The NMP Network

[ad#skype]

Today, I received an e-mail asking why I chose Talkshoe over BlogTalkRadio for my live podcasting. So, before I responded back to this individual, I decided to check out BlogTalkRadio again so that I could give a decent response to this inquiry.

As most of you already know, I started with Talkshoe more than two years ago. For those not in the know, Talkshoe is a free service that offers live, interactive podcasting, hosting and chat rooms for hosts that want to produce a live podcast with a live audience. BlogTalkRadio does this as well, but more on them later.

When I started podcasting live with Talkshoe, they were a fledgling company and were still having some teething pains with some of the technology. A lot can be overlooked, especially when the service is free of charge! Over time, Talkshoe has grown out of most of their technical issues and have added a lot of great features over the past couple of years.

BlogTalkRadio offers many of the features that Talkshoe offers, however, they have some restrictions that some hosts, myself included, just can’t deal with.

Here is a list of Pros and Cons of both services as I see them. This list is strictly my observations and do not represent the opinions of these individual services.

Talkshoe

1. Free Account Signup for member and host
2. Free hosting and storage of MP3 recordings
3. Unlimited storage for archives of MP3 recordings
4. Up to 5 Hour limit on recording of podcasts
5. No restrictions on time slots to host podcasts
6. Up to 250 people on the chatroom and phone bridge
7. Dedicated phone number and show ID for calling into show
8. No restrictions on advertising placed within your podcasts
9. 15 minute “pre-show” window before starting your podcast
10. Manual or automatic recording option for your podcast
11. Ability to mute chatroom and phone bridge callers
12. Ability to manually start and terminate podcasts
13. Ability to use SIP/VOIP or Phone to call into show
14. No ad revenue sharing for the hosts
15. Ability to schedule future shows for any day or time
16. Easy to use interface on show page
17. Ability to continue streaming before and after recording
18. Recordings available within 30 minutes of termination of show
19. Ability to not use a PC to host a live podcast

BlogTalkRadio

1. Free account signup for member and host
2. Free hosting and storage of MP3 recordings
3. Unlimited storage for archive of MP3 recordings
4. Up to 2 hours of podcast recording
5. No apparent restrictions now on time slots to host podcasts
6. Up to 5 people on the phone bridge at one time
7. Not sure on limit of chat room visitors
8. Dedicated phone number and ID for calling into show
9. Certain restrictions for advertising on your podcasts
10. Voluntary Ad Revenue Sharing program
11. No “pre-show” window for starting your live podcast
12. Automatic start and terminate of your podcast recording
13. Ability to continue streaming after recording is completed
14. Ability to mute chatroom and phone bridge callers
15. No ability to manual start or terminate podcast recordings
16. Ability to use VOIP or phone to call in, no SIP support
17. No ability to go over preset time limit for show recording
18. Ability to schedule future shows up to 30 days in advance
19. Not a user friendly interface for scheduling or show maintenance
20. Unsure as to how long before recordings show up after termination
21. Ability to not use a PC to host a podcast, but not recommended

This list is not complete. Only from the observation point of a show host. As you can see, BlogTalkRadio has more restrictions in place that makes it more difficult for an individual to host a show. BlogTalkRadio has some features that Talkshoe doesn’t, such as the ad revenue sharing program. Talkshoe, at one time, had such a program. However, with no advertising restrictions, Talkshoe allows the host to producing their own advertising dollars.

My response to the individual about why I chose Talkshoe over BlogTalkRadio was honest. In my opinion, Talkshoe still has the better service going between the two. Granted, Talkshoe has it’s share of technical issues still, and the test podcast I ran on BlogTalkRadio today, went smooth and the recording was clear and usable. Again, there will always be differences, but for the money (remember, Talkshoe is still a free service) I will be staying with Talkshoe for the time being and will hope that the technical issues get ironed out soon.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: Advertising, blogtalkradio, Chat room, MP3, podcast, Session Initiation Protocol, talkshoe, Voice over Internet Protocol