http://PodcastAnswerMan.com Learn How To Podcast! A Podcast Consultant With Hundreds of Hours of Free Content! Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:47:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Learn How To Podcast! A Podcast Consultant With Hundreds of Hours of Free Content! Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no Learn How To Podcast! A Podcast Consultant With Hundreds of Hours of Free Content! http://gspn.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PAM.jpg http://PodcastAnswerMan.com http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/312/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/312/#comments Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:34:18 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5737 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/312/feed/ 3 Do You Take Ads On Your Site Or Podcast? In this week's episode, I focus a great amount of time answering many questions that have come in on the voice mail feedback hotline. - One of the questions that seemed to get the most time was whether or no... Do You Take Ads On Your Site Or Podcast? In this week's episode, I focus a great amount of time answering many questions that have come in on the voice mail feedback hotline. One of the questions that seemed to get the most time was whether or no... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:03:09 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/311/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/311/#comments Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:27:36 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5730 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/311/feed/ 8 Podcast Patent Update There has been a lot of new buzz happening around the Podcasting Patent Lawsuit lately. If you have not already heard them, I encourage you to listen to episode 292 and episode 298 of Podcast Answer Man to hear the full details ... Podcast Patent Update There has been a lot of new buzz happening around the Podcasting Patent Lawsuit lately. If you have not already heard them, I encourage you to listen to episode 292 and episode 298 of Podcast Answer Man to hear the full details about where this story started. In this episode I share my thoughts on why this who podcast patent lawsuit could end up being a major blessing to the podcasting industry as a whole and why I am slightly more confident that this will eventually all go away. Below is the list of links that I mentioned: NPR - Planet Money Episode 462: When Patents Hit the Podcast NPR Morning Edition - June 05, 2013: How One Patent Could Take Down One Comedian The Verge: A look at the patent on distributing podcasts, and EFF's plan to fight it. The Verge: President Obama to take aim at patent trolls with executive actions on Tuesday Mashable: Software Patent Trolls: Obama's Got You in His Sights Please Help EFF Challenge The Personal Audio Patent!     Who Cares About Klout? In this week's Social Media Segment, Erik Fisher and I discuss Klout for the very first time here on Podcast Answer Man. If you want to hear what we originally said about Klout back in October 2010, you can listen to episode 062 of Social Media Serenity. Do you find yourself checking your Klout score? Do you ever check the Klout score of others? Have you checked out their new Klout experts program? Tell me what you think in the comments section below.     Podcasting A to Z Do you want to learn how to podcast but don't know where to start? Podcasting A to Z is a four week online training course that walks you through each step in the process of setting up a podcast. You not only get step-by-step tutorials, but you also have the ability to get answers to all your questions during the four week session. If you have been thinking about starting a podcast, this is the course for you. Just head over to http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for full details and use discount code "PAM" to save $100 off the cost of the course. I look forward to potentially working with you.     The Podcast Mastermind Are you a podcaster? Are you self-employed or desire to be? Are you willing to invest in your future success? Have you heard about The Podcast Mastermind organization? The Podcast Mastermind is focused on the personal and professional growth of it's members. Find out more at PodcastMastermind.com!     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. I always make it a point to host a community meetup wherever I travel. Below is a list of events that you might be interested in. If you can make it to any of these events, I'd love to have the opportunity to meet you. If you are not able to attend the event, but are in that area, I'd still love for you to come to the personal community meetup that I will host in that town. Platform Conference November 3-5 - Dallas, TX Conference Link - http://PlatformConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration! New Media Expo January 4-6, 2014 - Las Vegas, NV Conference Link - http://NewMediaExpo.com     Exclusive Audio Branding Package Opportunity I want to remind you that I have an exclusive audio branding package through Music Radio Creative that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following: A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast’s exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. An amazing podcast intro with an introduction to your podcast and music bed. An exciting podcast outro with music and a call to action of your choice. Three jingles/bumpers that you can use to transition between segments, mention your website address, introduce interviews, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:00:41 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/v002/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/v002/#comments Fri, 31 May 2013 01:21:05 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5697 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/v002/feed/ 8 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/310/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/310/#comments Thu, 30 May 2013 15:37:40 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5685 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/310/feed/ 12 I Have Started A New Vlog! Earlier this week, I made the decision to take my YouTube presence to the next level. I have been inspired by my good friend, Fr. Roderick Vonhogen and Chris Pirillo. In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I Have Started A New Vlog! Earlier this week, I made the decision to take my YouTube presence to the next level. I have been inspired by my good friend, Fr. Roderick Vonhogen and Chris Pirillo. In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share my motivations for wanting to create a YouTube vlog. I also share why I made the decision to purchase the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX50 Complete Real Estate Video Kit from HDHat.com (Affiliate Link) specifically for this purpose when I have other video cameras that I could have used. Feel free to check out my Vlog Playlist on YouTube and subscribe to my channel while you are there.     Personal Plug of the Week This week's Personal Plug of The Week goes out to Brian Kane and his Backstage Pass podcast that features interviews with the hottest artists in the world of Christian HipHop. In this episode, I share an email from Brian where he shares somem exciting opportunities that have come his way as a result of his podcast. I encourage you to check out his podcast and to let him know that you heard about him from The Podcast Answer Man!     Instacast For Mac Desktop I saw an article on MacStories.net that announced that Instacast is now available as a Mac OSX desktop application. I'm not an Instacast user myself. However, I have heard good things reported about their iOS application. If you use Instacast, I would love to hear about your thoughts on this new desktop app in the comments below.     5 Creative Ways For Podcasters To Utilize YouTube In this week's Social Media Segment, Erik Fisher and I discuss five ways that podcasters can use YouTube to extend their brand. Have a listen to the episode to hear the reasons and to find out which ones that each of us have chosen to implement ourselves.     Podcasting A to Z Do you want to learn how to podcast but don't know where to start? Podcasting A to Z is a four week online training course that walks you through each step in the process of setting up a podcast. You not only get step-by-step tutorials, but you also have the ability to get answers to all your questions during the four week session. If you have been thinking about starting a podcast, this is the course for you. Just head over to http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for full details and use discount code "PAM" to save $100 off the cost of the course. I look forward to potentially working with you.     The Podcast Mastermind Are you a podcaster? Are you self-employed or desire to be? Are you willing to invest in your future success? Have you heard about The Podcast Mastermind organization? The Podcast Mastermind is focused on the personal and professional growth of it's members. Find out more at PodcastMastermind.com!     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. I always make it a point to host a community meetup wherever I travel. Below is a list of events that you might be interested in. If you can make it to any of these events, I'd love to have the opportunity to meet you. If you are not able to attend the event, but are in that area, I'd still love for you to come to the personal community meetup that I will host in that town. Platform Conference November 3-5 - Dallas, TX Conference Link - http://PlatformConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration! New Media Expo January 4-6, 2014 - Las Vegas, NV Conference Link - http://NewMediaExpo.com     Exclusive Audio Branding Package Opportunity I want to remind you that I have an exclusive audio branding package through Music Radio Creative that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following: A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast’s exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 57:47 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/v001/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/v001/#comments Tue, 28 May 2013 14:08:21 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5678 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/v001/feed/ 13 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/309/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/309/#comments Thu, 23 May 2013 18:51:43 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5656 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/309/feed/ 10 What Day Should I Releasing My Podcast? In this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share my feelings on what day of the week is best for releasing your podcast. The fact is that the best part of podcasting is that it is time shifted and people c... What Day Should I Releasing My Podcast? In this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share my feelings on what day of the week is best for releasing your podcast. The fact is that the best part of podcasting is that it is time shifted and people can choose to listen to your show whenever they desire. However, strategically choosing the day of your podcast can help make it easier to use your podcast to fit into their weekend routine, as a fresh start to a new work week or a mid-week pick me up. The most important thing is that you consider releasing your show on the same day each week, whichever day you end up choosing.     Is it okay to tag my .mp3 files with iTunes? I discuss tagging your .mp3 files in video 2 of my free Learn How To Podcast Tutorial. In this episode, I give my updated thoughts on just how important .mp3 tagging is today. I still believe that every .mp3 file should be tagged. The question has come up as to whether it is okay to tag your files using iTunes software instead of other dedicated software designed to add artwork and other tags to your podcast. Have a listen to this episode to hear my full thoughts on this matter.     Mic Flags Have you seen the mic flag that I have over the top of my microphone? If not, check out the Heil Microphone Equipment Package on my Podcast Equipment Page. I get my mic flags from Ellen at Impact PBS. Please do not judge the quality of their product by the look of their website. They do amazing work! Mic flags run about $50 plus shipping.     30/30 iOS Application I have fallen in love with the 30/30 iOS application. I did my best to explain how this application allows me to plan out my entire day and allows me to completely stay focused on the tasks that I have assigned to myself.     Podcasting A to Z Do you want to learn how to podcast but don't know where to start? Podcasting A to Z is a four week online training course that walks you through each step in the process of setting up a podcast. You not only get step-by-step tutorials, but you also have the ability to get answers to all your questions during the four week session. If you have been thinking about starting a podcast, this is the course for you. Just head over to http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for full details and use discount code "PAM" to save $100 off the cost of the course. I look forward to potentially working with you.     The Podcast Mastermind Are you a podcaster? Are you self-employed or desire to be? Are you willing to invest in your future success? Have you heard about The Podcast Mastermind organization? The Podcast Mastermind is focused on the personal and professional growth of it's members. Find out more at PodcastMastermind.com!     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. I always make it a point to host a community meetup wherever I travel. Below is a list of events that you might be interested in. If you can make it to any of these events, I'd love to have the opportunity to meet you. If you are not able to attend the event, but are in that area, I'd still love for you to come to the personal community meetup that I will host in that town. Platform Conference November 3-5 - Dallas, TX Conference Link - http://PlatformConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration! New Media Expo January 4-6, 2014 - Las Vegas, NV Conference Link - http://NewMediaExpo.com     Exclusive Audio Branding Package Opportunity I want to remind you that I have an exclusive audio branding package through Music Radio Creative that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following: A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast’s exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 57:59 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/4reasons/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/4reasons/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 18:56:24 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5616 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/4reasons/feed/ 18 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/308/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/308/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 14:58:00 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5593 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/308/feed/ 12 Three PAM Episodes Per Week? In this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I explain why I had recently given a great deal of consideration to the thought of producing three 20 minute episodes or two 30 minute episodes, per week, Three PAM Episodes Per Week? In this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I explain why I had recently given a great deal of consideration to the thought of producing three 20 minute episodes or two 30 minute episodes, per week, instead of continuing... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 43:12 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/construction/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/construction/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 16:21:34 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5584 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/construction/feed/ 8 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/scorre/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/scorre/#comments Sat, 11 May 2013 20:10:05 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5572 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/scorre/feed/ 23 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/307/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/307/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 09:00:50 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5556 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/307/feed/ 20 Hey folks, I'm in Orlando Florida this for a conference. However, before I left town, I recorded this extra episode and scheduled it for release here on the site while I was away. - Using Vine To Engage With Your Audience Hey folks, I'm in Orlando Florida this for a conference. However, before I left town, I recorded this extra episode and scheduled it for release here on the site while I was away. Using Vine To Engage With Your Audience In this week's social medi... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:07:39 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/306/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/306/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 21:21:42 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5539 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/306/feed/ 17 Get Creative When Naming Your Podcast In iTunes! In this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I explain how you can get creative with the way that you name your podcast so that your show will turn up in more search results within iTunes.     Get Creative When Naming Your Podcast In iTunes! In this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I explain how you can get creative with the way that you name your podcast so that your show will turn up in more search results within iTunes.     Adding Pictures & Videos To Your Linked In Profile In this week's Social Media Segment, Erik Fisher and I talk about how LinkedIn now allows you to add pictures and video to your LinkedIn Profile. I share how I have added a few item to my own profile and we discuss our thoughts on this new feature. Here are links to our LinkedIn Profiles - Erik's profile - http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikjfisher - Cliff's profile - http://www.linkedin.com/in/CliffRavenscraft Here are the two links we mentioned in our discussion: - Social Media Serenity episode on LinkedIn - Podcast Answer Man episode on LinkedIn Endorsements     Personal Plug of The Week This week's personal plug of the week is the Disability Talk from a guy named LA. LA is a quadriplegic with a heart for encouraging and inspiring others with disabilities. I highly encourage hat you check out his podcast by clicking here. Please be sure to let him know that you found out about his show from The Podcast Answer Man. While you are at it, be sure to leave him a rating and review in iTunes. It's content like this that really shows the power of podcasting.     New Media Expo (NMX) Updates Many of you know that I am the Director of Podcasting for New Media Expo (formally BlogWorld). I am happy to announce that the you can now submit a session for the podcasting track by clicking here. The next event will be January 4th - 6th in Las Vegas! I share several other details about the next NMX event in this episode.     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. I always make it a point to host a community meetup wherever I travel. Below is a list of events that you might be interested in. If you can make it to any of these events, I'd love to have the opportunity to meet you. If you are not able to attend the event, but are in that area, I'd still love for you to come to the personal community meetup that I will host in that town. SCORRE Conference May 6-9 - Orlando, FL Conference Link - http://ScorreConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration! GSPN Community Disney Dream Cruise June 23 - 27 - Bahamas Full Details: http://gspn.tv/cruise Platform Conference November 3-5 - Dallas, TX Conference Link - http://PlatformConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration! New Media Expo January 4-6, 2014 - Las Vegas, NV Conference Link - http://NewMediaExpo.com     Exclusive Audio Branding Package Opportunity I want to remind you that I have an exclusive audio branding package through Music Radio Creative that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following: A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast’s exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. An amazing podcast intro with an introduction to your podcast and music bed. An exciting podcast outro with music and a call to action of your choice. Three jingles/bumpers that you can use to transition between segments, mention your website address, introduce interviews, features and more. Complete script writing service for all of your audio products. I encourage you to check out the commercial below and then click here to schedule your audio branding consultation today.     Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 48:06 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/305/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/305/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:37:23 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5526 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/305/feed/ 23 One of the questions that I am asked most often is "How do I increase the number of people who subscribe to my podcast?" I usually point these folks to episode 254 where I discuss How To Grow Your Audience And Market Your Podcast!. - One of the questions that I am asked most often is "How do I increase the number of people who subscribe to my podcast?" I usually point these folks to episode 254 where I discuss How To Grow Your Audience And Market Your Podcast!. My number one recommendation for growing your audience is to build a meaningful relationship with those who are already subscribed to your podcast. I attribute much of the success that I have had in growing my audience to my ability to connect with folks through the use of social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc. In this episode, Erik Fisher and I go into a lengthy discussion about the recent article from Poynter.org titled Science reveals what really increases Twitter followers.     Personal Plug of The Week This week's personal plug of the week is Amy Porterfield's Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Amy is a recent graduate of my Podcasting A to Z course and she is knocking it out of the park with her new show. Amy is consistently hanging around the top ten spot in the Management and Marketing section of iTunes. I encourage you to check out her 7th episode titled How To Get More Facebook Fans.     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. I always make it a point to host a community meetup wherever I travel. Below is a list of events that you might be interested in. If you can make it to any of these events, I'd love to have the opportunity to meet you. If you are not able to attend the event, but are in that area, I'd still love for you to come to the personal community meetup that I will host in that town. SCORRE Conference May 6-9 - Orlando, FL Conference Link - http://ScorreConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration! GSPN Community Disney Dream Cruise June 23 - 27 - Bahamas Full Details: http://gspn.tv/cruise Platform Conference November 3-5 - Dallas, TX Conference Link - http://PlatformConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration!     Exclusive Audio Branding Package Opportunity I want to remind you that I have an exclusive audio branding package through Music Radio Creative that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following: A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast’s exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. An amazing podcast intro with an introduction to your podcast and music bed. An exciting podcast outro with music and a call to action of your choice. Three jingles/bumpers that you can use to transition between segments, mention your website address, introduce interviews, features and more. Complete script writing service for all of your audio products. I encourage you to check out the commercial below and then click here to schedule your audio branding consultation today.     Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, please leave me a comment with your name and a link to your website in the comments section below.     Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:00:00 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/304/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/304/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:12:36 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5511 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/304/feed/ 15 I had an amazing experience at the Social Media Marketing World conference that was held last week in San Diego, California. In this episode, I share why this conference was not only a huge win for me, professionally, I had an amazing experience at the Social Media Marketing World conference that was held last week in San Diego, California. In this episode, I share why this conference was not only a huge win for me, professionally, but I also share why it was a major win for Podcasting as an industry. The title of this episode is a direct quote from Michael Stelzner's keynote address. Social Media Examiner did a study to uncover new trends in social media marketing. In that study, they had asked "what social media networks are you're currently using" and "what are all the social media related tools that you are using?" The results showed that only 3% of marketers are currently using podcasting in their social media marketing strategy. However, 32% have a desire to learn how to use podcasting in their marketing efforts and 23% have plans to increase their podcasting activities in 2013. If you want to hear how this trip to San Diego was a massive success for me, personally, as a husband and father, then I encourage you to listen to episode 252 of Family From The Heart. That episode is posted at http://gspn.tv/ffth252.     Social Media Segment Erik Fisher joined me for an extended Social Media Segment this week. I shared how social networking doesn't always have to be one to many and how I am using unlisted YouTube videos as a one to one communication tool. We discussed the Huffduffer service and how you can use it to create a custom podcast feed of one-off audio content that you want to listen to in your podcast app. We also gave an update on what podcast apps we are using on our mobile phones these days.     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. I always make it a point to host a community meetup wherever I travel. Below is a list of events that you might be interested in. If you can make it to any of these events, I'd love to have the opportunity to meet you. If you are not able to attend the event, but are in that area, I'd still love for you to come to the personal community meetup that I will host in that town. SCORRE Conference May 6-9 - Orlando, FL Conference Link - http://ScorreConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration! GSPN Community Disney Dream Cruise June 23 - 27 - Bahamas Full Details: http://gspn.tv/cruise Platform Conference November 3-5 - Dallas, TX Conference Link - http://PlatformConference.tv Affiliate Info: Use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 on registration!     Exclusive Audio Branding Package Opportunity I want to remind you that I have an exclusive audio branding package through Music Radio Creative that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following: A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast’s exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. An amazing podcast intro with an introduction to your podcast and music bed. An exciting podcast outro with music and a call to action of your choice. Three jingles/bumpers that you can use to transition between segments, mention your website address, introduce interviews, features and more. Complete script writing service for all of your audio products. I encourage you to check out the commercial below and then click here to schedule your audio branding consultation today.     Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:13:48 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/303/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/303/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:08:56 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5496 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/303/feed/ 2 The 10,000 Hour Rule by Malcolm Gladwell Many people believe that Malcolm Gladwell teaches that you have to work for 10,000 hours in a specific area before you become an expert. This could not be further from the truth, The 10,000 Hour Rule by Malcolm Gladwell Many people believe that Malcolm Gladwell teaches that you have to work for 10,000 hours in a specific area before you become an expert. This could not be further from the truth, and in this episode of the Podcast Answer Man I explain what the rule actually says, and how that relates to my desire to produce a podcast episode every single week without fail. However, I also explain that I’m taking next week off and why there won’t be a new episode of the Podcast Answer Man until I return on April 18th.     Personal Plug of the Week This week’s Personal Plug of the Week is Lourdes Welhaven. She has a podcast called, The Networker for Business Women and that can be found at networkerforbusinesswomen.com. In episode 10 she interviewed Kelly Costello, a recent participant in Shark Tank. It’s a very informative interview, and I encourage you tocheck it out. If you listen to it and enjoy it, be sure to let her know you enjoyed it and that you heard about her podcast from the Podcast Answer Man.     So Why the New Pop Filter? Brian called the Voicemail Feedback Hotline to say that he noticed that my equipment package now includes a new pop filter. He was about to purchase the one that I previously recommended and wanted to know why I made the change, and the benefits of each of the pop filters. I go into the full story of why I made the switch and what my thoughts are on the new pop filter compared to the old one.     LeadPlayer Plugin Update A special thank you to Sarah who called in and gave a very important update about the LeadPlayer plugin. When I originally promoted this plugin, the main benefit that I promoted was that the plugin allowed you to embed an unlisted YouTube video without having to link back to the original video on YouTube. This kept the video private from anyone not on your site. Sarah informed me that unfortunately, this is no longer a feature within the LeadPlayer plugin, but she explains why she still finds this plugin valuable. I also give my updated thoughts on this as well.     Is There Really a Longer Load Time with Archive.org? Tony called in to question the thoughts I recently shared related to issues with using archive.org as a podcast media host. I had stated that people often experience slow load times with archive.org. The issue with this is that longer load times have the potential to result in the loss of new subscribers to your show. Tony shared that he did a comparison between the load time of Podcast Answer Man and his show which is hosted on archive.org; he found that there is only a two-second difference. In this episode I share my thoughts related to Tony’s research and also give some additional thoughts on archive.org.     