This is a tribute to Daniel J Lewis from one of his biggest supporters, as he plans to return in September to the podosphere as a publisher of podcast episodes for his show, The Audacity to Podcast.
Now, Daniel has been active as a member of the chat room during the live broadcast of Ask the Podcast Coach show from Dave Jackson. He has delivered suggestions and value by answering questions or addressing topics and delivering details when asked about technical specs on products or services. But he has not posted a recent episode on his flagship podcast show recently. And remember that a podcaster should have reliability by giving the expectation of information from his feed to his audiences — it is part of the reliability.
Most of everything is available on his website page, from his products and services to contacting him for leaving feedback.
So this is just a brief episode giving him a vote of confidence. And we are waiting to receive and consume his podcast episodes when they come down the podcast channel.
Thank you to DJL, and we look forward to receiving more episodes from TAP.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter Show, we discuss an email-episode from Daniel J Lewis, the award-winning podcaster from his show called The Audacity to Podcast (currently on hiatus with sparse episodes being released on demand within important announcements). He has specialized in helping podcasters be aware of podcast reviews. In this current email sent out in 1st quarter of 2022, he goes one step further — he helps to solve some complex issues with getting podcast reviews.
What is the problem? And how does Daniel go about trying to help the podcasters who want reviews from any location worldwide? Well, Daniel states in his email content:
Here’s the problem. There are so many podcast platforms out there and so many of them don’t allow ratings or reviews, it’s hard to give the right call to action for your audience to rate and review your podcast.
It gets worse. Android devices can’t access Apple Podcasts, non-Android devices can’t access Podcast Addict, and Apple Podcasts is actually still “iTunes” on Windows and older macOS versions.
So how can you ensure your listeners are going to the right place to leaving ratings and reviews for your show and without overloading your audience with incompatible options or complex instructions?
Here are two solutions:
Learn all the coding necessary or find and buy the right tools or plugins to build your own solution.
Use the LovethePodcast.com feature included with all accounts on My Podcast Reviews!
LovethePodcast.com provides the smartest way to get more ratings & reviews! It automatically displays only the rating and review platforms compatible with your listener’s device. For example:
Only Android users will see Podcast Addict.
Windows and older macOS versions will see iTunes.
New macOS, iOS, and iPadOS will see Apple Podcasts.
All platforms will see Podchaser since it works on everything.
And so on.
Plus, this gives you a memorable and easily speakable URL you can customize to your needs! For example, I can say in my own podcast, “If you love the podcast, please give it a rating and review at LovethePodcast.com/audacity and I might read your review on the show!”
But whether you use My Podcast Reviews or make your own page, make the process as easy as possible for all your listeners, and your non-Apple audience will probably feel more valued and more likely to give you those positive reviews!
Thus, Daniel has made this easy for the podcaster. I would highly recommend that you subscribe to Daniel’s email episodes being delivered now and for the foreseeable future. And then you can get the emails directly sent to your inbox.
Now, I have known Daniel since 2010 when I interviewed him on my flagship podcast (at that time), The Struggling Entrepreneur (now podfaded); and Daniel later interviewed me on his show, The Audacity to Podcast (in 2 episodes). I have always admired his contributions to the podosphere and the great value he delivers in his podcast episodes, as well as his products and membership site (Podcasterssociety.com) and his training and exhibitions at Podcast conferences in the past.
So with the products that Daniel has released, you, as a podcaster can benefit from his content if you are interested in maximizing the rewards from podcast reviews worldwide. And his several products have all been very thorough and technically competent (in fact, many podcasters have used him and his content as the authority).
Thus, I hope that your decision in dealing with podcast reviews worldwide will benefit from the content, training and products from Daniel J Lewis. In this way, you can get closer to your audience and benefit in the community of your own podcast show.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Daniel J Lewis. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we mention very briefly how the cancel culture has invaded the area of the podosphere and podcasting. We also see that this can be the start of censorship and the forcing of opinion by the radical left into the area where your own podcast may be found.
