That's great! 🙂 FWIW, I've had conversations with some podcasters who don't give special rewards, and use the platform just as a way to allow listeners to show their support. I believe you can also choose to be rewarded "per creation", which might be an interesting way for people to help encourage a more frequent release schedule.
I'm not using it myself, but I know of lots of podcasters using Patreon. What made you decide to do it now?
I've been happy with MultiTrack DAW—it's not particularly pretty, but it's simple and reliable.
On the external mic front, the Rode iXY, Zoom iQ6, and Shure MV88 are great choices. A cheaper option would be something like the iRig MIC Cast.
Note that you can also get good external recorders, like the Zoom H1 or Tascam DR-5, for $100 or less.
For the media itself, podcasters either (1) self-host or (2) use a podcast host like Libsyn or Blubrry. If you already have a web host, it's pretty easy to get started with WordPress and the PowerPress plug-in. As you get popular, you can always move your media if that gets to be too much for a shared hosting plan.
Most podcasters have a site for their podcast because it brings a significant boost to your discoverability in search engines. It doesn't have to be a big production to start.
Once you have a feed, you'll want to list it with iTunes, Stitcher, and possibly other directories. Your episodes will be "pulled" from your podcast's RSS feed by directories and apps as you publish them.
That's really just a high-level overview, so please post back as you have questions!
Awesome, congratulations!
I did a bunch of foundational improvements to the Podbase podcast validator, and enhanced it so folks could use iTunes URLs as well as their RSS feed URLs. (A surprising number of podcasters don't know their feed URL!)
It's just trying to get those downloads and recognition out there.
Along with making it, that's the core challenge of creating a thing.
Posting to YouTube seems like an obvious way to get your podcast in front of more people. However, I don't personally see the benefit of being another one of millions of people who have videos with a few hundred views each, which is where nearly all of the podcasts I've seen posted there are stuck.
My 2¢, YMMV, etc. 🙂
You may run a problem with using copyrighted artwork — are you able to change that before Apple has a chance to evaluate and reject?
I recently saw that Libsyn has a way to publish audio podcasts onto YouTube and was wondering if anyone does that…
They do!
I'm not sure if people would listen to an hour long audio podcast YouTube…
That's the question. It's a very different medium, and most podcasters don't watch YouTube "seriously" enough to understand what successful YouTube content looks like.
Also, the metrics are completely different — a YouTube "view" means someone checked out 30+ seconds of your video (i.e. an episode), while a download is often a recurring subscriber that listens to most or all of your show. Depending on the value of your content, that makes a podcast subscriber 1,000–10,000✕ more valuable than a YouTube view.
A few podcasters have shared their detailed "view" stats with me, and the data I've seen isn't compelling. But then again, it's easy enough to experiment with. For me, anything that might short-circuit a podcast subscription is bad.
Do you have a podcast? This is a SoundCloud page.
Welp, I took the plunge.
Nice!
I'm still editing with Audacity - it's what I'm used to right now
I totally get it. The transition will be annoying, but should be short.
Not to mention that during this time, the podcast broke 500 downloads in a month and had its first 100+ download day.
🎈🎉 Congratuations! 😀👍
The medium grey font/icons on all white is actively for bad people with vision issues.
Thank you! Yes, Imzy's front page body text^ fails WCAG 2.0 AA and AAA contrast guidelines. It's much harder to read than other sites are, even on a retina display. (^At the very least, I'm sure there are many more violations than just this.)
Awesome! If you're feeling generous or do content marketing, you could take notes for a possible post or even a Medium article. I'd bet an Audacity vs. Hindenburg article would get tons of interest among podcasters. 🙂
…if you change the image and it doesn't meet the requirements then iTunes just won't take the new image.
I didn't know that! I thought they just wouldn't feature podcasts without art that met their requirements. So thank you! :)
It's so nice to hear you're digging the community, and I look forward to seeing you there. 🙂
If you don't mind eventually spending $95, I've only heard good things about Hindenburg Journalist. They offer a 30-day free trial, which seems like a no-brainer to try. (Speaking of which, I should really do that myself!)
