Episode 63Nov 29, 2024· 43:25
Is Blogging Enough in Content Creation? A Chat with Joe Casabona
About this episode
Dive deep into the world of content creation and tackle the question: Is blogging enough in 2024 and beyond? Tune in to gain valuable insights on how to level up your content strategy!
🎙️ Episode Highlights:
🔹 Embrace Multi-Format Content: Joe and I discuss the importance of diversifying your content. From blog posts to podcasts and videos, catering to various audience preferences is key to increasing visibility…
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Full transcript
00:00
Welcome to the Bloggy Friends show!
00:07
Watch up my bloggy friends, famous Ashley Grant here and I just want to welcome you to the Bloggy Friends show.
00:29
We're so excited to have you join us on this journey of sharing our knowledge and experiences with you.
00:34
Whether you're a blogger, a content creator, or just someone who's interested in learning more about the digital world, we've got something for you.
00:40
So grab your notebook and a pen to take some notes or just sit back and take in all the amazing information and ideas we're about to share with you.
00:46
Let's get into it.
00:48
Okay.
00:50
Well, in that case, I will do audio, maximum, boom.
00:57
Alright, back up's going.
01:00
That's fantastic.
01:01
Okay, so basically what I wanted to bring you on here today for is to talk about content creation and how the world of content creation is changing and how, yeah, bloggers, they're awesome, but if you're just a blogger in 2024 and beyond, it is not enough.
01:16
So, Joe, welcome.
01:18
Let's talk about it.
01:20
Thanks for having me.
01:22
I guess I should also clarify here that I'm here in my official capacity for RSS.com, right?
01:28
Yes.
01:28
Alright.
01:29
That'd be fantastic.
01:30
Yes.
01:30
Yeah.
01:31
So I am the product evangelist for RSS.com.
01:35
Ashley and I know each other that way.
01:37
So I'm really excited to talk about this because I, an intrepid person, started a new blog, essentially, in 2024.
01:48
But as you said, it's like not, that's not enough, right?
01:52
So I think that, like on the marketing side, obviously, at RSS.com, we're like really focusing on long form and the written word, which sounds like a really religious term.
02:09
But, you know, like that's been one of my big focuses with Brian is like updating some of that, like leveraging my 10 plus years experience in the podcasting space to update some of our older articles.
02:22
But part of that is I'm creating video content to go along with it, right?
02:27
So we did our year in review and that was a blog post, but that was also a video I did.
02:33
We just did like the seven thing, we updated the seven things you need to know to start a podcast.
02:40
And part of that was I created one long video and I was very deliberate about making the transitions good endpoints so that each section could have its own discrete video there.
02:54
And now I'm doing the same thing with our hosting guide, right? Like we've got the best podcast hosting platforms of 2024.
03:03
And for each video, I'm essentially doing some sort of comparison, right?
03:09
Like for some, it's like feature comparison where I have the access.
03:14
And some, it's just like, you know, here's some of the things to consider.
03:19
And, you know, that creates the engaging content across other platforms, like platforms with better algorithmic discovery.
03:27
And it gives people options for how they want to consume that content as well.
03:32
Yeah, I think that's so important to talk about is how you're not just creating one piece of content.
03:37
And the reason why is because we don't all consume content the same way, especially if like we're reading something at the grocery store while we're in the checkout line,
03:45
versus when we're listening to something while we're, I don't know, in the waiting room at the dentist.
03:50
If we don't have both forms of content, then people can't find it.
03:55
First of all, it's like it's a visibility thing. It's a search thing.
03:59
But it's also a means of reaching your audience in multiple ways.
04:04
So now when it comes to creating the content, I mean, I know you're a prolific creator yourself.
04:11
You put a lot of stuff on your own website. You put a lot of stuff on your own podcast.
04:15
What should you start with? Should you start with the podcast episode?
04:19
Should you start with the video? Should you start with the word, the written word?
04:24
Which do you think is the best one to start with in 2024?
04:29
This is a really good question because I've changed my mind on it a little bit, I think.
04:40
It's a really good question because it's something I've thought about a lot lately, right?
04:45
If you had asked like 2022 Joe, like, hey, what should I start with?
04:49
I'd be like, definitely start with the podcast, just like word vomit that audio and then turn it into written content.
