The Blog of the Freedom Podcasting Company LLC

Mar 06

Will Google Play Podcast Player Kill the Radio?

By Ian Discussing Podcasting, Podcasting World No Comments

Future of the Google Play Podcast Player

Quality is not the chain restraining podcasts from killing radio.

Podcast listeners know the experience of listening to podcasts are better than listening to radio. Let me provide some examples:

Want to hear the mentality of the world’s top computer generated trading companies? Top Traders Unplugged is way better than listening to traditional financial radio.
Want to hear detailed habits of the world’s top performers? The Tim Ferriss Show doesn’t even have a radio equivalent.
Are you a woman seeking to grow a million dollar business? Ali Brown is the best.
Are you seeking spiritual guidance? Mas Sajady helps millions with conversations and free meditations.
Want to learn about emotional intelligence? Mark Shapiro is your man.

We can listen whenever we want and the advertisements are vetted by the producer or non-existent.

It’s just so much better.

Google Play Podcast Player Success

So why isn’t podcasting the #1 audio format in the world?

The reason is that it’s challenging to listen to podcasts.

It’s not super challenging, but compared to radio, it’s challenging.

Radio is winning because:

There is no need to curate – Radio stations curate what we hear so we don’t have to think about it.
Simple interface – Radios are simple. Click the button on and select between 88.7 – 105.9
It is an established medium – Radio is older than you. It is really important because of that.

The biggest thing holding back podcasts right now is that they are hard to listen to.

iTunes isn’t great

iTunes is the #1 place to download podcasts.

iTunes is a pain.

Let me explain.

Problems with iTunes:

To do anything, you have to login to the iTunes store – This has stopped me from setting people up to listen to podcasts over and over again.
iTunes password recovery is hard
The podcast app is confusing (have I downloaded this show or not? Why do I have 50 episodes of this show and I don’t have the show I want?)
The curation is up to you – They don’t help you find the right shows for what you want now

These problems aren’t insurmountable. They are simply a mild annoyance for tech people.

I find it hard to help my 50+ year old friends listen to podcasts. They don’t have their iTunes passwords so to download a podcast, we have to set up iTunes. We can’t just say, listen to this show. We have to say, download this app, verify email, search for the show, download the show and play the show.

If podcasting is to grow to market dominance, ease of consumption is the next big breakthrough.

google podcast player

Will Google Play Podcast Player Solve the Problem?

The short answer is no. They have been slow to launch, their plans seem real and podcasters are leaking information.

It’s easy to submit your podcast feed to Google play. I don’t know why we do this when we can’t listen to podcasts with their app.

As of now, the jury is out.

How Google Play Can Win

If Google can create a radio like listening experience, they will win.

If Google can suggest shows that people really want to listen to, they will win.

If Google can help podcasters gain more listeners, they will win.

But for now, iTunes is still the big guy in town.

Feb 14

Love0

Buy Podcast Production Services Online

By Ian Podcasting Questions

We offer a seamless, high quality process for you to buy podcast production services online.

Have you come the the conclusion that your sales funnel would thrive with the addition of a podcast? You also know that you don’t want to spend time or focus on building a team that could do the hard work for you?

Production Services Online Available - Buy Online Today

Fill Your Sales Funnel with a World Class Podcast

You want the best audio quality, great blogs and a supplement to your multimedia branding.

You’re established with a large audience. You know the open rates of your email list. It’s good, but you want to make it better and bigger. You have a few honest, high quality products on your site and your funnel is probably directing some fabulous new people through the sales process right now while you read this.

Building out a team that can engineer audio, write flawless content and export beautiful graphic art for your show takes time, skill, patience and money. Why reinvent the wheel?

Perhaps you’re brave enough to outsource the production team to leverage your time.

Buy Podcast Production Services Online

Freedom Podcasting Company LLC offers world class podcast production services.

Buy Podcast Production Services Online TODAY

We’ve launched more than 30 shows for clients across a variety of industries. You can see the kind of work we do by checking out a page on Tim’s site, Niels’s site, Ali’s site or Nick’s site. This is a shortened list because we make a LOT of podcasts.

