We’ve received a good number of emails, comments and concerns wondering: where are the recent podcasts? Some of this feedback has been fairly critical on our seemingly disappearance from publishing podcasts.
Well, here’s the good news: we haven’t stopped providing podcasts. Webmaster Cookbook is still alive and broadcasting live every Friday as it has for the last 39 weeks.
A reader named Simon commented on Friday 5/20:
Hey great new look guys!
I think its strange that you have time to design a new site but done take the time to update the content 
I think I learnt from your show that its the content that matters. No new shows or post in a while… maybe you need to hire some new webmasters to manage the site for you?
I look forward to some updates.
Simon.
I responded in detail, thanking Simon for the care and concern. I also politely corrected him about the design. The design is not new, it’s actually the original design the site launched with that was (finally, argh!) put back in place.
It could certainly be worse: we could have nobody care at all when the podcasts will be published. This is something I’ve talked to Jowl about that there are people on the web who do enjoy our weekly show and are wondering what’s going on here lately.
It’s important to point out that Webmaster Cookbook did not start out as a podcast program. It started out — and still is — a weekly streaming live show. We broadcast live every Friday. Originally it was an hour long show (starting at 3pm PST / 6pm EST) but based on feedback about the length we have tweaked that to where it currently is a 30 minute program (3:30pm - 4:00pm PST).
It is a very experimental show and continues to be subject to much change. If you don’t like changes, then you probably won’t like our program. This is a real, reality how-to webmaster show and just as how real life gets in the way of getting real things done, real life has gotten in the way of this show having its podcasts appear in a timely manner.
Another recent criticism is why don’t we show how to connect to a database or other programming-related tasks? Eventually we will get to that kind of webmastering stuff, but Jowl’s skill set isn’t there yet. You don’t just get into an airplane and start flying, you work your way up to things like that. His skills currently are such that he understands the basics: FTP, what HTML is and how to write some basic HTML from scratch, how to take pictures with a digital camera, how to compress pictures/graphics and make them web-friendly and some more fundamental webmaster skills. In 39 weeks I think Jowl has learned a great deal. And 99.9% of this he learned during the shows we’ve broadcasted live (and some via podcast) for the world to listen to — freely.
Dependable site updates are an important part of webmastering and that is one area where lately we’ve been falling apart on with Webmaster Cookbook. Simon has learned something valuable from this which is part of the reason I reposted his comments above. Jowl is learning this too. It’s all part of the bigger picture which is: how do we fit being a webmaster into the rest of our lives? How do we produce content, part-time, that can grow traffic, interest and provide overall site value?
Let me stop there for a minute and point out that if you want to listen to the live streaming show then just tune into the live stream each week at 3:30pm PST here: http://www.webmastercookbook.com/20k.php
We have had new content every week for those who have followed this live show. No, we haven’t had new blog entries or new podcasts posted every week, but we have broadcasted a live streaming show every week. We realize that this doesn’t work so good for folks who can’t make the live shows each week and the podcasts are a nice substitute.
Now will this live time change? Maybe.
It’s changed several times already in the 39 shows we’ve streamed live. However, we have streamed every show somewhere between the hours of 3-4pm PST on Friday. Webmaster Cookbook is actually part 2 of a streaming live show that my other business site has done for adult webmasters since May 2000.
For years I’ve heard from listeners wanting a mainstream show. Something that was family and work friendly. So some 39 weeks ago we decided to split up this show and make at least part of it available for a family-friendly audience, but we didn’t want to put it at our established site (because the target audience was not a work-friendly, family-oriented audience), thus the Webmaster Cookbook show and this website was born.
In order to pull this type show off I needed a reliable, dependable pupil and fortunately our oldest son, Jowl, was interested in learning how to be a webmaster. He stepped into the role and the first dozen or so shows were very instructional and I think went quite well with the exception that instructional material via audio only with no visuals can be very difficult to do. If we did the show as a video I think it would work much better and maybe that is the direction we will someday be headed. Especially now that places like OurMedia make it so that you can publish your videos without the concern of the bandwidth expense.
