The Audacity to Podcast

Don't forget your podcast in planning your new year's resolutions! I share five suggested goals to improve your podcasting in 2011.

In the spirit of Christmas, I want to inspire you find new ways to give back to your listeners, if you aren’t already. After talking about Christmas gifts for podcasters, I was inspired by Elise from Knit Misadventures to talk about giving back to your listeners. 1. Be a linchpin and giver I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin. While Godin primarily seeks to inspire employees and would-be entrepreneurs to be indispensable artists. The chapter “The Powerful Culture of Gifts” stood out to me regarding podcasting and my work. Art is a gift. A real gift, not part of a deal, not a transaction entered into with reciprocity in mind. The culture of gifts has a long history on this planet, and understanding how it brings people together is a critical step in becoming indispensable. [Seth Godin, Linchpin, page ix] What makes us podcasters stand out is our ability to give more personally than any TV-network show can. I fully believe Jesus’s words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35, NASB) and “Give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:38, NASB). When we give and create a “culture of gifts,” we build relationships of trust and gratitude. 2. Be passionate Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm. Unless you’re “big media,” you can’t build loyal following without giving enthusiasm. Be passionate over what you’re podcasting about! If you’re not passionate about it (or getting paid a ton of money), then find something else to podcast about. Yes, sometimes the passion will wane, due to current stress, difficulty for developing content, and other reasons. But passion is renewable and contagious. Give your enthusiasm and your listeners will get excited, too. 3. Respond and interact One thing that sets us apart from “big media” is our ability to personally interact with our audience. Don’t forget this! Remember the POD of podcasting (passion, organization, dialog)? Give to your listeners by interacting with them. Share and respond to feedback within your podcast Converse with blog commenters Respond to personal communications: email, tweets, etc. 4. Invite listeners as guests Have you ever considered inviting one of your loyal listeners as a guest? I relied on my loyal listeners to my clean-comedy podcast the Ramen Noodle™ when I was getting married and going on honeymoon. I invited several listeners to join us as guest cohosts and we had a great time and strengthened the community. Yes, you may not have the technology to support an offsite guest cohost, but look for other ways to incorporate your listeners, especially their feedback. 5. Make leaving feedback easy You should already be inviting feedback from your listeners. Although this is something you ask from them, be generous by giving your listeners easy ways to contact and interact with you. Install the CryptX WordPress plugin so you can clearly write your email address instead of “feedback [ at ] noodle.mx” (I hate that!). CryptX will encrypt your email address so bots can’t harvest the address for spam. Avoid Captcha or other cumbersome spam-prevention. Instead, use effective spam-filtering like Akismet, Disqus, or IntenseDebate (my preference). Clearly and slowly speak phone numbers. Clearly and slowly spell ambiguous or difficult-to-spell URLs. Many names and words may not be obvious in their spelling: too, to, two, and 2; effect and affect; John and Jon; etc. Do not require moderation before comments appear. 6. Listen to feedback When someone provides constructive critical feedback, the greatest gift you can give them is your attention and effort to change when necessary. You don’t have to change every detail of your show when someone complains, but consider constructive critical feedback as valuable as gold. Those people have taken time out of their day to generously share something with you (perhaps even one of their “secrets”) that can improve yourself or your work. Respect and appreciate others’ opinions,

We're in the midst of the holidays! Thanksgiving has already passed and Christmas is just a short time away. If you're looking for the right gift for your podcasting friend or family member, or you're a podcaster trying to figure out what you want for ...

The accessibility of podcast shownotes is important, but forgotten by most podcasters. Learn how to make short, easy-to-use URLs with Pretty Link for each of your podcast episodes.

I focus completely on Audacity in this episode! This time, I share a brief explanation of copyright laws for podcasters, where to get music and sound effects, and three ways to work with background music or sound effects in your podcast.

I share a bunch of resources and inspirations for which I'm thankful. This is almost a "how I podcast" episode, but not quite.

