The Audacity to Podcast

Recording problems can result in noisy, corrupted, or missing audio. Test before anything important! Here are solutions to these common podcasting problems. Missing audio Corrupted audio Noise Volume Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and show notes at https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/273 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

iTunes is the largest podcast directory and it powers many podcast apps. Here's how to fix the most common podcasting problems you may face with iTunes. Directory information All the information about your podcast in iTunes (title, descriptions, episode, cover art, copyright, etc.) is pulled from your RSS feed. Thus, to change how your podcast is listed in the iTunes store, you need to change the information in your RSS feed. This would be in FeedBurner only if you're using the horrible "SmartCast" feature. Otherwise, make the changes where the feed is being generated. Ratings, reviews, ranking, and related podcasts are maintained by Apple, and you can't change them. Missing the latest episode I'm quite certain this is the most common iTunes issue podcasters complain about. They'll publish a new episode and then look at their iTunes listing only to see the latest episode isn't there yet. DON'T PANIC! First, if the episode downloads fine for you (subscribed to your own podcast) and others, then there's probably nothing wrong. People are subscribed directly to your RSS feed, so it doesn't matter whether iTunes displays the latest episode in the store. Your subscribers will still download it automatically according to their app's settings. iTunes caches everything, so it can sometimes take up to 24 hours for a new episode to appear. However, iTunes also learns your publishing frequency and may update your podcast more quickly around the time you consistently publish a new episode. If you've waited at least 24 hours, login to Podcasts Connect with the Apple ID you used to submit your podcast, click on your podcast and click to refresh your feed. Then wait another 24 hours. If your iTunes listing still hasn't updated, there may be a different problem with your feed causing issues with iTunes. Libsyn has seen this to most commonly be the podcast cover art. See the next section for tips on fixing that. But if the latest episode doesn't download, then you may need to fix common podcast RSS feed problems. Podcast cover art hasn't updated If you changed your podcast cover art but it hasn't updated, yet, in iTunes. It could be one of several issues. * Broken URL—This is the basic "Did you turn it on?" issue, but it could still be a problem. Ensure the URL actually works. I recommend opening a private/incognito browser window to check. * Time—Wait at least 24 hours. If it still hasn't updated, login to Podcasts Connect with the Apple ID you used to submit your podcast, and refresh your feed. Then wait another 24 hours. * File size—This is the most common problem I see. The image file needs to be smaller than 512 KB for iTunes to be able to process it. Try extra image compression, smoother or no textures, or fewer colors to get the file size smaller. * Filename and URL—iTunes will only know to update the image if the URL has changed. This could be automatically changed if your image URL has a date. But I still recommend changing the file name. It could be as simply as adding a version number or year to the file. * Pixel dimensions—Your cover art should be at least 1,400 × 1,400 or at most 3,000 × 3,000. Anything outside that may cause issues. * Image hosting—Where your podcast cover art is hosted must support HTTP HEAD requests. Most web-hosting and all podcast-hosting companies support this. But file-sharing tools may not. * Color format—Images must be 16-bit RGB.

If your RSS feed breaks, your podcast breaks. So here are the most common RSS problems you may face in podcasting and how to fix them. Validation errors Inaccessible feed Timeouts Missing episodes Accidental redownloads Vote for our shows in the Podcast Awards! https://noodle.mx/podcastawards Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and show notes at https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/271 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

Because your RSS feed is the life of your podcast, where you host it is crucial for ownership and control. Here are some things to consider for whether you should host your feed yourself. Feed ownership and hosting are hotly debated among podcast-hosting companies. Each side has some valid arguments, and I'll address more of those shortly. It often comes down to two things: ownership and reliability. Ultimately, the choice is yours to make, and here are some things to consider. 4 reasons you may not want to host your own podcast RSS feed 1. Website stability 2. Bandwidth requirements 3. Feed volatility 4. Dangers on shared hosting 4 reasons you may want to host your own podcast RSS feed 1. Ownership 2. Total control 3. Simple workflow 4. Extendability Vote for our shows in the Podcast Awards! https://noodle.mx/podcastawards Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and show notes at https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/270 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast.com MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

RSS is the core to distributing your podcast. Here's why the RSS size matters, what affects the feed size, and how to reduce the size of your podcast RSS feed. Why the size of the podcast RSS feed matters 1. Feed size matters for mobile data usage 2. Feed size matters for speed 3. Self-hosted feed size matters for your server 4. Some tools limit the size of your RSS feed What affects the feed size 5 ways to reduce the size of your RSS feed 1. Enable GZIP compression 2. Use a podcast-only RSS feed 3. Activate PowerPress's "Feed Episode Maximizer" 4. Switch the feed from full content to summaries 5. Simplify formatting 6. Reduce the post/episode limit Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and show notes at https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/269 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

