Spotify + Anchor + Gimlet Media – What it might mean to Independent Podcasters – PHD114

February 7, 2019EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:51 — 15.6MB)

What does this accusition mean to the average independent Podcaster? Not much is my guess.

This is just me doing a bit of a brain-dump about the big news of yesterday. Is it good for Podcasting in General? Is it Good/Bad for Indy podcasters? Who knows? We will see how it shakes out.

Also, I talk about a new App called Himalaya You can go over there and claim your show. I’m testing it out as a listening app. I will let you know what I think in a future episode.

In the show I couldn’t remember the domain I used for PHD News 🙂 You can get there by either going to PodcastHelpDesknews.com or adding it to your Alexa flash briefing.

Elsie Escobar talking about Podcasting – PHD113

January 19, 2019EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:21 — 29.7MB)

Elise Escobar stopped by the Podcast Help Desk a while back and we had a great conversation about podcasting (what else?) and what she is doing in podcasting.

Elsie is a Hall of Famer, Podcaster and Social Media at Libsyn – The Feed and She Podcasts.

I also talk about Podcast Help Desk News Alexa skill (and now REAL podcast).

PHD News 3 Days a week

January 14, 2019Episode, Podcast Help Desk NewsMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:31 — 2.4MB)

My Alexa Skill (in the news brief area) is now 3 days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Other days when there is breaking news.

Please enable the “Podcast Help Desk News” skill in your Alexa App.

Later this week I will also make the feed available in “normal” podcasting apps and directories. Stay tuned for that.

Separate Blog Posts and Podcast Posts – PHD112

December 14, 2018EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:10 — 11.3MB)

Do you want to separate your blog posts from your podcast posts on your website? It might be a bad idea.

First – How to do it if you really really want to in WordPress

Create a category for the podcast. DO NOT USE “podcast” as a category.
Enable Category Podcasting in PowerPress Settings (at the bottom of each setting page)
In the Category Podcasting menu (found under PowerPress in the sidebar) tick the box that says “Strict Categories” Save settings.
Back in the category podcasting menu, Add Podcast Settings to your Category
All your podcast related settings go in the category podcasting settings for that category NOT the main PowerPress settings.
Once that is all set up, make a blog post. Select the category for your podcast in the right sidebar AND in the podcast episode box. The podcast episode box category setting is for the RSS feed and the sidebar is for the website. You must do BOTH.
In the Appearance > menus menu, add your podcast category (not called podcast I hope) to the menu where you want it.
Categorize your blog posts in a single category and add that category to the menu as well.

There is one more way to do it explained in the Podcast called Post Types. I don’t recommend that method.

Why you do not want to do separate blog posts from your podcast posts

People that want to listen to your podcast, and show up on your website, wouldn’t they want to maybe read your blog posts (without clicking another menu)? Wouldn’t people that read your blog want to listen to your podcast? Why go through all the BS separating them?

The Technical Side of Podcast Promotion – PHD111

October 18, 2018EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:27 — 23.4MB)

1. Never Promote something you do not own. Send people to your website and then give them all the choices you can reasonably.

Apple 🍎
Google Podcasts  (notice I didn’t say Google PLAY‽) 💻
RSS  🖥
Tunein  📻
Spotify  💩
Android  📱
Stitcher  🎧

2. Having your RSS feed come from your website with YOUR domain in it will help you in Google search.

3. “Write your show notes for Google Search. Make your show audio for your listeners.” – Todd Cochrane 🚒

4. Don’t try to game the system. The more you try to game the system, the more likely it is you will get removed from some directories for whatever rule violation. Just make good content and repeat often. There is no shortcut.

5. Ratings and reviews DO NOTHING to promote your show. Period.

6. Being in the top XX list on Apple Podcasts will not help you much if at all.

Please use the promo code HELPDESK at checkout at Blubrry.com to support Podcast Help Desk!

A conversation with Evo Terra, Podcast Pioneer and all around good guy – PHD110

September 13, 2018EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:10 — 45.0MB)

I got to chat with my old friend and podcast pioneer, Evo Terra. We talk a bit about the good old days of podcasting and some about what is going on now. Just a couple of old guys chatting it up.

Some of the things Evo is doing or has done:

Co-author of the first versions of Podcasting for Dummies
Host of ShEvo vs. The First World
Former Co-host of The Bangkok Podcast
He owns Simpler Media at https://podcastlaunch.pro
Also, make sure watch his facebook for Podcast Pontifications, a video series that is NOT a podcast about Podcasting.

Be sure to come to PodcastHelpDesk.com and push the appropriate button to subscribe so you don’t miss a show!

Episode Level Artwork – Where does it show? – PHD109

September 5, 2018EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:32 — 9.8MB)

Episode level images. Only some apps use the images and those apps use different images if they do. Here is a list from an experiment I did on my podcast Mike Dell’s World. Episode 308 has episode level images.

One image is embedded in the mp3 file in the iD3 tags. It is white with red writing.

The other image is in the tag on the episode level in the RSS feed. It’s green with white writing. Results:

Apple Podcasts – Does not use either image. Just the main artwork for the feed. (But does use the RSS tag in the search in the iTunes desktop software)
Google Podcasts – None just uses the main image
Overcast for IOS – Uses the id3 tag image for the episode
Pocket Casts – Uses neither image
Podcast Republic – Uses the RSS image (Thanks Chris Miller)
Podcast Addict – Uses the RSS image
Beyond Pod – Uses the ID3 tag image
Stitcher – Uses the main image (none of the episode level images)
Spotify – Uses the RSS image on some versions of the App, but not on the Web Version. (Thanks Emily Peck Prokop! )

Let me know what you see in your app if you are not using any of the above Apps.

Random place in the podcast: 1:30

Apple Podcasts is getting picky – phd108

August 18, 2018EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:01 — 17.5MB)

It seems that Apple is getting more picky about Titles and Author tags in Podcast Feeds.

Titles should be just “the title” like – Podcast Help Desk. Not “Podcast Help Desk | The best place to learn to podcast like Dave Jackson and Daniel J. Lewis”

Also, the Author tag should be: Mike Dell Not “Mike Dell, Talking about podcasting like Zig Zigler, Tony Robbins and Pat Flynn talk about business”

In other words, use the tags for what they are for, not for some gray-hat SEO within Apple Podcasts (no longer iTunes)

Podcast Help Desk Hijacked! – PHDspecialReport

June 30, 2018EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:54 — 9.2MB)

CastBox.fm seems to have hijacked a bunch of feeds. If you are listing on CastBox, please visit PodcastHelpDesk.com and make sure you are subcibed to the real thing and not some cheap copy of the shows I put out.

I have a website for each of my shows for a reason! I don’t mind at all that someone lists my shows on their directory, app, site or whatever, but DO NOT REMOVE the links to MY site! That is a violation of my rights as a content creator. I don’t think castbox.fm was TRYING to hijack feeds, but who knows? But the result is, they did. They are working on it, I guess.

ARGH!

Google Podcasts and Denon DN-300R test recording – PHD107

June 21, 2018EpisodeMike Dell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:37 — 4.4MB)

This is the first test recording using the New Denon DN-300R recorder. Having the digital recorder mounted in the rack and always hooked up seems to be a better plan (for me) than using a portable recorder as a backup.

I also talk briefly about the new Google Podcasts “app” on Android.