Good Morning, Podcasters!

Myself, Jeff (aka Podcast Father), and Greg of the Indie Drop-in network are creating a new podcast for the indie podcaster community called Podcast Help Wanted. Think of it like my Monday morning #PodAudits, but, instead, an hour long and with three points of view instead of just mine. Jeff is a master of content and community building, Greg is a marketing wizard and business brain, and I'm just the same old Tanner. Oh wait, actually, now I'm "Tanner the Podcast Influencer" (more about that in this episode, too).

Help me win a $5000 grant for this podcast --> [link]

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

Download the Pysma app on [iOS] or [Android]

Learn more about the new podcast, Podcast Help Wanted --> [link]

PodCube is a unique podcast that might best be described as an Audio Skit Show, which I feel is a new, or at least a newly emergent, genre of podcast. It it exquisitely produced, well designed, and has impeccable audio quality, but the show's founder, Mason Amadeus, is having a hard time attracting an audience because of how difficult it is to actually describe the program. In today's episode I offer a few ideas that I hope are helpful.

Help me win a $5000 grant for this podcast --> [link]

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

Download the Pysma app on [iOS] or [Android]

Check out the PodCube podcast --> [link]

Arun Sridhar, host of the Skraps podcast (which recently did a documentary on psychedelics), has phoned in to ask a question about sound design. Sound design is increasingly common in podcasts as we get more money and more talent entering the space. The professional, Hollywood-type productions do it by default and independent creators are doing it more and more just to keep up with the ever-increasing bar of expected quality. But are independents capable of doing good sound design? And if they are, what do they need in order to do sound design well? I don't have all the answers, but I do have an answer for Arun's question, and you'll hear that answer in today's episode.

Help me win a $5000 grant for this podcast --> [link]

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

Download the Pysma app on [iOS] or [Android]

Artlist.io for Music and SFX --> [link]

Boom Library for Hollywood-class SFX --> [link]

Free Music Archive for free royalty free music --> [link]

Incompetech for free royalty free music --> [link]

FreeSFX for kind of generic but free SFX --> [link]

FreeSound for kind of good and also free SFX --> [link]

I get asked a lot of podcast questions, but I don't always get a chance to answer all of them. So a couple hours before recording this morning's episode of Podcasting Sucks! I took to twitter and screamed "Ask me anything!" into the void. Fortunately for me, and for you, the void heard, and screamed a few podcast questions back at me. So in today's episode, it's an ask me anything cleanup, lightning round if you will.

Help me win a $5000 grant for this podcast --> [link]

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

Download the Pysma app on [iOS] or [Android]

Expanders not Gates! --> [link]

Previous episode on acoustic DIY --> [link]

A Nefarious Nightmare Podcast --> [link]

The PodCube Podcast --> [link]

Transistor.FM --> [link]

Jason Falls --> [link]

Jason Falls, bourbon connoisseur and marketing wizard, when asked, by Seth Goldstein, "Is podcasting just a form of busking?" responded, "Certainly not. Podcast listening is opt-in and on-demand. Busking would be pushing your podcast through a loudspeaker system and blasting it to people who didn't ask for it."

I disagree, I feel they have far more in common than they don't. So, pardon me as I open my microphone case and lay it on the ground at my feet, hoping you'll toss in a few crinkled dollars, and prepare to share my thoughts on why I'm right and Jason is mistaken.

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

This is the first #PodAudit featuring a YouTube-based, video-forward podcast (what I would call a Vidcast, or maybe Vlogcast). I'll talk about signal-to-noise ratio, why video podcasts don't generally translate to audio-only podcasts very well, and what the Shayne and I podcast can do to improve their video podcast.

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

Timber is closing up shop. I'm migrating hosts. Hold on to your butts.

For a couple of months I mucked around with Chartable Smart Links, and I was happy with the data that they collected on the portion of my audience for which they were able to collect data (more info in the episode), but are they worth it? I would say they are not worth $100/mo unless you're running advanced ad campaigns and have the budget necessary to absorb the cost - but they are worth the $0 they charge for the free tier.

And what of media/press kits? Are they made more useful with data like what Chartable provides? I would say yes. But, what's that? You don't have a media/press kit? Don't worry, in this episode I'm going to give you one.

My Press Kit (PDF) --> [link]

Press Kit Template (Microsoft Powerpoint) --> [link]

Chartable data blog post --> [link]

Perry's Podcast, 8th Layer Insights --> [link]

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

AppSumo.com is a SAAS marketplace built for entrepreneurs, but there are some great solutions on the AppSumo platform for podcasters, and one of those might be WPSmartPay, a SAAS product that allows you setup donations, and recurring subscriptions, on your website. If your'e tired of Patreon or Supercast getting a cut of your podcast revenue, you'll at least want to check WPSmartPay out.

Check out WPSmartPay --> [link]

Send me a tip --> [link]

Submit a question for a future episode --> [link]

Want to get your podcast featured through Indie Drop-in? --> [link]

Matt, a music-genre podcaster from Canada, has a question about what local podcasts. Specifically: what can creators of local podcasts do to grow and succeed. I think they can do quite a lot more than non-local podcasts.