Episode 80Feb 6, 2026· 43:25
Replay - 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 2026 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
00:03
The Bloggy Friends Show. What's up, my bloggy
00:25
friends? Famous Ashley Grant here, and I just
00:27
want to welcome you to the Bloggy Friends Show.
00:29
We're so excited to have you join us on this
00:31
journey of sharing our knowledge and experiences
00:33
with you. Whether you're a blogger, a content
00:35
creator, or just someone who's interested in
00:37
learning more about the digital world, we've
00:39
got something for you. So grab your notebook
00:41
and a pen to take some notes, or just sit back
00:43
and take in all the amazing information and ideas
00:45
we're about to share with you. Let's get into
00:47
it. Okay. Well, in that case, I will do audio,
00:53
maximum, boom. All right. Backup's going. That's
01:00
fantastic. OK, so basically what I wanted to
01:03
bring you on here today for is to talk about
01:05
content creation and how the world of content
01:07
creation is changing and how, yeah, bloggers,
01:11
they're awesome. But if you're just a blogger
01:13
in 2024 and beyond, it is not enough. So, Joe,
01:17
welcome. Let's talk about it. Thanks for having
01:21
me. I guess I should also clarify here that I'm
01:25
here in my official capacity for RSS .com, right?
01:27
Yeah. All right. Fantastic. Yes. Yeah. So I am
01:32
the product evangelist for RSS .com. Ashley and
01:35
I know each other that way. So I'm really excited
01:37
to talk about this because I, an intrepid person,
01:41
started a new blog essentially in 2024. But as
01:48
you said, it's like not that's not enough. Right.
01:52
So. I think that like on the marketing side,
01:55
obviously, at RSS .com, we're like really focusing
01:58
on long form and the written word, which sounds
02:03
like a really religious term. But, you know,
02:10
like that's been one of my big focuses with Brian
02:12
is like updating some of that, like leveraging
02:14
my 10 plus years experience in the podcasting
02:18
space to update some of our older articles. But
02:21
part of that is. I'm creating video content to
02:25
go along with it, right? So we did our year in
02:28
review and that was a blog post, but that was
02:30
also a video I did. We just did like the seven
02:35
thing, we updated the seven things you need to
02:37
know to start a podcast. And part of that was
02:41
I created one long video and I was very deliberate
02:44
about making the transitions good end points
02:49
so that each section could have its own discrete
02:52
video there. And now I'm doing the same thing
02:54
with our hosting guide, right? Like we've got
02:56
the best podcast hosting platforms of 2024. And
03:02
for each video, I'm essentially doing some sort
03:07
of comparison, right? Like for some, it's like
03:10
feature comparison where I have the access. And
03:13
some, it's just like, you know, here's some of
03:16
the things to consider. And, you know, that creates
03:20
the engaging content. on across other platforms
03:24
one like platforms with better algorithmic discovery
03:26
and it gives people options for how they want
03:29
to consume that content as well yeah i think
03:32
that's so important to to talk about is how you're
03:35
not just creating one piece of content and the
03:37
reason why is because we don't all consume content
03:40
the same way Especially if like we're reading
03:42
something at the grocery store while we're in
03:44
the checkout line versus when we're listening
03:46
to something while we're, I don't know, in the
03:49
waiting room at the dentist. If we don't have
03:51
both forms of content, then people can't find
03:55
it. First of all, it's like it's a visibility
03:57
thing. It's a search thing, but it's also a means
04:01
of reaching your audience in multiple ways. So
04:04
now when it comes to creating the content. I
04:10
mean, I know you're a prolific creator yourself.
04:11
You put a lot of stuff on your own website. You
04:14
put a lot of stuff on your own podcast. What
04:16
should you start with? Should you start with
04:19
the podcast episode? Should you start with the
04:21
video? Should you start with the word, the written
04:23
word? Which do you think is the best one to start
04:27
with in 2024? This is a really good question
04:32
because I... I've changed my mind on it a little
04:39
bit, I think. It's a really good question because
04:42
it's something I've thought about a lot lately,
04:44
right? If you had asked like 2022 Joe, like,
04:48
hey, what should I start with? I'd be like, definitely
04:50
start with the podcast, just like word vomit
04:52
that audio and then turn it into written content.
04:57
But I found last year as I was writing these
05:01
long form articles. These like podcast deep dives
05:06
on how popular podcasters produce their show
05:08
and then reading them for my podcast that it
05:14
just flowed better. Right. It was I wasn't pausing
05:20
a lot. I wasn't having to edit out a bunch of
05:23
stuff and I was able to tell a better story.
05:26
And that's really the important part. Right.
05:30
You know, something that we talk about at RSS
05:34
.com and something I've talked a lot with Brian
05:37
in my own writings is the importance of integrating
05:41
story into everything we do and not just giving
05:46
you a very factual readout, right? I think that's
05:50
something that AI can do pretty well, right?
