PodcastAnswerMan.com

149 Podcast Answer Man – Stats Vs Influence

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:27:27 +0000

Stats Vs Influence

In this episode, I talk about the following items:
- iTunes Listing Rankings
- Stats v/s Attention & Influence
- Voice Memo Recordings from the iPhone
- My Future Equipment Sales

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Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m also available for one on one podcast consulting. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

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148 Podcast Answer Man – Bringing Telephone Calls Into Your Podcast

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:20:18 +0000

Bringing Telephone Calls Into Your Podcast

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In this episode, cliff shares four different options for bringing in telephone calls into your podcast. If you are interested in the JK Audio Broadcast Host option mentioned, click here for more information on this piece of equipment.

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147 Podcast Answer Man – A Perfect Phone Interview And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:10:35 +0000

147 Podcast Answer Man – A Perfect Phone Interview And More

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, cliff covers the following items:
# Story of A Perfect Phone Interview
# My Session at Podcamp Nashville 2010
# BlueHost is now my Preferred Web Host
# The danger of assuming that people listen the way we do
# More on using Compressor/Limiter/Gate with Skype
# Are there legal considerations to starting a Fan Podcast?

Links Mentioned In This Episode
http://gspn.tv/perfectinterview
http://podcastanswerman.com/pcn10 (My Podcamp Nashville Session)
http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/bluehostlink (My Blue Host Affiliate Link)

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146 Podcast Answer Man – Commitment To Your Community, Stats, And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:50:38 +0000

146 Podcast Answer Man – Commitment To Your Community, Stats, And More

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, cliff covers the following items:
# Commitments To Your Community
# How do you set up a Compressor/Limiter/Gate?
# Google Buzz
# Media Hosting for your mp3 files
# Podcast Stats
# Edirol R-09HR Firmware update
# Update on Webinar Products

Be sure to sign up for the Podcast Answer Man Boot Camp Webinar Series.

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145 Podcast Answer Man – How To Get People To Leave Feedback

A Community Member — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:19:39 +0000

145 Podcast Answer Man – How To Get People To Leave Feedback

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In this episode, cliff covers the following items:
Podcamp At Sea
Podcamp Nashville
When To Launch Additional Podcasts
What Forum Software Do I Prefer?
Playing audio from the same computer you are recording to.
How do you get people to start leaving feedback for your show?

Be sure to sign up for the Podcast Answer Man Boot Camp Webinar Series.

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144 Podcast Answer Man – Interviews – Recording Procedures v/s Post Production Workflows – Multiple Podcasts On One WordPress Site – And How To Come Up With Consistent Relevant Content.

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:49:19 +0000

144 Podcast Answer Man – Interviews – Recording Procedures v/s Post Production Workflows – Multiple Podcasts On One WordPress Site – And How To Come Up With Consistent Relevant Content.

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I cover the following topics:

My Thoughts on Interviews
The concept of Recording Procedures v/s Post Production Workflows
Thoughts on doing multiple podcasts on a single WordPress site
And How To Come Up With Consistent Relevent Content

Be sure to sign up for the Podcast Answer Man Boot Camp Webinar Series.

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143 Podcast Answer Man – Android Apps & Processing Gear

A Community Member — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:48:41 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 143
Podcast Answer Man – Android Apps & Processing Gear

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode,James called in to tell us that he has found that, using http://www.artisteer.com, you can actually create your own WordPress theme using a visual editor.

Brad West called to ask three questions. He wanted to know why I use hardware for EQ & Compressor/Limiter/Gate in the studio rather than doing processing in software. He asked for my thoughts on building an audience before launching a podcast. He also asked my thoughts on having multiple Twitter accounts.

Steve called in an shared some thoughts on available Android Podcasting Apps.

Dave called to ask for my thoughts on which podcast directories you should be sure to list your podcast in.

Be sure to sign up for the Podcast Answer Man Boot Camp Webinar Series.

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142 Podcast Answer Man – What Is A Podcast? And More

A Community Member — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:06:04 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 142
Hosting, Engaging Your Audience, Audio Quality, And More

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I shared how Dr. Thomas Lamar, of Spinal Column Radio, has done an amazing job providing a teaching tool for his audience, explain what a podcast is and how you the benefits of subscribing to the podcast feed. I encourage everyone to take a look at his What Is A Podcast Page.

Next, Jonathan Nation send in an audio question about why I have such a long email signature and who effective has it been. Click Here To See My Email Signature.

I also shared a short interview with Howard Sheppard who just launched a brand new podcast called Life Beyond The Assembly Line. I felt that the difference in audio quality between episode 1 and episode 2 was so drastic, that it would be great to get him onto the show to talk about what he changed to get that better sound. The interview has the added value of getting an insights from a brand new podcaster whose podcasting with a passion and a purpose.

Be sure to sign up for the Podcast Answer Man Boot Camp Webinar Series.

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141 Podcast Answer Man – Hosting, Engaging Your Audience, Audio Quality, And More

A Community Member — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:02:48 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 141
Hosting, Engaging Your Audience, Audio Quality, And More

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode you will hear the following information:

I take a call from Dave Dufour where he asks a few questions about hosting your podcast on your own v/s hosting with a network.

Next, Eirk Fisher called in to ask me what I am using in Adobe Audition to generate some of the same results of what I used to get when I was using Levelator.

Next, Brent Green called in to ask what are my suggestions for engaging your audience.

Then I took one final call from Gordon Firemark who shared some thoughts about the problem of Paralysis by Analysts and suggested that people just need to get out there and do something. During his call, he said “Pretty Good is More Than Enough” and “Quantity beats quality every single time.” While I totally agree that people need to forget about PERFECTION when starting and that Pretty Good is “good enough” to get started. I would argue that “pretty good” is NOT “MORE THAN ENOUGH.” I don’t want to discourage anyone from getting started. But good enough is just “good enough” which is “enough” to get started. Listen to the podcast for more details.

At the end of the show, I announce that I’m launch a Podcast Answer Man BootCamp Webinar Series.
Here is the schedule. For more details, email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org
Saturday, Jan 9th 12Noon Behind The Scenes of How I do Premium Membership
Tuesday, Jan 19th 8:30pm Adobe Audition, Why & How I Use It.
Saturday, Jan 23rd 12Noon WordPress For Podcasting – A Demo Of How I Set It Up
Tuesday, Jan 26th 8:30pm Audacity 101
Saturday, Jan 30th 12Noon How I Use Social Media To Build My Brand & Build Community
Satruday, Feb 6th Garageband for Podcasting 101
Saturday, Feb 13th 100 Point Inspection!

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140 Podcast Answer Man – Dan Miller Interview – Author of 48 Days To The Work You Love And No More Mondays

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:19:56 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 140
Dan Miller Interview – Author of 48 Days To The Work You Love

Right Click Here To Download

I started podcasting as a hobby four years ago, on December 16th, 2005. Over the course of the first two years, it became a dream of mine to do podcasting full-time as my career. Two years ago, on January 1st, 2008, I took the bold step of leaving my 11 year career in insurance, making $87,000 per year, to make my dream a reality.

I’m going to post some important links below in just a moment. However, right now, I want to tell you how yet another dream has been made a reality. You see, when I started my business, I had NO IDEA what I was doing. I had never had any formal business training. I had no clue about how to deal with accounting, taxes, unemployment insurance, etc. It was all very overwhelming to me and I had a great deal of anxiety about how to make the work I love to do pay the bills.

I’m so thankful that I had purchased the books “48 Days To The Work You Love” and “No More Mondays” by Dan Miller. These two books, and Dan’s Podcast changed my outlook on everything!

I hope that you enjoy the interview with Dan nearly as much as I enjoyed the opportunity to have this conversation with him. Here are the links that I mentioned in the episode:

http://gspn.tv/passion – This link will take you to Pursuing A Balanced Life Episode 425 titled “Follow Your Passion And The Money Will Follow.” I hope that you’ll find this episode inspirational as I share just how far our business has come in under two years.

http://gspn.tv/passion2 – This link will take you to Family From The Heart episode 88 titled “Difficult Decisions.” This episode is like a sequel to the episode mentioned previously. In this episode, my wife joined me as we shared the reality of just how difficult things were in that first year of doing our own business.

http://gspn.tv/48-Days – This link will take you to a special page that I created where I have all the episodes that I recorded as my audio review of the book 48 Days To The Work You Love. In fact, when I listen back to these episodes, I’m amazed at just how much my mindset about what I do has changed.

Again, I hope that you find this episode enjoyable. Please leave your feedback in the comments section below or call my voice mail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067.

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139 Podcast Answer Man – What To Do When Your Podcast Becomes An Infomercial

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:47:12 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 139
What To Do When Your Podcast Becomes An Infomercial

Right Click Here To Download

I recently received an email from a long time listener who suggested that he was contemplating unsubscribing from the Podcast Answer Man podcast and he provided his thoughts on why this was. In his email, he suggested that with the number of subscribers that I have to this podcast, that I might not even notice the loss of a single subscriber.

If you are interested in hearing what reasons he gave as to why he had considered dumping the show and moving on and/or my response to whether or not I am concerned about the loss of a single, long time subscriber of my podcast, then you need to listen to this episode.

This episode is an example of what I think should be done in the event your podcast ends up sounding like an ongoing infomercial for your brand, products, and/or services.

Of course, I also shared an “anonymous” comment left on a previous episode of Podcast Answer Man. It’s amazing how different my reaction is to “concerned listener” as it is to “Charley’s” email. I did an episode while back titled “Handling Critical Feedback” (Episode 106)

Finally, somewhere in this episode, I asked for your thoughts on what Leo Laporte announced on his blog recently. Basically, even though his network has generated 2.5 Million dollars in revenue, he’s suggesting that there is still a role for donations in his network and he plans to allow these donations to be what actually pays his personal income from the network. Click Here To Read His Blog Entry. Share your thoughts in the comment section below or by calling our voice mail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067

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138 Podcast Answer Man – Crushing It

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:48:57 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 138
Crushing It

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I pretty much bounce all over the place. The main theme of this episode is how excited I am about the content found in Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book titled “Crush It.”

During the conversation, I mentioned these links:

http://gspn.tv/pablchallenge
http://gspn.tv/passion
http://podcastanswerman.com/criticalfeedback

I wrapped up the show with a few other topics such as competition among podcasters and why I decided to make a change to the release schedule for the shows that I record on Thursdays.

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Making Great First Impressions! New Logo Coming Soon!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:39:40 +0000

I’ve been consulting for a few years now and I’ve helped several hundred podcasters improve the audio quality of their podcast by leaps and bounds. However, my podcast consulting has never been limited to audio equipment and production. I do a lot of consulting on personal branding and how to build community around what you do with all your new media efforts.

Here’s something that I share often with my clients. I think it’s extremely important to have a high level of audio quality. However, for 99% of your audience, the first impression of your show is not going to be the sound of your podcast, it’s going to be the LOOK of your podcast. Let me explain.

There are many places people may find your podcast. Looking at my client’s and my own Google Analytics, it is clear that the two main sources of traffic to a podcast are Google and iTunes. When people find your podcast in one of these two places, the first thing people are going to see is either your website or your iTunes listing page.

Just look at this sample from an iTunes search and notice how the image of the podcast, OR LACK THEREOF, jumps out at you when browsing the list of shows…

Out of the ten podcasts listed above, only four of them have, what I would consider to be, a decent podcast artwork graphic for their show (Podcast Answer Man, MBA Working Girl, NAPL Workflows, and Train For Top Dollar). Notice how CIO Talk Radio doesn’t even have a logo, they just have the default iTunes image. I hesitate to point it out, but the “Fire Your Tech Guy in 15 minutes” podcast should have let the tech guy work another 30 minutes longer to produce a decent graphic for his podcast.

The point is this. I believe that your content is King! Though I don’t think any King should go through live without a QUEEN for your podcast which is your AUDIO QUALITY! Extending your brand doesn’t stop with compelling content that sounds great. You really should consider the LOOK of your website as well as the look of your artwork that displays in iTunes.

I’m constantly trying to “IMPROVE” the look of my brands. This is why I’ve hired my great friend, and a former sponsor of Podcast Answer Man podcast, Evan Agee, of Agee Design, to create a more professional looking logo for my Podcast Answer Man brand.

I sent him some ideas of what I was looking for and here’s a few concepts that he sent my way.

I’ve already sent Evan some thoughts on how I’d like to combine elements of two of the above concepts to create a logo that I think will look great. I’m very excited about this because I have plenty of new things that I’m working on behind the scenes and I wanted to have this new logo for all these new products and branding initiatives that I’m working on.

Are you looking to extend your brand? Are you looking for ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your podcasting efforts? I’m available for one on one consulting. Simply email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or pick up the phone and call me at 859-757-1399.

137 Podcast Answer Man – Broadcast Host Vs Telos One

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Yet Another Video Episode

Podcast Answer Man Episode 137
Broadcast Host v/s Telos One

I break out my Kodak Zi8 once again to bring you this very brief episode with my thoughts of how the JK Audio Broadcast Host compares to the Telos One Digital Hybrid (Both of which are available for purchase through me).

Here’s the video:

Right Click Here To Download iPhone Version

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Is Talent Over Rated? Why You Just Need To Get Out There!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:32:06 +0000

This morning, I came across a video on YouTube that carries a message that I feel strongly about as a podcast consultant. Let me explain…

Many of my clients today ask me, “Cliff, did you always want to be on the radio?” or “Cliff, did you go to some sort of school for broadcasting?” Better yet are the folks who say “Cliff, you have a natural talent for podcasting.”

See, when my clients listen to any of my recent podcast episodes, they here a confident show host who seems to know what he’s doing and who has learned to communicate well. And when they learn that I actually don’t do a SINGLE BIT OF EDITING on my shows, they are simply blown away.

Now this post isn’t here for me to share with you about how great people say I am. Not at all! In fact, the point that I want to make here is that while I will admit there is a foundation that was laid by some core talents, what makes my podcasts what they are today is not based so much on talent, but more so on experience.

Let me give you an example. Click the play button here and listen to just the first two minutes of this recent episode of Podcast Answer Man.

Now, click the play button here and listen to just the first two minutes of this very first podcast episode I ever recorded.

I hope you noticed just a little bit of a difference there. I’m not going to go into great detail here in this post, because I really believe this video has a lot to say and I think you’ll pick up on it.

Here’s the video:

After viewing the video, do me a favor and click here to see what it took to get my overall quality from what it was in that first episode to what it is today. (Hint: Look at the “number” of episodes that I have recorded since December 2005)

So the message today is this. Don’t wait until you sound perfect to get started! The key principle in this video is called “Deliberate Practice.” The idea is that you just keep PUSHING YOURSELF!

Now if you are podcasting for your business and your brand is on the line, then perhaps you do what Chris Rock did. You try different venues to practice in until you’re ready for your big cable network special.

For me, I actually do all my deliberate practicing in my actual shows themselves. But then again, my brand is all about “growing personally.” The key here is to simply put out content. The more you do it, the more natural it will become over time.

136 Podcast Answer Man – Interview – Mignon Fogarty – Grammar Girl

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:45:05 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 136
Interview With Mignon Fogarty

Right Click Here To Download

Last night, my wife and I had the opportunity to discuss podcasting as a career with Mignon Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl. Mignon is the creator of Grammar Girl and the founder and managing director of Quick and Dirty Tips.

This opportunity came about due to the fact that Mignon was going to be in Cincinnati for a book signing related to her new book “The Grammar Devotional.” Her first book, “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” achieved enough success that she made it on the New York Times Best Seller List.

We were very excited when the message came in from Mignon saying that she had remembered that we’re in the Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky area and that she’d love to meet us for dinner.

In this episode, we invite you to sit down at the restaurant with us as we discuss how podcasting was the catalyst for her published books, an appearance on the Oprah show (clip1 – clip2), and a life altering decision to go into podcasting as a full-time career.

Important highlights from the interview include:

Mignon started with an original podcast that took her as much as 20 hours a week to produce. She later made a decision to do something different, even though her original podcast had even won awards.

Mignon “fell into it (podcasting as a career).” It started out just as a hobby that she did in her free time.

There is a discussion that demonstrates the role of passion and enthusiasm about the topic(s) you podcast about. She mentions that she listens to a sports podcast because of their passion and enthusiasm, not because she loves sports.

It became a business when she got some publicity that led her to writing a book. However, the book would have never happened had it not been for the podcast.

Mignon says that she makes about as much money from podcasting as she did as a technical writer. She was a pretty successful technical writer. We both agree that we, as people who have found a way to turn podcasting into a career, are an anomaly and that there is no real formula for “being discovered” and making it work. Mignon shares about who invested in her podcast network and a little bit about how that is all managed.

We talked briefly about the ability to have a positive impact on the lives of others through your podcasting and the importance of picking the right format and being focused on consistency.

I hope that you enjoy the conversation with Mignon.

