You're listening to The Internet Pathfinder. I'm your host, Steve Phillips. In this podcast, my goal is to inform, educate, and reminisce as we find a path through the world of technology, the internet, and podcasting. This is the second episode of the podcast. I'm, of course, always looking for your feedback and thoughts as I fine -tune this, uh... This nice podcast that we've been traveling together as a group in the 28
Day Challenge on Podcast Movement. Some of the feedback I received on the last episode referred to the fact that I tended to use the words so as my transition point, which I've come to realize that that is my verbal tick, aside from the fact
that I use um a lot. I don't know how that meshes with everyone else, but I think that when recording a podcast or doing something in the audio format where you're lightly scripted and you're thinking about what you're trying to talk about, some of those verbal tics are something you have to consciously think about to avoid while you're doing it. And one of the things that I think
kind of help with that is pre -planning. your strategy while you're doing your podcast, while you're going through the variety of methods that you break down what you're going to talk about. I find that creating a kind of notes setup is something that is essential when you're recording because then you keep all of your thoughts in one location. Not only that, but I've been known to use this There was this notes website that I used at one point, and I decided not to use
that because Notepad was just as easy. And I tend to go in there, I type in, I break everything into blocks. So I put my intro block, I put each
little segment that I go into. So I'll have the tech history lesson next, and then what I tend to do when I record though... is when I'm kind of splitting into a different topic, rather than running on an all -in -one recording and trying to edit and fix it later, I actually create, because I record everything in Adobe Audition, and this is kind of a little bit of a podcast how -to at the same time while you were listening
to this podcast. One of the things that I like to do is I create individual audio files inside Audition. And that's one of the nice things about using a multi -level, multi -track sound editor is that you get to have these files in there without necessarily saving them or overwriting another. It all shows up. You create a multi -track and you can place these all in different places. Use the razor blade tool and chop them up. So what I'm doing in this is I create each
segment separately. I have what I want to talk about written down. I pull up the tabs. reference something from the internet and I record them all separately and then piece them all together whether they have a transition point or not so that it helps me to better edit the process and not necessarily have to go back and listen to the entire thing and figure out where the mistake happened. It allows also for me to go back and listen to the previous segment to have a natural
progression. into the next topic and so it's it's something i've i've learned over the years i used to just kind of fly by the seat of my pants and and just sit there and stumble through the the podcast try and figure out where i was going what i was planning on doing and it it just it was a mess plus i i had to listen to it and when you have limited time and you're recording as many podcasts as i do i've already got several podcasts in the can for this week
so by the time you're hearing this this comes out on a Wednesday I've already pre -recorded a Star Trek podcast which comes out on Tuesday nights I have a geek general geek podcast that comes out early Tuesday afternoons I have a Transformers podcast that comes out Tuesday afternoon and I also pre -record in advance multiple episodes of the random geek show that I do, Altered Geek, so that I can have the content, which isn't necessarily timely, but it gives me enough wiggle room between
the multiple shows so that I can cohesively put these together. I can edit them, I can look at them, I can go back and reference them, and then at the same time I have them all ready to go and release for the next week. So I'm essentially ahead of the game focusing on the next week and gathering information while I'm editing these shows. So by the time you hear these shows, I've already either A, recorded the new episode, or I've gotten in the process of doing the next
episode. So I just wanted to kind of give a little bit of the process of how I break down and edit things when I'm building a podcast. It's something that I'm very passionate about. I love podcasting. And so it's something that I'm trying to turn more into a business model and less of a hobby, which it's been a hobby for the better part of a decade. When I decide to do this as a business instead, it puts a lot more emphasis into my
thought process while I'm doing this. And I just wanted to give everyone kind of a little bit into the how -to this works for anybody that's
listening. And I would like to have people ask me questions and me be able to answer them the best that I can of what I've experienced anyway and what my process is or what I've done to manage multiple shows at the same time not to mention I also guest on other shows on my podcast network which I do not host I have the ability to host them but I choose not to because I have this show along with three others that are my my primary concern and i put more of my time and energy
into those and marketing those and i do the rest of the these shows that i guest on that's for those hosts to manage uh but some of my podcasts i i do with co -hosts some of them i do with just by myself and when you have a co -host it's definitely easier to riff on one another over doing The trying to figure out what you're trying to say and trying to block everything to almost an exact science, which I found to be very helpful for me gathering my thoughts because otherwise
I go off in weird directions and there's not
really a pattern to some degree. Topic two can also cause you to be able to... need a co -host or not need a co -host so that's that's another thing that i've kind of discovered over the years anyhow i'm going to cut over to the tech history lesson i hope i didn't bore anybody with the podcasting aspect but the tech history lesson is something that i'm kind of enthused with because i enjoy geeky history i enjoy learning and and reminiscing on things that you may not necessarily