When changing directions in podcasting, should you rebrand your existing podcast and keep your audience, or launch a new podcast and start over from nothing? Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and show notes at https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/268 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

Feeling frustrated or overwhelmed with your podcasting tasks? You may need to delegate in order to improve! Delegation doesn't have to cost money. So get all the way to the end where I'll share some suggestions how where to find help. Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! Get the full links and shownotes here. FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from https://theaudacitytopodcast.com MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

Effective podcasting can be hard work. When hard things come, you may feel like giving up. Here are the hardest things you may face, and some tips for overcoming them. Starting Negative feedback Controversy Continuing Improving Ending Please nominate 3 of our top podcasts in the Podcast Awards! Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! Get the full links and shownotes here. FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from https://theaudacitytopodcast.com MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

Nearly every podcaster wants a bigger audience. Simply promoting your podcast isn't good enough, you need to actually grow your audience. These five methods will give you the best podcasting growth! 1. Make a great show 2. Leverage your relationships and influence 3. Get others talking about your show 4. Invest where your ideal audience is 5. Be noteworthy Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society. Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically!, Get the full links and shownotes here. FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from https://theaudacitytopodcast.com MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

Your podcast needs its own website in order to be successful. Here’s how to choose the right Internet home for your podcasting needs. 1. Figure out your needs and goals How you host your website should really be determined by what you need in order to accomplish your goals. Here are a few questions to ask yourself. * Do you need to sell anything from your website? * Do you need freedom and flexibility to do whatever you want on your site? * Do you want to manage everything about your podcast in the same place? * How much can you afford to spend each month? * If you’re moving hosts, what do you need that your old host didn’t provide? Choosing your hosting isn’t a lifelong commitment, but you’ll be more likely to make the right choice when you think about these and other things before you choose the solution. 2. Choose your content-management system (CMS) The content-management system (CMS) you choose can make it easy or impossible to meet your goals. The best answer is not always “WordPress”! If you don’t want to manage plugins and updates, but you want the familiarity of WordPress, consider PowerPress Sites or Rainmaker Platform. These are both built on WordPress and offer most of the features you could use, but they’re backed with professionally optimized and managed hosting. If you need something cheaper, consider WordPress.com, but it lacks podcasting optimizations. If you would rather try a different CMS, Squarespace has drastically improved in its podcasting support. I can’t recommend any other hosted CMS provides (Wix, Weebly, etc.), but if you must use them, manage your podcast feed with third-party hosting from Libsyn or Spreaker (and use promo code “noodle” for a free month). If you want total freedom with your podcast website, then I recommend “self-hosted” WordPress on a shared server or better. 3. Know your “budgets” Everything costs; if it doesn’t cost money, it costs time or skill. If you have no time, skill, or desire to manage your website backend, then consider managed WordPress hosting or another professionally hosted CMS. If you can’t afford the higher costs of professionally managed options, but you need better performance, consider running your own virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated server. And if you simply need to get started and you’re okay digging into technical stuff a little, then WordPress on shared hosting may be right for you, and at the lowest costs of anything. When you consider your budgets, remember that it’s not only money. Some hosting solutions could cost $150 per month, but they provide amazing performance and support, which might be worth it to you. Other solutions could be only $5 per month, but you have to manage some things (or everything) yourself. 4. Ask others for recommendations When you know what you need, I recommend staying away from hosting review websites. These are often ranked based on affiliate deals. And it’s usually the disgruntled customers who speak up. Ask people you trust for their recommendations. And here’s something else other people will love: ask for someone’s affiliate link. Here are my recommendations as of February, 2016*: * Shared hosting:

2015 was a huge year for The Audacity to Podcast! Here are my plans for what I’ll be doing to help podcasters in 2016. Podcasters’ Society In 2016 and beyond, Podcasters’ Society will be my primary business and podcasting focus. This exclusive community for podcasters will receive more tutorials, tools, and other resources to help them improve and grow their shows. With Podcasters’ Society as my new top priority, I no longer offer design or podcast-setup services (though I can refer you to someone else). I’ll continue to offer RSS repair and one-on-one consulting, but at higher rates to match the increased value. My Podcast Reviews Nearly 1,000 podcasters are saving time and getting their international podcast reviews delivered automatically by using My Podcast Reviews. It’s the first and best online service of its kind, and it even now has copycats! We’re already testing the next updates to My Podcast Reviews. These updates will make the service faster, easier, and offer new features. More courses SEO for Podcasters was extremely well received! In 2016, I’ll be making more courses to help starting and existing podcasters. The beginner and intermediate courses will be available first and free to Podcasters’ Society Gold members. * How to use a mixer * How to start a podcast * And several tool-specific courses New studio In 2015, I announced plans to move to Arizona, but my wife and I have since decided to stay in the greater Cincinnati area. Thus, we’re looking for a new house and I’ll be building a new studio/office onsite and documenting the process. In the meantime, I’m renting commercial space nearby and love having the extra flexibility. Batching To help me focus more on my higher priorities, I’m planning to start batch-recording The Audacity to Podcast. I’ll probably do it 4–5 episodes at a time, which would give me a month of content. More from my podcast network In January, 2016, we’re launching a Christian-focused podcast on Noodle.mx Network. During the rest of the year, I’ll be rebranding the network and bringing in more clean podcasts that fit with our new focus. Thank you for the podcast reviews!Your written iTunes reviews encourage me and they help other people find the podcast. If you appreciate the podcasting information I share, please write your own review on iTunes or Stitcher! Check out My Podcast Reviews to get your own podcast reviews automatically emailed to you and learn how to grow your audience with reviews! Announcements * Join me and Brian from ProfitCast for a live, free webinar on January 28, 2016! We’ll share “Why You Must Profit from Podcasting and How to Do It.”

