Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Podcasting Links
Podcasting Articles and Links mentioned by Elsie
Podcasting Articles and Links mentioned by Cliff Ravenscraft, Rob and Elsie
We’d love it if you could please share #TheFeed with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet!
If you dug this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe!
Make sure that you send us some audio feedback! 412 573 1934 or email thefeed@libsyn.com
Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Podcasting Links
Links Mentioned by Jon from WWPD
Podcasting Articles and Links mentioned by Rob, Elsie and Sarah
The original owner from the registered email would first cancel out their subscription in billing.
Then emails support@libsyn.com - and tells them the email address they want to give ownership over to.
And then support assigns the new email and deletes out the old email - and the new owner logs in and updates the billing.
There are 210 DMA’s - which is why if any one looks at their city stats - you would see 211 listed if you look all time - and have a decent following. The 211’th is Unknown - no all requests come in with City level info.
Anyone needing to update their RSS feed will need to send Stitcher the new feed. Quick email to content@stitcher.com with the new address and it will be swapped out!
Click on My Stations at the bottom of the Podcasts app. Then tap “New Station” upper right.
Then give the station a title - and then select the shows from the list of shows you are subscribed to - and yes you do need to be subscribed to the show as it only gives you the options for shows from the list of your subscriptions in the podcasts app.
In iTunes 11.1 - there is now support for syncing your Podcast station info to iCloud and sharing between devices. So you can start listening the Feed on the car ride home on your iPhone and then finish listening later in bed on your iPad.
We’d love it if you could please share #TheFeed with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet!
If you dug this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe!
Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Podcasting Links
Podcasting Articles and Links mentioned by Rob and Elsie
Hey all, thank you and welcome to Episode 5 of The Feed: The official Libsyn Podcast, the podcast that takes it beyond how to podcast into keeping you podcasting, with podcasting tips for the everyday podcaster + taking you inside Libsyn the largest podcast host and distribution network since 2004!
First things!
We have a voice feedback number! 412 573 1934 AND we have a SpeakPipe account! You can leave us audio feedback over on this page.
Submit your Podcasting segment!
Since we had our first listener submitted contribution to the show, I’d love to encourage you guys to join in!
If you have a segment that you would like to submit to me, something that will benefit the podcasting community as a whole, either something you learned or something that has worked for you, please send it along.
It can be hardware, software reviews, your podcasting workflow or possibly promotional ideas that have really helped you grow your audience that you feel would help all of us.
Email your contributions to thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com
If you are a Libsyn podcaster and want to be featured in our Rockin’ Libsyn Podcasts blog series all you have to do is email thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com.
I schedule those on a first come first serve basis, so when you get all the info to me that you need to get to me, I’ll schedule you on the next available date.
The Rockin’ Libsyn Podcasts are blog posts that usually go live on Mondays. As of the writing of this post I’m scheduled up to mid November 2013.
Share your message in 30 seconds or less! Not only is this a great exercise for you to distill the essence of your podcast, but it also helps the greater podcasting community get to know each other better!
Send them into thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com!
Some Elsie feedback about sending in your promos
Leave your podcast name and URL when sending in your promos…or any communication for that matter!
Make sure when you send in your show promo, your name and your show are prominently shown in the email, as well as a link back to your website or any other social media properties that you’d like to share with us.
This makes it super easy for me to connect with you and PROMOTE you. I do my best to link back to you in as many
I’ve been getting people that have been sending me promos that have no URL anywhere, no email signature and the email address that it comes from doesn’t help PLUS the name they’ve named the promo in no way helps to tell me what the podcast is either.
It would make my life easier if you could simply offer that information
Rob has 2 media players on Podcast411 and today in iOS.
If you go to Podcast411.com right now you will see a big player top center - with the artwork for Rich Eisens Podcast (at the time of this writing) - that is his show level player - it has in the artwork and it keeps up to date whenever he publishes a new episode.
He doesn’t do anything to update it.
If you scroll down you will see the episode level players - those stay fixed per the episode they are assigned.
How you get both is the following.
First you set up the player you want for the episode level. You do that by checking out this support article.
Get the size and type you want - then copy the embed code and paste to your site.
Next - Set up the player you want for the per episode posts. And leave it set there.
Then when you publish your next episode at the end after you hit publish you will get the embed code for just that episode - per the size / type you set up.
But wherever you previously embedded the Show level player - it will continue to update to show the most recent episode.
Sometime on websites or twitter we will see people linking to their files but with the wrong URL.
