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.