Podcasters, Check Out This New Show!

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Hello Podcaster!

Hello Podcast About Podcasting listener,

Mike Russell & Izabela Russell here with some news about this podcast. It has reached a natural conclusion – all the previous episodes we recorded will stay in this feed – and there is a new place you can find us!

Head over to the Audio Production Show from Music Radio Creative. It is extremely relevant to podcasters and will even feature interview with pro podcasters so make sure you subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

Want to be a Guest?

You’re a podcaster or a budding podcaster so perhaps you’d like to appear as a guest on our brand new podcast?

It’s easy to apply. All you have to do is fill out this form.

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: audio production, new show, podcasting By

New Media Europe 2015

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New Media Europe

In this episode, we wanted to talk about the conference that we have been working on and organised for the last 2 years: New Media Europe 2015. New Media Europe will bring together podcasters, bloggers, online video creators, social media fanatics, entrepreneurs and people who just love social media! Podcasters often have a blog and generally an online presence, so you really have to know more about new media in general. This conference would be the best opportunity to get knowledge from people all over the world who are superstars in the field, as we are bringing them over to UK! It’s not only a great learning opportunity and a great networking opportunity to meet the experts, but it’s also a great source of inspiration for starting your podcast or that new media presence!

The Speakers

Some of the speakers who are confirmed for New Media Europe 2015 include:

  • Cliff Ravenscraft is a full-time podcast producer and also a consultant and coach. He is the founder of the GSPN podcast network and will be our opening keynote at New Media Europe 2015!
  • Chris Ducker is also a British podcaster who is based in the Philippines, and he’s coming home to the UK for this conference! Chris is also the author of the bestselling new media book, Virtual Freedom.
  • We have the Suitcase Entrepreneur, Natalie Sisson, coming all the way from New Zealand, as one of our keynote speakers!
  • We also have Jon Buscall (@jonbuscall), a marketing specialist from Sweden; Ian Cleary, a social media expert from Ireland; Andrea Vahl, a Facebook expert from the US who is the co-founder of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies; and Anthony de Souza from CrowdFunding Focus.

They are just some of the amazing speakers that we will have for New Media Europe 2015. More people, more speakers, more sponsors, and more sessions and ideas are being added on a weekly basis!

Date & Venue

New Media Europe is going to take place in Manchester, UK, at the lovely Midland Hotel on September 12 and 13, 2015. We want to bring you an experience that will last for 2 full days, while providing all the facilities and being very accessible, so we’ve decided the venue will be in Manchester, UK!

The Conference That Is Going To Sell Out

We still have 9 months to go before New Media Europe 2015, but we have already sold over 30% of the capacity limit. This is definitely the conference that is going to sell out. There will be new announcements in 2015 that we aren’t allowed to talk about at the moment, but it’s definitely going to be huge! You have until the end of the year to grab the early-bird tickets, which are cheaper than the full price. So treat it like your Christmas gift or your New Year’s resolution, and get your tickets, or else it might be too late!

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 2015, manchester, new media 2015, podcasters, social media By

Podcasting Automation – How to Automate Your Podcast

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Who do you need in your team to make the perfect automated podcast process?

Who do you need on your team to make the perfect automated podcast process?

 

In radio, they have many people working on a single show. You have producers, researchers and other people working behind the scenes. So in this episode, we talked about podcasting automation and the whole podcast process just like in radio. Who do you need on your team to make the perfect automated podcast process?

Researcher

The researcher is like your journalist who will do your preparation and the groundwork of the podcast. Their primary task will be to find content for you from topics and niches on a local or even an international level. In case of an interview-style radio show, they will find you guests that you can present in your podcast and even research everything needed about your guests, including what questions to ask!

Host

Depending on what kind of format your podcast is, you can outsource the podcast host! There are many radio presenters and voice-over artists who should be up to the task. However, a radio presenter may be better equipped to be a host, because of their experience in radio doing ad-libs and making the podcast spontaneous and sound more natural.

Audio Producer

The audio producer is the one who will make you and your raw audio sound amazing! This is a very important aspect, as you can’t really compromise the quality of your audio. You need one who can look after the audio you made after recording, and do tasks like stop the popping in the audio and put in some music like an intro and outro sound.

