Month: January 2022

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podcast

566- True history stories in Podcasting — content with flashbacks

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss one type of content for podcasters (especially senior or older podcasters) — that is, the stories of historical value and truth that we remember and are faced with daily from our own past, and which may cause flashbacks (and sometimes bring on an episode of PTSD).

 

I am referring to a photo that was taken over 50 years ago, while I was a combat infantrymen in the jungles of Vietnam during the war. This was a photo of which I clearly remembered the situation once I had seen it in a summer, 2021, issue of Vietnam Veterans of America magazine.

That’s right…the photo is of yours truly on a patrol in the mountains and jungles of Vietnam over 50 years ago. The articles surrounding this photo tells the story of 3 combat troops who were killed in action during that time. The photo below is the reminder for the story.

US troops of the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division ford a river about 11 miles west of Chu Lai in South Vietnam (then the Republic of Vietnam, or RVN), 15th August 1971. The GIs, members of Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, are among the last U. S. combat troops still operating in the field. US B-52 aircraft bombed suspected communist troop concentrations near the demilitarized zone, on August 15th, following more shelling and ground assaults earlier on August 15th. More than 750 rounds of mortar and artillery fire have been directed at South Vietnamese outposts along the demilitarized zone August 14-15th.

The reason that this story is important for this podcast show is that memories like this can cause us to try to create and send a message out to willing audiences in the form of podcast shows and episodes.

Such was my case when, in 2008, I created a podcast show called the Combat Infantrymen’s podcast. It was going strong in 2017, when I had to podfade the show, due to health complications that I was suffering, as well as operations and hospitalization (mainly from complications due to Agent Orange exposure). In looking back (without going to my saved archives), I think I must have had between over 50 to 100 episodes in that show.

The creation of the podcast show and its episodes allowed me to send my message out to fellow combat infantrymen — not only during the Vietnam War, but also from WWII and Korea, etc. It also allowed me to purge some of the PTSD demons that haunted me, and it did give me (at times) some form of closure during the years of creating, producing, posting and publishing my podcast show. Also, I had grown closer to many brothers of mine who served in the War (many of whom were in the same Division and unit in which I was in), especially when I promoted the association that I was publishing this podcast show for. This was for the Combat Infantrymen’s Association — not only for the soldiers who fought in the war, but for their families and the relatives of those who did not make it home. We honored them.

For the Association was the main conduit of my stories, my interviews, my history and my content for all the episodes that I had published.

So, sometimes your own past history and stories can create good content for a welcomed audience that would appreciate your show and be appreciative of the content and the closure that you can provide, depending upon the stories.

So, from the stories that I had told about World War II paratroopers who earned the CIB (combat infantryman’s badge) when it was first issued in 1943 — and especially one paratrooper (D. G. Harris, RIP) who crossed the Waal River at the Nijmegen bridge in Holland during Operation Market Garden, as well as make 2 more combat jumps in Salerno and Sicily — to the tales of combat veterans during the Vietnam War, this podcast show delivered a unique VALUE to those veterans who consumed podcasts. However, today, there are several Vietnam Veteran podcast shows, including the Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne. Now, although Mack delivers a consistent stream of episodes, I tried to reach out to him to provide him with great stories from a combat infantrymen of myself in the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal)… — all I wanted to do was to thank him for his show and respect to Vietnam Veterans and offer him some free content of interviews that I had done….

So, from this podcaster, I wish to tell you podcasters that some of the stories and history that you may have in your life may be great content to provide value to some of the audiences that you may not even realize may be hungry for your stories and interviews.

We hope that you, also, can find a way to get your own personal stories (when it makes sense to do so and when you are mentally and psychologically ready to share them) out to your new audiences. In this way, we hope you make your podcasting careers more successful.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Mack Payne. Photo image licensed from getty images. All rights reserved.

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podcast

565- Podcast transcription services — view from experience

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the theme of podcast transcription services for your show. This theme was brought up again earlier by Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting.com. Thus, in this episode, we not only review Ben’s points as he reveals them, but we also add my own experiences with transcription services since 2007.

Ben Krueger

Initially, we look at Ben’s idea in his post titled “Podcast transcription service — why do you need one?”

As Ben discussed, “you should consider transcribing your podcast episodes into long-form blog content. Many fail to recognize the value of presenting content in a variety of different forms . . .”

And from a marketing strategy perspective, Ben elaborates on the following questions about podcast transcription services:

  • 1. Why should you use a podcast transcription service?  [and a key answer to this, as explained in the detail, is: “The most obvious reason why you might want to use a podcast transcription service is to deliver content that appeals to those who prefer reading over listening.”
  • 2. How much does it cost to transcribe a podcast?
  • 3. Where can I get a transcript of a podcast?
  • 4. What can a podcast transcript be used for?
  • 5. How do I transcribe a podcast myself?

