Sign up today to attend this FREE UnConference event in beautiful San Antonio, Texas!

You can find our more about Fred by visiting his sites:
Gain Control of your Day
Struggling Entrepreneur
Folklorico Music & Dance

Is it possible there may be a return trip to Central Texas for PodCamp San Antonio on May 3, 2008? Stay tuned for more in the coming months.

To see if Chris is traveling to your neck of the woods or to find out more you can visit his blog.

Thanks for listening and most of all subscribing to the SA Podcasters. Feel free to leave a comment or drop us a line at sapodcasters AT gmail DOT com

Jennifer Navarrete interviews John Thomaides & Phyllis Hunt from the City of San Marcos Council/Chamber. We met some very forward thinking folks in San Marcos. Keep an eye out for this up and coming tech town. A short drive between Austin and San Antonio makes San Marcos an ideal location for tech companies to call home. A special thanks to Scott Gregson of Gregson Investments for the hospitality.

We had a great time in San Marcos. We highly recommend folks stop in to see what’s really going on in this not-so-sleepy little town.

Emcee’s Connie Reece & Erica O’Grady made this a fun & festive event.

We discover who motivated the Cynic to start a show. We also gain insight into the cynically humorous and mud-slinging topics covered in each episode. And to wrap it up, the Cynic also shares his recipe for a comedy podcast.

To find out more about the Alamo City’s personal cynic check out San Antonio’s City Cynic “madness and mayhem with a vicious and humorous twist”

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The next Spotlight Interview will be with Jackie Adame of the Morning BrewCast

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Nathan reveals how he went from being a podcast fan to being a podcast creator.

He also discusses his plans for the future and offers helpful suggestions for new folks who want to take the next step from fan to podcasters

One thing on Nathan’s To-Do list: Read Jason Van Orden’s Book “Promoting Your Podcast”

Tune in next time when we’ll hear from Lans Hobart of Enlighten Up Podcast

Host of the Financial Aid Podcast and Podcamp co-creator Christopher S. Penn has posted this on his “Marketing Over Coffee” site.

A couple of things come to mind: 1. In the New Media if you do things the Old Media way someone will come up with a way to get around it. 2. Being part of the New Media means doing things differently. Running 30 second or 59 second ads day in and day out across the board in the same spot will not work and probably alienate the same folks you’re trying to “market to”.

So don’t do it.

Being “New Media” mean just that. New as in doing things differently. New as in be creative. New as in don’t offend the “early adopters” who are your biggest fans.

I have always liked the Paul Harvey sales pitch model. He starts sharing a story, usually about his own experiences, and by the time you’re halfway into it you realize he’s talking about a product. It is the proverbial V-8 moment. Yet, I’ve never been offended at anything he had to say or at the fact he was “selling me” something. He does it in a genuine and sincere manner that is in line with his show.

That’s the key to staying true to your show and being able to earn a dollar. Do that and your listeners will not only appreciate it, they’ll stick around for more and spread the word.

Cheers, Jennifer Navarrete

PodCamp San Antonio was a success!

It took just a little over 2 months to plan and it was great. Thanks to a small but solid group (Michael De Leon, Lans Hobart, Shaine Mata, Richard Galvan, Alysan Delaney-Childs, Nathan Lott and myself) who comprised the team that made this event possible. We had additional members of the SA Podcasters group (Skip/David/Jason, Scot McKay,Fred Castanedaand my personal favorite Alan Weinkratz -who helped out by creating promos, blogging about it and helping to spread the word.

We had generous sponsors: Podcast Ready, Pod Music Countdown, HipCast, Blubrry, Podcast Spot. You can add my printing business MyLabelNet to the list as well. We also had some fellow podcasters & attendees donate to help the cause out. (We checked our email today and found out we had a last-minute donation from WordPress. Thanks Matt!)

So who was in attendance?

Folks of all ages (teen to not-so-teen) who wanted to get started in podcasting, folks who were podcasting, corporate podcasters, video bloggers, podcast producers, internet marketing pros as well as some members of the media.

What was covered? The very basics of blogging, podcasting and vlogging were the first three sessions. It quickly moved to marketing, production, podcasting in education, the evolution of public access and tips on how to avoid burnout just to name a few. You can find out more information in the coming weeks as we release the audio/video sessions on the http://podcampsanantonio.org site.

