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261 Podcast Answer Man – Michael Hyatt Talks About Building A Platform – How Many Downloads Is A Good Number? – And More…

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:45:22 +0000

Michael Hyatt Talks About Building A Platform
In this week’s episode, I am super excited about talking with Michael Hyatt. Michael is the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S. He has over 200,000 subscribers to his personal blog that is focused leadership, productivity, publishing, social media, and the valuable resources that he discovers.

In this episode, I talked with Michael about his new book titled Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. In the book, he shares his story about how he built the platform that he has today in the online world. What I learned in this episode is that for the first four years that Michael published his personal blog, he never had over 1,000 subscribers to his blog. Michael shares a little insight into how he went about getting noticed in his niche market.

I highly encourage you to pick up the PHYSICAL COPY of Michael’s book between Monday, May 21st and Friday, May 24th from one of the retailers listed at http://MichaelHyatt.com/platform. If you do, and you forward your paid receipt to gifts@MichaelHyatt.com, you’ll receive all the digital versions of the book as well as over $300 worth of other bonuses.

Michael and I also spoke briefly about his This Is Your Life podcast that he launched back in February of this year. After episode 008, this podcast became one of the top 5 podcasts that I have every subscribed to with my favorite episode being episode 10 titled HOW TO SHAVE 10 HOURS OFF YOUR WORK WEEK. I highly recommend that you subscribe to Michael’s podcast in iTunes today.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the The MasonWorld Late-Night Internet Marketing Podcast by Mark Mason. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man!

iTunes Changed Their Mind!
iTunes changed their mind. They now want 1400×1400 artwork! Back on April 5th, I published episode 256 of Podcast Answer Man where I reported that iTunes updated it’s specs to suggest 1200×1200 artwork. Without any rhyme or reason, they now have updated their specs, again, to state that they now prefer 1400×1400 artwork!

Podcast Artwork for $175
Most podcasters do not invest enough into the artwork for their podcast. The truth is that your podcast artwork is often what sets the 1st impression for your podcast. This is especially true when it comes to those who find your show in a podcast directory.

I’ve been working with Jenny Hamson for several years and she does all my podcast artwork. I’ve also personally contracted her to do the artwork for all of my coaching and consulting clients. In all the years that I have worked with Jenny, she’s never failed to provide artwork that not only meets expectations but delivers far more than could have been anticipated. If you are looking for artwork, please contact Jenny Hamson today and tell her that Cliff sent you!

Two Quick Questions
In this episode, I answer two questions from Tommy Kendrick of the Actor’s Talk Podcast. The first question that Tommy asked was “How many downloads is a good number for a podcast.” He also asked about whether or not he should break down this podcast into a shorter version and a longer version for his podcast. I provide my thoughts on both of these questions in the episode.

iTunes Ratings & Reviews
I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Until April 2012, I really never asked anyone to provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes. If you find this show has been valuable to you, would you please go to my iTunes Listing to both rate and review Podcast Answer Man?

The Podcast Mastermind
One of the reasons that I love working with podcasters so much is due to the fact that they are influencing someone every single time they produce a podcast episode. The world needs great leaders! I believe that podcasters who take their leadership position seriously can make a positive difference in the lives of others. The world needs you and your message! They need you to be a leader!

Many people ask me how to grow the audience of their podcast. I believe that one of the best things you can do is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! To take yourself seriously! To consider yourself to be a professional!

Are you willing to invest in your future success?
Are you willing to be the greatest leader you can be?
Are you wiling to commit to your personal and professional growth?

If so, please consider joining The Podcast Mastermind!

Register For BlogWorld Today!
If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend the leading podcast industry conference. I know for a fact that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year’s NYC event, relating to podcasting. If you haven’t registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off!

The Virtual Ticket Option
Not able to attend BlogWorld NYC this June? No problem at all! The Virtual Ticket option allows you to consume all the content of the podcasting track sessions, as well as every session from all of the other tracks at BlogWorld & New Media Expo. The Virtual Ticket is also great for those who will be attending the conference as there will likely be multiple times where there is more than one session that you would like to sit in on during the same time slot. Those who are attending the conference can get the Virtual Ticket at a discounted add-on price.

To order your Virtual Ticket for BlogWorld today, feel free to use my affiliate link. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off!

Blue Host Affiliate Signup
I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Accounts that were created recently:
- http://SainPublications.com
- http://ThruhikerPodcast.com
- http://EndTimePodcaster.com
- http://FunInWichita.com

Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider if the link should be removed from this post. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet.

Free Month of Media Hosting With Libsyn!
Because of all the years of sending clients to sign up for accounts with Libsyn, they have created an affilate programs only given to a hand selected group of podcasting experts. I’m delighted that I am now able to offer new podcasters ONE MONTH FREE when they sign up for a new account with Libsyn. Simply use promo code GSPN when you sign up!

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

260 Podcast Answer Man – Will Google Plus Be An Option For Live Streaming?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:52:08 +0000

Will Google Take Live Streaming To The Next Level?
A recent post on the Google Blog announced that Google Plus Hangouts On Air feature is going to be rolled out to all members of the Google Plus Community.

The post said that you will be able to broadcast publicly. By checking “Enable Hangouts On Air,” you can broadcast your live hangout—from the Google+ stream, your YouTube channel or your website—to the entire world.

They also said.. “Once you’re off the air, we’ll upload a public recording to your YouTube channel, and to your original Google+ post. This way it’s easy to share and discuss your broadcast after it’s over.”

Erik Fisher and I talk a little bit about this and other things related to Google Plus!

Had To Take My Web Hosting To The Next Level!
Those who have been following my journey for a long time know that I have been often experienced growing pains when it comes to the hosting of my websites. If you haven’t done so already, I highly suggest that you check out my blog post on web hosting for podcasters.

I want to point out that everyone who has signed up for a hosting account with my BlueHost affiliate link (145 people since I started tracking) have been extremely satisfied and well served by the shared hosting platform that BlueHost provides.

On February, 10th, 2011, I released Episode 196 of Podcast Answer Man where I shared that I had, indeed, outgrown the shared hosting environment. To hear about how and why I moved over to a ServInt Hosting’s VPS hosting account, I would strongly encourage you to listen to that episode starting at 35.5 minutes into the episode which you can do by clicking here.

When I moved to Servint Hosting, I signed up for the least expensive package at $49 per month (Essential VPS) package. This account gave me 768 MB of Guaranteed RAM and offered 1.5GB Burst RAM. During the first year of my service with ServInt, I had not experience an issues, whatsoever, with my website.

However, just a few months ago, I started to receive a lot of promotion from folks who have audiences between 200,000 to 750,000 people and I’ve been mentioned by these folks on a repeated basis. As a result, the traffic to my site has increased dramatically and I had noticed issues where my site was beginning to load slowly and there were a few times when I would send out a status update on Twitter, Facebook, etc and the inbound links would simply cause my site to crash.

For this reason, I talked with the support department over at Servint and learned that based upon my server stats, I would be better served by their (Ultimate VPS) package that gives me 3 GB of Guaranteed RAM and 6 GB Burst RAM. This new package is $129 per month. I made the decision, immediately, to do the upgrade and it only took them about 1 hour to have my entire account moved to a new machine. After they copied everything over, they flipped a switch and my site was up and running on my new Ultimate VPS package and my site has been running great ever since.

I’m so delighted about the increased amount of traffic to my content and interest in my brand. These are the types of expenses that I don’t mind paying increased costs for.

If you are just getting started you can get a shared hosting account, today, with my BlueHost Affiliate Link. However, if you have already outgrown shared hosting, you could sign up for a great VPS account, today, using my Servint Hosting affiliate link.

Other items mentioned in this episode
- New version of LiveFyre due to be released on May 11th, 2012
- Thoughts on landing interviews for your podcast.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the The Construction Industry Podcast by Cesar Abeid. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man!

Are you willing to invest in your future success?
Are you willing to be the greatest leader you can be?
Are you wiling to commit to your personal and professional growth?

If so, please consider joining The Podcast Mastermind!

To order your Virtual Ticket for BlogWorld today, feel free to use my affiliate link. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off!

Accounts that were created recently:
- http://ButchGibson.com
- http://BookSquirt.com

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

259 Podcast Answer Man – A Case of Stolen Network Identity – The BlogWorld Virtual Ticket Option – PJ Jonas Tells Us About Using A Publicist

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:18:06 +0000

A Case of Stolen Network Identity
In this week’s episode, I share how upset I was to learn that someone had gone and copied everything that I had spent seven years building at gspn.tv. Some say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. To some degree, I certainly believe this is true. However, there is a point where one can cross the line when imitating others.

One person, who I will not name, crossed this line when he created an exact duplicate of more than 90% of the content of my entire gspn.tv website. This person had created a logo and website header that was an nearly exact replica of my own. This person also used my own custom graphics that I spent hours creating or spent a great deal of money paying for.

This person also went so far as to copy, word for word, every single page of my website, including my network’s mission statement and a letter to the community, regarding Plus Membership, that I spent hours creating. If that were not enough, this person also created a podcast called “The Succesful Life Mindset” which is the same name of my own show at http://SuccessfulLifeMindset.com.

Just when I thought there would be no more that could shock or surprise me, I about fell over when I learned that a majority of this person’s podcast episodes started off with a word for word duplication of my own network ID that says “Entertaining, Educational, and Encouraging content that makes a difference… This is gspn.tv. Join The Community!” The only difference to any of this was that he replaced “gspn.tv” to put in his own network name.

Click here to see just a VERY SMALL SAMPLE of what I found.

To say that I was upset over this would be a gross understatement. Rather than get behind the microphone, in an emotionally charged state, I chose to not record an episode of Podcast Answer Man last week. Instead, I spent approximately 8 to 10 hours sending emails to this person to insist that he remove a very long list of things that were duplicated from my site.

I did approach this person with as much grace and patience that I had within me. I am very delighted to report that this person has seen the error of his ways and he’s complied with every single item that I’ve sent. After everything had been taken care of, I spent nearly an hour on a video conference with this person, via Skype, to get the story behind why this person did what he did. Though I know many of you would like to hear the details of that conversation, I’m choosing to simply tell you that the situation was peacefully resolved, without any threat of legal action and that I am quite certain that this person will not be doing anything like this to me, nor anyone else for that matter, ever again.

Has anything like this ever happened to you? Let me know in the comments section below.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the The Local Method Podcast by Albert Hathazi. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man!

Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910
I am so excited about the new Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 webcams that I just purchased.

It’s great because it has a Carl Zeiss 1080p lens, auto focus, provides great color and it works PERFECTLY on the Mac! It’s so nice to finally be able to stream in widescreen format for my Live Show Thursdays!

PJ Jonas Tells Us About Using A Publicist
In this episode, I am delighted to feature an interview with PJ Jonas from GoatMilkStuff.com and the host of the Busy Mom’s Survival Guide with PJ Jonas podcast. In the interview, you’ll learn how she and her family grew a business out of creating soap from Goat’s milk.

However, the true purpose of the interview is to help you understand how PJ has made it onto the Today Show and into Oprah’s magazine. I hope that you enjoy the interview and are inspired to dream big and make a decision as to whether or not hiring a publicist might be a line item in your budget at some point in the future.

iTunes Ratings & Reviews
I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Until April 2012, I really never asked anyone to provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes. I’ve decided that I am going to begin asking for my community to please go to my iTunes Listing to both rate and review Podcast Answer Man.

To order your Virtual Ticket for BlogWorld today, feel free to use my affiliate link. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off!

The Podcast Report Now Online!
I’m excited to announce that the Podcast RSS feeds are all set up and that The Podcast Report is now available on the Zune, iTunes, Blackberry, Stitcher, and almost every one of your favorite podcasting applications.

Accounts that were created recently:
- http://TheGoldenCord.com
- http://WinSolutionGuys.com
- http://WestMichiganIndie.com

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

258 Podcast Answer Man – How Andrew Zarian Went From Hobby To Building The Profitable GFQ Network

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:47:56 +0000

From Hobby To Profitable Podcast Network
In this episode, I interview Andrew Zarian of the Guys From Queens Network. Andrew shares how he started out with a hobby of streaming video via Ustream.tv after being laid off in 2008 and how he turned that hobby into the profitable podcast network that he runs today.

I hope that you are inspired by the humble beginnings and how Andrew’s passion for creating content became his full-time career. Their is a great deal of valuable insights for those who might be considering the creation of their own podcast network.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Shark Tank Fan Podcast with Pierce Marrs and Steve Hayes. If you check out their show and like it, please be sure to let them know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man!

Podcamp Nashville Review
I spoke at Podcamp Nashville this past weekend. I want to thank you Pierce Marrs and Stu Gray for joining me for my panel session. In this episode, I share a review of this year’s Nashville Podcamp event. Overall, it seemed, to me, that it was the least attended podcamp that I’ve attended up to this point. In spite of that, I share why I still considered my trip to Nashville and Podcamp Nashville a total success.

Sutton Parks
I had the privilege of meeting Sutton Parks at Podcamp Nashville. He had lead a session titled “Why You Should Write A Book And How To Do It.” In the episode, I tell you about his book, “You Can Sleep In Your Car, But You Can’t Drive Your House To Work.”

Accounts that were created recently:
- http://YourTaxTeacher.com
- http://InspirationNextExit.com

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

257 Podcast Answer Man – New Libsyn Stats Algorithm – Bringing Audio Clips Into Skype Call – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:48:59 +0000

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Busy Mom’s Survival Guide with PJ Jonas. If you check out her show and like it, please be sure to let PJ know you heard about her show from The Podcast Answer Man!

Problem Getting Audio Clips Into Skype Call
Chris called in to say that he used to be able to use a Sound Mixer audio driver on his Windows 7 computer to get audio clips, played from his computer, to go out to his Skype calls. When he recently installed Windows, he no longer had that sound driver and wanted to know if I had any thoughts on how to get audio clips to play out to the Skype calls. In the episode, I share two possible solutions based upon the criteria that he provided.

Interview With Rob Walch
I always enjoy talking with Rob Walch about the latest things happening over at Libsyn. In this week’s podcast, I share a recorded interview we did earlier this week.

New Libysn Stats Algorithm: Rob shared how Libsyn has recently changed their they way the process their stats and how and why they will be even more accurate than ever before.

Getting Geeky: Rob and I did get a little geeky in this interview. Rob shared some important information about which Libsyn Media URL to use when promoting your .mp3 file. Also, we went into a pretty lengthy discussion as a followup to last week’s episode where Stephanie had asked about adding a 2nd show to her Libsyn Account.

Rob’s Speaking At BlogWorld: Rob is actually leading two panel sessions for me at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo. I encourage you to attend the following two sessions:
The 411 on Recording and Producing a Great Interview
The Multiple Ways To Make Money With Your Podcast

My New Libsyn Affiliate Offer: Because of all the years of sending clients to sign up for accounts with Libsyn, they have created an affilate programs only given to a hand selected group of podcasting experts. I’m delighted that I am now able to offer new podcasters ONE MONTH FREE when they sign up for a new account with Libsyn. Simply use promo code GSPN when you sign up!

iTunes Ratings & Reviews Marketing Research
I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Until April 2012, I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes. I’ve decided that I am going to begin asking for my community to please go to my iTunes Listing to both rate and review Podcast Answer Man.

My goal is to see if I can keep Podcast Answer Man as the #1 Show in the Podcasting Category and to see if I might be able to maintain a position within the top 50 podcasts in the Technology category.

Accounts that were created recently:
- http://ItJustIsPod.com
- http://QuilterInTheGap.com
- http://GaryCarpenter.me
- http://ManiFestini.com

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

256 Podcast Answer Man – iTunes Now Prefers 1200×1200 Podcast Artwork – Is Weekly Better Than Every Other Week? – Facebook Posting Advice – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:56:47 +0000

iTunes Changes Podcasting Specs To Request 1200×1200 Podcast Artwork
If you look at the updated iTunes Podcast Specs, you will notice that they now “PREFER” square .jpg images that are at least 1200 x 1200 pixels. They also have stated that in order for a podcast to be eligible for an iTunes Store feature, the accompanying image must be at least 1200 x 1200 pixels.

Please note that if you still have artwork that is 300×300 or 600×600, you will not be in any danger of being removed from the iTunes podcast directory. In fact, you can still submit new podcast feeds with the smaller podcast artwork images. The update simply communicates that they “prefer” that you update your artwork to 1200×1200 resolution and only those who do use this new resolution will be eligible to be featured in the iTunes store as a “featured podcast.”

Facebook Content Published via 3rd Party Services Gets 67% less engagement on Facebook.
This week, Erik Fisher brings us news from another great Hubspot article related to Facebook Fan Pages. In the article, Hubspot said that after switching to the new brand page design the minute it became available, the HubSpot social media team instantly noticed how their likes, shares, and comments — in other words, our overall engagement — had tanked. In this episode, Erik and I go through the points of the article and we discuss how you can be sure to get the most engagement with your Facebook page.

PocketCasts Doesn’t Show My Podcast Right Away!
There is no doubt that Pocket Casts is my all-time favorite application for managing podcast subscriptions. Jared called in to say that he noticed that when he posts a new show, it seems like any other applications can immediately download the new episode, but there are times when it will take hours, or even a day or more, for the new episode to show up in Pocket Casts. He wanted to know if this was normal and if there was anything he could do about it.

How do I add a 2nd show to my Libsyn Account?
Stephanie had been using a Libsyn hosting account since 2010 for a single podcast. She now wants to add a second show and wanted to know if she needed to add a new, second, account for the show or if there is a way to add additional shows under the account that she’s already spending $20/mo on.

Weekly or Every Other Week. Which is Better?
Austin called in to ask for my opinion about which format would allow for more engagement with the podcast audience, a weekly show or a show produced every other week. In the episode, I provide my opinion on this. However, I want to just state again, that simply publishing an episode and making it available online, alone, no matter how often you produce it, will not lead to audience engagement. You’ll need to invest in relationships to see real engagement from your community.

Portable Studio For High Quality Sound
Ray called in to say that he has a motor home and is on the road a lot. He asked me what I would recommend, as far as equipment is concerned, for producing a show that has very high quality audio from the road. In the episode, I close my eyes and list all the gear that I would have available to me if I had a motor home to lug it around in.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Dr. David Geier Show from Dr. David Geier. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about it from The Podcast Answer Man!

Podcamp Nashville April 14th
For those of you who live near Nashville TN or are willing to travel there for a sigle day Podcamp experience, this year’s Podcamp Nashville is being held on Saturday, April 14th at the Cadillac Ranch (305 Broadway; Nashville, TN).

I will be attending and speaking at Podcamp Nashville this year. I’m working on putting together a panel session that will help those in attendance learn Why Your Business/Brand Needs To Launch A Podcast!. If you are able to come, I hope to see you there!

Accounts that were created recently:
- http://ManiFestini.com
- http://GaryCarpenter.me
- http://DisAfterDark.com

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

255 Podcast Answer Man – Consistency Vs Can’t Live Without Content – New Podcast For BlogWorld & New Media Expo – And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:23:23 +0000

The Podcast Report – Devoted to the Podcasting Track of BlogWorld & New Media Expo
Earlier this month, I accepted an offer to join the BlogWorld & New Media Expo team in building an amazing Podcasting Track for their conference. Over the past few weeks, I have been on the phone with no less than 60 individual podcasters. I am delighted to say that we have filled all 24 sessions of the Podcasting Track for the June NYC event!

I made the decision that the best way to promote a podcasting track for the conference would be to have a podcast devoted to it. I am happy to share, in this episode of Podcast Answer Man, the first, full, episode of The Podcast Report, a podcast that is 100% devoted to the Podcasting Track of BlogWorld & New Media Expo.

I’m still working on getting the new podcast setup with media hosting, rss feed, and submission to the various podcast directories. However, that should all be taken care of by the end of today and the new show should be available for subscription within the next few days.

I’ll update this post when I get everything secured. If you see this message after April 15th, please leave me a comment below and tell me that I forgot to come back and update the post. ;)

Consistency Vs Can’t Live Without Content
Robert Duff from the Voices Among Us Podcast called in to ask about what seems to be conflicting advice that I’ve provided here on Podcast Answer Man.

In episode 254, I mentioned that we should be producing “Can’t Live Without” content. In the past, however, I have recommended that it’s important to “just get something out there” and how important it is to be consistent with the release of your podcast.

In this episode, I do my best to explain why and how we should strive to achieve both consistency AND that “Can’t Live Without” content.

A Podcasting Success Story From Kickstarter
Special thanks to Elsie Escobar, a Podcast Mastermind member, for telling me about the amazing success that the Idle Thumbs Video Game Podcast had on Kickstarter.

There were looking to raise $30,000 to relaunch their podcast and ended up raising a total of $136,924. I encourage to take a look at their Kickstarter project page for a heavy dose of inspiration!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Man Cave Radio Podcast from Jesse & J.J. Lahey. If you check out their show and like it, please be sure to let them know you heard about it from The Podcast Answer Man!

Accounts that were created recently:
- http://CapeCodTraveler.com
- http://NavigateTheNoise.com
- http://tscn.tv

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

254 – Podcast Answer Man – How To Grow Your Audience And Market Your Podcast! Facebook Interest Lists And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:36:20 +0000

So You Have A Podcast… Now What?
One the questions that I am asked most often is “How Do I Grow My Audience?” Many times it’s phrased something like, “I’ve been podcasting for (insert number) of months/years and I only have (insert number) of people who are consistently downloading each of my episodes.”

Those who have been listening to Podcast Answer Man for a long time know that I really don’t like the mindset behind that question. I’m all for growing our audience. However, I’d prefer to say, I’ve been podcasting for (insert number) of months/years and I’ve been blessed to grow my audience to a point where (insert number) people are consistently downloading each of my episodes, and I’m ready to take the reach of my show to a whole new level.

Remember that each of these “downloads” represents a person/human being. Do you know how many pastors would love to speak to 50, 100, or even 300 people, consistently, each and every week? I’ve often avoided going too deep into answering this question on Podcast Answer Man, in the past, due to the fact that I’ve always want to drive home the point that I feel strongly that the quality of the relationship you have with your audience/community is much more important than the quantity of people who download your show.

In this episode, I share two pieces of audio feedback from our community where I was asked how we can effectively market our podcast and grow our audience. In response, I shared the following items.

1. There is power when your show has a narrow niche focus.

2. I suggest only podcasting about things for which you are passionate about.

3. Before you record your first episode, you should know why are you podcasting in the first place. I recommend having a having a mission/purpose for your show.

4. Become crystal clear on exactly who your target audience is! Imagine your occupation was that of a bounty hunter. How hard would your job be if you were not given any clear description of the person you are supposed to be looking for. Same principle applies when trying to go out and find new people to listen to your show!

5. Build it and they will come does not, often, work in podcasting! Creating an amazing show is about 30% of the equation. The other 70% is marketing and relationship building.

6. Obviously, you should submit your podcast to podcast directories like iTunes, Zune, Blackberry, and Stitcher Radio.

7. Content Is King! Create high value content that people can’t live without! It’s an added bonus if your content is so great that they are compelled to share it with others.

8. Entertainment goes a long way. Don’t Be Boring!!!

9. Keep it positive! The world is seeking hope and encouragement! Give it to them!

10. Be ENTHUSIASTIC! Don’t do it more than what is natural for you though!

11. Prepare ahead of time. I spent more than two hours preparing for this episode, thirty minutes in post production, and over an hour on these show notes.

12. Audio Quality Is Queen! Remember that there are times when the Queen will trump the King! Many people, including myself, will not listen to your GREAT CONTENT if your audio quality is not that great!

13) Build relationships with your audience! Learn the first name, last name, and a MINIMUM of at least one other personal fact about AS MANY of the people who download your show as possible.

14. Include the voice of your audience in your show.

15. Thank members of your community publicly, both in your show and in your online efforts.

16. Establish and build meaningful relationships with other content creators in your niche/industry.

17. Create keyword rich titles, show notes, etc for your podcast. And all that other SEO junk. :)

18. Make Yourself newsworthy! http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/newsworthy

19. Interview others in your show.

20. Accept requests for being interviewed on other people’s podcasts and blogs.

21. Consider a press release.

22. Participate in other online (and offline) communities where those in your target audience can be found.

23. Use social media to build authentic relationships with your audience and others.

24. Speak at events where your target audience can be found.

25. Educate your audience on the benefit of podcast subscriptions and teach them how to they can subscribe to your show. See http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/itunes

26. Create a mailing list! This allows you to keep in touch with those who may have fallen out of the habit of downloading or listening to your show for whatever reason.

Many books could be written about how to market a podcast and grow your audience. You see, your podcast is actually a product that you create. Once you have the product, it is at that point where the marketing of your product begins. You’ll notice that most of what I have shared, at least early on, is focused on creating an amazing product that those who do find you will want to tell others about.

I just want to point out that, even if you have amazing content and amazing audio quality, you will still need to go out and promote/market your show if you want your audience to grow.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Your Website Engineer Podcast from Dustin Hartzler. It is no secret that I only recommend using WordPress for your web presence. Dustin’s podcast and website is a gold mine of information to help you get the most out of your WordPress Experience.

Here are just a few episodes that I recommend that you check out:
- 061 – Hidden Features In WordPress
- 058 – How to Add an Admin User to the WordPress Database
- 056 – How to Create a Favicon for Your Website
- 043 – WordPress eCommerce Solutions

Facebook Interest Lists
Have you heard about the new Facebook Interest Lists feature? I hadn’t heard about it until our gspn.tv Social Media Correspondent, Erik J. Fisher, brought it up for a topic to cover on this week’s Social Media Segment.

Erik and I went through a great Hubspot Article that described how brands could benefit by making the most of this new feature. After our discussion I’ve determined that this new feature isn’t something that would compel me to use Facebook any more than I already do. However, I know that there is a large percentage of the Podcast Answer Man community that do focus a lot of their engagement with their community through the Facebook platform.

I hope that the information provided on Facebook’s Interest List feature was helpful to you. Please let me know in the comments section below what your feelings are about this new feature.

Accounts that were created this week:
- http://NavigateTheNoise.com
- http://tscn.tv
- http://AHappyHomeMedia.com

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Want to Market Your Podcast / Grow Your Podcast Audience? Here are 26 thoughts on how to do it. podcastanswerman.com/growing-your-a… #Podcasting #BWENY
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) March 24, 2012

253 Podcast Answer Man – Slow Start With Affiliate Programs And An Interview With Gary Takacs

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:09:21 +0000

Mixergy Interview
I started off this week’s episode explaining what honor it was to be invited as a guest on Andrew Warner’s Mixergy podcast. If you would like to see the interview, please check it out at by clicking here.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Communication Diva Podcast from Jenn Swanson. CommunicationDiva.com is a site that wants to help, with articles, audio podcasts, and discussions about how we can all improve the way we talk to each other, and perhaps build better relationships. If you check out show, please tell her that you heard about her from The Podcast Answer Man.

Slow Start With Affiliate Programs
Dan Mattson called in to explain that’s has not had a lot of initial success building affilate relationships with folks in the wooden boat industry. In this episode, I provide some of my thoughts on how Dan could proceed with building relationships with big suppliers the mentioned in his feedback. I also reminded Dan of a creative way to generate income around his niche field by creating a Wooden Boat Weekend Workshop.

I had brought this up to him in the past and I noticed that he had still not purchased the domain, WoodenBoatWeekend.com. I believe that with a great bit of determination, such a workshop could generate some serious income. As a favor to Dan, I went ahead and registered the domain so that nobody would go and squat on it after my giving it such public attention. I’m happy to transfer the domain to Dan should he decide to take action on this idea.

Interview with Gary Takacs
Gary Takacs’ passion is helping dentists develop their ideal practice. Specializing in the ‘business of dentistry’, his unique, in-depth knowledge of the components of a successful practice has helped thousands of dental offices thrive in today’s challenging business environment.

Gary recently added and audio podcast as a marketing channel for his consulting business. I am always inspired by others who have found a way to create a successful podcast around their business, and Gary has certainly done that. I hope you enjoy this interview.

Register For BlogWorld Today!
If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend this leading podcast industry conference. I know for a fact that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year’s NYC event, relating to podcasting. If you haven’t registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off!

Accounts that were created this week:
- http://TodaysHomeRemedies.com
- http://KyleBieda.com
- http://MetalMoment.com

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252 Podcast Answer Man – You Inspired Me To Stop Podcasting?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:58:30 +0000

You Inspired Me To Stop Podcasting
I never thought the day would come where I would be happy to receive feedback from a podcaster who said that I’ve inspired them to end several of their podcasts. However, I could not be more delighted to receive such feedback from John Wilkerson of the Wired Homeschool Podcast. John has been producing several podcasts for many years. However, he recently decided to suspend production of all podcasts, except for the Wired Homeschool. To learn why, please listen for his call in this episode.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the South Geek Ramble & Review Podcast from Donovan Adkisson. I encourage you to check out this tech show that covers technology from a “Southern” perspective. If you decide to check it out, please tell Donovan that you heard about the podcast from the Podcast Answer Man.

Would SoundCloud Work For Podcasting?
Yesterday, I posted an hour long video that is a screencast of a conversation that I had with Ben Fawkes from SoundCloud.com. Ben wanted to tell me about how they are opening up their platform for podcasting. I figured that the podcasting community would be interested in hearing what I learned on the call. Click here to see the post.

Podcast WorkFlow & Heil Mic Placement
Tom Lelyo called in to ask two questions. First, he wanted to know if there was a better podcast production workflow than the one that he is using. I suggested that he first go through my free How To Podcast tutorial and then my WordPress For Podcasters tutorial. I tried to give an overview of my production workflow in the episode.

Tom’s other question had to do with the proper mic technique for the Heil PR-40 microphone. Have a listen to the episode to hear what I shared in response to this question.

Facebook Timeline Is Here For Facebook Pages
In this week’s social media update, Erik J. Fisher informs us that Facebook will force all Facebook pages to convert to the Timeline layout on March 30th. If you have a Facebook page, you can go ahead and tweak and publish your timeline layout now. Check out the article that Erik mentions at http://gspn.tv/fbpagesetup.

Accounts that were created this week:
- http://thelightnetwork.tv
- http://DecreaseMyRealEstateTaxes.com

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Inspiring podcasters to end shows & happy about it?Is the world coming to an end? Find out more at PodcastAnswerMan.com/252 #Podcasts
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) March 8, 2012

251 Podcast Answer Man – Major BlogWorld Announcement – Interview With Leslie Samuel – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:35:55 +0000

Leslie Samuel’s Online Content Paves Way For Dream Job!
I am so excited about this week’s “Where Are They Now” interview with Leslie Samuel from LearningWithLeslie.com and Interactive-Biology.com. Leslie’s story is full of so much valuable insight and inspiration. I know that you are going to love hearing about how a site with some online videos and an audio podcast paved the way for him to fulfill his dream of teaching Biology at the University level, even though he did not have his PHD.