Also, as Ben states in his post, the benefit of transcribed content can add to the reach of your audience:  “Podcast transcription services are a great way to reach an even wider audience, as they can deliver the audio content in text form.”

And Ben continues with detail for each of the sections he presents in his post about transcription services.

Now, for this podcaster, I have used transcription services for my shows since late 2006 and all through 2007 to 2011, up to the time when I had over 15 podcast shows in production all at the same time. And I used them initially for my flagship podcast at that time, The Struggling Entrepreneur — and then I also used them for minor shows when it made sense to promote my shows in products, offerings, offers and get some SEO benefits from them. I also printed some and offered them in writing within media kits that I had produced and delivered strategically at Podcast conferences and business shows.

The company I had used was Noble Transcription Service, which was in the California area and which I had encountered in a booth at one of the first Podcast conferences (i.e., Podcast and Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California).

This firm delivered on one of their biggest strengths:  “100% Human Transcription for Accuracy, Clarity, and to Understand Nuance.”

Now, I had tried automated transcription blogs, sites, offerings and other products — and none of them delivered prompt and accurate transcriptions of my posts or interviews. However, Noble Transcription Services excelled in speedy delivery and perfect transcripts delivered electronically in pdf format, as well as word processing formats (for my later editing). And they made sure that the human corrections and perfection were included. This was much better both from a QUALITY point of view, as well as a PRICE-PERFORMANCE viewpoint. In short, my opinion was that they delivered the best deal than any automated or other competitive offering or product around at the time.

And, as you can read from Ben’s post, the BENEFITS of having transcriptions of your episodes in your shows can deliver favorable results for your business and your podcasts across your marketing channels:

  • “Transcripts can be turned into long-form blog content.
  • Extracts of transcripts can be used as copy for social media posts.
  • Transcripts can form the basis of email newsletters.
  • Transcripts can be used in e-books other long-form mediums.”

However, as a podcaster, you need to do an analysis of the COST and PRICE of transcripts — for they do not come freely. There is a cost in time, effort, quality control, review,  nurturing, updating, checking feedback and management — and this is in addition to the financial cost in dollars that you have to include in your plans and budgets, as well.

And with some of the competitors in podcast production nowadays, you can see that transcription services of some kind (many of them near poor quality with a lot of mistakes from automated or AI-type support to produce them) may be included with your podcast production support provider. But my opinion is caveat emptor. In other words, you may lose valuable time, effort and money in choosing a service that may not suit your needs or deliver poor quality results from your expectations.

And, as usual, Ben suggests what the cost may be to you as a podcaster and he delivers a call-to-action to his firm for getting a proven transcription service for your podcast. And this is part of his offer to you as a podcaster.

Thus, regardless of your decision to use and publish transcriptions of your episodes and shows, we hope that you will find a good transcription service that will deliver the speed, quality and price-performance that will support your business and podcast, and which will help to make you successful.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.

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podcast

BONUS – 02- Real Academy of Life — about episodes and format

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This episode contains the content of a “PASSION PODCAST PROJECT” that I have had for a while — in fact, I did talk about this in one of my prior episodes that dealt with “passion podcast projects.”

So now, the Real Academy of Life information center presents some history episodes about Sgt. Fred, who is the

In this episode of The Real Academy of Life Podcast show (which is being delivered to you care of The Podcast Reporter) I deliver the lessons learned about my own life in my own situations — and how I did create a learning set of resources that would put me on the road to my success in life (that is, spiritually, mentally, physically and not just monetarily).

Why did we include this podcast program with episodes within the Podcast Reporter Show?

We did this so that you can follow the ideas of my historical development in what I consider my own training grounds — an academy of learning, which I then call “THE REAL ACADEMY OF LIFE.” And until I get the web site completed for realacademyoflife.com, I will continue to use the Podcast Reporter podcast show as a way to host my audio files to my flagship audience, with the hope that new and aspiring podcasters can learn from my experience in how to create the content for autobiographical episodes.

Here we have the links and the podcast episodes within this content management system of WordPress for the first 2 episodes from this particular show. It is a short way and a good way for you to get the content without having to go to a separate WordPress page and try to either follow or subscribe or download. And these episodes are brought to you in a non-scheduled, unrehearsed and streamlined method very much like a stream-of-consciousness format.

And you can access the audio content in episodes from this site, for your listening pleasure and learning. But, please note that that these are presented to you so that you can get the content NOW as opposed to waiting for the final creation of the web site which will be at realacademyoflife.com (for I do have the domain name, but the site is not yet active). So when the final website is available, I will be publishing and releasing episodes both here and at the future site for the podcast episode. So you will have either location to choose from in obtaining the free content.

