Video Podcast Workflow Tips from Podcamp NYC

I spoke this past weekend at "Podcamp NYC" to a standing-room-only crowd. I promised to post a summary and also provide the links, especially for those peeps who watched from the hallway!

Thanks also to these peeps who attended and offered their input: Jamison Tilsner of Tilzy.tv, Chef Mark Tafoya of Culinary Media Network, Tom Guariello of True Talk Now, Adam Sherlip of New York Islanders and Rahiem Drinkwater of Pdashmedia.

1. Concept (How time-consuming is it?)
   • There is a direct correlation between the difficulty of producing your show and the frequency by which you publish. The easier the format, the more often you can realistically deliver an episode.
   • The more often you release new content, the more often you show up on the top of the page of the various web video aggregation sites.
   • It better be something you love in order to sustain the amount of work it takes to deliver well and deliver consistently.
   • A typical 3-4 minute episode of Beach Walks with Rox, which uses a very simple formula (8 second title sequence, 3-minute one-shot main clip, and 20-second credit roll) and is unscripted, takes about 2.5 - 3 hrs to produce from start to finish.
2. Naming Conventions (for you & your subscribers)
   • Creating a naming convention makes it easy to file and search your content.
   • It makes things line up nicely when displayed on other people's directories such as iTunes.
   • For correct date sorting, use YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD, regular English will not work.
3. Project Template (reusable parts)
   • Create a master template folder (using your naming convention).
   • Have your main project file built in the software of your choice, and embed all of the reusable clips, such as your theme music bed, your show name and URL, and your version of copyright licensing.
   • Do the same for your episode thumbnail graphic. (You can use one main show graphic or you can use a unique graphic for each episode. I recommend using an episode graphic if you have visual content that changes from day to day - it helps people find an episode when viewing in iTunes, for example.)
   • Duplicate the template folder and rename accordingly for each new episode.
   • Assemble any additional bits and pieces of content in there belonging to that episode.
4. Look & Feel (easier editing & brand consistency)
   • Take some time when first creating your show to develop a look and feel.
   • Experiment with a few transition and titling styles, then stick with them. (Saves you time by being able to ignore all the other choices!)
   • Be sure to build in your show name, your web site address, and your copyright license. Some people also plan ahead for ad insertions, contact information, or other custom items.
5. Encoding & Uploading Tips
   • Flash format will play for most users. Several hosting sites will encode your Quicktime or Windows Media files into Flash for you.
   • You must also supply a downloadable format to enable RSS subscriptions. Your best option is a Quicktime-compatible format.
   • Be sure to add the META data to each episode. You can do this easily by bringing the encoded file into iTunes, and editing the info and adding your artwork.
   • Encoding times can vary considerably depending on the length, size, and output quality of each episode, as well as the speed of your computer. The Visual Hub software (below) does a remarkably good job in dramatically faster times. (Almost in real time whereas other programs can take 3-10 X real time.)
   • Uploading video files can be very time-consuming, and naturally will vary depending on your internet connection speed.

Links Mentioned
Visual Hub - Encodes in multiple formats; $23.32 USD
Viddler for free hosting, comments, & social features
Blip.tv for free hosting and built-in blog; geared to episodic shows
Tube Mogul for batch distribution across the web & stats tracking
Creative Commons for licensing your work if you want something other than full copyright.
Ioda PromoNet for royalty-free music for non-commercial use

Update! Going through my acquired business cards, these folks work in the space.

A Few More People I Met
Ariel Publicity - Ariel reps independent bands who want to promote their music on other people's shows
Filmosity - Chris Cavallari can help you with shooting, editing, on location work for hire, etc
Carrot Creative - Creative shop to help you with the web site and embrace new media
Truffle Media - They can help you with turn-key business podcasting
Vivid Screen Designs - Jane Gussin does motion graphics and video production
Cheil Worldwide - Ann Marie Mathis and Howard Levenson grok new media & social web campaigns

How much should you budget for monthly website expenses?

Now that most businesses and organizations have a web site, they are used to the line item in the budget for initial development. And for many, getting a site up and running is such a grueling task that they are ready to sit and rest on their laurels for a while after launch! We completely understand; we wish we could take a vacation for a few days after each site launch too.

But really, after launch is when the fun begins. Ideally, your web site has been built so you can play with it as often as you like, and as easily as filling out a web-based form. You are now set free to talk to your customers, to tell the world all about how special you are and why your products and services are the better choice.

As you use your site more, you will run into wanting to do things that you don't how to do or that you don't know if your site can do for you.

1. Training
   • Getting your content to look and speak well is an art that goes far beyond just typing into a form. Photos and graphics for example add tremendous value to a web page, IF they are sized and processed for the web and you know how to add title tags, alignment, and can get the text to wrap around them correctly.
   • Using blog software is easy if you want to do the basics. But once you want to do power blogging, you'll want to know about ping servers, trackbacks, blogrolls, how to find A-list blogs, and so much more.
   • Strategy makes a huge difference too. Using the software to accomplish a marketing or communication goal is not obvious because most people don't have the web in their DNA. It's much more than just remembering to add your web address on all your printed material. It's remembering to blog after you've been invited somewhere and sharing your experience and a public mahalo while linking out to others you met. It's called link love and it's one of the web's power currencies right now.
2. Feature Upgrades
   • Just like anything else you own, if you use it even a little, you are going to want to trick it out. Maybe you want to add an extension or plug-in or social networking application that adds power to your site.
   • Maybe you want to dress it up with a more sophisticated design or add some audio or video.
   • Maybe your competitors started selling directly online, and now you want some e-commerce features.
   • And just like your house or your boat, there is virtually no end to upgrades and widgets you can install to make your site perform better for you.
3. The Unexpected
   • It could be anything right? That's why it is unexpected. Life happens.
   • Even the most user-friendly sites still have a few things that are deep in the code and are better left to your developer to handle for you, like periodic software upgrades.

