Well I’m trying to bring the feel of 2005 back. I just created Podcast Promo Swap. Right now its geared towards audio (but we might add video in the future). If you publish at least once a week, and plan on having a podcast for the next twelve weeks, then I encourage you to sign up.

Once we have twelve people sign up, I will sort the promos alphabetically and each week I will send out an email with a link to a podcast promo that you can download and put into your show (so you need a podcast promo uploaded on your site that people can download).

In the future we might also add groups based on genre (sports, health, music, etc). Right now we’re just kicking the tires and measuring the interest.

Check it out at www.podcastpromoswap.com or of you’re ready you can register now. (you will need the URL of your promo to register).

Adam Corolla recently appeared on  “Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show.” They spoke about how his podcast has remained number one (or close to it) in iTunes since he launched it three days after being let go at CBS radio. He mentions that he cant’ take sponsors until his contract runs out at CBS Radio, and currently it is costing him $9,000 a month for bandwidth. This calculate to .009 per download.

$9,000 / 1,000,000 downloads = .009 per download

As he publishes (what looks like) 20 episodes a month that calculates to .18 a month.

.009 X 20 = .18 a month per listener. (cost per listener)

If Adam could talk his audience into donating $1.00 that would be .82 profit per listener.

$1. – .18 (cost per month) = .82 profit.

According to an article (Adam Carolla Podcast Makes Radio Irrelevant – May 1^st, 2009 podcastingnews.com) he has approximately 130,000 listeners.

.82 profit per month X 130,000 = $106,600 profit per month.

His contract with  CBS radio ends soon, and it will be interesting to see what monetization method he chooses. CBS Radio (the people who fired him) have been in contact with him to help him find sponsors.

The interesting thing is the “Feel” is getting people to pay $1 a month is like asking them to cut off their right arm. I’m following these types of situations for my book More Podcast Money which will be coming out soon.

Your thoughts?

If you are selling ebooks, I have found a (what looks to be) a great WordPress plugin for you. It’s called (Creatively) WP PDF Stamper. When someone purchases your ebook, it now can dynamically stamp the person’s name, company name, email address, etc on the first page (or every page if you choose) of your ebook.

This might make people think twice before they throw the book that you just slaved over for 6 months on their favorite file sharing site.

It’s $34.95 and you can take it for a test drive here.

I won’t be using the editing services that CS offers (a bit too high). I am reading everything I can and it sounds like you can get some quality people on craigslist, or just a thorough Google search.

I’ve got copy editing, purchasing of the ISBN numbers, setting up a publishing company (which I will probably do through Legal Zoom) and more before this thing can be pronounced “done” but its nice to have the first complete draft of the book 97% done.

If you want to be a beta reader, check out www.morepodcastmoney.com

The number of famous people who are starting their own podcast is growing rapidly. Adam Corolla jumped into podcasting when his radio show was cancelled. Veteran comic Marc Maron has stated his gigs are starting to fill up with people who listen to his “WTF” podcast. Today I came across Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show which is a live streaming talk show he does on ustream.tv and then turns into a podcast.

 The Kevin Pollak chat (along with Maron’s WTF) do something you don’t see on the tonight show or other “talk” shows. They actually talk. The guest isn’t set to plug their movie or music in 30 seconds or less, there is no pre interview, and people sit down like regular people and talk. What a concept. Both Maron and Pollak have extensive showbiz backgrounds (with Pollak is both a comedian, and an actor).

Pollak actually goes for close to three hours when he is live on Sundays. The somewhat “bad” news is if you watch these shows on an ipod, you are going to kill the battery in record time. Many shows are over an hour long. Keep in mind this is a video show. This means it takes forever to download, and you can watch two episodes on your ipod before the battery is dead.

Maron (who has done radio in the past) has stuck with audio, and fills his podcast with behind the scenes access to his thought and life and then has a guest. He had some phenominal interviews with Robin Williams, Carlos Mancia, Jeffery Ross, and many other comedians. As I listen to podcasts in my car, I’ve listened (more than watched) Kevin’s show and did not miss the visual.  The audio of Kevin interviewing Dana Carvey worked with audio only.

In doing a quick search, I see where Kevin is selling these interviews on DVD at Amazon.com for 10 bucks. Interesting. I still wish he had an audio only version.

So if you are contemplating doing video, I urge you to ask, “Does this really need to be video?” Not only does it take longer to produce, it takes longer to download and it kills the batteries in your iPod in record time.

Maybe Andrew will be on the next season of the apprentice.

Here is the list:

Keith Ferrazi & Tahl Raz: Relationship Strategy
Brian Clark: Psychology of Social Media
Mitch Meyerson: Online Marketing
Ann Handley: Creating Content
Gary Vaynerchuk: Building Mega-Followings
Andy Willbes: Personality
Chris Brogan: Building Communities
Joel Comm: Success Qualities
Craig Valentine: Communicate with Impact
Starr Hall: Building Profits
Dan Janal: PR Strategies
Michael Stelzner: Go Viral
Denise Wakeman: Business Blogs
Mari Smith: Facebook
Deborah Cole Micek: Twitter
Barbara Rozgonyi: LinkedIn
Julie Perry: YouTube
Paul Colligan: Podcasting
Chris Garrett: Social Bookmarking
Kim Dushinski: Mobile Marketing
Shama Kabani: Online Video
Dave Evans: One Hour a Day

This looks like a good read. My only omment so far is, “What no Kindle version?” Check it out at amazon.com

While WordPress is the most used cms/blogging tool on the planet, 1and1 does not have a way to install it easily. I couldn’t believe it. I called and got their sales.

“Is there some sort of 1 click install for Worpress? I see you have 1 click installs for other software (like joomla)” I asked. No (the sales associate replied) we do not have that solution. You can upload wordpress via ftp and use it that way. We have plenty of client who use WordPress.

I asked, “Is that something you do for your clients” I asked.

“No,” he replied. “You need to upload it via ftp.”

I’ve installed WordPress “via ftp” before. It’s not impossible. I’m just blown away. I see 1and1 advertised everywhere. To be this “well known” and not have an uber way to install this incredibly popular software titles is really surprising. As it only takes about 5-10 minutes to install, I’m surprised they don’t offer that for free (or a minimal fee).

To me this is like going to a restaurant where they serve neither Coke or Pepsi. But they serve soda water and flavorings

I bought the kindle, and one of the features I never heard about is when you are reading on a Kindle you can “highlight” favorite passages etc. Later when you plugin the kindle to your computer there is a text file with a listing of everything that has been highlighted. As a podcaster this makes show notes a piece of cake. As a part time Minister In Training, this makes sermon notes a snap (and a real time saver). If I was a student, I would be in heaven.

One day I realized I had forgotten to recharge the Kindle (as it goes a long time on a single charge) so I plugged it in to charge it (and wasn’t able to use it). No problem. I downloaded the Kindle reading software to my computer and read my books right there on my screen. When I open the book on my computer, it takes me to the last place I was when I was reading on the kindle. Very cool.

I’ve been taking my Kindle with me, and reading while walking the dog in the morning. This is great as sun glare is not an issue with the screen (like my phone). However, at night you can’t read the screen (there is not back light). No problem, I downloaded the app for my droid and download the book I’ reading. As my phone is backlit, reading in the dark is super easy. I was highly skeptical about reading a book on my phone. However, I can easily blow up the text to make it readable, and just keep my finger handy to turn the pages (which doesn’t take long to read a page on the phone). Once again, I pick up the book wherever I left off.

If you’ve been thinking about purchasing one, I would say go for it. The money I save on books has almost paid for the unit (anywhere from 5-10 a book). I’m not sure the books for the ipad are as versatile (I’m sure they will be), but with the price drop on the latest version of the Kindle -to me owning one is a no brainer.

Insterested? More information at amazon.com

Gideon has some great tips, and insights. He even has a video that shows all of his equipment (nothing to crazy, he’s using a flip camera).

