"Your Content is Bigger Than Your Feed
Today's key takeaway is that feeds represent only one aspect of a publisher's overall content consumption. We're living in a world of distributed media after all: people might be reading your content directly on your site, within a widget, via resyndicated headlines on another site, or on a social networking site."

Thanks again to everyone who has signed up as a new listener or registered for a Handle!

Talking tally again on the homepage - we're five shy of 200 with thirty days left before the 300th show. I have a good feeling about us hitting 300 new listeners . . . or maybe more.

The moment we hit 300 new listeners the first set of iPods will get mailed out to the winners.

If you signed up for a handle and want to know how you are doing just look in the news section becasue from here to the 300th I'll be posting the stats daily.

Which leads me to ask a favor of any PHP nerds out here . . . how do I get a MySQL COUNT(*) query translated into PHP so that it doesn't look like crazy unique character strings? I can run my query with no problem in phpMyadmin but when I try to make my own page it totally flakes out. Once I figure it out or I get a little assistance we'll have fancy Handle Moxie page.

On a non-nerd note it is time to say, "thank you", to all those who are telling their friends and strangers about the podcast.

How do you enter? Well . . .

1) Fill out the right form for you - *New* Listener or Get a Handle (current listener)
2) Verify your email address (Activates and qualifies those with a "Handle")
3) *New* listeners get activated and qualified by using their special RSS feed
4) 300th new listener and the person whose Handle they use win iPods AND
5) A drawing for 2 more iPods from everyone who entered!

As many of you know I am a stats freak. So since we passed our 250th show I thought I would share some numbers. These numbers aren't for the entire 250+ shows but for the new site that went live on April 9th of this year.

Totals are since the site went live 3 months ago:

Shows: 38
Downloads: 49,461
Downloads from RSS: 40,162
Downloads from site: 9,299
Avg downloads per show: 1,301
Unique listeners who have downloaded: 3,998
RSS hits: 254,826
Unique RSS hits (includes bots and spiders): 5,160
Unique RSS daily avg. hits (all feeds): 562
% of people using old RSS feeds (prior to new site launch): 79.1%
% of people using new RSS feeds (post new site launch): 20.9%
% people using iTunes to subscribe: 49.7%
% of people using Juice to subscribe: 9.9%

How did you get this information? From Castlock.

What is Castlock? It is the podcast platform that runs this site.

Where can I get it? Right now it is mine and only mine.

What does it do? Manages this entire site, podcasts, RSS feeds, delivers mucho stats, allows for HTTP Authentication of feeds and is integrated with Authorize.net payment gateway for paid for subscription RSS feeds.

That's it. Those are the stats that I check everyday on the download and RSS side of the house.

Tags: stats croncast kris smith betsy smith rss Castlock ]]>

As many of you know I am a stats freak. So since we passed our 250th show I thought I would share some numbers. These numbers aren't for the entire 250+ shows but for the new site that went live on April 9th of this year.

Totals are since the site went live 3 months ago:

Shows: 38
Downloads: 49,461
Downloads from RSS: 40,162
Downloads from site: 9,299
Avg downloads per show: 1,301
Unique listeners who have downloaded: 3,998
RSS hits: 254,826
Unique RSS hits (includes bots and spiders): 5,160
Unique RSS daily avg. hits (all feeds): 562
% of people using old RSS feeds (prior to new site launch): 79.1%
% of people using new RSS feeds (post new site launch): 20.9%
% people using iTunes to subscribe: 49.7%
% of people using Juice to subscribe: 9.9%

How did you get this information? From Castlock.

What is Castlock? It is the podcast platform that runs this site.

Where can I get it? Right now it is mine and only mine.

What does it do? Manages this entire site, podcasts, RSS feeds, delivers mucho stats, allows for HTTP Authentication of feeds and is integrated with Authorize.net payment gateway for paid for subscription RSS feeds.

That's it. Those are the stats that I check everyday on the download and RSS side of the house.