05:55
And so the human element is the story. And so...
05:59
To answer your question, answering it the longest
06:02
way possible, I think that for me at least, starting
06:08
with the written stuff is the most impactful
06:14
because it helps me work through what I'm trying
06:16
to do. It helps me get my story straight. And
06:19
then when I go to read it, like it's not a straight,
06:22
you know, it's not like a straight reading. I'll
06:23
ad lib a little bit, but I know the story I want
06:26
to tell. I know. when the uh hardest hitting
06:31
part of what i'm saying is coming up and i can
06:34
build to that and i can um close very cleanly
06:39
i can land the plane smoothly right whereas if
06:44
you're if you're just talking even with an outline
06:47
right you have the story beats but you're not
06:50
quite sure you may not be uh quite as sure as
06:54
how you're going to get there I can't disagree
06:57
with any of that, but you did bring up something
07:00
that we have to talk about because it's the elephant
07:02
in the room. I've talked about it ad nauseum
07:05
on this podcast, and I was just interviewed by
07:08
Cast Magic about AI and podcasting and AI and
07:11
content. So you mentioned that you need to bring
07:15
in a story so that it's not just something that
07:17
AI can reproduce. Tell me what your thoughts
07:20
are on AI and podcasting, AI and blogging, AI
07:23
and all. Yeah. So let me start before I completely
07:27
dump on it by saying that I have a course on
07:30
LinkedIn learning on how to use generative AI
07:32
with podcasting. Right. So I'm not I'm not against
07:35
it. Right. But I also last year I posted across
07:39
social media. I think like LinkedIn is where
07:42
it got the most engagement. But I said saying
07:46
I used AI to write my book is like saying I used
07:50
a car to run a marathon. And lots of people took
07:54
issue with that. I'm assuming those people say
07:57
they used AI to write their book. What they read
08:01
and what I meant may have been two different
08:05
things, right? What they read was don't use AI
08:08
at all in any part of the book writing process.
08:12
That's not what I meant. What I meant was this
08:16
whole chapter was written based on a prompt.
08:20
that I came up with for AI. And so my friend
08:26
Alistair reached out to me and he was like, we
08:29
should have this debate on our podcast. And I
08:32
was like, okay, great. He was pro basically prompt
08:38
engineering your book into existence. And I was
08:41
anti that. And I'll spare you the entire hour
08:45
long conversation, but it came down to this.
08:48
Alistair said, okay, but what if I train the
08:52
AI on everything I've ever written and then I
08:56
tell it to write a book and iterate and iterate?
08:58
And I said, okay, but what that AI doesn't have
09:02
is the experiences you haven't written about
09:05
or the things that happen to you tomorrow or
09:09
the things that may shape your worldview as you're
09:12
writing the book. These are the things that make...
09:17
good content, right? And so no matter how much
09:22
you train AI, AI is not living your life. It's
09:27
not seeing the world through your lens. It's
09:29
taking your lens and adding it to like one of
09:32
those big machines that the optometrists have
09:35
to is one better, is two better, is three better.
09:39
That's a bunch of lenses, right? And I really
09:44
think that AI can't give you that human element
09:49
or at least your unique perspective on adding
09:53
that human element to the story. And I think
09:55
that's really important. So AI, great for ideation,
10:01
outlining, thinking of things that you didn't
10:05
think of because it does learn from lots of source
10:09
material. So you are getting outside perspective.
10:12
But when it comes to actually creating the content.
10:15
If you want to connect with your listeners or
10:18
your watchers, viewers, I guess is that word,
10:21
or your readers, then you need to add your personal
10:26
stories and your own personal experiences. Because
10:30
that's how we connect. At that same time, though,
10:33
do you feel that it's good for like summarization
10:35
for like show notes or, you know, YouTube descriptions,
10:39
that kind of thing? Totally. You mentioned Cast
10:41
Magic. I actually just sent out in my newsletter
10:43
last week. that I'm using Cast Magic more because
10:47
I'm going through a little bit of a YouTube rebrand.
10:52
They say measure twice, cut once. I am a measure
10:56
once, cut twice kind of guy. And so I thought,
11:01
oh, I need a separate YouTube channel for this
11:03
other thing, even though my well -established
11:06
YouTube channel is monetized, blah, blah, blah.
11:11
That makes sense, actually. Because, I mean,
11:14
if it's new material, don't they say that you
11:17
need a new channel for it? They do say that.
11:20
Sorry I paused because we should probably edit
11:23
that long pause out. My computer just started
11:25
talking. I feel like we should leave that in
11:28
just for the fun of it. Yeah, right. This is
11:31
real life. We're real people. We're real creators.
11:34
AI is mad at me. For those listening, what we
11:38
didn't caption the recording was I just got a
11:42
new MacBook Air and I'm impatient and excited.