Here are a few key points that I pulled from the interview:
- Leslie is from St. Maarten and came to the states to study biology.
- It was his dream to teach biology at the University level.
- He simply didn’t have the desire to go through what was needed to get his PHD.
- He accepted a job teaching High School Biology.
- “If I can’t teach at the university level offline, I’ll do it online!”
- In January 2011, he created: http://Interactive-Biology.com
- Produced videos between 3 to 8 minutes approximately three times per week.
- Even though he can now upload videos in excess of 60 minutes, he still prefers creating videos at 3 to 5 minutes.
- “If you are going to do somethign online, you might as well do it about something that you are passionate about.”
- A listener sent feedback with a story about how his wife was singing his podcast jingle in her sleep!
- In the first year, he did not focus on monetization at all.
- Today, he is bringing in between $500 to $1,500 per month from study guides.
- Why does he do an audio podcast? He says, “I can’t see myself not doing it.”
- Audio podcasts had an amazing impact on his life and he wanted to do the same for others.
- Leslie shares what he’s learned about creating an online business at http://LearningWithLeslie.com.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Video Snap Cast from Spencer Burnside. I absolutely love that he’s created an audio podcasters to help beginners in video production. If you decide to check it out, please tell him that you heard about the podcast from the Podcast Answer Man.

Major BlogWorld Announcement!
Last week, I shared just how excited I am that I was invited back to speak at BlogWorld NYC here in 2012, held June 5th, 6th, and 7th. In this episode, I revealed some more amazing news about BlogWorld.

I was not only invited to speak in the podcasting track for both BlogWorld NYC & LA, I was also offered the position of track leader for the entire podcasting track for the conference. It’s a very significant commitment, especially since the NYC event is only three months away, with 24 sessions to create and 40 to 60 speakers to invite to fill those sessions. However, there is absolutely no question that I am up for the task.

In fact, things could have not worked out more perfectly as far as my ability to shift a few priorities to slip this in as my #2 priority, just under The Podcast Mastermind.

If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend this leading podcast industry conference. I know for a fact that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year’s NYC event, relating to podcasting. If you haven’t registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today.

What Can I Do With The Free Web Space From My ISP?
Butch called in to say that he’s been using some free web space that was provided by his ISP for the past several years to promote his personal brand. He’s getting ready to launch a podcast and wanted to know if I would recommend leaving that site up as a static landing page and have a separate page, using WordPress, for his podcast. I give my response to this question in the podcast.

Is The iPhone Enough For A First Time Podcaster?
Josh wrote in to say that he and his wife are expecting their first child. They thought it would be cool to create a podcast to talk about being first time parents. Josh wanted to know if I felt that he could get by with just the iPhone and an audio recording application or if I felt he should get a small, yet professional, digital audio recorder. I think my response may be shocking to some long time podcasting listeners.

What All Is Needed To Do A Podcast via Skype With Three People?
Johnny wrote in to ask what equipment each person would need to have to pull off a podcast where there were three co-hosts who were all three in different geographic areas. I give a pretty detailed response to this question in the episode.

Blue Host Affiliate Signup
I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link this past week. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Accounts that were created this week:
- http://DecreaseMyRealEstateTaxes.com
- http://CreateSpring.com

Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider for permanent removal. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet.

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Major BlogWorld Announcement & How Leslie Samuel’s Online Content Paved The Way For His Dream Job! PodcastAnswerMan.com/251
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) March 1, 2012

250 Podcast Answer Man – Should Podcasters Have An Interest In Pinterest? And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:12:21 +0000

Should Podcasters Have An Interest In Pinterest?
There has been an increasing amount of buzz in the media and in the social networking community about Pinterest. What is Pinterest? Rob Lammle from Mashable says that… “Pinterest is a place to organize and share online images that you find interesting or inspiring. Once uploaded or shared on Pinterest, these images become known as Pins, which the user can place on customized, themed Boards. You can create Boards for any topic imaginable, from cats to classic cars to cats driving classic cars. The possibilities are endless.”

I am happy to bring you a bit of a lengthier social media segment, with Erik J. Fisher, this week as we go into a bit of detail about how Pinterest can be good for extending your brand online. This segment starts at the 00:24:12 mark in the episode.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Crimson Cord Podcast from James Caso. The reason I am highlight Jim’s podcast this week is due to the fact that he made a commitment to a date when his first episode would be published online and he did it. He put it online.

It appears that Jim is still working on submitting his podcast rss feed to the the various podcast directories. The important thing to note here is that we all have to start somewhere and I hope that Jim will be an encouragement to those who have been wanting to create a podcast for months but still have not yet published their first episode online.

I’m Speaking at BlogWorld NYC
I’m so excited that I’ll be returning to BlogWorld NYC here in 2012, held June 5th, 6th, and 7th. I am also happy to announce that I will be speaking at BlogWorld again. If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend this leading podcast industry conference. I have a feeling that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year’s event, relating to podcasting. If you haven’t registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today.

Advice On Hosting Meetups
JD called in to ask if I had any advice on the topic of hosting meetings with your community. Based upon my experience of hosting meetings over the past several years, I recommend the following:

1) Determine the purpose for your meetup.
2) Choose your time, date and location.
3) Set up a RSVP page for your event.
4) Show some love for your community.

Note: I’ve had great success with both EventBrite.com and Facebook Event pages.

Honestly, I felt that I could have spent a little more time coming up with some thoughts on this subject. However, I ended up recording the beginning of this episode, and this question, after I had already recorded the social media segment about Pinterest. That’s the power of post production. If you have some additional thoughts on meetups, please feel free to add them in the comments section below. Perhaps I’ll address this topic in greater detail in a future episode.

Advice On Interviewing Others
David Dell, called in to ask for some tips on conducting interviews for your podcast. Based upon my experience in hosting many interviews of the past several years, I recommend the following:

1) Know what you want from the interview ahead of time.
2) Attempt to interview “talkative” people.
3) Prepare your questions ahead of time.
4) Share your questions with your interviewee ahead of time.

David had mentioned that in his days of interviewing people for the written media, he could take bits and pieces of the interview and weave them into a good story. However, he felt that he needed some advise in audio interviews since he believed that you’d be pretty much stuck with what the person said in the recording. I shared why I believe that you can practically do everything with an audio interview that you could do with a written interview.

My great friend, Pat Flynn, posted an article on his blog, this week, titled “Top 10 Tips for Conducting an Exceptional Interview.” I highly encourage folks to check that out for some additional insights!

Blue Host Affiliate Signup
I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link this past week. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Accounts that were created this week:
- http://lifesaverkitproject.org
- http://onlydave.com

Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider for permanent removal. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet.

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Learn why podcasters should take an interest in Pinterest in episode 250 of Podcast Answer Man. PodcastAnswerMan.com/pinterest
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) February 24, 2012

249 Podcast Answer Man – Taking Yourself To The Next Level And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:00:55 +0000

What Does This Have To Do With Podcasting?
The first 11 minutes of this episode may seem to have very little to do with the world of podcasting and taking your show to the next level. However, by the end of that 11 minutes, I hope that I will have convinced you otherwise.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the This Is Your Life Podcast from Michael Hyatt. This is a weekly podcast dedicated to intentional leadership. The goal is to help you live with more passion, work with greater focus, and lead with extraordinary influence. I am certainly subscribed!

During Michael’s first episode, he shared 10 ways to generate more blog traffic. I went through his list and explained how you could apply these items to generating more exposure for your audio podcast.

If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about it from The Podcast Answer Man.

When The Right People Notice
Many of you will recognize the following quote that I often share from Jason Fried’s book “REWORK.”

That last part says “You have to do it for a LONG TIME before the RIGHT PEOPLE notice. After about 4 years into building my brand, people like Dan Miller began to take notice of my brand and began to tell others about me and the products and services that I offer.

Michael is another example of one of those “right people” that noticed! He has one of the most popular blogs in the eyes of those who are within my direct target audience. Michael has well over 188 THOUSAND subscribers to his blog!

Keep that in mind as you read what he wrote at the following link:
http://michaelhyatt.com/7-steps-to-launching-your-next-big-project.html

The blog post is having immediate impact. I’ve seen a significant amount of traffic, already, from this exposure! I can only imagine, at this point, what all will come from this! One thing is for sure! Well over one hundred thousand new people have heard or are about to hear about me for the very first time, and from someone they greatly trust. I am so incredibly thankful for the glowing endorsement that Michael gave of my products and services.

How Do You Keep The Content Flowing?
Tom called in to ask how we, as podcasters, can be sure that we’ll be able to consistently bring a steady flow of valuable content to our audience. I shared my thoughts on podcasting about things for which you are sincerely passionate about. I also shared how and why I decided to end the Virtual Assistant Podcast when I did.

Special thanks to Chris Bockay, Mark Mason, Bill Graff, Dave Stachowiak, Wade Wingler, and Rich Berning, members of The Podcast Mastermind, for sharing some tips on how they are able to keep a steady flow of valuable content flowing.

iPhone Mix Minus
Wade asked a question that has not been asked in quite some time. He wanted to know if it was possible to use his iPhone to set up a mix-minus with his mixer to record phone interviews. I covered this topic way back in episode 176. Click Here to listen to that episode and to see the diagram that I included in the show notes.

Free RSS to Email Solution
Debra called in because she noticed that Feedburner seems to have dropped its “subscribe via email” option. She wanted to know if there were another free solution to allow folks to subscribe to her rss feed via email. I shared that she could check out MailChimp’s RSS to Email Service. However, I strongly encourage her and everyone to READ THIS POST before you are enticed by the “FREE” option to start any mailing list.

Blue Host Affiliate Signup
I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link this past week. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Accounts that were created this week:
- http://repsonline.org
- http://lifesaverkitproject.org
- http://onlydave.com

Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider for permanent removal. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet.

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Podcast Answer Man episode 249 talks about taking yourself to the next level and so much more! PodcastAnswerMan.com/249
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) February 17, 2012

248 Podcast Answer Man – Getting More Tweets – Self Promoters – Affiliate Relationships – The Voice – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:47:50 +0000

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Farm And Ranch Country Podcast from Bill Graff. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man.

Getting More Tweets
This week, our social media correspondent, Erik J. Fisher, shares three ways that folks can generate a greater amount of traffic to their content by having their community/audience tweet links to their followers.

The information comes from this amazing article from the Buffer App Blog.

Services mentioned during this segment:
- http://cloudflood.com
- http://paywithatweet.com
- http://clicktotweet.com
- Twitter @Anywhere Plus WordPress Plugin

Shameless Vs Shameful Self Promotion
Jason called in to ask for my thoughts on how to handle those who seem to spend most of their time promoting themselves in the community environments that we have worked so hard to create. I share some of my thoughts in this episode.

Affiliate Relationships With Smaller Brands
JD called in to ask my thoughts on how to manage affiliate relationships with smaller brands who do not have official systems for tracking sales that come from his referrals. I provide a few simple ideas and remind him that trust and faith go a long way in business relationships.

The Voice of The Host
Jeremy called in to ask if I had any thoughts on podcasters getting some professional training to make themselves sound a bit more “polished” and “professional.” I am not opposed to going down this avenue to take your podcast to the next level. However, I warn folks to never lose that authenticity in hosting your show. I’d rather be a bit unpolished and relatable than sound like the professionals on the radio.

Podcast Voicemail Setup
Tom called to ask about setting up the greeting with Google Voice for his listener feedback hotline. I gave a few short thoughts here and suggested that he check out my blog post at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/voicemail.

All Audio On A Single Computer
Jadon wanted to know how he can record all audio sources into a single computer without the use of a mixer and such for when he is out on the road. If you are a mac user, you should check out Audio Hijack Pro. If you are a PC user, you could look into Total Recorder.

Blue Host Affiliate Signup
I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link this past week. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Accounts that were created this week:
- http://smokehousepodcast.com
- http://infiniteloveministries.com
- http://theshortsalepodcast.com
- http://consultativefirm.com
- http://karlsmelser.com
- http://yournewva.com

Note: These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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How To Get More Tweets Linking To Your Content and so much more in this episode of Podcast Answer Man -> PodcastAnswerMan.com/248
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) February 10, 2012

247 Podcast Answer Man – Facebook Edge Rank – iTunes New And Noteworthy – How To Celebrate 100th Episode – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:44:44 +0000

Facebook Edge Rank
This week, Erik Fisher shares some amazing insight that is sure to please those of you who manage Facebook fan pages. A few episodes back, we talked about how Facebook had changed their algorithm in such a way that content from fan pages are ranked with the lowest priority when it comes to what displays in the news feed of your fans. Have a listen to this episode to learn how to make your content a top story on Facebook.

iTunes’ New & Noteworthy Section
Ken Jones called in to ask if I had some insight into how iTunes mangages their New & Noteworthy section. One thing that I forgot to mention in the episode is that I am not aware of any way to go back and see any archives of which shows were featured previously in the New & Noteworthy section. For those who are interested in learning more about iTunes ratings and ranking, please check out the blog post that I did at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/itunesratings.

How To Celebrate Your 100th Episode
Melitsa called in to say that she’s getting close to her 100th podcast episode and would love some thoughts on what she could do to celebrate this occasion. I shared a couple of my own thoughts in the episode. I know that many of you, in the Podcast Answer Man / gspn.tv community have many shows which have reached the 100th episode milestone. Please share any additional thoughts that you have on ways to celebrate in the comments section below.

What Camcorder Do I Recommend?
Fr. Jim Tucker called in to ask my opinion on which camcorder he should look into. I shared that my own experience with the “VIDEO” side of things is a bit limited. I did share that I am extremely happy with my Canon Vixia HF G10. I used this camera to record THIS INTERVIEW.

What To Do When You Get Bored!
John called in and shared that after 197 episodes where he’s interviewed experts in his niche field, he’s starting to get a little bored with his show format. In the episode, I share some of my thoughts about things he could consider. I also share my thoughts on his concept of doing a live call in show.

Moving RSS From Libsyn to WordPress:
Chris called in to say that he is currently using Feedburner for his podcast. This Feedburner account is currently pulling from his Libsyn rss feed. He wanted to know how he can change it so that his Feedburner account will pull from his WordPress rss feed instead. He also wanted to know if it is possible to only send the podcast episodes and not all the blog post entries out to Feedburner.

Blue Host Affiliate Signup
Special thanks to the folks behind http://88888ee.com (Explicit Language Warning!) for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Special Chronicles Podcast from Daniel Smrokowski. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man.

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Learn how to take advantage of Facebook’s Edge Rank to make your Fan Page content achieve Top Story Status -> PodcastAnswerMan.com/247
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) February 2, 2012

246 Podcast Answer Man – The Podcast Mastermind

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:48:51 +0000

The World Needs You To Be A Leader!
Since December 2006, I’ve personally helped hundreds of individuals launch successful podcasts through my one-on-one consulting and coaching. I have found one common thread among all podcasters who have achieved great success. They each understood their role, as a leader and they each took that role seriously.

Being a leader is not about holding a certain “position” in an organization. Having a degree from an institution does not make you a leader!

Leadership is more about how you have chosen to live your life. Leadership is more about how you think, how you act, how you talk, the tone in your voice, etc. Leadership means that you understand that you are influencing someone and that you don’t take that responsibility lightly.

One of the reasons that I love working with podcasters so much is due to the fact that they are influencing someone every single time they produce a podcast episode. The world needs great leaders! I believe that podcasters who take their leadership position seriously can make a positive difference in the lives of others.

The world needs you and your message! They need you to be a leader!

If someone were to ask, “Why should I listen to your podcast?” you should be able to immediately give a thirty second response, with confidence, as to why they should never miss an episode. I add more subscribers to all my shows by this one method alone! It’s why I try to accept as many invitations as possible to be a guest on other podcasts.

Are you willing to invest in your future success?
Are you willing to be the greatest leader you can be?
Are you wiling to commit to your personal and professional growth?

If so, please consider The Podcast Mastermind…

What Is A Mastermind?
The concept of the mastermind group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in his book, “Think and Grow Rich.”

In the video below, Hill defines the mastermind by saying that “A group that consists of two or more people, who work in perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite purpose.”

Please watch this video, and then I’ll highlight a few key points below.

Key points from the video above:

The mastermind is the principle through which you may borrow and use the education, the experience, the influence and perhaps the capital of other people in carrying out your own plans in life.

The mastermind is the principle through which you can accomplish more, in one year, than you could accomplish without it in a lifetime, if you relied entirely on your own efforts for success.

When you form a true mastermind alliance with others, and work with them in a spirit of perfect harmony, you can draw freely upon the spiritual forces within you in carrying out your plans and desires.

The mastermind principle can give you absolute protection against failure, provided always that your purpose, in using this principle, is beneficial to all whom you influence.

Control your mental attitude and make yourself friendly and agreeable with everyone whom you are closely associated if you expect friendly cooperation in return.

A negative mental attitude can bring you nothing but failure.

Remember always, you are where you are and what you are because of your mental attitude in which you relate yourself to other people.

Your mental attitude is the one and the only thing over which you have complete control.

Success in the higher brackets of achievement is something that can be had only by taking others along with you.

The best definition of success is this: “Success is the knowledge with which to get whatever you want from life without violating the rights of others and by helping others to acquire it.”

Your only real limitation is the one you accept and set up in your own mind.

I have studied the work of Napoleon Hill for several years now with a spirit of discernment. While I don’t always agree with the “higher power” with whom Hill attributes many of the truths he teaches, I have come to experience that every statement made above is undeniably true.

One of my favorite verses from the Bible is Proverbs 15:22 that says: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Nearly every great achievement that I’ve made personally and professionally can be tied to the reality of the mastermind principle at work in my life.

Napoleon Hill said that there is no such thing as something for nothing. Everything, including your personal success, has a price that must be paid. He suggested that if you want to move forward on a path toward success, he suggested that you do three things:

1) Decide definitely where you wish to be and what you wish to be doing during the next three years.

2) Decide how much money you desire to be making and what you are going to do to earn it.

3) Involve yourself in a mastermind group.

I’ll be the first to tell you that you that you can do all of the above without any financial cost to you whatsoever. However, if you are a podcaster and you want to take your personal and professional life to a level you never dreamed possible, I encourage you to consider joining The Podcast Mastermind.

Description And Benefits of The Podcast Mastermind

Key Benefit #1 – The Mastermind Group:
The initial goal of The Podcast Mastermind is to grow to 100 podcasters, where each member has committed to being a part of a smaller mastermind group of no more than ten individuals. Each mastermind group will have two 90 minute meetings per month.

Within these mastermind groups, each individual is invested in the personal and professional growth of every member within the group!

The greatest benefits of The Podcast Mastermind include the synergy created by the accountability that comes from working on your goals in collaboration with others, the ability to use the experience and knowledge of others in your mastermind group and the invaluable feedback and support of other podcasters.

What Does This Mean To You?

- Dramatic improvements in both your personal and your professional life.
- You will have more focus and greater confidence in yourself and your abilities.
- You will have more clarity about what to do next.
- You’ll have the momentum and energy that you need to sustain you through those rough spots.
- You will experience less false starts and spend less time learning through trial and error.
- You will have a deeper understanding of how you are perceived by others.
- You will sharpen your leadership and communication skills.
- You will be giving and receiving support in a warm and friendly environment.
- You are going to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible.

Key Benefit #2 – The Podcast Mastermind Success Seminars
There will be a minimum of one Podcast Mastermind Success Seminar each month. These seminars will be led by hand-picked experts who are going to share with you top tips and information that you will need to ensure your personal, professional, and podcasting success.

These seminars will be held via GoToWebinar or a telephone conference calling service depending on the guest expert and content being delivered.

Unlike the two monthly mastermind group calls, you are NOT REQUIRED to attend these Podcast Mastermind Success Seminars as they are presented live. Each of these seminars will be recorded in high quality audio for the teleseminars or in HD video for the webinar sessions.

The entire catalog of the Podcast Mastermind Success Seminars, including all Podcast Answer Man digital training products, are available as a global benefit to all members of the Podcast Mastermind.

Key Benefit #3 – The Podcast Mastermind Online Member Portal

The most important function of the exclusive Podcast Mastermind Online Member Portal is its ability to allow members to stay in touch with other members of their mastermind group between the two monthly scheduled meetings.

One of the dangers of not staying in constant contact with other podcasters is that you may find something that works for you and stick with it. This may sound great. However, this approach will ultimately cause you to fall behind the curve and miss out on amazing opportunities to grow your brand and improve your productivity and effectiveness.

Every Podcast Mastermind member will post and describe a minimum of one valuable resource that they have found each month. These resources can be anything such as a web or mobile application, a WordPress plugin, an online service, a piece of specialized software, a book, etc.

The Podcast Mastermind Online Member Portal will also be the place where members will access all the recorded content mentioned in Key Benefit #2.

Key Benefit #4 – Amazing Promotion of Your Online Efforts to Others!
Over the years, I’ve developed a rather significant and extremely loyal online community around the shows that I produce. As I get to know each individual of The Podcast Mastermind more closely, I will come to understand their goals, hopes and dreams.

There is no doubt that as I create content for my various shows, I’ll be looking for natural ways to promote the online efforts of those within The Podcast Mastermind.

Also, as I have continued interactions with others through my one-on-one consulting/coaching and other various business pursuits, I know that I’ll be confronted with those “divine appointments” where I will be able to make a connection to folks that would have never happened had I not been so closely connected to those within The Podcast Mastermind.

The best part about this is that every member of The Podcast Mastermind is also a podcaster. This means that each and every member comes with an online community of people that they influence as well. I am sure that you can understand how the close connections and synergy with the other members of The Podcast Mastermind can take the promotion of your online efforts to a whole new level.

The Podcast Mastermind Is An Exclusive Organization!
Not everyone who applies for membership in The Podcast Mastermind is accepted. We are looking for very specific characteristics in those whom we consider for membership. Please look over the list below to see if you exhibit the main qualities we are looking for.

- You are a success-minded individual with a positive mental attitude! If you consistently see the glass half empty, you need not apply.
- You are a highly motivated individual. You have dreams and a determination to see those dreams become reality.
- You have a desire to gain more focus and clarity in your life and/or your brand.
- You have a willingness to commit several hours per month to your own personal and professional self improvement.
- You have a commitment to your own personal success as well as the success of every individual in your mastermind group (up to 9 other people within your group).
- You are unwilling to settle for an “ordinary” life. You are eager to pursue a life that fulfills you on new levels.
- You are passionate about your life and the work you do.
- You acknowledge that you have fears about the uncertainty of the future, but you are committed to moving forward, in spite of your fears, to progress through the plans you have set out to achieve your goals.
- You have a willingness to operate outside of your comfort zone when the need arises.
- You have the ability to graciously receive help, advice, criticism ,support and encouragement.
- You have the ability to graciously give help, advice, criticism, support and encouragement.
- You are willing to be held accountable to the goals you set for yourself.
- You are an active listener who seeks to first understand the real issue before offering advice.
- You take responsibility for your own success, and you refuse to place blame elsewhere for any failures you encounter.
- You are willing to invest time, money, emotion, willpower and energy into taking better care of yourself and creating the life you want.
- You are willing to give as much as you receive from the Podcast Mastermind Group.
- While circumstances may change, you have a very good idea of what you wish to be doing during the next three years.
- You are willing to make a make a minimum of a one-year commitment to The Podcast Mastermind should your application be accepted.
- You are willing to commit to the required attendance of the two 90-minute monthly mastermind group calls.

Are You Ready For The Podcast Mastermind?
If you struggle with several of the statements above, you may not yet be ready for The Podcast Mastermind. There are many people who are not yet ready to pursue success in their lives.

Prior to September 2007, I was not willing to take myself seriously. It sounds crazy, but I was actually afraid that I might succeed! While it was so easy for others to see the potential within me, I struggled to understand my value and my need to become the leader that I was designed to be.

Just like Henry Ford, my wife was among the first of ten individuals within my first personal mastermind. Through their encouragement, I overcame my fear of both failure and success and left my career in insurance behind. If you have not heard my full story, I encourage you to watch the entire video found at the bottom of my ABOUT PAGE.

When I took the bold step to leave my career in insurance and pursue my calling in life, did I find immediate success? Absolutely not! I failed hard and failed often. In 2008, my first year in business for myself, I had experienced more all-consuming fear, anxiety and doubt than I’d ever experienced in my life, combined, up until that point.

I recently released THIS PODCAST EPISODE where I shared, publicly to the whole world for the first time ever, the most scathing, negative and critical piece of feedback that I had ever received in all my podcasting history. If you LISTEN TO IT, you’ll hear that it is only due to the mastermind concept that I made it through those challenging times and pushed through to where I am today.

Are you ready for The Podcast Mastermind?
The ability to apply for charter membership to The Podcast Mastermind is currently available by invitation only. More details about the application process will be posted when we are ready to expand the group beyond the charter members.

If you have been one of my one-on-one consulting clients, Podcasting A to Z students, or a long-time member of the Podcast Answer Man community and you feel that you should be on the Charter Member Invitee List, please email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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Details about The Podcast Mastermind are included in Podcast Answer Man episode 246. Link-> PodcastAnswerMan.com/mastermind
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 27, 2012

245 Podcast Answer Man – PDF Files In Your Feed – Are Facebook Fan Pages A Thing of The Past? – Interview with Jason Cabassi And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:47:09 +0000

How Do I Get Rid of This Hiss Sound?
Tom called in and told us that he had a hiss sound when he talks into his microphone. While I didn’t have enough information to diagnose his problem, I did share how I typically go about troubleshooting such issues. The key is going through, step by step, to rule out problems within each item within the equipment setup.

Help! I have PDF documents in my iTunes Feed!
Kirk called in and said that he’s got an issue where iTunes is pulling in a PDF document that was linked to in the show notes of a recent podcast episode, but the .mp3 file would not come through. In the episode, I share how he can go about fixing this issue.

Are Facebook Fan Pages A Thing of The Past?
I am so happy to bring in my great friend, Erik J. Fisher, as our official gspn.tv Social Media Correspondent. This week, Erik brings us up to speed on an issue where Facebook fan pages are not getting as much exposure in the news feed as personal profile “subscriptions.” I encourage you to check out the full article that we discussed by clicking here.

Podcast Mastermind Group
I briefly mentioned that the Podcast Mastermind Group that I have been planning for the past few months is about to launch this weekend. If you would like become one of the charter members, please email me today at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Where Are They Now Interview
Jason Cabassi does a television show fan podcast called The Waking Dead Cast. The Waking Dead television show is based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, written by Robert Kirkman.

The following description is from the show’s about page: “AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead.”

Jason and his co-host Karen were huge fans of the television series and they had already been enjoying lengthy conversations about the tv show before deciding to podcast about it.

In the early part of our interview, you hear that Jason actually launched his fan podcast several months before the television show actually started. As a result, he thought that he would have the first fan podcast devoted to the show. Jason was shocked, however, to learn that there were already two other Walking Dead podcasts that had already launched before him. I think this is valuable information because, as you hear later in the interview, the fact the he was not the first to market did not keep him from experiencing a tremendous amount of success in getting the actors on to his show, doing something that he’s not able to share due to a non-disclosure agreement, and the potential of actually being on the show in the next season.

I hope that this is a source of inspiration for those of you who became discouraged to learn that there were already a number of podcasts devoted to the niche topic that you wanted to focus on with your podcast. I was about the fifth or sixth LOST podcast out there and that single show led to my currently full-time career in podcasting. So don’t worry about the others in your niche field. Create your unique show and get your voice out there!

An interesting note about Jason is that he is a technical writer by day and he used to work for Apple. He actually wrote the owners manual for the first ever iPod and the iPhone. It was when Apple decided to incorporate podcasting into iTunes that he was first introduced to the world of Podcasting. At first, he was very skeptical of the idea of listening to content created by random people without professional broadcast training. However, it did not take him long at all to find a few shows that were created around topics for which he was passionate about to quickly turn him into a fan of audio podcasts.

I hope that you find the conversation with Jason inspiring to you in your own podcasting journey and that you’ll be able to use that inspiration to take your own show to the next level.

Blue Host Affiliate Signups
Special thanks to the folks behind http://88888ee.com for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the How To Be Happy Podcast from Jared & Emily Akers. If you take some time to check out their podcast, please let them know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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Are Facebook Fan Pages A Thing of The Past? Details on this & so much more on episode 245 of Podcast Answer Man! podcastanswerman.com/245
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 19, 2012

244 Podcast Answer Man – Streaming On The iPad – Building Community From From The Hospital – Skype Audio Quality – And An Interview With Connie And Sheila

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:06:24 +0000

Building Community From From The Hospital
I started this episode off by sharing that I spent this past weekend in the hospital. I mentioned that if you wanted to know why I was in the hospital, you could read all about it in my blog post found at http://gspn.tv/hospital2012.

I made the decision to share this in Podcast Answer Man because I felt that the blog post linked above provides some great insight into how I’ve naturally connected with my audience over the years. If nothing else, you can pull up the post to see what LiveFyre looks like when there are over 200 comments.

I’m happy to announce that I feel healthier than I have ever felt before and I’m ready to achieve all the goals that I’ve set for myself here in 2012!

New Chat Leads To Streaming On The iPad
I recently received an email from Ning, the creators of the platform that I use for my gspn.tv online community and that I will be using for my new Podcast Mastermind Group.

In the email, they announced that they had completely rewritten their chat system so that it is now based upon Java and HTML5. Basically, this means that the chat functionality will now work on iOS and other mobile devices.

This news prompted me to move my Live Streaming Page over to my online community site. While doing some testing, I noticed that Ustream was prompting me to try out their new web based broadcaster. I decided to give it try and you can find out what happened by watching this video.

Skype Audio Quality
Tommy called in to ask if there were any differences in audio quality from Skype to Skype calls and Skype to regular telephone calls. In the episode, I provide the answer to this question.

Podcast Mastermind Group
I briefly mentioned that the Podcast Mastermind Group that I have been planning for the past few months is about to launch within the next ten days. There will be a special incentive for the first 50 people who become members of this exclusive group. If you would like become one of the first 50 members, please email me today at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Where Are They Now Interview
Connie Williams and Sheila Tidwell are the hosts of an amazing podcast called Connie And Sheila Talk. I absolutely love Connie and Sheila. They were my very first client who hired me for a full one day, on site, consulting job, something I hope to do a great deal more of in 2012 and beyond.

You can find their show at http://ConnieAndSheilaTalk.com. As mentioned in our conversation, the show has a Real Estate focus, and while I have zero interest in real estate investing, I’ve listened to over 50 of their 84 episodes that are currently online. I have found so much of the success principles that they have shared in their podcast to be transferable to my own business pursuits. I am consistently inspired by the stories they share, the books they talk about, and the guests that they have interview.

I consider Connie And Sheila Talk to be among one of my favorite Self Help/Business Management podcasts in the iTunes directory. Their show is a perfect example of taking a particular niche topic and bringing a fresh and relaxed approach to the content at hand. Their show is never overly technical, but has just the best balance of transparency, authenticity, and personal touch that makes you feel comfortable listening to their show.

I would say that by listening to only three consecutive episodes of their podcast, you could not help but come to know, like, and trust Connie and Sheila. They are simply fabulous! I hope that you find a great deal of value and inspiration from our recorded conversation and that it will help you apply a few things to take your own podcasting journey to the next level.

Blue Host Affiliate Signups
Special thanks to the folks behind DarthPickle.com for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to Albert Hathazi from TheLocalMethod.com. Albert has created a weekly podcast devoted to helping local businesses become market leaders within their community. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about him from The Podcast Answer Man.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 244 is now online. Live Streaming With Chat to iPad and other mobile devices! PodcastAnswerMan.com/244
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 12, 2012

Producing Less Good Content To Focus On Producing More Great Content – Podcast Series or Seasons – And Making A Dent In The World!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:54:26 +0000

Producing Less For The Purpose of Greater Production
During the open of last week’s episode of Podcast Answer Man, I hinted that I was considering the thought of producing less shows moving forward. As I share in this episode, the reason is that I want to maximize the value of any of the work that I do, including the various podcasts that I might produce.

