BlogTalkRadio will have a fresh new look this year, and we’re giving you a sneak peek at what we’re working on. In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing a sleek new design and tons of awesome features for our listeners and hosts, making your experience even easier and more enjoyable than ever.
The new design will include:
1. Fun Browsing Made Easy
First thing’s first. The images atop the home page represent a selection of newly streamlined categories. You’ll be able to hover over them to more easily explore your favorite content right away.
Our new homepage will also highlight the best shows on the network so you instantly see what everyone’s talking about.
We’re extremely proud of our incredible shows and want the world to know about them. We’re expanding the main navigation to give hosts more exposure where it matters most and listeners get immediate access to the best of the best. The “Live” menu will display what’s live on-air, while the “Explore” menu will display what’s Popular, our Best Of, Staff Picks and Featured Hosts.
We also added new section headers to help you find your way around.
2. Cut to the Chase
We’ve made search results and show pages clearer, so you’ll be able to quickly scan and find the shows you want.
3. Simplified, Visual Categories
Our original category list was overwhelming, making it tough to dig through favorite topics. We pared it down to the essentials: 20 main categories, with subcategories where needed. What’s more, you’ll be able to enjoy a visual categories menu for at-a-glance browsing.
4. Faster Site
With thousands of shows live on-air each day, how fast our site loads makes all the difference. We’ve rebuilt old pages with new technology to improve the site’s speed. You’ll see how much easier it is to explore and listen to your favorite shows.
Stay tuned for the shiny new BlogTalkRadio!
Let us know what you think of the new look in the comments below and visit our community thread to tell us what other great features you’d like to see on BlogTalkRadio for the rest of 2013. Leave your feedback.
Thanks for all the updates, but I wish you’d bring the BLOG back to Blog Talk Radio. I LOVE to blog about my shows, guest and include updates that enhance my show information for my listeners.
Hi Donna,
Thanks for commenting. We removed the feature because the majority of hosts were maintaining their blogs on other platforms (i.e. WordPress, Blogger, etc) and embedding their show player there. The advantage of doing this is to tap into an audience that may not be on BlogTalkRadio.com yet. We appreciate your feedback on this though and I will take it back. If you also need advice on getting started with a blogging platform, we can give you some tips on that as well. Hope you are enjoying the weekend!
What happened to including the spirituality category?
Hi Rosemary, Thanks for commenting. The spirituality category is still included in our listing.
Oh this has been so needed as my show has gotten high profiling with press and guests but looks drab and cheap currently. I was so hoping to figure out something. So now I will redesign my page and logo too to upscale to your new level. When can we see this occurring and what are the details about our new page contributions. Thx DrCarolFrancis.com at Make Life Happen, Dr. Carol Francis Radio Talk Show.
Hi Dr. Carol,
Thanks for commenting and very excited to see how your new profile and show page turn out. We will be rolling out the new site in the next couple of weeks and sending out a communication to you as soon as it is live. Stay tuned!
looks good
Thanks Debi!
Site looks great. Very exciting!
Just wish you would add some categories such as
relationships – angels – business opportunities – great products – multi level marketing (MLM) – Change Your Life – Pop Culture –
Causes – Poetry – Leadership – Success
Thanks so much Joyce and also for these suggestions on categories. We’ve done a lot of work to study listener behavior on our site and in general to come up with an optimal categorization. The streamlining of categories will help BlogTalkRadio listeners find the shows they want to listen to much easier, which means more listens for you! Thanks again for commenting and I will take your suggestions back to our team.
It is good to see Blogtalk making their site more user friendly. I guess for me the issue of pricing and sound quality is more important. I still have an account but do not use it because of those two issues. The outside of the house can look as good as we want it to be but I look for the inside to look as equally good. With all of the various forms of money BTR is making off of their own investors, supporters, and sponsors one would think the REAL savings would be passed on to the paying customer. Not bashing or hating but stating facts. Congrats on making the outside so appealing.
Thank you for your feedback. We are happy that you like our new look as our team has been working hard on it! We are definitely working to address sound quality and as far as pricing goes, you also have the option to be a free host with BlogTalkRadio. We have a number of hosts on the network that generate revenue for themselves through our Revenue Sharing Program and also through sponsors and advertisers they work with.
