Krystals Test Show

Fat Pitch Radio and TV is great a podcast put together by Gary Lealand. In the episode we listened to he pulled his community in by soliciting questions from his facebook group.

His website looks great, and his audio is well done. The advertisements that he inserts into his show are entertaining and brief.

When interviewing people he should just go to the next question instead of announcing that he is going to the next question. All in all a great podcast for those who love past pitch softball.

Fast Pitch Radio (audio)

Fast Pitch TV (video)

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Today Dave and Erik review the Catholic Travel Podcast. This podcast is “The weekly audio journal about our pilgrimage preparations. We publish a new show every Monday.”

The Good Stuff

Good job of keeping things flowing, and sticking with theme (St pats).

Good audio.

Nice album artwork

The way the hosts engaged with the guest. Nice follow-up questions. The personal, conversational style felt like we were talking at the kitchen table Great use of vivid words with the dinner and backyard descriptions

Things That Could Be Tweaked

Define the show for the audience right in the intro every episode. Set it up. Why am I here? Control your guest. He sometimes talked a long time. Ask questions to get him to focus. Use more vivid descriptions and great follow-up questions. Ask what your audience is asking in their heads.

Depending on your choice, non cathloics are a bit lost (but then again, I’m not your audience). Don’t send people to pages with nothing. Would you keep a question in your podcast if you asked a yes or no question and they answered “no”? same things for websites.

Overall, I got confused if you went on the trips or just read about it. I felt the intro could have included an explanation of the show

Watch the Show here, or listen to the show below

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Due to a family emergency the show we were going to review could not make the show this week. In its place I went back into the vault of the podcast review show. I found episode 1 from May 2009. I chose a show I really liked called Digital Flotsam from from P.W. Fenton.

This is a well produced podcast that is delivered with lots of warmth and preparation. P.W. Fenton doesn't produce on a redictable schedule, but when a new episode is out he comes with a great story. If you want to feel the power of stories, click the play button below.

Digital Flotsam

LISTEN IN ITUNES

LISTEN

Listen to Digitial Flotsam in New Window

In today's episode we find ourselves with no show to review (A slight scheduling snafu) so we talk about what to expect if you get your show reviewed.

Erik K. Johnson

Been on the radio for over 25 years

He's been coaching radio hosts for 20 years

He hears podcasters making the same mistakes that Erik made when he first got into radio.

Dave Jackson

Been podcasting since 2005

Been in the Internet since the late 90′s

Check your website from top to bottom

Check your audio / video for levels, tagging.

Why are You Podcasting and Who is Your target Audience

One of the great things that the live format allows is we can understand the reasoning behind what you're doing.

We love to help you identify your goals, and your audience.

Identify What You Do Right

Our goal is not to just beat you down, but to identify what you're doing right (so you can do more of that).

We will point out those items that need tweaked. In some cases you think your content is coming across one way, and we heart it in a completely different light. They key to this is we provide constructive criticism.

More Content

You can find Erik at www.podcasttalentcoach.com

You can find Dave at www.schoolofpodcasting.com

Want to Get Reviewed?

We typically record these via Google Hangout On Air (with a live audience). As a fallback, we will use Skype if Hangouts is having a bad day.

We record at 8:30 EST on Thursday (so you will need to be available). If you're not, let us know when you're available (before ordering) and we'll see if we can get our schedules to line up.

Description:

TWO MINDS. ONE WORLD. ZERO Â PATIENCE.

Marc Raco and hosts discuss whatâ's wrong with the world, showcase new artists, and throw around pop culture, entertainment, food, news everything os on the menu!

There's curmudgeon producer Elsie, inventive games, fun, interviews, guest jokes and much more in every one-hour episode"plus theres always the infamous End of Show Food!

With more than 535,000 worldwide downloads/streams since releasing our first co-hosted episode October, 2012â€"and growing every day"everyone is becoming a monkey!

Dave's Thoughts:

The Good Parts:

They have done a good job of changing their episodes names. I liked the dialog more than the forced funny.

You seem to do a good job of getting out of a topic once you hit it.- for the most part

Your website better, but still needs work

You have better titles than the last time.