The free youtube report spotlights some tips and strategies for using youtube as well as some great resources for getting you going in the right direction.

You may be thinking, “But I do an audio podcast” well so do I, but after watching these videos I’m going to start making promotional videos to drive traffic to my podcast. Youtube is the snd most popular search engine and gets over 1 billion views per day. Even if you don’t do a video podcast, you should probably go play in the this traffic. It’s just that HUGE.

The course goes live tomorrow after 10 AM EST, but pick up the free report and watch the videos any time. If you decide to purchase, he is giving away some great gifts and benefits for anyone who purchases within the first 24 hours.

For more information go to rapidvideobloggin.com

To get deep-links and icons to your shows in the Zune Marketplace software and to Zunepodcasts.com visit here – http://social.zune.net/links/ZuneLinks.aspx?keyword=school+of+podcasting&type=podcast&x=7&y=8

Microsoft also has the Zune Video Podcast catalog available in Windows 7 Media Center. Video podcasters have this as a distribution opportunity – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-media-center/zune.aspx

At the 35:40 mark he announces that he is doing the “slow exit.” He will stay connected to the company as a consultant. He will have no managerial duties, or really much to do with the company other than sheparding it where he can and promoting it where he can. That does have some consequences. The main one is he will stop receiving a salary. “That money is better purposed on someone who can help and participate” he said. Ron Bloom will be assuming the duties he had and bring in some people to take care of that.

He is going to focus on the Daily Source Code, No Agenda, and the Big Ap show (reported receiving 150,000 viewers). He said he is going to have to hustle unless he gets lucky and sells his aircraft.

The other consequence is he is free. He’s completely free to do whatever he wants.

He has is already working on other potential projects. He also looks to have an App show for Android.

What is it? 
A banner exchange program for podcasters only (if the banner you use does not link to a podcast, you can’t participate). This is not for podcast services (for example BSW is a music equipment manufacturer, but they do not have a podcast).

How Does It Work?
You upload your banner (120X240, 125X125, or 468X60) to your website and copy the url of the banner. Then set up a free acount at podcastclicks.com and pick what type of sites you would like to appear on. Then pick what type of banners you want to show on your website, and copy and paste some code into your site (typically a text widget in a sidebar).

Now everytime you show someone’s banner on yoru site, your banner will be showon on another website.

You are getting the word out about your podcast on other wbesites where people who listen and watch podcasts go. (better known as your “target market”).

What’s The Catch?
While it’s free for you, it’s not free for me to run the system. The catch is every category will have a single banner for the School of Podcasting that rotates throught the system. I don’t think thats much to ask.

For more information check out www.podcastclicks.com

Here is a video that explains it all.

The power of the Builder theme is the can create a style that represents the colors, text size, and much more.

You then apply the style (color) to a layout which is where you decide if you want a header graphic, sidebars, footers, html code, and much more. You can then save those settings under a name.

So in my example I had a style called “green” that I applied to a layout called “test.”

Then I created a post and told the post to use the “test” style (which came out with the layout an colors).

You can make endless themes, and layouts for a ton of combinations such as:

1. No sidebars for a sales page

2. No sidebars if you are using embeded forums like simple press

3. A different header graphic for different pages or posts

You can stay as simple or get as fancy as you want. I just scratched the surface with this 10 minute video. I had been using the theme for about 10 minutes before making this video. (you may need to click the “full screen” view to get the details).

For more information go to ithemes.com

Former MTV VJ and the creator of podcasting, Adam Curry called in to answer Howard’s questions about his Internet fortune. Howard first asked if Adam was calling from his castle–Adam answered flatly: “No, my castle’s in Europe.” Adam said the $3 million castle was really just ‘castle-lite,’ but it did sit on 32 acres in Antwerp, Belgium. He earned the money from the sale of an Internet advertising company during the dotcom boom: “An Internet advertising company. And I started that right after I left MTV and then sold it in 1999 just before the whole bubble popped. For like $450 million.” After selling the company, Adam invested in a helicopter company–right before the helicopter industry bottomed out: “After September 11th that was real popular.” At one point, he also invested $65,000 in AskJeeves.com and forgot about it until his lawyer called him with news of a windfall (“That went public and all of a sudden I had $150 million.”)–and was the original owner of MTV.com. When he left the company, MTV tried to sue him for copyright infringement. The case failed and MTV paid up: “Eventually we settled out of court.”

A $100 MILLION OFFER FOR HOWARD

Adam said he now runs a profitable podcast company and had an offer for Howard: “I know it would be a pay cut, but we would guarantee first year $100 million.” Howard was taken back, and Adam laughed: “I talked to Don [Buchwald] about this 10 years ago. He hung up on me.” Adam hoped they could strike a deal, as he’s about to lose half his fortune–and his castle–to his wife: “We’re separated.” Howard promised to consider it.

As a former Howard Stern listener, I would LOVE if Howard started a podcast. One of the biggest problem with Satelite is when they re-aired the show, I always caught the same hour. I’d hear it on my way to work, on my lunch, and on my way home. I would try to catch the west coast feed, and thet helped. I rarely got all three hours of the show (that I was paying for). Come over to podcasting Howard. Go talk to Adam Corolla, its working for him. You can reach a GLOABAL audience.

I also just moved to a new Dell computer and as of yet I have no reinstalled dreamweaver as I do everything now in WordPress.  As I am in Worpdress all day, I will probably be spotlighting plugins and themes a bit more in the podcast as well. So if you were a fan an unsubscribed because you thought I killed it, Weekly Web Tools is back from the dead.

Check it out at www.weeklywebtools.com

The book is how I have been able to make money with my podcast. It also has some insights into how other people are making money with their podcast, but primarily it is how I generate podcast revenue.

In following in Bob’s footsteps, I’m selling this book before it’s finished at a discounted price. When your purchase the book, you will be asked to review each section as they come out. If you comment on all six sections your name, your podcast, and website will be mentioned in the book. You also will be added to the website (a membership site with a one time fee – which is covered by the price of the book).

The book will cover many ways that people can make money, and then go into detail on how I actually make money from podcasting. I’m only allowing 50 people into this beta/editing portion of the process.

If you’re interested, go over to http://morepodcastmoney.com

The goal of this report is to save you time. It is designed for the podcaster who signed up for an Amazon S3 account to host their media, and now they have determined it is time to leave that service due to increased expenses.

As you prepare to move, you have uploaded your media to a new service (for example Libsyn.com). However, your website still points to the media on Amazon S3. You don’t feel like going in and updating 107 blog posts, but it sure looks like that is what you have to do (you don’t). If this is you, this book will save you hours of time.

Why am I moving? While I originally liked paying less than $8 for hosting of my logical weight loss podcast…

as I added more and more episodes, and became more and more popular my Amazon S3 bill became more and more expensive until the last two months it has looked something like this:

So I decided to move my media to Libsyn.com where you can host unlimited files with unlimited bandwidth starting at $12 a month.  This reports shows you how I bypassed editing 107 individual episodes and got all my media off Amazon S3 in record time. It shows you what free tools you can use to speed up this process, and it will save you hours and frustration.

Price: $4.95
Size: 10 Pages

(please note the paypal account shows “Jackson Internet Services.”).

Scribe works with WordPress if you’re able to fill in a custom title tag and meta description for the post or page. While Scribe was originally developed for the Thesis Theme for WordPress, it also works with the free All in One SEO plugin, the hybrid theme, and the headway theme.

I have found that many of my posts were too short, and often I forgot to put a key word in the title tag. If you are using the All In One SEO plugin it’s a piece of cake to make sure the title and description are the right length to maximize your SEO efforts without getting to “keyword happy.”

It is a subscripton model (not a single price). The pricing starts at $27 a month for 30 evaluations, and goes up to $97 a month for 300 evaluations. You can use it on unlimited websites. You can try scribe for free for 30 days.

