Podcast Answer Man Episode 117
Geeks Radio

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In this episode, I talk with Ryan Courtade, founder of GeeksRadio.fm. I share an amazing opportunity available to podcasters that will not last long. After hearing this episode, if you wish to be considered for syndication on the GeeksRadio.fm stream, you need to email Ryan today! Make sure that you mention that you heard about him through The Podcast Answer Man.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 116
Audio Levels And A Lot More

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In this episode I cover the following….

* I talk just briefly about Podcamp Ohio.

* I explain why I think all podcasters should be excited about the release of the OS 3.0 software for the iPhone, even if you don’t own an iPhone yourself.

* I answer a question from Rick in Wisconsin regarding why some podcasts have a much lower volume level than others.

* I answer a question from Nick who wants some advice on ways to possibly record a podcast while commuting to work.

* I answer a question from Steve who wants some advice about what to do when his co-host on Skype seems to be over modulated.

* I answer a question from Jeff who wants to know how I monitor my own audio when doing Skype interviews.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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You can download the theme by CLICKING HERE.

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 115
All About Wordpress

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In this episode, I have a great conversation with Mitch Canter from StudioNashVegas.com. The focus of our conversation is about using Wordpress not only as a blog, but as an overall solution for your website.

Here is the list of Wodress Plugins that we discussed during the show:

C Forms
http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin

Life Stream
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lifestream/

Yet Another Related Post Plugin
http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/

Stumble For Wordpress
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stumble-for-wordpress/

WP Greetbox
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-greet-box/

Google Analyticator
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analyticator/

Google XML Site Map
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

All In One SEO
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

fotobook
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2254862517

Facebook Connect
http://www.sociable.es/facebook-connect/

BB Press
http://bbpress.org/

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 114
Show Some Love

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In This Episode:
* Some audio feedback from Evan Agee talking about the benefits of using the word “podcast” in your site’s url.
* Answer to some questions sent in by David Herron regarding some insights into my production process.
* Slight discussion about using an outline v/s a script for your show.
* Some ideas on how to reduce the need of editing out the “ums” in your podcast.
* The awesomeness of the Pretty Link Plugin for Wordpress.
* Wayne Henderson and I discuss what he and Jeff Roney have been up to regarding a concept they’re calling “Show A Podcaster Some Love.”

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 113
Artwork And Domain Names

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In This Episode:
I give some advice on business and podcast website design.
My affiliate account for OverNightPrints.com is now active.
I give some thoughts on choosing a domain name for your site

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 112
An Example of Podcasting With Purpose

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In This Episode:

First off, I want to remind you to REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR that is coming up this weekend.

In the last episode, I shared with you the idea of podcasting with a purpose. In this episode, I give you an example of what this sort of thing actually looks like by sharing a recent episode of my newly re-branded podcasts called “Pursuing A Balanced Life.”

There are a few things about this episode that I think podcasters might find interesting. Here are a few things to consider when listening

*Notice the transition sound effect when I fade into the episode that I share with you.

*Notice the amazing audio quality of the Edirol R-09HR audio recorder – Available for purchase through me.

*Notice out I used the voice mail feedback line to play audio from a listener and interacted with him during the recording of the content.

*Notice the fact that you don’t have to be “in studio” to record a podcast. Many of my listeners enjoy the ambient noises of me being outside more than sounding great in the studio.

*Notice the use of Social Media Tools to help brand your show. Seriously, CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLEM.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcasting With Purpose
And Rebranding Shows!

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In this episode:
Valuable information about voice mail for podcasters!
Ambient Sounds set the stage!
Bloopers – Keeping It Real!
Should Podcasting Sound Like Radio?
Podcasting With Purpose
Rebranding Shows
REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR!

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man 110
RSS Feed Limits? Webinar Announcement!

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In this episode, I answer a question about why I have over 100 episodes of my Podcast Answer Man podcast in my rss feed, while I only have 15 episodes of my various other shows’ rss feeds. Is there a limit on the number of shows you can put in one rss feed? What do you do with old episodes when you have hundreds of episodes?

Also, in this episode, I tell you all about the Podcast Production Setup and Workflow Webinar. You don’t want to miss this webinar as this will be the most comprehensive two hour webinar I’ve done to date. It will be held on Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 7:00 PM EDT. If you would like to attend, please do Click Here To Register Now.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man 109
Edirol Recorder and Voice Mail Options

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In this episode, I answer some questions from one of my clients who has recently ordered a few pieces of audio gear from me. He’s considering the purchase of the Edirol R-09HR recorder and wanted to know if I recommended that he should use an external mic when doing interviews.

I share a few sample recordings using the Edirol with and without an external microphone. In the example where I do use an external microphone, I’m using the Electrovoice RE50/B microphone. Both the Edirol and the Mic are available for purchase through me!
I take consulting requests and equipment sales directly from you at 859-757-1399.

Also in this episode, I share three options for having a Voice Mail Feedback Line. The first two options, J2.com and K7.net are free services. The third service, which is the one that I use, is BroadVoice.com. If you choose to sign up with BroadVoice, please use my listener feedback line as the number that referred you to them. My Voice Mail Number with them is 859-795-4067.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man 108
Carrie Runnals from Words To Mouth

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In this episode, I have the honor of interviewing Carrie Runnals from The DivaCast and Words To Mouth Podcast. I know many of you are inspired by the stories and insights of other podcasters and Carrie is one of those people who is really passionate about what she podcasts about. This to me is among the greatest traits that any podcaster can have.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 107
Marketing Your Podcast

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In this email, I share a direct message that I received from my friend, Daniel Johnson, Jr. He had provided me a link to this wonderful blog entry from Seth Godin. That of course inspired some additional thoughts on my mindset related to marketing your podcast.

Also in this episode, I answer a few listener questions. Steve McQueen from MCNationPodcast.com asked about placing a TalkShoe recording and putting it on your own podcast site. I also gave just a brief example of the sound of the JK Audio Broadcast Host. Finally, I took two calls from Tess from London, England regarding Wordpress and iTunes.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 106
Handling Critical Feedback

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In this episode, I share three of the most recent critical feedback emails that I’ve received. Two of the three had a very negative tone with the criticisms. In each of these three examples, I share how it is possible to turn these types of emails into an opportunity to build a relationship. It’s not always possible to do this. However, when it comes to building community, it is important to understand that it really does happen one person at a time.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 105
The Personal Touch

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In this episode, discuss the different approach to podcasters being available to their audiences. I also share some thoughts about using headphones to monitor your audio levels while recording. A few other items thrown in there as well.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 104
Phone Interviews And Skype

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In this episode, I answer a question about the use of Skype Out to record phone interviews for a podcast. I give my thoughts on this type of recording and other possible solutions.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 103
Blogs And Podcasts Combined

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In this episode, I spend some time answering a question about using a single installation of wordpress to combine both your blog and your podcast.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 102
Podcamp Nashville Review & My Talk

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In this episode, I share my thoughts about Podcamp Nashville 2009. I also share the talk that I gave during the my time there. Of course I mention it in the episode, but I just want to say that I thought it was an awesome event. The location and style was perfect this year and I had the opportunity to connect with a lot of great people from the Nashville area and other from other places as well.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 101
Tascam DR-07 Video Review

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In this episode, I provide you a video review of the Tascam DR-07, which you can purchase by either emailing me at Cliff@gspn.tv or calling me at the number listed at the top of my equipment page.

Video Review Here:

Please note that in episode 100, I provided an audio review of this same unit.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 100
Tascam DR-07 Audio Review

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In this episode, I provide you an audio review of the Tascam DR-07, which you can purchase by either emailing me at Cliff@gspn.tv or calling me at the number listed at the top of my equipment page.

Please note that in episode 101, I’ll be providing a very in depth video review of this same unit.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 099
Feedburner/Google Server Transition

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In this episode, I share my updated thoughts of the Feeedburner/Google sever transfer. I mention the January 19th blog post where I personally suggested waiting to do the transfer.

I’m happy to announce that Google seems to have resolved most every issue that anyone had reported up to this point with the exception of those who are using Yahoo Pipes as their source rss feed. In the episode, I personally give a green light and say that making the transition seem to be a pretty seamless one at this point.

Feedburner MyBrand Users:
For those who are using the MyBrand feature of Feedburner. Google is reporting that “After transferring your account, you will be sent an email with instructions on how to change MyBrand. You can also get these instructions on the MyAccount page after the transfer.”

You will be required to change your DNS CNAME to the Google hosted domain service, the same service that handles custom domains for Google applications like Blogger and Google Apps for Your Domain. Please note that the CNAME will no longer be the same domain as the domain that serves feeds, but the service level and functionality will be identical.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man 098
Interviewed By Mark Hunter

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In this episode, I’m interviewed by Mark Hunter from the Social Media Podcast.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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A talk with James Paolantonio of
XZapps iPhone Apps.

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In this episode, I have a talk with the man who designed my gspn.tv iPhone Application. In our discussion, you’ll learn that version 2.0 of the gspn.tv app is coming soon with the ability to download episodes. Also, James is making an announcement that he has a new site, linked above, where you can get your own iPhone application for your podcast.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a paid endorsement and while using promo code “answerman” will get you a 10% discount on the creation of your iPhone app, should you choose to order one, we do not get any sort of a commission from your purchase.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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A talk with Chef Mark Tafoya of
Culinary Media Network.

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Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man
Episode 095 – Girls Night In Radio

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In this episode, I interview the girls from Girls Night In Radio. A podcast that was started by girls who had met one another as a result of the gspn.tv community.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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I’ve decided that it was time to refresh the series. Episode one is the same as the old episode, basically asking people to give themselves a week before just giving up. Episode two is similar to one of the original episodes, explaining how to stop all those annoying Facebook emails. Episode three is brand new content, explaining how slowly put an end to all those annoying Facebook applications requests.

More refreshed episodes and new content will be coming soon. Of course you can subscribe to the podcast feed using the buttons below.

You can Subscribe To Facebook 101 With These Buttons:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

Here’s the first three videos:

Episode 1 – Give It One Week!

Episode 2 – Stop The Facebook Emails!

Episode 3 -Annoying Facebook Application Requests

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A Talk With Joe Lamp’l
Growing A Greener World Podcast

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In this episode, I have one of my consulting clients join me during a 24 hours podcast marathon that we did to celebrate our third anniversary in podcasting my first year of doing podcasting full time as a career.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man #93
With Liberty And Justice For All

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In this episode, I talk with Stephen Cross, as gspn.tv community member who created one of the best new podcasts in 2008. You must check out With Liberty And Justice For All to see a very creative approach to podcasting!

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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A talk with Father Roderick from SQPN.com

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In this episode, I am joined via skype with one of my all time favorite podcasters, Father Roderick. We talk about many aspects of podcasting, from technology to the community.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Anyone, who’s listened to the Podcast Answer Man Podcast, probably knows that I’ve been a huge fan of the Feedburner service from the earliest days of podcasting. It was not surprising, that as soon as Feeburner posted a little message on the account login screen saying they were moving all the feedburner accounts to Google, that my email inbox was flooded with questions as to how this change was going to affect our podcast feeds.

If you have not logged into your feedburner account recently, the message appears like this:

Basically, if you click on the “Learn More” link, it takes you to a Google Help Page titled ”
Transferring FeedBurner Accounts to Google Accounts FAQ.” Upon first glance, it would appear that the announcement is simply that they are merging the “account administration” with Feedburner and Google.

