Podcast Ads: Host Read or Pre-Recorded – PCI 311

0:10 Hey. Everyone. Welcome to podcast insider. My name is Todd Cocker. Of course. I'm joined by Mike, Mr. Mike, Dell, Mike, how we doing? Doing good. And you're finally back in the, back in the saddle here after all the traveling. Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, working through some bugs, we've got some bugs and some of the things we're trying to, you know, the stuff we released, we released in a hurry and we're just finding little bitty things here and there. So those of you that are testing transcripts, if you get in air once in a while, let us know. We're, we're, we're shaking it out. And, uh, we're, we're, we're close to having it completely ironed out, but there's just a few things that, uh, keep hitting the update on power press . Yeah, yeah. We're, uh, we're putting out updates, you know, every few days, so.

0:54 Yeah, but, uh, we got some news for you, lot of stuff in the news stack, we've got a best practice for you. Of course, we got blueberry news, we got a blueberry pro tip. And, uh, we have a question of the week, big news out of podcast movement was host red or prerecorded ads, which is better or even programmatic, right. Which is better. And that study basically said there's not too much difference between them. Yeah. Not too much. There is a slight advantage to live read on, uh, on a few of the little categories in the chart there, but, uh, yeah, it's not significantly different. Uh, which surprises me. I, I would think the announcer read ads would do a little better and the live reads, maybe not as much who knows.

1:47 Well, the, what they found was that the host read was a little better yep. Than the, the program than someone else reading and then the program. So there's three close across three different types. So it was a great study. It was a great report. I, I don't think I was that surprised, um, in the results because we've been using a mix of host read and programmatic for a while now, uh, on our test shows. And so far the response has been good. So, um, anyway, that's just, you know, it's just, it just shows you that the programmatic piece has this huge opportunity to really, if they're done well, the key is that the programmatic has to be done. Well, it can't be radio has to be done well. And I, I think that if they're done well, I think the audiences will respond.

2:40 Yeah. As Tom wrote in the article, we link to, he, he said that, uh, you know, it isn't really how it's delivered. That's the thing. You can deliver a host red endorsement via programmatic or via, uh, you know, insertion. So, you know, it's it, that's not really the important part. It just has to be done well. Yeah. The key is to be done well. Yeah. I recommend everyone look at that entire study and go through it. It's it's a great one to, to review. Yeah, of course. Apple sent some welcome emails to shows that were already listed. I'm not sure what happened. There must be. They had a little snafu. Well, it's, it's either a snafu or, or it's indication that they're working on something, uh, because you know, maybe they pulled the trigger on some change and it marked a whole bunch of shows as being new. Maybe I, you know, so there's some speculation out there that Apple's working on something which doesn't surprise me. They had their big event yesterday. Yeah. And, uh, announced new iPhones and, uh, new ear pods and a few other things and, and a new watch that, that one watch looked really good. But.

3:47 , uh, for those of you that are athletes, I don't know if I need a rugged. No. I don't, but it looked. I've, I've, I've banged up a screen or two before on the edge. Yeah. Even the protector really didn't help it and scratch chip the edge once. Yeah. Mine's all beat up, but I don't care. I can still see it. yeah. So video and YouTube is changing podcasting. Ha ha ha ha. yeah. They, you use the term podcasting a little, uh, loose in this article cuz a lot of podcasts that are on YouTube are maybe not podcasts. Some of 'em are, you know, and yeah, they're talking a little bit about, uh, you know, people are doing additional YouTube content, uh, as a companion to their audio.

4:32 That makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. So. You know, we've been, I've been doing YouTube, you know, we did a little, I did a little dig in and so did Dave Jones over podcast 2.0 and looked at the top 200 shows in a podcast and looked for those equivalent shows in YouTube mm-hmm and didn't find very many found, you know, a handful that were very successful, but a bunch that were kind of like my YouTube channel, uh, you know, 20, 30 views maybe. Yeah. And that's the thing, you know, most podcasts and air quotes that are on YouTube are just a YouTube video of the podcast being created. Just, just like our Facebook live right now. Uh right. You know, it's just us recording in audio podcast.