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By Far The Best Podcast Promo I’ve Seen To Date!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:08:26 +0000

When consulting with my clients for audio podcasting, I often tell them about the importance of using other social networking tools and broadcast channels to get the word out about your brand. I think it’s great to focus a lot of attention on your audio podcast. I certainly prefer to consume audio content as I have more time that I devote to audio than I can any other form of media. However, it’s important that we audio podcasters not neglect written blog posts, like this one. There’s great value in using video, occasionally, to continue to draw an audience to your audio podcast.

Another valuable tool for promoting your audio podcast is creating a short promo that can be used by your audience to promote your podcast. It is with great enthusiasm that I share this YouTube video with you. It is a perfect example of what we podcasters should be doing to branch out and tell others about our audio content.

Here’s the video:

As if I weren’t impressed enough by their video promo, displayed prominently on the home page of their website, I was also impressed by the fact that they took time to create custom subscription graphics that fit the theme of their show.

I absolutely love the rss feed button in the wheel barrel and the tape measure wrapped around the iTunes Logo. Folks, if you are serious about your podcast and building a brand around what you are doing, don’t be afraid to invest in your website. It’s the first impression you’ll give to a majority of your audience!

Podcasters take notice Brian and Paul of The Handy Guys Podcast! They are doing several things right!

If you would like more tips and advice on how to improve what you are doing with your podcast, contact me for some one on one consulting. In fact, ask about my 100 point podcast evaluation product!

What Happens When You Give A Nun A Microphone And An RSS Feed?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:39:43 +0000

As a podcast consultant, one of my greatest rewards of my work is the fact that I get to interact with so many wonderful and uniquely different clients on a regular basis. I’ve worked with the former chief engineer of Corvette, many nationally syndicated television show hosts from pro fishermen to garden experts, traditional radio broadcasts hosts, book authors, dentists, chiropractors, and even priests and nuns.

Today, I want to highlight just one of my clients. Actually, it’s two people who worked together to find an effective use of podcasting for their message. In the photo below, you can see both Sister Julie and Sister Maxine from ANunsLife.org. (Note: Click On Image To Enlarge)

The reason why I want to highlight this client is because I’m very impressed at how quickly Sister Julie and Sister Maxine have moved forward in their journey in podcasting. Sister Julie contacted me several months ago to purchase audio equipment, as she had a desire to record some audio to release audio on her blog to compliment the written content she was already providing to a growing community. She and Sister Maxine took to podcasting like a fish to water. Not long after, she hired me to consult with her on the possibility of doing live broadcasts of her podcasts. Since then, she’s been producing live audio content, releasing the recordings, afterward, in their rss feed, on a consistent basis.

As you can see above, these nuns have even gone so far as to take their podcasting to a live audience. I’m excited to see my clients really get involved in building a community around their content. Sister Julie and Sister Maxine have an amazing relationship with their audience.

Just this morning, I received another email from Sister Julie, asking about expanding their equipment further to allow for an expansion in the number of guests that they can have participate in their recordings with them. Not only that, but she’s requesting some additional consulting time to help take the audio quality of her shows to the next level. Something I already have specific steps that she can take to make it sound more like a professional audio broadcast that would rival any FM radio talk show.

Click the play button above to hear the audio from the recording made when the photos above were taken. You’ll notice that the recording made available in their podcasts are currently the audio recordings from TalkShoe, the service I set them up with for their live shows. The simply dial into the live conference call set up by TalkShoe using their JK Audio Broadcast Host to send all the audio from their microphones and mixer board to those on the live call.

I’m very proud of the progress Sister Julie and Sister Maxine have made. It just goes to show that more and more people are out there launchign new podcasts, an industry that is GROWING! It makes me wonder, if two catholic nuns are producing a regular podcast, and you’re not, why? They picked it up pretty quickly! If you need help, don’t suffer from paralysis by analysis any longer. Hire me today and I’ll have you up and running with your own podcast in no time!

135 Podcast Answer Man – Will Affiliate Advertising Increase Your Credibility?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:58:44 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 135
Will Affiliate Advertising Increase Your Credibility?

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I share my thoughts on the question of whether or not having affiliate marketing is a good way to build credibility during the initial growth phase of your podcast. I share my thoughts of “Calling In Favors” from your audience. I also took a few other calls as well.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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How Kindle For PC Will Help My Podcasting Efforts

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:47:23 +0000

I’ve been a huge fan of the Kindle for iPhone application ever since it came out. I do not own a Kindle personally. In fact, I don’t even desire to own a Kindle. Why? Because I actually love reading books on my iPhone. I can change the text size in such a way that it makes it a perfect device for me to burn through pages of books whenever I have a few minutes of free time here and there.

A while back, the Kindle for iPhone app added the functionality to both add highlight and take notes on any section within a book. This was a major improvement above simply “bookmarking” a page.

This is important to me, because my major gripe about reading a book digitally was that I couldn’t highlight it and write notes in the margin like I could with a paper book. This functionality gave me the ability to do both.

So why am I so excited about the Kindle for the PC? It’s because I often want to share a quote from a book in a podcast. As much as I enjoy reading a book on the iPhone, trying to share quotes from books, on the iPhone, while talking into a microphone is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Kindle for the PC saves the day!

The Kindle for the pc does not, yet, allow you to add notes and highlight sections of books, though that functionality is coming soon. However, because the Kindle for the PC will sync with my Amazon Account just like my Kindle for iPhone will, I’m able to VIEW all the bookmarks, notes, and highlights that I made in the iPhone on my PC.

Here is an example of a highlighted page:

Here is an example of a note I entered:

You can bet I’ll be sharing a great deal more insights from the books I’m reading in my podcasts. I’m very excited.

You can download Kindle for PC right now by Clicking Here.

134 Podcast Answer Man – Video – Studio Tour

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:10:43 +0000

Special Video Episode

Podcast Answer Man Episode 134
gspn.tv Studio Tour

It’s not very often that I put a video episode into the Podcast Answer Man podcast feeds, let alone a 30 minute one. However, the community has been begging for a video tour of the gspn.tv studio for the longest time.

Until recently, I’ve never been happy with the video quality that I’ve got with my video projects. That has all changed now with my Kodak Zi8 pocket HD Camera.

In this video, I explain how I use each computer in my studio as well as show you the the equipment that I make use of in my podcast productions.

Right Click Here To Download iPhone Version

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133 Podcast Answer Man – Leo Laporte Admits Nobody Cares About Video

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:58:31 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 133
Leo Laporte Admits Nobody Cares About Video

Right Click Here To Download

In episode 130, I shared some audio clips from a talk that Leo Laporte gave at the Online News Association Conference in San Francisco recently.

In that talk, Leo had shared that he made over 1.5 million dollars last year from advertising on his podcast network. Soon after sharing this revenues from the previous year, he stated that “Podcasting, essentially, is dead.”

Of course, in that episode, I argued that podcasting is what earned Leo his 1.5 million dollars, not live video. In fact, I played audio clips from his talk where Leo shared that with us.

In this episode, I share two very important things from two different podcasts that Leo produces. In episode 13 of This Week In Google, Leo shared that this year, Leo has already earned 2.5 million dollars from his podcasting. Doesn’t sound like a dead industry to me.

However, even more shocking than that, I was blown away by something that Leo shared in This Week In Tech episode 218. If you go and try to find the quote I’m talking about in the episode from the TWiT.tv website, you will not be able to find it. In fact, the episode had been pulled offline, edited, and re-released without the quote included in the episode.

Luckily, I had my original copy in the recycle bin on my laptop. In this episode, I share the audio where Leo says… “This is nuts… I spent all this money to broadcast video. Who’s watchin’? Nobody’s watchin’ video. They all just listen in their car. Nobody wants this.”

I admire and respect Leo Laporte a great deal. I credit him for my inspiration to get into podcasting. As shared in this episode, I’ve found great success in finding my passion in the field of podcasting and have found a way to support a family of five with a career in podcasting myself.

I know that Leo doesn’t really believe that podcasting is dead. However, those are the words he spoke. Those words were spoken to a great number of people who don’t understand podcasting at all. I got upset with Leo when he said that because he was setting up a powerful story about the power behind podcasting and then totally turned a possibly interested crowd away form the thought of pursuing podcasting.

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132 Podcast Answer Man -What Does Soda Pop Have To Do With Podcasting?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:18:08 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 132
What Does Soda Pop Have To Do With Podcasting

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In this episode, I explain why I think this YouTube video about soda pop holds one of the major keys to successful podcasting.

I also mentioned a service called Tungle. Be sure to listen to the interview we did with the CEO.

A listener wrote in with a question about getting subscribed to a podcast in the Russian version of iTunes.

And to wrap things up, I reminded you that now is the perfect time to let me know what training products you would like me to produce.

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131 Podcast Answer Man – Branding A Mustache

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:37:25 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 131
Branding A Mustache

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In this episode, I hit record without any show notes in front of me. However, I came prepared with a great deal of community feedback. I play several bits of feedback about the episode I did last week regarding Leo Laporte. I had an interesting question about branding my mustache.

While I didn’t take any notes while recording the show, I’m sure I tossed in a few other topics into the discussion about podcasting along the way.

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130 Podcast Answer Man – Leo Laporte Makes 1.5 Million From Podcasting

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:40:46 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 130
Leo Laporte Makes 1.5 Million From Podcasting

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In this episode, share my thoughts and reactions on a Mashable blog post that said, “Podcast pioneer Leo Laporte gave a talk at the Online News Association Conference in San Francisco recently, giving insights into the future of media coupled with anecdotes from his work in television and radio.

The keynote, entitled “Lunch with Leo”, runs 40 minutes, but it’s well worth the time if you’re involved in online media and broadcasting.

The most interesting tidbit: Laporte’s TWiT (This Week in Tech) network does $1.5 million in revenue per year, doubling yearly.

His costs, however, are more impressive: it only takes $350,000 per year to run the business with 7 employees.”

Here’s the video:

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Kodak Zi8 The PERFECT Pocket Video Camera

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:44:14 +0000

I’ve been on the lookout for the perfect pocket sized video recorder to meet my needs. I’m an audio guy mostly, but I occasionally have a desire to create video content from time to time. For example, there are times when I want to do product demos such as the video demo I did for the Tascam DR-07.

The main reason I haven’t done more of these videos than I have is due to the desire to have a much higher level of audio quality in the videos that I produce. There are a lot of point and shoot cameras that have pretty decent video quality, but I want to use my professional audio gear to produce the audio for the video and I don’t want to have to add the audio to the video project in post production. Therefore, the perfect camera for me would be one with an external audio input jack.

Today, I found just the camera I’ve been looking for in the Kodack Zi8. I learned about this terrific camera while watching Cali Lewis’ GeekBrief.tv episode 641. Would you believe that within 30 minutes of watching her video, I had this camera in my hands? I’m not kidding! I immediately did a search online for the camera, looked over the specs, and started to call stores to see if anyone had it in stock. Luckily, I found a local Best Buy store who had ONLY ONE in stock. I immediately left the house and picked it up.

While the audio input jack was the most important thing I’ve been looking for in these little mini cameras, I am excited to tell you that the Zi8 also includes several other features that I’m excited about. It shoots video in full 1080p HD, though I’m more impressed with the 720p at 60 frames per second. It has terrific image stabilization. It takes 5 megapixel still images. Both the video and the still images are captures in 16×9 format, which I LOVE by the way. It takes high capacity SD Cards up to 32Gb so I could actually record as much as 20 to 30 hours of HD video on one card. It comes with software for the PC that allows me to very easily upload directly to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and other sites. And the video is recorded in to a .MOV file that I can just as easily drag and drop onto my Mac Desktop and edit it with Screenflow or iMovie.

Of course that’s a enough of WORDS about this VIDEO camera. So here’s the video I created as soon as I took it out of the box. Note: I didn’t spend any time at all editing this video. Just wanted to test video quality as quickly as possible. Take a look at this video and tell me what you think!

129 Podcast Answer Man – Finding Music For Your Podcast

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:45:08 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 129
Finding Music For Your Podcast

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In this episode, I answer several listeners from the podcasting community. First off, I answer the question about where you can find music for your podcast. I mention MusicBakery.com, GarageBand’s free music provided on the mac, as well as the music over at MusicAlley.com. Oh yeah, and I think I even mentioned that Geoff Smith can create a custom jingle for you.

Also in this episode is talk of mono v/s stereo recording for podcasts and some thoughts on the idea of audio and or video automatically loading on your website.

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What Is Google Wave?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:43:02 +0000

By now, I’m sure you have heard about Google Wave. I got excited about this project as soon as I first saw the developer conference demo back in June of this year.

The only issue with that original video was that it was more than an hour long. Personally, I felt that it was worth every moment I spent soaking in all that Google Wave could do. However, the length of the video was a barrier to entry for the mass audience to get a feel for what would be coming from this service.

Finally, there is a much shorter video. In fact, here’s a video that does pretty darn well at explaining the main points in under eight minutes. Have a look:

The first round of Google Wave invites just started to roll out this week. Those who are lucky enough to get an invite in the first round will have the opportunity to “nominate” a few friends for the next round of invites.

I suppose that they did this due to the fact that Google Wave without anyone to interact with would be the same as if you signed up for a Twitter Account and didn’t know anyone else that uses Twitter.

Due to the amount of hype surrounding Google Wave, I’m concerned about people feeling let down at first glance when they finally get to use the service for the first time. This is exactly what happened with Twitter.

However, I feel that in about a year or so, Google Wave’s popularity will rank up their with both Facebook and Twitter.

Looking at the video above, I’m most excited about the “Bloggy”. (Jump to 3min 12sec into the video embedded above). As a podcaster / blogger / online community builder, I’m most interested in the ability for me to embed waves in various sites that I manage.

At this time, I sometimes post the same content in many different venues. For example, I will post an episode of Podcast Answer Man podcast episodes here on this site, the gspn.tv main site and the premium, plus member only site that I manage for gspn.tv. Each post on each site has it’s own comments section, none of them connected to each other.

I can envision the ability to use something like this bloggy feature to embed into each of these posts and turning off the individual comments sections. So basically, the google wave for comments would be right inside my show notes page. This way, if you are a gspn.tv plus member and viewing the show notes on that page… let’s say you add a comment there. Your comment will also show up on the main gspn.tv site as well as on this Podcast Answer Man site. Actually, I could even try to add it to the gspn.tv Community Forum somehow.

This is just the beginning of what I think Google Wave will be able to do for me as a Podcaster. It may take a while for this one to catch on. But I do expect that we are “riding the wave” of the “next big thing.”

128 Podcast Answer Man – Extending Your Brand With Twitter

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:01:38 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 128
Extending Your Brand With Twitter

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In this episode. I mentioned that I was recently interviewed by my friend Ray on his Podcaster’s Studio Podcast.

I share a personal story of the power of Twitter in extending your brand.

I also answered a question from Jerilyn who wrote…. “I know you don’t edit your shows anymore to save time, but my question is when working with a partner, co-host or guest speaker and you, as the producer, think their conversation is a bit dull, or kinda blah, or not very dynamic/funny -do you just go with it, try to re-direct the conversation somehow – or just wait until the recording is over and then maybe not release it? I know with Stephanie you don’t have that problem, but am wondering if it ever has come up – or what you do when you feel a podcast isn’t quite 100% what you want. I’d love to hear your thoughts – thanks!

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127 Podcast Answer Man – Improving Your Sound Quality

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:02:31 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 127
Improving Your Sound Quality

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In this episode, I share an example how a client recently improved the quality of the sound of his show by simply using a professional digital audio recorder like the Edirol R-09. Several folks who were watching as I recorded this episode purchased and Edirol from me that day.

Next, I shared an answer to a question that I had received in the 48 Days Podcasting and New Media Group that I run. I provided my answer in audio form as to demonstrate the before and after effects of the advice I was giving.

Finally, I took a call from Gordon who wanted some advice on how I manage my show notes for all the various podcasts that I produce. Of course I told him that the answer is simply GOOGLE DOCS.

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126 Podcast Answer Man – Making Money From Your Podcast

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:02:16 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 126
Making Money With Your Podcast

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In this episode, I share some basic thoughts about how one can make money from producing a podcast. There are so many options out there. Join a network that will try to find advertisers for you. Try to get your own advertisers. Learn the difference between an advertiser and a sponsor. Premium Content Models. Selling products and services, etc, etc.

Also, I answer a question from someone who asked why I chose to run so many podcasts off of just one site at gspn.tv rather than having a different website for each show.

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A Sample Equipment Correspondence

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:31:39 +0000

So I hardly make use of the Press & Testimonials category of my site here. I’ve preferred to put my testimonials on the recommendations page for now.

However, if you’ve ever wondered was an equipment consult would be like with me. I can give you a glimpse by sharing an email response that I just had with a client who is ready to purchase some gear from me. I’m taking out there name, as I’ve not asked to share their information. However, the content itself is very general in nature and I believe it’s a good example of how I conduct my equipment consults.

Note, below is my response. The client’s original email is quoted throughout and is indicated in BOLD TEXT.

xxxxx,

I’m going to go ahead and respond to you via email here. However, if you would like, I could schedule a free 20 minute equipment consult with you on Monday to answer any additional questions you might have. I don’t mind email, if that works better for you. Either way works for me!

