Podcasters' Emporium   /     Podcasters’ Emporium #029 – 11 Podcasting Features You Can’t Live Without

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

3. 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.
4. 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!

5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. 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
9. 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”
10. 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
11. 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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