The Effects of a Podcast – PCI 313

0:10 Everyone welcome to podcasting center. My name is Todd Cochran. Of course I'm joined today, not by Mike Dell, but by Mackenzie Bennett, Mackenzie, how are you? I'm doing well, happy to fill in for Mike. Yeah, he, uh, he's he's off doing something today. I'm not sure exactly what, but a little PTO. We all need that from time to time, but, uh. What's four. Yep. And you are your man in the office? Uh, yeah, the, the studio that doesn't get too much use down in Columbus. Yeah. It's, it's getting it's used today and um, I don't know how much use it'll get in the future because I bought one of those NB seven S I think that's what it was from. Sure. At podcast movement to be able to use it at my house.

0:52 Oh, nice. So just plug in and go. Yeah, next time. I'm on here in a couple weeks with Mike. I think that's what I'm gonna be using. Oh. Awesome. So, well, yeah, it'd be fun. Well, we've got some news for everyone today. We've got a best practice. We've got stuff happening in here at blueberry. We've got a pro tip, no interview in a question of the week. Boy, boy, cereal just keeps on kicking here in the news. It, it never seems to end, but I'm gonna see if I pronounce his name correctly. Aden Sied. Aon Sayed. Oh, there we go. Whose story was the focus of serial has been released?

1:33 So yes, what's the skinny on that. What's gonna what's happening there. So. Overall serial back in 2014, that was a big hit, uh, their first season of the show. It was about the case from ed NA with Hayman a murder case. Um, he was put in prison as a juvenile and has been in there for 23 years and was just released on Monday of this week. A couple days ago, the state did a motion to vacate his sentence. Mm-hmm essentially saying that prosecutors did not handle his case correctly. And that was mainly what serial was about saying that like his, they don't know if he did it or not essentially that, um, the case was not, you know, didn't really seem credible to actually have him wow. In.

2:20 Prison. So 23 years, that's a long time to be in prison. Yeah. 23 Years. I mean, there's been an enormous amount of speculation ever since that show came out. Um, there's been an HBO documentary about it as well. And then, uh, the woman Robbie chare that suggested it to the, this American life team in the first place to do, um, she ended up doing a podcast with two other attorneys, um, called undisclosed later to look into it as well. So do they think he was innocent or just didn't get a good trial? Do we know? It seems as though the undisclosed podcast, um, because Rav chare who suggested doing this and like brought up the case in the first place is a family friend and is very much convinced that, you know, he did not do this. Mm-hmm, serial really focused on like, this seems like it didn't go properly.

3:10 Right, right, right, right. You know, it's, it is a, it shouldn't come as a surprise depending on what type of defense, if you have a public defender, if you have a lawyer, if what the state does, that was. A huge part of it. Yeah. There's lots of things that can go sideways. And, um, well a 23 years is a long time to spend in prison if you did not do something. So, um, of course that is not fully known, but still at least again. And I don't have the background on the case cuz I, I did not listen to serial myself, but uh, wow. Well, you can tell podcasts do have an impact or at least several podcasts had an impact yes. On this case. Quite a bit. And um, I actually listened to serial, put out a new episode this week on Tuesday. Uh, kind of, you know, a just here's what happened. Right. Here's why he's out type scenario. Um, so I did listen to that this morning cause I was like, I haven't listened to this in years.

4:05 right, right, right. So what that's going on? Well, there's some movement going on. If you're in the EU, apple wants your website address for podcasting and it's, it's really following the introduction of what's called the EU omnibus directive, which is focused on consumer protection legislation. And basically, uh, you may subject to corresponding obligations in certain affected countries, such as apple podcasts. So the apple podcast now displays they'll show URL as of a means to provide contact. Now the information may required by the directive. So right. Essentially if you do not have your.com or your website landing page in the link tag of your RSS feed, you're gonna need to sign into apple, select your show and in the show details, add a show website and this should be again, the website that someone can use to contact you.

5:00 That's the key to know where this show originates. I understand the reasoning behind it. Yeah. It makes sense. Yeah. I don't necessarily love it, but I understand. So I, I'm assuming then probably you're hosting providers URL. Like if you've got a blueberry.com/site name or a blueberry.net WordPress site, those are going to suffice as well, as long as, and in addition to your, your, your.com, so right. Uh, just be aware of this. Um, really, I think it's important that you have that link there anyway. It tells Google where home is. Um, but it's part of the EU, uh, it's all about this privacy and uh, yeah, it.

