Latest / Abbey the Podcast Lady / RSS.com Max Plan Review: Is Video Podcasting Worth the Upgrade?

Transcript

RSS.com Max Plan Review: Is Video Podcasting Worth the Upgrade? · Abbey the Podcast Lady

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to somewhat of an emergency
• 0:02
  episode of Abby the podcast lady. I had an email
• 0:05
  come into my inbox this morning that I just could
• 0:08
  not wait to make an episode about. And so we're
• 0:11
  getting a bonus episode this week talking about
• 0:13
  video podcasting with rss .com. This is something
• 0:18
  that I've been really anticipating ever since
• 0:22
  earlier this year when Apple podcast announced
• 0:24
  that they were really going to be leaning heavily
• 0:26
  into video podcasting. I'm like, okay, so I can
• 0:29
  See the writing on the wall. Podcasting is no
• 0:31
  longer just an audio. Format of content. And
• 0:35
  I think we all kind of knew that was coming with
• 0:37
  just how popular podcasting has become and with
• 0:40
  just how popular short form content has become
• 0:43
  as well. It's just been a huge add on to the
• 0:46
  medium as a whole. I am not anti video podcasting
• 0:49
  in any way. Obviously look at me. I do think
• 0:52
  that starting with video podcasting is a lot
• 0:54
  harder for beginner podcasters. There's no denying
• 0:57
  that. I think you really need to nail down your
• 1:00
  audio quality and content before you add it.
• 1:02
  the video element. But I mean, everyone is going
• 1:05
  to start where they want to start. And if you
• 1:07
  want to start with video podcasting, it is now
• 1:09
  easier than ever. So let me pull up that email
• 1:12
  that I got this morning from rss .com. Now rss
• 1:16
  .com is where I host my podcast. It is where
• 1:19
  all my clients host their podcasts because I
• 1:22
  think it is one. the easiest platform to set
• 1:26
  up your show on because it is just so straightforward
• 1:29
  and simple. There's no way you can mess it up.
• 1:31
  The distribution is automatic to all the major
• 1:34
  podcast players and it's just so simple and straightforward
• 1:37
  and user -friendly and they do like... automatic
• 1:40
  mid -roll ads when you have like 10 downloads
• 1:42
  like it's easy to start generating some revenue
• 1:45
  with your podcast right away as well if you use
• 1:48
  rss .com i am a huge believer in them i have
• 1:51
  been with them since i started my first podcast
• 1:54
  i have launched dozens of shows with them i think
• 1:57
  that they're the best if you are interested in
• 1:58
  checking out rss .com i have a link down below
• 2:01
  in the show notes so make sure that you check
• 2:03
  that out and i think this new edition that they
• 2:05
  have is going to seal the deal on using them
• 2:07
  as your podcast host even more so this is the
• 2:10
  email that i got from rss .com this morning the
• 2:14
  Subject line was you asked for video. Our max
• 2:17
  plan is now live. And I'm like, what is this?
• 2:20
  What is going on? Because they've been doing
• 2:22
  a lot of surveys and asking for feedback from
• 2:24
  their users to see what are we actually needing
• 2:27
  in the podcast industry. And they did the right
• 2:29
  thing by asking actual users of the platform.
• 2:32
  And so now the max plan is here, giving you an
• 2:36
  easier way to publish and earn from video podcasts.
• 2:38
  You can upload your video episode once and then
• 2:41
  use the same file to publish to Apple podcasts
• 2:43
  through. and to YouTube. On Apple Podcasts, listeners
• 2:47
  can move between audio and video without losing
• 2:49
  their place. And this also includes unlimited
• 2:52
  audio and video episodes. What I love about this
• 2:56
  is that it isn't mandatory viewing on Apple Podcasts
• 3:00
  for video. I have been listening to the Khloe
• 3:03
  Kardashian podcast lately, Khloe in Wonderland.
• 3:05
  And that one is both audio and video. And you
• 3:08
  can toggle between, do you just want to listen
• 3:10
  to it? Like if you're doing something like driving
• 3:12
  or out for a walk and you don't want to like
• 3:14
  watch a video, you can just set it up for listening.
• 3:17
  Or if you want to like sit down and actually
• 3:19
  consume it with your eyeballs as well, you can
• 3:22
  do that as well. So I like that there's the option
• 3:24
  to on Apple podcasts. stick with just listening
• 3:27
  to the show or if you want to watch it you can
• 3:29
  do that as well you have that option it's still
• 3:31
  there so this email goes on to say among the
• 3:33
  video publishers in our recent podcaster insights
• 3:36
  survey 63 said video helped grow their audience
• 3:41
  And more than 1 billion monthly active viewers
• 3:43
  watch podcast content on YouTube and Apple Podcasts
• 3:46
  is available in more than 170 countries and regions.
