Podcasting
August 28th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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Podcasting is something I’ve been looking into lately, especially at the urgings of several readers. It was always my plan to add audio content to this site, but I wasn’t sure if podcasting would be an intelligent way to do it. I initially rejected the idea of podcasting for a variety of reasons (time, effort, bandwidth, and a few others). But even as my logical brain kept saying no, my intuition nagged at me to take a closer look. So I did.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with podcasting, it essentially means adding free downloadable audio content to this blog. Perhaps once a week, there would be a post that includes a link to a downloadable MP3. Wordpress, the blog software I use, includes built-in support for podcasting. Most likely the way I’d do this would be to add a category to this blog called “podcasts,” so you could easily find all the podcasts in one place, and if you only wanted to subscribe to the podcasts and nothing else (or if you just wanted to keep them separate from the rest of the blog), you could subscribe to an RSS feed just for that category. While you can use a podcatcher application like iTunes to automatically download each podcast to your portable audio player, it isn’t necessary to do so. You can just as easily click a link to play the audio content directly on your computer.
I began taking a deeper look into podcasting by reading several online articles as well as the book Podcasting by Todd Cochrane (who podcasts via Geek News Central). The book was a quick read and gave me a deeper understanding of the potential for podcasting in terms of providing an added benefit for visitors.
Then I downloaded and listened to many podcasts to get a feel for what’s out there. For the past few weeks I’ve been listening to podcasts for an average of about two hours per day. While there are abundant technology-related podcasts, I found very little in the area of personal development. There are religious podcasts and health podcasts, but I couldn’t find any podcasts that directly addressed personal growth. (If you happen to know of any, please let me know.) The closest thing I found was the JediTrainer.com podcast. Despite the clever name, it’s actually about an ancient philosophy known as Huna; this is an excellent podcast though — currently my personal favorite.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I already have all the hardware/software needed for podcasting, and last week I recorded a sample podcast (with garbage content) in order to test the whole recording pipepline. Due to recent traffic increases, I also upgraded the web server, so now I have plenty of extra bandwidth (at least for current traffic levels). Incidentally, you might notice that the site is a bit more responsive now, since I was really pushing the available RAM on the old server. I also learned of some affordable options for offloading podcasting bandwidth if that becomes necessary. So there are no remaining technical barriers that would prevent me from beginning podcasting immediately.
But before I produce and publish a podcast, I’d like to ask for feedback and suggestions from all of you. Do you think this is something worth pursuing, or are you largely indifferent to the whole idea? Do you feel that the addition of (perhaps weekly) audio content would be of benefit to you? If I were to start doing regular podcasts, what specifically would you like to see? Naturally I want the podcast to address personal development, but there are a number of ways to structure a podcast.
Off the top of my head, here are some factors to consider for a podcast:
- Breadth vs. depth: One topic per show or multiple topics per show? Or a mixture of both?
- Duration: 15-20 minutes seems about right to me. Do you prefer longer or shorter?
- Frequency: Weekly would probably work best.
- Topic Selection: How are topics chosen for each show? Is there some kind of natural progression from one show to the next, or do we jump around a lot?
- Interaction: Listener-submitted questions (aka “Ask Steve”)? Other interactive elements?
Please let me know your thoughts….
August 28th, 2005 at 3:07 pm
Steve I would be interested,
You should just suppliment one of your normal blog posts as a voice version. Each one of your blog postings are short and sweet, one topic, one message.
I know a few podcasts give out torrents instead of the actual video file, maybe that could save you on some bandwidth fees.
August 28th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
I’m pretty sure I’d listen or subscribe to just about anything you put out on your website so maybe I’m not the person to ask (preaching to the choir), but these are my thoughts.
I think podcasting is good, actually hearing a persons voice seems to make the message more personal and inspiring than dry text and I think it would do a lot to give your message a face and more personal qualities.
I think having a variety of podcasts would be good. I’d really like Ask Steve comments, but I think that a variety would be better.
Whatever you do I’m sure I’ll listen. Good Luck!
August 28th, 2005 at 3:37 pm
I’m also a big fan of jeditrainer.com. I’ve been reading a few other books on Huna recently, but being able to hear the passion and enthusiasm in Pohaku’s voice produces a much greater emotional connection than just reading the books. I would absolutely love it if you began podcasting, Steve.
I agree, 15-20 minutes seems ideal. Going longer than that occasionally is fine if the topic warrants it. I would vote for depth: exploring one or two topics in detail each week. An “Ask Steve” segment is also a good idea.
Mahalo Nui Loa!
