In today’s show I did a quick search for “Podcast Success” and found the Speaking of Wealth podcast from Jason Hartman. Who is Jason Hartman? According to their website:

Jason Hartman is the Founder and CEO of Platinum Properties Investor Network, The Hartman Media Company and The Jason Hartman Foundation. Starting with very little, Jason, at the age of 19, embarked on a career in real estate while promoting his unique Personal Branding methodology through which Jason says “virtually anyone can achieve wealth, notoriety and a high level of personal satisfaction”. Through creativity, persistence and hard work, he soon joined the ranks of the top one-percent of Realtors in the U.S. and in quick succession; earned a number of prestigious industry awards.

In a nutshell he made some cash in real estate and then some.

First Impressions iTunes Listing

The description in iTunes is from their website (all six paragraphs). The problem is in iTunes it shows up as one giant paragraph (that in my opinion nobody will read). I don’t think you can have multiple paragraphs as your description in iTunes. I would shorten it, get to the point, and explain what your podcast is about and how people will benefit from listening to it.

Their individual descriptions are picking up the HTML code of putting an image as the first thing in the posting. YOu can fix this with a setting in the Powerpress plugin for WordPress.

First impressions The Podcast

The podcast episode I listened to was Fast Podcast Success with Karen Chu of the Good Job, Brain! podcast. Jason has a good opening and I had no questions as to what I was getting into. He quickly dumps into a commercial, but it was quick and to the point. From this aspect he made a good first impression. From his media, he did not.  While his iTunes listing has all the proper graphics and description, his actual media file is missing the artwork (you need to “TAG” your media before uploading it – the image resides INSIDE your mp3).

The interview had good quality and moved along quickly. I learned how she funded the podcast, and got their opinions on audio podcasting. It was interesting to hear how with only seven episodes under her belt she is getting a lot of interaction with her audience.

The audio quality is good, and the levels of host and guest are mixed well.

First Impression Website

The website is easy to navigate, and you can listen to the podcast with one click. I would advise them to turn on the feature to allow people to listen in a new window. Many people listen at work. If they listen on their site and then have to use their browser for something work related, they may just click the back button, go to Google, etc. When you force people to listen on your site, you are leaving the door open for them for them be in the middle of an episode, click the back button and lose their place.

Also they have a button that looks like an iTunes icon, but it is only the RSS feed for the podcast. I would recommend having that link to their iTunes listing in iTunes. You can even replace the “http” with “itms” and it will send people directly to iTunes (assuming they have it loaded).

They have an easy to use contact form on their website.

Final Impressions

I listened to one episode, and will definitely give this podcast another listen. While Jason is an obvious businessman, his podcast wasn’t overly forceful in pushing his products, he has a decent voice, and good audio quality. I would touch up his audio with his ID3 tags, and maybe add a multi-episode streaming player (like the blubrry player, or podtrac player), or at least the option to listen in a new window. In setting up the player below I see where their RSS feed is also missing the image for the RSS feed (which will show up on people’s iPod’s, iPhones, etc). This is typically 144X144 pixels.

As I know how much time is put into each episode, I have a hard time looking at someone’s art (their podcast) and saying, “I don’t like this.” Now in the past Iv’e said, “I don’t like this and here’s why..” but in the end I’m not super comfortable. I’m not sure I would like someone going over this podcast with a magnifying glass (I feel today’s episode is a little “hissy”). So what I thought I would do is review podcasts that I enjoy. I can still talk about things they might be bale to do better, but I would be more comfortable to put out a podcast every two weeks to say’ Here is something I like” instead of “Here is something that does nothing for me.” I’m not sure as an audience you find that useful either. I would love to know what you think.

Alex Baldwin Here’s The Thing

All I knew of Alec Baldwin was his movies, and I was pretty sure he was a Liberal Weenie. Then I saw him on SNL, and on 30 Rock, and I appreciate his skills as a gifted actor, and especially his ability to not take himself too seriously. His podcast is described as him interviewing people he knows and people he would like to know. It starts off with a bit of narration, and then you hear him have a conversation with people. It’s very loose, and best of all it is edited to get the best part of the conversation.

His guests have included Chris Rock, Michaels Douglas, Kathleen turner, Dick Cavet, Kristin Wig, and more.

