Nashville was the place for three podcasting events last week and I sit down with Dave Jackson from School of Podcasting to talk about each of them.   When podcasting first started, small events were all we had. Then things started taking off, so podcasting was added to blogging conferences and other "new media" events. Then podcasting got big enough to be worthy of its own larger events.   Now things are changing again, with more and more podcasting events focusing on different niches within podcasting. That was the case with two of the three podcasting events that happened in Nashville last week.   If you're looking to connect with other podcasters, live events are a great way to do it.   More thoughts on this episode...   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Travis from from Pod Decks sent me a package of his five latest decks. Pod Decks are essential flash/playing cards with episode, segment, and question ideas. If you need ideas for your podcast, they can be a great tool.   On this episode, I review the Pod Decks package from Travis and talk more about how you can use Pod Decks as a tool to make your podcast better.   Want to hear them in use? I use the "interview decks" as a tool for my daily sausage factory podcast. I'm also using the "Episode Ideas" deck for episodes of the sister podcast to this one, RED Podcast and will likely have some behind-the-scenes from these episodes here, so you can see my thought process of outlining and planning podcast episodes using Pod Decks as a tool.    Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Podcasting can a dangeous business and COVID-19 has brought with it some new risks for those of us doing close-contact work. For the last couple of months, I've been working on a project that requires dozens of in-person interviews, so I've had to think a lot about safety and how far I'm willing to go to get a good story on tape.   Just last week, a well-known broadcaster and podcaster in Nashville contracted COVID-19 from his co-host. Everything seemed to be going fine, until it wasn't – he's currently in the hospital in the critical care unit.   To make things more complicated, this person does a show where he frequently shares anti-vaccine propaganda. And the co-host of his podcast, the guy he contracted COVID-19 from, is his son.   It's a bad situation to be in. Which is a good reminder for all of us to be careful and thoughtful about the work we do and what we say while on the mic.   More thoughts on this episode...   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

I had an interesting experience with a well-known podcaster recently. He was asking about the quality of his podcast and I let him know it wasn't very good. Then I let him know an easy way to improve it.   He rejected my idea.   I share the story in this episode. And my hope is that you'll make a different (and better) decision when it comes to your podcast. If you do, you'll get more listeners for your podcast and make more money with it.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

If you're been around microphones long enough, you've probably experienced a "hot mic" moment. I had one myself on this podcast just a few months ago, when I accidentally released a "rough edit" with some post-episode banter that was never meant to be heard, but hadn't yet been removed.   That situation ended up not being a big deal for me. Why? Because who I am on the mic is who I am off the mic – I didn't say anything that was "not me" or left listeners feeling tricked.   If you approach your podcast like this, a hot mic moment can actually help you, since people see that you're genuine.  It doesn't work that way most of the time though.   More about hot mics on this episode...   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Radio has long been known to throw in "value added" services, such as free or discount website advertising for those who buy their broadcast ads. This has been going on forever, so nobody thinks it's a big deal. Plus, the perception of website advertising is better than its reality, at least for some buyers, so it really isn't a big deal – it's a good deal for radio.   But podcast distribition platform Audioboom pissed off a few people by advertising that it encourages its hosts to "go long" on advertising reads, esentially giving away "$400 million in free advertising" to buyers.   First of all, that's magic math. No way were those longer ad reads were worth that kind of money.    What is worth a lot of money and what Audioboom seems to miss is what podcasters, like you, really do bring to the table when it comes to advertising. That's what I talk about on this episode.   Want to make more money from your podcast ads? Listen up...   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Chris Curran, like me, spent a lot of time in the music industry. While my focus was marketing, mostly working out of office buildings, he was in the studio, engineering acts like Naughty by Nature, Heavy D & the Boyz, and Helmet.   When you spend that much time in the studio, you learn a lot about what it takes to get a quality recording. You also learn a lot about the psychology of getting a good performance on tape.   Between us, Chris and I have been part of over 3000 podcast episodes and interviewed hundreds of people. We've seen and experienced the good, bad, and ugly of podcasting.   In this episode, we talk about the process of getting a quality guest interview.

Want more? Visit Chris at Podcast Engineering School.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Podcast editor Steve Stewart is back with a "bonus episode" that's very specific to the newly released Audacity 3.0. This one is short and to-the-point with a couple of things for you to consider if you use Audacity to edit your podcast.   On this episode:

• Audacity 3.0's new file format – this will make your podcast editing easier
• How to get a "clean cut" in your podcast edits (with a single keystroke)
• Sending your podcast directly to your editor (or anybody else) directly from Audacity

Links mentioned:

• Behind-the-scenes of Steve's podcast editing business
• Audacity 3.0

Want more podcast editing help? Visit Steve at Podcast Editor Academy.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

95% of the time, the focus of Build A Big Podcast is marketing. Steve Stewart is a podcast editor. What does he know about marketing a podcast?   A lot – as the guy who runs the 6000+-member Podcast Editors Club on Facebook, he's seen and heard it all.   On this episode:

• The importance of owning a niche...even if you're just editing podcasts
• The editing "side-hustle" – a good option for you as a podcast host?
• How to start a podcast editing business (and how Steve was able to do it)
• The "psychology" of working with guests to get a great podcast interview
• The right way to do a mic test when you're interviewing a podcast guest remotely
• Getting comfortable on the mic (and how to make your podcast guests more comfortable)

Want more? Visit Steve at Podcast Editor Academy.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Audacity 3.0 is out and it's got some new things that you'll find helpful if you're a user.   Not a user? it's not for everybody, and there are arguable more powerful tools like it available, but it's worked well for me for about 20 years and, for podcasting, I think it's worth a look.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.