We talk briefly about the situation with one of the most dynamic, intelligent, fair-minded and helpful podcasters, Daniel J. Lewis, who had several podcasts such as the award-winning The Audacity to Podcast, as well as several tools which he created for the podcast community to help from email newsletters to improve your podcast content to SEO (search engine optimization).
My experience with Daniel J Lewis has been a great one. Not only have I interviewed him several times in this podcast show, along with a previous show called The Struggling Entrepreneur, but I had subscribed to his shows and I had also purchased some of his intellectual property and items, as well as had been one of the key subscribers when he started his online membership of Podcasters Society.
He has been an excellent resource, very technically competent and one of the very highly regarded podcasters who won an award at one of the New Media Expo for his podcast show from the People’s Choice award for his flagship show. He has been one of the very trustworthy, honest and fair-minded people whom I have known in the podosphere.
In fact, when The Podcast Academy was introduced, he encouraged us to sign up and be part of that organization. Thus, with the trust I had in him, I did sign up. And when he was nominated to be on the Board of Governors for this organization, I wholeheartedly voted for him, and he won a seat in that group.
Now, in 2022, there was a controversy in which he tweeted his views on a matter on twitter. He did voice his opinion, and I believe (from knowing him personally) that he would engage in healthy and open and honest debate with others on the opposing view. However, the radical left charged at him and savagely tore him down by demanding his removal from the board. Well, he was “beat up” and “bullied” for his beliefs (in what should be an open and free-speech environment) and the Board succumbed to the woke ideology and asked him to leave. So he left the Board.
Well, I immediately canceled my subscription to the Podcast Academy and had enough of their radical left ideology in canceling someone with the great honesty and fair play that Daniel has.
What was Daniel’s remarks after this bullying?
On 8May2022, he wrote an email to his trusted distribution list, and I received this email from him:
“I am deeply saddened and hurt by the campaign of harassment, false accusations, and bullying against The Podcast Academy and me. I tried to slow the abuse by removing some of my comments, but to little avail. Regardless, I apologize to those I failed to extend equal grace while I was defending a baby’s right to life. I also apologize for using a common label I did not know offended some of the same people I was fighting for.
TPA members voted me in for who I am and how I promised to advocate for them, but a disinformation campaign disrupted TPA’a operations and compelled the board of governors to vote me out. I regret that I will not be able to keep my promise to the diverse podcasters I was eager to serve. I hope that TPA’s efforts to be inclusive will not further exclude people for expressing conservative, pro-life, or Christian values.
Sadly, after years of supporting The Podcast Academy, I’m now compelled to believe they are unable—at least at this time—to truly serve or represent the large diversity that the rest of the podcasting industry has welcomed since its grass roots. I cannot, in good faith, endorse an organization that let disinformation bully itself into kicking out one of its most passionate supporters.
In respect for the short-lived opportunity TPA and its members allowed me, I will not publicly discuss this further. I do not wish TPA to fail; I only wish The Podcast Academy to be truly inclusive and supportive of all podcasters, so that—together—we can help podcasts, podcastING, and podcastERS improve.
I will continue taking some time away from podcasts and social media to heal, reflect with thought and prayer, and refocus (but you’ll still receive my email series). No matter what, I continue to believe that podcasting is the most powerful way for anyone to share a message to change the world.”
So, in my opinion, Daniel still is a strong advocate for podcasters and is still a great resource for the podosphere. I will continue to look forward to his contributions in Askthepodcastcoach.com and his email newsletters.
For now, I have been left with a sour taste in my mouth for The Podcast Academy and I will not say anything positive about it, but only have the memory of an evil-minded organization that falls into the clutches of the radical left, where debate is prohibited, and the only thing that applies is the saying “my way only or the highway for you.” So damn the Podcast Academy, and I will NOT support them in any way.
Daniel, as one of the biggest contributors to the positive elements of the podosphere and your care to help podcasters, I salute you and say “Long Live DJL and down with TPA.”
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Daniel J Lewis. All rights reserved.
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.
