Podcast Help Desk

In a word, yes!

Daniel J. Lewis in The Audacity to podcast episode 199  did a review of Audello and before he did, he talked about us Podcast Geezers being stuck in our ways.

Well, it's true, I admit it ::  I'm a podcast Geezer.  I think my way is the best way to podcast (for me and as many people as I can convince) . Do I think that will always be the case?  No.  Do I see it changing anytime soon. Maybe, but Audello isn't really it (just from what I know now).

I'm thinking we should have T-shirts made up for the New Media Expo for us "Geezers".

Happy Podcasting!

What do you think of the new Music? I was thinking that Jazz might be more my style. I have a kind of relaxed delivery, and a more relaxed theme song might work. Let me know. As with most things about podcasting, everything is changeable.

From Last Week:

I got a note from Paul Figgiani who was THE Senior Audio Engineer at IT Conversations. He was commenting about the audio loudness standards and knows a metric TON about this stuff. I’m hoping to convince him to come on the show and talk about it some more. It would also be fun to talk to him about the Podcasting World of 2004. He was there from the beginning (maybe even before the word “podcast”).

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Even the US Air Force uses the Wordpress 2014 theme! (see: http://airforcelive.dodlive.mil/) If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for podcasters.

Along those lines:

If your website is existing and you want to add podcasting. If you require a complicated wordpress theme or are on a different platform.

Build a landing page. A separate wordpress install for your podcast in either a sub-domain or a sub page. This way you can use powerpress and all the other standard plugins for your podcast.

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Scam Alert:

Not podcast related, but, Maybe? FYI Windows Users: Microsoft will NEVER call you on the phone about a virus. If you get a call from someone at phone number 949-000-7677, just hang up. Or do like I did, and said "Oh really, My Mac has a virus?" They hung up on me

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News from Apple’s Podcast Team:

Dear Podcast Provider,

To improve your experience with podcasts, we've introduced the following updates and features:

· Podcasts App Included in iOS 8

· Updated Cover Art Requirements

· iTunes Affiliate Program

· Custom Episode Sequence

Podcasts App Included in iOS 8

The Podcasts app is now included in iOS 8. To help you reach this larger audience more effectively through search and browsing, be sure your podcast's metadata and cover art meet Apple's technical specifications.

Updated Cover Art Requirements

To submit your Podcasts to the iTunes Store, you must have cover art of at least 1400 x 1400 pixels in the RGB color space and in the JPEG or PNG file formats. Additionally, the server hosting your cover art image must allow HTTP HEAD requests.

iTunes Affiliate Program

The Podcasts app now supports HTML links in podcast and episode notes. This new option also supports iTunes affiliate links. The iTunes affiliate program allows you to track downloads of free items and earn commission on items purchased by customers, including on the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store.

Learn more about the iTunes affiliate program. https://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates

Custom Episode Sequence

By default, podcast episodes appear on the iTunes Store in reverse chronological order based on the tag value. You can change episode order by setting the tag value to the order in which you'd like the episode to appear. For example, for an you'd like to appear as the first episode of the podcast, use the number 1 as the tag value. If the same order number is used by more than one episode, those episodes will revert to chronological order based on .

For more information about these new features and requirements, see Making a Podcast.

Regards,

The iTunes Podcast team

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iTunes updating your LISTING

I uploaded my new episode and it’s available on stitcher and it’s not on my iTunes listing. Whats wrong?

The iTunes store listing and what appears in your feed are two different things.

From last week…

Update on the Scammy Spammy podcasting service I wouldn’t name. Well I’m naming it this week. Audello. The service doesn’t seem unreasonable other than the price, but the claims the marketing of it makes, just make me feel icky. Dave Jackson did a video review of Audello and he had not much good to say about it. ALMOST everything they claim the software does can be done with a little learning for FREE. Sometimes paying to save time isn’t a bad thing. But with Podcasting, it’s really not THAT hard and it’s worth putting the time in for more reasons than just saving money.

I’ve been around the internet for a long time. Before the web in fact, and I’ve seen scams come and scams go. Internet marketers, as a rule, can get sucked into promoting something that isn’t the best because it offers the best commissions. I think you are going to see a lot of that coming soon.