And we chose the album art for this show, as I was once a struggling entrepreneur, chasing income while expanding my base of podcasts since 2006 to over 19 podcast shows (where all but 4 have been podfaded as of the date of this writing). So I have always considered myself a “struggling entrepreneur” — which used to be the name of my past flagship podcast called The Struggling Entrepreneur (from 2006 to 2018).

The episodes of The Real Academy of Life can be accessed here using the following links:

Episode 1:  Inaugural podcast episode — what is this show about?

Episode 2:  Planned episode content and format of the show

Thus, we hope that you will find these episodes informative (as to my own personal experiences in the real academy of life), as well as entertaining and educational for new and aspiring podcasters.

We will continue to look forward to providing you with more information about my journey as I became educated by the hard-knocks in THE REAL ACADEMY OF LIFE.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and realacademyoflife.com and michaelandmike.com.

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podcast

564- Why some podcasters do not want reviews

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the theme of podcast episode and show reviews — but not their value or how to get more of them, but instead why some podcasters do NOT want to get any reviews or even feedback from people in the podosphere.

Since the dawn of the podosphere in 2004 and 2005, there have been numerous episodes from podcasters that dealt with the tutorials, the themes of how to get more podcast reviews from around the world and how to use them to your benefit as a positive sign of social proof.

In fact, there have even been some applications that were created to deliver the message to the podcast content creator that a review had been posted — even in countries outside the USA. As an example, the famous podcaster, Daniel J Lewis, even created an application and program called My Podcast Reviews, where a podcaster can purchase a license to get the information of reviews of an episode from anywhere in the world on the internet. There are good means of delivery and good analysis of the results of the podcast review.

And so, for the past 15 or 16 years, the podosphere has had the idea that podcast reviews are good — not so much for monetization-based statistics, but more for social proof. And so it was that lots of podcasters tried to request reviews in their outros and their key messages on their apps and their web sites, as this was one way to try and increase their numbers of subscribers and also indicate the popularity of their podcast shows and the warm reception (or negative result) of their messages with their audience. And so has it continued for the majority of podcasters.

However, other podcasters want NOTHING to do with podcast reviews — and sometimes, even nothing to do with feedback from listeners of their shows. And this has been growing amidst the censorship movement, as well as the woke attitude and perspective of today’s social media and lame-stream media tendencies.

For instance, one podcaster commented on this:  “Why should I clutter up my web site or review sections with woke-based or extremist-based content where they want to shout you down because you may not agree with their views or their ideology? There is no favorable situation where feedback or reviews could be a positive for both the reviewer or the podcaster — it is just an opportunity for a platform to carry their own message of negativity and censored content by being the means of shouting down all other communications outside of their own dominion.”

Thus, some successful podcasters have removed any type of feedback loops and reviews from potential audience listeners. They don’t want to deal with this negativity — that is, they don’t want negative reviews from a radical ideology to be seen all over the world and deliver a wrong message to the audience. And so, what have they done? Well, they have eliminated any and all reviews — and in some cases, they have eliminated all feedback mechanisms. Instead, they rely on download numbers and acceptance from other feedback by podcasters in audio format for any type of responses to their shows and episodes.

In fact, some of these podcasters have limited the audiences to whom their shows will be posted and published. As long as the media host is not woke, then the podcast episode will be available to all those who care, but the feedback and reviews will NOT be posted for the world to see or to consume.

This strategy seems to work for a few successful podcast shows that are available on certain streams that are limited to the ears of certain individuals who follow more of a “free speech” mentality — and the results are, indeed, great as far as acceptability and downloads of each episode to their intended and like-minded audience.

And the result?

Well, for a few podcast shows, the results indicate that their downloads are growing and that their message is being accepted by more people  who are choosing to be willing listeners to get the content of their show just from their web site (or other locations delivered to the listeners). In fact, the podcasters don’t have to sift through all the noise of the woke-based potential audience just to see if there is anything that is “socially redeeming” in the feedback or reviews. And this seems to be working in a very positive way for the podcaster.

So now, for this podcaster, we hope that you can find such a place for your content, should you wish to eliminate all the negativity and narrow-mindedness of the podosphere shouters who only want to criticize and marginalize, but do not wish to contribute any suggested improvements or solutions. And if you do find a spot where your podcast content can reside and grow without reviews, we wish you the best in seeing the results of your content be positive in the areas of growth, downloads and success for your podcast shows.