We know exactly how to produce so you don’t need to worry about a thing. You can rest easy knowing you have the best podcast production team around. We can help you launch a new show (automatically ensuring we match your existing branding) or we can take over the production of your existing show.

The way we see it, the more you can focus entirely on making your recordings and crafting your art of the spoken word, the better chance you’ll have to do the work that matters. The first step to getting started on this journey is to buy podcast production services online.

When you’re ready to start, please feel free to tell us a bit about your project.

Jan 17

Love1

Podcast Statistics: How to Research and What They Mean

By Ian How Podcasting Works, Podcasting Questions No Comments

This is an article about podcast statistics (stats). First, I’ll explain how to check your stats on the platforms we use. Second, I’ll go into detail about how it works and what it means.

How to Check Libsyn Podcast Statistics

Go to Libsyn and login

How to Check Podcast Stats Libsyn

Click VIEW ALL STATS

View all Stats Podcast Libsyn

You’re in.

How to Check SoundCloud Podcast Statistics

Go to SoundCloud and login
Click the drop down menu and select the Stats tab

SoundCloud Podcasting Stats

You’re in.

How to Check Stitcher Podcast Statistics

Go to Stitcher Partners and login
Click the Metrics

How to Check Stitcher Podcast Statistics

You’re in.

What Podcasting Stats are Telling You

Download Stats are Binary

Most podcasts statistics record downloads. This means that a download counts as one. If a member of your audience downloads your show and never actually listened to it, their download is counted just the same as if they listened to it 100 times over.

Stitcher is Special, but it’s not as popular

Stitcher has more information. They can tell you about your audience listening time and completion rate. Libsyn and SoundCloud just count downloads so the information is less complete.

iTunes is the 80% of the Download Game

This is so consistent that it can be considered a law at the time of writing this (Jan 2016.) Almost 80% of a podcasts downloads will come from iTunes.

Are SoundCloud and Libsyn stats relates?

SoundCloud stats are separate from Libsyn stats. If you are seeking a total download number, you should add your SoundCloud stats to your Libsyn stats.

Finally, Be Wary of Statistics

Be careful with your time when viewing stats.

Your time is almost certainly better spent creating vs. contemplating stats.

Go into the stats dashboard with a purpose. Identify the info you seek. Close it down and get back to creating. It’s easy to burn time in that statistics tab.

It’s easy to burn time in that statistics tab.

Do You Have Questions on Podcasting Statistics?

Please feel ask in the comment below. We’re here to help and your comments are cherished.

Dec 21

Love0

Dynamic Levels are Great for Michael Jackson, not Podcasts

By Ian Build Your Own Podcast, Discussing Podcasting, How Podcasting Works, Podcasting Process No Comments

Dynamic Levels

Listen to the dynamic levels in Michael’s song:

You hear how the volume and depth of the music rises and falls?

It helps his music seem deeper and richer. The dynamics lead to the emotional rapture of the song. It’s an important part of MJ’s success.

Dynamic Levels Don’t Work For Podcasting

Dynamic podcast levels are a pain for podcast listeners. With podcasts, the rapture is in the voice and the word selection.

If we try to add dynamic levels, we forget about the listener.

People listen to podcasts while they run or while they drive. Often, they are listening with headphones to drown out all the mad noise surrounding them.

If someone is listening to your podcast and the levels are low, they turn the volume up. A few moments later, the next voice jumps in at normal levels. Because the volume is way up, the normal level is a blast to the eardrums.

That sucks.

Also, low levels make it impossible to hear the podcast at times. If I’m running and listening to a podcast, I can’t have a show playing that I can’t hear.

Perhaps years of electric guitar and rifle shooting has caused me to be overly sensitive to this… but ear health is another blog post all together.

If the levels are so low that I’m having trouble hearing the show, I turn it off, delete the episode and unsubscribe to a show.

Not Good.

How Do I Make a Level Podcast?

To solve this use Levelator (http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator).

Just drop your podcast’s interview segment into the program as a .aiff or .wav file and use the output file to mix the podcast.

