Episode Details

Feedback from Last Week's Show About Video Podcasting Hey there! I checked out your podcast today where you spoke about video podcasting. I think the way you explained it makes perfect sense. I  was actually looking for a way to upload videos faster to YouTube and found a specific way to do it where you compress the file.   There is free software called Handbrake that people suggest. (I think it has been used in the past to rip DVDs illegally, but that is not what I am using it for.) Basically, once you create the HD file (which is usually about 1GB for videos I have made that are about 5-7 minutes at 1080p) and then use Handbrake to compress the file. I can usually get it down to around around 100-150mb (yes...MB) and less if the file is smaller.   I was wondering if you thought this was a good option so you can have HD on all platforms. It doesn't seem to lose in quality especially with simple "blog" type videos.   Anyway, just thought I would check in on that. Thanks for all the hard work!   -Derek Daniel   Free Websites For Those Podcasting on a Budget

I had someone contact me this week. They were on SoundCloud, they didn't have a website, and yet, they wanted to end up making a living from their podcast. Their topic was "talking about movies and video games with my friends." Not to say that you it is impossible to do this, but without hearing your show it I would say it is highly unlikely.  Why do you need a website to do a podcast?

1. Easy Clicks If you are going to force people to search for the item that will bring your revenue, you're making it too hard. It has to be easy - peasy.

2. Email List Growth IF you want to build an email list (and as they say the money is in the list, why? Easy Clicks) you have to have a sign up form. No website- no form.

3. Reputation It's $10 a month if you go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/hosting and go with the cheapest plans it's around $9. If you drink 5 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew a month, you have spend close to $10 on soda. Switch to water, and you have the money. Would you buy a car from someone selling it out of a tent (and it looked like they were going to bolt the minute they got your money). You don't date someone who is going to leave it two weeks. You get the point. In a nutshell If you don't have $10 a month (.03 a day) then don't start a podcast expecting it to pay your mortgage. Seriously. In the immortal words of Mick Jagger, "You can't always get what you want."

4. Ease of Listener Subscriptions When you have a website, you can put a link to your iTunes listing, and make it easier for people to subscribe in iTunes, Stitcher, etc. Without a website, you're saying things like "Find my show in iTunes." Have you tried the iTunes search? I've typed in the exact name of someone's show and still had zero results.

5. Easy Contact The one page you need on a website is a contact page and and about page. We all want interaction with our audience. While you can say your phone number and email address in your podcast, when it is a clickable link on your websites, it's super easy and requires no memorization.

I Am Always Open To Other Points of View

So when a client told me they were using Tumblr as their website I thought, "Really?" Then I looked at the website notold-better.com and yeah, that's a free tumblr website.  Now to be honest, he had his graphics made by a graphic designer, and that graphic matches the artwork of his podcast. So if you have 2-3 hours to learn how to adjust a tumblr site, check out their themes, and go from there. Keep in mind, you won't have all the flexibility of a Wordpress site, but you will be saving $9 a month. You can even put Google Analytics cod