My rules for internet marketing pitches are this:

1. If the checkout system they use is Clickbank, 9 times out of 10 it’s not worth your time or money. (Audello is through clickbank)

2. If the price ends with a 7, it’s likely not worth it. (Audello is normally $297 “on sale” for $197)

3.If they have a time limit before the price goes up, it’s not worth it. (Audello’s price WAS reported to go up in 3 days, 1 day, several hours and it changes every time you go to the site. It’s now $297 with an add-on $97 commercial license)

4. If there is a video on every page with a british voiceover, it makes me think scam. (see audello’s video marketing)

I’m not saying that audello is a scam, but it sure isn’t the deal that you are going to hear all the hype about. Just be careful. You could spend that $400 on something MUCH more useful for your podasting adventure such as a New Mic, Mixer, Recorder, Proper hosting or some cool artwork.

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Auphonic

Last week I talked about the Auphonic leveler web service (auphonic.com). Last episode was “leveled and processed” with it. This week I’m trying out the desktop software. This *may* be a better deal. It’s $89 (notice no 7) and $399 for a commercial license. (they define a commercial license is for people or companies that make more than $20,000 directly from their processed audio) Most podcasters can get away with the $89 license.

I will let you know if I buy the desktop license or I sign up for a monthly plan for the web service. I’m leaning toward the web license for now.

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What’s in a Name? (or title)

Back in the olden days of podcasting everyone put the show number in their title. I’ve been doing some thinking and even though I did this myself for as long as I’ve been podcasting, I’m changing it up.

I will continue to put my show number in the title, but I’m putting it at the end. You might notice, if you are looking at my feed, that I renamed all of my episodes to that format. Subject first then the podcast episode number. I’m still going to name them with the show number. This helps me keep them straight on my computer and on my server (and stats).

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Wordpress Default Theme 2014 - My 5 reasons to use it over custom themes.

1. It’s FREE! We know that free isn’t always good, but in this case, it works.

2. Most plugins are tested against the default themes in Wordpress. This means you are less likely to have issues with plugins. Powerpress is tested against 2014 first. When troubleshooting issues (if you have them) it’s one less thing that could be the cause. I would say about 25% of the support calls I get due to feed issues, it’s the custom theme someone is using that caused the problem. It’s a lot like the reason to use mp3 instead of m4a for your audio files. m4a will work,

Why show zero?

This is so that when you are setting up your podcast feed, you can get the feed going with a short show introduction. This is good for letting everyone know what your show is going to be about.

Your RSS feed isn't valid until you have an episode in it.  This will give you something for your feed so you can submit your feed to iTunes, Stitcher, Blubrry and wherever else before you officially launch.

This show is going to be 1 - 5 minute, single topic quick hit tips about your podcast, your podcast website and news items for the podcasting community.  It will be released as produced on no particular schedule..

Be sure you subscribe to both, this show and to the main Podcast Help Desk feed over on the subscribe page.

PHD - 028

The Podcast Help Desk is where we go deep into the technology of podcasting, help you with the problems you may run into and when we have a chance, review new gadgets, services and solutions for podcasters.

This is not to say that the why and how of podcasting isn’t important. There are other podcasts that cover that part better than I do.

As they say, “Content is King”. So if you have something to say, start a podcast.

To keep your podcast running smoothly and get it out to your audience takes some tech. Thats what I’m here for. I will try to smooth out the geek-speak and put it in (more or less) English.

The main audience for this podcast is those of you who have podcasts and want to tweak the tech to get better sound, a better website, a more reliable RSS feed or a more streamlined workflow. Also, those of you thinking of starting a podcast and don’t want to make all the mistakes that those of us that have been doing it a while had to make. I will help you avoid those along with some scammy, spammy or downright bad services that have been out there or will be out there. I’ve made all the mistakes so you don’t have to.

Podcast Help Desk is a Proud member of the Tech Podacst Network over at techpodcasts.com. If it’s tech, it’s here!

Lets get started…

You might have noticed I’ve changed the intro a bit. No music (although I’m going to have a new intro soon) I’m working on my mission for this podcast. During these unscheduled breaks, I’ve had time to think and tweak my content and to figure out my place in the world of Podcasts about podcasting.

Tom Magliozzi, Broadcaster, podcaster and Car guy dies at 77

Stitcher get bought by Deezer

IOS 8 is out. IOS 8.01 is out (ooops) IOS 8.02 is out. IOS 8.1 is out!

Also Yosemite is out for Mac. It’s been a big month for the Apple Fans out there.

Dave Jackson named Director Of Podcasting for New Media Expo!

