Full Transcript: School of Podcasting – Your Podcast Website

Full Transcript: School of Podcasting – Your Podcast Website

: Today, on episode number 603 of the School of Podcasting, last week, we talked about media hosts. This week, we're talking about website hosts. Do you need a website in the first place? How do you start one? What if you hate the one you're on, how do you move? Also, it's the new year. We had that whole resolution to add the whole iTunes episodes. How do I go about, and do that again? "I actually wanna do it now, Dave." Hit it, ladies!

: The School of Podcasting, with Dave Jackson.

: Podcasting since 2005, I am your award-winning personal podcast coach, Dave Jackson, thanking you so much for tuning in. If you're new to the show, I help you massage your message for maximum impact. I help you tackle that technology. I help you face your fears, flatten that learning curve, and I just get you podcasting, cuz, look, you can go watch a bunch'a old outdated YouTube videos, and do that. Have fun with that. No, I help you get going in the right direction.

: The website I want you to go to right now, SchoolofPodcasting.com/start. Use the coupon code, LISTENER. That coupon code is not available online. It's my way of saying thanks for listening to the show. The coupon code is LISTENER, L-I-S-T-E-N-E-R, and that'll save you when you sign up for a month, or a year, If you want, at the SchoolofPodcasting.com.

: Thinking of starting a podcast? Since we're on that topic, let me talk about my sponsor and that is Podcast Movement. This is the largest podcast event that is solely geared towards podcasting. Being a podcaster is a great way to grow your network, and if that's- and that is absolutely true, well, think about this. gonna a podcasting event is like dumping gasoline on that, because you are face to face with the people you wanna meet. It's really cool.

: Let me give you an example. I was there a couple of years ago. I've been there every year, by the way. I'm standing at one of the events that they do, cuz you have all these … Well, they have a hundred sessions on topics there, ranging from the technical aspects of setting up your equipment, to the audio production, as well as marketing, and monetizing your show, and your future, really, when you think about that.

: Those go on during the days. At night, they have all these cool networking parties. I'm standing there, and Marc Maron walks in. He's got his shorts on, some flip flops. I'm like, "Oh, hey, Marc, what's up?" He's like, "Hey, man, what's up?" I shook his hand, and I'm like, "Hey, you remember when you were in Cleveland, and the morning show had this weird leaf blower thing that backfired, and threw puke on the ceiling?" He was like, "Yeah." I'm like, "We're not all morons in Cleveland." Really cool. Where else are you gonna go, and just hang out with great podcasters? It was awesome.

: Some other things about this. If you're a brand-new podcaster, or if you're a veteran, it's a great place to show up. There's gonna be over 2,000 podcasters from around the world. It's in Philadelphia. You wanna check out the Liberty Bell? You wanna go see Rocky's statue, and go, "ADRIAN!!" and run up the steps? Philadelphia is an awesome place. July 23rd through the 26th, three days of workshops, panels, parties, and more. The Expo Hall is gonna have over 60 vendors, including Libsyn, so, I'll be in the booth. Come look me up. If you're in the mood for a microphone, or any kinda service, there's gonna be people there to help you out. Again, it's July 23rd through the 26th, Philadelphia PA. Their website is PodcastMovement.com. Use the coupon code, SOP, and you will get $50 off any registration. Thanks to Podcast Movement for being a sponsor.

: I'll take websites again, for 300, Alex, please? Thank you. We're talking about your podcast website. Last week, we talked about media hosts, and what happens if you ever wanna move, and what you should look for in one.

: This week, we're talking about websites, and you might even ask yourself … I've seen people do this, "Can I just get SoundCloud, and use Facebook?" The answer is, "Can you? Sure. Nobody's gonna stop you." I always say the question, "Can you paint with peanut butter? You can. It's not really recommended, but, you know, have fun with that." Would you buy a car, let's say … Would you buy a car from a guy that's selling it out of a tent? Would you feel really comfortable with somebody who didn't have enough money to have an actual dealership?

: It just, it depends, really, on what you're doing. If it's just you, and "I wanna talk to my best friend, we're gonna record them, and put them out as a podcast," by all means, use Soundcloud, and Facebook your face off. What happens, often, is later you go, "Well, now we wanna treat it more seriously." You've got all this back catalog to just mess with, so it's not something I recommend.

: The other thing is, to go back to that original question, "Do I need a website?" If you ever plan on telling people where to find something, you kinda need a website. Think about this: somebody goes, "Oh, you have a podcast? Where can I get it?" "Oh, just find me on iTunes." We'll talk about how that's one of the worst things you can say to somebody.