For this podcaster, I had one occasion very early in my podcasting career in 2007, when I had a couple of podcast shows. For my flagship podcast at that time, I had been soliciting reviews and feedback (as all “good” podcasters did in their intros and outros and other content), and I had been receiving many good reviews (most of “excellent” or “very good” ratings in the old iTunes reviews, for instance). However, I did receive one review from an individual called Ann at SoCal. This scathing review was negative, with typical negative criticism with no redeeming value — in fact, the only thing that this individual stated that was aside from the always-critical role was that my episodes had good audio quality (which she found very difficult to believe). So after that, I quit asking for reviews in all of my 18 podcast episodes that I had in my podcasting career since 2007. And even today, there is no call-to-action for reviews or for feedback, as I know that the new generation of “know-it-all” reviewers will only talk you down negatively and shout you down when they promote their own idiot ideologies with no rhyme or reason or ability to conduct a conversation where both sides may be deliberated.

And you know what? I do not miss the podcast review process at all, because I have seen this resource grow into a place where the reviewer is just spouting off ideology or negative opinions — and remember what was said about opinions from old philosophers?…”opinions are like ******* — everybody’s got one.”

So we hope that your podcast show can grow successfully to meet and exceed your objectives — either with or without the call-to-action to receive reviews or feedback. It is YOUR show, and you should not have to put up with destructive content from the idiots who want to criticize and marginalize, since this is all they do all day because they have nothing positive in their existence today.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.

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podcast

562- Caveat Emptor — the case study in Podcasting platforms

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the theme of the podcaster and entrepreneur owning his own .com. We refer to a prior episode of a podcast show that gives us a case study in the podosphere about a third party platform, blab.im.

For your reference and background, we are including the earlier audio repurposed episode that gave the details about the brief love affair of the entrepreneur and podcast community with blab.im and its subsequent total unavailability, leaving them high and dry.

As you will hear in the previously recorded repurposed episode, the key lesson learned is to keep all the content that is produced for the podcast and the business, as well as not become locked into a specific platform — your content should be published on ALL the platforms, if we follow the saying by Paul Colligan called ISYOT (“I see you out there”).

Thus, the entrepreneur should be platform-agnostic and own his own .com. In this way, a quick change to another platform is possible, should the current platform-de jour become unavailable (and the fact that your customers or audience may be left high and dry, as well).

We hope that you can then put together strategies for supporting multiple platforms and having a quick exit plan to move from one to the other, depending upon the fickle tastes of platform owners. Remember those words:  caveat emptor for the podcaster.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.

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podcast

601- BONUS episode — Podcasting motivational strategies for 2022

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we we reflect on a post from Todd Henry in his email-delivery podcast called The Daily Creative, in which he asks us to celebrate a clear mindset while seeing what type of plan for the year we can initiate. And it just does NOT have to be at year-end or at the New Year’s celebration. In fact, it can be at any time during the first half of the year (whichever would be in your good time-line for planning and reflection).

This theme has to deal with the fact that we can CELEBRATE all that the past year had delivered our way in the form of positive events, situations and thoughts for ourselves, our businesses and our podcasts, posts and dialog amidst the negativity and fear-mongering brought about to us by the lame-stream media.

And Todd gives us not only the ideas to deal with so that we can have a grateful manner of moving forward — either at the beginning of the new year, or during the 1st quarter of the year, or even in the first half of the new year. And we do have the ability and the ammunition with which to CELEBRATE for ourselves with some real significance:

In his final words of this email post from Todd,

“You should celebrate. Marking moments is an important aspect of mental health. We need to mark the passage of time, to celebrate wins, and to look back at the mountain we’ve just climbed.

What in your life needs to be celebrated today?

What good things in your life are you grateful for?

What adversity did you overcome this year?

How have you proven to yourself that you are able to persist?

What risk did you take that you look back on with deep satisfaction?

In what ways did you grow this year, whether in perception, skill, or emotion?

What new relationships have entered your life that you should celebrate?

What old relationships remain that should be marked?

What have you moved on from this year that you need to celebrate and leave behind?

Take some time today to end the year well by marking the moment, celebrating your wins, remembering why you’re grateful, marking the moment, and preparing to move ahead.

Good endings lead to good beginnings.” 

So, thus, being grateful for what we have experienced and being reflective of what we had accomplished or planned — and what could have resulted as BENEFIT for ourselves (either financially or mentally or in momentum, etc. — Todd gives us a framework for us to reflect on a positive note the past, so that the future can also help us to “move the momentum-indicator” to the side that can best be helpful to us personally, as well as for our business, and especially for our participation in the New Media and podosphere.

So, we would like to thank Todd Henry for his reminder to us that all good things can be used to benefit our mental attitude and give us the energy, momentum and euphoric feeling to move forward in the following year.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Todd Henry and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.