Parts That Need Tweaked

Marc should invest in a dynamic microphone – its right at the point of annoying.

Lose the background music in the background to get some without lyrics

Move the second intro closer to the beginning to help your momentum.

My complaints about Blog talk radio are not your fault. You are somewhat screwed, and moving away from them will be difficult if you want your audience to follow. (Blog talk radio messes up your ID3 tags, points to the wrong website, and hijacks your RSS feed).

Erik's Thoughts

The Good Parts

The details of the stories were solid. Â They become genuinely funny when you are mentioning cartoons you watched or describing skiers collapsing.

Know what you hope to accomplish with the story. Â Lead with an intriguing intro. My girlfriend called a help desk and I totally busted they guy with his bait-and-switch move. Then tell the story.

Parts That Could be Tweaked Jokes tend to be predictable. Â Name one president that wouldn't be included in a Presidents Day Sale? Nixon. How about Vladamir Putin? Â Somebody people don't expect. Funny is when you lead people where they think you should go and then do the unexpected. Â Of course the sales call ended with Where else could it end? Live Show Replay

The Engaging Life and Leadership podcast is  Discussing relevant answers for Christian men AND women in leadership positions.  Easy to remember â€" Simple to apply. It is hosted by Darren Dake and Anita Brooks. You can find their website at www.engaginglifeandleadership.com

This episode features the first appearance from Erik K. Johnson of Podcast Talent Coach

Things They Are Doing Well

Darren and Anita have extensive backgrounds and they backup any points they make with stories and examples.

They have good audio quality, and a warm and friendly tone.

Overall, content is solid. Â Great examples of putting each suggestion to use.

The show had a strong topic (prosperity mindset) focus weaved through the entire show

They do a good job of contributing to the show without stepping all over each other.

You do a good job of explaining what to expect at the beginning of the show.

Their website is easy to navigate, and I didn't have to search for a play button.

Things They Could Tweak

When I first visited their site the contact page was having issues

They are using Audacity to add the ID3 tags to their audio. As they are on a Mac, I recommend using ID3 Editor from pa-software.comÂ

You are currently using Feedburner.com for your feed. I would move away. Currently your album artwork does not display in Stitcher

You tag line on your artwork is very hard to read when it comes up in search results in iTunes

You were sending people to another site to locate your books. I would put a direct link to your books on the site.

 Both hosts sound very well versed in the subject matter.   However, we never learn their story.  Why should I trust what they are saying?  Incorporate your backstory into the content.

The introduction is long and not quite focused. Â It includes everything from church leaders to business owners. Â Who is our target here?

Move the Patreon segment further into the podcast.

There were lots of lists that became confusing. Â I think there were 4. Â Be sure to recap the lists when you finish them.

They seemed to use  “we’ve talked about that before” quite often.  Even the first paragraph of the show notes say “As we’ve discussed on previous programs…”  This is not welcoming for new listeners.  A new listener might feel like they missed something.

The end of show could use a bit of a tune up. You had a recap. You had news. You had calls to actions (pural on purpose). These were all valid information, but could be organized just a bit more. Try to determine what is THE thing you want to ask your audience to do. If you give them too many choices, they won't choose any of the options available.

Find them in iTunes

This show will stick in my mind for a long time. It took a LOT of effort to get through this. I am not a prude. I laugh at comedians like Louie CK, Chris Rock, and Eddie Murphy (back in the day). I loved Sam Kinison. I laugh at South Park and the Family Guy. I love to laugh. This show is billed as a comedy. I didn't hear any sarcasm. I didn't hear an commentary on life that pointed out ironic behavior. There is (under neath it all) formulas that work in comedy and in opinion (and that's all this is) this show doesn't follow any of them. If you think the phrase "Who doesn't masterbate at funerals" is funny then this show is for you. For me, it's stupid.

I watched Saturday night Fever. I watched the Wold of Wall Street (which set a record for the number of times "The F Word" was used in a movie). There was a story. There was CONTENT. This podcasts seems to swear because they want to be edgy. They have icing, but no cake.