04:57
But I found last year as I was writing these long form articles,
05:03
these like podcast deep dives on how popular podcasters produce their show,
05:09
and then reading them for my podcast, it just flowed better, right?
05:16
It was, I wasn't pausing a lot. I wasn't having to edit out a bunch of stuff.
05:24
And I was able to tell a better story. And that's really the important part, right?
05:31
You know, something that, you know, can we talk about at rss.com
05:35
and something I've talked a lot with Brian, like in my own writings is like the importance of integrating story into everything we do
05:44
and not just giving you a very factual readout, right?
05:50
I think that's something that AI can do pretty well, right?
05:55
And so like the human element is the story.
05:58
And so to answer your question, the answer yet the longest way possible,
06:03
I think that for me at least, starting with the written stuff is the most impactful
06:15
because it helps me work through what I'm trying to do. It helps me get my story straight.
06:19
And then when I go to read it, like it's not a straight, you know, it's not like a straight reading.
06:24
I'll ad-lib a little bit, but I know the story I want to tell.
06:28
I know when the hardest hitting part of what I'm saying is coming up and I can build to that
06:36
and that can close very cleanly, I can land the plane smoothly, right?
06:43
Whereas if you're just talking, even with an outline, right, you have the story beats, but you're not quite sure.
06:51
You may not be quite as sure as how you're going to get there.
06:56
I can't disagree with any of that, but you did bring up something that we have to talk about
07:01
because it's, you know, it's the elephant in the room. I've talked about it.
07:04
Ad nauseum on this podcast. And I was just, you know, I was just interviewed by Cast Magic
07:09
about AI and podcasting and AI and content.
07:12
So you mentioned that, you know, you need to bring in a story so that it's not just something that AI can reproduce.
07:19
Tell me what your thoughts are on AI and podcasting, AI and blogging, AI and all.
07:24
Yeah, so let me start before I completely jump on it by saying that I have a course on LinkedIn learning
07:31
on how to use generative AI with podcasting, right?
07:34
So I'm not, I'm not against it, right? But I also, last year I posted across social media.
07:41
I think like LinkedIn is where it got the most engagement.
07:45
But I said, saying I used AI to write my book is like saying I used a car to run a marathon.
07:53
And lots of people took issue with that. I'm assuming those people say they used AI to write their book.
08:00
What they read and what I meant may have been two different things, right?
08:06
What they read was don't use AI at all in any part of the book writing process.
08:12
That's not what I meant. What I meant was this whole chapter was written based on a prompt
08:20
that I came up with for AI. And so my friend Alastair reached out to me and he was like,
08:30
we should have this debate on our podcast. I was like, okay, great.
08:34
He was pro, basically prompt engineering your book into existence.
08:41
And I was anti that. And I'll spare you the entire hour long conversation, but it came down to this.
08:49
Alastair said, okay, but what if I train the AI on everything I've ever written
08:55
and then I tell it to write a book and iterate and iterate.
08:58
And I said, okay, but what that AI doesn't have is the experiences you haven't written about
09:06
or the things that happen to you tomorrow or the things that may shape your worldview
09:12
as you're writing the book. These are the things that make good content, right?
09:20
And so no matter how much you train AI, AI is not living your life.
09:27
It's not seeing the world through your lens. It's taking your lens and adding it to like one of those
09:33
big machines that the optometrists have to is one better, is two better, is three better.
09:39
That's a bunch of lenses, right? And I really think that AI can't give you that human element
09:50
or at least your unique perspective on adding that human element to the story.
09:55
And I think that's really important. So AI great for ideation, outlining,
10:04
thinking of things that you didn't think of because it does learn from lots of source material.
10:10
So you are getting outside perspective. But when it comes to actually creating the content,
10:15
if you want to connect with your listeners or your watchers, viewers, I guess is that word,
10:21
or your readers, then you need to add your personal stories and your own personal experiences
10:30
because that's how we connect. At that same time, though, do you feel that it's good for like summarization
10:36
for like show notes or YouTube descriptions, that kind of thing? Totally. You mentioned Cast Magic.
10:42
I actually just sent out in my newsletter last week that I'm using Cast Magic more
10:47
because I'm going through a little bit of a YouTube rebrand. I may they say measure twice, cut once.
10:56
I am a measure once, cut twice kind of guy. And so like I thought, oh, I need a separate YouTube channel
11:03
for this other thing, even though my well-established YouTube channel is monetized, blah, blah, blah.