Web Publisher

Someone who can publish and tie in everything that you’ve done up to this point to your website is your web publisher. The web publisher is basically someone who will upload your podcast to WordPress, or on your media host like Libsyn, Spreaker or SoundCloud. Their job essentially entails formatting everything in your website, like tagging and making it beautiful by adding pictures and other aesthetics.

Proofreader

The proofreader is the one who will check and correct your content, making sure it is ready before it goes live for the world to see. We believe proofreading is also an important part of the chain in producing and automating your podcast, but it is a task that you can consider consolidating with the researcher or web publisher’s roles – depending on your needs.

Social Media Marketer

Finally, you also need someone who will promote your podcast on social media channels to get those listens! The social media marketer is the one who will look over your whole social media promotion cycle and get your podcast known and publicised. You can actually find quality people up to this task in places like oDesk and Freelancer; just don’t be afraid to test who will do this step in the process for you!

Call to Action

If you are looking to outsource your podcast host or your audio producer, you can go to Music Radio Creative for more information on such services. Let us know how you are doing with your podcast and if you have additional steps we haven’t mentioned, as we’d love to hear from you!

Podcast Show Formats

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Podcast Show Formats

Podcast Show Formats

There are many ways you can present a radio show, and it’s the same with podcasting! This episode, we talked about the different styles and formats that you can use in making a podcast.

Monologue Podcast

Cliff Ravenscraft
One of the hardest formats to carry off is the monologue podcast, where you basically just talk to the microphone and record yourself! It’s a hard format to use because you will have to rely on yourself to do all the talking, and it could be daunting especially for a beginner.

A podcaster who does this format very well is Cliff Ravenscraft, and the reason why he’s successful with it is because he has a great personality and he is very passionate about what he does.

Two (or more) Hosts

If you have someone else you gel with very well, you can do a duo or even a panel podcast! It’s good because you have someone else to bounce off, so you’ll never run out of something to say.

Michael Hyatt – This Is Your Life
Michael Hyatt, a popular speaker from the United States, started off as a monologue podcaster. But when he started season 2 of This Is Your Life, his podcast got even better.

Jason & Jeremy – Internet Business Mastery
(You have to pay attention to the quality of your audio when doing a two-host podcast, because you may have to record in different environments.) Another good example of this type of podcast – while maintaining audio quality, despite recording in different locations – is Internet Business Mastery. It’s run by  Jason Van Orden who currently records in Paris, France, and Jeremy Frandsen from Utah in the US. They haven’t recorded an episode in the same room, but you wouldn’t be able to tell!

Interview Style Podcast

This style of podcast, where you interview different guests every episode, may be one of the easier podcast formats for beginners. You have a host, a set of questions and a guest who will be providing your content. John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire has a daily podcast, where he interviews entrepreneurs, and his podcast is a great example of this style.

Informational Podcast

This is a podcast where we give out information and tell you about a certain topic – just like answering a question. A good example is the Audio Production Podcast. An informational podcast can be one of two styles: the Current Events and News, and the Evergreen Content.

Current News and Events

This style – like the TWiT podcast of Leo Laporte, which reviews the latest technology gadgets – is great because of its relevance, as it is current and new!

Evergreen Content

The evergreen content, like this podcast (Podcast About Podcasting), is about providing content that you can listen to even in 2017! Its content is basically timeless and usually remains relevant for years.

Repurposed Content

If you’re a blogger, a YouTuber, or you think what you do will also make good audio content, you can adopt the repurposed content style. Basically, an example would be using the audio of your video by repurposing your content and turning it into a podcast.

Magazine Style

This style brings in many different ideas (such as local happenings) to a podcast, while having high production values just like radio. It’s a format of podcasting that I’m actually looking into for 2015!

A Very Simple Podcast Publishing Plugin

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Simple Podcast Press was created by Hani Mourra; he is very friendly and I am really grateful that he gave me the opportunity to try it out, and he even shared a really interesting PDF: 10 Podcasting Productivity Hacks. I have yet to extensively test it, but I’ve had a very nice chat with the developer and have had a lot of good words about the Simple Podcast Press from some of our podcasting friends, like John Lee Dumas on entrepreneuronfire.com, as well as Dave Jackson from theschoolofpodcasting.com, who also uses it. That just goes to show that it has features which may be especially good to podcasters.

Podcasting and List-Building

Izabela and I reckoned that list-building is essential, even if you’re just starting out. Capturing the email addresses of people who are interested in what you do is very important, which gives you control over what you would like to do with it in the future.