Evergreen Content and it’s Value in iTunes Thanks to Derrick for calling in and giving me feedback about the evergreen content he found on virtualassistantpodcast.com. I started producing this podcast three years ago, and only produced 38 episodes over a nine-month period of time. Derrick’s call is a perfect example of how this podcast still benefits me and my brand, even today, and makes clear why I’m thankful that iTunes still includes podcast content even when episodes haven’t been produced for a long period of time.     New Media Expo Dates Announced New Media Expo has released the dates for NMX 2014. The conference will be held on January 4-6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you sign up before April 19 at NewMediaExpo.com , you can purchase a Content Creator pass for only $197. No affiliate link is necessary, and no commissions are offered to me; however, I strongly encourage you to sign up as quickly as possible to take advantage of this $197 opportunity.     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 59:00 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/302/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/302/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:52:02 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5483 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/302/feed/ 4 Why Audio Podcasting Can Work For Visual Topics! - I am very happy to feature Chef Keith Snow and his Harvest Eating podcast as my personal plug of the week. I asked Keith if he would be willing to record an audio clip for Podcast Answer Man where he... Why Audio Podcasting Can Work For Visual Topics! I am very happy to feature Chef Keith Snow and his Harvest Eating podcast as my personal plug of the week. I asked Keith if he would be willing to record an audio clip for Podcast Answer Man where he... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:32 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/301/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/301/#comments Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:23:20 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5464 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/301/feed/ 17 YouTube Thoughts For Podcasters I can't believe that I have barely had any coverage of YouTube here on Podcast Answer Man. In this episode, I have Erik Fisher join me for an extended Social Media Segment to spend a great deal of time talking about Yo... YouTube Thoughts For Podcasters I can't believe that I have barely had any coverage of YouTube here on Podcast Answer Man. In this episode, I have Erik Fisher join me for an extended Social Media Segment to spend a great deal of time talking about Yo... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 56:50 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/300/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/300/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:01:11 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5439 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/300/feed/ 24 Celebrating My 300th Episode I knew that I wanted to do something special to celebrate my 300th episode of Podcast Answer Man. I thought that sharing one of the greatest keys to my success would be the perfect way to do that. Celebrating My 300th Episode I knew that I wanted to do something special to celebrate my 300th episode of Podcast Answer Man. I thought that sharing one of the greatest keys to my success would be the perfect way to do that. What is this key to suc... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:19 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/gspn-community-disney-dream-cruise-information/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/gspn-community-disney-dream-cruise-information/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 01:52:12 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5434 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/gspn-community-disney-dream-cruise-information/feed/ 0 GSPN Community Disney Dream Cruise: Please click play above to listen to the informational call that will give you the full details of our upcoming GSPN Community Disney Dream Cruise. - You are invited to join the online community experience ... GSPN Community Disney Dream Cruise: Please click play above to listen to the informational call that will give you the full details of our upcoming GSPN Community Disney Dream Cruise. You are invited to join the online community experience ... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:18:42 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/299/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/299/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:01:03 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5414 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/299/feed/ 4 Telephone Interviews & Taking Live Calls Justin called in to say that he's thinking about getting rid of Skype for his interviews, especially those of the telephone variety. In this episode, I try to convince Justin to investigate improving Skype bef... Telephone Interviews & Taking Live Calls Justin called in to say that he's thinking about getting rid of Skype for his interviews, especially those of the telephone variety. In this episode, I try to convince Justin to investigate improving Skype before going to other interview recording solutions. In response to his question about other options for doing telephone interviews, I did mention how he could use any of the free conference calling systems, a full blown telephone interface device, or even doing what is called a "double ender." Special thanks to Randy Cantrell from http://BulaNetwork.com and Nick Seuberling from the Who-Dey Weekly Podcast for helping me demonstrate live call in options.     Personal Plug of the Week This week's personal plug of the week goes out to the Great Business project podcast by Ralph Quintero. The following quote from Ralph's About Page will help you understand the focus on his show. Do you remember why you became an entrepreneur? Financial freedom? More time for yourself and your family? If you’re anything like most entrepreneurs, you’ve found out very quickly that things aren’t quite that rosy.   You’re on a hamster wheel! You are working what feels like 100+ hours a week, your cash flow sucks and you haven’t taken a “real” vacation in years. An afternoon off? Maybe…NOT! You can’t disconnect.   What’s more, is that you think your business will probably fail if you are not there, because your business is about you. Clients all want to deal with you, not your employees. You’re the brand.   Then one evening after an exhausting day at the office, you dream about a steady paycheck and benefits. Regular work hours. Less responsibility. Maybe a corporate gig isn’t that bad, right??   Sounds familiar? Been there? I have.   The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Ralph also has an entrepreneur magazine for the iPad with the name. If you check out Ralph's show, please be sure to let him know that you heard about him from The Podcast Answer Man.     iTunes says they have new podcast tech requirements. Recently, nearly everyone with a show published in the iTunes podcast directory received an email from Apple about the new tech requirements for podcasts. The email read... Dear Podcast Provider, New Cover Art Requirement iTunes has been completely redesigned and there are new requirements for podcast cover art. To be eligible for featuring on iTunes Store, a podcast must have 1400 x 1400 pixel cover art in JPG or PNG format using RGB color space. The image URL must end in ".jpg", ".jpeg" or ".png" and the server hosting the image must allow HTTP HEAD requests. See our technical spec for details. Server Configuration Requirement Podcast streaming playback on iTunes requires all hosting servers to enable Byte Range Requests. Please confirm your hosting servers have this functionality enabled. If you work with a third-party hosting service, please contact them to confirm this functionality is enabled on their servers. 155 Countries & More Than 100 Languages iTunes Podcasts has launched in additional countries around the world. Note that reviews and ratings are unique to each country. Podcasts are published in more than 100 languages. Regards, The iTunes Podcast Team I discuss what this means to podcasters in this episode. If you want, you just directly to 51 minutes into this episode which is where I explain my thoughts on this email.     Upcoming Event Schedule One of my favorite things about traveling to, and speaking at conferences, is meeting members of my community. I always make it a point to host a community meetup wherever I travel. Below is a list of events that you might be interested in. If you can make it to any of these events, I'd love to have the opportunity to meet you. If you are not able to attend the event, but are in that area, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:00 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/298/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/298/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:46:45 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5397 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/298/feed/ 20 Podcast Patent Update: EFF & The SHIELD Act If you have not yet listened to Episode 292 of Podcast Answer Man where I introduced the Podcasting Patent Lawsuit, you may want to consider listening to that episode first. - Now, Podcast Patent Update: EFF & The SHIELD Act If you have not yet listened to Episode 292 of Podcast Answer Man where I introduced the Podcasting Patent Lawsuit, you may want to consider listening to that episode first. Now, several podcasters have r... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 59:46 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atozblog/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atozblog/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:17:21 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4718 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/atozblog/feed/ 14 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/297/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/297/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:37:54 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5380 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/297/feed/ 2 The SCOORE Conference I'm very excited to announce that I have officially registered for the SCORRE Conference in an effort to take my public speaking to a whole new level. If you have been thinking about improving your own speaking skills, The SCOORE Conference I'm very excited to announce that I have officially registered for the SCORRE Conference in an effort to take my public speaking to a whole new level. If you have been thinking about improving your own speaking skills, I encourage you to listen to this episode to find out what this conference will provide. If you want to attend this conference with me, get registered today and use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 off the cost of the registration.     Podcasting A to Z Since March of 2011, I've completed nine sessions of my Podcasting A to Z course, helping more than 170 people launch successful podcasts. My next course starts on Monday, March 4th and I woud love to help you launch your podcast or take your existing podcast efforts to the next level! Everyone who signs up for Podcasting A to Z gets immediate access to all the training materials. I've had students who launched their podcast within the first week of the course as a result of this. Sign up using discount code "PAM" in the shopping cart and you'll save $100. To learn all that is included in this four week course and to reserve your spot in the next session, please go to http://PodcastingAtoZ.com.     Posterous Is Shutting Down I found out from Mashable that Posterous will be shutting down this April. Posterous is a blogging platform (and more) that had millions of users. However, Twitter purchased the company last year and recently announced that as of April 30th, 2013, they will completely shut down the service and the blogs created by the millions of users will no longer be available to view or edit. This is yet another reason why I feel that it is important that folks consider creating their own self-hosted WordPress website. To see my full thoughts on website and podcast hosting, please see my hosting blog post.     1 Pixel Out Audio Player Is Back! I'm very happy to announce that the 1 Pixel Out audio player has been updated and no longer poses a security threat. As a result, the great folks at BluBrry have added it back into the most recent update to the PowerPress Plugin.     Your Twitter Archive Is Now Declassified! I was thrilled to learn that that not only did Twitter add the ability to download every Twitter post we've ever made, they created an amazing stylized html document that easily allows you to browse through your entire archive by month and year. If reading this does not excite you, have a listen to Erik and I discuss this in our Social Media Segment and see if you can understand why I feel this is the greatest thing to happen in Social Media since Twitter first launched.     Exclusive Audio Branding Package Opportunity I want to remind you that I have an exclusive audio branding package through Music Radio Creative that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following: A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast’s exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. An amazing podcast intro with an introduction to your podcast and music bed. An exciting podcast outro with music and a call to action of your choice. Three jingles/bumpers that you can use to transition between segments, mention your website address, introduce interviews, features and more. Complete script writing service for all of your audio products. I encourage you to check out the commercial below and then click here to schedule your audio branding consultation today.   ScreenFlow Tutorial is Now Available I originally created The ScreenFlow Basics tutorial as a Podcast Mastermind Success Seminar in response to members who asked if I could demonstrate how I use ScreenFlow to create the digital tutorials and other various videos that I have made available. I have decided to also make this tutorial available, for purchase, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 56:23 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/296/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/296/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:23:22 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5366 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/296/feed/ 21 An Interview With President George W. Bush Before you click the play button above to listen to this interview, check out the video that I recorded in the Green Room at the Platform Conference.   Meet John C Morgan! Okay, An Interview With President George W. Bush Before you click the play button above to listen to this interview, check out the video that I recorded in the Green Room at the Platform Conference.   Meet John C Morgan! Okay, so person I'm speaking to in the video above, and in the interview found in this episode of Podcast Answer Man, is not really the former president, George W. Bush. Instead, this is world renowned George W Bush impersonator, John C. Morgan. When I met John this past week, I felt an immediate connection to him and his inspiring story, a story that I knew that I wanted to share this inspiring story with you. John and I forged an immediate friendship and we were both so eager to record this interview for Podcast Answer Man that we made a point to record it before we even left Nashville to come home. On my drive home from Nashville, I listened to the audio version of his book titled "My Life as a Bush and my heart for imitating Jesus." It is heavily faith based, as you may assume from the title. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire book and how he shares how his life of impersonating a former president is matches his desire to imitate Jesus in his day to day life. The wildest thing that struck me is that in all the hours I spent with John over the past few days, I knew that it was John Morgan that I was speaking to. However, there was something in my heart, my mind, or somewhere that made me feel as if I were in the presence of the former President of The United States of America. After reading (listening) to his book, it does cause me to wonder if there are folks who have spent a good deal of time me and had a strange feeling that they had been in the presence of God. As I said, I really enjoyed the book and the thoughts it has evoked. I encourage you to check out John's Website. Also, you can follow him on Twitter.     Platform Conference - My First Singing Gig! Thanks to the Platform Conference, I can honestly say that I made my singing debut in Music City, USA, Nashville Tennessee. Not only that, but my first song was actually recorded at the historic Sound Kitchen Music Studio, the same studio that has recorded such stars as Amy Grant, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Bruce Springsteen, RUSH, Carrie Underwood, Don Henley, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Vince Gill, and too many more for me to continue to list. You'll have to listen to this episode to learn the full details of how this came about. (Note: Be sure to listen to the very end of this episode, after my outro, to hear my beginning and end of my singing career) I am so incredibly thankful to my friend, Michael Hyatt, for giving me the amazing opportunity to take my public speaking to "The Next Level" at his very professional Platform Conference. The Platform Conference was the single best conference that I have ever attended. While my 45 minute time limit didn't give me the opportunity to share as much of my story as you can find in the current video on my About Page, I still believe that this was the best public speaking performance that I have given to date. It is friends like Michael who inspire me to face my fears and charge forward into becoming all that God has created me to be.     Nashville Meetup As I write these show notes (Yes, I'm writing them this week), I am bummed that I neglected to mention the success of the gspn.tv and SPI community meetup that Pat Flynn and I hosted. We had just over 40 people show up throughout the evening. I just got so caught up in sharing my "singing story" and the excitement over my newfound friendship with John Morgan, that I simply forgot to mention the other major highlight of my trip to Nashville. I have said it before, and I will say it again, but one of my favorite things about traveling is hosting these community meetups. This was an amazing time where I got to see so many old friends and to meet many new friends. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:06:34 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/295/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/295/#comments Sat, 09 Feb 2013 04:40:02 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5326 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/295/feed/ 17 Why Am I Losing Subscribers? Tom recently called in to say he created a podcast four months ago. Today, approximately 50 people are downloading each episode. This is down from 400 downloads per episode in October. Why Am I Losing Subscribers? Tom recently called in to say he created a podcast four months ago. Today, approximately 50 people are downloading each episode. This is down from 400 downloads per episode in October. Tom’s question was what would cause this decline to happen. I review various aspects of Tom’s show such as the name of his show, the artwork, the audio quality, and more to see where the problem might be, and gave him additional thoughts on what he can do to increase the number of people who listen to his show on a regular basis.     What is Success for a New Podcast? Rick called in to say that he recently launched a new podcast. He was wondering what my thoughts were regarding how many downloads it takes for a brand new podcast to be successful. I share my thoughts on how to truly define success for a podcast in this episode.     Real Names vs. Pen Names and Privacy/Security Dana recently called in to ask my thoughts on how I feel about using pen names. She is a mom with three kids, and routinely does a podcast where she shares about her kids. Her family has safety concerns when it comes to her sharing too much information. I give my thoughts about how my core values of "Authenticity" and "Transparency" drive the way that I feel about this subject. I Dana some ideas of how she can be authentic without compromising the safety of her children.     Personal Plug of The Week My Personal Plug of the Week goes out to Gaius Chamberlain, from the Great Black Heroes Podcast with Gaius Chamberlain. Just before I recorded this week's episode, I, received this email from Gaius: Hi Cliff,   I just want to take a moment to thank you. I have been a student and customer (I bought an equipment package as well as some digital training products), and I have been very appreciative for the insight you have provided. I use your affiliate codes when I purchase products or sign up for services because I appreciate what you do.   Now, however, I want to directly thank you. I have dragged my feet with launching a podcast for three years and I FINALLY went ahead and put it out there.   I set a goal to have 10 episodes ready for Black History Month and I did it. The site is called Great Black Heroes and the podcasts are at: http://www.greatblackheroes.com/podcasts/ I know that you receive a lot of thanks but I hope you know that you really have a positive impact that doesn't always get acknowledged, so thank you. This will be the first of many podcasts and I owe a lot of it to you!   Gaius Chamberlain     Do We Need Preamps? Albert, a member of the Podcast Mastermind called in to ask whether or not we as podcasters should concern ourselves with the use of preamps if we’re using a Heil PR-40 and a mixer set up. In this episode, I give my answer to Albert’s question.     Using an iMac as an External Monitor In this episode I shared how I recently took my monitor usage to the "next level." I pulled this off by using my second 27” iMac as an external monitor for my main, 27” iMac, and now with those two, in addition to my 23” Hewlett Packard monitor, I now have what looks like a NASA Mission Control Center.     My Personal Win of The Week Just yesterday I met with my CPA and filed my business and personal tax returns. In this episode I was very authentic and transparent as I shared what I achieved financially in 2012. More specifically: My "PERSONAL INCOME" for 2012 was $122,000 -- that is more money than I ever made in my previous career in insurance. In addition to that, my business paid the following benefits: Business Equipment (read fun tech gear) = $9,000 Continuing Education (books & such) = $800 Meals for Business Meetings (Lunch Meetings With Stephanie) = $2,800 Rent Income From Business = $4,200 Travel Expenses (mostly business "vacations") = $10,700 These listed benefits adds up to $27,500. So if you consider my $122, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:38 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/294/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/294/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:13:56 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5263 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/294/feed/ 12 Exclusive Audio Branding Offer With Mike & Izabella Russell! I am so thrilled to spend some time introducing Mike and Izabella Russell, from Music Radio Creative, to the Podcast Answer Man community. I was first introduced to Mike and Izabella several... Exclusive Audio Branding Offer With Mike & Izabella Russell! I am so thrilled to spend some time introducing Mike and Izabella Russell, from Music Radio Creative, to the Podcast Answer Man community. I was first introduced to Mike and Izabella several months ago when they had contacted me about my Podcast Answer Man referral network. I had checked out their website and was quite impressed with the audio branding services that they offered. However, I didn't yet know them very well and my busy schedule continued to get in the way of my connecting with them. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to meet Mike and Izabella in person while in Las Vegas for New Media Expo. I immediately fell in love with this couple and their story of how they had built their online audio branding business. They quite literally became instant friends and I knew for a fact that I wanted to work with them. What most impressed me was that I had shared my desire to have a commercial created to promote our gspn.tv Community Cruise. We talked only briefly about this and I told them that I would get a draft script sent to them soon after I returned home from New Media Expo. Things were a little busier than I had anticipated upon my return and I had not yet sent anything over to them. However, I was completely surprised to open my email just a few days after my return home to find the following promo that had already been created for me. I couldn't believe it. I had been working for weeks trying to come up with a script for this commercial and was nowhere near close to having anything that I was happy with. However, Izabella had simply looked at my http://gspn.tv/cruise page and came up with the commercial that I have embedded above. I absolutely loved it and have been using it ever since. I'm so excited to let you know that I have been working with Mike and Izabella to create an exclusive audio branding package that is only available to the Podcast Answer Man community. For only $449, you will get the following. - A one hour 1-to-1 web meeting with Mike and/or Izabella to discuss your podcast's exact audio needs and help design your audio brand. - An amazing podcast intro with an introduction to your podcast and music bed. - An exciting podcast outro with music and a call to action of your choice. - Three jingles/bumpers that you can use to transition between segments, mention your website address, introduce interviews, features and more. - Complete script writing service for all of your audio products. I encourage you to check out the commercial below and to go to http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/audio to schedule your audio branding consultation today.   Personal Plug of The Week This week’s Personal Plug of the Week is the upcoming Converge Podcast by Dane Sanders. This is the first time that I have ever share a personal plug of the week for a podcast that has not officially launched yet. However, I was just so impressed the first recording that Dan placed on his blog, that I had to share it with you. Have a listen to the episode to find out why. You can check ou this recording by clicking here. Be sure to leave Dane a comment and let him know that you heard about him from The Podcast Answer Man.   Facebook Online Dating Dating Search? In this week's social media segment, Erik Fisher and I attempt to wrap our minds around the newly announced Facebook Graph Search. I think it is too soon to tell if this new search will benefit us in any way. However, Facebook did seem to say that they believe it will be as valuable as our timeline and our newsfeed. We'll see.   Two Speaking Events Coming Up Soon! My next speaking even will be the Platform Conference held in Nashville TN on February 11-13. Both Pat Flynn and I will be speaking at this conference. If you haven't signed up yet, you can use promo code "Cliff" to save $100 when you register. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:09:12 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/txt/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/txt/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:02:01 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5240 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/txt/feed/ 14 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/293/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/293/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:29:06 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5218 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/293/feed/ 22 SpeakPipe Coming out of Beta - Announces Pricing Plans! I recently received an email from Vladimir Pankratiev, the founder of SpeakPipe stating that the SpeakPipe service is expected to come out of beta status effective March 1st, 2013. SpeakPipe Coming out of Beta - Announces Pricing Plans! I recently received an email from Vladimir Pankratiev, the founder of SpeakPipe stating that the SpeakPipe service is expected to come out of beta status effective March 1st, 2013. The great news is that many of those who have come to rely on this service for gaining voice feedback for their shows will continue to be able to do so using the Free Plan. Originally, the free plan was going to limit each voice message to 30 seconds. To Vladimir's credit, he listened to the feedback of his community and has raised the duration of voice messages on the free plan to 90 seconds. I'm the type of person who values a company more when they have a clear economic model in place for generating income. It gives me piece of mind knowing that the developer can afford to further invest into the development of the software that I depend on. You can check out the new monthly subscription and pay-as-you-go options over at http://speakpipe.com/plans.   Personal Plug of The Week This week’s Personal Plug of the Week is the JD Blogger Podcast by John Skiba. John is a member of The Podcast Mastermind and recently launched this new podcast devoted to helping lawyers build a profitable and thriving legal practice through the use of blogging, podcasting and social media. If you check out his show, please let him know that you heard about him from The Podcast Answer Man.   Blubrry PowerPress Removes 1 Pixel Out Player Due To Security Concern From their website, "Due to concerns of possible security exploits, the 1 Pixel Out Audio Player has been removed from PowerPress as of version 4.0.6. PowerPress users are strongly encouraged to update their copy of PowerPress immediately. The possible issue is with the 1 Pixel Out flash based audio player. The official 1 Pixel Out Audio Player was removed temporary from the WordPress.org repository until the security issues have been addressed. Once a new version is available, we will review re-including the player in PowerPress. If your site is currently configured to use the 1 Pixel Out audio player the Flow Player Classic player will be substituted in its place once your copy of PowerPress is updated." I have great news regarding this. I was looking at a Google Plus Post from my friend, Ray Ortega. Angelo Mandato, the developer who wrote the PowerPress Plugin, had commented on that discussion thread and said that the 1 Pixel Out player WILL COME BACK to PowerPress once it's fixed. (see screen grab below) If you would like to make a contribution to support the ongoing development of the 1 Pixel Out Audio Player, please do so at http://WPAudioPlayer.com. I made a $50 contribution today! I am a huge fan of the 1 Pixel Out Player.   Public Service Announcement About SD Cards on The Mac In this episode, I play some audio feedback from Tony Rose who wanted to make sure that everyone is aware that when you drag and drop audio files from your SD card to the desktop on the Mac and then delete them from the card, you are not really deleting them at all. I have covered this in the past. However, it is something that bares repeating from time to time. There are three ways that you can truly remove these files to free up the memory on your SD card. 1) You can hold down the Command Key while you click to drag and drop. This will actually "move" the file from the card to the computer rather than simply copy it. 2) Just after you delete the files off the card, while the card is still plugged into the computer, you can simply "empty your trash bin" and this will free up that memory on the card. 3) You can simply format the card in the recorder.   