5:21 Yeah. You know, so again, you know, I, I continue to be one of the great doubters. I'm not saying YouTube is not a place where stuff can be discovered, but I think if you focus on your audio content, focus on those key fundamentals and being able to write great show notes. Great, good episode titles. I, I think that you're going to have as much of a bank for buck as anything else. Oh yeah. And, but you know, if you wanna continue to follow the YouTube formula, great. I have, you have nothing against anyone doing that, but I think it's, you know, again, I think it's a bit bit misleading and some people listen, the show will Heartly disagree with me, but if you're having success with your podcast on YouTube, please, I wanna see how you're doing. Yeah. I really, I really do. Right.

6:10 And there are some YouTubers that have made the crossover work for them. Yeah. There's, there's not a. Lot, there's just not a ton of them. But you know, I know of a few that, uh, you know, started on YouTube and then have also a successful audio podcast that is more of a companion to their YouTube channel rather than, you know, the other way around. So we'll see. Well. After the, uh, uh, fiasco with Ben Shapiro and podcast movement oh yeah. Cumulus, their, uh, their primary one that sells ads into the daily wire daily wire network has basically pulled the plug and said, we're not, we're, we're, we're removing our support for podcast movement.

6:56 Yeah. So, uh, spent quite a bit of time yesterday on the new media show kind of going over, being open and inclusive in the podcasting space. And you know, I think those of you that prob there's probably many of you have so well, what are you talking about? I, I think the key key thing here is for, for blueberry customers to understand that, uh, really, uh, blueberry is about being open and supporting open RSS and supporting all voices and free. Speech. Speech and being inclusive. We have a terms of service on things you can't do. Like, you know, saying you're gonna kill somebody or something like that. Right. But we definitely are inclusive to all.

7:39 And, uh, we, we, this medium has been built on people, all folks, underrepresented voices, the whole, the whole spectrum, being able to do content and not worry about gatekeeper, having the ability to say what you wanna say, and we're gonna continue to stick with that. Yeah. Way. I think the, uh, the main thing is there's the gatekeepers, you know, there's, there are some in this industry on both sides of the political spectrum that wanna shut up the other side and that's not good. Uh, you know, and, and besides that is a podcasting conference, this is, this had nothing whatsoever to do with politics. Right.

8:20 It shouldn't have anyway, but, you know, eh, like. I said, and it, and it was not necess again, it's again, I don't wanna even go into the, the guts exactly. uh, but I'm just here to say that here at blueberry, we are, we honor and respect all voices. And, uh, the team is, uh, this is just, we don't, we don't, when you call in support and asking for help, , you know, nine out of 10 times, we have no idea what your content's about, nor do we care. We're helping you to, to get up and get running and get started and build your show and grow your show and all the things that are positive about podcasting mm-hmm and allowing your voice to be heard. That's the main thing. So yeah, I think I'll leave it at that, but you know, humorless pulling support, I, I don't unnecessarily blame them for doing so.

9:15 Well, you know, it might also have been, you know, that, you know, daily wire sort of called 'em out, didn't call 'em out by name. Oh. So it could be a reaction to that. And you know. I, yeah. You know, who else is gonna stand up for us type of thing. Yeah. So we'll see. But, uh, again, if you haven't followed the, the drama, uh, just be for say that podcasting hasn't changed and the podcasting is gonna remain open, it's gonna remain diverse, equitable, and inclusive. And I think that's the key here, new Canadian podcast newsletter pod, the north, how come they didn't say pod of the north pod? The north is the name of the news one.

9:55 I don't know, but it's over at sub stack. Uh, so, you know, go check it out. It's it's, you know, Canada doesn't really have much of a cohesive community of podcasters. I know we work with a lot of Canadian podcasters and, and you know, this is good that they'll have, you know, something here and, you know, just the last, you know, the first couple of posts there looked, looked pretty interesting. I like star Trek. I don't claim to be as Treky, but happy star Trek day 56 years ago today, star Trek premiered on NBC. Yeah. I know it's not really a podcast related, but I did throw some podcast that I like to list to our a podcast network. And then, uh, another one called women at warp .