Simple Podcast Press Plugin has a built-in list-building feature. So essentially, you get the play bar with buttons underneath that link out to download, iTunes, Stitcher buttons and other audio websites where your podcast may be hosted. You can also put a mailing list sign-up!

iTunes Reviews

An interesting feature of the Simple Podcast Press plugin, which I really like, is that you can get your iTunes reviews conveniently inside the WordPress dashboard, so you can know exactly what your listeners are saying about your podcast.

Podcast Shareability

Izabela and I always like to share things, so the plugin fits right in. It has sidebar widgets to get more listeners and one-click Twitter balls for easy sharing.

Podcast Host Integration

Simple Podcast Press integrates with the big podcast hosts like Blubrry, Libsyn, Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher and even Spreaker! The plugin is also mobile-friendly, which Izabela just recently talked about in her podcast as being very important. We currently use Blubrry PowerPress to syndicate all our episodes and display them on the show notes pages. Hani actually told me about this fantastic feature they have, called ‘Replace Powerpress‘, with Simple Podcast Press, so I’m going to try that out.

Best-Looking Podcast Player

It is very clean and easy to use. I also like the fact that instead of having the download and iTunes link, there are little text links under your player, and you actually have big call to action buttons.

Customisable Buttons

Another great feature is being able to customise the buttons and change the colours to suit your own branding.

Exciting News About New Media!

If you’re interested in podcasting, blogging, looking to have an online presence or in new media in general, we are having the biggest conference next year (2015), New Media Europe, during September 12-13 in Manchester.

This is the place for you to be! All you have to do is go to newmediaeurope.com and check out all the details. This is a conference that will sell out fast, so book your tickets and avail of the early bird rate!

How to Launch a Membership Site

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How to Launch a Membership Site

WordPress is the first thing you need to install before launching a membership site.

The next thing you’ll need is a rock-solid plugin to secure your content and keep your membership site safe for members only.

I’ve tried many plugins such as aMember Pro, WishList Member, Magic Members and Digital Access Pass. I found that with many of the aforementioned plugins, they wanted to completely take over your WordPress install and do things inside their interface. That’s why – after extensive testing – I settled for one membership site plugin.

s2 Member

s2 Member may not be the easiest of plugins, but I found that it works with WordPress rather than against it; plus, the basic version is completely free. I opted for the paid version as I wanted to use PayPal Pro forms and advanced features.

Setting up is pretty easy and they have videos to guide you through each process. Then comes the extensive testing and integration with your mailing list, so that you can keep paid members up to date with new content on your site.

What To Include in a Membership Site

How do you offer value with a membership site? Here are some ideas I have found to be invaluable:

Community

If you want members to stay for more than a couple of months, then give them a place where they can chat and get to know each other. This is by far one of the biggest benefits of joining a closed community. Facebook Groups is, in my experience, the best place for this. Make sure your group is set as a closed or secret group.

Webinars

Monthly training is another great benefit of a membership site. Offer them the chance to watch you doing what you do best, and open up a question and answer section at the end.

A Real Product

Having a real product in the mix can also make membership sites appealing to join. At Audio Production Masters, members get weekly unique royalty-free audio downloads to use in their productions.

See my site at Audio Production Masters.

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: community, membership, membership website, webinars, website By

Live Webinars with Minimal Equipment

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Live Webinars

Hardware Required for a Webinar

  • iMac or MacBook Pro
  • Focusrite Saffire PRO 14  (or equivalent)
  • Microphone
  • Webcam (Logitech C920 HD Webcam recommended)

Software Required for a Webinar

  • Soundflower
  • LadioCast
  • Cam Twist
  • Webcam Settings
  • Saffire MixControl
  • Reflector (optional)
  • ScreenFlow (optional)
  • Adobe Audition (optional)

Other Things You’ll Need for a Webinar

  • Google+ account
  • YouTube channel
  • WordPress site (optional)
  • IX Show Latest YouTube
  • Email List (optional)
  • Media Temple (dv) web hosting

Selecting a Webinar Platform

Google Hangouts On Air is, without a doubt, the very best platform for your live webinar. It’s easy to use, intuitive, has plenty of add-ons and best of all is completely free whether you’re hosting a webinar for 10 or 10,000 people!

