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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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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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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.

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556- Podcasting strategies for escape-hatches

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver a repurposed podcast episode from an earlier episode (number 120) that deals with recovery from past situations that did not succeed or recovering with what was called “an escape hatch” (and the beginning introduction of the episode delivers the quote that inspired this theme from the older podcast show from Todd Henry called “The Daily Creative” — the latter of which is still on hiatus). By the way, Todd also has a 16-year old podcast show still going called The Accidental Creative.

We feel that this repurposed episode still provides evergreen value to the podcaster who may be experiencing the beginning or in the middle of a negative situation with a podcast show. And with the pivoting or the “escape-hatch” that has been pre-planned, there could be some hope for recovery and even repurposing the deliverables and strategy to a new alternative. And, as you will hear in this repurposed audio episode, the case study of Cecil B. DeMille and his success later on with his film called The Crusades provides hope for the struggling podcaster with good content.

The lesson learned here is to plan for a good exit strategy or prepare your “escape hatch” early in your business, so that your podcast can have an alternative if and when you may encounter difficulties.

So we hope that you can achieve success in the event that you may have to rely on your “escape hatch” to steer your podcast and business in an alternative direction or find success in a re-launch of your content to a willing audience that will help your show to its success.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Todd Henry of theaccidentalcreative.com and The Daily Creative. All rights reserved.

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554- How to turn listeners into clients as a podcast host

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In this episode of the Podcast Reporter show, we discuss the topics delivered to us earlier this year by Ben Krueger, the podcaster from his program called cashflowpodcasting.com. These topics revolve around the ideas proposed by him in 5 tips of how to be “an amazing podcast host” and gain success by turning listeners into paid clients.

Ben Krueger

As Ben begins his discussion, he starts off with the question of: “Whether you’re doing solo episodes or interviews, being a great podcast host really comes down to two major things:

  • Be Human (and get the connection with your listeners); and
  • Be a Champion for your audience; or, as he states: “A great way to make sure you’re following this rule is to ask yourself one question before every episode: What do my listeners need to know, and how can I help them understand?”

and Ben explains with examples what he means by those suggestions in making your content impactful and meaningful to your listeners — especially in getting behind the scenes if your guest in an interview tends to give you “fluff” answers: “Just remember that if you are doing interviews, you have to make it your mission to uncover key insights during the conversations with your guests.” (and that means getting the guest to deliver educational and engaging content). And Ben gives examples and links to further his point.

So the five main tips for making powerful conversion content are:

  • Educate and motivate action (especially with actionable items today);
  • Provide social proof;
  • Give a clear next step;
  • Provide good calls-to-action for the listeners;
  • Follow through with good stories and examples that inspire, especially from his promotion of his Autopilot book (given in the post’s show notes by Ben).

Of course, Ben wants to be your mentor in helping you to prepare your audience for your own success within his program.

And, as someone who has personally known Ben since 2014, I would say that his suggestions are well worth looking at and examining it. I have only given you a small peek at his post with the tips — but I encourage you to review the content in light of your own podcast to see if you can pick the gems and examples that may relate to your own business and podcast shows, so that you can adapt his tips for your own success.

Remember that his 5 tips can be found (in some detail) at https://cashflowpodcasting.com/be-an-amazing-podcast-host/

And we wish you the best in becoming an “amazing podcast host” with your show and having success in your business.

Thank you for your attention.

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

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553- Starting a personal passion Podcast after 17 years in podosphere

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In this episode of the Podcast Reporter, we discuss a common theme for any podcaster with a passion for podcasting — and that is to start another podcast show, but to make it more personal. The case study for this topic is myself and my own desire to prepare and publish another podcast show in the near future, with the episodes that will describe my journey not only in the podosphere, but in life.

One such podcast (which has been around for over 15 years) is that of Dave Jackson’s podcast show called “Building a Better Dave” — and which is still being published and episodes being created to this day on an “as is ” basis with no set or committed schedule.

In the past, I have been in the podosphere since 2005 and have had, at one time, over 16 different podcast shows ALL AT THE SAME TIME — even though my total number of shows for all my years in podcasting have been 18 shows.

