up!
• http://geekbrief.podshow.com - this doesn’t specifically address podcasting, but there are some great behind the scenes episodes that let you into their lighting, camera, computer, and studio layout. I’m hooked! There’s also link on the website to their setup (http://geekbriefwp.podshow.com/?page_id=34), and if you’re not a fan… just subscribe and then look at the titles and show notes. Neal and Luria (Cali Lewis’ real name is Luria Petrucci) are great about naming and documenting the shows so you can find what you’re looking for!

Don’t miss this tool! The Levelator™ takes an audio file and normalizes the levels in the file. The perfect application, and one that many people deal with, is multiple speakers. Whether it’s two people and one mic (so one person is a little further away and may not sound as loud), multiple people with different mics or different levels, or the best application being an interviewee on a Skype call (maybe audio hijacked) and an interviewer on a mic… The Levelator™ will take a Wav or Aiff file and “level” all those various speakers.

I found out about this tool at the Podcast Academy / Podcast and Portable Media Expo… and it truly is a revolutionary tool. Find details here. Download this tool: http://www.gigavox.com/levelator.

I started researching hosting services for podcasting and found about 85 different hosting services that I would say were established (nice website, many users, answered the phone when I called customer service, etc.). There were about 35 more that you could tell were newbies. I didn’t find an exclusive list, but I found two lists that were helpful:

http://www.okaytoplay.com/podcast-hosting/

http://evhead.com/hodgepodge/podcast-sites-alexa.html

You have to watch what list you’re looking at because a lot of them come from the host themselves who get a neutral domain name, put out a review of everyone, and make themselves look better than they are. The second link that I show is from odeo, but they do an okay job of being fairly neutral.

Based on what I learned from Podcast Academy and the Expo I attended a few weeks ago, I knew to look for things like:

• the ability to use your own domain name
• no ads
• unlimited bandwidth
• statistics
• and other things…

So, I narrowed the list down to 10: Akamai, Big Contact, Genetic Hosting, GoDaddy, Hipcast, Libsyn, Odeo, Ourmedia, podOmatic, and Podshow. After that, I did further investigation of their service offerings, costs, and extra costs / software / etc. that you need in order to really get things done. Some offer ‘free’ hosting, only to find that if you want to do anything serious, you need to pay extra for their client software or premier package (some of which have a very large cost). I’d rather find a place that told you strait out, here’s what we have and do, and this is how much is costs (even if it is a lot).

Thinking about the extras idea above and using the tips collected from all those sessions at the Academy and Expo again, I narrowed my list of 10 down to three. Genetic Hosting integrates Podkive into their offering which is a great archival and management system for podcasts (saw them at the Podcast Expo). They also are very open about their costs. Libsyn appears to do somewhat of the same (archiving), and they have a pretty good attitude/nature overall as a business. They have also just released a pro version that caters more to businesses and schools who are looking to do multiple podcasts under one roof. It looks to have great features and upgraded resources. Akamai is the big dog, they are used by large companies. They have it all, but they know it.

After phone conversations, demos, and playing live with all three companies / products … Libsyn is my pick for the average podcaster. Genetic is too new… they will figure it out in time, but not just yet. Akamai is for companies, large businesses, and those of you that have the cash and want it all.

Find out more: http://libsynpro.com/.

UPDATE 1 (10/13/2006): I should have given you libsyn’s main site link, the link above is for businesses and schools with multiple podcasts. The link to the free area that the beginning podcaster can use is: http://www.libsyn.com.

UPDATE 2 (11/25/2006): I took a tour of libsyn pro recently. I think schools and universities should check it out as a hosting service if they are not into hosting podcasts themselves. It allows an entity to have multiple podcast producers, but keep all the maintenance and stats in one place across all of the podcasts. Also, it would be a good solution if you had multiple podcasts that you are producing and you don’t want the hassle of different accounts for each one.

This is a quick note about the session with the same name at Podcast and Portable Media Expo 4 that took place on Friday, September 29, 2006 in Ontario, California… as well as my own thoughts on the subject:

See my series of posts on the Top 5 Reasons to Podcast at a University if you’re interested in the subject of university podcasting.

Podcasting at universities is a lot more than course casting. Universities are using podcasts to communicate to staff, recruit students, publicise the university, as well as many other things. “Successful” [anything] needs to be quantified/qualified. Is making it to the playoffs considered successful, or do you have to win the Superbowl to be a successful football team? I think it depends on perspective.

The perspective of some universities is that, we’re using the technology, so we are successful… and I think they’re right. If I learned anything from the expo, it was that podcasting is still a new thing. There are a lot of people doing it, but we’re all still trying to figure out the direction of where it will go while coming up with new and interesting ways to use it.

At Rice, we have had success with students launching internal podcasts to their residential college, the posting of a few classes on-line for download, and are working toward a unified front on how to reign in the technology and use it in targeted areas around the university.

