Viral Podcasting

As a podcaster you need to be obsessed with your brand. But you can never take it for granted. Just because you've been successful in the past, doesn't mean that you can say or do anything you please. The United State's business history is littered with companies who have jumped the Branding Shark. Coca cola, General Motors, Ford, IBM and the list goes on and on. Bigger companies may have the ability to reverse their mistake, but for smaller entities - such as podcasters - this move can be fatal. Here's rule that you can safely live by. Unless your podcast is about politics, don't ever talk about it. The only thing you'll succeed in doing is self-immolation. Look at what's going on in the NFL today. Where you stand politically is completely besides the point. You have nothing to gain and 50 percent of your audience to lose. Is the risk worth the reward? I don't think so and neither should you. You have nothing to lose except your business. If you want to start a seperate podcast to highlight your political viewpoint, then go right ahead. Just don't taint your existing show with extraneous matters. If you have a healthy eating podcast and you start talking sports, the net result will be the same - lost listeners. Unless of course you're talking about dining options at sporting events. 

You've invested so much time, effort and money into building your brand, why risk throwing it away?

Anthony Rigogliosi is a podcastninja. A relative newcomer to the podcasting scene, Anthony felt himself attracted to the community after hearing his first podcast several years ago. From a young age, he preferred to get his information via the spoken word. He wasn't much of a reader and graphics wasn't his thing either. Like so many podcasters, once he started listening, he was hooked. He started learning everything he could about the medium and now he produces podcasts for other hosts. It's one stop production, record your show, send it off to Anthony and his staff of ninjas and everything else is taken care of. His advice to the aspiring podcaster, "Don't try to be perfect. It will stand in the way of your future greatness." If you want to become a professional podcaster, purchase my book Viral Podcasting. Just click the link. 

 

Just moved my studio once again. What a pain it can be. I can hook up the mixer and microphone and all the equipment within 15-20 minutes. But then comes the hard part, making your show sound as good as it was in your old studio. This was a real challenge in my new studio, because it had a lot of echo and it's a very lively room. In addition, the Skype signal was constantly dropping and getting garbled. I even received several complaints from our listeners saying that the show's audio quality had noticably declined. What to do? I didn't want to foam the place, which is the obvious solution. I hate the way it looks and it ruins the pain. I was watching an episode of the hit tv show The Profit. Marcus Lemonis invested in a firm Overtone Acoustics. They manufacture acoustic panels to reduce echo and help the sound profile of your room. I figured, probably won't work but I'll give it a try. I ordered 6 2'x4' panels. They weigh about 7 pounds each and look like cloth panels. They're stuffed with acoustic absorption material. I mounted them and the change was amazing. They're not cheap at around $80 each, but well worth it. To fix the Skype issues, I connected an ethernet cable right from my computer to the WiFi router. Presto, no more Skype issues. Evidently, I had a misbehaved WiFi signal that was causing all the problems. I guess the answer is don't move unless you absolutely have to. I should probably put together a moving check list, should I move again. 

Find Overtone Acoustics products right here.  Order my book Viral Podcasting here.

While podcaster server5 websites come and go, YouTube is by far the largest podcast server in existence. Literally millions of podcasts have been posted there. Many are unaware that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world after it's parent Google. This means that when you post a podcast to YouTube, there are potentially billions of YouTubers who can discover your work product. Until recently, it was a pain to post your podcast to YouTube. It required taking you WAV or MP3 file and converting it and uploading it to YouTube. It was a very time consuming project. Now however, it's much easier. Simply go to LIbsyn or Spreaker, click a box and presto your podcast is automatically posted to YouTube. You're limited to have your podcast square as the artwork and you'll have to manually add tags and key words, but most of the work is already done for you. It's a great way to expand your show's outread and dramatically broaden your potential audience. Start doing it now! Dont' forget to purchase my book Viral Podcasting. Just click the link.

