• Create a web page for your existing media RSS feed.  Make audio and videos easily browseable from a www.clickcaster.com/yourchannel address.
• Automatically generate thumbnails for videos in your RSS feed.  Thumbnails make your content easier to browse and more accessible.
• Automatically insert audio players into your RSS feed.  This means regardless of what RSS aggregator your listeners are using, they'll be able to play your episodes.
• Track statistics for your RSS feed.
  

Starting June 15th, sign in and get 125MB of Storage and 10GB of transfer a month with some features limited.

or view a walkthrough of the new system:

The biggest change for some of you will be paying for your accounts. 

Newspapers Use NewsGator’s VideoBuzz™ Service to Bring a New Dimension to Online Customized Content

The Denver Post, East Valley Tribune and The Ledger Offer Dynamic
Relevant Video Content to Readers

Las Vegas, NV — January 29, 2007 — NewsGator Technologies, the industry’s most innovative RSS company, today announced the release of VideoBuzz™. This new RSS solution enables newspapers and other online content companies to create compelling user experiences by pulling in context-sensitive, syndicated and editorialized video content to any page within their Web sites.

NewsGator’s VideoBuzz solution is the fastest and least expensive way for brands to immediately enrich their sites with video. NewsGator VideoBuzz helps newspapers and other content publishers to do more than simply display video within a site, but empowers content publishers to choose the most relevant video from all possible video sources and add those on to their site quickly and in exactly the right context. VideoBuzz carries the content publisher’s brand, and in addition to the relevancy of the videos, encourages user participation by enabling sharing (via email and instant messaging), ratings, and comments on the video content.

Created through a technology partnership with ClickCaster Inc., VideoBuzz gives newspapers a one-click solution to presenting video within a Web page that is tightly integrated into the look and feel of the newspaper’s Web site. The latest in NewsGator’s Private Label offering of RSS syndication services, VideoBuzz is already in use by a number of newspapers, including The Denver Post, The Ledger and the East Valley Tribune.

“As a strategic partner, NewsGator helps us implement innovative solutions to engage our readers in new and dynamic ways,” said Mark Cardwell, Managing Editor, Digital Media, The Denver Post. “VideoBuzz is just another example of how NewsGator Private Label has helped us to deliver a vibrant experience to our audience, all while keeping them within our brand experience.”

“NewsGator VideoBuzz is helping to reshape the face of newspapers by integrating video into the look and feel of their online brand and enhancing existing sections with relevant dynamic content,” said Walker Fenton, General Manager, Private Label Solutions at NewsGator Technologies. “Through video, newspapers are delivering a more engaging experience that encourages readers to return time and again.”

NewsGator Private Label helps companies that publish or manage online content increase revenues by combining rich syndicated content with social media and Web 2.0 technologies. These innovative private label technologies let users create, read and subscribe to the most relevant content all within the content publisher’s brand and experience. They include customized readers for the Web (see USA TODAY), “buzz boxes” (see Newsweek), desktop (FeedDemon) and mobile readers.

About NewsGator Technologies, Inc.

NewsGator Technologies is the world’s leading RSS company. Headquartered in Denver, CO, NewsGator develops and markets RSS aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises and online content providers. Using NewsGator products and solutions, businesses and consumers can subscribe to news, information, podcasts and other relevant content more efficiently and effectively than with traditional channels. With NewsGator, users have access to RSS information via the Web, Microsoft Outlook, mobile devices and both Windows- and Mac-based desktop clients. All NewsGator products synchronize seamlessly, enabling users to read their RSS feeds anywhere, anytime, with any device. For more information, visit www.newsgator.com.

About ClickCaster Inc.

ClickCaster Inc., based in Boulder, CO., is a premier provider of podcasting platforms for publishers.  We provide a broad range of web based creation tools, directories, embeddable media players, synchronization tools and custom interface design for private and white label audio and video podcasting solutions.  For more information visit us at www.clickcaster.com.

That's the latest feature we've added to ClickCaster over the weekend.  

With our new Friends features, you can add any friend you want on the ClickCaster Network.

We even have you confirm your friend request before we send it.  You can't be too careful. 

Once you've sent your friend request, you get to track it via your ClickCaster home page.  You can even see how many friends you have and send them private messages.

Depending on how popular you are, you can even add new friends and delete old ones.  Although one can never have enough friends!

We have a lot more in store over the next month. Just in time for Christmas!  So stay tuned for our next set of features.  As always, we love getting your feedback so send us your comments to feedback@clickcaster.com.

Thanks again for being a ClickCaster subscribe.

The ClickCaster Team! 

With our latest update, you can preview each episode with a slimed down media player.

We've changed the podcast store to include an interactive shopping cart.  Now you'll see exactly what's in your cart while you shop for more podcasts.

For those of you looking for the latest video podcasts, you'll be happy to hear that we've added a new filtering feature.  Now you can sort and view the latest updated video or audio podcasts quicker than ever!

If your personal message inbox is filling up like mine is, you'll be happy to know that you can now delete your messages from your inbox anytime. 

For those of you who like to watch your videos at full screen, you'll be happy to know that we've modified the player buttons to include a full screen option for your viewing pleasure.

We also now require age verification on all explicit material. This feature was created to make sure that only subscribers over 18 can view any content tagged as explicit.

And the best news of all with this release....drum roll please....we have launched a new Podcatcher .  We're still working out the kinks but wanted to get it rolled out to you ASAP!  With this new podcatcher, you can now better manage your podcast files on your mp3 device, iPod and PC. Change your subscriptions, preview new episodes and even sync directly to your iPod without the need for iTunes.  All of this straight from the web, with no 3rd party software to download or having to download the content first to your PC, then syncing to your iPod.