After using it on my Logical Weight Loss Podcast, I am #2 in Google for the phrase “weight loss podcast.”

In a recent article at techcrunch.com, they reported that apple has sold 51.15 iphones since it was launched. Apple has just announced that they managed to push roughly 8.75 million iPhones out the door in the second fiscal quarter of 2010

Read the full article.

Two years ago I met Mark Levine at the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop. He is a book publisher, and I am a podcaster. We did some brainstorming, and Mark was smart enough to run with the ball. The result is published.com You think of it like a dating site, except instead of pairing up potential couples, it is pairing up podcasters/bloggers with authors. The part is it’s free.

Instead of trying to figure out who the publisher is, trying to get some contact information, published.com gets you the correct contact information. When you sign up (now as a blogger, but in the future there will be a “podcaster” option) you create a profile page, you put in what types of books you’re interested in and start searching their directory. I was amazed at the number of books available. When you find a book you think fits your podcast, you can request more information and you’re off in the right direction to get an evaluation copy of the book, interviews, etc.

There are tons of genres to pick from (you can have more than one genre that you’re interested in). When an author signs up, you will be notified via email that there is someone who matches your criteria.
Check it out at www.published.com

I just wanted to let everyone know that we plan to shut down Podcast Pickle at the end of January.
We will accept offers if anyone is interested in buying the Pickle.

A recent interview brought up some interesting questions.

Did iTunes Kill the Podcast Directory?

Even though itunes is doing less and less to promote podcasts, people seem to think this is the place to find podcasts. (Even though I spent 30 minutes trying to find a podcast that had not podfaded).  Podcast pickle was one of the first (along with Podcast Alley) to create a directory (think yellow pages) for podcasts. This made a way for podcast listeners to find podcasts. The thing that stinks is Gary and crew would actually go in and throw out podcasts that had grown inactive from time to time. Podcast pickle was a better product. Then again, so was betamax.

Did Twitter kill the Podcast Forum?

You used to go to the pickle to communicate with the podcast community. Now you follow other podcasters and keep up with the latest discussions via twitter. Also, with great plugins that allow people to subscribe via email to blog posts the thought of returning to a site to see what was new started to seem out of date (which technically is wrong as you could subscribe to the boards at podcast pickle via RSS).  To me again, the forums were better as its much easier to follow a conversation in the forums than at twitter.

It’s Just Sad

The one thing that podcast pickle did that other sites didn’t do was continue to strive to provide new tools for the podcast community. There is the pickle player, reviews, there was at one point a tree where you could see who influenced who.

In the interview, Gary has said it will still exist. The directory may not be going completely away. The forums may remain, and the player may say active.  This to me is a sign of the community growing, but not being as close knit as it used to be.

I want to thank Gary for all his efforts and his passion for podcasting and wish him all the best.

PITTSBURGH, Jan 12, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) —-Wizzard Media (NYSE Amex: WZE), the world’s largest podcasting network, today announced that it recorded an unprecedented 1.4 billion podcast download requests in 2009. Wizzard Media, through its premier podcast-hosting service Libsyn, received an average of 3.77 million requests for podcast episodes per day in 2009. On average, 23 minutes per episode equates to almost 1.5 million hours of programming distributed worldwide every day.

In mid-2009, Wizzard Media introduced a new monetization product for its 12,000+ podcast publishing customers with the launch of an iPhone(R) Podcast App. The newly launched podcast companion App for popular podcasts on the Wizzard Media Network offers audiences access to their favorite podcast directly on their iPhone or iPod(R) Touch, bonus episodes and other content and new social communication features such as Twitter and Facebook, creating an unprecedented level of audience entertainment.

Analysts project the App market to be a $1.0 billion market today, headed for $4.0 billion by 2012. With the new Apple Tablet expected soon and the recent launch of the iPhone in China, Wizzard’s management believes the number of people using iPhones and iPod Touch type devices to consume podcasts and interact with Apps will continue to grow well beyond the current 50 million user-base. To date, Wizzard Media has launched 153 iPhone Apps with top podcast Apps on the Wizzard Network having now converted approximately 22% of their audience from free, to paid, in the first 150 days since launch.

In anticipation of the expected announcement this month from Apple, Wizzard today outlined its plans to fully support the new tablet device. The Company is committed to ensuring compatibility for all Wizzard Apps in order to work with and take full advantage of the device’s strengths. Wizzard believes that this device has the game changing ability to take the position of primary media and communication device formerly occupied by netbooks and laptops.

“We expect the new Tablet Device to extend the current iTunes(R) App Store ecosystem,” says Dave Mansueto, co-founder, Wizzard Media. “The iTunes App Store represents the most mature platform for monetization of our publisher’s content and no other App store currently offers the In-App purchase model that we intend to take full advantage of in the coming weeks.”

Additionally, Wizzard released a road map to expand its App offering beyond iTunes to the Google Android and Palm WebOS platforms starting in the first quarter of 2010. “With the early success of the Droid and the impact of the newly launched Nexus One, we feel the Android platform has already proven itself to be a robust mobile media and entertainment platform and Palm’s WebOS offering continues to refine with updates to its software and expansion to multiple carriers,” continues Mansueto.

“We know there is strong demand for the podcasts we distribute seeing downloads grow from 400 million to 1.4 billion in the last few years and monthly audiences grow from 4 million to 18 million,” says Laurie Sims, President of Wizzard Media. “Now, podcasting becomes a platform that converts audiences to revenue, accelerated by the micropayment billing process that Apple has created with the App store. Unlike most Apps in the App store, podcasters have a distinct advantage to successfully market their App in iTunes due to the fact that they have already built a substantial audience for their podcast show over the last several years. Now it is just a matter of continuing to convert them over and expand the model to the Tablet, Andriod and Palm.”

“A few days into 2010 and we’re announcing a new record for downloads, 18 million unique monthly audience count and the expansion of our Apps to the new Apple Tablet, Google Android and Palm WebOS,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard CEO. “With our top Apps already reaching 22% audience conversion rate, the recent expansion of our advertising platform inventory to include Apps, a strong holiday sales season for our acquired Apps and having just completed our best quarter ever for advertising impressions (4th quarter 2009), we believe this can be a big year for Wizzard.”

About Wizzard Media (a division of Wizzard Software):

Wizzard Media provides publishing and distribution services to podcasters and monetization services for podcasters. Wizzard Media is the industry’s leading podcasting network with an unprecedented 1.4 billion download requests in 2009. Podcasts are a means for independent and professional content creators to publish audio and video shows for the world to enjoy over the Internet or on mp3 players, such as the Apple iPod(R), iPhone(R) and the Microsoft Zune(R). Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon, but Wizzard Media collectively broadcasts millions of podcast downloads per day through media aggregators like Apple’s iTunes and Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace. For more information, please visit www.wizzardsoftware.com/media. Wizzard Media is a division of Wizzard Software, a leader in speech technology distribution and development.

Legal Notice

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: “Forward-looking Statements” as defined in the Private Securities litigation Reform Act of 1995 may be included in this news release. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. These statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or events. We disclaim any intention or obligation to revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. There are important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to risks associated with changes in general economic and business conditions, actions of our competitors, the extent to which we are able to develop new services and markets for our services, the time and expense involved in such development activities, the level of demand and market acceptance of our services, changes in our business strategies and acts of terror against the United States.

iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and iTunes are all registered marks or trade names of Apple, Inc.

SOURCE: Wizzard Media

   Arthur Douglas and Associates
   Art Batson, 407-478-1120

Copyright Business Wire 2010

Oh to return to the days of listening to the Daily Source Code where Adam Curry would talk about all things podcasting (pre-podshow – now Mevio). To hear his passionate filled talk with his wife (now divorced). He had a view and insight that only he could provide. I love no agenda, but I miss the days of the source code being filled with podcasting news.