When Google acquired “Writely” (Now Google Docs), they did this same thing. Basically, it was as simply as clicking on a “transfer account to Google” link and if you already had a Google account, you just typed in that Google Username and Password and the account was then managed using your Google credentials from that point forward. If you didn’t have a Google account, you simply had to create one and that’s how you managed your account from that point forward.

I’m certain that this is “one” aspect of what Google is doing with Feedburner here and they intend to have all Feedburner User ID’s transferred to Google User ID’s by February 28, 2009.

However, this announcement states that log in credentials are not the only thing that will be changing with this transition. They make mention that that those who are using the “My Brand” feature of Feedburner, will need to update their CNam registries.

Not only that, but it would appear that they “might possibly” be changing the actual location of our podcasts feeds from “http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOUR-FEED-NAME-HERE” to something else. Although they do not clearly tell us what the new feed format will be in this notice.

Of course, wanting to be ahead of the curve, I wanted to go ahead and bite the bullet and do the transition on all of my feeds (have move more than thirty of them) so that I could figure out how this process is going to work and what the end result would be.

However, as soon as I choose the “move your account now” option, I got this error:

So it would appear that whatever the new feed structure will be, it is possible that someone else may have already chosen to have created an account on the new feed server using your feed’s unique name. This is not cool at all and the account transfer seems to be an all or nothing at this point.

In the mean time, I’ve created a “http://feedburner.google.com” account with my Google Log In. I’ve even gone so far as to set up a test feed and noticed that it gave me a “http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MY-FEED-NAME-HERE” feed address.

At this point, I wish I had more information to give you. Google has plenty of time between now and February 28th to figure all this out. My suggestion at this point is to ride out the storm for just a bit and not make and changes just yet.

When I know more, I’ll post here and likely release and audio podcast edition of Podcast Answer Man to give the full details of what is happening when I know more.

Until then, I’m going to rest assured by this Q&A from the blog entry on the Google site:

Q: How long will the feeds.feedburner.com/myfeedname address work?

A: It is our intent to keep backward compatibility with your feed address as long as this service exists.

Just keep in mind, if during the process, you run into any issues. I am available for one on one phone consulting. However, as I said, I would not make any changes to your feedburner account until things get ironed out a little be more.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m a social media junkie! Of course, twitter is a major tool for me to communicate and connect with so many in the gpsn.tv community.

There are only three flash flavors to choose from which each come in three sizes. However, I must say that anything is an improvement over the old twitter badge as shown here.

You can get your badge at http://Twitter.com/widgets

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A Talk Amongst Those Who Plan To Podcast For Years To Come

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In this episode, I share a talk with some folks who are pretty well known in the podcasting community. If there was any doubt as to whether podcasting is working for folks, I hope this conversation will put your mind to ease.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Being the early adopter that I am, I thought it sounded great. I miss the “tracking” feature where I used to get sms updates when someone sent me an @reply on Twitter. So what did I do? I went to the site and checked it out. When I got there, I saw an extremely vague website.

In fact, there’s no links at all on the site to explain how the service works at all. There’s not even a privacy statement! Instead, at the top of the page, it simply asks you to give them your Twitter Username and Password with the phrase “Your password is safe with us. No worries!”

I THINK NOT!

Don’t do it people! There are ways that this type of service can be done without needing your password!. Just below the username and password fields, there’s a question that says “Support Twply on your first login?” There are two radio buttons where you can choose to answer “Yep, go ahead!” or “No thanks!”

That’s all it says. When I read it, I’m thinking they are asking for donations! Right?

NOPE!

Basically, what happens is that if you click “Yep, go ahead!,” without notifying you, the service LOGS INTO YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT and makes a post ON YOUR ACCOUNT saying “Just started using http://twply.com/ to get my @replies via email. Neat stuff!”

As it turns out, this is what they author of the site considers supporting Twply on your first login. Two things have obviously happened. The site is gaining a massive number of new users every minute. Why? Well, I have about 1,600 people who follow me on Twitter. Over time, I’ve developed a relationship of trust with most of them. If they were to see a message from me giving such a glowing endorsement of a site that says I just started using this service, please come check it out, people would respond.

But what about the password? One might hesitate, but through this “social engineering” marketing plot, people are giving away their passwords by the droves! Why? Well, go back to the hypothetical scenario I gave before. People might say, “Well Cliff obviously trusted them enough with his password” and knowing that someone they “TRUST” sent a message saying the service is good, and then you see that it says.. “Don’t worry, your password is safe with us!” Well, people just type it in and move forward through the process.

So what’s the big deal? 1) They have your password and shouldn’t need it to do the service they are doing! 2) They don’t explain what “supporting them” means. (There is a difference between supporting a service and endorsing a service! 3) There’s no privacy policy 4) They send out a tweet in the “first person” as if YOU were the one endorsing the site! 5) Read on, because it gets worse!

YOUR INFORMATION HAS BEEN SOLD!
I’m not kidding. You can see this “FOR SALE PAGE. In the information about the site, they write “All advertising is running through word of mouth on twitter, we used a very different method. The method is not loved by everyone but we clearly ask on the homepage weather to use it or not. If they choose to “support us” then a message with the link of twply will be sent out to the users.”

The worst part is that the site actually sold! That’s right, access to literally thousands of Twitter accounts just sold for a measly $1,200.00.

I could go on and on about this one. However, I don’t think I need to say any more to convince you that this is one site that you don’t want to be an early adopter on! Have you already given them your Twitter ID and password? CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY!

As for your email address. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a bit of increased spam traffic coming in as result of the sale of this site!

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 090
Podcasting Is Dead? I Disagree! A Talk With Michael W Geoghegan

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In this episode, I talk with Michael W Geoghegan regarding his recent comments about the statement of podcasting made in his blog regarding the demise of Podango.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man Episode 089
Sad News Regarding Podango

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This weekend, I learned of some very shocking and extremely sad news regarding Podango. On Friday, December 26th, the president of Podango, Douglas G. Smith, published an entry on the Podango company blog. In the post, Doug writes, “Our ability to continue operations past the end of this year (2008) is in question. We do not want any of you, or any of your shows to be negatively affected by this uncertainty and so we are encouraging you to begin taking all necessary steps to secure your data or begin moving to another hosting provider.” … “As of today, the last day to move or secure your data is December 31st.”

In case you don’t have a calendar in front of you, that’s less than five full days from the date of the notice till the time that it is “possible” that Podango content producers will no longer have access to any of the content they’ve uploaded to the Podango servers and any and all rss feeds hosted by Podango cease to exist.

You may remember that I was considering a two year contract with Podango for the entire gspn.tv network. In this audio episode of the Podcast Answer Man, I share the story of why I chose not to sign with Podango at the very last minute.

Also in the episode, I talk with Todd Cochrane from GeekNewsCentral.com and Rawvoice.com. I brought Todd online because he has a hosting company that is a one of a few hosting options for these Podango content producers who are looking for a new home.

I know that many of you in the gspn.tv and PodastAnswerMan.com are personally affected by this news. My heart goes out to you! I can’t imagine that you saw yourself spending your holiday break working on a podcast show transition such as this.

One last thing mentioned in this episode was Michael W. Geoghegan’s blog entry asserting that this is further proof that “podcasting is dead.” Michael, I love and respect you man… I certainly agree that podcasting didn’t turn out to be what so many folks in the old days thought it would become. However, it’s far from dead. In a way.. Actually, in a BIG WAY, I’m glad it didn’t turn out the way everyone had thought it would. I’m totally digging the path that podcasting has taken me down!

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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So I opened my email this morning (Sunday, December 28th, 2008) and noticed that many people had written to tell me that they were getting error messages when trying to download episodes of our podcasts.

I’ve been with Libsyn.com for three years now. And before I go any further, let me tell you that overall, I’ve been an EXTREMELY SATISFIED customer for the most part. When they first started out, things were a bit rocky. However, at the time, they were about the only independent folks out there who had a simple level cost, unlimited bandwidth media delivery plan available. Couple that with the fact that the cost was better than awesome, they had a hard time keeping up with the demand at first.

As for the past two years, my service with Libsyn has been pretty smooth sailing with only the occasional bump in the road. Okay, I know, mixed metaphors, but hey, it’s just a blog post right?

I’m writing this blog entry for a few reasons. First off, I wanted to be able to simply point listeners to this post when answering all the emails asking if there is something wrong with their subscriptions to our premium content at gspn.tv.

So for those of you who were wondering, you likely received one of two errors over the weekend. Either iTunes showed you something like “(err=500)” when trying to download the files from our rss feeds, or you got an “Internal Server Error” if you tried to either access the file via the web or using our gspn.tv iPhone Application.

I want to assure you that there is nothing wrong with your subscription and this was simply a random outage that Libsyn.com, the company that we pay to host and deliver our media content, had experienced over the weekend. Everything is back up and running now.

Another reason I wanted to make this post was to make public a suggestion that I recently made to Libsyn’s support staff. Actually, I’ve made this suggestion about three or four times in the past as well, but it’s never been followed through on. I’m wondering if I were to propose this suggestion here in my blog, if enough people were to comment on this post that they think it’s a great idea, and perhaps implement it.

It’s a real simple idea….

As soon as anyone on the libsyn support staff is aware of an issue that affects “multiple user accounts,” simply open up a blog entry on the Support Blog at http://support.libsyn.com.

Again, I want to interject that I’m a HUGE FAN of the Libsyn Support Team. I’ve never had an issue with Libsyn that was not resolved within a matter of minute or at most a few short hours of my notifying them of my issues. However, let me share with you my recent email support ticket to explain what I’m talking about here.

At 2:01pm, I finally found enough time to actually send a support ticket regarding the issue with Libsyn.com. I had already confirmed that it was not just an issue with my account by doing a search on Twitter. Here is the contents of that initial email:

I have three accounts with libsyn and I’m getting (err=500) errors in iTunes as are most of my listeners.

Can you investigate?

My three user ids are in the subject line of this email

At 4:22pm (Mind you that it is the weekend) I got the following response

Hello Cliff,


We checked your three accounts, and your files appear to be active and available for download. If you still experience difficulty, please send us the link to any affected file, and we’ll look further into the issue.


Please contact us if you have any other questions.


Thank you,

*******(I’m removing name)

Of course this prompted me to write back by saying….

******,

I appreciate you looking into my account. It does appear to be working now.

Could you do me a favor? Is it possible that when Libsyn has these sort of issues, that you guys ACKNOWLEGE that there WAS an issue? (I’m not yelling with my words… I’m not upset or irrate.. Just making a point..)

You see, your message simply makes it sound as if there was never an issue at all with my account, or that you can’t confirm that there was an issue on my account.

It’s clear, by looking at the attached image, or LINKED HERE: http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/363/1755611919.png that you guys were clearly having issues with people getting Internal Server Errors…

My only concern is that this email response simply does not confirm that there was ever an issue and the http://support.libsyn.com support blog would make it appear as though you have not had any system wide issues since Monday, November 24th…

Is it too much to ask to post to the blog when you guys realize that there is a support issue that is clearly affecting several users?

I don’t mind my media not being served 100% of the time. For what I pay for my media hosting with you, I’m okay with 96% to 98% uptime with an occasional 12 hour issue once a year…. Just communicate with us so we know that you are aware of this stuff and that you’re working on it…

Is this doable?

Cliff

Next, I got the following response….

Hello

Sorry for the frustration. It was not our intention to avoid acknowledging an issue with the service this weekend.