John Lane's Two Questions In this episode, I point John to episode 254 of Podcast Answer Man in a response to his question about how to grow the audience for your podcast. John also asked where he can get artwork made for his podcast. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:02:28 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/292/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/292/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2013 02:23:53 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5189 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/292/feed/ 20 The Podcast Patent Lawsuit Against Content Creators Please note: If you want to skip directly to the discussion of the Podcast Patent Lawsuit Against Podcasters, you can forward directly to 38 minutes and 54 seconds into this episode. Starting there, The Podcast Patent Lawsuit Against Content Creators Please note: If you want to skip directly to the discussion of the Podcast Patent Lawsuit Against Podcasters, you can forward directly to 38 minutes and 54 seconds into this episode. Starting there... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:19:55 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/291/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/291/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:45:54 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5178 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/291/feed/ 17 Thoughts From NMX 2013 This week's episode was recorded late Monday evening, after hosting an amazing meetup here in my suite at the Rio hotel in Las Vegas. It is my hope that by listening to this conversation, Thoughts From NMX 2013 This week's episode was recorded late Monday evening, after hosting an amazing meetup here in my suite at the Rio hotel in Las Vegas. It is my hope that by listening to this conversation, you'll be inspired to make plans to attend New Media Expo next year. This was such a wonderful experience! In this episode: Karin Hoegh - Podconsult.dk Anne-Sophie Reinhardt - AMindMedia.com Peder Aadahl - 168Opportunities.com Dustin Hartzler - YourWebsiteEngineer.com Jenn Swanson - CommunicationDiva.com Albert Hathazi - TheLocalMethod.com Cesar Abeid - ConstructionIndustryPodcast.com   PODCASTING A TO Z The next Podcasting A to Z course will be January 14th through February 8th. You can learn more about it and sign up at podcastingatoz.com.   New Media Expo New Media Expo (NMX) is coming up next week! The event is held in Las Vegas from January 6th - 8th. Be sure to use the promo code GSPN20 to get 20% off. If you are a podcaster, you simply must make it to NMX in January.   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, please leave me a comment with your name and a link to your website in the comments section below.   Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://JohnLanePodcasts.org - http://LouisvilleLaw.com - http://TheSportsDuo.com - http://WillHaveOrder.com Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider if the link should be removed from this post. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and may not have been transferred to BlueHost just yet.   The Podcast Mastermind One of the reasons that I love working with podcasters so much is due to the fact that they are influencing someone every single time they produce a podcast episode. The world needs great leaders! I believe that podcasters who take their leadership position seriously can make a positive difference in the lives of others. The world needs you and your message! They need you to be a leader! Many people ask me how to grow the audience of their podcast. I believe that one of the best things you can do is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! To take yourself seriously! To consider yourself to be a professional! Are you willing to invest in your future success? Are you willing to be the greatest leader you can be? Are you willing to commit to your personal and professional growth? If so, please consider joining The Podcast Mastermind!   Free Month of Media Hosting With Libsyn! Because of all the years of sending clients to sign up for accounts with Libsyn, they have created an affilate program only given to a hand selected group of podcasting experts. I'm delighted that I am now able to offer your ONE MONTH FREE when you sign up for a new account with Libsyn. Simply use promo code GSPN when you sign up! For my complete thoughts on podcast hosting, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 59:50 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/290/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/290/#comments Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:37:09 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5169 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/290/feed/ 6 So Looking Forward to a Week in Las Vegas! I'm excited about so many different things when it comes to Las Vegas. Some of the things that I'm most looking forward to are the fact that I’m going to be able to hang out with 15 members of the Podcast Mas... So Looking Forward to a Week in Las Vegas! I'm excited about so many different things when it comes to Las Vegas. Some of the things that I'm most looking forward to are the fact that I’m going to be able to hang out with 15 members of the Podcast Mastermind that are coming out, along with two spouses of the Podcast Mastermind members that are coming as well. Also, I'm looking forward to hanging out with an entire slew of Podcasting A to Z alumni and very close personal friends from the gspn.tv community that I know that are going to be there as well. It's going to be a blast! Additionally, I'm looking forward to seeing Leo Laporte and his keynote, as well as the fact that the Podcast Awards is going to be held at New Media Expo this year. Leo will be emcee-ing that event. I'm also glad that we were able to get Andy Ihnatko from Mac Break Weekly onto the podcasting track this year as well. I extended my stay so that I will be in Vegas for nearly an entire week so that I can also enjoy the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and also so that I can potentially go and see some other sites that I'm looking forward to which I share about in this podcast episode.   Ain't Nobody Got Time For That Just days before I'm scheduled to leave for my one-week long trip to Las Vegas to attend New Media Expo and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I I was diagnosed with a mild case of the flu and a bronchial infection. Thankfully, I caught this in time, was able to get into the doctor and am already on some medications, so that I can potentially get over this before the festivities start on Sunday. This reminded me of the wonderful auto-tuned remix titled "Ain't Nobody Got Time For That." In the podcast episode, I played the audio from two YouTube clips that you may want to check out just in case you didn't get enough of it and you want to hear it over and over again. The original can be found here, which is just the news cast by itself and the auto-tune remix can be found here.   Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Microphone - USB/XLR Both! I’ve been hearing a lot of wonderful things about this VERY inexpensive microphone that can hook up to a computer using USB and can also hook up to a mixer using XLR. It’s a great concept to have both options built into one microphone, and as you’ll hear in this podcast episode, the audio quality of this microphone is good, when you consider the price. In the past, when people have asked me about a good USB microphone, I’ve always told them to get a Shure SM58, with a USB to XLR adapter, but from this point forward, I will probably recommend the Audio Technica ATR2100-USB. At the time that these show notes are being written, you can get this microphone for as little as $43.60 using my Amazon affiliate link. This normally runs $79.99, and that is what you would pay if you use my B&H Photo affiliate link. Obviously, at this time, I would recommend that you get it from Amazon. This is by no means a replacement for the Heil PR 40, as you will notice from this podcast episode, but certainly for those who are looking for an inexpensive way to get into podcasting, I give this microphone a thumbs up.   New Years Resolutions Vs. Goals I recently came across a blog post from Kathy who recently published a post on her brand new blog about her experience with New Year’s resolutions, and the fact that she has decided to intentionally live life in a new and exciting way for 2013. Click here to read that post. I couldn't agree more with her sentiment about New Year’s resolutions, which is one of the reasons why I no longer make them myself. Instead, I have decided to live my life pursuing goals, which are much different. In this podcast episode, I talk about the formula that I have found that makes it possible for your goals to become a reality. It's a simple process to understand, but one that may take time to learn how to effectively implement. First, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:10:35 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/289/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/289/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:10:55 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5145 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/289/feed/ 14   Where Does Microsoft Stand on Podcasting? This week, I'm joined by my good friend, Rob Greenlee. Rob manages the Podcasts Marketplace on Windows Phone/Zune at Microsoft. He and I have a very lively conversation about the state of podcasting on th...   Where Does Microsoft Stand on Podcasting? This week, I'm joined by my good friend, Rob Greenlee. Rob manages the Podcasts Marketplace on Windows Phone/Zune at Microsoft. He and I have a very lively conversation about the state of podcasting on the Windows Platform. During our conversation, we covered a great deal of territory. Here are just a few of the fact that I recall off the top of my head. Please listen to the episode for full details on each of the following. - The Zune desktop software still runs on on Widows 7 and on the "desktop version" of Windows 8. Note: You must leave the "metro interface" and get into the "older style desktop" to run the Zune software. - The Zune desktop software will still sync to Windows Phone 7 and 7.8. However, it will not sync to Windows Phone 8. - Both Windows Phone 7 and 8 have the ability to subscribe to and manage podcast subscriptions directly from the phone. On Windows Phone 7, this is under the brand of Zune Marketplace. On Windows Phone 8, this is under Xbox Music. Note: Podcasting is in not officially tied to Xbox in any way. - There is no direct support of podcasting on Windows Surface Tablet RT. However their are a few third party applications that will allow you to subscribe to and manage podcasts. Ironically, these apps are likely pulling from the Apple Podcasts Directory API and NOT FROM the Zune Podcast Directory that Rob manages. - There is no direct support for podcasting on the Xbox console. - There is no longer a web version of the Zune Podcast Directory. However, the directory does still exist. Those who have the Zune Desktop software and those who have Windows Phone 7 or 8 can browse the podcasts using the methods I listed above. - Rob's email address has been changed from Rob@Zune.net to v-RobGR@Microsoft.com. You can email him your rss feed and he will add your podcast to the directory. You can also reach him via Twitter via @RobGreenlee. I want to personally thank Rob, on behalf of all podcasters, for the efforts that he has made to keep podcasting alive within the Microsoft platforms. I encourage everyone to reach out and thank him personally for his hard work and to encourage him to keep on fighting the good fight. Note: Here's the video that Rob referred to during our conversation.   Personal Plug of The Week This week's Personal Plug of the Week is for the Simple Life Together podcast produced by Daniel and Vanessa Hayes. Their podcast is dedicated to helping people lead a simpler life within our busy modern world. In the episode, I mentioned Daniel's blog post about his “World Shedquarters.” I encourage you to check it out. Daniel is an almuni of my Podcasting A to Z course and I'm honored to call him a friend. If you check out their podcast, please tell them that you heard about the from the podcast answer man!   I Knew This Day Would Come! I've been in the podcasting space since 2005 and I knew that this day would come. You may have been hearing a lot of buzz about the massive growth of podcasting during 2012. I have personally witnessed the largest growth in podcasting since 2006. Chris Brogan recently launched a new show and blogged about podcasting here: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/podcasting. After posting his thoughts on podcasting, Chris Brogan had many requests for information about how to launch a podcast. I was very honored to read how he answer this here: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/learn-how-to-podcast. Here In 2012, I had the honor of being a part of the launch of Michael Hyatt's "This Is Your Life" podcast which you can find here: http://michaelhyatt.com/thisisyourlife. Also, in 2012, I was delighted to help Michael Stelzner, of Social Media Examiner launch his Social Media Marketing podcast. You can hear him talk about what he calls "the renaissance of podcasting" here: http://gspn.tv/StelznerOnPodcasting. I could go on, sharing examples, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:11:39 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/288/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/288/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:11:47 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5118 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/288/feed/ 17 My Secret Podcast Project Revealed In this episode, I finally reveal that The Lord of the Rings Fan Podcast is the secret project I've been working on over the past several months. I explain why I decided to create a Lord of the Rings fan podcast, My Secret Podcast Project Revealed In this episode, I finally reveal that The Lord of the Rings Fan Podcast is the secret project I've been working on over the past several months. I explain why I decided to create a Lord of the Rings fan podcast, the approach I'm taking to the show and the reason why I have decided to delay the official launch of the podcast. It is my hope that sharing this information will help you understand some of the thoughts that I consider before committing to the launch of an additional podcast.   Personal Plug of The Week This week's Personal Plug of the Week is for Willie Urish's Deer Hunting Podcast. Willie's done an excellent job and has great energy in his podcast. If you happen to be a deer hunter, you'll certainly want to check it out. If you're not a deer hunter, you probably know somebody who is; be sure to tell them about Willie's Deer Hunting podcast, and if you like it, be sure to let him know you heard about him from the Podcast Answer Man. Congratulations to Willie on publishing his first podcast episode this week!   Podcasting A to Z This week's Personal Plug of the Week, Willie Urish, happens to be one of our current Podcasting A to Z students. If one of your New Year's resolutions is to finally launch that podcast you've always dreamed of, now is the perfect time to sign up! The next Podcasting A to Z course will be January 14th through February 8th. You can learn more about it and sign up at podcastingatoz.com.   Streaming vs. Downloading - Are Stats Going Down As A Result? In this episode of Podcast Answer Man I talked about how the way people consume content today using mobile phone applications for podcasts is causing people to stream episodes when they're ready to listen versus having episodes automatically download for every podcast they're subscribed to. I share my thoughts on how this may be effecting some people's stats and what I've even noticed on my own stats for Podcast Answer Man and the various other shows that I produce.   Public Service Announcement About Animated GIFs! One of the things that happened to me this week is that I realized that I was annoyed by the fact that I had an animated GIF image in my sidebar flashing the different benefits of the ScreenFlow software. It's been so far down in my sidebar that I've really never noticed it before, but while I was responding to a comment the other day and had that comment up on my screen for a lengthy period of time, I found myself annoyed and distracted by the rotating, flashing image. So I made a decision to turn that image for ScreenFlow into a static image. My recommendation is that we not use animated images in our sidebar if we can avoid it.   Final Social Media Update Segment For 2012 In this week's episode, Erik J. Fisher joins me for the final Social Media Update segment for 2012. Each year, in December, Erik takes a nice long social media fast, but before he does, we share with you the most relevant, up-to-date information that you need to know about social media, which in today's episode, included the following topics: - Google Plus Rolls out Google Plus Communities. - How We Really Feel About Google Plus & Why. - Is Twitter reducing tweet length to 118 characters? - Everyone has photo filters! - Instagram has a new update.   New Media Expo New Media Expo (NMX) is coming up in just three weeks! The event is held in Las Vegas from January 6th - 8th. Be sure to use the promo code GSPN20 to get 20% off. If you are a podcaster, you simply must make it to NMX in January.   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:08:40 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/287/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/287/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:41:47 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5078 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/287/feed/ 19 First Impressions of the New MySpace In this week's Social Media Segment, Erik J. Fisher and I discuss our first impressions of the new MySpace. We both created profiles which you can find at http://new.myspace.com/gspn and http://new.myspace. First Impressions of the New MySpace In this week's Social Media Segment, Erik J. Fisher and I discuss our first impressions of the new MySpace. We both created profiles which you can find at http://new.myspace.com/gspn and http://new.myspace.com/erikjfisher (These links only work if you have access to the private beta at this time). We talk a little bit about what we think after seeing it after just one day. We also talked about the Instagram vs. Twitter situation that's been happening recently and the fact that Facebook is now changing the language on personal profiles from "subscribers" to "followers."   Personal Plug of The Week This week's Personal Plug of the Week is for The Human Business Way podcast with Chris Brogan. I listened to three episodes: one with Christopher S. Penn, one with my good friend, Michael Hyatt, and one with Chris' mom and dad, Steve and Diane Brogan. My favorite episode of Chris' new show is the episode he did with his mom and dad. I absolutely love the fact that he published an unpolished interview with his parents; this adds to the flavor and personal touch that podcasting brings. I believe that one thing people really enjoy about the shows that I produce is that they have a personal touch and feel authentic, and it was great to experience that on Chris' podcast. Chris is not new to podcasting at all. In fact, together with Christopher S. Penn, he created PodCamp, the New Media UnConference. I also want to thank Chris for the awesome plug he gave me on his blog and on his mailing list. I encourage you to listen to Chris' podcast (you can catch it here or on iTunes), and if you like it, be sure to let him know you heard about him from the Podcast Answer Man.   Apple Podcasts App Tip For Video Podcasts A special thanks to John Bud who recently shared how he got a video podcast episode running in the background without the app up and running in the foreground. With what John shared I was able to immediately confirm the following: - I can start a VIDEO PODCAST. - I can click the home button (which will stop the playback). - I can then double click the home button and click the play button and it will play it audio only. - I can even fast forward 15 seconds at a time. - I can actually close/lock the phone and continue to listen. Thanks so much, John, for leading me to these discoveries!   What's Up With the .tv Domain Name? Debbie called in and asked why I chose to go with the .tv domain name when I chose gspn.tv. I provide the history and the inspiration behind my decision, and also give my thoughts about whether I would or would not use a .tv domain name again. I also share my thoughts on various other domain options such as .org, .net, .co, etc.   What if There Are No Other Podcaster's in My Niche to Interview Me? Ben called in to let me know that he'd love to be interviewed by others in his niche, but wondered what he should do since there aren't very many other podcasts in his niche. I gave Ben the following advice: - Inspire others in your niche to launch podcasts in your niche! - Are there podcasts that exist in other niches that also have your target audience? - Go where your audience is. - Be interviewed by the magazines they read. - Speak at the industry conferences for your niche. - Interview bloggers from your niche! I gave Ben some additional ideas as well.   Should I Submit My Podcast with a US iTunes Account? This question came from Anna. She lives in Germany, but has an English language podcast. She wonders if she should submit her podcast in the US store instead of the iTunes store in Germany. You'll have to listen to the show to hear my thoughts on this, and of course, if you have additional thoughts on this topic, I'd love to hear about them in the comment section below.   Trish Jones Sends a Big Thank You Trish Jones paid $2,000 for a podcasting course several years ago and didn't do a whole lot with it. However, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:02:48 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/286/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/286/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:53:03 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5051 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/286/feed/ 12 How My Production Quality Has Evolved Over 3000 Episodes I received a question from Matt on the voicemail feedback hotline. He said that he'd love to have a link to my first episode and possibly have me put together a montage of my production quality... How My Production Quality Has Evolved Over 3000 Episodes I received a question from Matt on the voicemail feedback hotline. He said that he'd love to have a link to my first episode and possibly have me put together a montage of my production quality evolution over the years. In this episode I actually do share some of the audio from my very first episode EVER which you can find at http://gspn.tv/firstepisode. I also include several other first episodes from many other shows that I've produced. It was a lot of fun to actually go back and hear these things again myself, and I hope that it encourages all of you that you have to start somewhere. You'll never come out sounding just like the Podcast Answer Man does in episode #286. In fact, if you listen to this episode, you'll find out that even I didn't start out sounding like I do today. In case you don't know, I have a lot of other podcasts in addition to Podcast Answer Man, so be sure to check out my episode guide to see a list of more than 3,000 podcast episodes that I've produced.   Personal Plug of The Week This weekís personal plug of the week is for James Dering's Better Piano Podcast. I love the way that James took his gifts, talents and passions and created a podcast around that. He's done a wonderful job of bringing high-quality content both in terms of of audio quality as well as the type of content he's producing. I encourage you to listen to episode 003 of his show and if you like it, be sure to let him know that you heard about him from Podcast Answer Man.   Get Notifications From All Posts to Fan Pages You Like! This week's Social Media Segment was inspired by this blog post by Mark Cuban. In this episode I share this favorite quote from the article: But this over-complication via algorithm...creates a financial problem for brands. By trying to be an incredibly efficient information delivery source, they confine our ability to organically reach most of our followers to using Sponsored Posts. They also significantly increase our costs because if we create a post that doesnít engage our followers to the level the algorithm expects it to, it can impact our ability to be seen in the future. Talk about pressure. Put up a post , but be sure that Edgerank doesnít think it sucks. Erik and I also talk about an article that one of our listeners, Sarah, shared about how you can now be notified whenever posts are made to fan pages you like. All you have to do is hover over the "like" button on the page, and then select "get notifications." Special thanks to Sarah for sending us this story! I also share some of my obsessive-compulsive decisions that I've recently made regarding my Facebook personal profile and I also explain why at this time, I no longer like any brands on Facebook.   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, please leave me a comment with your name and a link to your website in the comments section below.   Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://NHTStudios.com - http://BecauseHeLivesRadio.org Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 57:56 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/285/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/285/#comments Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:57:44 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5019 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/285/feed/ 6 What Was I Thinking That's the thought that came to mind as I was preparing the content to record this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man. The first half of this episode sounded more like an episode of Pursuing A Balanced Life as I shared a lot of ... What Was I Thinking That's the thought that came to mind as I was preparing the content to record this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man. The first half of this episode sounded more like an episode of Pursuing A Balanced Life as I shared a lot of thoughts off the top my head without giving any prior thought as to what I was going to say. A few hours after I had recorded, I was actually thinking about whether or not I should even release this as an episode of Podcast Answer Man. I happened to have a few people who were watching me as I live streamed the recording and so I reached out to one of these friends and asked them what they thought. In response, my dear friend, Lourdes Wellhaven from the Networker For Business Women Podcast, wrote the following. I think there were several great gems, that were, as usual very timely for me. 1. Why are you doing what you are doing? 2. Better time planning, margin planning 3. If you are telling yourself you NEED to do something but not "feeling it" perhaps you need to change your show. I think it was "real" and sometimes, I really like "real" I expected a pep talk to do more and produce more and instead I came away with "permission" to do what is best for me in accordance to my current goals. That made me think. All of this resonated with me and I found it interesting and compelling. Yes it felt much like a PABL show...but for those of us that struggle every day with the same struggles that you are going through, it was timely...very timely. As I write this I am contemplating whether or not I'll do a little work tomorrow morning (no I'm not cooking, we're going to my mom's and most everyone that knows me well, bans me from the kitchen). If I work, I'll feel guilty, if I don't I'll feel guilty. I have a to-do list that covers multiple pages and a ton of projects that I need/liked to get over the weekend. Sound familiar? For those of us that have a similar makeup and mindset to you and that are facing a long holiday weekend with all of the potential to enjoy family or "get things done."...and who over commit constantly...well, it's real and timely and we get it. I think you should air it. We need to know we are not alone in the struggle to be who we are....which I suspect is most of the people who produce or enjoy podcasts. Lourdes And because of this amazing response, I am very confident that publishing this episode is the right thing to do. Also in this episode As you will be able to tell from this episode, I don't have a ton of time to publish thorough show notes this week. Here is a list of other topics that are covered in this episode: - iTunes Artwork. Should we start with larger than 1400x1400? - I'm not getting email notifications from LiveFyre! - What options ar there for covering a tv show in a fan podcast? - Should I get my domain with "THE" in front of it? - Platform Conference: http://PlatformConference.tv   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, please leave me a comment with your name and a link to your website in the comments section below.     Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://radiojewels.com Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 59:04 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/284/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/284/#comments Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:45:46 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=5003 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/284/feed/ 10 One Event To Rule Them All I open this week's episode explaining why I am thrilled that NMX has made the decision to do a single event each year. - Many of you know that I have been working hard to put together an amazing podcasting track for the NMX... One Event To Rule Them All I open this week's episode explaining why I am thrilled that NMX has made the decision to do a single event each year. Many of you know that I have been working hard to put together an amazing podcasting track for the NMX (New Media Expo) event that is coming to Las Vegas on January 6th, 7th and 8th. I'm most excited about the fact that I've been able to get my own podcasting hero, Leo Laporte, to not only give a Keynote, but also to emcee the ceremony for the 8th Annual Podcast Awards. If you are a podcaster, you simply must make it to NMX in January. Ford bloggers and podcasters, I simply recommend the purchase of the 3 Day Content Creator pass and the Virtual Ticket add-on. To get registered, today, using my affiliate code, please click here. Use promo code GSPN20 and get an additional 20% off.   What if I don't have a Line-In Port on my Mac? Jim called to say that he's looking forward to purchasing the new 27" iMac when it is made available for purchase. He's concerned about the ability to do a mix-minus with the system since it does not have a separate line-in jack. In the episode, I suggest the purchase of a Griffin iMic USB Sound card. (Affiliate Link)   Getting Phone Interference During Interviews Shane called to say that he's been using his mobile phone to do telephone interviews and has been getting a lot of interference during the calls lately. I share a few thoughts about what steps he can take to improve his chances of getting better audio quality during his telephone interviews.   