At first I found your comments on the Heil PR 40 to be over the top. I kept listening to your blogs, reviewing your comments, looking and listening to the information at the Heil website, and even emailing Bob Heil with a couple of questions. I will admit that in hind sight rather than strident in your praise of the Heil PR 40 I think your comments were restrained if anything.

Oh indeed! Please know this about me. I NEVER praise a product unless I am certain it can stand up to scrutiny. I have approximately 47,000 subscribers to my various shows. When I say something that people don’t agree with, they will blog about, post Twitter Messages about it, or call me out on Facebook about it. So when I say things, I very much take a great deal of care to say things that I mean and to mean what I say.

I operate a business build solely on New Media and in New Media, TRUST is my greatest asset. I’m glad that you’ve taken the time to research this and that, over time, you’ve come to understand that I’m not just trying to sell a lot of Heil Mics.

Well, I am trying to sell a lot of Heil Mics. But it’s not just because I want to sell them, it’s because I know they will be the best value for dollar to make an improvement on “almost” anyone’s production.

There are less expensive mics that I sell where my profit margin is a great deal higher. From a price standpoint, if I “pushed” these less expensive mics, I know for a fact that I’d “sell” a lot more of them and I’d “make more money” in the process. But I would dilute the number of referrals generated from each of those clients.

An awesome statistic that I’ve found. For each podcaster who purchases a Heil PR-40 from me, I typically get at least 1, and sometimes MANY MORE people who listen to their podcast that hear the difference, ask what they did to improve their sound to such a degree and then contact me to make a purchase of a Heil PR40 for themselves.

So now what do I do? Clearly I will add the Heil PR 40, and dump the studio condenser mic sold to me by a previous recording guru.

Now I do want to warn you ahead of time. When considering the move from a “condenser” microphone to a “dynamic” microphone, there is a completely different technique required for recording your voice.

The biggest change is the need to speak DIRECTLY into the microphone. In fact, when I’m recording a podcast, my lips are never more than 2 inches away from the microphone and often times as close as 1 inch.

This is not a limitation, this is certainly a feature. It reduced background noise, such as the echo of your voice in a room that is not soundproofed. But also, being up close on the mic will reproduce a much richer fullness of your voice.

But, what else do I keep and what do I off load? Here is my list…

Edirol R 09 HR – Keep

Absolutely! I love my Edirol R-09HR every single bit as much as my Heil PR-40. Two best pieces of equipment ever made for nearly every podcaster out there!

Sony Sound Forge Software – Keep or replace?

Depends… Is it working for you? If so, no need to replace. Honestly, I’ve never used it. But then again, I don’t do a “lot” of post production either. While there are a few who have other solutions, here is the breakdown of what most of my clients are using.

I’d say that 60% of folks are using Audacity. Which is a free audio editing software solution that works on both Windows and Mac based computers. It’s decent and will get the job done for a large number of people.

About 20% are using GarageBand which comes free on every Mac computer. It does a decent job and just improved greatly with a major change they made to give the option to remove the auto-normalization process when exporting audio. If you’re on a mac, I suppose I’d suggest GarageBand these days.

The other 20% are using what I use, which is Adobe Audition (Currently version 3.0 – I still have 2.0). This program is not free like the other solutions, and instead costs $349. It’s more than I would suggest the average podcaster pay. I paid this because of the time I save with a few of the processes that I can do only in this program. It took my editing of a 1 hour show from 45 minutes down to 4 minutes. And well.. I produce as many as 20 plus podcast episodes per week. Just add up the time saved per episode and you’ll see what that’s a big deal for me.

Heil Handi Mic Pro Plus – Buy for remote Edirol R 09 interviews?

Since you are asking for my opinion on this. Here’s my thoughts. The Heil Handi Pro Plus mic is not designed to be an interview mic. I know their site says “The Handi Mic is perfect for an interview microphone where its small size makes it a very low profile microphone with great sound.”

I’m not going to argue that the mic has great sound. However, there’s a great deal more to consider when thinking about was makes for the “perfect interview microphone.” For example, when I’m looking for the “Perfect” Interview mic, I’m usually looking for a mic that was MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING AN INTERVIEW MIC. The Handi mic is MADE TO BE a tom drum mic. That’s what it’s “PERFECT” for.

Now I’m not just saying this because the cost is more. The Handi mic usually goes for about $99. However, if you want THE PERFECT INTERIVE MIC to go with your edirol for field interviews, I would suggest the Electrovoice RE-50b microphone. Their website is not making a false claim when they say that it is the INDUSTRY STANDARD. IT IS! Very low handling noise. AWESOME BUILT IN WIND SCREEN! It is the perfect interview mic!

I have these in stock and they run $199

Heil PR 40 – Buy from you.

Yes, indeed! I have it for $xxx. (Note, I had to remove this from this post as I have to abide by the Minimum Advertised Price rule when posting public information about the price of products – Contact me for me promotional pricing) The minimum advertised price is $325.00 However, I sell so many of these that I’m able to sell it at a lower cost to my clients because of the volume discounts that I get from selling so many.

Desk Top Mic Stand – Keep or replace?

I’d keep it as a guest mic stand for when you bring someone into the studio occasionally. But knowing that you’ll need to be speaking right into your mic, it’s important that your mic come to you!

I strongly suggest the Heil PL2T mic arm. It is AWESOME! I sell it for $125 and it comes with a c-clamp mount.

Scissor Boom for PR 40 ?

See above response…

Pop Filter or Wind Screen for Heil?

Here’s where I can prove that I’m not just out to sell stuff……

Personally, I love the “look” of having my Shock Mount and Professional Grade pop filter. The only thing is that these two items are ridiculously overpriced. And it’s not that my profit margin is too high. I mean that my cost on these is too much! The Shock Mount is $95 and the PopFilter is $65.

With that said, again, I love the look of mine and the shock mount does allow me to move the mic during recording without much noise, if any, making it into the recording. Also, if someone bumps the surface that the mic arm is mounted to, this helps mute those sounds as well.

The Pop Filter cuts out all popping of my P’s. and looks nice mounted on the shock mount. And well, I do a lot of LIVE SHOWS and I’m on camera a lot. So I like the professional look of it. So it was worth it for me.

Now Stephanie’s Heil does not have the Shock Mount or Pop Filter. Partly because back when I got Stephanie’s Mic, we were still doing this as a hobby and I simply didn’t have the money on hand at the time. So instead, I purchase a VERY LARGE WINDSCREEN to go over top of her mic. You can see it in the photo of our studio which I’ll link to below. The cost of the windscreen is $35 and works very well. The sound is “slightly” different from that mic because of the extra padding there. But its only noticeable to someone like me, who is the perfectionist when it comes to sound.

Here’s how the two look…. CLICK HERE TO SEE MY STUDIO PHOTO

Edirol M-10DX mixer – Keep or replace?

I just looked it up online. It’s not a mixer I would have purchased, but I can’t see any reason I would want to replace it if it has enough ports and aux outputs for all you want to accomplish. My philosophy is that as long as the mixer is bringing in all the audio inputs that you want to bring in and mixing the audio into a single stereo channel the way you want, then go with it.

Audio Technica ATH-Pro700 Headphones – Keep or replace?

Do they feel comfortable to you? Then keep them!

Telephone hybrid: – JK Audio Broadcast Host, JK Audio Innkeeper, or Telos One?

The original InnKeeper is discontinued… They came out with the Innkeeper LTD.

Click Here For Their Website Info

I brought one in for review and from what I read, I almost thought for sure that I’d be keeping it and selling my Broadcast Host as used equipment in my forum to my existing Plus Members.

However, when I got it. I was impressed with it. But really, it didn’t sound any different than my Broadcast Host at all. There were two things I noticed about it. 1) You don’t have to adjust a bunch of knobs to get the levels to where you want it. And 2) when you first connect a call, it lowers the crosstalk noise from 1 second down to a fraction of a second. It just wasn’t enough to make the extra cost worth it for me to recommend to my clients. I still suggest the Broadcast Host.

As for Broadcast Host and Telos One? Well, let’s see.. They both do EXACTLY THE SAME THING and the Telos One is a great deal more $$$. This is the reason I use and I recommend the Broadcast Host. But don’t get me wrong, I think the Telos One is a great piece of equipment. Just like the cost for the same functionality in the Broadcast Host.

What else do I need?

That would certainly depend on what you plan to do with podcasting. Again, I’d love to have a twenty minute conversation with you and that way I could make sure you’re getting all the right cables and adapters, etc. Also, I could also make sure you’re not buying any equipment you don’t need for the goals you’re trying to accomplish.

If you wanted to schedule a time with me this coming week, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.

I Thank-you for the information on your website. I am looking forward to getting your perspective on my next moves towards blogging participation.

Sincerely, xxxxxxxxx

xxxxx, thanks for contacting me. I can tell that you certainly did your research before reaching out to me which is why I do not hesitate in spending the amount of time thoroughly answering all your questions.

Look forward to the possibility of working with you either by phone or further email here.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Cliff

That’s what it looks like when working with me regarding euqipment purchases. If you are interested in a free equipment consultation, email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399

125 Podcast Answer Man – Digital Recorders And Bit Rates

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:38:28 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 125
Digital Recorders And Bit Rates

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, Scott shares some thoughts after having me do a 100 point evaluation of his podcast, The SciFi Diner Podcast.

Another client, Ray, called in to share his appreciate of the new equipment that he recently purchased from me. As a result of this bit of feedback, I ended up spending a great deal of time explaining many of the benefits of having a portable digital audio recorder.

Finally I shared a pre-recorded conversation with my friend, Daniel Lewis, about audio bit rates.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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124 Podcast Answer Man – Thoughts On Enhanced Podcasts

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:49:50 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 124
Thoughts On Enhanced Podcasts

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In this episode, I share some insights as to the process of how an mp3 goes from being uploaded to libsyn.com, posted into a Wordpress entry, which creates a link to the file in an rss feed published by Wordpress, which is then converted to an iTunes compatible rss feed by Feedburner for one of my clients.

I also share some thoughts on Embedding audio player in HTML Site.

Will Brown a Blog titled “Fear and Trembling – Or Not: Thoughts on the VoloMedia Podcasting Patent”

Steve Rinkenberger for a link to a blog post by the Law Office of Steve O’Donnell, Ph.D. titled “Scary podcast patent not that scary”

I mentioned that you should check out Social Media Serenity.

Nick and Lee both called in some thoughts about Soundboard.

I attempted to answer some questions about bit rates.

I wrapped up the show by sharing my thoughts on Enhanced Podcasts.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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123 Podcast Answer Man – A Patent For Podcasting?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:50:18 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 123
A Patent For Podcasting?

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In this episode, I share some shocking news in the world of podcasting. There has been a story posted that states that a Californian company receives patent for Podcasting.

I share what this article says, the response from the company who has been awarded the patent in question, and my thoughts on the whole thing.

I think the main thing to take away from this episode is that this isn’t anything we should be losing sleep over just yet. We’ll keep our eye on this story.

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122 Podcast Answer Man – Audio Editing Software For Podcasters

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:14:57 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 122
Audio Editing Software For Podcasters

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode:

* Nick called to mention Mail Chimp as an option for mailing lists.

* Jonathan shared some additional insight on naming schemes.

* Jonathan also shared some thoughts on other businesses poaching from Twitter Followers List.

* My thoughts on Audio Editing Software For Podcasters. Audacity is Free. Adobe Audition is my favorite. For the Mac I suggest either GarageBand or Sound Studio.

* Wayne Henderson called in about an episode of another podcast that I produce where I talked about rechargeable batteries. I share my thoughts on how I’ve saved 100’s of dollars using NiMH rechargeable batteries.

* I wrap up the episode with an amazing testimonial that I was blessed to have received this past week. You can see it at the top of the Recommendations Page.

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121 Podcast Answer Man – 100 Point Podcast Evaluation

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:00:45 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 121
100 Point Podcast Evaluation

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode Nick Padley called in about an Update to Garage Band. As it turns out, they added an option to turn off the auto-normalize process when exporting your recordings to mp3.

Jerrica was in our live chat room and asked me to share my thoughts on on Audacity as an audio editing program program.

I share a story news item that says Skype might have to shut down because of a dispute over the core technology used to make the Internet telephone system work. Of course I share that I don’t think this will really ever happen.

Wayne called in to share some additional thoughts on mixing audio and video in the same rss feeds.

I end the show by announcing a brand new service that I’m offering here through my Podcast Answer Man consulting business. Please contact me if you are interested in a 100 Point Evaluation of Your Podcast. Full details are mentioned in this episode. Or if you like, feel free to contact me and I’ll explain how it all works.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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Following My Passion Has Changed My Life

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:02:33 +0000

I have to admit to you that there were times when I worried if leaving my career in insurance was a responsible decision for me and my family. I mean I had absolutely no idea how I was going to earn a living at the time (Sept – Dec 2007).

I simply knew that podcasting came along, over the course of a few months, any passion I had for my career as an insurance agent had dissipated. Dreams of podcasting full-time as a career became seeds that eventually took root and refused to stop growing in my heart.

I remember reading books that said things like “Pursue your passion and the money will follow.” I heard other folks talk about things like “meaningful work.” I remember just how hard it was to get over the idea that you had to “hate what your doing” for it to be considered “work.”

The truth was that spending 40 to 60 hours of my life, each week, devoted to nothing more than bringing home a paycheck was making me miserable. Listeners from the gspn.tv community had been urging me with thoughts that I could find some way of doing podcasting as a career, but honestly I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. However, one day, my wife actually came to me and said, “You need to quit your job and do podcasting full-time.” This was the day my life changed forever!

There was little doubt that podcasting as a career would allow me to focus on my core talents and abilities. Not to mention fulfilling what I had come to understand as my core purposes in life.

I’ve learned that if I passionately believe in something, I can probably sell it to just about anyone. There’s no doubt that I have the heart of a teacher. I love to find creative ways to teach things that most people believe they’ll never be able to learn. In fact, my original major in college was going to lead me down the path as a teacher. In June of 1996, I felt a serious call to Christian ministry. Never a full-time pastor type of position, but instead, a life long ministry of encouraging and inspiring others. And then there’s the technology thing. I’ve always had this weird ability to do just about anything I’ve wanted to do with technology without the need to read a book, a help file, etc.

I want to share a little something with you. Yesterday, I had a consulting call that has been like so many other consulting calls.

It typically goes like this.

The client has either found me through a Google Search or they were referred to me by someone they know.

Usually the client has been desperately attempting to start a podcast for anywhere from a few weeks to as much as a few years with no luck in actually getting it off the ground.

They’ve usually already purchased AT LEAST ONE BOOK about how to podcast and have read countless numbers of online articles trying to explain concepts like RSS feeds, media file enclosures, audio mixers, mix-minus setups, audio editing software, bit rates, etc, etc, etc.

The outcome is usually the same… “Paralysis By Analysis” or “Information Overload.”

More confused after their research than before they started, they desperate seek someone who can help them finally get things off the ground as a last ditch effort to make it happen.

When they find me, I spend some time talking with them, learning a little about them, what it is that they want to accomplish, and finding out where the journey has taken them so far.

I then talk to them about designing a strategy for getting their podcast from concept to reality. When I share with them that they could be releasing their first podcast episode(s) within the next four to five days (sometimes the same day) they are often shocked and need to overcome a bit of unbelief.

I, of course, encourage them, letting them know that I have confidence that I can train them how to podcast and do it in a reasonably short amount of time. At times, I’ve said, if I can’t do it in “X” Number of hours, I’ll not charge you at all for the time spent.

It’s so rewarding when I am able to help them make the impossible, possible. To actually see them grasp the concepts that they thought would be impossible to grasp. There’s a great deal of accomplishment that I feel when I work with each client I deal with.

I honestly feel that most of my consulting calls become little confirmations, from God, about making the right decision to pursue my passion. A passion I undoubtedly believe today that was put but in me by Him.

I don’t know if this post will come off as seeming self absorbed or not. But I just received this testimonial from a client that I worked with yesterday and it literally made my week!

Click the Play Button To Listen:

Now, my work as a podcaster goes way beyond simply audio equipment sales and podcast consulting. The work that I do leading the gspn.tv community and providing the content that we produce is a whole story of it’s own with rewards that far exceed anything I’ve mentioned here. I’ve written a little about this in the past and I’m sure I’ll write a lot more in the future.

I sincerely pray that more people would be able to find such rewarding work that people appreciate. Life is too short to do otherwise.

120 Podcast Answer Man – Naming Schemes And Email Lists

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:49:32 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 120
Naming Schemes And Email Lists

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode John called in to ask about Email Lists. I mention how I use Google Groups. While I’ve never used their service, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Constant Contact.

Jonathan sent and audio recording to ask about Naming Schemes. I give a little background on why I’ve chosen to name my audio files the way that I have over the years. Personally, I don’t feel that naming schemes are all that important. However, I would highly recommend being consistent with how you name your files. As this audio feedback proves, people do pay attention.