This is a repurposed episode of The Podcast Reporter, where the original podcast episode was published on 4May2020. The reason we submit this for repurposing is that the subject is very heated now in conversation and action in the podosphere, with the Chinese virus-crisis now simmering down in the US — and with people now interested in both podcast networks and membership sites.
If your passion for podcasting has grown such that you want to join or even create your own podcast network, perhaps you should listen to the questions asked by Evo Terra, as well as listen to the experiences (the good, the bad and the ugly) from Daniel J Lewis (who did shut down his own podcast network that he started years ago).
My own experiences with podcast networks
Now, I have had experiences with the thought of joining a podcast network. In 2006 and 2007, I dipped my toes into the waters of joining what looked like a growing podcast network at Podango (this was the podcast company that had acquired Gigavox, the firm that created the Levelator in 2006). I wanted to be a part of what was called a “podcast station” (which was the category or genres of podcasts) called the Business Station. I wanted to include my flagship podcast at the time, Struggling Entrepreneur. And the sharing, the community and the financial benefits all seemed like a great beginning. However, I did have second thoughts about letting someone else run my show and own my RSS feed and content. So I decided NOT to join and just kept being on my own. And, by the way, I do not regret that decision, as Podango later went out of business in another year or two.
Then, in 2007, the podcast network bug bit me again. This time, I wanted to start a podcast network which I had temporarily called the “Content Creator and podcaster network.” This was going to be basically a membership site with 4 founders — one for the technical side of podcasting; another for the financial side of startups and podcasting; another for the marketing side of podcasting and its promotion; and my contribution, the personal productivity side of creating content and podcasts.
For this membership site, we even had a meeting which I had called. And I used the prior method of getting buy-in and commitment and dialog used by Tim Bourquin when he had founded the Podcast and Portable Media Expoin 2005. That is, I invited everyone to join me personally (at my expense for travel, lodging and meals) for a couple of days in Austin, Texas, so that we could discuss all day the creation of this membership site which would then create the network shortly after launch. In fact, we even had an attorney, who was himself a podcaster, join us via Skype to get the details of the contract which he would create for all of us to agree and sign as a commitment. Well, that meeting gave me an indication of how much CONTROL and OWNERSHIP and FINANCIAL EXPECTATION that podcasters desired. As a result, I saw that this arrangement would not suit all the parties involved — what seemed like an exciting discussion and proposal went down in flames when “the devil is in the details.” So we never gave the green light to create the contract (with legal fees of $1300 in those days), and we disbanded the idea. And the survivors were only two of us who started another podcast based on Finance for Startups (which has since podfaded).
What was obvious to me at that time, after some pre-investment expenses and time, was that podcasters were too much desirous of control and ownership of the direction. And this is only natural, since podcasting at that time was individually run, owned and managed by the solo podcaster. And these people were not used to SHARING any intellectual property or revenue with others, especially under contract.
So the notion of a podcast network or membership site was erased from my mind as a creator — and maybe one day I might join one already in session.
In this audio episode, Evo asks the most important questions: (1) What is it that you want to get out of the network?; and (2) what is it that you will be willing to sacrifice to belong in it?
He not only goes over what his own backstory was in creating his own network back “in the day” of 2004 and following, but also how a loose confederation of podcasters can be just a social club rather than a really serious podcast network (and he describes what should be in a podcast network from his point of view).
So the benefits vs. the contributions is a matrix that you should put together to evaluate an existing podcast network that you may feel compelled to join. Also, if you wish to start one, you should examine deep in yourself what you really want to get out of managing this type of organization and see if you have the talent and skills to do so effectively, without having the passion of podcasting be lost due to frustrations because of your potential lack of skills.
And Evo relates what, in his opinion, is really needed for a good podcast network today.
Now, the other example with some lessons learned comes from Daniel J Lewis of The Audacity to Podcast show. He describes how he put together his network shortly after he joined podcasting in full force — and also the end of his network, along with the reasons why he ended it.
In his recent episode called “Why we retired our podcast network,” Daniel mentions that he had clear-cut goals when he created his podcast network: “My goal was to bring together like-minded podcasters with high-quality shows to grow together through synergy, community, support, cross-promotion, and sponsorship.”
