Using Google AI for your Podcast? Watch Your Back

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For those who are embracing Google AI as a solution for all things podcasting, here’s a word of caution. Watch your back. Not just for all the potential copyright, legal and ethical issues, but for something else entirely that I have yet to hear anyone else talk about – the discovery and SEO of your content.

You’re stressed about your stats? Subscribers? Likes and Follows? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, or will you, if Google AI has its way in the future.

For example, I had an interesting back and forth with someone in another group who was touting the virtues of virtual bots and AI doing all his discovery for him when searching for topics online, and as he put it, “I want to see podcast about how to do sales, I can only search and cannot know the youtube content unless I watch it. Most of the time it waste of my time. So I can just ask the bot to give me some summary on what is in the podcast.”

As a content creator, this bothers me a lot, because it means there are folks out there who want my content without getting it from me.

So, tonight I did a Google search with a question related to content that I produce for the company I work for. Google AI served up the answer immediately. Although it did list content such as articles, videos, podcasts, etc. we and other creators did on that topic, Guess what was in the first position? The AI response. It was highlighted, to be sure it was the first, and possibly only thing seen. Attached is the screenshot to prove it. My guess is anyone who just wants a quick answer without the original tutorial or explanation is never going to click anything below it.

So, what does that tell you? It tells me that the web site, podcast and YouTube channel that I’ve spent years building content for isn’t going to get that traffic. Google is. They will serve up instant answers to everything and searchers will be too lazy to look or listen for it anywhere else. SInce it’s on ther site, Google will also receive any and all ad revenue and conversions they throw in there with it. The visitors will not visit our sites, because they will seldom have the need to leave the Google AI search engine.

If left unchallenged, It may be less than 3 years before Google AI becomes the de facto site on the web for all media related content.

A few months ago, many podcasters were scratching their heads, wondering why Google shut down Google Podcast, generally assuming it would all just move to YouTube. Perhaps that’s part of the reason, but I think it’s deeper than that, and more sinister. I think it’s because Google AI is going to completely change how search results are served, SEO is performed, content is consumed, and they, not the podcaster or YouTuber, will be the beneficiary of it all. Am I full of it? Maybe. I don’t think so. Time will tell. Watch your back.

Beware the Podcast Master Mind Scheme

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I do not think all consultants are scammers, but a lot of them have given the titles “podcast consultant” and “mastermind group” a bad reputation. The concept of the “mastermind” (or more correctly termed “Master Mind”) came from Napoleon Hill in the classic book “Think and Grow Rich”. The concept is simple: surround yourself with knowledgeable experts in the field with the purpose of collaboration “in a spirit of harmony” (to quote Hill) to create one “Master Mind” of knowledge, because knowledge is power.

Nowhere in the book does it say anything about “buying into” a Master Mind. This is purely an invention of those who have essentially exploited the original concept and bastardized it into a money making scheme in and of itself.

How to Start a Podcast on a Shoestring Budget

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You never needed to “pay a pretty penny to rent professional studios and pay a team of producers to get your message out to the world.” The technology to create a high quality podcast on a home computer was available since podcasting began.

I started my first two podcasts in 2006 with a refurbished PC, an $89 Samson C01U microphone and Audacity and received great reviews from my listeners for the high production values of my shows. My total cost was about $150, less than half your minimum price point for entry. I was not the exception.

Part of the problem with the podcast industry today is the misconception among newcomers that you need a lot of gear to get started. That’s the beauty of it. You don’t. In fact, you don’t need a mixer if it’s a solo show, and you can even get away without one if there are two hosts or a host on each end of an Internet connection, if you know what you are doing.

And that’s the real investment. It’s not about all the tech gear, it’s about taking the time to learn how to use what you have, and knowing how to make the most of it. And most of this is stuff you can learn on your own, by utilizing the vast storehouse of information and resources already available on the web, and by networking with others who podcast and are willing to help you along the way.

Don’t just buy $300 of high tech stuff to start. Research thoroughly before you spend one pretty penny.

The one exception to this is when it comes to hosting your podcast episodes. This is one area where you don’t want to be cheap, because this is where your podcast recordings are going to live, and hopefully for the long term. There are many podcast hosting services available, and they offer a wide range of perks and services. Some offer hosting at no cost to you, and you could opt for one of those to save money.