Finally, I threw out a discussion starter about Social Networking & Business Competitors. I don’t know if I’ll get any response to this or not. This is something I’ve never thought of before. Normally, I’d just say, be so good at what you do that people would never want to go to your competitor.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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119 – Podcast Answer Man – Feedburner And Old Episodes

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:07:43 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 119
Feedburner And Old Episodes

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I share some thoughts on the use of Feedburner even if you are using a hosting service that provides iTunes optimized rss feeds.

Chris Oatley called to say thanks for Episode 80 which was a screen cast on Google Analytics.

I share some thoughts I’ve been having on how to best handle the old archives of Podcast Answer Man.

Finally, I close the show out with a call from Daniel Johnson Jr. regarding limited speaking times at Podcamps and my thoughts on his comments.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Equipment Diagrams

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:09:29 +0000

Hey folks,

I’m just posting this here to let you know that one of the many services that I provide is personalized equipment setup consults, even if you have purchased your equipment elsewhere.

This morning, I had an hour long consulting client who had purchased the following equipment elsewhere. (He said in the future, he’ll buy from me)

Shure SM7B Mic
Behringer 1204 Mixer
Edirol R-09HR Recorder
DBX 266XL Dual Compressor/Limiter/Gate

He was looking for a podcast consultant because he had no idea how to hook all the equipment up and what cables to use.

Within one hour with me on the phone (AND SHARING MY SCREEN WITH HIM using GoToMeeting) we did the following.

I pulled up images of all his equipment and created a setup diagram with him, while we were on the phone, explaining every step in the process.

I was able to walk him through what each of the buttons and knobs are used for on his mixer, I was able to give him advice on how to get the PERFECT audio levels every single time he records, and soooo much more.

In the end, he felt as confident that he knew exactly what to do and was on his way to a local store to pick up a few cables to build his studio setup.

I might mention that folks who have hired me to help them do this usually spend MANY HOURS researching this stuff online before they actually come to me for help. In one hour with me, they know what they need to know to get up and running so that they can do more important things LIKE RECORDING THEIR CONTENT.

After each of these calls, I save the equipment diagram and email it to them.

Here’s an example….

Social Media Serenity – Twitter – Facebook – Google Reader And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:57:17 +0000

Social Media Serenity
A Balanced Approach To Social Networking

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, Erik Fisher and myself, Cliff Ravenscraft, explain our reasoning for starting this podcast and share our thoughts on what we will be discussed moving forward.

Erik and I both share that our top social media sites/services that we use are Twitter and Facebook.

In the discussion, we discussed the Twitter Facebook Application and the Selective Twitter Status Application. Also, we made mention of Ping.fm and Hellotxt.com for the ability of posting your status updates to all the social networks

We also mentioned the use of Google Reader. In the discussion of what RSS feeds are, we referenced a video called RSS In Plain English.

Update 07/18/2009: Wayne Henderson sent me a Twitter message asking how to set up ping.fm to work within Tweetie iPhone application. I actually used my wife’s new iPhone 3GS to record this video tutorial on just how to do that.

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118 Podcast Answer Man – Mixing Content In Feeds

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:11:04 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 118
Mixing Content In Feeds

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I give some thoughts on the idea of mixing content in the same podcast feed. Whether it be mixing video with audio or even long shows with short shows. Ultimately, I think it really depends on what your audience wants. The best thing to do is simply to ask them.

I also took two calls asking about doing Live Shows. I quickly give some thoughts on that topic.

Finally, I share who did my cartoon picture that I use for my avatar. It’s a question that I’m asked quite frequently. Click Here For The Site.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Individuals Have The Power In New Media!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:40:49 +0000

New media has radically changed our world! In the past, if you wanted to literally broadcast a message to the world, the only way to really reach a mass audience was through traditional media outlets such as television networks, news papers, etc. Even then, your message may have been limited to the geographical reach of of the media outlet of your choice.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are a music artist going on a week long tour in another state with your band and you actually happen to witness baggage handlers tossing your $3,500 guitar around in what seems to be like a game to them, causing significant damage. Let’s pretend that you have several others from the plane who also witnessed this event taking place and when you confronted the airline staff about your issue they seemed uninterested in your claim.

If this were ten years ago, what could you possibly do? Do you think the major networks would put your story on 20/20? Fat chance! Do you think you would get your local news station to cover your report of damaged luggage from the airline? Yeah right! Ten years ago, you may have blogged about the event and it’s possible that you may have reached a few hundred people with you sad story.

Okay, what if it were today? In our hyper-connected world we are all networked together with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. With the tools available to us today, if we have an interesting story to tell and depending upon how much passion as we can muster to tell our story, the possibilities of how far we can spread our story is nearly limitless!

In the spring of 2008, the band Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour. Dave Carroll’s Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. He discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people Dave communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss.

Dave promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that he would write and produce three songs about his experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.

To date Dave has written the first two of his three songs and just released the first video in the trilogy. The response has been incredible so far. Everyone involved in the recording of the track and filming/editing of the video has volunteered their time and pre-production work is underway for the filming of the second song due out later this summer.

Dave says that “United has demonstrated they know how to keep their airline in the forefront of their customer’s minds and I wanted this project to expand upon that satirically. I’ve been done “being angry” for quite some time and, if anything, I should thank United. They’ve given me a creative outlet that has brought people together from around the world. We had a pile of laughs making the recording and the video while the images are spinning on how to make “United: Song 2” even better than the first. So, thanks United! If my guitar had to be smashed due to extreme negligence I’m glad it was you that did it. Now sit back and enjoy the show.”

Before you view this video, please note that the video was released on Monday, July 6th, 2009. I’m posting this blog entry and embedding this within only 60 hours of it’s release. As of the time I post this, the video has already been viewed by more than 466,539 times.

Do you have a story? Do you have a passion? What new media tools are you using to get your message out there! You may not get a million people to hear your out in the first week of putting your story out there. However, there are tools that allow you to reach an audience that is eager to hear what you have to say!

117 Podcast Answer Man – Episode Removed

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:59:29 +0000

This Episode Has Been Removed

Podcast Answer Man Episode 117
Episode Removed

~~In this episode, I share an amazing opportunity available to podcasters that will not last long. …………………~~

Please note: I’ve removed this episode from the archives due to the fact that the information is outdated and is no longer relevant to the Podcast Answer Man audience. I’ve not had a chance to go back into the archives to remove all outdated material from the archives. However, this is one episode where I felt that the suggestions offered in the episode may no longer provide value to podcasters.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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116 Podcast Answer Man – Audio Levels And A Lot More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:12:38 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 116
Audio Levels And A Lot More

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode I cover the following….

* I talk just briefly about Podcamp Ohio.

* I explain why I think all podcasters should be excited about the release of the OS 3.0 software for the iPhone, even if you don’t own an iPhone yourself.

* I answer a question from Rick in Wisconsin regarding why some podcasts have a much lower volume level than others.

* I answer a question from Nick who wants some advice on ways to possibly record a podcast while commuting to work.

* I answer a question from Steve who wants some advice about what to do when his co-host on Skype seems to be over modulated.

* I answer a question from Jeff who wants to know how I monitor my own audio when doing Skype interviews.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Facebook Wall Like Theme For Your Community

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:28:20 +0000

I just came across the video embedded here that shows off a Wordpress theme that allows you to have your own version of a Facebook Wall for your community. I see real potential here for some podcasters. I’m thinking about possible uses of a gspn.tv Community Wall. I’m going to take some time to think on this one.

You can download the theme by CLICKING HERE.

115 Podcast Answer Man – All About Wordpress

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:59:25 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 115
All About Wordpress

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I have a great conversation with Mitch Canter from StudioNashVegas.com. The focus of our conversation is about using Wordpress not only as a blog, but as an overall solution for your website.

Here is the list of Wodress Plugins that we discussed during the show:

C Forms
http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin

Life Stream
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lifestream/

Yet Another Related Post Plugin
http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/

Stumble For Wordpress
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stumble-for-wordpress/

WP Greetbox
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-greet-box/

Google Analyticator
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analyticator/

Google XML Site Map
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

All In One SEO
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

fotobook
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2254862517

Facebook Connect
http://www.sociable.es/facebook-connect/

BB Press
http://bbpress.org/

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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114 Podcast Answer Man – Show Some Love

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:09:08 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 114
Show Some Love

Right Click Here To Download

In This Episode:
* Some audio feedback from Evan Agee talking about the benefits of using the word “podcast” in your site’s url.
* Answer to some questions sent in by David Herron regarding some insights into my production process.
* Slight discussion about using an outline v/s a script for your show.
* Some ideas on how to reduce the need of editing out the “ums” in your podcast.
* The awesomeness of the Pretty Link Plugin for Wordpress.
* Wayne Henderson and I discuss what he and Jeff Roney have been up to regarding a concept they’re calling “Show A Podcaster Some Love.”

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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113 Podcast Answer Man – Artwork And Domain Names

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:35:10 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 113
Artwork And Domain Names

Right Click Here To Download

In This Episode:
I give some advice on business and podcast website design.
My affiliate account for OverNightPrints.com is now active.
I give some thoughts on choosing a domain name for your site

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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112 Podcast Answer Man – An Example of Podcasting With Purpose

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:35:23 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 112
An Example of Podcasting With Purpose

Right Click Here To Download

In This Episode:

First off, I want to remind you to REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR that is coming up this weekend.

In the last episode, I shared with you the idea of podcasting with a purpose. In this episode, I give you an example of what this sort of thing actually looks like by sharing a recent episode of my newly re-branded podcasts called “Pursuing A Balanced Life.”

There are a few things about this episode that I think podcasters might find interesting. Here are a few things to consider when listening

*Notice the transition sound effect when I fade into the episode that I share with you.

*Notice the amazing audio quality of the Edirol R-09HR audio recorder – Available for purchase through me.

*Notice out I used the voice mail feedback line to play audio from a listener and interacted with him during the recording of the content.

*Notice the fact that you don’t have to be “in studio” to record a podcast. Many of my listeners enjoy the ambient noises of me being outside more than sounding great in the studio.

*Notice the use of Social Media Tools to help brand your show. Seriously, CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLEM.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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111 Podcast Answer Man – Podcasting With Purpose And Rebranding Shows!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:14:35 +0000

Podcasting With Purpose
And Rebranding Shows!

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode:
Valuable information about voice mail for podcasters!
Ambient Sounds set the stage!
Bloopers – Keeping It Real!
Should Podcasting Sound Like Radio?
Podcasting With Purpose
Rebranding Shows
REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR!

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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110 Podcast Answer Man – RSS Feed Limits? Webinar Announcement!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:38:07 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 110
RSS Feed Limits? Webinar Announcement!

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I answer a question about why I have over 100 episodes of my Podcast Answer Man podcast in my rss feed, while I only have 15 episodes of my various other shows’ rss feeds. Is there a limit on the number of shows you can put in one rss feed? What do you do with old episodes when you have hundreds of episodes?

Also, in this episode, I tell you all about the Podcast Production Setup and Workflow Webinar. You don’t want to miss this webinar as this will be the most comprehensive two hour webinar I’ve done to date. It will be held on Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 7:00 PM EDT. If you would like to attend, please do Click Here To Register Now.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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109 Podcast Answer Man – Edirol Recorder and Voice Mail Options

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:15:16 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 109
Edirol Recorder and Voice Mail Options

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I answer some questions from one of my clients who has recently ordered a few pieces of audio gear from me. He’s considering the purchase of the Edirol R-09HR recorder and wanted to know if I recommended that he should use an external mic when doing interviews.

I share a few sample recordings using the Edirol with and without an external microphone. In the example where I do use an external microphone, I’m using the Electrovoice RE50/B microphone. Both the Edirol and the Mic are available for purchase through me!
I take consulting requests and equipment sales directly from you at 859-757-1399.

Also in this episode, I share three options for having a Voice Mail Feedback Line. The first two options, J2.com and K7.net are free services. The third service, which is the one that I use, is BroadVoice.com. If you choose to sign up with BroadVoice, please use my listener feedback line as the number that referred you to them. My Voice Mail Number with them is 859-795-4067.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me at 859-757-1399.

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108 Podcast Answer Man – Carrie Runnals from Words To Mouth

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:56:36 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 108
Carrie Runnals from Words To Mouth

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I have the honor of interviewing Carrie Runnals from The DivaCast and Words To Mouth Podcast. I know many of you are inspired by the stories and insights of other podcasters and Carrie is one of those people who is really passionate about what she podcasts about. This to me is among the greatest traits that any podcaster can have.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@gspn.tv or call me. My phone number is on the top of the the Equipment Page.

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107 Podcast Answer Man – Marketing Your Podcast

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:19:39 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 107
Marketing Your Podcast

Right Click Here To Download

In this email, I share a direct message that I received from my friend, Daniel Johnson, Jr. He had provided me a link to this wonderful blog entry from Seth Godin. That of course inspired some additional thoughts on my mindset related to marketing your podcast.

Also in this episode, I answer a few listener questions. Steve McQueen from MCNationPodcast.com asked about placing a TalkShoe recording and putting it on your own podcast site. I also gave just a brief example of the sound of the JK Audio Broadcast Host. Finally, I took two calls from Tess from London, England regarding Wordpress and iTunes.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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106 Podcast Answer Man – Handling Critical Feedback

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:13:15 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 106
Handling Critical Feedback

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I share three of the most recent critical feedback emails that I’ve received. Two of the three had a very negative tone with the criticisms. In each of these three examples, I share how it is possible to turn these types of emails into an opportunity to build a relationship. It’s not always possible to do this. However, when it comes to building community, it is important to understand that it really does happen one person at a time.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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105 Podcast Answer Man – The Personal Touch

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:29:43 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 105
The Personal Touch

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, discuss the different approach to podcasters being available to their audiences. I also share some thoughts about using headphones to monitor your audio levels while recording. A few other items thrown in there as well.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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104 Podcast Answer Man – Phone Interviews And Skype

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:35:04 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 104
Phone Interviews And Skype

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I answer a question about the use of Skype Out to record phone interviews for a podcast. I give my thoughts on this type of recording and other possible solutions.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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103 Podcast Answer Man – One Site For Blog And Podcast?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:25:22 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 103
Blogs And Podcasts Combined

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I spend some time answering a question about using a single installation of wordpress to combine both your blog and your podcast.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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102 Podcast Answer Man – Podcamp Nashville Review And Talk

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:55:54 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 102
Podcamp Nashville Review & My Talk

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I share my thoughts about Podcamp Nashville 2009. I also share the talk that I gave during the my time there. Of course I mention it in the episode, but I just want to say that I thought it was an awesome event. The location and style was perfect this year and I had the opportunity to connect with a lot of great people from the Nashville area and other from other places as well.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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101 Podcast Answer Man – Tascam DR-07 Video Review

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:00:05 +0000

Special Video Episode

Podcast Answer Man 101
Tascam DR-07 Video Review

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I provide you a video review of the Tascam DR-07, which you can purchase by either emailing me at Cliff@gspn.tv or calling me at the number listed at the top of my equipment page.

Video Review Here:

Please note that in episode 100, I provided an audio review of this same unit.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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100 Podcast Answer Man – Tascam DR-07 Audio Review

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:39:35 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 100
Tascam DR-07 Audio Review

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In this episode, I provide you an audio review of the Tascam DR-07, which you can purchase by either emailing me at Cliff@gspn.tv or calling me at the number listed at the top of my equipment page.

Please note that in episode 101, I’ll be providing a very in depth video review of this same unit.

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099 Podcast Answer Man – Feedburner Google Transition

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:22:34 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 099
Feedburner/Google Server Transition

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In this episode, I share my updated thoughts of the Feeedburner/Google sever transfer. I mention the January 19th blog post where I personally suggested waiting to do the transfer.

I’m happy to announce that Google seems to have resolved most every issue that anyone had reported up to this point with the exception of those who are using Yahoo Pipes as their source rss feed. In the episode, I personally give a green light and say that making the transition seem to be a pretty seamless one at this point.

Feedburner MyBrand Users:
For those who are using the MyBrand feature of Feedburner. Google is reporting that “After transferring your account, you will be sent an email with instructions on how to change MyBrand. You can also get these instructions on the MyAccount page after the transfer.”

You will be required to change your DNS CNAME to the Google hosted domain service, the same service that handles custom domains for Google applications like Blogger and Google Apps for Your Domain. Please note that the CNAME will no longer be the same domain as the domain that serves feeds, but the service level and functionality will be identical.

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098 Podcast Answer Man – Interviewed By Mark Hunter

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:16:52 +0000

Podcast Answer Man 098
Interviewed By Mark Hunter

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In this episode, I’m interviewed by Mark Hunter from the Social Media Podcast.

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097 Podcast Answer Man – iPhone Apps For Podcasters

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:03:05 +0000

A talk with James Paolantonio of
XZapps iPhone Apps.

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I have a talk with the man who designed my gspn.tv iPhone Application. In our discussion, you’ll learn that version 2.0 of the gspn.tv app is coming soon with the ability to download episodes. Also, James is making an announcement that he has a new site, linked above, where you can get your own iPhone application for your podcast.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a paid endorsement and while using promo code “answerman” will get you a 10% discount on the creation of your iPhone app, should you choose to order one, we do not get any sort of a commission from your purchase.