To be honest, we noticed a couple of these reports yesterday early but really receive the bulk of complaints by this afternoon, which is when we (support staff) took action and contacted the tech team to alert them to the issue. Being the weekend following a holiday, the tech and support teams are actually spread around the country in various places, so we had to work quickly to communicate the problem to the team that could fix it and work on fixing the problem that caused the errors as well as fixing the erroneous files and alerting users. That is where our efforts were concentrated as opposed to posting to the support blog.

Again I apologize for the frustration. Please let us know if you have any other questions or problems.

Thanks
********

And then I responded again wit this….

*******,

I can appreciate that. Perhaps for those who come back to check their email on Monday morning, only to find emails piled up from their listeners alerting them to the issue, do you see how maybe posting just a quick note that there was an issue over the weekend that had been resolved might help keep someone from searching for an issue more than they need to?

I appreciate that it’s the weekend and that you guys did resolve the issue. Maybe I’m just being picky and I simply need more sleep.


It’s just that when I get a report of an issue from my listeners, the first place I go to is to the Support Blog. I know there have been other documented outages since the November blog date.. Even if you were to wait till you get back in the office on the next normal business day… It would be just so awesome to know that a quick look at the support blog tells me that you are aware of an issue and that you are either working to fix it or have already fixed it. This keeps me from filling out support tickets and really puts my mind at ease.

I appreciate all you guys do!

Cliff

Okay, so am I out of mind to suggest that they consider making it a policy that if any support issue arises that affects multiple customer accounts that the first person who realizes the issue meets this criteria should take two minutes, log into the support blog and simply say “Hey, we are aware of an issue and we’re on it!”

What are your thoughts?

Until then, simply remember that you can search twitter for the phrase “Is Libsyn Down” and you will likely find out very quickly if it’s just your account or a system wide issue.

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I wanted to share this announcement with you in a video episode of Podcast Answer Man so that I could play around with different methods of posting video content that I’ll be getting while I’m in at the conference. To bring this episode to you, I held a simple point and shoot camera in my right hand as I walked down the street filming myself. I loaded the video into a program called ScreenFlow. I exported the video as a .m4v for use in my rss feed for download. I then exported the video into a Quicktime .mov file which I then uploaded to Facebook, YouTube, and Blip.tv.

I actually need your help. Can you tell me which embedded player do you think looks better? Is there a difference in your opinion?

This version is from Blip.tv

This version is from FaceBook! (I didn’t know they allowed you to embed video. Till Now!)

Right Click Here To Download

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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Podcast Answer Man Podcast
CES 2009 Coverage Coming Soon!

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Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Press Release Strategy

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EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

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Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Jay Berkowitz – Search Engine Optimization

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In this episode, I talk with Jay Berkowitz of 10GoldenRules.com. Jay shares some insights on how we, as podcasters, can optimize our websites for best search engine results.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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That’s right! Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application over Wi-Fi and cellular network. I must admit that I was surprised to see the ability to do this via the cellular network. It makes me wonder why I can download a fifty megabyte podcast episode over the cell notwork but not a three megabyte song from iTunes. Who cares, we got our podcast downloads right?

Don’t Break Out The Party Hats Just Yet!
I must say that as an end user and as a podcaster, I’m not happy with the implementation of downloading podcasts via the iPhone / iPod Touch. Let me share a few reasons why.

Fumbling Between Two Applications:
The first thing I don’t like is that it closes down the iPod Application to launch the iTunes wi-fi Application. Once we finish downloading our podcast episode(s), we have to close the iTunes app and then go back and re-open the iPod application to browse to the new podcast to play it. Seems a bit clunky to me. Not typical of Apple to have so many steps. More on this as you read on.

Taking RSS Out Of The Equation:
The second thing I don’t like is that it it get’s new podcast data from iTunes instead of the original rss feed. This means that if we used a “One Click Install” option to subscribe to a podcast, when we click “Get More Episodes…” we are taken to the “What’s Hot” list in the podcast section of the wi-fi iTunes podcast section.

Let me give you a better example. Let’s just say that we were to go to the iTunes Store on our computer, we do a search for Podcast Answer Man, and click on the “Subscribe” button from the Podcast Answer Man podcast page “in iTunes.” If we go through this process, then when we click on “Get More Episodes…” in the iPod application, it will take us directly to the Podcast Answer Man Page in the iTunes wi-fi store and give us options to download more episodes that Apple is currently aware of. More on the aware of part of this in just a moment.

However, let’s just say that that we wanted to skip the iTunes store and subscribe the podcast directly. If you have never done this before, you simply click on “Advanced” in the menu of iTunes and then click on “Subscribe To Podcast” and then enter in the url of the rss feed.

If we were to do this, when we click on “Get More Episodes…” in the iPod Application, it WILL NOT take us to the Podcast Answer Man page in iTunes. Instead, it will take us to the “What’s Hot” section in the iTunes wi-fi application for podcasts. This happens even if we use the same rss feed that is registered in the iTunes Store. NOT COOL APPLE!!!!

Another issue is that the iTunes store does not stay consistently synced with podcast rss feeds. I might release an episode of a podcast at 8am and it might not show up in the iTunes listing until it next syncs with the rss feed at 5pm later that day, or whenever they choose to resync.

Of course, there are a ton of podcasts that are not listed in iTunes. So for those podcasts that we are subscribed to, we are out of luck.

No Syncing Back To The Computer:
A third thing that I do not like is that you when you do a search in the iTunes wi-fi store for a podcast and you download an episode, it DOES NOT sync back to your computer! What’s up with that? Did they do any testing on this functionality at all?

What They Should Have Done!
What they should have done was to turn the iPod podcast functionality into an rss reader. When we click “Get More Episodes” it should read the RSS FEED, show us a list of episodes available in the feed and give us the option to download whatever episodes we want to download right there INSIDE the iPod application.

They should have given the ability to subscribe to a podcast right there from the iPod Application by entering an rss feed as well. Basically, the iPod functionality on the iPhone / iPod Touch should function much like the “podcast section” in iTunes, distinct and feature rich and completely usable, independent of the iTunes Store.

Oh, and of course, whatever we would subscribe to or download on the iPod App should sync back to the computer as well.

I like that they allow us to browse the Podcast directory in the iTunes Wi-Fi store. I really am. However, the fact that you can “subscribe” to a podcast and they don’t sync back to the computer. It makes me ask… “Why bother?”

I guess I’m just thankful that they finally approved the gspn.tv Application in the App Store. At least my listeners have some sort of access to the latest content that I produce on the go, including all my premium, password protected content.

What are your thoughts? Share a comment and Join The Conversation!

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Podcast Answer Man Podcast
WordPress Plugins I Use And Why

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EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

I use the following Plug-Ins

WordPress Database Backup
On-demand backup of your WordPress database.
http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup

ShareThis: Let your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites.

KG-EnclosureFlex: Gives you the flexibility to choose which files you want to enclose in your RSS feed, and allows you to suppress all enclosures if you want.

Audio player: A highly configurable but simple mp3 player for all your audio needs. You can customise the player’s colour scheme to match your blog theme, have it automatically show track information from the encoded ID3 tags and more.

Akismet: Checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade: Allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions.

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Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Griffin iTalk iPhone Application Reveiw

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In this episode, I give my review of of iTalk. (iTunes link) iTalk is a new sound recording app for iPhone, iPhone 3G, and 2nd generation iPod touch that turns the iPhone or iPod touch into a mobile audio recorder.

I’ve been using the the application to record several episodes of my daily audio journal podcast titled “My Crazy Life.” However, I’m becoming increasingly more frustrated with the audio glitches that I point out in this review. I’m at the point that I love this application to just let it go. I’m contacting Griffin Support on Monday to see if I can find out if they are aware of this issue.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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Podcast Answer Man Podcast
How Libsyn works for hosting media files

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EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

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Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Interview with Tim Bourquin of New Media Expo

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In This Episode, I share an interview I did with Tim Bourquin after he had finished interviewing me for his New Media Expo Podcast.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067
You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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I know what you are thinking. There are a ton of voice recorders in the App Store! This is not just another cheap voice recording application. This application allows you to create high-quality recordings. With my iPhone 3G’s on board microphone, I’ve been able to get some amazing sound recorded with it.

I’m going to do a full review of the software on an upcoming episode of the Podcast Answer Man podcast. I simply had to get this post out there as quickly as possible as Griffin’s iTalk is free for a limited time from the App Store.

PLEASE NOTE: I have done a full review of this application in Episode 83 of Podcast Answer Man.

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Up to till this time, I’ve been using the JK Audio Broadcast Host to get from my phone line into my mixer. This device allows me to take a single analog telephone line and patch the audio to and from that phone line to my mixer. Basically turning my mixer into the “handset” of the phone. Been working great!

Here’s a diagram of the setup…

Today, I just got a question from a customer who wanted to know if he could use the Broadcast Host to hook up to his ISDN line. The answer is “no” because it is not an analog phone system. I called JK Audio and asked them what they have for this and they told me about the JK Audio InKeeper PBX.

It turns out that the InKeeper PBX is “exactly the same” as the Broadcast Host except that the connection to the phone line happens at the point of the “handset connection” of a standard telephone. This means that the phone is doing the translation from digital to analog signal and the InKeeper PBX plugs in where you would normally plug in the handset and the handset plugs into the InKeeper PBX. (See Diagram) (Note: this does not work with phones where the “dial pad” is in the handset).

Now, what is awesome about this is that with the handset being the point of connection, this means you could have a “multi-line” phone system, hence the name PBX, where you can switch back and forth between multiple phone lines, just like you were do if you were simply using the phone’s handset switching to another line. This is going to fill the need of many of my clients who want to be able to use multiple phone lines to allow for a queue of callers waiting. This also allows for someone on another extension to “pre-screen” those calls as well.

Here’s the diagram of the setup:

Please note, I do sell both of the above pieces of equipment. If you would like know pricing details, please contact me at Cliff@Ravensraft.org.

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Never heard of Google Analytics before? No worries, I also show just how much useful information you can learn about how people find your site and what they do once they get there. Best of all, Google Analytics is absolutely free.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

Right Click Here To Download

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While I am able to take an existing Wordpress Theme and modify it to meet my client’s needs, I must tell you that I can not take credit for the original designs that I’ve used. I’ve been an affiliate with Revolution Themes for quite some time. And as such, I’ve recommended several clients to use these great themes as the foundation for their online presence.

Effective this morning, my favorite themes are going Open Source with a brand new site named RevolutionTwo.com. What this means is that these themes are now going to be made available for free to the public.

My first thought was how in the world was the team behind these awesome designs ever going to make a living and to continue to be able to provide support for those who use the themes? I learned that they are now offering either a one year or lifetime membership to full support on all their themes.

As a long time customer of theirs, I can tell you that their support for these forums are second to none! Personally, I know the cost of getting a decent web site designed. It would cost no less than $1,000 and likely much more to have a site that looks as good as these themes. For only $99 you get unlimited access to all the Revolution Two Themes and you get full support for 1 year. For only $149 you get a lifetime membership allowing you unlimited support and access to all themes.

I would like to point out that I’m available to help on a one on one basis in learning how to customize these themes to meet your needs. I charge $95 per hour for my services. So you can see how much of a good deal the theme support membership can be!

If you choose to use the Revolution Two themes and/or membership, I’d love it if you would be willing to come to PodcastAnswerMan.com and click on the banner that links to them in the sidebar so that I can get the affiliate commission on the referral.

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True be told, there is no shortage of bloggers that are suggesting that “podcasting is dead“. I’m here to shout from the mountain top that this simply is not true! Podcasting is not only alive, it is thriving!