So, after my mother had passed away from alzheimer’s and also dementia several years ago, I had an inspiration after listening to a recent episode of Building a Better Dave episode to do something similar — but from my own history and my own passion and perspective within the podosphere.

And so, years ago, I did reserve a domain name of realacademyoflife.com, which would be for my show called The Real Academy of Life — that is, my own academy of experience from my real life. I also secured another podcast domain called podcastscreencasting.com, in which I had planned to publish a show about my experience in New Media from my perspectives on my history in podcasting and screencasting and videocasting.

So, what I planned to do here was to review my reasons for starting this podcast with yourselves, other podcasters, who may have a desire to publish a podcast about their own experiences in the podosphere (regardless of what they are or for whatever reasons you may have had). And thus, I created the inaugural episode in audio, using my own stream-of-consciousness method.

In fact, your reasons may be so passionate for the inspiration to create another podcast show that they are crying out for publication and sharing with others in the podosphere. And so I present this case study for you, as an example of documenting what could become a future show for yourself. And it can be a template or an idea that will morph into a great podcast show for you, with possible episodes told by yourself in the first person (or, as is common today, speaking of yourself in the third person).

So we hope that you will receive this example in this case study of a possible podcast show for your own success in publishing your passion. Consider it, if you will, as a Christmas present from myself to yourselves in the podosphere, even though it may be delivered a week early and not on Christmas eve.

And from this, I sincerely hope that your podcasting adventures may include episodes — and maybe even a whole entire show — with your own personal history and passions. And who knows? Perhaps you may even write or create an article or blog post or a separate podcast episode about your own story in creating a personal podcast episode or show on your own “real academy of life.”

Thank you for your attention, and wishing for you the happiest of holidays.

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

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552- Podcast consumption vs Social Media quick-hit

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver a REPURPOSED episode (it was episode 101 of this show) where we discuss the theme from Paul Colligan of The Podcast Report and Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting about the value and results from reviewing a podcast episode and show vs. the Social Media post (or what Paul Colligan refers to as “the quick hit.”).

As you will hear in this repurposed episode, the comparison and contrast is that of a requested deliverable (usually by subscription) like a podcast episode that is designed for CONSUMPTION as opposed to the “shiny object” like the social media post that usually results in just a momentary quick hit.

As for myself, I have been off the social media for now quite a few years, and it has been a healthy and remarkable experience — healthy in both body and mind and soul. In other words, as Adam Curry of the No Agenda show states, I am “OTG” or “off the grid.”

I firmly agree with what Paul Colligan summarizes in his article, and what the end thought of this podcast episode is — that social media posts are momentary, quick hits of emotion where you are being spoken down to, as well as brainwashed. And also, the podcast episode is a deliverable where you can do some thinking, contemplating, and judging or acting upon the result — in other words, CONSUMING.

Yes, this is consumption of the podcast vs. emotional momentary quick hits of social media without having the real benefits of consumption.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Dave Jackson and schoolofpodcasting.com and Paul Colligan and ThePodcastReport.com. All rights reserved.

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551- Trend toward Podcasting by New Media Content Creators

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver a REPURPOSED EPISODE from an earlier podcast episode. This happens to have been inspired by an earlier article that I wrote and which was published in the electronic magazine, Podertainment (originally produced by Gary Leland, which had podfaded a few years ago). It had to deal with the theme of New Media Content Creators now turning to the “second renaissance” of podcasting to place their content in the growing podosphere.

In this repurposed article and episode, we emphasize the ability for New Media professionals to repurpose their content — whether from screencasting, video creation, books, pdfs, blogs, articles and other forms of New Media — into audio episodes for related podcast shows which they can create. And this may lead also to monetization and other forms of success.

We hope that you will find this repurposed audio podcast episode of value — especially since the topic is still very much evergreen in the growing area of podcasting (with over a million podcast shows now available, and nearly $2 Billion of advertising in the podosphere.

If you are an aspiring podcaster, we hope that this will provide some impetus and inspiration to plan a successful entry into podcasting and help you grow your revenue and business — and to help you meet and exceed your business objectives.

Thank you for your attention.

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

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596- Tips on uploading your podcast

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we review some general hints delivered to you (as an aspiring or new podcaster) from Ben Krueger, podcaster and consultant who has a site called cashflowpodcasting.com.