Creating a Great Podcast?

My podcast production course is here. You’ll find information on how to mix a levelated show, file organization, podcast website development and much more. It’s everything you need if you’re going at it alone, or with a kick ass team.

If you want to bring on an expert team, reach out to us here. If were a good fit, all you need to do is record and send the files. We can do it all for you.

Dec 17

Love0

Why Would a Small Company Utilize Podcast Services?

By Ian Discussing Podcasting, How Podcasting Works No Comments

We’re going to keep this short.

Why would a small company podcast?

Authentic Customer Engagement – Leads are easier to convert to sales when customers are engaged. It’s easier to make a clear value proposition.
Establishing Authority – With a podcast, the company becomes the authority. Opportunities open up for authorities.
Networking – The show is a networking opportunity. With an interview show, it’s always good to ask the question, “do you know anyone else who might be a good fit for the show?” It’s an opportunity to open up those doors to serendipity.
Content Marketing/Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – A podcast makes producing quality content less time intensive. Business leaders should be leveraging their time. Business leaders shouldn’t be doing their copywriting, graphic design, SEO and all that other stuff. The best business leaders share their expertise and let the developers do the post production. Leave the web development to the podcast producer, they are the experts at that.

What types of businesses would benefit from podcast services?

Our small business clients include hedge funds, psychologists, tech companies, crowdfunding platforms and more.

I think any business could benefit from a great podcast. Even utility companies, plumbing contractors and restaurant managers.

What would you tell a small business that is considering using podcast services?

It’s all about identifying the goals of their businesses. Here are some goals followed by strategies:

Do they want a large audience to sell to? -> Have a podcast with stars or well-known industry experts.
Want your CEO to be in a position to land larger contracts and connect with the leaders in the industry? -> Have a podcast with the leaders of legacy companies in their space.
Do they want to tell the story of their community involvement to improve their public perception? -> Talk about the projects you’re working on or the charities your funding.

Different goals lead to different podcasts. Podcasting is medium that can be used in many different ways to achieve their goals.

Sep 29

Love2

How to Make A Podcast

By Ian How Podcasting Works, How to Make a Podcast, Podcast Editor, Podcast Equipment, Podcasting Process 3 Comments

Want to Learn How to Make a Podcast?

We’ve created more than 500 podcast episodes for more than 20 individual shows over the past 2 years. Many episodes were downloaded more than 100,000 times. We’ve become experts at this. We’ve put it all together into a great process and are offering an overview here.

This blog post is a step-by-step list of what you need to do to make a podcast.

This is an overview and the specifics are left out in the interest of providing a quick overview. If you could use more specific instructions, I’ve created screencast video course which describes every step in a granular way. Anyone could make a world class podcast if they follow this course.

How to Make a Podcast

Record: Create recordings with quality recording equipment.
Mix: Mix the audio with music and level the recordings.
Host: Upload your .mp3 to a hosting provider.
Setup: Create a podcast RSS feed.
Submit: Submit your podcast RSS feed to iTunes and other podcast platforms.

How to Make a Podcast: Recording

To get a great recording, start with quality recording equipment. This is important. All good podcasts start with quality equipment.

You can get quality recording equipment for less than $350. Here are links to three simple pieces which you can order on Amazon and have in your possession in a day or two:

Mixer | Microphone | Pop Filter

If you want help in how to set up this gear and record your first show using Audacity, please enjoy this free video course.

I own this recording equipment. It works great in almost all environments. I don’t need to find a place with great acoustics in order to make great recordings. The microphone only picks up your voice so if a helicopter flys overhead, your recording won’t be ruined.

After experimenting with a lot of different microphones, I’ve found that this is the best system for the price. You could spend hundreds more on microphones, but the results aren’t going to be much different.

Mixing Audio - How to Make a Podcast

How to Make a Podcast: Mixing

Mixing audio is not overly challenging, but you do need a few tools.

After mixing hundreds of podcasts, we found that the following process is the best for ensuring consistent quality.