Tags: stats croncast kris smith betsy smith rss Castlock ]]> Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:12:51 -0500 tag:croncast.com,435 As many of you know I am a stats freak. So since we passed our 250th show I thought I would share some numbers. These numbers aren't for the entire 250+ shows but for the new site that went live on April 9th of this year.Totals are since the site went live 3 months ago:Shows: 38Downloads: 49,461Downloads from RSS: 40,162Downloads from site: no stats, croncast, kris smith, betsy smith, rss http://www.croncast.com/rssk/416/Podshow-caching-and-how-to-stop-it_Podshow_PDN.php Blog Three months ago I created a podcast management system. Part of that development was tracking everything that happens with all files, especially RSS. Being a huge stats nerd I freaked when I kept getting regular hits from this ip: 72.3.228.221 to my main RSS feed where the User Agent was null. WTF, a null user agent?

So a little due diligence I found the IP is part of Podshow's block at RackSpace. I skype Chris from Podcast Alley, cause I knew him way back before Podshow, and asked him what was up. Oh yeah, the IP was asking for authentication when I visited so I couldn't see what going on.

I asked him what they were doing with the feeds. His reply was that they were caching them. No big deal. Still problematic in a sense that I am not pinging them to send them an update, but whatever, they got a plan and caching isn't inherintly evil. At this time I requested him to add the User Agent information to the script they were using to pull the feeds. That never happened.

Needless to say I shared this information with a couple of podcasters who immediately blocked the the IP address. But I didn't. So for the last three months they have been hitting not only my feed but the feeds of many other people every half hour and caching them.

But this is where the problem comes in. Yesterday with the botched launch of the new Podshow+. I took a look at the IP which was no longer asking for authentication and took a look around. I look at it like if my feed is public and you are using it in your site and your IP is public and broadcast to my database I can use it too. So I took a look around. Yikes!

I found my feed . . . or did I? What I found as others are finding or any podcaster whether they belong to the network or are paid by podshow is that they are re-writing the cached feeds!! Yup. Changing tags, truncating data, modifying the RSS generator tag to say "Podshow Delivery Network" (Update: it reads "PodShow PDN") and . . . and rewriting the original URL of the feed that they cached. Are you kidding? They don't even link to my original feed. So how would I know people are even subscribed? I wouldn't and they would. More incentive to join their network I guess.

If people weren't sure about Podshow's intent to make money off the back of every podcaster then this is a sure sign that if they did't they sure do now. The fact that Podshow is purporting even at this early stage to be the proprietor of all podcasters is a joke. The arrogance to think that we all somehow owe them or should allow them to rewrite our feeds because their network is the be all end all signals that this is the end for them.

If you would like to stop Podshow from caching your feed and rewriting it as they roll Podcast Alley, Podsafe Music Network and the Podshow home page into the mega Podshow+ PDN then block this IP: 72.3.228.221.

Update: It appears as of 12 a.m. on July 7th the Podshow caching bot or script was turned off. But have some fun checking your logs for their IP address I bet it's there.

Update two: If you would like to see some screen shots and read more of this discussion check out Michael Geoghegan's post or Todd Cochrane's. For some other good opinions, Paul Colligan's "Podshow Hysterics" post and this one from FuzzyBlog. It will be interesting to see where this conversation goes today as this picks up some steam.

Final update then new post: 9:31 a.m. July 7 - Podshow is scraping from the ip again so lets have some fun.

Final final update: 2:05 p.m. July 7 - The XML chicklet link now goes to podcaster's original feeds.

Tags: Podshow PDN caching feeds rewriting feeds 72.3.228.221 ]]>Three months ago I created a podcast management system. Part of that development was tracking everything that happens with all files, especially RSS. Being a huge stats nerd I freaked when I kept getting regular hits from this ip: 72.3.228.221 to my main RSS feed where the User Agent was null. WTF, a null user agent?

So a little due diligence I found the IP is part of Podshow's block at RackSpace. I skype Chris from Podcast Alley, cause I knew him way back before Podshow, and asked him what was up. Oh yeah, the IP was asking for authentication when I visited so I couldn't see what going on.

I asked him what they were doing with the feeds. His reply was that they were caching them. No big deal. Still problematic in a sense that I am not pinging them to send them an update, but whatever, they got a plan and caching isn't inherintly evil. At this time I requested him to add the User Agent information to the script they were using to pull the feeds. That never happened.

Needless to say I shared this information with a couple of podcasters who immediately blocked the the IP address. But I didn't. So for the last three months they have been hitting not only my feed but the feeds of many other people every half hour and caching them.