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096 Podcast Answer Man – Chef Mark In The House

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:32:10 +0000

A talk with Chef Mark Tafoya of
Culinary Media Network.

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095 Podcast Answer Man – Girls Night In Radio

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:17:16 +0000

Podcast Answer Man
Episode 095 – Girls Night In Radio

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In this episode, I interview the girls from Girls Night In Radio. A podcast that was started by girls who had met one another as a result of the gspn.tv community.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Facebook 101 Video Tutorial Series Now Refreshed!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:03:56 +0000

It’s been a year and a half since I originally released my Facebook 101 Video Tutorial Series. Back when I did it, I was still podcasting as a hobby and I didn’t have any concern about the quality of the audio or video of those original episodes. However, in spite of the lack of quality, this tutorial series has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times by people who have been trying to figure out how to navigate through this social networking tool

I’ve decided that it was time to refresh the series. Episode one is the same as the old episode, basically asking people to give themselves a week before just giving up. Episode two is similar to one of the original episodes, explaining how to stop all those annoying Facebook emails. Episode three is brand new content, explaining how slowly put an end to all those annoying Facebook applications requests.

More refreshed episodes and new content will be coming soon. Of course you can subscribe to the podcast feed using the buttons below.

You can Subscribe To Facebook 101 With These Buttons:

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Here’s the first three videos:

Episode 1 – Give It One Week!

Episode 2 – Stop The Facebook Emails!

Episode 3 -Annoying Facebook Application Requests

094 Podcast Answer Man – Growing A Greener World

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:39:02 +0000

A Talk With Joe Lamp’l
Growing A Greener World Podcast

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In this episode, I have one of my consulting clients join me during a 24 hours podcast marathon that we did to celebrate our third anniversary in podcasting my first year of doing podcasting full time as a career.

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093 Podcast Answer Man – With Liberty And Justice For All

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:14:01 +0000

Podcast Answer Man #93
With Liberty And Justice For All

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In this episode, I talk with Stephen Cross, as gspn.tv community member who created one of the best new podcasts in 2008. You must check out With Liberty And Justice For All to see a very creative approach to podcasting!

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

092 Podcast Answer Man – Father Roderick From SQPN

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:10:35 +0000

A talk with Father Roderick from SQPN.com

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In this episode, I am joined via skype with one of my all time favorite podcasters, Father Roderick. We talk about many aspects of podcasting, from technology to the community.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Moving Feedburner Accounts To Google – WAIT FOR NOW!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:20:10 +0000

Update 02/29/2009: I’ve recently given my own personal green light on the Feedburner to Google server transition. I encourage you to listen Episode 99 of Podcast Answer Man and check out show notes there for up to date details.

Anyone, who’s listened to the Podcast Answer Man Podcast, probably knows that I’ve been a huge fan of the Feedburner service from the earliest days of podcasting. It was not surprising, that as soon as Feeburner posted a little message on the account login screen saying they were moving all the feedburner accounts to Google, that my email inbox was flooded with questions as to how this change was going to affect our podcast feeds.

If you have not logged into your feedburner account recently, the message appears like this:

Basically, if you click on the “Learn More” link, it takes you to a Google Help Page titled ”
Transferring FeedBurner Accounts to Google Accounts FAQ.” Upon first glance, it would appear that the announcement is simply that they are merging the “account administration” with Feedburner and Google.

When Google acquired “Writely” (Now Google Docs), they did this same thing. Basically, it was as simply as clicking on a “transfer account to Google” link and if you already had a Google account, you just typed in that Google Username and Password and the account was then managed using your Google credentials from that point forward. If you didn’t have a Google account, you simply had to create one and that’s how you managed your account from that point forward.

I’m certain that this is “one” aspect of what Google is doing with Feedburner here and they intend to have all Feedburner User ID’s transferred to Google User ID’s by February 28, 2009.

However, this announcement states that log in credentials are not the only thing that will be changing with this transition. They make mention that that those who are using the “My Brand” feature of Feedburner, will need to update their CNam registries.

Not only that, but it would appear that they “might possibly” be changing the actual location of our podcasts feeds from “http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOUR-FEED-NAME-HERE” to something else. Although they do not clearly tell us what the new feed format will be in this notice.

Of course, wanting to be ahead of the curve, I wanted to go ahead and bite the bullet and do the transition on all of my feeds (have move more than thirty of them) so that I could figure out how this process is going to work and what the end result would be.

However, as soon as I choose the “move your account now” option, I got this error:

So it would appear that whatever the new feed structure will be, it is possible that someone else may have already chosen to have created an account on the new feed server using your feed’s unique name. This is not cool at all and the account transfer seems to be an all or nothing at this point.

In the mean time, I’ve created a “http://feedburner.google.com” account with my Google Log In. I’ve even gone so far as to set up a test feed and noticed that it gave me a “http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MY-FEED-NAME-HERE” feed address.

At this point, I wish I had more information to give you. Google has plenty of time between now and February 28th to figure all this out. My suggestion at this point is to ride out the storm for just a bit and not make and changes just yet.

When I know more, I’ll post here and likely release and audio podcast edition of Podcast Answer Man to give the full details of what is happening when I know more.

Until then, I’m going to rest assured by this Q&A from the blog entry on the Google site:

Q: How long will the feeds.feedburner.com/myfeedname address work?

A: It is our intent to keep backward compatibility with your feed address as long as this service exists.

Just keep in mind, if during the process, you run into any issues. I am available for one on one phone consulting. However, as I said, I would not make any changes to your feedburner account until things get ironed out a little be more.

New Twitter Badges!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:25:16 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I’m a social media junkie! Of course, twitter is a major tool for me to communicate and connect with so many in the gpsn.tv community.

There are only three flash flavors to choose from which each come in three sizes. However, I must say that anything is an improvement over the old twitter badge as shown here.

You can get your badge at http://Twitter.com/widgets

091 Podcast Answer Man – The Future Of Podcasting

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:51:54 +0000

A Talk Amongst Those Who Plan To Podcast For Years To Come

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In this episode, I share a talk with some folks who are pretty well known in the podcasting community. If there was any doubt as to whether podcasting is working for folks, I hope this conversation will put your mind to ease.

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Warning Twitter Users! Do Not Use Twply.com!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:42:48 +0000

Are you an early adopter like me?
If you use twitter, you may have recently seen a post from a friend of yours that said “Just started using http://twply.com/ to get my @replies via email. Neat stuff!”

Being the early adopter that I am, I thought it sounded great. I miss the “tracking” feature where I used to get sms updates when someone sent me an @reply on Twitter. So what did I do? I went to the site and checked it out. When I got there, I saw an extremely vague website.

In fact, there’s no links at all on the site to explain how the service works at all. There’s not even a privacy statement! Instead, at the top of the page, it simply asks you to give them your Twitter Username and Password with the phrase “Your password is safe with us. No worries!”

I THINK NOT!

Don’t do it people! There are ways that this type of service can be done without needing your password!. Just below the username and password fields, there’s a question that says “Support Twply on your first login?” There are two radio buttons where you can choose to answer “Yep, go ahead!” or “No thanks!”

That’s all it says. When I read it, I’m thinking they are asking for donations! Right?

NOPE!

Basically, what happens is that if you click “Yep, go ahead!,” without notifying you, the service LOGS INTO YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT and makes a post ON YOUR ACCOUNT saying “Just started using http://twply.com/ to get my @replies via email. Neat stuff!”

As it turns out, this is what they author of the site considers supporting Twply on your first login. Two things have obviously happened. The site is gaining a massive number of new users every minute. Why? Well, I have about 1,600 people who follow me on Twitter. Over time, I’ve developed a relationship of trust with most of them. If they were to see a message from me giving such a glowing endorsement of a site that says I just started using this service, please come check it out, people would respond.

But what about the password? One might hesitate, but through this “social engineering” marketing plot, people are giving away their passwords by the droves! Why? Well, go back to the hypothetical scenario I gave before. People might say, “Well Cliff obviously trusted them enough with his password” and knowing that someone they “TRUST” sent a message saying the service is good, and then you see that it says.. “Don’t worry, your password is safe with us!” Well, people just type it in and move forward through the process.

So what’s the big deal? 1) They have your password and shouldn’t need it to do the service they are doing! 2) They don’t explain what “supporting them” means. (There is a difference between supporting a service and endorsing a service! 3) There’s no privacy policy 4) They send out a tweet in the “first person” as if YOU were the one endorsing the site! 5) Read on, because it gets worse!

YOUR INFORMATION HAS BEEN SOLD!
I’m not kidding. You can see this “FOR SALE PAGE. In the information about the site, they write “All advertising is running through word of mouth on twitter, we used a very different method. The method is not loved by everyone but we clearly ask on the homepage weather to use it or not. If they choose to “support us” then a message with the link of twply will be sent out to the users.”

The worst part is that the site actually sold! That’s right, access to literally thousands of Twitter accounts just sold for a measly $1,200.00.

I could go on and on about this one. However, I don’t think I need to say any more to convince you that this is one site that you don’t want to be an early adopter on! Have you already given them your Twitter ID and password? CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY!

As for your email address. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a bit of increased spam traffic coming in as result of the sale of this site!

090 Podcast Answer Man – Podcasting Is Dead? I Disagree! A Talk With Michael W Geoghegan

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:03:07 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 090
Podcasting Is Dead? I Disagree! A Talk With Michael W Geoghegan

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I talk with Michael W Geoghegan regarding his recent comments about the statement of podcasting made in his blog regarding the demise of Podango.

Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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089 Podcast Answer Man – Sad News Regarding Podango

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:41:19 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Episode 089
Sad News Regarding Podango

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This weekend, I learned of some very shocking and extremely sad news regarding Podango. On Friday, December 26th, the president of Podango, Douglas G. Smith, published an entry on the Podango company blog. In the post, Doug writes, “Our ability to continue operations past the end of this year (2008) is in question. We do not want any of you, or any of your shows to be negatively affected by this uncertainty and so we are encouraging you to begin taking all necessary steps to secure your data or begin moving to another hosting provider.” … “As of today, the last day to move or secure your data is December 31st.”

In case you don’t have a calendar in front of you, that’s less than five full days from the date of the notice till the time that it is “possible” that Podango content producers will no longer have access to any of the content they’ve uploaded to the Podango servers and any and all rss feeds hosted by Podango cease to exist.

You may remember that I was considering a two year contract with Podango for the entire gspn.tv network. In this audio episode of the Podcast Answer Man, I share the story of why I chose not to sign with Podango at the very last minute.

Also in the episode, I talk with Todd Cochrane from GeekNewsCentral.com and Rawvoice.com. I brought Todd online because he has a hosting company that is a one of a few hosting options for these Podango content producers who are looking for a new home.

I know that many of you in the gspn.tv and PodastAnswerMan.com are personally affected by this news. My heart goes out to you! I can’t imagine that you saw yourself spending your holiday break working on a podcast show transition such as this.

One last thing mentioned in this episode was Michael W. Geoghegan’s blog entry asserting that this is further proof that “podcasting is dead.” Michael, I love and respect you man… I certainly agree that podcasting didn’t turn out to be what so many folks in the old days thought it would become. However, it’s far from dead. In a way.. Actually, in a BIG WAY, I’m glad it didn’t turn out the way everyone had thought it would. I’m totally digging the path that podcasting has taken me down!

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Is Libsyn Down? How Can We Learn About Libsyn.com Outages?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:15:06 +0000

So I opened my email this morning (Sunday, December 28th, 2008) and noticed that many people had written to tell me that they were getting error messages when trying to download episodes of our podcasts.

I’ve been with Libsyn.com for three years now. And before I go any further, let me tell you that overall, I’ve been an EXTREMELY SATISFIED customer for the most part. When they first started out, things were a bit rocky. However, at the time, they were about the only independent folks out there who had a simple level cost, unlimited bandwidth media delivery plan available. Couple that with the fact that the cost was better than awesome, they had a hard time keeping up with the demand at first.

As for the past two years, my service with Libsyn has been pretty smooth sailing with only the occasional bump in the road. Okay, I know, mixed metaphors, but hey, it’s just a blog post right?

I’m writing this blog entry for a few reasons. First off, I wanted to be able to simply point listeners to this post when answering all the emails asking if there is something wrong with their subscriptions to our premium content at gspn.tv.

So for those of you who were wondering, you likely received one of two errors over the weekend. Either iTunes showed you something like “(err=500)” when trying to download the files from our rss feeds, or you got an “Internal Server Error” if you tried to either access the file via the web or using our gspn.tv iPhone Application.

I want to assure you that there is nothing wrong with your subscription and this was simply a random outage that Libsyn.com, the company that we pay to host and deliver our media content, had experienced over the weekend. Everything is back up and running now.

Another reason I wanted to make this post was to make public a suggestion that I recently made to Libsyn’s support staff. Actually, I’ve made this suggestion about three or four times in the past as well, but it’s never been followed through on. I’m wondering if I were to propose this suggestion here in my blog, if enough people were to comment on this post that they think it’s a great idea, and perhaps implement it.

It’s a real simple idea….

As soon as anyone on the libsyn support staff is aware of an issue that affects “multiple user accounts,” simply open up a blog entry on the Support Blog at http://support.libsyn.com.

Again, I want to interject that I’m a HUGE FAN of the Libsyn Support Team. I’ve never had an issue with Libsyn that was not resolved within a matter of minute or at most a few short hours of my notifying them of my issues. However, let me share with you my recent email support ticket to explain what I’m talking about here.

At 2:01pm, I finally found enough time to actually send a support ticket regarding the issue with Libsyn.com. I had already confirmed that it was not just an issue with my account by doing a search on Twitter. Here is the contents of that initial email:

I have three accounts with libsyn and I’m getting (err=500) errors in iTunes as are most of my listeners.

Can you investigate?

My three user ids are in the subject line of this email

At 4:22pm (Mind you that it is the weekend) I got the following response

Hello Cliff,

We checked your three accounts, and your files appear to be active and available for download. If you still experience difficulty, please send us the link to any affected file, and we’ll look further into the issue.

Please contact us if you have any other questions.

Thank you,

*******(I’m removing name)

Of course this prompted me to write back by saying….

******,

I appreciate you looking into my account. It does appear to be working now.

Could you do me a favor? Is it possible that when Libsyn has these sort of issues, that you guys ACKNOWLEGE that there WAS an issue? (I’m not yelling with my words… I’m not upset or irrate.. Just making a point..)

You see, your message simply makes it sound as if there was never an issue at all with my account, or that you can’t confirm that there was an issue on my account.

It’s clear, by looking at the attached image, or LINKED HERE: http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/363/1755611919.png that you guys were clearly having issues with people getting Internal Server Errors…

My only concern is that this email response simply does not confirm that there was ever an issue and the http://support.libsyn.com support blog would make it appear as though you have not had any system wide issues since Monday, November 24th…

Is it too much to ask to post to the blog when you guys realize that there is a support issue that is clearly affecting several users?

I don’t mind my media not being served 100% of the time. For what I pay for my media hosting with you, I’m okay with 96% to 98% uptime with an occasional 12 hour issue once a year…. Just communicate with us so we know that you are aware of this stuff and that you’re working on it…

Is this doable?

Cliff

Next, I got the following response….

Hello

Sorry for the frustration. It was not our intention to avoid acknowledging an issue with the service this weekend.

To be honest, we noticed a couple of these reports yesterday early but really receive the bulk of complaints by this afternoon, which is when we (support staff) took action and contacted the tech team to alert them to the issue. Being the weekend following a holiday, the tech and support teams are actually spread around the country in various places, so we had to work quickly to communicate the problem to the team that could fix it and work on fixing the problem that caused the errors as well as fixing the erroneous files and alerting users. That is where our efforts were concentrated as opposed to posting to the support blog.

Again I apologize for the frustration. Please let us know if you have any other questions or problems.

Thanks
********

And then I responded again wit this….

*******,

I can appreciate that. Perhaps for those who come back to check their email on Monday morning, only to find emails piled up from their listeners alerting them to the issue, do you see how maybe posting just a quick note that there was an issue over the weekend that had been resolved might help keep someone from searching for an issue more than they need to?

I appreciate that it’s the weekend and that you guys did resolve the issue. Maybe I’m just being picky and I simply need more sleep.

It’s just that when I get a report of an issue from my listeners, the first place I go to is to the Support Blog. I know there have been other documented outages since the November blog date.. Even if you were to wait till you get back in the office on the next normal business day… It would be just so awesome to know that a quick look at the support blog tells me that you are aware of an issue and that you are either working to fix it or have already fixed it. This keeps me from filling out support tickets and really puts my mind at ease.

I appreciate all you guys do!

Cliff

Okay, so am I out of mind to suggest that they consider making it a policy that if any support issue arises that affects multiple customer accounts that the first person who realizes the issue meets this criteria should take two minutes, log into the support blog and simply say “Hey, we are aware of an issue and we’re on it!”

What are your thoughts?

