Podcast Help Desk

Here are the things I DO NOT worry so much about in my Podcasting: 1. My Statistics / Numbers 2. My Reviews, Ratings and Rankings 3. iTunes 4. Audio Perfection 5. Being Absolutely Everywhere 6. MP3 File Names Things I do worry about: 1. Audience - Give them a reason to listen 2. Knowing my listeners 3. My RSS feed address 4. Being everywhere that matters 5. Ease of use for my listeners and web visitors You will have to listen to the show to find out more :)

He's Baaaaackkkk! :) Today I give a bit of an overview of what you need to do BEFORE you put out your first episode of your podcast. 1. Pick a Topic 2. Pick a Title (for the show) 3. Pick and get your domain name 4. Figure out how you are going to do your RSS feed 5. Setup your site and feed 6. Figure out how and what you are going to use to record your podcast 7. Test record to make sure you know how to use your mic, software, devices and whatever else you use to record and edit your files **** USE MP3 for Audio, USE MP4/M4V for Video **** If you disagree with me or have a question, please send in a voice comment to mike@mikedell.com or Podcasthelpdesk@gmail.com

Just a short note to let everyone know I'm still here and will be producing podcasts again VERY SOON! Thanks for staying subscribed!

My Predictions from 2015 in podcasting for the Year 2016 I Made some guesses on what was going to happen in 2016 back in Episode 71. Now we find out just how wrong I was. * Soundcloud will no longer be a podcast media host (Wrong, they are still here) Soundcloud is still here and still nobody has bought them and they haven’t gone out of business (yet) * There will be at least one new podcast media hostt (Right) Dan Benjamin's Fireside along with a BUNCH of others that didn’t really make a splash yet. * There will be at least one new podcast media host go out of business (??) At least none that I know of. I'm sure there were some, but they went out with no splash just like they came in with no splash. * I will release “The NO BS Guide to Podcasting”. No Really…. I am going to finish it (wrong) It will come out sooner or later or never :) * Feedburner will still exist all year long. (Right) Yup.. Still a pain in my side. * Podcast Movement will be a big success. (no brainer) (right) PM16 was great! The first one I went to and it was a ton of fun. Reminded me of the good old days in Ontario. * Blab will start charging “something” for service or will start some sort of advertising. (Not talked about in the show) (WTF? They went out of business) They are just gone. So I don’t know if I was right or wrong. I guess wrong, they didn’t start charging, they just went out of business. Free is a lousy business plan. * A major player in the podcasting space (company) will change names / rebrand. (wrong) At least, not that I know of. Blubrry went through a sort of re-branding. It’s now “Blubrry Podcasting, a RawVoice Company” in communications. But, really it was that all along. * There will be a major Movie announced that features podcasting in the central plot. (not a documentary or independent film) (Wrong - As far as I know) Also not that I’m aware of. * Howard Stern will still hate podcasting. (Right) HAPPY 2017!    

1. DO NOT Host your mp3 files on your own webserver Hosting your files on a webserver is the single quickest way to get kicked off of your web hosting server. Plus, if you get popular at all, your mp3 downloads will compete with your website and your RSS feed. It’s simply not a good idea. 2. DO NOT Use Feedburner (or feedblitz or any other 3rd party RSS feed service) We have beaten this dead horse but I get calls every week from someone who is on feedburner and something goes wrong. Eliminate that problem by eliminating feedburner from your system. You give Feedburner a feed to “burn”, use that feed directly. 3. DO NOT Use your hosting company’s RSS feed Using a feed that doesn’t have your domain name in it simply means you do not own that feed. Your hosting company does. It’s like email. If you have aol.com or hotmail.com in your email address on your business card, it makes you look stupid. Or at very least, unsophisticated or too lazy to do the work needed to have your own domain in your email. Same goes for feeds. If you run your feed from your own domain, it looks better than yourpodcastname.hostingcompany.com/rss. Plus, if your hosting company goes out of business (which DOES happen and has happened in the past) you will have trouble getting your subscribers back. 4. DO NOT Listen to anyone that tells you that WordPress Feeds are unreliable There is a very well known podcaster / podcasting company rep that is spreading the BS that WordPress Feeds are unreliable. The simple fact that it’s WordPress does NOT make it unreliable and the fact that it’s from said hosting company, does NOT make it reliable. They have their feed problems too. Just like any system, there can be problems. (If there were no problems ever, why would they need a support department??) This person (and others) are using it as a marketing tool to make you think that if you host your own RSS feed, you are somehow more likely to have problems. That is simply not true. I know of several networks that are running WordPress feeds (many of them!) from one WordPress site and have no problems. It’s more about the server than it is about the system. This Hosting company (and the one I work for by the way) have very reliable and robust servers that cost a lot of money to maintain. A $3 a month shared hosting plan on a Web Server is not very likely to be able to handle a ton of traffic. That’s because it only costs $3. You get what you pay for, as the old saying goes. If you get really popular, you may need to step up to a higher level server. I run Podcast Help Desk and all my other sites save one, on Godaddy’s mid-level Linux servers. Yes, it costs more than $3 a month. But not that much more and my sites have never gone down. I don’t get Serial or NPR level’s of traffic. If I did, I could get a much bigger server, still run WordPress and be just fine. You can’t expect a 20 year old Toyota mini truck to haul the same load as an 18 wheeler, so you must get the vehicle that is needed for the job at hand. Same with webservers. But as I said # 3, it is worth the trouble because you want own your own brand, your own platform totally without any 3rd parties in your way. 5. DO NOT Use anything but MP3 for an audio podcast I’m sure I will get some “feedback” from my friend Charles on this one, but Do NOT use another file format other than MP3 for your audio podcast. At least not at this time. AAC (or Apple’s M4A) format is great for music. Great for iPods, iPhones and the such, but it’s not great for older mp3 players that people still use. It also does not work as well for web players. Does it work? Yes, 90% but mp3 works 100%. Stick with that until something better comes along. 6. DO NOT Encode your MP3’s any bigger than 128kbps Stereo In fact,

