Making Great First Impressions! New Logo Coming Soon!

I’ve been consulting for a few years now and I’ve helped several hundred podcasters improve the audio quality of their podcast by leaps and bounds. However, my podcast consulting has never been limited to audio equipment and production. I do a lot of consulting on personal branding and how to build community around what you do with all your new media efforts.

Here’s something that I share often with my clients. I think it’s extremely important to have a high level of audio quality. However, for 99% of your audience, the first impression of your show is not going to be the sound of your podcast, it’s going to be the LOOK of your podcast. Let me explain.

There are many places people may find your podcast. Looking at my client’s and my own Google Analytics, it is clear that the two main sources of traffic to a podcast are Google and iTunes. When people find your podcast in one of these two places, the first thing people are going to see is either your website or your iTunes listing page.

Just look at this sample from an iTunes search and notice how the image of the podcast, OR LACK THEREOF, jumps out at you when browsing the list of shows…

Out of the ten podcasts listed above, only four of them have, what I would consider to be, a decent podcast artwork graphic for their show (Podcast Answer Man, MBA Working Girl, NAPL Workflows, and Train For Top Dollar). Notice how CIO Talk Radio doesn’t even have a logo, they just have the default iTunes image. I hesitate to point it out, but the “Fire Your Tech Guy in 15 minutes” podcast should have let the tech guy work another 30 minutes longer to produce a decent graphic for his podcast.

The point is this. I believe that your content is King! Though I don’t think any King should go through live without a QUEEN for your podcast which is your AUDIO QUALITY! Extending your brand doesn’t stop with compelling content that sounds great. You really should consider the LOOK of your website as well as the look of your artwork that displays in iTunes.

I’m constantly trying to “IMPROVE” the look of my brands. This is why I’ve hired my great friend, and a former sponsor of Podcast Answer Man podcast, Evan Agee, of Agee Design, to create a more professional looking logo for my Podcast Answer Man brand.

I sent him some ideas of what I was looking for and here’s a few concepts that he sent my way.

I’ve already sent Evan some thoughts on how I’d like to combine elements of two of the above concepts to create a logo that I think will look great. I’m very excited about this because I have plenty of new things that I’m working on behind the scenes and I wanted to have this new logo for all these new products and branding initiatives that I’m working on.

Are you looking to extend your brand? Are you looking for ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your podcasting efforts? I’m available for one on one consulting. Simply email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or pick up the phone and call me at 859-757-1399.

137 Podcast Answer Man – Broadcast Host Vs Telos One

Yet Another Video Episode

Podcast Answer Man Episode 137
Broadcast Host v/s Telos One

I break out my Kodak Zi8 once again to bring you this very brief episode with my thoughts of how the JK Audio Broadcast Host compares to the Telos One Digital Hybrid (Both of which are available for purchase through me).

Here’s the video: [Read more]

Is Talent Over Rated? Why You Just Need To Get Out There!

This morning, I came across a video on YouTube that carries a message that I feel strongly about as a podcast consultant. Let me explain…

Many of my clients today ask me, “Cliff, did you always want to be on the radio?” or “Cliff, did you go to some sort of school for broadcasting?” Better yet are the folks who say “Cliff, you have a natural talent for podcasting.”

See, when my clients listen to any of my recent podcast episodes, they here a confident show host who seems to know what he’s doing and who has learned to communicate well. And when they learn that I actually don’t do a SINGLE BIT OF EDITING on my shows, they are simply blown away.

Now this post isn’t here for me to share with you about how great people say I am. Not at all! In fact, the point that I want to make here is that while I will admit there is a foundation that was laid by some core talents, what makes my podcasts what they are today is not based so much on talent, but more so on experience.

Let me give you an example. Click the play button here and listen to just the first two minutes of this recent episode of Podcast Answer Man.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Now, click the play button here and listen to just the first two minutes of this very first podcast episode I ever recorded.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I hope you noticed just a little bit of a difference there. I’m not going to go into great detail here in this post, because I really believe this video has a lot to say and I think you’ll pick up on it.

Here’s the video: [Read more]

By Far The Best Podcast Promo I’ve Seen To Date!

When consulting with my clients for audio podcasting, I often tell them about the importance of using other social networking tools and broadcast channels to get the word out about your brand. I think it’s great to focus a lot of attention on your audio podcast. I certainly prefer to consume audio content as I have more time that I devote to audio than I can any other form of media. However, it’s important that we audio podcasters not neglect written blog posts, like this one. There’s great value in using video, occasionally, to continue to draw an audience to your audio podcast.

Another valuable tool for promoting your audio podcast is creating a short promo that can be used by your audience to promote your podcast. It is with great enthusiasm that I share this YouTube video with you. It is a perfect example of what we podcasters should be doing to branch out and tell others about our audio content.

Here’s the video: [Read more]

How Kindle For PC Will Help My Podcasting Efforts

I’ve been a huge fan of the Kindle for iPhone application ever since it came out. I do not own a Kindle personally. In fact, I don’t even desire to own a Kindle. Why? Because I actually love reading books on my iPhone. I can change the text size in such a way that it makes it a perfect device for me to burn through pages of books whenever I have a few minutes of free time here and there.

A while back, the Kindle for iPhone app added the functionality to both add highlight and take notes on any section within a book. This was a major improvement above simply “bookmarking” a page.

This is important to me, because my major gripe about reading a book digitally was that I couldn’t highlight it and write notes in the margin like I could with a paper book. This functionality gave me the ability to do both.

So why am I so excited about the Kindle for the PC? It’s because I often want to share a quote from a book in a podcast. As much as I enjoy reading a book on the iPhone, trying to share quotes from books, on the iPhone, while talking into a microphone is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Kindle for the PC saves the day!

The Kindle for the pc does not, yet, allow you to add notes and highlight sections of books, though that functionality is coming soon. However, because the Kindle for the PC will sync with my Amazon Account just like my Kindle for iPhone will, I’m able to VIEW all the bookmarks, notes, and highlights that I made in the iPhone on my PC.

Here is an example of a highlighted page:

Here is an example of a note I entered:

You can bet I’ll be sharing a great deal more insights from the books I’m reading in my podcasts. I’m very excited.

You can download Kindle for PC right now by Clicking Here.

134 Podcast Answer Man – Video – Studio Tour

Special Video Episode

Podcast Answer Man Episode 134
gspn.tv Studio Tour

It’s not very often that I put a video episode into the Podcast Answer Man podcast feeds, let alone a 30 minute one. However, the community has been begging for a video tour of the gspn.tv studio for the longest time.

Until recently, I’ve never been happy with the video quality that I’ve got with my video projects. That has all changed now with my Kodak Zi8 pocket HD Camera.

In this video, I explain how I use each computer in my studio as well as show you the the equipment that I make use of in my podcast productions. [Read more]

Next Page »