Regardless of whether you use WordPress or a different blogging platform or content-management system, how you title your blog posts and, by extension, your podcast episodes greatly affects your searchability and even your usability. These steps will assume that you are using WordPress and heavily rely on permalinks (called "friendly URLs" and similar in other systems). Whether I say "blog post" or "podcast title," I am referring to essentially the same thing. Hire me to design stuff for you! Make your message look great by hiring me to personally design your website, presentation, podcast cover art, and more! Visit D.Joseph Design to view my portfolio and request an estimate. 1. Full episode titles Imagine you downloaded a podcast episode called "Episode 5." Does that tell you anything about the general or specific theme of the episode or the topics covered within it? No! It only tells you that it is an episode and what number it is. Instead, include a full title. Titles can be relevant, like "Shownotes URLs for Search-Engine Optimization" for this episode, or they can be fun and spark curiosity, like those of the Ramen Noodle™ and other light-hearted podcasts. If yours is a more formal podcast covering specific topics, consider a title that reflects this. The title is the first thing people will see about that episode and will influence how they prioritize their listening to your episode. Thus, "Important Announcement" (as I'll reuse later) also tells your listeners nothing about the episode. Why not include the announcement in the title? 2. Front-load the titles I have seen podcasts follow the format, "My Totally Awesome Podcast, SPECIAL EPISODE 5: Important Announcement." Although it may be okay to speak this format within your podcast, it is not good in writing for a couple reasons. Displays poorly and hinders usability Nearly all portable digital audio players don't have enough screen space to display a full episode title, so they probably scroll it. When I have episodes titled as above, then my device will probably dim the screen before it gets to telling me even the episode number, let alone the episode's title. The same goes for computer displays, such as the columns in iTunes, where it may be cut off. Hurts searchability Search engines read content very much the same way that newspapers are written: headline first, first paragraph, subsequent headings. Having an episode title as above means that Google and other search engines will see "My Totally Awesome Podcast" more prevalent than "Important Announcement." Instead, move the title to the front Front-loading titles means moving the important stuff to the front. Like newspaper articles in which the first paragraph is a summary of the article to follow. Treat your titles and blog posts like that. I get emails from mystery shopping places that use a format similar to the above episode title for their subject lines. The problem is I have to always open the email (or just delete it) before I even know what kind of shop is available to perform. You could list your episode title as, "Important Announcement (My Totally Awesome Podcast, Episode 5)," which is nicely front-loaded (of course, make the title more relevant), but that presents another problem, which we will solve next. 3. Abbreviations and episode numbers Sometimes abbreviations are good, many times they are not. However, I think they would be preferred in podcast titles when you need to communicate which podcast it is and the episode number. Instead of "My Totally Awesome Podcast, Episode 5," try "MTAP005: …." This provides chronological sorting for devices that may not properly sort your episodes (my iPod frequently does that) and it tells your listeners which show and episode number it is without taking up a lot of space to do so. 4. Include important, relevant keywords Let's pretend your podcast was acquired by Google and turned into their official podcast.

Ambrosia Software released the much-needed Soundboard 2.0 and I share a brief review, I'm developing a WordPress theme designed specifically for podcasters, I answer Alan Bunt's question about using a compressor/limiter/gate on a Behringer 1204 mixer, ...

Your domain is one of the most-important parts of your branding, and it’s how people will get to your website from anything other than a hyperlink. I share six tips for creating your domain.

Google updated Feedburner with mostly real-time stats, Apple released GarageBand '11, easily get your podcast into Facebook with RSS Graffiti, TechPodcasts Network, Podcast Awards, and a fellow podcaster launches Podcast Starter. Audacity tip: finding answers in the Audacity Wiki.