So many people have come to me, as a podcast consultant/coach, who are wanting to launch three to five podcasts before the end of their first year in podcasting, without understanding what all goes into the production of a single show. I believe that podcasts are most effective and valuable when they serve a niche audience and when that audience is served extremely well. Leo Laporte echoed this key area of success in the interview I did with him back in November.

To effectively super serve a niche community, I believe that you should be willing to devote a great deal of time, energy, and attention to making every aspect of your production and community environments as valuable and as high a quality as possible. I’ve come to the point where I understand that with all the shows that I currently produce (approximately five to ten a week on average right now), I am producing a lot of really good content. However, I personally feel that, on average, I only produce about two GREAT episodes each week. I’ve determined that this is simply not acceptable when I consider the hopes, dreams, and goals that I have for the future of my podcast network at gspn.tv.

The following are some of the big changes that I’ve decided to make moving forward. I share more details about each of these decisions in this episode.

- I will be ending the Balanced Living Weekly podcast after 83 episodes (final episode pending). This show was started on September 27th, 2009 with Fr. Roderick Vonhogen as my co-host. I will continue to share my pursuit of a balanced life in the Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast.

- My wife, Stephanie, will be Ending the Full Time Mom podcast after 184 episodes (final episode pending). She launched this show on July 14th, 2007. I’m excited to announce that Stephanie will continue to share everything that she would have shared in this podcast in both the Authentic Life Radio and Family From The Heart podcasts.

- I will be ending the Business Tech Weekly podcast after 109 episodes (final episode pending). This show was started on September 8th, 2009 with Andy Traub as my co-host. Andy will continue share his business pursuits on his own Take Permission podcast network. From this point forward, I will bring all of my business technology and business growth experiences here into the Podcast Answer Man podcast and in my Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast.

- I have ended the Social Media Serenity podcast after 119 episodes. This show was started on July 17th, 2009 with Erik J. Fisher as my co-host. From this point forward, I will bring all social media news, updates, and experiences here into the Podcast Answer Man podcast. Beginning next week, I plan to have Erik become my Social Media correspondent for Podcast Answer Man. The thought is that we will try to include a ten minute social media segment each week.

- I am officially ending the Help I Got A Mac podcast after 180 episodes (final episode pending). I had started this podcast when I purchased my first Apple computer, as a means of sharing my experience on this new computing platform. The show was officially re-launched on October 14th, 2007 when Chris Beiting agreed to be co-host the show with me.

- I have ended the Almost Daily Devotional Podcast after 166 episodes. I had launched this podcast back on March 3rd, 2008 with the idea that I would produce three to five 10 minute episodes each week. There were a few times that I had achieved this goal. However, for the most part, the show’s production schedule had been pretty hit or miss throughout the years. I will continue to produce the content that I would have included in the Almost Daily Devotional in my Encouraging Others Through Christ podcast.

- After 124 episodes, I made the decision to re-brand the About The Church podcast. This was only the third podcast that I had ever created for our network and it was launched on April, 23rd, 2006, just four months after I started podcasting. Moving forward, the content for this show will be continue to be produced and on a more consistent basis. The show will known as the Encouraging Others Through Christ podcast.

Am I Leaving The Network Model Behind? NO WAY!
If there is any fear about making so many changes all at once, it is that folks may think that I am abandoning the gspn.tv network/community. This could not be further from the fact!

All of these decisions have been made in order that I can spend less time making good content and MORE TIME making GREAT content. As mentioned above, you can see that I have a plan for the content that would have been provided in each of the shows that are ending, with the exception of Help I Got A Mac, to be included in other existing shows.

Moving forward, there will be a renewed passion and drastic increase in the quality of all of the following main gspn.tv shows as the result of these changes.

- Podcast Answer Man – PodcastAnswerMan.com
- Family From The Heart – FamilyFromTheHeart.com
- Authentic Life Radio – AuthenticLifeRadio.com
- Life, Love, And The Movies – LifeLoveAndTheMovies.com
- Pursuing A Balanced Life – PursuingABalancedLife.com
- Encouraging Others Through Christ – EncouragingOthersThroughChrist.com

Podcast Series or Seasons
Those who have come to enjoy the entertainment podcasts that we produce for gspn.tv can rest assured that we will continue to produce shows like the Hunger Games Fan Podcast, Doctor Who Fan Podcast, Twilight Saga Fan Podcast and the gspn.tv Lost Fan Podcast.

In this episode, I share some thoughts that I’ve have recently related to how I may approach any new podcast launches with a end for the podcast in mind, a podcast series, or with the idea of only producing a certain number of episodes at a time, as a podcast seasons.

Bringing A Final Close To Premium Member Only Site
One year ago, I made the decision to give all the content, that we produce, away free of charge. Previously, we had partial premium model for many of our podcasts known as Plus Membership. As a result, I have been managing two separate websites for all the gspn.tv content since 2008. While we were using this partial premium content model, I would publish all free episodes of all our podcast to our gspn.tv main site while I would post every episode of every podcast on our gspn.tv Plus Member Access Site. This means that since January 2008, every single episode we published, which was about seven to fifteen episodes a week, had to be published to two separate websites.

Effective here in January, 2012, I will no longer be publishing content to the Plus Member Only site. I will leave that site active as an online archive. This old site will contain all of the content that had been produced from December 2005 through the end of 2011. Every episode of every show that we have produced since January of 2011 can be found at http://gspn.tv.

Later today, I will record a short special episode that will be put into every single podcast feed on that Plus Member site explaining what is going on and that those who were subscribe to the “Plus Member Feeds” will want to go and subscribe to the main gspn.tv feeds found on our site or in iTunes. I will point people to http://gspn.tv/shows as a resource to easily find the subscription links they are looking for.

Bottom Line – Making A Dent In The World
The bottom line is that I want to create Entertaining, Educational, Encouraging, and Inspirational content that makes a difference in people’s lives. I want to spend LESS time producing “good” content and I want to spend MORE TIME producing GREAT, can’t live without, content that helps to make positive change in the lives of those who listen.

I believe that I have been called, by God, to be a force of positive change in the world! I believe spending time creating the my own great content, that matters most, and helping thousands of people (other podcasters), around the world, take their shows to the next level, is how I will achieve this calling moving forward.

I hope to make an official announcement, to my Podcast Answer Man Mailing List, about the Podcaster’s Master Mind Group that I’ve been working on for the past two months. Stay turned for more details.

Blue Host Affiliate Signups
Special thanks to the folks behind RoundTablePodcast.com and ArizonaFootballLeague.com for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to Adam Baker of ManVsDebt.com. Adam’s Man Vs Debt podcast reached the top ten spot in iTunes in the Investing category. This put him right up next to Dave Ramsey and other big time mainstream traditional media guys. I share more thoughts on this in the episode. Congratulations Adam!

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Check out PodcastAnswerMan.com/243 to learn why six shows have been canceled on the gspn.tv network.
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 6, 2012

242 Podcast Answer Man – Less Shows Moving Forward? Facebook Like Button Info – Get Glue – Stitcher – Interview With Scott Iardella

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:24:14 +0000

Less Shows Moving Forward?
One of the thing that puzzles me is the number of people who seem to want to follow in my footsteps of creating a large number of podcasts. Since I started podcasting in December of 2005, I have launched at least 24 of my very own podcasts. At one point, I was producing an average of 15 to 17 podcast episodes every single week.

In this episode, I mention, for the firs time in public, that I’ve been thinking about drastically decreasing the number of shows that I am actively producing. Just this past week, I’ve updated my gspn.tv show description page to show that I am currently only actively producing ten shows at this time. Even with this reduction, I’m still producing a minimum of six shows each and every week.

I recently ended the Almost Daily Devotional podcast after 166 episodes. I decided that the content of that podcast should fit perfectly into another show that I had been producing called the “About The Church” podcast. Since I in the mood to make changes, I made the decision that I would go ahead an rebrand the About The Church podcast so that it would become the “Encouraging Others Through Christ” podcast from this point forward.

This is a perfect example of how I took two shows and combined them into one single show. The same content will continue to be produced, but in a single show instead of two. In 2012, I’ll be evaluating all the shows that I am actively producing to see if there is a way that I might be able to do something similar to reduce the number of shows so that I may focus more time and energy on making each show the best it can be.

Mission Statements and Core Values
I did a significant edit on opening of this episode before I uploaded it to the servers. I did leave enough of the original content to let you know that I have been inspired to take some time to develop a mission statement and to write down what my core values are, both for my business, and my personal life. I did this for gspn.tv several years ago and it helped me tremendously. However, I never got around to doing it for my consulting/coaching business. I was reminded of just how important this is while I was listening to where my good friend, Dan Miller, was being interviewed on episode 10 of Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership Podcast.

Facebook Thumbnail Previews
Special thanks to Bill who called in and left some feedback to explain where Facebook looks for the images it chooses for the Facebook Thumbnail previews on shared links. This is extremely valuable information to those of us who hope our community will share our content with their friends on Facebook.

Feedburner Stats?
Daniel from the Special Chronicles podcast called in to ask about how might best track his podcast downloads since the new version of feedburner seems to show a slightly different number than the old version. In my response, I mention Podtrac.com.

Blue Host Hosting
I quickly mentioned that I have an affiliate relationship with Blue Host Hosting. I’ve had a relationship with Blue Host for several years and have hundreds of clients who are hosting their WordPress powered podcast on their hosting platform. If you want to read my full thoughts on podcast hosting, I encourage you to check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/hosting.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to Tommy G. Kendrick from ActorsTalkPodcast.com. Tommy has done an amazing job on launching a great looking website and an AMAZING SOUNDING first episode. If you know anyone who is an actor, director, or otherwise involved in this industry, please consider telling them about Tommy’s new show.

Getting Your Podcast Into GetGlue
Wayne called in to ask if it was still possible to get a podcast listed in the Get Glue social network. This is a social network that was designed to allow you to share what music you are listening to or what movies or tv shows you were watching. However, some folks found out that you could also share what podcasts you were listening to.

While I do have several of my gspn.tv shows listed in the Get Glue directory, I am not responsible for getting them submitted. It was my friend, Geoff Gentry, who added these shows. I’ve reached out to Geoff and he told me that he would be willing to explain if this is still possible in the comments section below. Please check the comments section for that update.

Listed On Stitcher Radio
I briefly mention that you can now find Podcast Answer Man and many other gspn.tv shows in Stitcher Radio. I hope to get around to inviting the folks from Stitcher onto an upcoming episode of Podcast Answer Man to learn a little more about this company and what all they have in the works.

In the episode, I share that I have a few reservations about the service, as it stands today. However, I am excited about anyone who is making way in the realm of getting podcasting built into car radios of the future!

You can download the Stitcher App at http://stitcher.com/gspn. If you sign up, please do use promo code “GSPN” to let them know that you heard about them from me.

Where Are They Now?
In this week’s Where Are They Now interview, I talk with Scott Iardella from StealthBody.com. Scott had produced twenty episodes of the “Smart Fitness Coach” podcast and things were going pretty well until he got hit with a Cease and Desist Notice from the legal department of a company that stated he was infringing upon their trademark. In our conversation, you’ll hear how Scott dealt with this shocking blow.

It is my hope that Scott’s story does not do anything to add to the excuses of those of you who have not yet launched your show. In sharing my own personal trademark issue from a few years back, I hope that you come away from this episode understanding that in both cases, Scott and I did not allow this to knock us out of the race. In fact, we are both extremely thankful that things turned out the way that they did.

I think it’s also important to note that out of well over one thousand podcasters that I personally know, I am only aware of three that have ran into such a trademark issue and actually received a cease and desist letter from a lawyer. Scott and I are two of those three.

I also hope that our conversation provides other valuable insights for you to apply to your own podcasting journey as well.

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Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

Podcasters, check this out! Producing less shows? Facebook Like Button Info – Get Glue – Stitcher – Trademark Issues – podcastanswerman.com/242
— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) December 30, 2011

241 Podcast Answer Man – Not A Fan of Feed Validator – More Than One Podcast With A Single Libsyn Account – iPad For Business? – And A Conversation With Todd Clift

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:32:56 +0000

Not A Fan of FeedValidator.org
Gordon called to say that when he ran his rss feed through FeedValidator.org, he found that it was reporting errors with his rss feed. He wanted to know if I had any thoughts on what might be causing some of these issues.

In response to Gordon, I pretty much shared that I am not much of a fan of this feed validation service as it’s really not that relevant to whether or not your rss feed is configured properly to produce your podcast. In fact, a quick look at the validation report for my Podcast Answer Man rss feed will show you that I also have plenty of “recommendations.” The only thing that matters is whether or not your feed is “valid” and whether or not it is delivering your content to your subscribers.

More Than One Podcast With Libsyn?
Michael called in to say that he heard me, in the past, mention that it is possible to use a single Libsyn account to host the .mp3 files for multiple shows and was wondering if I was wondering how that works. I do my best to quickly answer this question in the epsisode.

Blue Host Hosting
This week, I quickly mentioned that I have an affiliate relationship with Blue Host Hosting. I’ve had a relationship with Blue Host for several years now and have hundreds of clients who are hosting their WordPress powered podcast on their hosting platform. If you want to read my full thoughts on podcast hosting, I encourage you to check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/hosting.

Should you invest in an iPad?
Mark called in to ask me how I am using my iPad in my business. He seemed like he was looking for me to convince him that it was worth pulling the trigger on his purchase. However, I’m not sure that he was expecting the answer that I gave in this episode.

In response to Mark, I did mention the iSoundByte app which is the app that acts as a remote to control the desktop version of SoundByte.

I also mentioned the Sound Byte app, which is made by the same company but, unlike the “iSoundByte” app, this app is designed to actually store the sound clips on the iPad and is connected to the desktop version of the app. I’m not a fan of this stand alone app as there is a “nearly one second” delay between the time you tap on the button to play a sound clip and when the sound clip actually starts playing.

Where Are They Now?
In this week’s Where Are They Now interview, I talk with Todd Clift from MoonstoneCellars.com. In 2001, Todd was downloading audio recordings on radio shows before podcasting came about. By the time he needed to do a long commute to work, podcasting was available and he started to subscribe to his favorite shows. He tried Satellite radio first, but decided to go all in with audio podcasting and hasn’t listened to anything else, while driving his truck, since.

Todd decided that podcasting would be be good for his business, a winery! And he created the podcast, Wine Word of the Day. Early in our conversation, Todd decided to purchase the WineWordofTheDay.com domain which is is simply forwarding to his podcast category on his business website.

Todd was so excited about his existing show, he was already thinking about creating additional shows. I had suggested that if the intended target audience is the same for the other shows, that he might consider combining all that content into a single show, producing it more consistently, rather than fragmenting his audience. If you listen to his December 23rd episode, you’ll see that he actually took this advice to heart.

One of the most exciting things that I feel came out in this interview was that Todd had a mission/purpose for his podcast when he decided to launch it. He wanted to use his podcast to build a deeper relationship with his customers so that it would help foster greater customer retention.

About a week after we recorded this interview, I got an email from Todd saying…

Thanks again for offering up so much advice during the interview! It was like getting a free consulting service. And I just wanted you to know that I am using all of your recommendations!

It is my hope that our conversation will be of as much value to you as it was to Todd. If you have any thoughts or reactions to this episode, please do leave a comment in the comments section below.

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240 Podcast Answer Man – LiveFire Review – Embedded Tweets – Static Vs Dynamic Home Page – Six Years of Podcasting – Greg Willits Interivew

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:45:10 +0000

Celebrating Six Years of Podcasting!
It was December 16th, 2005 when I published my very first audio podcast to the web. Little did I know that this event would radically transform my life. I started off this week’s episode of Podcast Answer Man with my thoughts from six years of creating audio content for the web and building a community and business around it.

Random Highlight
I wanted to send my congratulations to Jenn Swanson on the launch of her new podcast at CommunicationDiva.com. If you listen to her first episode, you’ll learn that just a few short months ago, she didn’t even know what blogging was all about, let alone the world of podcasting. To see her online presence today should inspire anyone who’s been stuck with the paralysis by analysis.

You Simply MUST Listen To Episode 116 of Social Media Serenity
As I mentioned in this episode, I spent great deal of time talking with my co-host, Erik J. Fisher, about the LiveFyre commenting system and the amazing opportunities that Twitter’s new embedded tweets now offers to those of us who produce content for the web.

I highly suggest that everyone listen to episode 116 of Social Media Serenity. It is almost as if you have the benefit of a whole additional episode of Podcast Answer Man this week.

Static Home Page or Dynamic List of Recent Posts?
Tim called to ask what the benefits and drawbacks of having a static home page are compared to having the home page of your site simply list the most recent posts that you have made to your site. In the episode, I gave some thoughts on this subject and shared why I almost always have the most recent posts listed as my home page on PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Interview With Greg Willits
In this week’s “Where Are They Now?” interview, I talk with Greg Willits. If first learned about Greg, and his wife Jennifer Willits back in 2005 when I started listening to their Rosary Army Podcast, which happened to be the word’s first Catholic organization to the podcasting platform.

One of the most interesting things about my relationship with Greg and Jennifer, and the content they produced, is that I am not Catholic. By listening to my conversation with Greg, you will learn why I fell in love with the content they produced and how it was a major source of inspiration for the Family From The Heart podcast.

In August of 2008, after three years of podcasting, Greg and Jennifer were offered a full-time position as radio show hosts for The Catholic Channel on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Today, you can still hear Greg and Jennifer every Monday through Friday from 1pm to 4pm Eastern Time on their The Catholics Next Door radio show.

One of the reasons I wanted to have Greg on the show was to highlight how starting with a single podcast, building a large community, mixed with a lot of time, energy, and intentionality can lead to some pretty darn amazing opportunities.

It helps to step out of the box and get creative with other media channels as well. That’s exactly what Greg and Jennifer, in conjunction with SQPN, did with their “That Catholic Show.” Have a look at the following embedded video and you will quickly understand how this project brought them an even greater level of exposure.

Recently, Greg and Jennifer teamed up with fellow Catholic podcasters, and friends, Mac Barron and Katherine Barron to create a pilot for a television sitcom for Catholic TV. The sitcom is called Mass Confusion. I’m embedding the pilot episode below.

During my conversation with Greg, he hinted at the new project that he is working on at NewEvangelizers.com. I’m excited to see what he’s got in store for this new media adventure.

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239 Podcast Answer Man – God Is Bigger Than Cancer – Wooden Boats – And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 01:10:55 +0000

Please Spread The Word!
This week, I started the episode off by talking about my good friends Barry and Lynne Morgan, from SimpleGoodLifeNetwork.com. Many of you may recall that I interviewed Barry and Lynne back in episode 208 of Podcast Answer Man.

Barry emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know that he has been diagnosed with an advanced stage of pancreatic cancer and had asked me if I would please pray for himself and Lynne as well during this time. This week, Barry had asked if I would be willing to have a call with him to discuss a few decisions he needed to make and we had that call on Tuesday of this week.

I was so inspired by Barry’s courage and faith in the midst of what he is going through and I became very excited to learn about how he plans to share his faith and his journey in a brand new podcast that he and Lynne are launching at http://GodIsBiggerThanCancer.com.

I want to personally ask that everyone go and subscribe to their podcast, give it a five star rating, and leave a review for them in iTunes by CLICKING HERE. I would also like to ask you to follow them on TWITTER and like them on FACEBOOK. And if you know anyone who has been touched by cancer, would you please tell them to check out Barry & Lynne’s podcast.

As I am writing this, I know at the first episode is not yet online. However, I know that Barry and Lynne have set aside everything else and will be focusing on three things. Those three things are prayer, seeking wise counsel and searching through information on various treatment options, and sharing everything they learn and their experience in this podcast as means of being a Faith, Hope and Healing resource for those afflicted with the deadliest forms of cancer and their families and loved ones.

Please do help me spread the word!

Posts Per Category Plugin
Did you ever wish you could set the number of posts that are included in the rss feed for each category independently? Up till now, you only had the option of a general setting that controlled the number of posts that are included in the RSS feeds of your site overall.

However, my great friend Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com has created a FREE PLUGIN that allows you manually choose how many posts for each category independently.

In this episode, Pat joins me to explain why and how this Posts Per Category Plugin came about. Pat all mentioned the WP Smush.it Plugin and the site web-sniffer.net.

What If You Can’t Talk?
Nick called in to ask for advice of what to do if your voice is giving out on you and you have a weekly show that must go on. I shared a few options that came to mind off the top of my head. Do you have some additional thoughts? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below.

Getting Audio From My Computer Speakers?
Tony called in to ask if there was an easy way to listen to music from his computer speakers on hi iMac outside of manually unplugging the cord from the speaker jack of the iMac each and every time he’s not using his mixer and wants to listen to iTunes, Pandora, or when watching a YouTube video.

I shared how I handle this on my own setup. Is there a configuration tool that he can download to force his computer to ignore that the speaker jack has a cable plugged into it? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below.

What If I Make Mistakes And Lose Listeners?
Cassius Morris, from The Creatures of The Net podcast, called in to share that he’s made some mistakes that have cost him some listeners. He’s share that he has learned a lot from these mistakes, yet he notices that he’s not getting very much feedback.

In the episode, I share some thoughts on what to focus on in a situation like this and some thoughts on how to handle the feedback situation. Do you have some thoughts to add? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below.

How Can I Change My RSS Feed From One Website To Another?
Marshall called in to ask if there was an easy way to redirect his feed from one website over to the rss feed of another website. In the episode, I share that there is no “easy” way to do this, however, if you do have full control of that feed there is “a” way to do it. I simply recommend that he check out my iTunes Redirect Video Blog Post. I also shared that if he does not have full control over that old rss feed, then he should listen to episode 200 of Podcast Answer Man where I talk about what to do when your feed is held hostage.

Keep An Eye On Wooden Boat Dan – Dan Mattson
In this episode, I include an interview that I did with Dan Mattson from HookedOnWoodenBoats.com. For anyone who argues that it simply isn’t possible to launch a successful business around a passion about something as unique as wooden boats, then I suggest that you follow Dan’s story over the next five years and watch how he pulls off the impossible.

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238 Podcast Answer Man – Audio Levels – Apple Fixes Artwork Preview with iTunes 10-5-1 – And Much More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:00:20 +0000

The Canon HF G10 Camera
This week, I started the episode off by talking about how and why I have been dabbling with video more and more lately. Those who know me, know that I am a strong believer that there is more power in audio podcasting than there is in video podcasting. However, I believe that there is so much you can do to compliment the audio content that you produce by randomly creating video content as well.

In the episode, I shared that the video interview that I did with Leo Laporte was recording using my Canon HFG10 camera. Click play and look at the amazing quality that you can get with this camera.

iTunes 10.5.1 Fixes .mp3 Artwork Preview
In episode 233, I had shared the reason why the desktop icons of .mp3 files were not displaying the artwork after they were successfully tagged with an image file. I am happy to announce that the latest update to iTunes finally resolves this issue for us.

Audio Levels
Mark called to ask what process I go to to make sure that my audio levels are consistent throughout my show and he also wondered how I decide “how hot” to make my audio when getting ready to do export the file.

Mark also asked how I go about getting consistent audio levels between caller to caller when the audio levels of all the audio feedback that comes in are at different volume levels. I share the answer to all Mark’s questions in the episode.

What is Apple Core Media?
Dave called in to say that he has upgraded to a Libsyn account that offers “advanced stats.” He wants to know what the Apple Core Media stands for. I share the answer to this question in the podcast episode.

Is The Roland R-05 Discontinued?
Mark P called in to ask if the Roland R-05 has been discontinued. He said he was able to pick one up for only $100 and wondered if it were a sign that they were no longer being produced. I answer this in the episode, but I’ll go ahead and state it here. The Roland R-05 is still in production and I still love this recorder!

What if a story I linked to goes Away?
Dan Mattson called to say that a publication did a story about him and his podcast recently. He linked to that story in his show notes. However, he wanted to know if there was another way to get a copy of that story just in case the publisher ever decided to remove it from their public website.

Get Amazing Stuff for only $5
My good friend, Dr. Soram Khalsa, told me about http://fiverr.com. Check it out some time. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get for only five bucks!

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237 Podcast Answer Man – Video Blog Update – November 2011

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:53:44 +0000

A Video Blog Style Update:
Every now and then, I like to sit and think about all the wonderful things I have experienced on my journey in pursuing the work that I love and feel called to. If I were to talk about all the blessings that have come my way in 2011, the video below would be at least eight hours long. Instead of sharing everything, I figured I’d hit record on the video camera and simply start sharing the things that come to mind in under 20 minutes. The video below is the result of this recording session.

Things mentioned in this video blog post:
- Episode 483 of Pursuing A Balanced Life – http://gspn.tv/pabl483
- Episode where I declared my focus on The Year of Providence – http://gspn.tv/pabl485
- Podcasting A to Z – http://PodcastingAtoZ.com
- Podcaster’s Mastermind Group – Details Coming Soon!
- The launch of a new podcast – http://GeekologyToday.com
- Why I Do What I Do – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/why

Is a video blog update like this something that interests you? If you enjoy this kind of video blog update, please let me know in the comments section below.

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236 Podcast Answer Man – Leo Laporte Interview – The Power of Podcasting

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:12:04 +0000

My Interview With Leo Laporte
Folks, I am so excited to share this interview with with you. There is no doubt that this will forever be one of my all time favorite episodes of Podcast Answer Man. I’d encourage you to watch the interview via the video that I have embedded below.

At the same time, I’d also like to encourage you to then listen to this audio podcast episode to hear some of my commentary on many of the topics that Leo and I discussed in this interview. I have also included several notes below the the video.

Notes From This Audio Podcast:
In this audio podcast episode, gave some additional commentary on some of the topics that Leo and I discussed. Below are the notes and links that I mentioned that I would share.

- Occupy TWiT Video Post – Click Here
- Meeting Leo Video Post – Click Here
- Post with video of Leo saying podcasting is dead. – Click Here
- Post with Leo saying that nobody cares about video. – Click Here
- Post with Leo saying audio is what people really want. – Click Here
- New York Times Article That I Mentioned. – Click Here

Leo Talks About The Beginning of TWiT:
In this interview Leo shares a brief history of how he first got started in podcasting when a young listener, Matt Bishoff, called in to say that he noticed that Leo was already putting the .mp3 recordings of his radio show on the website and asked why he wasn’t turning them into a podcast.

In April 2005, Leo began to record conversations about technology news with friends from his TechTV days. He mentioned how much of a pain it was to get all of the equipment set up and working each week and how much of a pain it was, spending hours every week, doing post production to salvage whatever he could of the horrible sounding audio. He shared how he got better at doing it over time and how technology and the equipment available improved as well.

Leo Talks About TWiT Revenue:
Over the years that I have been following Leo, I have been able to capture bits and pieces of information that he had shared, in between live show recordings, about the amount of income that his TWiT network was generating. Until now, I’d only been able to report from what I had heard Leo say. However, in this interview, Leo was kind enough to give us some really great ballpark figures for the record.

2005: TWiT brought in between $60,000 to $70,000 in donations.
2007: TWiT brought in approximately $300,000 in ad revenue.
2008: TWiT brought in approximately $600,000 in ad revenue.
2009: TWiT brought in approximately $1.2 Million in ad revenue.
2010: TWiT brought in approximately $4 Million in ad revenue.
2011: TWiT will bring in approximately $5 Million to $6 Million in ad revenue.

Leo’s Stats Show That The Power Is In The Audio Podcast:
Leo was also kind enough to give us a great idea of about how much revenue is generated from each audio, video, and live streaming. The main example he gave was the show This Week in Tech which is what he describes as a “Talking Heads” show. This show has an audience of 175,000 to 200,000 people who consume each and every episode.

When it comes to the downloads of this show, 80% of the downloads are from the audio podcast and 20% of the downloads are from the video podcast.

When it comes to understanding where the money generated from a show like This Week in Tech, Leo estimates that 75% of the revenue comes from the audio podcast, 20% of the revenue comes from the video podcast, and only 5% of the revenue comes from the live streaming content.

Leo Is On The Record – He Says Podcasting IS NOT DEAD!:
For me, one of my favorite parts of our discussion was when I asked Leo if he felt that the technology, known as podcasting, which is delivering episodic media, either audio or video, via an rss feed, was dead. His response was, “Oh Gosh, it’s far from dead.”

Now Leo has a dream of creating an online live streaming network that would be something like a Geek version of CNN on the internet. However, from our conversation, it is clear that while he believes that is his future that he is hoping for, he does not think that podcasting is dead.

He believes, as do I, that podcasters should consider multiple distribution channels for getting their content out there. However, for me, I still suggest that getting started with an audio podcast is the best way to go. It’s obvious that is where a majority of his audience is coming from. As linked above, I have a clip of audio where Leo has said that he understands, fully, that “audio is what people really want.” Also, it is possible to create professional sounding audio with a small investment in equipment compared to what it would cost to create professional quality content for video podcasts or live streaming.

Leo’s thoughts on how to succeed with podcasting:
Leo shared some thoughts on what he thinks it would take for someone to find true success in making a living from creating content, to put yourself in the list of the hundreds of people who are able to pull it off.

These are the exact same things that I had shared in my BlogWorld LA talk just the day before I did this interview and what I have been telling my consulting/coaching clients for years. I could not agree more with what Leo said, which I will quote below.

In the interview, Leo said…

Whether you do audio, video, or live, you should aim at a narrow niche of enthusiasts. If you can hit that niche well, those people will support you, and you can make a living doing this. The trick is to aim it at an audience that you know, that you are a part of, that you love, that you understand, that you can SO SUPER SERVE, and by super serving that audience, by building community, I think you can have success.

I could not agree more. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this interview even half as much as I enjoyed doing it and providing it here for you. I’d love it if you’d be willing to leave a comment below and let me know if this interview has inspired you in any way.

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235 Podcast Answer Man – Proven Strategies For Generating Serious Income From Your Podcasting Efforts – My BlogWorld LA 2011 Session

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:42:52 +0000

My BlogWorld LA 2011 Talk
I am so excited to share my BlogWorld LA 2011 talk with you here in this episode of Podcast Answer Man. The talk was titled “Forget CPM! Proven Strategies For Generating Serious Income From Your Podcasting Efforts.” The audio of this is included in the podcast feed. However, I’m also embedding the video of my talk below.

I hope that the biggest takeaway, from my talk, will be the formula for success that I focus on within the first 20 minutes of my talk. It is my belief that if you do not have the solid foundation that I share in this formula, you will not be able to duplicate the success I have found.

Furthermore, if you follow the formula of success that I provide, I believe you will find that you don’t want to simply try to duplicate the streams of income that I have pursued, but you’ll become very creative in coming up with your own ideas for generating income in the process.

Here’s the video:

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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234 Podcast Answer Man – BlogWorld LA Review – Meeting Leo Laporte – Occupy TWiT

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:53:57 +0000

Recording From The Road
In this special episode of Podcast Answer Man, I am joined by Anne-Sophie Reinhardt from FightingAnorexia.com and MyInterContinentalLife.com. Together, while driving from Petaluma to Oakland California, we give you our review of BlogWorld LA and share our amazing journey of visiting the TWiT Studio.

