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ClubPod.co

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ClubPod.co episodes

  • The dark side of ClubHouse
    ClubHouse is a great app.
    Some clubs are whatever they are called are great. For instance one I found had comedians putting on a play.
    BUT...
    ClubHouse has a dark idea I have found after being a user of the app for less than a week.
    It has some people who are using the app to make money and gaining a lot of power.
    Years ago, people would set up one page basic websites selling some pdf on self help or how to make a million or some such rubbish. I am sure they found people to buy these PDF’s. I am also sure that not a single person benefited from reading them.
    Today on ClubHouse we have some people who seem to be selling a dream to vulnerable people as moderator of some very popular clubs. Being moderators means they can prevent and block people from the club who may point this fact out. The result is, these people end up looking legitimate by the simple fact they get many thousands of followers. They too have fellow moderators who encourage listeners to both follow the leaders on social media as well as sing the praises of these moderators.
    The result is a room full of many people listening to people who have only one aim and that is to get people to pay them for a service that the chances are they do not need.
    Today I listened to one person who was allowed to speak. She was a psychic. It was not clear why a psychic was in a room that was marked ‘Biz Pitching’. This demonstrated to me the dark side of things as psychics target vulnerable people who wish to believe in this nonsense. And like with all psychics the lady psychic did no more than fish. By this I mean she asks open questions, such as, she did today ‘do you know someone who has a birthday soon.’ And most people will know someone with a birthday this year. If the so called psychic guesses wrong they will have a reason such as they are reading someone else and getting several messages from several people or some other silly excuse. The person who is listening tends to wish to believe and as such will only hear the psychic getting everything correct.
    As I stated one wondered why such nonsense was in a biz club. However it clearly demonstrated the people listening were vulnerable.
    One method the moderators of the group use to validate each other was to tell each other that they were wonderful people who did great things and people should follow them to gain great benefits.
    Some of these clubs now seem to be no more that to create an almost captive listeners to what is in effect no more than a clever sales speech in order to sell a product or service.
    One also can see other great problems that may develop.
    As some clubs become very popular, and I am not clear if there is a max number of listeners or if it is possible to have unlimited numbers. One could see some groups could once the app is open and not invite only and on all platforms the possibility that some rooms could easily get millions of listeners world wide, possibly more listeners than any radio or tv show has ever got. That moderators and/or those who ‘own’ the clubs could be in a position to take huge payments from people or companies in order for them to be selected to speak. In the same way those on such as Instagram get paid huge amounts to promote products or other Instagram accounts. Those who run or own such clubs with many followers could see themselves earning possibly millions from this method.
    The fact that clubhouse does not seem to allow people to have a right of reply or challenge someone speaking, unless the moderators allow you to speak seems rather dark and possibly dangerous. It means to be members of a club, and to avoid being banned, one has only got the option to praise the moderators of the club or room. This could create a sort of micro or mini dictator who has full control over people’s speech. As such, it would not be likely that he or she would allow anyone to state the moderator of that group was in any way a bad person.
    33 min
  • Recording a PodCast show

    When recording a podcast, I would recommend recording in WAV format. Once you edit the show you can save it as an mp3 or whatever format you wish. 


    When recording, set the level so you do not peak. This is where when you play back on such as your computer you will see a wave pattern. Peaking is when the sound is so load it goes off the scale.


    I heard one sound chap say keep the sound recording 20% from hitting peak levels.


    If the sound is recorded a bit low, do not worry, as you can increase this when you edit the recording. 


    A would do with a few practices so you can make sure you have the sound correct before you do your show.


    Press record before the show as that way it will save you from forgetting and you can make sure everything is fine.


    Record a few mins of saying nothing.  If you find some noise on the recording, you can use the non talking segment to remove some background noise such as a buzz with the section that has no talking on it.

    22 min
  • Recording ClubHouse shows may get you banned

    Some so called experts are saying you can record ‘shows’ on ClubHouse as long as you tell people you are recording the shows. However it may be that this could get you banned. 


