An interesting link found among my daily reading
An amazing guide including audio samples and great advice. A great introduction to recording or a reminder for those who have been doing it for a while. — Douglas
An interesting link found among my daily reading
Over the last several weeks I have been consulting with clients who — perhaps as part of the typical New Year’s Resolution — called me in to help them start their website or blog. In most cases, they’ve had a website or blog for a long time, bit they’ve never really gotten the hang of using it to its best advantage. I would love to say this uncommon, but many of my clients are in just such a situation.
If you want to be part of the online world, and use it to your advantage, it does take time and energy. It doesn’t just do itself. Sure, you could hire someone to do it for you, but I have found that the best blogs and websites are curated by their owners. In some ways, they resemble your favorite little boutique — filled with little knick knacks that perfectly reflect the owners. Sure, you could hire someone to do it for you, but I have found that the best blogs and websites are curated by their owners. In some ways, they resemble your favorite little boutique — filled with little knick knacks that perfectly reflect the owner’s interests and personalities.
Sure, you could hire someone to do it for you, but I have found that the best blogs and websites are curated by their owners. In some ways, they resemble your favorite little boutique — filled with little knick knacks that perfectly reflect the owner’s interests and personalities. Even more, I think the act of curating your own blog helps to develop a sense of why you should blog more often and how to develop more content for your blog.
Where to start?
Using my clients as an example, here are a few places to start when you want to get blogging again.
First, locate and notate all your login IDs and passwords. Time clouds our memories, so it may be necessary to reset passwords using the usual “Forgot Your Password” links on the various sites. If you can’t remember your password within a few attempts, simply reset it and choose a new password.
Once you have a new password, consider using a password service like Lastpass.com to store your passwords. You don’t want to have to go searching for login information — or change your password again in the future.
In most cases, here are some basic passwords you will need to get re-started:
This login information allows you to access the settings for your web hosting service, domain name and, in some cases, email addresses.
This allows you to log into your blog, edit past posts, add new posts, upload photos, etc.
FTP is a service which allows you to upload or download files from your website — operating much like copying files on your own computer. This allows you to upload photos, audio, video or PDF files. This is especially important if you want to share media files for podcasts, as they have to located on a web server before they an be shared as part of a blog post.
Usually, these three couplets of information are enough to allow you to get back to work. If you need further assistance, you may need to contact your service providers. It really isn’t that difficult to reset your password and such and get everything you need to get you blogging again.
Next Time: Figuring out what you want to share on your blog
Need more help? Add a comment using the “Leave a Comment” link below, contact me on New Media Interchange on Facebook or email at douglas@welchwrite.com
New Media Tips is an on-going series from Careers in New Media with Douglas E. Welch. You can find all the past tips — from myself and around the Internet — in the Tips category here on the blog — Douglas
Capture all your new media ideas, even if you can’t execute them today — New Media Tips #43
Many of the tips you’ll see in the coming days grew out of a discussion I had with a friend who runs an artisanal bakery near my house. I have watched this business grow over the last several years and have often discussed how new media could best be used in promoting the business and their products. For me, one of the most important ideas to promote with any business owner is capturing each and every idea they have, even if they can’t do anything about it — today.
Capture ideas as they occur
When you are just starting out with a new business, it can be a bit difficult to develop new media ideas for a number of reasons. First, you are so busy getting the business started that most everything falls by the wayside. You simply don’t have or don’t make the time to engage in new media promotions and that is a bit of a shame. Some of your best new media ideas are generated when you are in the heat of the moment, creating something new from nothing. Even if you don’t have the time to execute all these great new media ideas, you MUST take a few moments to — at the very least — capture those ideas that jump to mind, so you don’t lose them forever — or have to spend more hours creating anew when you finally have the time to focus on new media.
Analog or digital methods don’t matter. Capture all your ideas today!
Execute on this ideas when you have time and need
Again, you don’t have to EXECUTE all these ideas, merely capture them. Too many people get overwhelmed with the idea that they must do everything now and, in the heat of the moment, simply discard some of their best ideas because they are so overwhelmed with everything else. Don’t do it!
Capture new ideas every day of your life and business
Next, you often don’t know what you want to talk about, what you want to promote, what new products or services you’ll be offering when you first start the business. Like all good things, it can take time to develop your new media ideas. Sure, you might have a few ideas to get you started, but each day brings new thoughts, new challenges and can create new ways of promoting your business through new media.
