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Why are so many Podcasters trying so hard to generalize themselves?
2008-04-29 06:47:00
This post is a repurpose of my December 2007 Monthly column in Blogger and Podcaster Magazine. It was written in early October 2007 but is still how I strongly feel. . . Back in my twenties I used to date this girl ? lets call her Heather. I was living in Kansas and my family was all ...
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Zune 1 Click Button
2007-10-11 06:43:00
. http://podcast411.com/07img/1click_Zune .g if . Per Paul’s call out for a Zune 1 Click button following word that the Zune would indeed support 1 click subscriptions - here is a button I put together and which I release under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License for anyone to use anyway they would like. . I have removed the Yahoo button from ...
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A Podcast by any other name..
2007-10-04 23:36:00
This post is a repurpose of my August 2007 monthly column in Blogger and Podcast er Magazine.  It was written in early June 2007 before the latest round of Podcast name bashing that for the life of me I can not figure out. What I wrote then I believe even more strongly today. . . . In the beginning God ...

Don?t mess with my tubes
2007-07-31 08:51:00
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/30/la wmaker.raid/index.html . Nuf said
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New Podcaster Industry Association is Formed
2007-07-16 05:56:00
Download the Press Release - Click Here . Ok - I know what you are thinking not another Association . Well this one is a bit different. This one was formed by some of the biggest players in the Podcasting community. Apple, Libsyn/Wizzard, Podshow, Podtech, Rev3, Kiptronic, Podtrac, and Podbridge plus NPR and Nielsen Online. So this Association ...
More About: Industry , Caster , Aster

iPhone Friendly Button for playing MP3?s
2007-07-01 05:57:00
. . Above is a button that has been designed to be easy to touch on the iphone and will play your Podcast / MP3 file on the iPhone. Below is the URL for the image file - please feel free to use this image, if you can not host it on your site - feel ...
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Podango?s Bad UI is Hijacking RSS feeds
2007-06-19 07:00:00
Digg this  . Let me start off and say - DO NOT move your podcast to Podango until they fix this issue. Especially if you have your feed with Feedburner and were planning on pointing to the feed they create. The following Post comes from my forum board. . http://podcast411.com/forums/viewtopic.ph p?t=1332 . UPDATE: See comments from Lee Gibons CEO of ...
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Radio Daddy Tells Podcasters to F off
2007-05-28 01:43:00
DIGG This . Here is an email that was sent to me from Radio Daddy . All I can say is Wow. . . From: “RadioDaddy” Date: May 27, 2007 2:30:02 PM CDT To: rob@podcast411.com Subject: Voicedaddy - Licensed Traditional Broadcasters Only ( RadioDaddy ) . podcast411, . For years the licensed broadcasters on RadioDaddy have complained about the kids and unprofessional people that run podcasts ...
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Wizzard Media release some new stats
2007-05-16 06:40:00
Wizzard media (Libsyn, Switchpod & Blastpodcast - combined) just released some new stats that I being the stat junky found interesting. . First thing that caught my eye was the total number of fulfilled downloads - not to be mistaken with the oft given “Download Requests” number - which can be many times higher than actual downloads ...
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Public Radio - Talent Quest Contest
2007-04-29 19:29:00
Public Radio is conducting a search for the next big host for Public Radio. The contest is called Talent Quest . . ?What is the Talent Quest? Do you have what it takes to be public radio’s next great host? Do you have that most elusive of qualities - hostiness? Now is your chance. We’re casting ...
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Wichita Rutherford on an RSS only version of Podcast411
2007-03-17 16:29:00
I just put up a short interview with Wichita Rutherford on the RSS feed only. No weblinks for this one. Wichita has an announcement to make, and we catch up on what he has been up to lately. Also at the beginning of the show ? as is typical with RSS only shows ...
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INK inc. PR
2007-03-10 05:50:02
On the last show I said to check the blog for an update on an announcement. Well this is it. I have accepted a job offer from INK inc. PR. They are ?a full-service public relations agency that specializes in securing mainstream editorial coverage in national and international media.? which is headquartered here in Kansas City. My new title is ?Director of New Media?, which means I will be helping their clients connect with you in the new media world. What I really liked about INK inc. PR is that they only take on clients they think have a good story to tell, such as - Imperium Renewables (formerly Seattle Biodiesel). And INK inc. PR is also known as a maverick in their industry, which I consider a big plus. Finally let me say that this will not impact the podCast411 Podcast / Blog / Website, other than weekday interviews during business hours are now a thing of the past and for the most part new episodes will be on Saturday?s with the bonus episodes on Wednesday?s.