Until then, simply remember that you can search twitter for the phrase “Is Libsyn Down” and you will likely find out very quickly if it’s just your account or a system wide issue.

Update: I just noticed that the first thing this morning, Libsyn was quick to place an update on their blog. No word as to whether or not they’ll take my suggestion to make it a policy to place an update immediately upon finding out about an issue in the future, even on the weekends or late at night, but heck… It’s just a suggestion! Here’s their blog post from today!

088 Podcast Answer Man – Guest of Panasonic

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:27:11 +0000

I’m excited to finally be able to tell you that I’m going to CES 2009 as a guest of Panasonic. Stay tuned to PodcastAnswerMan.com as this is where I will be posting all my official coverage.

I wanted to share this announcement with you in a video episode of Podcast Answer Man so that I could play around with different methods of posting video content that I’ll be getting while I’m in at the conference. To bring this episode to you, I held a simple point and shoot camera in my right hand as I walked down the street filming myself. I loaded the video into a program called ScreenFlow. I exported the video as a .m4v for use in my rss feed for download. I then exported the video into a Quicktime .mov file which I then uploaded to Facebook, YouTube, and Blip.tv.

I actually need your help. Can you tell me which embedded player do you think looks better? Is there a difference in your opinion?

This version is from Blip.tv

This version is from FaceBook! (I didn’t know they allowed you to embed video. Till Now!)

Right Click Here To Download

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087 Podcast Answer Man – CES 2009 COVERAGE COMING!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:09:48 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Podcast
CES 2009 Coverage Coming Soon!

Right Click Here To Download

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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086 Podcast Answer Man – Press Release Strategy

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:09:56 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Press Release Strategy

Right Click Here To Download

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

085 Podcast Answer Man – Jay Berkowitz – Search Engine Optimization

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:38:18 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Jay Berkowitz – Search Engine Optimization

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I talk with Jay Berkowitz of 10GoldenRules.com. Jay shares some insights on how we, as podcasters, can optimize our websites for best search engine results.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

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iPhone 2.2 – Podcast Download Feature Seriously Flawed

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:51:13 +0000

The much anticipated 2.2 firmware update for the iPhone and iPod Touch was released today. With the update comes a few new features, one specifically that should interest podcasters. Take a look at this image and see if you can spot it in the list…

That’s right! Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application over Wi-Fi and cellular network. I must admit that I was surprised to see the ability to do this via the cellular network. It makes me wonder why I can download a fifty megabyte podcast episode over the cell notwork but not a three megabyte song from iTunes. Who cares, we got our podcast downloads right?

Don’t Break Out The Party Hats Just Yet!
I must say that as an end user and as a podcaster, I’m not happy with the implementation of downloading podcasts via the iPhone / iPod Touch. Let me share a few reasons why.

Fumbling Between Two Applications:
The first thing I don’t like is that it closes down the iPod Application to launch the iTunes wi-fi Application. Once we finish downloading our podcast episode(s), we have to close the iTunes app and then go back and re-open the iPod application to browse to the new podcast to play it. Seems a bit clunky to me. Not typical of Apple to have so many steps. More on this as you read on.

Taking RSS Out Of The Equation:
The second thing I don’t like is that it it get’s new podcast data from iTunes instead of the original rss feed. This means that if we used a “One Click Install” option to subscribe to a podcast, when we click “Get More Episodes…” we are taken to the “What’s Hot” list in the podcast section of the wi-fi iTunes podcast section.

Let me give you a better example. Let’s just say that we were to go to the iTunes Store on our computer, we do a search for Podcast Answer Man, and click on the “Subscribe” button from the Podcast Answer Man podcast page “in iTunes.” If we go through this process, then when we click on “Get More Episodes…” in the iPod application, it will take us directly to the Podcast Answer Man Page in the iTunes wi-fi store and give us options to download more episodes that Apple is currently aware of. More on the aware of part of this in just a moment.

However, let’s just say that that we wanted to skip the iTunes store and subscribe the podcast directly. If you have never done this before, you simply click on “Advanced” in the menu of iTunes and then click on “Subscribe To Podcast” and then enter in the url of the rss feed.

If we were to do this, when we click on “Get More Episodes…” in the iPod Application, it WILL NOT take us to the Podcast Answer Man page in iTunes. Instead, it will take us to the “What’s Hot” section in the iTunes wi-fi application for podcasts. This happens even if we use the same rss feed that is registered in the iTunes Store. NOT COOL APPLE!!!!

Another issue is that the iTunes store does not stay consistently synced with podcast rss feeds. I might release an episode of a podcast at 8am and it might not show up in the iTunes listing until it next syncs with the rss feed at 5pm later that day, or whenever they choose to resync.

Of course, there are a ton of podcasts that are not listed in iTunes. So for those podcasts that we are subscribed to, we are out of luck.

No Syncing Back To The Computer:
A third thing that I do not like is that you when you do a search in the iTunes wi-fi store for a podcast and you download an episode, it DOES NOT sync back to your computer! What’s up with that? Did they do any testing on this functionality at all?

What They Should Have Done!
What they should have done was to turn the iPod podcast functionality into an rss reader. When we click “Get More Episodes” it should read the RSS FEED, show us a list of episodes available in the feed and give us the option to download whatever episodes we want to download right there INSIDE the iPod application.

They should have given the ability to subscribe to a podcast right there from the iPod Application by entering an rss feed as well. Basically, the iPod functionality on the iPhone / iPod Touch should function much like the “podcast section” in iTunes, distinct and feature rich and completely usable, independent of the iTunes Store.

Oh, and of course, whatever we would subscribe to or download on the iPod App should sync back to the computer as well.

I like that they allow us to browse the Podcast directory in the iTunes Wi-Fi store. I really am. However, the fact that you can “subscribe” to a podcast and they don’t sync back to the computer. It makes me ask… “Why bother?”

I guess I’m just thankful that they finally approved the gspn.tv Application in the App Store. At least my listeners have some sort of access to the latest content that I produce on the go, including all my premium, password protected content.

What are your thoughts? Share a comment and Join The Conversation!

084 Podcast Answer Man – WordPress Plugins I Use And Why

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:06:37 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Podcast
WordPress Plugins I Use And Why

Right Click Here To Download

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

I use the following Plug-Ins

WordPress Database Backup
On-demand backup of your WordPress database.
http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup

ShareThis: Let your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites.

KG-EnclosureFlex: Gives you the flexibility to choose which files you want to enclose in your RSS feed, and allows you to suppress all enclosures if you want.

Audio player: A highly configurable but simple mp3 player for all your audio needs. You can customise the player’s colour scheme to match your blog theme, have it automatically show track information from the encoded ID3 tags and more.

Akismet: Checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade: Allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions.

083 Podcast Answer Man – Griffin iTalk Application Review

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:50:06 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Griffin iTalk iPhone Application Reveiw

Right Click Here To Download

In this episode, I give my review of of iTalk. (iTunes link) iTalk is a new sound recording app for iPhone, iPhone 3G, and 2nd generation iPod touch that turns the iPhone or iPod touch into a mobile audio recorder.

I’ve been using the the application to record several episodes of my daily audio journal podcast titled “My Crazy Life.” However, I’m becoming increasingly more frustrated with the audio glitches that I point out in this review. I’m at the point that I love this application to just let it go. I’m contacting Griffin Support on Monday to see if I can find out if they are aware of this issue.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

082 Podcast Answer Man – Hosting Files With Libsyn

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:02:11 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Podcast
How Libsyn works for hosting media files

Right Click Here To Download

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

081 Podcast Answer Man – Tim Bourquin – New Media Expo

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:22:47 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Podcast
Interview with Tim Bourquin of New Media Expo

Right Click Here To Download

In This Episode, I share an interview I did with Tim Bourquin after he had finished interviewing me for his New Media Expo Podcast.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067
You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

Griffin iTalk Application for iPhone and 2nd Gen iPod Touch

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:25:47 +0000

Griffin has announced the release of iTalk. (iTunes link) iTalk is a new sound recording app for iPhone, iPhone 3G, and 2nd generation iPod touch that turns the iPhone or iPod touch into a mobile audio recorder.

I know what you are thinking. There are a ton of voice recorders in the App Store! This is not just another cheap voice recording application. This application allows you to create high-quality recordings. With my iPhone 3G’s on board microphone, I’ve been able to get some amazing sound recorded with it.

I’m going to do a full review of the software on an upcoming episode of the Podcast Answer Man podcast. I simply had to get this post out there as quickly as possible as Griffin’s iTalk is free for a limited time from the App Store.

PLEASE NOTE: I have done a full review of this application in Episode 83 of Podcast Answer Man.

Recording Phone Interviews And Taking Live Calls During Podcast Shows

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:28:24 +0000

Please note, I do sell all of the pieces of equipment mentioned in this blog post. If you would like know pricing details, please contact me at Cliff@Ravensraft.org.

Please watch this video first and then see the information below the video:

Up to till this time, I’ve been using the JK Audio Broadcast Host to get from my phone line into my mixer. This device allows me to take a single analog telephone line and patch the audio to and from that phone line to my mixer. Basically turning my mixer into the “handset” of the phone. Been working great!

Here’s a diagram of the setup…

Today, I just got a question from a customer who wanted to know if he could use the Broadcast Host to hook up to his ISDN line. The answer is “no” because it is not an analog phone system. I called JK Audio and asked them what they have for this and they told me about the JK Audio InKeeper PBX.

It turns out that the InKeeper PBX is “exactly the same” as the Broadcast Host except that the connection to the phone line happens at the point of the “handset connection” of a standard telephone. This means that the phone is doing the translation from digital to analog signal and the InKeeper PBX plugs in where you would normally plug in the handset and the handset plugs into the InKeeper PBX. (See Diagram) (Note: this does not work with phones where the “dial pad” is in the handset).

Now, what is awesome about this is that with the handset being the point of connection, this means you could have a “multi-line” phone system, hence the name PBX, where you can switch back and forth between multiple phone lines, just like you were do if you were simply using the phone’s handset switching to another line. This is going to fill the need of many of my clients who want to be able to use multiple phone lines to allow for a queue of callers waiting. This also allows for someone on another extension to “pre-screen” those calls as well.

Here’s the diagram of the setup:

Please note, I do sell both of the above pieces of equipment. If you would like know pricing details, please contact me at Cliff@Ravensraft.org.

080 Podcast Answer Man – Google Analytics ScreenCast

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:34:36 +0000

In this video screen cast, I share how how to install Google Analytics on your Worpress based website.

Never heard of Google Analytics before? No worries, I also show just how much useful information you can learn about how people find your site and what they do once they get there. Best of all, Google Analytics is absolutely free.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

Right Click Here To Download

My Favorite Wordpress Themes Go Open Source!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:47:45 +0000

It is no secret that I love Wordpress not only for blogging software, but for content management all together. Since the beginning, I’ve helped many of my podcast consulting clients set up some of the best looking and easily navigable podcast sites available.

While I am able to take an existing Wordpress Theme and modify it to meet my client’s needs, I must tell you that I can not take credit for the original designs that I’ve used. I’ve been an affiliate with Revolution Themes for quite some time. And as such, I’ve recommended several clients to use these great themes as the foundation for their online presence.

Effective this morning, my favorite themes are going Open Source with a brand new site named RevolutionTwo.com. What this means is that these themes are now going to be made available for free to the public.

My first thought was how in the world was the team behind these awesome designs ever going to make a living and to continue to be able to provide support for those who use the themes? I learned that they are now offering either a one year or lifetime membership to full support on all their themes.

As a long time customer of theirs, I can tell you that their support for these forums are second to none! Personally, I know the cost of getting a decent web site designed. It would cost no less than $1,000 and likely much more to have a site that looks as good as these themes. For only $99 you get unlimited access to all the Revolution Two Themes and you get full support for 1 year. For only $149 you get a lifetime membership allowing you unlimited support and access to all themes.

I would like to point out that I’m available to help on a one on one basis in learning how to customize these themes to meet your needs. I charge $95 per hour for my services. So you can see how much of a good deal the theme support membership can be!

If you choose to use the Revolution Two themes and/or membership, I’d love it if you would be willing to come to PodcastAnswerMan.com and click on the banner that links to them in the sidebar so that I can get the affiliate commission on the referral.

Podcasting Is Dead? Dead Wrong!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:51:07 +0000

A few week’s ago, I was browsing through one of my social networking sites and saw a friend post a message that he was about to attend a session titled “Podcasting Is Dead.” I happen to know the person who gave that talk. Since I was not there to listen, I’m not going to comment on what he actually said against or in support of podcasting as a medium for delivering content to niche audiences.

True be told, there is no shortage of bloggers that are suggesting that “podcasting is dead“. I’m here to shout from the mountain top that this simply is not true! Podcasting is not only alive, it is thriving!

When I started podcasting in 2005, I didn’t know anyone locally who had ever heard of a podcast. Today, almost everyone I know is aware that their local church “podcasts” their weekend sermons, that their local news station makes the evening news available via podcast, or that their favorite tv show is likely to have an “official podcast” put out by either the creator, wriiters, or producers of their favorite tv show.

For those of you who do not know this about me, I left a very successful career in insurance after 11 years to pursue a career in podcasting full time. I’m now entering my eleventh month and I’ve not experienced a single dime of debt from day one. I’m consistently contacted by people who hear about me via word of mouth and who want to be consulted about how to start their own podcast.

I’ve fallen in love the the medium of delivering content via rss technology that I’m working on a business model that will allow me to earn a majority of my income from producing my own content alone. Just a few short months ago, I decided to take my podcasts to a partial premium content model, charging $10 per month. In just a few short months, I’ve already have already had one 163 people join up as gspn.tv Plus Members, with new members added daily.

I introduce the fact that I was an insurance agent for eleven years to explain to you that that the insurance industry as a whole is an industry that is always the last to embrace the latest technology. Many insurance companies still do not accept credit card payments on their websites. Most of those that do, still charge you up to five dollars for the convenience.

A majority of insurance agency offices today are still filled with up to 10’s or 100’s of four drawer letter file cabinets full of manila folders with years worth of paper copies of client policies. You’d laugh if I told you the number of agents I know that have an email address, but have no idea how to check or send an email. This is an extreme example, as most agents do use email on a daily basis. However I bet that less than 10% would know how to scan a document into pdf format and email it as an attachment. Being as technology driven as I am, the fact that the insurance industry simply could not keep up with my taste of early adoption was one of many factors that led me to make the switch to my new career.

I share all this background to share the following email I got from an insurance industry continuing education company. A quick look at their website will prove that they haven’t done a refresh of their web design in the past five years. However, this insurance related company has adopted the technology of podcasting.

With the trend that I’ve seen in the adoption of new technology, the following email is an early indication that your grandmother may be asking for an iPod for Christmas so she can subscribe to the podcast for AARP radio.

CEUNEWS

CEU.com Adds Downloadable Course Audio
Continuing education podcasts allow students to take material on the road

You’ve come to expect the best in convenient, high quality continuing education courses from CEU.com. After all, you just need a computer and an internet connection, and you can get the courses you need any time, day or night. What could be easier?

Well – what if you could study the course material when you are away from the computer? When you are driving, riding the train, or even working out at the gym? Now that’s convenient!

CEU.com is happy to announce that we now offer downloadable podcasts of our course audio. This means that when a student signs up for a course, he or she can save the audio to an iPod or other MP3 player. Then the course can go with the student on the road, to the gym, while doing housework – wherever an audio player can go. He or she can review the material as many times as necessary without having to sit at a computer the entire time.

Audio learning is a great way to conveniently incorporate brief study sessions into your daily routine, and this can actually improve your ability to learn. In his book 400 Ways to Stop Stress Now and Forever, G. Gaynor McTigue emphasizes that frequent, short study sessions are the best way to keep information fresh in your mind. Using this method of learning allows you to better understand and retain the material on a deeper level, and it is far superior to trying to “cram” all the material at once. You are also less likely to procrastinate, since these short sessions fit so painlessly into your schedule.

“At CEU.com, we pride ourselves in using technology to its greatest advantage,” said Bruce MacMillian, CEU’s president and CEO. “Making the audio from our courses downloadable makes perfect sense, and it’s a great use of the technology. Freeing our students to take the audio with them to review at their convenience will help them to retain and utilize the information to enhance their careers, and that’s what continuing education is all about.”

Downloadable course audio is now available at www.ceu.com.

gspn.tv Podcasts Recieve Six Podcast Awards Nominations!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:46:19 +0000

Many of you are aware that I do podcast consulting and sell podcast equipment. However, not everyone is aware that I personally produce, with my wife and a few friends, twenty of my own podcasts which I have formed into the Generally Speaking Production Network (gspn.tv).

This year, we received one of the greatest honors a podcast could hope to receive as it relates to the fourth annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards. This year, 81,000 individuals came together and nominated a total of 1,874 podcasts for 22 categories for the 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards!

Out of those nominated, only 10 podcasts for each category make it to the actual voting round. With 22 categories, this means that of the 1,874 podcasts nominated, only 220 are eligible for this year’s 15 day voting period.

I’m very honored to announce to that SIX of the 220 podcasts nominated were gspn.tv podcasts!