We did a show that breaks down how our Revenue Sharing Program works: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marketingclub/2012/05/08/earning-money-w-our-affiliate-rev-share-programs
We also did a series of shows to educate hosts on the network on how to attract sponsors and advertisers that many hosts have found helpful.
http://blog.blogtalkradio.com/advertising/learn-attract-advertisers-sponsors/
Take a listen and contact us if you need anything. We’re here to help!
Sound quality is an important issue. It is the leading comment on my show.
The chat alos is very glitchy.
Love! Great, new clean look for easier browsing — and glad to hear about search feature improvement… Visual categories — fabulous! Faster site will greatly improve overall experience YaY #BlogTalkRadio rocks!
Thanks Becky, Appreciate your support and very excited to go live with the new site!
Would like to know how to get my shows featured. why are certain ones on your front page and not others?
Hi Leslie – Thanks for your comment. We actually get the question quite a bit so we devoted a blog post and a whole BlogTalkRadio University show on tips for getting your show featured: http://blog.blogtalkradio.com/blogtalkradio/submitting-show-featured/
Hope that is helpful for you and let us know if you need any assistance!
The new site looks nice, but when is something going to be done to improve the sound quality? In the 4 years I’ve been doing shows, there has been no improvement in sound quality, and other platforms have surpassed BTR in terms of sound. Honestly, only the ability to play sound clips during shows and the live chat has kept me as a monthly paying customer. It’s 2013, internet radio shouldn’t have to sound like 1410 on your AM dial circa 1974.
i think of this website is pretty impressive i like it let me know when you launch i like to hear it thank you
Wow !! yall have truly done temendous work… one of the questions i (as well as many hosts have) would love to address the troll issues (it seems to be growing more and more each day) … would love to have a way for each host to be able to regulate them without hassling the employees of BTR with more work than necessary… !!
Love the platform. I think you’re doing great. I really miss Cinch. It was an excellent tool for recording interviews. How about video? I know html can be used in the Show Extras area, but very few people know about it. Since the video does not display unless they click Show Extras, it might as well not be there. As you know, video helps with SEO. I’d like to suggest the location to be at the top, rather than the bottom, of the page.
I thought that putting html in the Add Video or HTML box in the Show Information section would display the video at the top, but I only see the video at the bottom of the page, when I click Show Extras.
Very excited about this im so glad to be a part of this loyal and friendly website they really care about us as hosts and listeners I really am proud of the chnages you and the blogtalk radio team have made ill yell about it on my show tonite changes not chnages lol
chazz and old greg.
Sounds great, but I have to ask will Blog talk Radio be improving the “Host-Cam” in the chat rooms & well let’s face it improving the chat rooms too?
As a Host I more than half the time can not get the “Host-Cam” to work so with the site upgrades I hope this means other things will be better in the process.
But over all the new look is well nice (I just hope it works 😉 )
Taking from a previous comment, yes, the outside of the house looks nice. However, as previously stated as well, sound quality is lacking. Furthermore, at least for myself and the show we do, there have been issues lately on the Blogtalk end that have prevented us from doing our show the way we would like, or on occasion even at all (i.e., no one is able to call in – including our co-hosts, and just not even being able to get in on the host line at all, among others).
And while I’m thinking of it, since there’s a fresh new coat of paint on the outside, why not put up some new walls, paint, and decoration on the inside, i.e. the studio page. For example, being able to play multiple clips at once, or even being able to control the volume of callers on the phone (including the host). I mean, in professional radio, we have a board (and the ability) to do many things at once. Just a thought (and I’m sure there’s more to come).
Looks good BTR! I’m hoping your social media integration gets better because right now I can’t share via your platform on Facebook because of how it’s set up. Will you have a mobile app at some time in the future? Spreaker, your competition, has a great app and BTR should have one better than theirs.
Beautiful! What a MAJOR improvement. Can’t wait!
Quick question, your new features look great! Will we (as hosts) be able customize our page? With templates? Or WordPress?
-Aaron
The new site is nice, but a better sound quality option should be available. Skype just doesn’t cut it, and all my equipment is going to waste.
Also, please reconsider your policy on explicit programming. All the top Comedy radio shows/podcasts are explicit.
Stern. O & A. Look at ITunes for #@$%’s sake!
Labeling a program as such should suffice, and it doesn’t make sense not to promote a show for that reason alone.
Especially on the internet.