Three Interviews, Three different forms of media
2007-03-06 11:46:01
Well the last couple of days you have been able to catch me on the other side of the mic, camera and ISDN line. . I was interviewed a few weeks ago for Astrology on the Go Podcast(Fromerly - The Girl Friends Guide to Astrology). This interview just went live on their site. Thanks go out to Amanda and Kelli for doing my reading. If you want find out what my reading was go to this link. . Then on Friday Dave and Dave over at Libsyn asked me to come on their Video Podcast, the Libsyn Soundoff Podcast. Link to that interview is here. Notice the white balance that is all thrown off by the glare coming off the top of my head. . And on Monday an interview aired on NPR that I did last Friday for NPR?s Morning Edition with the very talented Rene Montagne. We talked about the latest trends in Podcasting and who is making money. Here is a link to the page on NPR. . So in a short three-day period I had interviews go up in Audio Podcast format, Video Podcast format and over the Air-waves for...
More About: Media , Views , Interviews , Inter , Interview

Which Podcast Site has the best traffic?
2007-02-23 23:40:06
LeeAnn Prescott over at Hitwise put up a post ?Odeo Traffic up 84% Year over Year, Leads Pod casting Site s?. This is based on Hitwise data which I do not have access to. Here is a graph from the article. . However I do have access to Alexa rankings and looking at the different podcasting sites I found this data. . . Based at least on Alexa, Libsyn and Keith and the Girl (KATG) have more traffic to their sites (a lower alexa ranking) than does Odeo or any other of the podcasting sites that I looked at. I went on to compare KATG to other popular Podcast s. I was surprised to find that KATG had a lower Alexa ranking than Revision3 (Diggnation and others combined), TWiT.tv (Leo and all his friends combined), Ask-A-Ninja and every other podcasts site I looked at. See Below for those with an Alexa less than 30,000. . Podcast/Site……Alexa 3 Month average (Lower is better) Libsyn.com……….6,611 KATG……………&# 8230;7,000 Odeo…...
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Apple Spotlights Podcasts on new site
2007-02-17 11:37:02
Apple now has a place on the web to see the Pod cast Spotlight Podcast s . . http://www.apple.com/itunesnews/podcast/ . From the Apple iTunes Podcasting Team: . ?I?m excited about this small step online because more people will see the monthly spotlights that our excellent email team spends a lot of time on:? . Any time we can get more exposure for Podcasting I am all for it.
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Rocketboom Demographic Survey Results
2007-02-17 11:37:02
About two weeks ago Andrew from Rock etboom asked for podCast411 to be a neutral third party to validate the results from the Demo graphic Survey they were about to do. Being the stat junkie I am, I said yes. . How this worked was that each time someone entered a survey response an email with the responses were sent to us. We then took the results and put them in a spread sheet and filtered out Duplicate results and obviously bogus data (Such as the age being entered as . Link to Survey Results in PDF. . The first item I found interesting was the age break down in Age. 62% fell in the age range of 21 to 45. With only 8% less than 21 years old. . The stats for Gender were clearly on the Male side. This next graph is one that really stood out to me. People were asked where they get their news from. (ie where do advertisers want to be advertising) Indie News Sites (Blogs and Podcasts) were at 32% compared to Newspapers and Radio, which were at 26%. The fact that newspapers came...
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Yodio is a Nodio when it comes to Aodio Podcasts
2007-01-31 11:24:05
Podcasting News ran the following Story.  Where it was mentioned that Yodio was the ?Blogger of Podcasting.?  I was really excited to test it out.  So I did so until 1:30 AM in the morning.  But alas this product is not as advertised at least not with regards to podcasting. . First the Good. - It has a nice and easy to use phone interface. That makes it simple to record a message and then find that recording on their service. - If you are looking to add audio on a picture ? this is the service for you. . . Now the Bad (with respect to Podcasting) - There are no RSS feeds anywhere. - While the recording was easy to do from a phone, there is no way to download it.  There is also no way to edit your phone recording on their site. - No RSS feed to be found. - If you want to upload an audio file ? the limit is 2 MB.  Ouch.  So if you want a show that is more than 4 minutes long, you are going to have to encode at a pretty low bit rate (Read ? make your audio sound like crap). - There is ...
More About: Pod , Podcasts , Podcast , Cast , Come