They will be using the URL - where their file redirects to. For example it may be -
http://ec.libsyn.com/….
or
http://hwcdn.libsyn.com….
Those are the wrong URL’s to use - they are temp URL’s - and can and WILL break in the future.
The URL you want to use for direct links to your media files is
http://traffic.libsyn.com/YOURSLUG/FILENAME
If you check your links and it is not traffic after the http:// - you are doing it wrong.
It also can effect your stats - as in not getting counted.
The real issue is anything other than the traffic link is a temp URL - and will in the future break - not that it may break - it WILL BREAK.
Per Rob’s email below:
“Hi Rob, this evening I went to a community meeting in Inglewood I go to every month. They love the concept of my radio show. But the block club president suggests I should call the councilman in the city or speak to the city legal lawyer to find out if it’s OK to use Inglewood in my title. Only word I know is registered is Realtor(r) what do you suggest I do to verify its OK. thank you for your time”
Read this article. The second letter in the article sums it up nicely.
In other words - just use Inglewood in your show’s name. And if anyone gives you grief - send them the link above.
This next one is an issue regarding those using Feedburner and a problem with the Podcasts App.
A Libsyn user was having problems when listeners tapped to download an episode in the Podcasts App - It streamed fine - but it would not download into the app.
It would give an error and time out.
We figured out it was not the Libsyn feed - as putting that in direct to the Podcasts App worked fine. It wound up being the person was using Smartcast and Stats for Feedburner.
When they turned those items off - Then the downloads started up fine.
So if you are using Feedburner - check your show in the Podcasts App and see if you can get it to download, if not make sure to deselect all the smartcast and stats options in Feedburner - which you really don’t need anyway if you have Libsyn as your source feed.
That issue would be for anyone using Feedburner regardless of where you host or what your source feed is - there is something going on with the Podcasts App - that does not like smartcast and stats options in Feedburner.
Congrats to the Parsec Award winners!
We’d love it if you could please share #TheFeed with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet!
If you dug this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe!
FREE SMARTPHONE APPS FOR THE FEED!
[social-bio]
Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Links mentioned
Podcasting Articles and Links mentioned by Rob and Elsie
Links and services mentioned by Rick Mulready
Social Media Links Shared on Podcasting
Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog
Links mentioned by Rob and Elsie
Ok peeps, once published, how many times do you listen to your own podcast? Inquiring minds want to know... hat tip to @WhatAboutPod
Links mentioned in the episode
Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog
Do you have a #podcasting ritual before you record your #podcast? You know something you do every single time you do your thing?
— libsyn (@libsyn) July 19, 2013
You can find a deeper conversation over here on Facebook. Let us know what YOUR ritual is if you haven’t had a chance :)
In summation: Podcasters like to drink (preferably something that in some way alters the nervous system) and eat as a way to prepare for podcasting :)
Via Rob Walch:
One of the biggest trends we have seen in the past couple of years at Libsyn is the consumption of podcast episodes directly to mobile devices.
In April 2012 i 43% of all downloads were to mobile devices. In June it was almost 54% of all downloads. That trend line is not slowing down any time soon.
For many people their iOS device has become their main computing device. Not just where they consume content but where they also want to create it.
You can create an audio podcast in MP3 format on an iOS device and upload it to your Libsyn account - even having it go live instantly on your Libsyn feed.
Part of what makes it so easy is one Libsyn feature many Libsyn users may not know about - but has been there since the early days. It is called our quickcast feature.
The quickcast feature allows you to take an MP3 file and upload it via FTP to your Libsyn account into your folder called quickcast. Once the file is placed in that folder our system will pull the Name and Description from the ID3 tags and use them for the name and description in the post - and automatically make it live on your feed and your other destinations - like your smartphone apps, or your libsyn blog page or Wordpress or Blogger pages if you have them set up.
Of course to do this you need an App that supports a few key features - Exporting as an MP3 file via FTP and where you can edit the ID3 tags before exporting. And luckily for libsyn users there is such an app - it is called Bossjock - it is $9.99 and it was created by one of the original founders of Libsyn.
It is also the only App in the App store that supports these features.
There is also a good mic for iOS devices call the iRig MIC Cast mic - this plugs right into the headphone port on your iOS device. This mic gives very good quality and only cost $39.
Brief overview of the work flow for creating a podcast episode with the Bossjock app.
Open the boss jock app and tap the lock symbol to turn on the mic and tap the record button to start recording.
Once done recording - swipe the bar at the bottom to pause and then tap finish.
Add a name for the file - no spaces and tap save.
