talkshoe

New Month Means New Poll

Jeffro2pt0 Banner For Site Updates

During the month of August, I asked readers if they would like me to produce a podcast based on the content that has been featured on this site. The results are in:

Should I Produce A Podcast For This Site?

  • Yes (57%, 13 Votes)
  • No (43%, 10 Votes)

Total Voters: 23

It was close, but it looks like I better put my podcast hat on. So with that in mind, I’d like to present to you my idea for the podcast. I was thinking of calling the podcast, AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE. The podcast would be produced LIVE every Friday Evening at 9PM EST on Talkshoe and would last anywhere from a half hour to 60 minutes. The interviews will be open to discussion on various topics such as what the blog author covers on his or her own blog, blogging in general, their thoughts and opinions on various subjects, tips and tricks for other bloggers, discussion of topics in the news, and anything else that comes to mind. It won’t be a tightly arranged format. I want guests who appear on the show to feel like they are entering a relaxed environment without all of the stress or expectations that may accompany other shows.

If you are a blog author and want to appear on the show, please contact me and tell me which Friday you would be available. As it stands, all slots are empty, but I’d love to fill them up. I’m looking to produce the first show on Friday September 21st, 2007. Who is going to be the first guest on the show?

With that out of the way, it’s time for a new poll question. I’ve been thinking about adding forums to this site, but I’m still not sure if they would be productive or counter productive to the web site. The decision is now in your hands. Vote yes if you would like to see forums attached to this site, or vote no if you could care less.

Project Creative Sends Out First Newsletter

Project Creative Logo

I received the first news letter from Project Creative today. The newsletter contained information about a LIVE, interactive podcast which was produced last week. To listen to the show click this link. Project Creative hopes to continue producing these sorts of podcasts via Talkshoe on a monthly basis. This gives users the opportunity to ask questions regarding the site. The podcast producers are actually the owners of the site and although I have yet to listen to their first show, I have to wonder what kind of questions were asked and which ones were answered considering project creative is not even in its invite-only stage.

Their full newsletter which is in PDF format does offer some more details about their service. Project Creative will have something to do with iLife Portal. PC has also chosen the open-source CMS Pligg to act as their content manager. I speculate that there will be some sort of main page where users will be able to vote things up or down, considering Pligg is the open source version of Digg.

If you want to read the newsletter for yourself, click the following link. Make sure you have a PDF reader installed such as Acrobat or my personal favorite FoxIT.

My Experience With 10Links

My first shot at using 10Links happened on Friday evening. While I was participating in a late night podcast on Talkshoe called Techbytes, I opened up a browser window and loaded up the 10Links submission page. I told others in the podcast about the opportunity to self promote their site and or blog by getting their link on the front page and as midnight continued to get closer, I began to feel a bit of excitement because I knew other people that were going to participate at the same time.

While waiting on the submission page, 10Links provides a nifty counter which tells you the amount of time left before midnight. A weird anomaly happened to me when I refreshed the page with a little less than three minutes remaining. The page reloaded and the timer shaved off 10-15 seconds. I’m not sure why it did that but it only occurred once.

Timer Counting Down To Midnight

I wasnt sure how the submission button would appear, so I filled out the form to make sure that all I would have to do is press enter. When I refreshed the page with 15 seconds left till midnight, the submission form entries were erased and the submit button appeared. I’m still not sure why the Submit button appeared 15 seconds before midnight but when it did, I had to quickly re-type my information into the submission form.

As it turns out, my link made it through, but because I had to retype my information into the form, I ended up making a typo or two in my link. After emailing the 10Links folks about the error to see if it could be corrected, I ended up not receiving a reply back. My advice, make sure your information is correct before you press that button.

All in all, it was a decent experience minus those possible glitches. I did receive about 20-30 hits from the front page link while getting a few more hits once the link showed up in their archives. For you bloggers that are trying to get your site out their, give this service a try. Every link counts and the best part about 10Links is that its free.

My First Podcast Sort Of

Talkshoe.Com Podcasting Made Simple

Every Monday, Pete Balasch Jr. hosts a show on Talkshoe called Internet Marketing And SEO Tips. About 2 weeks ago, Pete decided to do an apprentice type show where he takes a generally inexperienced user and teaches them about SEO and the different ways a new user can gain ground on search engines. This past Monday, as I was waiting for the show to start, Pete informed me that his guest couldn’t make it. Since I was the only one in the room, he asked me if I’d like to do a show and be a special guest host. I said “sure”.

The show which you can listen to here, EPISODE18 – The SEO Apprentice Course Week 3 turned out to be rather informative. In the show, I gave an audio review of InviteShare, along with an explanation of how it works. Pete and I both discussed the effects of Web 2.0 on search engine optimizations along with a new term that has been created called Social Media Marketers. Think of SMM’s as the SEO guys who apparently get the gist of Web 2.0 and social media. During the middle of the show, Highway_Of_Life the new co-host for PHPBBWEEKLY joined in and gave us some valuable information concerning Google’s Supplemental index. This segment alone is enough to warrant a listen.

Last but not least, we covered PingBacks/Trackback URLs, the No-Follow link attribute, blogging in the blogosphere, using Twitter to update multiple other services and sites, and general SEO tips. If you happen to listen to this episode, I’d love to hear your feedback as I plan on having my own Talkcast/Podcast show in the not so distant future.

TalkShoe Changes Payout System

If you have yet to get on the podcasting bandwagon, this may be the time to get a ride. Talkshoe will be paying more to those with live audiences.

Here is a copy of the email I received today:

As you know, TalkShoe exists for the purpose of live interactive podcasting. And a live interactive podcast is more valuable when lots of people download it. So starting July 1, 2007, we’re planning to change our TalkShoe Cash system to reward live interactive Talkcasts as follows:

Talkcasts that draw at least 1% of their listeners live each month will earn our top payout rates. Across all of TalkShoe, we are currently seeing 2.1% live participation so this is not a hard-to-reach threshold.

Here’s how the calculations will work: Each live listener will qualify you for 100 downloads at the high payment rate. Downloads over and above 100 (per live listener) will receive a lower payment rate. For example, if you have 150 live listeners and 20,000 downloads during a month, your live listeners and 15,000 downloads will receive the high payout rate. 5,000 downloads will receive a lower payout rate.

It’s important to recognize that you can still upload non-TalkShoe-based (AKA “offline”) podcasts and episodes — there’s no scenario where uploading an offline episode will reduce your earnings on your other Talkcasts or downloads. More episodes and more downloads are always a plus, but much more of a plus with more live listeners. Even offline episodes will earn the top payout rate if your total of live listeners for the month at least 1% of your total downloads.

What should you do? Drive live participation! Encourage your listeners to join live, creating a fun, entertaining, and satisfying interactive experience — for them, for your time-shifted listeners, and for you the host.

What if the live, interactive format doesn’t work for your podcast? You’ll still be able to use TalkShoe for free hosting and earn cash at one of the best rates in the industry.

If you have been thinking about podcasting but have yet to cross the other side of the fence, now may be a good time to do so. If you have something passionate that you would like to share with others, you can use Talkshoe to do most of the heavy work for you and be paid a few bucks while doing it. Getting paid to podcast, sounds like a good deal to me.