Congrats to Dave! He will do a VERY good job with it and NMX this year is going to be a fantastic conference for many reasons, but first on my list is if Dave is selecting the speakers on the podcast track, It’s gonna be the bestist ;)

Congrats to Todd Cochrane for 10 years of podcasting!

Google releases Inbox by Gmail app

I know, not really directly podcast related, but I figure a lot of podcasters use gmail. First person to leave me voicemail on the voicemail link on the side of Podcast Help Desk will get an invite to Inbox from me. (let me know your gmail address when you do it)

New loudness standard for podcasting

Podcasting Standard -16 LUFS (?WTF?)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Loudness, K-weighted, relative to Full Scale (or LKFS) is a loudness standard designed to enable normalization of audio levels for delivery of broadcast TV and other video.[1] Loudness units relative to Full Scale (or LUFS) is a synonym for LKFS that was introduced in EBU R128.[2]Loudness Units (or LU) is an additional unit used in EBU R128. It describes Lk without direct absolute reference and therefore describes loudness level differences.

LKFS is standardized in ITU-R BS.1770.[3] In March 2011, the ITU introduced a loudness gate in the second revision of the recommendation, ITU-R BS.1770-2.[4] In August 2012, the ITU released the third revision of this recommendation ITU-R BS.1770-3.[5]

The EBU has suggested that the ITU's changing the unit to LUFS as LKFS does not comply with scientific naming conventions and is not in line with the standard set out in ISO 80000-8. Furthermore, they suggest the symbol for 'Loudness level, k-weighted' should be Lk, which would make Lk and LUFS are equivalent when LUFS indicates the value of Lk with reference to digital full scale.[6]

PHD027 - Living Under a Rock?

iOS 8 Update with “podcasts” app included. - Make sure you podcast is ready by Shawn Thorpe

CBS loses suit by patent troll, Personal Audio

National Podcast Day!  - September 30th

New Podcasts about podcasting (new to me anyway)

The Podcast Report - Paul Colligan

The Podcast Reporter - Fred Castaneda

Keep it simple stupid!  -

I’ve gotten a bunch of questions about some of the minutia of things that most people won’t see or need to worry about.  Such as the feed address.  Normally in powerpress the feed address is http://yourdomain.com/feed/podcast/.  If you want to change that you can start a new channel with what you want at the end such as http://yourdomain.com/feed/mygreatshow/  but that adds complication to everything.  I’ve even had people worry about the links under the player having a different text color than they want for the link.  Another way is to add the static feed plugin. That way you can make your feed address http://yourdomain.com/whatever-you-want.xml . I’m sure someone out there will want to get rid of the .xml but sometimes you can’t have what you want.  The important thing is that your feed functions and updates when you put out an episode.  The address doesn’t matter much. It’s good to have your own domain name (as I always said) but the rest of it is kind of picky.  Stop it!  99% of the people that subscribe to your show in iTunes, Stitcher and wherever else will never see the feed address or the feed itself.

I guess the brings up a bigger problem I see with a lot of podcasters.  They get all caught up in the tech of it.  Focusing on the tech when everything works is the wrong way to go about it.  Believe me, I know how that can be.  I’m all about the techy side of things.  The most important thing about your show is your show.  Make good content and have fun with it.  Don’t worry about the minor picky things.  Once you get your feed working and your website working, go about the business of producing your show.  Promote it everywhere you can, and as long as people get your content, how they get it is beside the point.  It is interesting, but not the most important thing.

Along that same line…

Podcast Review swaps.  by Dave Jackson  on Podcaster News

Question of the week

Q:  I use audacity to record/edit my show.  I notice the default setting for mp3 is 48,000hz sample rate at 128kbds bit rate.  Is this a good setting for podcasting?

A:  Well, no.  Let me explain. The standard for MP3 in podcasting (no, it’s not that other rates won’t work) is between 64kbds and 128kbds. So that part is good (although a bit large file size per minute).  It’s the 48000hz sample rate that should be changed to 44.100 to be the most compatible with players out there.  IF someone has a really old mp3 player, 48000hz will sound distorted where 44100 will not.