• 3:49
  So again, like I said, rss .com has been asking
• 3:52
  people for their input. What are they looking
• 3:54
  for? What do they need? What is helpful with
• 3:57
  moving the needle with growing your show? And
• 3:59
  this is what the survey results said. It said
• 4:01
  that people wanted an easier way to integrate
• 4:04
  their video podcasting into their workflow. And
• 4:08
  RSS did something about it, which I think is
• 4:10
  so cool. I love when, because I filled out the
• 4:13
  survey myself, like I'm very diligent about surveys
• 4:16
  and feedback on things that I use every single
• 4:19
  day. And I like that they're actually taking
• 4:21
  the results of the survey and putting some action
• 4:24
  to it and actually giving us what we are asking
• 4:26
  for. So this is also going to be a way for you
• 4:29
  to earn from your video podcasts as well. Video
• 4:32
  ads will run automatically on Apple Podcasts
• 4:35
  from your first video episode with no download
• 4:38
  or follower threshold. That means as soon as
• 4:41
  you start generating some views, it doesn't matter
• 4:44
  if it's just a few of them, you're going to start
• 4:45
  earning on those video ads. And all you need
• 4:49
  to do to qualify for this is activate your rss
• 4:51
  .com paid. And that is like their paid ad thing.
• 4:55
  And you got to verify your PayPal payout. Say
• 4:57
  that three times fast, PayPal payout. And then
• 5:00
  you receive 70 % of all eligible video ad revenue
• 5:04
  generated from that point forward. So you can
• 5:06
  start earning automatically on your shows, which
• 5:10
  is so cool. I actually woke up this morning to
• 5:13
  a payout from rss .com for my very first podcast.
• 5:16
  It was called the small town tourist. Now I haven't
• 5:19
  posted actively on that thread for. gosh, it's
• 5:23
  been over a year now, but I still generated $5
• 5:26
  in ad revenue from not sharing it anywhere, from
• 5:29
  not posting it anywhere. It just exists out in
• 5:31
  the world and is generating, yeah, not a lot
• 5:34
  of revenue, but it's something for doing absolutely
• 5:38
  nothing. And that's pretty cool. I have been
• 5:40
  so impressed with the ad payout on rss .com.
• 5:44
  And you don't have to do like anything for it.
• 5:47
  You do have to like point out where you want
• 5:48
  your mid -roll ads to run if that's the thing
• 5:50
  that you're doing. But if you just set it up
• 5:52
  for ads at the front of the show and ads at the
• 5:54
  back of the show, you're going to see a little
• 5:56
  bit of revenue generated right away, which I
• 5:59
  think is so cool. And I love that they're helping
• 6:01
  new creators really get the ball rolling on.
• 6:06
  monetizing their podcast. I think that is so
• 6:08
  important. It's something that everyone is looking
• 6:10
  for. Everyone wants to make money from their
• 6:12
  shows. And this is just another way to do it.
• 6:15
  Now, this max plan, how much is it going to cost?
• 6:17
  Because I know that that is going to be the next
• 6:19
  question everybody has. This is the rundown of
• 6:23
  what rss .com costs right now. And I think it
• 6:26
  is super affordable for what you actually get
• 6:29
  out of making your show. So we have the free
• 6:32
  plan, which I have a lot of my clients on right
• 6:34
  now. They're just getting started. They just
• 6:36
  need that free plan to help. Build their show.
• 6:39
  Essentially, it's everything you need to start
• 6:40
  and grow a podcast. You got unlimited episodes,
• 6:43
  unlimited audio, got your RSS feed, all that
• 6:45
  great stuff with the plus. That's when you can
• 6:48
  start making money with the paid programmatic
• 6:50
  ad insertion. So you can earn with Apple podcast
• 6:53
  subscriptions, audio to video conversion for
• 6:56
  YouTube. That is what we had been using for years
• 6:59
  on this. I had that when I first started years
• 7:02
  ago and you can. basically hit a button and it'll
• 7:06
  turn your audio episode into an audiogram for
• 7:09
  YouTube. Is it the sexiest looking episode you've
• 7:12
  ever seen on YouTube? Is it absolutely breathtaking,
• 7:16
  stunning, visually captivating? No. Does it look
• 7:20
  nice and clean and professional? Yes, definitely.
