Monday, April 20, 2009

Big Changes Coming to LOTROCast!

Hello, everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying Episode 06. My numbers certainly show you are. Thanks to you guys, LOTROCast has become the number one LOTRO related podcast on iTunes (the one about Secrets of LOTR I don’t count, as it is not about LOTRO but for whatever reason is lumped in there). I am so incredibly grateful that you guys have given me a chance and I look forward to many months of quality content.

To that end, I have taken a sponsorship deal of sorts with the good people at CyberEars.com they have agreed to host my podcast AND pay for a new domain name. If you want more information on them, head over to CyberEars.com. I found their user interface easy to use and their service top notch. If you ever wanted to try out podcasting, I would recommend checking them out. This DOES NOT mean that I will be singing CyberEars’ praises at the start of all my episodes (it’s not THAT kind of sponsorship) but understand that I am grateful that the 50-odd dollars a month I would be paying by the end of the year using my current service is taken care of.

What does this all mean?

Well, most importantly, you will no longer be able to access the old Podcast Feed. If you are currently subscribed over iTunes, Zune Marketplace, or some other means, understand that THOSE FEEDS WILL NO LONGER BE ACTIVE starting in May. I may post the very next episode on them to allow people to bridge, but after that I will request that iTunes, Zune, etc delete those feeds and add the new ones. TO EMPHASIZE: you will still be able to access the podcast as you would normally through iTunes or Zune...you will just have to subscribe to the new feed. I will let you all know when the new feed is up and running. If you are a person who direct downloads the episodes, you won’t have any troubles…this change shouldn’t affect you at all.

Also, we now have a domain name: www.LOTROCast.com. For now, it will lead you to this blogspot website. As the year unfolds, however, I may move to a proper website. For now, LOTROCast.blogspot.com is safe. I would love it if people would update their bookmarks and get in the habit of typing Lotrocast.com instead of the whole long thing so that if I DO move, it won’t be a big deal.

I am excited about the months ahead and some of the possibilities that are now open to me. I will strive to continue producing quality content that you are interested in. To that end, I always welcome suggestions, thoughts, ideas, and comments at my Lotrocast@gmail.com address.

See you in Middle-Earth!

Moormur

2 comments:

  1. I am glad that the podcast is doing well for you (it should, you're doing a great job!). However, I am a little concerned about you removing it from Itunes. I am sure that others besides myself subscribe to multiple podcasts at Itunes which makes it simple one stop shopping, so to speak. If listeners have to take an additional step or two to get LOTROCast, they may not remember to check for new episodes. Perhaps by announcing each podcast on your site, and thus via the magic of feeds LOTRO Combo Blog, people will still be aware of new episodes. Just something to consider. Keep up the good work :)

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  2. Sorry if I didn't make it clear.

    The current feed will be removed from iTunes. It will be replaced by the new feed. I am even going to try and overlap them so that the new feed is live before I get the old one taken down.

    Again, sorry if I worded it wierd. I've gone back and emphasized it.

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