August 28th, 2005 at 3:49 pm
I’d love to hear a podcast from you. I’d prefer depth to breadth. A duration of 20-45 minutes seems about right.
I’ve heard some podcasts which are related to personal development and are pretty good. Jeremy Likness has one which is mostly interviews with personal trainers, but touches on personal development ideas pretty frequently: http://www.podcast.net/show/5350 or http://www.become-your-best.com/ (Natural Physiques Become Your Best Coaching Podcast) Maybe start with his “Interview: John Stone of http://www.johnstonefitness.com.” You might be interested in learning about Jeremy’s business practices, too, as he has published a book which he sells and he sells coaching and audio stuff in addition to the free podcasting and articles.
Another good podcast is exdrunkalog (http://www.calebism.com/wordpress/), by a recovering alcoholic. It’s been sort of lagging lately, but the first few are great.
August 28th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
if you blog posts and podcasts contain the same material, i would’ve less of a motivation to listen to the podcasts. keep them different. i would say keep podcasts to about 20-30 minutes. and give guided sessions: like “guided meditation sessions”, give guided focus sessions with exercises (quick, short) and explanations. and try to make it doable for those who listen while they drive, etc.
you should probably think of them being used when people are away from the computer, like hiking, etc.
August 28th, 2005 at 6:09 pm
Well, to listen to Steve’s voice would be really nice, I suppose
Come on, that would be just like he’s making a public speech for free
As for your questions, Steve, I suppose these should be:
- Of course, somewhat different from your blog entries. I don’t mean completely different - two ways of explaining one thing would do just great.
- More deep than broad, thus it will be easier to pick the one you need at the moment, and the message itself will be taken more.. deeply
- Topic have to be chosen by you and you alone. If some question inspires you to enlighten it - it’s up to you. If you think you should stick with something you’ve been thinking about for long - that’s your choice to make. Though I suppose it will be useful for you yourself to enlighten the topics you don’t really _want_ to enlighten - that would make a great training for those upcoming pre-set theme speeches
- As for the length or frequency - it’s all up to you, really
Good luck!
August 28th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
Steve, I’ve found that blogs and podcasts lend themselves to different types of messages. Sometimes, the message comes out easier in text, other times voice. WordPress can support both. If you’d like to support iTunes-specific podcasting tags within WordPress, take a look at the wp-ipodcatter plugin.
August 28th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
The biggest requirement for a podcast is that it needs to differentiate itself from normal blog entries. A lot of mediocre podcasts take me 20 minutes to listen to an article that could have taken me 5 minutes to read. Good podcasts deliver something that written posts can’t.
I’ve found the big benefits of a podcast to be the audio medium, and the portability.
By “audio medium”, I’m referring to audio content that can’t be delivered via a written blog post. This includes music, tone of voice, emphasis and non-verbal cues. With your toastmasters experience, you should be able to use this really well. I’d be happy if you took some of your old articles, edited them to fit the audio medium, and released them!
By “portability”, I mean the ability to consume a podcast in situations where I can’t read written posts, such as while driving or exercising. A lot of your content is ideal for this.
One great aspect of your blog content is its ‘timelessness’, meaning it will be just as relevant next year as it is today. (Sometimes I read the articles on discipline you wrote months ago, and I still find new lessons in them because they combine with new lessons I’ve learned recently). This is opposed to the weekly current affairs or ‘this week in tech’ style podcasts, where I’ll listen once and delete it. I’d like to keep that timelessness in your content, so six months later, I can fire up an old StevePavlina podcast and still find it relevant.
Length and topic choice are up to you (you’ve got a good balance on this blog). Good luck!
August 28th, 2005 at 9:28 pm
Can you say RSS feed?
August 28th, 2005 at 11:16 pm
I would listen to your audio content.
- one topic per show.
- doesn’t matter how many minutes. As long as it conveys the point
- weekly. More I would have to record to CD and listen in the car
- can’t help with topics, sorry.
- Listener submitted questions - I like the idea.
Mark
August 28th, 2005 at 11:43 pm
Count me among the (seemingly few!) indifferent. I love your content, Steve, but I can’t imagine why I’d prefer to take the time to listen to a linear exposition of something that I could read in a fraction of the time. Perhaps you could do something with your podcast that’s uniquely compelling, but it’s still hard for me to imagine how spending 15-20 minutes listening to something is an efficient use of my time. Nor do I have many times during my day when I could easily listen to something in the background.
On your end, I also suspect podcasting will take far more time than producing an equivalent amount of written content; put another way, the opportunity cost seems significant. Of course, if other readers appreciate it and you think it has value then it’s hardly appropriate for *me* to complain about the tradeoff.