However, what seemed to me to be more or less a society of like-minded individuals with different podcast shows from different genres and possibly some unrelated themes soon grew into a long list of participating shows in the network, like the following:
The Ramen Noodle
Are You Just Watching
The Audacity to Podcast
Beyond the To-Do List
The Productive Woman
Christian Meets World
The Sci-Phi Show
ONCE
Welcome to Level Seven
WONDERLAND
Under the Dome Radio
Resurrection Revealed
Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
Inside the Podcasting Business
As you can see, this could appear to be a community of disjointed themes and topics, with possibly the intent to generate sponsorship, financial rewards from downloads and advertising, as well as cross-promotion. And Daniel then explains what things he did well in the network and what things that were done poorly:
Audience-relevant common theme
Cross-promotion
Cross-integration
Full and consistent community
and you can listen to his audio podcast episode to get the details. Then he states why he retired the network, including the ability for him to focus on fewer things, as well as giving each podcaster more room to expand.
So Daniel’s experiences deliver some lessons learned about starting a podcast network, and I would suggest that you take these into account if you get the passion to go beyond your own podcast shows and want to start your own network.
Considerations for the podcaster about Podcast Network
As a podcaster, what passion can be driving you toward wanting to start a great podcast network? Will you have the time? Will the additional workload and timetables and schedules and management of the network be something you will embrace, as well as have time for? Will you have the necessary skills to manage your network? Will you have the right temperment for being in the network? And will the podcasts in the network be the right ones, or will they be a hodge-podge collection of your favorite podcasters and additional genres and other topics that might not relate well to some audiences? Will the network be governed by contract or by word-of-mouth agreements?
So, whatever your decision may be concerning podcast networks may be (i.e., either joining one or starting one of your own), we hope that these two audio episodes can give you enough food for thought to know what to expect both from the contribution side and the giving side to the network.
So we hope that your podcast show will be successful, whether it be a part of a podcast network or not.
Thank you for your attention
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Daniel J Lewis of Theaudacitytopodcast.com and Evo Terra of Podcastpontifications.com and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the situation where an aspiring podcaster may want to start a podcast, but does not want to go through all the details about Apple and other providers to begin a podcast show and post episodes. They also don’t want to keep up with the rules and regulations, processes and procedures (which seem to be always changing frequently now) by Apple and other sites in order to create, test, post and publish episodes for your podcast show — they just want to create the content and publish it very easily.
So, one way of doing this (besides doing it by yourself and getting frustrated with the firms who do not call you back or take your technical support calls or answer questions in person but only by bots) is to go the route of using a podcast consultant until you understand the process and have a smooth running system that you can handle in the creation and posting and distribution of your content where you want).
For this podcaster, I started podcasting 15 years ago. I used a free tutorial that was distributed online by Jason Van Orden (a podcaster at that time for the Podcasting Underground show). And soon, I realized that I needed a bit of education (which was not really available as it is today) by hiring a podcast consultant. In my case, I hired Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting. Using remote conversations and communications via the internet, he set me on my way on the path to podcasting, and from there, I was on my own. I did hire him later on when I set up various other podcast shows, so that he could set them up, post them, publish them during the time which I wanted to focus on new content for my current shows. And this worked out very well.
And since then, other podcast consultants announced that they wanted to assist aspiring podcasters to launch their shows — one of them was the Podcast Repairman from Gary Leland, as an example.
And because of these reasons, I can see a favorable argument for hiring a good podcast consultant (like Dave Jackson or Daniel J Lewis) to assist me with MY OWN instructions, restrictions and limitations as agreed by a written contract or one saved by audio or video recording to assist in setting up a podcast show and episodes, and leaving you a well-oiled machine for you, as a podcaster, to create and publish your content in the podosphere.
Now, for this podcaster, I have also been a podcast consultant for several years, and it was enjoyable and I have had good customers that thanked me for getting them started in the podosphere and delivering VALUE in the editing of content and “productizing” the episodes which they published. However, with medical problems and family emergencies, I had to withdraw from this podcasting career specialty and only to keep a customer or two that wanted only screencasting services (e.g., creating video tutorials for software products and services). I only focus now into podcast content creation, but I am no longer a podcast consultant to assist others in setting up their shows.