    This looks to be a privacy issue.


    In the terms of service it states at the moment you need written permission to record shows.


    In the news it states that ClubHouse shut down a website that was recording shows.


    A lady on ClubHouse stated that she believes if you screen record the shows with your phone, that the clubhouse app will detect this and possibly will result in a ban.


    By the way, I have nothing to do with any groups or clubs that use the name clubpod.  So please do not pay anyone thinking your paying us.


    I have noticed some clubs on ClubHouse seem to be just used by moderators to flog there business. For instance on a club for podcasters, if people ask a question, often the reply is from the moderator is contact her and pay for her service. 


    If I was you, avoid clubs where the moderator(s) is asking you to pay for there business. As these clubs seem to be no more than a tacky sales pitch for there business. 


    A few ClubHouse tips:


    If you are going to talk. Turn the mobile option thing off on your mobile. Leave the WiFi on. This way if you are talking, then if someone phones you it will not switch you chatting off. Often you can hear people cut out when people phone them.


    Some are saying that you should avoid clubs where it is silenced just asking people to follow each other as some are claiming both the club and members may get shadow banned. 


    To applaud people. The method at the moment is to flicker your mute or microphone button on and off. 

    36 min
  • Avoid Politics
    This is a bit of advice, and that is do not post or talk about politics unless your podcasts, blog or whatever is on politics.
    The reason being is often it will result in getting abuse and harassment. Plus people may not want to hear your views.
    An example of this is a friend of mine who is a glamour model, posted her views on Trump. This resulted her getting huge abuse. And the truth is, her fans were following her for her looks and far less on her views.
    Now if you get people send you abuse because you said something that they felt was offensive, just block them. Do not waste your time trying to apologise to these PC bullies. Once you understand that these people who pretend to be offended by anything you say are no more than bullies and while they claim to be kind, in truth are just thugs and nasty people.
    The worst of these bullies are the ones who want people banned or silenced yet at the same time they will claim to be against fascism, while being a facist. They have an ideology that they are better than everyone else and that others are inferior to them and as such need to be silenced and banned.
    So just block them.
    They are not your fans or your friend, so block them.
    It is a bit like when companies pretend to be woke. The truth is, in most cases the woke people are not thee customers. And all that happens is that the real customers get fed up with the woke nonsense and you end up loosing real customers because you go woke.
    As long as you know your not being racist or whatever your being accused of, then simply ignore and block.
    The result is, these bullies just move onto someone else to bully while pretending to be nice.
    8 min
  • ClubHouse and podcasting 3.0
    I am going to call such as the app ClubHouse a podcasting 3.0.
    By this I mean I shall call podcasting 1.0 where you just recorded yourself and uploaded the podcast online.
    Podcasting 2.0 was where people had several people on the podcast. Sometimes in a room, or via a mobile phone or zoom or some other communication app.
    So I shall call ClubHouse podcasting 3.0.
    As I write this, ClubHouse is an invite only app and at the moment only on the Apple phone or IPad.
    I have the app working on an iPad at the moment.
    The app is basically voice only, and to send someone a text message at the moment you do this via Instagram or Twitter by a DM otherwise known as a Direct Message.
    At the moment, once you get an invite, you can invite two people.
    I find most people on the app seem to be from the USA.
    The app is live, and at the moment has no recording function for you to record the shows. However, you can using other recording apps or external recording machines.
    The idea is that people create groups or as they seem to be called ‘clubs’.
    The clubs have moderators, who let people talk. You can just listen or if you want to take part, you click the wave button.
    The problem with the clubs is (1) as they are live, you may miss a ‘show’ as you are busy or even asleep. And (2) some ‘clubs’ have become like forums where some people take over and feel they are all important and unless you brown nose them, them you are not allowed to speak and even booted out of the ‘club’.
    This may become a problem as I have noticed this in forums. People end up feeling important and the forum ends up where only some have a voice. Then they create silly awards and the awards always go to the same people. It is why I have no interest in awards as they often mean nothing.
    The other problem that may come about is that already some people are recording the shows to post as a podcast. However, if you have 9000 people (for instance) listening and recording the same show to upload to there podcast, we will end up with 9000 same podcast shows.
    It is also likely that we will see lots of ClubHouse clones. Indeed it has been reported in the news that Facebook is working on a version.
    I have also noticed a few people doing voice only shows on Twitter. This is new to me and I will look into this later. However it does seem you can to live talk shows on Twitter with others.
    While some of the ‘clubs’ can be a bit dull. So far the more entertaining ones seem to be like ‘Dragons Den’ (it may be called something different in your country), the TV show. So people pitch there business ideas to people to try to get funding. These can be very entertaining to listen to.
    20 min
  • Test 2
    In this test I recorded directly to the anchor app with my iPhone SE. However I used a cheap £20 ear pop thing by Aukey. As they are not made for doing this I did not expect good results. It was not as bad as I expected. But not great. It seems to cut out a bit. But I needed to do a test in case I ever decide to record with these pop things one day.
    4 min
  • Test 1
    In this test I have recorded directly to the anchor app using the iPhone SE phone with no external min.
    2 min
  • Get a website