11:45
I just said I'm a measure once, cut twice kind
11:47
of guy. I was I could have not opened this laptop
11:50
because I received it like seven minutes before
11:52
we got on this call. But I was like, oh, I'll
11:54
just let it do its thing while I'm recording
11:56
and then I'll be able to use it after the recording.
11:59
Anyway. i hope that closing her didn't piss her
12:03
off though and make i know i'm sorry i'm sorry
12:06
new laptop um is it siri on the laptop and it's
12:10
siri on the laptop yeah siri you just slapped
12:13
her down i know i know um so ultimately my point
12:18
there is there's a bunch of videos i'm moving
12:20
to a so the rebrand to your point right my my
12:26
channel was basically all wordpress I don't want
12:30
it to be WordPress anymore. I want it to be fully
12:32
focused on podcasting. And so I unlisted all
12:37
of my WordPress videos and I'm moving all of
12:40
my podcasting videos that I've made from the
12:42
new channel that's not monetized to the channel
12:46
that's monetized. I haven't watched those videos
12:49
in a while and I'm not going to watch hours of
12:51
my own content. So I'm using CastMagic, running
12:56
it through its YouTuber Raider. thing with the
12:59
with the prompts and all that um and then it
13:02
spits out summaries and transcripts and potential
13:05
titles and i remember enough about these videos
13:09
and i'm like all right this is close enough and
13:11
i'll tweak it um and it's been a huge huge help
13:15
with that and with the uh interviews i do i'll
13:20
do like hour -long interviews with people i edit
13:23
a lot of that i edit not maybe not but i i edit
13:26
a bunch out And maybe my notes aren't as good
13:31
as I thought they were. So now I've been running
13:33
those raw interviews through Cast Magic. And
13:37
I'm like, oh, yeah, the guests did make a great
13:40
point here. Maybe that could be the cold open.
13:44
It's hugely, hugely helpful for that. It's amazing
13:48
how much we forget. Like just after interviewing
13:51
someone, we forget what they said. Like they'll
13:53
come up with all these amazing zingers and these
13:55
golden nuggets. And so, yeah, I agree with you
13:57
that cast magic pulls things that I wouldn't
13:59
have even thought of. Like, oh, my God, that
14:00
is a good point. And I like the the fact that
14:03
you can push a button and it does that magic
14:06
chat thing where it gives all kinds of details
14:08
that I wouldn't have even thought of to put in
14:10
like a newsletter or social media or even make
14:13
a reel out of like. And I'm anxious to see what
14:16
else they come up with. But but getting back
14:18
to what we're here for, we're talking about,
14:22
you know, why we need more than just a blog post
14:25
to get people. So now when you said you started
14:30
a new blog, tell me a little bit about it. I
14:32
got to know more deep. Yeah, so this was basically
14:37
last year. I guess 18 months ago, my friend Chanel
14:42
Basilio started. a newsletter called Growth in
14:46
Reverse, where she does a ton of research on
14:54
a creator who got to 50 ,000 plus email subscribers.
15:00
And she herself is very close to hitting that,
15:03
will probably hit it in less than two years.
15:06
And so when she hit like 10 ,000 or 15 ,000 subscribers,
15:10
maybe I thought, hey, I could probably do this.
15:15
for the podcasting industry right do like deep
15:17
dives on how people produce their podcast uh
15:22
and because wholesale copying someone never works
15:26
out I did like six and they were great but they
15:29
took me a really long time and I couldn't keep
15:33
up uh with the pace right uh you know Chanel
15:37
and I are in different points in our lives I
15:39
have three children um She does not have three
15:43
children. This is like a side gig for her where
15:46
it was like part of my business, but not a part
15:49
of my business I should have focused on. And
15:52
so what I ended up doing, I actually sat down
15:55
with her in December about everything we're working
15:59
on. She gave me some really good advice. And
16:02
I had done this project called Podcast Advent,
16:04
something I've been dying to do for years. And
16:07
on like November 27th, I was like, I'm doing
16:10
it. and so just 24 articles from the December
16:17
1st to December 24th and I said to her part of
16:20
the reason I'm doing this is because I want to
16:21
transition podcast workflows from just like a
16:23
weekly deep dive newsletter which I haven't been
16:25
keeping up with to a more regular blog where
16:28
I'll do a long form article or two long form
16:30
articles and then I will highlight industry news
16:34
for making podcasters better And so that's what
16:38
podcast workflows is now. And it's been really
16:41
great. I've been doing, sharing more of my experiments.
16:44
And I just did a long form article on like what
16:47
makes good podcast artwork in 2024. I'm sharing
16:51
any, you know, any, anything I write for rss
16:54
.com makes it over to that blog, of course. And
16:57
it's been really fun. And it's been really rewarding.
