Podonomics

I made a troubling discovery after recording a teleclass using a free conference bridge line today. It appears that each conference bridge service records your interviews or calls at different sample rates which makes a huge impact on audio quality.

The sampling rate is key because it makes the difference between a recording that sounds like a CD or a recording that sounds like AM radio. And when people are listening to your podcast, if you record your welcome message using the equipment in your home studio and then transition to a recording of an interview you did over the phone, it will be noticeable and may ruin the listener experience.

Over the past year, I’ve used 3 different services. Here’s my discoveries.

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Paul Colligan and his family has committed to getting their entertainment on the Internet only. He’s allowing us to follow his pursuits through his blog called Year Of Living Digitally.

I applaud their efforts. Kind of similar to what the dotcomguy did back in 1999(?) when he holed himself up in an apartment for a year and bought everything he needed from the Internet.

While both my radio and TV consumption have severely decreased every year since 1994 due in large part to the Internet, I do indulge in old media entertainment every once in a while.

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Dean warned me, but after using GoDaddy for about a year with no problems, I ignored him. But every dog has its day and it seems that GoDaddy has awarded itself in pissing off yet another customer.

This time, it’s me. And here’s how the Theatre of GoDaddy Hosting unravels.

Since Thursday evening, I have not had access to my hosting account at GoDaddy. At first, the problem was a billing issue. So I called in on Friday morning, rectified the billing issue, then the chap on the phone told me to wait 24-hours for things to work through the system.

This problem affects these domains:

• cubicledivas.com
• planakillerpodcast.com
• podoptimize.com
• leesabarnes.com

It also affects about a dozen of my clients since most of their podcast files are hosted on podoptimize.com. So, I’m losing money every hour it’s down and so too are my clients.

On Saturday around 6pm, I called GoDaddy for a status since none of my sites are up. Of which the chap told me:

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I got an iPod for Christmas and it’s a formidable portable listening device. While everyone keeps preaching that you don’t need an iPod to listen or view podcasts (and you still don’t), ever since getting one, my podcast consumption has increased 100%.

What I realized is that while I use my computer for work-related tasks, the last thing I want to do is spend my leisure time in front of said computer to listen to podcasts.

Podcasts - no matter the subject - are leisure items to me. When I want to laugh, cry or discover new trends in my industry, I tune into podcasts.

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I did a keynote address a few weeks back for the Women in Trade & Technology association called What Technology & a Cute Guy Taught Me About Taking Risks and Being Myself.

Some of you may be looking at the title of my speech and saying:

“Leesa, what a silly title.”

However, the first rule of speaking is - Know Your Audience. Because I was speaking to a group of 15, 16 & 17 year olds, I knew that I could be a little bit more zany and wacky with my speech title.

I got paid a good sum of money to do this keynote. When I told my mom how much I was getting paid, she nearly choked on the soup she was slurping.

“For just 45-minutes?” she balked.

Now, my point isn’t to brag about how much I was paid. On the contrary, it’s to show you why paying your speakers for their appearance at your event is worth all the money you’ll invest if you’re an event organizer.

Even if it’s not a full speaking fee, at least give an honourarium of some sort. Even a gift certificate to Chapters-Indigo is good enough. I got so many of these over the past 3-months, I was able to buy a slew of books.

I digress…

So, let’s go through the steps of what I did to prepare for this keynote just to give you an idea.
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After listening to 680News this afternoon, I discovered Career Path’s Top 10 Career Resolutions. You can read the entire list here, but I especially liked this one:

Learn more about new technology: Technology is here to stay. If you’re a novice, shame on you. Communication is essential for business success. Take stock of where you’re the weakest and change that.

I highly recommend that you learn everything you can about podcasting. At least learn the basics because you can easily hire someone out to do all the techie stuff.

There are many ways to learn about podcasting and there’s no better way then attending an event. Check out the Podcamp wiki to find out if there’s a Podcamp happening in your city.

• If there is, put your name on the registration list and attend for free.
• If there isn’t, organize one.

Tags: podcasting, podcamp

I’ll be on CanoeLive tonight at 6pm to talk about business podcasting and Podcamp Toronto. Actually, it’ll be closer to 6:45pm, so if you’re near a TV set and you’re in the Toronto area, tune in to Channel 15 to catch the interview live.

If you’re not in Toronto, you’ll have to wait until the recording is posted on their website. Once it’s up, I’ll post the link here.

Update: The video clip is now live on the CanoeLive website. Click here for the direct link to the interview.

Tags: podcasting, Leesa Barnes, podcamp toronto, podcamp, business podcasting

After getting a heads up from Rob Walch, I did some research on Mur Lafferty. I never met her, but with all that she’s accomplished in podcasting over the past 2-years, this list wouldn’t be complete without adding Mur.

I’m not usually wrong (I’m a Capricorn, what do you expect), but in this case, it’s wrong to exclude Mur and her accomplishments in podcasting from my definitive Top 10 list. I already updated the final Top 10 list with Mur’s profile, but I have to pay tribute to her successes with a quick summary.

A self-professed writing junkie, Mur Lafferty spends her days writing for magazines and producing several of her own podcasts.

Mur is one of the first women to author a book on podcasting. She co-authored Tricks of the Podcasting Masters which was the only podcasting book selected by Amazon as one of the Best Books of 2006 in the Reference category. Mur also produces presidential candidate John Edwards’ podcast called At the Table, a podcast that captures the informal dinner conversation between Edwards and his wife.

Mur also produces 2 of her own podcasts:

• Geek Fu Action Grip - A podcast about all things geeky.
• I Should Be Writing - A podcast helping freelance writers navigate through the freelance writing market.

Mur is one of my picks as a Top 10 savvy woman in podcasting in 2006.

Technorati: mur lafferty, women in podcasting, women, women in technology, top 10, podcasting