Technically its super sound, and the ID3 tags are there. HIs iTunes listing is up to par. In general I found this interesting due to a good host (who doesn’t hog the conversation) and has great guests. He puts out an episode every two weeks. Here is the info:

Here’s the Thing Website

Here’s the Thing in iTunes

According the the album art Coffee & Cigarettes is unconventional wisdom best served after dinner. According to his iTunes description, “Cigarettes is hosted by Jeremy E. Sarber. Listen to new episodes every weekday–Monday through Friday–at 5:30 PM ET. Follow Jeremy as he travels through the epic journey of life, seeking balance and striving to understand the meaning of it all. Listen as he shares his mild obsession with freedom. Learn from him as he learns from the written Word of God. Observe from a safe distance the way in which the attention deficit mind works. Explore the world with unconventional perceptions. Life as you know it…will be pretty much the same but at least you’ll have some intriguing entertainment.”

Main Idea of This Episode

In listening to this episode, the main idea was to take a hot topic in politics and create a blog post about it. Whatever the Internet is a buzz about a post about that single issue. It will describe it in an unbiased way. Then it will record what the main media will add (Rush Limbaugh, politicians, etc). Then make the website searchable. You can possibly provide a tool so people can compare quotes. You will have a convenient way for people to see their hypocrites, inconsistencies, etc.

Politics and Sports Coverage

He does make an interesting point as he plays clips from political coverage in the media, and then some clips from sports coverage.

Good Stuff

His website has a very clean interface, and he obviously has a community going over there with over 1000 people on his email list. His posts have comments, and he is interacting with his audience. His titles of his episodes and descriptions entice people to click when viewed in iTunes. Your audio quality was fine and consistent.

Suggestions

1. The name of the file I was downloaded was simply some numbers. I would recommend something like cac133_032612.mp3 so people know it’s coffee and cigarettes episode 133 and then the date. You never know what people are downloading it, and if you see people’s desktops you will know that file management is NOT something everyone possesses. Make your files easy to identify without typing the name of the episode.

- This is something that buzzsprout does. I tried them for this episode and DO NOT like that they rename my file.

2. The first thing you spoke about was your sponsor. I could consider doing this as a preroll. This way when the show “officially” starts the first thing they can hear about is you.

3. I wasn’t sure when the plug for the world according to Bobby ended and the beginning of your podcast began.

4. While your delivery is not monotone, I wouldn’t say its full of passion, and I can tell you’re reading. For me the pauses became distracting.

5. When I looked at your ID3 tags in MP3tag, they were in Japanese. While they looked fine in iTunes, I would revisit whatever you’re using to input your ID3 tags.

6. You are missing your album art in iTunes. This is a pretty big no-no. Go into feedburner and make sure the location of your album art is correctly listed.

7. If this was a new podcast, I would try to get a domain name that ties in with the website location. It appears you are promoting yourself as the “brand” here so pointing at your website is fine.
Listen to Coffee and Cigarettes Now

I tested the free media host he was using and that is the cause of the whacky ID3 tags (so I did not use them for this episode as it did the same thing to my episode).

According to their website, the B-Movie Cast ”Talks about B-Movies, Cult moves, Interviews, Art house, Independent, Drive-In, Horror, Biker Euro Trash, DVD, Magazines, Music, Trade shows, Expos, Italian thrillers, Exploitation, Vintage TV, Gear and Pop Culture””

The show starts off with a sound clip. I’m not sure if this was a clip from the movie that is being reviewed, but for an old movie the audio quality was good. This was followed by more creepy sound effects and eventually at the 2:45 mark you get to the host. This was show number 192, so obviously Vince has passion for B-movies to create 192 episodes about them. He did a great job of explaining what the show was about, and the subject (although at the 3:25 mark, some people may not wade in this deep to find out. He got his contact info in to help build his community and went to a “break” which included a lengthy outro music. This had me screaming “Go to the break already…”

The break featured some vintage commercials that were cute followed by more transition music. LOTS of transition music. It’s 7:10 and we are attempting to get to the content as they bring on their other reviewers. They started talking about the tornado that came through the area. As a new listener who has no idea who these people are, I’m glad these people are OK, but am wondering if they are ever going to talk about the movie. Then they took a tangent into talking about the Mayan calendar.

At the 9:42 they go into a contest and give away some ebooks. At this point I see where the podcast is over 2 hours long. I downloaded the file so I can play it at a faster pace. Then one of their hosts dropped of skype. Thankfully they paused the recording while they got the people back online. The contest was identifying a movie clip. Here again, you see the passion of the hosts as I had NO idea what this clip was, and all the hosts were like “I know it.” Before we get to the movie, one of the host has to plug his ebook.