Go to recording then tap on your episode and add the title you want for your post title - spaces are ok. And add a description of the episode. Then tap Export
Select MP3, mono, and move the slider so it shows 64 kbps for the bit rate and then tap FTP.
Enter your FTP server info which is ftp://ftp.libsyn.com/YOURSLUG/quickcast - Then enter your email and password for your libsyn account and tap upload.
Via Elsie:
One of the biggest concerns that I’ve seen out there in podcaster land, and something that is mentioned right along monetizing your podcast all the time, is growing your audience aka getting more listeners.
One way that I’d love to address this is by being totally transparent about the growth of this podcast as well as sharing what we have been doing in order to get the word out about it. Just because we happen to be a company doesn’t instantly make our podcast famous at all :)
Here’s how I’m gonna do it. I’ll disclose download numbers + tactics and also include events that might influence download numbers as well as strategy.
There was an article by jay fleischman that I shared and quoted from in the last episode of The Feed which said “searching in iTunes is akin to looking for a lost pair of floaties in the Atlantic Ocean”. He also drove home the point that in order to get more listeners you have to leverage what you already got.
This is super important.
And it also helps you to keep your podcast growth in perspective.
I believe this is a key competent that is often overlooked by podcasters, especially now days, as there is a ton of hype coming from the internet marketing and internet business folks that have newly (and by newly I mean in the past couple of years) discovered podcasting and are currently focusing very vocally on iTunes as THE way to get all the amazing benefits that come with podcasting, you know…expanding your reach, establishing yourself as an expert, creating super duper relationships with your audience, etc.
I will address iTunes SEO in another episode, which is certainly important.
I will share what I know, what I personally have experienced in these past 6 years as well as what I have researched, but it is NOT, and I am now capitalizing NOT the be all and end all of YOUR audience, nor the only reason that your podcast succeeds.
I am incredibly partial to podcasting as a medium both for personal expression and a business strategy. I believe that there is an x factor to the success of a podcast that makes it super challenging to measure by standard measurement guidelines, particularly those that have to do with download numbers. and other types of analytics.
I can’t even begin to count how many times I have told a podcaster that is searching for concrete measurement standards of success that I’ve said “It depends.”
Sharing the journey of The Feed, I’ll let you in on some concrete numbers but also those things that are not quite measurable that are unique to us.
So let’s get started by going back addressing that point that is often forgotten - What have we already got?
Or how did we or are we leveraging what we have to grow The Feed.
Leverage point number 1: Our company hosts media for podcasts, our clients are content creators, a large part which are exclusively podcasters SO in launching The Feed we didn’t have to deal with one of the most challenging aspects of launching a podcast which was explaining what a podcast was
Just to be safe, I’ll say that 99.9% of our optimal audience already knows what a podcast is and how to go about subscribing, listening, etc.
Remember, I’m talking about leveraging what we have not what we could have, which means reaching out potential content creators and budding podcasters.
So putting the fact that we are a podcasting company with Leverage point number 2, that we had an existing and consistent social media presence made it easy for us to reach out to our community, which is our target audience and THE reason that we are creating this podcast, and at least make them aware of our podcast.
In terms of our social media presence. We currently have 2183 twitter followers and 1347 FB likes. At any given time, in my guestimation when we post anything we’ll be seen by about 10% of our connections.
I’ve also been slowly building little connections and relationships for over 3 years through our social media properties as well as our blog.
We don’t have huge numbers in social media but we do have a core group that do engage with us at at minimum actively listen.
Leverage point number 3: Our reputation and superstars
Libsyn has been in the podcasting industry since November 2004. Our name inevitably comes up in podcasting conversation and for the most part we are mentioned in a positive light.
Our VP of Podcaster Relations, the guy that is in the trenches with podcasters and continues to be a podcast advocate Rob Walch has been podcasting since December 2004. His Podcast411 was the first podcast about podcasting.
So Libsyn’s reputation as well as Rob’s name also has a level of effect on whether people take an initial step into our podcast.
Notice that in those 3 Leverage points I did not mention iTunes.
Even with those leverage points that are pretty good wouldn’t you think? It’s not enough to tweet out once or even put up a FB post one time and expect a wave of subscribers.
I did my best to reach out to our audience via our social media channels in a way that offered value to those that chose to listen.
I made sure to capitalize on the topics that we were covering, tagged people that were mentioned, showcased people whose knowledge we shared by creating specific images that we could share via all our social media channels including new platforms such as Instagram.
I created a promo videos about our episode to support folks stumbling on our podcast, and we shared the episode in a variety of ways:
We linked directly to our MP3 file using our OnPublish feature for both Twitter + FB.