When I started podcasting in 2005, I didn’t know anyone locally who had ever heard of a podcast. Today, almost everyone I know is aware that their local church “podcasts” their weekend sermons, that their local news station makes the evening news available via podcast, or that their favorite tv show is likely to have an “official podcast” put out by either the creator, wriiters, or producers of their favorite tv show.

For those of you who do not know this about me, I left a very successful career in insurance after 11 years to pursue a career in podcasting full time. I’m now entering my eleventh month and I’ve not experienced a single dime of debt from day one. I’m consistently contacted by people who hear about me via word of mouth and who want to be consulted about how to start their own podcast.

I’ve fallen in love the the medium of delivering content via rss technology that I’m working on a business model that will allow me to earn a majority of my income from producing my own content alone. Just a few short months ago, I decided to take my podcasts to a partial premium content model, charging $10 per month. In just a few short months, I’ve already have already had one 163 people join up as gspn.tv Plus Members, with new members added daily.

I introduce the fact that I was an insurance agent for eleven years to explain to you that that the insurance industry as a whole is an industry that is always the last to embrace the latest technology. Many insurance companies still do not accept credit card payments on their websites. Most of those that do, still charge you up to five dollars for the convenience.

A majority of insurance agency offices today are still filled with up to 10’s or 100’s of four drawer letter file cabinets full of manila folders with years worth of paper copies of client policies. You’d laugh if I told you the number of agents I know that have an email address, but have no idea how to check or send an email. This is an extreme example, as most agents do use email on a daily basis. However I bet that less than 10% would know how to scan a document into pdf format and email it as an attachment. Being as technology driven as I am, the fact that the insurance industry simply could not keep up with my taste of early adoption was one of many factors that led me to make the switch to my new career.

I share all this background to share the following email I got from an insurance industry continuing education company. A quick look at their website will prove that they haven’t done a refresh of their web design in the past five years. However, this insurance related company has adopted the technology of podcasting.

With the trend that I’ve seen in the adoption of new technology, the following email is an early indication that your grandmother may be asking for an iPod for Christmas so she can subscribe to the podcast for AARP radio.

CEUNEWS

CEU.com Adds Downloadable Course Audio
Continuing education podcasts allow students to take material on the road

You’ve come to expect the best in convenient, high quality continuing education courses from CEU.com. After all, you just need a computer and an internet connection, and you can get the courses you need any time, day or night. What could be easier?

Well – what if you could study the course material when you are away from the computer? When you are driving, riding the train, or even working out at the gym? Now that’s convenient!

CEU.com is happy to announce that we now offer downloadable podcasts of our course audio. This means that when a student signs up for a course, he or she can save the audio to an iPod or other MP3 player. Then the course can go with the student on the road, to the gym, while doing housework – wherever an audio player can go. He or she can review the material as many times as necessary without having to sit at a computer the entire time.

Audio learning is a great way to conveniently incorporate brief study sessions into your daily routine, and this can actually improve your ability to learn. In his book 400 Ways to Stop Stress Now and Forever, G. Gaynor McTigue emphasizes that frequent, short study sessions are the best way to keep information fresh in your mind. Using this method of learning allows you to better understand and retain the material on a deeper level, and it is far superior to trying to “cram” all the material at once. You are also less likely to procrastinate, since these short sessions fit so painlessly into your schedule.

“At CEU.com, we pride ourselves in using technology to its greatest advantage,” said Bruce MacMillian, CEU’s president and CEO. “Making the audio from our courses downloadable makes perfect sense, and it’s a great use of the technology. Freeing our students to take the audio with them to review at their convenience will help them to retain and utilize the information to enhance their careers, and that’s what continuing education is all about.”

Downloadable course audio is now available at www.ceu.com.

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Many of you are aware that I do podcast consulting and sell podcast equipment. However, not everyone is aware that I personally produce, with my wife and a few friends, twenty of my own podcasts which I have formed into the Generally Speaking Production Network (gspn.tv).

This year, we received one of the greatest honors a podcast could hope to receive as it relates to the fourth annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards. This year, 81,000 individuals came together and nominated a total of 1,874 podcasts for 22 categories for the 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards!

Out of those nominated, only 10 podcasts for each category make it to the actual voting round. With 22 categories, this means that of the 1,874 podcasts nominated, only 220 are eligible for this year’s 15 day voting period.

I’m very honored to announce to that SIX of the 220 podcasts nominated were gspn.tv podcasts!

Below are the podcasts that were nominated and for which category:

About The Church – Education
Weekly Lost Podcast – Entertainment
Full Time Mom – General
Musically Challenged – Podsafe Music
Almost Daily Devotional – Religion & Inspiration
Podcast Answer Man – Technology & Science

I’m not practicing false humility when I authentically tell you that I believe this has a lot more to do with the power of an engaged community than our ability to produce content.

I want to thank everyone who nominated the gspn.tv podcast lineup above!

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In This Episode, I answer questions about noise reduction, mic choices, and so much more. I talk about Isolation, Absorbtion, Podcast Stats, and Condenser Vs Dynamic Microphones.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067
You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Right Click Here To Download

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Since I’ve been selling audio equipment to podcasters from all over the United States, I’ve only had two items that ever needed to be replaced. Today was the second incident. The following comes from the Blog of one of my customers, Crystal Elerson from elerson.net. I really feel bad that she is experiencing any pain and inconvenience at all. However, at the same time, I’m so thankful for her kind words in the midst of it all.

Last Tuesday, I had a problem with my digital recorder right before my interview with Bernard Cooper. By Thursday, everything was working fine, and I had no problems interviewing Rick Moody. Today, I was set to interview Bernard Cooper again.

The mixer has this obnoxiously bright blue light on it that indicates it is receiving power. When the unit is plugged in, the light is always on providing a constant visual distraction. The unit, stupidly, has no On/Off switch. Today, as I was doing my prep work for the interview, I noticed that the obnoxiously bright light irritated me even more by not shining at all.

One loud female roar later…

I did what any former technical support person would do. I checked the surge protector. I switched power outlets. I unplugged and replugged in everything. I tried plugging the unit directly into the wall sans surge protector – two different wall sockets that both give power to other things. The only thing I didn’t do was try a new power cable because, of course, the thing doesn’t use a standard cable so I didn’t have a spare. I then dragged Dear Husband into the room to see if I was missing some obvious piece of information that Males always seem to think everyone should know but Females don’t have access to that Universal Guy Knowledge. Nope. He did everything I did and came to the same conclusion.

I then made the Call of Shame to Cooper to explain what happened. He laughed and generously told me he thought electronic equipment conspired against him anyway. Next time, I’m not telling my audio equipment who I’m calling… I’ll file that away with such wisdom as Never Mention Surplus Money Near a Working Vehicle (fastest way to car problems I have ever seen) and Do Not Announce Intent to Mow Grass (instant rain if we’re serious). Anyway, Bernard was lovely again, and I feel completely unprofessional for having to reschedule twice. I joked with him that I was enjoying our weekly chats. And I am – he has a voice I’d call to listen to at any time. Read me the phone book, and I’d just smile. I want my voice to sound that good but in a feminine way.

Next, I called the Behringer Technical Support Line to confirm my diagnosis: bad power supply or cable. They had me call the retailer I bought it from, who promptly called the company back to talk to his liaison there, and we’re working this out through a 3-way email because this is the first time a power supply/cable has gone out and needed replacing for this retailer (a lovely man named Cliff Ravenscraft who runs several podcasts – www.gspn.tv). I realized his webcam was on while I was talking to him, so I watched him immediately drop what he was doing to handle my issue – very cool.

I’m frustrated with the technical problems. However, I’m extremely satisfied with the support and service from both Behringer and Cliff Ravenscraft. If I’m going to have these issues, I’m glad to work with these people.

I’m so thankful for the understanding and patience of this client. It’s client’s like this that make me thankful every day that I’m doing what I love for a living!

Note: The blue light on the Behringer Xenyx 1002 mixer is very bright. I know at least one client that painted the little light with black fingernail polish.

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Out of those nominated, only 10 podcasts for each category make it to the actual voting round. With 22 categories, this means that of the 1,874 podcasts nominated, only 220 are eligible for this year’s 15 day voting period.

I’m very honored to announce to you that SIX of the 220 podcasts nominated were gspn.tv podcasts!

Below are the podcasts that were nominated and for which category:

About The Church – Education
Weekly Lost Podcast – Entertainment
Full Time Mom – General
Musically Challenged – Podsafe Music
Almost Daily Devotional – Religion & Inspiration
Podcast Answer Man – Technology & Science

The voting will open up at http://PodcastAwards.com on October 23rd and will run for 15 days. In the nomination phase, each person was limited to one vote per category, period.

However, when official voting opens, each person is allowed to vote for their favorite podcast in each category EACH DAY for FIFTEEN DAYS.

It is vitally important that if you wish for gspn.tv podcasts to have a chance of winning an award, that you vote each and every day once the voting opens. If you are willing to make this commitment to proving that the gspn.tv Community is one of the most engaged audiences out there, please let me us know that we can count on your daily vote by TELLING US HERE!

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In This Episode, I answer a question about how to make a portable studio setup. I also share how the TWIT.tv podcasts have been really burning me out with all their advertisements. Of course I share a major change as to the revenue approach for this podcast, announcing that starting immediately, we are switching the Podcast Answer Man to where only ever other episode will be released in the free feed. Plus Members will continue to get every episode. To learn more about Plus Membership, please visit http://gspn.tv.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

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In This Episode, I share an update on the gspn.tv iPhone Application that I mentioned in episode 074 of The Podcast Answer Man Podcast.

I share my excitement over a real time website analytics program called Woopra.

I mention my blog post that describes How To Embed MP3 Flash Players On Regular HTML Sites.

I talk about SurveyMonkey.com and how conducting a survey of your listeners can help you learn things that could be useful in growing your audience.

Finally, I share with you one of my favorite new podcasts put together by a fifth grader and her father titled “With Liberty And Justice For All.” Check out the show, leave her some feedback, and tell her the Podcast Answer Man told you about her.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

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I wanted to take a minute to say thank you to Wayne L Henderson for the kind words that he shared about me and the services I provide on one of his recent podcasts. Wayne has been a long time listener of my gspn.tv podcasts and he and is one our gspn.tv Plus Members.

If you happen to need voice over work for your podcast, Wayne does a great job.

MP3 Version

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Of course, if they have WordPress, I immediately tell them to install the Audio Player Plugin for WordPress. However, for those who use another method of creating a website for your podcast, there is still hope. I’d like to share three options for posting a flash player for your podcast episodes on your standard html site.

Update: Someone left a comment on this post that makes a valid point. If you should choose to use this method for your site on individual posts, please understand that you are relying on the fact that these companies will still exist moving forward. If for example ODEO were to go out of business, it is unlikely that their flash player will continue to be available. Please just keep this in mind.

The benefit of the Odeo player is that it is somewhat attractive when compared against other options. However the drawbacks that I see are that you can’t change the color of the pink play button and there ODEO is branded on your site. If someone clicks on the “ODEO” logo on the player, they are taken OFF YOUR SITE! I could not find an option to change it to open a new window or anything. Also, this player lacks an adjustment option for volume.

CODE FOR ODEO FLASH PLAYER:
<embed src= "http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf" quality="high" width="300" height="52" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars= "valid_sample_rate=true&external_url=LINK-TO-YOUR-MP3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /></embed>

The Google Flash Player:
Next we have the Google Flash Player. The benefit of the google player is that there is no branding whatsoever. Also, the code allows for you to change the color of the background on your player to match your site. It seems odd to have the “<<" and ">>” when posting a single mp3 file. However, these buttons offer the ability to jump forward and backward in the file you are listening to. The only drawback I can see with this player is that, like many other google products, is pretty “simple looking” and just on the edge of being ugly. It’s quite functional and it does what it’s supposed to do.