11:12
That makes sense, actually, because I mean, if it's new material, don't they say that you need a new channel for it?
11:20
They do say that. Sorry, I paused because we should probably edit that long pause out.
11:25
My computer just started talking. It must feel like we should leave that in just for the fun of it.
11:30
Yeah, right. My computer. This is real life. We're real people. We're real creators.
11:35
AI is mad at me. For those listening, what we didn't caption the recording was I just got a new MacBook Air
11:43
and I'm impatient and excited. I just said I'm a measure once, cut twice kind of guy.
11:48
I could have not opened this laptop because I received it like seven minutes before we got on this call.
11:54
But I was like, I'll just let it do its thing while I'm recording and then I'll be able to use it after the recording.
12:00
Anyway, I hope that closing her didn't piss her off, though, and make I know I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
12:06
New laptop. Is it Siri on the laptop? It is Siri on the laptop. Yeah, Siri. You just slapped her down. I know. I know.
12:17
So ultimately, my point there is there's a bunch of videos I'm moving to a so the rebrand to your point, right?
12:26
My my channel was basically all WordPress. I don't want it to be WordPress anymore.
12:32
I want it to be fully focused on podcasting. And so I unlisted all of my WordPress videos
12:39
and I'm moving all of my podcasting videos that I've made from the new channel that's not monetized to the channel.
12:46
It's monetized. I haven't watched those videos in a while, and I'm not going to watch hours of my own content.
12:53
So I'm using Cast Magic, running it through its YouTube orator thing with the with the prompts and all that.
13:01
And then it spits out some reason transcripts and potential titles.
13:06
And I remember enough about these videos that I'm like, all right, this is close enough and I'll tweak it.
13:12
And it's been a huge, huge help with that. And with the interviews I do, I'll do like hour long interviews with people.
13:22
I edit a lot of that. I edit not maybe not, but I edit a bunch out and maybe my notes aren't as good as I thought they were.
13:32
So now I've been running those raw interviews through Cast Magic.
13:37
And I'm like, oh, yeah, the guests did make a great point here. Maybe that could be the cold open.
13:44
It's hugely, hugely helpful for that.
13:47
It's amazing how much we forget, like just after interviewing someone, we forget what they said.
13:53
Like they'll come up with all these amazing zingers and these golden nuggets.
13:56
And so, yeah, I agree with you that Cast Magic pulls things that I wouldn't have even thought of like, oh, my God, that is a good point.
14:02
And I like the fact that you can push a button and it does that magic chat thing where it gives all kinds of details that I wouldn't have even thought of to put in like a newsletter or social media or even make a reel out of.
14:15
And I'm anxious to see what else they come up with. But getting back to what we're here for, we're talking about why we need more than just a blog post to get people.
14:28
So now, when you said you started a new blog, tell me a little bit about it. I got to know more deep.
14:35
Yeah. So this was basically last year.
14:41
I guess 18 months ago, my friend Chanel Vassilio started a newsletter called Growth in Reverse, where she does a ton of research on a creator who got to 50,000 plus email subscribers.
15:01
And she herself is very close to hitting that will probably hit it in less than two years.
15:07
And so when she hit like 10,000 or 15,000 subscribers, maybe I thought, hey, I could probably do this for the podcasting industry, right?
15:17
Do like deep dives on how people produce their podcast.
15:22
And because wholesale copying someone never works out, I did like six and they were great, but they took me a really long time and I couldn't keep up with the pace, right?
15:37
You know, Chanel and I are in different points in our lives. I have three children.
15:42
She does not have three children. This is like a side gig for her where it was like part of my business, but not a part of my business I should have focused on.
15:52
And so what I ended up doing, I actually sat down with her in December about everything we're working on.
16:00
She gave me some really good advice and I had done this project called Podcast Advent, something I've been dying to do for years.
16:07
And I'm like November 27th. I was like, I'm doing it.
16:13
And so just 24 articles from the December 1st to December 24th.
16:19
And I said to her, part of the reason I'm doing this is because I want to transition podcast workflows from just like a weekly deep dive newsletter, which I haven't been keeping up with, to a more regular blog where I'll do a long form article or two long form articles.
16:31
And then I will highlight industry news for making podcasters better.
