You’ve reached your first recognizable milestone. You’ve got seven episodes under your belt. Kudos to you! 

Welcome to the official National Podcast Post Month podcast for the 16th annual global podcast challenge. I am your host and the founder of NaPodPoMo, Jennifer Navarrete. 

This podcast is presented in two segments. The first segment is a guide for podcasters participating in National Podcast Post Month. The second segment is the behind-the-scenes of how this particular podcast is coming together using Podcasting 2.0’s Live Item Tag done through Blubrry’s PowerPress plugin. 

Usually, when you get to closing out your first seven podcast episodes you’re finally starting to get the hang of things. It may still be clunky, but you’re beginning to have greater confidence. Which is a nice thing. It’s less nerves and more of a process. You’re developing new grooves in your brain and it’s becoming less like you hacking at a dense jungle and more like you’ve found a wildlife trail. Still a bit challenging, but you can see the path before you. 

As you enter into the next seven podcasts, be mindful of the fact life is going to get in the way of your NaPodPoMo podcasting. Your adrenaline and energy may begin to wane. That’s okay. Take a day off if you must. Make up for it the next day. Or know that weekend batch recording may be the way to go. Remember this is a flexible open challenge. As long as you have 30 episodes by November 30th you will have successfully completed the challenge. 

In the last episode, I suggested subscribing to the NaPodPoMo 2023 MEGA Feed as a way to hear everyone’s shows. Well towards the end of the second week and the beginning of the third week is when you will need the support of your fellow NaPodPoMo podcasters. As a matter of fact, I listened to Alessandra White’s Unstuck episode right when I needed to get unstuck. In case you are unaware, Alessandra hosts the daily Creative Work Hour NaPodPoMo support sessions from 9:00am-9:50am ET. When I say daily, I mean daily. Yes even on weekends. Yes even on Thanksgiving day (for those in the U.S.) I’ll drop the link to register for these free support sessions. No camera is required. Heck, no talking is required. You can lurk, you can work, or you can chat it up. 

But Did You Record It?

Now onto the second part of the episode where I share the behind-the-scenes of going live with Podcasting 2.0’s Live Item Tag via Blubrry’s PowerPress plugin. 

Remember in the last episode when I talked about encountering an issue with the SSL certificate and the NaPodPoMo site? Well after I was up and running with a backup computer, I found out there was an actual WordPress plugin that solved this known issue. Doh! If only I had seen that before I could have saved myself a whole lot of grief. Ah well, these are the lessons learned along the way. 

I left off the last episode not quite sure where my first official live stream of consciousness episode was once I was done with my live session. I looked around and couldn’t see it anywhere on my computer. I also didn’t see it on my website or online. Then it occurred to me that in all of my checking and rechecking of my live setup, I hadn’t even spent one single second thinking about the recording of that live. Double Doh!

Now I’ve mentioned the fact I was using a broadcast streaming tool, but as it was new to me I did feel like I had a solid handle on all of the features it offered beyond the fact I could go live and stream my podcast. As I was pondering the lack of recording which in hindsight was a big obvious miss on my part. I mean, of course, I would need to set up the show to be recorded in addition to being live. Then Audio Hijack popped into my head. Audio Hijack is a tool by Rogue Amoeba I’ve had since the very early days of podcasting. I remember that one of the features Audio Hijack has is the ability to broadcast in addition to hijacking audio and recording. So I dusted it off, entered the streaming info, and added in a recording block and viola! I was able to stream and record all in a tool I had been using for years. Now I was cooking with gas! So just like that an oldie but a goodie tool from long ago became bright shiny and new again. 

And with that, I will close out this episode of the official National Podcast Post Month podcast for the 16th annual 30-day global podcast challenge. Again, Kudos on reaching the milestone of your first 7 episodes. Onward!

The 16th Annual National Podcast Post Month is supported by Blubrry Podcast Hosting and Creative Work Hour. Subscribe to the NaPodPoMo 2023 MEGA Feed: https://feed.informer.com/digests/ZL1ZJYKAFR/feeder.rss

Links mentioned in this episode:

Creative Work Hour for NaPodPoMo: https://lu.ma/CWH-NaPodPoMo

Blubrry's Podcasting 2.0 features: https://blubrry.com/support/media-hosting-documentation/blubrry-dashboard-podcasting-2-0-features

Audio Hijack by Rogue Amoeba: https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack

Getting Unstuck episode by Alessandra White: https://podcast.alessandrawhite.com/65403b09dee13/14479