Questions to ask:

• Why?
• How?
• What will the university get out of it?
• What will the listeners get out of it?

Brent K. Izutsu, from Stanford, talked about iTunes at Stanford. They have three different sections: an Academic site - tied to the course management system, a Community site - which includes, academic advising, training, etc., and a Public site - over 700 tracks consisting of lectures and presentations. The details? All audio is mp4, enhanced podcasts are 300×300 pixel, and video casts are h.264. They use snowball mics into a portable marantz recorder, an apple laptop connected through firewire, soundtrack pro to edit, then upload to itunes. Important: they now have an on-line speaker release form.

Obadiah Tarzan Greenberg, U.C. Berkeley has been using streaming video for a long time and then realized that they could let people take that video with them = podcasting. Open content is a key component of the institution’s mission and it’s a dream of some of the faculty that they teach to the world. They have podcast enabled classrooms, and one of the history podcasts made it to 23 in the iTunes podcast section last year.

The other speakers discussed other topics specific to their university and/or podcasting at large… but most of those issues were covered in other sessions of the conference.

I think both of the institutions listed about (Stanford and U.C. Berkeley) can be seen as being quite successful in the podcasting arena. Thanks again for taking the time to speak to us, during and after the session.

This is a synopsis of the top three sessions that I attended at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. I have to preface it by saying that the Podcast Academy (see my notes on yesterday’s post) the day before the conference covered a lot of the information that the expo sessions did. I would suggest anyone thinking about podcasting, already podcasting, interested in what others are podcasting, or who wants to know about issues surrounding podcasting… find the next Podcast Academy and go to it. The past podcast academy tracks have, of course, been podcasted… you can find them here.

Amateur Means You Do It For Love
Dave Slusher, Evil Genius Chronicles
No one knows anything definitive about which way podcasting is going, in the ‘big bang’ of podcasting the universe hasn’t stopped expanding. Monetization? The apostle Paul didn’t say money was the root of all evil, he said the love of money is the root of all evil. So don’t let people make you feel bad about making money, but it’s not the point of podcasting.

Questions to ask yourself if you want to get into podcasting… he asked these of his podcasting listeners.

Q: Why would you start doing this? A: i’ve got creativity to burn, i want to hear what i’m talking about, raise awareness.

Q: What kinds of things would you want out of it? A: the ability to communicate your experiences, impacting the people around you with your message, leaving an audio record of yourself.

Q: Why would you love doing it? A: the power of expression, feedback and love from the listeners.

Q: What would make you stop doing it? A: if you’re not doing justice to the thing your doing, the subject matter isn’t really interesting to me anymore, i’ve said everything i have to say, i want to do something else.

Q: How do you know you were a success? A: if i feel like i’ve done something interesting, if you’ve gained a skillset and have learned something, feedback from people.

Guerrilla Podcasting: Producing a Great Show With No Staff, No Time, and No Budget
Kevin Crossman, Frat Pack Tribute Podcast
Stick to niche content. A podcast is not a blog. Good topics are anything to do with music, tv, movies, travel, etc. Podcasting should be the extension of a good website. Buy and read the book Guerrilla Marketing - by Jay Conrad Leinson.

Topics covered:
- use unconventional promotion when possible, free publicity, word of mouth
- viral marketing - use listeners to spread your podcast
- time management - how much time can you commit? enough to do a great podcast?
- think about all the time needed for content, interviews, audio production, website, etc.
- record a test show - give it to family, friends, etc. and get input
- promote the show on forums, sending promos, etc.
- 30 minute podcast will take 3 hours to produce (average survey done)
- time savers? go live vs. multitrack? if live - castblaster software
- if multitrack - audacity, garageband3, adobe audition
- microphone and mixer is probably needed as well
- domains - www.yourshow.com, friendly url (not long), reserve alternatives as well
- media/website hosting - $10 / 1000 GB to unlimited bandwidth
- can use feedburner, but make sure they subscribe through your site
- separate your listeners - interested to intense
- solicit feedback from the listeners, and keep them informed
- let users leave voicemail and use it on your podcast k7.net - pick a number that is rememberable
- blog comments, show message board, allow people to email, send text attachments, audio files, etc.
- newsletter sent to listeners of the show
- get a po box so that people / consumers can send you things
- make use of online surveys - anonymous feedback (podtrac?)
- record the first entry in the rss as a promo and have it available, re-record it as needed
- forums - pickle, alley, 411, - yahoo podcasters group - get your name out there
- look professional - business cards, brochure, media, etc.
- learn more about podcasting as 411, confessions, underground, school of, today in, etc.