Yet every thing that purports to be free still comes with a cost. This is true of anything that is advertised as free, and especially your hosting options. Free hosting isn’t free, and you get what you pay for. Be sure you are comfortable with the trade-off before you sign up for any free hosting platform.

the one lesson radio can learn from podcasting

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Awhile back I read an article titled Five Things Podcasters Can Learn From Radio. The author’s name was Ethan. It seems it is nowhere to be found now, but at the time it did generate a lot of pushback, mostly from OG podcasters. In the article, the author made the following statement:
I think many podcasters often forget that without broadcast radio their entire medium might not exist.

I’m going to chime in here, mostly because of the “without radio” bit. Before I do, I want to say that this is in no way intended to offend or disparage the author. This isn’t about Ethan or the article. It’s about the general state of the medium that has given me great concern.

Look, I think the five points are generally sound, common sense tips that can be applied to any kind of presentation, whether it’s a recorded event or a live one. But there’s no secret sauce here. it’s rote. The principles behind these lessons are basic rules about public presentation that go back even beyond radio and were merely adapted for the medium.

“I think many podcasters often forget that without broadcast radio their entire medium might not exist.” This is an arrogant statement, but expected considering that at the time the article was written, the author had 5 years experience in radio. The question is, how long had he been a podcaster? I have a little experience in both broadcasting and podcasting myself, and I can say this statement is absolutely not true. I will prove that in a moment. However, the statement reveals something that I think is cause for concern. It tells one how the radio industry really views podcasters and podcasting as ‘radio wannabees’ in what they may consider exclusively their professional domain.

From what I’ve seen, read and heard from both radio professionals and mainstream media outlets during the last couple of years, there seem to be radio folks out there who believe podcasting SHOULD belong to radio, while those grass roots podcasters are the “great unwashed” who want to “play radio”. This is a purely elitist view from an industry that first ignored the medium, then blew it off with smirks, and now that it is gaining acceptance by the masses and the potential for profitability, now wants to pwn it, re-write the history of the medium as a new invention of radio and otherwise make over podcasting into what they think it SHOULD be – theirs.

Would podcasting exist without radio? It is quite possible. In fact, not only is it a possibility, I would take it further and say it is statistically a very high probability. Why? Simply because it’s a recorded medium, not a broadcast medium. Consider this. Commercial radio (we’re talking about commercial stations, not military, ham, or utilitarian) has only been around for approximately one hundred years. Although the first station technically went on the air around 1909, it didn’t actually become a commercially licensed and monetized station until over decade later.

However, recorded media has been around since the late 1880’s. A prime example of this is the “spoken word” phonograph and cylinder recordings. In the beginning, songs and music weren’t the only performances recorded, distributed and played via cylinders and later, Victrolas. There were comedy routines, speeches, book readings and other entertainment. Yes, that’s right. The first audio books were recorded long before there was Audible.

First came recorded media, then commercial radio. Not the other way around. If not for commercial radio, considering the progress of the rest of technology, chances are podcasting would likely be the primary medium of audio content today.

If you really want to compare podcasting to any entertainment medium, it isn’t the radio. It’s the phonograph.

Why I created this site

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I came from broadcasting, having worked 14 years at TV stations in Orlando from 1982-1996. Podcasting was a way for me to get back to doing what I loved about broadcasting, while eschewing the aspects of it that I didn’t like.

I could have become a “name” in podcasting, but that’s not what I wanted from it. Not really seeking the limelight, I kept a low profile, choosing to interact with only a few other podcasters in my niche. And it was great. I followed the space closely and I knew who most of the OG and big podcasters were, they just didn’t know me. There was a nice advantage to that, and I preferred to keep it that way.

This relative transparency allowed me to experiment and do my own thing largely undisturbed. I could observe and learn from others without calling too much attention to my own mistakes. There was no desire to prove my experience to anyone, nor was there a need to explain my methods or to anyone else who might take issue with the way I produced my shows.  I didn’t want to be a podcast influencer. I just wanted to play quietly in my part of the sandbox and do my own thing.

But nothing stays that way forever. The world changes, media changes, and if I want to continue to play in my podcast sandbox, at some point I have to deal with it. I don’t want to be an activist in the medium. But the more I see happening in the space, the more it bothers me, because it’s encroaching into my little part of the sandbox. And I now realize that I have to do something, or the medium that I know and love will be taken away, or changed into something I don’t like at all. So after nearly 19 years in podcasting, here I am.