But this is where the problem comes in. Yesterday with the botched launch of the new Podshow+. I took a look at the IP which was no longer asking for authentication and took a look around. I look at it like if my feed is public and you are using it in your site and your IP is public and broadcast to my database I can use it too. So I took a look around. Yikes!

I found my feed . . . or did I? What I found as others are finding or any podcaster whether they belong to the network or are paid by podshow is that they are re-writing the cached feeds!! Yup. Changing tags, truncating data, modifying the RSS generator tag to say "Podshow Delivery Network" (Update: it reads "PodShow PDN") and . . . and rewriting the original URL of the feed that they cached. Are you kidding? They don't even link to my original feed. So how would I know people are even subscribed? I wouldn't and they would. More incentive to join their network I guess.

If people weren't sure about Podshow's intent to make money off the back of every podcaster then this is a sure sign that if they did't they sure do now. The fact that Podshow is purporting even at this early stage to be the proprietor of all podcasters is a joke. The arrogance to think that we all somehow owe them or should allow them to rewrite our feeds because their network is the be all end all signals that this is the end for them.

If you would like to stop Podshow from caching your feed and rewriting it as they roll Podcast Alley, Podsafe Music Network and the Podshow home page into the mega Podshow+ PDN then block this IP: 72.3.228.221.

Update: It appears as of 12 a.m. on July 7th the Podshow caching bot or script was turned off. But have some fun checking your logs for their IP address I bet it's there.

Update two: If you would like to see some screen shots and read more of this discussion check out Michael Geoghegan's post or Todd Cochrane's. For some other good opinions, Paul Colligan's "Podshow Hysterics" post and this one from FuzzyBlog. It will be interesting to see where this conversation goes today as this picks up some steam.

Final update then new post: 9:31 a.m. July 7 - Podshow is scraping from the ip again so lets have some fun.

Final final update: 2:05 p.m. July 7 - The XML chicklet link now goes to podcaster's original feeds.

Tags: Podshow PDN caching feeds rewriting feeds 72.3.228.221 ]]> Thu, 06 Jul 2006 23:06:38 -0500 tag:croncast.com,416 Three months ago I created a podcast management system. Part of that development was tracking everything that happens with all files, especially RSS. Being a huge stats nerd I freaked when I kept getting regular hits from this ip: 72.3.228.221 to my main RSS feed where the User Agent was null. WTF, a null user agent?So a little due diligence I no Podshow, PDN, caching feeds, rewriting feeds, 72.3.228.221 http://www.croncast.com/rssk/410/Betsy-and-her-husband-Kris-Jul-03-2006_conversion-van_Carla.php Podcasts Croncast - 2006-07-03.mp3

Show: #244
Length: 44:36
Size: 30.6 mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris July 03, 2006

I blew it on this show . . . our guest Carla has super low volume. Why? Well, the head technician sort of didn't check her mic and it was turned around. You can still hear her but quietly.

Not dollars! I wish. But we will cross the 100,000 RSS feed hits since the new site went live on April 9th. I am nerd excited.

The picture above is from my homebrew RSS stats app. Nice, eh? It tracks all of our feeds, well the 2 old ones (the one that redirects to Feedburner and the one read by Feedburner) from the last site and the 5 new ones. Since the new 5 have gone live we've picked up on average 53 unique readers of those daily. So from April 9th until today we've gained at least 53 new listeners . . . yes!

How do I know? I'm a stats junkie with enough code under his belt to get dangerous on the tracking tip.

The really big deal is that the website itself is envious of the RSS feeds and wishes them death. The day that I started running the stats to track the total RSS hits and even the unique hits the light went on. The RSS feeds receive nearly five times as many unique visitors in a day than Croncast.com!

UPDATE: It happened.

Show: #81
Length: 6:41
Format: mp3
Bit rate: 64 kbs
Size: 3.07 mb

Croncast - Kris goes solo Ep. 6

Short show dedicated to my wife Besty where I profess my love . . . and talk nerd stuff.

I plug a real-time stats application called TFS (twenty-four-seven) from Oplossing.net. It is PHP/MySQL driven and I love it. The problem is that it doesn't work with WordPress 1.5.

If you want real-time stats PHP/MySQL based for WP 1.5 pick up TrackPro 2 from Curve 2 Design.

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