: The other thing … Let's talk about that now. If you are a real estate podcaster, that's one of the worst things you can say, inaudible "Oh, just find me in Apple Podcast," because you have a very good chance of not being found, not because the search tool is bad; although, it has room for improvement. They've improved it. For a while, you got like 8 to 10 results. I think that has since changed. Because there are so many real-estate shows, because there are so many fantasy-football shows, because there are so many golf shows … There are a ton of shows that are called Thinking Outside the Box. I think the last time I checked, there were seven. Not to mention all the 'Preneur' shows.

: When you say, "Find me in Apple Podcast," it's not a great thing to say, cuz there's a really good chance that you're not going to be found. In fact, saying, "Find me in whatever app," is really not a good way to do that, but if you say, "Hey, go out to my website, SchoolofPodcasting.com/subscribe," and you actually have a tutorial there to walk people through the process, that is worth the $5 to $12 a month you're paying in web hosting.

Do you need a website? Need, meaning can I live without it? You can live without it. Do I? You know, you need water, you need food. Do you need shelter? Well, you can live without it. It's just not very fun, especially in Ohio, in the winter. Something to keep in mind, if you're a school, or again, if it's just you, and your buddy, and you kinda wanna just … You wanna try on podcasting. "I don't wanna have to spend so much money to start one," and this makes sense to a certain extent.

: When I started playing the guitar, when I was a little kid, I had this beat-up, old, crappy guitar. Later, I saved my money with my paper route. I spent $300 on a Gibson SG, only to turn on the very first day of MTV, because I'm old, to watch Pete Townsend, of The Who, smash it, and I was like, "What?" I didn't start off with a $300 guitar, so I can understand you wanting to kinda inch your way into it.

: If all you need is a place for people to listen, and subscribe to your show, then Libsyn.com, Blubrry.com, and Podbean.com are all media hosts that have some sort of – keyword, here – basic website that comes with your plan. Well, how basic is basic? Again, if you just need people to subscribe, and listen, done. You don't need a fancy-schmancy website.

: Now, if later, you go, "Well, I wanna have a funnel, where I add products, or newsletters, or I'm gonna have some sort of JavaScript that puts this cool little flashy thing," no. No JavaScript, in most cases.

: There are some ways you can get around that, though. For example, let's say I wanna have MailChimp … MailChimp as a newsletter service. It's free. It starts off free. Again, you're trying to do this on the inexpensive route; wanna stick your toe in the water. There is a way, in MailChimp, that instead of grabbing the code to put on your website, you can grab a link, because with all these websites, you can do HTML, so you can do links, and images, and things of that nature. You could put an image that says Newsletter, and then link it to MailChimp, and on MailChimp's website, they have your form.

: Often, there are ways to get around this. It's when you start into, "Well, I wanna have product sales, and I wanna have this page, and that page, and a page about the history …" No, that's … Now you're getting outside the bounds of, "I need people to listen, and subscribe." When you get to that point, you just basically copy and paste a whole bunch'a stuff, and you can move to another website. We talked about that last week, how to move your show, or, today, we're gonna talk about how do you move your website?

: Keep in mind that, in some cases, you can actually get away without buying an actual web host, and use your media host for both. Now, some people think, "Well, why don't I do the opposite? Why don't I use my web host, my GoDaddy, my Bluehost …" and for the record, today, I did. I'm changing my mind on something, and you're gonna hear about who my new favorite web host is.

: You don't use a web host as a media host. You can use your media host as a web host. Again, asterisk, as long as it's basic, but you don't wanna use your web host as a media host. You go, "Well, why is that?" Because it says right there on the front page that they have unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage. I've talked to Bluehost, and I've talked to HostGator about this, and it's not a bandwidth … It's not a storage issue.

: It's the fact that when … If you think about it, when they say 'element of bandwidth' … When you access a website, like an actual page, it's maybe, maybe ,and I'm pulling this number out of my … I'm gonna say 50 kilobytes, maybe 500 kilobytes, if that. It's small. It's tiny, let's go that route. When you pull a single MP3 file, it might be 46 megs-50 megs. One is kilobytes, one is megabytes, and that's a difference.

: What happens is now, when you have hundreds, maybe thousands of people pulling your MP3 file, it's not storage, it's not bandwidth, it's your tying up what are called resources on that server, and basically that server is going [heavy breathing] and it can't do it. That's why you don't wanna use your web host as a media host. I know a few people that can say, "Dave, hey, I'm not having a problem," but I can also point you to about five people that go, "I've been asked to move.".

: So, now, let's talk about, "Okay, Dave, I need a little more than a basic website. What do I … What should I have," on your podcast website? Here are the four things I recommend, minimum. Number one, a play button. Number two, an About page. Number three, a Contact page. Number four, a Subscribe page.

