Let me tell you: it was a journey. Learning how to podcast is easy on the one hand, but keeping it up requires grit. I struggled. I celebrated. I attracted clients. I considered quitting at times. I got fan mail. I stuck with it.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

It has now been over 17 months, and I've learned some things. If you are thinking of starting a podcast, here are a few mistakes I'd recommend avoiding:

1. Spending too much money
You do not need a bunch of fancy equipment to start a podcast. Trust me. I spent $65 on a used Yeti microphone and pop filter from some guy off Craigslist and started recording the next day.

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Nielsen has launched Nielsen Podcast Listener Buying Power Service, an analytics tool providing insights matching podcast listeners by genre with their buying habits.

The tool is placed to help pair podcasts with advertisers by detailing the interests and expenses of audiences.

The product, from Nielsen Scarborough, launches with iHeartMedia, Cadence13, Stitcher, Westwood One and Cabana as clients.

Clients will be able to profile shows using program titles collected from subscribers. In order to connect specific types of listeners with particular advertisers and specific program-level insights - built from a sample of 30,000 respondents.

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Reflecting the fact that 75% of UK advertisers are upping spend in podcasts, Nielsen has unveiled a measurement tool to gauge effectiveness in this growing ad space.

Nielsen believes that the UK’s 6 million weekly podcast listeners will double in the next three years. It is putting the tools in place for brands to “quantify the impact and effectiveness of their podcast ads” with the Nielsen Podcast Brand Effect.

The tool has already been running in the US and so far the results have found that 57% of podcast ads tested outperformed pre-roll video in driving purchase intent and 70% of respondents agreed that the podcast ads increased their awareness of products and services.

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We at Adweek recently announced our new Podcast of the Year Awards, celebrating audio excellence across 20 categories. Since we have assembled an incredible lineup of judges, all with direct podcasting experience, we wanted to take this time while submissions are open (that is, before we flood them with shows to judge) to hit them up for some advice.

First we posed the question all of us with a podcast get asked most often: What should you know before launching a show?

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It is well-known that podcasting is huge these days. But you might not realize how many educational podcasts are out there.

By educational, we mean shows that focus on some super-focused topic, like a specific period of history or an academic discipline. For instance, there are at least 15 or 20 active podcasts about linguistics, and there are several podcasts out there about conversational Latin (and we were pretty sure that was a dead language that was no longer spoken).

A Podcast for Every Discipline? The Rise of Educational Audio

The company behind the hit true-crime podcast Serial is exploring a sale, according to a person familiar with the matter, putting one of digital audios biggest brands on the market as the medium becomes increasingly popular.

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Spotify, the Swedish music and audio streaming giant, has extended its reach further into the growing podcast market with its formal acquisition of the Ringer, a US sports and pop culture platform.

Although Spotify announced the acquisition at the beginning of this month, more details of the deal emerged this week in a filing with the Security and Exchange Commission.

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The decision to implement a private podcast is a critical first step to improving your business communication, but there are a number of other important decisions you have to make before the show becomes a reality. In this article, we’ll focus on one unavoidable decision: what type of equipment should you buy?

The answer, perhaps unsatisfyingly, is that it depends. However, here are the questions you should be asking yourself as you begin the search for podcasting gear.

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Like blogs and social media, podcasts are democratizing the way people share their thoughts with the world, with the episodic audio series continuing to gain traction with listeners seeking both entertainment value and educational dialogue.

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The podcast industry as a whole is expected to produce more than $1 billion by 2021, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

With that much money floating around, you have to wonder what is stopping you from getting your share.

Since many people are still stuck at home, craving connection and entertainment, there is really never been a better time for podcasting. And, contrary to what you might think, getting your own podcast off the ground is not just possible, it’s quite easy thanks to resources like

In the wake of a seismic deal in the podcast industry that will see top host Joe Rogan bring his show exclusively to Spotify for a reported $100 million, Apple — which will lose distribution of Rogan’s show come 2021 — is revamping its own podcast approach.

According to Bloomberg, Apple — an early distribution platform for podcasts that is also the largest hub for the medium stateside — is now seeking an executive to lead development of original audio series. The exec would report to Ben Crave, Apple’s head of podcasting.

Podcast measurement company Podtrac has recorded mostly negative week-over-week download and unique audience growth since social distancing measures began. The declines were most severe in mid-March when major cities began shelter-in-place requirements and nonessential American workers began working from home. As of the week of April 27, however, weekly download and audience growth are slowly ticking back up.

But it is not all bad news: Podtrac found that for the shows it measures, year-to-date growth overall is still positive with major download growth in categories like news, comedy and business.

Starting a new business can be exhausting. From crafting an effective content marketing strategy to making sure the whole SEO is perfect, if you do it all yourself without some guidance you will soon find taking the marketers role full time, and doing no actual work.