There's a fairly in-depth 2011 review by Transom, which nicely complements the material on the product site.
If you try it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. In fact, I'm sure all podcasters using Audacity would. 😀
I'm not a huge fan of Audacity, since it uses an old, so-called "destructive" model of audio editing vs. the non-destructive editing that modern editors use.
Non-destructive editing has a couple standout benefits: It's more reliable because it doesn't actually alter the recorded audio files, and more productive because you can undo or revise edits at any point.
You can find some good free or cheap alternatives to Audacity here, in the open source guide where I've been capturing what I learn: https://charlesw.gitbooks.io/podcast/content/editing.html
Hey, David! I'm glad you posted.
…an hour long show sometimes takes between 2-3 hours to edit.
That seems fine and normal to me. When I've talked about this with podcasters in the past, editing time for a typical podcast is around 2–5× the recording time depending on the expertise of the editor, how rough the source is, etc.
A small percentage of podcasters do "live to drive" and post basically what they record, but I think those are usually smaller "two guys drink and shoot the shit" shows. And I'm assuming shows like Radiolab, Welcome to Night Vale, etc. are in a class of shows that take much longer to edit.
BTW, please feel free to send other folks to the group! I have a bunch of invites that I can use to add members.
My opinion is probably clear from the thread 🙂, but I file this under "cargo cult marketing". It's what people who don't know who their audience is, and/or how to reach them, do in order to feel like they're doing something.
You lose either way. If you promote a competitive show, you've introduced your audience (who has limited time for podcasts) to something that might displace you. If you tweet something random, you push some percentage of your audience one step closer to unfollowing.
Better to target and delight a potential audience for your podcast than roll the dice on hashtag games, IMO.
What kind of Mac laptop do you use ?
I use a MacBook Pro as my main machine, but I use an iPhone (connected to an audio interface) to record everybody on their own 24-bit/44.1 kHz audio track.
You'll want a mixer if you're doing live sound reinforcement. If you're not, for $400 I'd recommend a good audio interface or combo recorder/interface, some good-but-inexpensive mics, and some cables from Monoprice.
Once you get a multi-mic recording setup going, good sound is mostly a matter of thoughtful audio processing. I'm glad to share tips for that, too.
I had no idea about the promotion thing!
Cool! It's impossible for everyone to know everything about this stuff (me most definitely included), so my goal for the validator is to capture everything I can gather about feeding iTunes and other aggregators with the best-possible feed.
Subjectively, I think it's cool and improves the look of the SoundCloud page. Slightly more objectively, 🙂 it seems useful for each episode to have a unique image if just for marketing efforts on social media channels. But if it takes a ton of time to do, I think you'd want to consider its opportunity cost vs. spending that same time on marketing.
One critical issue I discovered by validating your feed — your primary podcast art is only 1,000×1,000 (below iTunes's 1,400×1,400 minimum). Happily your podcast is still available on iTunes, but that does disqualify the podcast for promotion by Apple. I'd recommend working on some nice 3,000×3,000 artwork ASAP.
Here's three possible ways to go:
Get a MacBook and another USB mic. Pros: It's most like what you're doing now. Macs have built-in support for using multiple USB mics. Cons: Apple's going to introduce new laptops soon.
Get an USB audio interface or USB mixer for your current laptop (or use your iPhone or iPad if you have one), and a couple XLR mics. Pros: People tend to "graduate" from USB to XLR mics, so better to do that sooner.
Get a combo recorder/interface (like the Zoom H5) and a couple XLR mics. Pros: People tend to "graduate" from USB to XLR mics, so better to do that sooner. A combo recorder/interface is a more portable, and generally considered more reliable, than recording wtih a laptop.
What's your budget like? Do you have a specific goal, sound-wise?
Ah, bummer. What podcasting really needs is a "rich description" standard for safely allowing some basic formatting with HTML or Markdown.
The "security measure" excuse is an interesting argument, but non-sensical since (1) SC is just generating the RSS, and not consuming it, and (2) XML parsers used by clients are really good at sanitizing input.



PodcastersPatreon.comFeb 26 at 5:08 PM