With all this said, there are a couple more reasons why these podcasts haven’t been published; some of which are personal and I’m not going to completely get into. For those who don’t care, don’t want excuses, etc, and just want to listen to the podcasts then feel free to stop reading with my explanation above.
However, for those who are more curious then please keep reading.
When podcasting started catching fire, Jowl and I decided to make the show available via podcast. This worked good for about 20 shows or so and then something started happening. As I stated above, this show was intended to be a father-son joint venture, not something that only one or the other of us produced solo.
I’ve been wanting to (trying to) teach Jowl how to handle the podcast portion of the show that up until two months ago I have handled exclusively. For whatever reason, he and I don’t seem to be able to find (enough) time off air to work on Webmaster Cookbook. Jowl is only going to be a teenager once and as a parent and friend I don’t want to push him into doing something that he isn’t excited about and/or interested in doing. If something has to give, then it’s this site and the other one he is working on (orting.com). At the same time, though, as parents my wife and I want to teach him something about responsibility, dependability and a good work ethic. These are things that will help him secure and keep employment throughout his adult life.
So the last two months Jowl and I have been working to determine whether this is something he really wants to be doing. The decision is totally up to him and so far at every opportunity he has told me that this is something he enjoys doing and wants to keep working on. The words haven’t equalled the action and activity though, unfortunately, which Jowl would be the first to admit.
As an instructor I’ve failed miserably so far in being able to teach Jowl motivation to work on the website.
He would much rather play online games, chat with his friends and do that ‘fun’ stuff. I get that. I totally understand wanting to spend time when you aren’t at school doing non-school stuff.
Those who have been frustrated by what seems like our total incompetence with this website might want to be mindful that this site is a real learning environment, not something we are producing professionally. If it were then I would pay somebody to help, put up a more viable business model and work this much, much harder. I have been producing business-oriented, profitable websites for years so I’m no stranger to creating that type of website.
None of this should say we are treating this like a hobbyist venture. No way. We are serious about this website, but we are serious about it in a very limited amount of time. It might take a year, two or more to get to the point where it is a totally professional production. The beauty of this — for those who want to learn — is that they can follow this as it builds in real time. They can see how lame it was in the beginninng and how it turns into something better. They can watch Webmaster Cookbook cook.
For these reasons, Webmaster Cookbook is one of the more true reality shows about webmastering you’ll find on the web (we can’t be the only one) because when something is going wrong it’s very obvious. A great example of this is when we upgraded to the new version of Wordpress and stayed with the default theme for a long time. Why? Because we needed to implement the old design with Wordpress 1.5 new theme structure. It is well documented that Wordpress altered their theme structure with this new site. Jowl and I needed time to discuss this situation and how we were going to handle these design/template changes. On most websites you’d rarely see this type of change taking place; the changes would be done and maybe — or not — the webmaster might say something to point out the obvious: that the site had changed.
Will podcasts for shows #33-39 be published? Yes. We do realize people want to download and listen to new content and both Jowl and I are really excited about that.
If you’ve come this far then hopefully it’s more clear why there has been a delay and why there might be other visible — and perhaps irritating and annoying — things that happen at this website. It’s part of the learning and discovery process of being a webmaster. If anybody reading this thinks it doesn’t pain established webmasters to be part of something like this, then you are wrong — I’d love to block out two days and completely overhaul Webmaster Cookbook with everything I dream for it, but then what about Jowl and what his dreams are for this site? Me taking this solo action wouldn’t be fostering a joint venture. There wouldn’t be anything father-son about that.
Now this took me a long time to write and the time spent writing this could have been spent finishing up those podcasts and getting those published but this is also educational information for Jowl. And in the spirit of transparency and sharing this dialogue and learning experience I am posting here.
So that’s why things are the way they are here currently. Patience in webmastering is another skill that needs to be exhibited sometimes. As a webmaster’s stable of websites grows, you have to pick and choose what sites to update and when. What sites to invest in and what sites to hold back on. It’s a neverending learning experience.
Welcome to Webmaster Cookbook! 
