The battle of The Podcast Parlor

There is small on-line community that every reader of this blog should be a member of: The Podcast Parlor. I have set up this place for my readers together with podcast reviewers Dara, Baxter and Saeed (and their readers) to have a single place where the good, educational, intellectual podcasts can be discussed.

So far this community has not succeeded in flourishing too well. Not only do we need more people to join and to actively participate. We have also been drowning in spam. We would have fake members join by the scores and then flood the Parlor with irrelevant postings and comments, the likes of which you can easily imagine especially after one glance in the spam section of your email inbox. But this has changed.

In order to be able to join the parlor you have to pass our, the admins Dara, Baxter, Saeed and myself, approval to join. Should that pose a problem? Not if you are genuinely interested in podcasts and have shed even the shortest glance at my blog, Dara's, Baxter's or Saeed's postings on the Parlor. In order to set up a profile, you will only have to give your email and mention a podcast review blog and a podcast you like and all of this informations stays confidential. This will show us instantly you are genuine and allow us to tell you from the spammers. Once in, you can meet like-minded people and find out what they listen to and what their opinions are.

I really urge you to join the Parlor. Not only is this going to serve your quest for good on-line audio. You also support the free podcast reviews you get from our blogs and you also, eventually support the many, many podcasters out there who give your their wonderful products for free.

Endorsing Anne is a Man as a resource for podcasts

Recently this blog has received two outstanding endorsements. First, on Twitter, Nigel Warburton the professor of philosophy at the Open University in Britain and maker of the excellent podcast Philosophy Bites, called this blog "Best general reviewer of podcasts around." His tweet was immediately retweeted by Professor Ron McClamrock (departemernt of Philosophy, University at Albany) , altering it to "Best general reviewer of (intellectual) podcasts".

Today, I found Professor Charles Lipson (University of Chicago), who has endorsed this blog before, in an interview he gave at the blog Wide Awake Minds. There is he explains his ideas and activities into self-education. On the subject of resources he says: "When I’m looking for podcasts, for instance, I always read the analysis at Anne is a Man, which specializes in reviewing educational podcasts."

I am delighted by these endorsements and feel they are coming at the right time. This blog deserves to be more known throughout. Therefore, I ask each reader of this blog to do the same as the professors: endorse the blog at any platform you are active as a spokesperson.

Vacation time for Anne is a Man

My vacation has started. I will be away from my iPod and PC most of the time for a period of about two weeks. I will be with my wife and kids in the countryside of Israel and there will be hardly any blog posts until around August 20. If at all I manage to drop by, I will give you some very quick recommendations.

Once back, I'll be giving full gas on the blog again. Visitor stats have been dropping the last months. The only reason I still hope you all have not left me, is because the RSS subscriptions are still rising. But you have to keep your blogger going. Comment on the blog. Mark the blog at your aggregations sites, such as StumbleUpon. Send mail to people you know, who love podcasts and on-line education. Connect with the discussions on the Podcast Parlor. Thanks

The stumble peak

About a week ago I had a sudden rise in visitors on my blog. This phenomenon lasted for a couple of hours. Even if it went away, some of its effects are still felt and this gives those readers who want to actively support the blog (or any other site they love, for that matter) a good idea what they can do.

The spike was caused by StumbleUpon. Someone noted two of my pages on StumbleUpon and right after that, the hours of traffic came streaming in. As a matter of fact I still have some referrals from StumbleUpon daily. In addition, a sharp rise in RSS subscriptions came about.

And so, what you can do, for my blog and any other site you like, is note its pages at StumbleUpon. For this purpose, you must create an account over there and it is also advised to install the toolbar. From there on, you can give a thumbs up, on any page you visit. If you like, you can also add a review. From that moment on, the page is pushed to the StumbleUpon community.

As you amass your preferences, StumbleUpon will also help you find more pages that you like. You can click 'stumble' and you will be led to a page another stumbler noted and that you might like as well. It enhances your own browsing and it directs traffic to the sites you appreciate, which is great for those content makers like myself, who always hope to get a wider audience.

So, to everybody who 'stumbles' my blog - thanks a lot!

Anne

Two methods to support your favorite blog

At the end of last month I asked you all to click campaign if you liked the blog and wanted to tell me you do. I registered 39 people from all over the world who did so. Supposing Statcounter registers most, but not all clicks and some people may have clicked the post link when they actually intended to show support, I feel there are at least 40 readers that want to actively support the blog.

So, please continue and here is the next campaign. The second method to show you appreciation: leave a comment. This is very easy and can be done anonymously. Click on the comments link below (see the line 'Posted by The Man called Anne at 12:00 0 comments' and click 'comments'). This should fire up a new window (watch pop-up blockers!) in which you can write anything you like under any name you like. If you do not know what to write just type "Please continue" and we'll know you support us.

Of course you will all be able to see over time how many comments piled up, but by the end of the month I will report back to you and hand you a third method to support the blog.

Can't wait until then? Here are some ideas ahead: send a link to the blog to a friend, mark the blog on your bookmarking site, point to it from your own site, take an RSS subscription (What is RSS? - Help on getting subscription), connect with Anne is a Man on Facebook, Twitter and The Podcast Parlor. Or anything else you can think of.

Thank you all. I am happy and grateful with every sign of life.

Anne

Anne is a Man goes viral

Do you like the blog Anne is a Man? Here is a very easy way to show your appreciation. Just click the link to Anne is a Man's campaign and you are done.

What is the meaning of all this? Well, I have around 200 visitors a day, I have over 100 RSS subscribers, but I have no idea how connected you all feel to the blog. By clicking the link, you give me a simple wink meaning: Yes, I like what you are doing and keep doing it. I thank you in advance for clicking.

Now that we are talking, I guess some of you would be happy to do a little bit more and I won't stop you. Please comment on the blog, send links to friends, point to it from your own site, bookmark it, take an RSS subscription (What is RSS? - Help on getting subscription), whatever you feel like. I will try to come up with a new campaign idea ever one or two weeks, to induce you all into some concerted effort to help me keep the blog. I will also report the success of previous campaigns - hoping there will be some to report.

thanks,

Anne

Connect with Anne is a Man on:
Facebook,
Twitter,
The Podcast Parlor.