Chris DeSimio looks at the week’s happenings in the economy and stock market in On the Money….
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Podcast Answer Man Episode 136
Interview With Mignon Fogarty

Right Click Here To Download

Last night, my wife and I had the opportunity to discuss podcasting as a career with Mignon Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl. Mignon is the creator of Grammar Girl and the founder and managing director of Quick and Dirty Tips.

This opportunity came about due to the fact that Mignon was going to be in Cincinnati for a book signing related to her new book “The Grammar Devotional.” Her first book, “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” achieved enough success that she made it on the New York Times Best Seller List.

We were very excited when the message came in from Mignon saying that she had remembered that we’re in the Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky area and that she’d love to meet us for dinner.

In this episode, we invite you to sit down at the restaurant with us as we discuss how podcasting was the catalyst for her published books, an appearance on the Oprah show (clip1 – clip2), and a life altering decision to go into podcasting as a full-time career.

Important highlights from the interview include:

Mignon started with an original podcast that took her as much as 20 hours a week to produce. She later made a decision to do something different, even though her original podcast had even won awards.

Mignon “fell into it (podcasting as a career).” It started out just as a hobby that she did in her free time.

There is a discussion that demonstrates the role of passion and enthusiasm about the topic(s) you podcast about. She mentions that she listens to a sports podcast because of their passion and enthusiasm, not because she loves sports.

It became a business when she got some publicity that led her to writing a book. However, the book would have never happened had it not been for the podcast.

Mignon says that she makes about as much money from podcasting as she did as a technical writer. She was a pretty successful technical writer. We both agree that we, as people who have found a way to turn podcasting into a career, are an anomaly and that there is no real formula for “being discovered” and making it work. Mignon shares about who invested in her podcast network and a little bit about how that is all managed.

We talked briefly about the ability to have a positive impact on the lives of others through your podcasting and the importance of picking the right format and being focused on consistency.

I hope that you enjoy the conversation with Mignon.

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Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m also available for one on one podcast consulting. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

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Podcast Answer Man – Focused on Podcasting & New Media

Dennis speaks with Terrill Thompson, technology accessibility specialist at DO-IT, a program at the University of Washington.

Download Web Axe Episode 77 (Interview with Terrill Thompson)

[transcript of podcast 77]

In addition to Terrill’s background and DO-IT, topics of discussion include:

• Video captioning and the University of Washington YouTube channel.
• Accessible NCAA Tournament Bracket.
• CSUN and other conferences.
• making Blogger blogs more accessible (and WordPress).
• Terrill’s music.

Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog

Intel’s social media marketing efforts failed miserably today. Intel was running a pretty bad ad campaign about earthquakes for some unknown reason. The earthquake in Haiti happens and Sky News has been running the ad repeatedly in front of a clip about the Haiti earthquake.

A bad disaster, a bad ad – you have to ask Intel what were you thinking?

Here’s the ad and a bit of the Sky News clip.

UPDATE:

Kari Aakre from Intel reached out to me to let me know Intel realized the issue and took action to remove the add. It’s good to see them respond responsibly and quickly. Apparently, Intel is working on technology to help deal with situations where two way communications have been interrupted/destroyed by situations like the Haiti earthquake. I hope they succeed.

Here’s Kari’s comment for reference:

The timing of Intel’s ad about its disaster communications technology research is unfortunate. While the media buy was made months ago, we are sensitive to the current situation and the people of Haiti, and pulled this ad as quickly as we could.

Separately, the Intel Foundation will match Intel employee donations to help support the people of Haiti during this difficult time.

Digital Podcast» Digital Podcast focuses on using new and social media to build real businesses.

Corporations spend millions on assuring the public that they are helping the environment and/or…
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WebAIM’s Screen Reader Survey a few months ago (October 2009) sure drew a lot of attention, and for good reason. It is a much needed and well written survey, performed by one of the leading organizations in web accessibility, WebAIM. Here are some articles written in response to the survey. If you know any others, please leave a comment and let us know!

Related Articles

• Screen reader software usage shifts on desktop and mobile (iheni)
• Results from WebAIM’s screen October 2009 screen reader user survey (456 Berea St.)
• WebAIM screen reader users follow up survey (Less Fuss Design)
• WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey Results (evolt.org)
• WebAIM Study: Screenreaders and Javascript Co-Exist from Ajaxian
• WebAIM’s previous Screen Reader Survey (January 2009)

My Observations

Some of the more outstanding results of the survey I believe are:

• 75% of respondents said they do NOT have JavaScript turned off (most had it on).
• The most problematic items seem to be the same predictable items, unfortunately. The top 10 includes CAPTCHA, Flash, alternative text, forms, and headings.
• 42% surveyed said they didn’t know ARIA Landmarks for navigation existed. I highly suspect this number will steadily decrease.
• Although over 66% of users reported JAWS as their primary screen reader, almost half said that free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are currently viable alternatives.

Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog

Podcast Answer Man Episode 139
What To Do When Your Podcast Becomes An Infomercial

Right Click Here To Download

I recently received an email from a long time listener who suggested that he was contemplating unsubscribing from the Podcast Answer Man podcast and he provided his thoughts on why this was. In his email, he suggested that with the number of subscribers that I have to this podcast, that I might not even notice the loss of a single subscriber.

If you are interested in hearing what reasons he gave as to why he had considered dumping the show and moving on and/or my response to whether or not I am concerned about the loss of a single, long time subscriber of my podcast, then you need to listen to this episode.

This episode is an example of what I think should be done in the event your podcast ends up sounding like an ongoing infomercial for your brand, products, and/or services.

Of course, I also shared an “anonymous” comment left on a previous episode of Podcast Answer Man. It’s amazing how different my reaction is to “concerned listener” as it is to “Charley’s” email. I did an episode while back titled “Handling Critical Feedback” (Episode 106)

Finally, somewhere in this episode, I asked for your thoughts on what Leo Laporte announced on his blog recently. Basically, even though his network has generated 2.5 Million dollars in revenue, he’s suggesting that there is still a role for donations in his network and he plans to allow these donations to be what actually pays his personal income from the network. Click Here To Read His Blog Entry. Share your thoughts in the comment section below or by calling our voice mail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067

–
Discuss podcasting with other listeners in the Podcast Answer Man section of the gspn.tv Community Forum.

EQUIPMENT SALES: Please consider purchasing from me when making your next purchase for audio gear to improve the sound of your podcast. Email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m also available for one on one podcast consulting. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

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Podcast Answer Man – Focused on Podcasting & New Media

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Today, Chris is talking about a small button on your Camera that can help Depth of Field. Depth of field is the area in your image that is in focus. Shallow depth of field is a small, shallow area in focus, while landscapes tend to have rather wide depths of field.

Show Links:
» Leo Laporte – [...]

Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor (Audio/Video)

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Watch in high quality (right click to save)
Win one of only 15 hand-embroidered t-shirts right from Kathmandu!

The rules:

Build a triptych that shows your personal interpretation of ADVENTURE (you can use Mosaic Maker to create it)
Upload the file to the Trek Shirt Flickr group
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Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor (Audio/Video)