Tyler Sheff's podcast took off when he found his inner voice. An introvert by nature, podcasting allowed him to connect with large numbers of people and break out of his shell. Following his passion for real estate and his desire to get potential investors accurate and actionable information, he conceived of the CashFlowGuys Podcast. In a little more than a year, he's gotten over 200,000 downloads. It's helped him get clients and he's helped change people's lives. By far, it's the most satisfying career he's ever engaged in. While there's many real estate podcasts, Tyler prides himself on cutting through the hype and getting the real story out there. At this point in his life, there's nothing he'd rather be doing, for which we applaud him.  Dont' forget to purchase my book Viral Podcasting. Just click the link. 

As it becomes more mature growth of the US podcasting industry is slowing, however in the rest of the world it's just beginning to take hold. Giorgio Minguzzi started his Italian digital marketing podcast nearly 2 years ago. While the equipment was easy to come by, except for his Heil PR-40, the expertise required to produce a great show wasn't. Especially in his native Italian Language. Giorgio spent nearly a month discovering the intricacies of the good old Mix-Minus. If only he had found Cliff Ravenscraft, his problems would have been solved. But Giorgio has learned the intricacies through the School of Hard Knocks approach and it's paying off. There's very little competition in the Italian Marketplace. He's already doing monthly 5 figures in downloads from his weekly show. Of course he's avidly consuming my book Viral Podcasting in his quest to become a profitable podcaster and just landed his first sponsor. Keep up the great work Giorgio!

Doing interviews in a live setting can be a lot of fun or a nightmare. The first time I ever did a live interview was in a grand ballroom with 5000 present. I didn't have time to prepare interview questions or do proper preparation. I was truly on my own. Somehow the adrenaline kicked and the questions started spewing from my lips. The interviewees seem to respond well and I began to relax. Later when I played back the interviews they sounded pretty good. The crowd noise in the background really added a sense of reality to the interview. It was an epiphany. I finally understood what the report on the street went through. It was a real growth experience. Next time you have the opportunity, try it. It will help you grow. You'll have to think on your feet and you'll have to make the interview pace flow. Flow is everything! Your rhythm and temp will help determine whether your interview is interesting and exciting or boring and humdrum. It's your decision, reach for greatness through a live interview. It will change you. It's all in my book. Order it on Amazon here. 

Ben Krueger of CashFlowPodcasting is an accomplished podcasters and helps others to create successful and profitable podcasts. Ben looks for cliets who are already successful. As the saying goes, "Nothing succeeds like success." Ben says, if someone is already successful in their business pursuits, then creating a profitable podcast is almost guaranteed. Like so many other podcasters, Ben's career kind of took off after some lucky breaks. He was already a major podcast fan and listener. Then everything else seemed to flow naturally from there. He acquired the technical tools and then it took off from there. He already had some familiarity with video production. So audio production was easy. It seems to be a common pattern among our industry. Ben has some very practical tips if you're looking to start your own podcast today. But you have to get started, have a plan and have passion. The rest will follow.

Very few successful people in life have done it all on their own. Talk with anyone at the top of their profession and the odds are they've had a number of mentors or coaches along the way. A good coach is often hard to find, but you'll no doubt be rewarded for your efforts. But make sure you listen to your coach. You don't have to agree with everything they say, but if you've got the right person, they won't tell you to do something unless they absolutely know it works. It's really that simple. For someone who's succeeded in their profession, the idea of mentoring or coaching someone is one of the best experiences they'll have. One thing that students often don't understand is that the coach will learn as much or more than the student. It forces the coach to look objectively at the things they've done in life and to obtain a better understanding of how things work. Finding a podcast or media coach can be difficult. There's just not that many people around who actually know how to create successful shows and podcasts. Valerie Geller is the person I go to. I also coach on a limited basis by application only. Email me and let's see where it goes.

Daniel J. Lewis has been podcasting since 2007 and also help people find podcasting success. Daniel got his start by listening to other people’s podcasts such as TWIT and Grammar Girl. Daniel launched The Audacity to Podcast in 2010. Longevity in podcasting means a lot. Starting out Daniel’s biggest obstacle was  building an audience. He learned this skill by the seat of his pants. It was easier in 2010 than it is today. How do you get people to discover your content? You have to find your audience, not wait for them to find you. Turn them into ambassadors for your podcast. Daniel believes that there will never be saturation of the podcasting market. There will always be niches and opportunities. So what are you waiting for?

#audacitytopodcast @danieljlewis #viralpodcasting