Daniel J. Lewis is the host of the podcast “The Audacity to Podcast” and is a podcast consultant. He has also developed several great tools for podcasters. You can check out his website or connect with him on Twitter.
How did you get started with blogging and podcasting?
Blogging was always a struggle for Daniel. He started by deciding to write articles on a website, learning about how WordPress works. In 2006, he was introduced to podcasting. Having some of the skills needed for it, he decided to do a podcast. He struggled for the first two year before he decided to get serious.
What was the biggest obstacle you faced as you got started podcasting, and how did you overcome it?
The work to put out an episode. He was doing scripted episodes, and it would take him hours to write it out. Then it would take several hours to record because he was trying to get everything perfect.
He overcame the perfection tendency by listening to other podcasters that did more of a natural style. He changed to an unscripted format with a more natural flow.
To help with the consistency, Daniel decided to stream the podcast live as he recorded it. This is not something that he recommends for new podcasters.
Challenging Podcasting Assumptions: A general theme that runs throughout all of these episodes is that none of these are “necessary” to have a podcast. What is the reason you went into so much detail about each topic anyway?
There have been a lot of things that have been passed off as “rules.” Daniel was striving to show how each one is a best practice, but not a “necessary” rule.
We also mentioned an episode of “The Podcasters’ Round Table” where they discussed the best practices of podcasting.
What are two or three of the big takeaways that you have gotten from going through this mini-series?
How he gives links to his show notes. He used to reference the episodes by number, but is starting to use more keywords instead. There are two WordPress plug-ins to create these special links:
Other takeaways:
- Podcast Search Engine
- Social media tools
- Podcast editing – he is now outsourcing some of the editing for him
[Tweet “I hate having people search for things. – @theramennoodle”]
[Tweet “The goal with editing is not to have a perfect product in the end, but a product that communicates a little bit better. – @the ramennoodle”]
What tips would you give to someone that is just getting started with creating content online?
It needs to start with a plan, but don’t wait to be perfect. Even just a basic bullet-point list. Know what you want at the least the first 10 episodes to be. Keep adding to the list and refer back to it when you need help
Daniel has a lot of great things available:
- Preflight checklist available on his website
- Social Subscribe and Follow plug-in
- Podcast Master Class
- MyPodcastReviews.com
- PodcastPlaces.com
If you’re thinking about making any content on the internet, think of how you can make it helpful or entertaining. If you can do both, that would be awesome, but at least do one. – Daniel J. Lewis