• 7:23
  There is no denying that, but it's just not a
• 7:26
  full video version in the way that you're thinking
• 7:28
  a full video version is for YouTube. But it's
• 7:31
  a way to get it on YouTube. If that's just your
• 7:33
  goal is for it to be searchable and findable
• 7:36
  on YouTube, that'll do it. You can invite team
• 7:39
  members with this plan. There's a bunch of other
• 7:41
  stuff in it as well. The pro plan. This is the
• 7:43
  one I am currently on because this was the top
• 7:46
  tier one. You can have up to 10 podcasts, unlimited
• 7:48
  team members, podcast analytics. It automatically
• 7:51
  generates your transcripts. That's in the other
• 7:53
  plan too, but that's also very helpful. You can
• 7:56
  do unbranded YouTube videos, which is cool. And
• 7:59
  then this is the one that we are all excited
• 8:02
  about right here today. This is the max podcasting
• 8:05
  plan. So it's $37 a month. If it's billed annually,
• 8:10
  you save 25 % by billing it annually. You get
• 8:13
  unlimited audio podcasts, unlimited video podcasts,
• 8:16
  and then video ads with revenue share, which
• 8:19
  we just broke down a little bit ago. Start earning
• 8:22
  from day one, automatic YouTube publishing, which
• 8:24
  is huge. And then API access, which is where
• 8:28
  they create an API key and manage your shows
• 8:30
  and episodes from your own code or tools. That
• 8:32
  doesn't matter to me too much. It could matter
• 8:35
  to someone else. I don't really do much with
• 8:37
  that at the time, but down the road, you just
• 8:40
  never know. It's nice that there's options for
• 8:42
  that in the future for me if I see so. So you
• 8:45
  can spend anywhere from $0 a month on your...
• 8:49
  podcasting to 15 to 26 to 37. And these are all
• 8:53
  the prices based on the annual plan. If you want
• 8:55
  to pay for monthly, you can pay $0 for the free
• 8:59
  plan. Plus this $20 a month pro is 35. And then
• 9:02
  max is $50 a month. Honestly, if you're going
• 9:05
  to do this, just go for the annual plan, save
• 9:07
  that money because we all know podcasting is
• 9:10
  a long game. And you are going to want to stay
• 9:13
  in it for at least a year and just try to figure
• 9:16
  out if this is helpful for you and your business
• 9:18
  and your brand and just something you want to
• 9:21
  stick with. So I would suggest paying for it
• 9:23
  annually. And if you want to do the video integration,
• 9:26
  that max plan is going to be the way to go. I'm
• 9:29
  really excited to try this out. And what I'm
• 9:32
  going to do now is I'm actually going to edit
• 9:34
  this video and I'm going to switch to the max
• 9:37
  plan and we are going to upload this and see
• 9:40
  how it works. with the maxplanrss .com. I'm excited.
• 9:46
  I got jitters. I'm pumped. Okay. So I'm going
• 9:49
  to cut this here and then we are going to upload
• 9:51
  it to YouTube and see what happens. So it is
• 9:54
  time to switch my plan from my legacy plan on
• 9:58
  RSS to... the max which i know this is the direction
• 10:03
  i need to head for my business but it's still
• 10:05
  a bummer because the last time i swapped out
• 10:08
  from a legacy plan i had spotify and hulu together
• 10:11
  for ten dollars a month i had that like all the
• 10:13
  way back in college and i just had to switch
• 10:15
  it this past winter when my dad wanted spotify
• 10:18
  for christmas and it was just easier to put him
• 10:20
  on my plan and i lost out on some legacy benefits
• 10:23
  so i don't know what i'm losing out on by doing
• 10:25
  this but i do know what i'm gaining and i am
• 10:27
  gaining video access so we are going to upgrade
• 10:29
  my rs process legacy podcast network plan to
• 10:33
  the max plan. It's just the cost of doing business.