Below are the podcasts that were nominated and for which category:

About The Church – Education
Weekly Lost Podcast – Entertainment
Full Time Mom – General
Musically Challenged – Podsafe Music
Almost Daily Devotional – Religion & Inspiration
Podcast Answer Man – Technology & Science

I’m not practicing false humility when I authentically tell you that I believe this has a lot more to do with the power of an engaged community than our ability to produce content.

I want to thank everyone who nominated the gspn.tv podcast lineup above!

079 Podcast Answer Man – Isolation – Absorbtion – Podcast Stats – Condenser Vs Dynamic Mics

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:17:42 +0000

In This Episode, I answer questions about noise reduction, mic choices, and so much more. I talk about Isolation, Absorbtion, Podcast Stats, and Condenser Vs Dynamic Microphones.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067
You can also post questions in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Right Click Here To Download

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

Happy Customer In The Midst Of Great Pain!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:42:31 +0000

Let’s admit it. Every now and then, you get a piece of technical equipment that just doesn’t work the ways it’s supposed to. When a manufacturer is making thousands of the same item on a daily basis, there’s bound to be a bad apple in the bunch.

Since I’ve been selling audio equipment to podcasters from all over the United States, I’ve only had two items that ever needed to be replaced. Today was the second incident. The following comes from the Blog of one of my customers, Crystal Elerson from elerson.net. I really feel bad that she is experiencing any pain and inconvenience at all. However, at the same time, I’m so thankful for her kind words in the midst of it all.

Last Tuesday, I had a problem with my digital recorder right before my interview with Bernard Cooper. By Thursday, everything was working fine, and I had no problems interviewing Rick Moody. Today, I was set to interview Bernard Cooper again.

The mixer has this obnoxiously bright blue light on it that indicates it is receiving power. When the unit is plugged in, the light is always on providing a constant visual distraction. The unit, stupidly, has no On/Off switch. Today, as I was doing my prep work for the interview, I noticed that the obnoxiously bright light irritated me even more by not shining at all.

One loud female roar later…

I did what any former technical support person would do. I checked the surge protector. I switched power outlets. I unplugged and replugged in everything. I tried plugging the unit directly into the wall sans surge protector – two different wall sockets that both give power to other things. The only thing I didn’t do was try a new power cable because, of course, the thing doesn’t use a standard cable so I didn’t have a spare. I then dragged Dear Husband into the room to see if I was missing some obvious piece of information that Males always seem to think everyone should know but Females don’t have access to that Universal Guy Knowledge. Nope. He did everything I did and came to the same conclusion.

I then made the Call of Shame to Cooper to explain what happened. He laughed and generously told me he thought electronic equipment conspired against him anyway. Next time, I’m not telling my audio equipment who I’m calling… I’ll file that away with such wisdom as Never Mention Surplus Money Near a Working Vehicle (fastest way to car problems I have ever seen) and Do Not Announce Intent to Mow Grass (instant rain if we’re serious). Anyway, Bernard was lovely again, and I feel completely unprofessional for having to reschedule twice. I joked with him that I was enjoying our weekly chats. And I am – he has a voice I’d call to listen to at any time. Read me the phone book, and I’d just smile. I want my voice to sound that good but in a feminine way.

Next, I called the Behringer Technical Support Line to confirm my diagnosis: bad power supply or cable. They had me call the retailer I bought it from, who promptly called the company back to talk to his liaison there, and we’re working this out through a 3-way email because this is the first time a power supply/cable has gone out and needed replacing for this retailer (a lovely man named Cliff Ravenscraft who runs several podcasts – www.gspn.tv). I realized his webcam was on while I was talking to him, so I watched him immediately drop what he was doing to handle my issue – very cool.

I’m frustrated with the technical problems. However, I’m extremely satisfied with the support and service from both Behringer and Cliff Ravenscraft. If I’m going to have these issues, I’m glad to work with these people.

I’m so thankful for the understanding and patience of this client. It’s client’s like this that make me thankful every day that I’m doing what I love for a living!

Note: The blue light on the Behringer Xenyx 1002 mixer is very bright. I know at least one client that painted the little light with black fingernail polish.

2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards Nominations!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:26:21 +0000

281,000 individuals nominated a total of 1,874 podcasts for 22 categories in the 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards!

I’m very honored to announce to you that SIX of the 220 podcasts nominated were gspn.tv podcasts!

Below are the podcasts that were nominated and for which category:

The voting will open up at http://PodcastAwards.com on October 23rd and will run for 15 days. In the nomination phase, each person was limited to one vote per category, period.

However, when official voting opens, each person is allowed to vote for their favorite podcast in each category EACH DAY for FIFTEEN DAYS.

It is vitally important that if you wish for gspn.tv podcasts to have a chance of winning an award, that you vote each and every day once the voting opens. If you are willing to make this commitment to proving that the gspn.tv Community is one of the most engaged audiences out there, please let me us know that we can count on your daily vote by TELLING US HERE!

078 Podcast Answer Man – 13 Minutes Of Advertising?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:42:36 +0000

In This Episode, I answer a question about how to make a portable studio setup. I also share how the TWIT.tv podcasts have been really burning me out with all their advertisements. Of course I share a major change as to the revenue approach for this podcast, announcing that starting immediately, we are switching the Podcast Answer Man to where only ever other episode will be released in the free feed. Plus Members will continue to get every episode. To learn more about Plus Membership, please visit http://gspn.tv.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

Right Click Here To Download

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

Podcast Answer Man 077 – Embedding MP3s Analytics And Surveys

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:34:48 +0000

In This Episode, I share an update on the gspn.tv iPhone Application that I mentioned in episode 074 of The Podcast Answer Man Podcast.

I share my excitement over a real time website analytics program called Woopra.

I mention my blog post that describes How To Embed MP3 Flash Players On Regular HTML Sites.

I talk about SurveyMonkey.com and how conducting a survey of your listeners can help you learn things that could be useful in growing your audience.

Finally, I share with you one of my favorite new podcasts put together by a fifth grader and her father titled “With Liberty And Justice For All.” Check out the show, leave her some feedback, and tell her the Podcast Answer Man told you about her.

Don’t forget to call in your questions for the show at 859-795-4067

Right Click Here To Download

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

Wayne Henderson Talks About PodcastAnswerMan.com

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:18:28 +0000

I wanted to take a minute to say thank you to Wayne L Henderson for the kind words that he shared about me and the services I provide on one of his recent podcasts. Wayne has been a long time listener of my gspn.tv podcasts and he and is one our gspn.tv Plus Members.

If you happen to need voice over work for your podcast, Wayne does a great job.

MP3 Version

How To Embed MP3 Flash Players On Regular HTML Sites

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:06:34 +0000

One of the most common questions I’m asked as a podcast consultant is how can I get flash audio player for my podcast so that people can listen to my podcast without having to leave my website?

Of course, if they have WordPress, I immediately tell them to install the Audio Player Plugin for WordPress. However, for those who use another method of creating a website for your podcast, there is still hope. I’d like to share three options for posting a flash player for your podcast episodes on your standard html site.

Update: Someone left a comment on this post that makes a valid point. If you should choose to use this method for your site on individual posts, please understand that you are relying on the fact that these companies will still exist moving forward. If for example ODEO were to go out of business, it is unlikely that their flash player will continue to be available. Please just keep this in mind.

The ODEO Player
Odeo.com is part search engine, part media directory, and part social network. I played around with Odeo when I first got into podcasting but really haven’t even looked at their site more than a handful of times in the past two years. However in my search for embeddable flash audio players, I the ODEO Player popped up.

The benefit of the Odeo player is that it is somewhat attractive when compared against other options. However the drawbacks that I see are that you can’t change the color of the pink play button and there ODEO is branded on your site. If someone clicks on the “ODEO” logo on the player, they are taken OFF YOUR SITE! I could not find an option to change it to open a new window or anything. Also, this player lacks an adjustment option for volume.

CODE FOR ODEO FLASH PLAYER:
LINK-TO-YOUR-MP3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />

The Google Flash Player:
Next we have the Google Flash Player. The benefit of the google player is that there is no branding whatsoever. Also, the code allows for you to change the color of the background on your player to match your site. It seems odd to have the “<<" and ">>” when posting a single mp3 file. However, these buttons offer the ability to jump forward and backward in the file you are listening to. The only drawback I can see with this player is that, like many other google products, is pretty “simple looking” and just on the edge of being ugly. It’s quite functional and it does what it’s supposed to do.

CODE FOR THE GOOGLE FLASH PLAYER
LINK-TO-YOUR-MP3" width="400" height="27" allowscriptaccess="never" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" wmode="window" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" />

The Yahoo Flash Player
The Yahoo Flash Player is another option. Like the ODEO Player, there is Yahoo branding on the player with a small Yahoo logo. However, the nice thing is that it is an image only, it does not have a hyperlink that takes your listeners off your site. This is good. Like the Google player, you can see that are “<<" and ">>” buttons. However, on the Yahoo player, these buttons are specifically designed for next track and previous track. Truth is that this player can be used to play a single mp3 file or can be set to read data from any podcast rss feed. While I’ve not tried it, there seems to be an option to change the skin color which may be useful in helping to make the player fit within your color scheme.

CODE FOR THE YAHOO FLASH PLAYER
LINK-TO-YOUR-MP3-OR-RSS-FEED&skin_color_1=-145,-89,-4,5&skin_color_2=-141,20,0,0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" />

Do you have any additional flash players you would like to share? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Do you find this sort of information useful? Why not help support this sort of content by becoming a gspn.tv Plus Member.

076 Podcast Answer Man – One Click Subscribe Buttons

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:41:17 +0000

Thanks For Subscribing To Podcast Answer Man:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

In this video episode I explain how to create a one click subscribe button for the zune and for iTunes. Doing so for iTunes is as simple as changing the url pre-fix of your rss feed from “http://” to “itpc://” Creating a zune one click install button is as simple as using this online zune podcast subscription tool.

Right Click Here To Download iPod and iPhone Version

What Do You Use For Data Backup?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:43:59 +0000

This weekend, I was following my friends on Twitter and noticed that our friend Leo Leporte experienced something that all true geeks fear most, DATA LOSS!

Here’s how I saw it go down on Twitter:

First off, let me say that my thoughts and prayers go out to Leo during this time of loss! Weirdly enough, I almost mean that as much seriously as much as I do in a lighthearted way as I would express the same sentiments to someone who has lost someone near and dear to them.

I thought that the reason why people used a Raid 5 backup (RAID 5 : Combines three or more disks in a way that protects data against loss of any one disk; the storage capacity of the array is reduced by one disk.) was because hardware such as an individual hard drive is susceptible to failure and so that if all the data is mirrored on all three or more drives, if one drive fails, you have two or more good copies of the data. However, it would appear that a simple failure of the hardware known as the “Raid 5 Card” can completely wipe out the benefit of having more than one external drive backup. This is exactly why I’m not at all fascinated by Raid 5 or Drobos!

To many of us geeks, we put so much of who we are into ones and zeroes. Luckily, Leo didn’t loose any of his own content, just all the blood sweat and tears poured into the systems that were in place to deliver the content. However, the contributions from hundreds, if not thousands, of people who left comments on his blog or posts in his forums have been forever lost. At least all those done since the last “good backups” of each of the sites he maintains.

I’ve lost data to hard drive and other hardware failures in the past. Each time, I say that I’ve learned my lesson and take an oath to do daily/weekly backups of all important data. That plan usually lasts for a few weeks and then live without adequate backup protection continues.

I almost lost all hope of adequate backups back in the Tape Drive Backup Days. It seemed that these backup tapes almost never completed a successful recoverable backup of data. However, today, things to do seem a little more hopeful.

In the past, I relied so heavily on the operating system and computer program backups. Today, it appears that as long as I keep my most important data organized in a single directory on my drive, I could recover within hours if I simply had a solid backup of that folder with all the sub folders of data that I have saved.

The question is, what is the best technique of backup up this valuable data? Is it external drives, Raid5, Drobo? Is it online backup? I think that for true security, it is best to use more than one approach. However, so many of us today, still do all our computing with no such backup program in place at all.

Since starting my own business, data backup has been a high priority on my project list. At the core, I have an external hard drive hooked up to my computer and I use the paid version of Allway Sync to keep my Important Docs and Podcast Archives folders consistently synced with my external backup drive. I must say that I really do love this little software package as it gives me a ton of control over what gets synced and I can choose to have it sync both ways so that when I delete something on my local drive it keeps it on the backup or it deletes the it off the backup drive as well.

The only issue here is that if I have a fire in my home, I’m going to loose both my hard drive and the external drive both and therefore loose all my data regardless of how diligent I am with keeping everything backed up.

I could get more than one external drive and allow for multiple backups to multiple external drive and store all but the current one off site. However, who on earth will keep up with that? This is why I’m looking into also creating an online, off site, backup solution in conjunction with my external drive backup.

I’m currently looking at Carbonite Online Backup, Mozy Online Backup, as well as using Amazon’s S3 Web Services with a program called Jungle Disk.

As I move forward into into my search for the right backup solution that works best for me, I’ll do my best to come share what I learn with you.

Of course, I really would encourage some community discussion here in the comments section. What sort of things are you doing in the area of backup?

075 Podcast Answer Man – Transferable Feeds

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:19:11 +0000

Podcast Answer Man Free Feed:

Plus Members Subscribe Using Plus Feed Generator.

In this episode I explain why it has been a few weeks since I last released an episode of the Podcast Answer Man podcast. Of course you can see the new layout of the site here. Believe it or not, this theme you see on this site is the exact theme that I used to build this site for a client. I mentioned that we recently released our 1,000th episode for gspn.tv. I also mentioned that I spent more than 10 hours working on this 30 minute video project. I didn’t mention it in the episode, but this is another video project that I did for myself.

I took some time to answer a question from someone in the community regarding setting up an rss feed with feedburner so that you can change from one domain to another without asking your subscribers to subscribe to a new feed.

Here is a screen capture of where you change the original feed address in Feedburner:

Right Click Here To Download

Apple Recalls iPhone 3G Power Adapters

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:01:25 +0000

Apple, Inc. has announced that it is recalling the power adapters for all iPhone 3Gs sold in the United States, Canada, Japan, and all Latin American countries that use American style plugs.

From what I understand, prongs on the adapters, that plug into the wall, can break off and remain stuck in the power outlet which creates a serious risk of electric shock. Users can either exchange their adapters in an Apple store, or order a replacement online.

Finally, Microsoft Hits One Out Of The Park!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:37:41 +0000

I must tell you, I’ve been a huge fan of the Mac v/s PC commercials. In fact, I’ve openly admitted that it is the brilliant marketing behind these ads that softened my heart toward the idea of owning my own Mac. So much so, that when I experience the frustrations of Microsoft Vista for the very first time, I tossed that desktop out of my house (Actually sold it to someone else) and went out and purchased my first Apple/Mac computer.

If you have not seen the Mac v/s PC commercials, you really should see them all!

Here is one of my favorites:

Several weeks ago, news came out that Microsoft was going to pour THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS into a Microsoft ad/marketing campaign. What was shocking about this story was that they announced that Bill Gates was to appear in the new ads and that they had hired Jerry Seinfeld to bring some talent to the campaign.

Here are their first two attempts at this campaign with Jerry:

Attempt 1:

Attempt 2:

It is no surprise that Microsoft said bye bye to Jerry! I must say, that regardless what hidden meaning may or may not be tucked into these commercials, it just seemed to be lost on the masses, including myself.

However, the latest advertisement coming from the Microsoft ad campaign is what we have all been waiting for. Something that deals DIRECTLY with the Mac v/s PC ad campaign. Let’s face it, Microsoft had been beaten up and knocked out in the prime time boxing match known as commercials. To this day, when we are browsing past commercials and see a Mac v/s PC commercial come on, we always back it up to the beginning to watch.

The question in my mind was… “What does Microsoft have to say about what Apple says about them in the attack ads?” Finally, Microsoft answers this very question and I must say… I think they knocked one out of the park with this latest Microsoft ad.

Take a look for yourself:

Brilliant! I love it! I think I may go and watch this one again! Tell me what you think in the comments!

Me? I’m a Mac when it comes to doing anything with video or just on the go with my MacBook laptop. I’m a PC the other 70% of the time, especially when I’m producing audio podcasts!

Feedback From Fringe Podcaseter!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:34:23 +0000

I recently received this feedback from a listener

Cliff,

I’d like to say thank you for your video tutorial for creating Zune and iTunes subscription buttons. The timing could not have been better because I had a listener specifically ask us to create an easy Zune subscription button just 2 days before you released your video. I took the information you gave us and created my own Zune, iTunes and RSS subscription buttons and imbedded the code just as you instructed. Thanks for you all you do for the podcasting community.

Darrell

The Fringe Podcast

www.TheFringePodcast.com

Media Buzz Building Regarding iTunes App Store Rejections!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:29:19 +0000

This weekend, I received an email from a good friend of mine with a link to more media coverage of Apple, Inc.’s issues of rejecting iPhone applications without any clear guidelines or level of consistency. CNNMoney.com reports that…

This week the company faces a full-scale revolt. The issue: Apple’s summary rejection of a program on the grounds that it duplicated a function on one of its own programs.

