Resources
Welcome to the Resources Page! I’ve put this page together to help as you begin your podcasting journey. The Website and Hosting resources will be the most applicable for those starting out in podcasting. I use 95% of the products and services listed on this page RIGHT now. I have used the other 5% in the past and have had good experiences with them.
Full disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links, which means I will earn a small commission if you click on the links and sign up for that particular service.
Website & Themes
WordPress – This is a free blog publishing platform and perfect for blogging and podcasting. I highly recommend you use WordPress. I have several websites and they are all use WordPress. Be sure to use WordPress.org and not WordPress.com as I recommend hosting your website on your own server (See Bluehost below).
Woo Themes – A great resource for Premium WordPress Themes. I have used these in the past. These are great for those of you who may not be interested in tinkering with the Thesis Theme below.
StudioPress – Another great resource for Premium WordPress Themes. I have used these in the past as well. I prefer the Lifestyle Theme but they have a lot of different themes to choose from. When I was using the Lifestyle Theme, I found someone online to customize the theme for me.
Thesis Theme – This is the theme I currently use on all of my websites. It is SEO juiced out of the box. I love this theme and it allows for a lot of my own customization. It’s VERY plain out of the box. You can find people to help you customize on the Thesis Support Forum, which you have access to after purchasing Thesis. If you’re new to WordPress and website creation, you may want to check out Woo Themes or Studio Press although my recommendation would be for you to use the Thesis Theme and find a designer to help you customize it. As you move along in your podcasting career, you’ll become more familiar with the inner workings of Thesis and I believe it will pay off in the long run. A must have theme in my opinion.
Hosting
Bluehost – This is a great hosting service for your website with excellent customer service. I have most of my websites hosted with Bluehost. I recommend starting out with Bluehost and it allows for very simple WordPress installation.
Libsyn – This is the service that hosts all of my audio files. I do not upload my audio files to my website server. I prefer to use Libsyn as their system is designed for podcasters and they have great tracking statistics. I highly recommend this service. I wouldn’t use anyone else.
Servint – This is a specialized form of web hosting known as virtual server hosting. I have two sites running on Servint, www.cseprep.com and podcastcoach.com, which are business websites that processes transactions and also hosts an exam simulator, so the extra cost of the service is appropriate for these particular websites. Not necessary for those individuals just starting out.
Product Distribution & Shopping Carts
E-junkie – This is a great service for product distribution as well as payment facilitation (e-junkie doesn’t process payments but integrates with the payment processors that you set up). I use e-junkie for both the cseprep.com website and podcastcoach.com for product distribution which helps automate the entire process.
Paypal – I use Paypal Standard for cseprep.com and podcastcoach.com and have had very good luck with Paypal.
Authorize.Net – I recently set up a merchant account to process visa/mastercard/discover/amex. Although customers can purchase with credit card through Paypal without having a Paypal account, many customers are not aware of that and may abandon the shopping cart, so I think some kind of merchant account, such as Authorize.net, is a must for any online business.
Website Payments Pro for Paypal – Be careful with Website Payments Pro for Paypal. They may hold payments for 30-90 days before disbursing funds and will not negotiate or review your account after the inital setup. I used them for a little while and dropped them for Google Checkout. They also have higher fees than my Authorize.net account. I don’t recommend this service but have put it on the list because it is a well known service. Personally, I would avoid this service and choose Authorize.net instead.
Google Checkout – I used Google Checkout for 10 months for cseprep.com and recently dropped them because of some recent integration issues with e-junkie. It’s impossible to get someone on the phone, i.e. you can’t, and email support is very poor. They also assign a very strange and long winded email to each transaction making it difficult to integrate with Aweber’s email integration. I do not recommend this service, but mention it here because it is a well known service. I dropped them and opened up a merchant account with Authorize.net.
Keyword Research
Market Samurai – The best tool for keyword research. This can help you in selecting your domain name. Video tutorials coming soon.
Email Subscriptions
Aweber – The most popular email opt-in service and email broadcasting tool. Awesome integration with e-junkie and many other applications. They also have a lot of opt-in form templates to choose from. I use Aweber on cseprep.com and will integrate it soon to podcastcoach.com.
Analytics
Google Analytics - Free website tracking by Google. A great tool and one I highly recommend installing on your website.
Clicky - Similar to Google Analytics, but easier to use and interpret information. Provides real time statistics. Your first site is free.
Screen Capture Software
Screenflow - Awesome screen capturing software that I use to produce video tips. Download the free trial.
Camtasia for Mac - Screen capturing software similar to Screenflow. Download the free trial. I tested both and prefer Screenflow, although I do have Camtasia for PC installed on my PC as this was my screen capturing software before purchasing a new iMac.
Camtasia for PC - One of the few choices for real screen capturing software for the PC. More expensive than the Mac version.