At the 14 minute mark we get into news and notes. We talk about some television shows they are watching. The show is also up for some awards. However we are now 20 minutes into the podcast and they are not talking about the movie. Instead we are playing a promo for some film festival coming in April. They also talk some old movies that are coming out on Blu-Ray, and the new Star Trek movie. We talk about the death of Davy Jones. So you can see where they address all things retro.

An interesting twist is someone in London heard about an event that was happening in their area in a podcast that originates from South Carolina. Once again the power of podcasting and the power of the niche are exposed.

At the 33:40 mark they start to talk about the movie. Now these guys know their movies, and they totally geek out. WOW. Their knowledge is amazing. I’m unfamiliar with Hammer, but they sure know a lot about this company.  The movie was called “Night Creatures” from 1962. They discuss movies from the 30s. This may be a niche, but their knowledge is deep. I mean they know everything about the actors, and what went on during filing, etc. It’s amazing.

From this point they kind of do a play by-play of the movie. They stop before they go too deep into the story, and they discuss all their favorite scenes. They discuss how the actors performed many of their own stunts, as well as the music, and all aspects of the movie. They play some of the music from the movie.

They then go to the audience and play some feedback from the audience which shows their global access as they got feedback from someone in Ireland. They then continue to Geek out on old movies with their audience and each other. One member even sent in a song. That’s impressive.

They have a few hosts and one is being called on their phone via skype. This guy sounds pretty bad. I understand this guy travels, but if there is anyway to get him on skype with a bad headset, he’s going to sound better than a phone.

They have an active community going on at their site. They use a yahoo group, and there were 20 messages and it seems to be alive and well with 138 members.

Strengths:

The hosts have a ton of passion and a ton of knowledge about B-movies. This also goes for their audience. While I’m not a huge fan of old horror movies, apparently there are lots of people who do, and they’ve found a website to use as a hub for all things B-movies.

Suggestions:

The hosts have a huge knowledge and passion for B-movies. I would stick to that topic. I would’ve eliminated the discussion on tornadoes, current TV watching habits. I would think about editing. When your host dropped off skype, that could’ve been eliminated and nobody would’ve been the wiser. The flip side to that is if you start editing a 2 hour podcast, you can easily spend four hours. I would take notes during the call for any editing points.

I liked that they make it easy to subscribe to their podcast, but was confused why there is no link to iTunes.

I would try to get to the host quicker. On one hand, its obvious what this podcast is about but on the other hand a new listener is kind of left in a “I’m not sure if this is the show” situation at first listen. It just seemed like a Hodge Podge of clips.

I love the banner at your website with the red letters. Your album art makes it look like the podcast is more about music (with the album and needle).

You might look into using an SEO plugin (All in One SEO Pack, or the WordPress SEO from Yoast de Vaulk) as your title tag for your website is simply B-Movie Cast. You could add some keywords (like podcast, horror movies, etc) that might bring you some more Google juice.

Listen Now

B-Movicecast.com

Today we review the Google at a glance podcast. A podcast about all things Google. You can find it at http://netcaststudio.com/google-glance/ The show is about an hour long (51 minutes) and features two hosts and a guest. They talk about all things Google (gmail, voice, TV, plus, etc) and keep everyone up to date about whats going on about Google.

Their Website

When I first went there I couldn’t find their podcast as I had no idea what “NCS” was (isn’t that on CBS after CSI?). Many people listen to podcasts at work, but there isn’t an easy to figure out way to stream their audio in a new widow. What happens is people will click to listen, and then need to do something work related, and click the back button (thus losing your episode).

They do have links to subscribe in about anyway you want to subscribe, but you have to click a link to see these. If having lots of subscriptions is not a priority, then this is no big deal. I understand with a network it can be hard to have links for every show (as well as players).

It has a clean interface, and once I got to a “show” page, the other shows were obvious. Again, its hard when you have so much information (everything can’t be on the front page).

Content
Their content is good (once they get to it – more on that later). I did learn some things that adobe is not going to develop flash for mobile, and some new stuff about Google voice. I really liked that these are not a bunch of Google fan boys. They are objective, and when it’s needed, critical of Google. That was refreshing.

Out of a courtesy to their guest they ask the same questions every episode. This revolves around what your computer system you’re on, your browser, your phone, etc. This kind of lets me get acquainted with their guest, but in reality I’m here to learn about Google – not their guest. I can see where the spot could be interesting, but I wouldn’t lead with this spot. In this episode, it got the hosts sidetracked and it turned into a giant Apple lovefest that meant that the first mention of Google news came almost 10 minutes into the show.