I also think I’d miss the dialog with readers that blog-style postings permits.
You’ve mentioned before that you find audio content valuable, so this may just be one of those times when I have to look at something and say “Nope, not for me”. Which is certainly fine. Just wanted to let you know that not everyone is drooling with anticipation
I will certainly be curious to see the direction you take with this, though. I know the product won’t be something just average.
August 29th, 2005 at 2:14 am
The addition of audio content to this site would be a very positive development. As Steve’s already pointed out, it’s important that the audio content is as high quality as the written content if the standard of the site as a whole isn’t to be pulled downwards.
To answer the specific questions:
- One topic per podcast seems sensible to me; no reason for dispersed focus.
- 15-20 minutes is probably about right, though I’d listen for much longer if the material was available and the quality was right
- Once per week would be ideal IF you’re confident you can maintain the quality of the content. If not, maybe drop to once per fortnight.
- No problems with either of the mentioned methods of topic selection
- Again, no preference as to level of interactivity: I’ll listen to what’s there and draw whatever lessons I can from it.
August 29th, 2005 at 2:41 am
An unqualified yes please. One topic per show, in a series if appropriate (like your blog posts), and not more than 20-25 minutes. But don’t make us wait as long as we’ve had to for the personal development newsletter :-).
August 29th, 2005 at 4:24 am
I’ve no real interest in podcasts. But if you’re still considering making those subscription CDs, having quality audio content freely available would be good advertising.
August 29th, 2005 at 5:05 am
Dont do it, that’s my opinion.
I feel there s plenty of usefull info here and i prefer written info cause i can easilly go back and see what i want.With podcasting i think it wouldnt be so easy.
It’ s a waste of time and energy at the current phase of internet development.
be safe
Vasilis
August 29th, 2005 at 6:03 am
Go for it!
A once a week podcast sounds great. Given the quality of your articles I know I would be eager to listen to the new podcast every week.
One topic per show (including some series just like with those outstanding articles)
Duration: 15-20 is Ok, but hey, if you can make it longer then even better
Frequency: Weekly
Topic Selection: How about one main topic (with different branches) each month?
Interaction: An “Ask Steve” section for podcasts would be just fine.
I really whish you go for it, mi Ipod would turn into a much better investment
August 29th, 2005 at 7:14 am
I’d say go for it. I’d definitely be interested in listening.
I would prefer to have topics covered in depth. I don’t think the duration matters as long as you can keep it on topic and interesting. Weekly would give you time to prepare a topic while keeping the quality up.
I like the idea of a natural progression. How to get started with personal development and then focusing on individual topics. After a few months, you will probably have enough content to put together some kind of package that might be more suitable for people who might prefer a different medium (such as an audio book).
I don’t like the idea of a section dedicated to “Ask Steve” but I think it’s certainly valid to address interesting questions that are on-topic for that particular episode.
August 29th, 2005 at 7:49 am
You describe Huna as “an ancient philosophy.” This claim is supported by sites like http://www.hawaiian.net/~larryw/html/hunaword.html, but
Wikipedia begs to differ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huna (see also the discussion page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Huna).
Anyway, I’m no expert on this, but it sounds like maybe you’ve only gotten the claims of the promoters of this particular idea.
August 29th, 2005 at 8:47 am
I definitely wouldn’t listen to your podcasts. Not that I wouldn’t want to, but, well, I’m deaf.
Just when I thought the internet made me even with everyone else, they start bringing voice into it. Sigh.
August 29th, 2005 at 11:33 am
Rob makes a good point. Maybe a text version of your audio content would be nice seeing as audio is good, but some people may not want to bother listening to get the message. Might save you some bandwidth for people that don’t really care about the difference between text and voice?
August 29th, 2005 at 11:42 am
I would encourage you to give podcasting a try. My preference would be a length of 30-40 minutes. As a format, I would suggest a weekly podcast demonstrating your ability to work with a real person.
August 29th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
I think the most useful thing for me would be a practical exercises, maybe guided mediations, visualizations etc. I would be really interested in that. I think the optimal duration is 15 to 20 minutes. I imagine it to be something each of us would do every day as an exercise, because it’s a lot easier to be guided in meditation, especially for beginners.
August 29th, 2005 at 1:48 pm
An audio version of one of your written articles would be a great place to start. Personally, I would make use of both versions.
Voice coveys enthusiasm best, but text is best for digging deeper into a topic later.
August 29th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
Look forward to hearing them. I think this is a much better option than your paid audio idea, but it will still end up in gain for you. I agree, so far, with your assertion that there is little in the way of personal development Podcasting out there and I would look forward to hearing yours and recommending them to others.
In response to your informal market research….
I actually think 20 is the limit, and probably a bit long. The Podcasts most useful for me are small ones, which I download and listen in groups on my iPod (which I plug into the car). Longer ones, like the news programs I download, I tend to neglect. I see the postcast as supplemental…. not an end unto itself.
That can change, so perhaps you do longer “Specials” of special programs so your positioned for the big time if you crash thru. The Podcasting world is attracting sponsorship now and a lot of new ears. You might want to show you can do the long form program, but work the smaller more practical angle for the most part. That’s what people will listen.
My favorite podcast, unfortunately, is defunct now, but they were Spanish lessons and tips that lasted about 7-10 minutes each. They mixed up the content and they were very very useful and easy to use.
Good luck.
August 29th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
steve,
i produce a podcast and so, might be a bit biased (i already listen to quite a few), but i would very much enjoy receiving audio content to amplify your blog posts. the two can act in synchronicity as well… blog readers might move to your podcast, and so vice-versa.
i listen to another podcast at mediaartist.com which is somewhat similar to your podcast. not quite personal development, but check it out, it’ll give you an idea of what’s out there. i subscribe to that and to jeditrainer.com, and would welcome your podcast among my regulars.
August 30th, 2005 at 5:46 am
“I can’t imagine why I’d prefer to take the time to listen to a linear exposition of something that I could read in a fraction of the time.”
This is a common misunderstanding of podcasting in general. They are NOT a replacement for reading text. It’s a reasonable misunderstanding because podcasts and blogs currently have huge content overlap. However, podcasts are almost exclusively used in contexts where reading the text version is either impractical or downright dangerous.
I listen to podcasts while:
* Driving (reading is dangerous and even illegal in many places)
* Doing menial, repetative computing tasks that don’t require my active thinking, but DO require my eyes to be busy scanning through something. My eyes are busy, but my mind and ears are not.
* Doing physical chores like mowing the lawn, cleaning my house, filing in my office, cooking, etc. My hands and eyes are busy doing the work, but my ears and mind aren’t necessarily actively engaged.
* Doing active leisure activities like cycling, walking my dogs, etc.
In all reality, most podcasts are much more likely to displace music listening and radio than anything printed or textual.
I’ve been listening to about 3-4 hours of podcasts a day myself for a couple of weeks, but still read all of the sites I used to, read all of the book content I used to (just committed to reading 100 printed pages a day for the next 30 in fact), etc. However, now, I’ve also heard interesting content from lots of sources, *in addition* to the content I read.
I wrote about this whole “Will Technology A replace Technology B?” question a few days ago:
http://www.wynia.org/wordpress/2005/08/28/will-audio-books-displace-text/
August 30th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
J. Wynia, I hear you. It’s just that my life is not structured in a way that’s conducive to listening to podcasts. To take your list as an example, I spend very little time doing the first three things you cite — a couple hours a week, maybe, and much of that time I’m already socializing. And my leisure activities are generally not suited to listening to something in the background.
So, from a selfish perspective, I don’t see podcasts doing me much good. That’s just me. I don’t listen to the radio much, either.
August 31st, 2005 at 8:05 am
Steve, I definitly would like to hear your content if it’s new. But if I had to choose between written and spoken content I would take the written. If I could get both I would take both. I tried listening to some podcasts once, it was funny, but I dont have the patience to handle this manually, downloading every week (or set up the software correctly). I would need it in my car, not at home, so “click and hear” is not an option. I would prefer to download a big chunk, maybe one or two hours, then burn on CD and take away.
By the way: Thank you very much for your free content! I read it all and I like it. Publish your book and I will buy it
September 5th, 2005 at 6:54 pm
John C., yours is a very valid reason for not listening to podcasts, just as would be someone’s objection to blogs based on limited time at a computer. If the actual properties of podcasts don’t match your situation, you *shouldn’t* be listening to them. However, that’s very different from saying that because the content is available in text format, there’s no reason for them being in audio as well. I replied mostly because, while the underlying reasons behind your statement were rooted in your time and ability to have background sound, your statement echoed something I’ve heard in nearly every discussion of podcasting in the last 6 months: that spoken word podcasts are a replacement for text, which they are not for the vast majority of people listening to them.
There is no one media, format, delivery mechanism, timing plan or solution that will work for everyone. Every single decision on those matters is, by definition, a decision to exclude *someone*. Those exclusions will include people who have very legitimate reasons for not being able to take advantage of the results, but trying to make everyone happy usually just results in the person making the effort being the one who’s unhappy.