Creating a Webinar on Google+

Hangout On Air

The first thing you’ll want to do is create your Hangouts On Air the right way inside Google+. Set a date and time and then Start a Hangout On Air by clicking the button available in the Hangouts section of Google+. You can then go live with your webinar now or later (in the future). I recommend the latter option, as you will then have the time to pre-promote your webinar to ensure the maximum amount of people know about it and will attend. Give it a name, description, set the date and time, select your audience (Public will give maximum exposure) then click Share. Your live webinar details will immediately be shared with your Google+ followers.

Adding Your Webinar to a WordPress Site

Please stand by…

Next, it’s time to ensure there’s a page on your WordPress site. That way you may push traffic to your own website instead of the Hangouts event page on Google+. I’d recommend a page such as your domain/live. You can embed your webinar using a plugin that will automatically update with your latest webinar – IX Show Latest YouTube. This works fantastically well and when you’re not broadcasting your webinar live, it will simply show a beautiful countdown to your next event.

Setting Up Video for your Webinar

I like to use Cam Twist to ensure the visuals for my webinar will be beautiful. There are many advanced features to Cam Twist, but for me, I just need three elements:

  1. I click Select on Webcam as my first video source and make sure my HD Pro Webcam C920 is the camera selected.
  2. I use the PIP (picture in picture) button to add PIP Desktop which is handy for sharing my desktop.
  3. I also add PIP Movie using the PIP button. This allows me to play pre-recorded movie clips in the webinar if I wish.

Setting Up Audio for your Webinar

Audio is a tricky thing to route around, but it may all be done using a single audio interface and your iMac. Here’s a guide as to how I set up everything myself.

Soundflower Bed

The first thing I would do is install Soundflower Bed, which is completely free. This allows you to re-route audio inside your iMac.

Cam Twist

You’ll only need to configure audio for Cam Twist if you intend to play pre-recorded movie clips using PIP Movie. This is easy to do; just head to Preferences > General and select Soundflower (64ch) as your audio output device.

LadioCast

Now it’s over to LadioCast and I configure it exactly as the screenshot shows.

LadioCast for Webinars

Input 1 is Saffire (my audio interface) for my microphone, so that I can speak live on the webinar. Input 2 is Soundflower (2ch), which I can assign in Adobe Audition and this will allow me to play the output of Adobe Audition to those watching my live webinar.

Main Output is Soundflower (64ch), a virtual audio device created by Soundflower, and Aux Output 1 is the Saffire which will allow me to also hear Adobe Audition output in addition to my audience.

Saffire MixControl

This software comes with my audio interface, and ensures that I can hear everything while the webinar is going on. I set it up as the screenshot shows.

Saffire MixControl

The most important setting is to have the Monitor Preset set to Quad, so that you can hear output on speakers and headphones during your live webinar.

Adobe Audition

During my live webinars from Audio Production Masters, I like to play the output of Adobe Audition. I can do this by configuring the input and outputs to be Soundflower (2ch), which will then be routed through to the webinar using the settings that I have explained earlier in LadioCast.

Adobe Audition Audio Settings

Google Hangouts Audio Settings

Your input should be Soundflower (64 ch); output can be your audio interface.

Webinar Optional Extras

Here are some nice-to-have apps and services that can help to make your live webinars even better!

Reflector App

This is so amazingly simple to use. Install Reflector App and then AirPlay your iOS device (iPad or iPhone) to your iMac.

ScreenFlow

Use ScreenFlow to pre-record sections for your webinar. It’s simple to use and can record your screen, audio output and even allow you to place callouts and text on the recordings. You can use it in conjunction with Reflector App to record your iOS device in action.

Email List

An email list will help tremendously with building an audience for your live webinar. It’s great doing a live event online, but if nobody turns up then what’s the point? Start collecting email opt-ins now and make sure to email at least twice before you start a webinar – I recommend using GetResponse.

Dedicated Hosting

Media Temple (dv) dedicated server plan is $50 per month and well-worth it if you will be hosting at least one high traffic webinar on your own website per month.

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: focusrite, google hangouts, live webinar, on air, webinar By

Why We’re Axing 2 Podcasts Immediately

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Why We’re Axing 2 Podcasts Immediately

We’ve been looking at stats from 8th September to 8th October, and have decided to axe our underperforming podcasts.

Podcasting, just like the radio business, is about keeping in place what attracts the listeners (and potential future revenue), and getting rid of anything that doesn’t hit the expected figures.

In the case of the mrc.fm podcast network, we are paying to produce every single episode we release to the highest standard. We need to ensure that the money is well-invested.