    You do not need a website, but it is a jolly good idea, as you can post your shows and post info about your shows.


    If possible opt for a .com or .co domain name as it simply looks better.


    Try to opt for a short url as often it is easier to remember.


    Do not be tempted to go for the cheapest firm offering domain names as sometimes you may regret it, is you wish to move your domain to a different firm or you need to contact the firm if you have a problem. 


    One simple option is to setup a Wordpress site. These days most hosts will let you add a Wordpress sire automatically by pressing a button.  


    A firm near me charges £1000 for setting up a basic Wordpress site. To me, this is a huge rip off. I do it free for people as it can take me less than five minutes to set such a site up.


    You can then select one of many free or paid these and plugins to set the site as you want.


    You can use your site as a HUB where you can add links to all your social media links and to your podcast host(s).


    You can also post an email link and/or contact page for people to contact you.


    You do not need to host with the same firm you have your domain name(s) with.


    You can also find a few firms that you can pay a fee to and you can select a website and edit it.  Personally these seems a bit costly when you can do it yourself for much less. But if you want a simple option, then this could be your best bet.


    Although a few years ago we had lots of free hosts, these days you tend not to have as many. However, do not host your site on free hosts as from experience they tend to close or crash and you could loose everything. 

    21 min
  • Should you use a USB microphone?

    A lot of people seem to suggest to do a podcast, it is fine to just plug a USB mic into your computer and press record.


    This may not be the solution for everyone. 


    If you have your PC on you may also record the sound of your computer fan or hardrive or indeed other electrical noises. 


    It may be better to record on an external microphone into an external recorder. 


    This means you can record in a different room or outside or on location without being connected to your computer. 


    However if you are doing such as a live YouTube talk, then a USB microphone may make life simpler. 

    16 min
  • Before you start a podcast
    Starting a podcast is a bit like starting a business.
    It is a good idea to listen to as much radio and tv shows as you can, including old radio shows.
    Listen to how they do things.
    Time how long they interview people for.
    Listen to lots of podcasts and work out what you think is good and what is bad.
    Also look at a lot of YouTube vids on how to record and use sound software.
    You need to also ask yourself if you can do podcasts. A lot of people who do podcasts are dull and not at all interesting.
    Do not just chat to people who say you are great all the time. These people are no use to you and will tell you that you are great even if you stink at doing podcasts. They do not care if you fail or not and are only interested is looking like a nice person.
    You need people to tell you that something sucks. And you need to not have such an ego that you get upset that someone tells you that you suck.
    But at least spend time doing your homework.
    In the old days of cinema, people would sit down and watch a film and would time how long each scene would last, the camera angles, lighting and everything they thought important. They would teach themselves how to shoot films and would go on to make great films.
    This is what I would recommend you do before you start.
    22 min

About ClubPod.co

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A podcast about podcasting