{"id":4457,"date":"2018-03-19T11:31:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T15:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.libsyn.com\/?p=4457"},"modified":"2018-03-19T18:11:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T22:11:38","slug":"rockin-libsyn-podcasts-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libsyn.com\/blog\/rockin-libsyn-podcasts-fighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockin’ Libsyn Podcasts: Fighting Through"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This series is all about showcasing Libsyn podcasters. Its sole purpose is to introduce these awesome podcasts to the world as well as share their podcasting insight to empower the community!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Q & A with Paul from Fighting Through<\/h2>\n
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March 19, 2018<\/p>\n

When did you start podcasting?<\/h3>\n

2013<\/p>\n

Why did you start podcasting?<\/h3>\n

To promote my Dad\u2019s war memoirs and to provide access to blind people<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the name of your show and what is it about?<\/h3>\n

Fighting Through<\/a>. Unpublished memoirs and first hand accounts of veteran comrades connected to my Dad Bill Cheall\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Paul Cheall, the son and editor of my late father Bill Cheall\u2019s WW2 memoirs, Fighting Through From Dunkirk to Hamburg.<\/p>\n

Since Dad\u2019s memoirs were published by Pen and Sword, many former comrades have sent me stories of their own.<\/p>\n

I started podcasting in 2013, partly because I like playing around with new technology and partly to try to promote my Dad\u2019s memoirs as well as giving expression to the many war stories I\u2019d been sent.<\/p>\n

The show was originally called Fighting Through From Dunkirk to Hamburg but I\u2019ve now shortened this to just Fighting Through because I wanted to be able to make use of any war story in time, not just ones exclusive to my Dad\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

Dad fought at Dunkirk, North Africa and Sicily and was in the first wave landing on Gold Beach on D-Day. And he won seven medals and a wounded-in-action stripe.<\/p>\n

So – the aim of my show is to bring all these memories to life and honour the soldiers and civilians who were connected to Dad\u2019s story in some way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got letters home, anecdotes, memoirs, photographs, interviews with veterans \u2026 and there\u2019s both comedy and drama in abundance.<\/p>\n

There really are some staggeringly good tales to tell, about flying Lancasters, winning a military medal on D-Day, captaining a ship during Dunkirk and many more and they\u2019re all great unpublished history.<\/p>\n

My Mum, Anne, who features occasionally in my show, has a degenerative eye disease so she can\u2019t read anymore – but she does love listening to my podcasts which I download onto a disc for her and which she listens to again and again.<\/p>\n

So I hope I\u2019m playing some small part in bringing this rare history to an audience who would otherwise so often be the last to hear it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your podcasting set-up?<\/h3>\n

The Tech<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a pretty simple guy when it comes to the technology so all I have is a PC with Audacity, fed by a Blue Yeti mic and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

No mixer, no nuclear-powered processors, nothing else really. I\u2019ve never interviewed anyone over the phone or at home so my needs are basic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hosted at Libsyn and bless the day I joined them. I was seriously wound up with my previous provider but since I joined Libsyn my troubles were over and I think the team behind it are just first rate guys whom I\u2019m sure would record your show for you if you asked them nicely!<\/p>\n

And the big thing for me with Libsyn was the ease with which they feed you into all the big podcast players, which grew my audience by a massive amount compared with my previous provider.<\/p>\n

Recording<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I sit at home in front of the mic and record direct into the PC in Audacity. I recently downloaded the latest version of Audacity, 2.2.1, and I have to say it\u2019s improved a lot over the last few years and the way the latest version is set up has actually saved me a serious amount of time in editing, because now when I recommence speaking the cursor starts off on the same track I was working on rather than in a new track and without going into detail it does help a lot.<\/p>\n

I dare say I could have done this in settings before now but I didn\u2019t know. There are other improvements in the latest version but the good folks at Audacity haven\u2019t messed with the menus so don\u2019t be afraid of upgrading.<\/p>\n

For testing my edited recording, I export an mp3 from Audacity and pull it into iTunes as a WAV or you can do an MP3 if you prefer. I synch this over to my iPhone so I can have a test listen to the show, usually whilst driving somewhere!<\/p>\n

For going live I export a WAV file from Audacity and feed this into Auphonic to do all the file conversion, volumes, leveling and noise reduction, though I try to avoid needing the latter as I find it can do more harm than good to your sound quality.<\/p>\n

I once had trouble sounding like I was speaking underwater and it took me weeks to realise it was overuse of noise reduction, so nowadays I just try to record a clean sound in the first place, though I don\u2019t get too worried if a lawmower zings by outside or a jumbo jet crashes into the house next door. When I hear it on other people\u2019s shows I just think it adds character and makes me far more relaxed about my own sound quality. But I\u2019m allergic to cats so that\u2019s where I draw the line!<\/p>\n