Polish the audio with Audacity
Run the polished .aiff files through Levelator
Mix the audio and the music together with GarageBand
1. Note: Export as a .mp3 at 64kbps
Tag the show using ID3 Editor

Each of these steps will require a small amount of learning time. The programs are not overly challenging to understand. You can follow along with me step-by-step in the course to speed your learning curve, or just dive in and learn on your own.

Once you create your finalized podcast file, you’ll be ready to upload your file to hosting.

How to Make a Podcast: Uploading

Uploading your media to trusted hosts is important. With a podcast, the volume of your data will quickly crash most servers. If you don’t use high-quality media hosting, there is a good chance that you won’t be able to serve your show.

Not serving shows means people will be clicking the download button, but the download will either require a huge amount of time, or it will fail. Your listeners will either not listen to the show, or just remember that your show takes too long to download and avoid it next time around.

Here are my recommended podcast hosting services:

After uploading your podcast .mp3 to media hosting, you’ll be given a media URL. Use the media URL to complete the next step in which you create your podcast RSS feed.

How to Make a Podcast: Podcast RSS Feed Creation

To be exact, a podcast feed is just an RSS feed with audio media URLs written into the XML code.

If that doesn’t help, you’ll want to use a podcast RSS feed generation service. Here are a few options:

SoundCloud
Libsyn
BluBrry WordPress plugin + a WordPress site

We personally like to create our RSS feeds using WordPress websites and the Blubrry plugin.

SoundCloud recently came out with what looks like a great system for creating podcast RSS feeds, but I still like to build everything. It worries me to build important assets on other companies websites. When you own the feed, you own the show.

Your podcast feed will look something like this:

http://www.freedompodcasting.com/podcast/feed

Once you have your podcast feed, you’re ready to submit the feed to podcasting platforms.

Podcast Submission Instructions - How to Make a Podcast

How to Make a Podcast: Submitting Your Feed

Most podcast platforms simply read podcast RSS feeds. This means that all you have to do to see your show on their platforms is let them know about your RSS feed.

You can find submission details which are consistently updated on our podcast submission page.

Once you submit your feed, you’re set. To produce more episodes. To add new episodes, just enter the new media URL to your RSS feed.

Boom.

Conclusion

These instructions are abbreviated in the hopes of making the process simple to understand. Sometimes an overview of the process helps when planning the next step.

If you need help from us, you’re welcome to reach out to us to hire us as your producers.

If you’re interested in doing the process yourself, here is a step-by-step course which you can follow along. This is a discounted link so make sure to buy from this page as this discount won’t be available if you go directly to another system.

It took us about 3 years to get these systems set up, but you could produce a professional podcast using instructions from this course. Either do it yourself or get a member of your team to run through it and they can develop a new skill.

Questions on How to Make a Podcast?

Anything unclear? Please feel free to ask down below. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.

Aug 04

Love2

How to Share Podcast Files with your Podcast Producer

By Ian How Podcasting Works, Podcasting Process No Comments

Share Podcast Files

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you our file structure and then walk you through the process of creating your first podcast with your Freedom Podcasting podcast producer.

DropBox is critical for this process. If you don’t have DropBox software installed on your computer, please let me know in the comments below. We can create a tutorial which explains how to operate DropBox with a simple web browser.

This process involves duplicating a MasterFile which will support you in avoiding mistakes or missed files. We also explain exactly how to create the show production notes as well. This will help if you would like to add a strange song or an interesting soundbite.

I’ve been working on the process of making this easy for clients for more than two years now. This is the most versatile yet simple system I could think of. It helps you share podcast files in a way that is quick and easy.

Feb 04

Love4

How to Record a Podcast with Anyone Who Has Access to a Phone

By Ian Discussing Podcasting, How Podcasting Works, Podcasting Process 9 Comments

In this Video We Cover

Making Space for Recording
Setting up Recording Hardware
Starting Recording Equipment Software
Testing Recordings Ahead of Time using Skype Test Call
Naming Files and Setting File Locations
Setting Skype to Use the Best Microphone
Best Practices for Holding Microphone During Recordings
We Record a Test Podcast with V

Want to learn more about the equipment used in this tutorial?