There is no denying that creating adding-value content like blog posts, videos, e-books, webinars, or anything that allows you to share your experience and knowledge, can surely help you jump-start your business. The options are seemingly endless, and there are thousands of pieces on the kind of content that works best for your specific niche.

However, there is one solid format that’s been proven to increase conversion, boost sales, and drive more qualified leads to almost any kind of website.

I am talking about podcasts.

New York Times Co. said it would acquire Serial Productions, the maker of the hit podcast Serial, a deal that aims to further the newspapers podcasting ambitions.

Terms of the deals were not disclosed, but the transaction could be worth as much as $50 million depending on milestones and performance metrics, a person familiar with the matter said.

After Spotifys recent string of podcasting deals, it is kind of weird to see a podcast acquisition where Spotify is not involved. E.W. Scripps has been shopping around its Stitcher podcast platform for a couple of weeks, and it looks like it found a buyer in SiriusXM.

Sirius will pay around $300 million for the unit. That is a hefty return for Scripps. It originally bought Stitcher in 2016 for $4.5 million, combining it with its $50 million Midroll Media acquisition from the year before.

Still, $300 million is a good deal for the premium podcast platform, a specialized podcast advertising network doing sales for over 300 podcasts, and the owner of two podcast content networks, Earwolf and Stitcher Podcasts.

That compares to Spotifys acquisition of The Ringer earlier this year, for which it reportedly paid between $141 million to $196 million.

It is estimated that 32% of Americans listen to podcasts on a monthly basis. And the podcast industry is expected to be worth around $1 billion by the end of next year. Being such a booming industry, it makes sense why so many people are thinking about starting their own podcasts.

Luckily, we are here to help you. So continue reading and we’ll walk you through everything you need to know!

1. USB Audio Interface and Recording Bundle
2. Adjustable Microphone Arm Stand
3. Podcast Recording Software
4. Podcast Editing Software

Spotify on Wednesday said its monthly active user count reached 299 million in the most recent quarter ending June 30. That is an increase of 29 percent year-over-year and brings the streaming giant just shy of that 300 million MAU milestone.

Taking a closer look, we see that Spotify finished the second quarter with 138 million premium (paying) subscribers, up 27 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. The company said its Family Plan continues to be a big driver of performance and further plugged the expansion of its new Premium Duo subscription offering for couples.

COVID-19 has threatened the key communication channels corporations need to survive. Workers are displaced. National meetings have been cancelled. Town halls and offsites are viable only through online platforms. In the face of the storm, companies are turning to new channels to keep the lines of communication open. For many organizations, podcasting is a timely and effective way to unite a fractured workforce.

Even before COVID shuttered offices, and work-from-home directives became commonplace, large organizations were discovering podcasting was a worthwhile addition to their communication mix. According to Forbes, the majority of Fortune 500 companies in the US already use podcasting as part of their internal communications. Ideal for a geographically-distanced and mobile audience, podcasting seems purpose built for the modern lifestyle, bringing content where the audience is. Add to the mix a pandemic that has scattered workers across the country, and podcasting makes more sense than ever.

The Apple Watch will no longer be counted in podcast listener numbers for Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab partners because it has been found to falsely inflate listener numbers.

Currently, when a podcast is automatically downloaded by an ‌Apple Watch‌ user, it is counted as two listeners; one from the ‌Apple Watch‌, and one from its paired iPhone. Since the ‌Apple Watch‌ and ‌iPhone‌ download the same podcast episode by default, and they both report different device user agents, the podcast appears to be downloaded by two different people. This means that the ‌Apple Watch‌ falsely inflates podcast listener numbers.

Imagine the perfect custom talk radio station tailored exactly to your unique likes, with a never-ending flow of great content.

That is exactly what Apple could soon be delivering with its recent podcasting acquisition, Scout FM. Because that’s precisely what Apple has achieved already — in the music sense — with its new personalized music stations in iOS 14.

The COVID-19 restrictions that many countries had to endure forced many people to seek alternative forms of entertainment. One such form is podcasting which has grown in popularity over recent years. According to the most recent financial reports, Spotify reported that 21% of the monthly active users (MUA) have engaged in at least one podcast in the past month.  Data presented by Stockapps.com breaks down the rise of podcasting.

Spotify Records 5% Increase in Podcast Engagement between Q4 of 2019 and Q2 of 2020

The Joe Rogan Experience – the title of Rogans podcast, was the highest-earning podcast of 2019 with revenue of $30M. In September 2020, Joe Rogan officially began his podcasting contract with media giants Spotify, which will eventually see his entire library of content migrate to the platform. The deal is reported to be over $100M.

Spotify has been expanding its podcasts catalogue as they continue to see strong growth in that particular segment. The rate of consumption of podcasts has been growing by triple-digit percentage numbers for the last few years. In Q4 of 2019 16% of Spotifys monthly active users engage in podcast content, by Q2 2020 that number had jumped to 21%.