Subscribe to enough podcasts and you'll see lengths from thirty seconds to two hours and frequencies from multiple times a day to once a month. I share some tips on determining the right balance for your podcast. Audacity tip: how to switch playback and recording devices within Audacity. Hire me to design stuff for you! Make your message look great by hiring me to personally design your website, presentation, podcast cover art, and more! Visit D.Joseph Design to view my portfolio and request an estimate. Feedback I have a lot of emails and voicemails to go through; I promise to respond to them all, but it's taking a little while to sort them out. How frequently should you podcast? Determining how often your podcast (your frequency) is very dependent upon your content. If you talk about a weekly TV show, then it's probably obvious that you should have a weekly podcast. But have you also considered a semiweekly (two a week) episode? Perhaps an initial-reactions episode immediately after the TV show airs, and then a later, more thought-out episode with feedback. Cliff Ravenscraft's Weekly Lost Podcast followed this format. Or maybe you want to be among the first to talk about the latest tech news. Then maybe you should be daily. The late GeekBrief followed this format and did very well. Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing actually podcasts twice a day, because their information depends on what happens overnight before the business day, as well as what happens within the business day. Some podcasts are biweekly, while others are even monthly. Subscribe to any monthly podcast, such as Children's Ministry Monthly, and you'll see that episodes are not released on a consistent schedule. First determine how timely your content must be, and then set a schedule and try to stick with it. A weekly format seems the most popular and easiest to hold with consistency. Once you've picked your frequency, then your can choose your optimal episode length. How long should each podcast episode be? The length of each episode greatly depends on your frequency. Unless you have an extremely loyal following, releasing one-hour episodes every day (under the same podcast, that is) seems overkill. If a subscribe goes on a one-week vacation, they'll return to five hours of that show's content, which can be very hard for catching up. But on the opposite side, a monthly podcast should not necessarily be a two- or four-hour-long episode. It's all right if you record that much content, but break it up into smaller episodes to make it easier on your listeners. The more frequently you update your site, the more Google will love you and the easier it can be to build a faithful audience. Effective splitting Are You Just Watching?™, one of our other podcasts on the Noodle.mx Network, is recorded approximately monthly, but each main episode is split into two parts. We do this while recording by watching our timer and verbally closing the current topic and ending the episode. This is very smooth and friendly on the ears. But you can still look for ways to break up very long episodes by interjecting a split and releasing the episodes separately. Recommendations for episode length The following are my personal opinion, based on what I have heard from many other listeners as well as what seems to work among the most popular podcasts. Podcast frequency Episode length Semidaily 1–5 minutes Daily 1–15 minutes (sometimes 30) Weekly 15–60 minutes (with exceptions) Biweekly 60 minutes Monthly 60–90 minutes Annually This isn't podcasting! As you can see, I highly recommend podcasting no longer than one hour (60 minutes). The sweet spot seems to be 30–45 minutes. It's short enough that many can probably listen during their commute (either one-way or round-trip). However long you decide to make your episodes, have a good reason! Don't let yourself ramble on for two hours in one episode if you regularly release half-hour episodes.

During my honeymoon, I had several episodes of the Ramen Noodle™ and The Audacity to Podcast™ automatically post. How can you prerecord and schedule your episodes to magically post while you are away? I share some tips for workflow, Audacity, and WordPress. This week's Audacity tip is the power of the pause button. Hire me to design stuff for you! Make your message look great by hiring me to personally design your website, presentation, podcast cover art, and more! Visit D.Joseph Design to view my portfolio and request an estimate. Feedback Brian from Small Biz Kaizen shares some constructive critical feedback and raises points that I neglected to mention when I spoke on the need for verbal organization in episode 15. Scott shares a success from advice I gave in episode 12 about getting an analog-to-digital converter for reducing digital interference noise. Scott bought a Syba SD-CM-UAUD USB Stereo Audio Adapter for $10 shipped (now $14 + shipping) and it worked perfectly. Tips for prerecording podcast episodes Be organized and plan ahead. Consider bringing guests onto the show to provide content. When you're in "the zone" could be the best time to prerecord. Name your episodes and write your shownotes immediately after recording. Try to have your shownotes written ahead of time. Keep it simple! The less editing you perform, the quicker you can prerecord your episodes. Consider even allowing a few more "glitches" than you might normally allow. Don't feel like you have to release episodes while you're gone, unless you have contractual obligations. Sometimes a break is nice, and it ensures your listeners won't fall behind (especially around holidays). In fact, iTunes will pause (not unsubscribe) your listeners' subscriptions if they fall behind. Schedule your post in WordPress to automatically post while you're away. Audacity tip: pause while recording Don't forget the power of the pause button! Use it wisely, and you may not need any postproduction! The keyboard shortcut on Windows and OS X is P (for pause). Do you have questions or feedback? Please ask your questions or share your thoughts here in the comments, email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com, or call our listener voicemail line at (903) 231-2221. Also follow me on Twitter and please consider leaving a five-star review for the show in iTunes. You can contact me through the same methods if you're interested in my design, production, or consultation services. If you enjoy The Audacity to Podcast™, please subscribe to our other podcasts on the Noodle.mx Network: Are You Just Watching?™ and the Ramen Noodle™.