News: Spotify NOT buying soundcloud after all Was your show canceled by the Podcast Authority? --------------------- Listener Question Q: Is a Blue Yeti a good microphone to start out with? A: NO Now, to be fair, the Blue Yeti is a nice microphone and would be a great mic for someone that has a very quiet recording environment and/or is willing to put in the time to learn how to use it properly. Is it the best? No, is it the worst? Sometimes. -------------------- What is a podcast? noun a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically. Can be Audio, Video or Text (yes, PDF’s and Ebooks can be a “podcast”) verb make (a digital audio file) available as a podcast. A podcaster is: An independent content creator that makes Audio or Video available as a podcast. A host (or co-host) of an Audio show or Video show that is later turned into a podcast. A company that produces Audio or Video that is distributed as a podcast Simply making an Audio or Video show is NOT podcasting. There is a former local AM Radio talk host in town here that moved from Radio to Podcasting (so he says) but what he’s doing is live streaming his audio show and then making the MP3’s available for download on his website. He does not use RSS and his shows are not available as Podcasts. It’s not a bad show, but it’s not a podcast.(Norm Jones Show) Another former radio host in town here DOES now podcast. He makes an audio show 2 times a week and it IS available as a podcast.(omeletteradio.com) There is a distinction between to the two approaches. Nothing really wrong with either, just different. One is a online radio show with Archives and one is a Podcast. Audible ‘channels’ are not podcasts XM on demand are not podcasts Putting audio on a website is not (necessarily) a podcast ------------------ Blubrry’s NEW PostToSocial (or post2social) For a free month of hosting at blubrry.com, use my Promo code HELPDESK -----------------

Today I talk to MacKenzie Bennett from The PowerPress Podcast about her journey in podcasting as a beginner. MacKenzie is the Affiliate and Services Coordinator at RawVoice Inc. and Blubrry Podcasting. You can contact MacKenzie at mackenzie@blubrry.com or on twitter @MacKenzieB6 I also went on another rant about Feedburner and the few podcast "gurus" out there that still say you should use feedburner. If you would like a free month of Hosting or Stats at Blubrry.com, use the promo code HELPDESK at checkout.

I got to chat with Gary Leland from, originally, Podcast Pickle and a bunch of other sites, podcasts and businesses in the Dallas / Fort Worth area of Texas. We also got into a lot of the "back in the day" about podcasting and generally have a great conversation. You can find out about all that Gary does here: Gary Leland dot com Also here: https://fastpitch.tv/, Fast Pitch Radio Network and a few other places found on GaryLeland.com. It was a fun conversation. ------- Check out my other podcasts. Podcast Quick Hits Mike Dell's World Geek of the North Traverse City Podcast

Subscribe in Pocket Casts Happy International Podcast Day! For IPD, I thought I would put out a Quick Hit on the regular PHD feed. If you would like to continue to get these short 1 topic episodes from time to time, subscribe here. They are normally 5 minutes or less and a single topic of interest to podcasters. I only put them out when I have some news or a topic that is getting on my nerves. Could be a lot some weeks and maybe not so much other weeks. This quick hit is about dangerous web players. I have a client who put a SoundCloud Player on their company website and when the audio of the podcast was done, the player kept playing random stuff from SoundCloud. Some of that random stuff was heard by this person's boss and they were nearly fired. They came to me to move to the Blubrry platform only after I convinced them that Blubrry (and all the other reputable podcast hosting companies won't do that). So beware!

Subscribe in Pocket Casts I’m back after taking the summer mostly off and I have a lot of news in this episode along with some things to think about when you are doing your website for your podcast. ------------------- NEWS IAB Podcast measurement guidelines released Overcast Ads? Patreon Launches Private Feeds International Podcast Day IPD Gratitude Awards ------------------- Website website website! Do you need a website for your podcast? YES!! Here is why: * 1. Google - People can’t find you on Google or Bing if you don’t have a website. * 2. Having a central place to find your show and you is essential if your podcast hosting service of choice goes down or you want to move. * 3. It’s just cool to be able to make the site look the way you want it to rather than how the podcast host’s listing looks. * 4. Own your own brand. It’s important to have your own domain that is your brand for your podcast. Using someone else’s brand to promote your show, promotes them, not you. ------------------- Blubrry Tip of the Week Blubrry Listings are not automatically populated from your Blubrry hosting account. Follow the video below to make sure your listing is in Blubrry.com’s directory: ------------------- Bad advice PowerPress vs. Locked in services It’s just RSS. That is all you need. iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Tunein Radio and all the podcast apps are using RSS, Not RSS + something magic that only company X can give you to list your podcast. Locked in services want you to use their RSS feed instead of your own RSS feed because it’s easier for them to support their own system and it gives them exposure by having THEIR domain name in your feed address and on THEIR player. With PowerPress, the RSS feed is the RSS feed that everyone looks at and it has YOUR domain in it (if you choose). It works for Google Play, Itunes and every other podcast app that allows independent podcasts in it.

Podcast Movement 16 and Podcast2Radio with Rae Palermo – PHD088

iTunes Slow To Update Podcast Listings and More News – PHD087

Is It A Good Idea To Put Your Podcast On Vacation? – PHD086

A Conversation With Shawn Thorpe – phd085

Podcast Help Desk Update – 4-22-16