Welcome New Hosts; TalkShoe Step-By-Step Instructions

October 5, 2008 at 11:16 am | Author: Dave Nelsen | In Announcements, What's New |

We’ve seen many former Skypecast users show up on TalkShoe recently. Let me be the first to welcome you! Below are simple step-by-step instructions for a variety of basic actions on TalkShoe. First, here are some of the advantages of TalkShoe:

1) TalkShoe is built on the best conferencing technology on the planet, same as used by NASA and 80 telcos worldwide for their best business teleconferencing customers. On TalkShoe, you can have 300 simultaneous callers while being in complete control just like a radio talk show host.

2) TalkShoe allows voice over IP (VoIP) callers from its own integrated ShoePhone application (download and install TalkShoe Live Pro) or any SIP-standard alternative including Gizmo, SJPhone, and X-Lite. Skype is not SIP-compliant but if desired you may use SkypeOut to call TalkShoe at 724-444-7444.

3) TalkShoe also allows callers from VoIP softphones, plus landlines and cell phones. That enables a whole world of participation.

4) All TalkShoe features are free. If you’re not using VoIP, please check with your phone company to see if they charge you (incrementally) to call 724-444-7444. Many people have flat-rate calling plans (Vonage, etc.) and free cell phone minutes.

5) TalkShoe calls can be recorded and distributed as podcasts (listed in iTunes), completely automatically. This can increase your audience by 20X on average.

6) People can listen and chat live without downloading or installing any software. These folks will show up as “guests” in your TalkShoe Live display.

Keep in mind that like a radio talk show, TalkShoe is built on the philosophy of dictatorial host control. You can enable or block any text chatter and mute or unmute any caller; you may do so individually or all together (e.g., mute all).

Here are step-by-step instructions for a variety of tasks. Start at www.talkshoe.com, then:

Sign-Up:

1) Click the white “Sign Up” button in the upper left header area.
2) Fill in the six mandatory fields, hovering over the “?” next to each field for more detailed instructions.
3) Complete by clicking the green “Create User” button. Click the Continue button when the system indicates “user created successfully”. Downloading the TalkShoe Live Pro client is optional at this point (see topic below).

Sign In:

1) Click the white “Sign In” link in the upper left.
2) Enter User Name and Password and click “Remember Me” if you are working from your own computer.
3) Complete by clicking the white “Sign In” button.

Recovering Your Username and/or Password:

1) On the Sign In page (as above), click the link that says “forgot username or password” and enter the email address you specified at sign up.
2) Complete by clicking the green “Send Password” button.

Creating and Scheduling Your First Call:

Keep in mind that TalkShoe uses the term “Episode” to describe an individual call, and “Call Series” to refer to all episodes that are for the same group or theme. Think about a TV “series” (Gilligan’s Island) and individual “episodes” (Gilligan finds another way to screw up their rescue). To create a call episode, you must first start from an existing or new call series as follows:

Creating a New Call Series:

1) Click the green “Create” button in the upper left header area. The first time through, you’ll see a short overview of the process on the first screen. Click “Get Started” to continue.
2) Enter a title for your Call Series or use the default title selected for you. This can easily be changed later.
3) Set the desired options or accept the defaults. Notice the orange link for “Advanced Options”. Again, these can easily be changed later.
4) If you’re ready to do a call immediately, click “Start Now”, otherwise select “Schedule” and fill in the episode options.

Regarding Start Time and Episode Duration, these are just to set audience expectations. You may actually start any time during the scheduled window or up to 15 minutes early; once started, you may run as long as desired up to 5-hours of recording or 24-hours of talking. You’re in total control.

Creating a New Episode:

1) When “Signed In” to TalkShoe (notice your user name in the upper right), you will see a white button labeled “myTalkShoe” in the upper left area. Whenever in doubt, click it. Notice the nine tab topics down the left side (lots of good stuff here). By default, you’ll see a list of “My Calls” (meaning “Call Series”).
2) Click the title of the desired call series.
3) Across the top, you’ll now see four tabs. Click the second one to “Schedule Episode”.
4) Complete the fields and click “Next”. Click “Complete” unless you want to “invite guests to your call” using TalkShoe’s email engine.

Accessing Any of Your Call Series (and accessing recording archives, scheduling episodes, etc.):

1) Click the white button labeled “myTalkShoe” in the upper left area.
2) Click the title of the desired Call Series. You’ll be able to access a wide variety of call-specific activities from this “Call Series page”.

Starting Your Call:

1) Go to your Call Series page (as above).
2) To use the web-based TalkShoe Live client, click the green upper “Start My Call” button. To use the more feature-rich downloaded client, click the green lower (and smaller) “TalkShoe Live Pro” button.

Note: These buttons will appear 15-minutes before your episode’s scheduled start time.

Running Your Call:

The are a wide variety of functions to allow you to manage and control your call. Please view the videos available here: TalkShoe Live client how-to videos.

Telling Callers How to Reach Your “Shoe”:

1) Call 724-444-7444
2) Enter Call ID [your 5-digit call ID here] followed by the # sign
3) Enter their TalkShoe PIN or press 1# to join as a guest (do not give out your PIN; it can be used by just one person at a time)

TalkShoe allows voice over IP (VoIP) callers from its own integrated ShoePhone application (download and install TalkShoe Live Pro) or any SIP-standard softphone including Gizmo, SJphone, and X-Lite. Skype is not SIP-compliant but you can use SkypeOut to call 724-444-7444 (note: Skype charges for this). The address for Gizmo is 123@66.212.134.192; the address for SJphone and most other VoIP clients is 66.212.134.192. As far as we know, all “pure VoIP” calls are totally free from anywhere on the planet to TalkShoe.

Changing a Call Series from Private to Public (or Vice Versa) and many other options:

1) Go to your Call Series page (as above).
2) Across the top, click the first of four tabs titled “Update” and make the desired change.
3) Click “Update Call” to save changes.

Changing an Episode Date, Start Time, Title, or Description:

[You must do so before it goes live; IOW, at least 15 minutes in advance]

1) Go to your Call Series page (as above).
2) To the right of the Scheduled Episode, click the “Update” button
3) After making the desired change(s), click the green “Update Episode” button to save changes

Please comment with suggestions for additional step-by-step instructions and we’ll expand this document. Thank you, and have fun talking.