16:38
And so that's what podcast workflows is now. And it's been really great. I've been doing, sharing more of my experiments and I just did a long form article on like what makes good podcast artwork in 2024.
16:50
I'm sharing any, you know, anything I write for RSS.com makes it over to that blog, of course.
16:57
And it's been really fun and it's been really rewarding. And I think I'm about to like land my first sponsor for that website.
17:05
And so changing it to fit my needs has paid off so far.
17:12
So in talking about the repurposing content, is there a plan to take what you're now creating on this website and repurpose it into podcasts and videos and all the things?
17:22
Totally. So the piece I just referenced on what makes good podcast artwork.
17:29
That I had to write that piece by Monday because on Tuesday I did a live stream where I started redesigning my podcast artwork.
17:40
And so I used that piece as a reference for what I was talking about. And then afterwards I embedded that live stream in the article.
17:48
After the live stream, I recorded a podcast episode where I more or less read the article verbatim.
17:57
I had some people, Ari Elnis and Blatt, graciously recorded a couple of minutes talking about podcast artwork that I added into the show.
18:06
My friend Jay Klaus, who kind of inspired that piece, talked about on his podcast. He let me use the audio clip from that episode.
18:14
And then I referenced what I did in the live stream as well. So it was a winning combination, right?
18:21
Long form that informed a live stream. That was still new content. But it was heavily based on the written piece.
18:29
And then the podcast episode that was based on the article.
18:35
So it sounds like you're creating all kinds of content from one idea. And what are you doing with all of it? What is the ultimate goal with all of the content you're creating?
18:44
So for me, it's really about authority building, right?
18:51
I want to let people know that I know what I'm talking about. That I'm an expert in the space, right?
18:58
This helps me personally with the coaching side of my business and it helps my work at RSS.com because it shows people like, hey, Joe's an industry expert.
19:12
And he's like hitting, you know, he's working with RSS.com and talking about all the great things RSS.com has done in the industry.
19:20
So that's really the important part for me. Now, like I said, I want to get that stuff sponsored. My YouTube channel is monetized.
19:27
You know, I'm not like a Mr. Beast or Joe Rogan, right? The people on each platform who make the most money.
19:34
Thank God. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I try very hard not to be Joe Rogan. Mr. Beast seems pretty cool.
19:39
He does seem pretty cool, but he seems like he's overworked.
19:42
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Which is like another thing that we could talk about, right? Like burnout.
19:47
But I'm generating. I described content creation to someone recently as the new blue collar work.
19:55
It's just like, you know, you put an honest day's work in, you make an honest wage.
20:00
You're not going to be super rich, but you know, I'm able to support my family with my income, which is great.
20:05
That is absolutely great. And what's interesting to me is in working on your own business and working for RSS.com.
20:11
So you're creating all these multipurpose pieces of content for RSS with the ultimate goal of being OK.
20:17
They want to drive more subscribers. They want to drive more people to join their hosting platform to start a podcast.
20:24
Then on your other end, with the stuff that you're doing on your own business, you're creating all this different content with.
20:29
It sounds like almost like the ultimate goal is to funnel them into working with you as a coach or sponsoring your site.
20:34
Am I getting that right? Yeah, yeah, that's accurate. And it's really nice, right?
20:38
Because it's you know, I have like one of my services is like a done for you launch where people will read my content.
20:45
They'll be like, this is complicated. I don't want to do it. Joe, do it for me.
20:49
And so everything kind of works really nicely together. Like, you know, I do research for them on different hosting companies.
20:57
I fully disclose that I work for RSS.com before.
21:02
Ultimately recommending RSS.com to most people, because I do think it's the best. That's why I work for RSS.com, right?
21:11
But it's nice that I get to kind of flex.
21:20
I don't want to say my muscles, but like, you know, flex like different muscles in both.
21:24
Your brain muscles. My brain muscles. Yeah.
21:28
So it's cool that like I get to experiment on my side of like my coaching business side and try things and write and like muse a little bit.
21:40
And then for the RSS.com stuff, I get to see like how we are working to build the best possible platform for podcasters.
21:54
Right. I was just like on podcasting2.org, which is a website dedicated to teaching people about podcasting 2.0.
22:02
And I was just kind of scrolling through the posts and seeing like how many tags of podcasting 2.0 they have.
22:08
And we have a lot. Like we have. And it's really cool to see. Right.
