Monthly Archives: December 2019

2019 Wrap Up with the Blubrry Team – PCI 171

Episode

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. As a year-end episode, we decided to grab as many of the Blubrry team members as possible and ask them what their favorite podcast of the year or decade. Maybe you’ll hear about a new show you’d like to check out. Thanks for listening to Podcast Insider, we’ll be back Jan. 2 with a normal episode.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:32 — 29.6MB) | Embed

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Promo code INSIDER for a free month at Blubrry.com

Coming at you this week from the Convo by Design Studio in Columbus, Ohio and Mike Dell’s World Studio in Traverse City, Michigan. And varying studios from our remote workers. Produced by the Blubrry Pro-Production team.

Contact Us:
todd@blubrry.com
mike@blubrry.com
mackenzie@blubrry.com

Charles McFall – Rock God of Podcasting – PCI 170

Episode

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:44 — 82.0MB) | Embed

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Todd and Mike discuss a few significant Apple team changes and Amazon Alexa capabilities concerning podcasts. They’ve also included their predictions for 2020. If you host an interview podcast they have some tips on how to excel at this format. In Blubrry news, affiliates are looking at a payday this week. Thanks to Charles McFall for joining them for a fun interview on his varying shows and involvement in the community. Look out for a special episode of Podcast Insider next week. Big thanks to our support team, it’s been a big change this year for our team with support and we couldn’t have done it without them.

Thanks for joining us this episode of Podcast Insider.

This week on Podcast Insider…

News:

Best Practices:

  • When you’re the interviewed on your podcast, try to find a nugget about your guest beforehand to ask during the interview. 
  • LISTEN to your guest and then do followup, don’t just jump to the next question.
  • Ask the question and LET THEM TALK!

Blubrry News:

  • Affiliate payments! December period 6 payment and annual year-end bonuses. Join our affiliate program!
  • We interviewed Colin Gray on the blog about the affiliate program. Thanks for participating!
  • We reviewed our holiday hours again. We take our breaks seriously.

Interview:

Charles McFall – Rock God of Podcasting

Support:

  • Help us help you, by either logging in when you put in a ticket at contact.blubrry.com or at least, give us the account email so we can find your account quickly in our system. That will speed up the reply and cut down on back and forth emails.
  • This is the last episode of 2019, (not including the special next week Dec. 26) and Mike would like to publicly thank our support guys, Shawn and Dave! You guys are rock-stars! Every day, every night and on the weekends, you guys take care of our customers. It’s sometimes a thankless job, but Todd, I and the rest of the team, thank you!
  • PowerPress 8.1 is nearly ready. If you would like to beta test PowerPress 8.2 (coming next) reach out to us. Email support@blubrry.com and we will get you on the list.

Connect with Charles McFall here:

Promo code INSIDER for a free month at Blubrry.com

Coming at you this week from the Convo by Design Studio in Columbus, Ohio and Mike Dell’s World Studio in Traverse City, Michigan. Produced by the Blubrry Pro-Production team.

Contact Us:
todd@blubrry.com
mike@blubrry.com
mackenzie@blubrry.com

Beth O’Connor – Rural Health Voice – PCI – 169

Episode

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:27 — 80.3MB) | Embed

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If you’ve ever dreamed of winning a Pulitzer, but you’re not a writer, you might be able to squeeze in with your podcast. MacKenzie stumbled upon some new podcast apps that are very niche oriented. We’re getting closer to the holidays and have some advice for how to handle vacation days and your podcast. Mike does a great job explaining some common Blubrry terms that can cause confusion with accounts. And of course, we’re excited to share the latest Blubrry podcaster’s story you. Beth O’Connor, the host of the Rural Health Voice Podcast, joined Todd to discuss why it was necessary to start their podcast.

Thanks for joining us this episode of Podcast Insider.

This week on Podcast Insider…

News:

Best Practices:

  • Consistency! The show must go on! People build your show into their schedule. If you’re consistent, they are more likely to set aside time to listen to you. More episodes released each week tends to grow an audience, but not if quality goes down.
  • Don’t stop during the holidays!  Nothing wrong with pre-recording. New audience growth happens while people are off work and traveling with their new devices. Be there with fresh content for them to listen to.
  • Blubrry Pro-Production can help you stay on track this holiday season and beyond!