It appears there is no “flagship” podcast filled with podcasting news. Why? Well because what used to be “new” is now the norm. A company starting a podcasting is not news anymore. It’s the norm. When I helped produce “Today in Podcasting” with Gary, Paul, and Rob, it became more and tougher to find stories about podcasting that stuck out. (It also was increasingly hard to get our schedules to line up).

You can think of it like the time Roger Banister ran the first 4 minute mile. It was big news. Now, well, not so much. Most Olympic athletes can pull this off.

At the end of Slau’s podcast, he talks about how this song made the jump from podcasts to “regular” radio. I might use it in an episode of “The Power of Podcasting” as it was beautiful how we all banded together to create something wonderful.

While I’m proud of all the progress we’ve made as podcasters to squeeze ourselves into the mainstream, but there is a part of me that misses the early days of podcasting.

At any rate, I always preach to deliver you content in the format your audience wants to consume it. With this in mind, I considering opening a “sister” site where you could purchase the tutorials on a per topic basis.

I would love your feedback on this? If you have time please take my three question poll.

You can find the episode about the FTC HERE or if you mroe of a reader than a listener you can check out Lynn’s blog about the subject

One of the most versatile tools for creating a “premium” version of your podcast is http://www.premiumcast where you can create a podcast that people have to pay for, and if they stop paying you can go in and “turn off” their RSS feed. You can also use it to sell digital products, physical products, generate coupons, and many other features. I use premiumcast to deliver my “students only” (private) podcast.

I was approached by a company that is geared towards community, and education. It’s prfessor.com and it has a unique twist that I have not seen in other tools (and could be used for someone who is looking to deliver content via a website instead of RSS feed). You can set up unlimited courses (nothing new). However, you can solicit instructors and pay each instructor a percentage of each class that a student registers for. When you teach a class you take 100% of the commission. When someone else teaches a class you pay them 80% and you keep 20 (or whatever percentage you determine).

When I think of the communities that podcasting helps build, I can see experts coming together to build a website to teach others with everyone getting a piece of the pie. Each class can have (or have not ) a time limit (i.e. it’s live for 3 months and then expires – you set how long). You set the price, you can add a quick logo and your branding is taken care of, you can easily pay commissions to your “teaching staff.” While Moodle may be an open source package for this type of application, it doesn’t have any way to pay instructors (that I know of), and it doesn’t have the built in SEO tools (you can add Google analytics in about 3 seconds), that this tool has.

From the video I watched at their website, you can have a functional website in about 20 minutes. It’s uber easy.  I have not used this personally (only watched the video), but I have a meeting with them next week to get my hands dirty and see the back end.

The price is only $49 a month. So if you have a few courses for $10, you can easily make that up.

Throw this into the ability to change the shape, size, and number  of columns and you may see Thesis return to this very blog (the theme I have right now I designed with Artisteer).

Watch this video so see how easy it is to chagne the colors.

Check out Thesis. There is a personal version (for one website $87) or a developer’s version (for multiple websites $164)

Well a new report from Wizzard Media shows that podcast listeners are up from 15 million to 18 million. Here are some samples of that report:

Wizzard Media (NYSE Amex: WZE), the world’s largest podcasting network, today announced that for the third quarter of 2009 the Wizzard Media Network saw total podcast download requests of 332 million vs. 287 million in the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 45 million.

The number of podcast shows on the Wizzard Media Network grew from 11,600 at the end of the second quarter of 2009 to 12,281 shows at the end of the third quarter of 2009. Podcasters pay Wizzard Media to use its publishing platform and work with Wizzard to monetize their show through brand advertising and more recently, content sales (Apps).

In the third quarter of 2009 Wizzard delivered over 12.7 million podcast advertisements, its second highest quarterly total on record and an increase of 130% from 5.5 million ads in the third quarter of 2008.

So to anyone who says “Podcasting is Dead” I say “quit saying things for publicity” becuase your are wrong.

Stated that he earned 1.5 million
He sates that he has $350,000 in expenses (do the math).
He states that because of the relationship with his listeners, and the power of his niche he can charge $70 CPM.

If Leo thinks a medium that produces big profits, and can charge double what radio does (from what I’ve heard) than I wonder what criteria it takes to be “alive.” Maybe this could be Leo attempting to once again get the word Podcasting off the charts (and move Netcasting into place once he gets the trademark on the word).

If you watch his speech, I do agree that the way people will continue to consume content will change (much like the way we watch movies has changed. From the big screen to the ipod screen, to netflix.com).

The folks at feedburner said the average podcast has 70 subscribers, but that subscribers are growing 20-30% a month. Sounds pretty dead to me.

Adam Corolla Gets Hired By the People Who Fired Him

Adam Corolla got fired from radio (After replacing Howard Stern) started a podcast and never skipped a beat. To bad podcasting is dead. Oh wait, the same company that fired him is now co-producing his podcast and will help sell sponsorships. Carolla is avergaing 130,000 listeners. To bad its so hard to subscribe.

It’s almost as if Leo did it as a publicity stunt. Because if podcasting is dead, then I want to be dead too! Here is the video of Leo’s speech

Adam Curry recently was interviewed by David Spark who is doing a podcast about making money with a podcast (which should have its own RSS feed in the future) which you can see at http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=1092

Here are some stats on Mevio:

Only thirty percent of Mevio’s money is via CPM-based advertising. The rest is (more or less) CPA (calls per action)

15,000 producers on the Mevio network (of which I am one).

Many of the podcasters are less than $1,000 a year
The second category of podcasters make $1,000 to $10,000 a year (I fall into this category).
Podcasters making  $10,000+ a year are known as Mevio’s super producers, which currently number 400 members and will grow to 700 by the end of this year.,

More astonishing is that three podcasters right now, said Curry, will make between $500,000 to $1,000,000 by the end of this year. Curry loves those podcasters because if they make $500,000 so does he.

For more information on how podcasting can effect an audience, check out my new show The Power of Podcasting at www.powerorpodcasting.com

While you don’t need an ipod (or any other portable device) to listen to a podcast. I know I’ve given up listening to “Binky and the Whiz” (or whatever your morning show is call) in the morning in favor of pdocasts. Hopefully some of those 305 million (lets round up shall we?) do to.

One last thought if you only have a link to itunes on your site as a subscription option, that means you are potentially closing the door on roughly 80 million listeners.

Now with the ipod touch and nano getting more features and a lower price tag, those numbers are only going to grow.

Does Your Podcast Consultant Have an RSS Feed?

RSS (real simple syndication) is the “airwaves” of podcasting. It is how media is delivered. If you go to their website and they have audio/video on a website but no RSS feed, this is very 1999. Audio on a website does not equal a podcast. This person is clueless, and and has no real  clue about the power of podcasting.

I ran across an “expert’s” site today that is obviously created in Dreamweaver, MicroSoft Front Page (I know they don’t make Front Page anymore I picked that on purpose). Without an RSS feed, this podcast “expert” is the same as a Car Salesmen who drives a bike. They have no clue about the technology they are an “Expert” in.

Does Your Podcasting Expert Have a Podcast?
I amazed at people who are claiming to be “experts” at podcast who are coming out of radio. While radio will help you learn how to talk on mic, learn how to interview, learn about gear, radio is not podcasting. Time after time I see a podcast consultant with a radio background and no podcast.  With this in mind I now say I am a cow milking expert. I’ve lived in the country, and I’ve seen cows, so I am now a cow milking expert.  The bottom line is you can’t be an expert of something you have no experience actually doing.

If they do have a podcast can you find it easily? Podcast promotion 101, make it easy to subscribe to your podcast, and deliver it in whatever format the audience wants it in. If you can’t find it in one format, this person is a moron.

My Podcast Expert DOES have a Podcast?