I'm back from my wedding and honeymoon, but still settling in with my wife. This is another prerecorded episode that started with a question about podcasting without passion. Please support our content We have expenses for our podcasts. Please look at these options for how you can support us by supporting our sponsors (or outright hiring me). Make your message look great by hiring me to personally design your website, presentation, podcast cover art, and more! Visit D.Joseph Design to view my portfolio and request an estimate. Hold your meetings online for just $49 a month Try GoToMeeting free. Save money by shopping at Amazon.com. Question from Minnie I am getting involved into blogging, video blogging and soon podcasting, but I wonder what I can talk about passionately and not lose motivation. How do you decide on what to podcast about. The POD of Podcasting If you don't remember POD (passion, organization, dialog), then go back and listen to episode 1, "You Need POD to Podcast." Podcasting without passion? Podcasting is all about passion. Unless you're getting paid big bucks, podcasting without passion is doomed to fail. Listeners will like you for your passion, whatever it is. Think about the best salesmen—they're so passionate about their products that it makes you interested, too. That's because enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm. Take the P out of the POD of podcasting, and you'll get just OD—odd to podcast without passion, isn't it? Podcasting without organization? You can have all the passion and dialog in the world, but lacking organization in your thoughts, flow, and even your website can prevent you from growing or even keeping your audience. This doesn't mean edit out all of your mistakes—sometimes a podcast is a whole lot more personal if you leave in the spot where your cat jumped on your computer and it set off all of your sound effects! Spontaneity is wonderful, but you can never been good preparation and organized thoughts. Don't always "wing it." Also try to overcome your verbal crutches to make it easier for people to listen to you. If you podcast without organization, you may be very hard for listening. Podcasting without dialog? People love to talk, especially about themselves. If listeners send you feedback appropriate to share, then share it! Also don't forget direct, personal communication. This whole episode is in answer to Minnie's excellent question. Thus, I am dialoging with one of my listeners. Your show doesn't have to be driven by dialog with your listeners or depending on a cohost, but if you take the D (dialog) out of the POD, then your listeners may just get PO'd. Audacity tip: show clipping Clipping (or peaking) is when your audio is too loud and overloads the system. This causes audio distortion. Fixing this can be tricky, but it's first important for you to see where your audio is clipping. To reveal your audio clipping in Audacity, go to the View menu and click Show Clipping. When audio exceeds the limit and gets clipped, it will now be marked with red. Do you have questions or feedback? Please ask your questions or share your thoughts here in the comments, email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com, or call our listener voicemail line at (903) 231-2221. Also follow me on Twitter and please consider leaving a five-star review for the show in iTunes. You can contact me through the same methods if you're interested in my design, production, or consultation services. If you enjoy The Audacity to Podcast™, please subscribe to our other podcasts on the Noodle.mx Network: Are You Just Watching?™ and the Ramen Noodle™.

While I'm on my honeymoon, I have a two-part conversation with Fred Casteneda, a podcasting machine! We talk about his passion, organization, and dialog in his podcasting empire. This is part 2 of our previous conversation. Please support our content We have expenses for our podcasts. Please look at these options for how you can support us by supporting our sponsors (or outright hiring me). Make your message look great by hiring me to personally design your website, presentation, podcast cover art, and more! Visit D.Joseph Design to view my portfolio and request an estimate. Hold your meetings online for just $49 a month Try GoToMeeting free. Save money by shopping at Amazon.com. About Fred Castaneda Fred Castaneda is an Entrepreneur in the area of Podcasting, New Media, Social Media, as well as Personal Productivity and Time Management. He is currently the President of Matrix Solutions Corporation and has been a marketing consultant for the Small Business community. After retiring from IBM, with over 31 years of experience in Marketing, Sales, Training, Podcasting, Video, New Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, he has also led several start-up firms since 1981. Fred has several podcast series, including The Struggling Entrepreneur, as well as a Personal Productivity Course called Gain Control of Your Day. He also has also done audio narration of several published books at www.PremiumCast.com. Fred is currently the Managing Director for the program Finance-For-Startups at www.finance4startups.com. He is also a senior partner for the Joint Venture called Entrepreneur-Tools-Online. Fred has been a speaker at the 2009 Social Media Telesummit, as well as the 2009 and 2010 ProductCamp user-generated conferences (aka “unconferences”), as well as various PodCamps and e-lance-Camps since 2006 in Arizona, San Antonio, California and other venues. He is a currently a PhD. Candidate in International Business, and he received both his M.B.A and B.A. degrees at Loyola University of Los Angeles. In the past 25 years, Fred has taught and spoken at various universities and colleges in subjects ranging from Foreign Currency Devaluations of International Business to high-tech directions in Personal Computing. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Fred served several tours as an Airborne Infantry paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was later an educator and instructor for the Airborne’s Recondo School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after a combat tour of duty in Vietnam. In addition to business-, productivity- and Entrepreneur-focused podcasts, Fred also publishes free podcasts to support the community of veterans’ organizations, as well as disadvantaged combat Veterans (such as http://www.cibaustin.org and http://www.82ndabndivalamo.org). In addition to his military, technical and sales careers, Fred also taught Dance at Loyola University and was the director of the performing Grupo Folklorico there. His free educational podcast of Arriba! Folklorico music and dance of Mexico covers the music and dance of the native and mestizo themes with a mixture of culture and entertainment. Fred's podcasts Struggling Entrepreneur Gain Control of your Day (companion podcast) Gain control of your day PREMIUM podcast (6-month course seminar) Arriba! Folklorico Music and Dance of Mexico Austin Podcasters Meetup podcast Entrepreneur iPad users meetup podcast Community of Five podcast and main blog Entrepreneur Tools Online and main blog Jungle Warriors (premium content like an audiobook from the published work by Bobby Briscoe) Casablanca to VE-day: A paratroopers' memoirs (premium content like an audiobook from the published work by Darrell G. Harris) Finance for Startups free companion podcast Finance for Startups premium podcast (7-week course seminar) 82nd Airborne Division Association podcast Combat infantrymen's Association podcast No live shows for a while I got married!