5:42 Gives, gives people something to think about. And a good example of this is how podcast, like how widespread podcasting is, is that yeah, you might be in the us or in a different country or a different continent or whatever. Um, but anyone can listen to it, including people in the EU. That's right. So this is not just for those that are in the EU. This is for every podcaster that wants their show to be shown up shown in the EU. This is a requirement. Yeah. It's available there. So they want you to yeah. Keep up with it. So, uh, there's a new stats player in town. This is like the 10th one. I think it's called, it's called open podcast. Prefix project P three, I think is what they're going by. And what's unique about this is and a little caution. Any, if you do run this prefix, your stats will be public. Um, everything they, oh, so.

6:29 That's what this is doing. Oh. Yeah. It's public stats along with public. Uh, people can see the code that's being used for the redirect. So it's a hundred percent open. You cannot keep your stats private. Okay. Uh, people have insights into your audience publicly. So just be aware again, that if you use the open podcast, prefix project, the op P three project, uh, your stats will be out there for everyone to, to. See the bold option, a bold choice to do that. absolutely. And, and again, they're just getting started. So who knows what the accuracy will be because there's not this, they don't have extensive experience in filtering and everything else.

7:11 It needs to happen to, to have a good, accurate number. So, so just be aware of that if you're of there and of course, RSS with powers podcasting specifically GLAS 2.0 and the enclosure feed is now 20 years old. So. yeah. I mean, when you think of podcasting personally, I think of like 2004, 2005. Yeah. Uh, but I forget that it's technically 2002. Yeah. They put the enclosure tag in Dave Weiner if, and I'll probably get the history wrong but Dave Weiner and Adam Curry had a discussion about this. Or maybe once Adam saw the enclosure tag that Dave had added, maybe it was that one way or the other, I'm not ex a hundred percent sure who was responsible actually for the enclosure tag that really has kind of set the things in motion for really what we know in the modern podcast experience today. So yeah.

8:06 Hard to believe it's been 20, you know, I'm getting ready to go over 18 years here in a week and a half. And uh, that's. Amazing. Congratulations. Are you tired yet? Uh, sometimes yeah. Sometimes tired you know, to think you've been living something for almost 18 years straight is kind of crazy, you know, it's like, it's, it's uh, it's like a marriage. Your. Podcast is an. Adult that's right. So Spotify's added audio books. Hmm. Interesting, interesting move. I, I believe they mention this back in one of their, uh, yeah. One of, you know, quarterly, whatever. Yep. Um, this might actually be something that would give me to listen to audiobook cuz I'm already in that app. Yeah. Um, I'm not an, I'm not a podcast listener within Spotify. I am strictly music. Sure. Um, but go ahead. I, I might do it.

8:59 I heard there's like a separate section and it's, it's not included in your Spotify subscription. Mobile. App. Yeah. Well you, you have, oh, it's it's in app, but I think you go somewhere else to get access to audiobook. I think you have to, I don't think it's included in whatever you pay a month to be on Spotify. It's yeah. It says audiobook will show up with a lock icon on the play button signaling that they need to be purchased in order to listen. Okay. I might not do. Right. Yeah. So it's just like, it's just like, uh, the other offerings out there. Yeah. You. Still have, I don't care about this as. Much. You have to pay for it. It's not, it's not part of your subscription.

9:41 That would. Be, we have the like premium, highest level Spotify thing as far as I know, why won't you give me something? Well, because book authors wanna be paid for their work. So you that 4 95 adds to royalties, you know, they. Can't be upset about that. I really can't. That's all. Okay. That's on me. I take it back. Because there is no, um, luckily book writers are still semi protected in the type of royalties they get for their content. They set the price of their books. They can set the split. Uh, if they, you know, it's really and. Self-publish, they can do yeah. Whatever they want to some extent. So, and they, they, as my opinion is they have to eat just like podcasters do maybe at some someday we'll be like, we'll be like authors and be able to set our price for our content.

10:25 Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah. You kinda can do it now, but you know, it's not, everything is free, but you know how it is. There's a little bit of premium here and there. Yeah. Or let's move on best practice trial runs. Oh, I, I bet you, you put this in here. Don't skip out, decide it's unnecessary to test out your equipment. Even those that have done this before podcast equipment is best tested multiple times. And with multiple people . I will say I came into this podcast today with no problems. . And did you walk into the studio? Turn everything on and everything worked? No, I had to update something . Of course. Of course I did. Yeah. Something wanted an update. You didn't. Yeah.