CODE FOR THE GOOGLE FLASH PLAYER
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=LINK-TO-YOUR-MP3" width="400" height="27" allowscriptaccess="never" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" wmode="window" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" /></embed>

The Yahoo Flash Player
The Yahoo Flash Player is another option. Like the ODEO Player, there is Yahoo branding on the player with a small Yahoo logo. However, the nice thing is that it is an image only, it does not have a hyperlink that takes your listeners off your site. This is good. Like the Google player, you can see that are “<<" and ">>” buttons. However, on the Yahoo player, these buttons are specifically designed for next track and previous track. Truth is that this player can be used to play a single mp3 file or can be set to read data from any podcast rss feed. While I’ve not tried it, there seems to be an option to change the skin color which may be useful in helping to make the player fit within your color scheme.

CODE FOR THE YAHOO FLASH PLAYER
<embed src="http://webjay.org/flash/dark_player" width="400" height="40" wmode="transparent" flashVars="playlist_url=LINK-TO-YOUR-MP3-OR-RSS-FEED&amp;skin_color_1=-145,-89,-4,5&skin_color_2=-141,20,0,0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /></embed>

Do you have any additional flash players you would like to share? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Do you find this sort of information useful? Why not help support this sort of content by becoming a gspn.tv Plus Member.

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In this video episode I explain how to create a one click subscribe button for the zune and for iTunes. Doing so for iTunes is as simple as changing the url pre-fix of your rss feed from “http://” to “itpc://” Creating a zune one click install button is as simple as using this online zune podcast subscription tool.

Right Click Here To Download iPod and iPhone Version

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Here’s how I saw it go down on Twitter:

First off, let me say that my thoughts and prayers go out to Leo during this time of loss! Weirdly enough, I almost mean that as much seriously as much as I do in a lighthearted way as I would express the same sentiments to someone who has lost someone near and dear to them.

I thought that the reason why people used a Raid 5 backup (RAID 5 : Combines three or more disks in a way that protects data against loss of any one disk; the storage capacity of the array is reduced by one disk.) was because hardware such as an individual hard drive is susceptible to failure and so that if all the data is mirrored on all three or more drives, if one drive fails, you have two or more good copies of the data. However, it would appear that a simple failure of the hardware known as the “Raid 5 Card” can completely wipe out the benefit of having more than one external drive backup. This is exactly why I’m not at all fascinated by Raid 5 or Drobos!

To many of us geeks, we put so much of who we are into ones and zeroes. Luckily, Leo didn’t loose any of his own content, just all the blood sweat and tears poured into the systems that were in place to deliver the content. However, the contributions from hundreds, if not thousands, of people who left comments on his blog or posts in his forums have been forever lost. At least all those done since the last “good backups” of each of the sites he maintains.

I’ve lost data to hard drive and other hardware failures in the past. Each time, I say that I’ve learned my lesson and take an oath to do daily/weekly backups of all important data. That plan usually lasts for a few weeks and then live without adequate backup protection continues.

I almost lost all hope of adequate backups back in the Tape Drive Backup Days. It seemed that these backup tapes almost never completed a successful recoverable backup of data. However, today, things to do seem a little more hopeful.

In the past, I relied so heavily on the operating system and computer program backups. Today, it appears that as long as I keep my most important data organized in a single directory on my drive, I could recover within hours if I simply had a solid backup of that folder with all the sub folders of data that I have saved.

The question is, what is the best technique of backup up this valuable data? Is it external drives, Raid5, Drobo? Is it online backup? I think that for true security, it is best to use more than one approach. However, so many of us today, still do all our computing with no such backup program in place at all.

Since starting my own business, data backup has been a high priority on my project list. At the core, I have an external hard drive hooked up to my computer and I use the paid version of Allway Sync to keep my Important Docs and Podcast Archives folders consistently synced with my external backup drive. I must say that I really do love this little software package as it gives me a ton of control over what gets synced and I can choose to have it sync both ways so that when I delete something on my local drive it keeps it on the backup or it deletes the it off the backup drive as well.

The only issue here is that if I have a fire in my home, I’m going to loose both my hard drive and the external drive both and therefore loose all my data regardless of how diligent I am with keeping everything backed up.

I could get more than one external drive and allow for multiple backups to multiple external drive and store all but the current one off site. However, who on earth will keep up with that? This is why I’m looking into also creating an online, off site, backup solution in conjunction with my external drive backup.

I’m currently looking at Carbonite Online Backup, Mozy Online Backup, as well as using Amazon’s S3 Web Services with a program called Jungle Disk.

As I move forward into into my search for the right backup solution that works best for me, I’ll do my best to come share what I learn with you.

Of course, I really would encourage some community discussion here in the comments section. What sort of things are you doing in the area of backup?

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In this episode I explain why it has been a few weeks since I last released an episode of the Podcast Answer Man podcast. Of course you can see the new layout of the site here. Believe it or not, this theme you see on this site is the exact theme that I used to build this site for a client. I mentioned that we recently released our 1,000th episode for gspn.tv. I also mentioned that I spent more than 10 hours working on this 30 minute video project. I didn’t mention it in the episode, but this is another video project that I did for myself.

I took some time to answer a question from someone in the community regarding setting up an rss feed with feedburner so that you can change from one domain to another without asking your subscribers to subscribe to a new feed.

Here is a screen capture of where you change the original feed address in Feedburner:

Right Click Here To Download

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From what I understand, prongs on the adapters, that plug into the wall, can break off and remain stuck in the power outlet which creates a serious risk of electric shock. Users can either exchange their adapters in an Apple store, or order a replacement online.

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If you have not seen the Mac v/s PC commercials, you really should see them all!

Here is one of my favorites:

Several weeks ago, news came out that Microsoft was going to pour THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS into a Microsoft ad/marketing campaign. What was shocking about this story was that they announced that Bill Gates was to appear in the new ads and that they had hired Jerry Seinfeld to bring some talent to the campaign.

Here are their first two attempts at this campaign with Jerry:

Attempt 1:

Attempt 2:

It is no surprise that Microsoft said bye bye to Jerry! I must say, that regardless what hidden meaning may or may not be tucked into these commercials, it just seemed to be lost on the masses, including myself.

However, the latest advertisement coming from the Microsoft ad campaign is what we have all been waiting for. Something that deals DIRECTLY with the Mac v/s PC ad campaign. Let’s face it, Microsoft had been beaten up and knocked out in the prime time boxing match known as commercials. To this day, when we are browsing past commercials and see a Mac v/s PC commercial come on, we always back it up to the beginning to watch.

The question in my mind was… “What does Microsoft have to say about what Apple says about them in the attack ads?” Finally, Microsoft answers this very question and I must say… I think they knocked one out of the park with this latest Microsoft ad.

Take a look for yourself:

Brilliant! I love it! I think I may go and watch this one again! Tell me what you think in the comments!

Me? I’m a Mac when it comes to doing anything with video or just on the go with my MacBook laptop. I’m a PC the other 70% of the time, especially when I’m producing audio podcasts!

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Cliff,

I’d like to say thank you for your video tutorial for creating Zune and iTunes subscription buttons. The timing could not have been better because I had a listener specifically ask us to create an easy Zune subscription button just 2 days before you released your video. I took the information you gave us and created my own Zune, iTunes and RSS subscription buttons and imbedded the code just as you instructed. Thanks for you all you do for the podcasting community.

Darrell

The Fringe Podcast

www.TheFringePodcast.com

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This week the company faces a full-scale revolt. The issue: Apple’s summary rejection of a program on the grounds that it duplicated a function on one of its own programs.

The point of this entry is not to go into the full details of this story. I’ve already done that in previous posts. (The iPhone App I Had Developed, App Store Rejects My Application, & Podcasters Blacklisted From App Store)

I’m really hope that the entire new media & overall geek community will rise up and join together so that our voice can be heard in Cupertino! As I am notified of stories and blog posts about this issue, I’ll do my best to come and update this blog entry. Feel free to add your own links in the comments section of this blog.

Please note, If your link does not show up by default, I’ll manually go in and add the html for the link.

Here’s what I have so far as of 09/15/2008
iPhone: Big trouble in the App Store
Chuqui 3.0 – Reaction to Developer Leaving the iPhone Platform
Mobility Today Application
Why iPhone is an ureliable platform
App Store I’m Out
Of Course You’ll Keep Developing For The iPhone
Podcaster Developer Uses Little-Known “Ad Hoc” Mode To Distribute Banned iPhone App

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As it turns out, this may not be just a simple misunderstanding and with this story I just read on gizmodo.com, it seems that iTunes is actually taking the stance of BLACKLISTING podcasters from developing applications intended to allow streaming of their content via wifi, 3G, or Edge Networks. The application referred to in this story is called “Podcaster and was designed to allow you to subscribe, manage, stream and download podcasts directly to your iPhone and iPod Touch. Who doesn’t want this? Right?

The developers of this application were delivered a similar rejection letter to the one that Apple, Inc. had sent to me saying…. “Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

I must say that over the past few years, I’ve really warmed up to Apple. I purchased my first iPod just about two and a half years ago. Since then, I’ve purchased a total of five iPods for our family and three iPhones (I sold my original to get the new 3G).

In June of 2007, I purchased my first ever Mac Computer (A Macbook Laptop). I even started a Podcast (HelpIGotAMac.com) devoted to helping people who have spent a lifetime of computing on a PC warm up to their very first Mac Computer.

However, I must say that as a Podcaster, I feel slightly snubbed by the rejection of applications where money and time were poured into by podcasters when there were absolutely no clear guidelines or indications that such useful applications would be against any company policy.

Apple is turning out to be a very different company from what all my friends had been telling me about. I’m not sure I like this way of doing business.

UDPATE: Finally, this is starting to get some widespread attention. Here is a story posted on MacRumors.com.

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Stephanie and I started podcasting back in December of 2005. Since then we have launched nearly thirty unique podcasts. As of today, we still have more than 18 shows that remain in production at gspn.tv. The numbers I’m about to share with you do not include any episodes that I produce for any of my consulting clients or for Watermark Community Church. I have also excluded blog and video blog entries where either an audio or video media file was not delivered via a syndication feed.

As we are quickly approaching our third anniversary of podcasting, I was searching through our podcast archives today, to see if I could coordinate our 1,000th podcast episode to coincide with our 3rd Podcast Anniversary on December 16th. Imagine my shock when I browsed through all the archives only to recognize that the very next gspn.tv podcast episode that we will produce will be our 1,000th gspn.tv podcast episode that we have officially released.

I’m not kidding when I say this rocked my world. I’ve intentionally put off my morning recording of My Crazy Life and the Almost Daily Devotional as I’m considering waiting for Stephanie to join me for this milestone in our podcasting efforts. Since I was looking at some of the archived data, I looked at some other interesting facts. In just under three years, we have served more than THREE MILLION file downloads. Given that the over all average length of our episodes is approximately 45 minutes per episode, that works out to be approximately 750 hours worth of content produced.

I can’t decide if this constitutes as me “tooting our own horn” or not. I simply found this information to be quite astonishing and I simply had to share it with someone. Look for a special episode of My Crazy Life to be recorded some time today or this evening for release tomorrow.

Seriously, I had no idea that it was this much.

