How to be a guest on Our Natural Life

Thank you for agreeing to be a guest on Our Natural Life. We appreciate your time. Our interviews are pre-recorded and edited only as necessary to remove noise, dead air, and mistakes.  Please allow 45-60 minutes for your interview.

We aim for a show which is 60-70 minutes in length total. For the first 10-15 minutes Jon & Cathy introduce the show, chat about new things that have happened since the last podcast, and then introduce you with the bio you provided. We pre-record this section sometimes a day in advance. Next we insert your interview, and we follow that with a summary of what we talked about, and then listener comments and emails that we have received since the last podcast.
Shows are generally released every two weeks. There could be a delay of several weeks between the interview and the release of the show. Once it is released, Cathy will contact you and send a link that you can post on your website and elsewhere.

Please send us your preferred picture to post on the blog and a bio for your introduction.

At the appointed time, dial  (805) 360-1000
When prompted – enter your Participant Access Code: 351790#
Wait for Jon or Cathy to say hello.

Copyright

By agreeing to this interview you are granting permission to Alchemy New Media LLC to use your voice and image for the Our Natural Life podcast and to distribute the podcast globally. You also agree that we may use the interview to promote our podcast, solicit advertising, or make other commercial uses.

Technical Details:

We use FreeConferenceCall.com to conduct our telephone interviews. In the past we have used Skype but we live in a very rural part of Georgia and consistent high speed internet is a challenge for us.  We currently use Satellite and Verizon Broadband, but neither are fast enough for a high quality recording via Skype, at least on our end. If you are in the same situation then you probably shouldn’t use a Skype connection for the interview.

You may connect to FreeConferenceCall.com via standard landline telephone, cell phone, or Skype.

* Long distance charges may appy if you use a landline phone – it all depends on your individual calling plan with your phone company.
* Long distance charges may apply with your cell phone – it depends upon your individual cell phone plan.
* Charges will apply if you use Skype. To do so you must have a Skype-Out account with a sufficient pre-paid balance. Calls from Skype to regular phones cost 2.3 cents per minute if you pay as you go, or 1.2 cents per minute if you pay monthly.
Please, only use Skype if you have a very good internet connection. You need speeds of at least 1Mbps down and .25Mbps up. You can test your speed at www.speedtest.net. If at all possible, connect directly to the internet via an ethernet cable instead of WiFi.

Special Considerations:

There are several things you can do to ensure the best possible audio quality.
1. Choose a room in your house or office that does not echo. A room with carpet and drapes would be preferred over a room with hardwood floors and plaster walls.
2. Eliminate backgrounds noises by turning off fans, radios, TV’s and silencing any nearby cell phones.
3. Keep your cell phone at least 10 feet away to avoid the electrical noise that is created when your cell phone checks in with the nearest tower.
4. Let others near you know you are on a conference call and ask that you not be interrupted.
5. If you are using Skype;

• If at all possible, connect directly to the internet via an ethernet cable instead of WiFi.
• Ask others to stay off the internet while you are talking. If someone else is downloading a large file it will kill your Skype call quality.
• You will need a headset because using the built in MIC and speakers of your computer just doesn’t work for a radio broadcast. The quality is not good enough and the speakers echo back through the mic and cause all sorts of problems.

Headsets for Skype:

There are 2 kinds of headsets, USB connected, and “jack” connected.

USB headset:

We recommend the Plantronics .Audio 655 USB Multimedia Headset. It’s portable and reliable. We’ve also found that USB headsets without foam covering on their microphones often don’t sound as good as the ones that do. You can buy one here http://astore.amazon.com/ournatlif-20/detail/B001SEQN3K

Plugin Jack Headset:

If you can’t use a USB headset for some reason, then use the traditional style with the 2 plugin jacks. We recommend the KOSS SB49 Communications Stereo phones.   http://astore.amazon.com/ournatlif-20/detail/B000N8RK7K

Thank you again for being our guest. We look forward to talking with you.

Jon and Cathy Payne
www.OurNaturalLife.com/blog/

A property of Alchemy New Media LLC
Elberton GA