Lucky you – your podcast expert has a podcast. Go listen to it. Is it good? Is their album art, transitions, and other items that make it sound professional? Does it sound like it was recorded under water? Most importantly is the information they are providing any good? I have seen Internet marketing gurus start podcasts that end up being 15 minutes of how great they are, and why you should send them money. I know other podcast experts that spend the last (literally) 5 minutes begging for business. This turns their podcast into a show on PBS where they interrupt to ask for donations. Pimping your services is fine. However, when it takes up the majority of the show you are not a good example of a podcast?

Can You Contact Your Podcast Coach?

Do they have contact information – more importantly a phone number. You want someone you can contact. Now I realize that a phone number will probably go right to voicemail, but do they even have the option of calling a voicemail number? I’ve seen ebook after ebook that wants your email address, your age, your location, etc (and all you want is a free ebook). So now they can contact (spam) you – but you can’t contact them. That seems fair.

I’m not saying a person should publish their home phone number. But there are ways to put contact information (email, voicemail) on a website so at least you can nudge them.

Has Your Podcast Guru Been Around For More Than 6 Months?

When the recession hit the United States, many people went and started their own business. Some purchased one day passes to the School of Podcasting, spent all day watching tutorials, and then hung a sign out front as they launched their new “Podcast Consultant” business. I am listening to a podcaster who started their podcast in February of 2009 (7 months ago) and is claiming to be “THE” broadcaster on the Internet.

I realize you don’t have to be old to be wise. But there is no substitute for experience.

Does Your Podcast Consultant Only Show You ONE Way to Podcast?

While there may be more efficient ways of podcasting (for example a music podcast can shave hours off their production time by using a multi track recording process to create their pocast), but the truth is there are multiple ways to create a podcast. Each has it’s own pros and cons. Podcasting is not a one size fits all. Your podcast coach should talk to you, listen to what you want to do, and suggest a solution. This solution (key point) should also include an explanation of why this is the best solution.

Some podcast consultants only offer one way to podcast as they want to steer your toward a path that includes affiliate links and commissions. Now I know, I use affiliate links to products. I also provide more than one way to podcast, and can take any path you’ve started and make it work. I have guidelines – not restrictions – for podcasting.

My Inspiration

As a podcast consultant who has been podcasting since 2005, I get frustrated when I see people coming into my industry who are going to lead people in the wrong direction, take their money, and leave them with a bad taste in their mouth when they hear the word “podcasting.”

Podcasting is a great word wide delivery mechanism with huge amounts of potential. Radio is dieing on the vine along with newspapers. More and more stations are replacing live DJs with prerecorded sound bites announcing the name and artist of a song. These segments are put into automatied systems leaving the DJ out of a job. With this in mind, I wish them good luck in their pursuit of a job in a bad economy. I also remind them of a key fact.

Radio is not podcasting.

When I started podcasting in April of 2005 there was very, VERY little about podcasting. Since then we’ve

Had Apple embrace it.
Had Microsoft put the word “podcast” on a product.
Had Yahoo embrace it, and then drop it.
Had a podcaster as a guest on Oprah
Had podcasters move into CBS radio and cable networks.
Had podcasters/musicians sell more music than ever before.
Had universities start to “time shift” their lectures ensuring better grades.
Showed a continued growth in listeners and downloads
Had podcasters play bass for their childhood heroes band.
Held conferences for podcasters that had hundreds of people attend.
A search for the “podcast” now returns 110,000,000 results.
Listed 66,140 podcasts at podcastalley.com
Giggled at the name podcastpickle.com
Learned that free hosting typically does not last
Learned that getting rich quick from a podcast has yet to be done.
Learned that you will be seen as an expert becuase of your podcast.
Learned that Cali Lewis‘ laugh never gets old
Seen the guy who invented the word “podfade” um… Podfade

What else, I’m not done but I’ve got to go interview Brother Love for a future episode of the Power of Podcasting

On dance company has used their podcast to tell their story and (I guess this is rare) pulled a profit for the year. When I said “This is great, when can we set up an interview?” I was asked about my audience. When I explained it’s a new show, but I should get between 500-1000 downloads with my different podcasts promoting it I was told.

“I have to apologize.  I thought you represented a news outlet.”

To this I replied:

“Keep in mind it was a blogger that scooped the story on Dan Rather’s lack of fact checking. And it was a single musician who got United Airlines to apologize after their youtube video got over 2 million views (in one week) about how the company broke the musicians guitar. While podcast numbers are up over 45% from last year, story after story shows how “traditional” media like newspapers are going out of business

I am the media.”

We have parted friends (this I believe was a publicist) and I can use anything we exchanged via email.

I want to thank them for inspiring me to make this one of the best podcasts I ever produce.

If you can answer the question, “If it wasn’t for my podcast I _______” then I’d love to interview you for my “Power of Podcasting” show (coming September 2009).

“We will no longer be supporting the WildVoice.com site as of July 1, 2009. The site will shutdown sometime on or after that date.

We’re sure you’ve noticed that WildVoice has not developed the type of thriving community that a free site on the Internet requires to survive. We’ve finally decided that we will not be continuing. You should take this time to download any of your shows from the site that you may not have copies of.”

I’ve said it before, and I say it now. When you pay $0.00 for your podcasting tools you get what you pay for. FREE is not a business model (well its not a business model that works). There are so many great tools to host a WordPress blog ($5 month), and to host your media. I’m a big fan of Libsyn.com ($12/month)I love their stats), and some people are using Amazon S3. The point here is you can be a podcaster and spend less than $20 a month.

Go look into how much it costs to advertise on radio, newspaper, or billboards, and you will see that reaching a global audience for less than $20 a month is the most affordable way to reach your target market.

1. Then Name of Your Podcast

One show is titled, “Zelda Working Title Podcast.” Some times the show’s name is an inside joke. If you have to explain your name – you have made a mistake. If you have to spell your name to people – you’ve made a mistake. Realize this is the FIRST thing people may see when they google your podcast, or search for you in iTunes or other podcast directories.

2. The name of the episodes.

If we stay with “Zelda Working Title Podcast” their last episode was called “Episode 6.” While I may google “Wii speak” I will not EVER google “episode 6.” The name of your SHOW may get people to stop and look, the name of your episodes will get them to CLICK. As episode 6 is about Animal Crossing for Wii then title it “Animal Crossing for Wii.”

3. Get to the point

When I downloaded episode 6 it is 90 minutes long.  For me to hang on for 90 minutes you better have well organized segments, and some sort of table of contents at the beginning of the show so I know what I’m getting into. Everybody is busy and the one thing we need more of is time, and 90 minutes of time is a big investment.  When I listened to the show I heard about 4(?) hosts all suffering from what I call “Morning Zoo Syndrome” where you can say something like “Stop sign” and get HUGE laughs.  Lots of giggling, lots of trying to crack jokes on each other, and very little effort into the actual content of the show. In episode 5 you state in the description, “This is a crazy mess,” and yet you ask “Why don’t I have any listeners?” You don’t have any listeners because your podcast is a crazy mess.

I would never make an episode longer than 80 minutes as it won’t fit on a CD (and yes some people do that to listen in the car).

4. Your Production is Annoying

You should LISTEN to your podcast before you publish it. At the Zelda Working Title Podcast there is a very annoying echo. This is probably due to recording over skype with multiple hosts (and someone has their recording settings to “Wav out mix” ) but none the less (ess ess ess) its very (ery ery ery) annoying.

If you have phenomenal content I MAY sit through crappy production. However, if your production is crap, and your material is crap, I will last about 3 minutes.

I am guilty of not listening to a podcast before publishing it (and it had about 4 minutes of silence at the end). We all get in a hurry, I know.

5. Your Branding Sucks

Almost every podcaster has album art for their podcast.  Consequently, if you don’t have album art you look very amateurish. You need album art for your podcast (which shows up in iTunes) and you need album art in the mp3 file to give it that polish. Will not having album art cost you listeners? OK, maybe not but it will blow the first impression.