UPDATE: Click Here To Listen To Our 1,000th Show!

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A few weeks back, I was browsing the Apple App Store to see what Apps were available for download on my iPhone. I was surprised to see a Diggnation Application that had been made available.

Diggnation is a video podcast that I used to enjoy watching to catch some of the more popular tech news stories of the week. Unfortunately, Diggnation is a video podcast that exceeds thirty minutes for each episode. As I was not always able to devote this much time to watching a video podcast each week, I often found myself getting several episodes behind in my podcast subscription feed.

A few months back, I had actually unsubscribed from this video podcast due to the fact that, at the time, I only had a 4gig iPhone and I was getting errors saying that I didn’t have enough space available on my iPhone to sync everything I needed to sync. I know that I had an option to change my settings to only sync certain podcasts or only the most recent few episodes. However, I didn’t want to impose such limits on my other podcasts. I simply unsubscribed.

The Diggnation Application was genius! One feature I’ve always wanted on my iPod was to be able to wireless get the most recent episodes of my favorite podcasts without having to first download them to iTunes and then sync my iPod. This application doesn’t actually download the podcast episodes on the iPhone for keeps and then sync it back when I connect to iTunes again. However, what it does is simply goes out and pulls up the rss feed for Diggnation and then allows me to click on any of the episodes and then the built in media player on the iPhone or iPod Touch will then stream the file over wifi, edge, or 3G.

As I continued to browse the App Store, I found the Mobility Today Application. Mobility Today is simply an audio podcast and the application does the same thing the Diggnation Application does accept it simply streams .mp3 files instead of video files.

Now since I produce eighteen of my own podcasts at gspn.tv, I figured this would be an excellent application for our listeners. Often times, our listeners sync their iPods and iPhones before they leave the house for the day, hoping to have the most recent gspn.tv podcasts. However, I often release anywhere between two to eight podcasts in a single day and our community members would listen to many of them on their way home from work or while at the gym if only they had them available.

I contacted the creator of the Diggnation and Mobility Today application and hired him to build me a similar application for gspn.tv. However, I went the extra step of having him code and create the functionality of having the ability for our gspn.tv Plus Members to sign in with their user name and password so that they would have access to all the premium content only available to Plus Members.

After weeks of waiting for approval from the iTunes App Store, checking the App Store each day to see if my App has been made available, I finally got an email from Apple. Here is what they had to say….

From: de———s@apple.com
To: Cliff@Ravenscraft.org
Subject: gspn.tv: Application Submission Feedback

---

Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.

Follow-up: 54817423

Hello,

gspn.tv cannot be posted to the App Store, as the App Store is not the appropriate channel for distributing podcasts.

The iTunes Store has separate categories dedicated to each type of media. Music, podcasts, and movies are delivered through that channel. Information on publishing podcast on iTunes can be found at: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302199

Regards,

Victor W*******
Worldwide Developer Relations
Apple, Inc.

Needless to say, this news did not make me happy. Here my email response back to Apple.

From: Cliff@Ravenscraft.org
To: de———s@apple.com
Subject: RE: gspn.tv: Application Submission Feedback

---

I’m writing regarding the FOLLOW UP: 54817423

See below referenced email:

Regarding your decision… There are two applications that are already approved, in wide use, and have great feedback ratings that are EXACTLY like my application…

Here is one for Mobility Today

Here is one for Diggnation

Please note: both applications listed above are for a single podcast. My application includes all 18 of my podcasts as well as functionality of being able to sign in with your user name and password so that my Plus Members can gain access to their Premium Member Only Content that is available to them.

I’ve paid a great deal of money to have this application developed and my listening community is desperately waiting for the App to be released as many times they are out and about during the day when I release as many as five new episodes during a day but they don’t want to wait till they get home and sync their iPhone or Touch to listen to the shows.

Please reconsider!!!!

Cliff


Cliff J. Ravenscraft
Generally Speaking Production Network
Email: Cliff@Ravenscraft.org
My Podcasts: http://gspn.tv
Follow Me On Twitter: http://twitter.com/gspn
Podcast Consulting: http://PodcastAnswerMan.com

I can’t help but wonder who is in control of approving these applications and what guidelines they are going with. I personally find the Diggnation and Mobility Today applications quite useful. I had never heard of the Mobility Today Podcast before getting the application and I find myself checking out from time to time.

I also find myself occasionally watching Diggnation and prefer to do so through the application rather than re-subscribing in iTunes.

I know that the gspn.tv Community is very much looking forward to the release of this application and I hope and pray they reconsider their denial of this application when both of the above mentioned apps are pretty much exactly the same as mine with LESS FUNCTIONALITY!!!!!

Update:
Earlier this evening, I received a Twitter Message from someone asking “But why would you want podcasts cluttering up the app store. Podcasts already have a place in iTunes.” Of course I don’t think that the iTunes App Store should simply be another directory. However, if any podcaster has the inspiration to create an application that has a use beyond the functionality of simply being listed in a directory and pays the money to have an application built, and such an application does not violate any regulations of creating such an application, then I certainly feel like it should be approved.

I honestly don’t feel that the App Store will become cluttered with podcast rss reader applications. If it does, then SIMPLY CREATE A CATEGORY IN THE APP STORE FOR IT! Heck, it just means that there is a legitimate demand for such an application.

As for cluttering up the App Store. How many 99cent piece of crud applications do we need where you simply push a button and your iPhone plays a 3 second audio clip? I mean seriously, there is an application called Jerk In A Box. The description of the app…. “Hurl insults and talk smack like a pro without saying a word with this fun app. Each button plays a unique insult clilp that’s sure to give you and your friends a laugh. Chain them together and mix and mach to create new insults. It’s trash talk on the go!”

I mean seriously! The App Store will take this and deny my application? REALLY?

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There were Times when I found it quite neccessary to do some basic image editing out and about right there on the Mac OS without having to load up my XP in Parallels. So I went ahead and shelled out $59 to pay for the full version of Pixelmator.

I’ve had this on my computer for several months but only just now started to search for some tutorial information on how to use the software. I have decided that with all these web design projects I’ve been taking on, I better start getting used to using a more feature rich image editing program. I know it’s no Photo Shop, but there really does seem to be some great functionality to this Mac Only image editing application.

As I find items that help me, I’ll post them here in the new Tech Tips section of the Podcast Answer Man site.

This video starts off in such a way that I could hardly understand what the person was saying at all. However, if you stick with it long enough, this is very valuable information on how to remove the a white or black background in Pixelmator.

Of course, I found some great links to some other Pixelmator information using this link!

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In this video episode, I share with you the iPhone application that I’ve had made for our podcasting network. It should be available within the next few days or it could take up to three weeks to get into the iTunes store. I’ll keep you posted.

Here Is The Video:

Note: The iTunes Version of this video has a much higher video quality. For the best viewing experience, click to download using the link below and watch with either QuickTime, iTunes, or your video iPod.

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In this episode:

1) Show Started off with an update on my web hosting issue that I shared in the last episode (ep 72). I’m sticking with my shared hosting account with Godaddy.com. If I ever need a web host in the future, I will very much re-consider going to mosso.com. They had great customer service and support!

2) Next up, I shared that I’ve been working with a lot of new podcast start ups. In this episode, I shared just two of them to give you and idea of what some folks are doing in the field of Podcasting.

http://LoudounWildlife.org/category/podcasts
http://PinkAcres.tv

3) I answer an email from Russell who asked about how to bring in live callers into his high-school sports broadcast. We talked about the use of a JK Audio Broadcast Host, Skype’s Skype-In Service, as well as two suggestions… a) Use a hard wired connection for the internet, b) consider moving to a service like ustream.tv v/s windows media encoder.

4) Finally, we ended the show with a call from our good friend Wayne Henderson who loves the fact that I often will put fun stuff to read here in my lyrics tags.

I shared that my favorite mp3 tagging tool for the PC can be found for free at http://mp3tag.de

* Special thanks to Evan Agee at http://AgeeDesign.com/podcast for sponsoring this episode.

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In this episode I share some of my experiences with my current web hosting situation.

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In this episode, I share my thoughts on the Features and Drawbacks of Plurk.com and explain why I have actually got caught up into using this slightly odd named web 2.0 micro-blogging service. I also share my thoughts on Ping.fm.

Here Is The Video:

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In this episode I take Live Calls for the first time in the Podcast Answer Man show.

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In this episode I answer a few questions that had come in recently.

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In this episode I share a recent event where I had to change the name of my consulting business. I also talk about a few questions some consulting clients have recently asked.

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Links to: Robin Maiden, Alison Lukan, Jeremy Laughlin, Daniel Lewis

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Bob mentioned the REC Forums where he has been sharing a lot of his stories of his involvement in the music industry. You should CLICK HERE to check it out as there are links to photos, videos, etc that Bob has pulled out of the archives.

Of course I also mentioned in this podcast that I did an entire episode of the Podcast Answer Man to demonstrate the Power of the Heil PR 40. Click Here to listen to that episode.

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On this episode, I catch up on a few comments and questions that had come in on the Podcast Answer Man Voice Mail Line. Of course you can always call in your comments and questinos 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 859-795-4067.

The following video was mentioned by one of our callers. This video is from Paul Figgiani and Doug Kaye of IT Conversations. It’s a very informative video. However, I must point out, that I do not recommend relying on software for the recording of important Skyped interviews. You are always better off using a hardware based solution with an audio mixminus with even the least expensive of mixers out there and recording into a digital audio recorder.

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They recently ran an article titled “Former Insurance Salesman Turns ‘Lost’ Obsession Into Online Career.” I I’m very excited about the exposure this article brings to what we are doing here with gspn.tv and BitCast Media. Right-Click Here To Download PDF of original Story.

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In this episode, I finally go public with my thoughts on the TalkShoe Incident! Also I share my excitement over the release of the Edirol R-09HR recorder. If you are interested in the purchase of any podcasting gear, please do give me a call! I have some pre-built packages for podcasters or we can create a custom package just for you.

CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA COMMENTS & QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Evan Agee with AGEE DESIGN for sponsoring the Podcast Answer Man.

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This is a conversation with Jason Van Orden. Jason Van Orden is a consultant, author and speaker on podcasting and social media. Jason, a webpreneur and would-be rock star, dove into podcasting with the same passion he has for music and internet business.

In this conversation Jason and I discuss the process of how community is built over time.

CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA COMMENTS & QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Evan Agee with AGEE DESIGN for sponsoring the Podcast Answer Man.

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In this episode, I have lunch with DG Hollums, a local podcasting pastor from Northern, Ky. We share our lunch time discussion of various podcasting topics. Check out DG’s podcasts The Guys Podcast and Praxis Podcast.

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Special Thanks to Evan Agee with AGEE DESIGN for sponsoring the Podcast Answer Man.

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In this episode I am interviewed by gspn.tv community member, Andrea Zuniga. She recently interviewed me for her podcast called Geek Is Chic.

CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA COMMENTS & QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Evan Agee with AGEE DESIGN for sponsoring the Podcast Answer Man.

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In this episode I discuss how to make a link to subscribe to iTunes using an image. I answer a question about how to set up a domain name to forward to your free wordpress.com or blogger account. I also share my initial thoughts on Blogger & Podcaster Liability Insurance as discussed in TWIL Episode 14. There are quite a few other nuggets to be mined in this episode as well.

CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA COMMENTS & QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Evan Agee with AGEE DESIGN for sponsoring the Podcast Answer Man.

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Here is the recording I did of my talk at Podcamp NYC titled “Communicating With Your Audience / Building A Community Around Your Podcast.”