Do I need A Pop Filter For The Heil? Josh wanted to know if he really needs a pop-filter if he purchases the Heil PR-40 microphone. Have a listen to the episode to hear my thoughts on this topic.   Thoughts On Multiple Twitter Acounts Marshall called to ask about my thoughts on having multiple Twitter Accounts if you have more than one podcast. I share many thoughts on this topic in the episode. I do suggest that you ask yourself.... "Self? What do I hope to accomplish with this new ID?"   Should I create a separate website for each podcast in my network? This question comes up often. Today, I do play Daniel's version of the question in the episode. However, I simply referred him to listen to episode 211 of Podcast Answer Man for my thoughts on this topic.   My Updated Apple Podcasts App Review I've attempted to switch over to the Apple Podcasts app on several occasions in the past. However, each time, I found glitches that I simply could not overlook. However, this time around, with all the latest updates that they have made, I have made switch and I believe that I'll stick with it this time. Have a listen to this episode to hear the many reasons why I made the switch and to hear the features I love most and to hear about what I hope they will improve soon.   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, please leave me a comment with your name and a link to your website in the comments section below.     Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://MbnelsConsulting.com - http://RomanCatholicView.com - http://HairShearsReviewed.com Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:00:45 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/283/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/283/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:43:04 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4981 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/283/feed/ 12 My Thoughts on the iPad Mini Most people who know me, know that I am a huge fan of Apple products. When the original (1st generation) iPad came out, I purchased it hoping to use it to consume more ebooks. At the time, My Thoughts on the iPad Mini Most people who know me, know that I am a huge fan of Apple products. When the original (1st generation) iPad came out, I purchased it hoping to use it to consume more ebooks. At the time, I had just read my first two ebooks on my iPhone via the Kindle app and found it to be a more enjoyable way to read than to carry physical books around with me. I figured I would enjoy reading even more if the screen for my ebook were larger than the iPhone screen. When I did receive the original iPad, I really enjoyed the device. However, my least favorite thing to do on the iPad was to read books. I was determined that I would still make use of the iPad, but I wanted to try out a Kindle ebook reader to see if I would like it better for reading. I recorded the following video to explain my reasons for buying a Kindle even though I already had an iPad. If you took the time to watch the embedded video above, you heard me say that I really didn't enjoy reading very much. However, I am very happy to share with you that the Kindle ebook reader was a LIFE CHANGING DEVICE FOR ME! I fell in love with reading ebooks on the Kindle. So much so, that I have purchased and have read nearly one hundred books since September 2010. When the Kindle Touch came out last year, I upgraded to that ereader device and was so happy to have the official Kindle Lighted Case. While I was not happy with the deeply recessed screen in the Kindle Touch, I still loved reading on the device. When they announced the Kindle Paperwhite, I knew, immediately, that I wanted one. In this episode, I explain why I chose not to "pre-order" one. Due to Amazon's inability to keep the Kindle Paperwhite in stock, I began to be tempted with the idea of getting an iPad Mini as my latest edition of my ebook reader. In my video, embedded above, I shared that I had three reasons why I preferred the Kindle over the iPad for ebook reading. 1) The iPad was too heavy hold in the position that I would typically like to hold a book when reading. 2) It simply was not possible to read outside in the daylight. 3) There were too many potential distractions to keep me from actually reading a book. In this episode, I share many things I love about the iPad Mini. I am happy to share that the iPad mini is my new, preferred, ebook reading device. Here are the reasons why things have changed since recording that video. 1) The iPad mini is only 3oz heavier than the Kindle Paperwhite. I've already spent a few hours reading with the iPad Mini and holding it is not much different than holding my Kindle Touch. 2) While I've not tried to read a book in direct sunlight, on my new iPad Mini, there have only been a few occasions where I have actually read a book outside. The best part is that I can still use my Kindle Touch if I'm heading out to the beach or sitting by the pool to read a good book. 3) Distractions are not as much of an issue for me these days. First of all, as I have already shared, I am now IN LOVE WITH READING. Also, the current version of iOS allows you to fine tune your notifications, per application, to reduce the amount of distractions on the device. In fact, I've turned almost every single notification off inside my iPad Mini. Check out this video that I published back in May about my desire to live a Distraction Free Lifestyle.   Personal Plug of The Week This week's personal plug of the week is for Marshall Ponzi's Helpful Marketing Podcast. I encourage you to listen to episode 002 of his show and if you like it, be sure to let him know that you heard about him from Podcast Answer Man. Note: Marshall was a member of my Fall 2012 Podcasting A to Z course.   Sending Audio To The Live Audience Stephanie called to ask how I route my audio clips through my mixer so that those who are listening on the live stream can hear them as well. In response, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:16:56 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/podcastawards2012/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/podcastawards2012/#comments Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:25:47 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4978 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/podcastawards2012/feed/ 5 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/282/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/282/#comments Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:32:09 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4954 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/282/feed/ 5 Speak It Forward Bootcamp Review I spent a few days last week in Atlanta, Georgia so that I could attend Kent Julian's Speak It Forward Bootcamp. I went because I've been receiving an increasing number of invitations to speak publicly and I wanted to... Speak It Forward Bootcamp Review I spent a few days last week in Atlanta, Georgia so that I could attend Kent Julian's Speak It Forward Bootcamp. I went because I've been receiving an increasing number of invitations to speak publicly and I wanted to simply take my public speaking to the "next level." Below are just a few of the photos that I shot during the two and a half days I was there. (Taken with my Canon 60D) In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I share my expectations of what I hoped to achieve by attending the Speak It Forward Bootcamp and provide a review of the value that I got out of my participation. If you decide to attend a future session, please consider using my affiliate link at http://gspn.tv/sif. TweetBot For The Desktop: Is It Worth $20? I've been a huge fan of Twitter since 2007. Without a doubt, the best iOS app for Twitter that has ever existed is the TweetBot app for iPhone. Tapbots, the developer of TweetBot now has a desktop version of TweetBot for the Mac OS. In this episode, I share some of the reasons why I love TweetBot so much and I give you my thoughts on whether or not the desktop version is worth the $20. Pat Flynn's Blog Post About Half-Finished Projects I opened this episode of Podcast Answer Man by sharing my thoughts on Pat Flynn's latest blog post titled "The Sad Truth About Your Half-Finished Projects." I highly encourage everyone to go and read that full post. I know that for many, creating a podcast has been their "Half-Finished Project." I've seen far too many people spend weeks, months, and sometimes years, working on getting the look and feel of their website just right and they simply failed to gain any momentum from creating great content while they had that initial passion and excitement about the message they wanted to share. If you are wanting to get that podcast project off the ground, I highly encourage you to attend my next Podcasting A to Z session. See the note below on how you can save $100 off the cost of the course and gain immediate access to all the training materials.   Podcasting A to Z – Register Today! Ready To Start Your Podcast or Take Your Existing Show To The Next Level? I’m happy to announce that I’ve scheduled my next Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course. The course will start on Monday, November 26th and will run through Friday, December 21st. Please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for all the details about what is offered in this course. If you sign up using the discount code “PAM” in the shopping cart, you’ll save $100 off the cost of the course and you’ll be provided with immediate access to all the tutorials.   Podcast Awards I am happy to announce that two gspn.tv shows were nominated for the 8th Annual Podcast Awards. Our Authentic Life Radio podcast is nominated in the Entertainment category and my Encouraging Others Through Christ podcast is nominated in the Religion Inspiration category. If you would like, you could vote for each of these shows once a day, every day through November 15th. Simply go to PodcastAwards.com to cast your votes! I really appreciate those of you who will take the effort of voting for our shows each day. Thank you!   Where Can I Find Sound Effects For My Show? Felicia Gopaul called in to ask if I had any resources for finding sound effects that she could use in her show. While doing some research to answer this question, I was thrilled to have found FreeSound.org. From their site, they explain that "Freesound aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse." Freesound was started in 2005 in the Music Technology Group of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Currently it is being maintained and developed by the Freesound team, which is basically composed by current and former researchers and students of the research group. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:09:34 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/281/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/281/#comments Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:32:11 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4938 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/281/feed/ 1 Leo Laporte Is Coming To NMX I could not be more thrilled than I am to announce that I was able to get Leo Laporte to come to NMX (New Media Expo). Have a listen to the episode and you'll certainly hear my excitement and learn what he'll be doing at ... Leo Laporte Is Coming To NMX I could not be more thrilled than I am to announce that I was able to get Leo Laporte to come to NMX (New Media Expo). Have a listen to the episode and you'll certainly hear my excitement and learn what he'll be doing at the event. If you don't know Leo Laporte, I highly encourage you to check ou the interview that I did with him back in episode 236 of Podcast Answer Man. Here's the video version of that interview:   No Show Next Week In this episode, I share why there will be no new episode of Podcast Answer Man next week. I share my full thoughts on why I have paid just over $1,000 to attend a conference to help me take my public speaking to a whole new level. I share the many ways that I see this as an investment. It is my hope that the thoughts shared will help you to be more open to the idea of investing in your own personal and professional growth rather than spending too much time focused on how much something costs.   What Books Have Influenced My Business Pursuits? I have had several people ask me about the top books that have influenced the decisions that I made in my business. In the episode, I give a short description of how each of the following books have influenced me. Below is the list of the books I mentioned in the episode. Clicking on any of them will take you to their page on Amazing using my Amazon affiliate link. - 48 Days To The Work You Love - Dan Miller - How To Win Friends And Influence People - Dale Carnegie - Think And Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill - Secrets of The Millionaire Mind - T. Harv Eker - ReWork - Jason Fried - EntreLeadership - Dave Ramsey - Crush It - Gary Vanerchuk - Tribes - Seth Godin   Social Media Segment I'm a little concerned about releasing this week's Social Media Segment without a massive edit. The segment started great with Erik Fisher sharing Five Twitter Tips for Getting More Retweets. However, after that, for some reason, I felt the need to share one of my greatest Twitter pet peeves that I've seen happening more and more lately, especially now that I've trimmed down the number of people I follow to less than 100 people. I have made the decision to not edit this segment as it really does contain my true feelings on the matter. However, I simply hope that I will not hurt the feelings of anyone who actually makes it a habit to post in the way that I describe. Part of me thinks, "Who am I to judge how and what other people put in their Twitter stream?" However, the other part of me says that we all make these sort of judgements and often times will unfollow people for a number of other reasons. Perhaps my sharing this will help keep many from making a decision to schedule tweets in this format in the future, thus keeping them from loosing valuable connections with those who would follow otherwise.   TV Show Fan Podcast Formats JR called to ask for my thoughts on a format that he was considering for a tv show fan podcast that he was considering. I briefly shared a few of the formats that I've used over the years.   Podcasting A to Z – Register Today! Ready To Start Your Podcast or Take Your Existing Show To The Next Level? I’m happy to announce that I’ve scheduled my next Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course. The course will start on Monday, November 26th and will run through Friday, December 21st. Please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for all the details about what is offered in this course. If you sign up using the discount code “PAM” in the shopping cart, you’ll save $100 off the cost of the course and you’ll be provided with immediate access to all the tutorials.   New Media Expo Many of you know that I have been working hard to put together an amazing podcasting track for the NMX (New Media Expo) event that is coming to Las Vegas on January 6th, 7th and 8th. I'm most excited about the fact that I've been able to get my own podcasting hero, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:11:31 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/280/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/280/#comments Thu, 11 Oct 2012 19:57:35 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4917 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/280/feed/ 11 8th Annual Podcast Awards Nominations Open Till October 15th The nomination process for the 8th Annual Podcast Awards is now open. If you consider nominating any of the shows that I produce, please see http://gspn. 8th Annual Podcast Awards Nominations Open Till October 15th The nomination process for the 8th Annual Podcast Awards is now open. If you consider nominating any of the shows that I produce, please see http://gspn.tv/awards for important information regarding which category to nominate each show for. Personal Plug of the Week This week's personal plug of the week is the Catholic Insider podcast from Fr. Roderick Vonhogen. This podcast was one of the very first podcasts I ever listened to and is still one of my favorite shows to this day. Fr. Roderick just returned from a 15 day trip to China and is now releasing daily episodes which feature his signature soundseeing tours. If you check out the podcast and enjoy it, please let Fr. Roderick know that you heard about him from Podcast Answer Man.   Three Quick Questions In this episode, I answered several questions that had come in from the listener feedback hotline. Three of those questions were quick questions that I will list below. To find my answers to each of these questions, please listen to this episode. Question 1: If you already have an existing blog, website and/or brand, should your podcast carry the same name? Question 2: Cliff, do you use the "Smartcast" functionality of Feedburner? Question 3: I'm using feedburner to optimize my Blogger Feed for podcasting. How can I correct my iTunes listing to display me as the author. It currently says "noreply@blogger.com."   Two Years of Podcasting With Zero Feedback In this episode, we had a call from someone who had spent over two years creating an audio podcast, had produced over 100 podcast episodes and who never received a single piece of feedback from their audience. How could this possibly be? I do just a bit of investigation and I uncover several issues that could explain this person's results.   LinkedIn Skills Endorsements In this week's social media segment, Erik Fisher and I discuss the new ability to endorse the skills of others within your LinkedIn profile. We also shared our thoughts on how this might affect our social proof and the decision that we made to make sure that our greatest skills are highlighted.   Taking It To The Next Level I open this episode by sharing that I have been taking my own health and fitness to the next level. I encourage you to check out my Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast. In fact, if you would like to follow me from the beginning on my most recent journey, I encourage you to start with episode 518. If you do, you'll learn how I've been motivated, in a very big way, by the use of my fitbit device. In fact, I'm not walking a minimum of 14,300 steps each day which is a total of 6.2 miles. Since August 24th, I've lost 12.5 pounds. Please know that this podcast is about much more than just my health and fitness. If you think I share a lot of personal, behind the scenes, information about my business decisions in Podcast Answer Man, you haven't heard anything yet! Check it out at http://PursuingABalancedLife.com.   Podcasting A to Z – Register Today! Ready To Start Your Podcast or Take Your Existing Show To The Next Level? I’m happy to announce that I’ve scheduled my next Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course. The course will start on Monday, November 26th and will run through Friday, December 21st. Please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for all the details about what is offered in this course. If you sign up using the discount code “PAM” in the shopping cart, you’ll save $100 off the cost of the course and you’ll be provided with immediate access to all the tutorials.   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:08:10 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/279/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/279/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:49:49 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4870 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/279/feed/ 42 Tools To Manage Who You Follow on Twitter In episode 276, I shared how Robin Dunbar and Michael Hyatt influenced my decision to make a radical change in the way that I use twitter. If you have not yet heard that episode, Tools To Manage Who You Follow on Twitter In episode 276, I shared how Robin Dunbar and Michael Hyatt influenced my decision to make a radical change in the way that I use twitter. If you have not yet heard that episode, I encourage you to check it out. In this week's extended social media segment, Erik Fisher and I discuss three main tools that you can use to evaluate the people that you follow on Twitter. I have personally found these tools to be extremely helpful in managing my Twitter experience. - ManageFlitter.com - TwitCleaner.com - DMCleaner.com   Is Facebook Extorting Your Mom? Back on June 16th, I released episode 264 where I shared that Facebook was using what seemed like Mafia Tactics with their "pay to promote your page posts" program. This week, Erik Fisher joins me for our Social Media segment to discuss our thoughts on the fact that Facebook has now rolled out "pay to promote" to personal profiles, going so far as to give you the option to pay to promote the pictures you upload to your Facebook account. Let us know what you think about this in the comments section below.   #PleaseDontKillFeedburner Website I've already shared in my blog post and in last week's episode that I don't believe, for even a moment, that Feedburner is going away. Despite this, there are still many folks who have worked up quite a bit of anxiety over the matter. Personally I got a kick out of the wonderful humor behind the site http://pleasedontkillfeedburner.com. If you are one of those who are still worried, you might want to consider joining their Twitter campaign. My favorite suggested tweet? "Google, keep Feedburner alive and I'll start using Google+ #pleasedontkillfeedburner."   Personal Plug of the Week This week's personal plug of the week is the Let's Reverse Obesity podcast from John Bukenas. I first shared John's story in episode 274. I received many requests from folks who wanted me to provide updates from John's inspirational journey. I'm excited to announce that his podcast is now online and he's off to a great start. I encourage you to check out the podcast. If you enjoy it, please let John know that you heard about it from Podcast Answer Man.   8th Annual Podcast Awards Nominations Open Till October 15th The nomination process for the 8th Annual Podcast Awards is now open. If you consider nominating any of the shows that I produce, please see http://gspn.tv/awards for important information regarding which category to nominate each show for.   Podcasting A to Z – Register Today! Ready To Start Your Podcast or Take Your Existing Show To The Next Level? I’m happy to announce that I’ve scheduled my next Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course. The course will start on Monday, November 26th and will run through Friday, December 21st. Please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for all the details about what is offered in this course. If you sign up using the discount code “PAM” in the shopping cart, you’ll save $100 off the cost of the course and you’ll be provided with immediate access to all the tutorials.   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, please leave me a comment with your name and a link to your website in the comments section below.     Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 58:09 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/278/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/278/#comments Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:45:51 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4835 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/278/feed/ 26 Personal Plug of the Week This week's personal plug of the week is the Entrepreneur On Fire podcast from John Dumas. John has taken the bold challenge of creating a daily podcast that will feature interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs. Personal Plug of the Week This week's personal plug of the week is the Entrepreneur On Fire podcast from John Dumas. John has taken the bold challenge of creating a daily podcast that will feature interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs. I encourage you to check out the podcast. If you enjoy it, please let John know that you heard about it from Podcast Answer Man.   FEEDBURNER FEAR FIASCO There was a widespread panic among bloggers and podcasters this past weekend. On Friday, many people woke up to find that Feedburner was reporting that all their feeds had zero subscribers. It's hard to explain just how many emails, tweets, facebook messages, etc that I had received regarding this issue. Rather than respond to anyone right away, I immediately tested feedburner and then wrote a blog post titled "Feedburner – Is The Sky Really Falling?" If you have not yet done so, I highly encourage you to read my Feedburner blog post and all the conversations within the comments. I'm happy to say that my prediction was correct. Feedburner had updated their status blog, letting the world know that they were aware of the issue and that they were working to resolve it. Had people heeded my suggestion of simply enjoying their weekend, they would have come back to find that not only did Feedburner resolve the issue, they also restored all the stats, during the days of the outage, to all accounts. I will argue that events of this weekend were the greatest thing to happen for those of us who use Feedburner. Why? Because it proves that Google does still have people who work on Feedburner, they do still have a status blog that they will update to let us know when they are working on a widespread issue. I share more of my thoughts in this podcast episode as well.   Should I Pay A Flat Fee For Bandwidth or Pay Per GB? Recently, Deb had posted a question in the comments section of one of my recent blog posts. She wrote the following: Just about to pull the trigger and get a LibSyn account for podcasting, but got this new offer from my web hosting company Dreamhost and wondered what you all thought of it. They say, “Unlike traditional web hosting where monthly pricing is fixed and resources are unlimited, pricing for DreamObjects is usage-based. You only pay for data that you store on our servers and for the amount of data that is transferred from them. Storage costs start at $0.07 per GB (Amazon S3 starts at $0.12!) and scales all the way down to $0.044 per GB, depending on just how much data you choose to store with us. Outbound transfer costs are fixed at $0.07 per GB. All beta users will have access to a free trial period lasting TWO WHOLE months! During that time you'll not incur any charges as long as you store less than 10GB of data and transfer out less than 20GB. Anything more than 10 and 20 kind of tests the limits of the term "trial" and will incur $0.07/GB overage charges, both for storage and outbound data transfer."   Thoughts about starting with this as opposed to LibSyn? Thanks! Deb In response to this, my main concern would be the issue of COST. Let’s say that you average about 60,000 downloads per month and that your average file size is about 50MB.   50MB x 60,000 is 3,000,000 MB  or 2,929.69 GB   If I were paying $0.07 per GB, I'd be paying $205.08 per month.     With Libsyn, you could get their $40 per month account and the cost would be a GUARANTEED FLAT $40 per month.  That means that you would save $1,980.96 per year with Libsyn over what you would pay with the Dream Host plan that is being considering.   I personally prefer FLAT FEES for bandwidth rather than paying Per GB   An Interview Tip That May Improve Your Podcast Interviews I was recently listening to a podcast interview where the host of the podcast seemed to feel the need to validate each and every single sentence their guest spoke with a "mmmh hmmm," a "Yeah, " or a "Right." Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:05:58 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/feedburnerfuture/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/feedburnerfuture/#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:45:20 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4818 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/feedburnerfuture/feed/ 94 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/277/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/277/#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:51:50 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4794 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/277/feed/ 4 Personal Plug of the Week This week's personal plug of the week is the Dispatches From The Buckle podcast from Dr. Lee Camp. Before I discovered podcasting, I used to listen to this thing called the radio while I was on road trips. Personal Plug of the Week This week's personal plug of the week is the Dispatches From The Buckle podcast from Dr. Lee Camp. Before I discovered podcasting, I used to listen to this thing called the radio while I was on road trips. I often would come across the "A Prairie Home Companion" show and found myself enjoying the short radio dramas, skits, music, and discussions offered in that program. The very first time I visited my great friend, Dan Miller, in Nashville, he took me to a live production of the Tokens Show. This reminded me of everything I loved from A Prairie Home Companion, but added elements that made the experience a great deal better. I remember telling Dan just how amazing it would be if there were a podcast that would include some of the amazing content from that show. Well, Today, I'm happy to tell you that there is such a podcast and it has instantly become one of my all-time favorite podcasts that I have subscribed to. I encourage you to check out Dispatches From The Buckle. If you like it, please let Dr. Camp know that you heard about it from The Podcast Answer Man.   Michael Stelzner Interview I'm excited to feature an interview with Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner. Michael and discuss how he was able to grow the Social Media Examiner so quickly. He also provides details about the launch strategy that he used for his Social Media Marketing podcast.   Podcasting A to Z - Next Session Starts Monday Sept 24th. I have a huge opportunity for those of you who have been thinking about joining me for a session of Podcasting A to Z but haven't yet done so. My next session starts this coming Monday, September 24th and will run through Friday, October 19th. The opportunity is to be a part of the smallest, most intimate, class that I have had to date. I had allowed myself to get a bit overcommitted to several projects over the past two months. As a result, the only thing that I've done to market this session of Podcasting A to Z has been to send out a single email to my mailing list and provide a few brief mentions here on Podcast Answer Man. There are benefits to being in a session with 20 to 30 other students, learning from the answers to a greater number of questions that you would have never thought to ask. However, there are benefits to being a part of a much smaller class. For me, I'll be even more aware of your own personal journey, your mission, and your goals. For you, you'll develop a stronger relationship with the other students within the course. Please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for all the details about what is offered in this course. If you sign up using the discount code “PAM” in the shopping cart, you’ll save $100 off the cost of the course and you’ll be provided with immediate access to all the tutorials. As I am posting this, I have six people registered for the session that starts Monday. I'd love to have a minimum of four more students and I'd love to spend the next four weeks helping you get your podcast launched or take your existing show to the next level.   