: Why do I need a play button? Think about it like this, when you go to the mall, don't you love it, when you see the person standing there with a tray of some sort of free something? Because, usually, it's pretty good. There's some sort of chicken place at the mall, and there's always a guy out there with a bunch of toothpicks, and you go, and you eat one, and then you go to the restroom. Then, you come out of the restroom, and you just happen to walk by the guy again, and you get a second one. What are they doing? They're giving you something for free, hoping that you will then go buy one.

: A play button on your website is kinda like saying, "Here, have a free sample." It's super-easy. You don't even have to pull out your wallet, just do that. That is what having a play button on your website … I've seen people do this. They'll only have links to iTunes. I've seen that, or Apple Podcasts. Now, you've added "Click on That." Oops, you don't have iTunes, or Apple podcasts? Now, you gotta download the software. Now, you've gotta go back, and click … That's not gonna work. Or, they'll Click Here to listen on something. Okay … Why not just have it right there, because you're asking somebody to buy your podcast, shall we say, without actually sampling it. That's just not gonna work. Keep that in mind, when you're doing a Play button.

: Here's another thing to think about, and this is like, "What, are you crazy?" Not … I know. I know it's 2018. Not everyone has a smartphone. I know it's crazy. What? Yeah, there's still people flipping the phone, and those people might wanna listen to your show. By having a Play button on your website, they can listen to it right there, so you need a Play button.

: The other thing you need is an About page. I used a tool called Crazy Egg, and I think you can actually use it for free. It shows you a little more than Google Analytics, in terms of ease of use. It shows me this thing called a heat map, and it shows where people were scrolling down, and it showed what people were clicking on. The word 'About' on my website was just peppered, where people had clicked on it. For me, the About page was one of the most important ones.

: If somebody comes to your website, and they're like, "What's this?" They're gonna click on that About page. This should explain a little bit about your show. For me, it should explain how your show is going to benefit them. Why? Because, who doesn't wanna benefit? Think about this: your target listener is right in front of you, and they're looking at your listing. What are you going to say to convince that person to go back, and click the Play button, or even better, click on the Subscribe button?

: I recently looked at the description I have in Apple Podcast for the School of Podcasting, and it needs work, and that's the beauty of all this stuff. If you're a regular listener of the show, you're gonna probably vomit when I say this, cuz I say it about every episode – your podcast is not a statue, it's a recipe, so, you can change all this stuff.

: I looked at it, like, "Mm-kay, I see what I was going for, but that's not really gonna work." Like, for example, in the first sentence of my description, I mentioned that I've been podcasting since 2005, and I say that … I often introduce myself that way, because it speaks to my experience. Not many people can say that, but I'm not sure that's the first thing I should lead with. I'm actually thinking of redoing my intro, in some ways, because, in general, most people don't care how the sausage is made. They just wanna know, "How good is it gonna taste in my mouth?"

: Explain to people what they're gonna get in the podcast, how they're gonna benefit, how they're gonna feel, whatever the benefits are of listening to your show. Again, keep in mind you can always change this later. The tough part is … This is where things get tough, and this is where every podcast question typically ends in the phrase, "Um, it depends." Some consultants have a website for their consulting, and then they add a podcast. Some people have a podcast, and their website's about their podcast, in hopes that they will then do consulting.

: Do I have a paragraph about the show? Do I have a podcast about the host? Do I have a podcast about my services? The answer is yes. The hard question is which one is first? That one, I can't answer for you. If your website's more about your services, well, then, maybe you should have that paragraph first, and then say, "Also, you might wanna listen to our podcast, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah …" but I think you should have all those in one place. Not an About the Host page, an About the Podcast page, and About Our … Just have it all in one place. Keep it easy for people to find.

: You have a Play button. You have an About page. You have a Contact page. Yes, you don't make people contact you via Twitter, you give that information right there, on your website. I, and this is how I do it … Doesn't mean this is how you have to do it, but I think it's a good strategy. I put every way you can contact me on one page, and that page is called Contact. It's not called Buy Me Coffee. It's not called Do a Hang with Dave, or some other fun little way to say, "Eeee, let's hang!" No. People were looking for a button that says Contact.

: So, there, if you go over there, I have email, I have voicemail from PodcastVoicemail.com, I've got my social media. That way, if somebody wants to contact me, they don't have to say, "Oh, I don't … I didn't see …" No, it's right there. You only need to look one place. If you're using some sort of form … Let's say you're using a plug-in, Gravity Forms, or Contact 7, or whatever it is, that's fine. Just make sure that works. Go to that form, pretend you're a listener, put in the information, and make sure that you get that information, because I hear so many people that a) say, "I'm not getting any feedback." Then, I go out to their website, I put it in there, and go, "Did you get my email?" They're like, "No." I go, "Your form's not working." "Oh, I see where it's sending it to default@default.com." Yeah, you need to update that to point to your email.