I have to say I feel much more confident with my output since I\u2019ve used Auphonic, especially as it\u2019s free up to a certain level of usage. So my final output from Auphonic is a mono, 80 mbs mp3. I\u2019ve tried 64 mbs but I reckon 80 mbs just has the edge for sound quality, especially with my voice. There\u2019s another sound processor out called Alitu from Colin Gray which sounds cool though I haven\u2019t tried it yet.<\/p>\n

The Recording Studio<\/strong><\/p>\n

I keep my PC unit underneath the desk in my study and stuff pillows around the edge of the desk to keep any fan noise down. It sounds farcical really but my latest Auphonic report advised that there was no hum to eliminate so if it\u2019s good enough for Auphonic, it\u2019s good enough for my listeners ears!<\/p>\n

Music<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve bought some intro and outro music from Premium Beat and find their web site very easy to navigate and their product quality superb. It cost me around $40 for each track but that\u2019s a one-off fee and I can use the track as much as I like forever.<\/p>\n

Outside Recording<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have recorded stuff on location occasionally – videos and periscope. Once I was on a windy beach and I found a Rode Lavalier lapel mic plugged into an iPhone superb for this though it helps if you keep your back to the wind.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also used an Olympus LS\u201312 handheld digital recorder to record an interview in a noisy cafe (I always choose the best places!) But this was a location which my interviewee chose and I think their comfort and ease brought out the best in their answers despite the background racket!<\/p>\n

The device coped OK but it\u2019s worth playing with the settings to limit some of the more extreme noises encountered and above all practice with the set up before you need to use it in anger or you might just get angry!<\/p>\n

I also have an Olympus DS 40 voice recorder which has also performed really well but is easier to set up. So these are probably fairly basic tech but my needs are simple and I don\u2019t work for a news station! I would buy both these products again.<\/p>\n

And I now set both these machines to record simultaneously so if settings, memory or batteries let me down on one, then hopefully the other will save my skin as it did on one occasion.<\/p>\n

How have you promoted your podcast?<\/h3>\n

Promotion of my show has been the usual tweets<\/a> or Facebook<\/a> posts to announce the launch. I always try to include a photo whenever I post as I feel it offers more value and attracts more attention. I find these media quite hard work for not a lot of gain to be honest and it\u2019s a tough grind gaining traction.<\/p>\n

But I keep at it and find Facebook attracts a slightly more engaged user and occasionally I can actually have a nice exchange with someone who\u2019s posted a comment. But I religiously respond to anyone who has posted on any media in the appropriate manner either with a like or a retweet or a reply.<\/p>\n

With very little effort, I\u2019ve found Pinterest<\/a> to be a very passive way of engaging with potential listeners and am really impressed at how much activity it generates. One of my next projects is to work harder with it to monitor if I\u2019m actually gaining listeners through it or is it just pic collectors.<\/p>\n

Feedback<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been blessed with some really great feedback on my show and have around 30 five star reviews on Apple Podcasts. I recently started using My Podcast Reviews from Daniel J Lewis. It\u2019s free and gives you regular updates when you get a review on Apple Podcasts, which is very handy if like me you get the UK platform, which means I otherwise miss out on any reviews on the US or other international platforms.<\/p>\n

I personally believe reviews and ratings will gain far more relevance in search rankings as time goes on and artificial intelligence will be used to better determine the authenticity of reviews the likes of Trip Advisor will lead the markets on that I reckon. So I do encourage my listener to post feedback and my goodness how great it feels when a nice comment finds its way to you.<\/p>\n

But it does take time and patience. I recently started a “my relative was in the war spot” on the show and that\u2019s brought in quite a lot of short stories.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also put myself around numerous war related discussion forums and posted genuine research questions or tried to answer other people\u2019s questions and join in any discussion. This is a subtle way of promoting awareness of the show without spamming.<\/p>\n

Probably half my episodes have come from people who have written in and sent me the memoirs of their parents or grandparents etc and I\u2019ve developed great relationships with all of them, who are now fans of the show.<\/p>\n

I think my favourite is the story of Dunkirk little ship the Bee which started off as a short memoir I found on a web site, having got permission from the site owner. The memoir had been written in 1940 by Fred Reynard, the engineer aboard the ship.<\/p>\n

Helen wrote in, tearfully, shortly after, to say how heart warming it was to hear her own grandfather\u2019s memoir being read out loud. And not only that but she offered me the full version of the memoir, as it seemed the version I\u2019d got was an abridged one. She then went on to say her Grandfather not only sailed this ship through the brutal war zone that was Dunkirk in WW2 but he\u2019d also fought in the battle of Gallipoli in WW1 \u2026 and he\u2019d written a memoir about that, and would I like to use it. Would I!?<\/p>\n

That piece of writing is some of the most riveting piece of writing you could hope to find, describing vicious hand to hand fighting in one of the most fierce battles of WW1.<\/p>\n