But if I were now an aspiring podcaster that wants to start a show and focus strictly on the content creation and publication, I would seriously consider getting a quote from a respected podcast consultant (with a good and long favorable history of grateful customers) to assist me in getting my show created, launched and set up as a “publishing machine.” And if I wanted to monetize my show after creating and publishing it, I would then use the suggestions given to me by authors and podcasters who have published content on how to successfully make money from their podcasts — especially like Dave Jackson with his latest book, Profit from your Podcast.
I hope that you, as an aspiring podcaster, will find success in starting your show — whether or not you decide to use a podcast consultant, so that your show will deliver great VALUE to your audience and help to get you on the road to success (especially if you wish to monetize your show).
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Dave Jackson and Daniel J Lewis and Gary Leland and michaelandmike.com . All rights reserved.
This is an announcement for FREE training and education modules that Daniel will be distributing with his email notices shortly. And here are the content modules from Daniel J Lewis’s new free training:
“How to make your podcast stand out
How to improve your audio quality
Quick fixes to improve your podcast
How to get more podcast reviews
Law-related answers podcasters need
Podcasting with cohosts
And much more I’m still writing!”
Daniel reassured his audience that the emails will be “short enough that you can read them in only a couple minutes, but still informative and actionable.”
He also wanted each module to stand on its own, without any dependence on earlier modules: “And each of the above are separate miniseries, so if you’re not interested in a particular miniseries, you can easily cancel that one miniseries and be moved on to the next one.”
Now, I have known Daniel personally since 2010. I have interviewed him that year, and I also had met him in person in 2013 at the New Media Expo conference in Las Vegas. Also, I have been interviewed on his show, and he has been my interviewee several times — not only as a struggling entrepreneur, but also for more details on his membership program, Podcasters Society.
I have always regarded Daniel as a very technically competent podcaster and content creator. His attention to detail and his specific deconstruction of technical facts is second to none. And so, I have trusted his comments, counsel and recommendations. So, would I expect great value from something FREE from him?
Absolutely.
By the way, in an earlier episode last week of the Ask the Podcast Coach show, I asked Daniel when he would have a future episode of his flagship podcast, The Audacity to Podcast. And he replied that he was going to announce something soon to announce to us.
So, thus, I am passing this announcement to my audience so that everyone may be prepared to receive the free email content. I do predict that there will be great VALUE in them for both older podcasters, as well as the new and aspiring podcasters.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Daniel J Lewis. All rights reserved.
First, we review some comments (that some of the purist grumps will enjoy criticizing) in the live streaming and tech environments of podcasting. In the tech area, we experienced the pros and cons of the live streaming tool called riverside, which was used in a recent live podcast episode of Ask the Podcast Coach from Dave Jacksonand Jim Collison. The poor video and audio quality was only surpassed when the system knocked you off and had to re-initialized.
This comment was echoed over and over again in the chat room (or “troll room,” if you will). It was even echoed in the discussion by myself and co-host Matt Cox (who is a co-host for 2030podcast.com and grumpyoldbears.com).
Comment is: bring back the quality live streaming with YouTube, as they had before.
My opinion was that the sad part about this “experiment” was that the co-hosts for Askthepodcastcoach.com did NOT warn the listeners ahead of time that there was an experimental session that would use a new tool for the session. And, yes, some listeners and viewers were left out, due to technical and other problems. So several listeners were left out — and there was, in my view, no reason why this had to happen without warning.
Now, would I, as a podcaster, use this for live streaming?
No, never — not on your life, as I had to painfully experience the poor audio and video on this stream. Enough said.
Another theme was the live webinar with Daniel J Lewis and Steve Stewart that dealt with show notes for episodes (yes, the Grumps probably did not enjoy paying the $9 USD fee for live attendance, mainly because grumps like only FREE webinars with no charge).
Our view is that webinars like this are ideal for learning and communicating with the ideal group of like-minded individuals.