: Double-check all your contact … Make sure that if somebody's leaving you voicemail, that the voice, the email that is associated with your voicemail account is getting that message to you, cuz you might have a bunch of voicemails, but they're notifying the wrong voicemail. Go through all the ways that a listener can contact you, and make sure those work.

: Again, you've got a Play button, an About page, a Contact page, and a Subscribe page. I've kinda already talked about this, but as more, and more podcasts are added to these different directories, telling your audience to, "Find me at Overcast," is probably not a good way to handle this. As more new podcast listeners get involved, we need to kinda quit telling them to subscribe, because they might not have a clue what that means, cuz they're thinking, "Well, I have a subscription to Reader's Digest. How do I … Where is the subscription form?" No. Instead make a page that shows people how to subscribe to your show, with links directly to your show, so they don't have to go to Apple, and do a search. You just click this button, and boom, and then, click on this button, and click Subscribe.

: The other thing it's really cool … Did you know this? Let me find … Where's my phone? Have you heard this yet? Let me think of a podcast. Hey, Siri, subscribe me to the RED podcast.

: Just to confirm, would you like to subscribe to the podcast, Red Eye Radio?

: We see where it's not that simple. No. Hey, Siri, subscribe me to The School of Podcasting.

: Just to confirm, would you like to subscribe to the podcast, School of Podcasting – Learn to plan, start, and grow your podcast, by Dave Jackson, podcast consultant, and coach?

: Yes … She's thinking about it.

: You are already subscribed to School of Podcasting crosstalk.

: Okay. That's cool. You can just tell people … You could do a Facebook video to do that. However, what about those Android people? You gotta keep that in mind. You also wanna be on TuneIn. You wanna be on Stitcher. You wanna be on Google Play Music. You wanna be on Apple iTunes. You wanna lead people by the hand …

: Back in the day … When I was a teenager, I worked in a grocery store, and we were getting killed by these big giant chains that were moving in, and we had to stand out. One of the things that we did to stand out was we offered just like kick-butt customer service. If somebody came by and said, "Sonny, where is the whatever?" I would stop whatever I was doing, and lead them to whatever the heck they were looking for, and point them at it. If they were short, I would say, "Would you like me to get that for you? Is there anything else I can help you find?" I always think about this now. We need to stop what we're doing, and lead our audience right to our podcast, and go, "Here," and put it in the cart for them, and go, "Is there anything else we can help you find?"

: Those are the things I think you need, minimum. A Play button, an About page, a Contact page that actually works, and a Subscribe page. Those are what you need on your website.

: "All right, Dave, you talked me into it. I'm gonna build a website. Who should I use?" Well, in the past, I've used HostGator. I was even a HostGator reseller, and for whatever reason, their support just went down the tubes. I heard so many people talk about Bluehost that I went over, and tried them, and for the record, I've never had really great luck with them. I had a friend of mine tell me about GoDaddy, and I remember in the early days of GoDaddy, they weren't great. They kinda were weird. I gotta tell you, I had great luck with GoDaddy, to the point where I became a GoDaddy reseller. If you go to CoolerWebsites.com, and order over there, I get a very small percentage, but basically, it's GoDaddy that's doing all the service for me.

: I've seen this new breed of websites that came onboard. In the past, you had what was just called web hosting, and behind the scenes, it was like UNIX. Now, they have these specially geared web-hosting packages for people that are running WordPress. If you're new to this, WordPress is a very popular free software that you can use to create your website. If you've ever used things like Microsoft Word, it looks a lot like Microsoft Word. It's not that easy, but it's not as hard as you probably think. .

: I tried a few websites using this WordPress-kinda-formatted hosting, and I did see an increase in speed. Then, I put … I didn't think it was that huge. I'm like, "Okay, it's a little faster." Then, I put WordPress on a website that was just … Shall we just call it the traditional web hosting? I went, "Oh, yeah, this is noticeable. It's … Wow, it's noticeable." The fees are typically a little higher, usually a few dollars more a month, not a ton, but the speed is definitely higher. As Google ranks things, now, partly based on how fast the page loads, that's something you might wanna think about. So, that's the good news, it's faster, and it's not that much more expensive.

: The bad news is most of these WordPress-hosting packages came with no e-mail address. For instance, I decided to use WP Engine. This is one of the first ones that came out, and again, it was faster. It was solid, but I didn't get @SchoolofPodcasting.com. I ended up going through Google at the price of $5 per month, per email. I had Dave@SchoolofPodcasting.com, and I had Support@SchoolofPodcasting.com, and it was charging me $10 a month.