The lesson here is I have to keep searching for new ideas and material and in this case I turned one 20 minute memoir into an additional three hour long shows.<\/p>\n

Show notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

I go very strong on show notes and always put up as solid a set of notes as possible, with links, pics and play buttons as well as a full show transcript when I have one. Before I post the transcript I usually insert a number of key words here and there to feed the search engines. It\u2019s safe to say I spend far more time on the show notes than I do on social media but I find the effect of social media quite transient whereas my show notes are around permanently and I currently get around 15 visits a day to the site, which is seriously more than the number of likes I\u2019ve ever got in Twitter. But I guess depending on your subject this experience will vary.<\/p>\n

I build my web site with a facility called Moonfruit which I find very competent and I\u2019ve never found it lacking to do any of the stuff I want to do, and it\u2019s very easy to use, with absolutely no programming expertise required. If you can do Word and spreadsheets, you can do Moonfruit I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried in vain to establish a mailing list using several tried and tested methods and have singularly failed so I\u2019ve concluded that again depending on your subject this experience will vary.<\/p>\n

Email is probably my weapon of choice when people write to me, which they do, but I also offer Speakpipe, and I\u2019ve had several messages on that. Unfortunately all from me.<\/p>\n

Libsyn player on all pages<\/p>\n

I recently started trying to cross-promote my episodes so if I can find a reason to mention a previous episode whilst recording my latest one then I do so, but only if I\u2019m mentioning it to genuinely help the listener. It\u2019s not about offering myself free advertising, because I think that would turn people off.<\/p>\n

Downloads<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started off with just three episodes produced in 2013 then did nothing for three years but did a steady 5 downloads per episode per day for the entire period, which I thought was kind of OK.<\/p>\n

Since mid 2016 with Libsyn I produced more episodes. Into 2017 and I\u2019ve just published episode 26 and am now averaging around 200 downloads per episode per month overall, so that includes all the old episodes too.<\/p>\n

My latest few episodes have been doing around 250 to 1100 downloads per month, with earlier episodes still downloading at around 125pm.<\/p>\n

I am playing a long game here because I know I\u2019m in a niche market with huge untapped potential as podcasting grows.<\/p>\n

My stats did suffer in the reporting changeover but have since steadied and I\u2019m actually finding them much more stable now, when in the past they\u2019ve been very volatile, going up and down all over the place.<\/p>\n

The one thing I\u2019d love to have more certainty on is the number of actual subscribers and how many subscribe but then drop off, or listen but don\u2019t subscribe.<\/p>\n

I still think everyone is playing a guessing game at the moment and I hope Apple Podcasts stats platform evolves into something that will allow us to stroke our own egos or not – as the case may be – but we producers do seem to thrive on praise, in the absence of money! I once had a boss who used to say that feedback is the breakfast of champions and I\u2019ve never forgotten that. Quite recently I\u2019ve begun to incorporate my feedback comments into the show, especially if they include some comment about a relative being in the war, and I almost feel I\u2019ve got to the point where I don\u2019t actually need to ask for feedback because my listeners are getting the message just by listening to the show.<\/p>\n

Spotify<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just started to monitor Spotify stats and last month out of around 5000 total downloads, 500 odd were through Spotify 10%? So to echo Rob\u2019s sentiment about Spotify it\u2019s definitely worth connecting to them, especially as the Libsyn platform makes it so easy.<\/p>\n

WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN AT THE OUTSET THAT I KNOW NOW<\/h3>\n

I started out with a host who most people have probably never heard of and found their model very poor. Their pricing model was confusing and expensive. After 3 years I discovered Libsyn and it was like chalk and cheese, with the support from libsyn being light years ahead. I wish I\u2019d known this when I started! The moral of this story is to make sure you understand what\u2019s on offer and what you need before you commit to a provider.<\/p>\n

I think the other thing I wished I\u2019d known at the outset was how hard it was going to be to set my microphone up for best results. Looking back I should have got professional in to guide me. It\u2019s been a lot harder to get things right than I expected.<\/p>\n

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Fascinating, no??? Now, how about it? Are you ready to subscribe to Fighting Through<\/a>? There\u2019s nothing better than getting into the source of these incredible stories!<\/em><\/p>\n

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If you want to tell the stories of your family, or want to give another layer to telling stories, why don\u2019t you start a podcast? We can help you get started with our free monthly podcasting quickstart<\/a> or if you want to go for it, we have awesome hosting packages<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This series is all about showcasing Libsyn podcasters. Its sole purpose is to introduce these awesome podcasts to the world as well as share their podcasting insight to empower the community! Q & A with Paul from Fighting Through March 19, 2018 When did you start podcasting? 2013 Why did you start podcasting? To promote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rockin-libsyn-podcasts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t