Our Podcasting Process

We have a five-step process for our podcasts:

  1. Izabela and I brainstorm ideas and episode topics together.
  2. We record all the shows in one go, which takes just over an hour.
  3. Kyran, our amazing podcast editor, adds the compression and sounds.
  4. Aimee, our virtual assistant, will add all the episodes to WordPress and Spreaker.
  5. Isabelle – not Izabela – will proofread the show notes and make sure they’re error-free.

This, in total, costs us $80 per week, so at $16 per podcast, that’s $320 a month and $4,160 per year.

30 Days – How Did Our Podcast Network Perform?

Overall Podcast Statistics

5,094 iTunes Downloads

3,269 plays on an iPhone

1,419 plays on Windows Media Player

1,409 plays on an iPad

968 plays on the Spreaker platform

6,112 plays from other sources (mainly our websites)

Total unique plays: 18,271

iTunes and iOS accounts for 53% of our plays, but we also see a noticeable 5% of our audience listening via the Spreaker platform.

Since starting on 1 September, we’ve seen these download and review statistics:

Audio Production Podcast

Audio Production Podcast

5,706 total unique downloads (1 September to 8 October)

10 iTunes reviews

Featured in iTunes New & Noteworthy – front page.

The episode is released on Thursday and downloads definitely have the most long tail, meaning that as well as an initial spike in downloads, we also get organic discovery. Front page exposure on the iTunes podcasts store has undoubtedly given this podcast the boost you see too. Along with a feature, it has also been at the top of the Technology and Software How-to categories for much of the past few weeks.

Best episode: 10 Qualities the Best Voice-Over Actors Have

Podcast About Podcasting

Podcast About Podcasting

3,042 total unique downloads (1 September to 8 October)

7 iTunes reviews

Featured in iTunes New & Noteworthy – Management & Marketing category.

This tends to be very sudden; everyone downloads the moment it is out, listens and waits for the next episode. It’s released on a Monday.

Best episode: Best Audio Editing Software for Podcasts

Branding Cow

Branding Cow

2,905 total unique downloads (1 September to 8 October)

15 iTunes reviews

Featured in iTunes New & Noteworthy – Arts and Management & Marketing categories.

Branding Cow is seeing growth week on week – which is great news – the download spikes are increasing with each new episode. This show is released on Wednesdays.

Best episode: Michael Hyatt: Building Your Brand

Internet Marketing Online Show

Internet Marketing Online Show

2,698 total unique downloads (1 September to 8 October)

2 iTunes reviews

No visible featuring in the iTunes store.

This show, released on Tuesdays, has been seeing a slight decline since launch. It has the occasional spike in listening, as can be seen from the statistics.

Best episode: 5 Reasons You Should Have a Website

Isle of Wight Lifestyle

Isle Of Wight Lifestyle Charting

 

Isle Of Wight Lifestyle

2,338 total unique downloads (1 September to 8 October)

4 iTunes reviews

It was the first podcast to rank in the Places & Travel category download chart, at 195, but then dropped away and was not seen again.

This show is the least popular of our 5 podcasts. An interesting point to note is that as it is released on a Friday, there is a visible spike on both Fridays and Saturdays for downloads.

Best episode: Why Start a Business from Home

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: itunes, mrc podcast network, podcast, podcast statistics, podcasting process By

WordPress Podcasting Plugins

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WordPress Podcasting Plugins

In this episode, let’s look at premium and free podcasting plugins for WordPress. These are plugins that will complement your podcast website by providing extra value to the visitor.

PodcastLoving.com by Dave Toomey

It adds more podcast-focused social media links to your sidebar via widgets. Plenty of well-known (and not so well-known podcasters) use it.

As Heard On by Dustin Hartzler

It highlights other podcasts that you’ve appeared on, and displays podcast artwork in a widget or on a full page. Take a look at the plugin in action here.

Featured Podcast Widget for WordPress by Richard Farrar

Richard has a little plugin that he wrote himself. Featured Podcast widget enables you to display your latest podcast with a player from a given post category (or a specific episode), in any widgetized area of your WordPress site.

Subscribe & Follow by Daniel J. Lewis

This adds really cool and customisable retina-ready buttons to your WordPress sidebar. You can also use it to insert a beautiful and stylised call to action button anywhere in your show notes. iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio and many of the other smaller podcast directories are supported, along with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ too.