Learn how to podcast and blog to to establish thought leadership, extend your brand and engage your target market

It seems the overall trend in social media tends towards transparency when it comes to disclosure of interests and relationships. If you’re being sponsored by, have been sent something for free by or have a “conflict-of-interest” relationship with a company, then you disclose it in your blog/podcast content.

But what is the policy when it comes to affiliate links? Linking to recommended products & services in exchange for a commission is a potentially lucrative way for bloggers and podcasters to monetize their efforts. But is the affiliate relationship always clear? How explicit do you need to be when mentioning or linking to an affiliate partner in your content?

(more…)

To get a summary of the podcasting metrics series thus far, check out this guest article I wrote for the Web Anlaytics World blog. I’m working on part 6 which will be on measuring subscriber stats. I’m sending some questions to FeedBurner and will post when I hear back from them.

I just wrote an article for the PodCamp NYC wiki outlining ten reasons to attend the event. In actuality most of these reasons apply to any of the PodCamps and there are easily ten reasons for you to attend one close to you even if if you’re not able to come to NYC. If you were wondering what PodCamp was all about and if it was something for you, I’ve posted the article below.

NOTE: Please feel free to re-post or adapt this article for your own blog/site/wiki to promote this or other Podcamps.

(more…)

In Part 4 of the metrics series I talked about how you can measure complete downloads and whether it was necessary. Moving on to Part 5, I’ll take a look at how to keep your site from being shutdown by your host due to excessive bandwidth use and how to measure complete downloads using bandwidth.

Measuring Bandwidth to Avoid Hosting Problems

(more…)

Do you want to know what turns me into Mr. Hyde or why I’m chronically unemployable? Keep reading…

Leesa Barnes of Podonomics tagged me to participate in the "5 Things You Don’t Know About Me" chain (I was trying not to say "meme"). The idea is that you post five unique things about yourself on your blog then you select five other bloggers to also participate. So here it goes…

(more…)

Last night was the monthly podcasting meetup in New York City. This was the best one we’ve had yet. It was hosted by Ariel Publicity allowing us to have it somewhere other than a diner or a pub for once. I’m a total dork because I failed to take pictures or record anything.

Ariel is taking her PR firm for musicians and making it 100% online in the strategies they implement. Right now she’s diving full force into the social media and podcasting learning curve. It will definitely set her apart and pay off in spades. Back to the meetup…

(more…)

Before I move on to the discussion on bandwidth, I want to add a couple more things to the topic of complete downloads that I started in Part 4. 

Scott Bourne and Tim Bourquin
provided interesting and relevant responses. They both emphasize that podcasters
have a responsibility not to let advertisers hold podcasting to a
higher standard than other media (i.e. magazines and newspaper) that can’t measure complete content/ad consumption. If they don’t have those numbers, then why should you be required to. In other words, using complete downloads to represent the "reach" of your podcast undersells the value you offer.

(more…)

As a sort of experiment, I’ve decided to cross-post show notes from episodes of my podcast for podcasters (The Podcasting Underground) here on this blog. These will be text only posts. The MP3 enclosures won’t be included in this feed. To receive the podcast files automatically you’ll still need to subscribe to The Podcasting Underground feed.

I know a lot of listeners consume podcast content without subscribing to the feed, so it seems like a good idea to point to it in as many places as I can. And so…here’s the latest episode:

(more…)

Between maintaining this blog, three podcasts, speaking gigs, consulting and other business pursuits, I sometimes think I’ll go mad for the fact that I can never get done as much as I would like to. I hate feeling like opportunities and ideas are slipping by or escaping me. Well…recently an excellent blog/podcast and book came to the rescue.

Charles Stricklin, of The WordPress Podcast, recently pointed me to the 43 Folders blog and podcast. I love it! There’s lots of useful stuff there. Merlin Mann, the host, just finished a series with David Allen, author of the bestselling book on stress-free productivity, Getting Things Done. Besides the great tips, there are several other things I like about the podcast: (more…)

In Promoting Your Podcast, I talk about a very useful tool from FeedBurner called the Headline Animator. This is a widget that you can use to promote your podcast (for example in your forum or email signature). It automatically scrolls through the titles of the last five posts on your feed.

Well, this tool just got more useful not too mention more aesthetically pleasing. Now you can: (more…)