17:00
And I think I'm about to like land my first sponsor
17:03
for that website. And so changing it to fit my
17:08
needs has paid off so far. So in talking about
17:13
the repurposing content, is there a plan to take
17:16
what you're now creating on this website and
17:19
repurpose it into podcasts and videos and all
17:22
the things? Totally. So the piece I just referenced
17:26
on what makes good podcast artwork, that I had
17:31
to write that piece by Monday. Because on Tuesday,
17:35
I did a live stream where I started redesigning
17:38
my podcast artwork. And so I used that piece
17:42
as a reference for what I was talking about.
17:44
And then afterwards, I embedded that live stream
17:46
in the article. After the live stream, I recorded
17:51
a podcast episode where I more or less read the
17:55
article verbatim. I had some people, Ariel Nissenblatt,
17:59
graciously recorded a couple of minutes. talking
18:03
about podcast artwork that I added into the show.
18:05
My friend Jay Klaus, who like kind of inspired
18:08
that piece, talked about on his podcast, he let
18:12
me use the audio clip from that episode. And
18:15
then I referenced what I did in the live stream
18:17
as well. So it was a winning combination, right?
18:20
Long form that informed a live stream that was
18:24
still new content, but it was heavily based on
18:27
the written piece. And then the podcast episode,
18:32
That was based on the article. So it sounds like
18:36
you're creating all kinds of content from one
18:38
idea. And what are you doing with all of it?
18:40
Like, what is the ultimate goal with all of the
18:42
content you're creating? So for me, it's really
18:47
about authority building, right? I want to let
18:53
people know that I know what I'm talking about,
18:55
that I'm an expert in the space, right? This
18:57
helps me personally with the coaching side of
19:00
my business. It helps my work at RSS .com because
19:05
it shows people like, hey, Joe's an industry
19:10
expert. And he's like hitting, you know, he's
19:13
working with RSS .com and talking about all the
19:16
great things RSS .com has done in the industry.
19:19
So that's really the important part for me. Now,
19:22
like I said, I want to get that stuff sponsored.
19:24
My YouTube channel is monetized. You know, I'm
19:27
not like a Mr. Beast or Joe Rogan, right? people
19:32
on each platform who make the most money. Thank
19:34
God. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I try very hard
19:36
not to be Joe Rogan. Mr. B seems pretty cool.
19:39
He does seem pretty cool, but he seems like he's
19:41
overworked. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Which is like
19:44
another thing that we could talk about, right?
19:45
Like burnout, but, but I'm, I'm generating, I
19:50
described content creation to someone recently
19:52
as the new blue collar work. It's just like,
19:56
you know, you put an honest day's work in, you
19:58
make an honest wage. You're not going to be super
20:01
rich, but I'm able to support my family with
20:03
my income, which is great. That is absolutely
20:06
great. And what's interesting to me is in working
20:08
on your own business and working for RSS .com,
20:11
so you're creating all these multipurpose pieces
20:14
of content for RSS with the ultimate goal of
20:16
being, okay, they want to drive more subscribers.
20:18
They want to drive more people to join their
20:21
hosting platform to start a podcast. Then on
20:24
your other end with the stuff that you're doing
20:26
on your own business, you're creating all this
20:27
different content. It sounds like almost like
20:30
the ultimate goal is to funnel them into working
20:32
with you as a coach or sponsoring your site.
20:34
Am I getting that right? Yeah, yeah, that's accurate.
20:37
And it's really nice, right? Because it's, you
20:39
know, I have like one of my services is like
20:42
a done for you launch where people will read
20:44
my content. They'll be like, this is complicated.
20:46
I don't want to do it. Joe, do it for me. And
20:49
so everything kind of works really nicely together.
20:52
Like, you know, I do research for them on different
20:54
hosting companies. I fully disclose that I work
20:59
for RSS .com before ultimately recommending RSS
21:03
.com to most people because I do think it's the
21:06
best. That's why I work for RSS .com, right?