Why?
it goes no longer than 4 hours and many speakers that deliver value;
there is a live chat room that becomes very lively and helpful for issues that are brought up during the presentations;
there is a question/answer session at the end of each presentation, and it does not go longer than just a few minutes;
there was a choice that could have been made by a live attendee of the presentations, where for an additional $40 allows the individual to get the replay videos, charts, membership in a slack group for community sharing and other premium deliverables.
there are great presenters and instructors, such as Daniel J Lewis, who gave a new view and approach in creating better show notes.
This whole webinar was a positive step for education, training and learning about creating and delivering show notes for podcast episodes — mainly due to the leadership of Steve Stewart, a podcaster and master of editing (i.e., he runs the Podcast Editor Academy).
And, in our opinion, the best session was delivered by award-winning podcaster, Daniel J Lewis (who has a show called The Audacity to Podcast, as well as other products for podcasting, which you can see on his site). He described how to use AI in helping you to create show notes for your episodes. In fact, he was demonstrating how AI can help you to get inspired for show notes — but NOT be a crutch to automatically write them for you and whip them out in a couple of seconds. The tool he used was Jarvis, which is promoted as a copywriting assistant.
We are looking forward to other webinars in the same format under the leadership of Steve Stewart and company.
One question that I did ask of Daniel J Lewis while I was in the chat room of the Show Notes Summit was for the time frame for an upcoming episode of The Audacity to Podcast. The reply I got from Daniel was that we could see something very soon.
I will be waiting with bated breath for that episode to appear.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Daniel J Lewis and Steve Stewart and David Jackson and Jim Collison. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss my own lessons learned and experiences of value gained from podcasting for the last 15 years, when I became a podcaster — with having been within the podosphere as a listener for the prior 2 years (and with listening to over 100 podcast shows per week, as there were not as many shows as there are now).
In a recent edition of the podnews.net newsletter, we had an article that spoke about what experiences and benefits were learned by someone who had just celebrated seven years in podcasting (you can find it at Bruce Wawrzyniak, the host of Now Hear This who celebrated his 7th anniversary of the show with 367 episodes). Well, as a podcaster with over double the time in the podosphere as an active podcaster, and with over 1000 episodes and 2 million downloads, I wanted to also give you some perspective of an old-timer podcaster.
Now, by old-timer, I don’t mean to state that I was one of the original podcasters when the podosphere started. By no means. There were folks like Gary Leland, Todd Cochrane, CC Chapman, Paul Colligan, Rob Walch and Dave Jackson (among others) that already had podcast shows — and some for almost 2 years since 2004. Among them, I seemed to be a newcomer. And my podcast show that I promoted at the time of the early Podcast and Portable Media conference seemed pale in comparison to the work of those earlier maestros.
So the question is: what experiences have I learned from podcasting in 15 years? and what is the suggestion that I deliver to new and aspiring podcasters (even though these will never be posted in the podnews.net newsletter)?
I have learned that technical skills are important, but that they are not the most important — what is of greatest importance is the value that your show and its episodes will provide to your audience;
I have learned that your communication with your audience is critical — and that goes for any planned or unplanned absences (remember — even great podcasters like Daniel J Lewis of The Audacity to Podcast show disappeared for almost six months without leaving word to his audience of any planned or unplanned absence. But he later made up for it by publishing an episode explaining his forced absence, and then proceeded to return to the podosphere in many formats. And he keeps being a subject matter expert in his own right);
I have received value in the faith and commitment of my audience in staying with me, providing me with feedback and commentary, as well as giving word-of-mouth promotion to others in the podosphere;
I have received value in seeing the number of downloads increasing for each show (in fact, both The Struggling Entrepreneur podcast show — which has podfaded — and this show have had over 1 million downloads each, and still growing), as well as the popularity of my shows increasing;
I have received value when our 2030podcast.com show received promotion on an international live stream — they played episodes from this show to their audiences; they stated that this was a “quality show” to the audience; and they praised the quality of the audio, as well, to their audience and live stream. And they did this WITHOUT any requests from me or any paid promotion or marketing or sales. This occurred because they found value in the show; and as of the date of this episode, it still continues to be published with various episodes and still continues to receive admiration from listeners who found value in the content of this show, even though none of the serendipity results were planned;
I found value in other podcasters whom I have met in person or on the web — either a conferences or in remote interviews which I conducted for many of my 16 concurrent podcast shows that I had in 2010, and which I had to whittle down due to health and personal family issues with which I had to deal in 2016 to 2018;
and finally, I learned that the VALUE FOR VALUE model applies to podcasters who deliver good content to listeners. I learned this when the value was “treasure” (i.e., monetization), as well as “tech” (i.e., learning valuable technical skills and models), as well as “frienship” value (i.e., starting great relationships with the pundits of podcasting and other podcasters).