Learn to Set Up the Equipment

Process Document

Pre-Interview Recording Instructions

Click This Link to Download the PDF
Print it Out and Follow When Preparing for a Big Interview

Begin this process 10 minutes before your interview

Close Out All Programs
Supports with presence, focus and operating system issues.

Plug in Your Headphones to the Computer’s Headphone Jack

Plug in Recording Equipment to the computer’s USB port
For Extensive Instructions Visit: FreedomPodcasting.com/studio

Open Piezo – Skype Recording Software (FreedomPodcasting.com/piezo)

Select Skype as the Source On Piezo Program
Skype is already selected? Click Piezo’s Record button to open Skype

Record a Test Call using Skype Test Call

Type “Test” into the search bar and call “Skype Test Call”
Record yourself speaking with their automated service and check you recording mp3 to ensure everything is working right.

Call Your Interview Subject and Record the Interview

While recording with your guest or interview subject, you can be reminded that the recording is working by checking to see the duration numbers are rolling along and the level needles are moving when you and your subject speak.

Share your podcast via DropBox with the Freedom Podcasting Team

The Reasoning Behind this Post

The biggest hurtle for new podcasters is creating recordings.

Every day at Freedom Podcasting we have people reach out to us via our customer survey . The people who reach out to us are passionate about their ideas and are ready to get their ideas out to the world. I notice that many of us grow unsure of the next step.

What is the next step?

Start recording.

That’s it. But it’s not that simple. There is a world of information out there regarding what microphones to use and high tech software programs to learn. In my opinion, most of this information is written by two types of people:

Audiophiles – Passionate about the science of recording. These people are crazy about this stuff and should be ignored. Truth is, they are putting tremendous amounts of energy into the science of sound which only other audiophiles really understand
Charlatans – These people don’t really know too much about this stuff but it makes sense to recommend complex solutions so that it seems like you really know what you’re talking about.

Both of these should be ignored. The truth is, we can implement Pareto’s 80/20 analysis and create high quality sound that can be traveled with and operated by a person who knows nothing about the science or complexity behind recordings.

The reason podcasting is blowing up is because there are fascinating people who have access to

Once a host begins to record, they gain momentum. Momentum is a powerful thing. Why?

With a few recordings under our belt, we’ll have the raw material needed to craft a new finished product. Without this, the work has yet to be done. If the hosts isn’t ready to get the initial work done, the show will never see the light of day.

So if you’re hoping to create the next big business or express the next big idea, start with the work that can be done. Start recording.

With the above proceesss

Feb 03

Love3

Embed a YouTube Video and Create a Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Blog Post

By Ian Uncategorized No Comments

We want you to be an integral part in setting up your blog for podcasting. We advise that you build out your own content which can be uploaded and published. We want you to have the freedom to add your own content whenever you want.

Adding YouTube videos from outside your business can be helpful to others in your space. We also recommend that you add videos that aren’t in your space. These can also create value.

This kind of marketing is about authenticity. If you can create some personalized content (even if it’s cat videos) and attach some excellent writing, you will have a better chance of engaging with your true fan.

Nov 14

Love4

How to Archive DropBox files Without Filling Your Hard Drive

By Ian Tutorials for Clients One Comment

Has someone just uploaded a 5 GB file to your DropBox and killed your workflow for the day?

Are you trying to find a way to archive past DropBox based projects? You want the files on Dropbox but not on your Hard Drive?

Jonah helped us find the answer to this problem.

The answer is selective sync.

Selective sync allows you to select and differentiate between what is in your DropBox and what is on your hard drive. Here is how it works:

How to Selective Sync Your DropBox:

Click DropBox Icon at the top of the screen
Click the Gear Icon at the bottom right of the dropdown menu
Select Preferences
Click the “Account” tab
Click the “Change Settings…” box next to Selective Sync
Uncheck folders which you want to remove from your hard drive but keep on DropBox
Once you have made your selections, click update

Once you click update the files will be removed from your hard drive, but they will contunie to be shareable and retreavable on the Dropbox web client.

Your hard drive will automatically clean up while your archived folders are stored in the cloud.