We hope that you'll find these features beneficial and make it easier to create, find and subscribe to audio and video podcasts!

Stay tuned for even more great features rolling out of the next few weeks.

Regards,

The ClickCaster Team  

OK.. this is blatant and we're not trying to hide the obvious benefit to us (and to you!) by suggesting this but:

You should move your video's to ClickCaster, today.  Especially if you do any embedding into your MySpace profile.

This is an exerpt from todays Wall Street Journal:

Over the weekend, News Corp. executives expressed their displeasure with the deal to Google and threatened to remove any links to YouTube videos placed by users on their MySpace blog pages, according to a person close to the situation.

Will it happen?  Who knows.  Frankly, it's unlikely and it's just News Corp (owners of MySpace) unhappy that they didn't get a shot at buying YouTube first.  They've got make SOME noise, ya know?

But just in case.. why not try us out?  Create an account and try out uploading some of your video's to ClickCaster.  We not only convert them into nice easy to stream FLASH video, we also convert them into iPod, Mac and PC compatible files (MPG4) your viewers can easily download and take with them.

And, of course, every thing is a podcast, audio AND video.  People subscribe to your wonderful work just once, then it's delivered to them everytime you add something new.

We also have some great embeddable video and audio players that are a snap to use (just click on the 'Add to Blog/Myspace' button on any podcast hosted here at ClickCaster). 

Give it a try today.  http://www.clickcaster.com/user/signup

The ClickCaster Team
 

As everyone now knows, Google purchased YouTube today for $1.65B.
 
A podcast of the conference call is attached to this posting.

What does this mean to a company like ClickCaster?

Quite a bit.  And it's all good.  This brings to the forefront the importance of audio and video, often called ‘rich media’, distribution on the internet and the place it's taking in the everyday life of hundreds of millions of people.
 
ClickCaster embraced the video side of Podcasting several months ago, and our services ability to enable any person, or any business to create a rich media podcast is in line with this trend.
 
We expect thousands of businesses to begin leveraging this distribution to expand their reach, and ClickCaster is there to help them.
 
The site you're on now is a public/consumer facing site.  However, our primary business is to help other businesses create distribution systems for text, audio and media, not unlike YouTube, with the kicker of making everything subscribable through RSS (Real Simple Syndication).  It’s not unlike subscribing to a magazine or newspaper, or a TV series via your TIVO of Media Center DVR (Digital Video Recorder).  Once people subscribe, everything you place into that channel is automatically delivered to your customers computer, iPod or other media playing device.
 
Unlike GooTube, who have very specific sets of rules, terms of service and controls to ensure you do things your way, ClickCaster will create a site for you that fits your needs and works the way you want.  Most importantly, YOU control your content, your marketing and your branding.
 
ClickCaster puts YOU in control of your business.
 
If you’re a business that’s interested in exploring how you’d do this, we’re here to help you figure it all out.  We'll create a site for you that fits your look and feel, and we can include (or exclude) any feature that you find on this site (www.clickcaster.com).  We can even custom develop capabilities if that’s what you’re looking for.
 
For more information, click on the Pro Services tab at the top of the page, or on this link: http://www.clickcaster.com/pro_services .
 
And we actually talk directly to our customers.  So feel free to email Pete Davis at:  Peter@clickcaster.com if you'd like to get more in-depth information.
 
The ClickCaster Team
 

Maybe you’ve thought about creating a new podcast for your family, one for your friends and one for your business.  Now with ClickCaster you can manage all three podcasts from just one account!

You can create a new feed by going to the Create Tab, select New Podcast and publish your podcast as normal. 

If you have multiple accounts and want them merged under a single account, contact us at info@clickcaster.com. 

Want to simplify your podcast list?

With this new release, you can now limit the number of episodes displayed in your feed.  This new feature will make it simple for viewers to see your latest podcasts, as well as past episodes.  You can change your settings by going to the Manage tab, then the Settings tab.  The episode check box is located at the bottom of the page. 

 Connect with other Podcasters with Private Messaging!

Send messages direct from any ClickCaster podcast feed.  Submit comments and messages to your friends and family with ClickCaster acconts.  There is no limit on the number of messages

you can send and you'll even be notified when people review their posts.  
 

 

Stay tuned for more great features coming soon!

The ClickCaster Team.

Well another week and the guys have done it again!  We’ve added more customization features for your personal podcast pages. Now your page can go from drab….

To Fab!

In addition to changing your feed background, you can also upload custom images for your header background and banner image too.

And in case you’ve forgotten, our embeddable player now has episode listings.  So not only can you change the color of your podcast player to fit your mood, you can let your friends view all your audio and video podcast episodes right from your Myspace page. 

Stay tuned for more features coming out over the next few weeks.  Have an idea on features you’d like to see on ClickCaster?  Send us your comments and suggestions to feedback@clickcaster.com. 

Mar, our Art and Interface lead, whipped it up in a day. 

This is going on a tour of the USA with our friends at GameZnFlix.  They are setting up a Podcasting station in their RV.  They'll be visiting college town's and Circuit City stores all over the country starting Sept. 2nd.  Watch for the GameZnFlix RV in a town near you!  Stop in and try out ClickCaster on the ONE and ONLY ClickCaster PC!

The ClickCaster Team 

A Global Video Podcasting Network Dedicated to Extreme Sports, Music and Fashion. Introduces the first ever widescreen video podcast.

We've added the ability to do basic customize of your feedview with custom art for your header, and custom colors for all the components of the page.

