In this episode, Bob Dunn shares a comprehensive update on the recent changes and ongoing projects at Open Channels FM. He details enhancements like the launch of weekly commentary and the “Open Tabs” blog series, a complete redesign of the homepage, and a shift from grid to list layouts for episode archives.
He also highlights the separation of “Do the Woo” into its own standalone podcast, improvements for AI and LLM compatibility on the site, and the upcoming launch of Open Channels FM Live in July. New features such as advanced site search and custom conversational search are on the way, making it even easier for listeners to access content across more than 760 episode transcripts.
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Takeaways
Show Updates Recap: Bob Dunn uses these updates as a changelog to document recent developments and changes made to the podcast and its accompanying site 01:06.
Weekly Blog Commentary and “Open Tabs”: A weekly commentary has been started on the blog along with a new series called “Open Tabs,” with more episodes planned for the summer Bob Dunn 01:48.
Episode Q&A in Show Notes: Questions and answers from each episode are now included in the show notes to aid both LLMs and human readers in quickly grasping episode content Bob Dunn 02:22.
Do the Woo Now Independent: The “Do the Woo” podcast has become its own standalone entity, with Bob Dunn remaining the independent owner and James Kemp and Katie Keith as hosts; episodes livestream every three weeks 02:54.
Homepage and Layout Changes: The home page was redesigned, and archive/channel pages shifted from a grid to a list layout, aligning more with podcast apps and personal preference Bob Dunn 03:27.
Newsletter Streamlining: The “Backtalk” weekly newsletter was discontinued due to redundancy with blog posts but remains as a weekly blog update; “Open Channels Rewind” still recaps the week for subscribers Bob Dunn 04:41.
Site Optimization for LLMs: Efforts have been made to make the site more LLM-friendly, including completion of an LLMs TXT file, new schemas for improved discovery, and general backend optimizations Bob Dunn 05:10.
Sponsor Deck Revamp: The sponsor deck was redesigned to be more visually appealing and accessible for potential sponsors, with help from Claude Bob Dunn 05:44.
Upcoming: Open Channels FM Live: An upcoming live segment, Open Channels FM Live, will launch next month; users can sign up for email updates that only pertain to this event Bob Dunn 06:23.
Enhanced Search and Resources: New search features, including custom conversational search, are being added to the site to help users navigate the extensive archive (over 760 transcripts); resource pages are forthcoming Bob Dunn 07:06.
Questions This Episode Answers
Q: How did Open Channels FM improve its website for large language models (LLMs)?
A: Bob Dunn explained that they have been optimizing the site for LLMs by adding an LLMs TXT file, working on specific schemas for better discovery, and making other backend improvements to enhance AI accessibility and discovery on the site 05:10.
Q: Why did Open Channels FM separate the ‘Do the Woo’ podcast from its main network?
A: Bob Dunn shared that ‘Do the Woo’ became its own standalone podcast to better focus its content and audience. He remains the owner, and listeners interested in WooCommerce can now find it at dothewoo.com, with hosts James Kemp and Katie Keith continuing to host live stream episodes about every three weeks 03:01.
Q: What new series and features has Open Channels FM introduced recently?
A: Bob Dunn started a weekly commentary on the blog and launched a series called Open Tabs, which has already released several episodes. He also began including a “questions answered” section in show notes for better content discovery and clarity 02:00.
Q: What layout changes were made to the Open Channels FM site archives and why?
A: Bob Dunn switched the archive and channel pages from a grid to a list layout, expressing personal preference and noting that this format aligns better with how most podcast apps present episodes, which improves user experience 04:02.
Q: What happened to the Backtalk newsletter?
A: Bob Dunn discontinued the Backtalk weekly newsletter because it became redundant with the weekly blog post format. However, the content will continue as a weekly blog post, and subscribers can still receive the Open Channels Rewind recap instead 04:41.
Q: What upcoming features can listeners expect from Open Channels FM?
A: Bob Dunn announced new features like Open Channels FM Live launching in July, as well as enhanced search capabilities and a custom conversational search on the site, aiming to make their vast archive of over 760 transcripts more accessible 07:06.
Q: How can potential sponsors learn more about advertising with Open Channels FM?