The premise of the show is they take words that have been submitted by the audience and make a show out of that one word. This is something similar that improv groups do where they pull multiple words from a group and try to fit them all into a sketch. I've seen Second City in Chicago (a group that was supplied much of the cast for the first season of Saturday Night Live), and even that group had 30% of their content bomb. In general, good content does not happen by winging it.Â

In today's show the highlights are:

A girl sings I'm a little teapot out the window One of the hosts is leaving They do a prank call They talk about the co-hosts surfing for porn on his phone.

I typically say content should move your audience. It should inspire them. My question is, "What do the crew and One Word Go Show want us to do with this?" OK it's a comedy show. They expect us to laugh. I get that. For me (being in my late 40′s) I didn't find it funny. Maybe if you're between the ages of 15-22, you will.

The Lightning Bolt That Is Breanne

If you are a offensive enough person on reality TV, you will get your own show (see Honey Boo Boo, see Ambrosia, etc). On their website she is described as "She’s very open about her life, and doesn’t give a crap what you think. " She reminds me of Cartman's "Whatever I do what I want, only Breana would say "I do whatever I F#*king want Bitch."

For me, they lost me in the first 3 minutes with the endless unnecessary swearing. I do thank Mat for giving us a heads up that what was coming was immature, "dirty", and at times violent.

How to Swear Properly

The F word is a word to accent a level of intensity. If you you broke up with me, I might say you broke my heart. If you broke up with me after I bought you a leather Jacket for Valentines day and you're now dating my brother, I might say you F#*king broke my heart. If I use the word without respect for its power, you drain it of all it's power. It loses it's effect. Please respect the F word. It's one of the best words we have.

You might look at a post that I did a while ago that talks about Howard Stern had more than just dirty word. When he was on regular radio that required him to be creative.

I have a sneaking suspicion that heavy drinking occurs before this show starts recording (as some of these topics are – in my opinion – are not as funny as the laugh they inspire).

What This Show Does Well

They provide a disclaimer at the beginning of the show

They have easy to find subscribe buttons

They made sure to have proper ID3 tags

They put together some production music to introduce segments etc.

Nice Mickey Mouse imitation

What This Show Could Do Better

Get to the word first. I didn't know who Breanne is, so I didn't care that she was leaving.

Start well and end well. Come up with something funny at the beginning of the show (you may think your disclaimer is funny).

Add some treble to Dan's voice, at times he spoke so low I couldn't understand him. His voice is fine but the equalization needs tweaked.

Quit talking over each other.

Enough with the inside jokes.

As you know what words are in the hat that you are pulling out, plan ahead some material (maybe playing truth or dare was the plan, I'm not sure).

It took you five minutes to give out your contact information. People's most valuable asset is their time.

Try editing. A comedian records a special (often multiple times) and then takes the best of those recordings. Put the show down for a few days after the recording, and go back and edit with new ears and ask, "is this funny?".

I believe I am not your target audience. Figure out who they are, and listen through their ears. If you don't have 60 minutes of material ,do "fill it" with "stuff." There is no tool long when it comes to podcasting, only too boring.

Change your description on your site. I don't care how you met, or how long you and your friends have known each other. What is your podcast about? What can I expect? How will I benefit?

Look for crutch words. Breanne's word is "Like," and it becomes very annoying by the end of the show.

How to Grow Your Audience

Your audience is (I'm guessing) people who like Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, etc. I would look for forums where people talk about these shows and participate in the community.

Aside from the confusing name, this podcast starts off hot out of the gate and sucks you in with usable step by step advice on being a better person and handling life's little problems.

What They Are Doing Right

They have GREAT titles for their episodes.

They have good audio quality, and they get right to the point

They are honest, and provide strategies and tools to deal with situations.

Charlie does not hold back on telling relevant stories about himself (key word relevant).

Technically their file was in good shape.

The podcast clocked in at 32 minutes. They came in, hit the topic and quit.

They have the latest podcast one click away for new visitors.

[email protected]

There was one spot where Tony repeated exacly what Charlie had said. You might want to do this while recording so you both are on the same page, but I would cut it from the published podcast. Diane found the double confirmation a bit annoying.

Fade the music in at the end under the talking.