21:10
But it's nice that I get to kind of flex. i don't
21:20
want to say my muscles but like you know flex
21:22
like different muscles in in both your brain
21:24
muscles my brain muscles yeah yeah um so it's
21:28
cool that like i get to experiment on on my side
21:32
of like my coaching business side and try things
21:35
and and write um and like muse a little bit um
21:41
and then for the rss .com stuff i get to see
21:43
um like how we are working to build the best
21:50
possible platform for podcasters right i was
21:55
just like on podcasting2 .org which is a website
21:59
dedicated to teaching people about podcasting
22:01
2 .0 and i was just kind of scrolling through
22:03
the hosts and seeing like how many tags of podcasting
22:07
2 .0 they have and uh we have a lot like we have
22:11
and it's really cool to see right like Transcripts
22:15
is a great example, right? We've supported transcripts
22:18
for how long? And I know at least some hosts
22:20
like Apple kind of forced their hand into supporting
22:23
transcripts. It's nice that like Apple's not
22:26
really forcing our hand to do anything like we
22:29
we are ingrained in the community and understand
22:32
the technology and are doing our best to help
22:35
podcasters. Well, it does definitely seem like
22:39
RSS .com is on like the cutting edge in terms
22:41
of. technology because you know the the founders
22:44
of the company they're they're in the space you
22:46
know i mean uh alberto is one of the co -founders
22:49
and and he he started you know um a podcast generator
22:53
where he like basically built the code that created
22:56
rss .com i mean now i know the company oh they've
23:00
upgraded and all the things but they were really
23:02
ingrained in the space and they took something
23:05
awesome and created something awesomer yeah it's
23:10
really cool to see like how you know there I
23:14
mean there are people who just like have the
23:17
business because they think it'll make them money
23:19
um I know people in the podcasting space who
23:23
are like that but like I mean and Alberto Alberto's
23:29
like part part Italian right like I'm also Italian
23:33
and we're very passionate people but like you
23:35
know seeing Alberto speak especially about like
23:38
these new features and get real technical I asked
23:41
him about like backups recently because there
23:43
was another podcast host that like completely
23:45
disappeared a podcast. And I was like, hey, what
23:49
are we doing to prevent that? And like paragraphs
23:52
of what we're doing. And I'm like, yeah, we should
23:56
tell people about this. Like the stuff that we're
24:02
doing on the back end, on the front end, people
24:05
should know about because like I didn't know
24:08
about this a year ago. I didn't really know about
24:11
all the cool things that RSS .com was doing a
24:12
year ago when I jumped ship and switched to the
24:17
host I'm on now. And like that host has at least
24:21
one feature that I need at the moment. But if
24:25
I had known about RSS .com and all the cool stuff
24:28
that they were doing, definitely like I look
24:31
at how much I pay for my podcast host now. And
24:35
then I look at like when this feature I need
24:37
is going to be ready. And I'm like, I cannot
24:40
wait to like cut my cost by 60 percent. Like
24:44
I can't wait. Yeah, it is pretty impressive how
24:47
much RSS .com gives you for your your podcasting
24:51
dollar. And I mean, you know, one of the posts
24:54
that I helped with a long time ago is why would
24:56
anybody pay for podcasting when a podcast hosting
24:58
when you can get it for free? And just the truth
25:02
is, you really do get what you pay for. And unfortunately,
25:05
sometimes you pay more than you need to. So that's
25:08
kind of one of the benefits of working with RSS
25:11
.com is you're not paying nearly as much as some
25:14
of these hosts are charging. I mean, I remember
25:17
whenever I first started looking at comparison
25:19
pieces myself, because the post that you're updating
25:21
is actually what I initially wrote. And I remember...
25:25
You're largely intact, by the way. I'm looking
25:27
at it, I'm like, I've got not a lot to add here.
25:29
I added a story about my parents sending me to
25:33
the supermarket before camera phones were a thing.
25:36
And I'm like, what chicken do I buy? Do I buy
25:39
the wrong chicken? That's kind of funny because
25:42
I still get text messages with pictures of different
25:44
groceries whenever I send my husband to the market.
25:46
So that's very amusing. That's like game changer.
25:49
Yeah, it's amazing that we can like in real time.
25:52
Like I actually it's funny you mentioned that
25:54
yesterday. I was in Walmart. Don't come. Don't
25:56
anybody come for me. We're in a small town. We
25:58
have Walmarts here. OK. And so I was in a Walmart
26:01
and this guy, he was FaceTiming with his wife
26:04
because he could not figure out for the life
26:05
of him what to get. And so he's like showing
26:09
them all to her. And he's like, would you just
26:10
tell me which one do you want? And she's like,
26:12
well, whichever one's cheaper. He's like, no,
26:14
I don't care about the purse. But it was just
26:17
so funny, like, because, you know, back in the
26:19
day, you would just it was a crapshoot. You just
26:21
buy something and you might piss off your wife.
26:24
But now you can hold up your phone and actually
26:27
be like, no, which one of these two do you want?
26:30
yep a wild time yeah it's it's it's great right
26:34
it saves you like having to go back to the super
26:37
like and my mom used to write the aisles like
26:41
that everything was in to make our like because
26:43
she knows that she had like two like four stupid
26:45
boys uh and like two of them were going to the
26:48
supermarket so yeah camera phones game changer
26:51
and the reason i tell that story is i i feel
26:53
like our post is like The camera phone at the
26:56
grocery store for podcast hosting, like we like
26:58
really lay it out and like look at all the competitors.
