This week I review Amateur Traveler, the podcast, I’ve been following since the beginning of the quarter.  In fact when the class began and I was tasked with creating my own podcast for a class deliverable, I knew I wanted it to be about travel.  It made sense then, that I should subscribe to a podcast about travel, and part of my research.

Let’s begin with the obvious, the title of this podcast and what audience it is targeting.  Surprise, surprise, its about traveling and is geared for the amateur traveler.   In that respect the title and the audience are nicely wrapped up in one bow.  But that my be an oversimplification since this is a fantastic and content rich website.  As Chris Christensen, the podcaster points out in his ‘About’ page (easily accessible from from a tab at the top of the page), the best stories people tell involve travel.   There’s that storytelling element again.  The fact that the podcast is called amateur traveler, in no belittles the great and compelling stories that people tell about their travels.  Mr Christensen interviews both the amateur and the professional and tries to get that insider’s view, the information that isn’t available in a tour book.

But let’s get back to the technicalities  The header photo changes frequently, but the tabs for navigating the site stay in the same place.  Very consistent and easy to navigate.  At the right 1/3 of the page are some advertisements (got to pay the bills), a link to a player you can add to your own page , some ads, and finally the subscription information.  As I’ve said before, I would prefer the RSS info closer to the top of the page so it is easier for newbies to subscribe, but that is a minor complaint.  The rest of the page is devoted to the podcasts.  Each link to a different story open in a new page which, as we have learned, is better for SEO.

I have another minor complaint.  On the home page I clicked the episode title to open up the new page.  Once here however, my first assumption would be to click the title again to start the podcast, but all that does is refresh the page.  Instead you have to look lower down on the page for the word ‘podcast’ and then below that is the links to download the podcast.  This wasn’t intuitive, at least to me.  Other than that the podcast themselves are entertaining and informative.  The blog post that supports each podcast is also full of useful information and links.  We discussed a transcript of the podcast being an effective tool for improving SEO, but in this case I think links work just as well as they are each tailored to that particular podcasts subject.  All in all I am very impressed with this website and podcast.

Maury

All quarter long I’ve been following (reading) the Arcane Radio Trivia blog. Per our assignment this week I will attempt to analyze it using some of the tools and criteria Kathy taught us.

We’ll begin with my first impressions, namely the all black background. I can’t explain why but this gives the whole blog an air of seriousness. However, after reading several of the posts over the last few weeks, I don’t think that Jose Fritz, the Blogmaster, takes himself too seriously. It is his passion that comes through in each and every post. I would assume his audience is radio enthusiasts and at first I thought this was geared toward the amateur and classic radio enthusiast, but it seems his topics include amateur and professional radio. A quick scan down the list of the most recent posts includes discussion on ESPN Radio, an online mix tape service, a brief history of RCA, information on filing complaints with the FCC and a biography of an Old Time Radio personality. Frankly I didn’t expect to read regularly but his variety has kept me coming back. I don’t know if he has done any surveys to know what his audience wants, and I can’t say just how many people are tracking his blog, but he writes a post just about every day.

The Design is simple and striaghtfoward. There is a header at the top of the page with the title and a brief logline. Right away this lets the audience know where they are and what they can expect to find here. On the right 1/3 side of the page is his bio, links, and archives. The rest of the page is devoted to his post, with the most recent being at the top. One of the most interesting aspects of this blog is the fact that while it is about radio, it isn’t a podcast. He has embedded audio into some of his posts but only in a limited way. I would have thought that a blog about radio would lend itself excellently to a podcast about radio, since podcasting is so similar, but I guess not. Mr Fritz prefers to write about radio…a lot.

So prolific in fact, that I can only raise one tiny complaint. His links to subscribe to the blog are at the bottom of the column on the right side. Since he is constantly updating I would think most of his audience are subscribing and putting the link to the RSS would be convienent for them or any new subscribers

Maury