Add a subscribe button under the one episode on the front page (strike while the iron is hot).

Get a better email address that you don't have to spell

Explain up front what the heck Seishindo means.

You went over nine steps in the podcast, and then listed none of them on your site. Your post had less than 90 words. If you want more Google juice bump that up to 300.

I'm a but confused why they have a membership, but didn't mention it on the podcast.

Conclusion

This was a podcast that had us both listening intently, and both want to hear another episode. Great stories and skills to put to good use.

Find them in iTunes

Today we review the Photo Business Exposed Podcast (at photobizx.com) by  Andrew Hellmich. This is a podcast for people who are doing photography professionally and are looking to grow their business. The podcast has received a ton of 5 star reviews in iTunes and I was worried about reviewing it (as I appeared on an episode). Luckily, I didn't find much room for improvement. Here is the break down.

Could Improve?

At the beginning of the show there is a bit of hiss. Not a ton, and under most circumstances you wouldn't even know it. It sound like Andrew is using a noise gate which takes the noise down to zero when nobody is talking. For me this typically draws my attention to it. Once the interview started, it seemed to go away.

I like the small bit of chit cat at the beginning (I typically want all chit chat to tie in with the podcast topic, but this was brief). He then went into subscribing to the podcast using other tool like iTunes, stitcher, etc. I would move this toward the end. It was 6 minutes before he got to the interview, and you hadn't given them any "real" information to make them go, "Wow I want more of this in the future." This would be something to do at the end.

While he has links to iTunes and Stitcher, he needs a regular RSS button (for those on android, or other platforms that the ultimate flexibility – and this is what I use to put a player on this website). I forgot to mention this on the podcast.

What He Did Correct?

Good name – its obvious.

Great looking website using the Avana theme that was east to navigate, and lots of great pictures. I liked that when you go to listen to the podcast, the subscribe buttons are more obvious.

Great audio levels, and proper ID3 tags.

It wasn't a giant commercial for his membership site, and he gave a full interview to his audience. He didn't stop mid interview and go "If you want the rest, you need to join." Instead we got a full interview and if you want to go deeper into the topics, you can sign up for $10 at his membership site.

He asked good questions, and let his guest reveal great information. He listened and didn't try to inject his opinion. I felt like he was asking the questions his audience would want him to ask. The guest spelled things out in a clear to understand, easy to act on, manner.

He is building an email list. As there is a business behind this podcast (his membership site) this is a good idea.

If you are into photography (and maybe if you're just looking to grow your business) you can gleam alot of information out of this podcast.

Find his podcast at photobizx.com and in iTunes and Stitcher.

Today we listen to Hillbilly Nerd Talk. Don't let the name fool you, this is a pretty cool podcast that bring you news that you won't hear in major news outlets. They are coming from the Appalachian mountains and they have southern accents but that's where the hillbillyness (is that a word) ends.

Please note I originally say they forgot to tag their MP# file but they didn't (it just didn't show up when I played it in Windows media).

What You Are Doing Right

1. I can hear the smile on your voice
2. You're delivering good content that I found interesting. Content I could tell my friends "I heard it on a podcast."
3. Your audio sounds good (some volume issues at the beginning, but you were mixed well).
4. For the most part, you hit a topic, made your point and moved on.
5. When you were done with the podcast, you ended it.
6. You are talking about things you have passion about.

Easy Things They Can Fix

1. The music is too low on your intro. Anyone who turns it up will get blasted when you talk
2. Change the titles of your show. If you want to put the number of the show on the website, do it in the show notes (they will show up in a search). Your headline is precious, precious real estate.
3. You can drive traffic to your website when you talk about things like videos, but put a link to the video in your show notes. The show notes for episode 11 have a bunch of code in the middle.
4. I would move your player up towards the top in your sidebar as you theme doesn't put a player on the front page. Anyone who wanted to listen to your show has to scroll.
5. Get Michael Hyatt's Book Platform and add an "About" page that explains what to expect from your podcast, how people will benefit, and who you are.
6. I would move the "Chit chat" part of your show to the end.
7. I'm not sure what to change it to, but after listening to your show we need to update the website.

Would I listen to another episode? Yes.