A Writer’s Blog

A Note from www.casinosusa.bet to all those who want to be a podcaster.
HOW DOES ONE START A PODCAST?
Thank you to all of our listeners who supported us through Season 1 and now into Season 4. Our early February podcast will be Episode # 34. We moved from a few dozen plays in Episode One to over 10,000 plays monthly and now have qualified for Revenue Sharing.  Some of our podcasts will begin with short ads by National Retailers such as Home Depot, etc.

Our success is in part a testimony to the power of the internet. Nearly 200 of our subscribers are from outside the United States. The most common question that we get from emails from our website is: How does one start a podcast?

The first step would be to purchase a domain. I remembered that Danica Patrick Go-Daddy commercial during Super Bowls past. So we started with a call to Go-Daddy. They were so helpful. I called Go-Daddy and explained that we wanted a website and podcast called Casinos USA. Our mission statement was to explore and visit many of the 1400 casinos in the United States, examining what they had to offer the recreational gambler and vacation traveller. We did not want to be exclusively about Las Vegas. The Go-Daddy representative told us that indeed the domain of CasinosUSA.com was for sale. The price was $14,000.

“Wow!” Not for us. I asked her if she could find one without a .com address. She said, “Yes, I see one here. The price has been reduced.” The one she offered us was www.casinosusa.bet. She said the price was $14.00 annually. “Wow,” again but a positive “Wow.” So we took the casinosusa.bet domain. Plenty of people found us at this domain so do not worry about the .com thing. So domains can be very inexpensive or quite expensive. Your choice.

Next step is to purchase software to build your website. Go-Daddy has a number of price ranges. We went with WordPress, which is complex. They have simpler software but it does not do what we wanted to do. We also purchased a recorder software on our website to play our podcasts and archive them. Our website now has several pages. We also have an Amazon link and PayPal and credit card links to take donations. We may build a website store in the future. Recently we upgraded our software to record SKYPE audio from other podcasts or listeners.

Check out Spreaker.com. They also have a variety of packages and they are geared to submitting the podcasts to a number of outlets for their customer(s). There are annual costs, of course. It all depends on the sophistication of your podcast equipment purchased through them and the length of one’s podcasts.
The startup costs for podcasting can be as little $200 or even a bit less. It all depends on what one wants to do with their podcasts. Multiple voices, sound effects, music, etc. So many options to consider.

Finally, we discovered that there is a true community of podcasters. Others want to help the newbies because someone helped them. In our case, YOU CAN BET ON THAT – a very successful gaming podcast out of California talked about us. That week we went over 200 plays for the first time. So we want to help beginners just as we were helped.

Is there money in this? Yes, there is. However, most podcasters really do not make much money. Casinos U
USA considers our enterprise more of a hobby than a business.  Yet we have been contacted by larger broadcast outlets with millions of paid subscribers. IHEART RADIO found us and we are available there. We also have offers of revenue sharing, which we have taken. Many of our podcast outlets put audio advertisements at the beginning of our podcasts. That’s OK. At this point we are on IHEART Radio, TuneIn Radio, Spreaker Radio, Stitcher Radio, MyTuner Radio, iTunes Store, SoundCloud,  Google Play, and our own website.

The one thing I would remind someone considering their own podcast is:  Think about content. What are you going to talk about? What is the point? I put several hours weekly into writing the scripts for our podcasts. In my case I find writing enjoyable. But the responsibility of content is a challenge for certain. At first, I was getting feedback from emails saying that the listener liked the content but it sounded as if I was reading it. So in the last few podcasts I have been “talking” the content and not reading it. I received positive feedback so I know that I am getting better with this. Our website has a page called “Writers Blog” for all those writers who have questions about the process. I try to be as honest as I can in what I struggle with in writing our podcast scripts. Nonetheless, I enjoy writing. I taught writing and I majored in English in college so I have been writing for a long time.

Because we focus on recreational gambling, we are also clear about the dangers of compulsive gambling. Remember, we do not know who is listening. Compulsive gamblers can destroy their lives. So we warn about it.

We also made a decision not to use profanity in our podcasts.  So many podcasts are filled with it. I would warn you that many outlets will not take your podcast if you do. So why use it?  We love our general rating. This is a big, big issue with Apple.com and you are not going to fool them. Podcasts via iTunes Store have language warnings attached.

We will begin Fourth Season  the first week of February 2018.  Please stay with us. We have even added some new features to lift us higher. If you are thinking about a podcast for your business, school, or just as a hobby- give it a try. It is addictive for me to think that thousands of people around the world are now listening to each podcast. If we get to 10,000 plays monthly, with our new revenue sharing, things will become even more exciting.

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Play Smart. Have Fun. Everyday is Saturday.
©2017 Casinos USA | Casinos USA Production Studio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Casinos USA – Every Day is Saturday!
Over 10,000 plays of Casinos USA podcasts took place in January 2017. Find our podcasts on the outlets listed below. Thank you, loyal listeners!
CASINOSUSA.BET

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Next Casinos USA Podcast coming March 16, 2017 —  Episode # 14 Caller Doug’s Aggressive Pressing System.