10:36 So mm-hmm but, uh, yeah, today is officially star Trek day. So, uh, you know, the paramount who owns star Trek now has got a bunch of live streams scheduled for, uh, later this evening. And it's usually a pretty good time. They have a bunch of announcements of news shows and release dates and whatnot. So, you know, right. Like I said, it's a slow news day. So I thought I'd throw that in there. and speaking such. So go ahead, Mike, engage on the best practice. all right. Very good. Well, this one, uh, we're gonna talk about pre-recording your intros and outros, uh, little short versions. These are useful for editing and continuity and listeners enjoy a quick sentence or two when getting into a new episode and, you know, we don't prerecord them for this, but I, I have prerecorded for other shows.

11:26 Uh, it's kind of like audio branding on a radio station. You know, if you're, if you're familiar with your local radio stations, you can tune to one of them and, and they'll have kind of audio branding, which is, you know, kind of a theme song or whatever. Like when rush Limba was still on the air, his theme song would start playing at the top of the hour and everybody knew it time to listen to rush or whatever. And that was, uh, you know, that's kind of what this is good for. Uh, I had an intro for, I played for a long, long time on my show. Yeah. Yours was long. It was cool. It was about. 30, but it was long. It was about 30 seconds. It was definitely. And every once in a while, I play it to the audience to just kind of ruffle feathers, but yeah, may, maybe I'll do it on my regular show tonight, but, um, yeah. So anyway, I think that intro outro can come in handy, especially if it's professionally done it isn't too.

12:16 Long. Yeah. You, I, I think, you know, 30 seconds is probably the longest you wanna do. Oh, that's yeah. I would say shorter. And sometimes do a cold open. That's what I like to do. So I'll say a couple of words, then I'll go into the prerecorded intro. Awesome. Well, a little bit of blueberry news going here. We are definitely in Polish mode on all our new services and some old ones. If you see anything that think needs a tweak, let us know. We're definitely doing some tweaking on the. As you talked about at the intro there . Yeah. On the closed caption piece and what's really going on is we're testing stuff.

12:58 That's gonna be released next week and being able for you to go and basically do your backlog mm-hmm of episodes. And there's a caching challenge in that once we press the, you say, go ahead and create a backlogged, um, episode mm-hmm the player takes a bit to clear the cash to show the closed caption link. Yeah. And, uh, it's, uh, proving to be a pain. Yeah. Well, so. Trying to speed that up. yeah. So that that's a work in progress. So anyway, we're just doing some, some Polish and you'll be some updates to the website and that kinda stuff. So, uh, we were really, really rushed there prior to podcast movement to get all this stuff on the street and everything wasn't as perfect as it should be.

13:45 But thank you for your patience if you've seen some challenges, Hey, let's talk a little bit about Dragoncon as out there in, well, first of all, I went to an event in a private event in Vegas and, uh, did, uh, about, I don't know, it was six, eight hours of, uh, podcast 1 0 1 stuff to a group about three to 400 people. And then I went to Dragoncon, which is always fun because Dragoncon is just an event where, you know, the people come out with the wildest costumes, cosplay, that's going. I mean, and, and the digital media track, which is run by Charles MC balls, who does, uh, several podcasts and he streams on Twitch and some other places, uh, really did a great job this year with the, the track playing up because the digital media track was pretty full house all the way through, even up until I had a session on Sunday at eight 30 at night, and you'd think Sunday at eight 30, of course the party upstairs is just getting, going at dragon con they're across four different hotels.

14:45 And we had three quarters of the room, Paul, so nice. Um, lots of great conversations about really anything digital and a lot of podcasting discussions as well. So, uh, lots of great creators, lot of folks that wanna be creators folks that are trying to expand their audiences, same challenges, regular podcasters have. So. Yeah, just, just of interest here being star Trek day. So who's the host of the, uh, women in, at warp was that dragon con and she, uh, she has a post here with what she did during that. So pretty cool. Yeah. So there was lots of trackies walking around. , uh, I don't try to even be a poser.

15:26 I just wear a polo shirt matter fact wear a blueberry, the blueberry polo shirt, and, uh, walked, you know, basically supported the, the sessions and walked around the floor and checked people out. And, um, it's really not vendor specific, but I did go shopping at their, the mall that they have it's available and picked up some art. Ah, so more art for my, from my already crowded walls. that, uh, was a good show. Yeah. So let's go ahead and move on to the next topic. Yeah. We're looking for some podcasters of the month to feature before the end of the year. So let McKenzie know. She's kind of the one that, uh, herds that one, but, uh, yeah, definitely let us know if you'd like to be one of them, uh, hosting customers only in our case. So .