So bottom line, what should you budget for this ongoing support and maintenance? I think a good rule of thumb is at least 15-25% of initial site development costs to be budgeted over the following 12 months. The less you spend initially, the higher the percentage on average to dedicate to upgrades and support.

It's just no fun (and poor business planning) to build yourself a nice new site and not be able to add a new "work station" or some "grounds maintenance" when the situation arises. More and more, the company web site is becoming its most important communication, sales, and even operations tool. So budget accordingly to keep it humming along nicely.

P.S. To my blogging students: I could have written this post in about half the time if I did not include all the links. But it would have less impact and would have been less useful to you readers who want more resources on these topics. In the process, I actually came across some new interesting blog posts! Just right-click on each link to open it in a new window so you can continue reading here. And I could have saved another 10 minutes by not looking for the confused puppy pic. But how much were you drawn in by that one photo??

How to Create a Website Using iWeb

This past weekend I created a 4-page web site for my Mom (83) to feature an art show she had recently. It was a fairly simple process, but then again, I am a web developer by trade! More than once I've discovered that things are easy...if you know what you are doing. If you don't? Well then, all bets are off.

Part way through the process I discovered a 25-page iWeb instruction manual (PDF) from Apple inside my Application Support folder. (Computer > Users > roxanne (my user) > Library > Application Support > iWeb. I've uploaded here for your convenience.)

It's very helpful, but being a trainer myself and having seen people resist tech support's most common recommendation, RTFM I decided to add a little to the planning process.

1. There are many themes you can choose from for your web site.
   • The theme is the overall look and feel of the site - the background graphics, the colors, the fonts, and so forth.
   • As you click on a theme, to the right you will see the different templates that come bundled with that theme.
2. Templates define the layout of each individual page.
   • The templates come with columns and added bits of content to show you the layout.
   • The templates come with "dummy" text. All you have to do is retype in the boxes with your content.
   • You can move the boxes around and you can add more or less content than the dummy text. And you can use the templates for different types of content, but it's easiest to just start with the basics.
   • Try to think of your content as generic stuff: it is mostly text? Use the "About Me" template. Is it mostly pictures or graphics? Use the Photo template. Do you want to add a podcast or audio file? Then use the Podcast template.
3. iWeb will automatically create the site navigation for you as you add new pages, by clicking the plus sign at the bottom of the left column.
   • Then choose the template you want to use for your new page.
   • You can change the name of your pages (e.g. from "About Me" to "Mission Statement").
   • You can also change the order of them, just by dragging them up or down in the left hand list.
4. Some of the templates actually have secondary templates included.
   • For example, if you add a "blog" it will automatically create the main page of your blog, an individual post, and an archives page, which lists all of your previous posts.
   • Likewise, if you create a "gallery" it will create the main page for all of your thumbnails and it will create the individual detail page for each photo as well as the slideshow option. The basic gallery page shows 3 images. All you have to do is create an album in your iPhoto, select all, then drag them right on top of the "dummy" images and voila! You have a gallery page.
5. You can work on your site (and SAVE OFTEN) without publishing it.
   • So take your time and get it the way you want.
   • You can also edit it again and again once it has been published.
6. Build your basic site first, then begin exploring how to add more functionality.
   • Your can let visitors leave comments on any page.
   • You can add an "email me" button anywhere on any page.

Was this helpful? Let me know and I will do more iWeb tutorials. I am thinking about doing a screen cast movie to accompany this post as well.

How to Apologize & Acknowledge Good Customer Service

People who work in technology get tons of requests from clueless customers - legions of funny lists have been posted. Rarely do you get an inside look though into an example of someone who can admit to "user error."

Hence the internet is often an unfiltered (though understandable) space full of exasperation morphing into meanness and plenty of "it's not my fault." We at Bare Feet Studios like to lobby for a little consciousness and kindness too.

I was really impressed with how my super geeeky super smart business partner replied to our email provider after bugging them for help, and wanted to share it with you.

OMG....!!!

Here's one for your Knowledge Base or in case you start to receive similar problems reported.

I upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard, last night. Apple Mail in Leopard doesn't support some third party plugins and so reported an error and disabled those plugins. All good stuff.

But I had Rules based on those plugins. Because those plugins were now disabled, those Mail Rules grabbed every message coming in to the Inbox and placed them in random folders in Apple Mail.

I am very sorry for all your time I wasted this morning and humbled by my lack of insight that my Mail Rules could be messing with ALL incoming messages.

Webmail.us customer service continues to be top notch even when it's my fault and I don't have a clue it's my fault.

Much Mahalo (thanks)
-shane

I also found these tips for tech support you can use as needed.