Viral Podcasting

Why You Should Attend Podfest #29

February 01, 2018 17:00 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MB

Chris Krimitsos is the founder of Podfest. I've been to a number of podcasting conferences and new media shows, but this one is by far the best! Chris puts his heart and soul into producing it. And the end result is amazing. Podcasting is a solitary profession. Most of us slave away in our home studios producing shows and content and forgetting about the world around us. Podfest gives you an opportunity to connect with kindred souls from around the globe. And this year promises to be the best...

The Future Belongs to Podcasting #28

February 01, 2018 05:00 - 11 minutes - 11 MB

I belong to a podcaster mastermind group. It's a group of experienced podcasters who are right in the thick of things. We had a guest on last week, Michael Harrison, owner of Talkers.com. He was very pessimistic about the future of terrestrial radio. Over the last 15 years, what used to be local independently owned radio stations have become part of massive radio station empires. This led to a decline in programming, especially local, and the rise of the bean counter. Management no longer lis...

Podcasting Pioneer Sees Unlimited Growth Ahead #27

January 23, 2018 05:00 - 28 minutes - 25.7 MB

Rob Walch started out podcasting in 2004. The field was wide open. He quickly learned that it's all about the content. Invest the time to make a great show and the world will beat a path to your doorstep. And it's been working out that way ever since. He's written two books on the subject that have become bestsellers. While there's a lot of people out there plying the trade, Rob believes that the opportunity to excel is greater than ever. It just takes the right mix of getting the technology ...

Invest in Your Podcast and Yourself #26

January 11, 2018 05:00 - 13 minutes - 12 MB

Successful podcasting requires a number of values and skills. The biggest investment you will make is your time, assuming that you really want to make a go of this. Your time is your most valuable commodity. We all have limited amounts and therefore any time we undertake a project, we are making the ultimate investment. But your time alone is not enough. Spend a few hundred dollars and get decent equipment. A mixer, a quality microphone, a microphone boom arm and shock absorber at a minimum. ...

Todd Cochrane--Pioneer of Podcasting #25

November 20, 2017 17:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MB

Todd Cochrane is one of the pioneers of podcasting. He wrote the first book on podcasting. He had been a blogger and by his own admission, not a good one. He was in the services and was injured. He volunteered to go to Waco, TX and had a lot of down time. He heard about podcasting and picked up a $14 headset. He made a lot of mistakes out of the gate. There was no formula for success back then. It always helps to be early in an industry. The audience skyrocketed and the rest is history. Now, ...

A.J. Wilcox--Monetize with LinkedIn #24

November 09, 2017 17:00 - 17 minutes - 15.7 MB

A.J. Wilcox joined us for a discussion of social media promotion with an emphasis on LinkedIn! Most people considering using paid advertising to promote their brand do not think of LinkedIn. It's much costlier than Facebook or Google. However, if you have a high dollar, high margin product or service that is geared primarily towards the B2B market, it might be the right fit. LinkedIn gives you the ability to more narrowly target your potential audience better than any other platform out there...

Chris Krimitsos--The Messengers 2018 - Podcasting Movie #23

October 23, 2017 16:00 - 23 minutes - 21.2 MB

During Podfest Chris Krimitsos had an inspiration. Why not do a movie about Podcasters and Podcasting. He traveled throughout the US and even went to Guatemala to capture the essence of podcasting. In a way all podcasters are messengers and that's how they came up with the name. It's all about spreading ideas and getting a message out. Financing the movie was a challenge. Within two weeks Chris had run out of money. It's hard to appreciate how quickly costs run up when making a movie. Chris s...

Keys to Effectively Editing Your Podcast #22

October 13, 2017 21:00 - 14 minutes - 13.2 MB

Editing is a sticky issue, especially with beginning podcasters, but even more experienced ones are often guilty. The purpose of editing isn't supposed to make you sound perfect. Over-editing/over-productions makes you sound unnatural and fake. You can edit your way to perfection, but is that really what you want. Don't be overcritical of yourself. It was cause you to be disappointed with your performance, no matter how good it might be. Edit out obvious blunders, mistakes and miscues....