Promoting Your Podcast: Cost-Effective Strategies for Building Your Audience
Jason Van Orden, author of Promoting Your Podcast
- podcasting consultant - podcastingunderground.com
- internetbusinessmastery.com, gothamcast.com
- use guerrilla marketing - targeted, measurable, and cost effective
- walk a day in your listeners shoes
- itunes - browse, category, or search - can you find yourself?
- quality content, album art, release content regularly, feedvalidator.org
- title, description, keywords, subtitle / title:subtitle very important for keywords
- keywords are king - nichebot.com
- show notes, transcripts, supplementary articles
- casting com - transcript your show? (now it’s searchable)
- email list - create your own traffic, alternate means of communicating
- getresponse.com, awebber.com
- monetization - easy to make money with clicks (affiliate commission)
- call to action above the fold on the website
- provide clear instructions (rss, itunes link (itpc://), copy this link into…)
- press releases - create a story about it (prweb.com)
- podpress (plug in for wordpress), audible wordcast
- multiple formats with transcription

I know that some of the notes above are basically just keywords to trick my brain into remembering what was said… so if anyone is confused by what you see here… just comment on what you’d like me to clarify.

Podcast Academy 4 was great. The sessions were on Thursday, September 28, 2006, in Ontario, California. For those of you who couldn’t go (and who knows when the podcasts will be released), I’ll write my main take away synopsis below. For those of you who would like a copy of my full reminder notes to myself, download the pdf file: Podcast Academy 4 Notes.

• Implementation - Lessons From a Corporate Podcast Producer
  Greg Cangialosi (Blue Sky Factory)
  Of course, as everyone says, know your audience. Make sure you know what is the goal of your podcast is (that will define a lot of things like format, length, quality, etc.). Main take away? Keep a consistant schedule with your podcasts and get three or more episodes ahead of yourself and keep that buffer at all times. When life comes your way, you won’t have to scramble.

• Integration - Successful Web Design for Podcasting
  Kris Smith (Croncast, Palegroove Studios)
  Kris knows how to get your site seen by bloggers, search engines, etc. He also knows what a user wants to see when they come to a site and all the things that he needs to put on the site for them. Good example: enduranceplanet.com. Main take away? Use wimpy or flam to play your podcast on your site so listeners / viewers don’t have to leave your site to see it.

• Legal - Navigating the Legal Considerations of Podcasts
  Denise Howell (Bag and Baggage)
  This was scary. Main take away? Go to her website and learn as much as you can! Memorize the podcasting legal guide. :) She’s also posted her slides to her blog.

• Video Podcast Primer: Do it Yourself, or Hire it Out?
  Craig Syverson (gruntmedia)
  One of the best sessions. The peices of podcast production include concept, strategy, format, productions, posting, compressing, identity, feed, website, stats, promotion, and monetization. Main take away? Create the podcast with the listener or viewer screen and speakers in mind. Make the best possible product that you can to fit with those.

• Viral Video - The Secret To Spreading Your Content
  Tim Street (French Maid TV)
  I liked this session the best. Tim was able to communicate to the attendees exactly what makes a video sharable. Main take away? Try to envoke a sense in someone through your video… if you envoke two, people will share the video… if you can envoke three, the video becomes viral! See my full Podcast Academy 4 Notes for the senses.

• Inside the Production – A Live Episode of 88SLIDE
  Noah Bonnett and Rachel Rhodes (88SLIDE)
  I was amazed at the simplicity of what looks to be such a big operation. Main take away? Get your video out there any way you can and consider it flattery if someone copies it.

• Engaging the Audience - Adding Interactivity to Video Podcasts
  Alex Lindsay (MacBreak, Pixel Corps)
  I started to get sleepy from lunch during this one… sorry Alex. Main take away? Keep the size of you files down, but the quality up, by using a smaller video size, using a green screen, and only putting in key frames when needed.

• Scale - The Magic Behind TWiT
  Leo Laporte (This Week in Tech)
  Lots of topics just flew out of Leo’s mouth as he was talking. Main take away for me? Superserve your niche. ESPN wouldn’t do a how-to football video to try to reign in avid football fans. No. They’re going to do inside football for monster fans of the game. Do the same with your podcast. Find your niche and deliver.

Thanks to everyone who put on a great conferece. Download my Podcast Academy 4 Notes for my full list of little reminders on what was said. Tagged podcast academy 4.

So why does everyone say your first blog, podcast, (enter new media that you are trying out here) stinks? Maybe it’s because you talk about something stupid like… why your first one stinks…?

I’m at the PODCAST ACADEMY before the Podcast and Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California. Right now I’m sitting here listening to Leo Laporte talk about TWiT, advertising, new media, etc.

I’ve just downloaded Podcast Maker to my Mac, signed up with WordPress, checked into FeedBurner, and done many other pocasting type things today. Though I’ve had much interaction with the technologies, read almost every book there is out there on the subject, and have been advising people on how (and more importantly why) to blog, podcast, and new technologies in general… I’ve actually never done it myself.

It’s not that I haven’t thought about it. I’ve been designing business models, processes, procedures, technology solutions, etc. for people, businesses, churches, and schools for a while. This, though, is really the start of actually getting into it and using the technologies.

I hope this is the start of a great thing.