When I went to their website I was not surprised that they were using blogger.

There are no buttons to subscribe in iTunes, or Zune.

There are no play buttons for listening online.

There is no header that ties in with the album art.

I know blogger is free, but you can get a wordpress bog for 5 bucks a month and not only get an RSS feed, but all the power of the great wordpress (free) plugins.This will enable you to automatically update your facebook and twitter feeds every time you post an episode.

Get a domain name. Seriously. They are 10 bucks a year. Go to www.godaddy.com and use the coupon code cooler7 and get it for 8 bucks.

Make it easy to get your content, and provide it in any form people want to consume it (RSS, Online, Email).

6. Failure To Promote The Conversation

Your listeners can be a great resource for feedback and future show topics. However, they need to be able to contact you. This means you have to have contact information that is easy to find on your website, and you should promote your website on your podcast (as they may have found your podcast on some file sharing site, and you need to tell them where the source of the file is).  You can even get a toll free number for $2 a month and have the voice messages emailed to you.

7. Delivery Schedule

Your content should be consistent, and your publishing schedule should be consistent (especially when you first start out). This is one of my issues where I occasionally have a problem. Whatever your schedule you pick, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, whenever you feel like it. Try to stay consistent. People will rely on your show for information and entertainment. When you fail to deliver you may be seen as unreliable.

Summary

Content is king. If you want listeners, develop good content. Deliver it in an organized fashion that will move people to laugh, cry, think, try, or groan.

If you are trying to podcast for free, it can be done but you might get what you pay for (and is $10-$20 a month really too much? how much do you spend at starbucks each month?).

Deliver your podcast in any format people want to receive it, and make sure every version of your show points back to your website and has contact information.

Take the time to make a good first impression with your website, your album art etc.

You need to do more than put your podcast in iTunes to have a successful podcast. You need to relentlessly promote it, but if you have great content your listeners will tell their friends.

Make sure your production does not hinder the cnsumption of your show.

Vinny informed me that sight impaired individuals using screen reading software can’t play flash players. However, if there is a flash player and some sort of clickable link (to either stream or download) they will be aware of the link and be able to locate and use it.

As Vinny is the second sight impaired person I’ve helped (my first being the Sessions With Slau Podcast ). One thing to keep in mind that there is a large, and very loyal audience. Making your website accessible to the site impaired is something we all should make an effort to do.

Another easy step we can make is when you make a link, or add a graphic, be sure you enter the alternative text (this is that text that “pops up” when you put your mouse over them).

Lastly, if your blog post has multiple paragraphs (or multiple subjects in regards to a “show notes” for a podcast) use headings. I use Heading 3 a lot as it basically makes the text bold (Which is the effect I’m looking for), and headings are very useful for those using screen reading software.

I’m getting married that day to the Nurse

Well the problem is many people think Podcasting as if it is Radio where you might get $10-$15 per 1000 listeners. The key point is, you have to have the radio on at the time, and be listening. If not you miss it - you miss it. With podcasting that advertisement will be there tomorrow, and it will be there a year from now. People find a podcast and go back and download all the old episodes (with the advertisement). So if they think a podcast is the same as radio, they are HORRIBLY mistaken.

There are other things to consider. Will you put a link to their website on your website? Is there an image, banner, etc. You can use these to negotiate price with the potential advertiser.

YOU need to prove that you are sending the  advertiser traffic.  I recommend getting some sort of click tracking software ( Cloak and Tracker is my favorite ) so I can say “I’ve delivered 152 visitors to your site). An alternative is to have the advertiser set up a landing page (www.theirwebsites.com/podcast) so they can see the traffic and KNOW it came from you. You might also see if the advertiser has a way to produce a coupon or a special deal (again so they know that when this coupon was used, that customer came from your podcast). You have to provide the proof.

I am actually making more money with affiliate marketing instead of selling CPM (cost per thousand). When the visitor buys using a unique link from me, I get a commission. This works when you find the right product that matches your audience. You can find affiliate program at places like Share a Sale, and Commission Junction. You also need to make it easy to get to your affiliate link. So you can set up a subdomain on your website that redirects to your affilaite link. You can also set up an entire store if you are using Amazon.com’s affiliate tools. To see this in action go to http://shop.growyourchurchshow.com (however Amazon requires a TON of traffic to make any significant money).

As for how much to charge, if you’re going the CPM route, somewhere around $15 – $20 CPM is unfortunately very low, but typical (well actually a pipe dream). I feel this is because people don’t understand that the advertisement is permanent (unless you go back and edit it out). This model pays the bills when you have 10,000 listeners per episode. That works for a chosen few podcasters.

Doing a quick google search on CPM pricing for radio. I found the following:

according to an August study from the IAB and Bain Capital, the average CPMs on ad networks ranged from 60 cents to $1.10

$9 CPM for a radio spot

$1-$2 per CPM
So you can see where when I say “$10-$15″ per CPM, I’m already getting more than radio. The bad news is I don’t have the audience of radio.

On the other side, I got a $200 affiliate check last week. If I was selling CPM at $20 (again, some would call that a fantasy) I would have had to have 10,000 downloads. As most of my podcasts have about 500 listeners that would’ve taken me about 5 months or $10 a show. The good news is I’ve been promoting this program for about two months (not five). I’ve done 8 shows in two months, so that means I’m getting paid $25 a show (or $50 per cpm 25/500 X 1000 – I think my math is correct)). I won’t retire on this, but with affiliate marketing I make just as much (if not more) than CPM, and its ever green. I get paid whenever a visitor acts (not if the advertiser decides to renew their agreement).

Just remember if you have advertising, you are going to have to prove that you sent them traffic (if you want them to renew their advertising when it runs out).

Once again Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian are rolling out Podcast Secrets 2009. The best part is this year in addition to their  considerable knowledge (Paul as the Geek and Alex as the Marketing Guru)  they have added a bunch (technical term) of faculty members (including ME!). Big time heavy hitters like Michael Geohagen (author of the book “The Business Podcasting Book), Jason Van Orden (author of Promoting Your Podcast), Mike Stewart (the Internet Audio Guy), and many many more.

If you want to get a glimpse of the information, (topics like rapid podcast creation, integrating your business into a podcast, knowing your audience, and more) you can attend the Preview call (normally $99) for 20 bucks.

Sign up for the preview call and save $79 here.

The potential for income is limitless.

Unlike Amway and Avon, there are no start up fees, and nothing to sell.

Make money while you sleep.

Um, ok sure.  I looked further and they openly admit they are a pyramid set up. A LEGAL pyramid setup that is being used by entrepreneurs and charities. Charities? yep like Special Olympics, Ronald McDonald House, Big Brothers Big Sisters,  and many more.

So you can sign up as a dedicated shopper and the money back bonuses go directly to you. You can become a network partner and the bonuses need to equal $1.75 (so if you but a $20 gift certificate you’re good for the month. I purchased a $25 gift certificate for $10). If you earn more than $1.75 it rolls over to the next month. I purchased two subscriptions to magazines and I’m good for two months. Then if you get 5 friends to sign up, and they become partners (AHA!) you start to earn commissions on their participation.

So the closest thing I’ve found is your firends have to sign up as partners and meet their monthly $1.75 commission.  But if you have people that shop online on a regular basis…

So there is no start up fee, no kits to buy (Avon), and I don’t have to sell anything (Amway), or annoy my firends to have a party (Pampered Chef). They sign up and shop like they normally do at the stores they normally do (picture a really, REALLY big mall with places like Dick’s sporting goods, iTunes, Barnes and noble, home depot, macy’s best buy, and many, money more) and save with coupons (like 15% of four order at Dicks).