: WP Engine is a fine company. Their support was great, but to make a long story short, if you get any kind of major traffic to your website, I ended up paying through the nose. At one point, I was paying between $50 to $70 a month for just the web hosting. Then, another 10 bucks for the email addresses. While I like GoDaddy's WordPress hosting, it's around $10 a month, and that's for 400,000 visitors. For most people, that's gonna be fine. Again, I've been using them, as a reseller, and I would recommend … That's why I've been recommending people, "Hey, just go to CoolerWebsites.com, and sign up, and get the WordPress hosting.

: Well, then a friend, and this is one of the cool things about being a podcaster … Your audience kinda goes, "Hey, that's cool. Did you know there's something better?" That is a website called SiteGround. For the record, I have an affiliate program for them, so if you plan on checking them out, can you do me a favor? It doesn't cost you an extra dime. Just go to SchoolofPodcasting.com/site ground. That's S-I-T-E-ground. They have WordPress design packages, and … But, wait, there's more! They offer email addresses, as well. I was like, "All right …" I moved a couple sites over there; put my toe in the water.

: Again, I noticed a speed increase with my pages. I talked to them, and I said, "Look, I'm thinking about moving The School of Podcasting," when another large bill came in from my buddies over at WP Engine. I said, "Can you guys handle this? They said, "Uh, yeah." The cool thing is they moved it for free. When you sign up at SiteGround, at SchoolofPodcasting.com/siteground, they will move one website for you, for free.

And, I got email addresses with it. In fact, I have unlimited email addresses, and their support is awesome. In fact, I'm kinda worried about telling you, because I don't want them to turn into HostGator, where they get so many customers that they can't keep up. I'm assuming they're gonna keep up, but they're awesome, and …

: Oh, yeah, "What's the price, Dave?" Their largest package, which is what I'm using for The School of Podcasting, just to be safe, is $12 a month. I canceled my email accounts on Google. There's $10 in my pocket, and I'm not getting a $50 hosting bill. Instead, I'm getting a $12 hosting bill. So, to say I'm very happy … Oh, and, and, I swear the website's faster. Even though WP Engine is not slow, I swear theirs is faster, and that's just from an eyeball of, like, I went to my website,and went, "BAM!" And I went, "Wow, that was fast."

: You're like, "Okay, Dave, I'm on an old shared hosting." That's usually what it used to be called, shared web hosting. "I'm paying $3 a month, and I'm willing to pay 10, if it's that much faster …" The other thing is it's kinda geared towards WordPress, and I think they keep things … It's not gonna keep you completely safe. We'll talk about that in just a second, but I think it keeps you safer.

: So, how did you move your site? Well, number one, like I said, SiteGround. They moved The School of Podcasting for free. If you just have one site, you don't have to worry about that. I have multiple sites that I decided to move over there, and what I did … For me, it was I moved a bunch of websites that are kinda half-dead, just to test the water.

: Normally, they charge you $30, after your first free one, to move a website over. Here's what I did, and I'm gonna tell you about one of my favorite WordPress/website tools. That is Manage WP. Here again, they have an affiliate link, even though it's free, but, if you don't mind, SchoolofPodcasting.com/manageWP.

: Let me tell you what this does. You basically install a free plug-in on your website. For me, when I have multiple websites, so, website one, website two, website three, website four … When I log in, we all know the good things about WordPress is it's constantly updating, and having new features. We know the bad side of WordPress is, hey, it's constantly updating, and adding new features.

: You've gotta go, and upgrade, and all this stuff, if you wanna keep your website safe. If you don't upgrade your website, you're leaving the door open. You're putting a big giant sign on your back that says, "Please hack me." I installed the free plug-in on my website site, and I can go in, I can trash all my spam messages in one place. I just … If you go out to SchoolofPodcasting.com/603, I'll have a video, and you can see where I upgraded a bunch of plug-ins, a bunch of themes, with like three clicks. It's really, really cool.

: How did I use this to move my website? Well, and this is … Before we get into this, I realize all the IT people are gonna go vomit when I say this, right now. My goal here is how to explain how to move a website, without learning any kind of admin, with databases. No FTP. How do I move it, without learning any code? I realize there are lots of better ways of doing this, than what I'm gonna describe. This one uses no code, and no back-end nothing, okay? That's why I chose this method, so just save your hate mail. I realize there are better ways to do this, but this is how I did it.

: I installed this WordPress plug-in, and what's great about WP, or managed WP, is you can choose what to pay, and what to not pay for. I can have it back up my website for free, once a month. Well, I need to back up right now. It was, are you ready for this? $2. Yeah, I said, "Can you back up my website?" $2 for the backup, and if I leave that on, it's $2 every month. It backed up my website that I wanted to move, so I had this cool file that has everything on my website is now on Manage WP.