Blubrry News:

  • PowerPress 8.1 is in testing now. We’ve removed ‘Simple Mode’ and and replaced it with a ‘Getting Started’ menu. We’ll announce a webinar once 8.1 is available, demonstrating how to setup PowerPress with new features. 
  • MP3 vs. MP4, we took a look at the numbers and mp3 still reigns over all.
  • Boxing Day (Dec. 26), we’ll have a different format. Should be a fun episode, don’t miss it.  
  • Holiday schedule for Blubrry Podcasting
    • Dec. 24th 8am – noon EST
    • Dec. 25th OFF (Merry Christmas!)
    • Dec. 26th Back to normal hours
    • Dec. 31st 8am – noon EST
    • Jan. 1st OFF (Happy New Year!)
    • Jan. 2nd Back to normal hours

Interview:

Beth O’Connor, M. Ed.  – Rural Health Voice podcast, put on by the Virginia Rural Health Association.

Support:

  • Show listings, Media Files, and Stats are all different things at Blubrry. They are connected by what we call the “program keyword” or “web friendly title”. Unfortunately, because the keyword is tied to so many things, it can’t be changed without starting over.
  • An “account” at Blubrry is just the login to your Blubrry Podcaster Dashboard. You can have many show listings within one “account”. Each show listing can have a stats subscription (free, pro or advanced) and each show listing can have a hosting subscription. Overall, account – show – subscription.
  • The directory at blubrry.com is powered by the RSS feed (unless you publish AT blubrry without WordPress). If you don’t see your episodes on your directory listing, put your RSS feed into the Listing Settings in the Podcaster Dashboard. Hit “save and update” and Blubrry’s directory will PULL your feed into your listing. The listing will update as you publish. You can force an update by doing the above after publishing on your website.

Connect with Beth O’Connor M. Ed here:

Promo code INSIDER for a free month at Blubrry.com

Coming at you this week from the Convo by Design Studio in Columbus, Ohio and Mike Dell’s World Studio in Traverse City, Michigan. Produced by the Blubrry Pro-Production team.

Contact Us:
todd@blubrry.com
mike@blubrry.com
mackenzie@blubrry.com

Lois Melkonian – More to Life with Faith and Lois – PCI – 168

Episode

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:50 — 54.8MB) | Embed

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After a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, Mike and Todd are back with a full episode and interview this week. Those of you interested in the nitty gritty tech support details will enjoy this RSS feed heavy discussion. For those of you curious about legal implications in podcasting, they review COPPA, specifically how this will affect YouTubers. Stick around to the end if you’re looking to migrate to a new podcast host.

This week on Podcast Insider…

News:

Best Practices:

  • Explicit Tags:
    • You must set the explicit tag in your feed.
    • If one episode is marked explicit, the whole show will be shown as explicit in some countries.
    • Does one swear word cause it to be explicit, no, we don’t think you should worry about it.
    • Is it worth it or should you ‘bleep’ the swears? All depends on your target audience.
  • Holiday production reminders: Releases episodes, Apple, etc.

Blubrry News:

Interview:

Lois from More to Life with Faith and Lois. They recently hit 100 episodes, congrats!

Support:

  • RSS feed link showing as text? Or code? That’s normal. RSS feeds aren’t really meant for humans to read or understand, they’re more so for computers. Some people do know what to do with them, but RSS generators try to format feeds so they are readable.
  • When moving to a new host, take it slow, be deliberate. Trying to move in a hurry is the #1 way podcasters mess up their feed, causing them to lose listeners. If everything is done in the correct order your listeners and subscribers will not know that you’ve moved.
    • Create (duplicate) the feed in a new place.
    • 301 redirect the feed from the current host to the new feed.
    • Contact Spotify, they handle this differently.
    • Set Apple’s ‘iTunes new feed URL tag’.
    • We’ve explained it here.
  • New support phone hours are going well! Catch Mike and Dave Mon. – Thurs. 9AM – 7PM and 9AM – 5PM Fridays.

Connect with Lois Melkonian here:

Promo code INSIDER for a free month at Blubrry.com

Coming at you this week from the Convo by Design Studio in Columbus, Ohio and Mike Dell’s World Studio in Traverse City, Michgian.

Contact Us:
todd@blubrry.com
mike@blubrry.com
mackenzie@blubrry.com