A bigger problem with audacity is the “LAME” mp3 encoder that comes with it.  Just as the name implies, it’s lame.  At least at a constant bitrate (in your case 128kbps). It sounds great with variable bit rate for music, but for voice and podcasting, you want to use a constant bit rate.  The easist way to get a good sounding MP3 is to use iTunes to convert your file from wav.  To do this, first in your itunes settings, make sure in the import settings, you have mp3 selected.  Then out of audacity, save the file as a .wav file.   Drag it into iTunes and right click.  Select “Make MP3 version”.  Then put your iD3 tags in that file and use that for your podcast.  By default, itunes will make a 44.1khz 128kbps file.  If you want to save on file size, and have the software (Adobe audition and others) save the mp3 at 96kbps or even 64 if it’s mostly voice.  This can save on hosting costs and make your shows quicker to download for your liste...

The company Personal Audio, The people claiming they have a patent for podcasting, that were suing Adam Carolla have tried to drop the lawsuit. They claim there is “no money” in podcasting. Adam has decided to not let it drop just yet and is keeping his counter-claims. His goal is to invalidate the patent. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. He’s raised nearly $1 million to fight them. I was listening to Adam Curry on No Agenda and he (the podfather) said that he thinks Corolla should give the cash to the EFF who is trying to get the patent invalidated. I’m not exactly sure what to think about it. Read more about it H E R E

Hosting

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people who have been asked by their webhost to upgrade because they are hogging all the CPU on a shared server. (a good problem to have)

- Not all webhosting is created the same.

- I would use the big guys for shared hosting. I’ve had the best luck with either Bluehost (you can help me out by using my affiliate link if you are going to go with Bluehost) or Godaddy hosting. (this podcast website is on Godaddy Linux hosting)

Bluehost just introduced their “Optimized Hosting For Wordpress” (use my link code) which would solve the problem.

-Wordpress takes some CPU to generate your feed with powerpress. PHP is used to generate your feed on the fly. When someone requests your RSS feed, it pulls a little bit on the server’s CPU. Get too many requests at one time and your site can slow down a bit. The way it does that is PHP.

From Wikipedia: PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. As of January 2013, PHP was installed on more than 240 million websites (39% of those sampled) and 2.1 million web servers.

- Say you have 1000 people that listen to your podcast every time you put out an episode and of those 1000 people, 50% are using your RSS feed, either with iTunes, the iOS Podcasts App or some other podcast app or rss reader. It’s not just 500 times does your feed get queried. It’s ever xx amount of time, it gets hit 500 times. over a week, if the podcatchers ping once a day thats 3500 times. Most of the time, most people (lets say 400) have it set to ping every hour. That would be 67900 times! If your show keeps growing, it won’t take long before your webhost will say that you are using too much CPU and ask you to leave. Hopefully they are nice enough to ask you to leave.

- There are many ways to fix this problem. Only 3 of them make any sense to me. As you know, I am a firm believer is owning your own brand and controlling your feed.

1. Upgrade your hosting. VPS, Dedicated server or Wordpress optimized hosting. Bluehost just introduced their “Optimized Hosting For Wordpress” (use my promo code) http://www.bluehost.com/track/mgdell/ which would solve the problem.

2. Create a static feed. I would (and do) use Static Feed plugin. at https://wordpress.org/plugins/staticfeed/ . ignore the part about it not being updated in over

2 years. It works and it is supported (by me and Angelo) so don’t worry. I’m hoping Angelo will update it just to get rid of that warning. :)

3. Use a caching plugin. (not my favorite choice but it can work)

Others may tell you to use Feedburner. That will ‘sort of work’. It does take the load off your webserver, but you give up much more so it’s not worth it.

Still others will say, use your hosting company's RSS feed. Both Libsyn and Blubrry offer a feed with a hosting account. I wouldn’t use that feed from either of them (although you could do worse since both companies will redirect your feed if you change your mind).

I’m going to be having another “off week” next week. So I will be back and we will continue the zero to itunes podc...

The podcast Help desk is taking a short hiatus. I will resume the weekly schedule on August 3rd (a Monday).

I'm switching the schedule for a Monday release. That gives me time over the weekend to catch up if I got busy during the week.

I will be continuing my series on zero to podcaster with setting up Wordpress.

Thanks for hanging in there!

-Mike

Followup from last weeks show.

I did have a chance to listen to more of the podcasts in the list from last week. I have to say, that one of them seem a bit pushy selly. (if that’s a correct term) What I mean is that this show seemed more like an infomercial for consulting, affiliate program links and lacked useful information. I’m not going to call out this podcaster as I may have just caught a show that was more like that than normal. I will keep listening. It was entertaining and well produced, so I’m not saying it was bad or useless, just not my style. Enough on that for now. Film at 11 :)

Val, from the comments for Episode 23 asks:

Q: This all sounds fine…but I am a bit slow.