Academia and podcasting have a similar problem: unless you’re involved in them, they seem incredibly intimidating to get into. With academia that is mostly true; a number of economic, systemic, and personal reasons make it inaccessible for a lot of people. With podcasts, however, that is not the case — to the same extent. If you have access to a recording device, editing software, and an internet connection, that is all you need to share your work with the digital world.

Spotifys $100 million-plus Anchor acquisition is seemingly paying off. In data released today as part of its annual Wrapped look-back on the year, the company says Anchor, which makes podcast creation software, powered 80 percent of new podcasts on Spotify this year, meaning the software contributed more than 1 million shows to Spotify’s catalog in 2020 alone. Overall, Anchor powers 70 percent of Spotifys total podcast catalog, or around 1.3 million out of over 1.9 million shows.

1. Create An Ideal Listener Avatar
2. Know Why You Are Doing It
3. Be Authentically You
4. Interview Other Podcasters
5. Accept That Episode One Will Not Be Perfect
6. Get To Know Your Audience Intimately
7. Be Clear About The Value You Want To Bring
8. Never Quit
9. Know Your Audiences What Is In It For Me
10. Let Interesting Guests Talk You Up
11. Commit To A Disciplined Purpose For A Year
12. Find A Niche Aligned With Your Expertise
13. Take A Step-By-Step Approach
14. Figure Out What People Need To Hear
15. Be Relevant And Real

Podcasting and audiobooks have become increasingly popular in recent years – especially for entrepreneurs and in the business community. For many, these audio formats are a great way to educate people about your product, grow brand loyalty, and help bring in additional revenue for your company. But, a podcast or audiobook is only as good as its technical quality and distribution, both of which can be difficult to master.

Soundwise is an all-in-one platform that helps you create and sell audio products like audiobooks, podcasts, audio courses, and albums directly to your customers.

Podcasting is marketing. And companies have been using branded podcasts for a long time. But while many companies, big and small, have attempted using branded podcasts, not all of them have been equally successful.

Begin with a strategy
No matter what the nature of your business is, creating a branded podcast starts with a sound strategy. What are the objectives of your branded podcast? Who is it for, and what is the purpose behind creating it? These are the first questions we ask any brand before starting an engagement. Well-executed branded podcasts are not about just the podcast, but about everything from strategy to research to storytelling to distribution.

Spotifys $100 million-plus Anchor acquisition is seemingly paying off. In data released today as part of its annual Wrapped look-back on the year, the company says Anchor, which makes podcast creation software, powered 80 percent of new podcasts on Spotify this year, meaning the software contributed more than 1 million shows to Spotifys catalog in 2020 alone. Overall, Anchor powers 70 percent of Spotifys total podcast catalog, or around 1.3 million out of over 1.9 million shows.

Anchor-hosted shows account for more consumption of third-party podcast content on Spotify than any other podcast hosting or distribution provider
Spotify says Anchor’s top five markets in 2020, by total number of shows, were the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Great Britain. In Indonesia, Spotify signed nine shows to become exclusives. Meanwhile, the fastest-growing markets, looking at the average monthly increase in new shows, are India, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Indonesia. India accounts for nearly 40,000 Anchor-made shows and has been growing at an average of 22 percent month-over-month increase in 2020.

Podcasting is a great way to reach and engage with your audience. Here's the lowdown on podcasting and the shows digital marketers should pay attention to.

Podcasting is the new normal in digital marketing.

Experts are calling podcasting modern-day blogging.

Doubling in attendance from the previous year, Podfest March 2020 marked the 6th edition of the annual international event produced by Chris Krimitsos.

It also skated by the pre-pandemic shutdown as one of the last live events of 2020.

For those of us who are iPhone users, I asked Jimmy Atkinson at Edu-Tastic to share a list similar to the one I posted for you yesterday but for the iPhone. Here it is! (The link to the webpage is: http://toponlineuniversityreviews.com/2009/25-essential-free-iphone-apps-for-lifelong-learners/

by Miranda on July 14, 2009

According to the latest statistics from ASTD (American Society for Training & Development), U.S. companies spent almost $126B on employee education in 2010. A good portion of that was spent on e-learning. While remote education is now a popular and cost-effective method for providing access to the continuing education employees need, businesses shouldn't depend solely on this method. Rather, companies should blend e-learning with face-to-face learning by sending them to live industry conferences. Continue reading to learn three reasons you should send some of your employees to conferences.

Increase Networking Opportunities
One benefit of in-person conferences is that your employees can meet interesting and knowledgeable people who may inspire them to go “above and beyond” once they return to work. In-person conferences also provide opportunities for your employees to ask questions and exchange ideas with industry experts, conference speakers, and other attendees. These types of interactions are most effective when conducted in-person.