22:14
Like transcripts is a great example. Right. We've supported transcripts for how long.
22:19
And I know at least some hosts like Apple kind of forced their hand into supporting transcripts.
22:25
It's nice that like Apple's not really forcing our hand to do anything.
22:28
Like we are ingrained in the community and understand the technology and are doing our best to help podcasters.
22:38
Well, it does definitely seem like RSS.com is on like the cutting edge in terms of technology because, you know, the founders of the company, they're in the space.
22:46
You know, I mean, Alberto is one of the co-founders and he started, you know, a podcast generator where he like basically built the code that created RSS.com.
22:57
I mean, now I know the company. They've upgraded and all the things, but they were really ingrained in the space and they took something awesome and created something awesomer.
23:09
Yeah, it's really cool to see like how, you know, there I mean, there are people who just like have the business because they think it'll make them money.
23:21
I know people in the podcasting space who are like that, but like, I mean, and Alberto, Alberto is like part Italian, right?
23:32
Like I'm also Italian and we're very passionate people, but like, you know, seeing Alberto speak especially about like these new features and get real technical.
23:40
I asked him about like backups recently because there was another podcast host that like completely disappeared a podcast.
23:47
And I was like, hey, what are we doing to prevent that? And like paragraphs of what we're doing.
23:54
And I'm like, yeah, we should tell people about this.
23:59
Like, like the stuff that we're doing on the back end, on the front end, people should know about because like I didn't know about this a year ago.
24:09
I didn't really know about all the cool things that RSS.com was doing a year ago.
24:13
When I jump ship and switch to the host I'm on now.
24:19
And like that host has at least one feature that I need at the moment.
24:23
But if I had known about RSS.com and all the cool stuff that they were doing, definitely like I look at how much I pay for my podcast host now.
24:34
And then I look at like when this feature I need is going to be ready.
24:39
And then like I cannot wait to like cut my cost by 60 percent.
24:44
Like I can't wait. Yeah, it is pretty impressive how much RSS.com gives you for your podcasting dollar.
24:52
And I mean, you know, one of the posts that I helped with a long time ago is why would anybody pay for podcast hosting when you can get it for free?
25:00
And just the truth is you really do get what you pay for.
25:04
And unfortunately, sometimes you pay more than you need to. So that's that's kind of one of the benefits of of working with RSS.com is you're not paying nearly as much as some of these hosts are charging.
25:16
I mean, I remember whenever I first started like looking at comparison pieces myself because the post that you're updating is actually what I initially wrote.
25:23
Yeah. And and I remember largely intact, by the way.
25:27
And I'm like I'm looking at I'm like I've got not a lot to add here, like I added a story about like going to the suit, like my parents sending me to the supermarket before camera phones were a thing.
25:37
And I'm like, what chicken do I buy? Do I buy the wrong chicken?
25:42
That's kind of funny because I still get text messages with pictures of different groceries whenever I send my husband to the market.
25:47
So that's very amusing. That's like a game changer. Yeah.
25:50
It's amazing that we can like in real time, like I actually it's funny you mentioned that yesterday I was in Walmart. Don't come don't anybody come for me. We're in a small town. We have Walmarts here.
25:59
OK. And so I was in a Walmart and this guy he was FaceTiming with his wife because he could not figure out for the life of him what to get.
26:08
And so he's like showing them all to her and he's like, would you just tell me which one do you want?
26:12
And she's like, well, whichever one's cheaper. He's like, no, I don't care about the first.
26:17
But it was just so funny, like, because, you know, back in the day, you would just it was a crap shoe.
26:22
You just buy something and you might piss off your wife.
26:24
But now you can hold up your phone and actually be like, no, which one of these two do you want?
26:30
Yep. The wild time. Yeah.
26:33
It's it's it's great. Right. Saves you like having to go back to the super like.
26:38
My mom used to write the aisles like that everything was in to make our like she knows that she had like two like four stupid boys and like two of them are going to the supermarket.
26:49
So, yeah, camera phones, game changer.
26:52
And the reason I tell that story is I feel like our post is like the camera phone at the grocery store for podcast hosting.
26:58
Like we like really lay it out and like look at all the competitors.
27:02
And it's good because I mean, not only are we showing that we know what we're talking about, we're showing the truth about, you know, what it is that makes RSS.com so different.
27:12
And, you know, grant you let's be honest, some of the features are the same.