Meeting Leo Laporte
There is no doubt that you will hear the excitement in my voice when you hear me share what it was like to finally get to meet Leo Laporte. You’ll have to listen to the episode to hear just how amazing this visit was.

WOW! What an amazing trip this has been!

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233 Podcast Answer Man – Missing Artwork Previews – Podcast Hosting – MDX 4600 – ShareBar Plugin – BlogWorld LA

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:13:49 +0000

Podcamp Cincinnati Reactions
I kick off this episode of Podcast Answer Man by giving my reactions the first ever, Podcamp Cincinnati. I share why I felt that this was one of the best Podcamp experiences to date.

Missing Artwork Previews On The Mac
Katie Davis called in to say that she watched the video on tagging on my LearnHowToPodcast.com tutorial and noticed that the artwork previews were working on my display in that tutorial but she is not able to to get them to show up on her Mac. In the episode, I explain why this is.

Confused About Hosting
Emily called in to say that she is confused about the hosting of a podcast. I try to bring a little clarity to this matter and suggest that she watch part 1 and part 4 of the tutorial at LearnHowToPodcast.com.

MDX 4600 Tutorial Feedback
Tommy sent some audio feedback regarding my MDX 4600 video tutorial. I share my thoughts regarding the reactions that I have received regarding this tutorial. If you are looking to purchase the Behringer MDX4600, you can find my tutorial by clicking here.

Testing Out ShareBar Plugin
I recently made the decision to try out the ShareBar plugin. In the episode, I share some of my initial thoughts on the plugin. What I like about it and what I am not so crazy about. Do you have a social sharing plugin that you enjoy using on your site? Please tell me in the comments section.

Want to attend BlogWorld LA?
If you want to attend BlogWorld LA, you can use my promo code RAVEN20 to save 20% off the cost of the conference. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

My BlogWorld LA Talk
Link: http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/forgetcpmtalk

Title: Forget CPM! Proven Strategies For Generating Serious Income FromYour Podcasting Efforts!

Description: As a full-time podcast producer and podcast consulting/coach, Cliff Ravenscraft left his career in insurance, of 11 years, to pursue his passion of podcasting in January of 2008.

In this session, Cliff will share how he generated just over $177,000 in income in 2010 and you will hear the story behind why one listener sent him a contribution of $12,000 to support the content of Cliff’s Generally Speaking Production Network.

This session will also feature stories of many of Cliff’s consultant/coaching clients who have also achieved similar success from their podcasting efforts over the past several years. All of which were achieved without the use of CPM advertising!

gspn.tv LA Meetup
Friday, November 4th at 7pm PST
RSVP at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/lameetup

More details about the location of this event will be posted in the Facebook event once I have them. The meetup will almost certainly be close to the LA Convention Center where BlogWorld is being held.

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232 Podcast Answer Man – TWiT And LA Meetup Announcement!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:57:28 +0000

Very Important Announcements
Hey folks, I had to release this very special episode to provide a few very time sensitive announcements. Please take a few moments to have a listen to this brief episode to learn what I’ve got planned for my trip to the West Coast.

Here is some important information from the announcements that I made.

GSPN LA Meetup
Friday, November 4th at 7pm PST
RSVP at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/lameetup

GSPN – TWiT Meetup
Sunday, November 6th at 2:30pm PST
RSVP at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/twitmeetup

If you are planning to attend this meetup, do be sure that you email Eva@twit.tv to make your reservation for the studio audience of This Week In Tech.

Want to attend BlogWorld LA?
If you want to attend BlogWorld LA, you can use my promo code RAVEN20 to save 20% off the cost of the conference.

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231 Podcast Answer Man – Four Figure Per Episode Sponsorship And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:02:45 +0000

How Do I Set Up Email With My Podcast?
Mark called in and shared that he is setting up his podcast so that his website is running on WordPress and his media files will be hosted with Libsyn. He states that he is having a difficult time figuring out how to get email set up for his podcast. He is not sure how to set up email accounts and how many accounts he has available to him. I provide some thoughts on this topic in this episode.

Links Related To Email:
- BlueHost Article on Email Accounts
- Business Tech Weekly Episode on Google Mail
- Free Google Apps Account Link
- YourPodcast@gmail.com – http://gmail.com

Anne Made Herself Newsworthy
In episode 226 of Podcast Answer Man, I did an interview with Joel Bogges & Pei Kang about the concept of making yourself newsworthy. By this, we meant that you can leverage traditional media, who are constantly hungry for new stories to tell, to bring some exposure to your brand by tying your brand to current news events.

Anne-Sophia Reinhardt from FightingAnorexia.com took our advice to heart and made it happen. Check out the image below.

I don’t read German, but if you do, you can read the article by clicking here.

How Do I Get Press Screening Passes To Movies?
There is no question that podcasting is a powerful form of media. When a podcast producer connects with his audience in a very relational way, their opinions carry a great deal of weight and influence. When you believe this, you’ll begin to understand the value you have to offer to companies when you expose their brands to your audience.

This is no different when it comes to the movie industry who budgets millions of dollars on the promotion and advertising of upcoming movie releases. You may be aware that a part of the movie promotion process is that the movie studios will hire local PR firms around the world to help engage the local press/media to get the word out about such upcoming movies. These PR firms work with local radio stations, magazines, newspapers, television stations, etc to promote these movies locally for the movie studio.

I’ve had the privilege of being listed as a member of the press for two of these PR firms in the Cincinnati Ohio, Northern Kentucky area. As a result, my wife and I have see countless number of press screenings. Daniel called in to ask how a podcaster can work out a similar arrangement in their area.

Links to some movie reviews we’ve done:
- Soul Surfer
- Country Strong
- Harry Potter Deathly Hollows Part 2 & Cars 2
- Toy Story 3
- Something Borrowed
- Valentine’s Day
- Harry Potter Half Blood Prince
- 500 Days of Summer
- Transformers 2 Revenge of The Fallen

Why Are Their No Players On My Archive Pages?
Many people run into an issue where they are able to get their main page to show the audio player for each of their podcast episodes, but if someone clicks on the archives of the category, there is only a list of titles, maybe an excerpt of the show notes, but no audio player. I share some thoughts as to how to fix this in this episode.

I personally use the Thesis Theme. In fact, I have a Thesis Theme Tutorial where I teach you how to build a site to look like what you see here or at http://gspn.tv. If you are using the Thesis theme as well, you would go into the “Design Options” and under archives, set the display format of your archive pages to “Same As Your Home Page.” See Image Below:

Podcasting A to Z Online Training
Wade Wingler of the Assistive Technology Update Podcast sent in a testimonial for the Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course. My next course starts on November 1st and if you sign up for my mailing list, you can use discount code “PAM” in the shopping cart to get $99 off.

A Four Figure Per Episode Podcast Sponsorship?
I am happy to include a 19 minute interview that I did with Robert G Barnwell of CEO Talk Radio and CFO Talk Radio. Many people know that I’ve never been a fan of the CPM model of advertising for podcasting. I am happy to feature yet another powerful story of someone who has understood the value of the content that they produce. In my interview with Robert, you will gain some insight into the mindset that allowed him to land a contract with a sponsor that has a greed to pay a four figure amount PER EPISODE to sponsor his podcast. I hope you will be inspired by what Robert shares.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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230 Podcast Answer Man – Why Do I Do What I Do?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:31:40 +0000

Have You Asked Yourself Why?
In has been six years since I was first introduced to the world of audio podcasting. You only need to go through the information on my about page to learn just how much of a profound impact podcasting has had on my life. Last week, I was interviewed by John Martin of Small Business Round Table, for an upcoming podcast episode. In the interview, he asked me one of the most powerful questions that I have been asked in an interview. He asked “Why do you do what you do?”

While I was able to provide an answer to that question on the spot, I speent this entire weekend pondering that question on each of the things that I have committed myself to. In this episode, I share some top of mind thoughts when it comes to why I create all the podcast content that I create. I also spend some time sharing why I do one on one consulting/coaching and group training in my Podcasting A to Z course.

At the very core, I do not do what I do for the money. There have been a few times when I’ve become distracted by the potential for making more money. I’m certainly not opposed to finding ways to increase my income further by what I do. However, deep down, I’m often reminded that I need to step backa and get refocused on my reason for doing what I do.

Over the past six years, I’ve received hundreds upon hundreds of phone calls, emails, and letters from people all over the world who have shared how something that I’ve shared in a podcast episode has had a positive impact on their lives. As you will find out in this episode, audio podcasting is continuing to have a massive positive impact in my own life. It is my hope and desire that I will continue to have the honor of producing such valuable content and it is equally my desire to help other people discover the joy of producing similar content.

I hope you enjoy this special episode of Podcast Answer Man.

Here is the list of links from this episode:
- http://gspn.tv/thatepisode
- http://48days.com/listen
- http://gspn.tv/knowthyself
- http://HookedOnWoodenBoats.com
- http://PodcastingAtoZ.com
- http://gspn.tv/debtfree
- http://gspn.tv/pablcontagious
- http://VirtualAssistantPodcast.com
- http://gspn.tv/renegade
- http://gspn.tv/renegadebusiness
- http://gspn.tv/renegadebless
- Redeeming Love Book
- So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Book
- http://gspn.tv/freedompodcast
- http://gspn.tv/atc121
- http://AlmostDailyDevotional.com (162-164)
- http://gspn.tv/godjourneypodcast
- http://gspn.tv/lifestreampodcast

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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229 Podcast Answer Man – What Will 2GB Get You?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:11:10 +0000

Big Things Happening In Other Areas of Life:
I’m excited to bring to bring you this episode of Podcast Answer Man. As the show starts, I mentioned a few links that you can check out to see what has been going on in some other areas of my life over the past few weeks. Here are those links:
http://ATCPodcast.com
http://AlmostDailyDevotional.com
http://PursuingABalancedLife.com

I Have Confirmed That I Will Be At BlogWorld:
While I’m just a little nervous about how long it is taking to get confirmed travel plans and a hotel confirmation, I’ve received an email confirming that I will be, both, attending and speaking at BlogWorld LA. I truly hope to get some details out to you about this soon.

Does Libysn really have a 1.5GB account?
Alan called in to say that he heard me mention that I have two 1.5GB accounts with Libsyn, meaning that I can upload up to a total of 3GB of media within any 30 day period of time and have unlimited bandwidth when it comes to the number of times that those files are downloaded. After hearing this, he looked at Libsyn’s website and could not find such an account. I explained that he needed to look at Libsyn’s Plans & Pricing Page and look at the App 1500 plan.

Was Episode 228 Fully Valid?
Richard from Boston called to say that he enjoyed episode 228 of Podcast Answer Man where I shared what could be accomplished with nothing more than a digital audio recorder. However, he assumed that I got my amazing sound by running my multi-band compressor processing on the file in Adobe Audition, therefore making my point not as valid as it could have been. I explain, in this episode, that I did not run any filter processing on episode 228 and I could have just as easily produced last week’s episode using Audacity’s free audio editing software.

Thanks For The Tutorials:
Leslie called in to share how much he appreciates my video training tutorials that he had purchased from my site. I loved his feedback, not just because he had nice things to say about my products, but because you can hear his passion for what he is doing with his podcast. When he actually left this feedback, he had recorded up to 28 podcast episodes at that time. However, he’s produced another 11 episodes since then. He’s discovered the joy of producing his podcasts without the need for editing his show in post production. Best of all, he’s recognized his ability to help people all over the world from the comfort of his home.

Subscription Links:
Michael called in to ask how I am able to display the images found at the bottom of each of my show notes entries where you can click to subscribe via Zune, iTunes, and RSS. I explain that I manually coded these images using html and I simply copy and paste the code from a previous post into each new post on my site.

Here is an image of that code:

Note: If you choose to use this code, please consider downloading the images, uploading them to your own web server, and then updating the code to pull the images from your own site. This way, if my site ever goes down, your images will still show up. ;)

Title/Description Burner in Feedburner:
Gavin called in to say that his podcast listing in iTunes changed one day from showing the name of his podcast to displaying the title of his blog instead. In the episode, I explain how this can be fixed if he is using Feedburner.

Podcast Awards
I mentioned that I have been blessed to have six gspn.tv podcasts nominated for the 2011 Podcast Awards. Click Here to see which shows have been nominated. Voting will open on October 12th. I’m not crazy about asking my community to vote every day from the 12th through the 27th. However, I am thinking about calling in the favor this year. I’ll be sending out an email to the mailing list if I do this.

Podcasting From Thailand:
I got an email asking what I would recommend for the best audio quality for recording a show where the host of the show is in Thailand and the co-host of the show is in Rhode Island. Because of their fear of latency, they are thinking that they wanted to actually connect via the telephone. I recommended that they do a double ender and I explain how this works in the episode.

What Will 2GB Get You?
Woody Nash recently wrote me an email about Podcasting with Posterous. He wrote…

This is a follow up to your Q&A from a few episodes ago regarding the use of Posterous as a podcasting tool. I use Posterous for my initial blogging activity and I love it. I heard what you said and took it to heart, so I decided to email the company to see how they would respond. You will find their answer below. What do you think?

Woody wrote to Posterous saying…

I would like to upload a new podcast I am starting to my woodynash.posterous.com site. It is a podcast on car parking, so I really doubt it will generate too much traffic. However, I thought I should check and see whether that will be a problem or not. I read the TOS and don’t see bandwidth consumption listed as limitation, but I really want to be sure before I go too far into this. Please let me know.

Also, I am not currently being charged for my Posterous account. Do you plan to start charging me? If so, can you tell me how much?

Rich from Posterous wrote back to Woody saying…

Hi Woody, We currently limit bandwidth to 2GB a month but very few people approach this amount (including large customers like the Gap and Chevrolet). We don’t yet offer a premium service but unlimited or near unlimited bandwidth would be a component of this service. We are at least six months way from launching this service and would let everyone know via email and on our site. I hope this helps! Rich

So Woody asked me… How many downloads of a 30 minute podcast will equate to 2GB in a month?

* Google says that 2 gigabytes = 2048 megabytes

* If the average 30 minute podcast is approximately 30MB, then you would go through 2GB of bandwidth by uploading a single episode once and having it downloaded 67 times.

The question is what happens when the 68th person tries to download your show?

What if you have 10 thirty minute episodes on your account and only two people have downloaded your show up to this point. No big deal.

But what if I talked about it on Podcast Answer Man and 200 people from my audience went in and found your podcast to be AMAZING and they all downloaded all ten episodes within the same week that I mentioned your show?

Let’s see, that’s 10 episodes x 30MB = 300MB for those ten episodes. Then you are looking at 200 people downloading that 300MB of data…. That’s 60,000MB (OR 58.5GB of bandwidth).

See the problem with a 2GB Bandwidth limit?

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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228 Podcast Answer Man – With Only A Digital Audio Recorder

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:49:26 +0000

This episode is far different from my normal Podcast Answer Man episode, especially when it comes to production quality. However, I have been wanting to do this sort of episode for quite some time to demonstrate just what can be done with a single digital audio recorder and a little post production work.

This entire episode was recorded using nothing more than a Roland R-05 digital audio recorder. However, there were a few spots where I did plug in an external microphone just to demonstrate that external microphones could be used and what they would sound like.

Also in this episode, I did answer Jason’s question about iTunes artwork and why it sometimes takes so long for iTunes display new podcast images in their online directory.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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227 Podcast Answer Man – Podcast Awards – Katie Davis – Condenser Mics – And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:04:53 +0000

Why My Show Has Been Posting Late
I start this episode by answering the #1 question that I’ve been asked over the past 24 hours. Whenever I don’t get my Podcast Answer Man episode posted online by Friday afternoon, I get a lot of emails and notes vial social networks asking if there was a reason why I had not posted an episode of Podcast Answer Man for the week.

I only briefly share the details of what has changed in my my podcast publishing podcast. If you are starting to find that the processing and publishing of your podcast episodes are keeping you from the joy of actually “creating the content,” it may be time to consider delegating the processing part to someone else. I suggest that you check out my Virtual Assistant Podcast at http://VirtualAssistantPodcast.com for more helpful information in this area.

How Many Libsyn Accounts Do I Need?
Once you get the “podcasting bug,” it may not be long before you find yourself with a desire to launch a second, or even third, new podcast. If you follow my advice of using Libsyn as your media hosting solution, you may find yourself wondering if you need to create a new Libsyn account for each new show or if you can actually use a single account for multiple shows. I provide the answer to this question in this episode.

Nominations Open for the 7th Annual Podcast Awards
I’m very excited to announce that Podcast Answer Man is a proud sponsor of the 7th Annual Podcast Awards at http://PodcastAwards.com. In this episode, I share some of my thoughts on how the Podcast Awards work. If you would like to nominate some of my podcasts, CLICK HERE for my category recommendations.

Dynamic Vs Condenser Microphones
I recently released my FREE TUTORIAL at http://LearnHowToPodcast.com. In video #3 of that tutorial, I talk about equipment options and share my thoughts about condenser microphones. I’ve received a lot of feedback as a result of the statements I made. Some have asked if they should rid of their condenser microphones that they already have and others have share what they have done to help reduce the amount of background noise.

I’m not opposed to folks using a condenser microphone, if they have already invested in one. In this episode, I receive a call from Craig who shares what he has done with a cardboard box and t-shirts to help reduce the echo from his condenser microphone. I also share a side by side comparison of a dynamic microphone and a condenser microphone and how you can use two pillows and your gain control to get a better sound of a condenser microphone if that is what you have to work with.

Katie Davis – Kids Literature Author Podcast Experience
I am delighted to share an interview that I did wit Katie Davis, an author of children’s books who entered the world of podcasting just over a year ago. In this episode, she shares some the exciting things that she has experienced as a result of doing her Brain Burps About Books podcast.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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226 Podcast Answer Man – Making Yourself Newsworthy

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:27:06 +0000

Making Yourself Newsworthy
In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I am happy to share an interview that I did with Joel Bogges & Pei Kang from http://4PointsCoaching.com. The reason I brought them on the show was to talk about the idea of making yourself newsworthy so that you can leverage the local, traditional, media to spread the word about your brand. Joel has been covered on local television 30 times within the last ten months. He shares how he accomplished this in the episode.

Recording System Audio Without A Mixer
Wade called in to say that Wire Tap Studio is no longer working with Lion, the latest version of the Mac OS. He wanted to know if I knew of any alternative software that would allow him to use his recording software to capture system audio. I explained that I have only used SoundFlower as a tightly integrated big of functionality built into ScreenFlow. However, I suggested that he check out http://soundflower.en.softonic.com/mac to see if it something might work for him. Either way, I highly suggest going the hardware route, using even an inexpensive audio mixer and a digital audio recorder which would help avoid any issues like this moving forward. I have more information about this sort of setup in my Inside The Studio Equipment Tutorial.

SoundByte Audio Cart Software
I’ve often shared that I use SoundByte Audio Cart Software. Several people have asked me which version of the software that I recommend for purchase. My answer is the $39 version. This is the version that I use and it is more than enough for my needs.

Playing Audio Clips From TV Shows
I had a call from Brian who wanted to know if I had any information on the legal issues involved with using audio clips from television shows. I gave the same answer that I always give when I’m asked about legal questions related to podcasting. That answer is to seek the advice of a lawyer for such information. With a huge warning to follow my example at your own risk, I share how in once case, I took an “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission approach.” However, I also followed this up by sharing that I’ve only taken this approach with one television show that we have done a fan podcast for.

FREE Learn How To Podcast Tutorial
I spend more than 50 hours in the past seven days creating the online tutorial found at http://LearnHowToPodcast.com. In this episode, I share why I created this tutorial as well as why I made the decision to give it away for free. It is my sincere hope that if you are reading this, that you will consider blogging about http://LearnHowToPodcast.com and sharing links to this free tutorial as often as you desire in the social networks that you use.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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225 Podcast Answer Man – Start Podcasting Today! You Never Know Where It Will Take You!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:29:09 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share two stories that I hope will inspire those of you who have been sitting on the sidelines, just waiting for the right moment to launch your podcast.

Many of you are already familiar with my story of how I started podcasting, as a hobby about something I was passionate about, and where it has led me so far. This episode includes two stories that I am very excited to share.

Both Rob and Ian launched their podcasts, as a hobby, about topics they had so much passion for, that it led them to spend countless hours on producing regular content without any monetary gain. Please listen to the full episode to hear where podcasting has taken each of them.

Also in this episode, I mentioned the following:

Unusual Benefit of Podcasting? – http://share.gspn.tv/9mv1
When your rss feed is held hostage – http://gspn.tv/rv1
How To Change Your Podcast RSS Feed In iTunes - http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/itunesredirect
Is It Possible To Generate Income Directly From Podcasting? – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/income

Finally, I asked if you would be interested in a Blog Broadcast email subscription service where you would be notified, via email, each time I make any new post on my site. I committed that if 15 people were to leave a comment below, stating that they would like such a service to be available, then I would certainly add it. Please let me know in the comments section below if you are interested.

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224 Podcast Answer Man – Rapportive – Webinar Bridge – And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:19:36 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share the following:

Check out http://BusinessTechWeekly.com
Use http://Repportive.com to connect with your audience
Free Podcasting 101 Webinar – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/pod101
Webniar Bridge Plugin – http://WebinarBridge.com
Thoughts on Katie’s clipping audio issue.
iTunes Ratings – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/itunesratings
PowerPress 2.0.4 Display Settings http://share.gspn.tv/9ZA1 & http://share.gspn.tv/9ZLE
The Blog Post that convinced me to raise my rates – http://gspn.tv/65d
New Podcasting A to Z video can be seen at http://PodcastingAtoZ.com
CHICAGO MEETUP – http://gspn.tv/chicagomeetup

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223 Podcast Answer Man – Feedburner Feed Titles – Podcast Voicemail – Podcasting For Free – And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:25:08 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I cover the following topics:

How to update feed titles within Feedburner.
Podcast voicemail options – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/voicemail
I’m speaking at Financial Blogger Conference – http://FinancialBloggerConference.com
Chicago Meetup on Friday Sept 30th – http://gspn.tv/chicagomeetup
Podcamp Cincinnati Oct 22nd – http://PodcampCincinnati.com
Thoughts on ways to podcast for free.
Why mp3 artwork previews are not showing in OSX.
Check out the new video at http://PodcastingAtoZ.com

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222 Podcast Answer Man – Ground Loop Isolator And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:48:25 +0000

Buzzing Noises When Connecting To A Computer – Ground Loop
Have you ever had everything set up and working perfectly with your microphone, mixer, and digital audio recorder only to go and bring in either sound clips or a Skype co-host into the mix, via a computer connected to your mixer, and end up with a terribly hum or buzzing sound? Yep, me too!

There are many things that can cause this. In some cases, it may be the internal sound card picking up interference from all the other internal components of the computer in question. However, in most cases, it is ground loop noise. There are several articles about ground loop noise out there.

I spend at least the first 17 minutes or so explaining how I have dealt with this issue over the years, not just for myself, but also with hundreds of my consulting clients. I am SO EXCITED about a recent discovery made by one of my Podcasting A to Z students, Randy Vandervaate, about a consumer grade product that helps to eliminate most of these issues.

Randy had come across a discussion thread on the Apple Support Forums that dealt with a known issue related to this with the iMac. This took him down a path that led him to the Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator Model 270-054.

I contacted my equipment suppliers to see if they had an equivalent item to this. One supplier wrote back and said, “We just don’t carry the consumer grade stuff. Only pro.” This is why I have never been made aware of this type of item before this week. I suppose these professional radio stations have never tried brining audio from computers into their mixing boards. Seems odd that this has never come up for them.

I do a lot of shopping on Amazon, personally, and I did some searching there and found two products that looked similar to what Randy had found, I ordered a few of them, tested them on my system, and they work perfectly! I demo this for you in this episode.

1/8-Inch Stereo Audio Ground Loop Isolator by Pyle – Model PLGI35T (Affiliate Link)
This device is nice because it plugs into the 1/8″ headphones/speaker jack on your computer, or other audio device, and then you simply plug your 1/8″ cable that you would have plugged into the computer into the 1/8″ female end of the cable.

I am currently using this device plugged into my 27″ iMac’s speaker output and then I have a cable going from this device into my mixer. It completely eliminated the ground loop noise I had been experiencing when I connected to a Skype call with other USB sound card. (See Photo Below)

Raptor GL15 Ground Loop Isolator by Metra (Affiliate Link)

This device works just as well as the Pyle device shown above. However, the difference is that this one fits inline with RCA jacks. To give you an idea of how The Raptor GL15 could fit within a setup, the image below shows how I would use this to eliminate the ground loop noise coming from my iPad when it is plugged into it’s dock. (See Photo Below)

I must admit that I feel silly that I hadn’t stumbled across these little gadgets sooner. However, as I mentioned in the episode, I had always seemed to find a way to work out the issue in the past with either external usb sound cards, disconnecting power bricks, or using ground removing plug adapters. I am certain that this episode/post will be referred to a countless number of times moving forward.

ID3 Tagging Question
Glenn called in to ask my thoughts on the need to include the old version 1 style id3 tags when tagging your .mp3 files for your podcast. I give my thoughts on this issue in the episode and I also mentioned the free video tutorial at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/tagging.

Weird Noise Coming From The Heil Microphone
Randy submitted an audio file to demonstrate some weird noise that he was hearing whenever he touched his shock mount. I explain what the noise is and even reproduced it exactly on my own setup in the podcast. Of course I also explained how to get rid of that noise as well.

Some Student Highlights
As man you know, I’ve been teaching groups of 20 people at a time how to podcast from scratch. In this episode, I showcase just a few of the new podcast that have just launched (one is a relaunch) this week. Here are the links to the shows that I had played.

Kernels of Wheat Bible Teaching Podcast – Jim Kerwin

Ask Dr. Soram Podcast – Dr. Soram Khalsa

Turfgrass Podcast – Randy Vandervaate

The Daily Interaction Podcast – Farnoosh Brock

LifeTree Group Radio Show – Nathan Eckel

Consider The Sequels Podcast – Jason Pyles

Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course
The next Podcasting A to Z course will start on Monday, September 12th. For more information about this course, or if you are interested in getting a spot in the Fall Session, please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com. If you are on my Podcast Answer Man Mailing List, please use Discount Code “PAM” to get $99 off the cost of the course!

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221 Podcast Answer Man – What Do I Need To Do A Live Show?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:13:33 +0000

Life Show Production
In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I had both Wade and Buddy call in to ask about options for doing a live show for their podcast. Bofore going into details about how to accomplish this, I ask them to consider the pitfalls of the live show format. I talked about this topic back in episode 041 of Podcast Answer Man which you can listen to by clicking here.

In response to live show production, I mention some of the following resources:

New Video Studio Tour
I have worked on the redesign of my studio for the past two weeks. I am delighted to announce that the studio is now set up just the way I want it and I have created a video blog post that shows off how everything is set up. To see the video, please check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/newstudio

Canon Vixia HF G10
Words can hardly describe how excited I am about my new Canon Vixia HF G10 Camcorder. I have been eying this camera for a few months now and finally pulled the trigger on the purchase. The studio tour linked to above was actually shot using the new camera. Though, admitadly, that video was the first out of the box experience recording. I can’t wait to find out what else I can do with this camera. If you are interested in checkign out the G10, I do have an affiliate link at http://gspn.tv/g10.

Converting AVCHD to h.264
The only thing that kept me from purchasing this camera sooner than I did was knowing how I could pull the .mts files from the camera and making the videowork with my ScreenFlow software. I am so glad I found the Aunsoft MTS Converter for converting Camcorder Video to h.264 – http://l.gspn.tv/qWzu38

So You Want To Sponsor A Podcast
Randy owns a travel agency that specializes in event planning to Walt Disney World. He’s looking to sponsor an unofficial podcast devoted to the Disney parks. He asked if I had some thoughts related to what to expect.

Podcasting A to Z
The next Podcasting A to Z course will start on Monday, September 5th. If you are interested in getting a spot in the Fall Session, please email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com. I have a special discounted rate for those who sign up within the next two weeks. For more information about this course, please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com.

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220 Podcast Answer Man – What Is The Difference Between Shared Hosting And VPS aka Virtual Private Server Hosting? Interview with COO of ServInt Hosting

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:25:14 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I am delighted to bring you an interview with Christian Dawson, COO of ServInt Hosting.

I have a blog post about my thoughts on hosting for podcasters at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/hosting. I must admit that shared hosting served me well for several years. However, back when I was with GoDaddy, when I did occasionally run into an issue, dealing with support was simply a nightmare. If you think I might possibly be exaggerating, please feel free to read the blog post found at http://gspn.tv/godaddy.

I have been an extremely satisfied since February of 2011. Since moving to ServInt, I’ve not once had a database error and on the one single occasion where my site took about 90 seconds to load, the support department immediately offered to move me to another server with little to zero downtime on my site. Not only that, they offered to schedule such a move for any time that might be more convenient to me. I share the full support ticket transcript in this episode for that call.

I do have an affiliate relationship with ServInt Hosting, and if you were to click on my affiliate link before signing up for their services, I do benefit from that. However, this episode is NOT an infomercial for their services. The purpose of this interview is to help you understand what a shared hosting account is, what a VPS (VIrtual Private Server) hosting account is, and what a Dedicated Server Hosting Account is.

Here are a few of the questions that I asked in the interview:

- What is shared hosting?

- On average, how many accounts are run off of one shared hosting server?

- What is VPS or a Virtual Private Server?

- How does VPS differ from Shared hosting if you are still sharing a server with other accounts?

- On average, how many accounts are loaded onto a single ServInt VPS server?

- If someone else on the same VPS server I’m on gets coverage on Fox News & it brings down their site, will it also bring down mine?

- What kind of Backups do you do perform on my data stored on my ServInt VPS account?

- I recommend my clients and the Podcast Answer Man community purchase the Fantastico option when signing up for a ServInt account. How much is that?

- What about a client who has a shared hosting account with GoDaddy that is not running CPanel. Is your support department able to do the migration for them as well?

- I did notice that my WordPress was wanting me to do manual ftp updates after I moved over to ServInt. Through working with your support department, I found out that I needed to request them to install/run your php as suPHP. Since then, I’ve told my clients and my community to also request this. Can you explain what the heck this means?

- It may seem obvious about what a dedicated server is. However is there anything else that we should know about having a dedicated server that you think we should know about?

- In the past, I had always been afraid of the dedicated server option because when I had looked into these in the past, I was told I would have to install my own OS, perform system patches, backups, etc. etc etc. However, do I understand right that your Dedicated server packages are “Managed”? If so, what does that mean exactly?

I really hope you find the content of this interview as valuable as I did.

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219 Podcast Answer Man – New Show Prep Organization And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:00:51 +0000

This week, I’m delighted by the result of my decision to remove the Podcast Answer Man podcast off my Live Show Thursday Schedule. I felt so much more relaxed as I prepared and shared the content that is contained in this episode. I hope you find something valuable within the episode to help you take your show to the next level.

New Show Prep Organization
I am moving my show prep away from Google Docs and over to http://Wunderlist.com. In the episode, I share the various reasons why I have made this decision. Should you decide to give Wunderlist a go for organizing the topics that you cover in your show, I would love to hear about it in the comments section below.