: I then went over, and this is the squirrely part … I went to SiteGround, and installed WordPress on the same account that I had my other file on, my other website. I now have two websites. Installed WordPress, but my domain is still pointing at my old host. This is what … It's a little different in the hosting world. I always use the analogy of your house. With your house, you always thought your house had an address. It didn't. The land that your house sits on has an address. For me, it was 535 Stevens Road, and I always thought that pertained to the house. Nope. If you rip down the house, that plot of land is still 535 Stevens Road.

: In the internet world, you can have one address, and pointed it at a different plot of land. In this case, the plots of land are your web host. Let's say you're hosted on HostGator, and you wanna move to SiteGround. You go over, and right now, your domain, yourdomain.com, is pointing at HostGator. You go into your domain manager, so that's whoever, GoDaddy, and you say, "Hey, quit looking over there. Would you please look over there, at the new host?"

: When they do, they're gonna see the WordPress that you just installed, but there's nothing there. This is where the IT people are gonna go, "No, you just do …" Okay, I realize … It's a blank WordPress site. I just sat there, cuz this usually takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to a couple hours, and I was just like, it's … Again, most of these websites are fairly, "Meh …" They're half-baked. I just kept hitting F5, every now and then, and sure enough, I saw the blank website come up. I went right into Managed WP, and I said, "Restore this website." I put in the new log-in name, and password to my new website. It took all of maybe 45 seconds, and it pushed all those files over to the new host and, voila, there was my website. Super-easy.

: The only downside was, for, who knows, maybe five minutes, my website was down, but I put … I put a post right on the front page, and said, "Hey, we're gonna go, and do some maintenance, so if you see the website go away, it'll be back in a minute." It was very easy. No coding involved. I clicked one button that said, "Back up," changed my domain name, clicked another button that said, "Restore." Done.

: That is how I moved a site, and I've done this a couple time. It's really not that big a deal. Now, how many, then … "Dave, you said you have more than one website, on one plan?" Yes, I do. I asked SiteGround about this. I said, "Hey, how many websites can I have on one plan? I like this idea." They said, "It all depends, again, on how much resources you use."

: Right now, I have the PodcastReviewShow.com, BetterDave.com, DavesBlankSite.com, FeedingMyFaith.com, PodcastingResources.com, PowerofPodcasting.com, all on one plan. Most of those, Feeding My Faith, Dave's Blank Site, BetterDave.com, Power of Podcasting … Don't get a huge amount of traffic. Kind of my second-string podcasts. Podcast Review Show gets a fair amount.

: If you go out to SchoolofPodcasting.com/603, you can see where I may be using 25 percent of my resources. Now, keep in mind, I'm using websites that don't get that much traffic, so don't go dumping 10 websites on one plan. Keep that in mind, and just … You do this by going into the C-Panel. Just realize that if you're like, "Ooh, I can't pay $10 a month for all of my websites," you might be able to put some of your websites under one account. That's the good news.

: It does take a leap of faith, because I've done this before with HostGator. When you have all of your websites under one plan, and there's a problem with that host, all of your websites go down. Keep that in mind, but that's how I moved my host. This kinda goes back to you can pay people in money, or time, because you might say, "Well, Dave, all you have to do is go into the C-Panel, make a backup of the database, go into the C-Panel of the new place, and do that … or I could just pay them $30 to move it for me." That's fine, but for me, I didn't mind having my website down for just a little bit, and I didn't mind … I saved myself 30 bucks.

: Now, depending on your budget, $30 may be a no-brainer. For me, I was like, "Nah, I'm a little frugal. I'm gonna pay $2 for the back up, and I will restore it myself." My big thing now is I'm a big fan of SiteGround, and you're going, "But, Dave, aren't you a GoDaddy reseller? Shouldn't you be telling people to go to CoolerWebsites.com?" I'm like, "Not with a clear conscience, I can."

I will keep using CoolerWebsites, because I get a discount on hosting there, but as you've seen, I've started to move a fair amount of people over to SiteGround. I think, over the years, I will slowly move all my stuff over to SiteGround. I have multiple plans, and because … The big difference here is you get email addresses, and, to me, I like that I can send email from Dave@SchoolofPodcasting.com, instead of SchoolofPodcasting@gmail.com. To me, it just looks a little more professional.

: Last, this question came in from a School of Podcasting member, and you may have noticed that the calendar's changed, and it's 2018, and you're like, "Hey, those Apple-episode thingies, how do you do that, because, I know, I should probably update my Apple episode numbers. Can you tell me a little bit more about those?"