It's the new year and this is a time for many New Year's resolutions. Here are five podcasting resolutions I suggest for your podcast in the coming 365 days (even if it's not New Year's Day). 1. Resolve to publish consistently 2. Resolve to improve 3. Resolve to grow your audience 4. Resolve to attend a relevant, in-person event 5. Resolve to do something new and bold Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and shownotes at http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/249 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

There are givers, takers, and wasters all around us. Which one are you and your podcast? Good podcasts will always have an appropriate proportion of giving and taking. But my focus, here, is to explore whether you are being a giver, taker, or waster. Are you a podcasting giver? A giver seeks to bestow good on others before or without receiving anything in return. Podcasting givers have the shows we love. They provide valuable content, episode after episode; they interact to the best of their limited availability, and they are regularly looking for how they can give bigger or better. This doesn’t mean a podcasting giver will never receive something in return. Quite the contrary, you will often see the biggest givers have also received the most. Giving starts with recognizing what you have been given; it comes from a heart of gratefulness. Giving doesn’t have to cost money. Instead, it could cost time, knowledge, happiness, and more. What do you give with your podcast? Are you a podcasting taker? A taker seeks to have good bestowed upon themselves, often before or without giving to others. Podcasting takers may provide good content; their purpose is not to give, but to take from others. They want fame or fortune (not bad in themselves) and they focus selfishly on those pursuits. Takers usually fixate on what you can do for them. They ask for things upfront, they focus most on themselves, and they don’t often leave positive impressions. Takers are easy to spot at networking events. They’re the people who start handing out business cards at the beginning of the conversation (sometimes without even participating!). It’s okay to take or receive. But evaluate your podcast to see whether its focus is on giving or on taking. Are you a podcasting waster? A waster is neither giving nor taking. They may not even be seeking anything in particular. No positive or negative energy comes from this kind of person. They simply waste what they have and waste what is given to them. Podcasting wasters are often without direction. They usually don’t give value, don’t engage, and don’t bring anything unique to the world. I’ve listened to “waster” podcasts before. There was no value—no entertaining or helpful content. Such shows usually seemed like people talking about nothing. Wasters may desire much, but “they have not because they ask not” (James 4:2, paraphrased). You can change! Ideally, we should all be givers in podcasting. But don’t think that means you can’t profit! There’s plenty to profit by being a giver! You may not be a giver right now. You may be a taker or even a waster. But you can change, if you want to. It takes work to change, and it starts with your recognizing where you are and where you want to be. Podcasters’ Society is not for takers who are interested in podcasting only to make money. Podcasters’ Society is for givers or those who want to become givers and see the bigger vision of “profit.” To get you started, join our free webinar on January 28, 2016, with Brian from ProfitCast. We’ll talk about what podcasting profit really is and how to get it. Thank you for the podcast reviews!Your written iTunes reviews encourage me and they help other people find the podcast. If you appreciate the podcasting information I share, please write your own review on iTunes or Stitcher!

Discovery may not be the biggest problem you face in growing your podcast. It could be that your podcast isn't easy! Here are 8 podcasting tips to help. 1. Make it easier to play 2. Make it easier to hear 3. Make it easier to subscribe 4. Make it easier to contact 5. Make it easier to share 6. Make it easier to support 7. Make it easier to engage 8. Make it easier to find Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and shownotes at http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/241 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005

There are controversial issues in every industry, including those covered by podcasting. Remember "LAURA" when you need to discuss controversy in your podcast. 1. Listen 2. Acknowledge 3. Understand 4. Respect 5. Accept Grow your podcast from average to amazing™ in Podcasters' Society: https://PodcastersSociety.com/ Get your international podcast reviews from iTunes and Stitcher automatically! https://MyPodcastReviews.com/ Links and shownotes at http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/246 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005