Podcasters' Roundtable

Recorded live on the show floor at New Media Expo 2014 (NMX), Ray, Daniel and Dave ask, Are Conferences Worth It? This is an audio only Round. See the player below. Attending a conference is rarely a cheap endeavor. You spend money on travel, lodging, food and of course tickets. Even if the conference is free and local, you invest time and energy. So, is it worth it? What do you get in return for your investment? On this Round, Ray Ortega, Daniel J. Lewis, David Jackson and a whole host of new Roundtablers, chosen from the audience (see below), discuss the value of attending a conference with special focus on the 2014 NMX show in Las Vegas. Special thanks to everyone who showed up to watch us record this Round, to Nick Seuberling for doing an awesome job managing the guest microphone and Megan Enloe from NMX for helping to make this happen. I've been told that NMX loved the Round and is excited to have us back on the live "stage" again next year. We hope to see you there! Returning Roundtablers making an appearance on this Round include: Nick Seuberling, Ibarionex Perello, Ben Adam-Smith, Corey Fineran New Roundtablers featured on this Round: Jeremy Chandanais (aka JC), Larissa Galenes, Vickie Velazquez, Shannon Hernandez, George Hrab, Craig Gilley, Amy Bowser-Rollins, Rob Cesternino, Tawny Fineran, and Charles McFall.  

John Lee Dumas is getting a lot of attention these days; in part due to the money he is making with his podcast. No doubt his story and success are inspiring others to start their own podcast. In some cases, motivated to do exactly what John is doing.... making a lot of money. What's the danger in starting a podcast based on someone else's success? Can you start a podcast and make tons of money too? Are you the next John Lee Dumas? Watch myself (Ray Ortega), +Daniel J. Lewis +David Jackson +Steve Stewart and +John Lee Dumas himself, discuss a blog post Steve wrote entitled: The John Lee Dumas Effect. We'll find out if you can podcast your way to riches and discuss the pitfalls of trying to copy someone else's success. Circle me on Google Plus to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round! Links mentioned on this episode: Sign up to appear on the Roundtable Podcast Sponsorships: All the goods - John's awesome post about how to get sponsors for your podcast Podcast Launch - John's podcasting book John's Free Templates (Please click-through to see all the templates listed below at the bottom of the post before the comments) How to approach a sponsor for the first time EntrepreneurOnFire’s Price Chart Email template of Sponsorship Proposal Excel spreadsheet template of Dates and Dollars sponsorship proposal Email template for guests Sign up to appear on a future Podcasters' Roundtable!    

The holiday season is a great time to give thanks and dream of new podcasting goodies. So what are podcasters thankful for and what kind of podcasting stuff makes a podcaster's wish list? Get ready for a fun-filled discussion about the things we've enjoyed about podcasting over the last year(s) and those items (gear, software, etc.) that we hope to enjoy in 2014. Watch, myself (Ray Ortega), +David Jackson, +Daniel J. Lewis,, and new Roundtablers +Andrew Zarian and +Ibarionex Perello to discuss the gifts of podcasting. Circle me at gplus.to/rayortega to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round! Links mentioned on this episode: Sign up to appear on the Roundtable Andrew Zarian's studio tour    

Podcast award season is here and that means asking your audience for votes, in some cases, constantly asking them. How do you deal with this as a podcaster...as a listener? Are we asking too much or is it a great way to show your support of a show? Beyond awards, we're repeatedly faced with asking our audience for all many different things. We ask for reviews, ratings, feedback, sign-ups, and a whole host of other things that we put into every episode. So how much is too much? Join me (Ray Ortega), +David Jackson, +Nick Seuberling +Corey Fineran +Izabela Russell and +Ileane Smith to discuss the balance between asking your audience to support your show and wearing them out asking for too much. Circle me at gplus.to/rayortega to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round!

Did you have a hard time deciding what your podcast should be about? Are you sure you made the right choice? How do you decide and does it even matter what choice you make? Watch +David Jackson, myself (+Ray Ortega ), +Ben Krueger +Kevin Mulryne and +Ben Adam-Smith to discuss the process of choosing a podcast topic. Circle me at gplus.to/rayortega to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round!

When is choosing to start a podcast the wrong decision? Have you heard that you need a podcast or that podcasting is the hottest thing going and you want to start your own? Have you asked yourself if a podcast is really the best way to spend your limited free time? Listen to +Daniel J. Lewis +David Jackson +Lisa B. Marshall and myself (Ray Ortega) discuss when a podcast is and isn't the best form of content creation for your brand, message or hobby. Circle me at gplus.to/rayortega to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round! Rountablers featured on this Round included +David Jackson, +Daniel J. Lewis, myself (Ray Ortega), and +Lisa B. Marshall.

Have you ever considered deleting an old podcast episode or updating it because the information was now out of date? Perhaps you've been asked to take an old episode out of your library because the information is now wrong. What would you do? +Daniel J. Lewis +David Jackson +Steve Stewart +Kelly Mitchell and myself (Ray Ortega) discuss what to do when time makes your archive irrelevant or just plain wrong. Circle me at gplus.to/rayortega to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round! Rountablers featured on this Round included +David Jackson, +Daniel J. Lewis, +Kelly Mitchell, myself (Ray Ortega), and +Steve Stewart.

Is podcasting making a comeback? Did it ever really falter? The raw numbers tell us podcast viewers have grown every year since it's inception in 2004 so why are we increasly hearing that podcasting is back? What's the difference between now and last year or two years ago? Find out what the Roundtable thinks is behind articles that claim podcasting is making a comeback. Circle me at gplus.to/rayortega to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round! Rountablers featured on this Round included +David Jackson, +Daniel J. Lewis, , Rob Greenlee, Todd Cochrane, and myself (Ray Ortega).

If you have a podcast or want to start one you're going to need a place to host your audio and/or video files. On this Round we'll be asking, where do you host your podcast media and why? When choosing where to host your podcast files you have plenty of options (for audio at least). Those options however are not all created equal. There's both free and paid options and each has it's advantages (sneak peak, free's only advantage is in it's name;)) So how do you decide where to host your files? Watch (Ray Ortega), +Daniel J. Lewis +David Jackson +Steve Lee and Chase Nunes talk about the sometimes confusing issue of podcast media storage. We put together our collective experience as seasoned podcasters to discuss what has worked, what is a fair price and where we've failed when choosing media hosting. And of course we'll dig into the controversial issue of storing your files on a shared server! Circle me at gplus.to/rayortega to be notified of future live recordings, to meet other podcasters and share your opinions in the chat! See ya at the next Round! Rountablers featured on this Round included +David Jackson, +Daniel J. Lewis, +Steve Lee, myself (Ray Ortega), and Chase Nunes.

Can a podcast niche be too small? How do you find an audience in a niche that isn't very big? Watch myself (Ray Ortega) along with +Daniel J. Lewis, +Cynthia Sanchez, +Jason Nagy, +Joseph Polk, and +Peter Lamb talk about podcasting to a small niche and how to find your audience when the potential pool of listeners for your topic isn't that large.