Don't Mess with Your Brand, Ever! #21

October 04, 2017 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.6 MB

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 fa...

Anthony Rigogliosi--Professional Podcast Production for All! #20

September 15, 2017 04:00 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MB

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 ...

Fixing Room Echo and Improving Skype Quality #19

September 08, 2017 04:00 - 12 minutes - 11.6 MB

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...

Posting Your Podcasts to YouTube #18

September 04, 2017 04:00 - 12 minutes - 11.2 MB

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 fil...

Tyler Sheff's Podcasting For Introverts #15

August 26, 2017 04:00 - 16 minutes - 14.7 MB

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 satisf...

International Podcasting Is Taking Off with Italian Podcaster Giorgio Minguzzi

August 23, 2017 04:30 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MB

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 C...

Do Live Interviews to Increase Excitement #16

August 16, 2017 04:00 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MB

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 rea...

Ben Krueger--Keys to Successful Podcasting #14

July 09, 2017 04:00 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MB

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 ...

Get a Coach - Get a Life! #14

June 21, 2017 04:00 - 14 minutes - 12.9 MB

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 simpl...

Daniel J. Lewis--There's Always Opportunities In Podcasting #13

June 13, 2017 04:00 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MB

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 au...

But I Have A Lousy Voice #12

June 02, 2017 04:00 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MB

I hear so many people bemoan the fact that they don't have a good voice. Fortunately, there's no requirement that you have an operatic or Shakespearean quality voice to become a great podcaster or radio talk show host. Some of the most famous people out there have not so pleasant sounding voices. Look at Howard Stern. His voice is nasally, twangy and highly New Yorked. It hasn't seemed to hinder his success in the least. If you do have a great, it by no means guarantees your success. A guy in...

You Are A Brand - Now Let the World Know About It! #11

May 26, 2017 04:00 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MB

In business branding has become an essential element of success. Nowhere is branding more important than in making a podcast go viral. Branding will help make your show become sticky. Cliff Ravenscraft is a perfect examply of successful branding. He is the Podcast Answerman. Or Pat Flynn of Simple Passive Income. You're going to invest a lot of time, effort and money into building your brand. Don't do things that will damage your brand, i.e. politics and religion, unless your show is dedicate...

It's All About The Story - Mastering Storytelling #10

May 19, 2017 04:00 - 13 minutes - 11.9 MB

In podcasting as in radio, the first thing you must understand is what my good friend Wayne Allyn Root says, "Facts tell and stories sell!" Telling facts doesn't create audience engagement, in fact it will often do the opposite. Telling stories is our greatest asset as everyone wants to hear a good story. If you want to buiild a large audience you've got to become a master storyteller. That's not an easy task, I'm always learning how to better tell a story, even after all these years. If you ...

ABM - Always Be Monetizing #9

May 09, 2017 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MB

Time to get down to monetization. Always be monetizing if and when you're ready to. First you need to build an audience. You've been guest posting, you've been promoting, you've been crushing it! Doing a podcast is no guarantee of success. However, if you've got superior content, excellent audience engagement, you're being real and your numbers/analytics are starting to take off, then it's time. You're skills as an entertainer have really come into their own. Do it right and your show will su...

Pay Close Attention to Your Analytics #8

April 20, 2017 04:00 - 11 minutes - 10.3 MB

As a podcaster you need to become an expert in analytics. What are analytics? Simply stated, they're statistics. How many downloads are you getting? How many of them are duplicate downloads? Where does you audience come from? What countries? What percentage of your audience is male/female? All of these numbers are interesting, but they're very important. Before I started making money off the show, analytics was all I had. Also, make sure that you've enabled your site for Google Analytics wher...

