July 30th, 2007 Rob
The folks at Miro are pressing an idea that is based on a very fundamental concept. They prefer a user-centric approach to publishing media (particularly video) on the web.
Their blog post states, “”It makes absolutely no sense for a single video to be published twice, let alone five or ten times! Treating the user as the point of aggregation pretty much solves this one…”
We see a web these days where a video producer is compelled to upload to half a dozen sites. The need to do this makes things harder on video producers as well as their audiences.
Walled in systems trap content. And they force producers and audiences to scurry around searching to meet their own needs.
If we all architect systems that make it easier for users to find the content they want without making producers do extra work then we’ve done something right.
Technology has the power to help solve a lot of problems. Or it can create more problems. Its all up to people like us who are rolling out news systems for distributing and consuming media. I vote for solving problems so that rich media based on the web can get from producers to their audiences as smoothly as possible.
Now its time to go out and walk that talk. 
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July 3rd, 2007 Rob
Is anyone else out there distressed at the fact that the Yahoo Podcast Directory has not been updated in months? The date of silence on podcast episodes varies but many are frozen sometime at the end of April 2007.
Our own CEO Todd Cochrane has (had?) over 1400 subscribers for his Geek News Central podcast on Yahoo. The last updated show was published on April 20th. No updates to his feed for over two months. What about all those listeners who subscribed using the Yahoo engine?
Its very possible that many podcasters have lost some or all of their audience members who subscribed via Yahoo. Thats a shame because audience members are the life blood of podcasting. As we’ve stated here before RawVoice is here to help build your audience, not drive them away. If you’ve been able to increase your audience by your presence in Yahoo Podcasts then we’re happy about that. And we don’t want to see you lose that audience.
So we’re reaching out on this blog to the folks that run Yahoo Podcasts. If you need help getting the system running again, please contact us. Its a cryin shame that a major player like Yahoo should be absent for the growing community of independent media producers and their audiences. Aggregating content from feeds is a core part of our business and there is a strong likelihood that our CIO Angelo can help bring the system back online.
Whatever the situation we want to see it solved so podcasters can continue to build their shows and audiences can continue to enjoy great independently produced content.
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June 30th, 2007 Administrator
If you have a podcast that you like be sure to remind the host that the 3rd Annual People’s Choice Podcast Award Nominations start on Monday.
There is an opportunity for three shows to get some major exposure in a mini contest on the site. The top three sites that can drive the most traffic to PodcastAwards.com will get a free one year advertisement of a 120×120 banner on the site see this link for details.
Meanwhile get the word out and good luck to all shows. PodcastAwards.com
Todd Cochrane, Founder People’s Choice Podcast Awards
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June 21st, 2007 Rob
Recent events in the world of podcasting and social media have highlighted the importance of keeping track of the places where your content has a presence. We live in an age where it makes sense to go to the places where you can find an audience rather than simply try to drive people to your content in the walls of your own site.
Web destinations like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube have become primary and secondary points of presence for millions of content producers. The iTunes store has also evolved as a very powerful point of presence since they launched their podcast directory in 2005 and more recently with their introduction of Apple TV. The iPhone is coming soon too.
The fact is that it pays to be wherever the audiences are so that your content gets the maximum exposure possible. It is very important to note that it also pays to keep tab one the places where your content is represented. One day a particular point of presence might be attractive. But changes occur. And when they do that point of presence might not be so attractive anymore.
Here are some important things to monitor:
Comments: Many places where you will syndicate your content have a comment function. Some allow you to moderate those comments while others don’t. Make sure you know what people are saying about your content. Are the comments fair? Are they relevant? Be familiar with the features provided that allow you to control the conversation around your content on other sites.
Advertising: What sort of advertising is presented around your content? Many content destinations start out with no advertising then may inject random AdSense links or image banners into pages. Does the advertising around your content take away from your message? Find out if you have any control over what advertising is presented on your pages.
Read the rest of this entry »
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June 1st, 2007 Administrator
The primary goal here at RawVoice is to help podcasters build audiences. We do that by providing clean and easy to use podcast community websites that are not full of ads and non member video content. Our sites are full of active shows that want to be part of a community. The consumption and deliver of our community of podcasters media remains the highest priority.
Imagine if we forced our podcasters to pre-roll, some ridiculous help us we suck ads in front of their shows. As a content producer myself I shudder to think of allowing the company I host with force a suck less ad at the beginning of each show as Podshow is doing in front of every podcast on their network
Listeners don’t want to hear that crap they want to listen to the specific content producers content they don’t want to listen to some ad that begs people to help the service they are on suck less.
We do the best we can to listen to our communities all the time. We may not succeed 100% of the time but rest assured that we don’t need special campaigns to access the pulse of the podcast community. We’re podcasters ourselves so we look at everything we do from that perspective.
I encourage podcasters that are looking to build their audiences to consider Blubrry.com, PodcasterNews.com or TechPodcasts.com as a destination for your show because we are in the audience building business.
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