The feedview is what everyone see's when they put in your ClickCaster URL address.  It's the www.clickcaster.com/nameyoupicked address (also known as the 'short name'). 

You can modifiy:

The gutter (the left and right sides of the main window)

The background (The color of the center column containing your episodes)

The text (The color of all text on the page)

The border (The color of borders on the page)

The episode header (The background color of the titlebar above each episode)

The sidebar header (The color of the section labels in the right sidebar)

The artwork in the header area (the top of the page) 

Here's your normal feed view:

Here's how it can look after you modify it (we're hoping you have better artistic skills and color sense then our CEO does):

This takes you to the new Customize Page.

Just click inside the box under each component, and the color picker appears.  You can choose from an almost infinite number of colors across the spectrum.  

Click the Browse button in the Custom Banner box to pick your banner artwork and click upload banner.  If you'd like your banner to take someone to a different location, like back to your blog, MySpace profile or website, just enter the URL in the Banner Link field.

Then, just click the Submit Customization button along the bottom left, and you're new custom feed's ready to go!

This allows you to create a podcast, customize your page on ClickCaster to match the colors and basic artwork on your personal blog, company website, MySpace Profile or other social networking service site, and add some text like 'take me back - just click here' into the graphic in the header artwork. 

Anyone interested in your podcast can simply click on a link you place on your site. Use can use your ClickCaster feed URL:

www.clickcaster.com/shortname

or you can put up nice clean ClickCaster link button like this one:

The code snippet to insert this is available on the same page you use to insert an audio or video player.  Just find your podcast in the explore section (search on your user name, or your podcast's show name) and then click on the "Add to Blog/MySpace" button.

Now people can visit your site and easily switch back and forth between, say, your text based blog and your podcast page (made to look like your blog via customization) with ease.  Who knows, they may not even notice they're using two different websites.

We've got alot more customization capabilities coming soon.  Stay tuned! 

Tired of the hassle of converting your audio and video files just to make a podcast?

Want to host a video podcast and easily embed it into your MySpace profile, blog or website?

We've got you covered!

We've added an entire set of new features that support video and audio.  From handling all the encoding of most popular formats into podcast form, to easy ebedding of podcasts, audio OR video, anywhere you can paste in a simple code snippet.  Let's dig into some of the details:

ClickCaster now supports the following formats for uploading to our site:

Audio Formats = mp3, mp2, ogg, aac, m4a, m4b, ac3, mp2, flac, aif, aiff, asf, wav, pcm
Video Formats = mp4, m4v, flv, mov, mpeg, mpg, vob, mjpeg, snow, dv, avi, avs, divx

So pull out those old movies you made and saved in snow, spg or vob, or those recordings of your band saved in aiff, flac or ac3 and just upload away.

ClickCaster will convert your audio to standard MP3 format (the most used audio podcast format on the planet) and then wrap it in RSS so anyone, anywhere, can subscribe to your wonderful audio creations.

If you have a format that's not listed, let us know.  We'll do our best to support as many formats as possible for our users.  Send your request to:  support@clickaster.com and we'll get right on it.

Got Video?  Your video now gets converted to both Flash Video and MP4 (what's used on iPods).  That means people can watch your videos right from your ClickCaster feed:

Or, you can load your feed into a video Podcatcher like iTunes and sync all of your clips to an iPod.  Virtually all computers now ship with Flash, so it's just there.  The Flash file is used to stream your video file, instantly, from our website to anyone wanting to view it from within your ClickCaster hosted podcast, and the MP4 file is available for download so your audience can quickly load it onto their iPods or other video capable players and take it with them.  Of course, they can just save it on their computers and watch it there as well.

You can also embed not only your audio podcasts, but your video podcasts into MySpace, your blog or your webpage, and make the player any color you like to match the look and feel of the page your embedding it into.  Just click the "Add to MySpace/Blog" button, then choose the episode you want to embed and the color you'd like the player to be: 

A simple copy and past of the Video Player Code into your MySpace profile or Blog and the video is right where you want it.

Encode, upload and embed away!

The ClickCaster Team
www.clickcaster.com

A couple of weeks ago sent an email out to about 100 or so podcast directories proposing that we all post our podcast directories as OMPL lists that any other directory (or anyone else) can simply pull whenever they like.

Our openly available OPML list is here:

www.clickcaster.com/clickcast/opml 

This is a list of all podcasts on ClickCaster, updated in real time.  It's available to anyone who wants it.

The reason we proposed this was all of us pull RSS feeds from wherever we can find them on the internet to make our directories as complete as possible for our users. 

The way this works is through the use of spiders (from many different directory providers) that go to each site (we've seen at least a dozen that regularly spider our directory) and pull RSS feeds.  This is similar to what GoogleBot does; it crawls the entire internet and indexes every page it finds.  That's why your search is so fast.

Some of these spiders are a bit more aggressive, downloading the actual podcasts.  We don't think this is a good idea.. witness the uproar that Adam Curry created by doing this with his new Podshow + service. 

We believe podcasters own their RSS feed.  But the very nature of creating an RSS feed means you want people to subscribe your podcast.  It's a form of open distribution.  Once you've put your RSS feed up on the net, it's fair game for anyone who wants to use it to subscribe.  And for anyone to aggregate into a larger list in their personal RSS aggregator. 

Directories, like ClickCaster, are a sort of 'super' aggregator we create for our users.  Same thing, larger scale.

If all the podcast directories and hosting services out there were to put up their list of podcasts as an easy to pull OPML file, this would make it much easier for ClickCaster (and others) to share ALL the podcast RSS feeds on the net.  We'd just go to the OPML lists (like the one we created above) once every day or so and pull all the newest podcast RSS feeds.

This does one thing above all else:  It improves ALL the directories of podcasts on the internet.  And that improves the user experience of consuming podcasts for all of our users.  It shares RSS feeds in the way we believe RSS should be shared:  Openly and freely, with any and all comers.

We invite all of our fellow podcast directory sites, hosting sites and everything in-between to take our OPML feed.  And we ask that you think of doing the same thing for the rest of us. 

Scott Converse

Founder & CEO
ClickCaster

Alliance will enable user driven social networks with exclusive access
to video and audio content via ClickCaster’s podcasting platform.

Boulder, Colorado, and Franklin, Kentucky, July 14, 2006 – GameZnFlix and ClickCaster today announce a cooperative agreement to provide access to video and audio content via podcasts, web streaming and direct downloads.    

By leveraging ClickCaster’s media distribution platform, GameZnFlix plans to offer customers the option to view content on their terms, when they want, where ever they want, including iPods, MP3 players, PCs or via direct mail.  With thousands of premier video and audio book titles to choose from, consumers are only a click away from accessing GNF content on demand. 

“We’re excited about our partnership with ClickCaster and the opportunity to not only extend the reach of our recently launched GnF Entertainment channel via podcasts, but also deliver on our goal of providing movies and games through on-demand and other media, “ notes John Fleming, GaneZnFlix CEO.

In addition to managing content via ClickCaster’s integrated web-based podcatcher, ClickCaster will also provide podcast advertising and social networking capabilities to GameZnFlix’s growing gaming community.

 “On-demand access to exclusive content is just the beginning of what’s possible as podcasting and social network technologies and collaboration between communities collide,” says Scott Converse, CEO of ClickCaster.  “Our agreement will provide more ways for extreme gamers and movie buffs to connect with other users and create new video and audio podcasts”. 

Both companies expect to have the new service options available within the next few months.  Content will be made available via ClickCaster’s podcast directory at www.clickcaster.com as well as via the GnF Network page at www.gameznflix.com.

About ClickCaster

Clickcaster is a provider of podcasting solutions for both businesses and consumers alike.  We make it easy for anyone to create and publish audio podcasts as well as listen and subscribe to other podcasts from around the web.  For more information about ClickCaster and PodCasting, please visit our website at:www.clickcaster.com.

About GameZnFlix

GameZnFlix is a company that offers video games/DVD movies for rental or purchase on the Internet with access to over 40,000 game and movie titles. With different membership levels beginning at $8.99 a month subscribers can rent a combination of both video games and/or DVD movies with no late fees or due dates or members can purchase video games, DVD movie titles, books and audio books at a membership discount. 

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications that may arise could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The company cautions that these forward looking statements are further qualified by other factors including, but not limited to those set forth in the company's Form 10-KSB filing and other filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (available at http://www.sec.gov/). The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

PR Contact

Pete Davis

Clickcaster

Phone:  407-733-9266

Email:  peter@clickcaster.com

- New Personalized Home Page

Now when you log into ClickCaster, you're taken to your own personalized homepage, which is a one stop shop for accessing all the features on our site.  No more hunting through tabs for what you're looking for: everything is right there.  Edit your profile, edit your podcasts, read and sent private messages to other users and get a quick view of all your stats, all at a glance.

- Private Messages

We've added the ability to send a private message to anyone on our system.  Want to send suggestions and feedback to any Podcast producer on our system?  Now you have another way to do it which you know they'll read as soon as they log into our system.

- New Most Popular Rankings

We changed Most Popular so it looks at how many people have viewed your show in the past two months, rather than a lifetime total.  This will make it easier to get up there in our popularity rankings if you're starting a new Podcast, since you don't have to compete with the total viewers someone has had who's been doing their show for months. So start your podcast or do a new episode for your current podcast today!

The ClickCaster Team

In case you haven't been keeping up with us or this is your first time reading our blog, here is the cliff notes version:

• A huge directory with something for everyone!  ClickCaster has over 25,000 unique podcasts from all over the web and countless episodes on top of that.  So if you're into new music, cooking or surfing, we give you more way to explore the latest in professional and user generated content from people like you!
  
  
• ClickCaster now lets you create and publish audio and video podcasts and blogs.
  
  
• You can delay the publishing of your podcasts to a future date if you need to, or simply create a draft if you're just playing around and want to perfect your podcast before you post. 
  
  
• Want to charge a fee for your podcast or blog?  ClickCaster now gives you the control to charge for a single podcast or charge a weekly or monthly subscription.  We take care of all the credit card clearing and put the money in your account.  No how's that for simple!
  
  
• Have a myspace page or blog?  You now have the tools to stick your podcast on your space for which episode you choose.  You even can add your favorite podcast from someone else as well!
  
  
• Do you ever Digg, Reddit or Furl?  ClickCaster now provides you with direct links to your favorite tagging sites, giving you more ways to share.
  
  
• We love Apples.  So much so, that we support uploads of m4a and m4v formats!  
  
  
• Ever wonder who's listening to your podcast?  Now you have stats reporting all the intimate details of your listening audience.  You can view by day, week, month or lifetime and see where your audience lives, what browser/podcatcher they use and how they access your feed.  We even let you export the data to excel so you can crunch the numbers any way you want!
  
  
• And my personal favorite, direct iPod syncronization!  Now you don't have to have iTunes to sync your podcasts to your iPod.  Just click "sync to iPod" on the web-based podcatcher, and watch it go.  Now you can access your podcasts from the library, dorm room or your mom's house!
  
  

We really appreciate you as a subscriber and we're just getting started!  Over the next few weeks and months, we'll be rolling out new features, many of which, are a result of feedback from you.  So keep coming back often and tell your friends!

We want to know what you like most about ClickCaster and will be sharing those on our blog in the coming week.  You can send us your feedback to feedback@clickcaster.com. 

Thanks again for being a ClickCaster subscriber...you guys rock!

The ClickCaster Team

You can now embed an episode of any podcast hosted on ClickCaster into your blog, MySpace profile or web page.  Just look  for the "Add To Blog/MySpace" button and click it.

You'll be taken to a page that contains all the necessary cut and paste code you need to embed that podcast directly into your blog, MySpace or website  (remember.. it only works for podcasts that are hosted directly on ClickCaster).

And, of course, we make it customizable to fit into the color scheme of your site.  Simply click on the 'Pick Color' button and choose from the palet to match your site.  If it's a color that exists you can enter the exact color code (right above the Pick Color button) and we'll use that to match your site exactly.

So, embed away!

The ClickCaster Team

The folks over at Creative Commons have posted an excellent legal guide for podcasters.  Worth checking out at:

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide

Purpose

The purpose of this Guide is to provide you with a general roadmap of some of the legal issues specific to podcasting. EFF has produced a very practical and helpful guide for issues related to blogging generally (http://www.eff.org/bloggers/). This Guide is not intended to duplicate efforts by EFF, and in many cases refers you to that guide for where crossover issues are addressed. Our goal is to complement EFF's Bloggers FAQ and address some of the standalone issues that are of primary relevance to podcasters, as opposed to bloggers.

In the Create section,  once you've created or uploaded your podcast, just select a date and time that you want to podcast to publish and take off for that 2 week vacation in Bali. 

Who says you can't control what'll happen in the future? 

Are you a Garageband fan?  If so, you're in luck.  We now support the native file formats that Garageband saves audio (.m4a) podcasts and video (.m4v) podcasts in.

So... Garageband away, and use ClickCaster as your host for all those wonderful creations. 

We're still working out some of the bugs though and would really appreciate your bug reports when you stumble on anything (just click on the Report a bug button near the top right of the page).

Pay Podcasts

First and foremost, you can now charge for your podcasts.  Many of you have told us you'd like a way to monetize your hard work.  So, we've added the ability to charge for a single podcast episode, or to charge for a subscription over a period of time (a week, a month, a year).  You set the price, although we do have a minimum of $.99 (episode or subscription).  Your listeners can pay with all the major credit cards (Visa/MC/Amex/Discover).  And it even works with iTunes!  Just go to the Manage section, and click on Sell My Podcast to set it up.  Paypal?  Nope.  But we can add it easily, if you guys want it.  Just let us know via the Feedback button (near the top right of the page).

Integrated Earnings Reports in Stats

You'll see more extensive statistics (tracking your podcast audience down to the city level) and we've integrated your earnings (for pay podcasts) into your stats so you can see exactly what you've earned, what's earned it for you and when you've earned it.  All in a visually integrated, easy to read web based reporting section.

The Purchases section

This makes it easy for you to see what you've bought, and what you've got access to if you've purchased a podcast or subscribed to an episode.  All laid out in it's own section with easy to access links to your paid for content.

Built In Podcatcher

We have the only web based podcatcher on the internet.  No need to download any software or use someone else's software to subscribe to podcasts and sync with your iPod.  It's now built directly into the ClickCaster website. And you can set your directory for saving your podcasts to be anything you like: Your hard disk, a server on your network or even a USB device (like an MP3 player, your phone or a USB drive).

Save as a Draft

We've also enabled the ability to put your podcast up as a draft.  Something only you can view and, when you're ready to publish it, just click a checkbox and it's available on ClickCaster for the world to see.

You'll also see many minor changes such as no more email verification required.  As soon as you sign up, you're good to go- start creating, subscribing and using all the services available to you on ClickCaster on your first visit. You'll also find a redesigned Explore section that allows you to more easily find, subscribe and buy podcasts with a few clicks of your mouse.  You'll also find full support for uploading your QT formatted video podcasts (and the ability to view them in our enhanced player in the Explore section).   Be sure to check our the expanded FAQ on the site as well for more info and  a full list of  the features,  functions and  how to's  available  to  you  on the site.

id="blockrandom"
name=
"iframe"
src="http://www.clickcaster.com/shortname"

width="100%"
height="8100"
scrolling=
"no"
align="top"
frameborder="0"

class="wrapper">
This option will not work correctly.  Unfortunately, your browser does 
not support Inline Frames
iframe>

In the line where it says:

src="http://www.clickcaster.com/shortname"

simply replace the 'shortname' with the one you set up when you created an account.  If you don't remember what you used, or haven't picked a short name yet, simply go to the "Manage" tab, click on the submenu 'Show Info" and put in a short name.

Quick, clean and simple integration. 

http://blog.ericrice.com/blog/_archives/2006/4/1/1853921.html

Above is a link to an interesting blog entry by Eric Rice of Audioblog.com, one of our esteemed competitors (and a leading thinker in this space).  He makes the point that one of the better know podcasting companies out there is acting disturbingly like Old Media.  In particular, the major labels that make up today’s customer and artist hostile recording industry. 

We in the podcasting community have an opportunity that doesn't come along very often.  A real shot at changing the nature of media, and doing it in a way that's, for a change, something better.  But only if we bring new ideas and new ways of doing business alongside the new technology.

If you take, for instance, a contract that looks and sounds very much like a contract that an Old Media record company might write to sign a band, and apply it to the podcasters that partner with you, all you're really doing is mimicking the Old Media model that's slowly strangling itself in this user generated content age.

Keith and girl who do a popular podcast recently did a blow by blow review of a contract from a company that's taking this route.  You can hear their thoughts on the subject at:

http://shitecom.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=73950

We, like our competitors, are a business.  Finding workable and profitable business models for this new industry is a good thing.   

Our concern is when old models that perpetuate business as usual are applied to new industries.  These business approaches made  some sense in their day, but no more.  The low cost of recording equipment, exceptionally talented musicians, mashups, creative commons licensing, the ease with which an individual or group can now create and distribute just about any kind of media digitally make this a world where the old way of doing things just don’t work anymore.

What we would hope to see from our brethren in the podcasting world is new thinking.  Approaches that leverage the unique nature of what podcasting can do, and new approaches to funding the passion many podcasters have for the shows they create.

Many people say that podcasting is just ‘a bunch of amateurs’ spinning around in cyberspace.  Maybe, but the computer industry, today, was started by a very similar group of inspired hobbyists who played in their garages and basements to make something ‘cool’ for themselves and their friends.  The big boys at the time laughed them off.  Today?  Not so much.  Many of those hobbyists of yesteryear are the leaders and luminaries of the computer industry today.

Podcasting has that same feel to it. And we here at ClickCaster believe we’re seeing exactly the same thing happen with all you kick ass podcasters out there.  You’re the enthusiastic hobbyists that are creating an entirely new media world for yourselves, your friends and family and, eventually, for the entire world.  More power to you!  ClickCaster is here to work with you (not dictate to you) so that, together, we can help create that new user generated media world.

Scott Converse

Founder & CEO

ClickCaster

ClickCaster is all about you and giving you a voice.  And that includes a voice in how we're building ClickCaster and in getting any bugs you might find addressed quickly and completely.

So, we've put a feedback button right on the top every page of ClickCaster and we'd love it if everyone used it whenever they have an idea, a comment, a suggestion or a complaint about how we're doing something on the site.  It's on the top right side of the screen on every page.

This will send feedback to the right folks at ClickCaster, and our CEO get's a copy of every feedback message sent to us in real time.  So, feedback away! 

And if you hit a bug, again, please, click that Report a bug button.  You'll find our development team is very responsive to both your feedback and to any bugs you might find.  We think lots of cool features are great, but only if they're working the way they should be, and the way you expect them to be.

-The ClickCaster Team

Everyone likes to know where things stand and we're no different here at ClickCaster.  So, we put together a nice stats/analytics package for all of the folks using ClickCaster to create and host their podcasts.

You'll find the new Stats engine that tracks your podcasts under the manage tab.  Simply click on the 'Stat's submenu and you're there.

The first thing you'll see are the lifetime totals for your account.  This shows you the total number of downloads, total feed views (how many times someone's looked at your show notes/blog view) and the total number of subscribers to your podcast (including offsite subscribers).

We also break it down the same way, by day, for the latest month.

We also provide the same set of information in a monthly view that goes back for the last year.

It's often useful to know what particular episodes of your show are being download and of course you'll find this in your stats page as well.  You can use these numbers to gage how successful different formats are or to show potential advertisers or sponsors the reach of specific or individual shows. 

At the bottom of these pages, we provide you with the capability to export your stats into excel format where you can create reports, graphics and presentations on the breadth and reach of your show.

We also show you where your downloads are going, how many are looking at your show and how many folks subscribe to your show broken down by country.  In the near future we'll even have them broken down to the city level, but that's going to take a bit more development, so stay tuned. 

To top it off, we track all of the most popular browsers (such as FireFox, IE and Opera) as well as podcatchers (such as ClickCasters own built in podcatcher, iTunes and Juice) that hit your account.  We show you the downloads, feed views and subscriptions sorted by podcatcher or browser.

So there you have it.  This is only the first round of stats and analytics though.  You can bet we'll be adding more capabilities to this area as time goes on.  And we'd love to hear from you, our users, what it is you'd like us to be working on so drop us a line at info@clickcaster.com and tell use what you think.  We're all ears.

The ClickCaster Team 

Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist out of New York City wrote an interesting blog entry today about what's more important.  Authenticity or Quality.  It's worth reading the entire blog entry (see link above) but the gist of it was that authentic recordings tend to have more heart and soul than much of the HD video/highly produced content he see's today.  That the lousy 1975 video of The Stones, with it's crappy video and audio quality is still more engaging, for it's rawness and it's authenticity, than the canned superbowl productions of today.

What does this have to do with Podcasting you might ask?  Well, quite a bit really.  Podcasting is all about anyone creating a show on any subject that anyone else can listen to (or view, if it happens to be video) anytime they want, usually anywhere they want.

And it's real.  It's often raw and it's almost always as authentic as they come.  People who do podcasts generally know alot about their subject matter.  Be it a specific genre of music, interviews with interesting people in business, an endurance running coach talking about how to overcome the hurdles of that 50 mile barrier, you name it, it's real.  And it comes from the heart of the person creating the podcast.  It has passion and, yes, authenticity.

I've heard some say podcasting is like the CB radio fad of the 70's.  I don't buy that.  I think people love both having the chance to have a voice and the opportunity to listen to other voices.  Voices with passion for what they're doing.  People respond to that passion and to the sometimes amateur, but always authentic voice of podcasts.  It's real, and it's here to stay. 

Scott Converse

Founder, ClickCaster 

Greetings from the Newspaper!  The local newspapers just did stories on us and the picture above is one of the one's used for the papers (notice the lovely Moire patterns?).

You can find these articles online from the Boulder County Business Report and the Boulder Daily Camera at:

http://bcbr.datajoe.com/app/ecom/pub_article_details.php?id=79439

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/local_business/article/0,1713,BDC_2461_4551075,00.html 

We've added alot of new capabilities, and we've redesigned the layout of the site to make it easier to use and clearer how to do the things you need to do.

In particular, check out the stats section.  It's a complete set of analytics for your podcasts.  You'll find it under the new Manage section: Stats

In true Beta form, it's still a work in progress.  And we implemented several weeks of work all at once, so there's bound to be some (maybe alot) of glitches. 

Please use the 'Report a Bug' button near the top right of every screen (right under the Home button).  We really need your help in finding and stamping out these nasty little fellows.  Tony, Matt, Dustin and Shaun are breaking their butts to code the best podcasting experience on the web.  Your help in telling us both what's wrong and what you'd like to see added isn't just something we welcome, it's something we need.

So don't hesitate to tell us what you think. 

The ClickCaster Team.

My name is Scott Converse and I'm one of the founders of ClickCaster.  I think it's important you know that I'm here, my name and that you can find me if you need me.  I think it's really important that our users know we really want to create the best podcasting solution on the internet and, to do that, we need you, and we want to hear from you.

We need your ideas to improve things.  We need your bug reports when things aren't going as well as they should.  We want to hear when we did something right so we can expand on it.  And I would like to personally hear it all.

For instance, when you use the 'report a bug' button on ClickCaster, a copy of it is sent directly to me.

And to make this even easier, I want to invite you to email me or call me directly.   

My direct email is scott@clickcaster.com (this is my main email, read daily)

My direct phone line is 303.875.1243  (this is my personal cellphone)

My Skype address is scottconverse 

I live in Boulder, Colorado in the USA.  We're in the US Moutain Time zone (1 hour ahead of the time in San Francisco, 2 hours behind the time in New York).

I can't promise I'll always answer (I'm often on the phone with others) but if you leave a message, I promise I'll call you back.

The same thing goes for email.  If you send me an email that should be responded to by me, or that asks for a response, I'm going to respond.  That's a promise as well.

Scott Converse

Founder & CEO
ClickCaster

scott@clickcaster.com

direct: 303.875.1243

skype: scottconverse

One of the wonderful things about Podcasts is that you can shift how you listen to radio.  What time, and what place.  And you pick the content.  Cool stuff.

But, sometimes, it's fun to just browse.  So we've added something new to ClickCaster.  We call it, simply:  ClickCaster Radio.  

http://radio.clickcaster.com:8100/listen.pls

It's in beta right now, and we're not putting a link up anywhere on the site just yet (only you brave folks that read our blog know about it) but what it does is give you a taste of the podcasts that our users create, publish and host on ClickCaster.  We decided to make it as random a taste as possible so our servers scan new podcasts as they are uploaded.  Any podcast over 1 minute long that's been posted in the last 7 days then get's put into the mix.  It updates daily.  Even we don't know what's going to appear on ClickCaster radio.  It's really created by you, our users, as you create podcasts and post them onto ClickCaster.

Feel free to give out the above URL to friends, family, co-workers, anyone you like.  Be aware that, from time to time, it won't be available as we continue to upgrade and work on the servers and this (and many other) new services.

The ClickCaster Team  

It seems that both FireFox and Safari, the most popular browsers in the Macintosh world, don't do a very good job of supporting Java Applets.  So, for now, we’re not supporting the Macintosh for all functions on ClickCaster. 

It still works great for exploring podcasts, but if you want to create a podcast with our recorder, or subscribe to podcasts and have them delivered to you with our podcatcher, for now, it’s just not happening.

ClickCaster made a decision some time ago to use Java to deliver our in browser services like being able to record directly inside your webpage, and synchronize your subscribed podcasts with your computer and MP3 players without having to download a separate application or use a third party application.

We did this because 1) Java's cross platform.  It's supposed to work in Mac, Windows and Linux worlds and 2) it gave us a MUCH higher quality level in our recorder (up to 320 Kbps).  Well beyond standard studio recording levels, and orders of magnitude better than the Flash based recorders some of our competitors use.

And it works great for almost 95% of the people who visit ClickCaster.

But that other 5%, you Macintosh users, not so much.

It seems that the latest versions of Safari(2.0.3)  and Firefox (1.5.0.1) have problems running Java applets. Safari, in particular, seems to be having a lot of problems dealing with standard Web 2.0 development practices using AJAX and various JavaScript implementations.

Getting things to work on a Mac today would require some pretty ugly hacks.  We’re reasonably sure the FireFox folks will be fixing these issues in the next release, and we will be supporting Macintosh systems with the next release of FireFox.  We don’t have the same confidence in Apple’s efforts with Safari.  Apple’s support of developers, in general, isn’t what you’d call stellar.  So our support on Mac’s will be limited to FireFox only in future versions of ClickCaster. 

When?  Well, that’s something you’ll need to ask the FireFox for Mac folks.  You can bet we’ll be on top of it though and the instant we can get everything copasetic on Macs again, we will.

ClickCaster Studios, Podcasting with Altitude!

ClickCaster announces the grand opening of ClickCaster Studios, a full featured podcasting and recording studio.  The studio offers a full line of podcast and general audio services as well as custom site design and artwork.

“ClickCaster wants to make podcasting easy for everyone, regardless of what equipment they happen to own. While our web based recorder will allow you to create a basic show, some podcast creators and many businesses interested in podcasting want to sound more polished and produced. That’s where ClickCaster Studios comes in”, notes Scott Converse, ClickCaster CEO. “Armed with years of recording and broadcast experience as well as the necessary pro audio technology, ClickCaster Studios can make you a star, or at least sound like one.” 

Standard prices apply for sessions that can be booked for ½ hour or one hour shows and recording packages are priced as low as $25 per session.  We also have a full multi-track recording studio for bands interested in low cost recording and promotion of their music using podcasting.  In addition to podcast production and recording, ClickCaster Studios has integrated ClickCasters’ web-based publishing and distribution technology, allowing customers to publish their podcasts seamlessly onto the web.

“It’s a true professional level one stop shop for the creation, production, publishing and hosting of your podcast on the internet” say’s Bob Boyles, general manager of ClickCaster Studios.

The Denver studio is the first of many ClickCaster and ClickCaster affiliated studio’s that will be opening in major cities across the US, Asia and Europe.

TONS of new stuff.. lots of new interface elements and great new features.  Gob's-o-web 2.0 type things as well (because, well, what the hell eh?)

We'd write it all down, but it's just too late.  Check back after we've gotten some sleep.

Or, better yet, check out the site.  Particularly the Get section.  And please, give us your feedback (info@clickcaster.com) and if you find bugs, we'd really appreciate it if you'd report them (just click on the Report a Bug link down there at the bottom of the page.. little to the right).

Enjoy!

The Dev Team

ClickCaster 

To start with, we've introduced Tags into ClickCaster.  A little late, but we've been experimenting with how to really integrate tags in a way that it permeates the site (and some cool future capabilities we have planned).

And, we're trying something a little different.  We've taken out the standard categories view altogether and we're trying a representation of the Get section, (our directory) purely as a set of tags in two views.  One is a listing of the most popular tags along the left side of the "Get" section.  On the right side, a standard tag cloud with a visual representation of tags.  The bigger the word, the more podcasts you'll find with that particular tag.

We strongly believe tagging is going to be the direction of how you find content in the future so we're taking a risk here by making our directory a tag driven beastie. 

Of course, we still have search and it's still an AJAX based search.  Super fast and real time.

You'll notice that some podcasts have a small black and white ClickCaster logo in front of them and some have a color one.  The color one's are podcasts (or ClickCasts as we like to call them) that are created and/or hosted here on ClickCaster.

The black and white one's are hosted on other sites and servers.  We've incorporated other directories into ClickCaster, and we have a powerful spider that crawls the internet looking for MP3 files wrapped in RSS (the technical definition of a podcast).  Over time, ClickCasters directory will have the most extensive library of Podcasts on the internet.  We'll have podcasts from many places that no one knows of and aren't published in the standard hangouts.  We believe our directory will be the best place on the internet to find and subscribe to podcasts bar none.

Video?  Yes, and soon.  Right now we support the upload of video podcasts to ClickCaster so if you want to use us as your hosting location, please, feel free.  We’ll have a video previewing capability up soon, so stay tuned.

And we now support blogging on ClickCaster!  You’ll notice in the Create section, three buttons.  One to record (just use our built in high quality web based recorder and a mic plugged into your computer), one to upload (use this to upload your audio or video podcast) and one to blog.  Use this one to post a text entry.  Our text editor supports rich text formatting and the insertion of pictures so you can create a very attractive integrated blog/podcast, all from one clean and simple interface.

You can name it whatever you want with the ‘short name’ feature under your preferences section (Click on Create.. then Preferences.. use the Short Name field).  Whatever you type there makes it simple to give out your shows web address.  For instance, if you want to call your show HotTech, just put that in the short name field.  The Web address you give out to your fans will then be www.clickcaster.com/hottech  Simple, clean, clear.

Last, check out the sync section.  We make it possible for you to synchronize the podcasts you're interested in with your computer all from your web page.  Just click the Subscribe button whenever you find something you like, go to the Sync section under the Get tab and click Download.  No need to download a separate application or launch iTunes to find, subscribe and sync your podcasts with your computer.

Of course, if you want to use iTunes, no worries.  Just drag the "RSS" button from any podcast you find on ClickCaster into iTunes and your subscribed.  Simple and easy, like everything we do here at ClickCaster.

Our goal is to make finding, subscribing, creating and publishing your podcast simple, easy and powerful.  And we want to hear what you like (and don’t like) about ClickCaster.  Please, drop us a line at info@clickcaster.com or send our CEO a message (he loves email) at scott@clickcaster.com.  We answer all our mail and we’re looking forward to hearing from you soon.

The ClickCaster Team

Our development team has been creating away and we've got a lot of interesting things bubbling away on our development servers.  We won't tease you anymore than that, but stay tuned.  Lots of great stuff coming.

We'd love to get your feedback and our CEO would like to hear from you personally. Send him your thoughts about ClickCaster, the good, the bad and the ugly.  His email is scott@clickcaster.com

Tell us what you think-we're listening.

Welcome to the official ClickCaster blog and podcast!

This blog and podcasting site is where you'll find the latest information on ClickCaster goings on.  Things like news, information on new features and services, updates on partners and interesting podcast creators as well as insights and views from the folks here at ClickCaster.

We'll also be creating our own podcast that include interviews with the people that bring you ClickCaster as well as our users, people in the industry and anything we find particularly interesting and worth sharing with our users.

It's the read/write, or in our case, the speak/listen Web 2.0 world, and it's an exciting world indeed.

Feel free to write me directly at: scott@clickcaster.com or post a comment.  We'd love to hear from you.

Scott Converse
Founder & CEO - ClickCaster