The Return to Talkshoe - A Necessity or Just A Good Idea

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For the faithful few that was on The Podcaster Training Show Friday Night, you already know what I’m going to say about using Stickam to produce a show. Needless to say, it may work for Leo LaPorte, but it sure didn’t work for me! Aside from having Internet connectivity issues in Rhode Island, the Stickam issues didn’t help matters at all.

Ok, so let’s take a step backwards for a minute and review what brought us to this stage in our podcasting evolution. Nearly two years ago, I started live, interactive shows on Talkshoe. Having produced pre-recorded podcasts and doing live teleseminars and training prior to that, Talkshoe provided me with a platform in which to build an audience and promote my shows, products, services as well as myself. All of this, I did until the technical issues started creeping into my shows. When it seemed that these issues would not or could not be fixed, I made a very hard decision to leave and go to a straight video format using uStream. It didn’t take too many episodes to realize that uStream was not the right platform to host a show like mine. Too unstable and too unpredictable.

Over the course of a few months, I have tried no less than six different video streaming platforms. Including uStream, Justin.tv and Stickam, just to name a few. Yes, there are more out there, however, it is now very apparent that these services are not ready for shows like Podcaster Training, they are ready for the kids down the block that want to play their video games live so that the world can see them “at their best” or the person(s) that want to just sit and talk live on a chat room while everyone watches them do this!

So, after last Friday’s little glitches with Stickam, I had a long talk with Jeff Chandler, my Co-Host, about leaving the video arena and going back to audio. Knowing that Jeff uses Talkshoe on a regular basis and the fact that I still have an active account there, the decision was made to “get back to basics” and start producing an audio only show once again.

Beginning Friday Night, September 12th, 2008, at 8:00pm EST, we will resume The Podcaster Training Show on Talkshoe at Show ID 16829 (same as it was before). I will be using the Talkshoe RSS Feed as well as my new RSS Feed for this show, so if you have subscribed to the new feed, you won’t have to go back in order to keep updated.

To answer the question at hand (see the title above), this move back to audio is out of necessity (partly) to keep the show alive and kicking and also a good idea, since at this time, there is no other platform like Talkshoe that I can rely on to keep the show alive.

In any event, be sure to join us on Friday Night for our return to Talkshoe show!

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The Transition to Video - Part 4

It’s been a few days since my last post in this series and I apologize for being away. Since my last post, a few things have changed and that’s just another part of the transition. I started this journey to video by using uStream.TV and have been using this service for a while now. Recently, they (uStream) have been having some issues with video freezing and chat rooms disappearing and not coming back. These are minor frustrations in any live show, and I know that there isn’t any “perfectly stable” service, at least, not for free!

Now, when it comes to live, video streaming, you do have a few choices. I’m not going to name them all here, however, I am looking at and testing Justin.TV and will give it a full run through on Friday Night. I have been testing Justin.TV all week and so far, so good. They have some good things and some not so good things, but as free services go, they offer everything a live, video streamer needs to produce a good show.

I have already changed my Live Page to reflect this change, so Friday Night, that’s the place to find me easily.

I will talk more about Justin.TV on Friday’s Podcaster Training Show. It will still air at 8:00pm EST.

I have been asked, “Has this transition been easy for you?”. The simple answer is, no. No transition is ever easy as there will always be pitfalls and other stumbling blocks that must be overcome. One of my biggest stumbling blocks has been having to start over again rebuilding my audience. I had a steady rising number of listeners on my live, audio program and it took more than 75 episodes (roughly about a year and a half) and when I went to my video format, I lost most of my “faithful” listeners. Now, don’t get me wrong, this told me a lot about who was listening to my show.

So, now, I am working to rebuild my listeners and viewers. I didn’t pick up many new viewers on uSteam and I am hoping that Justin.TV will prove differently. Just during my brief testing, I had live viewers checking me out, so this shows promise. Remember, Time will tell, it always does!

Even though this isn’t going to be easy, I will remain persistent and continue to produce my shows. In fact, in about a month, I will be starting a series on building and audience. I will be discussing most of the techniques that I am using to do just that.

Well, that wraps it up for for this post. More to come!

See you next time!

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