27:01
And now it's good because, I mean, not only are
27:04
we showing that we know what we're talking about,
27:07
we're showing the truth about, you know, what
27:09
it is that makes RSS .com so different. And,
27:12
you know, grant you, let's be honest, some of
27:15
the features are the same. But again, the fact
27:18
that when you're on RSS, you can get a lot of
27:22
those features without paying extra. Like, I
27:25
mean, I saw your transistor video, like the comparison
27:27
video and how for their transcripts, they're
27:30
charging you. What was it? Five dollars a month
27:32
or something like that. And the fact that it's
27:33
included with RSS dot com. It's like the more
27:37
that the fact that you don't have to pay for
27:39
that, it's included. And like you get to like
27:42
pick like how accurate you want it to be. And
27:45
like we do we translate them? This is a quick
27:48
sidebar. Do we translate? I really don't remember.
27:53
Yeah. But I feel like we should probably double
27:57
check that. We should double check that before
27:59
this goes to post. Yeah. But it's amazing. So
28:03
I did one for Libsyn today. Libsyn was my first
28:06
podcast host. I'm sure that's true for a lot
28:08
of people. Anybody who started eight years ago
28:12
or whatever. I started 11 years ago. And they
28:17
have a $5 a month plan. And a $5 a month plan
28:20
is great if you're kicking the tires. But at
28:22
$5 a month, they give you 50 megabytes. And if
28:25
you don't know, for an MP3, it's like one minute
28:28
per megabyte. So, like, if you're going to do
28:32
less than 50 minutes per month, you know, fine.
28:36
That's good. It saves you some money. But if
28:39
you're doing a weekly show or even a fortnightly
28:43
show, a fortnightly half -hour long show. Five
28:48
bucks ain't going to cut it. Yeah, it's so true.
28:50
And I mean, you know, I anybody who's listening
28:53
to this knows that I do blogging for people.
28:55
I do ghostwriting. I do show notes. And one of
28:59
the clients that I was doing show notes for,
29:00
they were on Libsyn and it was a weekly show
29:03
and it was an awesome show, but they kept running
29:06
out of storage. And I was like, why are you still
29:08
messing with these people if you know that you
29:11
need more space? And so I inevitably I converted
29:15
her to RSS dot com as well. But but yeah, it's
29:18
because, you know, like now she can load up to
29:20
two gigabytes without even having to worry about
29:22
it. And she's never going to reach that amount,
29:25
mind you. But the fact that she could, that's
29:28
amazing. It's not going to cost her an arm and
29:31
a leg. Yeah, I think it's awesome. So, by the
29:35
way, that's about 2000 minutes, right? that's
29:39
a lot of minutes that's a lot of minutes per
29:42
month right like uh and like a wave file it's
29:45
about 10 10 megabytes per minute the highest
29:49
encoded like cd quality right like if you're
29:51
doing like an audio drama and you've got a lot
29:54
of foley and sound effects and whatever and you
29:56
really want and you really want that um i mean
30:00
you get five minutes on libsyn at the five dollar
30:03
a month plan right just it's not enough it's
30:06
you get you get 16 minutes on their three -hour
30:09
plan right like they they're pricing and again
30:13
like libsyn is an og and they've been around
30:15
for a long time um but like you know i'm not
30:19
driving the first car i ever had anymore and
30:21
there's a reason for that right like my new car
30:24
is safer and it's got car play which is really
30:26
my only requirement for cars these days um safety
30:30
and car play not just car play um but you know
30:36
if you if you If you want like a higher quality
30:39
than like the standard like one minute per megabyte
30:42
MP3, you're going to have to pay more still.
30:47
Yeah. And I mean, what's fascinating about RSS
30:49
.com is that even as they continue upgrading,
30:52
the price is still so affordable. And to know
30:56
that they're continuing to roll out new features
30:58
like you and I both know some secret stuff that's
31:00
going on behind the scenes of additional things
31:02
that are coming out. And it's like now of all
31:04
times. get on the program, like get with them
31:07
because your podcast needs to be there because
31:10
of all the things that are coming. And I mean,
31:13
the Podviz technology, I mean, that alone, like,
31:16
I mean, as soon as we started repurposing some
31:19
of the podcast episodes for one of my show notes
31:21
clients, I mean, she's starting to get visibility
31:25
she never had before. And it's just, it's fascinating
31:28
watching, like we've been saying, all the repurposing
31:31
of the content, all the things you can do. So
31:33
I guess let's come to like a too long didn't
31:36
read or too long didn't listen. Brass tacks,
31:39
in your opinion, do bloggers need podcasts? Yeah,
31:43
definitely. Why? Two reasons, right? How many
31:51
times have you been on social media or have you
31:54
been reading a text where you completely misread
31:57
the tone, right? You need to be a very skilled
32:01
writer. to really convey the tone and changes
32:06
in tone you don't need to be as skilled at speaking
32:12
right to uh to convey basic tone and so i'm saying
32:18
this because your personality shines through
32:22
way more on a podcast than it does in writing
32:27
and i love don't get me wrong don't hear what
32:30
i'm not saying I love writing. I've written five
32:34
books. I'm working on number six. But the emotion
32:39
that you hear in my voice, right? The emotion
32:43
that you hear when I tell the story of when I
32:46
had a panic attack during the pandemic and my
32:49
daughter having to take care of it. Like if I
32:51
told that whole story, there's like a 50 % chance
32:53
I get choked up. You don't see me get choked
32:56
up when you read it. So your personality shines
33:00
through. People form a stronger bond with you
33:04
when they are listening to you versus when they're
33:08
reading you. And second, convenience. I spend
33:15
a lot of my afternoons in cars, carting my children
33:20
around multiple places, or cooking dinner when
33:23
my wife's at work, and... If I had to set that
33:29
time aside to read, I wouldn't be able to. But
33:31
I can listen to podcasts during that time. I
33:34
can listen to podcasts when I'm on my walks.
