We’re starting 2011 afresh and what’s a new year without some new year resolutions. It’s our Podcasters’ Emporium hit list of pet peeves of podcasting, resulting in a list of things that you can do to make your podcast better.
We spend a lot of time with our community and this is a list of things, in general that you might find yourself doing, that you can change to improve the experience for your listeners and make your show more accessible.
If you haven’t yet subscribed to our show, then you can do that by clicking one of the subscription buttons on the right hand side of this website.
Please tweet that you’re listening to the show, by clicking the Tweetmeme link at the start of this article.
Here’s what we discussed in today’s show:
- PODCAST PLAYER IN YOUR WEBSITE/BLOG
You need to engage people in the first 15 seconds of visiting your site. You’re not going to do it if they need to wait 1 minute or more to download an episode. A player will start streaming your episode almost immediately.
no excuse for not letting your people listen to an episode on your site
third party players available everywhere!
www.podtrac.com
www.bigcontact.com
pupuplayer – http://www.pupuplatters.com/pupuplayer/
Podcast Pickle Player – Anjuna – podcastpickle.com
There are also a few WordPress Plugins as well:
plugins
Wordpress
powerpress (wordpress installations)
podpress (wordpress installations)
just add a new plugin and search for ‘audio player’
Some Stand Alone Players:
SSG WordPress Google Audio Player
MediaElement.js – HTML5 Video & Audio Player (works on iPad/Phone -)
Oldie but a goodie: Audio Player
Movable press
Podcasting plugin
Blogger
probably going to be using a third party podcast host
try to get one with embed code
might also try a free account at www.archive.org, and then embed their player
Typepad is pretty easy – when you upload it automatically detects mp3 format and creates a player for you. - MAKE YOUR PODCAST VISIBLE ON YOUR BLOG OR SITE
This is sales 101, make your product visible, accessible and easy to find. We’ve seen some shockers, links to home pages and then you have to go drilling down through the website to find the episode. Forget it, you’ve lost me.
Your podcast must be front and centre on your website home page DO NOT BURY IT UNDER A MENU
Make sure your subscribe buttons and player right on the home page
Make sure any links, especially those you put on social media go directly to your episode
Use colour and branding to make it stand out on the page.
- HAVE A CONSISTENT BRAND AND STICK TO IT
Just like your audio quality is what counts when people listen, your podcast visual identity (or brand) is your podcasts’ calling card in the visible world.
Your brand should represent what you do
Get the best advice/help you can afford when it comes to your brand
If your brand is intrinsically linked to you, consider putting your face on the cover
keep the text big, and avoid too much fancyness
Don’t use actual links in the show notes – make them hyper – it looks so much better
Design for 600x600px then reduce to 100×100, can you still see the name? Adjust if you need to. I produce 600px, 300px, 155px and 100px images for different purposes.
Put the album art in your podcast
modifying the ID3 tag
For mac and PC, you can do it in iTunes/Get Info on the item, then drag the file out again before you upload it
You can use software from www.mp3tag.de/en
Get a show twitter account using all or part of your show name (then use a twitter app that can handle multiple accounts!)
Add your contact information to your album info, via ID3 tags. Check the player now for PE and you’ll see what we mean. – why? people aren’t always at their computer, but they can tweet from their iphone, or lookup your website from their ipod touch.
What’s your meme – or strapline – do you know any of these?
“Helping you podcast better”
“Australia’s fastest growing podcast network”
“Bloody awesome tech”
“Netcasts you love from people you trust”
“Nothing is Sacred, Except the Beer!”
Helps people remember who you are, and links the idea to your name. - A PROPERLY CONSTRUCTED AND BURNED RSS FEED
A podcast without an RSS feed is just audio people. Corporates I find are particularly bad at this. People need to be able to subscribe to your podcast, for it to be a podcast. A podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication. The word usurped webcast in common vernacular, due to rising popularity of the iPod and the innovation of web feeds.
source: Wikipedia
Check your feed: http://validator.w3.org/feed/
Don’t jam every episode you’ve ever made into a feed – keep it lite
Recommend the latest 10-20 shows, plus your audio promos
Use a plugin if you’re using wordpress, it will do the hard lifting for you.
Use an RSS Generation software like FeedEdutor from http://www.extralabs.net/
Use a service like feedity – http://feedity.com/ – expensive or www.feedxs.com (free)
downside is they have their own url
BURN YOUR FEED WITH FEEDBURNER – THERE IS NEVER AN EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE – EVER (DID I SAY EVER?)
www.feedburner.com
if you need to move, your peeps stay with you
it’s free, there’s no excuse
I have a post at james-williams.com where people comment all the time about how they’ve got this problem, and that problem, because they didn’t use feedburner.
if you only do one thing this episode, BURN A FEEDBURNER FEED!
- BE ABLE TO LEAVE COMMENTS WITHOUT LOGGING IN
Wordpress has options to approve the first comment and from there on, it will auto-approve posts by known people
Use AKISMET to blog spam comments
Defensio is another one - TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
This is not your image – it’s the way you present in public (on the Internet)
You are part of your show’s brand, so what you do personally (eg. on your twitter account, on your facebook) all adds to people’s perception of you.
You are not in competition with other podcasters – this is a limiting belief – and will shrink your possibilities.
You have unique perspectives
You deserve to be heard
You don’t have to compete
Just be your best (with what you have), and be generous
Find opportunities to talk about people in your community
Participate on other people’s blogs, play other people’s promos
Find opportunities to participate – (note participate, not spam)
Look for ways to help and be generous with what you know
Control yourself, remember you are on display and everything you do contributes to the way people see you
Get a good reputation - CREATE DIFFERENT PROFILES FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR SHOW
keep your personal email private
allow people to write into the show
using gmail will reduce the amount of spam
pipe it through to your personal email if you need to use forwarding, but it will still chop out the SPAM crap.
Keep your show stuff separate from your personal stuff
Then you can reinforce with your personal account, but keep the information separate
That way your personal followers don’t think you’re spamming them
And you can keep the show conversation separate
It protects your brand - USE A SOCIAL NETWORK OF YOUR CHOICE
Facebook pages
Don’t use your personal profile
Pages create a great opportunity
There are options like RSS tools
A speciality forum (e.g. Mountain Bike Show)
Create your own social community using WordPress and Buddypress - HAVE A BIO WITH MORE
people continue to listen because they like you, so make sure you are personal, and personable in the way you communicate.
reveal who you are in your shows and in your bio
have a bio for each person who regularly appears on your show, make them write it
give your show a bio.. make sure that the about page contains information about your show, and information about the hosts
Speciality shows may want to include a bit more information on what they do and how to do it. EG: Podcasting set up, A beginners guide to…
Make it appealing and personable to your audience, “keep it real” - USE PICTURES
in your posts – keeps things interesting
istockphoto
your own pictures
pictures from your community
in your profile
in your magazine articles (make them available on your website)
pictures help people connect on more than one level - CREATE A MEDIA KIT
30 and 60 second promos
images of hosts
high res images to download for media use
graphics of your show authorised with a creative commons license
testimonials about the show, and/or itunes reviews
what about sensitive information? use a more link, and have people write to you first
things to leave out – listener numbers, stats, hard information
things to put in – broad demographic information, indicative information
we’ll be doing an advertising series a little later this year.
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