11:07 That's why I came in 20 minutes early. it's, you know, it's never fails either. This, the computer wants an update or, you know, who knows, but it's, you know, I feel bad. All that equipment is set in the office kinda lonely for months and months on end. And then we come in and wanted to work on demand. And uh, sometimes it says yes or no. Yeah. You know, it's, it's partially on me because we are, I'm not in here often enough for it, but that's but the trial and testing with multiple people, like that's the thing, that new podcast Mike, that I got, um, I will be testing with Mike. Yeah. And I will be testing with you. Yep. And probably someone else. And see. I have a, that works out. I have a friend that just started a podcast and they just went like, go, they went cold. You, they went hardcore right from the beginning.

11:53 And I was kinda like, I took kind of a deep breath because. Against everything you recommend. If something is gonna go sideways and it did on the first, but it did on the second. So okay. Yes. Test, test, test, test. All right. Gonna go move into blueberry news. We've got a great blog post up. How radio experience can translate to podcasting by Meryl. CLMA how so give us the, the reader's digest version on this. Yeah, let me open it up and see what the, the main things were. Segments. Radio is huge on segments, especially like the morning shows any type, anything with news, that type of stuff. Um, it gives something people to remember involve your audience in every way that you can give them shout outs, have them call in, do whatever you want.

12:41 That's one of the really cool things. Like I don't really listen to live shows. Right. But I know a ton of them will have people call in while they're doing live. And then like, they'll still keep it in the, the podcast episode that they put out. Yep. Um, prizes awesome. Was kinda a no brainer prizes. And um, the show goal was on no matter what you feel like. Oh yeah. You know, well, you know, I I've, I've changed my opinion on that a little bit. Yeah. I used to be like, I'd podcast, just like the mailman. I, I would, if I was sick, it didn't matter. I went mm-hmm and now, you know, I don't know if someone wants to hear me coughing or sneezing or sniffling. So I, I have a tendency now to either cuz I'm on a schedule.

13:22 So, but if you're not a schedule and you can prerecord or post record a couple ahead of times and you can plan for, for when you feel under the weather. Plan for life. Yeah. Yeah. And life that's exactly right. Just like Monday I planned on doing a show and life got in the way, but my show's such that there's no way to make it up. You just skip. Mm-hmm you just skip you. Go on. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that goes right into the next point here, which is listeners when authenticity. Yep. So that can be the level of, you know, someone coughing through an episode and not being fully with it or it can just be listeners getting authenticity of saying no we're skipping. That's right. And I do think too, energy's a big level. If you've had a rough day and you come home and you're like, I don't wanna do this. Well, maybe you shouldn't do this unless you, you know, drink through red bowls. And I don't recommend that medically, but you know, if you, you know what I mean, just have some caffeine and cup of cups of coffee to try to get the, you know, the engine running. Um, I think really that state of mind going into pulling up the mic is, is good.

14:19 And uh, it's needed. Let's talk a little bit about getting started. Well, we're having a webinar. Uh, this is open, open to everyone. Yeah. You don't have to be hosting. You don't have to be using stats. It's it's just flat out. Are you interested in learning about podcasting? And if so, we want to help answer your. Questions. That's right. So this a little new spin. We actually announced it in a couple of the podcast newsletters who are gonna be doing this and hope that anyone that wants to get started podcasting will or has a question about podcasting tunes in on Tuesday, SEP September 27th, we're gonna be free free from four 30 to about five 30 Eastern.

15:00 You do have to register to, to get the invite, but that link will be up in the show notes. Blueberry pro tip. This is an interesting one. Marking edit points in your recording. Hi, it's Toby Goodman here today. A little nugget from the world of TV and film adapted for podcasting on TV and film sets all around the world. Two things need to happen to capture a recording. Number one, the cameras need to be on number two. The sound needs to be on. You might hear the term rolling because you may remember back in the good old days. We used to use actual film in my country. We call movies films.