8th Annual Podcast Awards Ceremony Coming To NMX I share some great news about the upcoming 8th annual Podcast Awards. Most important is that the awards ceremony will be held at New Media Expo his January. I'm also thrilled to announce that I've made the decision to become a corporate sponsor of this year's Podcast Awards. Did you know that you can get some great exposure by becoming with a Podcaster donation? More details about this in the episode. Please mark your calendar for October 1st to nominate your favorite podcasts. If you consider nominating any of the shows that I produce, please see http://gspn.tv/awards for important information regarding which category to nominate each show for.   Apple's iOS Podcasts App Get's Feature I'm happy to announce with the latest update to Apple's Podcasts app, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:00:31 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/276/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/276/#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:48:46 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4770 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/276/feed/ 35 My Own Next Step? - Way Beyond My Comfort Zone! The main purpose of Podcast Answer Man is to help inspire the podcasting community to think about how they can take everything they are doing to the "next level. My Own Next Step? - Way Beyond My Comfort Zone! The main purpose of Podcast Answer Man is to help inspire the podcasting community to think about how they can take everything they are doing to the "next level." I have a strong belief that to inspire ... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:14:47 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/275/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/275/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:46:10 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4729 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/275/feed/ 14 Over the past few months, I have been talking about the fact that I would be speaking at the Catholic New Media Conference in Arlington, Texas. I'm excited to share the audio recording of the talk that I gave in this episode of Podcast Answer Man. - Over the past few months, I have been talking about the fact that I would be speaking at the Catholic New Media Conference in Arlington, Texas. I'm excited to share the audio recording of the talk that I gave in this episode of Podcast Answer Man. This was the first time I'd ever given a Keynote Address that sets the tone for an entire conference. To make things just a little more interesting, this was a Catholic conference and I am not Catholic. While my talk is extremely faith based, I do believe that there is a great deal of value in the message of creating content around your greatest passions without ulterior motives or agendas. While I was in Texas, I met up with many friends from the gspn.tv & Podcast Answer Man community who live in Texas. I had an amazing time and I made sure to capture some of the best moments with my new camera. You can see these photos on my Facebook account under the CNMC-2012 photo album that I created.   Podcasting A to Z - Register Today! Ready To Start Your Podcast or Take Your Existing Show To The Next Level? I’m happy to announce that I’ve scheduled my next Podcasting A to Z Online Training Course. The course will start on Monday, September 24th and will run through Friday, October 19th. Please check out http://PodcastingAtoZ.com for all the details about what is offered in this course. If you sign up using the discount code “PAM” in the shopping cart, you’ll save $100 off the cost of the course and you’ll be provided with immediate access to all the tutorials.   Shop With B&H Photo & Support Podcast Answer Man I am thrilled about the relationship that I have formed with the folks at B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio. They have amazing prices on podcast equipment and so much more. Best of all, their customer service is almost as good as my own. When placing an order through my affiliate link, you end up paying the same low price and I earn a generous commission. If you have used my affiliate link to make a purchase with B&H, please leave me a comment with your name and a link to your website in the comments section below.     Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://LetsReverseObesity.com - http://BrianHolmes.tv Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider if the link should be removed from this post. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet.   The Podcast Mastermind One of the reasons that I love working with podcasters so much is due to the fact that they are influencing someone every single time they produce a podcast episode. The world needs great leaders! I believe that podcasters who take their leadership position seriously can make a positive difference in the lives of others. The world needs you and your message! They need you to be a leader! Many people ask me how to grow the audience of their podcast. I believe that one of the best things you can do is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! To take yourself seriously! To consider yourself to be a professional! Are you willing to invest in your future success? Are you willing to be the greatest leader you can be? Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 58:32 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/resurrection/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/resurrection/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2012 18:19:24 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4741 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/resurrection/feed/ 21 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/274/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/274/#comments Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:19:22 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4693 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/274/feed/ 25 Are You Creating Life Changing Content? This week, I was reminded, once again, why it is that I produce this show and create the content that I make available here on this site. That reminder came from an email that I had received from John Bukenas w... Are You Creating Life Changing Content? This week, I was reminded, once again, why it is that I produce this show and create the content that I make available here on this site. That reminder came from an email that I had received from John Bukenas w... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:16:51 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/273/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/273/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2012 22:20:11 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4678 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/273/feed/ 27 Equipment Options For Under $200 My primary focus with Podcast Answer Man is to help people create amazing sounding and extremely well produced shows. However, I am often asked what is available to those who want to record their audio on a very limit... Equipment Options For Under $200 My primary focus with Podcast Answer Man is to help people create amazing sounding and extremely well produced shows. However, I am often asked what is available to those who want to record their audio on a very limited budget. In this episode, Steve called in to ask what the minimum requirements were to record a podcast and what I would recommend if someone had $199 to put toward equipment purchases. In the episode, I explain that there are a large number of options out there. However, I chose to focus on six options. Have a listen to hear my full explanation of each of the following: - Option 1: Any Telephone using a service like TalkShoe.com. - Option 2: Built In Microphone - Option 3: Smart phone with recording app like Griffin's iTalk. - Option 4: A USB Headset. - Option 5: The Shure X2U SM58 Combo. - Option 6: The Roland R-05. See Podcast Answer Man Episode 228 What file format should I use for my podcast? Technically, an audio podcast can be made up of any digital audio file, regardless of which file format you use, that is made available through an rss feed. Trinity called in to say that she has been producing an audio podcast where some folks are complaining that they are unable to play the episodes on their media player of choice. In the episode, I explain why I feel that every audio podcaster should be producing their show as an .mp3 audio file. What do I need to bring multiple guests and audio clips into my show? Every day, I get emails that contain the phrase "quick question." One of the reasons that I produce this show each week is to answer the more frequently asked questions so that I can have a resource to point people to when the same question comes up again in the future. Kelsey originally wrote me such an email and I asked if he would be willing to call in the question so that I could answer it in the show. He wants to create a variety show with a cohost and wants to also be able to bring a 3rd party on, as a guest, and wants to be able to play audio clips so that all three of them can hear each other and the audio clips, and have all of the above recorded. He asked if it was possible to do all of this simply using hardware on a single computer. If not, he wanted to know a list of equipment that he might need to pull this off. During my answer, I referred to this PDF Diagram. This type of question typically takes a bit more of a one on one approach. It is best answered with the use of visual aide, via screen sharing, and getting feedback from the other person to make sure they are following along. I'd like to think that I would get an A for effort for attempting to answer this question via an audio podcast. However, by the end, I was almost certain that I'd got a bit too technical and that what I was explaining may simply be too much to answer via an audio response. Have a listen and let me know what you think about the answer I gave in the comments section below. Personal Plug of The Week This week’s personal plug of the week goes out to the Social Media Marketing Podcast by Michael Stelzner. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man! Taking My Public Speaking To The Next Level! I signed up for Kent Julian’s Speak It Forward Bootcamp that will take place in Georgia on October 25-27, 2012. I’ve been doing a lot of public speaking over the past few years and I’m going to be delivering my first Keynote speech at the end of this month. I’ll do a decent job with my talk. However, I’m ready to take my public speaking to the NEXT LEVEL! Maybe you will consider joining me. I’m Coming To Dallas/Fort Worth I’m so excited to announce that I am going to be speaking at the Catholic New Media Conference. The conference is going to be held in the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area on August 29th-31st. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:05:50 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/podcast-acquisitions-a-seriously-bad-sales-pitch/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/podcast-acquisitions-a-seriously-bad-sales-pitch/#comments Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:42:45 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4664 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/podcast-acquisitions-a-seriously-bad-sales-pitch/feed/ 4 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/272/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/272/#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:52:55 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4633 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/272/feed/ 55 The Strangest Secret I must have heard my great friend, Dan Miller, talk about The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale at least 30 to 40 times before actually searching out this resource for myself. I'm so glad that I did! When I first heard it, The Strangest Secret I must have heard my great friend, Dan Miller, talk about The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale at least 30 to 40 times before actually searching out this resource for myself. I'm so glad that I did! When I first heard it, I do recall telling myself that I wanted to actually go through and listen to this at a minimum of once a year, if not more often than that. The Strangest Secret was originally released as an audio production (78 RPM Record) in 1956. Without any advertising or formal marketing, over a million albums were sold and it became the first (and only) spoken word message to win a Gold Record. What Is Success? Earl Nightingale shared a definition of success that I have chosen to adopt myself. He says that "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. If a man is working towards a predetermined goal and knows where he is going, that man is a success. If he’s not doing that, he’s a failure. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal." When asked who is successful, Nightingale would have said that a anyone who is doing deliberately a predetermined job because that’s what he decided to do deliberately, would be considered a success. I love that this definition of success does not depend on financial status but instead that you are living a life toward a definite purpose. I especially love how, in his talk, he gave an example of a school teacher and a stay-at-home wife/mother as fitting the definition of success, if they are doing those things because that is what they WANTED TO DO. There is so much more wisdom and inspiration to be found within this resource. I highly recommend that you check out this inspirational message for yourself. You can purchase the physical book for less than $8, the Kindle version is less than $4, and an .mp3 audio version is less than a buck. My Best Podcast Episode Ever Out of all the podcast episodes that I have produced since December 2005, there is one, by far, that is my favorite episode recorded to date. In my EOTC Podcast Episode 131, I share an hour long conversation that I had with Steve Brown from Key Life Ministries. In this episode, I share a few reasons why this was my favorite episode. Social Media Update In this episode, Erik Fisher and I talk about a few of our recent thoughts about Twitter. In our conversation, we discuss the following topics. - Twitter cuts off some functionality to Instagram. - My favorite feature in Tweetbot. - Disabling Official Retweets. - When to Official Retweet and when not to Official Retweet. - Why Erik is looking for a Tweetbot only Twitter eco system. - Why I will continue to use the Twitter's website when on the computer. Voice Mail Options As you know, I am a huge fan of including the voice of my audience in my various podcasts. I am often asked what service I use to obtain the voicemails that I include from my audience. I'm happy to announce that I've recently updated my post on this topic at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/voicemail. SpeakPipe is a new addition to the services that I recommend. In the episode, I explain some of the functionality of SpeakPipe and how I'm currently implementing it by using a custom feedback page at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/feedback. Webinar Recording Question Ben called in to ask about how I go about recording 20 minute segments for during my webinars so that it makes for easier post production when creating the video versions that I make available as digital products. I share my answer to this in the episode. The Teenager Podcast Dilemma Ryan called in to say that he and the co-host for his podcast are both teenagers. He is concerned that adults may immediately turn off their podcast upon learning that they are only teenagers and wanted to know if there is anything that they could do to keep this from happening. I share my thoughts about this in the episode. Personal Plug of The Week Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:01:37 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/271/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/271/#comments Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:15:07 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4537 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/271/feed/ 46 What Plugins Do I Use And Recommend Today? I typically receive between 40 to 100+ emails each day. There are a number of questions that I get over and over again and one of the more popular questions is "What plugins are your currently using for Word... What Plugins Do I Use And Recommend Today? I typically receive between 40 to 100+ emails each day. There are a number of questions that I get over and over again and one of the more popular questions is "What plugins are your currently using for Word... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:12:36 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/270/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/270/#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2012 02:11:50 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4512 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/270/feed/ 5 Is There A Market For Podcast Producers? Nathan called in to ask if I thought there was a market for someone who wanted to produce podcasts for others rather than produce their own show(s). He also asked how I might go about convincing someone that t... Is There A Market For Podcast Producers? Nathan called in to ask if I thought there was a market for someone who wanted to produce podcasts for others rather than produce their own show(s). He also asked how I might go about convincing someone that t... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:07:15 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/269/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/269/#comments Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:39:39 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4437 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/269/feed/ 8 Sony MDR-7506 Headphones For the past several years, I had been using Bose AE2 style headphones. When I was in NYC for BlogWorld & New Media Expo, I visited the SiriusXM studios. While in the studio, I noticed that they only used Sony MDR-7506 headp... Sony MDR-7506 Headphones For the past several years, I had been using Bose AE2 style headphones. When I was in NYC for BlogWorld & New Media Expo, I visited the SiriusXM studios. While in the studio, I noticed that they only used Sony MDR-7506 headphones. I was so pleased with the sound quality that I decided to order myself a pair so that I could compare them, side by side, with my Bose Headphones. In this episode, I share my full thoughts on why I'm switching over to these new headphones. I'm Coming To Dallas/Fort Worth I'm so excited to announce that I am going to be speaking at the Catholic New Media Conference. The conference is going to be held in the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area on August 29th-31st. I'm very honored to be the Keynote speaker that will open up the event on the 29th. I'll be talking about "How To Market Your Message To The World." If you are in the area, or willing to travel there, I would love to meet you in Dallas next month. I'll be there for the whole conference. Deadline For New Media Expo Speaker Submissions The speaker submission deadline for the New Media Expo conference is July 3st. If you are a podcaster and have any interest in speaking on the Podcasting Track in Las Vegas, coming up in January, the please be sure to click here to submit your session before the end of the day on July 31st. I'll be reviewing all submissions during the 2nd week of August. Please feel free to submit more than one session. Social Media Update In this week's Social Media Update, Erik Fisher and I discuss some recent changes as they relate to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and how all these services integrate with each other. I also share why I made the decision to turn off any automatic cross posting connections between these accounts. Also, you'll learn both why I am no longer using services like Buffer App, HootSuite, etc and the posting strategy that I have been using to gain a great deal more engagement with my community. Podcast Artwork for $175 Most podcasters do not invest enough into the artwork for their podcast. The truth is that your podcast artwork is often what sets the 1st impression for your podcast. This is especially true when it comes to those who find your show in a podcast directory. I've been working with Jenny Hamson for several years and she does all my podcast artwork. I've also personally contracted her to do the artwork for all of my coaching and consulting clients. In all the years that I have worked with Jenny, she's never failed to provide artwork that not only meets expectations but delivers far more than could have been anticipated. If you are looking for artwork, please contact Jenny Hamson today and tell her that Cliff sent you! I Appreciate Your iTunes Reviews! I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Would you believe that until April 2012, I never spent much energy to ask anyone to provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes? If you have ever read my blog post about how iTunes podcast ratings work, then you know just how valuable leaving a 5 star rating and/or a written review can be to a content producer. I am so incredibly thankful to those who have recently gone into my listing in iTunes to provide a five start rating and a written review of Podcast Answer Man. Here are the iTunes reviews that have been posted from 5/26/2012 through 6/21/2012. If you find that the Podcast Answer Man podcast has been valuable to you, would you consider rating and reviewing it in iTunes? If so, please click here. The Podcast Mastermind One of the reasons that I love working with podcasters so much is due to the fact that they are influencing someone every single time they produce a podcast episode. The world needs great leaders! I believe that podcasters who take their leadership position seriously can make a positive difference in the lives of others. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 55:24 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/268/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/268/#comments Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:09:59 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4415 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/268/feed/ 4 How Do You Determine The Potential Size of A Podcast Audience? In this week's episode, Eddy called in to ask if it is possible to determine the potential size of a podcast audience. He explained that he was trying to find out if there is "enough of a... How Do You Determine The Potential Size of A Podcast Audience? In this week's episode, Eddy called in to ask if it is possible to determine the potential size of a podcast audience. He explained that he was trying to find out if there is "enough of a... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 45:19 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/267/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/267/#comments Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:49:47 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4380 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/267/feed/ 11 Learn How Audio Podcasting Has Benefited Existing Bloggers! At this years's BlogWorld & New Media Expo's NYC event, I was thrilled to have my great friend, Pat Flynn, put together a panel titled "More Traffic, More Authority, Learn How Audio Podcasting Has Benefited Existing Bloggers! At this years's BlogWorld & New Media Expo's NYC event, I was thrilled to have my great friend, Pat Flynn, put together a panel titled "More Traffic, More Authority, More Customers: Why All Bloggers Should Be Podcasting." The description of the session read: Successful bloggers don’t just blog anymore – they’re everywhere. The panelists in this session will share how podcasting in particular has taken their blog and brand to the next level, helping them get more traffic, more authority and more customers with this overlooked, but powerful and untapped medium. In this week's episode, I share the audio recording from this session in hopes that it will help inspire other bloggers to consider their potential audience that would prefer to hear them speak over reading what they write on their blog. Quotes Worth Considering: - Podcasting is a chance to go deeper with my existing community and a way to reach a whole new community. Adam Baker - I feel like I have a stronger connection to the podcasters I listen to than the bloggers that I read. - Adam Baker - I wanted a platform to allow me to interview experts in my industry. #ReasonsToPodcast - Derek Halpern & Katie Davis. - 20% of those who now read my blog today say that they found me because of my audio podcast. - Pat Flynn - My traffic, to my site, shot up 69% after the launch of my audio podcast. - Derek Halpern Links for the panelists: Pat Flynn - SmartPassiveIncome.com Adam Baker - ManVsDebt.com Derek Halpern - SocialTriggers.com Katie Davis - KatieDavis.com Podcast Artwork for $175 Most podcasters do not invest enough into the artwork for their podcast. The truth is that your podcast artwork is often what sets the 1st impression for your podcast. This is especially true when it comes to those who find your show in a podcast directory. I've been working with Jenny Hamson for several years and she does all my podcast artwork. I've also personally contracted her to do the artwork for all of my coaching and consulting clients. In all the years that I have worked with Jenny, she's never failed to provide artwork that not only meets expectations but delivers far more than could have been anticipated. If you are looking for artwork, please contact Jenny Hamson today and tell her that Cliff sent you! I Appreciate Your iTunes Reviews! I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Would you believe that until April 2012, I never spent much energy to ask anyone to provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes? If you have ever read my blog post about how iTunes podcast ratings work, then you know just how valuable leaving a 5 star rating and/or a written review can be to a content producer. I am so incredibly thankful to those who have recently gone into my listing in iTunes to provide a five start rating and a written review of Podcast Answer Man. Here are the iTunes reviews that have been posted from 5/26/2012 through 6/21/2012. If you find that the Podcast Answer Man podcast has been valuable to you, would you consider rating and reviewing it in iTunes? If so, please click here. The Podcast Mastermind One of the reasons that I love working with podcasters so much is due to the fact that they are influencing someone every single time they produce a podcast episode. The world needs great leaders! I believe that podcasters who take their leadership position seriously can make a positive difference in the lives of others. The world needs you and your message! They need you to be a leader! Many people ask me how to grow the audience of their podcast. I believe that one of the best things you can do is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! To take yourself seriously! To consider yourself to be a professional! Are you willing to invest in your future success? Are you willing to be the greatest leader you can be? Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 59:41 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/camera/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/camera/#comments Sun, 01 Jul 2012 04:08:48 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4374 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/camera/feed/ 30 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/266/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/266/#comments Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:16:32 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4366 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/266/feed/ 38 It Was No Rumor! Apple Releases Official Podcasts App! In last week's episode, I shared the rumors and speculation that surrounded the idea that Apple might release a standalone Podcasts App for iOS. Earlier this week, It Was No Rumor! Apple Releases Official Podcasts App! In last week's episode, I shared the rumors and speculation that surrounded the idea that Apple might release a standalone Podcasts App for iOS. Earlier this week, Apple actually released such an app. Personally, I'm thinking that they may have rushed it out the door due to the amount of information that had been leaked about it. I think this because the app, while I have plenty of good things to say about it, does seem to be a bit buggy and lacks the typical Apple polish when it comes to user interface. Apple's Description of the app: Podcasts app is the easiest way to discover, subscribe to, and play your favorite podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Explore hundreds of thousands of free audio and video podcasts from the Podcasts Catalog, and play the most popular podcasts, organized for you by topic, with the all-new Top Stations feature. Features that Apple lists: Features: - Enjoy all of your audio and video podcasts in a single app - Explore hundreds of thousands of podcasts including shows in over 40 languages - Try the innovative new Top Stations feature to find new podcast series in a variety of topics, including arts, business, comedy, music, news, sports, and more. - Browse by audio or video podcasts, or see what's most popular in Top Charts - Tap Subscribe for your favorites and automatically receive new episodes for free as they become available - Stream episodes or download to listen while offline - Skip forward and back using simple playback controls - Turn on Sleep Timer to automatically stop playing a podcast while listening in bed - Share your favorite episodes with friends using Twitter, Messages, and Mail - Optionally sync your favorite episodes from iTunes on your Mac or PC - Sync your episode playback for seamless transition between devices Jesse Poteet, a member of the gspn.tv community states that, "I like the episode playback sync.... only thing missing from that is the sync doesn't work on the desktop iTunes... only on mobile devices" With the limited amount of time that I had to play with the application, I have a few slight concerns. Like the iBooks Application, I had to choose to install it and I have the ability to delete it. While the user interface is not nearly as bad as I thought it might be, it does take a bit to get used to. I notice that there is not currently a way to write a review for a podcast from the app. There is no way to add a podcast rss feed that is not listed in iTunes. Currently, there is no way to search for a podcast by Podcast Author, though, for now, you could put your name on the title line of your podcast. Regardless of the slight concerns that I have listed above, I am very excited about a few things when it comes to how Apple Approached their podcasts app. Apple is featuring this in the iTunes Desktop App Store pretty heavily. They are also featuring this app in the App Store for all iOS Devices. After only three days, the Podcasts App is already in the #3 position for Top Downloaded Apps available for free! Engadget reported, in April 2012, that there are 365 Million iOS Devices in play today! That means a lot of EXPOSURE for the Podcasting Platform. More than anything else, I am assuming that subscriptions and downloads via this app will count towards itunes Ranking! I'm moving ALL OF MY SUBSCRIPTIONS to the new Podcasts App so that I can make sure the podcasters that I subscribe to get the full benefit of the rankings that they deserve. Here's the deal, I'm sure there are more great things that could be said about the application. Also, I am certain that there are a host of other flaws and issues that I had not yet come across in the limited time I played with the App before recording this episode. In fact, I found that the app will not continue to play the audio of a video podcast in the background if the application is closed. Yes, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 50:38 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/265/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/265/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:33:47 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4330 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/265/feed/ 13 Is Podcasting Getting It's Own Application in iOS 6? By now, most podcasters have heard the rumors and speculation that Apple may be kicking podcasting out of the iTunes application and giving the podcasting platform its very own official podcasting a... Is Podcasting Getting It's Own Application in iOS 6? By now, most podcasters have heard the rumors and speculation that Apple may be kicking podcasting out of the iTunes application and giving the podcasting platform its very own official podcasting a... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 45:42 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/264/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/264/#comments Sat, 16 Jun 2012 19:37:07 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4313 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/264/feed/ 20 Facebook Uses Mafia Tactics Not long ago, Facebook introduced the ability for you to promote your page posts. Facebook says that "promoted posts are a simple way to reach more of the people who like your Page and their friends." - Facebook Uses Mafia Tactics Not long ago, Facebook introduced the ability for you to promote your page posts. Facebook says that "promoted posts are a simple way to reach more of the people who like your Page and their friends." In this week's episode, I invite our GSPN Social Media Correspondent, Erik J. Fisher, to join me to discuss whether or not it feels a bit sleazy to have Facebook come out and charge brands to actually get their messages to their loyal fans who have already shared that they want to receive these updates. Erik's defense of Facebook's pay to promote practice goes back to the discussion that he and I had about Facebook's Edge Rank back in episode 247. I'd be interested to hear what you think about this topic in the comments section below. Top Ten BlogWorld & New Media Expo NYC Experiences Many of you know that I didn't produce an episode last week because I was in New York City for BlogWorld & New Media Expo. Since Erik was also there, I invited him to hang out with me for the rest of the episode so that we could both share our thoughts on the conference and communicate how you can actually make yourself responsible for making memorable experiences from going to such events. For those who might be interested, I recorded a special episode of Pursuing A Balanced Life where Fr. Roderick and I actually shared our day by day experiences while sitting in an Irish Pub just off Times Square. You can listen to that episode by clicking here. I also shared some great photos on Facebook. The New Name For BlogWorld As promised, BlogWorld & New Media Expo was officially rebranded and the new name of the conference was announced in NYC. Moving forward, the conference will be named New Media Expo (NMX). If you would like to speak on the podcasting track for NMX in Las Vegas in January, please be sure to fill out this speaker submission form. Random Plug of The Week This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the 168 Opportunities Podcast by Peter Aadahl. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man! Check out CommentCast Software! Huge thanks goes out to Elsie Escobar for sharing this amazing resource with the Podcast Mastermind. The resource is called CommentCast and can be found at http://marti.ca. This software allows you to collect all iTunes comments on a podcast, application, etc from all the international iTunes storefronts on which it is available. You can easily keep up-to-date on the public perception of an application or podcast. The software will easily translate foreign reviews to the language of your choice. You can export reviews into CSV or customizable HTML. Podcasts, desktop applications and iOS apps are supported. It's only $5 and totally worth it! Podcasting A to Z July 2012 Course Now Open For Registration! The next session of Podcasting A to Z will begin on Monday, July 9th, 2012 and will go for four full weeks, with the final day of the course being Friday, August 3rd. If you have not yet heard of my Podcasting A to Z course, I highly encourage you to click here to learn all about it. To save $100 off the cost of the course, use Discount Code "PAM" I'm limiting the July 2012 session to thirty students and I'm looking forward to helping these thirty students turn their dream of creating a successful podcast into a reality. If you are thinking that you've put the launch of your podcast off for way too long, I encourage you to register today! Podcast Artwork for $175 Most podcasters do not invest enough into the artwork for their podcast. The truth is that your podcast artwork is often what sets the 1st impression for your podcast. This is especially true when it comes to those who find your show in a podcast directory. I've been working with Jenny Hamson for several years and she does all my podcast artwork. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:55 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/263/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/263/#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:58:39 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4291 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/263/feed/ 18 Interview With Noah Shanok, CEO of Stitcher Radio One of my favorite benefits of the iPhone and the others smart phones that followed them is that they have made it increasingly easier for "normal people" to consume podcast content. Interview With Noah Shanok, CEO of Stitcher Radio One of my favorite benefits of the iPhone and the others smart phones that followed them is that they have made it increasingly easier for "normal people" to consume podcast content. Today there are m... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:12:13 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/262/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/262/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 19:48:06 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4261 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/262/feed/ 30 Making Podcasts Cool Again? Playa Please! This past weekend, someone sent me a link to an article on Gigaom.com. The article was titled "Player FM makes podcasts look cool again." The first few works of the article stated... Making Podcasts Cool Again? Playa Please! This past weekend, someone sent me a link to an article on Gigaom.com. The article was titled "Player FM makes podcasts look cool again." The first few works of the article stated... "Podcasts may have fallen a bit out of fashion lately, but the new cloud-based podcast playback and discovery platformPlayer FM hopes that you’ll give the medium another chance." It cracks me up up when people make statements like this about podcasting. In this episode, I share my full reaction to this article and also share my initial thoughts about the Player.fm service created by former Google employee, Michael Mahemoff. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the The Prospecting Minute Podcast by Steve Kloyda. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man! Go ahead and judge me. I'm busy doing great work! In this episode, I institute a new segment that I hope to incorporate from time to time call "A Word of Wisdom." This week's Word of Wisdom is inspired by a recent Seth Godin blog post titled "You Will Be Judged, Or You Will Be Ignored." Has fear of being judged kept you from creating work that helps share your message with the world? Interview WIth Angelo Mandato I'm very delighted to share a recent interview that I did with Angelo Mandato, the creator of the PowerPress Podcasting Plugin. What's amazing is that I didn't even know that there was a video podcast devoted to the PowerPress plugin. One of my favorite things is that the PowerPress plugin was created with the best interests of the podcasting community in mind. Not only is it free, but it has an amazing support community behind it. I really hope that you enjoy the interview with Angelo. If you get a chance, head over to his blog at http://Angelo.Mandato.com and tell him thanks for all his hard work! Free Subscribe With iTunes Graphic Template I want to send out a special thanks to Dan Andrews from the Lifestyle Business Podcast. Dan created an amazing "Subscribe With iTunes" graphic for his side bar that looks ultra professional and just plain gorgeous. He's decided to make the template available to the podcasting community, free of charge, as a means of giving back! Feel free to click here to download the PSD file. Please be sure to swap out his podcast artwork with your own! See what I did with the template where I ask for iTunes Ratings & Reviews for Podcast Answer Man below. Podcast Artwork for $175 Most podcasters do not invest enough into the artwork for their podcast. The truth is that your podcast artwork is often what sets the 1st impression for your podcast. This is especially true when it comes to those who find your show in a podcast directory. I've been working with Jenny Hamson for several years and she does all my podcast artwork. I've also personally contracted her to do the artwork for all of my coaching and consulting clients. In all the years that I have worked with Jenny, she's never failed to provide artwork that not only meets expectations but delivers far more than could have been anticipated. If you are looking for artwork, please contact Jenny Hamson today and tell her that Cliff sent you! iTunes Ratings & Reviews I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Would you believe that until April 2012, I never spent much energy to ask anyone to provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes? If you have ever read my blog post about how iTunes podcast ratings work, then you know just how valuable leaving a 5 star rating and/or a written review can be to a content producer. If you find that the Podcast Answer Man podcast has been valuable to you, would you consider going to my iTunes Listing to both rate and review this show? If so, please click here. The Podcast Mastermind Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:10:27 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/261/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/261/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 21:40:10 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4246 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/261/feed/ 22 Michael Hyatt Talks About Building A Platform In this week's episode, I am super excited about talking with Michael Hyatt. Michael is the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh larg... Michael Hyatt Talks About Building A Platform In this week's episode, I am super excited about talking with Michael Hyatt. Michael is the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S. He has over 200,000 subscribers to his personal blog that is focused leadership, productivity, publishing, social media, and the valuable resources that he discovers. In this episode, I talked with Michael about his new book titled Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. In the book, he shares his story about how he built the platform that he has today in the online world. What I learned in this episode is that for the first four years that Michael published his personal blog, he never had over 1,000 subscribers to his blog. Michael shares a little insight into how he went about getting noticed in his niche market. I highly encourage you to pick up the PHYSICAL COPY of Michael's book between Monday, May 21st and Friday, May 24th from one of the retailers listed at http://MichaelHyatt.com/platform. If you do, and you forward your paid receipt to gifts@MichaelHyatt.com, you'll receive all the digital versions of the book as well as over $300 worth of other bonuses. Michael and I also spoke briefly about his This Is Your Life podcast that he launched back in February of this year. After episode 008, this podcast became one of the top 5 podcasts that I have every subscribed to with my favorite episode being episode 10 titled HOW TO SHAVE 10 HOURS OFF YOUR WORK WEEK. I highly recommend that you subscribe to Michael's podcast in iTunes today. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the The MasonWorld Late-Night Internet Marketing Podcast by Mark Mason. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man! iTunes Changed Their Mind! iTunes changed their mind. They now want 1400x1400 artwork! Back on April 5th, I published episode 256 of Podcast Answer Man where I reported that iTunes updated it's specs to suggest 1200x1200 artwork. Without any rhyme or reason, they now have updated their specs, again, to state that they now prefer 1400x1400 artwork! Podcast Artwork for $175 Most podcasters do not invest enough into the artwork for their podcast. The truth is that your podcast artwork is often what sets the 1st impression for your podcast. This is especially true when it comes to those who find your show in a podcast directory. I've been working with Jenny Hamson for several years and she does all my podcast artwork. I've also personally contracted her to do the artwork for all of my coaching and consulting clients. In all the years that I have worked with Jenny, she's never failed to provide artwork that not only meets expectations but delivers far more than could have been anticipated. If you are looking for artwork, please contact Jenny Hamson today and tell her that Cliff sent you! Two Quick Questions In this episode, I answer two questions from Tommy Kendrick of the Actor's Talk Podcast. The first question that Tommy asked was "How many downloads is a good number for a podcast." He also asked about whether or not he should break down this podcast into a shorter version and a longer version for his podcast. I provide my thoughts on both of these questions in the episode. iTunes Ratings & Reviews I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Would you believe that until April 2012, I never spent much energy to ask anyone to provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes? If you have ever read my blog post about how iTunes podcast ratings work, then you know just how valuable leaving a 5 star rating and/or a written review can be to a content producer. If you find that the Podcast Answer Man podcast has been valuable to you, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:23 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/260/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/260/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 18:50:05 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4234 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/260/feed/ 2 Will Google Take Live Streaming To The Next Level? A recent post on the Google Blog announced that Google Plus Hangouts On Air feature is going to be rolled out to all members of the Google Plus Community. - Will Google Take Live Streaming To The Next Level? A recent post on the Google Blog announced that Google Plus Hangouts On Air feature is going to be rolled out to all members of the Google Plus Community. The post said that you will be able to bro... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:00:08 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/259/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/259/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 22:05:47 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4210 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/259/feed/ 32 A Case of Stolen Network Identity In this week's episode, I share how upset I was to learn that someone had gone and copied everything that I had spent seven years building at gspn.tv. Some say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. A Case of Stolen Network Identity In this week's episode, I share how upset I was to learn that someone had gone and copied everything that I had spent seven years building at gspn.tv. Some say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. To so... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:55 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/258/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/258/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:42:38 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4198 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/258/feed/ 25 From Hobby To Profitable Podcast Network In this episode, I interview Andrew Zarian of the Guys From Queens Network. Andrew shares how he started out with a hobby of streaming video via Ustream.tv after being laid off in 2008 and how he turned that h... From Hobby To Profitable Podcast Network In this episode, I interview Andrew Zarian of the Guys From Queens Network. Andrew shares how he started out with a hobby of streaming video via Ustream.tv after being laid off in 2008 and how he turned that hobby into the profitable podcast network that he runs today. I hope that you are inspired by the humble beginnings and how Andrew's passion for creating content became his full-time career. Their is a great deal of valuable insights for those who might be considering the creation of their own podcast network. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Shark Tank Fan Podcast with Pierce Marrs and Steve Hayes. If you check out their show and like it, please be sure to let them know you heard about the show from The Podcast Answer Man! Podcamp Nashville Review I spoke at Podcamp Nashville this past weekend. I want to thank you Pierce Marrs and Stu Gray for joining me for my panel session. In this episode, I share a review of this year's Nashville Podcamp event. Overall, it seemed, to me, that it was the least attended podcamp that I've attended up to this point. In spite of that, I share why I still considered my trip to Nashville and Podcamp Nashville a total success. Sutton Parks I had the privilege of meeting Sutton Parks at Podcamp Nashville. He had lead a session titled "Why You Should Write A Book And How To Do It." In the episode, I tell you about his book, "You Can Sleep In Your Car, But You Can't Drive Your House To Work." iTunes Ratings & Reviews I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Until April 2012, I really never asked anyone to provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes. I've decided that I am going to begin asking for my community to please go to my iTunes Listing to both rate and review Podcast Answer Man. Register For BlogWorld Today! If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend the leading podcast industry conference. I know for a fact that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year's NYC event, relating to podcasting. If you haven't registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off! The Podcast Report Now Online! I'm excited to announce that the Podcast RSS feeds are all set up and that The Podcast Report is now available on the Zune, iTunes, Blackberry, Stitcher, and almost every one of your favorite podcasting applications. Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://YourTaxTeacher.com - http://InspirationNextExit.com Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider if the link should be removed from this post. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet. Free Month of Media Hosting With Libsyn! Because of all the years of sending clients to sign up for accounts with Libsyn, they have created an affilate programs only given to a hand selected group of podcasting experts. I'm delighted that I am now able to offer new podcasters ONE MONTH FREE when they sign up for a new account with Libsyn. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 50:06 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/257/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/257/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:43:42 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4192 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/257/feed/ 24 Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Busy Mom's Survival Guide with PJ Jonas. If you check out her show and like it, please be sure to let PJ know you heard about her show from The Podcast Answer Man! Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Busy Mom's Survival Guide with PJ Jonas. If you check out her show and like it, please be sure to let PJ know you heard about her show from The Podcast Answer Man! Problem Getting Audio Clips Into Skype Call Chris called in to say that he used to be able to use a Sound Mixer audio driver on his Windows 7 computer to get audio clips, played from his computer, to go out to his Skype calls. When he recently installed Windows, he no longer had that sound driver and wanted to know if I had any thoughts on how to get audio clips to play out to the Skype calls. In the episode, I share two possible solutions based upon the criteria that he provided. Interview With Rob Walch I always enjoy talking with Rob Walch about the latest things happening over at Libsyn. In this week's podcast, I share a recorded interview we did earlier this week. New Libysn Stats Algorithm: Rob shared how Libsyn has recently changed their they way the process their stats and how and why they will be even more accurate than ever before. Getting Geeky: Rob and I did get a little geeky in this interview. Rob shared some important information about which Libsyn Media URL to use when promoting your .mp3 file. Also, we went into a pretty lengthy discussion as a followup to last week's episode where Stephanie had asked about adding a 2nd show to her Libsyn Account. Rob's Speaking At BlogWorld: Rob is actually leading two panel sessions for me at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo. I encourage you to attend the following two sessions: The 411 on Recording and Producing a Great Interview The Multiple Ways To Make Money With Your Podcast My New Libsyn Affiliate Offer: Because of all the years of sending clients to sign up for accounts with Libsyn, they have created an affilate programs only given to a hand selected group of podcasting experts. I'm delighted that I am now able to offer new podcasters ONE MONTH FREE when they sign up for a new account with Libsyn. Simply use promo code GSPN when you sign up! iTunes Ratings & Reviews Marketing Research I started Podcast Answer Man in December of 2006. Until April 2012, I don't think I've ever asked anyone provide a rating and/or review for this show in iTunes. I've decided that I am going to begin asking for my community to please go to my iTunes Listing to both rate and review Podcast Answer Man. My goal is to see if I can keep Podcast Answer Man as the #1 Show in the Podcasting Category and to see if I might be able to maintain a position within the top 50 podcasts in the Technology category. Register For BlogWorld Today! If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend the leading podcast industry conference. I know for a fact that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year's NYC event, relating to podcasting. If you haven't registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off! The Podcast Report Now Online! I'm excited to announce that the Podcast RSS feeds are all set up and that The Podcast Report is now available on the Zune, iTunes, Blackberry, Stitcher, and almost every one of your favorite podcasting applications. Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://ItJustIsPod.com - http://QuilterInTheGap.com - http://GaryCarpenter.me - http://ManiFestini.com Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:05:07 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/256/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/256/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:53:23 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4181 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/256/feed/ 22 UPDATE: A few weeks after this episode was posted, iTunes made an additional update an they now require 1400x14000 artwork. - MAJOR UPDATE: Just a few short weeks after this episode was posted, iTunes made ANOTHER quiet change to their specs pag... UPDATE: A few weeks after this episode was posted, iTunes made an additional update an they now require 1400x14000 artwork. MAJOR UPDATE: Just a few short weeks after this episode was posted, iTunes made ANOTHER quiet change to their specs page and are not suggesting that they "prefer" 1400x1400 artwork. For full details, have a listen to episode 261 of Podcast Answer Man which will be posted on May 17th, 2012. iTunes Changes Podcasting Specs To Request 1200x1200 Podcast Artwork If you look at the updated iTunes Podcast Specs, you will notice that they now "PREFER" square .jpg images that are at least 1200 x 1200 pixels. They also have stated that in order for a podcast to be eligible for an iTunes Store feature, the accompanying image must be at least 1200 x 1200 pixels. Please note that if you still have artwork that is 300x300 or 600x600, you will not be in any danger of being removed from the iTunes podcast directory. In fact, you can still submit new podcast feeds with the smaller podcast artwork images. The update simply communicates that they "prefer" that you update your artwork to 1200x1200 resolution and only those who do use this new resolution will be eligible to be featured in the iTunes store as a "featured podcast." Facebook Content Published via 3rd Party Services Gets 67% less engagement on Facebook. This week, Erik Fisher brings us news from another great Hubspot article related to Facebook Fan Pages. In the article, Hubspot said that after switching to the new brand page design the minute it became available, the HubSpot social media team instantly noticed how their likes, shares, and comments -- in other words, our overall engagement -- had tanked. In this episode, Erik and I go through the points of the article and we discuss how you can be sure to get the most engagement with your Facebook page. PocketCasts Doesn't Show My Podcast Right Away! There is no doubt that Pocket Casts is my all-time favorite application for managing podcast subscriptions. Jared called in to say that he noticed that when he posts a new show, it seems like any other applications can immediately download the new episode, but there are times when it will take hours, or even a day or more, for the new episode to show up in Pocket Casts. He wanted to know if this was normal and if there was anything he could do about it. How do I add a 2nd show to my Libsyn Account? Stephanie had been using a Libsyn hosting account since 2010 for a single podcast. She now wants to add a second show and wanted to know if she needed to add a new, second, account for the show or if there is a way to add additional shows under the account that she's already spending $20/mo on. Weekly or Every Other Week. Which is Better? Austin called in to ask for my opinion about which format would allow for more engagement with the podcast audience, a weekly show or a show produced every other week. In the episode, I provide my opinion on this. However, I want to just state again, that simply publishing an episode and making it available online, alone, no matter how often you produce it, will not lead to audience engagement. You'll need to invest in relationships to see real engagement from your community. Portable Studio For High Quality Sound Ray called in to say that he has a motor home and is on the road a lot. He asked me what I would recommend, as far as equipment is concerned, for producing a show that has very high quality audio from the road. In the episode, I close my eyes and list all the gear that I would have available to me if I had a motor home to lug it around in. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Dr. David Geier Show from Dr. David Geier. If you check out his show and like it, please be sure to let him know you heard about it from The Podcast Answer Man! Podcamp Nashville April 14th Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 57:45 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/255/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/255/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:08:49 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4171 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/255/feed/ 19 The Podcast Report - Devoted to the Podcasting Track of BlogWorld & New Media Expo Earlier this month, I accepted an offer to join the BlogWorld & New Media Expo team in building an amazing Podcasting Track for their conference. The Podcast Report - Devoted to the Podcasting Track of BlogWorld & New Media Expo Earlier this month, I accepted an offer to join the BlogWorld & New Media Expo team in building an amazing Podcasting Track for their conference. Over the past few weeks, I have been on the phone with no less than 60 individual podcasters. I am delighted to say that we have filled all 24 sessions of the Podcasting Track for the June NYC event! I made the decision that the best way to promote a podcasting track for the conference would be to have a podcast devoted to it. I am happy to share, in this episode of Podcast Answer Man, the first, full, episode of The Podcast Report, a podcast that is 100% devoted to the Podcasting Track of BlogWorld & New Media Expo. Subscribe To The Podcast Report Consistency Vs Can't Live Without Content Robert Duff from the Voices Among Us Podcast called in to ask about what seems to be conflicting advice that I've provided here on Podcast Answer Man. In episode 254, I mentioned that we should be producing "Can't Live Without" content. In the past, however, I have recommended that it's important to "just get something out there" and how important it is to be consistent with the release of your podcast. In this episode, I do my best to explain why and how we should strive to achieve both consistency AND that "Can't Live Without" content. A Podcasting Success Story From Kickstarter Special thanks to Elsie Escobar, a Podcast Mastermind member, for telling me about the amazing success that the Idle Thumbs Video Game Podcast had on Kickstarter. There were looking to raise $30,000 to relaunch their podcast and ended up raising a total of $136,924. I encourage to take a look at their Kickstarter project page for a heavy dose of inspiration! Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Man Cave Radio Podcast from Jesse & J.J. Lahey. If you check out their show and like it, please be sure to let them know you heard about it from The Podcast Answer Man! Podcamp Nashville April 14th For those of you who live near Nashville TN or are willing to travel there for a sigle day Podcamp experience, this year's Podcamp Nashville is being held on Saturday, April 14th at the Cadillac Ranch (305 Broadway; Nashville, TN). I will be attending and speaking at Podcamp Nashville this year. I'm working on putting together a panel session that will help those in attendance learn Why Your Business/Brand Needs To Launch A Podcast!. If you are able to come, I hope to see you there! Register For BlogWorld Today! If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend the leading podcast industry conference. I know for a fact that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year's NYC event, relating to podcasting. If you haven't registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off! Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created recently: - http://CapeCodTraveler.com - http://NavigateTheNoise.com - http://tscn.tv Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider if the link should be removed from this post. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:00:27 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/growing-your-audience/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/growing-your-audience/#comments Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:30:06 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4154 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/growing-your-audience/feed/ 19 So You Have A Podcast... Now What? One the questions that I am asked most often is "How Do I Grow My Audience?" Many times it's phrased something like, "I've been podcasting for (insert number) of months/years and I only have (insert number) of peopl... So You Have A Podcast... Now What? One the questions that I am asked most often is "How Do I Grow My Audience?" Many times it's phrased something like, "I've been podcasting for (insert number) of months/years and I only have (insert number) of people who are consistently downloading each of my episodes." Those who have been listening to Podcast Answer Man for a long time know that I really don't like the mindset behind that question. I'm all for growing our audience. However, I'd prefer to say, I've been podcasting for (insert number) of months/years and I've been blessed to grow my audience to a point where (insert number) people are consistently downloading each of my episodes, and I'm ready to take the reach of my show to a whole new level. Remember that each of these "downloads" represents a person/human being. Do you know how many pastors would love to speak to 50, 100, or even 300 people, consistently, each and every week? I've often avoided going too deep into answering this question on Podcast Answer Man, in the past, due to the fact that I've always want to drive home the point that I feel strongly that the quality of the relationship you have with your audience/community is much more important than the quantity of people who download your show. In this episode, I share two pieces of audio feedback from our community where I was asked how we can effectively market our podcast and grow our audience. In response, I shared the following items. 1. There is power when your show has a narrow niche focus. 2. I suggest only podcasting about things for which you are passionate about. 3. Before you record your first episode, you should know why are you podcasting in the first place. I recommend having a having a mission/purpose for your show. 4. Become crystal clear on exactly who your target audience is! Imagine your occupation was that of a bounty hunter. How hard would your job be if you were not given any clear description of the person you are supposed to be looking for. Same principle applies when trying to go out and find new people to listen to your show! 5. Build it and they will come does not, often, work in podcasting! Creating an amazing show is about 30% of the equation. The other 70% is marketing and relationship building. 6. Obviously, you should submit your podcast to podcast directories like iTunes, Zune, Blackberry, and Stitcher Radio. 7. Content Is King! Create high value content that people can't live without! It's an added bonus if your content is so great that they are compelled to share it with others. 8. Entertainment goes a long way. Don't Be Boring!!! 9. Keep it positive! The world is seeking hope and encouragement! Give it to them! 10. Be ENTHUSIASTIC! Don't do it more than what is natural for you though! 11. Prepare ahead of time. I spent more than two hours preparing for this episode, thirty minutes in post production, and over an hour on these show notes. 12. Audio Quality Is Queen! Remember that there are times when the Queen will trump the King! Many people, including myself, will not listen to your GREAT CONTENT if your audio quality is not that great! 13) Build relationships with your audience! Learn the first name, last name, and a MINIMUM of at least one other personal fact about AS MANY of the people who download your show as possible. 14. Include the voice of your audience in your show. 15. Thank members of your community publicly, both in your show and in your online efforts. 16. Establish and build meaningful relationships with other content creators in your niche/industry. 17. Create keyword rich titles, show notes, etc for your podcast. And all that other SEO junk. :) 18. Make Yourself newsworthy! http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/newsworthy 19. Interview others in your show. 20. Accept requests for being interviewed on other people's podcasts and blogs. 21. Consider a press release. 22. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:06:55 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/253/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/253/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:07:19 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4149 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/253/feed/ 10 Mixergy Interview I started off this week's episode explaining what honor it was to be invited as a guest on Andrew Warner's Mixergy podcast. If you would like to see the interview, please check it out at by clicking here. - Random Plug of The Week Mixergy Interview I started off this week's episode explaining what honor it was to be invited as a guest on Andrew Warner's Mixergy podcast. If you would like to see the interview, please check it out at by clicking here. Random Plug of The Week ... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:07:49 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mixergy/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mixergy/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:47:23 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4145 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mixergy/feed/ 2 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/252/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/252/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:39:07 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4135 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/252/feed/ 1 You Inspired Me To Stop Podcasting I never thought the day would come where I would be happy to receive feedback from a podcaster who said that I've inspired them to end several of their podcasts. However, You Inspired Me To Stop Podcasting I never thought the day would come where I would be happy to receive feedback from a podcaster who said that I've inspired them to end several of their podcasts. However, I could not be more delighted to receive such feedback from John Wilkerson of the Wired Homeschool Podcast. John has been producing several podcasts for many years. However, he recently decided to suspend production of all podcasts, except for the Wired Homeschool. To learn why, please listen for his call in this episode. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the South Geek Ramble & Review Podcast from Donovan Adkisson. I encourage you to check out this tech show that covers technology from a "Southern" perspective. If you decide to check it out, please tell Donovan that you heard about the podcast from the Podcast Answer Man. Would SoundCloud Work For Podcasting? Yesterday, I posted an hour long video that is a screencast of a conversation that I had with Ben Fawkes from SoundCloud.com. Ben wanted to tell me about how they are opening up their platform for podcasting. I figured that the podcasting community would be interested in hearing what I learned on the call. Click here to see the post. Podcast WorkFlow & Heil Mic Placement Tom Lelyo called in to ask two questions. First, he wanted to know if there was a better podcast production workflow than the one that he is using. I suggested that he first go through my free How To Podcast tutorial and then my WordPress For Podcasters tutorial. I tried to give an overview of my production workflow in the episode. Tom's other question had to do with the proper mic technique for the Heil PR-40 microphone. Have a listen to the episode to hear what I shared in response to this question. Facebook Timeline Is Here For Facebook Pages In this week's social media update, Erik J. Fisher informs us that Facebook will force all Facebook pages to convert to the Timeline layout on March 30th. If you have a Facebook page, you can go ahead and tweak and publish your timeline layout now. Check out the article that Erik mentions at http://gspn.tv/fbpagesetup. Register For BlogWorld Today! If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend this leading podcast industry conference. I know for a fact that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year's NYC event, relating to podcasting. If you haven't registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off! Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link recently. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created this week: - http://thelightnetwork.tv - http://DecreaseMyRealEstateTaxes.com Note: The fact that I have linked to these accounts is only to acknowledge that these folks have used my affiliate link to create a hosting account with BlueHost. These links are not an endorsement of any content that may be posted to these sites. If you ever recognize content blatantly offensive at any of these links, please let me know and I will be sure to evaluate and consider if the link should be removed from this post. These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet. PODCAST CONSULTING: I'm available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I'd love to work with you. Please take a look at my consulting/coaching options. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 40:57 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/soundcloud/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/soundcloud/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:36:08 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4119 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/soundcloud/feed/ 46 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/251/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/251/#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:33:22 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4099 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/251/feed/ 5 Leslie Samuel's Online Content Paves Way For Dream Job! I am so excited about this week's "Where Are They Now" interview with Leslie Samuel from LearningWithLeslie.com and Interactive-Biology.com. Leslie's story is full of so much valuable insight an... Leslie Samuel's Online Content Paves Way For Dream Job! I am so excited about this week's "Where Are They Now" interview with Leslie Samuel from LearningWithLeslie.com and Interactive-Biology.com. Leslie's story is full of so much valuable insight an... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 59:30 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/pinterest/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/pinterest/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:07:24 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4079 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/pinterest/feed/ 5 Should Podcasters Have An Interest In Pinterest? There has been an increasing amount of buzz in the media and in the social networking community about Pinterest. What is Pinterest? Rob Lammle from Mashable says that... Should Podcasters Have An Interest In Pinterest? There has been an increasing amount of buzz in the media and in the social networking community about Pinterest. What is Pinterest? Rob Lammle from Mashable says that... "Pinterest is a place to organize and share online images that you find interesting or inspiring. Once uploaded or shared on Pinterest, these images become known as Pins, which the user can place on customized, themed Boards. You can create Boards for any topic imaginable, from cats to classic cars to cats driving classic cars. The possibilities are endless." I am happy to bring you a bit of a lengthier social media segment, with Erik J. Fisher, this week as we go into a bit of detail about how Pinterest can be good for extending your brand online. This segment starts at the 00:24:12 mark in the episode. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Crimson Cord Podcast from James Caso. The reason I am highlight Jim's podcast this week is due to the fact that he made a commitment to a date when his first episode would be published online and he did it. He put it online. It appears that Jim is still working on submitting his podcast rss feed to the the various podcast directories. The important thing to note here is that we all have to start somewhere and I hope that Jim will be an encouragement to those who have been wanting to create a podcast for months but still have not yet published their first episode online. I'm Speaking at BlogWorld NYC I'm so excited that I'll be returning to BlogWorld NYC here in 2012, held June 5th, 6th, and 7th. I am also happy to announce that I will be speaking at BlogWorld again. If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend this leading podcast industry conference. I have a feeling that some very exciting things are going to be happening at this year's event, relating to podcasting. If you haven't registered yet, feel free to use my affiliate link to get registered today. Advice On Hosting Meetups JD called in to ask if I had any advice on the topic of hosting meetings with your community. Based upon my experience of hosting meetings over the past several years, I recommend the following: 1) Determine the purpose for your meetup. 2) Choose your time, date and location. 3) Set up a RSVP page for your event. 4) Show some love for your community. Note: I've had great success with both EventBrite.com and Facebook Event pages. Honestly, I felt that I could have spent a little more time coming up with some thoughts on this subject. However, I ended up recording the beginning of this episode, and this question, after I had already recorded the social media segment about Pinterest. That's the power of post production. If you have some additional thoughts on meetups, please feel free to add them in the comments section below. Perhaps I'll address this topic in greater detail in a future episode. Advice On Interviewing Others David Dell, called in to ask for some tips on conducting interviews for your podcast. Based upon my experience in hosting many interviews of the past several years, I recommend the following: 1) Know what you want from the interview ahead of time. 2) Attempt to interview "talkative" people. 3) Prepare your questions ahead of time. 4) Share your questions with your interviewee ahead of time. David had mentioned that in his days of interviewing people for the written media, he could take bits and pieces of the interview and weave them into a good story. However, he felt that he needed some advise in audio interviews since he believed that you'd be pretty much stuck with what the person said in the recording. I shared why I believe that you can practically do everything with an audio interview that you could do with a written interview. My great friend, Pat Flynn, posted an article on his blog, this week, Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:08:03 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/249/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/249/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:00:07 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4073 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/249/feed/ 6 What Does This Have To Do With Podcasting? The first 11 minutes of this episode may seem to have very little to do with the world of podcasting and taking your show to the next level. However, by the end of that 11 minutes, What Does This Have To Do With Podcasting? The first 11 minutes of this episode may seem to have very little to do with the world of podcasting and taking your show to the next level. However, by the end of that 11 minutes, I hope that I will have convinced you otherwise. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the This Is Your Life Podcast from Michael Hyatt. This is a weekly podcast dedicated to intentional leadership. The goal is to help you live with more passion, work with greater focus, and lead with extraordinary influence. I am certainly subscribed! During Michael's first episode, he shared 10 ways to generate more blog traffic. I went through his list and explained how you could apply these items to generating more exposure for your audio podcast. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about it from The Podcast Answer Man. When The Right People Notice Many of you will recognize the following quote that I often share from Jason Fried's book "REWORK." That last part says "You have to do it for a LONG TIME before the RIGHT PEOPLE notice. After about 4 years into building my brand, people like Dan Miller began to take notice of my brand and began to tell others about me and the products and services that I offer. Michael is another example of one of those "right people" that noticed! He has one of the most popular blogs in the eyes of those who are within my direct target audience. Michael has well over 188 THOUSAND subscribers to his blog! Keep that in mind as you read what he wrote at the following link: http://michaelhyatt.com/7-steps-to-launching-your-next-big-project.html The blog post is having immediate impact. I've seen a significant amount of traffic, already, from this exposure! I can only imagine, at this point, what all will come from this! One thing is for sure! Well over one hundred thousand new people have heard or are about to hear about me for the very first time, and from someone they greatly trust. I am so incredibly thankful for the glowing endorsement that Michael gave of my products and services. How Do You Keep The Content Flowing? Tom called in to ask how we, as podcasters, can be sure that we'll be able to consistently bring a steady flow of valuable content to our audience. I shared my thoughts on podcasting about things for which you are sincerely passionate about. I also shared how and why I decided to end the Virtual Assistant Podcast when I did. Special thanks to Chris Bockay, Mark Mason, Bill Graff, Dave Stachowiak, Wade Wingler, and Rich Berning, members of The Podcast Mastermind, for sharing some tips on how they are able to keep a steady flow of valuable content flowing. iPhone Mix Minus Wade asked a question that has not been asked in quite some time. He wanted to know if it was possible to use his iPhone to set up a mix-minus with his mixer to record phone interviews. I covered this topic way back in episode 176. Click Here to listen to that episode and to see the diagram that I included in the show notes. Free RSS to Email Solution Debra called in because she noticed that Feedburner seems to have dropped its "subscribe via email" option. She wanted to know if there were another free solution to allow folks to subscribe to her rss feed via email. I shared that she could check out MailChimp's RSS to Email Service. However, I strongly encourage her and everyone to READ THIS POST before you are enticed by the "FREE" option to start any mailing list. Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link this past week. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created this week: Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:04 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/248/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/248/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:47:05 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4069 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/248/feed/ 11 Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Farm And Ranch Country Podcast from Bill Graff. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man. Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Farm And Ranch Country Podcast from Bill Graff. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man. Getting More Tweets This week, our social media correspondent, Erik J. Fisher, shares three ways that folks can generate a greater amount of traffic to their content by having their community/audience tweet links to their followers. The information comes from this amazing article from the Buffer App Blog. Services mentioned during this segment: - http://cloudflood.com - http://paywithatweet.com - http://clicktotweet.com - Twitter @Anywhere Plus Wordpress Plugin Shameless Vs Shameful Self Promotion Jason called in to ask for my thoughts on how to handle those who seem to spend most of their time promoting themselves in the community environments that we have worked so hard to create. I share some of my thoughts in this episode. Affiliate Relationships With Smaller Brands JD called in to ask my thoughts on how to manage affiliate relationships with smaller brands who do not have official systems for tracking sales that come from his referrals. I provide a few simple ideas and remind him that trust and faith go a long way in business relationships. The Voice of The Host Jeremy called in to ask if I had any thoughts on podcasters getting some professional training to make themselves sound a bit more "polished" and "professional." I am not opposed to going down this avenue to take your podcast to the next level. However, I warn folks to never lose that authenticity in hosting your show. I'd rather be a bit unpolished and relatable than sound like the professionals on the radio. Podcast Voicemail Setup Tom called to ask about setting up the greeting with Google Voice for his listener feedback hotline. I gave a few short thoughts here and suggested that he check out my blog post at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/voicemail. All Audio On A Single Computer Jadon wanted to know how he can record all audio sources into a single computer without the use of a mixer and such for when he is out on the road. If you are a mac user, you should check out Audio Hijack Pro. If you are a PC user, you could look into Total Recorder. Blue Host Affiliate Signup I want to send out a special word of thanks to the folks behind the following domains that were used to create a new hosting account with BlueHost with my Blue Host affiliate link this past week. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Accounts that were created this week: - http://smokehousepodcast.com - http://infiniteloveministries.com - http://theshortsalepodcast.com - http://consultativefirm.com - http://karlsmelser.com - http://yournewva.com Note: These accounts are all brand new and may not be active yet. Also, it is possible that some of these domains were previously owned and my not have been transfered to BlueHost just yet. PODCAST CONSULTING: I'm available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I'd love to work with you. Please take a look at my consulting/coaching options. PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here. Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode... How To Get More Tweets Linking To Your Content and so much more in this episode of Podcast Answer Man -> PodcastAnswerMan.com/248— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) February 10, 2012 Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:00:37 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/247/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/247/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:43:31 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4061 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/247/feed/ 0 Facebook Edge Rank This week, Erik Fisher shares some amazing insight that is sure to please those of you who manage Facebook fan pages. A few episodes back, we talked about how Facebook had changed their algorithm in such a way that content from fan... Facebook Edge Rank This week, Erik Fisher shares some amazing insight that is sure to please those of you who manage Facebook fan pages. A few episodes back, we talked about how Facebook had changed their algorithm in such a way that content from fan pages are ranked with the lowest priority when it comes to what displays in the news feed of your fans. Have a listen to this episode to learn how to make your content a top story on Facebook. iTunes' New & Noteworthy Section Ken Jones called in to ask if I had some insight into how iTunes mangages their New & Noteworthy section. One thing that I forgot to mention in the episode is that I am not aware of any way to go back and see any archives of which shows were featured previously in the New & Noteworthy section. For those who are interested in learning more about iTunes ratings and ranking, please check out the blog post that I did at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/itunesratings. How To Celebrate Your 100th Episode Melitsa called in to say that she's getting close to her 100th podcast episode and would love some thoughts on what she could do to celebrate this occasion. I shared a couple of my own thoughts in the episode. I know that many of you, in the Podcast Answer Man / gspn.tv community have many shows which have reached the 100th episode milestone. Please share any additional thoughts that you have on ways to celebrate in the comments section below. What Camcorder Do I Recommend? Fr. Jim Tucker called in to ask my opinion on which camcorder he should look into. I shared that my own experience with the "VIDEO" side of things is a bit limited. I did share that I am extremely happy with my Canon Vixia HF G10. I used this camera to record THIS INTERVIEW. What To Do When You Get Bored! John called in and shared that after 197 episodes where he's interviewed experts in his niche field, he's starting to get a little bored with his show format. In the episode, I share some of my thoughts about things he could consider. I also share my thoughts on his concept of doing a live call in show. Moving RSS From Libsyn to WordPress: Chris called in to say that he is currently using Feedburner for his podcast. This Feedburner account is currently pulling from his Libsyn rss feed. He wanted to know how he can change it so that his Feedburner account will pull from his WordPress rss feed instead. He also wanted to know if it is possible to only send the podcast episodes and not all the blog post entries out to Feedburner. Blue Host Affiliate Signup Special thanks to the folks behind http://88888ee.com (Explicit Language Warning!) for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you! Random Plug of The Week This week's random plug of the week goes out to the Special Chronicles Podcast from Daniel Smrokowski. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man. PODCAST CONSULTING: I'm available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I'd love to work with you. Please take a look at my consulting/coaching options. PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here. Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode... Learn how to take advantage of Facebook's Edge Rank to make your Fan Page content achieve Top Story Status -> PodcastAnswerMan.com/247— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) February 2, 2012 Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 58:50 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mastermind/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mastermind/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:21:56 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=4041 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/mastermind/feed/ 94 Are you self-employed or desire to be? Are you willing to invest in your future success? Are you wiling to commit to your personal and professional growth? If so, please consider The Podcast Mastermind...     What Is A Mastermind? Are you self-employed or desire to be? Are you willing to invest in your future success? Are you wiling to commit to your personal and professional growth? If so, please consider The Podcast Mastermind...     What Is A Mastermind? The concept of the mastermind group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in his book, “Think and Grow Rich.” In the video below, Hill defines the mastermind by saying that “A group that consists of two or more people, who work in perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite purpose.” Please watch this video, and then I'll highlight a few key points below. Key points from the video above: The mastermind is the principle through which you may borrow and use the education, the experience, the influence and perhaps the capital of other people in carrying out your own plans in life.   The mastermind is the principle through which you can accomplish more, in one year, than you could accomplish without it in a lifetime, if you relied entirely on your own efforts for success.   When you form a true mastermind alliance with others, and work with them in a spirit of perfect harmony, you can draw freely upon the spiritual forces within you in carrying out your plans and desires.   The mastermind principle can give you absolute protection against failure, provided always that your purpose, in using this principle, is beneficial to all whom you influence.  Control your mental attitude and make yourself friendly and agreeable with everyone whom you are closely associated if you expect friendly cooperation in return.  A negative mental attitude can bring you nothing but failure.   Remember always, you are where you are and what you are because of your mental attitude in which you relate yourself to other people.   Your mental attitude is the one and the only thing over which you have complete control.   Success in the higher brackets of achievement is something that can be had only by taking others along with you.   The best definition of success is this: “Success is the knowledge with which to get whatever you want from life without violating the rights of others and by helping others to acquire it.”   Your only real limitation is the one you accept and set up in your own mind. I have studied the work of Napoleon Hill for several years now with a spirit of discernment. While I don’t always agree with the “higher power” with whom Hill attributes many of the truths he teaches, I have come to experience that every statement made above is undeniably true. One of my favorite verses from the Bible is Proverbs 15:22 that says: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Nearly every great achievement that I’ve made personally and professionally can be tied to the reality of the mastermind principle at work in my life. Napoleon Hill said that there is no such thing as something for nothing. Everything, including your personal success, has a price that must be paid. He suggested that if you want to move forward on a path toward success, he suggested that you do three things: 1) Decide definitely where you wish to be and what you wish to be doing during the next three years. 2) Decide how much money you desire to be making and what you are going to do to earn it. 3) Involve yourself in a mastermind group. I’ll be the first to tell you that you that you can do all of the above without any financial cost to you whatsoever. However, if you are a podcaster and you want to take your personal and professional life to a level you never dreamed possible, I encourage you to consider joining The Podcast Mastermind.     Description And Benefits of The Podcast Mastermind Key Benefit #1 - The Mastermind Group: The initial goal of The Podcast Mastermind is to grow to 100 podcasters, where each member has committed to being a part of a smaller mastermind group of no more than ten individuals. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:03:18 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/245/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/245/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:44:42 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3938 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/245/feed/ 29 How Do I Get Rid of This Hiss Sound? Tom called in and told us that he had a hiss sound when he talks into his microphone. While I didn't have enough information to diagnose his problem, I did share how I typically go about troubleshooting such issues. How Do I Get Rid of This Hiss Sound? Tom called in and told us that he had a hiss sound when he talks into his microphone. While I didn't have enough information to diagnose his problem, I did share how I typically go about troubleshooting such issues. The key is going through, step by step, to rule out problems within each item within the equipment setup. Help! I have PDF documents in my iTunes Feed! Kirk called in and said that he's got an issue where iTunes is pulling in a PDF document that was linked to in the show notes of a recent podcast episode, but the .mp3 file would not come through. In the episode, I share how he can go about fixing this issue. Are Facebook Fan Pages A Thing of The Past? I am so happy to bring in my great friend, Erik J. Fisher, as our official gspn.tv Social Media Correspondent. This week, Erik brings us up to speed on an issue where Facebook fan pages are not getting as much exposure in the news feed as personal profile "subscriptions." I encourage you to check out the full article that we discussed by clicking here. Podcast Mastermind Group I briefly mentioned that the Podcast Mastermind Group that I have been planning for the past few months is about to launch this weekend. If you would like become one of the charter members, please email me today at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com. Where Are They Now Interview Jason Cabassi does a television show fan podcast called The Waking Dead Cast. The Waking Dead television show is based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, written by Robert Kirkman. The following description is from the show's about page: "AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead." Jason and his co-host Karen were huge fans of the television series and they had already been enjoying lengthy conversations about the tv show before deciding to podcast about it. In the early part of our interview, you hear that Jason actually launched his fan podcast several months before the television show actually started. As a result, he thought that he would have the first fan podcast devoted to the show. Jason was shocked, however, to learn that there were already two other Walking Dead podcasts that had already launched before him. I think this is valuable information because, as you hear later in the interview, the fact the he was not the first to market did not keep him from experiencing a tremendous amount of success in getting the actors on to his show, doing something that he's not able to share due to a non-disclosure agreement, and the potential of actually being on the show in the next season. I hope that this is a source of inspiration for those of you who became discouraged to learn that there were already a number of podcasts devoted to the niche topic that you wanted to focus on with your podcast. I was about the fifth or sixth LOST podcast out there and that single show led to my currently full-time career in podcasting. So don't worry about the others in your niche field. Create your unique show and get your voice out there! An interesting note about Jason is that he is a technical writer by day and he used to work for Apple. He actually wrote the owners manual for the first ever iPod and the iPhone. It was when Apple decided to incorporate podcasting into iTunes that he was first introduced to the world of Podcasting. At first, he was very skeptical of the idea of listening to content created by random people without professional broadcast training. However, it did not take him long at all to find a few shows that were created around topics for which he was passionate about to quickly turn him into a fan of audio podcasts. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:40 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/244/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/244/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:03:49 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3922 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/244/feed/ 3 Building Community From From The Hospital I started this episode off by sharing that I spent this past weekend in the hospital. I mentioned that if you wanted to know why I was in the hospital, you could read all about it in my blog post found at htt... Building Community From From The Hospital I started this episode off by sharing that I spent this past weekend in the hospital. I mentioned that if you wanted to know why I was in the hospital, you could read all about it in my blog post found at htt... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:05:20 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/liveipad/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/liveipad/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:50:17 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3918 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/liveipad/feed/ 4 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/243/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/243/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:47:41 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3875 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/243/feed/ 47 Producing Less For The Purpose of Greater Production During the open of last week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I hinted that I was considering the thought of producing less shows moving forward. As I share in this episode, Producing Less For The Purpose of Greater Production During the open of last week's episode of Podcast Answer Man, I hinted that I was considering the thought of producing less shows moving forward. As I share in this episode, the reason is that I want to maximize the value of any of the work that I do, including the various podcasts that I might produce. So many people have come to me, as a podcast consultant/coach, who are wanting to launch three to five podcasts before the end of their first year in podcasting, without understanding what all goes into the production of a single show. I believe that podcasts are most effective and valuable when they serve a niche audience and when that audience is served extremely well. Leo Laporte echoed this key area of success in the interview I did with him back in November. To effectively super serve a niche community, I believe that you should be willing to devote a great deal of time, energy, and attention to making every aspect of your production and community environments as valuable and as high a quality as possible. I've come to the point where I understand that with all the shows that I currently produce (approximately five to ten a week on average right now), I am producing a lot of really good content. However, I personally feel that, on average, I only produce about two GREAT episodes each week. I've determined that this is simply not acceptable when I consider the hopes, dreams, and goals that I have for the future of my podcast network at gspn.tv. The following are some of the big changes that I've decided to make moving forward. I share more details about each of these decisions in this episode. - I will be ending the Balanced Living Weekly podcast after 83 episodes (final episode pending). This show was started on September 27th, 2009 with Fr. Roderick Vonhogen as my co-host. I will continue to share my pursuit of a balanced life in the Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast. - My wife, Stephanie, will be Ending the Full Time Mom podcast after 184 episodes (final episode pending). She launched this show on July 14th, 2007. I'm excited to announce that Stephanie will continue to share everything that she would have shared in this podcast in both the Authentic Life Radio and Family From The Heart podcasts. - I will be ending the Business Tech Weekly podcast after 109 episodes (final episode pending). This show was started on September 8th, 2009 with Andy Traub as my co-host. Andy will continue share his business pursuits on his own Take Permission podcast network. From this point forward, I will bring all of my business technology and business growth experiences here into the Podcast Answer Man podcast and in my Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast. - I have ended the Social Media Serenity podcast after 119 episodes. This show was started on July 17th, 2009 with Erik J. Fisher as my co-host. From this point forward, I will bring all social media news, updates, and experiences here into the Podcast Answer Man podcast. Beginning next week, I plan to have Erik become my Social Media correspondent for Podcast Answer Man. The thought is that we will try to include a ten minute social media segment each week. - I am officially ending the Help I Got A Mac podcast after 180 episodes (final episode pending). I had started this podcast when I purchased my first Apple computer, as a means of sharing my experience on this new computing platform. The show was officially re-launched on October 14th, 2007 when Chris Beiting agreed to be co-host the show with me. - I have ended the Almost Daily Devotional Podcast after 166 episodes. I had launched this podcast back on March 3rd, 2008 with the idea that I would produce three to five 10 minute episodes each week. There were a few times that I had achieved this goal. However, for the most part, the show's production schedule had been pretty hit or miss throughout the years. Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:10:47 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/242/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/242/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:02:05 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3863 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/242/feed/ 19 Less Shows Moving Forward? One of the thing that puzzles me is the number of people who seem to want to follow in my footsteps of creating a large number of podcasts. Since I started podcasting in December of 2005, Less Shows Moving Forward? One of the thing that puzzles me is the number of people who seem to want to follow in my footsteps of creating a large number of podcasts. Since I started podcasting in December of 2005, I have launched at least 24 of my v... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:06:30 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/241/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/241/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:28:17 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3849 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/241/feed/ 2 Not A Fan of FeedValidator.org Gordon called to say that when he ran his rss feed through FeedValidator.org, he found that it was reporting errors with his rss feed. He wanted to know if I had any thoughts on what might be causing some of these issues. Not A Fan of FeedValidator.org Gordon called to say that when he ran his rss feed through FeedValidator.org, he found that it was reporting errors with his rss feed. He wanted to know if I had any thoughts on what might be causing some of these issue... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 54:20 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/240/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/240/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:34:21 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3828 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/240/feed/ 30 Celebrating Six Years of Podcasting! It was December 16th, 2005 when I published my very first audio podcast to the web. Little did I know that this event would radically transform my life. I started off this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man wit... Celebrating Six Years of Podcasting! It was December 16th, 2005 when I published my very first audio podcast to the web. Little did I know that this event would radically transform my life. I started off this week's episode of Podcast Answer Man wit... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:07:30 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/interviewtv/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/interviewtv/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:20:06 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3821 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/interviewtv/feed/ 6 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/239-podcast-answer-man-god-is-bigger-than-cancer-wooden-boats-and-more/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/239-podcast-answer-man-god-is-bigger-than-cancer-wooden-boats-and-more/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 01:10:12 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3817 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/239-podcast-answer-man-god-is-bigger-than-cancer-wooden-boats-and-more/feed/ 4 Please Spread The Word! This week, I started the episode off by talking about my good friends Barry and Lynne Morgan, from SimpleGoodLifeNetwork.com. Many of you may recall that I interviewed Barry and Lynne back in episode 208 of Podcast Answer Man. Please Spread The Word! This week, I started the episode off by talking about my good friends Barry and Lynne Morgan, from SimpleGoodLifeNetwork.com. Many of you may recall that I interviewed Barry and Lynne back in episode 208 of Podcast Answer Man. Barry emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know that he has been diagnosed with an advanced stage of pancreatic cancer and had asked me if I would please pray for himself and Lynne as well during this time. This week, Barry had asked if I would be willing to have a call with him to discuss a few decisions he needed to make and we had that call on Tuesday of this week. I was so inspired by Barry's courage and faith in the midst of what he is going through and I became very excited to learn about how he plans to share his faith and his journey in a brand new podcast that he and Lynne are launching at http://GodIsBiggerThanCancer.com. I want to personally ask that everyone go and subscribe to their podcast, give it a five star rating, and leave a review for them in iTunes by CLICKING HERE. I would also like to ask you to follow them on TWITTER and like them on FACEBOOK. And if you know anyone who has been touched by cancer, would you please tell them to check out Barry & Lynne's podcast. As I am writing this, I know at the first episode is not yet online. However, I know that Barry and Lynne have set aside everything else and will be focusing on three things. Those three things are prayer, seeking wise counsel and searching through information on various treatment options, and sharing everything they learn and their experience in this podcast as means of being a Faith, Hope and Healing resource for those afflicted with the deadliest forms of cancer and their families and loved ones. Please do help me spread the word! Posts Per Category Plugin Did you ever wish you could set the number of posts that are included in the rss feed for each category independently? Up till now, you only had the option of a general setting that controlled the number of posts that are included in the RSS feeds of your site overall. However, my great friend Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com has created a FREE PLUGIN that allows you manually choose how many posts for each category independently. In this episode, Pat joins me to explain why and how this Posts Per Category Plugin came about. Pat all mentioned the WP Smush.it Plugin and the site web-sniffer.net. What If You Can't Talk? Nick called in to ask for advice of what to do if your voice is giving out on you and you have a weekly show that must go on. I shared a few options that came to mind off the top of my head. Do you have some additional thoughts? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below. Getting Audio From My Computer Speakers? Tony called in to ask if there was an easy way to listen to music from his computer speakers on hi iMac outside of manually unplugging the cord from the speaker jack of the iMac each and every time he's not using his mixer and wants to listen to iTunes, Pandora, or when watching a YouTube video. I shared how I handle this on my own setup. Is there a configuration tool that he can download to force his computer to ignore that the speaker jack has a cable plugged into it? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below. What If I Make Mistakes And Lose Listeners? Cassius Morris, from The Creatures of The Net podcast, called in to share that he's made some mistakes that have cost him some listeners. He's share that he has learned a lot from these mistakes, yet he notices that he's not getting very much feedback. In the episode, I share some thoughts on what to focus on in a situation like this and some thoughts on how to handle the feedback situation. Do you have some thoughts to add? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below. How Can I Change My RSS Feed From One Website To Another? Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:12:30 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/238-podcast-answer-man-audio-levels-apple-fixes-artwork-preview-with-itunes-10-5-1-and-much-more/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/238-podcast-answer-man-audio-levels-apple-fixes-artwork-preview-with-itunes-10-5-1-and-much-more/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:40:19 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3805 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/238-podcast-answer-man-audio-levels-apple-fixes-artwork-preview-with-itunes-10-5-1-and-much-more/feed/ 14 The Canon HF G10 Camera This week, I started the episode off by talking about how and why I have been dabbling with video more and more lately. Those who know me, know that I am a strong believer that there is more power in audio podcasting than ther... The Canon HF G10 Camera This week, I started the episode off by talking about how and why I have been dabbling with video more and more lately. Those who know me, know that I am a strong believer that there is more power in audio podcasting than there is in video podcasting. However, I believe that there is so much you can do to compliment the audio content that you produce by randomly creating video content as well. In the episode, I shared that the video interview that I did with Leo Laporte was recording using my Canon HFG10 camera. Click play and look at the amazing quality that you can get with this camera. iTunes 10.5.1 Fixes .mp3 Artwork Preview In episode 233, I had shared the reason why the desktop icons of .mp3 files were not displaying the artwork after they were successfully tagged with an image file. I am happy to announce that the latest update to iTunes finally resolves this issue for us. Audio Levels Mark called to ask what process I go to to make sure that my audio levels are consistent throughout my show and he also wondered how I decide "how hot" to make my audio when getting ready to do export the file. Mark also asked how I go about getting consistent audio levels between caller to caller when the audio levels of all the audio feedback that comes in are at different volume levels. I share the answer to all Mark's questions in the episode. What is Apple Core Media? Dave called in to say that he has upgraded to a Libsyn account that offers "advanced stats." He wants to know what the Apple Core Media stands for. I share the answer to this question in the podcast episode. Is The Roland R-05 Discontinued? Mark P called in to ask if the Roland R-05 has been discontinued. He said he was able to pick one up for only $100 and wondered if it were a sign that they were no longer being produced. I answer this in the episode, but I'll go ahead and state it here. The Roland R-05 is still in production and I still love this recorder! What if a story I linked to goes Away? Dan Mattson called to say that a publication did a story about him and his podcast recently. He linked to that story in his show notes. However, he wanted to know if there was another way to get a copy of that story just in case the publisher ever decided to remove it from their public website. Get Amazing Stuff for only $5 My good friend, Dr. Soram Khalsa, told me about http://fiverr.com. Check it out some time. You'll be amazed at how much you can get for only five bucks! PODCAST CONSULTING: I'm available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I'd love to work with you. I'm able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com. PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here. Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 59:40 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/237videoblog/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/237videoblog/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:28:31 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3787 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/237videoblog/feed/ 2 A Video Blog Style Update: Every now and then, I like to sit and think about all the wonderful things I have experienced on my journey in pursuing the work that I love and feel called to. If I were to talk about all the blessings that have come my wa... A Video Blog Style Update: Every now and then, I like to sit and think about all the wonderful things I have experienced on my journey in pursuing the work that I love and feel called to. If I were to talk about all the blessings that have come my way in 2011, the video below would be at least eight hours long. Instead of sharing everything, I figured I'd hit record on the video camera and simply start sharing the things that come to mind in under 20 minutes. The video below is the result of this recording session. Things mentioned in this video blog post: - Episode 483 of Pursuing A Balanced Life - http://gspn.tv/pabl483 - Episode where I declared my focus on The Year of Providence - http://gspn.tv/pabl485 - Podcasting A to Z - http://PodcastingAtoZ.com - Podcaster's Mastermind Group - Details Coming Soon! - The launch of a new podcast - http://GeekologyToday.com - Why I Do What I Do - http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/why Is a video blog update like this something that interests you? If you enjoy this kind of video blog update, please let me know in the comments section below. Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/leointerview/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/leointerview/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:01:52 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3731 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/leointerview/feed/ 22 My Interview With Leo Laporte Folks, I am so excited to share this interview with with you. There is no doubt that this will forever be one of my all time favorite episodes of Podcast Answer Man. I'd encourage you to watch the interview via the vide... My Interview With Leo Laporte Folks, I am so excited to share this interview with with you. There is no doubt that this will forever be one of my all time favorite episodes of Podcast Answer Man. I'd encourage you to watch the interview via the vide... Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 40:58 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/235/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/235/#comments Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:41:01 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3716 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/235/feed/ 3 My BlogWorld LA 2011 Talk I am so excited to share my BlogWorld LA 2011 talk with you here in this episode of Podcast Answer Man. The talk was titled "Forget CPM! Proven Strategies For Generating Serious Income From Your Podcasting Efforts. My BlogWorld LA 2011 Talk I am so excited to share my BlogWorld LA 2011 talk with you here in this episode of Podcast Answer Man. The talk was titled "Forget CPM! Proven Strategies For Generating Serious Income From Your Podcasting Efforts." The audio of this is included in the podcast feed. However, I'm also embedding the video of my talk below. I hope that the biggest takeaway, from my talk, will be the formula for success that I focus on within the first 20 minutes of my talk. It is my belief that if you do not have the solid foundation that I share in this formula, you will not be able to duplicate the success I have found. Furthermore, if you follow the formula of success that I provide, I believe you will find that you don't want to simply try to duplicate the streams of income that I have pursued, but you'll become very creative in coming up with your own ideas for generating income in the process. Here's the video: PODCAST CONSULTING: I'm available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I'd love to work with you. I'm able to work with you using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com. PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here. Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 1:04:50 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/occupytwit/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/occupytwit/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:22:54 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3712 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/occupytwit/feed/ 4 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/slides/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/slides/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:39:19 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3706 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/slides/feed/ 16 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/234-podcast-answer-man-blogworld-la-review-meeting-leo-laporte-occupy-twit/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/234-podcast-answer-man-blogworld-la-review-meeting-leo-laporte-occupy-twit/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:18:00 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3698 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/234-podcast-answer-man-blogworld-la-review-meeting-leo-laporte-occupy-twit/feed/ 14 Very Important Note: On Thursday, January 5th, 2012, I recorded several shows for my gspn.tv production network where I mentioned that I had shared A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT about the future of gspn.tv content. - Unfortunately, in most of those episodes, Very Important Note: On Thursday, January 5th, 2012, I recorded several shows for my gspn.tv production network where I mentioned that I had shared A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT about the future of gspn.tv content. Unfortunately, in most of those episodes, I told folks to be sure and check out episode 234 of Podcast Answer Man to be sure they understand what is happening moving forward and why it is happening. However, IT IS EPISODE 243 that contains this MAJOR announcement. To listen to this very important episode, PLEASE CLICK HERE! Recording From The Road In this special episode of Podcast Answer Man, I am joined by Anne-Sophie Reinhardt from FightingAnorexia.com and MyInterContinentalLife.com. Together, while driving from Petaluma to Oakland California, we give you our review of BlogWorld LA and share our amazing journey of visiting the TWiT Studio. Meeting Leo Laporte There is no doubt that you will hear the excitement in my voice when you hear me share what it was like to finally get to meet Leo Laporte. You'll have to listen to the episode to hear just how amazing this visit was. WOW! What an amazing trip this has been! Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/meetingleo/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/meetingleo/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:00:38 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3703 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/meetingleo/feed/ 27 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/233-podcast-answer-man-missing-artwork-previews-podcast-hosting-mdx-4600-sharebar-plugin-blogworld-la/ http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/233-podcast-answer-man-missing-artwork-previews-podcast-hosting-mdx-4600-sharebar-plugin-blogworld-la/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:13:47 +0000 Cliff Ravenscraft http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/?p=3674 http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/233-podcast-answer-man-missing-artwork-previews-podcast-hosting-mdx-4600-sharebar-plugin-blogworld-la/feed/ 14 Podcamp Cincinnati Reactions I kick off this episode of Podcast Answer Man by giving my reactions the first ever, Podcamp Cincinnati. I share why I felt that this was one of the best Podcamp experiences to date. - Missing Artwork Previews On The Mac Podcamp Cincinnati Reactions I kick off this episode of Podcast Answer Man by giving my reactions the first ever, Podcamp Cincinnati. I share why I felt that this was one of the best Podcamp experiences to date. Missing Artwork Previews On The Mac Katie Davis called in to say that she watched the video on tagging on my LearnHowToPodcast.com tutorial and noticed that the artwork previews were working on my display in that tutorial but she is not able to to get them to show up on her Mac. In the episode, I explain why this is. Confused About Hosting Emily called in to say that she is confused about the hosting of a podcast. I try to bring a little clarity to this matter and suggest that she watch part 1 and part 4 of the tutorial at LearnHowToPodcast.com. MDX 4600 Tutorial Feedback Tommy sent some audio feedback regarding my MDX 4600 video tutorial. I share my thoughts regarding the reactions that I have received regarding this tutorial. If you are looking to purchase the Behringer MDX4600, you can find my tutorial by clicking here. Testing Out ShareBar Plugin I recently made the decision to try out the ShareBar plugin. In the episode, I share some of my initial thoughts on the plugin. What I like about it and what I am not so crazy about. Do you have a social sharing plugin that you enjoy using on your site? Please tell me in the comments section. UPDATE AFTER PUBLISHED: It's funny, but just as I was publishing this episode, I decided to dump ShareBar and I'm currently trying out the SexyBookmarks Plugin. I'm enjoying it so far. However, I would love to know how I could additionally put the share bar in the middle of really long posts or pages. So far, I can only see the option to either put it above or below the post or both. However, I'd love to have a shortcode to additional put it anywhere within the post as well. Want to attend BlogWorld LA? If you want to attend BlogWorld LA, you can use my promo code RAVEN20 to save 20% off the cost of the conference. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER My BlogWorld LA Talk Link: http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/forgetcpmtalk Title: Forget CPM! Proven Strategies For Generating Serious Income FromYour Podcasting Efforts! Description: As a full-time podcast producer and podcast consulting/coach, Cliff Ravenscraft left his career in insurance, of 11 years, to pursue his passion of podcasting in January of 2008. In this session, Cliff will share how he generated just over $177,000 in income in 2010 and you will hear the story behind why one listener sent him a contribution of $12,000 to support the content of Cliff’s Generally Speaking Production Network. This session will also feature stories of many of Cliff’s consultant/coaching clients who have also achieved similar success from their podcasting efforts over the past several years. All of which were achieved without the use of CPM advertising! gspn.tv LA Meetup Friday, November 4th at 7pm PST RSVP at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/lameetup More details about the location of this event will be posted in the Facebook event once I have them. The meetup will almost certainly be close to the LA Convention Center where BlogWorld is being held. Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: Podcast Answer Man - Podcast Consultant - Consulting / How To Podcast no 45:58