FeedBurner Original Feed Question
Brian called in to say that he’s learned a lot of things by trial and error and actually plans to restart his podcasting efforts from scratch with a fresh reboot. This time around, he’s going to be using FeedBurner and he wants to know which feed he should use for his “original feed.” I answer that question in this episode.

AWeber Update
A few weeks ago, I did a blog post at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/aweber. In it, I mentioned that I was moving away from MailChimp and over to Aweber for my email mailing list. In this episode, I share why I am glad that I went through all the hard work and how it has immediately paid off with my recently sent email messages.

JewelBeat Update
In episode 215 of Podcast Answer Man, I shared a relatively new service that allows you to purchase royalty free music that you can use in your media products where you only pay 99 cents per song. Since then, I’ve received a lot of positive feedback related to the service and in this episode, Steve called in to share his review of the service. Have a look at http://JewelBeat.com and let me know your thoughts about what you find in the comments section below.

Songify iPhone App
Chances are you have seen YouTube videos or media coverage of some sort of the Auto Tuning The News. It’s where you take normal speech and set it to music and use software to change the pitch of your voice to match the music, almost as if the speech was actually being song, in tune, with the music playing. In this episode, I share what it would sound like if you did this with the words that I use to open each new episode of Podcast Answer Man. You can get the Songify iPhone app, for free, by clicking here.

I Ordered A Roku XDS Streaming Media Player
I just recently purchased an XDS Roku box from Amazon. If you are intersted in getting one of these for yourself, click here for my affiliate link. In the episode, I share some of my reasoning for purchasing this streaming media player. I am expecting to receive it on Friday and play around with it this weekend. I’ll let you guys know what I think after I have had some time to figure it out. If you have a Roku player, please tell me what you like most about it in the comments section below.

Other Topics Addressed

Richard called in to share some additional thoughts on setting audio levels.
Hank from DaddyLife.net called in to say thanks for the inspiration.
If you are interested in a September Podcasting A to Z course, please email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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218 Podcast Answer Man – Very Initial Reaction To Mixlr – Pros And Cons of Removing This Show From Live Format – And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:43:47 +0000

Removing Podcast Answer Man From Live Show Format Once Again
It seems that I keep going back and forth on this topic. The main benefit, to me, of having Podcast Answer Man on the live show format has been that the episode is scheduled and a live audience brings a level of accountability to actually get this show recorded at its scheduled time.

However, in this episode, I share that I have made the decision to pull this podcast off of my live show schedule once again. Rather than announcing my decision, I share my thought process on the pros and cons of removing this podcast from the live show schedule.

Pros

A more polished show each week
Ability to record in segments without pressure of live audience.
Better Show Notes For Each Episode. This should NOT be underestimated!
I don’t actively engage with the audio during PAM.
Less distractions during the recording of the show.

Cons

Many people enjoy listening to PAM live on Thursdays
Having the show scheduled kept me consistent with timely, weekly release.

I’m very happy with my ultimate decision and I will work hard to find a new scheduled time to record Podcast Answer Man and will simply need to focus on my efforts of self discipline to stick to that schedule.

My Very Initial Reaction to Mixlr.com
I returned from an 11 day trip with my family earlier this week. Just before I left, I heard about a new service called Mixlr.

Their site says that Mixlr makes it easy to broadcast high-quality live audio to the web, Facebook, social networks and mobile devices. Just download our free broadcasting app, and broadcast live instantly. Mixlr is perfect for bands, live acts, DJs, conference organisers, journalists, podcasters and many more besides.

I actually decided to give this service a try for my Live Show Thursday, trying to set it up just before I hit record for this episode. I was experiencing issues with very slow load times of starting up the broadcasting software on my Mac Mini and it seemed to cause me to lose connection with my Ustream Server each time it finally got started.

I then tried it on my 27” iMac and was able to get it to load. However, I was still experiencing an issue where the audio from the embedded widget on my page would not play the audio.

During the episode, I was initially critical of the audio quality of the service. However, by the end of my initial review, I found that you can, in fact, get CD quality audio from the service as a paid subscriber.

This seems to be a relatively new service. It’s one that certainly fills a need. I hope to investigate further. The folks at Mixlr did reach out to me after today’s live show to see if we can work out some of the issues that I’ve experienced. I will share an update on my thoughts on this service as I get a chance to investigate further.

Shout out to my friend Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com
My good friend, Pat Flynn, had two amazing blog posts this week that I think listeners to the Podcast Answer Man audience would benefit from reading.

The first post is titled “The Dark Side of Successful Blogging.” I would add “& Podcasting” at the end of the title and tell you that it is 100% applicable to podcasters as well. Here’s a link to the original post: http://goo.gl/3enW3

Here are some of the points that are discussed:

A ton of email.
JV Offers.
Pressure to consistently produce top quality content.
Responsibility with what you recommend.
The Microscope Effect.
Copycats and content stealers.
Trolls.
Non-Believers.

I go through the list above and share some my own thoughts on each of these potential cons of finding great success with your blog/podcast. However, I also share how some of them can both be a drawback and a benefit at the same time.

As mentioned in the episode, Pat’s blog post about Amazon Affiliates is great as well. Here’s the link: http://goo.gl/3QWUN

New Podcast Spotlight
This week, I wanted to highlight the launch of a new audio podcast from Tony Rose from BloggingDiabetes.com. As promised, here is the link to Tony’s first episode: http://goo.gl/Q5y0w

I’m excited to announce that my July Podcasting A to Z course will be launching this Monday, July 11th. There are still a few spots available. Be sure to check out all the details about the course at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz and email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com if you have any questions at all.

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217 Podcast Answer Man – Another Podcaster Experiences Passive Income And Taking Your Show To The Next Level

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:00:47 +0000

This episode is a bit shorter than normal due to the fact that I am currently out of town for days on a trip with my family. We left on Friday, June 24th and stopped in Nashville, TN where I will help my friend, Dan Miller, hook up some new podcasting gear that he has purchased for his podcasting studio.

We then traveled to Orlando Florida where our family has spent several days visiting Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks. On Thursday, which should be the day that this episode goes live, we will head toward North Carolina to visit the Biltmore Estate and will wrap up our trip by spending the Fourth of July weekend in the Smokey Mountains.

It’s hard for someone like me to leave my business for ten days. I have already had many people tell me that this is a well deserved trip with all the hard work that I’ve been doing lately. I know that my wife and kids certainly deserve my time, energy and attention that they are getting from me. So I hope you don’t mind this very short episode that I prepared ahead of time for you.

In this episode I discuss the following:

Dean’s Ebook Sale Experience
Andy’s Edirol Audio Level Question
Taking Your Show To The Next Level.
Steve’s feedback regarding JewelBeat
A reminder about my Podcasting A to Z Course

Podcasting A to Z Update:
The following is a list of examples of what previous Podcasting A to Z participants have accomplished as the result of going through this five weeks of training. Please note that the web design is a work in progress for many of the students who just completed the May course.

Joel Boggess’ 11th Episode – http://goo.gl/o8fPn
Paul Nolan’s 1st Episode – http://goo.gl/tWRM9
Glen Steinson’s 1st Episode- http://goo.gl/9Z38n
Stacy Westfall’s 6th Episode – http://goo.gl/lH8wS
David & Paula Foster’s 60th Episode – http://goo.gl/iczKW
Ian Westfield’s 1st Episode – http://goo.gl/Nk9N5
Steve Vale’s 1st Episode – http://goo.gl/c2E8O
Anne Reinhardt’s 3rd Episode – http://goo.gl/FsJLQ

If you, or someone you know, is looking to successfully launch a podcast, I hope you will consider joining my next Podcasting A to Z online training course that will start Monday, July 11th. Please check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz which contains full details of this course.

I’m offering everyone that is on my mailing list a $99 discount on the cost of the course. That brings the cost of the five week course to $800. To take advantage of this discount, please sign up for my mailing list at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mailinglist. Once you have received the confirmation that you have been added tot he mailing list, send me an email to Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com and I will respond with a discount code that you can use.

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216 Podcast Answer Man – Would Someone Really Listen To All 500 Episodes of Your Podcast?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:02:10 +0000

Will Someone Really Listen To 500 Episodes of Your Podcast?
I recently recorded the 500th episode of my Pursuing A Balanced Life Podcast. Wondering if anyone had listened to all five hundred episode, I asked those who had listened to every episode to please let me know. To my surprise, four people contacted me to let me know that they have, indeed, listened to every episode. I include the audio feedback that I received from Maggie Mack, Anne-Sophie Reinhardt, and Wayne Henderson. My great friend, Richard Emblem, wrote me an email to share that he has listened to every episode as well.

While not everyone has listened to all 500 episodes, there are a few hundred people who have listened to more than half of the content that I put out in the Pursuing A Balanced Life Podcast. In this episode, I share my thoughts on why I feel so many people have taken such an interest in a podcast that is very general in nature and has the least amount of production value.

Griffin iMic USB Sound Card Question:
Jason Pyles recently purchased Podcast Answer Man Package #5 from my equipment page. He had a question about hooking up two different Griffin iMic USB Sound Cards to his Mac computer. He wants to know how he can selectively choose which sound card each software program will use. I explain the question in more detail in the episode as well as give my answer of how to accomplish this.

Thoughts On Recording Into An IPod With iRig Mic
Bill called in to ask if I had any experience with the IK Multimedia iRig microphone for recording audio into an iPod Touch. Of course I share my thoughts on recording into software in general and ask if anyone out there has some experience with this mic to please leave some feedback in the comments section to this post.

Blog Post About My Switch From MailChimp To AWeber
I mentioned that I was switching my mailing list provider from MailChimp to AWeber in episode 215 of Podcast Answer Man. Many people have been asking me why I am going through all the trouble to make this change. Some folks are also wondering why I feel that my mailing list is so important. I actually spent a few hours writing a blog post about this topic. If you are interested, you can read the post at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/aweber.

Podcasting A to Z Update:
Earlier this year, I had a bold dream to create an online coaching course where I would take twenty students and, over the course of five weeks, teach them all how to podcast from scratch. That dream became a reality and showed me just how effective the online group coaching environment can be.

Word is spreading about the impact this course has had on the students that have already participated and I’m happy to announce that I have already filled the first four spots for my next Podcasting A to Z course which will begin on Monday, July 11th. I know that many of you have expressed interest in participating in my July course and I’m excited to announce two things that may be of interest to you.

First, I’m going to allow up to thirty students to participate this time around. This will be a tremendous benefit to those who will participate in this class as there will be ten more people who are going to be asking questions that you may not have thought to ask yourself. You will benefit from all those additional questions and answers.

Second, I’m offering everyone that is on my mailing list a $99 discount on the cost of the course. That brings the cost of the five week course to $800. To take advantage of this discount, please sign up for my mailing list at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mailinglist. Once you have received the confirmation that you have been added to the mailing list, send me an email to Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com and I will respond with a discount code that you can use.

Dan Miller, of http://48days.com, is going to be promoting the July A to Z course to his community starting next week. Judging by previous exposure of my business to his audience, I’m expecting another wonderful turnout.

I am already looking forward to the successful launch of approximately 30 new podcasts as the result of this course. If you have been wanting to get your podcast launched, now is a great time to sign up and get this thing started.

Ian Whitfield was in my May course. He recently sent me the following testimonial to share with you.

Hey this is Ian Whitfield and I just finished taking Cliff’s Podcasting A to Z, online training course.
During the course of five weeks, I had my set up my own podcast studio, set up and configured my own website, published my podcast episode online and submitted my podcast to and was approved in the iTunes Directory. I’m overly impressed with the quality of my first sample podcast episode that I put online at http://LeaderLessons.com.
Simply put… This course was an investment that has already paid off. I highly recommend Cliff’s Podcasting A to Z Course.

The following is a list of examples of what previous Podcasting A to Z participants have accomplished as the result of going through this five weeks of training. Please note that the web design is a work in progress for many of the students who just completed the May course.

Joel Boggess’ 11th Episode – http://goo.gl/o8fPn
Paul Nolan’s 1st Episode – http://goo.gl/tWRM9
Glen Steinson’s 1st Episode- http://goo.gl/9Z38n
Stacy Westfall’s 6th Episode – http://goo.gl/lH8wS
David & Paula Foster’s 60th Episode – http://goo.gl/iczKW
Ian Whitfield’s 1st Episode – http://goo.gl/Nk9N5
Steve Vale’s 1st Episode – http://goo.gl/c2E8O
Anne Reinhardt’s 3rd Episode – http://goo.gl/FsJLQ

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215 Podcast Answer Man – Music For Your Podcast At Only 99 Cents? And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:51:15 +0000

Music for your podcast for only 99 cents?
This episode started off by me asking if JewelBeat.com is too good to be true? They claim that you get royalty free music for only 99 cents per download. This low cost purchase gives you full access to use the music in any of your media productions. If you decide to check out what they have to offer, I would love to hear your feedback in the comments section below.

Financial Blogger Conference In The Fall – Chicago Meetup
I’m going to be speaking at The Financial Blogger Conference in Chicago. The conference will be held on October 1st & 2nd. Pat Flynn, of SmartPassiveIncome.com and I will be hosting a Meetup on Friday, September 30th. I’ll provide more details as we finalize them.

Plan Your First Community Meetup!
Have you ever considered hosting a community meetup, where you would invite the members of your blog/podcast audience to have a chance to meet each other face to face? If not, you should consider it.

Here are a few interesting links to check out related to community meetups:

- gspn.tv Lost Finale Party – http://goo.gl/j3vU6
- NYC Meetup – http://gspn.tv/nyc2011/
- gspn.tv Summer Meetup – http://goo.gl/Nln3c
- gspn.tv Community Cruise 2013 – http://goo.gl/HTz0h

Changing from MailChimp to AWeber
I’m switching my mailing lists over to AWeber! I’ve been using MailChimp for my email newsletter for quite some time. However, there is a great deal of additional functionality built into AWeber that I discuss in this podcast episode. Beyond the better auto-responders, opt-in forms, and other advanced features, I am very delighted that AWeber also has an affiliate program. If you sign up using my affiliate link, I earn a commission, which is a nice added bonus.

Taking Live Calls With Skype
Corey called in a question about putting call ins on a queue during a live show. Also, he mentioned that he tends to get an echo when he connects more than one Skype caller in a conference when using his Mac. As for queuing up callers, I recommend dialing into a conference calling service that has this feature built in. You call the conference bridge and give out the number to your callers. Most of these services have a moderation panel for you to mute and unmute people as you go along. In the episode, I share how I personally take live callers during my show when I want to bring them in via Skype. As for the Skype echo on a Mac, I have not run into this before and it would appear to be a unique issue that Corey is having. If unable to resolve it, he could bring in a second computer with Skype into the mixer.

Can You Create A Podcast Using GoToMeeting?
Randy called to ask if someone could use their GoToMeeting subscription to record a podcast with as many as eight people in it. I give my answer in the podcast.

Why Do You Promote Both A Web Host And Media Host?
Ed called in to ask why I promote both a web host, like BlueHost or ServInt, as well as a media host like Libsyn. I have a video that explains this at http://podcastanswerman.com/podcasting101.

Podcasting A to Z Course Update:
I am excited to announce that spots for the next Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course are starting to fill. As of the recording of this episode, we have 6 spots already filled and I have 10 people who are currently pending their final decision to join the the class. The good news is that I am taking on 30 students this time around. So if you are interested, we still have room for you.

Look At What Anne-Sophie Reinhardt Was Able To Accomplish!
I’d like to share another inspirational story with you. Anne-Sophie Reinhardt took my May Podcasting A to Z class. During the class, she had a lot of things happening in her life. However, after the class had already been completed, she dug into the course materials and had launched her own website and has successfully released her first podcast episode at http://myintercontinentallife.com. I actually play her entire first episode in this podcast and give some commentary on what I think about it as a means to provide encouragement to those of you who want to launch a podcast but still haven’t had the nerve to do it!

Need Help? Sign up for the next Podcasting A to Z that will start on July 11th. You can get full details about the course at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz.

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214 Podcast Answer Man – Enjoy Your Time Behind The Microphone – Mixing Audio And Video In Podcast Feeds – Interview With Farnoosh Brock – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:08:06 +0000

I started this episode off by sharing something that has been on my mind as the result of watching the The Voice. The idea of simply making a point to really enjoy yourself behind the microphone. Too many people forget to just let go and let your passion lead you. Attitudes are contagious and you want to invite your audience to have a great time listening to your show. It’s hard to invite your audience to join you in the fun if you are not having fun yourself.

I shared that there has been a lot going on here at the PodcastAnswerMan.com site since last week’s audio podcast episode number 211.

I posted the video of my BlogWorld NYC session. I share my thoughts on how I feel about releasing this as an hour long video episode of Podcast Answer Man.

I posted the video interview that I did with Rick Calvert, CEO of BlogWorld: http://podcastanswerman.com/rickcalvert. I hope that podcasters will pay close attention to the things that Rick shared. I would love to see a ton of podcasters at BlogWorld LA.

Note: Zen Runner called in some amazing times for shooting a single camera interview.

I shared a very long blog post titled “First Client to get Pi$$ed Off Since I’ve Started Consulting/Coaching.” I would love it if you would be willing to go to that blog post and please leave a comment about whether or not you listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, or read blogs. And if you could please let Marcus know your age, or appox age, I am trying to convince him that the average listener to our podcast is not 35 and younger.

Shawn Roberts is having issues with iTunes descriptions showing code on some of his episodes. I think it may be a plugin issue.

John Wilkerson asked about some of my thoughts on following people on Twitter when using an accout setup for the promotion of your podcast.

I was very happy to include my interview with Farnoosh Brock from ProlificLiving.com. I hope that you are inspired by her story of leaving her successful, full-time career in IT to pursue her own passion through self-employment. She has a great deal of valuable insights that I think many people need to hear about not turning your blog/podcast into a business, but as a tool for building relationships around it. I highly recommend that you follow Farnoosh and see where her journey takes her. I follower her on Twitter via @ProlificLiving.

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213 Podcast Answer Man – BlogWorld NYC 2011 Interview With Rick Calvert – Co-Founder and CEO of BlogWorld #BWENY

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 23:27:56 +0000

Hey folks, I was happy to get a chance to interview Rick Calvert who is the CEO and Co-Founder of BlogWorld & New Media Expo. The interview runs about 12 minutes and includes great information regarding how BlogWorld got started, how the Podcast & New Media Expo got rolled into BlogWorld, and why BlogWorld left Las Vegas.

Most important is the information related to the future focus on podcasting at BlogWorld. Have a look at this video and see the list of highlights I have posted below.

Topics that I thought were important enough to highlight:

00:00:10 Rick’s response to my session.

00:00:33 How long ago did BlogWold get started?

00:00:53 Rick’s prior expo experience

00:01:30 Was the show always in Vegas until this year?

00:01:35 New Media / Podcasting is important enough fir the big stage.

00:02:04 Now the conference is in NYC & LA each year. Why?

00:03:38 Is BlogWorld coming back to NYC again next year?

00:03:51 Does BlogWorld Expo get you full access to BookWorld Expo in NYC?

00:04:28 How did Podcast/New Media Expo get rolled into BlogWorld Expo?

00:06:40 I don’t understand why more Podcasters aren’t blogging, using YouTube, etc.

00:06:48 Why do you think Podcasters should come to BlogWorld LA?

00:07:16 There is a segment of the Podcast Community that feel like they are different from bloggers.

00:09:16 More sessions devoted to the “Art” of content creation coming to BlogWorld!

00:09:23 We are going to have a massive amount of content in LA For Podcasters.

00:09:36 We made a mistake by changing the name of the track to The Digital Broadcasting Track last year.

00:10:16 By all of us coming together, it raises the profile for all of us in New Media. It creates more opportunities for all of us.

00:10:34 Podcasters are welcome to Email Rick at Rick@BlogWorldExpo.com, they can send Rick a message on Twitter using @BlogWorld, and they can even call him at 858-309-4747 ext. 102. Tell him what you want as a podcaster, and he will do it!

Please ignore this smaller player:

212 Podcast Answer Man – BlogWorld And New Media Expo NYC 2011 Talk – The GSPN Story – Building A Community That Pays The Bills #BWENY

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:33:11 +0000

As I mentioned in episode 211 of Podcast Answer Man, I had an amazing time at BlogWorld & New Media Expo NYC 2011. Many of you, who were unable to attend the event, had expressed a desire for me to record video of my talk to share with you.

I am happy to announce that I have been given permission from the BlogWorld organizers to share the recording of my talk with you and that I have finished processing the video. I hope that you find my story entertaining, educational, encouraging, and inspirational.

Thank you all for making it possible for me to follow my passion and make a very decent living doing it!

Podcast Answer Man related facts:
I used my Kodak Zi8 camera to record the video of my talk. For the audio, I used my Sony UWP-V6 wireless mic system that was brought directly from the wireless receiver into the audio input of the camera. For the post here on the site, I uploaded a HD version of my video to YouTube to embed here on this page. For the podcast feed, I created an iPhone version of this video which is uploaded to my Libsyn media hosting account which enclosed in my podcast rss feed.

Looking For A Way To Manually Turn Of Video Player In PowerPress
If anyone knows how to turn off the media player for PowPress on individual posts, please do let me know in the comments section. I know how to manually change the placement of the player to the another location in the post. However, on video episodes, I would much prefer not having any player at all for the enclosed video file since I am embedding the YouTube version above.

Please ignore the video player below:

211 Podcast Answer Man – Promoting Your Podcast Without A Promo – Single Site Or One Site To Rule Them All – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:48:04 +0000

If you are interested in hearing my full recap of my BlogWorld trip to NYC, check out Episode 499 of Pursuing A Balanced Life. It was an amazing opportunity that has already led to several other amazing opportunities.

Tony called in to ask how I am able to keep my Skyped in guests and co-hosts from talking over me in my podcasts. While I’ve never really paid much attention to this detail, I share my thoughts on how I think I may have been accomplishing this.

Ron says that his stats from Libsyn are reporting that his show is being downloaded in 65 countries. He wanted to know if this was actually true and if so, what does that mean? I shared why I am certain that these stats are correct and how I think this information should affect the way we produce our shows.

In the last episode, I talked about how I rarely create podcast promos. In this episode, I share a promo for a brand new podcast that sounds great. The only issue is that the promo probably took more time to create than it would have taken to produce two or three episodes of this new podcast. The ironic thing is that this podcast never existed. Sometimes the best way to promote your podcast is to create consistent content that people will love to talk about.

Phil called in with one of the questions that I get asked most often. He is looking to launch several different podcasts and wanted to know if he should create one website to host all the shows or if he should create a website for each podcast individually. I share several different things that I consider when launching a new show as it relates to whether or not the new show will get its own website or if it will simply be included on my network site as a category.

Brent Green called in to ask my feelings about the importance of podcast artwork. While giving my response to this question, I mentioned http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/artwork.

To wrap up the episode, I mentioned that I will be speaking at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in LA this November. I’ll provide more details related to a discount code and the topic of my talk as I get more of those details.

I’m now accepting registrations for my November Podcasting A to Z course that will begin on November 11th. Please check out the full details at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz.

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210 Podcast Answer Man- Creating Promos And An Interview With Darrell Darnell

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:23:25 +0000

iTunes Ratings/Rankings Blog Post
In this episode, I talked shared about a recent blog post that I wrote about iTunes Ranking. In the post, I shared how I was able to get a new podcast to rank higher than Oprah’s Book Club podcast in the literature category after having the podcast in the directory for only two weeks.

I talked about how creating the following video invitation to my BlogWorld & New Media Expo session gained me the attention of the CEO and Co-Founder of the conference, Rick Calvert. I was so excited to learn that learn that he wants to include it as an example of how to promote your BlogWorld sessions in the official BlogWorld & New Media Expo newsletter.

Here’s the video invitation:

In the video above, I used my new wireless mic system and lighting kit that I recently blogged about.

Professional Audio Promo Production
I also mentioned my friend Rick Tarrant who I turn to to create professional sounding promo materials fro myself and my clients. You can find Rick at http://ricktarrant.com.

How Do I Know If My Show Is In The Blackberry Podcast Directory?
Steve asked if there is a way to actually confirm whether or not your podcast is listed in the Blackberry podcast directory. I originally talked about this topic in Podcast Answer Man Episode 173. I shared that you could try and find someone who has a Blackberry device and ask them to look or you could go to http://rimpodcast.quickplay.ca/rimpodcasting and log in with the email address and password that you created. If your show is listed there, you “should be” in their directory.

What Settings Should I Change For Good Levels On The Edirol?
Dave called to as if it matters which method of amplification he uses to get his Edirol to hit between -12 to -6 for his recording levels. I shared that there are various ways that you can get to this leve. Personally, my own settings change for time to time, though my Edirol is current set on audio input level 80 and my Gain is between 12 and 1 o’clock. With that said, Dave’s audio is awesome and I really wouldn’t recommend much of a change if it’s working for for him.

Next Podcasting A to Z Session Happening In July!
I shared that I am doing the Podcasting A to Z course again in July. The course will begin on Monday, July 11th and run for a full five weeks. Please check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz for more information about the course.

Want To Earn Some Cash?
If you want to become an affiliate for this course, please email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com. You can earn $150 for each referral that you send to the course.

No More Free Adobe Audition For Mac Users!
The Adobe Audition Pre-Release Has Ended. I found out this morning, just before I recorded the show, as I needed to edit some audio clips to play in my shows this week. After some investigation and a chat session with an Adobe sales representative, I found out that I could not upgrade to Mac without shutting off access to my previous PC version.

So I went ahead and purchased a new full version license for $349 using my affiliate link and had the software downloaded and installed in five to ten minutes.

The best part is that with my single license I am able to install the software on two machines. So I installed the new Mac version on both my 27” iMac and also on my 11” MacBook Air. It works great! The only thing is that I am not able to use the software on both systems simultaneously. I just love that I have Adobe Audtion now available on my work desktop and on my laptop for when I’m on the go.

Interview With Darrell Darnell
The second half of this episode contains an interview that I did with my good friend Darrel Darnell. Darrel hosts a very successful podcast devoted to the television show, Fringe. You can find his show at http://TheFringePodcast.com. I wanted to have Darrell on the show to show that other folks are out there and building an online community around shared passions. Darrell just launched another podcast called Cutting The Cable. You can find this new show at http://CuttingTheCablePodcast.com.

In the episode, we talked about how valuable it is to play voice feedback in your show, to understand that your show likely has an audience of experts, and when to start an online, community forum.

I’m sure that if you listen to this interview, you’ll find a lot of other valuable insights that you can immediately apply to what you are doing in your journey of podcasting and new media.

I think that the Podcast Answer Man community would do well to keep their eyes on what Darrel is up to in this space as he’s doing a lot of things right! I mostly follow what Darrel’s doing through his Twitter profile. You can follow Darrell at http://Twitter.com/Mardarrell.

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209 Podcast Answer Man – A Formula For Success In Podcasting And So Much More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:49:09 +0000

In this episode I share some more thoughts on my blog post about where I was invited to speak at BlogWorld & New Media Expo NYC. If you live in the NYC area, I hope that you will consider joining me for a special meetup I’m planning for Monday, May 23rd. For more details of the meetup, please click here

The Podcasting Formula For Success:
I probably should have edited the part where I tried to read the bio of one of my Podcasting A to Z students in this episode. However, I hope that the value found in the formula that I share from those who I have seen experience similar success to what I’ve experience through podcasting.

The formula was:

Introduce yourself to your audience. Be Authentic and relateable.
Share what you know with your audience for the purpose of improving their lives.
Share what you are learning as you continue your journey.
Become the “can’t live without” source of information and inspiration in your niche field.
Become a sought after consultant, coach, speaker, etc.
Create passive income through informational products that are far more valuable than what you charge.
Prepare to be amazed at the opportunities that follow.

Things I mentioned that fuel the success of the formula above:

Passion
Talent
Determination
Self Discipline
Faith
Support of spouse if married.

Questions covered in this episode:

Mark asked if it is normal for the gain to be turned up so high when using a Heil PR-40 microphone.
Kirk asked which sample rate and recording settings he should use on his recorder.
Shawn Roberts asked if I had some thoughts on an issue he’s having with Feedburner.
Link to blog post mentioned by Shawn J. Roberts – http://goo.gl/KFhTe
Santos asked about using the LAME encoder in Audacity and how I recommend using iTunes.
Link to post on tagging – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/tagging
Mark asked why I don’t record into multiple tracks and simply use digital recorder as a backup.
Danny asked about editing a .wav file imported multiple times in Adobe Audition CS5.5.

Podcasting A to Z Update
I am very delighted to tell you that the Podcasting A to Z podcasting class did get fully booked. To be sure that I have plenty of time to promote the next course, I’ll be doing the Podcasting A to Z course again in July. It will be a five week course which will begin on Monday, July 11tth. If you are interested in signing up with a special early bird pricing discount, please email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

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208 Podcast Answer Man – ServInt Recommendations And Interview With Barry And Lynne Morgan

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:49:55 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I open the show by talking about a new video blog post that I did at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/podcasting101. The post is titled “How Podcasting Works” and is intended to give you the “Big Picture” of how podcasting actually works.

I answer a question from Dodge who asked if I had any recommendations for someone who was considering moving over to ServInt Hosting as their web provider. I do have an affiliate link with Servint Hosting. If you are considering going with them, please CLICK HERE.

Here are the three recommendations that I have for anyone who moves to ServInt Hosting:

1) Purchase the Fantastico Software option when signing up for your service. It is a very small additional annual fee to have this service that allows you to do one click installs of WordPress.

2) Once your account is activated, submit a support ticket requesting that they install/run your php as suPHP. Trust me, they will know what you are asking for, even if you don’t.

3) If your site gets a lot of traffic, you may want to consider installing the W3-Total-Cache WordPress plugin. This is a rather complex plugin to set up. I was delighted that someone from ServInt actually offered to install and configure this plugin on each and every one of my WordPress installations for me.

Also, in this episode, I am very pleased to introduce Barry & Lynne Morgan from http://SimpleGoodLifeNetwork.com and now http://HydroponicsFarmer.com to the Podcast Answer Man and gspn.tv community. I believe that this interview will inspire many people in so many ways.

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207 Podcast Answer Man – A to Z Success Story – Adobe Audition CS5.5 – Alesis iO Dock For Podcasting? And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:35:02 +0000

Adobe Audtiion CS5.5
Adobe Audtion 4.0 is actually named Adobe Audition CS5.5. The new version is now available for both PC and Mac users and is available for pre-order now. The affiliate link (http://goo.gl/SRC9q) here on my site will automatically take you to the page where you can pre-order the new version. If you simply can’t wait for the new version, you can purchase version 3.0 for the PC or it does appear that you can still down the beta pre-release version of the CS5.5 at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/audition. The full version is $349 and the upgrade price is $99. I don’t have any specifics at all, but I know that teachers and students are often eligible for special pricing. The new version is expected to ship by Mid May.

Alesis iO Dock
Alesis has announced the the iO Dock Pro Audio Doc for the iPad. The specs show that it will provide users with two combination XLR and 1/4-inch inputs, each with its own gain control and switchable phantom power for condenser microphones. Theoretically, podcasters could connect outputs from their mixer and record their shows with the iPad playing the role of the Digital Audio Recorder. Users can connect the iO Dock’s stereo pair of 1/4-inch main outputs to studio monitors or I would assume a PA system system if you were doing a live show. You can monitor on headphones, and independently control the levels of the two outputs, each on its own knob. The iO Dock’s direct-monitor switch enables you to toggle between the incoming and playback signal on their headphones.