The point of this entry is not to go into the full details of this story. I’ve already done that in previous posts. (The iPhone App I Had Developed, App Store Rejects My Application, & Podcasters Blacklisted From App Store)

I’m really hope that the entire new media & overall geek community will rise up and join together so that our voice can be heard in Cupertino! As I am notified of stories and blog posts about this issue, I’ll do my best to come and update this blog entry. Feel free to add your own links in the comments section of this blog.

Please note, If your link does not show up by default, I’ll manually go in and add the html for the link.

Here’s what I have so far as of 09/15/2008
iPhone: Big trouble in the App Store
Chuqui 3.0 – Reaction to Developer Leaving the iPhone Platform
Mobility Today Application
Why iPhone is an ureliable platform
App Store I’m Out
Of Course You’ll Keep Developing For The iPhone
Podcaster Developer Uses Little-Known “Ad Hoc” Mode To Distribute Banned iPhone App

Podcasters Blacklisted From App Store?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:24:56 +0000

A few days ago, I shared my personal story of how the iTunes Application Store has sent me a rejection email stating that they were not going to publish my application in the App store as they do not feel that the App Store is a proper channel for distributing podcast content despite the fact that they had already approved two applications exactly the same as mine, made by the same developer, that have become quite popular.

As it turns out, this may not be just a simple misunderstanding and with this story I just read on gizmodo.com, it seems that iTunes is actually taking the stance of BLACKLISTING podcasters from developing applications intended to allow streaming of their content via wifi, 3G, or Edge Networks. The application referred to in this story is called “Podcaster and was designed to allow you to subscribe, manage, stream and download podcasts directly to your iPhone and iPod Touch. Who doesn’t want this? Right?

The developers of this application were delivered a similar rejection letter to the one that Apple, Inc. had sent to me saying…. “Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

I must say that over the past few years, I’ve really warmed up to Apple. I purchased my first iPod just about two and a half years ago. Since then, I’ve purchased a total of five iPods for our family and three iPhones (I sold my original to get the new 3G).

In June of 2007, I purchased my first ever Mac Computer (A Macbook Laptop). I even started a Podcast (HelpIGotAMac.com) devoted to helping people who have spent a lifetime of computing on a PC warm up to their very first Mac Computer.

However, I must say that as a Podcaster, I feel slightly snubbed by the rejection of applications where money and time were poured into by podcasters when there were absolutely no clear guidelines or indications that such useful applications would be against any company policy.

Apple is turning out to be a very different company from what all my friends had been telling me about. I’m not sure I like this way of doing business.

UDPATE: Finally, this is starting to get some widespread attention. Here is a story posted on MacRumors.com.

1000th Episode Coming Soon!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:10:18 +0000

Stephanie and I started podcasting back in December of 2005. Since then we have launched nearly thirty unique podcasts. As of today, we still have more than 18 shows that remain in production at gspn.tv. The numbers I’m about to share with you do not include any episodes that I produce for any of my consulting clients or for Watermark Community Church. I have also excluded blog and video blog entries where either an audio or video media file was not delivered via a syndication feed.

As we are quickly approaching our third anniversary of podcasting, I was searching through our podcast archives today, to see if I could coordinate our 1,000th podcast episode to coincide with our 3rd Podcast Anniversary on December 16th. Imagine my shock when I browsed through all the archives only to recognize that the very next gspn.tv podcast episode that we will produce will be our 1,000th gspn.tv podcast episode that we have officially released.

I’m not kidding when I say this rocked my world. I’ve intentionally put off my morning recording of My Crazy Life and the Almost Daily Devotional as I’m considering waiting for Stephanie to join me for this milestone in our podcasting efforts. Since I was looking at some of the archived data, I looked at some other interesting facts. In just under three years, we have served more than THREE MILLION file downloads. Given that the over all average length of our episodes is approximately 45 minutes per episode, that works out to be approximately 750 hours worth of content produced.

I can’t decide if this constitutes as me “tooting our own horn” or not. I simply found this information to be quite astonishing and I simply had to share it with someone. Look for a special episode of My Crazy Life to be recorded some time today or this evening for release tomorrow.

Seriously, I had no idea that it was this much.

UPDATE: Click Here To Listen To Our 1,000th Show!

iTunes App Store Denies Apps Without Consistency!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:09:59 +0000

CLICK HERE TO DIGG THIS STORY

A few weeks back, I was browsing the Apple App Store to see what Apps were available for download on my iPhone. I was surprised to see a Diggnation Application that had been made available.

Diggnation is a video podcast that I used to enjoy watching to catch some of the more popular tech news stories of the week. Unfortunately, Diggnation is a video podcast that exceeds thirty minutes for each episode. As I was not always able to devote this much time to watching a video podcast each week, I often found myself getting several episodes behind in my podcast subscription feed.

A few months back, I had actually unsubscribed from this video podcast due to the fact that, at the time, I only had a 4gig iPhone and I was getting errors saying that I didn’t have enough space available on my iPhone to sync everything I needed to sync. I know that I had an option to change my settings to only sync certain podcasts or only the most recent few episodes. However, I didn’t want to impose such limits on my other podcasts. I simply unsubscribed.

The Diggnation Application was genius! One feature I’ve always wanted on my iPod was to be able to wireless get the most recent episodes of my favorite podcasts without having to first download them to iTunes and then sync my iPod. This application doesn’t actually download the podcast episodes on the iPhone for keeps and then sync it back when I connect to iTunes again. However, what it does is simply goes out and pulls up the rss feed for Diggnation and then allows me to click on any of the episodes and then the built in media player on the iPhone or iPod Touch will then stream the file over wifi, edge, or 3G.

As I continued to browse the App Store, I found the Mobility Today Application. Mobility Today is simply an audio podcast and the application does the same thing the Diggnation Application does accept it simply streams .mp3 files instead of video files.

Now since I produce eighteen of my own podcasts at gspn.tv, I figured this would be an excellent application for our listeners. Often times, our listeners sync their iPods and iPhones before they leave the house for the day, hoping to have the most recent gspn.tv podcasts. However, I often release anywhere between two to eight podcasts in a single day and our community members would listen to many of them on their way home from work or while at the gym if only they had them available.

I contacted the creator of the Diggnation and Mobility Today application and hired him to build me a similar application for gspn.tv. However, I went the extra step of having him code and create the functionality of having the ability for our gspn.tv Plus Members to sign in with their user name and password so that they would have access to all the premium content only available to Plus Members.

After weeks of waiting for approval from the iTunes App Store, checking the App Store each day to see if my App has been made available, I finally got an email from Apple. Here is what they had to say….

From: de———s@apple.com
To: Cliff@Ravenscraft.org
Subject: gspn.tv: Application Submission Feedback

Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.

Follow-up: 54817423

Hello,

gspn.tv cannot be posted to the App Store, as the App Store is not the appropriate channel for distributing podcasts.

The iTunes Store has separate categories dedicated to each type of media. Music, podcasts, and movies are delivered through that channel. Information on publishing podcast on iTunes can be found at: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302199

Regards,

Victor W*******
Worldwide Developer Relations
Apple, Inc.

Needless to say, this news did not make me happy. Here my email response back to Apple.

From: Cliff@Ravenscraft.org
To: de———s@apple.com
Subject: RE: gspn.tv: Application Submission Feedback

I’m writing regarding the FOLLOW UP: 54817423

See below referenced email:

Regarding your decision… There are two applications that are already approved, in wide use, and have great feedback ratings that are EXACTLY like my application…

Here is one for Mobility Today

Here is one for Diggnation

Please note: both applications listed above are for a single podcast. My application includes all 18 of my podcasts as well as functionality of being able to sign in with your user name and password so that my Plus Members can gain access to their Premium Member Only Content that is available to them.

I’ve paid a great deal of money to have this application developed and my listening community is desperately waiting for the App to be released as many times they are out and about during the day when I release as many as five new episodes during a day but they don’t want to wait till they get home and sync their iPhone or Touch to listen to the shows.

Please reconsider!!!!

Cliff

Cliff J. Ravenscraft
Generally Speaking Production Network
Email: Cliff@Ravenscraft.org
My Podcasts: http://gspn.tv
Follow Me On Twitter: http://twitter.com/gspn
Podcast Consulting: http://PodcastAnswerMan.com

I can’t help but wonder who is in control of approving these applications and what guidelines they are going with. I personally find the Diggnation and Mobility Today applications quite useful. I had never heard of the Mobility Today Podcast before getting the application and I find myself checking out from time to time.

I also find myself occasionally watching Diggnation and prefer to do so through the application rather than re-subscribing in iTunes.

I know that the gspn.tv Community is very much looking forward to the release of this application and I hope and pray they reconsider their denial of this application when both of the above mentioned apps are pretty much exactly the same as mine with LESS FUNCTIONALITY!!!!!

Update:
Earlier this evening, I received a Twitter Message from someone asking “But why would you want podcasts cluttering up the app store. Podcasts already have a place in iTunes.” Of course I don’t think that the iTunes App Store should simply be another directory. However, if any podcaster has the inspiration to create an application that has a use beyond the functionality of simply being listed in a directory and pays the money to have an application built, and such an application does not violate any regulations of creating such an application, then I certainly feel like it should be approved.

I honestly don’t feel that the App Store will become cluttered with podcast rss reader applications. If it does, then SIMPLY CREATE A CATEGORY IN THE APP STORE FOR IT! Heck, it just means that there is a legitimate demand for such an application.

As for cluttering up the App Store. How many 99cent piece of crud applications do we need where you simply push a button and your iPhone plays a 3 second audio clip? I mean seriously, there is an application called Jerk In A Box. The description of the app…. “Hurl insults and talk smack like a pro without saying a word with this fun app. Each button plays a unique insult clilp that’s sure to give you and your friends a laugh. Chain them together and mix and mach to create new insults. It’s trash talk on the go!”

I mean seriously! The App Store will take this and deny my application? REALLY?

Pixelmator – Removing White or Black Backgrounds

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:18:16 +0000

I’ve been trying to make the switch over to the Mac platform for more and more of my computing needs. Up till now, for image editing, I’ve been using a free OEM version of Photo Impact 4.2 that came free with a flat bed scanner that I purchased many years ago. The program is quite limited, however I’ve learned how to do a few things that I need to do with it which makes moving to a new software package a bit difficult.

There were Times when I found it quite neccessary to do some basic image editing out and about right there on the Mac OS without having to load up my XP in Parallels. So I went ahead and shelled out $59 to pay for the full version of Pixelmator.

I’ve had this on my computer for several months but only just now started to search for some tutorial information on how to use the software. I have decided that with all these web design projects I’ve been taking on, I better start getting used to using a more feature rich image editing program. I know it’s no Photo Shop, but there really does seem to be some great functionality to this Mac Only image editing application.

As I find items that help me, I’ll post them here in the new Tech Tips section of the Podcast Answer Man site.

This video starts off in such a way that I could hardly understand what the person was saying at all. However, if you stick with it long enough, this is very valuable information on how to remove the a white or black background in Pixelmator.

Of course, I found some great links to some other Pixelmator information using this link!

074 Podcast Answer Man – iPhone App Coming Soon

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:41:37 +0000

In this video episode, I share with you the iPhone application that I’ve had made for our podcasting network. It should be available within the next few days or it could take up to three weeks to get into the iTunes store. I’ll keep you posted.

Here Is The Video:

Note: The iTunes Version of this video has a much higher video quality. For the best viewing experience, click to download using the link below and watch with either QuickTime, iTunes, or your video iPod.

Right Click Here To Download This Episode

073 Podcast Answer Man – Live Call Ins & Lyrics Tag

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:13:08 +0000

In this episode:

1) Show Started off with an update on my web hosting issue that I shared in the last episode (ep 72). I’m sticking with my shared hosting account with Godaddy.com. If I ever need a web host in the future, I will very much re-consider going to mosso.com. They had great customer service and support!

2) Next up, I shared that I’ve been working with a lot of new podcast start ups. In this episode, I shared just two of them to give you and idea of what some folks are doing in the field of Podcasting.

http://LoudounWildlife.org/category/podcasts
http://PinkAcres.tv

3) I answer an email from Russell who asked about how to bring in live callers into his high-school sports broadcast. We talked about the use of a JK Audio Broadcast Host, Skype’s Skype-In Service, as well as two suggestions… a) Use a hard wired connection for the internet, b) consider moving to a service like ustream.tv v/s windows media encoder.

4) Finally, we ended the show with a call from our good friend Wayne Henderson who loves the fact that I often will put fun stuff to read here in my lyrics tags.

I shared that my favorite mp3 tagging tool for the PC can be found for free at http://mp3tag.de

* Special thanks to Evan Agee at http://AgeeDesign.com/podcast for sponsoring this episode.

Right Click Here To Download

072 Podcast Answer Man – Data Migration

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:13:02 +0000

In this episode I share some of my experiences with my current web hosting situation.

Right Click Here To Download

071 Podcast Answer Man – Plurking And Pinging

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:25:35 +0000

In this episode, I share my thoughts on the Features and Drawbacks of Plurk.com and explain why I have actually got caught up into using this slightly odd named web 2.0 micro-blogging service. I also share my thoughts on Ping.fm.

Here Is The Video:

Right Click Here To Download

070 Podcast Answer Man – Taking Live Calls

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:54:24 +0000

In this episode I take Live Calls for the first time in the Podcast Answer Man show.

Right Click Here To Download

069 Podcast Answer Man – Q & A

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:43:55 +0000

In this episode I answer a few questions that had come in recently.

Right Click Here To Download

068 Podcast Answer Man – Business Name And More

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:28:11 +0000

In this episode I share a recent event where I had to change the name of my consulting business. I also talk about a few questions some consulting clients have recently asked.

Right Click Here To Download

067 Podcast Answer Man – Podcasting As A Career

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:46:55 +0000

In this episode, I share the talk that I gave at Podcamp Ohio. During my talk, I referenced Episode #150 of My Crazy Life. This was a great episode that eventually led right up to the decision and podcast that I was actually referring to which was, in fact, Episode #151 of My Crazy Life.

Right Click Here To Download

066 Podcast Answer Man – Breakout Session Podcamp Ohio

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:04 +0000

In this episode, I’m joined by a few friends to in a small breakout session to discuss how the first annual Podcamp Ohio is going.

Links to: Robin Maiden, Alison Lukan, Jeremy Laughlin, Daniel Lewis

Right Click Here To Download

065 Podcast Answer Man – A Talk With Bob Heil

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:09:22 +0000

In this episode, I speak with Bob Heil of Heil Sound. Heil Sound of course is the company that produces the most awesome broadcast quality microphone in the world known as the Heil PR-40. Bob shares a little bit about how he got started in the audio equipment industry.

Bob mentioned the REC Forums where he has been sharing a lot of his stories of his involvement in the music industry. You should CLICK HERE to check it out as there are links to photos, videos, etc that Bob has pulled out of the archives.

Of course I also mentioned in this podcast that I did an entire episode of the Podcast Answer Man to demonstrate the Power of the Heil PR 40. Click Here to listen to that episode.

Click Here To Download

064 Podcast Answer Man – Comments And Questions

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:49:25 +0000

On this episode, I catch up on a few comments and questions that had come in on the Podcast Answer Man Voice Mail Line. Of course you can always call in your comments and questinos 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 859-795-4067.

The following video was mentioned by one of our callers. This video is from Paul Figgiani and Doug Kaye of IT Conversations. It’s a very informative video. However, I must point out, that I do not recommend relying on software for the recording of important Skyped interviews. You are always better off using a hardware based solution with an audio mixminus with even the least expensive of mixers out there and recording into a digital audio recorder.

| View | Upload your own

Click Here To Download

Coverage In Investor’s Business Daily

Cliff Ravenscraft — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:40:23 +0000

Investor’s Business Daily is a national newspaper in the United States, published Monday through Friday, that covers international business, finance, and the global economy and has “nearly 1,000,000 readers.”

They recently ran an article titled “Former Insurance Salesman Turns ‘Lost’ Obsession Into Online Career.” I I’m very excited about the exposure this article brings to what we are doing here with gspn.tv and BitCast Media. Right-Click Here To Download PDF of original Story.

063 Podcast Answer Man – TalkShoe And Edirol R-09HR

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:19:32 +0000

Cliff Speaks Out On The Topic Of TalkShoe!

In this episode, I finally go public with my thoughts on the TalkShoe Incident! Also I share my excitement over the release of the Edirol R-09HR recorder. If you are interested in the purchase of any podcasting gear, please do give me a call! I have some pre-built packages for podcasters or we can create a custom package just for you.

CALL IN YOUR PODCAST & NEW MEDIA COMMENTS & QUESTIONS 859-795-4067!

Discuss Podcasting in the gspn.tv Community Forum.

Special Thanks to Evan Agee with AGEE DESIGN for sponsoring the Podcast Answer Man.

Right Click Here To Download This Episode