While I'm on my honeymoon, I have a two-part conversation with Fred Casteneda, a podcasting machine! We talk about his passion, organization, and dialog in his podcasting empire. Please support our content We have expenses for our podcasts. Please look at these options for how you can support us by supporting our sponsors (or outright hiring me). Make your message look great by hiring me to personally design your website, presentation, podcast cover art, and more! Visit D.Joseph Design to view my portfolio and request an estimate. Hold your meetings online for just $49 a month Try GoToMeeting free. Save money by shopping at Amazon.com. About Fred Castaneda Fred Castaneda is an Entrepreneur in the area of Podcasting, New Media, Social Media, as well as Personal Productivity and Time Management. He is currently the President of Matrix Solutions Corporation and has been a marketing consultant for the Small Business community. After retiring from IBM, with over 31 years of experience in Marketing, Sales, Training, Podcasting, Video, New Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, he has also led several start-up firms since 1981. Fred has several podcast series, including The Struggling Entrepreneur, as well as a Personal Productivity Course called Gain Control of Your Day. He also has also done audio narration of several published books at www.PremiumCast.com. Fred is currently the Managing Director for the program Finance-For-Startups at www.finance4startups.com. He is also a senior partner for the Joint Venture called Entrepreneur-Tools-Online. Fred has been a speaker at the 2009 Social Media Telesummit, as well as the 2009 and 2010 ProductCamp user-generated conferences (aka “unconferences”), as well as various PodCamps and e-lance-Camps since 2006 in Arizona, San Antonio, California and other venues. He is a currently a PhD. Candidate in International Business, and he received both his M.B.A and B.A. degrees at Loyola University of Los Angeles. In the past 25 years, Fred has taught and spoken at various universities and colleges in subjects ranging from Foreign Currency Devaluations of International Business to high-tech directions in Personal Computing. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Fred served several tours as an Airborne Infantry paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was later an educator and instructor for the Airborne’s Recondo School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after a combat tour of duty in Vietnam. In addition to business-, productivity- and Entrepreneur-focused podcasts, Fred also publishes free podcasts to support the community of veterans’ organizations, as well as disadvantaged combat Veterans (such as http://www.cibaustin.org and http://www.82ndabndivalamo.org). In addition to his military, technical and sales careers, Fred also taught Dance at Loyola University and was the director of the performing Grupo Folklorico there. His free educational podcast of Arriba! Folklorico music and dance of Mexico covers the music and dance of the native and mestizo themes with a mixture of culture and entertainment. Fred's podcasts Struggling Entrepreneur Gain Control of your Day (companion podcast) Gain control of your day PREMIUM podcast (6-month course seminar) Arriba! Folklorico Music and Dance of Mexico Austin Podcasters Meetup podcast Entrepreneur iPad users meetup podcast Community of Five podcast and main blog Entrepreneur Tools Online and main blog Jungle Warriors (premium content like an audiobook from the published work by Bobby Briscoe) Casablanca to VE-day: A paratroopers' memoirs (premium content like an audiobook from the published work by Darrell G. Harris) Finance for Startups free companion podcast Finance for Startups premium podcast (7-week course seminar) 82nd Airborne Division Association podcast Combat infantrymen's Association podcast No live shows for a while I got married! Although I will have prerecorded episodes still released on a schedule,