Would I consider using this for my own shows? I’ll just say that I am HIGHLY SKEPTICAL at this point. I’m admittedly an Apple Snob. I love my Apple products. However, with that said, I’ve had enough spinning beach balls on my Mac computers to keep me from ever considering relying of software to record my shows on anything other than a dedicated device that is designed to do nothing more than record professional audio. The iOS system is actually more buggy than the Mac OS. App crashes on the iPhone or iPad are quite common place and I would imagine that those who would rely this device as their only method of recording the audio for this show will actually see a higher percentage of episodes completely lost than those who record into their computers.

Testimonial from Stacy Westfall
Folks, you’ve heard me do a lot of talking about my Podcasting A to Z Course (http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz). In this episode, I play a testimonial from one of my students who went through the March course. There are many other success stories that have come out of our March that I’ll be sharing in the future. However, I did want to share Stacy’s testimonial that she called in for the show. I’ve transcribed the testimonial for those of you reading the show notes.

Hi Cliff, it’s Stacy from The Your Horse Career Podcast at http://YourHorseCareer.com. And I needed to call and give you some feedback on your a to z course (http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz). I was in the first A to Z course and it was amazing.
I started to listening to podcasts about a year ago with Dave Ramsey and that led me into listening to Dan Miller, and then that led me to listening to you. My husband and I had wanted to do an internet talk radio hosted type thing on our website for years, before I even knew what podcasting was. We kept listening and looking for ways to get into it but we kept getting conflicting messages on what equipment to use, what software, how to host it, and so I never pulled the trigger.
When we heard that you were advertising your a to z course (http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz), I saw my opportunity to complete a program, a full out program, that would take me from step one all the way through the finished product. I was not disappointed. You over delivered with your webinars and tutorials, your confernce calls, and everything you had was so much information.
My husband, Jesse, and I were actually able to launch a website and a podcast during the course. We now have four episodes up and we’ve had just shy of 2,500 downloads and it’s all possible because of your a to z course (http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz).
I can’t thank you enough for offering the first one. And I’m really thankful that you are offering the almuni discount on the second one because I’m really excited about taking our podcast to the next level.

As of Thursday, April 28th, at 7am, there are 9 of the 20 spots still open due to my lack of time spent marketing this course. Please check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz for the full details of the course and email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com if you have any questions at all about the course!

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206 Podcast Answer Man – The Gateway Content Strategy And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:04:26 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share the concept of what I call “gateway content” that helps me introduce new people to my brand. This topics is actually addressed at the end of the episode.

I started this episode by answering the following questions:
- Is there an affordable way to have transcripts done for your podcast?
- Should I use my business name in the name of my podcast?
- What project/sample rate should I use in my recording/editing software?
- What should I do with unclaimed premiums used in giveaways?
- How did you get to the place where your name is popping up all over the place?
- Should I edit out all the slience in my podcast episodes?

Update to Adobe Audtion 101 Tutorial
I mentioned that Adobe Audition 101 now has an extra video to explain the minor tool placement differences between version 3.0 and 4.0. You can purchase this tutorial at http://podcastanswerman.com/products/#adobe

As of the time when I am posting this show, the Pre-Release of Adobe Audtion 4.0 is still available, for free, at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/audition

Podcasting A to Z
There are still spots open for the May Podcasting A to Z group study. For full details, please check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz

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205 Podcast Answer Man – Blogging – Pay Per Episode – YouTube – Podcasting As A Family And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:38:01 +0000

In this episode of Podcasting Answer Man, I covered the following topics…

Educating Your Audience About Podcasting
Danielle from the Netherlands asked about how to train your audience to subscribe and download your podcast episodes. I believe it is important for us, as podcasters, to educate our audience about the benefits of subscribing to podcasts. However, it’s important that we do this without annoying those who are content with simply listening to our show right from the website.

I encouraged Danielle to look at these two links:
- http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/iTunes
- http://spinalcolumnradio.com/whats-a-podcast

Why No Pay Per Episode Model?
John Wilkerson called in a question a long time ago about why I had not offered a pay per episode model when I was still pursuing premium content via podcast episodes. I shared that I had changed my approach to premium content in January of 2011. You can read about this change at http://gspn.tv/plus

Now I did share, in this episode, that I did test the option of the Pay Per Episode Model and even mentioned that you can still see the page I used for this at gspn.tv/single (MISSING LINK INTENTIONAL!). You can type in that url and see the page that I used to sell individual episodes back in the day.

To Blog Or Not To Blog
Chris called in and said that he had been thinking about my advice to blog in between podcast episodes. However, he said that every time he went to blog about something, he felt that it should be something that he felt should be included in the podcast. I share my thoughts on doing both!

New YouTube Channel
I mentioned my new YouTube channel that you can find at http://YouTube.com/PodcastAnswerMan. I would love it if you would take a moment of your time and subscribe to my channel.

My Newest Gear
- Sony UWP-V6 Wireless Microphone System – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/uwp
- New Studio Lighting! – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/lighting

Enrollment For Podcasting A To Z Course Now Open!
In March, I devoted my entire month to walking 20 participants of my Podcasting A to Z course through every aspect of audio podcasting. I had full confidence that the class would be well accepted and that everyone who participated would benefit greatly. However, I had never dreamed that I would enjoy group coaching as much as I did.

Never before have I felt more efficient with my consulting/coaching time. I loved the experience of helping the greatest number of people for the lowest cost during the month of March. The only thing that has come close to this has been my digital tutorial products which continue to do extremely well. However, I really love having the ability to offer an avenue where I can answer specific questions for my clients.

I’m very happy to announce that I am offering this five week Podcasting A to Z Course again during the month of May. FOR MORE DETAILS, PLEASE VISIT http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz.

The Benefits of Podcasting As A Family
I ended this episode with the talk that my wife, Stephanie, did at Podcamp Nashville 2011. In the talk, she shared the wonderful ways that podcasting as a family has had a positive impact on our lives.

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204 Podcast Answer Man – Panel Discussion – How Much To Charge Your Sponsor – How To Become A Thought Leader And Influencer With Your Audio Podcast – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:08:40 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I cover the following topics.

Dave Thackery called in to ask how much he should charge a new sponsor for an upcoming podcast. In response, I shared the many things that I consider when thinking about how much to charge for sponsors of my own podcasts. Here’s a list that I shared.

- Potential Benefit To My Audience
- Potential Benefit To The Sponsor
- My confidence level that I can convince my audience of this benefit
- The potential size of the audience
- The lifespan of the content
- The ability to track results & get feedback on effectiveness of the sponsorship
- My relationship with my audience

Robinson called in and asked if podcasters should compensate Interviewees if we release as the interview as premium content. I give several of my thoughts related to this issue in the podcast.

Anthony Vicars called in to ask about what to do with the missing images from his Enhanced Podcast after moving from AAC to MP3 format. Also, he asked about how I am getting my show notes to pull up in the iPod player on his iPhone.

In response to Anthony’s questions, I explain what an Enhanced Podcast is and my thoughts about them. Also I provide some suggestions that may be worth considering. As for the show notes showing up for my podcasts, I referred him to a video blog post that I did at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/tagging.

Before playing the recording from the panel discussion from Podcamp Nashville 2011, I shared an update about my upcoming Podcasting A to Z course in May. If you have any questions, you can email me about it at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com. I also highly recommend that everyone add themselves to the Podcast Answer Man Mailing List at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/MailingList.

The panel discussion from Podcamp Nashville 2011 was titled “How To Become A Thought Leader/Influencer With Your Audio Podcast.” The panel was made up of the following people.

- Dan Miller – http://48days.com/listen
- David & Paula Foster – http://DavidAndPaulaShow.com
- Connie Williams & Sheila Tidwell – http://ConnieAndSheilaTalk.com

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203 Podcast Answer Man – Podcamp Cincinnati – Migrating Your Podcast To Libsyn – And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:27:00 +0000

In this episode, I invite my friend, Daniel J. Lewis of http://Noodle.mx , into the gspn.tv / Podcast Answer Man studio to discuss the upcoming Podcamp Cincinnati event that will be held on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011. More details at http://PodcampCincinnati.com

Judi Graff from http://farmandranchcountry.com called in some feedback to share her thoughts on her first Podcamp Experience in Nashville this past weekend. Judi and her husband, also produced this YouTube video about the event.

Dodge called in to ask some questions related to migrating his existing podcast and all the archived episodes over to Libsyn. I shared that Libsyn will do this for $0.05 per MB.

Jim Bramham called to ask if there was an easy way to embed a podcast episode into the sidebar of his website. I shared my own personal recommendation of turning that single episode into a YouTube video that you can then embed in a text widget in your sidebar. I have done something similar to this with my two YouTube videos that are in the sidebar of my site as of March 31st, 2011.

I shared a bug that we had found in the PowerPress Plug-in versions 2.0.1 & 2.0.2. There will be fix for this bug that is rolled out over the next week or so. Version 2.0.3 should be available for direct download and manual installation on the plug-in website.

Vince called in to ask my thoughts on how the stats of his particular podcast stack up among the stats of other shows out there. In response, I give my overall view on the relevance of stats tracking.

During episode, I mention that I was recently featured as a guest on the following podcast episodes:

Learning With Leslie aka The Freebie Guy:
Episode 11 = Part 1 – http://goo.gl/ZYiAG
Episode 12 = Part 2 – http://goo.gl/ehJwS

ConnieAndSheilaTalk.com Episode 50 – http://goo.gl/u2OEx

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202 Podcast Answer Man – Mic Placement – Digital Product Delivery – Libsyn Premium Content Solution – And So Much More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:44:43 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share some updated information to confirm that the R-09HR recorder has been discontinued. I assure those who have purchased the R-09HR that they should not feel bad because it is actually a better recorder than the R-05 due to his superior mp3 encoding as mentioned in episode 201 of Podcast Answer Man. With that said, I stand by my recommendation of the Roland R-05 as my preferred digital audio recorder if a new, in the box R-09HR is no longer available.

Vince called in and shared how much he loves his R-09HR recorder and to also ask for some advice on how he can make it so that his guests on Skype can hear the audio clips that he plays in his podcast without the need to turn the aux out volume up and down for each clip. I give my advice on how to accomplish this and I mentioned http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/studiosetup

Chef Tony called in a question about how I deliver my digital video tutorials to those who purchase them. I gave a brief overview of how the process works and I mentioned that I have an entire video tutorial where I share how I do webinars and turn them into high quality digital products for sale on my site. That tutorial can be found at http://podcastanswerman.com/products/#webproducts

The Freebie Guy called in to ask my opinion on the differences between Adobe Audition v/s Soundbooth. I personally have not tried Soundbooth but I have done this research int he past. I share what I had vound in my previous research. I also mentioned the video that you can find here: http://goo.gl/pAkGo

Jim called in to ask for some advice on which meta tags he need to use when tagging his .mp3 files. I shared some information on this topic in the episode and also suggested that he look at the free video tutorial that I’ve done on this topic that can be found at http://podcastanswerman.com/tagging

Keith Snow has a Blue Yeti microphone and wanted to know about proper mic placement. There are a many differing opinions on this topic. As you might imagine, I gave my opinion on proper mic placement in response to Keith’s question.

Wayne from New York called in to ask for my opinion of the new offerings for podcasters to offer premium content to their audience. In response to this question, I played an interview that I did with Rob Walch regarding this exact topic. In an effort to keep the show under and hour, I just briefly shared my thoughts on this, which I’m actually glad that I did start the ending music that forced me to keep my thoughts brief and to the point.

Basically, I think that there will be “some” who find this service appealing. Those would be the same people who are comfortable allowing Libsyn to handle every single aspect of their podcasting, including rss fee, website for show notes, blogging, etc. However, a majority of my audience doe not fit into this category. As I was playing the interview, while broadcasting the recording of my show live, my chat room had a pretty harsh reaction to the thought of giving up 40% of the profits of your efforts in creating premium content to anyone for the sake of convenience when you could invest a few hours to learn how to create a password protected page of your own and learn how to use PayPal subscription buttons or some other Shopping Cart solution that would allow you to keep 100% of your profits from premium content.

In all fairness to Libsyn, I really dont’ think they have my target audience in mind when they created this service. In 2010, my gspn.tv Plus Membership generated just over $27,000 of income for my business. I spent two weeks setting up my system and about an hour or so every week just to keep my systems maintained. In opinion, it was worth the extra $10,800 (40%) of income to go through the trouble of doing all that work. Of course I completely changed the way that I do my gspn.tv Plus Membership effective January of 2011. You can read about those changes at http://gspn.tv/plus

What do you think? Does the Libsyn Premim offerings sound appealing to you? Let me know in the comments section.

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201 Podcast Answer Man – Roland R-05 Digtal Audio Recorder Review

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:37:54 +0000

Roland R-05 Digital Audio Recorder Review

In this special episode of Podcast Answer Man, I give a pretty thorough review of the new Roland R-05 Digital Audio Recorder. I put the record though the test of recording in a walkcast environment which is typically the way I record my Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast.

I’m very sad that the R-09HR is no longer being produced. However, with the exception of the .mp3 encoder used in the R-05 recorder, I’m a impressed with this new recorder. Since I recommend recording into .wav format anyway, I am happy to announce that this recorder in my new go to recommendation.

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200 Podcast Answer Man – What To Do When Your RSS Feed Is Held Hostage!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:39:12 +0000

Celebrating 200 Episodes!
I’m very excited to celebrate my 200th episode of Podcast Answer Man. In this episode, I share that the goals that I had hoped to accomplish with this podcast had been realized years before I had anticipated. I did spend the first six minutes of the episode talking about what is possible when you find specialized area to focus on. Podcasting is one of my greatest passions and I’m looking forward to producing the next few hundred episodes for you, Lord willing.

What To Do When Your RSS Feed Is Held Hostage!
Lain and Clint both called in with similar questions this week. They had both decided dip their toes in the waters of podcasting to see if it was something they might be interested in. They each chose a different third party service that offers attractive all in one solutions. These services are appealing to many people because of their ease of use and low cost of entry.

I’m not opposed to using third party services, like the ones that Lain and Clint mentioned. However, what happens if you decide that you want to get more serious with your podcasting efforts and you have already built a significant audience that is subscribed to the RSS feed owned and managed by this third party service?

The good news is that iTunes has made it so that a single line of code can be added to an existing rss feed that would cause everyone who is subscribed to your existing feed to be automatically forwarded to a brand new rss feed that you specify. This redirect code that is inserted into the old rss feed would also cause the iTunes directory to also update its listing for your show so that any new subscribers who find your show, in iTunes, will automatically be subscribed to the new, updated rss feed as well.

The bad news is that while it is 100% possible for all of these third party services to add this single line of code in the feed that they manage for your show, there are very few instances where such requests have been granted. I personally know that both services mentioned in Lain and Clint’s audio feedback have approved such requests in some instances. However, I am also quite aware that both services have rejected such requests more often than they are approved.

My suggestion is that if you are going to use a third party service, such as these, that you do not allow them to submit your podcast to iTunes for you. Instead, take the rss feed they provide you and send it through Feedburner.com. Then you can send that Feedburner.com feed to iTunes. The benefit here is that you can easily change the “original feed’ that Feedburner get it’s data from at any time. Your subscribers and the podcasting directories will simply continue to receive the information that Feedburner provides. All you need to do is change one simple setting in Feedburner to tell it where to get the new information from.

If it’s too late and your feed is held hostage by this third party provider, I offer some advice, inside this episode as to how you might be able to maintain a majority of your podcast subscribers on your new rss feed. I did forget to mention in the episode that if you do end up adding a new rss feed to iTunes for your show, you can and you show go to the old listing, insdie iTunes, and click the “Report A Concern” button and choose “Remove Podcast” from the drop down list. Explain to them that this is your podcast feed and that you have moved to a new hosting provider and that this feed needs to be removed. Such requests are accepted about 95% of the time and can take up to two or three weeks to be processed. If your old listing is not removed after three weeks, try the “report a problem” procedure again until it’s finally removed.
Clint – Podbean Advice on how to move things over VM021

Why I Have Unsubscribed From All Podcasts In iTunes
In this episode, I finally share why I have unsubscribed from all podcasts in iTunes. The reason is because I have found a new podcasting application that allows me to subscribe to and manage my podcasts, exactly the way that I want to, directly on my iPhone. I hope you enjoy my interview with Russel from Shifty Jelly, creators of the Pocket Casts iOS Application.

LIMITED TIME OFFER:
I also mentioned that my Podcasting A to Z Group Study is going very well and that after three weeks, we are just about to see the launch of a lot of new podcasts. I’m having so much fun teaching this class that I have decided to do this again in May. In fact, I’ve already filled 2 of the 20 spots for this class. I’m offering a special deal, anyone who signs up for this class prior to April 1st will be able to get in at the same cost that my existing students paid which is $800.00. After April 1st, I will begin the promotion of the May course and the cost will be $999.00. So signing up prior to April first would save you $199.00. If you are interested, please do email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org.

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199 Podcast Answer Man – Custom Music For Your Podcast – Mixing Audio And Video Content – And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:38:43 +0000

In this episode, I started off by stating that you do not want to miss the 200th episode of Podcast Answer Man where I will be explaining why I have unsubscribed to every single podcast that I have been subscribed to in iTunes.

Zack called in to say how much he enjoyed hearing my wife’s side of the story in episode 198. He has had a question about posting both audio and video versions of his podcast for download in iTunes.

Judy called in to ask about wheter or not sending a weekly video file in the rss feed might confuse her audio podcast subscribers.

I shared an interview that I did with Chris Seal from http://TunePlant.com. Conctact Chris if you are thinking about having a custom theme song made for your podcast.

I shared that things are going extremely well for my Podcasting A to Z Group study. Deatails about this group can be seen at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atoz. If you would like to participate in the May 2011 class, email me as soon as possible at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Chris Ross called to share how the iTalk application saved the day on his video shoot. You can find this application here: http://goo.gl/mRNEi

I BRIEFLY gave an update on Podcamp Nashville.

And finally, Jonathan called to ask about the audio levels that I use when playing my outro music.

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198 Podcast Answer Man – Am I Just An Egomaniac? My True Motives For Podcasting Exposed!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:00:40 +0000

This episode is very different from my normal format for Podcast Answer Man. I was not very happy how the last thirty minutes of last week’s episode went. It turns out that I was not the only one who was unhappy with that portion of the episode.

It’s ironic in response to John Wilkerson’s question last week about how to entice your audience to provide audio for your show, I had shared that one of the ways was to “provoke your audience.” Last week’s episode did provoke at least one listener to respond. Fred from Texas called in with what I consider to the third most overly critical pieces of negative feedback that I have received since I’ve been podcasting.

I debated not sharing this feedback because of many of the inaccurate assertions about who I am as a person and the inappropriate name calling that was persistent throughout the call. However, because this audio feedback was actually left and intended to be played in the podcast episode, I went ahead and shared the voice feedback, in it’s entirety.

I didn’t share this in the episode. But one reason I chose to include the feedback in the show was because among the other overly critical, negative pieces of audio feedback that I’ve received, this is the only one that was actually provided for and meant to be played in the show itself. I hope that this does not scare people away from the prospect of podcasting and opening up a voice mail feedback hotline. However, I did want to share this as an example of just how negative and critical some people can be about what you might say in your show. And trust me, I’ve had worse than this.

I haven’t listened to this episode is a long time. However, this may be a good time to encourage you to listen to Episode 106 of Podcast Answer Man where I share some practical insights on how to deal with negative, critical feedback when you get it.

One thing I’ve learned about this type of feedback. Even if the feedback is shared without grace, compassion, and outside of any relationship with that person at all, there may still be a great deal of truth to the criticism that is being made. I certainly agree that there is “some truth” to the negative feedback provided by Fred. However, I knew that before I posted last week’s episode online. Of course I explain, in detail, why I put the full episode out as I did without editing out the last 30 minutes.

While I completely disagree with the assertion that I’m an “egomaniac,” I realize that if one person came away from episode 197 feeling so strongly, that it may be possible that some other folks might have received the wrong impression about who I am and what my motives are in the world of podcasting.

I’m VERY HAPPY to share, in this episode, the talk that my wife and I gave on Dan Miller’s No More Mondays Cruise, where we share a great deal of detail about our personal story. It shares who we are, our lives before podcasting, how we got involved in podcasting, how podcasting became my full-time career, and our heart and motivation for podcasting.

As I said, this episode is very different from the normal weekly format of questions and answers. Also, this episode is the second episode in a row that exceeds one hour in length, which a personal pet peeve of mine in the world of podcasting.

I ask each of you to forgive me for my outburst last week and for creating two incredibly long episodes back to back. With that said, I REALLY hope you enjoy the talk that Stephanie and I did and that will a source of inspiration.

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197 Podcast Answer Man – How To Get More Feedback – Podcamp Nashville 2011 Thoughts – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:37:41 +0000

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I cover the following topics.

John Wilkerson called in to ask for some thoughts on how he can entice his audience to provide him with more feedback to his podcast.

Evan Waterman called in to ask me which USB sound card I use in my equipment setup?

Last Honest Guy called in to ask which how to get the best possible sound quality from Skyped Co-Host.

Mike Young called in and asked for my opinions on an informational product that is related to a published book.

Santos Auli called in to ask when a podcaster should consider changing their web host when they start experiencing issues with their server becoming unavailable.

Chef Mark called in with a story about how Libsyn is still serving his old files even after his account has been canceled for quite some time. He also recommended his friend’s hosting service over at FooMG.com (http://FooMG.com). Just to add on to this, I want to point out that I could not be happier than I am with my new VPS account at ServInt Hosting. Please note: This is an affiliate link to ServInt.

Matthew Casteel called into ask about the process of getting listed in iTunes. Check out my WordPress for Podcasters Tutorial here: http://podcastanswerman.com/products/#wppod

Andy Traub called in to ask how he should best prepare his audience for a very heavy topic when his show’s format has typically been positive and encouraging.

I share my personal feelings about Podcamp Nashville’s decision to allow their sessions to be decided by a random drawing. Unfortunately, I got a little more passionate about this topic that I had hoped to be and possibly made a bit of a fool of myself with my temper tantrum. This caused this episode to be a great deal longer than I desired.

My apologies to each of you for the length of this episode and my sincere apologies to the organizers Podcamp Nashville for making a much bigger deal over this than it needed to be.

Finally, I shared an update about my Podcasting A to Z Course that will begin this coming Tuesday, March 1st. Please email me if you have any questions about this at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org.

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196 Podcast Answer Man – Outgrowing Shared Hosting And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:14:24 +0000

In this episode, I shared the following:

Walter called in to share some of his thoughts on he Edirol R-09 Recorder. He does like that you can’t keep the usb cable plugged in at all times. Other than that, he loves the recorder. I share how I transfer my recordings to my show.

Dustin called in to share that he, also, recently purchased an Edriol R-09 Recorder. He hadn’t really thought this would be something that he would be interested in. However, after loosing an interview last week by recording into the computer, he decided to follow my advice of recording into a digital audio recorder instead.

Butch called and asked about .mp3 media hosting with Libsyn.com. He wanted to know what happens if you decide to stop paying for their monthly service.

Steve called in and asked if I had any advice for him to reduce the wet mouth sound that his headset mic picks up.

Ray is thinking about adding Q & A to his podcast and wanted to get my thoughts on services for collecting voice mail. I mentioned my post at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/voicemail.

Santos called in to say that he, also, recently purchased an Edirol R-09 Recorder and he absolutely loves it. He also mentioned that he recently had an issue on his website where it said that there was a database error or that his server was unavailable. I got so excited about sharing my story about hosting that I forgot to answer his question about what to do with those WordPress Database Backups.

Santos, first and foremost, your hosting provider should have backups of your data and “should” be able to restore your site if things go terribly wrong. In a worst case scenario, if you have your database backup, you’d be able to reinstall WordPress and use that backup file to restore all your archived posts and settings back to where they were at during the last backup. Your hosting provider could help walk you through that restore process if you need it. In all my years of working with WordPress, I’ve had a ton of issues with hosting providers. However, I’ve never had to restore my site from any of the backups that I personally had.

One other thing to add. Backup up your database does not back up any theme files or photos that you’ve uploaded to your account to put into blog posts. I would also recommend going into your hosting account via FTP and backing up your entire WordPress directory about once a month or more often if you desire. I hope that you’ll never have to use it.

Now, if you are running into issues where your site is down from time to time, certainly, contact your hosting company’s support department. In this episode, I share how my own business had outgrown the use of “shared hosting” and that I made the switch to a VPS server with ServInt Hosting.

I don’t think I mentioned it in the episode, but I’m having a major sale on my digital products until Wednesday, March 23rd. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

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195 Podcast Answer Man – How Long Does It Take To Produce A Podcast Episode? Recording Into A Computer Woes and So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:11:33 +0000

In this episode, I discuss the following topics:

Jonathan Nation called in to asked how much time it takes to produce a single episode of a podcast, including show preparation through post production. I mentioned the Inside The Studio Equipment Setup and Podcast Workflow product that you can get at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/studiosetup.

Richard called in a question about Twitter and how to use it effectively in a business. I told Richard that he should check out another podcast that I produce called Social Media Serenity which can be found at http://SocialMediaSerenity.com. I mentioned that he should listen to episode 71 titled “Will Social Media Help My Business?” and episode 57 titled “The Power of LinkedIn”

Butch Gibson called in to say that he’s trying to learn podcasting at a faster pace. I give a great deal of detailed information about my Podcasting A to Z Group Training Course that I’ll be doing in March. If you are interested in participating in this course, please email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org.

Ian Westerman called in a few weeks back. At the time he mentioned that he’d recorded well over 100 episodes and never had any sort of an issue. In this episode, he shares that after 150 episodes, he is now running into MAJOR ISSUES with recording into the computer. Ian also shared some praise for the Heil PR-40 Mic and the service he got from Bob Heil, personally.

Scott Gorman called in to ask whether or not if he should plug his mic right into his processing equipment or if he should use insert cables to bring the mic audio out of the mixer, into the processing equipment and then back into the mixer.

Finally, I share some interesting stats as to results of our of decision to make all our content at gspn.tv for free. If you want to read about the changes we made to our Plus Membership model, please check out http://gspn.tv/plus.

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194 Podcast Answer Man – What Piece of Equipment Should I Upgrade First? And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:36:24 +0000

In this episode, I answer the following quesitons:

George Edwards called in a question about whether or not he should go ahead and get the Heil PR-40 Microphone or his basic setup would not be able to provide the resources necessary to to drive the benefits of the microphone. In response I share what I have come to see as the MOST IMPORTANT piece of equpiment when it comes to upgrading to a nicer setup in stages.

David Foster called in to ask my if I had considered comparing the Thesis Theme to some of the other popular themes that are our there for WordPress. He also asked about my thoughts on SquareSpace.com.

Mike left comment on my equipment page asking if anyone still listens to audio podcasts anymore with all the vibrant and entertaining videocasts to be found everywhere. As you might imagine, I share my thoughts on whether or not people listen to audio podcasts.

Adam called in and asked if there were any problem with having an rss feed that mixed both blog posts and podcast episodes together. I share where I think this is a good thing and where I think this should be avoided. I also share how you set it up to where you have an rss feed that only has podcast episodes.

Chris and Ali called in from http://smorgshowpodcast.com. They just celebrated their 1st year in podcasting. (Congratulations!). They wanted to know if I had any advice for them so that they could grow their audience. They point out that they are a very general interest podcast where they talk about all sorts of topics and that there really aren’t a lot of people doing a Google search for the word “Smorg.” I share some of my own experience with general v/s niche podcasting and also my thoughts on re-branding the name of your show, even if you have been building that brand for quite some time.

Robert Barnwell called in a question about branding. Though, in his comments, he pointed out the most important parts of branding a podcast. I did share two additional items. Want to know what these thoughts on branding are? It would be perfect reason to listen to the episode.

My WordPress For Podcasters video tutorial series has just been refreshed. This is everything you need to get registered with a hosting account, install WordPress, completely configure WordPress for podcasting, setting up your rss feed, and submitting your podcast to iTunes, Zune, and Blackberry podcast directories. You can get this video tutorial series here: http://podcastanswerman.com/products/#wppod

Finally, I share that I am offering a very attractive affiliate commission to those who are able to refer folks to sign up for my five week training course that will start in March. The cost of the training is $800 and I will be pay $150 referral to anyone, that you personally refer, that signs up and pays for the training. I plan to make affiliate payments during the first week of April.

I’ll sharing the details about what this training includes in the next episode. Or you can keep your eyes open and on the look out for an email if you are on the mailing list. http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mailinglist

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193 Podcast Answer Man – New Online Community Site – Every Episode Now Free – And Answers To Your Questions

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:12:25 +0000

In this episode cover the following topics:
- How To Use A Heil Microphone for Webinars (Rich Avery)
- How do you determine the pricing for webinars and digital products? (Gorden Firemark)
- How do you add a Subscribe With iTunes Button on WordPress.com? (Troy Price)
- Jason asked why caption ID is showing up in the description of iTunes for the episodes.
- Is there a cheap solution for recording phone interviews? (Jason)
- Plus Member Feedback from Jeremiah
- Additional Thoughts On Bloated RSS Feeds. (John Wilkerson)
- More thoughts on recording in the car.
- Be sure the JOIN THE COMMUNITY at http://gspncommunity.com
- Read about Plus Membership at http://gspn.tv/plus
- Not to late to get in on the cruise at http://gspn.tv/cruise
- Webinar on How I’ve earned Income at http://goo.gl/KTshI
- Email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com if you would like to participate in the 5 week training course on Podcasting.

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192 Podcast Answer Man – Podcasting While Driving – Can You Give Away Too Much For Free? – And A WHOLE LOT More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:09:25 +0000

The Future of Plus Membership?
In this episode, I share that I’m about to make the biggest decision related to my career in podcasting and new media since I actually made the decision to leave my career in insurance after 11 years to pursue podcasting and new media full-time!

I believe that every podcaster, who would consider following in my footsteps of charging for their podcast content, should listen to episode 486 of Pursuing A Balanced Life. In that episode, I share every detail of what has been going through my mind as it relates to my premium membership model.

Is It Possible To Give TOO MUCH Away For Free?
I recently had the honor of having a 2nd guest spot on my good friend’s, Pat Flynn, Smart Passive Income podcast. You can listen to my first guest spot on episode 5 of his podcast. In this latest episode #13, Pat and I discuss the topic of whether or not giving away content for free is a bad idea. This was a timely subject for me as you can see with my discussion of the future of Plus Membership.

Feedburner says the size of my feed is too large!
Wayne called in and said that Feedburner is telling him that his feed is too large to process. FeedBurner will not accept feeds that are larger than 512K. By default, WordPress will limit the number of items that show up in your rss feed to 10 items. However, this can easily be changed to whatever number you like. Just know that the more you increase the number of posts in your feed, you also increase the size of that feed.

If you currently publish an existing FeedBurner feed, and the original source feed exceeds the 512K limit, FeedBurner will not update the ‘burned’ version of your feed until the original drops below the limit.

