Monetizing podcasts is hard, very hard; as lot of other startups in the podcasting space found out. The best way is to get a sponsorship from someone who is interested in marketing to the niche you are targeting. If you cannot do that then there’s always Google AdSense. We at CallGraph believe that the best way would be to sell transcripts of your podcasts.

It sounds counter-intuitive. Podcasts by definition are something people would only  want to listen to; not read. But as we have seen and experienced, a lot of people already get their podcasts transcribed and provide the transcript along with the mp3 file. Why? Because reading is faster than listening; the transcript is good for SEO purposes; effective contextual advertisements, to list a few reasons. But transcription involves its own time and effort and therefore, cost. Hence not every podcaster gets their files transcribed and gives it away for free. This is where our Podcast Publisher Program comes in.

It enables you sell transcripts of your podcasts directly at your website without doing much. You have to host your files on CallGraph and use our widget. Your listeners can still download the file and/or listen to it online. But if they want, they can also buy the transcript and read instead of listening to your podcast. The money that you earn from each sale is then credited to your CallGraph account where it accumulates. You can withdraw your earnings to your PayPal account anytime you wish. We keep 20% of the sale value as our cut.

The widget we provide is basically a player for your podcast, along with the transcript. To get the widget you first have to sign up as a podcast publisher on CallGraph, host your files on CallGraph and order a transcripts for them. You can then embed the widget into your site or anywhere else (YouTube like). The ‘Transcript’ button on the widget provides a sample transcript and options to buy the full transcript. We host the files and transcript and ensure that your customers get what they pay for.

You can also set a base price for your transcripts, offer discounts, packages etc. to your listeners. You can also offer it for free if you want. We just handle all the complexity and do the transcription work. We also provide a RSS feed which you can use as your podcast feed. It is also compatible with iTunes.

Sounds interesting? Go here and sign up now for the private beta. We will be rolling out the private beta shortly. See you there!

Uploading files on CallGraph just got easier. You can simply email your file to ‘uploads@callgraph.biz’ as an attachment and we will add the files to your account on CallGraph. The current list of supported file types is the following:

mp3
wav
wma
wmv
avi
flv
mpg
mp4
mov

All the files will be converted to mp3 and we will send email confirmation with a link which can be used to access the files or order the transcript.

If you do not have an account then we will create one and send you the login details.

If you want support for another file type added then please let us know. We’ll try and add it.

Deliveries: The delivery slabs are now 3 days, 1 day and 12 hours instead of 7 days, 3 days and 1 day respectively. The rates remain the same.

Video Files: You can upload video files and have them transcribed. We support wmv, avi, flv, mpg, mp4 and mov files. The files are converted to mp3′s and then you can order transcripts.

URL Upload: Files can be uploaded by URL’s. Eg. YouTube links or podcast links.

Partial Transcripts: After ordering the transcript you can view partial transcripts. The option is in the actions menu in the transcripts page.

Order Cancellation: After the transcript order has been placed you can cancel the order and we’ll refund the applicable amount to you. The applicable amount is calculated from the transcript progress.

Tools: We have also added a slew of tools to modify/clean up the transcripts after they have delivered. The timestamps, speaker initials, blanks and all meta information can be removed. A simple find a replace tools has also been added. These options are available from the actions menu in the transcripts page. The transcript text can also be copied directly to the clipboard from as opposed to download the files.

Thank you for using Call Graph! Comments/feedback are most welcome.

New Features/Enhancements

• Ability to set the timestamp format in the file name. There are 9 presets available.
• The toolbar and icons have been redone. Better graphics and looks.
• The system tray icon now has a indicators for recording and Skype authorization.
• New option in popup menu which shows the last notification message.

Bug Fixes

• The echo/lag issue has been fixed.
• MP3 conversion failure for files with apostrophe’s in their names has been fixed.
• Crashes when exiting Call Graph has been fixed.
• The flash plugin in Call Graph Browser has been updated to the latest version.

Please upgrade now. Do not forget to authorize Call Graph after the update. As always, comments and feedback is most welcome.

We have made it super easy to order transcripts of your audio files. Now you do not need to create an account beforehand. Just go to our homepage, click on the upload files button and select your file and upload it. We will create a temporary account for your upload session and link the account to your PayPal email address when the payment is made. An auto generated password will be sent to your email address and which you can then use to login to your account.

If we detect that you already have an account on Call Graph then we’ll link the temporary account with the old one and move all your data there.

Sample transcripts cannot be ordered from the temporary account. You have to create an account and verify your email address and then upload the files. Sample transcripts can now be ordered from Guest Accounts. You can create an account after uploading file to the Guest account. We provide one free sample transcript. Try it out!

We have also added a detailed description of our transcription process. Have a look.

Our our transcription subsytem has undergone a complete revamp. As a result there are several changes to it. The major one’s are:

We have transitioned to a complete manual process for transcription from an mixed automated and manual process. This means

• No more screening of the files
• Flat 0.50 per minute rate for all kinds files
• Improvements in quality of transcripts

Transcript orders can be placed from the uploaded records page. Earlier it was from the transcript page which used to list all the screened recordings.

The limit of 60 seconds on transcripts orders has also been removed. Transcript orders can now be placed for files of any length.

Rates

This is another way of uploading recordings to your account on Call Graph. Instead of using the client, you can use your browser to upload files. The files will be added to your account and you can order transcripts of it, share it, play it back etc. Click on the ‘Upload’ button in the sidebar of the uploaded records page, browse to the folder where your file is stored and select the file. A upload progress meter will appear and once its complete it should appear in your uploaded records page.

Try it out. Useful for ordering transcripts of recordings made with clients other than Call Graph or of edited podcasts. The rate charged will be our usual rate, $ 0.50 per minute of recorded audio.

Premier Edition Trial

Trial of the Call Graph Premier (Ad Free) Edition is also available now. No signup required, no obligations. Open the configuration window on your client, go to the ‘Association’ tab and enter the following details and click the ‘Associate’ button.

Email Id: trial@callgraph.in
Password: cg123

That’s it. The advertisements will be removed from the Call Graph Browser.

Additional Storage

Additional storage capacity can be added to any Call Graph account at 50 cents per GB. The options is available from the ‘Plans’ menu, ‘Add Storage’ sub menu item. There is no upper limit to the capacity, it can range from 1 GB to whatever is requested. Check it out. Its available for all the plans.

We are proud to announce the Call Graph Premier Edition, the ad free version. For $1 a month you can get the same features of the Call Graph Standard Edition, but without the distraction of advertisements. You need to create an account with us, choose the Premium Edition from the Plans page and enter your registration details on the client. The ads will go away after that. It works from version 1.1.1.0 upwards.

We have also introduced new plans with a focus on online collaboration for work groups. Five plans, namely Enterprise, Large, Medium, Small and Micro are available now. You can check out the feature comparison from the plans page.

http://crims.callgraph.in/plans.php

The Individual Plan is free and offers 1 GB of storage space and 1 sample transcript free. However it only allows one associated machine with each account.

We are working on several new features for the team plans, Email digests, RSS feeds etc. Suggestions, feedback are welcome as usual.

We get a lot of queries on the Linux and Mac version of our clients. We have a linux client but unfortunately it is not upto the mark. So we have decided to take it offline and work on revamping it. We will re release it sometime early next year (going by our current schedules). A Mac port is also planned around the same time.

If you would like to get your hands on an pre-beta version, then please leave a comment below and we’ll inform you as soon as its done.