A: Bob Dunn improved the sponsor deck for clarity and presentation using Claude, so those interested in sponsorships can now request a well-organized and updated sponsor deck that outlines partnership opportunities with the show 06:01.
Episode Transcript
Bob Dunn:
Welcome to Channel 4. I’m Bob and it’s time for an update.
Well, as I said, this is one of my regular updates to recap the last two or three months, although I could say I do this for transparency reasons, it’s really more about how much I enjoy keeping a change log for a site and it helps me remember and others of what we’ve done and when we did it. Or maybe it’s just for prosperity, who really knows. But in any case, here are some of them and you may have heard me mention them before, but a recap is always good. So here’s what’s transpired. I have made my way out of the production room and started both a weekly commentary on the blog as well as a series called Open Tabs. You probably already seen a few episodes that have come out of that, and I have something planned with that for these summer months since, well, you know, everybody’s busy doing all the fun stuff you do in summer, so I thought I would pull something together and you’ll be hearing about that or you’ll be actually listening to those soon.
I also added questions answered in the episode on our show Notes, as I understand this is always good for the LLMs. And hey, I think it’s very good for any reader that lands on it. It basically pulls out answers, puts a question to it. So get a good idea of what’s being not only asked, but what’s being answered in any episode. And as you probably heard me already announce, it’s been, I think, a couple months now. We did separate do the Woo as its own podcast standalone. It’s no longer part of our network. I’m still the independent owner of do the Woo and basically it just made the most sense to do that. And you can always go to dothewoo.com if you are interested in learning about WooCommerce. Our hosts James Kemp and Katie Keith carry on over there with a live stream episode about every three weeks. So check that out.
Now some of the things I updated I redesigned the home page again and just made some changes on that. You may have noticed it, you may have not noticed it. You may want to go check it out, see if it looks different than you remember. Anyway, I noticed that I hit 100 page revisions since December 21, 2024 on that particular. So I go in there every once in a while and mix things up again. Now, again, you probably heard me say this, but I will bring it up. I did change our archive and channel pages on the site from grid to list layout. Really, I am so over grids. I’ve been using grids on sites for so long there’s nothing wrong with this. Maybe it’s more personal preference myself. But also I kind of thought, well, you know, that’s how they list episodes on pod apps. You know, the different things you listen to, Apple podcasts, Shopify, blah blah blah. All them. So that is one of the things I did.
And a couple things I fixed was had a little bit of redundancy, I think. In the last update I launched a weekly newsletter called Backtalk and then I started doing it also as a post and it just seemed like, as I said, is a bit redundant. So it’s not going out anymore as a weekly newsletter, but it will remain as a weekly blog post. And of course we’ll continue to send out open channels rewind to subscribers who want a week recap. The other thing I fixed is we’ve been working quite a bit to get the site LLM friendly and it’s not quite completed, but just in the back end we’ve been doing things, we’ve been optimizing it more. We got our LLMs TXT file all done and in there and we’re working on some specific schemas for better discovery, a few things under the hood and maybe, you know, things that should have been done a while back, but hey, you know, better late than never.
And I did fix one thing and this isn’t for everybody. This is our sponsor deck. We do have a sponsor deck. I actually was putting out a document that kind of was not easy to read, so I asked Claude to make it nice and pretty and organized. And so if you want to check into our sponsorships. Now I can send you our bright and shiny new sponsor deck and if anything it looks impressive. So that’s it.
There are a couple other things I would like to add that will be coming out in the next version or versions or whatever I end up doing with it. I mentioned that we’re launching Open Channels FM Live and that will be next month in July. Now if you want to keep updated, just go to OpenChannel FM live and you can sign up just to be updated about that. Won’t be sending you anything else through the email aside from updates on that when we have something to update. I’m just trying to always catch up with Robert Jacoby who’s working with me. He’s the world traveler. So yeah, I think he’ll be around for a while and we’ll get this all worked out and excited to be doing that.
And also we have some new search being added to our site as well as a custom conversational search. So there’s a lot of information in our site and that will be launched soon. I will be announcing that and we’ll have some specific pages that I feel will be a great resource for a lot of people as far as what looking at over 760 transcripts. So that is it. That is the update. So until the next time, take care.