Production

They start off with 15 second spot (and if you watch youtube, that appears to be the maximum time people will tolerate before they get frustrated). This is a pet peeve of mine. I would go to fiverr.com and hire someone to say “Welcome to Google at a Glance, here are your hosts John and Nicholas” (but that’s me). My point is if there is nothing there for me then why make me listen to it. In this case it’s better than nothing, but my first impression had me waiting for someone to come on and talk – and they never did.

Their audio levels are good. There are some tools in Audacity or Adobe Audition that would suppress the slight noise when nobody is speaking. In reality if I had been listening to this in my car (instead of a quiet room with headphones) I never would’ve noticed it.Their ID3 Tags were good (although I prefer something more descriptive than “Episode 41) and displayed in my player.

The other catch 22 they have is this is a news show. On one hand you want to tell people what is coming down the pipe at Google, but the flip side is as its only in development there aren’t many details. As I’m not a huge Google fan boy, this didn’t interest me a ton, but I can see where it fits the audience.

Summary

Would I listen to another episode? Yes
Did I subscribe to this podcast? Not yet. I typically can’t hang with a podcast that’s longer than 30 minutes unless I’m really into that subject.

If you’re looking to keep up with all thing Google, this podcast will help you do that. While these are obviously people who enjoy technology, they are not “fan boys” of Google and provide an objective point of view.

I would make it easier to stream the podcast in a new window (I worked at a place where everyone listened to podcasts with one ear bud in at work). While I understand there is a button on each post, look into a player like the one at player.podtrac.com, or blubrry.com have free players. If you want a custom player, check out the Wimpy player. I would also make it easier to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (not that iTunes is all that, but it’s still top dog) – so I would make it so that you don’t have to search for it (again – could be challenging on a network).

Bonus Thought
If I was on a network, I would purchase either the Wimpy Player or the Rave player, and use something liek yahoo Pipes to “Squish” all of the RSS feeds from the different show into one and throw them into the player. Another option would be to create playlists of each show and let them randomly playlist. If you’re worried about taxing the server (not sure if you’re using Libsyn), you could set up a streaming radio on Listen2yradio.com

Today we interview Marriage expert Mark Gungor. This was suggestted by Scott from www.thebaseballexerpeince.com The show is another podcast that comes to us via radio. This (once again), means it starts slow, and has one pinch too many of “morning zoo.” The episode I listened to start slow. However, they did turn it around eventually. 

They did forget the album art when it came to tagging their mp3 file, and this makes them look like hacks. On content, they get some big points, but it takes too long to get to it. I understand the concept that they want it to stand out from the typically marriage advice show, but the sound effects are WAY to over the top and seem to be used to fill in when there is a lull in the action. I don’t mind sound effects, but when you hit me with five in the first two minutes it seems like your trying to hard to be “whacky.”

Check him out at www.markgungorshow.com, and www.laughyourway.com

If you want to listen to the show, click the player button below and let me know what you think of the show. I gave it a 7.5 out of ten.

Pros:
Great conent, straight talk, no punches pulled.

Cons:
They are trying to hard to be weird that its annoying. Sound effects for the sake of sound effects is annoying. They also need to get to the point. Commerical breaks are too long.

Advice:
Have someone edit your ID3 tags, and play no more than 2 commericals on a break. Play sound effects that tie in with the conversation.

The “Who Dey Weekly” podcast is about the Cincinnati Bengals football team. While I’m not a football fan (I live in Cleveland, Oh and all of our team suck). I went into this show looking at content, flow, quality, etc. I was impressed.

They give you a quick blurb to know what’s on the show, insert a quick bit of ads (not enough to be annoying), and start off the show with good energy. They have a number of people on their panel, but do a good job of not just arguing with each other while talking all over each other. Instead you have a well paced, well produced segments that get to the point, and stick to the subject.

The only thing I would recommend is try using the noise removal tool in Audacity (or Adobe Audition) or try a noise gate to remove the fan noise. With that said, if I had been listening in the car or out walking the dog I never would’ve noticed the fan noise. With this in mind, don’t fret about if. However, if you can find a way to remove it – go for it.

Their podcast got one of their hosts on the local news for both the afternoon and evening programs (COOL!).

They did mention Twitter a fair amount but I didn’t see links to their individual twitter accounts. If you’re a fan of the Bengals, I would recommend this podcast.