My recommendation would be to go into the WordPress Dashboard and click the “Reading Tab” and first try adjusting it where the feed only shows a Summary instead of the Full Text of the posts. Hit save changes, go to Feedburner’s Troubleshootize Tab and try “resyncing” the feed to see if this solves the problem. Note, if you have a caching plugin activated, you will need to refresh the cache of your rss feed first.

If this doesn’t work, then I would recommend reducing the number of your items that you allow to be posted into your rss feed. I know, I konw, you really want your audience to get all 5,000 of your podcast episodes with a single rss feed. Sorry, it’s just not going to happen.

You know what you could do? You could create create a new category called “podcast1-100” and have a different rss feed for people who want to get the first 100 episiodes via rss. You wouldn’t put this in iTunes. In fact, you don’t even need feedburner. You just create a page on your site that tells folks how they get get back archives by subscribing to this additional feed. More on that thought in this episode.

Podcasting while driving in the car?
Sam called in to ask about my thoughts on recording a podcast in the car, while driving. You’ll just have to listen to the episode to hear my thoughts on this one.

Amazon v/s Libsyn For Media Hosting:
Hector called in to tell us that he has his podcast episodes hosted on Amazon’s media hosting service and that his podcast has become quite popular. Now he’s suffering from the fact that his monthly bandwidth costs would be a forever unknown. He has decided to move over to libsyn so that he can rest a night knowing that he will always know what his monthly cost will be. But he has a problem. To learn what that problem is and my response to it, listen to this episode.

What if I don’t have an image large enough for 600×600 Artwork?
Karen called in response to my recommendation to consider updating podcast artwork to 600×600 pixels so that the higher resolution screens of the iPad and Apple TV devices will display the artwork in a way that is more pleasing to the eye. Her issue is that she often uses images of guests as her artwork and the original source file is not beg enough to make this possible. I share my thoughts on this in the episode.

A portable equipment setup that doesn’t require teardown and setup every time you want to podcast:
Drew called in. He’s a teenage podcaster. His mom does not allow him to keep his equipment setup next to the computer and he finds himself spending a great deal of time setting up his equipment each week. He wants to know if there is a way to make this setup a bit easier on him. I have some thoughts in the episode that I shared with Drew.

Five Week Podcasting Bootcamp Course Coming Up In March!
I’m going to be doing a five week podcast bootcamp training course during the entire month of Mach. Participants will receive new training content every day of the week, Mon-Fri, for five weeks which will cover every aspect of audio podcasting that you would need to produce the best show possible within your niche topic.

At the end of each week, there will be a conference call to make sure that everyone is on the same page and to allow participants to ask specific questions that may have come up as a result of that week’s training materials.

I share a bit more about this in the episode. The cost of the training will be $800. I will only be doing this if I get at least 20 participants in this program. However, my guess is that getting twenty participants will not be an issue at all. If you are interested, please email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org.

A Talk With Joe Talbot of Telos-Systems.com about the Telos Hx1:
In this episode, I include a seventeen minute talk that I had with Joe Talbot with Telo-Systems. I had the opportunity to review a Telos Hx1 digital phone hybrid. I share my thoughts on this digital hybrid compared to the JK Audio Broadcast Host that I’ve been using for the past several years.

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191 Podcast Answer Man – What I Think About Podcast Awards & More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:49:44 +0000

- Feedback on Lee Andrew’s Heil Recording.
- Why didn’t I join a podcast network?
- How do I build relationships with my existing audience?
- Question about THE LAUNCH!
- What are my thoughts on Podcast Awards?

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190 Podcast Answer Man – New York Times Says Leo Laporte Has Shown There Is A Lot of Life In Podcasting!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 19:19:00 +0000

In this episode, I answer a few questions from the voicemail feedback hotline (859-795-4067) and I share some thoughts from a recent New York Times article that done about Leo Laporte and his efforts in podcasting.

The first question of the day was from Tony who asked for my thoughts on how long a podcast should be.

David asked if he could go back and edit the settings of a Feedburner Feed if he abandoned it’s creating half way through the creation process. He also asked if I could explain RSS so that a two year old could understand it. I doubt that my explanation would make much sense to a two year old, but I hope that my explanation made a little bit of sense. Perhaps I should have waited until I was completely recovered from my sinus cold to answer that one.

Justin called in to ask if I had any thoughts on a specific issue that he is having where his description in iTunes are starting off with a huge white space before it displays his description.

Finally, I share some exciting thoughts about the New York Times Article about Leo Laporte. My favorite quote of the entire article was where the author wrote, “Mr. Laporte has shown there is a lot of life in podcasting.” Indeed he has! Link to this article: http://goo.gl/LNXoa

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189 Podcast Answer Man – Why I Share Date Sensitive Information In A Time Shifted Podcast And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:03:21 +0000

In this episode, I share a few things that have been on my mind as it relates to my business and overall podcasting endeavors. I share that I’m getting ready to end the the Virtual Assistant Podcast next week and that I have initial ideas of starting a new podcast devoted to the inner workings of starting your own business.

Of course, I also spend some time answering your questions. In fact, the following are some of the questions I covered in this episode.

- Chris called to ask if I had some advice on a mic that would be good enough for someone to use as a called in Skype Interview. I suggested that he use just about any Logitech USB Headset that you can find on Amazon. Here’s an affiliate link: http://amzn.to/gqwBiQ

- Richard called in to ask why I speak on my podcast as if I were talking on a live radio show. He suggested that since podcasts are “time shifted” and many people listen to me days, weeks, months, or even years after I recorded my show, that it doesn’t make sense for me to share time sensitive announcements about something that I have going on “this weekend.” I share why I disagree with this idea and why I have a very good reason for doing this on this podcast and a few of my other shows.

- Merideth called in about a specific issue that she’s been having with feedburner working with her WordPress installation. I share some thoughts the best I can without seeing what is going on with my own eyes to diagnose the problem. I also comment on the awesome sound of her feedback recording on an Edirol Digital Audio Recorder. Affiliate link: http://gspn.tv/edirolamazon

- Katie Davis called in to ask if I had any thoughts on SoundBooth editing software since Adobe Audtion is so much more expensive. I share that I’ve never looked at SoundBooth before. However, I also share how it is possible for “many” people to be eligible to purchase Adobe Audition at only $150 from the following link: http://www.academicsuperstore.com/products/Adobe/Audition

-I also mention that I love to be interviewed, about my thoughts on podcasting, on other people’s shows. I’d never ask anyone directly if they would interview me, and I don’t like to be asked directly for me to interview someone on my show. However, I do so enjoy being interviewed on other people’s shows, and I thank Katie Davis for inviting me on to her podcast this week. Here’s the link to the interview she did with me. http://goo.gl/9kUJW

That’s it for me this week! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

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188 Podcast Answer Man – Why I Still Podcast After Five Years

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:12:23 +0000

- Celebrating Five Years
- I Can Hardly Remember Life Before Podcast
- Why I Podcast
- FFTH 139 Link
- Thoughts on My Massive Email Subscription Exodus
- Shutting Down A Podcast

More Sources For Audio For Your Podcast: (Thanks Chris Beiting)
http://shockwave-sound.com
http://www.stockmusic.net
http://MusicBakery.com
http://MusicAlley.com

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187 Podcast Answer Man – Audio Queue Software – Benefits of Feedburner – Backing Up Your Archives – And More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:35:46 +0000

What software do you use to queue up your audio clips?
On the PC, I used a program called Pod Producer that can be found at http://PodProducer.net – It’s Free!
On the Mac, I use SoundByte which you can find at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/soundbytelink – It’s $39 and they have a Windows & Mac Version.

Is there a difference between recording a podcast into a laptop v/s a desktop computer?
I share my thoughts on this topic in the episode.

Peter called in with his story of who he’s been trying to get help building his system. He wants to know what I think of his microphone.

What are the benefits of using Feedburner over using the raw feed from WordPress?

James asked for thoughts on a different approach to givnig people an easier way to seach for show notes.

Dean called in to say how happy he is with his Heil PR-40 for doing webinars.

What system to I use to backup all my archived podcast recordings?

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186 Podcast Answer Man – Are You Willing To Step Up And Be A Leader?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:25:06 +0000

Topics Covered In This Episode:
- My blog post about my hosting issues at http://gspn.tv/godaddy.
- Spend less time marketing your podcast and more time making it better.
- Anyone has the potential to stand up and be a leader.
- It is possible to make a living with a tribe of only 1,000 people.
- Question about the Behringer MDX4600 Compressor/Limiter/Gate.
- Lots of new video tutorials posted to my products page.
- Interview with Dr. Thomas Lamar.

Note: The insights I shared in this episode were inspired by the following video

Interview with Dr. Thomas Lamar:
Dr. Thomas Lamar is a perfect example of someone who had a passion and a desrie for a niche topic. While he did not set out to ultimately build a tribe where he would be looked up to as a leader, that is exactly what has happened. I hope that you enjoy this inspirational story that is just another example of what is possible when you are willing to stand up and be a leader in a particular field.

Dr. Lamar’s podcast website: http://spinalcolumnradio.com
Dr. Lamar’s chiropractic practice website: http://anchorchiropractic.net

Check out the ways in which Dr. Lamar is promoting his podcast to his patient base and local community: (Link Here)

Check out how Dr. Lamar educates his listening audience on podcasting: (Link Here)

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185 Podcast Answer Man – Buzzing Sounds In Your Audio, Advice On Mixers, And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:58:15 +0000

Question About Upgrading from a Xenyx 1002fx Mixer & the MDX4600

Adobe Audition For The Mac Beta Now Available!
Mac users can download the beta version of Adobe Audition at labs.adobe.com/technologies/audition. The program requires an Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.5.7 or Mac OS X 10.6. There is no serial number or activation for this download, but it will expire when the beta period ends.

Podcast Software For Android Users:
-Beyond Pod: http://www.beyondpod.mobi/android/index.htm
-Google Listen: http://listen.googlelabs.com
-Stitcher: http://stitcher.com
-DoggCatcher: http://doggcatcher.com

Special thanks to Art Pennington, Marchall C., Daniel Johnson Jr., Sandy Kieswetter, Michael Debyah, Andrew McGivern, and Byron Friday for their responses on Facebook. LINK HERE

Question about updating old shows.

Question about the source of a buzzing sound in the background.

Andrew and Bob from The Bunker Project Podcast – Digital Recorder Testimonial

Inside The Studio Webinar This Weekend! http://studiosetup.eventbrite.com/

Webinar on how to do webinars: http://webinar-tutorial.eventbrite.com/

GoDaddy Issues:
http://gspn.tv/godaddy112010

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184 Podcast Answer Man – Leo LaPorte Says Audio Is What People Really Want!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:23:33 +0000

Topics Covered In This Episode:
- Episode 130 was titled Leo Laporte Makes 1.5 Million From Podcasting – Link Here
- Episode 133 was titled Leo Laporte Admits That Nobody Cares About Video – Link Here
- Episode 180 was titled Why I Prefer Audio Over Video Podcasts – Link Here
- Todayâ€™s episode is titled Leo Laporte Says Audio Is What People Really Want
- Leo Laporteâ€™s thoughts on the Heil PR-40 Microphone.
- Jeff wants to know if I would listen to a podcast with his Shure SM-58 audio quality.
- Steve wants to know my thoughts on stats for his website and podcast episodes.
- Why are only ten podcast episodes showing in iTunes?
- DropIO is shut down, now what?
- Podcast Ethics – Giving Credit To Your Sources!
- Power of Podcasting For Your Business Video – http://podcastanswerman.com/business
- New Studio Redesign: http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/studiosetup
- Equipment Setup & Podcasting Workflow Webinar: http://studiosetup.eventbrite.com
- Thesis Webinar: http://thesis-setup.eventbrite.com
- Mindmapping Webinar: Discount Code â€œGSPNâ€ will get you 10% off! http://gspn.tv/mindmaptraining

Podcast Hosting:
The following people used my affiliate link to purchase their hosting account with BlueHost. To learn how I feel about BlueHost, READ THIS POST. Affiliate Link: http://www.bluehost.com/track/podcastanswerman
- http://boonadello.net
- http://ConnieAndSheilaTalk.com
- http://MorningManna.com
- http://GeekGirlTalk.com
- http://fibro180.com
- http://tdktalkstm.com

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183 Podcast Answer Man – The Fraunhofer MP3 Encoder – LAME MP3 Encoder – A Recommendation For In-Person Interview Recorder – Getting Rich Quick and Making Money While You Sleep!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:47:06 +0000

Questions/Topics Covered In This Episode:

1 – If you donâ€™t like the LAME encoder, then what alternatives are there?
I prefer to use Adobe Audition, personally. because it is a full editing suite with the fraunhofer mp3 encoder built into it. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) is a German company that helped pioneer MP3 technology. The institute is a center of ongoing research of audio coding at low bitrates.

If you read this page from the Faunhofer website, you will see where it says… â€œIf you are an end user and would like to use the Fraunhofer mp3 encoder or decoder, please use Apple iTunes or Windows Media which integrate the Fraunhofer mp3 software. Please note, that although mp3 was developed at Fraunhofer IIS, we do not sell any mp3 products to end users and do not provide end user support for mp3 devices and software.â€

I personally recommend that if you are not using Adobe Audition,that you use iTunes to convert your recordings to .mp3, even if you are on the Windows platform.

2 – Is The iPhone 4 good enough for in person interviews?
I personally prefer using the Edirol R-09HR recorder for both line in recording in the studio and for my out in the field interviews. However, you can get some wonderful recordings using the iPhone 3G, 3GS, or 4. I personally recommend the paid version of the Griffin iTalk application.

3 – Why do you have your site set up so that it posts your podcast on Pages instead of Blog Posts? Is there a strategy behind that?
Actually, all my podcast episodes and blog posts are, indeed, entered as â€œpostsâ€ on my site and not as pages.

I know where this question is coming from. Sometimes, if you pull up the show notes to an episode, the url will look something like the following link:

http://podcastanswerman.com/178-pam-a-new-thesis-design-for-gspn-godaddy-sites-hacked-ios-compatible-chat-room-and-so-much-more

On many other occasions, youâ€™ll see that the links to my podcast episodes are as short as the following examples:

http://podcastanswerman.com/audiovsvideoandplugins
http://podcastanswerman.com/heilpr40
http://podcastanswerman.com/bobheil

All of the short urls listed above are actually blog posts. In this episode, Iâ€™ll share my thoughts on PERMALINKS and my thoughts on why I choose to do them differently from time to time.

With that said, there are times when Iâ€™ve made the decision to create a PAGE to post podcast content. A perfect example of this would be http://gspn.tv/48-days.

4 – What your thoughts on Getting Rich Quick And Making Money While You Sleep?
Actually, this is my own question. I share my thoughts on this topic in this episode. I shared the following quote from Jason Friedâ€™s book REWORK.

The Myth of the overnight sensation:
â€œYou will not be a big hit right away. You will not get rich quick. You are not so special that everyone else will instantly pay attention. No one cares about you. At least not yet. Get used to it.

You know those overnight-success stories youâ€™ve heard about? Itâ€™s not the whole story. Dig deeper and youâ€™ll usually find people who have busted their (butts) for years to get into a position where things could take off. And on the rare occasion that instant success does come along, it usually doesnâ€™t last — thereâ€™s no foundation to support it.

Trade the dream of overnight success for slow, measured growth. Itâ€™s hard, but you have to be patient. You have to grind it out, You have to do it for a long time before the right people notice.â€

* I strongly encourage you to listen to the two podcast episodes that can be found at the two following links:
http://gspn.tv/passion
http://gspn.tv/passion2

5 – Building Relationships And Always Giving More Than You Get In Return Pays Off:
Speaking of the â€œright people noticing…â€ I share two testimonials that mean the world for me. I explain why Joe Lampâ€™l of Growing A Greener World and Dan Miller of 48 Days To The Work You Love were major turning points in my business.

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182 Podcast Answer Man – Flyers – Tagging – Training

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:03:05 +0000

I received a very interesting email this week:
The email was from Connie & Sheila from Connie & Sheila Talk. They sent a promotional email and THIS PDF to notify their audience of an important upcoming episode of their podcast.

Video Blog Post demonstrates MP3 Tagging:
On of the most common mistakes made by new podcasting is the process of tagging their .mp3 files. I created a video blog to show how this process works. http://podcastanswerman.com/tagging

Jason Van Orden – Traffic Attraction Formula:
In this episode, I played a 20 minute interview with Jason Van Orden of Internet Business Mastery. Jason is launching a major training product that helps people learn how to build a profitable online business. Here is the email I sent out to my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/blUBn

If you want to check out the videos that Jason is giving away for free, the ones I go on and on about in this video, you can get them by clicking this link: http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/taf

Yes, the above link is an affiliate link. Should you decide to sign up for his training product, I will receive a commission. There is absolutely NO OBLIGATION to sign up for anything other than his mailing list. After you get the free videos, it’s a single click unsubscribe to get off the list.

An email from a disappointed email subscriber:
After sending out a note about the above program on my mailing list. About four people immediately unsubscribed from my mailing list and one person, whom I thought I was pretty close to, sent me the following email:

You said that you wouldn’t use the email list to spam us, but to let us know about Podcast Answer Man related stuff. While this isn’t spam per se, it might as well be, because if I give up my email address, I will undoubtedly get “opt in spam” from Jason. I know because I have been down this road with his promises before. It is probably some thousand dollar program that if you follow step by step you MAY make what he does, but results are not guaranteed. As an added bonus, the “free videos” are followed by letters just like this one to entice me to buy into someone else’s thousand dollar must have marketing plan that he “personally endorses”.

Needless to say, I’m disappointed to get this type of message from you. I clicked through and saw the site, I hope the affilliate click thru was worth losing a subscriber to your mailing list.

I share my response in this episode of the podcast. Not everyone had a negative reaction to my email about this. The following are some Twitter Reactions to my linked post to the email I sent out:

@HandGPodcast: The guys at IBM rock – RT @gspn: Serious about marketing your business online? Check this out… http://eepurl.com/blUBn

@podcastlawyer: @GSPN Watched JVO’s video on your recommendation. Good stuff. Got me excited for the next one. I almost can’t wait for the sales pitch :)

My Listeners Are So Spoiled:
I just received the following email…

Cliff, I was recently listening to the latest episode of a podcast that was actually the one that got me interested in Podcasting. During the episode, the host **** was trying out his new Snowball Microphone (1st Mistake), then spoke about how all they need is an old pair of Nylons for a Pop Filter (He wasn’t sure what to call it.)

They continued from there but between this episode of theirs and a previous one, I now find myself yelling into the speakers what they should be doing, all based on what I have learned from you – Obi-Wan-Ravenscraft.

The show and episode if you’re curious for yourself is (I removed this part of the email).

I am not sure whether to thank you or be upset – after all – I am now SOOOOO critical of what I USED to think was good. Seriously though, Cliff A BIG THANK YOU!

Interviewed by Dean Soto of the So Totally Business Savvy Podcast:
Dean is a client of mine who made a decent investment in audio equipment for his podcast and has taken that investment and made something of it. Today, his podcast is generating opportunities and profits for his business that would have not existed otherwise. I was honored to be invited as a guest for episode 014 of his podcast.

Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters Webinar:
Only 2 spots remain for the Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters webinar. The event is this Saturday, October 23rd from 11am to 1pm Eastern Time. You do not want to miss the learning experience. I know for a fact that my profits are going to increase drastically as the results of what I will learn during this session. How do I know that? I know because Iâ€™ve seen the outline for the session and the two or three things that I have done from the list have already doubled the income to my business. If you want to try to get one of these remaining spots, CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Thesis Theme Configuration Webinar:
In this webinar, I’m going to show you, step by step, how I take a brand new installation of WordPress and turn it into a site that looks like PodcastAnswerMan.com or VirtualAssistantPodcast.com. As the name of this webinar may imply, I will be showing you how I do this using the Thesis Premium WordPress Theme.

This webinar will be an experiment for me. This is the first time I’ve ever offered a webinar at as low as $39. I’ve decided to give GoToWebinar a try which allows up to 100 participants.

I plan to take my experience from the number of people who register for this even into consideration for future training webinars and products.

The session will be held on Saturday, November 6th from 10-11:30am Eastern Time. CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

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181 Podcast Answer Man – Example Issue With Recording To Computer Software

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:58:16 +0000

Back To Google Docs For My Show Notes:
I just went back to using Google Docs for show notes prep. This time, Iâ€™m using a single document for all my shows shared with all my co-hosts and my assistant. With all the shows that I produce each Thursday, the only bottleneck in getting content posted to the site has been typing up show notes for my assistant to post on the sites.

Rumor has it that the ability to edit Google Docs from my iPad should be announced any day now. (Link To Story)

Every listener of Podcast Answer Man would absolutely find episode 27 of the Virtual Assistant Podcast interesting.

BarCamp Nashville:
Iâ€™m heading to BarCamp Nashville this weekend to speak about the Power of Podcasting For Business. While talking about this event, I mentioned http://ConnieAndSheilaTalk.com. I also mentioned that I am now doing full production of Dan Millerâ€™s 48 Days Radio Show. You can catch Danâ€™s podcast at http://www.48days.com/listen. You can find out more about BarCamp Nashvile at http://BarCampNashville.org.

Feedback on my thoughts about recording into a computer:
Ian from EssentialTennis.com called in with his reaction to my negative thoughts on recording into a computer. He shared that heâ€™s recorded a lot of episodes and has never had any issues. My thoughts on this is that there are about 40% of people who seem to never run into the issues with recording into their computers.

In fact, itâ€™s extremely ironic that Ian would call in this feedback when I just experienced what happened while recording a fifteen minute video tutorial for my mailing list. I play an audio sample of what happened to demonstrate how this error caused me to not send out that video to my mailing list.

Iâ€™ve been podcasting for five years now and Iâ€™ve worked with hundreds of other podcasters. Those who have taken my recommendation of buying a digital audio recorder for their recordings have never had issues with their audio. At least 60% of those who do not purchase a digital audio recorder for their podcast recordings become repeat customers as we try to figure out the large number of potential problems that exist from recording into their computers.

I sent Ian the audio file that I played in this episode and gave him a copy of what I planned to put in the show notes about his feedback. He wrote back and said he understood where I was coming from. He said that he hoped that I would not be offended if he continued to do what has worked for him, recording into the computer. I responded and said of course not. I then told him that it took YEARS before Adam Christianson from MacCast started to have issues and I sent him a screen shot of this tweet from Adam back on June 25th, 2010.

Melista Called In About Her Condenser Microphone:
I know from working with so many clients that the idea of purchasing an audio mixer and learning how to use it can be very intimidating. It is so much cheaper and easier to go with an all in one, plug and play, usb condenser microphone. The only problem is that when you do so, you almost always end up with the audio quality found in Melitsaâ€™s call.

If you already have a condenser microphone and donâ€™t have the budget to get a decent dynamic microphone and mixer setup, then I would recommend turning down the gain on your microphone, getting a little closer, and try recording in a walk in closet filled with clothes.

Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters Webinar:
Only five spots remain for the Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters webinar. The event is Saturday, October 23rd from 11am to 1pm Eastern Time. You do not want to miss the learning experience. I know for a fact that my profits are going to increase drastically as the results of what I will learn during this session. How do I know that? I know because Iâ€™ve seen the outline for the session and the two or three things that I have done from the list have already doubled the income to my business.

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180 Podcast Answer Man – Why I Prefer Audio Over Video And Plugins Update

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 04:40:47 +0000

Why I Prefer Audio Over Video Podcasts
Now many of you know that I prefer audio podcasts over video podcasts. However, occasionally, I know of a video podcasters that just “crushes it” with a video podcast. In the episode, I mentioned how Carrie Wilkerson is knocking it out of the park with her Barefoot Executive Video Podcast.

I mentioned my How To Subscribe To A Podcast In iTunes Video.

Vince called in to ask why I prefer audio over video podcasts. I share just a few of my thoughts on this topic:

A report done in 2008 by the US Departement of Transportation showed that 128.3 Million people commute to work in the United States.

That same report showed that 97 Million of those commuters are driving to work ALONE IN THEIR CAR.

The report also showed that the average commute to and from work was 26.4 minutes.

Consider the people who work out at the gym or who walk, jog, or run daily

What do people do while they are at work all day? Many have jobs that allow them to listen to audio.

Audio is more intimate and personal. Feels like the host is speaking to me.

Video seems to beg for my attention.

I don’t buy the idea of just listening to the audio of a video podcast.

Fr. Roderick’s Tweet This Morning:
The Mac is such a *lousy* environment for podcast recording! I tried hard, but I’m switching back to the PC. My patience has run out.

I share my thoughts on the statement above.

WP Touch Update Theme Plugin Update
Wayne called in his thoughts and I share some comments from last week’s show notes post regarding feedback for the WP Touch Mobile Theme Plugin.

What Plugins Am I Using Today?
Akismet – Built Into WordPress For Spam Protection (Need WordPress API Key)
WP Audio Player – Not Needed With PowerPress, but I explain my reasoning in the episode
Blubrry PowerPress – Only using for Media File Enclosures
Disqus Comment System – Though I am having an issue on one of my sites
Google Analyticator – For Google Analytics
Lightbox 2 – For Great image presentation on my site
Pretty Link – For easy urls to point people to other places on the web.
Thesis OpenHook – For advanced customization of my Thesis Theme.
WordPress Database Backup – Though I think I’m having issues with this plugin
WPtouch – As mentioned earlier in this episode

Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters Webinar
There are only ~~eight~~ ~~seven~~ six spots left open for the Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters Webinar. In the episode, I make my case as to why you should attend this session.

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179 Podcast Answer Man – Horribly Non-Navigable Site

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:26:27 +0000

I am very glad to get back to answering your questions in this episode of Podcast Answer Man. The following items are the topics that I cover in this week’s episode.

I start things off by answering two questions from Chef Tony. First off, he wanted to know my thoughts on whether or not podcast episodes should have a category of their own or if he should just include them in his normal blog posting process and send the entire feed to iTunes.

Next up, Tony asked if I recommended a third party hosting service for uploading the audio files to your web-server where your WordPress is hosted. In my answer to this question, I highly recommended that folks read my post at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/hosting.

Andrew McGivern called in to tell me how he is using the RSS Graffiti Facebook Application on his Bunker Project Page. I mention that I am using the application now. However, I’m having issues with the play button working. I believe it may have to do with an issue with the media enclosures on my site showing up as .txt instead of audio files. Anyone else having such issues with media enclosures?

John Wilkerson called in to ask me why I don’t have my websites optimized for mobile browsing. If I didn’t know him better, I would have been offended by the description of PodcastAnswerMan.com as a horribly non-navigable site. I had been using the WP Touch plugin for the longest time. However, I got to the point were I felt that mobile browsers did a better job of displaying my own branding and actually find the site to be better navigated and fuller featured without the WPTouch Mobile Theme. I invite your feedback in the comments on this topic.

An unnamed caller called in to ask how I was able to pull off the category headers found on the various categories at http://gspn.tv like the ones found at http://HelpIGotAMac.com and http://BusinessTechWeekly.com. I explained that this was a feature found in the category setting that I had never noticed until Thesis 1.8 came out and I have confirmed that it is not available in Thesis 1.6. It looks like PAM is going to get a theme upgrade before long.

If you are interested in my review of Podcamp Boston 5, I encourage you to check out the two blog posts I did at http://gspn.tv/pcb5 & http://gspn.tv/pcb52. I also recorded an amazing Sound Seeing Tour of the city of Boston that you can listen to on Pursuing A Balanced Life episode 481.

Finally, I shared that I’ve been shocked that more people have not already signed up for the Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters webinar that I am doing with Pat Flynn. Folks, I get excited by a lot of things that I offer as products and services to you guys. However, this is a special opportunity. I already know for a fact that I am personally going to profit greatly from the insights that I know that Pat Flynn is going to share. I personally can’t wait for my own benefit. Seriously, I’m going to try to find a way to better communicate potential of what this webinar has to offer. I know that if people knew what I am thinking in my head about this, the session would be sold out. I’m baffled that I’ve not done a very good job of selling the session. It’s not like me. Folks, in spite of me, I promise, if you have a podcast and have an audience and have any desire to monetize your efforts, you SHOULD REGISTER TODAY! (Note: If you sign up for the mailing list, you will get a discount code for $50 off)

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178 PAM – A New Thesis Design For GSPN – GoDaddy Sites Hacked – iOS Compatible Chat Room – And So Much More!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:16:14 +0000

In this week’s episode, I share several updates about things that have been going on with my own podcasting journey. I hope the experiences I’ve had over the past few weeks provide you with some insights and give you things to consider in your own podcasting efforts.

Please do call in your questions for future episodes of Podcast Answer Man as my current plans are to get back to the format of answering your questions in my next episode. The voicemail feedback hotline is 859-795-4067.

Here are the topics that I cover in this 178th episode of Podcast Answer Man.

gspn.tv website re-design
It has been a long time coming, but I have finally realized my dream for the layout of gspn.tv. For years now, I’ve hosted a large number of individual podcasts off a single installation of WordPress. This is made possible due to the fact that each category in WordPress has it’s own rss feed.

For example, when you type in SocialMediaSerenity.com into your browser, it would simply point you to http://gspn.tv/category/technology/sms. Until now, this would simply display the most recent episodes from newest to oldest, but would not offer that “About Page” functionality as if it were it’s own site.

Thesis Theme Update
You may remember that I had recently had concerns about the status of the relationship of Chris Pearson, the creator of the Thesis Theme and the overall WordPress community due to the very public battle between him and the creator of WordPress, Mark Mullenweg, over open source licensing of themes. I’m happy to announce that Chris Pearson will now be working under GPL. It is worthy to note, however, that Thesis is now licensed under a GPL split license which supposedly allows you to maintain ownership of your own product while staying in line with the legal requirements of the GPL license. It’s more complicated than that. My only point is that I’m back to fully endorsing the Thesis theme and I finally took action to implement it on the gspn.tv website.

Because of the change to Thesis, I was able to incorporate an “About This Podcast” text, complete with images and hyperlinks just above the listing of most recent episodes. In my mind, this gives a greater sense of branding and if you take a look at the SocialMediaSerenity.com portion of the site, you’ll see that it also has the added benefit of cross promoting my other shows at the same time. I’m very excited about this.

A Return To Blogging
I was a blogger long before I was a podcaster. One of the things you hear me say on Podcast Answer Man all the time is that I believe that audio podcasters should include both written and video blogs on their sites between episodes. It always frustrates me when I give such valuable advice that I believe in so much, yet struggle to do this myself as much as I would like. Hopefully, this is about to change. If you want to read more about how and why, Please click here for my blog post all about it.

I the episode, I shared that if you go to http://gspn.tv/kindle3review, you will see an example of how you can make use of both written and YouTube videos in your blog posts.

I Killed A Website In The Progress
With the redesign of the gspn.tv site, I decided that I wanted to focus a majority of my blogging efferts on the gspn.tv community blog. One of the things that kept me from blogging as much as I wanted to was never knowing which site I wanted to put it on. My Pursuing A Balanced Life Podcast had always had its own website because I had considered that podcast my personal, daily audio journal, podcast. I had also considered that to be the best place to do my personal blogging.

So my idea was that I would do my personal blogging on PursuingABalancedLife.com and my business and tech blogging on PodcastAnswerMan.com. Here’s the deal, the gspn.tv site receives thousands of visitors each day and my Pursuing A Balanced Life site was averaging approximately 300 to 500 unique visitors per month. Of course, I hadn’t done a great deal of blogging to drive traffic to that site. It just made sense to me to actually kill the separate site for “PABL” and just point that to the appropriate podcast category on gspn.tv and focus all my personal and GSPN blogging on the gspn.tv site which certainly would get a great deal more exposure.

