SW 292 - FBF – Professional Advice from Podcast Master, Libsyn's Rob Walch

This week's Flash Back Friday takes back to Episode 53 from April 2012. For those new to podcasting, terms like RSS Feed, media hosting, and platforms can be a foreign language. Jason Hartman interviews long-time podcaster, Rob Walch, Vice President of Podcaster Relations for Wizzard Media/Libsyn, about his career in podcasting. Rob talks about starting his first podcast, Podcast411, in 2004, which he began in order to teach the ins and outs of the trade to others aspiring to get in on this type of media delivery. He lists the best sources for statistics, such as Libsyn, Feedburner, and Blubrry. He talks about some of techniques of the biggest podcasters, who have hundreds of thousands of downloads per day or multiple millions per week, gives examples of premium content versus free content, and also the benefit of a podcasting service/community to provide media hosting, delivery, and track stats. He also stresses the importance of editing and professionalism to produce a quality show. Rob Walch is the Vice President of Podcaster Relations for Wizzard Media / Libsyn. Prior to joining Wizzard Media in 2007, he was President and founder of podCast411, Inc. Rob is co-author of the book "Tricks of the Podcasting Masters" – Que 2006, which was an editors pick as a Top 10 Reference book for 2006 by Amazon.com. Rob was listed as the 5th most influential person in podcasting according to the book "Podcasting for Dummies" – Wiley Press 2005. He has consulted on podcasting for Senator Edwards, Governor Bill Richardson and the Sacramento Kings/Monarchs to name just a few. He was also a monthly columnist for Blogger and Podcaster Magazine – the first print magazine covering this new media space. Rob is currently Chair of the Education and Outreach Committee for the Association of Downloadable Media. Rob started podcasting in late 2004, and is the host of the award winning podCast411 podcast, where he has interviewed such prominent podcasters such as Quincy Jones, Walt Mossberg, Colin Ferguson (Eureka), Ronald Moore (Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica), Phil Gordon (World Series of Poker), Larry Kudlow (CNBC's Kudlow and Company) and Leo Laporte (TechTV, G4 TV). Additionally Rob is host of Today in iOS (iPhone) Podcast – the first podcast about the iPhone. In the past seven years Rob has presented at over 80 events on the subject of podcasting and New Media including the Newspaper Association of America Marketing Conference, the US Latino Film Festival, the Corporate Podcasting Summit, The Association for Women in Communications 2006 Annual Professional Conference, Social Media 2007, New Media Expo, and Blogworld Expo. He is also a regular guest lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. Rob was the Track Leader for the Podcasting sessions at the 2009 Blog World Expo – where he recruited 25 of the top experts to speak on podcasting. In 2004 Rob received his MBA from the University of Connecticut. He also has an engineering degree from the University of Dayton.