16:15 Mackenzie@blueberry.com. Yes. If you think your show's worthy for podcast of the month, get it out there and uh, let us know if you wanna be interested. We're not, you know, it's, it's almost like raise your hand and say, Hey, can, can, can I participate? And you know, and it's not that hard. We, we, we're not like looking for rock stars. We're looking for average podcast. Well, and we'll interview you on, uh, on this show if you, if you want. Yeah. Absolutely. By the way, I understand we're gonna have another, we're gonna have an interview next week. So oh really? Yeah. Uh, chose doing one tomorrow. Oh. And, uh, I'm gonna help her set up the old roader for that. And uh, yeah. So hopefully, uh, we'll have that interview next week.

16:56 Sounds good. So we have a blueberry tip, I guess this is a guest podcasting part two. Yeah. What happened was, uh, with our travel schedule, we did a couple of, of nontraditional episodes. somehow we got out of order with the, uh, pro tip. So, uh, oh, we were supposed to play this last week. So if you wanna hear part one, go back to episode 3 0 9, which was our little episode from podcast movement. And, uh, listen to that, uh, pro tip and then here's part two. Hi, it's Toby Goodman here previously.

17:36 I've spoken about using the power of guest podcasting, where you can have another podcast host one of your episodes on their show. It's the perfect way to leverage your podcast without having to invest in paid advertising. Now for full context, it's worth a few moments of your time, depending on where you listen. You can find the previous segment on blueberry's podcast insider, or is the standalone episode 34 of podcast business coach. And that's over@narrowpodcasting.com. Today. I'm going to take it a step further and explain how you can connect with other podcasters and how I recommend you frame someone else's podcast on your own podcast, feed connecting with other podcasters with a view to having them share an episode should be pretty straightforward.

18:22 Contact information can often be found in the show notes, but the sad fact is podcasters are targeted by lots and lots of emails and spams. So I've come to learn. It's more about how you can attract their attention. Firstly, positioning, let's say you have a podcast about parenting. A section of your podcast. Listeners might also be listening to podcasts about marriage. What I'm saying is, think about your listeners and where else they might like to hang out a podcast about marriage. For example, could be a great place to start. And that leads me to my second point homework, just because initial signs are good, make sure you actually listen to a few episodes of a potential partner podcast.

19:04 You should be checking for quality content and quality audio. Thirdly invite while there are no guarantees. Anyone wants to host your podcast on their podcast. Respectful invite can quickly sum up the benefit of sharing an episode. And because you'll have done your homework, you can demonstrate quickly that you aren't like all the other spammers. Here's an example, email template. You can use dear name of host. I absolutely loved your episode about insert name of episode, especially when you talk about insert example, that resonates. I'm the host of parenting podcast, and I'm looking to partner with a few like-minded podcasters so we can grow our shows. Would you be open to speaking about a collaboration, best your name?

19:50 You can send this as an email, but you also might find LinkedIn or other social media profiles or other good places to connect show up online where you know, they are lastly, a quick note about hosting another podcast in your feed, you are asking your listeners to trust you with a recommendation. So whatever you do, don't just drop the episode in your podcast feed without recording a short intro, Roman Mars from 99%. Invisible does a great job on his show with his intros, framing them as bonus episodes. I'd also encourage you to record a closer at the end. It shows, respect and remind your listeners what show they're listening to the blueberry pro team is here to help you publish your perfectly positioned show on the rock solid blueberry hosting platform.

20:40 If you are ready to professionalize your show, we would love to hear from you too. Just head over to blueberry pro.com. Thanks Toby for that. Thanks for the, the. You did something similar to that, uh, podcast movement, uh, where you and James Cridland, uh, cuz uh, Cridland played the, uh, new media show episode inside of, uh, whatever that show that he does. Yeah. Pod, pod. Land, pod land. I couldn think of it off top of my head. And I, I personally don't wanna play. I'll play a promo for another show in my personal show, but I won't do an episode swap personally. I won't do an episode swap.

