Tag: buzzsprout.com/blog

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podcast

486- Podcasting ideas to be tapped or renewed

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In this episode of the Podcast Reporter, we discuss a recent post in the buzzsprout.com blog titled “15 Untapped Podcast Ideas.” In this article, there is a presentation of different themes and possible topics to cover not only for episodes, but also for podcast shows.

This post seems to be a good resource so that you, as a podcaster, can use this to spawn different ideas for shows and episodes and topics. Obviously, this can be a good resource for planning and preparing the future (especially at the end of the year or your period of publishing) to ensure that your topics can be resilient, fresh, new and interesting — so that you can provide VALUE to your listeners.

So, in this post, the following is discussed, with some detail for each heading:

  • How to choose a good podcast topic — and here, there is a chart that is presented with 16 different podcast genres, so that you can decide if your podcast should fall into one of those categories;

    • #1 Pick a subject you want to talk about

      #2 Play to your strength 

      • Appeal to a specific demographic or target audience 
      • Speak to a subset of people with unique opinions or experiences
      • Focus on specific topics within your primary genre (ex: The podcast Help Me Be Me is “self-help for people who hate self-help.”)
    • #3 Make it niche;
      And the article then presents a few ways to make a podcast topic niche, with several tables expressing different podcast FORMATS.
  • And then the article talks about 15 different untapped podcast ideas, among which are some of them:
    •  The outdoors
    • Sailing
    • Welding, metalworking, woodworking;
    • Animals;
    • Crafting and do-it-yourself;
    • Musical instruments;
    • House flipping;
    • Podcasting;
    • Wedding and event planning;  and here, the article asks you questions about your WHY, your purpose, your targeted audience, your skillset — so you can see what sets you apart;
    • 3D printing;
    • Storm chasing;
    • Caving, rock climbing, rappelling;
    • Tiny Homes
    • Urban farming;
    • Book summaries and reviews.

Now, for this podcaster, I have listed many different podcast topics that can serve as genres for ideas and for the creation of new and different podcast shows. I would highly recommend that you hold a planning session with YOURSELF, so that you can record your ideas separately. And then, at a later time, you can determine the viability and the possibility of creating a new podcast. In this way, you can generate more and new enthusiasm and passion in creating a newer podcast show — even though you do not have to delete or remove your current or past podcast shows.

From my own experience, I have had at one time in 2011 (five years after I started podcasting) over 16 podcast shows. And one by one, I had to podfade them. Why? Because I feel that all podcast shows need to be retired once the amount of passion diminishes and the amount of content is reduced to a point where it makes sense to terminate  a show.

So, we hope that you, as a podcaster, can plan for your own planning session to examine not only these mentioned 15 topics for podcasting, but for YOUR OWN themes that need to be contemplated. Who knows? You may resurrect the passion for podcasting with great ideas that will spawn new shows and great content to provide VALUE for your audience in the near future. We hope that this passion continues for you and that your podcast shows grow and become successful.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation . All rights reserved.

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podcast

485- Understanding compression in Podcasting with Audacity

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we reflect on a recent episode of the buzzsprout.com/blog that is titled: “How to use the compressor in Audacity.”

Now, for some of the newer or aspiring podcasters, this is quite a brief lesson in what compression is, and how it is done with Audacity — and some suggested settings for better audio with that program.

The author of this blog post delivers this as a tutorial (and at the end of the post, there is a list of links with more audio tutorials, for your benefit).

This post has quite a few details, and it is a good reference for those podcasters that want to know about the compressor in Audacity.

Some of those sections covered are:

  • What is compression and how to apply it (a 6:00 minute video);
  • When should you use audio compression?
  • Applying the Audacity compressor effect;
    • the graph
    • the settings
    • the threshold
    • the noise floor
    • the ratio
    • the attack time and release time; and
    • make-up gain;
    • compression based on peaks; and
    • limiter effect.
  • Avoiding over-compressing; and finally,
  • Previewing the compressor settings for audio.

Now, a lot of podcasters may feel that they do not need to deal with compressor settings, but this brief tutorial is great for a general understanding of some elements that can help your audio episodes become better quality. And you don’t have to be a genius or tech whiz to understand them. This tutorial in buzzsprout.com/blog does give VALUE in an understanding of better audio quality possibilities with Audacity.

We hope that you go through the tutorial and video, so that you can understand better the compressor in Audacity, and then you can decide for yourself if you want to use that effect for improving your audio episode quality.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation . All rights reserved.

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podcast

476- BONUS- Noise removal suggestions in Podcasting

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In this episode of the Podcast Reporter, we discuss a post from the recent buzzsrpout.com blog that delivers suggestions, tips and also screen capture images on how to reduce noise using the Audacity application. This is mainly done using the Noise Removal feature in the program — and this article probably has value for new and aspiring podcasters (as the older veterans of podcasting have already used this feature and have either standardized on it or have chosen other means to include in their workflow).

Now, for this podcaster, I was first alerted to this feature of Audacity in 2005-2006 by Paul Colligan in his earlier podcast show, Podcast Tools (now podfaded). And I have used this feature for reducing the noise level in my episodes — as it seems good enough for me. And even with the help of tutorials from Steve Stewart about Audacity, the removal or diminishing of noise can be done even better, the neophyte podcaster can find value in reducing the amount of noise in the raw capture of a wav file before exporting it to mp3 format for the final episode. In fact, I myself found great value in the tutorial by Steve to sharpen the skills delivered to me over the internet from someone who is a professional audio editor.

 

Now, this recent blog post in buzzsprout.com/blog gives a summary of the tips for removing background noise in your recording, along with a 4 minute-20-second video:

  • First, the items covered are the standard “preventions” in creating unnecessary background noise;
    • optimize your recording space;
    • turn down the gain on your mic;
    • use a dynamic mic;
    • minimize computer fan noise.
  • Then once the “preventative” measures are taken, then the three steps are promoted to remove the noise in the Audacity feature called “Noise Removal”:
    • Get a noise sample
    • Apply noise reduction; and
    • Tweak the settings by adjusting certain levels; then
    • Use the PREVIEW button to test the noise quality resulting from the tweaks.
  • You are also given some further thoughts and resources to give you more information and suggestions about noise quality and improvement of your audio.

We hope that these suggestions can be of value to the new and aspiring podcaster, so that the quality of the audio can be greatly improved — thus allowing your listeners to enjoy a good level of sound as they listen to your message and hear the VALUE of your episode and message of your podcast show.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (C) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

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podcast

454- Quantifying money to be made by podcasting

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the topic of how much money you can make by podcasting.

As you will hear in this audio episode, the theme was taken from a recent episode and post from buzzsprout.com/blog.

Ideas for adding additional streams for generating revenue are delivered. In addition, this specific podcast series, PodcastReporter.com, has also described (in earlier episodes) different methods of creating revenue streams from your podcasting within your business.

One aspect that demands attention in this audio episode is that downloads are not the only indication of success for generating revenue. In fact, there are many ways to make money — and they are given in the recently published book from Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting called “Profit from your Podcast.”

We hope that you can be successful in monetizing podcasts and go toward delivering value to your listeners, so that you can also join the club of 6-figure professional podcasters.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and buzzsprout.com/blog. All rights reserved.