: We talked about this a little bit last year, but Apple rolled out these new ways of categorizing your shows. One is it a serial, or episodic? Serial means it's a story. I have a podcast idea … I kept a diary, when I was in a band, called Six Shooter. I wanna take that diary, and put it out as a podcast, sometime this year, in my free time, of course. If I do, that will be out as a serial podcast, where I want you to listen to episode one, and two, then three, then four. If it's just one that you can listen to it in whatever fashion you want, that's episodic.

: Then, what you wanna do is, no matter how you're doing it, serial or episodic, you wanna put in what episode number it is. That's the fun part, because some of us, who've been podcasting for a while, have 600 episodes to put their stuff in. How important is this? Well, we just heard where you can now ask your phone to subscribe to your podcast. There are rumors that, in the future, you'll be able to ask your phone – you know, that woman in the Apple phone – "Hey, why don't you play episode number such-and-such of the such-and-such podcast?" Well, that will only work if your episode numbers are in there.

: Again, let me clarify, that is a rumor, but I could see that happening, cuz after all, why would you have us put that in there, besides the fact that it's pretty? You might as well use that. I know if you, right now, and we'll talk about this in a second … Amazon Skills are kinda like Apple apps. Right now, I'm a beta tester for Libsyn. To have the ability for you to say to the woman in the tube … I now call her Lexi, so I don't set off your device … You can ask Lexi to install the School of Podcasting. Not yet. Or the Alexa Cast, not yet, but that's something. I believe – again, this is all beta – you'll be able to play episodes, based on the episode number, if it's in there.

: "Okay, Dave, well, how do I do this?" If you're on Libsyn, you wanna contact my buddy, Rob Walch, the vice president of podcast relations. You can email him, Rob@Libsyn.com, and say, "Hey, I wanna update my podcast numbers. Give me the secret link," and he will teach you the secret handshake, and give you the link.

: Why it's not available to the public yet, you'll have to ask Rob. To be honest with you, I think it has something to do with having a bunch of people use it at one time. It's a new tool that we just designed. I will tell you that I put in all the episode numbers for the Alexa Cast, and I only had like 36, something like that, in the matter of minutes. It was cool. School of Podcasting, not so much. School of Podcasting has over 600 episodes, and a whole bunch of stuff that I used to do, back in the day, for the students only. In other words, podcasts that weren't available to the public, except now, some of them were, because I clicked the wrong button.

: I also went into my feed, and said, "Hey, you know what? Let's just give everybody every episode …" StargatePioneer, buddy, sorry. If you're using an old device, like a Nano Pod, or whatever those things were called … iPad Nano, or an iPod … Those are set to download everything this person has, and all the sudden, I give you a whole bunch more, it's gonna download them all. Yeah, so enjoy those great podcasts from 2007.

: I have heard reports of somebody saying, "Dave, I'm using Overcast. It's not an iPod, and I'm getting some of that stuff." That is part of me trying to figure out … All I can say, and this is not a Libsyn thing, for the record, this is not a Libsyn problem, this is a Dave-2006-poorly-organized problem.

: I'm not gonna go into the details, because it's very visual, but it's just the School of Podcasting's backend, on Libsyn, is a little bit of a mess, because I haven't always used the Libsyn feed. For a while, I was using PowerPress. Nothing wrong with using PowerPress, by the way, but I don't have the information there that makes it easy, when I'm trying to put in my episode numbers.

: If you're on Libsyn, ask Rob for the for the secret handshake, and the secret link. If you have a normal show, with no weird, non-public things, it's a piece of cake. It really is a piece of cake. "Okay, Dave, I'm not on Libsyn. I'm using PowerPress." If you go into WordPress, go into Posts, and you'll have a list of all your episodes there. What you wanna do, this is a way you can speed this up, because you have to do it one at a time, to the best of my knowledge …

: I got an email over to the gentlemen, and ladies at Blubrry to say, "Is there any way to do this in bulk?" I don't think there is at least not yet, and that is you just go into an episode, and PowerPress, along with Libsyn, along with Podbean, they are all updated. They were ready for this episode number, and season number, pretty much the minute it came out. If you're not using seasons, you just ignore that, but you'll see a thing in there, which says iTunes Episode, and you just put in, "Okay, this is episode number six," and then click on … In PowerPress, I think you click on Save, and that will then update that, and you just … What I recommend is instead of clicking on Edit, which will replace your list of episodes with the one episode you're editing, right-click on the Edit button.

: Again, let's go back from the beginning. I go into WordPress. I click on Posts. There's a list of all my posts. Right-click on Edit, and choose to open a new tab. Now, you've got the original tab, with all of your posts, and then you've got one tab with that one episode that you need to edit. That way, when you put in the episode number, click on Save … You can close that tab, and you're right back where you were. It'll save you a little bit of a headache that way.

