Podonomics

Some interesting things happening with Nokia and podcasting. Steven Stewart, a fellow Battlestar Galactica fan, presented some insights on what Nokia is doing to support podcasters through its phones.

He gave us tips on how to optimize your feeds for Nokia customers, how to create your own OPML file, how to search for podcasts using Nokia and how to download podcasts to your Nokia cellphone.

I really like the direction that companies such as Nokia are taking to make it easier for people to download and consume podcasting content. Anything that moves us away from the cumbersome task of using the computer and the multitude of podcast directories to find really great content, I support it.

I just love wireless.

Penny Haynes, founder of the International Podcasting Expo, gave tips on how to add content from RSS feeds to your website. This is good for those who have multiple podcasts and blogs and want to show the content from those feeds on one website.

Some tips from Penny:

• Make sure you use PHP to display RSS feeds on your website. Using ASP or javascript will not be picked up by search engines.
• Download a zip file that contains what you need to upload to your server so you can add RSS content to your website.
• At that point, all you’ll need to do is insert a line of PHP code into your page and then the content will appear.

I’m first up this morning at the International Podcasting Expo. I’ll be talking about one of my favourite topics at 9am ET - How to Plan A Killer Podcast. I may will also get to do a “live” recording for Podonomics at 2:15pm ET looking at how podcasters are creating multiple streams of podcasting income.

If you’re interested in attending Day 3 events, just head over to the International Podcasting Expo website and click on Schedule in the left hand navigation bar. Some of the sessions are free to attend (the ones in yellow), including my live recording at 2:15pm.

If you’ve got the time and you’re making some income from your podcast, please join me. Again, go to Schedule, look for “Are You Making Multiple Streams of Podcasting Income?”, click on Studio LiveCast, then follow the steps to join us.
To access the other sessions in blue and purple, you’ll need to purchase a ticket at $25. Click here to do so.

Update: It was well attended for a 9am session. About half were attending from Europe, including Nicole Simon and Karin Hoegh, who I both met at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo in September. Bruce Murray was in attendance as well, one of my favourite East Coast podcasters and fellow Canuck.

Here’s one of the sessions I was looking forward to all day. It was so good, the session went for close to 90-minutes.

Rich Roszel is a studio designer, audio consultant and live studio engineer who spoke at the International Podcasting Expo on how to upgrade your podcasting equipment.

He suggested:

• One of the most obvious, yet overlooked instant improvements - turn off the A/C, turn off the fans, move your mic away from the noise source, such as a noisy computer, a ticking clock, a bubbling aquarium.
• Not to soundproof your room until you determine whether your room is “live”, meaning your voice echos. You can break up the reflection of your voice against the walls by adding bookcases to your room, clothing or pictures. If you want to pay, Rich mentioned Auralex, Sonex or Clearsonic.
• Rich talked about mics and why he prefers a condenser mic over a dynamic mic.
• And way too much information that I can’t write about only because I was totally engaged and focused on what Rich had to say.

Dave Nelsen spoke about how to use TalkShoe to make your podcasts interactive at the International Podcasting Expo. It’s an interesting service because you can schedule some time to record your podcast in front of a live audience and turn that recording into a podcast.

Listeners can participate by sending a chat message or talking to the host live through a web-based application. Very interesting idea.You can create your own free profile by visiting TalkShoe.

Nicole Simon, whom I met at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo, gave some tips on why podcasters should cater to an international audience at the International Podcasting Expo.

Nicole said that because people are very interested in things happening outside of their local area, this is the main reason why podcasters will discover people outside of their country will take an interest in their shows.

Some other tips from Nicole:

• Enter yourself into international directories. You may be #1 in Google US, but nobody in Google UK. Ask your listeners what directories they use and they’ll help you out.
• Get a Frappr map and encourage your listeners to pinpoint where they are. This helps build a community around your podcast.
• iTunes displays podcasts according to the the listener’s country. That means that your #1 listing in iTunes for the Canadian store won’t be #1 if the listener is based in the UK. So don’t be too quick to brag about it.
• In terms of payments or donations, PayPal is the best to use since it accepts worldwide payments.

Dr. Kathy King and Peter Yanke led a session at the International Podcasting Expo exploring the difference between internet radio and podcasts.

From their slide, here are the characteristics of Internet radio:

• Delivered to a computer via a web browser
• You click a button on the page and listen to the content
• It’s not portable

And from their slide, here’s the characteristics of podcasting:

• Posted on the web and pushed out by a feed
• Need a podcatching program to listen
• Posted on website for download or via a flash player
• Plus (this is my addition), it’s portable

With Internet radio, the listener shows up and listen. With podcasts, the listener downloads and listens on the go.

Dick Schiferli introduced a product called Pamela for Skype. Although it was launched close to 2-years ago on February 16, 2005, I never heard of it until now. Pamela is localized in 30 languages and there has been 260,000+ downloads to date.

Pamela is your Skype virtual assistant, in other words, an answering machine for Skype. If someone rings you through Skype and you’re not around, Pamela will pick up and ask the person to leave a message.

From a podcasting standpoint, you could use Pamela as a comment line. People call your Skype id, Pamela records it, then Pamela will save it to your computer or automatically publish the recording directly to your blog.

Some drawbacks?

• It’s a Windows only tool. There’s isn’t a Pamela version for Mac users.
• No multiple feed support. So, if you’re using one blog to host multiple podcast feeds, Pamela won’t know how to publish recordings to your blog using multiple feeds. Pamela is a 1:1 tool.

Despite these 2 drawbacks, I’m going to give Pamela a try. Everyone who attended the International Podcasting Expo gets a complimentary Professional license of Pamela (valued at $24.95), so I have no excuse not to discover all that Pamela has to offer.

Leila Thigpen, a professional voice coach, gave podcasters tips on how to use their voice for impact at the International Podcasting Expo. She gave us tips on breathing, speaking and how to use our voice for impact on our podcasts.

Here are some tips from Leila:

• You don’t need to stand to make your voice carry. Just sit in a good position and tuck in your butt.
• To have impact, speak slowly, speak broadly and speak distinctly. In particular, emphasize the last letter on each word. She took people through an orator exercise to practice speaking broader.
• Someone asked about accents. Leila said that because podcasting isn’t national radio where everyone has to have the same sound, you can be unique and keep your accent.
• Leila took us through a pitch exercise and said that varying pitches helps to add variety to your podcast, especially if there’s only 1 host.
• I asked Leila for tips on how to avoid the intake of breath right before talking. Leila said that this is because the throat feels closed. She recommended that you think that you’re going to yawn right before you speak and that will open up your mouth. Telling your conscious that you’re going to yawn helps you avoid the intake of breath.

If you want to stay up to date on what’s happening with Podcamp Toronto, you can check out the blog here.

Technorati: podcasting, podcamp toronto, podcamptoronto2007