33:37
I can listen to podcasts when I'm mowing the
33:39
lawn. It's time freedom while also consuming
33:46
the content you want to consume. And so if you
33:49
want to reach more people where they are at,
33:53
definitely, definitely have a podcast to accompany
33:56
your blog. Disability, it's accessibility, it's
34:01
search optimization, it's all the things. So,
34:04
and if they're going to start a podcast, give
34:06
me the brass tacks. Why does someone need to
34:08
use rss .com? You need to use rss .com because
34:13
you are not punished for the amount of content
34:17
you put out or the level of success that you
34:21
have, right? There are... Hosts that will charge
34:25
you based on the number of downloads you get.
34:29
And yeah, if you're getting hundreds of millions
34:33
of downloads, fine. That makes sense. Because
34:37
then you're a real run on resources. But the
34:40
difference between like 20 ,000 downloads and
34:43
40 ,000 downloads, you shouldn't be charged for
34:46
that, I think. And so... RSS .com wants you to
34:52
have a successful podcast and they give you all
34:54
the tools you need to do so. Podviz, which is
34:57
better than everything else I've tried, including
35:02
YouTube's new feature. They've got transcripts
35:06
built in. They've got chapters and custom artwork
35:13
and all of the things that you would expect from
35:15
a modern podcast hosting company. And they got
35:19
great support. It's they I keep saying that we
35:23
we have great support because we care about podcasting.
35:29
And they care about the podcaster. And that's
35:31
I think the most important thing is, is, you
35:34
know, they they're not just trying to get more
35:37
dollars. Right. They're they're actually trying
35:39
to help you grow. And and that's that's a big
35:42
thing. You know, like you said, the penalization
35:44
of a podcast that are getting more downloads.
35:47
I mean. Talk about a way to stifle your growth.
35:49
Like, do I really want more downloads? Well,
35:52
yeah, but now I'm going to have to pay more for
35:54
it if I'm with someone else. Like, no, thank
35:55
you. And so I don't like the inhibition that
36:00
you deal with with other hosts. One of my, so
36:04
I've been on lots of different hosting platforms,
36:07
podcast hosting platforms. And one of the ones
36:11
that I used to be on emailed me and they're like,
36:14
hey, Joe, good news. Like, you're. about to hit
36:18
100 ,000 downloads this month. Unfortunately,
36:23
that means we're going to have to bump you up
36:25
to, it was double the cost. Oh my God. And I
36:29
said, hey, my stats in my dashboard don't show
36:33
that. I'm not seeing 100 ,000 downloads. I'm
36:37
seeing 30, 40. And they're like, oh yeah, like
36:42
on that end, we're actually filtering out. They
36:44
wholesale filter out China as a country. uh like
36:48
like they just completely block that entire and
36:52
i'm like this is this is hurting like my because
36:57
i have sponsors right so i'm like if you're going
37:00
to charge me for a hundred thousand downloads
37:01
i want to see a hundred thousand downloads in
37:04
my dashboard and like they made the adjustment
37:06
but like that just rubbed me the wrong way like
37:09
i feel shady and sleepy Yeah. Like I come close
37:13
to hitting the limit once and you're like, oh,
37:15
got to get that money from you. And then I'm
37:16
not even seeing the same thing. I didn't like
37:18
that. And like that definitely shows that you're
37:22
more focused on the bottom line than the success
37:26
of the podcaster. Because like here's the other
37:28
thing. Charging for transcripts is not a crazy
37:31
thing. Like it's not like it's a reasonable business
37:35
model because transcription costs money. Right.
37:40
But. We build that into the platform because
37:44
we believe every podcast should have transcripts
37:49
for accessibility, for growth, like everything
37:51
you said. So why are we going to charge you extra
37:54
for something we believe you need? I love that.
37:57
And I mean, you know, it's funny you mentioned
37:59
that because I used to have an Otter account.
38:02
I was paying, you know, $8 .99 a month to get
38:05
my transcripts. And anytime I'd hit that 600
38:07
-minute mark, I'd freak out. And then I was also
38:09
paying, you know, I think it was like $12 .99
38:11
a month for Headliner so that I could create
38:14
my audiograms. And now I don't have to pay either
38:19
of those. And for less than that cost per month,
38:21
I can have an RSS .com account that does my audiograms
38:25
for me automatically. And it'll even change the
38:28
images if I have chapters. And it does my transcripts.
