Podpage had added Voicemail. It is a way for podcasters to connect with their audience on a deeper level. Podpage announced that every single Podpage (free and paid) gives listeners the ability to leave you voicemails! There is no extra cost for this, it comes with your Podpage membership.
One of the main reasons we built Podpage was to strengthen the podcaster/listener relationship. And the best way to do that is to make it a two-way relationship. To help with that, we’ve previously added commenting, contact forms, email collection. Today, we’re adding Voicemails.
Here are some more details about Voicemails:
- Podcasters can go to their website to see a small microphone icon in the lower right. Click it!
- Voicemails can be up to 30 seconds in length (120 seconds for Pro users).
- You will get an email every time someone leaves a voicemail. It will also be available in your inbox, which is in a new Ping Voicemail section on the dashboard.
- If you’d like to customize the text and colors, or turn this feature off, log into Podpage and click Voicemail on the left. Then go to the Widget Settings.
- All voicemails can be downloaded and included in your podcast. Some podcasters are using this feature to ask users to leave their opinion, and they play them on the following episode.
Personally, I can see some good things about this voicemail feature. It sounds like adding a listener’s voicemail into your next episode can be easily done. This would help podcasters make connections with listeners who send voicemail, especially if the audio becomes part of a public conversation.
My concern is that the voicemail feature could be abused by people who use it to threaten or harass podcasters they don’t like. Allowing podcasters to turn off voicemail is a good start. It would be better if Podpage set up a system where podcasters could report harassing voicemails to Podpage.
People who are under “Stay at Home” orders might be thinking about starting their own podcast. Recording episodes is relatively easy. All you need is a microphone and some audio software. The part that some podcasters don’t want to mess with is their podcast website.