Hmm.. What Should I Do About This? & GoDaddy Sites Hacked!
So recently, I did, what I consider to be, an amazing blog post about how all my sites that are still hosted on GoDaddy.com were hacked. You can read all about it at http://gspn.tv/godaddymalwareattack.

There are two important things to note here. First, there was the story of the GoDaddy sites being hacked. Did I ever tell you how much I love Blue Host Web Hosting For Podcasters? Honestly, what happened there could happen anywhere. Seriously, click that link to learn all about what happened. Did you know that GoDaddy.com is up for sale?

The other important thing to note is the fact that I put that blog post on my gspn.tv website. This would have been a perfect blog post for this Podcast Answer Man site. I’m wondering if I should have syndicated, or copied, this exact blog post and put it on PodcastAnswerMan.com as well. The only thing is that I hate the idea of running to simultaneous threads of conversations in the comments section on both blog entries. Also, I want to avoid duplicating too much info, if any at all, as I don’t want people to think that it is okay to subscribe to one and not the other.

I believe in the future, I will be posting any blog posts related to podcasting and new media on the PodcastAnswerMan.com site and if I feel it’s important enough to the gspn.tv community as a whole, I’ll simply create a very short description of the blog post on the gspn.tv blog, linking back to the full blog post on PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Comments Issues With DisQus
I’ve been using the DIsQus comments plugin for my sites for quite some time now. However, I’m experiencing an issue where, on my gspn.tv site, it’s not syncing the comments back into my WordPress. This means that when you see a listing of my entries and it displays the number of comments, it simply says there are no comments, even when there is a very active conversation happening. I’m thinking of switching to Intense Debate based upon some recommendations that I had from folks on Twitter.

New iOs Compatible Chat Room
I had been using a flash embedded chat room from Chatango for my live, interactive, podcasts. I had been receiving reports from more and more people that the chatango service was being blocked by their company’s firewall. Of course ever since the release of the iPhone and iPad, people have desired to be able to interact with our community on the go with their iOS devices.

I am happy to announce that I have decided to pay for a premium chat room service from ChatRoll. I went with their $19/mo plan that allows up to 100 people in the chat room. I love that I can now view the chat room on my iPad and iPhone. Heck, it even works on the Kindle 3 device. I’ve just contacted the company to see if they have an affiliate program. Regardless, I am very pleased with their service and highly recommend it.

Adobe Audition On The Mac?
Steve H. emailed me saying… “As a new listener I may be wrong, but is sounds like you are a Mac user ( as I am ). I noticed you recommended Audition, which appears to be a Windows only program. While I have both Windows 7 and Macs, I prefer to do my Audio work with my Mac. Appreciate it if you can clarify this. Thanks again for all your podcasts and advice.”

I simply responded to Steve’s email saying… “I am a Mac Only User. However, I had been using Parallels to run Audition to process my podcasts. It’s worth the extra effort. You may want to look at this: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/audition.” The Adobe Labs website clearly indicates that Adobe Audition for the Mac is coming in a future release.

Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters
Are you looking for a way to monetize your podcast? There is a proven strategy for earning passive income from building a relationship of trust and influence with your audience. I’m not talking about a get rich quick scheme. In fact, I’m here to tell you that this strategy does take quite a bit of extra effort, but is so worth it in the long run. As a podcaster, you have already done most of the hard work of finding a niche audience, creating a website and are actively building your community.

If you are interested in finding a way to generate income from your podcast where it is ALWAYS A WIN/WIN scenario for both you and your audience, then I would encourage you to click here to register for the Passive Income Strategy For Podcasters Webinar.

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177 Podcast Answer Man – Popular Blogger, Pat Flynn, Adds Podcasting To The Mix!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:04:31 +0000

Popular Blogger, Pat Flynn, Adds Podcasting To The Mix

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In this week’s episode, I’m excited to be joined by my friend Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com. Pat has a very interesting story as he is another example of how someone can really CRUSH IT. If you take anything away from this episode, I want you to take away the fact that Pat nearly gave up on his blog on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS. However, each time, he stuck it out, doing the hard work of creating valuable content and growing his audience one member at a time. Then one day, something happened! I’ll let you hear that part of the story in this episode.

As you will hear, Pat had already achieved a great deal of financial success as the result of blogging and by using some proven internet marketing strategies. However, I love hearing how simply adding a podcast on his niche topic has DRASTICALLY INCREASED his audience within just a few short weeks, opening his message up to a large audience of people, like myself, who don’t have a great deal of free time to read written blog posts.

It is great to have Pat on as a guest to talk about how existing bloggers can benefit by adding an audio podcast to their offerings. However, I was also very excited about having Pat on the show because the actual content that he blogs about really strikes a cord with me. His niche topic is how to generate passive income. I had been reading and hearing about the concept of creating multiple streams of income by creating products and services that you can offer to your audience and by carefully picking appropriate affiliate relationships with companies who offer products and services that you know would benefit your audience.

I have experienced, firsthand, the power of passive income and I have a strong desire for others to learn what is possible when you apply proven internet marketing strategies. It is for this reason that I’m teaming up with Pat to offer an online training session on Saturday, October 23rd from 11am to 1pm titled “Internet Marketing Strategy For Podcasters.”

Many podcasters have already done most of the hard work of finding a niche audience, creating a website and are actively building an audience. I simply can’t believe how much of an opportunity I’ve missed these past few years by not applying these principles earlier. If you are serious about podcasting and building your audience and are interested in finding a way to generate income from your podcast where it is ALWAYS A WIN/WIN scenario for both you and your audience, then I would encourage you to CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m also available for one on one podcast consulting. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

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176 Podcast Answer Man – Look At What YOU Can Do! And Telephone Interviews With An iPhone

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:18:08 +0000

Look At What YOU Can Do!

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In this episode, I decided to take a brand new approach to recording this show. I decided to take a “Build It As You Go” approach. I still need to go back and listen to this myself to see how it sounds for myself. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments section here on PodcastAnswerMan.com. Basically, what I did was start the show and just before I got into my first topic, I hit the pause button left the recorder waiting for me as I figured out what my first topic would be. Once I knew, I would simply click to continue the recording and start off on that topic. I did this for each new topic in the show. I have a suspicion that this will be extremely noticeable in many sections and not as notable in others. The only thing that really concerns me is the idea of giving everyone the breakdown of what will be covered in the episode at the front of the show. I suppose if I decided to do this again, I would simply record the intro the the show at the end of my recording and then just move that to the front in post production.

The first official topic covered in this episode was related to an email I received regarding episode 174 of Podcast Answer Man. The email said…

First of all I want to thank you for your show and advice on the forums–they have been very helpful with getting my podcast started. However, I just listened to 174 of PAM and I was very disappointed. I understand how excited you are about the sponsorship, but you even admit it yourself that you need to have been doing this awhile to do that sort of thing. I’ve always felt that your show has been geared to those that are new to podcasting or still inexperienced–therefore 174 would be of no benefit to them (or me). To me, the episode sort of came off as “look at what I can do, and listen to these other people talk about me”. I’m not trying to be mean, just for the future I think there might be better ways of tackling this, either a blog post or maybe a small portion of the show and not an entire episode.
Just some of my thoughts. Let me know if I’m completely off my rocker here. Keep up the good work!

The title of this week’s episode is in response to this episode. First off, this podcast is designed for ANY PODCASTER. I certainly answer a lot of questions from brand new podcasters on a regular basis. However, a majority of my listeners here have been podcasting for at least a year or more. Some have even been podcasting for nearly one year longer that I have. The second point that I would like to make is that my number one desire is to encourage and inspire EVERY SINGLE PODCASTER, no matter how long you have been doing this, to take your podcast to the NEXT LEVEL, to kick it up a notch or two. I’ve recorded more than 2,300 individual podcast episodes personally and I’m always trying to improve my show, trying new and innovative things. Whenever I share a story, explaining a major milestone or a success that I’ve achieved, I hope that it would not be so much of a “look at what I can do,” but more of a “Hey, if I can do this, you just might be able to pull this off as well!” I’m very thankful to report that many of the things that I have been able to achieve have, indeed, been duplicated by other podcasters who had been inspired by my stories to try something they would have never dreamed possible until hearing me talk about how I did what I did.

If you are happy with the status quo of where you are with your podcasting, then this show is not for you. Let’s keep raising the bar for ourselves. If an episode comes along that doesn’t apply to your personally, please understand that it will likely be a favorite episode for another podcaster out there. No matter what, I encourage you to DREAM BIG!

Next up, Tony Rinkenberger sent me an email with a link to a Mashable Article titled 15 Essential Back To School Podcasts. It was funny because Tony’s email subject was “Podcasting is INDEED Not Dead!” I can attest to that as just this week, I experienced the 2nd most profitable single day in my career as a podcasting and new media consultant/coach, with more than $7,000 in podcasting equipment sold in a single day!

Who are these people buying all this podcast equipment? Are they just throwing their money as a passing fad? Well that’s not how Dean Soto feels about his experience. I share a very cool testimonial from Dean and openly accept his invitation to be a featured guest on his podcast. His show is enough of a success that he just ordered a second Heil PR-40 package from me this week.

James Dibben sent in a question about podcast artwork.

Mitchell Boxeth called in and asked me a question related to my Plus Membership program. After answering his question, I mentioned that I have a video training tutorial on HOW I DO PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP.

Finally, I share a question from Keith Parsons about how to use your iPhone with a mix minus to do phone interviews in your podcast. I’ve included a diagram of how to set this up. I used THIS CABLE and THESE ADAPTERS to make it work. I personally do not use my iPhone for phone interviews. Instead, I use the JK Audio Broadcast Host. However, I do know that it is possible to use the iPhone as shown in this diagram.

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175 Podcast Answer Man – Zune Podcasting And Zoom H1 Digital Audio Recorder Review

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:41:59 +0000

Zune Podcasting And Zoom H1 Digital Audio Recorder Review

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In this episode, I am delighted to share an interview that I had with Rob Greenlee from Microsoft’s Zune Podcasting department. In the conversation with Rob, we learn why so many podcasters had not be able to get their feeds listed in the Zune podcasting directory. I am very happy to announce that any podcaster who wants to get their show listed in the Zune Directory can do so by emailing Rob@Zune.net. Speaking with Rob has helped renew some passion for the fact that Microsoft is paying to employ someone who’s purpose in the company is to support podcasters. This is very good news!

Also in this episode, I am delighted to let you know that I have finally received my review unit of the Zoom H1 Handy Digital Audio Recorder. If you simply REFUSE to pay more than $99 for a digital audio recorder, then I would say that this is a “decent” option. However, you simply must order a windscreen to go with this unit and be sure to have plenty of batteries on hand. The H1 review portion of this episode was actually recorded on the Zoom H1 recorder.

Here are just a few of my concerns about the Zoom H1 Recorder:
* No AC adapter included
* AC power is not an option at all!
—UPDATE— Turns out that you can get a USB/AC Adapter to power the unit.
* No pause recording functionality
* No windscreen included (This is a MUST HAVE ITEM)
* No USB cable included
* No ability to keep the backlit display turned on.
* Memory card compartment door is LIKELY to be broken.
* Menu functionality is clunky to say the very least.

I do feel that this is a decent option for a recorder if you are only willing to spend $99 on such a device. Personally, the ~~inability to use an ac adapter~~ —UPDATE— Turns out that you can get a USB/AC Adapter to power the unit. and the lack of the pause recording feature are enough to make this a deal breaker for me. If those are not deal breakers for you and you have a very tight budget to work with, I’d say that it’s worth the $99.

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174 Podcast Answer Man – How To Get An All Expenses Paid Sponsorship To Attend A Conference! And Podcamp Boston 5 Information #PCB5

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:23:24 +0000

How To Get An All Expenses Paid Sponsorship To Attend A Conference! And Podcamp Boston 5 Information #PCB5

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Schedule Update: Podcast Answer Man is on my schedule to record at the end of the day on Thursdays, after Iâ€™ve shut down the live show stream. All our shows from Thursday, including Podcast Answer Man, should be online by Noon on Friday each week, if not sooner.

Notes From This Episode:

Podcamp Boston 5 Trip Sponsorship
Last week, I inserted a short note about the fact that I was looking for a sponsor for our trip to Podcamp Boston 5. I was approached by two companies who had a strong desire to sponsor the trip for Stephanie and myself! Iâ€™m proud to announce that Dane Falkner from DivineOffice.org is paying ALL EXPENSES for Stephanie and I to attend Podcamp Boston 5. When I say all expenses, Iâ€™m talking Round Trip Air Fair, Hotel Accommodations, Meals and Transportation while in Boston, Admission to the conference, AS WELL AS the costs for quality childcare for our three children for four days.

What did I offer to my sponsor?
First off, I will create a blog post that will be easily found at http://gspn.tv/divineoffice. This blog post will include a video explaining how I met Dane and how he had just recently sponsored the podcasting track at the CNMC event that I spoke at in Boston just recently. I will explain what a financial blessing this is to us personally and professionally.
I will explain what it means to me that Stephanie will be able to attend the event and, of course, I will explain what DivineOffice is.

The blog post will also include some written information to summarize the contents of the video and will have a brief description of the Divine Office ministry and how considering the purchase of their iPhone/iPad application is a great way to thank them for this generous sponsorship.

This blog post is a critical ingredient to the sponsorship. Rather than go on for 5 to 10 minutes about the sponsorship, like a certain podcaster that I love, I can simply say thanks to Dane at DivineOffice.org for his sponsorship and ask people to please go to http://gspn.tv/divineoffice to leave a comment thanking them for the sponsorship. In fact, Iâ€™d like to ask you, if you are excited about the fact that Iâ€™ll be able to bring coverage about and produce content from Podcamp Boston 5, please head over there and leave a comment thanking them.

I will be talking up the Podcamp Boston 5 trip in many of my podcasts, on a weekly basis, leading up to the trip. Of course a quick thanks will be given to Divine Office and a mention of the post at http://gspn.tv/divineoffice.

They will gain some Brand Exposure On Twitter/Facebook/Linked In During The Event. I describe this a litte more in detail in the episode.

YouTube video updates from the event will include a short note of thanks to Divine Office with a mention of the post at http://gspn.tv/divineoffice.

My Podcamp Boston Talk: I will be talking about how you can earn an income from podcasting about your passion. You can bet Iâ€™ll be talking about how Stephanie and I are attending this event on a 100%, All Expenses Paid, basis thanks to DivineOffice.org and if they are interested in more information about how that came about, they should check out this episode of Podcast Answer man or the blog post found at http://gspn.tv/divineoffice.

I explained the value of all my face to face/one on one conversations that I will be having with people and how the Word will spread about the the things that I share with these people. I give a little more detail in this episode, however I shared with Dane, the following two audio clips to demonstrate how people who have a chance to hear my story, talk about it to others.

Mac & Katherine from the Catholic In A Small Town podcast:

Greg & Jennifer from The Catholics Next Door show on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio

Of course thanks would be given and mention of the post at http://gspn.tv/divineoffice whenever we refer to our trip to Podcamp Boston 5 in our podcasts after we return.

I shared the story of being the first to sponsor an event like this would certainly be included in at least one book that I plan to write and will likely be shared in many of my future speaking engagements.

There is the TARGET AUDIENCE to consider. I have amazing relationships with very influential Catholics in new media around the world. Just listen to the two audio clips mentioned above to get a feel for this fact.

Heres the deal, It took me YEARS to get to the place where I have a lot to offer to my sponsor! Building meaningful relationships with people around shared passions and giving sacrificially to others, over the course of years, is what has made this a reality.

I turned down the 2nd sponsor, as I wanted to make sure to funnel all attention to a single sponsor that has paid for ALL EXPENSES. I believe that carries a lot more weight than mentioning a LIST of sponsors. I do not want to dilute the exposure to my sponsor and I don’t want to overwhelm my audience with requests to thank multiple sponsors.

So whatâ€™s the big deal about Podcamp Boston 5 anyway?
First off, if you havenâ€™t heard of a podcamp before, simply check out http://podcamp.org for more details. Boston is a major social media hub on the East Coast. Boston is where Podcamp First Started! Boston is a very beautiful city to visit. I attended Podcamp Boston 2 and the relationships I made there literally helped me launch my business.

Podcamp Boston is a 2 day event!
More people will travel farther distances to attend a two day event.
At single day events, hardly anyone shows up for pre-podcamp parties.
At single day events, hardly anyone sticks around long enough for the evening party.
At two day events both the pre-party and official podcamp party are HIGHLY ATTENDED!

Networking & Socializing!
Itâ€™s not all about the sessions! At least not for me. Some sessions will be really great. Some sessions will be absolutely horrible. I plan on spending more time in the hallways than in the sessions. I plan to meet as many new people as possible. The Parties Are Great Places to get to know people. And I am hoping to find just the right dinner party to attend!

It is simply an enriching experience. Iâ€™ve been to a lot of podcamps at this point. Podcamp NYC 2 was another great two day Podcamp. However, Itâ€™s hard to beat the original. You should attend Podcamp Boston 5!

Thatâ€™s all I have for you this week. Iâ€™m simply going to ask you to head over to http://gspn.tv/divineoffice and leave a comment thanking Dane and the team for making it possible for Stephanie and I to attend this event. As the result of their sponsorship, youâ€™ll be able to experience it from my perspective.

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173 Podcast Answer Man – BlackBerry Podcast Announcement, CNMC, And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:49:15 +0000

BlackBerry Podcast Announcement, CNMC, And More

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Last weekend, I had the most amazing opportunity, as I was invited to speak at the CNCM in Boston. One of the greatest highlights of my trip to Boston was that I finally had the opportunity to meet my long time friend, Fr. Roderick, face to face.

Some of you will remember back in January of 2009 when I released an interview that I did with Father Roderick in episode 92 of Podcast Answer Man. If you want to hear all about my weekend trip to Boston, I would encourage you to start with Pursuing A Balanced Life episode 475 which is the first episode in a four part series titled “My Catholic Weekend.”

In this week’s episode, I cover the following topics:
* BlackBerry Launches Official Podcast Application (Link)
* Submitting Your Podcast To BlackBerry Podcast Directory (Link)
* Tech Specs PDF from Blackberry (LINK)
* Short interview with Avery Grant from the Live Out Loud Podcast. (iTunes Link) (Website Link)
* Blue Host Podcast Hosting (Blog Post With Affiliate Link)
* Wanna Sponsor Our Trip To Podcamp Boston 5? (Email Me)
* Ron Nutter Shares a testimonial for WordPress for Podcasters (More Info Here)

Here are the links to the CNMC talks that I did with Fr. Roderick:
Session 1 Recorded on Ustream
Session 2 Recorded on Ustream
Session 3 Recorded on Ustream

Here are some photo highlights from my trip: (CLICK HERE FOR A FULL SLIDESHOW)

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172 Podcast Answer Man – Choosing The Right Co-Host

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:27:37 +0000

Choosing The Right Co-Host

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In this week’s episode, I cover the following topics:
* What video formats do I use when I distribute video on the web?
* How do I choose the right co-host for my podcast?
* How do I go about getting celebrities on my show for an interview?
* How can I get three dynamic mics to plug into a mixer with only two XLR ports?
* How do I get my artwork on my iTunes listing to update to my new artwork?
* Check out the my updated testimonials page.
* Becky Johnson submitted an audio testimonial for my video training tutorials.

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171 Podcast Answer Man – Bonus Video – How To Add An Addon Domain

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:30:28 +0000

How To Add An Addon Domain in BlueHost

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I don’t often send video episodes into the Podcast Answer Man feed. However, I wanted to share a short little bonus video that I created for the folk who had purchased my WordPress for Podcasters video tutorial.

The reason I have decided to share this in the feed, this week, was to give you a sample of what my video training products look like. As you can see, I take both audio and video quality seriously when producing my training products. After capturing a screencast tutorial, I do a great deal of post production, panning and zooming at the important parts of the screen, so that you can see exactly what each step in the process looks like.

In this bonus video, I had decided to record the process that I needed to go through to launch a brand new website that I’m going to be working on over the next few weeks. The website that I’m launching is called WorthSavingFor.com. The details of what this site is all about will be released in the near future.

To help you understand what is happening in this video, I currently have a Godaddy Account where I manage all my domain names. I suppose I’ll eventually move all of these domains over to my BlueHost account. However, for now, it’s just so much easier for me to manage all my domain names in one place.

I do have a Godaddy hosting account which still hosts many of the sites that I run. However I’ve personally had several issues with reliability and uptime with this hosting account and I refuse to add any new sites under my Goaddy hosting account as a result.

Several months ago, I set up my own BlueHost Hosting account to launch http://VirtualAssistantPodcast.com. I had decided to use BlueHost because in all my hears of podcast and new media consulting, I had worked with countless hosting providers and I simply found BlueHost to have the best customer service and server speeds when it comes to making changes to your account. The speed will be clearly shown in this video demonstration. I literally launched this new site in under 12 minutes.

In the past, I move this site, http://PodcastAnswerMan.com, off of Godaddy.com and over to my BlueHost hosting account. I recall thinking to myself, I should have recorded a video tutorial of how I did that. So when I decided to create this new site, I figured I’d go ahead and show you just how easy it is to add a new domain and website on a BlueHost Hosting account.

Here’s the result:

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170 Podcast Answer Man – Why I Still Highly Recommend Blue Host

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:14:22 +0000

Why I Still Highly Recommend Blue Host

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I’m not kidding when I say that I packed in a TON of information into this episode. Here is a list of items covered.

* Boston Social Media Tweetup – http://gspn.tv/BostonMeetup
* YouTube increased to a 15 minute limit of videos uploaded to their servers!
* Thoughts on using Archive.org for media hosting for podcast episodes
* Passive Income For Podcasters Webinar coming August 28th (Join The Mailing List To Be Notified of More Details)
* Podcast Master Class Webinar w/ Father Roderick coming September 18th (Join The Mailing List To Be Notified of More Details)
* I used the Audio-Tecnica MT830R Lapel mic in the video found here. (Amazon Link For Mic)
* Sima SL-20LX Ultra Bright LED Light (Amazon Link Here) (My Blog Post Review)
* Thoughts on rechargeable batteries for digital audio recorders.
* Do I still recommend Blue Host after reading THIS and THIS?
* My thoughts on the potential reach of podcasting.
* Do I have any instructional materials for setting up the equipment packages that I sell on my site?

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169 Podcast Answer Man – Syndicating Your Podcast To Radio

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:22:44 +0000

Syndicating Your Podcast To Radio

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I am absolutely certain that if you enjoy the content in Podcast Answer Man, you will want to listen to Social Media Serenity Episode 50 titled Ning Vs BuddyPress.

In this episode, Chris called to ask what he should do about his iTunes subscribers since he is in a place where he needs to change the host for his .mp3 files.

Pete called in to ask about how to get to the top of the iTunes Rankings and how to maintain your place at the top. Pete also mentioned that he had some great success in getting his show syndicated on radio shows. I emailed Pete to see if I could get some more details on how he was able to pull this off. Of course I share his response here.

Andy called in to let us know that you can change your iTunes Store location to another country to see reviews that others around the world have left for you, and how to do it.

Finally, I share some of my thoughts on the WordPress Vs Thesis debate over the GPL license. If you want to listen to the interview between Chris Pearson and Matt Mullenweg, I encourage you to do so by clicking here.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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168 Podcast Answer Man – An Unpolished Approach To Podcasting

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:34:11 +0000

An Unpolished Approach to Podcasting

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In this episode, I started off by sharing some technical woes that I have had over the last two days. Learn what the three pieces of audio equipment are that I have had over the years that have needed to be replaced. I think it is worthy to mention that my original Edirol R-09 recorder had recorded well over 2,200 podcast episodes before the 1/8″ line input jack developed a short in it.

Dave called from Australia about an iTunes review that he posted. I explain how you can go in and edit a review that you’ve previously posted, should you ever want to do so.

Walter called in with some constructive feedback on what I call my “unpolished approach to podcasting.” Of course, I very much value Walter’s feedback, especially in the spirit in which it was given. However, I very much like the natural feel of letting my audience experience what I was doing, as I was doing it. I believe that Dave’s call, the first call in the show, is perfect to explain that my show is not just about the technical content. There’s much more to it than just sharing information in a professional, polished, totally prepared way. Some people like more tightly produced audio. I prefer a more laid back approach. My suggestion to all podcasters is to find that place where you are most comfortable and understand that your content is not going to appeal to everyone.

I share a little bit of what I found while attempting to do my Blog Talk Radio experiment. I explain why I decided to abandon the project before it really got started.

Other topics covered in this show:
* Can I do effective podcasting and new media work with HugesNet Internet Access?
* How can I go about screening calls using TalkShoe?

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167 Podcast Answer Man – Blog Talk Radio And The Audio Snob

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:24:10 +0000

Blog Talk Radio and the Audio Snob

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If there was ever an episode that I was a little self conscious about releasing, it would be this episode of Podcast Answer Man. I’m not sure how many times I confessed that I’m an audio snob, but it was a lot. Please know that when I share my thoughts in my podcasts, I share the real me and my own thoughts and opinions. I have a strong desire to see people take their podcasts to the next level when it comes to content, quality, and engagement with their audience.

At times, I think I forget that I didn’t just start running in this arena. I started small, with horrible sounding audio, and I slowly added new pieces of audio equipment along the way to get to the level of audio quality where I am today. Heck, one only needs to go back into the archives of this very podcast to hear me talk about how excited I was about my MXL 990 condenser microphone back in the day. Today, when I hear someone get excited about their condenser microphone, I cringe. I don’t mean to place judgment on those podcasters, it’s just I have learned, from experience, that there are better ways to spend one’s money on new equipment.

Anyway, I share this episode with the world, as everything I said, is exactly what I truly feel about the subject matter discussed. I never have and never will subscribe to an audio podcast where the host of the show is in telephone audio quality and I’m not a fan of condenser microphones as the echo in the host’s voice is less appealing than the other content choices that are out there for me.

Please forgive me for being the audio snob that I am.

In this episode, I cover the following topics:
* How do I change the category for my podcast in iTunes?
* How do I feel about accepting payments via PayPal?
* How do I feel about Blog Talk Radio and other services like it?
* Be sure to check out the Adobe Audition 101 on the Products Page.

Be sure to tune in next week when I share some constructive criticism that I have received about this podcast.

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166 Podcast Answer Man – Snowball Microphone And So Much More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:14:12 +0000

Snowball Microphone And So Much More

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* Would an Edirol Recorder be good for both voice & guitar recording?
* Resounder iPhone application used at Podcamp
* My Thoughts on the Blue Snowball Microphone
* Adobe Audition IS DEFINITELY COMING TO THE MAC (predicted #163)
* Thoughts on WordPress v/s iWeb or Rapid Weaver
* ID3 Tag Editor For The Mac
* Listener Feedback Hotline Scripts
* Please check out my Digital Video Training Products!

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165 Podcast Answer Man – Billions of New Potential Podcast Subscribers

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:34:55 +0000

Billions of New Potential Podcast Subscribers

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In this episode, I talk about what to do when other podcasters in your niche start talking trash about your show and other shows in your niche.

I answer David’s question about how to change your artwork and description that is found on your iTunes listing page.

I share an issue that I’ve been having on my Mac when deleting items off my SD card where it is not freeing up that memory. A few solutions are provided to solve this issue.

Juan emailed me with a few questions about podcasting and I chose to go ahead and include those here in the podcast as well. If you have questions about podcasting and don’t have money in the budget to hire me for one on one consulting, please submit your questions via audio feedback to 859-795-4067.

I mention that WordPress 3 has been released, though I’ve not yet had time to update any of my sites yet. I would suggest running it on a test site first with all your plugins to see how it reacts. Of course, I strongly suggest a complete backup of all your WordPress folders and subfolders, as well as your SQL Database, before upgrading to 3.0 just to be safe.

I shared this article I found over at Libysn about the fact that iTunes is going to do something that will potentially expose us to BILLIONS of new potential podcast subscribers.

Oh and one more thing; in this episode, I mentioned the talk that I gave at Podcamp Ohio titled “Making Money With Your Podcast.” I am making this available for free to anyone who is subscribed to the Podcast Answer Man Mailing List. If you are not on the list, click here to subscribe. Once you are on the list, please send an email to Assistant@PodcastAnswerMan.com with “Podcamp Ohio Talk” as the subject line and my assistant will confirm you are on the mailing list and will send you a link to the page where you can either stream or download the talk.

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164 Podcast Answer Man – Become An Expert In Your Field

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:44:30 +0000

Become An Expert In Your Field

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In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share some feedback from Troy that is a perfect example of how you can become an expert in your field through the process of creating a podcast around your passion/niche.

I also took an impromptu call from @MarcusCarey. I promise that I did not ask Marc to call and didn’t know what he wanted to share when I decided to take the live call. With that said, Marc shared some very kind words about the value in the coaching that I’ve done with him. It was a very flattering testimonial. Thank You Marc!

I took another question from the community about creating an “all-inclusive” feed for multiple podcasts. I mentioned how I do this through the use of a single installation of WordPress. I also share how you can use Yahoo Pipes to combine multiple feeds into one.

Finally, I jokingly said that this week’s episode is sponsored by ME!!! I took just a moment to talk about a video training product that I created called Social Media 101 – How I Built My Brand.

Social Media 101: This is a two hour video training product broken up into five, 20 to 30 minutes video sessions. In this training, I share how I have used social media to build my brand and to build a community with those who listen to my podcasts. There are far too many items covered in this product for me to list here. However, the following will give you just a hint as to what is included:

* How did I build my audience?
* How did I promote my brand online?
* What is community and how do we build it?
* The importance of owning your own “Home On The Web.”
* Why I choose WordPress for my home one the web.
* Why I do audio podcasting v/s video podcasting.
* How I build relationships with the use of email and a voicemail hotline.
* How live shows with a chat room help foster community.
* When to add an online discussion forum, and when not to.
* The value of comments on your blog.
* How I “join the conversation.”
* How and why I use Twitter.
* How I stay connected with those on Facebook, even though I only log on once a week.
* How I promote my social media profiles online!
* I’m not kidding when I say AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

The cost of this training product is only $100 and is available for purchase by emailing me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org and letting me know of your interest in this training.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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163 Podcast Answer Man – Stop Expecting Overnight Success

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:54:12 +0000

Stop Expecting Overnight Success

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I cover the following items:
* What are my thoughts on Podcaster’s Liability Insurance?
* Would you like me to arrange for a teleseminar with an entertainment lawyer?
* Should it take two weeks to get listed in iTunes?
* Where are those video training products that I keep talking about?
* Jason Fried’s book Rework.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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162 Podcast Answer Man – How To End An Interview And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:07:36 +0000

How To End An Interview And More

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I cover the following items:
â€¢ Andy L. Called in to tell us about the Smart 404 WordPress Plugin.
â€¢ Thoughts on how to end an interview.
â€¢ SoundByte Cart Software for Audio Clips
â€¢ Erik called to ask if it is possible for me to track states on my Plus Member Podcasts
â€¢ Andy asked me for my initial thoughts on the Zoom H1 recorder which I will have a demo unit of soon.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.