You can also listen to my investigation as it continues at www.shopwurldpodcast.com

The only catch I find is you have to know friends with a computer who buy stuff occasionally online. It doesn’t cost anything to join, no kits, and no annoying your friends. Once they sign up, you’re done and they shop per usual, and you make money (If you want to).

Check out this video for more Shopwurld info.

Haven’t tried it yet, and iphone users need to read the instructions carefully (or they will wipe out their contacts on their phone). but this could be the ticket for me.

Here is the information:

Jott Basic and Jott’s other free voice-to-text services will not be available after February 2nd, 2009. Click here to learn more about why we’re making this important change. To get an additional 10% off a paid annual Jott subscription when you upgrade, go to the billing page for your account by February 2nd and enter the promo code “JOTT3308075236″ for the Jott plan, or “PRO3308075236″ for Jott Pro and hit the “Apply” button. This discount only applies for existing Jott customers like you. Upgrade today!

They have a Jott Basic at $3.95 a month or or #9.50 a year.  Jott Pro is 12.95 a month or 129.50 a year.  They also have a pay as you go plan where 10 minutes cost $9.95 (again prices go down the more you buy).

Congratulations to Jott for realizing that you need to charge money to stay in business!

I had an email exchange with Doug from Podango today. He said there are people who are interested in purchasing the technology that Podango originally purchased from Gigavox. He said it would be coming back as a paid service (after some enhancements are done to the system (like making it work – I was on show 62 and was surprised to see the system stopped uploading my shows 18 shows ago).

They are asking current users what they would pay for the system on a monthly basis.This is hard to answer as is this on a per show basis? Can I sign up and have multiple podcasts under one account? They should create a payment structure based on episodes (as I just moved 30 episodes I would pay to NOT have to do that again).

I would pay anywhere from $10-20 a month per show.

In a live call last night with Cliff Ravenscraft Michael Geohegan of Gigavox said they couldn’t do anything with the technology as they had indeed sold it to Podango. As he put it, “If you sell someone a car and they go out of business you don’t get the car back (Editor’s note: I’m paraphrasing). ”

The thing that makes me scratch my head and play arm chair quarterback, is if the software had been “enhanced” and Podango charged to use the service, could they have avoided this situation?

For anyone who purchases this technology I say make it Amazon S3 compatible and you will be a no brainer.

Podcast Uderground last published May 2008
Podonomoics last published July 2007
Podcast Planning last published April 2007
Profitable Podcasting last published October 2007
Podcast Tools last published April 2008
Kick My Apps – Mar 2007

The last one (Kick My Apps) had only ONE episode. How does a show get on a network with just one episode? Wasn’t the idea to find the best shows, group them together, and the sell advertisements across all of them? Who would advertise where the majority of shows have “Podfaded.”

In the meantime I am DEADLY afraid of losing their show builder lite technology (that they they purchased from Gigavox). While the system had its flaws, it was the only one of its type that the average podcaster could afford (free). I’ve been saying they should’ve taken that system and CHARGED for it. They were using Amazon S3 for the back end, so it wouldn’t take much to turn a profit. My hope is that Gigavox can now bring it back under their name when it used to work), and allow us to use it.

Now is podcasting dead? No. What we learned was:

There is no such thing as free hosting.
You can’t stay in business if you don’t charge for your service.
Content is king.
If you can’t charge for it becuase its broken, fix it so you can.
If you need to sell advertising, you need a sales staff.

It should be interesting as other networks (Mevio) are using the same business model (only slightly adapted to be more slanted towards affiliate marketing instead of actual sales ads). However, in this model if people don’t purchase the products, you don’t make money.

My best to Lee and Doug – two really nice guys.

2009 should be fun to watch. Podcasting is not dead for those who pay to have their communal house built on good content and communication with their audience. It’s still about relationships. You build the relationship with good content.

Today I was thinking about the things that didn’t go so well. Here are some of the things that went south in 2008.

Podpress was a great plugin. I never used all the features (as they often didn’t work). It added alot of versatility to your blog. When the new versions of WordPress came out, it broke podpress. The good news is between blubrry powerpress and the good old old fashioned “audio player” plugin from 1 pixel I’ve been able to find satisfactory alternatives. From what I’ve heard in a few podcasts, WordPress supplied the code to fix podpress to the people who support it, and they still haven’t updated their plugin.  I am actually implementing the 1 pixle player on my “Logical Weight Loss” podcast (www.logicalloss.com) and I am using the plugin to put a “subscribe in itunes” pre roll.

Mevio.  – thats all I can say. I have more potential going into 2009 using the company, but I can’t pay my bills with potential. Hopefully these are just growing pains on my way to “quitting my day job.”

My deepest disappointment was back in April of 2008 I had mentioned that the Podango Show Builder Lite tool had been broken (from what I understand it was fragile to start with). It works, but the automatic updating of advertising in your podcasts does not. Lee from Podango had commented on the post and I felt better knowing they were working on it. I sent an e-mail to Lee last week, but have not received an update (as its not been fixed).

I believe that this is a tool that some podcasters would pay for. For those that are doing affiliate marketing as an income this is a great tool (and let’s face it many of the “big” podcast networks are simply doing affiliate marketing). It would be great if the single podcaster had a tool that could dynamically create podcasts based on “pieces parts” that they upload. Then when one of the pieces parts is updated, the entire back catalog is updated. This was a great system on paper, and darn it I want one for Chritmas.

With systems like Amazon S3 for the back end, I’m not sure why this is not a reality yet. Can Doug Kaye and the folks at gigavox temporarily get in there and fix it? I know if you use Libsyn Pro they have a simliar system (but a little expensive for the average podcaster). There is a need here companies. There is a niche.

Santa, can you please send someone to fill it?

This is ironic as I recommend that people own their own domain, their own wordpress installation, but I dank the Google Kool-aid and believed that I would be fine. When I first started I announced an email from my domain that forwarded to my gmail account, and later just started announcing my gmail address as my primary email.

If I had continued to use my domain’s email account I could’ve used gmail to check my email. If gmail goes down, I could use outlook, or may other web based systems. However, if there is a problem with Gmail I am at the mercy of google support.

If you are starting a podcast, use your domain’s email account (J just made a tutorial that shows how to create email accounts). This way you can stay in control. Amy I complaining? No, after all what are they going to do give me my money back?

First I called in, and they couldn’t find my account (while my account worked fine to listen online). The phone person told me to call back in a few days as they were having system issues. I did, and that person had the same problem. I even gave them the number off my radio. They could somehow find part of my information, but not enough to cancel my subscription. They gave me  case number 18309227 so I wouldn’t have to jump back through the same hoops. Every time I went through this I would be asked to call them back in a few days or a week. I explained that if I was charged again, I would reverse the charges. They said they understood (they did, and I didn’t).

Finally this week I called back a little more “cut the crap” forceful. I got someone on the phone who said, “That’s weird I found your information right here.” He asked why I was canceling, and then passed me over to the cancellation department where I waited on hold for 28 minutes. I was very close to hanging up. Keep in mind I’m only saving 12 bucks a month, and the process of canceling was getting expensive.

The Cancellation Department

When I got on the phone with the cancellation department I explained how I was cutting back. I have no gripes against them and think they put out a good product. However, I basically have it to listen to Howard and I never caught all the show. Then things got interesting.

“How about if we put your account on hold for two months?” (suspend payments). “No Thank you,” I said.

“How about if we add two free months (a total of four months then).” “Um, I appreciate the offer but no thank you.”

She continued, “OK, Mr Jackson you had said you switched cars and you need a new antenna?” Yes and I don’t want to put out the money for the antenna or the installation.

“What if we sent you a new antenna and paid for the installation?” I was surprised. “Um, well…. I do appreciate the offer, but I’m still going to have a monthly payment… so no thank you. ” I said.

