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