remember And I tried to do this on my other podcast and it didn't quite fit with the format. Whereas here, I think it kind of does because it's technology -based, it's internet -based, it's part of our history of how do we got to now. And it's something that if you're any kind of a tech buff, you're going to kind of enjoy these little tidbits. So back in February of 2005, There was the discovery of the first mobile phone virus, Cabir, which
was announced. Specifically, Cabir is a worm which infects phones running the Symbian OS. Whenever a phone is infected, is activated, the message Kirby is displayed. Infected phones also attempt to spread the virus through Bluetooth signals, which it shows it on, for example, a Nokia gauge. I did not know that viruses started on the dumb phones to that degree. I knew in the smartphones they were pretty commonplace, but for them to be on these kind of dumb phones
is astounding that they made this work. In 1999, we got the taste of our first internet bank of Indiana, which opened, becoming the first full -service bank accessible only through the internet, which it was... Just a couple of dudes that just started the first internet bank. That's crazy. I enjoy online banking, actually. It's one of the things that makes it easier for me. I mean, I get direct deposit with jobs and whatnot, but I enjoy online banking because I can pay everything
online or I can get into my account online. I don't have to actually go to the bank. I can't even tell you the last time I've been in a bank for any reason. I really don't. And in 1924, the first presidential radio address is delivered by Calvin Coolidge, broadcast from the White House. He talks and it's carried on five stations with an estimated five million listeners. So it's like the precursor to podcasting in a sense in that we have streaming devices that play our
podcasts. We can listen to them in our car now. I mean, the connections. are very much like radio, however much more out there, you could say. Because, I mean, yeah, you can do internet streaming. You can do things like that. But I think podcast streaming has a better long -lasting value. Because not only do they last forever in their format and where they're located, but you can stream them on anything, anywhere. It's not necessarily relegated to... This one streaming location,
this one key element. But I always find it funny watching how much radio has transformed over the years and how much it's at the same time stayed the same. And yet you look at something that kind of spawned out of that concept, which is podcasting. And that's a totally different medium that has a totally different set of standards. but it's still essentially the same down to its core of somebody talking into the ether and hoping
somebody's listening. I'm going to cut it right here, though, and end the tech history lesson. Moving on to the podcast highlight of the week. So here is one that, yes, we hosted on Geekcast Radio, but... It's a very well -informed podcast done by a few of our movie buffs who talk about movies. And I think they do a really good job at it. And I think that it's kind of, you get a little bit of the news and a little bit of conversation on the various films. And they do
a lot of spotlights. And so without further ado, here's their clip. Because the world needs another movie podcast. The Geek Cast Radio Network presents for your listening pleasure, The Cinema Geek. Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan. Each week we dive head first in the landscape of movies as we discuss movie news. Play movie games. Go in -depth on reviews. And even have a top ten countdown or two. Also, don't miss our director retrospective series, where we review noted directors'
movies, film by film. Bottom line is, if you love movies and love podcasts, you need to experience The Cinema Geeks. You can find us on iTunes, blog .radio, or geekcastradio .com. And we're back. So I hope you guys enjoyed that particular clip and that it may be relevant to you as a podcaster or as somebody that just loves movies and wants to stay informed. They release weekly, just like this show. Call to action time, guys. Find the podcast on InternetPathfinder .com,
which leads to the Facebook page. Of the podcast. I should be posting these more often. And unfortunately have not. These will be also posted on. Alteredgeek .com. Geekcastradio .com. Where it will be featured. And I jumped the gun. And had already submitted it. Last week when I recorded the first episode. To Google Play. Stitcher and iTunes. You can find the podcast on there. And you can get a
hold of me. On Twitter at. scp21 or this podcast at interpathfinder and let me know what you guys think let me know what you'd like to hear me talk about as a segmented topic and we will talk about it on the podcast and since we already have been talking about podcasting this episode why don't we keep with that theme and go on with where you guys have been hosting your podcast I have been one of those people that used to host his own podcast on his own server. I used
to manually code the RSS feeds. I used to also manually do this for multiple podcasts. I think we had 12 shows going to begin with when we first started Geekcast Radio. And I did the art. I did parts of the editing. I had organized the website and done all that work. I also wrote all the RSS feeds and did the distribution. So it was a nightmare to deal with. And then I ended up using PowerPress at some point and integrating all of the podcasts in that way, like importing
the RSS feeds and creating posts. And we managed to link them that method, and then it was still linking to the server and putting massive issues on the server. And it started to cost... extra money that I wasn't accounting for on my shared hosting. Luckily, around the time it was, I think, June or May of 2015, we were approached by Blog Talk Radio, who we've been with ever since. And honestly, they've been awesome to us. They've been wonderful. I've not had any regrets on it.