• 10:36
  Okay. So instead of uploading this episode through
• 10:38
  how I want to upload it, it's like getting a
• 10:41
  little inception -y around here. So I'm actually
• 10:43
  going to take a episode of the podcast lady that
• 10:46
  is supposed to be coming out on Thursday, but
• 10:48
  we are actually going to go to an old podcast
• 10:51
  that doesn't exist anymore. It doesn't actively
• 10:53
  post anymore. And we're going to upload it there
• 10:55
  to test this out. So this is what it looks like
• 10:58
  when you're on the max plan now. on rss you have
• 11:01
  audio file size up to two gigabytes and then
• 11:03
  video is up to five gigabytes and your max duration
• 11:07
  is two hours and your minimum resolution and
• 11:10
  is 1080p so you can upload an mp4 an mkv or an
• 11:14
  mov and it looks like it just uploads like a
• 11:17
  normal podcast would so let's give it a shot
• 11:21
  here published video ads need to be on in return
• 11:24
  you keep 70 of the ad revenue Oh shoot, I don't
• 11:29
  have ads set up on this one. Okay, so we'll just
• 11:32
  upload without setting up the pay right now since
• 11:35
  this is a test. We are going to call this testing
• 11:40
  out rss .com video. Hold please. Because this
• 11:48
  is just like once I figure out how this is working,
• 11:50
  I'm probably just going to go in and delete this.
• 11:52
  No, no. Keywords are not important right now.
• 11:56
  Okay, so we're going to do that. And then we
• 11:58
  are going to go over here to save draft. So this
• 12:04
  upload process is exactly the same as it is for
• 12:07
  just normal audio as it is for video. The only
• 12:10
  difference is now you have the option to do video.
• 12:12
  Whereas if you're not on the max plan, I'm guessing
• 12:14
  you're not going to see the option to upload
• 12:16
  a video. And it is going to take a heck of a
• 12:19
  lot longer for this to upload because it is a
• 12:22
  bigger file. It is a video. They do take longer
• 12:24
  to upload. And if you're on a good fiber optic
• 12:27
  internet source, it should take a lot less time
• 12:30
  than it does from where I'm sitting. I'm not
• 12:32
  going to lie. I am cutting out a lot of watching
• 12:34
  this orange bar grow across the screen, uploading
• 12:37
  this video, but I think a lot of it has to do
• 12:39
  with my own internet upload speeds at my house.
• 12:43
  And I think if I go somewhere with faster internet,
• 12:45
  it'll go a heck of a lot faster. But overall,
• 12:49
  I am pretty impressed with how similar it is.
• 12:51
  It's not really a whole lot of an extra step
• 12:54
  when it comes to uploading to the RSS feed, which
• 12:57
  I really like. I like that they're not making
• 12:59
  go through a bunch of different hoops. They didn't
• 13:01
  change. how it looks on the back end of uploading.
• 13:03
  Like it's very simple and straightforward. If
• 13:05
  you're an RSS user already, this is just going
• 13:08
  to be second nature to you. Here we go. 99%.
• 13:11
  Okay, so when you get off of the upload page,
• 13:14
  it looks like it takes you right back to your
• 13:16
  episode list, just like it would if it was a
• 13:18
  normal audio episode with rss .com. And I'm guessing
• 13:21
  it's going to take a little bit more time to
• 13:23
  process than your regular episode. Okay, it is
• 13:26
  ready to publish. I want to see what it looks
• 13:29
  like on the back end before we do this. Okay,
• 13:31
  so you can't preview it. on the back end which
• 13:34
  is fine we know what it looks like i edited it
• 13:37
  i know exactly what this looks like but i did
• 13:39
  kind of want to know if you could see it i'm
• 13:41
  going to hit publish and then we will see how
• 13:43
  it looks on apple i wonder if this is going to
• 13:46
  go to youtube too i forgot how i had this set
• 13:49
  up so we're gonna have to play around with this
• 13:51
  a little bit so i hit publish and it says create
• 13:53
  video and publish on youtube let's go to distribution
• 13:58
  boy okay pod profit was under abby minky 95.
• 14:02
  okay so it looks like they're using a service
• 14:04
  called podviz by rss .com to manage the youtube
• 14:09
  accounts now i don't remember if that's how it
• 14:11
  was before i always just set it up and let it
• 14:13
  buck and we'll make it public oh it looks like
• 14:15
  you can turn on the rss .com logo if you want
• 14:18
  to or turn it off i'm going to turn it off for
• 14:20
  now because i'm just going to go in and delete
• 14:22
  this anyway once i know how it looks But you
• 14:25
  can choose the playlist you want it to go to,
• 14:26
  public, no, it's not made for kids, that sort
• 14:29
  of thing. And then perks of YouTube publishing.