The media has also been generious. Here is a condensed version (the printed version is longer) of a story that ran in the May 20, 2007 San Antonio Express News

Our fellow New Media brethren have been supportive by positively mentioning PodCamp San Antonio in blog and video posts. We have also been on the receiving end of some nice emails. Thanks!

At the end of PodCamp San Antonio we sat down to unwind and decided we wanted to do this again. So mark your calendars folks. Saturday, May 17, 2008 May 3, 2008. PodCamp San Antonio Numero Dos will be happening.

Wonder what the t-shirts will look?

Cheers, Jennifer Navarrete

P.S. Feel free to contact me at epodcaster AT gmail DOT com

The Austin Chronicle featured PodCamp San Antonio and it’s Organizers the San Antonio Podcasters in their Thursday, May 11th edition. Titled: If You Attend One Unconference This Summer …PodCamp San Antonio

http://austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A473710

The writer, Marrit Ingman, did a fine job capturing the excitement and energy surrounding UnConference events like PodCamp San Antonio. The fact that the Alamo City will be host to the first PodCamp in Texas makes this Inaugural event one you won’t want to miss. Go to http://www.podcampsanantonio.org to sign up for this Free event.

See you at the Historic Sunset Station Depot on Saturday, May 19th!

PodCamp San Antonio

Share in the excitement of the Inaugural PodCamp event in Texas!

Michael offers insight into the beginnings of the SpursCast. He gives tips on the challenges of recording a sports related podcast with co-hosts who live in two other states. It’s a Tri-State effort!

He reveals the newest project “Pro Sports Fans” which includes a Shout-Out for fellow sports fans to participate in this latest project.

http://projectspurs.com http://podcasting.meetup.com/58 —————————– Remember PodCamp San Antonio May 19, 2007 at Historic Sunset Station Depot

Richard shares his views of podcasting and where he see the medium headed. He also offers tips and suggestions for becoming a Podcast Producer and the history of CliffordSound

The Purpose Place Network Podcasts produced by Richard Galvan at CliffordSound: Purpose Place Coffee Conversations Karen’s Corner Kaleidoscope The Nurturing Notebook Thinking Outside the Box

To find our more visit the podcasters respective websites.

Next time you’ll hear from Podcast Producer, Richard Galvan in a new segment: Podcaster Spotlight

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The content of the show is GOLD, however the audio is more like tin. It’s just like Art says, “Garbage in….Garbage out”.

It’s worth sticking it out for all the good recording tips and audio tricks the pros use.

You can find out more by visiting the podcasting meetup site

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We also hear from Lans Hobart of the Enlighten Up podcast. He discusses his experience with the new Levelator 1.1 software by Gigavox. Lans also offers us some helpful tips to get the most out of the Levelator.

You can find out more about these podcasters by visitng their respective sites or you can click here

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For example I recently put some text on a group photo posted by David Le Deaux from our last meeting. The last group photo was taken at Christmas, and with a New Year well underway, it was looking quite dated. I hurriedly threw on some text, which ran off the picture, and posted it as our most recent group photo. Yeah, I knew it wasn’t perfect, but figured I would fix it later. Did I get some ribbing? You bet. Is it fixed now? Yep. Will something like this happen again? Most likely.

It prompted me to think about a few things:

There are a several schools of thinking in the podcast world. “Make sure it’s perfect before we ship/release/do it” vs. the “Just get it out there and we’ll fix/change/edit as we go along.” There’s plenty of reasons for both.

In the “Make Sure It’s Right…” category you’ve got folks who think you shouldn’t release a show unless it is perfectly polished with intros/outros, sweepers, bumpers, promos, listener feedback, theme music, recorded at the right settings, levels, has a fast download rate, is downloadable in every format known to man, has a blog/webpage that perfectly compliments the theme/vision of the show and on, and on, and on……

In the “Just Get It Out There…” category you’ve got folks who for all their passion and excitement of recording (of course with bad levels and incorrect settings) send their show out into the podosphere. They are so thrilled with their creation (warts and all) you can’t wipe the goofy smile off their faces. They can’t wait to have everyone and their brother tell them how witty/funny/smart/amazing/cool their show is. Ahhh…ignorance is bliss!