38:32
So it's like I was paying, you know, almost $20
38:34
or more. I can't even math. I'm really bad at
38:37
math. That's why I'm a writer. was paying more
38:39
than 20 bucks a month for those two services
38:42
that I get for less than the cost of podcast
38:45
hosting with our system. And so I think that
38:47
that alone kind of tells you why it's worth the
38:50
value for the money. And I feel like, you know,
38:54
I'll probably die on this hill saying this over
38:57
and over again, but the reality is like, I've
39:00
been a blogger since 2007 or 2009, been a writer
39:03
since 2007, blogger since 2009, but I see it
39:06
changing. I see, How important it is now more
39:09
than ever that if you don't have more than one
39:11
piece of content, more than one type of content,
39:13
then you're going to lose out on your audience
39:15
members. And, you know, the Google helpful content
39:18
update is killing bloggers left and right. And
39:21
I feel like now more than ever, if we're not
39:23
paying attention and creating types of content,
39:25
we're leaving money on the table. We're losing
39:28
audience members and we're killing our businesses.
39:32
What like? Yeah. Yeah. I agree wholeheartedly.
39:36
I think, you know, it's. obviously don't burn
39:38
out like don't try to be on every social platform
39:42
but creating different types of content to meet
39:48
your audience where they are at is so important
39:51
you can't just be like well i'm not going to
39:53
do a podcast because i like writing like if you're
39:56
if your audience prefers to consume your content
39:59
via audio or video then you got to meet them
40:03
where they are Yeah. I mean, clearly we want
40:05
audio as well, because if we didn't, then the
40:07
audio book industry wouldn't be as huge as it
40:09
is. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly. I mean, podcasting
40:12
is growing. Podcasting is replacing traditional
40:17
media. Right. As far as like timeshare, you know.
40:21
So I mean, even me, like the Sounds Profitable
40:24
blog, it's an amazing blog, has amazing content
40:27
about podcasting. But I often catch myself. listening
40:30
to the audio of them reading the article while
40:33
I'm reading the article just to get it done faster
40:35
because like I can see it I can hear it and it
40:38
like makes that come into my ear holes and I
40:40
can actually condense everything that's being
40:43
said faster and I don't know just stuff like
40:46
that just makes me like the website more if they're
40:49
giving more ways to consume what it is you're
40:52
creating and I for a while I had um I had some
40:56
of my own content I was having it repurposed
40:59
in audio format, but it was an AI audio and I
41:02
won't ever do that again. I've already ripped
41:04
it off my website. It was God awful. It was some
41:06
bot like speaking my words to me and I'm like,
41:10
nope, nope. So I'm going through that arduous
41:12
process now of actually recording my own audio.
41:15
But yeah, and then that's another thing back
41:18
to the whole AI thing. Please just record your
41:20
own audio. I beg of you. Anyone listening, please
41:23
record your own audio. And there will be links
41:24
in the description to how to sign up for RSS
41:27
.com. And Joe, where can we find you online if
41:29
we want to know more about you and what it is?
41:32
Well, you can find me on the RSS .com blog, of
41:36
course. But I am Jay Casabona on basically every
41:41
social network. So that's J -C -A -S -A -B -O
41:44
-N -A. Find me on LinkedIn maybe is the best,
41:48
but Twitter and threads, X and threads. You know,
41:51
those are the places I'm hanging out to. Well,
41:54
if you had any final parting words that you wanted
41:56
to share, what would you say to anybody who's
41:58
listening to this and they're only listening
42:00
to the last few seconds of what you have to share?
42:03
Most people who are worried about starting a
42:05
podcast are worried because they're not going
42:07
to be good or they're uncomfortable in front
42:09
of a microphone. And I would say this to you.
42:12
The way to get comfortable in front of a microphone
42:13
is to get your reps in. The beautiful thing about
42:17
recording audio on our computer is it's not live
42:20
streamed. So open up QuickTime or open up Sound
42:22
Recorder on Windows and just talk for a while.
42:25
See how it feels. There can be there episodes
42:27
of my podcast I've never released. But through
42:32
doing this for 10 years, I've gotten very comfortable
42:34
speaking in front of the microphone. And I know
42:36
you can, too. So good. And if nothing else, you
42:39
can always pull a Taylor Swift a la Reputation
42:42
and rip everything offline and start over. Boom.
42:45
Yeah. Burn it all down. Well, my bloggy friends,
42:50
I hope you enjoyed all the insights our guests
42:51
had to share with you. To get the show notes
42:53
for this and all episodes, go over to famousashleygrant
42:56
.com backslash podcast. And until next time,
42:59
may your page views be high and your bounce rate
43:01
be low.
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