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Episode # 13  Boomers, Cars, Airplanes,  and Casinos

(Content Overview) Boomers (ages 53 to 70) love cars and travel in general. Gen-Xers buy in also. Millennials – every so often. See how we combine cars, airplanes, and casinos in our “pursuit of happiness.”

In this episode we also review the beautiful Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Maryland in our March 2, 2017, podcast.

DICE CONTROL?

In this March 2 podcast we reveal that we do not believe in dice control, but we do believe that by “setting dice” certain tendencies regarding outcomes are created. We will discuss our three favorite “sets” and follow-up with photos of these sets on this website and on our Facebook pages: Casinos USA.

We believe that these sets will give you a shot at going 15 roles or more, and we will also discuss where 40 plus roles were experienced using these three exact sets.

Casino USA podcasts can be found on IHEART Radio, Tunein Radio, Stitcher Radio, Spreaker Radio, MyTuner Radio, ITunes Store, Google Play, and this website on our podcast page.

Here are some of our past podcasts that were a big hit with Craps Players…..

Our journey and casino odyssey to Southern Indiana found us playing craps in 3 casino resorts in 6 days:  The Hollywood Casino at Lawrenceburg, The Rising Star Casino in Rising Sun, and the Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana.  All three of these casino resorts are rather special, and most gamblers in this area of Southern Indiana and across the Ohio river in Kentucky play at all three casinos, often depending on the special promotions that they are offering.

To review the 5 craps betting strategies employed on this trip (podcast Episode # 12),  see the podcast content overview on page 1 of this website.

Episode # 11 –Long Shot Bets in Craps —     on air as of   January 19, 2017

Episode 11 examines the Fire Bet, All Small, All Tall, and Make Them All, bets in Craps.  All of which are true Long Shot bets with very high risk and very high reward.  In the third segment of the episode, we tell the story of how Casinos USA began…it was a long shot for sure, but this bet was a hit.

Want to be a podcaster?

We suggest that you talk to Go-Daddy to purchase a domain for your podcasts.  We chose www.casinosusa.bet for a very low annual cost.  Then you purchase the software to build your website. Again there are so many options.  We chose WordPress. We also bought recording software to archive our podcasts.  Go-Daddy will help you with submissions to outlets.  You may also want to consider Spreaker.com.  They are also very helpful and offer a variety of levels to begin your podcasts.  Best of luck if you are going ahead with your dream to podcast.  We will support you all that we can.   We started with two dozen plays on our first podcast and now we are having 2,000 plays monthly.  All that growth in 5 months.  The internet is simply amazing.  We have over 700 followers just on Spreaker Radio alone.  We are also on Stitcher Radio, MyTuner Radio, ITunes Store, Google Play and our website, of course.  We were recently informed that IHEART radio is picking us up in a few days.  So if we can do this, so can you.  Best of Luck

Episode # 10:

Episode # 10 When in Rome will explore our team’s visit to Maryland’s new MGM National Harbor casino resort hotel in Prince George County  adjacent to Washington D.C.  We will also explore the advantages or not of playing “Off and On” and sometimes “Down” in craps and suggest a completely new paradigm in craps wagering.  This is only for the strong.  Be courageous and listen to this next podcast when it airs on Thursday, January 5, 2017. 

Episode # 8  Hard to Write

Episode # 8, “Attack of the Millennials” was a challenge for me to write. Why? It is clear to me that not everyone of that generation fits the broad-brush description given by sociologists and marketers. Many of the young people that I know are not self-absorbed, narcissistic, searching for other “hook-up” types of people. In fact, many Millennials that I know have a strong religious faith. Certainly, they enjoy being young but at the same time they handle their adult responsibilities so very well. Many times they set positive examples for older people to follow. So many of them are also excellent young parents.

I know that in thinking of them as an entire generation there is much evidence that they have pushed back against maturity and adult responsibility. Yet I appreciate that they have grown up facing many challenges that Generation X and we Boomers did not encounter to the same extent or at all. For one thing, drug culture today has probably permeated every high school and college in America. We are talking about hard drugs at junior high parties. Boomers never worried about other students in the building bringing guns and bombs to school. Gen-Xers may have learned about such things on television, but few high schools in the 1990’s had metal detectors and armed school police on campus. I could go on and on about this. Two parents raised most Boomers. Students today who have both a biological mom and dad at home are the minority as the divorce rate is over 50%.

When Boomers and the young adults of Generation X graduated from college, there were well-paying job awaiting them. Most of us had plenty of options in choosing what job to take. Today’s graduates are in a new paradigm; the promise that a good education means a good job at graduation did not pay off for all Millennials, maybe just half of them.

So just as I did interject criticism in Episode # 8 regarding Millennials, I must also underline that I have great respect for so many of them that I have encountered as their boss or otherwise. Clearly the future belongs to them.

Coach Fav