15:42 Anyway, only after those two things happen. Can the director say the word action? And when the word action is said, you may see a clapperboard. Seeing as a clapperboard emoji is available. I'm gonna assume, you know what one is, but for the sake of inclusion, if you don't know what one is, it's a black piece of word you can write on. For example, episode 23, scene two, it has a hinge that makes a nice loud snapping sound. When you lift it and clap it together. The sound at the clapperboard makes assists in synchronizing the picture and sound by clapping the clapperboard together. The image of the sound waveform creates a short, sharp peak showing where the scene starts. That is still true today.

16:25 As we capture audio directly to our computer, hard drives as podcasters, we can use the same technique to help us record our solo podcasts, opening segments, and interruptions and interviews so that when we come to edit, we can see at a glance where our recordings start and stop. So if you've ever found yourself wanting or needing to say something again, take a breath and clap loudly. You don't need a board. If you're at your desk before you continue, it can potentially save you hours in the edit. If you'd like to save 100% of your edit time, you can reach out to us and see how we can help you improve your podcast production. Although we will still encourage clapping.

17:08 So come and say hi over@blueberrypro.com. And I think Mike is joking here saying clap. Well, yes. that? I mean, that's personally what I have done a lot of the time, like in ones that aren't going live. Yeah. When you truly screw up or know, like we need to take this out. Yeah. Make a, make a big noise. Yeah. On that audio file that you can easily find. So some of the digital audio recording devices allow you to put a mark. Mm-hmm, , there's a function for that, but you have to reach over and click something. I always have thought a, a bump on the mic. That's what, what I've done in the past. When again, if you're not live, a clap will work something that will be distinct.

17:54 So you can see that marker. Mm-hmm in the recording to know where to go to, or if nothing else, uh, have a pen and paper next to you and write down the time hack. If you've got, if you can see the timer, but that'll help you find those spots, uh, that need a little bit of TLC. Especially if you're not a person who does thorough editing. Yeah. If you're kind of someone who just cleans up the problems that you see, or like the beginning and end type thing, if you're not going through the entire full recorded file, then this is a really good thing to remember. Even in, even when I've done, um, live and I've made a big mistake, mm-hmm I will do like a dramatic pause and that will leave enough air so I can easily see right. The time hack. Yeah.

18:37 You know what that looks like, you know, what better looks like on. File. Yep. So I can go through scroll through, so okay. Here it is. And, and do the edit mm-hmm so yeah, so market edit points. Just find a way to do it and come up with yours. So you can even, you know, do a click next to the microphone and that that'll have a tendency to even sometimes show up as well as a spike. All right. No interview this week, but we do have a question of the week. This is a interesting one. This one we could spend an hour on alone. Very open ended. We have quite a bit that we could say on this one. Yeah. So what is a good unorthodox way that can help you grow your community slash listeners unorthodox something that's not normal.

19:20 Then a little off the wall. Yeah. Um, it's not super unorthodox, but I have seen billboards for podcasts and one of the times it, well, it worked on me really. Did that's that's an, that's an expensive marketing way to go. Yeah. I've also seen, um, like if I'm traveling to different cities, I'll just mention it in my show that I'm doing, I'll do a meetup and I'll just meet some people at a bar. Oh. That's. Cool. And it's you just have to be in a big enough city. Mm-hmm to do that. And you maybe get 4, 5, 10 people show up. It's not necessarily unorthodox, but it's a good way to build community. Um, and usually pretty inexpensive. You don't necessarily have to pay the tab. You just invite people in and, and have a, you know, a little bit of social time. Maybe have some food. That's, that's a good way.

20:06 And cool. If you're like paying attention to your stats and you're going to a city that you know, is doing well in your stats, because we have like the metropolis areas in the us, at least that tell you that. So. There are some IRS rules about this, but you would be able to write that off. If you had a meeting with listeners as a promotion marketing piece, you may not be able to pay off the trip, but you might be able to pay off that dinner and, and some drinks that would again, check with your tax attorney. Yeah. Always or tax, uh, accountant or whatever you have. Yeah. So I, you know, there's lots of, I think people are probably at this point needing to start thinking about different ways and you know, if you've got the budget and you're in a market that is, I guess not so crazy expensive, maybe even a radio ad, you know, maybe that, but you know, that usually is not inexpensive.