• 14:33
  You can create a video. There's chapters. Okay,
• 14:36
  cool. So that looks like it's set up and ready
• 14:38
  to go. Let's go back to the episodes here and
• 14:42
  click this button, publish episode, and we'll
• 14:46
  see what happens. This is exciting. I am genuinely
• 14:50
  curious to see if this is going to spit out the
• 14:53
  audiogram version that RSS does, or if this is
• 14:56
  just going to pull the full video version. Like
• 14:58
  hopefully it pulls the full video version. That's
• 15:01
  like the ideal situation here, but you just never
• 15:03
  know. So this is a fun little experiment that
• 15:06
  we are testing out here today. Also, if you're
• 15:08
  just listening to the audio version of this podcast,
• 15:10
  I am so sorry. This is probably going to be very
• 15:12
  confusing for you. It'd be a good idea to head
• 15:16
  to YouTube and check out the video version. It'd
• 15:18
  be a good idea to head to Apple and check out
• 15:20
  the video version because in a perfect world,
• 15:22
  it is living there as well. You know what we
• 15:24
  could do is let's check out how this looks on
• 15:27
  the RSS. page so we're gonna go to my podcast
• 15:31
  public website okay oh oh okay this is cool so
• 15:35
  this is the public facing page you get with every
• 15:38
  podcast you have on rss .com so here's the test
• 15:42
  video we just uploaded here is the video version
• 15:47
  America's ultimate pheasant hunting experience
• 15:50
  awaits. Okay, so there's an advertisement right
• 15:53
  there. Let's kind of fast forward through it
• 15:55
  here. Welcome to another episode of Abby the
• 15:57
  Bot. And musings in it. There's the video that
• 16:01
  we just uploaded. That is handy dandy. So the
• 16:03
  ads just get inserted right there. It has this
• 16:06
  nice screen that says we'll be right back after
• 16:08
  this short message. It plays the ad. I like how
• 16:10
  that looks a lot. Oh, I am so impressed. Okay.
• 16:14
  A plus. Okay. So that's how it looks there. Yeah.
• 16:17
  We'll just wait and see how it looks on the Apple
• 16:19
  feed when that pops up here shortly. And then
• 16:22
  YouTube, let's head over to the pod to profit
• 16:25
  YouTube page and see how it looks over here.
• 16:28
  It says it's public. It brought the full video
• 16:32
  version over. Yay. Okay. I love that. So it doesn't
• 16:36
  just make the audiogram anymore. You get the
• 16:38
  full, well, when it's done processing, you get
• 16:40
  the full video version, which is so nice and
• 16:43
  so handy. I love that. That is so. Great. Oh,
• 16:47
  I'm so excited. This is going to be huge, huge,
• 16:50
  huge, huge. I'm going to open it on my phone
• 16:51
  and see if it got distributed to Apple yet or
• 16:54
  not. It can take a while for RSS to get things
• 16:57
  over to Apple. For whatever reason, I've noticed
• 17:00
  that that's like the longest lag time when you
• 17:02
  go from publish to yeah. So it looks like it
• 17:05
  hasn't made it to Apple quite yet. But we'll
• 17:08
  wait a little bit and see if it does. Overall,
• 17:11
  I got to say, I am very impressed with this new
• 17:14
  addition to RSS .com's hosting. I know it is
• 17:18
  a little more expensive. I know you have to pay
• 17:20
  for this. But trust me, the ease of using it,
• 17:23
  as you can see, is so simple. If you're an RSS.
• 17:26
  user already on the free plan and you know it's
• 17:29
  time to level up to video because you know there's
• 17:31
  going to be benefits to doing that for your show,
• 17:33
  for your brand, for your business. It's a great
• 17:35
  way to do it. I am a huge fan of the service.
• 17:38
  If you're interested in learning more about rss
• 17:41
  .com, if you want someone to hold your hand through
• 17:43
  setting up your RSS feed, I offer that. You can
• 17:46
  reach out to me at any time. I'm glad to answer
• 17:48
  any questions for you. It is a great service.
• 17:51
  I love that they're adding this new video feature
• 17:53
  for us all to really level up. our shows together.
• 17:57
  And I think it's going to come in really handy
• 17:58
  for a lot of people. And I know my clients are
• 18:01
  going to benefit majorly from having this as
• 18:04
  an option. So thank you so much for checking
• 18:06
  out this episode of Abby, the podcast lady, kind
• 18:08
  of an emergency last minute episode, like I said,
• 18:11
  but I was just too excited about this new addition
• 18:14
  to rss .com to not dive into it and see how it
• 18:17
  works and take you along as I figure it out myself
• 18:20
  so we can all learn and use it together. And
• 18:22
  again, any questions, reach out to me. Check
• 18:25
  out more from rss .com and check out more from
• 18:27
  Abby, the podcast lady down in the show notes
• 18:29
  below. And I will catch you next time for a regularly
• 18:32
  scheduled episode of Abby, the podcast lady.