We linked to the libsyn podcast page, which is at thefeed.libsyn.com/podcast
We also linked straight to the episode show notes post
AND to our page in iTunes.
All of this has been done consistently and sporadically during the past 6 weeks.
And where has it got us?
We have had 447 downloads of episode 1.
We have had in 925 all time downloads of both of our episodes (as there is an episode 0) and get this, this is SUPER cool because this in no way is supported by iTunes OR even those that are subscribed to our podcast.
Out of those 925 download 99 of them are for the promos post that I did for our blog!
I quickly edited together the three promos that we had last episode into a small little file which I did not publish to The Feed’s feed, but only to the libsyn blog page.
That’s super cool! LOVE that. That means that almost 100 people have listened to those promos! sweet!
Adding podcaster clients to the mix, we did have the cool factor of being New and Noteworthy in iTunes as well as being featured on Stitcher. Which we are super thankful for and happy about :)
I’ll continue to share the growth of the podcast, our tactics, plus how we are leveraging what we already have to continue to serve our community!
Featured Podcast Promos 1. Chuck Brown from Hide Your Word 2. Tim Callaway from The Mouse Castle Lounge 3. Dave Jackson and The School of Podcasting
The Best Podcast Hosting options Daniel J Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com does a fantastic job breaking down podcast hosting for both your website as well as your media hosting. If you ever have someone wondering where to host their media and why, send them over.
How John Lee Dumas Earns $18,000 a Month with His Podcast- An interview with Dave Jackson and John Lee Dumas on The School of Podcasting
How Ira Glass Gets People to Talk : Ira Glass from This American Life on how he approaches interviews. Great stuff from a master. It’s a short article with a super short video.
Women in Podcasting article from @Marinaisgo aka Marina Rose Martinez
“Here you can find a compilation of the best and brightest the female podcasting scene has to offer! It’s a list that’s growing all the time.”
Why Podcasting Is The Perennial Also-Ran
"The problem is you can’t find a podcast to save your life.
Ever go through the iTunes podcast directory and look for something? It’s akin to looking for a pair of lost floaties in the Atlantic Ocean.
Apple, the 800-pound gorilla of the podcasting marketplace, has an awful search capability. Other podcasting directories languish in obscurity, many simply disappearing for lack of use.
Services such as Stitcher help you identify shows you may find interesting, but for niche areas such as bankruptcy law and consumer protection issues it’s just not up to the task.
You could go to Google and do a search, but that’s not much help either because the audio content can’t be parsed out by the algorithm (yet).
Which means the only way you’re going to get people to listen to your podcast is by leveraging what you’ve already got."
You asked for Rob Walch and so you got him. We discuss:
A bit of clarification from our conversation:
If you use our HTML 5 media player in Safari on an iOS device - it shows up as “AppleCoreMedia” in our stats - However AppleCoreMedia is not just Media Players in Safari - it is also the Podcasts app and other apps as well.
If you click on the URL from Safari - and it opens up the mobile quicktime player then it shows up as “safari” in our stats.
email Rob@libsyn.com if you have more questions!
These were the biggest community conversations in our social media channels:
How do podcasters listen to podcasts? Share your favorite ways to consume podcasts!
These tips are seasonal in nature. At this moment we are focusing on summer time as at the time of this recording it’s July in the Northern Hemisphere, but these tips can apply to any holiday, vacation time in your part of the world, and more specifically if your audience happens to be more locations specific.
Please note that when I say “summer” or “summertime” you can insert ‘holiday season’ ‘sprink break’ ‘semana santa’ ‘vacaciones de agosto’ or any other cultural time that people are off their usual schedules.
Here is the complete list of tips of how to grow your audience in summer time.
All right, that is it for our first episode!
Thank you so much for taking the time to listen and we really would love love love to add more of your voices to the mix SO if you have any questions or feedback you can email thefeed@libsyn.com. The coolest thing ever would be if you attach an MP3 of your feedback so we can play it on the show! You can also reach out via twitter and the Facebook page and hashtag it with #thefeed, so that we know you want to be addressed in the show.
And send us your PROMOS!!! thefeed@ libsyn.com
To Chuck Brown from Hide Your Word, Tim Callaway from The Mouse Castle Lounge, and Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting thank you for being the first to send in your promos. You guys rock! Thanks for stepping up!
What do you want to hear about? What are you most interested in us offering you?
Be on the lookout for episode 2 coming out two weeks from today, so that would be towards the end of July. Look forward to hearing from you before then!