If you’re wondering what the whole “who dey” thing is about, according to wikipedia: “”Who Dey” is the name of a chant of support by fans of the Cincinnati Bengals, in use for over 30 years. The entire chant is: “Who dey! Who dey! Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?” The answer screamed in unison, “Nobody!” Sometimes fans will instead shout “Who Dey” to represent the entire cheer. “Who Dey” is also the name of the team’s mascot, a Bengal tiger.”

Mentioned on the show:

Audible affiliate deal pays podcasters $15 per new customer.

More Podcast Money ebook about Podcast Monetization.

Listen to the Who Day Podcast by clicking the player below and leave your comments below.

As I’ve been trading notes with Tripp on twitter, and I know he is a listener of my podcast about podcasting, it is painful to say I did not enjoy listening to this podcast .This podcast is a little bit like Jeopardy to me. At the end of it I felt kind of stupid. Even one of the commentors at their website wrote, “Not being a theologian, some of the schools of thought escape my full understanding.” Does this mean this is a “Bad Podcast”? Not at all. I’ll get into that in my final summary.

Here is what we had to say:

iTunes Listing

Their description is: “We share a hope that there are a bunch of Christian breweries out there crafting, experimenting, imagining, and sharing a Christian faith that is life-giving. These two friends will be talking to each other, interviewing other ecclesial brewers, and hopefully encouraging those who listen to journey towards a more beautiful life with God and the world. homebrewedchristianity.com”

For me, there was a little too much “inside jokiness” going on. I got the idea it was something to do with pursuing God, but didn’t have a “Oh this is about that, and I want to know more about that” kind of feeling.

Website

Their website was pretty clean (Diane thought it was busy). Player buttons were easy to see for the current or featured post. (I would look into putting a player stream all your current posts). They are missing some opportunities to further Google juice. From an end-user stand point it was easy to navigate and they had some helpful show notes for each episode. I really liked their “Disciples” option which provides codes for people to put on their blogs/website to help promote the show. They are using the Genesis framework. The feed they are providing has blog postings that have no media associated with it (use the player beneath to see what I mean).

Branding

This is one area that the boys need to pick up the ball. Their mp3 file was tagged, but it was missing album art and it listed the album (name of the podcast) as “Bo C. Sanders’s Album” and the Artist as Bo C. Sanders. While I understand that Bo is part of the podcast, the name of the Podcast is Home Brewed Christianity.

Delivery

The podcast starts off with some good energy. I would bring down the intro music as it becomes distracting towards the end. I also thought it took a bit too long to get to the interview (8+ minutes – we get it you think she’s great, but get to the guest). Their audio quality was good. They had some theme music, got the show going it would be nice to give a quick one sentence explanation of what the podcast is about (for new listeners).

When they got to the interview it was OBVIOUSLY recorded with ONE condensor microphone for both people in a room that had no carpet and the participants were at least 5 feet from the microphone. While I feel im pretty giving when it comes to audio quality, this added “room noise” (reverb) did not help the discussion in a positive manner. With that said, it was still better than someone doing a phone interview.

Lastly, neither myself or Diane are probably big fans of long format shows (45+ minutes) and as there really wasn’t any spots once the interview got going for a “brain break” I found the conversation draining. But here is the bottom line: We are not their target audience. For some people this conversation might have gone by too fast. I know its hard to split up a conversation, but for me I needed a break.

Bonus Points

The boys are putting out HOUR LONG podcasts in some cases twice in one week. That’s a lot of content. They also seem to have an active community as the episode we listened to called “Religious Pluralism, Christology & Process with Monica A. Coleman: Homebrewed Christianity 123” had 7 comments on it (which for me is impressive).

Final Summary

Trip and Bo seem like guys who are very passionate theologians. They are obviously knee-deep in the theology world and love discussing these topics. They do it fairly well (although I prefer a more “get to the point” type of delivery), and have OK audio quality. With many episodes under their belt its obvious they love their topic and talking to people. On a branding stand point their website was clean and easy to navigate (but cold use some SEO tweaking – which means nothing to the average listener, but a missed opportunity for some Google juice), and they need to tighten up their ID3 Tags in their files. By the number of comments I saw on their site, their content does move people. It just didn’t move myself or my wife. We wish them the best of luck with their podcast.

Have a Sip of the Home Brew

For more information check out their website at http://homebrewedchristianity.com/ or click the Play button to listen to their podcast.

This is that first episode where you get to meet me. I’ll tell you what I will be judging the podcast on, and more. But it also gives a glimpse into what will be coming down the line in terms of future shows.