I listen to quite a few podcasts and maybe half of these are in the perfectly polished arena but the rest are in varying degrees of the “Just Get It Out There” mode. Why do I listen to the shows I do? Many reasons, but I would say the personality of the host(s) more than anything else keeps me listening. So in other words, I listen to your show because of YOU. Entertain me. enlighten me, educate me, tell me a story, pique my interest, make me laugh so hard I spit the coffee right out of my mouth. Whatever it is, I listen because of you. Not because you have a kick-ass sweeper and your promo is ‘da bomb. Nope that’s not why I subscribe, download, and jam those earbuds in.

In case you don’t know, I belong in the “Just Get It Out There” category. Our first shows were mono and in one you can even hear the metronome in the background since I forgot to change the setting in GarageBand. Terrible audio? Probably. Hang my head in shame? No Way! You see there is something in those first few shows that shines through regardless of the audio gaffes. Passion.

We were so excited about what we were doing that it didn’t matter if it was “right” or not. I mean drinking coffee, chatting with my sister and recording it all? What fun! And we did have fun. A year and half later our audio has gotten marginally better and while there is still lots of room for improvement, we’re still having fun. And isn’t that really what matters?

It’s great when we, as podcasters, help one another out with suggestions and advice. We definitely need that to continue if we want to see podcasting grow. It’s true, we should all try to improve our shows as we progress. But don’t over worry or over obsess about what’s wrong with your show. Don’t listen to the naysayers who give you grief about what you’re doing wrong. Improvements will come with time and experience. Just get it out there and most of all have fun.

Cheers, Jennifer Navarrete

P.S. As a big believer in “Just Get It Out There”, I’m in good company. Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start speech uses the first Mac shipped out as one example of “Just Get It Out There”.

We also hear from Scot and Emily McKay of X&Y On The Fly Dating Podcast. Scot shares tips that are simple but effective in the promotion of your podcast. Scot and Emily give insight into what they have found works best for their show with it’s unique market.

Audio quality suffers due to meal-time background noise including chip munching, sizzling fajitas, glass clinking, utensil clanging, and random food eating sounds.

You may contact the podcasters on this show via their respective websites or through this link

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Monetize….is that a dirty work?

For some it is but, for others the only dirty words they know are of the 4-letter variety. I say live and let live. If you want to make some money from your podcast then do (or at least try to). If you don’t want to make money on your podcast, then don’t. Let’s not bash each other on the head for choosing one over the other.

I agree with Leo LaPorte who spoke at the PME II when he said (I’m paraphrasing here big-time) we should be promoting and encouraging one another. This medium is too new for us to down each other based on our stance on this or any one issue. Our main priority goal should be letting folks know it even exists.

What, you say? There are people who don’t know about podcasting? Are they living in caves?

No they’re not…..well at least I don’t think they are.

Our passion got us into podcasting. It’s passion that keeps us up during those 3am editing sessions even when your loved ones wonder what has gotten into you. When you’d rather buy new equipment for your show than get the car tuned-up. When you buy a plane ticket to fly half-way across the country to meet other crazy podcasters because they’re the only ones who truly understand the podcaster in you. When you’ve stopped listening to radio. When you now have friends across the country/world that you wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for podcasting. When you jam those earbuds in for news, entertainment and to some hear some really cool Podsafe Music every chance you get. Yep, passion. But that passion…..well….it costs money.

What started out as a hobby with the mic that came with your computer, free software, free audio hosting, free blog pages you found on the web can become a pocket emptying proposition. All in search of a better sound. Mixers, preamps, USB Mics, XLR Mics, shock mounts, mic stands, headsets, etc… The list is varied and for everyone it’s completely different. What works for you may not work for me and vice versa. It’s no wonder we begin to look around and think, “Hey, I sure could use some money for a pizza right now . Too bad I spent my last $20 buying an iRiver on eBay.”

So if you decide now is the time for the baby that you’ve loved and nurtured into fruition to start earning it’s keep (or a least a triple-shot, cinnamon cafe-mocha now and then) I say go for it.

The next time your favorite podcast site has Google AdSense or a banner ad or maybe asks you to use a promo code like this:

” Own a piece of the web with your own Domain Name and save 10% using Promo Code: blu29 at the checkout

or

“Unleash the power of your domain name by adding a Hosting Account and save money doing it by using Promo Code: pod29 at checkout

Be a lover not a hater. Or at least be an encourager, supporter, promoter for your favorite podcasts and in doing so for their creators.

Happy Podcasting!

P.S. Speaking of monetizing, here is something I found that works directly with your ClickBank account.

Join CBClicks Here!