27:17
But again, the fact that when you're on RSS, you can get a lot of those features without paying extra.
27:25
Like, I mean, I saw your transistor video, like the comparison video and how for their transcripts, they're charging you what was it, five dollars a month or something like that.
27:33
And the fact that included with RSS.com, it's like the more that the fact that you don't have to pay for that, it's included.
27:41
And like you get to like pick like how accurate you want it to be.
27:45
Yeah. And like we do we translate them.
27:48
This is a quick sidebar. Do you translate?
27:52
I really don't remember. Yeah. But like I feel like.
27:56
Should probably double check that. We should double check that before this goes to post. Yeah.
28:01
But like it's it's it's amazing. And like so I did one for Libsyn today.
28:05
Libsyn was my first podcast host. I'm sure that's true for a lot of people.
28:09
Anybody who started like, you know, eight years ago or whatever, I started 11 years ago.
28:16
And, you know, they have a five dollar a month plan and a five dollar a month plan is great if you're kicking the tires.
28:22
But at five bucks a month, they give you 50 megabytes.
28:25
And if you don't know for an MP3, it's like one minute per megabyte.
28:30
So like if you're going to do less than 50 minutes per month.
28:35
You know, fine, that's that's good that it's saved you some money.
28:39
But if you're doing a weekly show or even a fortnightly show, a fortnightly half hour long show, five bucks ain't going to cut it.
28:49
Yeah, it's so true. And I mean, you know, I anybody who's listening to this knows that I do blogging for people.
28:55
I do ghost writing. I do show notes.
28:58
And one of the clients that I was doing show notes for, they were on Libsyn and it was a weekly show and it was an awesome show.
29:05
But they kept running out of storage. And I was like, why are you still messing with these people if you know that you need more space?
29:12
And so I inevitably I converted her to RSS.com as well.
29:16
But but yeah, it's because, you know, like now she can load up to two gigabytes without even having to worry about it.
29:23
And she's never going to reach that amount. Mind you.
29:26
But the fact that she could, that's amazing.
29:29
Yeah, it's not going to cost her an arm and a leg.
29:32
Yeah, I think it's awesome. So by the way, that's about 2000 minutes. Right.
29:39
That's a lot of minutes. That's a lot of minutes per month. Right.
29:43
And like a wave file, it's about 10 10 megabytes per minute.
29:48
The highest encoded like CD quality. Right.
29:51
Like if you're doing like an audio drama and you've got a lot of Foley and sound effects and whatever and you really want and you really want that.
29:59
I mean, you get five minutes on Libsyn at the five dollar a month plan.
30:04
Right. Just it's not enough. If you get you get 16 minutes on their three hour plan.
30:10
Right. Like they they're pricing.
30:13
And again, like Libsyn is an OG and they've been around for a long time.
30:18
But like, you know, I'm not driving the first car I ever had anymore.
30:21
And there's a reason for that. Right. Like my new car is safer and it's got a carplay,
30:26
which is really my only requirement for car safety.
30:29
It's safety and carplay.
30:31
Not just carplay. But, you know, if you if you if you want like a higher quality than like the standard like one minute per megabyte MP3,
30:44
you're going to have to pay more still. Yeah.
30:48
And I mean, what's fascinating about RSS.com is that even as they continue upgrading, the price is still so affordable.
30:55
And to know that they're continuing to roll out new features like you and I both know some secret stuff that's going on behind the scenes of additional things that are coming out.
31:03
And it's like now of all times, get on the road like get with them because your podcast needs to be there because of all the things that are coming.
31:12
And I mean, the pod is technology. I mean, that alone.
31:16
Like, I mean, as soon as we started repurposing some of the podcast episodes for one of my show notes show notes clients,
31:23
I mean, she's starting to get visibility she never had before.
31:26
And it's just it's fascinating watching like we've been saying all the repurposing of the content, all the things you can do.
31:33
So I guess let's let's come to like a too long didn't read or too long didn't listen.
31:38
Brass packs. In your opinion, do bloggers need podcasts?
31:43
Yeah, definitely. Why?
31:46
That's two reasons. Right. How many times have you been on social media or have you been reading a text where you completely misread the tone?
31:58
Right. You need to be a very skilled writer to really convey the tone and changes in tone.
32:07
You don't need to be as skilled at speaking right to to convey basic tone.
32:16
And so I'm saying this because your personality shines through way more on a podcast than it does in writing.
32:27
And I love don't get me wrong. Don't hear what I'm not saying.
32:31
I love writing. I've written five books and working on number six.
32:37
But the emotion that you hear in my voice, right?
32:43
The emotion that you hear when I tell the story of when I had a panic attack during the pandemic and my daughter having to take care.
32:51
Like if I told that whole story, there's like a 50 percent chance I get choked up.
32:55
You don't see me get choked up when you when you read it.
32:59
So your personality shines through. People form a stronger bond with you when they are listening to you versus when they're reading you.
33:10
And second convenience.
33:14
I spend a lot of my afternoons in cars, carting my children around multiple places or cooking dinner when my wife's at work.
33:25
And if I had to set that time aside to read, I wouldn't be able to.
33:31
But I can listen to podcasts during that time. Listen to podcasts when I'm on my walks.
33:37
I can listen to podcasts when I'm mowing the lawn.
33:40
It is it's time freedom while also consuming the content you want to consume.
33:48
And so if you want to reach more people where they are at, definitely, definitely have a podcast to accompany your blog.
33:59
Disability, it's accessibility, it's search optimization, it's all the things.
34:04
So and if they're going to start a podcast, give me the brass tacks. Why does someone need to use RSS?
34:11
You need to use RSS.com because you are not punished for the amount of content you put out or the level of success that you have.
34:21
Right. There are hosts that will charge you based on the number of downloads you get.
34:29
And yeah, if you're getting hundreds of millions of downloads, fine, that makes sense, because then you're a real run on resources.
34:39
But the difference between like twenty thousand downloads and forty thousand downloads, you shouldn't be charged for that, I think.
34:48
And so RSS.com wants you to have a successful podcast and they give you all the tools you need to do so.
34:56
PodViz, which is better than everything else I've tried, including YouTube's new feature.
35:04
They've got transcripts built in.
35:09
They've got chapters and custom artwork and all of the things that you would expect from a modern podcast hosting company.
35:19
And they got great support. It's they I keep saying they, we, we have great support because we care about podcasting.
35:29
And they care about the podcaster. And that's, I think, the most important thing is, is, you know, they they're not just trying to get more dollars.
35:38
Right. They're they're actually trying to help you grow. And that's that's a big thing.
35:43
You know, like you said, that the penalization of a podcast that are getting more downloads, I mean, talk about a way to stifle your growth.
35:50
Like, do I really want more downloads? Well, yeah. But now I'm going to have to pay more for it if I'm with someone else.
35:55
Like, no, thank you. And so what I don't like the inhibition that you deal with with other hosts.
36:02
One of my so I've been on lots of different hosting platforms, podcast hosting platforms.
36:09
And one of the ones that I used to be on emailed me and they're like, hey, Joe, good news.
36:16
Like, you're about to hit one hundred thousand downloads this month. Unfortunately, that means we're going to have to bump you up to it was double the cost.
36:27
Oh, my God. And I said, hey, my my stats in my dashboard don't show that.
36:35
I'm not seeing one hundred thousand downloads. I'm seeing 30, 40.
36:40
And they're like, oh, yeah, like on that end, we're actually filtering out. They wholesale filter out China as a country.
36:47
Like, like they just completely block that entire.
36:52
And I'm like, this is. This is hurting like my because I have sponsors.
36:58
So I'm like, if you're going to charge me for one hundred thousand downloads, I want to see one hundred thousand downloads in my dashboard.
37:06
And like they made the adjustment, but like that just rubbed me the wrong way. Like I'm shady and sleazy.
37:11
Yeah. Yeah. Like I come close to hitting the limit once and you're like, oh, got to get that money from you.
37:16
And then I'm not even seeing the same thing. I didn't like that.
37:20
And like that definitely shows that you're more focused on the bottom line than the success of the podcaster.
37:28
Like, here's the other thing. Charging for transcripts is not a crazy thing. Like it's not like it's a reasonable business model because transcription costs money.
37:39
Right. But we build that into the platform because we believe every podcast should have transcripts for accessibility, for growth, like everything you said.
37:53
So why are we going to charge you extra for something we believe you need?
37:57
I love that. And I mean, you know, it's funny you mentioned that because I used to I used to have an Otter account.