20:54 That's probably a three to $5,000 investment. That. Feels more like a small town type thing. Yeah. Potentially. Yeah. But yeah. I mean, especially if there's like dedicated listeners to that, or. If you're doing. Some segments that are going on there, like if you have a special guest. Or you're doing something local. Yeah. I think unorthodox though is also calling the radio station or calling your local newspaper and sending them an email and saying, Hey, I'm celebrating 5100, 2 years. What are, I've got a special guest and oftentimes they're looking for fill. So they're looking for that's. The, the radio blog post that we were talking about earlier, where it's like include your audience. You know, this is when you call in and they're looking to have that fill time and you say, Hey, I'm a podcaster and here's my show. Go listen to it. It's fun.

21:43 It's the anniversary, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And again, and letting them know that you've had a special guest. So sometimes they'll cover that it doesn't hurt to have your local newspaper radio stations, all those on a group mailing list to say, Hey, I had author. So and so, or I had, uh, you know, my, and every little bit helps. And depending on the market, you're in, maybe you wanna do bigger. Maybe like in my small town, we're a very, very small market here. So maybe I would email battle Creek and Jackson and Kalamazoo, everything that's like within a one hour something that would be like local television mm-hmm , uh, area. And, and I've had good success when I was in Hawaii doing that.

22:24 And that's a little bit unorthodox, but it's something I always tell content creators to think about. You know, another one might be like out of at live events. Mm-hmm um, like I went to a music festival this past weekend and, um, the it's always sunny in Philadelphia podcast. They did like a live episode, their first one ever. Um, I mean, it's a, a very popular podcast because it's related to the show and it's hosted by the actual characters, like the, the, um, actors and creators. But like I knew about it, but the friend that I was at the festival with had no idea like that they were gonna be there. Like I've never watched the TV show. And they're like, okay, well, cool. Now I know that there's a podcast. Like if I ever wanna, yeah. Watch the show or listen to the podcast, like now I at least know that it exists and like, know what it's about because she was there at the Fest. Otherwise she.

23:12 Probably just, and there's lots of, there's lots of local events where you might be able to just get a table yeah. And put some stickers and put some flyers on there. Mm-hmm and it might cost you 25 bucks or 50 for a little table at an event. You don't even have to, man. It, you know, you just have some materials laid out and some signage and you're good. So there's lots of little ways to think outside the box to grow the show and build awareness, especially if you're in a community, don't be afraid to go out there and, uh, you know, beat the bushes to try to, to promote. So anyway, there are some unorthodox ways that you can help grow your listeners. But if you've ever got a question on the show and you'd like us to answer that, you can drop an email to Mike blueberry.com auto text or video, and we may use it. We can also, you can also post a question on the blueberry podcasting Facebook group or an Instagram, wherever you may check us out socially.

24:01 And of course the best place for support with any blueberry product service or ticket system at blueberry.com/support tickets, give the whole team access rather than direct emails or calls. So, uh, again, you're coming this week from the blueberry studio in Columbus. I am. Yep. If anyone would like to send a podcast sticker, please send a self-addressed envelope and we will send you one back. That's right. We have a whole little section of our own podcasters show of their stickers. And we would love to add. Yours. I have a sticker board that I just filled up for my other show. It's absolutely full. So it's always fun to, uh, see different, uh, show art and so forth. But again, we've been coming to you this week from, uh, the new media practice student in co water and the blueberry studio in Columbus.

24:47 And of course, we've got that survey going on. You wanna talk a little bit about the survey? Yes. We revamped our listener survey earlier this year and we would love to hear from you. So this means, yes, you are listening to podcast insider, and we want to know more about you so that we can figure out what type of content you want. We just wanna understand you a little bit better. That's all we want. So fill out the survey. It's free. It takes like two minutes. You can skip whatever questions you want. If you're not comfortable or don't care and that's all. Yep. It's easy surveys.blueberry.com. Board slash podcasts, insider and link is in the show notes. You can always schedule one on one with me, hosting customers, only emailTodd@blueberry.com Christian schedule tech checkup with Mike again, hosting customers, only email mike@blueberry.com.

25:28 That's blueberry without the ease, cuz we couldn't afford the ease and someone wants to buy in for us. They can. I think it's about $2 million at this point. Yeah. So but uh, it's a cool. 2 Million. Yeah. So wanna thank everyone that was on. I know we had a few people watching live. Appreciate you all being here and uh, Mackenzie, any parting thoughts before we get outta here? No, I will be here in, I'll be back here in about two weeks. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening to the inside. Everyone take care. We'll see you next time. Thanks. Bye. Bye.