Category: Podcasting

Like me, Leo Notenboom is back. He has been gone for reasons of workload. I have been out for a few days because of illness. I have been pretty sick the last few days and have not felt like posting anything.

Leo on the other hand has started his podcast again regularly. He did something commendable when he was not going to be with us for a while…he told us beforehand. He did not simply podfade. He took about 2 months off and has been consistently back with us.

Not only is his a great podcast with good information, he is a great example from whom others should take note. I am sure he lost some listeners during this time, but not nearly as many as he would have had he simply disappeared for 2 months without telling the audience.

Great job Leo. Thanks for the show!

I have long been a proponent of short podcast times. If you can say what you need to say in 5 minutes, don’t take 20 to do it just because you can. I have subscribed to podcasts (and subsequently dropped them) because it was obvious that they wanted to have an hour long show but only had material for 20 minutes.

There was a podcast launched this summer that runs about 3-5 minutes. It has grown since it’s inception in July to have over 1,000,000 downloads. This is the insanely popular Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing.

Why is it popular? It could have to do with her nice voice. Also it might be due to the professional quality. There also might be something to the fact that she has promoted herself well.

Content? I am not sure that the content alone is a drawing factor. She certainly makes grammar more interesting than I had in my school. But really, how many people would subscribe to a podcast about grammar if it were 1 hour long? Or even 10 minutes? I think what she has done is realized that some things are best consumed in small chunks. Grammar is certainly one of them. But the biggest draw to me is the fact that it is very short.

I think many podcasters could learn from this. Obviously there are podcasts that need to be longer. An interview based podcast (of which there are many) would be kinda rough listening to 3 minutes of an interview at one time. Also there are those which tell stories and have commentary on certain subjects. Those can certainly be longer.

But there are a great many podcasts that are tips and tricks. If released 3 times a week at 5 minutes each, or even 5 times a week, I think the podcast would gain many more listeners and keep them longer than sticking to a 30 minute show and having a lot of filler.

Podcasters will do what they want, but I think there is some magic in a shorter show. I certainly would not listen to Grammar Girl if she tried to teach me more than one thing or took 10 minutes to do it. Though it is a great show, 10 minutes would be too long. As it is, I eagerly await each new show she produces.

Episode 5 is up! Go check it out and leave a comment. Also you can vote at Podcast Alley.

The behind the scenes info on this one is that this was the first time that I did some re-arranging on the order of questions. I moved some around so it flowed better and I ended stronger. There were a couple of other things that I would have liked to move around, but as much work as it was, I am happy to just have it done.

This one required the most editing. Sound quality is considerably better I think though. Starting next week you will get to hear an even better sound (I hope). Each week I am learning new tricks.

Thanks for listening as spreading the word.

Well, it is new to me. It is a Realistic 32-1200B. Nothing fancy, but it was something I could afford. Do you know how much stuff like this costs in Mexico? Yikes! The nice little Behringer UB802 sells for $45-50 in the US. Here it sells for $90. I bought this Realistic used for $35. The nice thing is that I can turn around and sell it later for the same price. Stuff just does not lose it value here. Or, at least no one wants to sell anything for a lower price.

Now I can record my podcast without having to yell at the mic. One of the nice things about not having had a mixer before is that I never got extraneous noises in my mic. The noise source had to be loud and deliberate to be heard by the mic. Now I will need to be more aware of my recording room so that I don’t have too much outside noise coming into the mic.

This was apparently made around 1994. The information I have found on the web shows information print dates between 1994 and 1996.

Now I need a mic stand to go with it. Then a pop filter, then…