21:24 I just don't. I don't know. I, I have misgivings about doing episode swaps. Yeah. Someone wants to play our episode. That's great. But I don't know if I want it it's cuz it's like throw something in there and you gotta be careful. Yeah. Oh of course. Uh, you know, the lot of the big networks do it, like wonder, uh, if you listen to any wonder shows, they'll play like a little 15 minute clip of one of their other shows they're trying to promote, but they won't play the whole episode and yeah. And they've warn you ahead of time, you know? I think a short clip is good. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing too long. Right. Alright. A question of the week. Now I'll read the question and let you answer it, Mike, I keep hearing podcast host safe, find us an apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, what is the best way to promote subscribing or following in my podcast?

22:14 Yeah. Well my favorite way. And of course, if you listen to us, any links of time is just to have your own website and promote that and then make sure you have all the links to your destinations on your website somewhere. That's easy to find, you know, uh, promoting something you don't own is something I always guard against. Uh, you know, and finding somebody on apple or Spotify is not always easy. The search isn't the greatest and all that. So it's much better to give them a direct link and the best way to do that is on your own website. Like we say here, you know, go to podcast, insider.com and subscriber, follow us there. Uh, we have all the links to the pertinent places and you know that about covers it. But uh, you know, first off you gotta have a good place to promote and your website is that.

23:08 And don't, and don't have those subscriber follow links below the fold or on a second page, have them right there when that page loads mm-hmm because if someone's found your page because of a Google search or if someone has been recommended and they come to your website, if they have to search for the place to follow or subscribe to your show, they're gone, you've lost them. So make sure it's above the fold on your, on your website, make it prominent. Yeah. So that people can subscribe to your podcast or follow your podcast. Right. Right. And like I say, it's just, you know, it's, it's important that you promote something you have control over. I I've told the story before, but we had somebody that got taken out of apple right before Christmas and got a whole lot of publicity right before that and with a link to his apple listing.

23:53 Right. Which didn't exist for two weeks over Christmas. So right. You know, not a good thing. Just to give you guys some idea too, we often say podcasts, insider.com. Mm-hmm podcast, insider.com actuallys to blueberry.com/podcast insider. But if we take you to blueberry.com, you're gonna land on the main page and you gotta click through to find the actual podcast for the show. So that's why we say for blueberry podcast, insider.com, which redirects to the correct page that we want you to land on. And you could do that as well with your site. If you don't, if your main site isn't necessarily just for the podcast, then make a landing page, get another domain and forward it.

24:36 Yeah. Forward it to that actual page mm-hmm and make it easy for people to see or use a Bitly link or something like that. Something simple to remember to send them to the page where they can follow or subscribe to you. But if you got a question you'd like us to answer on the show, drop an email to Mike blueberry.com audio, text, or video, we may use it. You can also post a question on the blueberry podcasting Facebook group. Yeah. I think that's where I got this one. so very good. And uh, the best place for support with any products or services is our ticket system. Tickets give the whole team access rather than direct emails or calls or Facebook posts. . So, and that's at blueberry.com porch slash support. Yes, of course.

25:18 You've been coming to you this week from the new media production studio in quarter Michigan and Mike Dell's world in traverse city, Michigan, we of course were produced by the blueberry pro production team@blueberrypro.com. Yeah. Of which Toby is also part of at blueberry pro that does our pro tip. Please fill out our listener survey at surveys.blueberry.com/pod insider. And you can also set up your own survey if you're on our stats system. That's right. Schedule one on one with me, hosting customers, only emailTodd@blueberry.com. And you can schedule a tech checkup with me, uh, hosting customers, only email mike@blueberry.com.

26:01 You can send your podcast sticker and a self address stamp envelope, and we'll send you a blueberry care package or just send us an empty envelope. And we will still send you a care package back or email McKenzie. And she will send you a care package. It's that easy, our mailing. We do like your stickers though, cuz we have a sticker board. Mm-hmm so we add 'em to our sticker board. It's in the office. Yeah. I have. A picture of that. I think from the last time we were down there. So, uh, maybe I'll have to post that somewhere. Our mailing address is on the blog post for this show@podcastandcenter.com. Mike, anything that I missed? No, I think we got it covered. And uh, Hey, we didn't have any technical glitches this week.

26:44 So no, not, not at all. That's good. So Hey, wanna thank you all for being here. Thanks for listening to the show. We'll be back with you next Thursday for another edition of the podcast insider. This was PCI three 11 for September 8th, 2022. We'll see you all next time, everyone. Thank you. Take care.