Investigate each new service as it appears
Even more, new services are created every day, so you need to be watching for the next Instagram, the next SnapChat or even the next Facebook that comes along. Your new media work doesn’t exists in a static vacuum. It grows and changes every day. Be aware of new ideas, new services, new concepts in new media that can help your business. Capture new ideas that come along. Experiment with new services, their new concepts and the new audience it may bring you. There is a certain amount of “first mover advantage” that can be had by starting early with a new media service. You can easily grow to be a big fish in a small pond and reap all sorts of advantages, even if that particular services doesn’t pan out as an on-going part of your new media strategy.
You can’t execute on new ideas if you never capture them
Again, though, the same rule applies. Sure you might feel too overwhelmed to execute on even a fraction of your New Media ideas today, but you MUST — and I will repeat that — MUST — capture any ideas you have on a daily basis. I consider letting these ideas disappear a crime against you, your company and your future success. When you fail to capture ideas you are actively limiting your opportunities. Yes, I know it can all feel overwhelming, but why would you ever seek to make your life and work more difficult. If you fail to capture your great ideas today, you will find yourself struggling for ideas in the future, when you do have time to execute on new media projects.
Don’t let one of your best and most important assets drift away. Capture all your ideas each and every day. Execute on one or two of these ideas as you have time. Fill the well of new media projects, ideas, campaigns, contests — whatever — every day and you’ll never find yourself looking for that next, big ideas. It will already be there, waiting for you.
Listen to In Conclusion from New Media Q&A 2015 with Douglas E. Welch
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Transcript:
I hope this has been useful to you. I hope you enjoyed the answers to these questions. I talk about podcasting, new media, YouTube a lot. I’ll be happy to answer any further questions you might have. You can leave them as comments on this YouTube video, over on my various blogs at DouglasEWelch.com. I always love answering questions. It always gives me something new to write about on the blogs about new media and everything else that I do. Going back to the niche talk before, I do a lot of podcasts and a lot of blogs. I write about gardening, new media, and technology and general happenings here in LA. So, that should give you an idea of the breadth that podcasting and new media can should give you. So, thanks for watching. If you’re interested in a career in voiceover, please do check out Janet Wilcox’s class. You can visit UCLAExtension.edu. You can search on her name and you’ll see all the classes she teaches there and, because she’s teaching online now, you don’t have to be here in LA. You can be anywhere in the world and learn more about voiceover. For more information on everything that I do, visit DouglasEWelch.com and, until next time, keep on building your career.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (175.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
I hope this has been useful to you. I hope you enjoyed the answers to these questions. I talk about podcasting, new media, YouTube a lot. I’ll be happy to answer any further questions you might have. You can leave them as comments on this YouTube video, over on my various blogs at DouglasEWelch.com. I always love answering questions. It always gives me something new to write about on the blogs about new media and everything else that I do. Going back to the niche talk before, I do a lot of podcasts and a lot of blogs. I write about gardening, new media, and technology and general happenings here in LA. So, that should give you an idea of the breadth that podcasting and new media can should give you. So, thanks for watching. If you’re interested in a career in voiceover, please do check out Janet Wilcox’s class. You can visit UCLAExtension.edu. You can search on her name and you’ll see all the classes she teaches there and, because she’s teaching online now, you don’t have to be here in LA. You can be anywhere in the world and learn more about voiceover. For more information on everything that I do, visit DouglasEWelch.com and, until next time, keep on building your career.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Listen to Podcasting and Voiceover from New Media Q&A 2015 with Douglas E. Welch
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
Do you know of any voice actors who have had successful podcasts? Well, I have one good example here, but I want to switch the question around a little bit. It is relatively easy for anyone who is already famous to have a successful podcast. As you might imagine, they already have an audience. They already have a group of people who are clamoring to hear more from them. So, a relatively famous person who has a podcast — they’re doing it for a different reason that I am giving to you. I want to reiterate with you that you need to start podcasting up front when you’re unknown, because that’s the way you can become more known. It’s the reverse of what they’re doing. They know they have an audience that they’re feeding, because they’re already somewhat famous. You are developing your audience from the ground up. So, it’s important that you get the word out there and – to harken back to the very beginning of this video — you need to tell people what you do and how well you do it and this is one way of doing it.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Transcript:
Do you know of any voice actors who have had successful podcasts? Well, I have one good example here, but I want to switch the question around a little bit. It is relatively easy for anyone who is already famous to have a successful podcast. As you might imagine, they already have an audience. They already have a group of people who are clamoring to hear more from them. So, a relatively famous person who has a podcast — they’re doing it for a different reason that I am giving to you. I want to reiterate with you that you need to start podcasting up front when you’re unknown, because that’s the way you can become more known. It’s the reverse of what they’re doing. They know they have an audience that they’re feeding, because they’re already somewhat famous. You are developing your audience from the ground up. So, it’s important that you get the word out there and – to harken back to the very beginning of this video — you need to tell people what you do and how well you do it and this is one way of doing it.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Listen to A Return to Patronage Part 2 from New Media Q&A 2015 with Douglas E. Welch
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Transcript:
What people do is, you have various levels of sponsorship you list out for people — all with various benefits for each level. You’ll get a sticker. You’ll get a mention in the show. You’ll get a credit at the end of the show. You’ll get some special product or special mention or be able to come on the show or whatever, depending on your level of patronage. And you basically say that I will give that amount per month, so that the person producing the show knows that they have a relatively stable monthly income that they can basically kind of know that I have my “nut” that I need to survive each month.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (97.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
What people do is, you have various levels of sponsorship you list out for people — all with various benefits for each level. You’ll get a sticker. You’ll get a mention in the show. You’ll get a credit at the end of the show. You’ll get some special product or special mention or be able to come on the show or whatever, depending on your level of patronage. And you basically say that I will give that amount per month, so that the person producing the show knows that they have a relatively stable monthly income that they can basically kind of know that I have my “nut” that I need to survive each month.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Listen to A Return to Patronage from New Media Q&A 2015 with Douglas E. Welch
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.7MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
We have come up recently though — very recently — within the last 6 months or so an alternative method. It’s and alternative that harkens back not just decades, but centuries and that is the term patronage. Basically having patrons who support you to do your show. These can be individuals or companies, tends to be in the current scheme, individuals – much like a Kickstarter scheme – who basically pay a monthly fee to say “Yes. I enjoy your show. I like what you do and I want to support you in an on-going manner.” Now, one of the big sites that is set up to do this right now is called Patreon. Patreon.com. It’s a play on the word patronage and patron. I have seen several people effectively use Patreon to support their on-going podcasting, YouTube and New Media efforts.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:55 — 132.9MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
We have come up recently though — very recently — within the last 6 months or so an alternative method. It’s and alternative that harkens back not just decades, but centuries and that is the term patronage. Basically having patrons who support you to do your show. These can be individuals or companies, tends to be in the current scheme, individuals – much like a Kickstarter scheme – who basically pay a monthly fee to say “Yes. I enjoy your show. I like what you do and I want to support you in an on-going manner.” Now, one of the big sites that is set up to do this right now is called Patreon. Patreon.com. It’s a play on the word patronage and patron. I have seen several people effectively use Patreon to support their on-going podcasting, YouTube and New Media efforts.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.0MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
I tend to prefer that type of arrangement (sponsorship) rather than kind of random advertising because, if you’re signed up with a random group of advertisers you never really know what you are going to get in your podcast and I’m always a little worried, as a producer, of getting that one ad that just offends my entire audience and destroys the listenership I have. So, I’m always a little leery of that. I like to think that advertising is not the best way of supporting a podcast. Unfortunately, no one has really come up with a much better idea.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:33 — 79.5MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
I tend to prefer that type of arrangement (sponsorship) rather than kind of random advertising because, if you’re signed up with a random group of advertisers you never really know what you are going to get in your podcast and I’m always a little worried, as a producer, of getting that one ad that just offends my entire audience and destroys the listenership I have. So, I’m always a little leery of that. I like to think that advertising is not the best way of supporting a podcast. Unfortunately, no one has really come up with a much better idea.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Listen to Sponsors for Your Podcast from New Media Q&A 2015 with Douglas E. Welch
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.7MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
You can also get a sponsor. Back in the early days of television it was “The Dinah Shore Show Sponsored by Chevrolet”, I believe. And they paid the large cost of producing that television show and if you have particularly good contact, if you have a contact which is very interested in hitting your niche market, you might actually be able to get a sponsor — someone who will offer you a certain amount of funding to mention, play ads during your show, and to, basically, work in a partnership with them to reach an audience that they’r trying to advertise to. Now sponsorshop is tough. It’s a lot of leg work. It is a lot of phone time. I think it is one of the better ways of supporting your podcast, but unfortunately it is also one of the more difficult things to actually accomplish. So, there’s lots of resources online on about how to get a sponsor for your podcast — what you need to develop — like a press kit, and PR materials and stuff like that.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:57 — 137.4MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
You can also get a sponsor. Back in the early days of television it was “The Dinah Shore Show Sponsored by Chevrolet”, I believe. And they paid the large cost of producing that television show and if you have particularly good contact, if you have a contact which is very interested in hitting your niche market, you might actually be able to get a sponsor — someone who will offer you a certain amount of funding to mention, play ads during your show, and to, basically, work in a partnership with them to reach an audience that they’r trying to advertise to. Now sponsorshop is tough. It’s a lot of leg work. It is a lot of phone time. I think it is one of the better ways of supporting your podcast, but unfortunately it is also one of the more difficult things to actually accomplish. So, there’s lots of resources online on about how to get a sponsor for your podcast — what you need to develop — like a press kit, and PR materials and stuff like that.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Douglas answers questions from students in Janet Wilcox’s online Voiceover class at UCLA Extension.