On a Serious Note
2007-01-28 11:22:01
Joe Murphy from the Wingin’ It and Kickass Mystic Ninjas Podcast is having surgery today. . Alan Smith sent me over this message to pass on. . ” I have set up a voice mail line (206-202-5179) for well wishers to leave Joe a get well meassage. After I have collected the voice messages I will burn them to CD so Joe can listen to them as he recovers. ” . So please take a moment and call 206-202-5179 and leave Joe a get well message. . Alan - thanks for setting this up.
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Kiptronic raises $4 Million
2007-01-25 11:20:03
Big news in Podcasting Land - Kiptronic raised $4 Million in VC funds this week. . I hope to interview Jonathan Kobb again shortly to talk about what this means for Kiptronic. . More to come on this, but in the mean time here is a link to the podcast interview we did with Jonathan and Libsyn a year ago. . Libsyn / Kiptronic Interview - Show #121 . TechCrunch also covered the news
More About: Lion , Tron

I am Interviewed on the AwareTek Podcast
2007-01-25 11:20:03
Back on Show #80 I interviewed my good friend Ron from Awaretek, Ron turned the tables this week and interviewed me for his show.  The interview is up now over at Awaretek . In this interview you will hear me talk about things I never talk about on podcast411.  We get very metaphysical in keeping with the Awaretek theme. I had fun talking with Ron with the Mic running. . Please check out the Awaretek Pod cast  - click here 
More About: Inter , Podcast , Interview , War

On January 2nd there was an article in the Wall Street Journ
2007-01-15 11:13:02
On January 2nd there was an article in the Wall Street Journal - Music Industry Changes Its Tune on Podcasting . There were also many blog posts echoing the title of the article. But not clearly looking at the particulars in the article. On Episode 184 of podcast411 we interviewed Jeff Daniel the President of Rock River Communications - the company that has cracked the iron curtain of the record industry - To find out if this means everyday podcasters will soon be able to add RIAA music to their podcasts. . I think the interview brings up some interesting points that need to be further investigated. Such as Jeff’s assertion that podcasts do not need ASCAP, BMI and SESAC licenses since they are not technically public performances. In the interview Jeff almost made it sound like downloads were not mechanical copies - which is not what I am sure he meant to say - as according to the DMCA - digital downloads are mechanical copies. What I think he was trying to point out is t...
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WorldBridges 2006 New Years Eve Appearance
2007-01-02 11:05:01
I was again asked to be on the New Year s Eve World Bridges Streaming Event where we talked about podcasting.  I was joined by the Golden Throat of podcasting and all too infrequent podcaster - Scott Fletcher, and the wonderful Shelly Brisbin. . Scott put up a great post on his site -  PodCheck Review . That talks about it in greater detail and provides links to listen to the recording of the event. . Jeff thanks for inviting me on.
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Daddy Panel for December 06
2006-12-31 23:03:06
Daddy Pane l Dec 06 Here is the link to my appearance on the latest DaddyPannel. Each month - Dennis Gray - 101 Uses for BabyWipes P.D. Love - The DaddyCast James B. - The Naval Cast Ringmaster Greg - Dancing with Elephants and me (Rob) get together on Skype and talk about issues for Dads. So if you would like to hear me talking about something other than podcasting make sure to check this out.
More About: Daddy , Panel , December

Here we go
2006-12-31 23:03:06
I was thinking back to two years ago. Podcast411 was just getting launched, and at the time I vowed to podcast only and not do a blog. Well it has been a good two-year run and now I think the time has come to put up a blog. The reasons come down to this ? two years ago I was doing a show three times a week, than came the book deal and I was down to twice a week, then the baby and I was down to once a week with an occasional second show. I had been thinking about blogging for some time because of the reduced schedule and then earlier this week the preverbal straw that broke the camels back happened. Digg launched their podcast beta. That was on Monday, but my listeners needed to wait until Wednesday to hear about that. This to me just seemed like to long of a stretch. So here we are with the podCast411 blog. This is not going to be a regularly scheduled blog, I will write posts whenever I think I have something of interest to talk about. It is not going to be a ?news? blog pe...
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podcastwaiver.com
2006-12-31 23:03:06
Back on Show #177, our interview with Colette Vogele, we talked about a need for a site for getting guests to electronically fill out a waiver. I made a call out for someone to register www.podcastwaiver.com. And Colette offered to give the legal advice for the waiver. Well someone took us up on this. That someone is Steve from lumospub.com. . Thanks Steve for stepping up. I am looking forward to seeing the site when it is ready. . Stay Tuned more to come on this story.
More About: Pod , Podcast , Cast

Troubles updating at the iTunes Podcast Page
2006-12-31 23:03:06
Update - All seems to be working now at iTunes . 12-28-06 . . . Rocketboom Keith and the Girl  . Some time on the morning of the Dec 21st - iTunes stop updating the individual preview pages for podcasts.  Above is a link from Rocketboom and Keith and the Girl.   You can see that they stopped (or at least were stopped) on the 21st and 20th respectively. . This does not mean subscribers will have any issues.  Actually this does not effect subscribers at all - just what shows in the iTunes Preview Pod cast page - per the links. . So if you are one of many that asked - no there is nothing wrong with your feed, just appears there is a hickup at iTunes.  Which will most likely be worked out the first week of January or sooner. I will delete the post when the issue is resolved. . Rob @ podCast411
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I am Looking for Feedback on IE7 as a Podcast Aggregator
2006-12-31 23:03:06
I had a conversation recently about using IE7 as a podcast Aggregator from someone who claimed it could be used as such (although he did not say he was actually using it for podcasts).  We exchanged emails about the subject each pointing the other to posts supporting our positions. . His link was to the following blog post at Microsoft.  (I love the 15 Meg limit comments). . So I am asking you - Have you ever used IE7 as a podcatcher - And what was the user experience compared to iTunes or Juice? . If you can please send in audio comments to be used on the show.  You can call into 206-666-4357 or send them via email to podcast411 at gmail dot com, if not post below and I will read some on the show. . Thanks for your feedback on this.
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My interview on the Writers Voice
2006-12-31 23:03:06
I was interviewed by Francesca Rheannon producer and host of the Write rs Voice . . There are two parts to the interview. . Part 1 - This went out on the radio . Part 2 - Web Exclusive
More About: Inter , Interview , Writers

Senator Edwards uses Podcast to Announce Presidential bid fo
2006-12-31 23:03:06
Here is a link to Senator Edwards 26th podcast where he announces his intentions to run for President in 2008. . You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or through the RSS Feed . As far as I know this is the first time someone has used a podcast to announce their intentions to run for President of the United States. . For full and fair disclosure I work on Senators Edwards Pod cast, but this post is not endorsed by or sanctioned by John Edwards for President - it is just something I wanted to report. Rob @ podCast411
More About: Residential , Presidential , Podcast

Gigavox releases new version of Levelator
2006-12-31 23:03:06
Version 1.1.0 of The Levelator is now available for download. . We will be interviewing Doug Kaye and Michael Geoghegan from Giga vox next week for the podcast411 podcast to talk with them about what is new and what other things Gigavox is up to. . We should have the interview up on Saturday December 30th. . If you have not checked out Levelator you really really really need to. The most important thing you can do to make your podcast sound more professional is to make sure you have consistent volume levels throughout the podcast and Levelator helps do just that.
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