Ben has always been a great consultant and provider of good information for the new and aspiring podcaster since I have known him (from the time that we shared a table together in the exhibit hall of the first Podcast Movement conference in Dallas). His advice and his free deliverables and pdf files contain good information most of the time, and I would highly encourage you to see his multi-step approach to planning, producing, publishing and promoting a podcast.

In an episode on 30 November 2021, Ben gives several hints and tips for uploading a podcast. But he goes a couple of steps further and recommends what some actionable steps would be to publish the podcast show and episodes, as well as some words about streaming your show episodes and areas of increased publicity for your web site of your show.

In an article for 30 November 2021 titled “How to upload a podcast,” Ben makes three strong suggestions for actionable steps in the distribution of a podcast, as well as the upload of episodes:

  • “Upload your podcast files to a podcast hosting service.
  • Submit your episode to all streaming platforms at once.
  • Publish episode players from your host to your own website.”

He then provides sections of the articles with more details about the process that a podcaster should consider about uploads, distribution and promotion:

  • How to upload a podcast episode;
  • The cost of uploading a podcast episode in your show;
  • How to submit your first podcast episode;
  • Where to post your first podcast;
  • How to post a podcast for free (some suggested ideas);
  • Would Spotify be a good choice for a free posting?
  • A discussion about the most popular podcast platform;
  • How to upload a podcast episode to your own site;
  • Some final ideas about suggested tools and templates: “Initially, it seems logical to use the website template offered by the hosting service to create a website for your show. Further down the line, you could explore creating a website using a third-party service that would potentially offer greater flexibility around the layout and design.”

For this podcaster, I have been using the templates and tools in which I learned during my initial period in podcasting many years ago. I have upgraded some of them, as I do wish to improve the speed of creation and publication of my episodes. I got a lot of them from the time when I did hire a consultant to help me with improving my initial podcasting — and that was Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting.

There was also one aspect in Dave Jackson’s episode from November of 2021, in which he put out a request for podcasters to answer his “question of the month” for answering how much time is spent by a podcaster from the idea creation stage to the point where a podcast episode is released by pressing the PUBLISH button. It was interesting to see how podcasters have become more sophisticated in the area of creating and publishing their podcast episodes — including myself (I did contribute my discussion from my name of Sergeant Fred).

We hope that these ideas in the article, along with Dave Jackson’s episode, can help you to refine your uploading, publishing, streaming and distribution of your podcast episodes.

Thank you for your attention.

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

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550- Barriers that face new podcasters

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss an earlier post this year by thepodcasthost.com with the theme of: “12 Podcast Barriers facing New Creators.”

Unfortunately, that theme is still prominent in the activities for podcasters — especially new podcasters and aspiring podcasters. And this post by author Jared Easley does try to address these situations.

In summary, these Barriers are listed as:

  • [Lacking] Self-confidence — “self-doubt can lead to procrastination”;
  • Who[m] to trust;
  • Getting Started;
  • Coming up with a name for my show;
  • Pressing RECORD;
  • Staying motivated;
  • Equipment;
  • Editing;
  • Marketing;
  • Guest hunting;
  • Engagement (i.e., “getting listeners to engage”);
  • Monetization

At the end of this post by Jared Easley, he asks the reader “So what has been holding you back?”

As a podcaster, perhaps you can use these as a checklist with which to review your own podcast shows and see if you appear to be weak in any one of these or some of these. And if so, you can then put a plan in place to strengthen them. And, of course, Jared has his experience as a podcaster from which to draw in order to try and assist the podcaster in getting over the barrier. And he does provide some detail for each of the barriers listed, with some of his suggestions.

I have known the author, Jared Easley, since his founding days in 2014 in the creation of Podcast Movement.

And I would suggest that these suggestions are eternal ones and evergreen ones for new and aspiring podcasters. Perhaps you may see if any of these barriers apply to yourself — or, as Jared asks at the end of the post, ask yourself what OTHER barriers may apply. And then you can put a plan in place to improve your skills in the areas that need work, so that they will no longer be a barrier to you at any time in your podcasting career.

Thank you for your attention.

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