Listen to Affiliate Income for Podcasts from New Media Q&A 2015 with Douglas E. Welch
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.3MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
There are a couple of ways — when just getting started — of aking some “change”, I’ll call it, from your podcast. One of those is affiliate income. If you mention books in your podcast or other products, sign up for an Amazon Affiliate account. That way, when people purchase something that you mention through your link, you’ll get between 4-6% of the purchase price for that product that they buy. Obviously, all these things that I am going to mention are based on the number of eyeballs, the number of listeners, the number of ears that you have on your podcast, so the more the better. You really won’t make a lot of money from these until you get quite a significant number of people listening or watching your podcast. So, yeah, affiliate income like Amazon. I’m sure you’ve heard ads like Audible. They advertise on a lot of podcasts. Squarespace advertises on a lot of podcasts and the way that podcaster makes money is when someone signs up using their code, they get either a flat fee or a percentage. So, there’s one way, right up front and you can easily sing up for those. There’s really no limitations. As long as you have a decent web site that’s not in a prohibited area of topic, you can sign up for an affiliate account and start using that almost immediately. Again, you’re not going to make a lot of money until you get quite a few listeners to your show.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Douglas answers questions from students in Janet Wilcox’s online Voiceover class at UCLA Extension.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15 — 180.2MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
There are a couple of ways — when just getting started — of aking some “change”, I’ll call it, from your podcast. One of those is affiliate income. If you mention books in your podcast or other products, sign up for an Amazon Affiliate account. That way, when people purchase something that you mention through your link, you’ll get between 4-6% of the purchase price for that product that they buy. Obviously, all these things that I am going to mention are based on the number of eyeballs, the number of listeners, the number of ears that you have on your podcast, so the more the better. You really won’t make a lot of money from these until you get quite a significant number of people listening or watching your podcast. So, yeah, affiliate income like Amazon. I’m sure you’ve heard ads like Audible. They advertise on a lot of podcasts. Squarespace advertises on a lot of podcasts and the way that podcaster makes money is when someone signs up using their code, they get either a flat fee or a percentage. So, there’s one way, right up front and you can easily sing up for those. There’s really no limitations. As long as you have a decent web site that’s not in a prohibited area of topic, you can sign up for an affiliate account and start using that almost immediately. Again, you’re not going to make a lot of money until you get quite a few listeners to your show.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Douglas answers questions from students in Janet Wilcox’s online Voiceover class at UCLA Extension.
Listen to Making Podcasts Profitable from New Media Q&A 2015 with Douglas E. Welch
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.4MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
What are the ways to make podcasts profitable? Oooo, that’s a big one. Actually, after 10 years of podcasting it’s actually starting to get some better methods of actually making money from your podcast. That said, when I started podcasting back in 2004 – I was one of the first 20 podcasters once that term was coined – I have never looked at podcasting as a way of making money itself. I’m not an entertainment industry person. I don’t see myself producing a show. I used my podcasting to support everything else that I do. For example, I podcasted the career column I wrote for many, many years, because it brought people to my blog. It brought people to my consulting services. it brought people to my books, so on and so forth.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
http://Wordpress.com http://Blogger.com
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Douglas answers questions from students in Janet Wilcox’s online Voiceover class at UCLA Extension.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:48 — 116.3MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Transcript:
What are the ways to make podcasts profitable? Oooo, that’s a big one. Actually, after 10 years of podcasting it’s actually starting to get some better methods of actually making money from your podcast. That said, when I started podcasting back in 2004 – I was one of the first 20 podcasters once that term was coined – I have never looked at podcasting as a way of making money itself. I’m not an entertainment industry person. I don’t see myself producing a show. I used my podcasting to support everything else that I do. For example, I podcasted the career column I wrote for many, many years, because it brought people to my blog. It brought people to my consulting services. it brought people to my books, so on and so forth.
Links mentioned in this video:
Voiceover: Techniques and Tactics for Success by Janet Wilcox
Free Blogging Sites
http://Wordpress.com http://Blogger.com
Royalty Free Music
Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
Amazon Affiliate Program Audible.com Far Lands of Bust KurtJMac Patreon Page Rob Paulson and Talking Toons
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media: