Podcasters Are Taking Home Award - Because of my Podcast
Amateur Traveler Podcast wins Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award

Chris Christensen is a winner in the 2014 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, taking an Honorable Mention in the Travel Broadcast — Audio category for “Amateur Traveler: Travel to Flanders in Belgium” (http://europe.amateurtraveler.com/travel-flanders-belgium-travel- podcast/) on AmateurTraveler.com. The awards are named for Lowell Thomas, acclaimed broadcast journalist, prolific author and world explorer during five decades in journalism.

This is the 30th annual competition sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. Winners of the awards, the most prestigious in the field of travel journalism, were announced Sept. 16 at the SATW convention, held in Iceland. The competition drew 1,177 entries and was judged by members of the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. This year, the SATW Foundation presented 90 awards in 25 categories and nearly $20,000 in prize money to journalists. Since the first competition for work in 1984, the SATW Foundation has presented more than 2,100 awards and $420,000-plus in recognition of outstanding travel journalism.

In honoring work, the judges said:

"The Amateur Traveler podcast by Chris Christensen was well done. The first episode only featured narration by Christensen, which is challenging to produce. His incorporation of natural sound was a great addition to keep the show interesting and engaging. It offered both great historical context as well as important tips for travel to Flanders. The show was well produced and interesting".

Among other winners, Jill Schensul, senior writer for The Record of northern New Jersey, earned the title of Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year for a portfolio of her work in the past year. It is the third top title for Schensul, who over the years has won 29 Lowell Thomas awards for herself, and The Record travel section has taken 39 in total. National Geographic Traveler, Islands, Travel + Leisure and AFAR magazines are top media winners in 2014.

The Foundation distributes nearly $20,000 annually in prize money to individual winners. Donations by this year’s Underwriter, the Tourist Office for Flanders-Brussels, and many other supporters helped make the prizes possible. For more information about the awards, including a full list of winners and judges’ comments, and SATW, visit www.satwf.com andwww.satw.org.

Money Plan SOS Wins Plutus Award

Steve Stewart was nominated in the Best personal finance blog, and best debt reduction blog categories. Joe Saul-Sehy won for best financial blog (Joe was on the show this year talking co-hosts), and Steve won for the best debt reduction blog. The interesting thing is Steve's blog is just his "show notes" for his podcast. Congrats to both!

Portable Recording With Zoom iQ5B

I was Podcast Movement when I met Shawn Smith who had a bunch of microphones set up and was interviewing him. I went over and introduced myself. Shawn has gone out to help people answer the question, "What is the best way to record on the road." His is actively positioning himself as THE mobile recording person at http://www.themobilepro.net/

This was recorded on my iPhone using Boss Jock Studio and using Shawn's Zoom iQ5B microphone. It is a condenser microphone so it does pick up background noise. It has adjustable settings so you can pick how wide the stereo separation is. You will here Shawn and I go through some of the  settings on the microphone. It sounds good (and would work in a quiet place like any quiet place).

The FREE Ebook From Shwn:

28 pages of high-rez photos and links to all the road-tested apps and gear in each of the 5 Mobile Pro Podcast Set-Ups, pros & cons of each, best-use guide, and Mobile Pro tips plus 3 bonus set-ups. TheMobilePro.net

Question from Listeners

In a previous episode we spoke about Dragon Naturally Speaking and Ryan Parker

I just wanted to let you know that the Mac does have a dictation function and you can find that function in the system preferences file. It works pretty much just like Siri does. And yes you have to enunciate your punctuation.(It works really great!)

In fact I am voice typing this comment to you directly with no corrections. It actually works really fast. The only thing is you have to get used to using the program just like anything else. Okay I lied I did correct a few things. And you have to correct manually if you speak an incorrect word or it picks up punctuation incorrectly.

Here’s a great tutorial from YouTube for you and your audience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU7oiTTAxNk
It does not allow you to correct by voice which is one of the advantages of dragon speaking naturally. They have a Mac version called Dragon dictate that seems to work pretty well I have use that in the past.

Have a great day keep podcasting because we I’ll love you so much ha ha!

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Q: What kind of advice would you give to someone who's podcast was driven by fiction content (a bit like Scott Sigler but with no where near such an outgoing personality) and not interviews, or helping people, or a professional focus?

It seems that a lot of advice about podcasting is more geared toward all of those things that I mentioned above that I don't really do.  My latest episode has the most conversation I've done with the audience....ever and its only like seven minutes.

Thank you for your time I love your show.
Caine Dorr
 
A: Caine

Who likes Fiction books?. I did a quick search for "fiction book lovers" and came up with a few sites.
 
http://themindofafictionbooklover.tumblr.com/me
is in the top 5 of Google for this search. Go read his blog, and leave comments. When somethng strikes you send him an email and start a conversation. Later ask him if he'd like to listen to your book. Be sure to have your signature with a link to your website so when you send him an email he will see your website.
 
http://www.thrall.org/booklovers/
Has all sorts of things about book clubs
 
http://www.booktalk.org/online-reading-group.html
This is a huge forum (be careful not to spam here and read the rules of posting)
 
Figure out who your audience is, go there and make friends. then tell them about or mention your book.
Podcast Reviews

 by Filopastry88 from Australia on October 8, 2014

Dave gives amazing value every episode . so many great action things to do. Last 5 of 5 is top idea

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