So I think that... With their combined merger with Spreaker and them becoming VoxNest, I'm looking forward to what they have coming in the future. And I think that it's only going to go up from here. However, that being said, when they did that, I had put myself into this box of... I had already been active with my website for... What was it then? Seven years? Or six years. Yeah, six years. So I had six years of content on my WordPress site, which was all linked
to the backend server. And we were still linking a lot of our stuff even to the server after that point. We had the website still linking to the server, but we had our iTunes and all of our feeds linking to Blog Talk Radio, which, again, mistake. We also had everything piloted through
FeedBurner. Again, another mistake there. And what had happened is as our podcast grew, as our library grew as well, it put us in this pickle that we had to kind of go back on some of our retired shows because they were limited runs of, say, like 20 to 50 episodes. We had to go
into our account and copy the MP3 URL. and replace them all so that we could get an accurate count and in reading not only through the website but on blog talk radio so we could get the the accurate metrics on on the episodes and not only that we were monetizing and so we were losing out on all this monetization and i think that for anybody starting out i think it's very wise no matter what host you go with i think it's wise to have a website for one as well as the social
channels, even if you don't use them. What I like to do is I like to install Jetpack on WordPress.
And so when you create the post and you copy the MP3 URL from your podcast hosting provider, which is a totally separate entity, I'll talk about that in a second, your web hosting, you want to have a WordPress site and have Jetpack installed, which... will allow you to do a social share so when you publish a post it will automatically allow you to customize when you post it the description box you can schedule it for whatever day i like to like i stated before pre -record all my shows
i schedule them for a certain day certain time and then i customize that little box so i have the title a little bit of a description And I use a specific hashtag. So with Blog Talk Radio, you use BTR Prime so that it gets flagged and it gets shared that way. So what I do there is I make sure I take care of all those little steps. And when you hit publish on it or it's scheduled, it automatically posts to your Facebook, which if you tie your Facebook to your Twitter, you
don't have to do that as well. But I tie it to the Facebook, which then the Facebook... publishes to Twitter automatically, and then it publishes to Google+. So you automatically get that distribution platform with your website and with social media. So it takes a lot of steps out that way. I also do it so that I still use PowerPress on the back end of WordPress. You don't have to sign up for Blueberry to use it, although a lot of their
premium features you do. So what I do there is I use it to build the RSS feed on the website itself. I don't actually use it for the distribution platforms. I use my podcast host, which there's Libsyn, there's Blueberry, there's Podbean, there's VoxNest, which has Spreaker and BlogTalk Radio. So, I mean, it's more or less pick which one you're comfortable with. I would not recommend SoundCloud, however, because of all the varying issues that they've had over the past year. Plus,
there's a lot of limiters on them. I've had to deal with them with my employer, and I've had to deal with them for my own podcast. And it's not as user -friendly and as nice as I would like. And the numbers don't necessarily reflect where you're getting certain content. Plus, they have to host the files themselves. So it's a broken distribution platform. So if your distribution comes from like Podbean or Libsyn or BlarkTalk Radio, you have to import the files to SoundCloud.