I am a professional podcaster

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podcast microphone on standI am a podcaster.

When I first discovered podcasting, I had no real goal or plan, and no idea where it would take me. All I knew was that it was exactly what I had been waiting for, something I wanted to do, for a long, long time. I wanted to use my voice to talk to the world.

I was always a talker. The moment I uttered my first words, there was no stopping. I talked about anything and everything that i could think of, and more. My parents couldn’t shut me up. My dad suffered my relentless rambling, my mom did pretty much the same. My grandparents thought I would be a lawyer someday, simply because of my ceaseless, often nonsensical orations. Others would simply roll their eyes and braced themselves for the tumultuous torrent of tongue wagging when I began to open my mouth.

I liked to talk.

I talked my way through grade school, and got myself into a lot of trouble with my peers. I talked a lot on the job, which sometimes inhibited my productivity. When I started my own computer business, I talked with my customers incessantly, primarily with the goal of educating them on the products and services I sold, but in so doing, also “giving away the farm” so to speak, so they could do it all themselves, and not need my services.

I talked too much.

But I reached a critical turning point. I was not happy with where I was. The business I started was stagnant. Years of struggling with it, I was losing interest. It was no longer fun. I was burning out. I was becoming discouraged, trapped, and I didn’t know what to do next.

Then I discovered podcasting.

It was in the early spring of 2006, or was it the winter of 2005? I don’t remember which, and it’s not important anyway. What I do remember is the light that went on in my head the moment I first head about it. This is what I had been waiting for. This is was what I wanted to do. This was it. But, how was it going to work? How was I going to make it happen? How could I make it my next career?

So, I did a little reading about it, came up with an idea, and in late spring 2006,I made it happen. I bought a microphone, set it up on an old, used computer, and recorded my first podcast.

That was over 18 years ago. It changed my life.

As an early adopter, there was very limited competition in my chosen niche, so I was able to monetize my podcasts within the first dozen episodes through host read ads. It didn’t pay the bills, but  the meager earnings did incentivize me to do more with the medium.

The podcast also received quite a bit of recognition, landing a spot in the Small Business Trends list of 100 best business podcasts each year for a number of years.

In 2007 I closed my computer business and sought other career opportunities. Unfortunately, I found myself at a crossroads. My community of listeners began to push back on montization of my show, a few even attempting to villianize me for doing so. It was still early in the new media space, so podcasting was still not mainstream enough to support a show with a broader reach that was finanically sustainable for me.

So I pivoted. I added podcasting to my resume.

This action turned out to be quite fortuitous and provided me a position in a company that, 14 years later, I still hold. It also led to the creation of one of the longest running, highly rated podcasts about specific types of products in a niche market that, as of this writing, was twice nominated for a People’s Choice podcast award in the Technology Category.

In the course of all this, I learned many things about podcasting and other new media technologies. Much of it I incorporate into my job as a professional podcaster and media producer, some of it turned into life lessons. All of it has contributed to a first hand experience in the evolution of the medium and continues to provide me with an ongoing, real world education of podcasting as it actually exists that I could never gain from a university, training course on podcast theory or some ridiculously overpriced “Mastermind Group” with high monthly membership fees and low or incorrect information from those operating it who are relatively new or inexperienced in the medium themselves.

I am not a mastermind, nor am I some high paid consultant with a certificate or diploma on the wall of a home office with a bookshelf and some strategically place awards and nick knacks to impress you with my prowess in podcasting and new age marketing skills. I am, however, an active, working, veteran podcaster with nearly two decades of real world experience in the space and who keeps up with industry trends, continually honing his skills to prepare for what comes next.

I am a professional podcaster.

If you really want to pay thousands of dollars for second hand advice about starting a podcast from someone who likely got their information from keyword searches online, and without the knowledge or wisdom to separate fact from fiction, there’s nothing more I can say to you other than this: good luck with that.

However, if you want simple, no nonsense facts, tips and guidance from an old podcasting curmudgeon who has been there, and without a requirement to pay for it, and no obligation to even take it, then by all means subscribe to the RSS feed on this site and enjoy the benefits it has to offer. You’ll probably be glad you did. After all, it’s free. And you can’t beat free.

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