I have a mp3 file I uploaded to my site how do I get a feed to be able to sent to Itunes? I tried wordpress free version but the powerpress plug-in is disabled. I tried feedburner but it tells me that it cannot find my audio

I missing something??

A: Well, there are a couple of things going on here. The first thing is there isn’t really a good way to to do podcasting from Wordpress.COM (notice I said wordpress DOT COM). Wordpress.com is a service of a company called automatic. They are also the people behind the open source blogging software called Wordpress.ORG (or just wordpress). They are not the same thing. Powerpress will not work with free (or paid) wordpress.com sites. It only works when you buy your own domain name, install wordpress.org on your webhosting account. There are ways to to podcast from wordpress.com, but they are not great.

One thing you could do is get hosting at Blubrry.com. With your media hosting they provide a website. (use my promo code NOBS for a free month) But, as always, I recommend your own domain with wordpress installed on it. You *can* (but not a long term thing) host your media on your webhost if you want. It will work while you are just starting out, but if your show grows quickly, you will want to get the media off your webserver. One place that will allow it is bluehost. They have some good deals on webhosting over there. Godaddy hosting is also a good place. They have tools that make it real easy to setup wordpress.

So, my advice to Val is to get your own domain, install wordpress and powerpress. See episode 1 of Podcast Tech Coach (Podcast Help Desk) for step by step instructions.

From a smart-aleck Jeffrey Powers, from Geekazine Via Facebook comment:

Q: What chair do you use?

A: I know Jeffrey was trying to be funny, and of course, I am in a squeaky chair in Northwest Lower Michigan… But that does bring up a good topic. That is Studio comfort.

If you are uncomfortable or your gear isn’t organized, your podcast won't be as enjoyable to produce. Make sure you chair, desk, table, keyboard and everything else is setup in a way that you are relaxed while podcasting.

Today, I want to start a series on going from zero to a fully ready to go podcast website complete with RSS feed and iTunes and Stitcher listings. I will also be making these into screencast videos which will be available on YouTube and on this site.

Today’s topic: Selecting the domain name and getting web hosting account.

Domain names are the heart of your branding for a podcast. Selecting one is something you should only have to do once

Heil PR40 - $327.00 - my Old standby

Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com

The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but I only want you to have as much info as you can. My fellow podcasters that podcast about podcasting have a lot of great information. There isn't any real competition in this field. We all have our own take on things and for the most part, everyone puts out great advice. Personalities and styles are quite different and you might not like someone's style so here is the best (in my opinion) of the people you should also listen to.

I suggest you pick a few other shows and sites from below to round out your podcasting education.

Podcasts about podcasting in no particular order: ( I randomized it)

Listen to the show for my comments about each of these links (agree or not they are well thought out)

Ask the Podcast Coach - Dave Jackson

The Audacity To Podcast - Daniel J. Lewis

Podcast 411 - Rob Walch

More Podcast Money - Dave Jackson

New Media Show - Todd Cochrane & Rob Greenlee

Start Talking and Recording today - Nick Seuberling

Podcasters Roundtable - Ray Ortega + others

The Powerpress Podcast - The Blubrry Official Podcast

Podcast Talent Coach - Eric K. Johnson

Podcast Answer Man - Cliff Ravenscraft

Podcast Quick Tips - Ray Ortega

Podcaster's Studio - Ray Ortega

School of Podcasting - Dave Jackson

The Feed - The Offical Libsyn Podcast

The Podcast Review Show - Dave Jackson (paid reviews)

Podcasting Resources (Most all the Podcasts above also have written and video resources)

How To Record Podcasts - Jeffrey Powers

The Podcasting Manual - create.blubrry.com

Blubrry Podcasting Forum - forum.blubrry.com

Google Plus Podcasters Community  -  https://plus.google.com/communities/102333709604116814839

Google Plus Podcasting Technology Resorces -  https://plus.google.com/communities/116202273138313720302

Facebook Podcast Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/PodcastCommunity/

How to Start A Podcast - Patt Flynn

Podcasting AtoZ - Cliff Ravenscraft

Podcasts about Podcasting list - Dave Jackson

Podcast Places - Daniel J. Lewis

Apples "Podcast Specs" page for iTunes

Use the promo code "nobs" for a free month of podcast hosting at any level at blubrry.com

The promo code also works for blubrry premium statistics 1 month free by using the promo code nobs.