Making Your Show Go Viral #7

April 14, 2017 04:00 - 9 minutes - 9.01 MB

How to make your show go viral. First, you need to determine your show's format. In podcasting there are no courses to really show you how to create a successful show format. Now, it's starting to catch on and there are podcasting courses in school. There are many formats, including: interview, monologue, commentary, hybrid and many more. Of course as previously stated, you need to pick the right name. Trademark your name as soon as you can. My show's name wasn't be best. I looked for great g...

To Script or Not To Script #6

April 07, 2017 04:00 - 9 minutes - 8.72 MB

Should you write a script for your podcast or just wing it. It depends upon you. If you're a subject matter expert and can talk without notes about your topic, then by all means go ahead and don't use one. If not, at least come up with bullit points for your commentary or discussion. When interviewing a guest, often times your guest will ask for a copy of the questions up front. We do this on the show, however with the proviso that we will not be bound by the questions. There's nothing worse ...

Time to Start Air Checking #5

March 31, 2017 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.91 MB

Air checking is vital to every podcaster, but the odds are you don't even know what it is. Simply stated, you sit down with your producer or other respected party and critically review a recent episode you've done. You cover the good, the bad and the ugly. It's best done in a non-judgmental, constructive manner. The goal is to improve your game, not to crush you. When I sit down with Valerie, we check my use of imagery, how am I using the word "you" to connect with the audience, am I using ra...

Choosing The Right Equipment and Optimizing Your Production Values #4

March 29, 2017 01:00 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MB

There's loads of equipment choices out there for every budget. You can start with a cheap $20 headset and move on from there. We use a Heil PR-40 Microphone, the gold standard of podcasting, a Mackie PRO-FX8 Mixer, a Behringer Gate/Compressor/Limiter and some other things to give the best possible sound. Quality equipment and sound editing practices go hand and hand with high production values. As Cliff Ravenscraft says, "High production values won't get people to listen to your podcast, but ...

Be Authentic - Always Be Yourself! #3

March 27, 2017 21:00 - 7 minutes - 6.44 MB

This seems so obvious I almost hesitated to bother with it, and yet there's so many people out there doing podcasts and being inauthentic. Like myself, many of you grew up in the 1970's with the crazy, zaney radio guy. You know the voice. It's as fake as a three dollar bill. There's just no room for it in our society today. And yet so many people try to emulate it and they succeed and thereby fail. Don't be something you're not and don't be somebody you aren't. Proudly admit your faults and y...

Who's Your Target Audience - How Do You Identify Them? #2

March 27, 2017 20:00 - 6 minutes - 5.9 MB

Before you start podcasting you'll need to identify the people who you think will be listening to your podcast, your target audience. What is their sex, their income level, their geographic location, their marital status, employment status etc. Look at your Google Analytics, your podcast server analytics, as well any other information you can accumulate about your likely audience. Look at market surveys, there's plenty of them available to you on the internet at no cost. Never assume your aud...

Naming Your Podcast - What's In A Name? Lesson #1

March 27, 2017 19:00 - 9 minutes - 8.41 MB

This could be the most important thing you do. Naming your podcast is perhaps the first major decision you will make once you decide to do a podcast. Too many would be podcasters put too little thought into this important task. A great name can propel your podcast into the stratosphere. A bad name could condemn it to obscurity. All too often podcasters choose mediocre names that do nothing to help them promote their brand and their podcast. You need to put a lot of time and thought before you...

Welcome To Viral Podcasting--Time To Transform Your Podcast

March 27, 2017 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MB

Welcome to Viral Podcasting. If you want to start a podcast or you're looking to bring your existing podcast to the next level, you've come to the right place. I suggest your purchase two books that I believe you will find extremely useful and perhaps indispensible to your podcasting career. First, my mentor, Valerie Geller's book Beyond Powerful Radio: A Communicator's Guide to the Internet Age?News, Talk, Information & Personality for Broadcasting, Podcasting, Internet, Radio and my book Vi...

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