38:02
I was paying, you know, eight ninety nine a month to get my transcripts. And any time I'd hit that six hundred minute mark, I'd freak out.
38:08
And then I was also paying, you know, I think it was like twelve ninety nine a month for headliner so I could create my my audiograms.
38:17
And now I don't have to pay either of those. And for less than that cost per month, I can have an RSS.com account that does my audiograms for me automatically.
38:26
And I believe and change the images if I have chapters. Yeah, it's a lease. It does my transcripts.
38:32
So it's like I was paying, you know, almost 20 bucks or more. I can't even math. I'm really bad at math. That's why I'm a writer.
38:39
Let's pay more than 20 bucks a month for those two services that I get for less than the cost of podcast hosting with our system.
38:47
And so I think that that alone kind of tells you why it's worth the value for the money.
38:52
And I feel like, you know, I'll probably die on this hill saying this over and over again.
38:58
But but the reality is like I've been a blogger since 2007 or 2009, been a writer since 2007 bloggers since 2009.
39:06
But I see it changing. I see how important it is now more than ever that if you don't have more than one piece of content, more than one type of content, then you're going to lose out on your audience.
39:16
And, you know, the Google Helpful Content Update is killing bloggers left and right. And I feel like now more than ever, if we're not paying attention and creating types of content, we're leaving money on the table.
39:28
We're losing audience members and we're killing our businesses.
39:32
But like, yeah, yeah, I agree with all orderly. I think, you know, it's obviously don't burn out. Like, don't try to be on every social platform, but creating different types of content to meet your audience where they are at is so important.
39:52
You can't just be like, well, I'm not going to do a podcast because I like writing. Like if you're if your audience prefers to consume your content via audio or video, then you got to meet them where they are.
40:04
Yeah, I mean, clearly we want audio as well, because if we didn't, then the audiobook industry wouldn't be as huge as it is.
40:10
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly. I mean, podcasting is growing. Podcasting is replacing traditional media, right, as far as like timeshare, you know.
40:22
So I mean, and even me, like the Sounds Profitable blog, it's an amazing blog, has amazing content about podcasting.
40:28
But I often catch myself listening to the audio of them reading the article while I'm reading the article, just to get it done faster, because like I can see it, I can hear it, and it like makes the come into my ear holes and I can actually condense everything that's being said faster.
40:45
And I don't know, just stuff like that just makes me like the website more if they're giving more ways to consume what it is you're creating.
40:53
And I, for a while, I had some of my own content, I was having it repurposed in audio format, but it was an AI audio and I won't ever do that again.
41:03
I've already ripped it off my website, it was god awful, it was some bot like speaking my words to me and I'm like, nope, nope. So I'm going through that arduous process now of actually recording my own audio.
41:15
But yeah, and then that's another thing, back to the whole AI thing, please just record your own audio. I beg of you, anyone listening, please record your own audio.
41:24
And there will be links in the description to how to sign up for RSS.com. And Joe, where can we find you online if we want to know more about you and what it is?
41:32
Well, you can find me on the RSS.com blog, of course, but I am jcasabona on basically every social network. So that's J-C-A-S-A-B-O-N-A.
41:45
Find me on LinkedIn maybe is the best, but Twitter and threads, X and threads, you know, those are, those are the places I'm hanging out to.
41:54
Well, if you had any final parting words that you wanted to share, what would you say to anybody who's listening to this and they're only listening to the last few seconds of what you have to share?
42:03
Most people who are worried about starting a podcast are worried because they're not going to be good or they're uncomfortable in front of a microphone.
42:10
And I would say this to you, the way to get comfortable in front of a microphone is to get your reps in.
42:16
The beautiful thing about recording audio on our computer is not live streamed. So open up QuickTime or open up Sound Recorder on Windows and just talk for a while.
42:25
See how it feels. There can be there are episodes of my podcast I've never released.
42:31
But through doing this for 10 years, I've gotten very comfortable speaking in front of the microphone. And I know you can too.
42:38
So good. And if nothing else, you can always call a Taylor Swift a la reputation and rip everything offline and start over.
42:45
Yeah, burn it all down.
42:49
Well, my bloggy friends, I hope you enjoyed all the insights our guests had to share with you. To get the show notes for this and all episodes, go over to famousashleygrant.com backslash podcast.
42:58
And until next time, may your page fees be high and your bounce rate below.
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