And these are just a few of the lessons learned from this podcaster in my 15 years as a podcaster and 17 years within the podosphere.
So, if you think that seven years is a lot of time to learn about value in podcasting, try learning from the podcasters who have spent more than double that time within their craft. This will help deliver lessons learned to the new and aspiring podcasters, so that they can improve their skills and become better deliverers of value to their audiences.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and 2030podcast.com and Matt Cox. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the topic of podcast workflow — in particular, what it is and perhaps some advice on how to manage it from an article in medium.com.
First, the article tries to level-set the podcaster of a typical workflow for podcasting and give the sequence of tasks for a workflow:
“…let’s take a quick look at an example of what a podcasting workflow might look like:
Podcast episode ideation phase;
Decide on episode subject and search for guest possibilities;
Schedule interviews;
Write questions and/or outline of the episode;
Record the episode;
Edit the show;
Load episode to your podcast host to share with iTunes/Stitcher/Google Play etc.;
And the article also suggests that you should have a software management tool: “We recommend using a tool such as Trello, Asana, Monday.com or some other similar software to keep track of your tasks.” In fact, there is a screen shot that is included to help you imagine the management tool in action during your tasks of podcasting. Also, there is a case in point of a podcast using Trello, with additional screen shots to help you along.
And finally, the idea of delegation of tasks could offload the amount of time and effort and work in your workflow, so that you can spend more time on your podcast content — especially with examples of scheduling, social media software and email software, along with other tool recommendations (like editing software).
The article then suggests going to a community of podcasters and picking the brains of others in order to get best practices and advice on what works in good workflow. In addition, going to colleges to get assistance is advised, along with using Fiverr and other sites to take responsibility for getting some of the tasks outsourced. The reason for all this advice is to keep your sacred message and content free from the obstruction of time-consuming and inefficient workflows.
Now, just as you will hear in the automobile and gasoline adds, “your mileage may vary” — the same applies here. For this podcaster, my workflow has developed since 2006 to the present. I have tried using software tools and also found the ones that work best for my model, my content and my own perspective — and I have saved time, effort, money and frustration. Pretty soon, you can get a good idea of how long the tasks will take in your average workflow from the ideation phase to the final post-publication and syndication phase that will include feedback, archiving, marketing, promotion, accounting and any other possible documentation you may need to do.
As I mentioned earlier, each person will have a different workflow, and in podcasting not one size fits all. In fact, a key time that I mentioned workflow in an exchange of ideas was in a post-interview conversation I had with Daniel J Lewis of The Audacity to Podcast in 2010. In fact, besides sharing our tasks and some other spots in workflow, we both received the benefit of best practices. And then, as a result of our discussion, Daniel then produced and posted a very good podcast episode on workflow for podcasting in his podcast show. I realized that perhaps it would be a good idea to write out and document the workflow, so that I can always go back to it and modify it when another BFO (i.e., “blind flash of the obvious”) appears and will be a good step to include, even through serendipity. If you go to Daniel’s back catalog, you can find the episode in his archives that deals with workflow creation and execution for the best podcasting efforts.
I sincerely hope that you consider your own workflow, and I hope that this episode can help you to reflect, document, and improve your own workflow to improve your show and make you a more successful podcaster.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and medium.com. All rights reserved.