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In this episode, I share a bit of an update while outside the studio. There are going to be quite a few field recordings coming up from my trip to Podcamp NYC. Also, I share that I’ve been planning a lot of “meet ups” with those who listen to our podcasts. I encourage you to set up some meetups with people who listen to your show.

I also share my thoughts after giving my first ever Podcasting Webinar. I’m already excited to do my second Podcasting 101 webinar this coming Tuesday, April 29th.

Future Webinar Topics Include:
Improving Your Audio – Recording & Editing Techniques
Producing A Live Show!
Multi-Location Co-Hosting & Interviews
Basic Video Podcasting Using The Mac!
Working With ID3 Tags
FeedBurner & Feed Options
Web Technology Hints & Tips – Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Online Forums, EventBrite
Wordpress Basics for Podcasting
Podcast Equipment Workshop – What Equipment Is Right For Me?

CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA COMMENTS & QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Agee Design for Sponsoring Our Podcast! Mention Podcast Answer Man for a 20% Discount!

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In this episode, I am joined by Jeff Roney of Roney Zone Productions. We talked about a few low cost ideas on how you can promote your podcast!

We talked about Building a relationship with another show, bringing value to the conversation, the use of sub domains for branding purposes, video as a promotional tool even for audio podcasters, and the power of the written word.

CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA COMMENTS & QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Agee Design for Sponsoring Our Podcast! Mention Podcast Answer Man for a 20% Discount!

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In this episode, I review the Marantz PMD620 Professional Portable Digital Recorder. I also give a bit of an update regarding my feelings on the Zoom H2 Recorder. I also compare both the Marantz and the Zoom recorders to the Edirol R-09. Folks may be shocked to learn that if I had to replace my Edirol, there is a good chance that I might do so with the PMD620.

GET YOUR PODCASTING AUDIO EQUIPMENT FROM ME!
CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Agee Design for Sponsoring Our Podcast! Mention Podcast Answer Man for a 20% Discount!

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Agee Design for Sponsoring Our Podcast! Mention Podcast Answer Man for a 20% Discount!

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Agee Design for Sponsoring Our Podcast! Mention Podcast Answer Man for a 20% Discount!

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Agee Design for Sponsoring Our Podcast! Mention Podcast Answer Man for a 20% Discount!

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Agee Design for Sponsoring Our Podcast! Mention Podcast Answer Man for a 20% Discount!

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Enter Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man. With a couple of quick telephone conferences, Cliff was able to advise me on equipment purchases and help me assemble and use my new equipment. His service was friendly, responsive, and related in terms even a rookie podcasting mom could understand.

Had I taken my normal route of consulting “dummies” books, I’m certain I would still be losing sleep and performing at a sub-optimal level. Once I determined that putting together a quality podcast in a time efficient manner was important, the end goal seemed to justify the expense of bringing a consultant on board. I am incredibly pleased with the return on my investment.

Thanks Lisa, it was a pleasure working with you!

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I had a touch of nerves just minutes before I spoke, but like normal, that all went away after I got started.

Here are my notes that I was reading from!

Podcasting As A Career in TWENTY MINUTES or less!

Introduction in 3 minutes or less!

CC Chapman’s Managing The Gray – Episode 50
How to Break Into New Media as a Career

CC gave some great tips to folks who often ask how to break into new media as a career. I want to tell you a little about my story and then let you know how I got to where I am today, fits in with the advice that CC gave in his show!

My name is Cliff Ravenscraft
I’m married, going on 12 years, to my lovely wife, Stephanie
I have three children ages 8, 6, and 2
I recently left my career in insurance after 11 years to pursue my passion for a living as a full time podcast and new media personality.

A Couple of Facts About Me that helped lead me to where I am today!
Insurance Agent – I Love To Sell!
Associate Pastor – I Love To Talk!
Pastor of Small Groups – I Love To Teach!
I Love People!
I Love Technology – I’m a gadget freak!

How I got into podcasting as a hobby in five minutes or less!
Leo Leporte + Father Roaderick + A Couple From Hawaii

My First Podcast – Lost – Faith – Technology! – Generally Speaking!
People begged me to do just Lost!
14,000 Listeners within just the first few episodes!
My Calling To Ministry
Launched More Podcasts!

The Decision To Go Full Time! – In 4 Minutes Or Less!
Used to be VERY Successful as an insurance agent!
Lost All Passion for Insurance!
Podcasting On My Mind Every Waking Moment!
January 2007, decided to do it as a part time job!
Started Consulting
Got too busy and really affecting my DAY JOB!
Decided I either had to go full time or go back to podcasting as a hobby!
Decided to focus on the Day Job!
Became Extremely Miserable!
Everyone told me, CLIFF YOU ARE MEANT TO BE A PODCASTER!
My Listeners
My Insurance Clients
My Underwriters
My friends
My pastor

MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!! MY WIFE!

How To Tell My Parents!!!!!
The 90 Day Notice!

HOW DOES ONE EARN A LIVING PODCASTING AS A PROFESSION – IN 3 MINUTES OR LESS!

ANSWER: I’m still working on that one!

Donations! – The gspn.tv Monthly Support Team!
1000 listeners as a part of the gspn.tv Monthly Support Team!
1,000 people at $10 per month is $10,000 per month income!
I started this 3 weeks ago and I have 26 listeners join to date!
Donating either 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 per month

Sponsorship!

Webinars!

Podcast Consulting

Equipment Sales!

I’m constantly looking into other avenues for stream of income

THINGS CC CHAPMAN SHARED IN HIS MANAGING THE GRAY!

You Must Discover Your Niche!
Entertainment
Technology
Faith

Be Passionate About Your Niche!
People Are Drawn To Passion
I’m pretty darn Passionate

You Need A Strong Work Ethic!
I recently had to MAKE MYSELF declare one day a week as a day I don’t work!

Be involved!
I answer every single email
I try to play ever call in our shows
I create ways to interact with people and for them to interact with each other.
Online Forum
Twitter
Facebook
LIVE EVENTS!

WHAT CC SAID:

Be Curious! – Have Fun With New Technology
I try nearly every new technology that hits the block!
I try to find ways to use it to interact with my community.

Network, Network, Network.
That’s Why I’m Here
Podcamp Boston- Over 200 Business Cards!

Working Hard is Important, but luck can play a vital role.
CC called it luck, and didn’t want to really go into the discussion of destiny, fate, etc. That’s just not what his show’s about.

For me, you can call it luck, but I know in my heart, I was born to podcast! This is my calling in life.

You Have To Get Paid – Don’t UnderValue Yourself!
This was the most difficult thing to grasp!
I’m still working on how to go about charging for stuff that is just second nature to me!

To Me…. Podcasting is all about Entertaining, Encouraging, and Inspiring Others and Building Community

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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Scott from Boogey, Inc. and Sweatcast.tv just wrote in to tell me how happy he was with his Heil PR-40 and other audio gear that he recently purchased from me. If you are in the market for audio gear for your audio production, please send me an email and let’s talk! Cliff@gspn.tv

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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Upcoming PodCamps: (Note: There may be more that I’m not yet aware of)
Bold = Events that I am registered for!

* PodCamp Nashville – February 9, 2008
* PodCampMidWest – February 15-16 – Kansas City
* PodCamp Seattle – Februaryish, 2008 (in planning) – Seattle
* PodCamp Toronto 2 – February 23-24, 2008 at Ryerson University
* PodCampWesternMass, March 8, 2008
* PodCampSA (South Africa), – early March 2008 in Bloemfontein, South Africa
* PodCampSLC – March 29th, 2008 – Salt Lake City, Utah
* PodcampDC is coming April 18-20 2008
* PodCamp NYC 2.0, Friday April 25 and Saturday, April 26th, 2008
* PodCamp San Antonio – Numero Dos, May 3, 2008
* PodCamp Atlanta 2 – May 17-18, 2008
* PodCamp Chicago Somewhere in Chicago – June 6, 7, and 8th 2008
* Podcamp Austin – Austin, Texas – June 20, 21, 2008
* PodCamp Ohio – Columbus, Ohio – June 28, 2008
* PodCamp SF – January 18, 2009 @ MacWorld SF

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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Heil PR-40
In this episode, I’ve decided to show off one of my favorite pieces of equipment in my studio. My Heil PR40 microphone was recommended by Leo Leporte. I’m using this episode to show the MAJOR difference in the audio between cheap microphones as they compare to the Heil PR-40 sound.

Of course, I want you to know that one stream of income that I have going in my career as a podcast and new media consultant is that I am a reseller of audio equipment. The Heil PR-40 microphone is by far my most popular item. I can assure you that if you contact me directly, you’ll not find a lower price on this microphone!

If you are saving up money to improve the quality of your audio sound. Before you buy Compressors, Gates, Equalizers, etc, you should first purchase a professional microphone like the Heil-PR40 and it will increase the quality of your audio well above 95% of all the other podcasts out there.

If you want to purchase this microphone from me, please send me an email at Cliff@gspn.tv for more details.

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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In this episode, I record from a live demonstration at a meet up for NewMediaCincinnati.com.

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In this episode, I talk about the importance of taking your time when naming your podcast

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If you use twitter at all, there’s no doubt that you’ve recently seen a bit more GREEN in folk’s avatars!

If you are wondering what in the world is up with all the peas popping up all over the place, don’t feel bad. Heck it took about a week of seeing these peas multiply through my twitter contact list before I finally climbed out from behind my rock and asked someone to explain to me what this was all about. Before I share the answer, let me give you a little back story.

It’s the most amazing story in new media in 2007 as far as I am concerned. Susan Reynolds is a name that came across my radar about three months ago. It was just at the time that I had announced that I was leaving my job to start a career in full time podcasting and new media that my friend Kim told me that I should check out Second Life. She told me that if I wanted to know about the marketing possibilities of Second Life, I should get in touch with Susan Reynolds as she was like the Queen of Second Life Marketing.

Because I’ve been working through the end of this year at the insurance agency while working at night trying to do the work for my current podcasting clients and potential clients and setting up the business end of things, Second Life had been pushed to the back burner as something to look into in the new year when I am devoted to new media full time.

So here we are at present time where I recently asked what was the deal with all these peas everywhere. Several people immediately pointed out that the peas were in support of Susan Reynolds who had recently been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Susan explains the connection to the peas best in her blog post titled “What’s With The Peas?”

In short, when Susan when in to be tested, they did a lot of poking and prodding and in her own words, “To keep bleeding down & relieve pain I’d need to keep things cool. Traditional ice packs are hard and heavy. As much as I try to be a good sport I’m not into having a brick sitting on my chest….”

This is where a bag of frozen peas comes into the story! Susan writes, “I tucked it in my bra, took a picture, and was ready to tell the story later that night. That bag of peas added a touch of lightness to what could have been a sad and serious tale.” And thus began the uplifting and encouraging support of the New Media Community.

It’s amazing how something as simple as a pea can be used through this social media networking to bring us all together and cause us to band together in prayer and well wishes for Susan’s fight against breast cancer. I’ve seen the new media rally together to support a cause before, but never like this.

New Media Jim just met up with Susan Reynolds this evening and in new media fashion, they released an utterz message for us!

Useful links to follow-up on Susan’s fight!
Boobs On Ice – Susan’s Blog where she shares her fight against cancer!
Frozen Pea Fund – A website created to raise money for breast cancer research in honor of our friend, Susan Reynolds.
Frozen Pea Friday – A Flickr Group where you can share your Pea-Vatar!
Twitter – Follow Susan’s Twitter Updates
PEAple – A special Twitter account for riends of @susanreynolds, determined to help her kick breast cancer’s hind end.