So those numbers don't count towards your metrics. So it's not really something that I would recommend using. Because they're totally different numbers. When I do metrics for work or my podcast network, I have to split them based on what locations they came from instead of having to subtract the number from the total number on the actual distribution, the originator of the RSS feed. So that's something you want to make sure you look into as well while you're doing it. And
obviously, find something affordable. Find something that works for you, that you like. that you have a connection with, something that works for you. And if anybody's interested in having help or questions answered on that, please feel free to reach out to me. I would be more than willing to help out people on this endeavor. This is something that it's taken me years to figure out how to do certain things the right way, just by trial and error or running into problems.
Like I think three months ago, I had to deal with... my feeds were stopped updating on iTunes, on Google Play, on Stitcher. And I was trying to figure out why my episode count was going down in the metrics. And I looked, and because I was still using FeedBurner as the patch through, which limits your feed at one megabyte. So if you have, let's say, 240 episodes on your podcast,
it stops counting. certain podcasts like it cuts off your feed because it overloads it and it won't pull it from the originator anymore it just it stops because speed burner is the intermediary and so what that had caused me to do is i had to get all of my shows off of it and the reason i used it was because it was a nice i can keep the blanket url So when we made the transition from linking to the RSS feed from our website to the RSS feed of Blog Talk Radio, I didn't
have to go in any social channels and change the URL because they were all linked to the feed burner RSS feed. However, because I didn't do it the correct way and change all of them, I had to go through manually and I had to request a change on every show, which has been insane. So again, I would definitely recommend doing it the correct way. If you need help, join the podcast movement group on Facebook. There's a lot of talented people in podcasting, a lot of
reputable professionals in the field. And I consider myself to be a reputable professional, but I wouldn't say that I've finally made it because... Even though I've got over a decade's worth of experience, I have not been able to turn that into my day job. Which eventually would be the goal. It's still a hobby. It still makes enough to pay for itself. But it's not... And you can always monetize. There's always ways to monetize your podcast. I've had places come to me for
live reads. I've had... Some that I've turned down, some of them that I've been okay with. Some of them, I've had companies approach me for apps or services to be used on my podcast as an outreach. For instance, I use this program called Audiogram. And they approached me last January, January of 2017. And what it had allowed you to do... which is some web hosts or podcast hosts are starting to do this now, you can create an audiogram. So it's like an audio video of
part of your podcast. You upload your podcast file and it will take that audio. You can select up to a two minute, 30 second window. or as small as you want. I would recommend between the 15 second to one minute mark and not really going over because then you kind of lock yourself into that. But if there's a nice spot of your podcast, you can center around, whether it's you introducing your topic of your show, you can enter in your
clip. and export this and post it on your social platforms and what this does is you can allow yourself to while people are listening to the new episode and you're waiting for the next episode to come out about two or three days after like if you do this weekly about two or three days after you've published your your episode for the week post the preview for the next week's topic if you've pre -recorded it or even if you haven't if you're teasing it record a small segment
and upload it to the service And they had come to me last January, and I used it a couple times, didn't really see the relevance in it at the time or was just too lazy. I don't really know which. However, they re -contacted me back in August of 2017, and I've been using them off and on ever since. It just depends on what I've got going on that particular week, whether I've done them. But I would definitely say it helps with engagement. In podcasting, plus it puts
a visual spin on it. You get to see the waveform. You can put in a topic. And now they've got this thing where it transcribes part of the audio. And you can even go in and edit it while it's playing the clip. And it will follow the audio with the words and turn your audio podcast into a video podcast. So you can share it on multiple platforms. And I think that it's very nice to have. And it's a great marketing tool. I would
recommend you get it if you don't. I can put in the promo code because it's all referral -based and you get up to a certain amount of credits. And you spend credits on it, but it's not a service where you get to just do all this for free. And it's not like a monthly payment service. Something you have to use credits for. Again, it's something I've been using. I enjoy it. I think that it's very helpful. Anyhow, I think this is about it for this episode. I hope you guys are enjoying
this. I hope that you are entertained and informed. I hope you find some value in my personal issues of podcasting that you find helpful to prevent yourselves from having the same problems. This podcast will be out every Wednesday, and it will involve finding a path through the world of technology, the internet, and podcasting. And as always, I, Steve Phillips, will be your guide into the coolest news, tech nostalgia, and answering your
questions. Not all in that order or in every episode, but there will be some nugget of helpful information in every clip. Until next time, thank you for joining me. And we'll see you on the other side.