: Where do you start? I would say start with your latest episode, and just work backwards, because your older episodes are not going to get as much traffic. Do you have to do this stuff? If we go back to the original part of this episode, do I need a website? Well, technically, no, but do I need to put these iTunes stuff in there? Do I need to put these Apple episodes? Well, technically, no, but we tend to believe that Apple put them there for a reason, and they might be used in the future, and no time like the present to go back and update your stuff. Not a lotta fun, especially when you have 600 episodes, but thank you for that question.

: I was gonna talk, today, about the PreSonus StudioLive AR12 USB mixer. This thing is the cat's meow for me. It's got sliders, instead of knobs. It's got mute buttons. It's got an on/off-button switch. It's got inserts. It's got two auxilliary sense, plus effects, and – this is the one that really got me – it's got a built-in recorder right there in the mixer. I was like, "Oh, that's it. We are buying this bad boy." It's much smaller than the mixer I had before.

: I do a live show on Saturday morning, called Ask the Podcast Coach. If you ever have podcast questions, you don't feel like paying for consulting, come on over. AskthePodcastCoach.com/live. I was using it. I had a phone line tied in. I was doing all sorts of crazy stuff. Got done with it, and I'm using it right now …

: Here's what's really cool, if I wanted to, I could have an iPad plugged into this thing. I could have my … If I had a cohost on Skype, I could have them in another channel, and I could have everybody on its own individual channel. All the techies are like, "Ooh, you have my attention." It's really cool. When I record directly into my computer, not a problem.

: There's a little bit of a problem, and this is a general pet peeve I have about USB mixers … I'm not quite loud enough. I would like to add another … If you could just put up your fingers, like that much more volume into the software, but it's doable. I could do that, but, again, I like to record to a external … Usually an external recorder, into an SD card. I don't like to rely on a computer. Just in my travels, about every 200 episodes, 300 episodes, it eats one. I like to have two, and I thought, "This'd be great!" I'll have the SD card. That'll be my main one, and then, I will have my computer, if I want to, as a backup.

: Awesome, except one thing. When I record on the SD card, it has a high-pitched, ever-ever-ever-so-faint noise. When you go to troubleshoot, first thing I did: tried a new cord. Nope. Tried a different mic. Nope. Muted all the channels, except the microphone. Nope. Unplugged the microphone, so I was basically recording nothing. Nope. Still there. Okay, fine. Unplugged it from the computer. No USB connection, nothing plugged into it. Hit Record, still there. I have an email into the lovely people at PreSonus, saying, "What's the deal with this, and how do we go about repairing this?".

: If you heard me talk about this on Ask the Podcast Coach, and the fact that I had bought this, just slow your roll just a second. It's a very … It's such a podcast problem. I mean, you have to be in a quiet room, smashing your headphones into your head to hear it, but nonetheless, because it's a high-pitched whine … It's one of the things that you don't know that you're hearing it, until it stops, and you go, "Oh, wait. What was that weird thing in the background?" I will be reporting on this in the future.

: Speaking of the future, if you haven't got your tickets yet, you're gonna miss a really cool event. In fact, I just bought some special clothes. I did. I'm telling you to go to Podfest. If you go to Podfest.us … This is another podcast event, in Orlando, Florida, happening February 8th, which happens to be my birthday. February 8th through the 10th, in Orlando, Florida. I will be speaking there, a little bit, about Alexa. Couple of things I'm speaking on there. The last night, we're kicking it off, they're going to roast me. How fun is that going to be?

: If that's not enough … But wait, there's more. Also, in February, I will be going to Social Media Marketing World. This is February 28th through March 2nd, in San Diego, California. This is a huge event that is not just about podcasting; it's about social media. We're talking Facebook, Twitter, the other thing … Face Match, Book Lot. Insta-book. Face the Gram, whatever. It's all there. The first night, they have an opening party on an aircraft carrier. That, I'm looking … I'm looking forward just to sunshine, which, of course, I can also get in Florida.

: Podfest. Is it Podfest.us? If you go out to SchoolofPodcasting.com, I've got to link right there on the front page to Social Media Marketing World. I look forward to meeting everyone there. .

: Another way that you can meet me is by joining the School of Podcasting. If you go out to SchoolofPodcasting.com/start, an d use the coupon code, LISTENER, you can sign up, and join me there.

: Anyway, "Dave, you know, I just have a couple questions. Can I pick your brain?" I call that consulting. I would love to have you pick my brain. Just go over to SchoolofPodcasting.com/schedule, and you can schedule 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour. If you don't wanna join The School of Podcasting, or you just need some tweaking your podcast, I can definitely help you that way, as well.

: Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you again next week, with another episode. Until then, class is dismissed. Take care, and God bless.

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