Susan, I’m sure you’ll come by and read this. You and I have never personally met. I only know you through a friend who only knew you through social and new media. However, I feel very connected to you through your sharing this painful circumstance in your life. Sharing our lives online and being real and authentic is what I find so amazing about New Media.

Normally, when I learn of a crisis moment in the life of someone I know, I often times don’t know what to do or say to encourage the person. Sometimes, so much that I almost feel like sticking my head in the ground and avoiding the person who is suffering through the crisis. However, your effort in thinking ahead about how to share this with the community in a way that opens the window to be a little bit more light about such a serious topic was brilliant.

Thank you for bringing us all together! My prayers are with you as you go to the hospital tomorrow! We’ll be following you and encouraging you as you fight this cancer. I have faith that you will go from being a cancer patient to a cancer survivor!

Sincerely,
Cliff J. Ravenscraft
twitter.com/gspn

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In this episode, I do a screencast explaining why I love Netvibes and why it is now my personalized home page. If you would like to add the gspn.tv podcasts tab that I showed in this video, CLICK HERE after you have your netvibes account set up.

If you are interested in talking with me about my podcast consulting services, you can reach me by email at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or you can use the contact page at BitCastMedia.com.

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In this episode, I share my concerns about those who attempt to start podcasting using the Live Show format. I was shocked at how this almost came out as sort of a “rant.” I didn’t intend for it to come out that way. I’m wondering if this might spark an ongoing conversation on the topic.

In the episode, I shared my suggestion that using a cheap microphone and recording into AUDACITY would bring you a much higher quality of sound than that of recording into a phone line. Not only that, but I prefer listening to a podcast when the host(s) are pretending that they are speaking to, or for the benefit of, ME, the downloading listener. I don’t get this same feeling from many of the shows that focus so much of their attention on those who have joined them live.

It’s just been something going through my head I guess and I am not sure I delivered my thoughts well in this episode, but I got it off my chest and we’ll see what comes of it.

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

If you are interested in talking with me about my podcast consulting services, you can reach me by email at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or you can use the contact page at BitCastMeida.com.

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

If you are interested in talking with me about my podcast consulting services, you can reach me by email at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or you can use the contact page at BitCastMeida.com.

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

In this episode, I share why I rely so heavily on using an audio mixer in my podcast recordings. I also explain what a mix-minus is and how to set one up. Check out the new equipment page on the blog!

If you are interested in talking with me about my podcast consulting services, you can reach me by email at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or you can use the contact page at BitCastMedia.com.

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

In this episode, I take a quick lunch break to bring you a video podcast of some options out there for microphones for your podcast. Check out the new equipment page on the blog!

If you are interested in talking with me about my podcast consulting services, you can reach me by email at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or you can use the contact page at BitCastMedia.com.

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Thanks to Agee Design for sponsoring the Podcast Answer Man!

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Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

In this episode, I discussed how The Podacast Answer Man will now be a part of my personal/professional blog at CliffRavenscraft.com. Also, I explained that I am going to official end the NetJunk and Pursuing Your Passion podcasts and move the content from those shows into the Podcast Answer Man show. This is an an effort to streamline my efforts in podcasting. More about this in the episode.

T.J. called in with a question about how I play my audio clips right into the show as we record. I use a program called Pod Producer which you can get for FREE at PodProducer.net.

Chris Oatley called in and asked about video podcasting. I do plan on doing more video podcasting and I will certainly be doing many episode devoted to the topic. In this episode, I do share some important tips as far as shopping for a camera. Make sure any camera you buy has an AUDIO INPUT JACK! This is extremely important. I also shared that a good place to host your video files is Libsyn at Libsyn.com. I also mentioned Podango, but asked anyone who was considering the use of Podango to hold off just another few days until they here our big announcement in the gspn.tv State of the Community address that I’ll be releasing this week.

Jon from MonsterCookies.ca wrote a question in our forum. He wanted to know why his artwork and description would not update in iTunes even though he had updated this information on his libsyn account. The problem is that Jon is using Feedburner. This is where iTunes is looking for the feed data. I explained that Jon needs to sign into his feedburner account, go to the “Optimize” Tab in the settings panel and then click on the “Smartfeed” option. It is here that he should change his podcast artwork, description, and keywords.

Call in your comments and questions to our Listener Feedback Line at 859-795-4067 and we’ll try to play your call in our next show.

If you are interested in talking with me about my podcast consulting services, you can reach me by email at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or you can use the contact page at BitCastMedia.com.

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In this episode, I talk about An Article From Gigaom that discussed an increased concern about where you might be downloading your wordpress themes from. If you use Wordpress, I strongly encourage you to listen to this episode of the Podcast Answer Man and then read the article for yourself!

Episode 035 Update Regarding the Zoom H2:
Please note: The Zoom H2 will not mount as a USB Drive on MAC OS X 10.5.0 Leopard unless you update to H2 Firmware version 1.2 or higher. You may download the latest H2 frimware and read the installation instructions at Zoom’s site here.

Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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In this episode, I give you my review of the Samson Zoom H2 Portable Digital Recorder. You can help support gspn.tv by purchasing this item by contacting Cliff (cliff@gspn.tv) at $191.00!

UPDATE 11/27/2007:
Please note: The Zoom H2 will not mount as a USB Drive on MAC OS X 10.5.0 Leopard unless you update to H2 Firmware version 1.2 or higher. You may download the latest H2 frimware and read the installation instructions at Zoom’s site here.

Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Steps Mentioned In The Podcast
1) Determine your message – What your show will be about.
2) Determine who your audience is.
3) Choose a title.
4) Record your show – Audacity
5) Set up a website.
6) Find a place to host your files
7) Upload your file
Link to your file in your website
9) Burn your feed using FEEDBURNER
10) Promote Your Feed!

Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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In this episode of the Podcast Answer Man, we talk with Victor Cajiao from The Typical Mac User Podcast.

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In this episode of the Podcast Answer Man, we talk with Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

In this episode, I mentioned that I would start a section in the forum to discuss the use of Feedburner. CLICK HERE to go directly to that section!

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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In today’s Podcast Answer Man, I share with you a story I found on Paul Colligan’s Blog. The news is that Microsoft will now support Podcasting on its new Zune 2 devices out of the box. Not only that, but Zune 1 users will get an update to their firmware that will also support podcasting. The best part is that Microsoft is actually using the word PODCASTING! THIS ROCKS! Even if you never plan on purchasing a Zune EVER!

Listen to this episode of the Podcast Answer Man to find out why!

Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

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Today I share a brilliant marketing ploy that was pulled off at the New Media Expo this past weekend. Here is the link to the blog post I read from! Shout out to Chris Brogan for alerting me to this via twitter.

Image referenced in this episode:

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In this episode, I talk to Greg Willits, Father Roderick, Megan aka PodcastJunky, and Mike James.

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Cliff and Chef Mark Tafoya take some time to discuss ADM.

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

This episode is being pulled directly from the Remarkably Mark Podcast of our friend Chef Mark Tafoya. Before hearing about this on his podcast, I had not heard of the ADM, Association for Downloadable Media.

I’m releasing both Session 1 and 2 from Mark’s Podcamp Recordings here in the Podcast Answer Man feed. I have scheduled a live discussion on TalkShoe this coming Sunday where Chef Mark and I will talk together about what ADM is and share our thoughts on the organization as it is today.

Podcast Answer Man – Association for Downloadable Media
Sunday 9/23/2007 7:00pm Eastern Time (GMT-5)
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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

This episode is being pulled directly from the Remarkably Mark Podcast of our friend Chef Mark Tafoya. Before hearing about this on his podcast, I had not heard of the ADM, Association for Downloadable Media.

I’m releasing both Session 1 and 2 from Mark’s Podcamp Recordings here in the Podcast Answer Man feed. I have scheduled a live discussion on TalkShoe this coming Sunday where Chef Mark and I will talk together about what ADM is and share our thoughts on the organization as it is today.

Podcast Answer Man – Association for Downloadable Media
Sunday 9/23/2007 7:00pm Eastern Time (GMT-5)
Click Here To Join Live

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Discuss Podcasting in the Podcasting section of the GSPN.tv Community Forum.

Links:
Garage Band by Apple
MusicBakery.com
Old Time Radio Sound Effects

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What is the best place to host your files?
How can I get good stats reporting?
How do I get my podcast image to show in iTunes?
How do you handle negative feedback?

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Is it possible to use two usb mics to record audio for my podcast?
How does Cliff get his audio clips into podcast recordings?
How much does the Broadcast Host Cost?
How can I resample my voice mails from 8000hz to 44100hz in Audacity?

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One of the most overlooked details of setting up an audio podcast is the LOOK of the podcast itself. What I mean is that often times, the website that hosts your podcast show notes is the first impression someone will get of your audio production. This is especially true when folks find you through a search result in google. However, even in most podcast directories, there is a 300×300 image that can be used to display the logo or promotional graphic of your podcast.

In this episode, I interview the person who has been very helpful with the design work of much of what has been taking place with gspn.tv. Kim Fenolio is a great person to work with when it comes to graphic design. Kim recently started working for herself and has launched her business online at www.KimFenolio.com. If you are in need of some graphic design work, please do check out the work she does and the reasonable costs of doing business with her.

Here is one example of what I talked about in the podcast:

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As a podcaster, my greatest desire has been to get as much audience participation as possible. Most podcasters have tried to use such tools as the comments section on their show notes, online forums, listener feedback phone lines, and email. Yet, today, there is a very small percentage of podcasters who have actually tried to do a Live Interactive Podcast format. In today’s episode of the Podcast Answer Man, we do an actual Live Interactive Podcast to talk about the benefits of the LIP format.

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In this episode, Cliff shares two different FREE options for recording telephone interviews for your podcasts. If you are going to be doing a lot of interviews and you are willing to make an investment to do so, you might want to check out the gspn.tv Equipment Page to see some of the equipment mentioned in this podcast episode.

As an added bonus, Cliff shares two strategies of how to bring in a remote co-host into your podcasts at the end. Enjoy!

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Cliff is joined by Chef Mark Tafoya of the Remarkable Palate Podcast and the Remarkably Mark Podcast.

Mark C. Tafoya is a personal chef in New York City. He is also a world traveler and self-taught gourmand. He is a graduate of Yale University, worked as an actor for 10 years, both On and Off Broadway, and in independent films. His love of travel and food has taken him around the world. In this episode, we talk about motivations for podcasting and quite a bit about podcasting gear.

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Steve Webb was one the very first Christian podcasts that was not simply a ministry broadcasting their Sunday sermon series. I’ve been listening to Steve’s Lifespring podcast for a little over a year now and I’m amazed by the care he takes in explaining the Christian faith in words that anyone can understand. His approach to ministry through podcasting is refreshing and inspiring. It was my honor to be able to interview Steve for the Podcast Answer Man Podcast.

Be sure to check out the Lifespring Family of Podcasts! Be sure to tell Steve you heard about him here!

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It was my honor to be able to interview one of my favorite podcasters, Mark Hunter. Mark produces The Tartan Podcast which showcases the greatest music from the Scottish Independent Music Scene.

Here are some links to help with things discussed in the show:
The Tartan Podcast
Podcast User Magazine
Amplifico
Talking Voices Podcast Production
Cheeze Ltd
PodShow
TalkShoe

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I was recently interviewed by Jules from TalkShoe.com on his podcast titled “Successful Podcasters On Podcasting.”

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