Capitalize on Internal Talent
At live conferences, attendees are often exposed to some of the most up-to-date and modern business techniques and products used in your industry. Your employees may return to their jobs with new ideas that can be applied within your company which may transform and improve some aspect of your organization. In addition, your employees’ new-found knowledge could save you money since you would have less need to recruit “new blood.” This makes good business sense since your current employees have already proven their value and loyalty, unlike new talent that you may recruit.

Make Employees Happier
Finally, an employee who attends a conference in another city or state may greatly appreciate the opportunity to enjoy a short break from the office, attend interesting sessions at the conference, and enhance their knowledge. It can be rejuvenating, refreshing, and stimulating. They should return to work more inspired and motivated as a result of their experience.

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
This guest post was contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topic of online courses. She welcomes your comments at her email id: angelita.williams7@gmail.com.

For several years, employers have tried to develop "relevant" and creative ways to successfully train new employees. After all, employees are more likely to pay attention to training videos and seminars if they can actually relate to the content. While there have been some pretty outrageous attempts over the years—just take a look at the 1989 Wendy's training (music) video designed to instruct new hires how to properly pour coffee—some of the methods do work.

It’s not every employee’s favorite task but it’s time for your online training course and you would rather sift through your emails than make the time to log on. But you know you have to get it done. Don’t let other work distractions get in the way of your course; here are 5 tricks to stay focused:

Schedule it: Depending on how long your online course is, schedule it into your calendar and set a reminder. Making time for it, instead of just finding the time, will help you actually complete the work. Adjust your day accordingly to fit around your training course.

Time it: Choose to take the course during your lightest time of the day and when you are most ready to work. Typically the first two hours after lunch or when you first arrive at work are good times. 

Close your door: Don’t be afraid to close your door and post a ‘do not disturb’ sign. Keeping your door closed will deter people from walking into your office and distracting you.

Log off: Log off your email and any other websites that are distracting, including your company's internal instant message application. Log off and stay off until your course is complete.

Turn off notifications: Turn your phone ringer off on both your cell phone and work phone until you complete your course. You can even turn off your email notifications to help you remain on task.

You may already provide your new hires with some sort of technical training to help them perform their specific jobs according to your standards. You may not, however, provide them with any sort of training that will enhance their general performance as staff members. There are numerous e-learning courses and online training options available to employers that help employees gain the essential professional skills they sometimes lack. If you're deciding or re-evaluating which e-learning courses you invest in for your new hires, you may want to consider these useful types of courses:

Why Personalize?

So Where Do We Start?

Software Considerations

Ways to Personalize

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Terminal emulation for Wyse, Viewpoint, VT100,VT220 and more

Complete version history for MacWise version 10 terminal emulation for Mac OS X. Current version is 10.7.56

MacWise terminal emulation supports AppleScript commands. Many functions of MacWise can be controlled by a script (such as transferring data to and from the host and sending commands to the host.

A few tips for making a connection with your Mac modem and the modem at the office.

MacWise allows a host computer to control the functionality of special keys on the keyboard. The keys can be re-programmed by the host. Information for host programmers.

Apple has made a much larger comeback in Yale student and faculty computing than its 10 to 12 percent national market share would indicate.

MacWise users will find the Mac Mini a compelling reason to put that old Wyse or DEC terminal into storage and replace it with a Mac Mini running MacWise. The Mini has everything you need to connect to your host.

This release of MacWise fixes a VT100 / VT220 emulation problem. The screen could get scrambled by an incorrect ESC [ ascii code sent from the host. MacWise now absorbs the invalid code. Also fixes a rare Array Bounds Error message.

This release of MacWise adds a telnet option, "Use the tc shell to log in". When this option is enabled, MacWise first logs into the Mac unix tc shell before issuing telnet commands and opening the connection. This option provides more compatibility with host computers that request the terminal type. It could prevent error messages from the host such as "Connection refused by host" or "Invalid terminal type".

MacWise now has SCO ANSI emulation for Macintosh. All emulations now work with SCO ANSI. (Wyse, Viewpoint, VT100, VT220, Televideo). SCO ANSI colors, cursor positioning and a 25-line screen are supported.

MacWise font now works correctly in Tiger ( OS X 10.4 ). The symptom in previous versions of MacWise was that columns did not line up correctly. The other symptom was that the flashing cursor did not completely erase the cursor line when it flashed on and off.

Added option to keep TCP sessions alive for telnet and ssh. Look under the Special Menu for this option. It allows you to enter a time interval to tell the host that you are still there. This keeps the host from disconnecting you after a pre-determined idle time.

Fix - The MacWise Registration window would not open and you could not register the program.

Fix - If you closed the connection to the host, you could not open it again (when you selected Close Connection from the Connection Menu or Option - O from the keyboard). This problem was introduced in 10.7.63