Podcast Guest Tips

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I'm so grateful you've booked a time for joining the podcast. This page has all the useful info to make you look and sound your best for your episode.

What is the Your Pennsylvania Ancestors Podcast?

Here's the page all about the show.

Recording Tips

Use Lighting

To look great on video, have some natural light from window or a studio light focused on your face. Have your webcam sit at eye level so you are not looking down or sideways to the audience. You can test your webcam here.

Find a quiet room

If you have kids or a dog, please find a room where they are not. Tell everyone you are recording. Any microphone that plugs in is 100x better than your computer microphone. Acoustics are really important for good audio so this would be much appreciated.

Wear headphones

If you use your computer speakers, the software has to do “echo cancellation” post-processing, which makes the call sound like we are in a cave.Please wear headphones for the recording, as the platform we use natively records the audio. You can test your microphone here.

Use Google's Chrome Browser

The recording software we use is currently only compatible with Google Chrome, so please make sure you have it installed prior to recording.

Other tips

Turn off notifications. To stop any unwanted sounds or distractions during the recording, please turn off your notifications.

Close other apps. Lots of apps open can cause the quality in the recording to drop, as they might be taking up some of the processing power required by the recording software. Close things if you can!

Using Riverside.fm

I use Riverside.fm for podcast recordings. It's similar to Zoom, but provides better video and audio quality. This 2 minute video explains what to expect.

Creating a High-Quality, Engaging Episode

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Here's some general pointers of what the audience loves to hear. We'll also use the interview questions you've received as the framework for your episode.

Share your opinions about relevant topics. The more authentic your opinion is, the better - while still keeping it G-rated. It's tempting to be very agreeable and lukewarm, but that's not interesting to listen to.
Inform people of something useful, new, and relevant. Listeners want to come away having learnt something new. You have an exceptionally unique way that you've tackled certain challenges, share that here.
Tell stories Listeners love to hear stories. The best stories are relevant and exciting. What is something remarkable that's happened?
People love new resources Books, apps, tools, subscriptions, videos, blogs…Think of something relevant to you that you’d love to tell others about.