Thanks for your comments on the new site! Visit our community thread to tell us what other great features you’d like to see on BlogTalkRadio for the rest of 2013: https://getsatisfaction.com/blogtalkradio/topics/what_are_your_top_10_feature_requests_for_2013?rfm=1
The new site looks sleeker and seems easier to get around. I love the layout and new categories. I think the site has made it to the 21st century! LOL
Nice design! I have a question… up above on item number 3 below. They showed a picture the new categories and travel was included as on of the main categories, now it is not there on the new site today. Can you update me on that? Merci!
3. Simplified, Visual Categories
Our original category list was overwhelming, making it tough to dig through favorite topics. We pared it down to the essentials: 20 main categories, with subcategories where needed. What’s more, you’ll be able to enjoy a visual categories menu for at-a-glance browsing.
Hi Kathleen –
So glad you like the new design! Travel is still one of our categories, you just have to select Categories from the top nav and you’ll see it listed on the page.
Hope that helps!
What happened to the “Travel” category? You show Travel as a category under #3 above but it is absent from the final site version.
Also, I agree with the comments above that, while the site is attractive, BTR is still lacking in sound quality and the new site is not as easy to navigate as advertised. For example, I was scrolling through the Featured Shows and instead of advancing to the next group of Features I was directed to another page that displayed a whole category of Spiritual shows.
Having just changed our website look and functionality myself I understand that continual tweaking is a given. Best of luck and thank you in advance for addressing our queries.
Hi Tonya – Thanks for your feedback. The Travel section is still in Categories, you just have to click on Categories on the top nav and you’ll see it displayed as one of the options.
Sound quality is definitely something we are trying to address and are aware of.
I tried recreating your experience on scrolling through Featured Hosts but was not able to duplicate. For that issue, can you contact us directly so we can troubleshoot with you directly: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/contactus.aspx
Thanks again for commenting! We appreciate it and we are collecting all feedback for what you’d like to see on the site in 2013 from hosts over here if you’d like to add anything more: ttps://getsatisfaction.com/blogtalkradio/topics/what_are_your_top_10_feature_requests_for_2013?rfm=1
I tried to comment before and it didn’t go through so let me try it again…
I am happy to hear about and see the changes made to the BTR website but my question is this…
With those changes made to the look are there gonna be any changes made to the sound? I have not been on BTR for a while due to the fact that the playback of the shows are low and grainy. The thing I LOVED about BTR was the ability to have call-ins, the thing I did NOT like was the sound of the playback. I am on another provider and the sound is really crisp and clear but they do not have call-in capability. They also have reasonable prices for their service too. I know BTR is not cash strapped and has tremendous sponsor support, will they pass the saving on to the users by changing the pricing structure? Especially for those host who do not have sponsor support or financial means to pay the high prices. Just a few questions.
Hi Sean, Thanks for commenting. Sound is definitely an area we are aware of and working on.
We have several options for hosts to make revenue out of their shows (Affiliate, Revenue Share, Sponsorships) and many hosts on our network do. We’ve provided education in those areas on many of our BlogTalkRadio University shows:
We did a show that breaks down how our Revenue Sharing Program works: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marketingclub/2012/05/08/earning-money-w-our-affiliate-rev-share-programs
We also did a series of shows to educate hosts on the network on how to attract sponsors and advertisers that many hosts have found helpful.
http://blog.blogtalkradio.com/advertising/learn-attract-advertisers-sponsors/
We also provide 1-on-1 training sessions with veteran hosts who can consult with you on how best to go about working with sponsors for your show that you can sign up for here: http://blogtalkradio.setster.com
It’s feedback on our site from hosts like you that have helped us to improve it and we want to continue to make it better. We set up a place where you can tell us what other great features you’d like to see on BlogTalkRadio in 2013. Give us your feedback here: https://getsatisfaction.com/blogtalkradio/topics/what_are_your_top_10_feature_requests_for_2013?rfm=1
Hope this helps!
Like that the revised website uploads quickly. Don’t like that to see all the show for the entire day in a certain category doesn’t allow at a quick glance. Is there a trick? Thanks
Hi Sophie –
Our team has been working hard to make the site load faster so am happy you recognized this. So for finding the shows that are live or upcoming in a certain category, there are two ways to do it. You can either click on Live in the top nav and then select the Category of your choice or you can start by selecting Categories in the top nav, selecting which Category and then click on Live & Upcoming Episodes. Hope that helps!