Voice Mail For Podcasters

I strongly feel that the most valuable content that you can ever include in your podcast is the voice of those who listen to your show! Reading blog comments and emails from your listeners is any easy place to start. However, why not take your listener feedback to the next level?

Simply listen to the professional sound that comes from this audio clip that I played in one of the podcasts that I produce for the tv show, LOST. Note: The first “listener” that you will hear in this audio clip is none other than Jorge Garcia, the actor who plays “Hurley” in the show!

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

Setting up a voice mail / listener feedback line for your show could not be easier. There are so many different options to choose from, but I’m going to list the two that most of my clients choose.

Google Voice
The benefits of Google Voice are that it is Free and that it is supposed to be a number than you can use your entire lifetime. I have a Google Voice account and absolutely love it. However, I don’t use it for a voice mail line for my podcast. Instead, I use it as my main number for my business.

The main reason why I chose not to use Google Voice was due to the audio quality of the voice mails. While the caller’s voice can be easily understood, the audio quality is not nearly as high as the service that I began using before Google Voice was an option, which I’ll mention shortly.

For “most” podcasters, Google Voice will be the least expensive and most likely solution for a voice mail feedback line. However, for those who are as serious about audio quality, as I am, I’ll share the service that I have been using the the past few years.

The Broadvoice Option:
Broadvoice is a VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone service similar to something like Vonage. A long time ago, I had decided to cancel our land line phone service to go to this VOIP service for our home phone usage. When I decided to do podcasting full-time as a career, I began to do a great deal of phone interviews which meant that I didn’t want to rely on VOIP quality calls, so I had a land line put back in.

When I first signed up with Broadvoice, I immediately turned it into my listener feedback line as I was only using the Broadvoice service for outgoing calls. After I went to back to having a landline phone, I kept my Broadvoice account and dropped it to the least expensive plan at $9.99 (I pay $15.42 each month after tax).

With the service, I was able to configure every detail of every option online and I had it set so that when someone called the number, it would ring ZERO TIMES (so no calls ringed our phone) and it would send the caller IMMEDIATELY to Voice Mail. I had also set it up so that each and every voice mail would be sent to me via email as an attached .wav file.

I’ve been happy with the audio quality of all the voice mail calls that had come in from Broadvoice. In fact the audio files are recorded with less compression and sound a fair bit better than the two options mentioned above. This is why I kept the Broadvoice service.

If you choose to go with the Broadvoice option. I am also an affiliate for this service. If you click here here here to sign up for Broadvoice and the “referred by” field is not pre-filled, please enter 859-795-4067 as your referral number.

Create A Community Around Your Podcast!
Creating a community around your podcast involves a great deal more than having a voice mail listener feedback line. However, in my mind, this is a first step that each podcaster should take to provide an opportunity for their listeners to let their voices be heard!

I hope that this information has been helpful to you. If you found this page as the result of a google search, I encourage you to check out the Podcast Answer Man Podcast and that you’ll check out my resources page.

Cliff J. Ravenscraft
PodcastAnswerMan.com