“What if we gave you a new radio as well?” she asked.” “I have a radio already, but what kind of radio? Now you have my attention. Is this one of those portable jobs that works indoors with Wifi? If so, I may have to think about this (as those go for 200 bucks). “No, its for your car.” she answered. “In that case no thank you.”

So to keep me on board they were willing to give me

4 free months
1 radio
1 antanea
1 paid installation of equipment.

What would’ve kept me?

A Howard Stern Podcast.

Put me in control of the content. Let me decide to sleep in and listen when I want, where I want. Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Dave Ramsey all are syndicated nationally and all have podcasts that you pay for (some give away portions for free). Sirius should not think of themselves as a “Satellite Radio” company but an “Information” company and deliver the information in whatever way their listeners want it. Are you going to tell me the bandwidth bill would be more than launching a satellite into space?  Mel Karmazin are you listening? There are tools like premiumcast.com that will help you sell your podcast. THis is surprising as Howard is such a brilliant businessman, and really truly understands radio. Howard Stern started a popular genre of podcasting. There would be no Dawn and Drew, no Keith and the Girl, if it wasn’t for Howard Stern. He was the first to put it all out there. He talked about his personal life, he let his emotions flow, and he was as real as you can get.

Now the power of a time shifted podcast is putting a squeeze on Sirius as they were willing to pay me at least 200 bucks to stay. I’ll miss you Howard. Call me when its time to set up your podcast.

The one thing I am listening for is their “Plugin of the week.” They have recommended some really great plugins. To this I wish, “I wish their podcast was simply the plugin of the week.” Now there may be a plugin of the week podcast, but that is an example of my, “I wish this podcast existed.” If it did I would listen religiously. As for now I fast forward through the beta talk, fast forward through the parts where Beth takes them off topic (Hey this plugin has great colors… this website has tops on cooking!), and get right to the plugin of the week section. That is the magic of podcasting (the fast forward button).

What podcast do you wish existed?

One episode is “What its like to have a McJob?”  The first year of the McDonalds is the “McDonalds you don’t know.” These episodes show community work that different owners are doing. These seemed focused, but the podcasts in 2008 seem a bit lost. If nothing else, one can say one of the largest companies in the world has a podcast.  Aside from that, there is not much to listen to.

The solution?  We obtained our own web host (I like hostgator, great price, and great support, or if you’re on a budget try my hosting solution at www.coolerwebsites.com – phenomenal price, with ok service ) and put wordpress on it. Now he has complete control. But what about the premium content?

We are going to use premiumcast.com Originally I thought of just unpublishing his back episodes, and copying and pasting it into premiumcast. Then you lose the google juice (as these episodes would no longer show up on the site). So I looked at what podbean did. They left the post the but restricted the listener (so the google juice was there, the content was not).

You can pull this off by replacing the media file (audio in this case) with a “you can hear this episode along with the entire back catalogue by becoming a premium subscriber, click the button below and become a premium member today” audio file. On that same blog post, have a sign up button from premiumcast. The great thing about premiumcast is the visitor never leaves your site. They sign up at your site, and never know what service your using.

The question we are pondering about selling back issues is should you offer a one time payment for all of them, or offer one episode a week for a monthly fee. The useful thing is in premiumcast you could create both and allow the visitor to choose (one feed with a time release, and one with immediate delivery).

The one tip I can provide is if you originally signed up with podbean, you are going to need to redirect the iTunes feed. You can do this by going into podbean, and under the iTunes settings put <itunes:new-feed-url>the rss to your new blog or feedburner</itunes:new-feed-url> in the box labeled “additional feed entity.”

So what do you think is a better way to go, a one time fee for all back episodes (say 50 bucks) or a monthly fee of $5 bucks for 4 episodes?

You can find it over at Lord Lifted Me Live and its about 10 minutes.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006542

The only thing I didn’t like about Semiologic was that all my eggs were in the basket of the developer. He is a nice guy, but none the less, if he got hit by a truck, I’d be out of luck for support. Well the interesting news is he has sold the software company to a new person who as he put it, “As a bonus I can readily picture him raining the company’s cash onto itself in order to develop it faster — I would probably have kept underfunding it to a point where excessive growth rates are not sustainable.”

So it sounds like more development (included a hosted version) will be coming in the future.

Check it out at www.wordpresstool.com

This took me about 10 minutes with some quick images and they provide the music. www.animoto.com

1. Speed control. If I’m tired of the dramatic pauses of Dan Klass during the bitterest pill, I can move the speed control to 7 and now they are just a quick blurb (just kidding Dan, don’t go changing). Dan also sounds like a chipmunk. This makes an already funny podcast even funnier.

2. The ability to use it on multiple computers. I recorded an interview a few weeks ago that I will be editing today. I need to listen to it so I can see where I need to edit. I plugged in my iriver, dragged and dropped the file and I will listening to it in the car on the way back home.  This is the ying to the “easy of synchronization” yang of the ipod.

So while I miss being able to synchronize my player (which means I manually have to keep track of what I’ve listened to in my head). I do like the ability to speed up the play back speed, the ability to skip ahead FAST, and a battery life that shatters the ipod.

 No Competition For the iPod

The bad news? They don’t make this unit anymore (except at ebay) if you want one. In fact when I went to Best Buy to look at the ipods and other alternatives, there were hardly any alternatives. No wonder Apple has such a giant share of the market. They are pretty much the only option. If you want something above 8 gigs (I’d love a 30-60 gig), they are the only option at Best Buy (I didn’t even see a Zune – which was very surprising). They had about 10 models total. Four or 5 of those were iPods. Then they had a few Scandisk, and some other brand I had never heard of. I checked and iriver is still in business (http://iriverinc.com/) they just don’t have any visibility at Best Buy (next stop Walmart? I guess as every Circuit City and CompUSA has gone out of business in my neck of the woods).

I know there are expected iPod announcements this week. I’l be patient. In the meantime any iPod alternatives that you recomened?

You can sign up for the School of Podcasting now through the end
of September using the coupon code ” bts ” (short for Back To
School) and save big.

Don’t be one of those people who will plan to prepare a test of
the beta of the plan…..

It’s time to jump in and reach that global audience (I got voice mail last week from Vienna).

This coupon can be used with our multiple month packages. So you can save even more money.
Sign up today at
http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/members/signup.php

If I remember right I spent around 400 bucks for this thing that itunes won’t recognize, and when it does recognize it, it can’t restore it. It’s pretty much “send it off to get it fixed.”  So it lasted 30 months. This means it lasts (roughly) 900 days or .44 a day.

I can send it to depot.info.apple.com who will repair my 400 ipod for another 200 bucks (includes shipping and handling). I can go buy an 80 gig Ipod classic for $239 (or Zune…. hmmm) for $236 bucks. This is the “Wonderful” support I always hear from the Mac Elite? Naw, Steve knows I’ve got all the accessories and I will stay with the ipod brand so I don’t have to buy new decks, speakers, cases, etc.

All I know is I can’t afford either right now, and those weekly trips to Cleveland are going to be long. Thank God for my Satellite radio.  I guess I’ll ask my good friend google where I can get it repaired.

Thesis Showcase Gallery

The layout panel allows you to set up your blog to be 1, 2, or 4 columns as well as specify the width of the columns.  Combining the font features, and the layout features means your blog won’t look like everyone else’s blog.

There are also built in SEO boosting tools like the title tag constructor.  Color customization is coming along the way as well.

When you join the Thesis community before August 31, 2008, you not only get all the goodness that is Thesis, plus all that amazing support, you also get the innovative new Cosmo magazine-style theme at no extra charge.

The price? $87 for Personal Use (one site), or $164 for Developers (unlimited sites, whether yours or clients). Which is a whole lot less then Semiologic (granted this doesn’t come with a bunch of pre uploaded plugins, but if you’re on a budget and want power, flexibility, and SEO tools, this may be the theme for you.

Then I got a position where I was training different people at newspapers (same job different position as I HATED being in charge (babysitting) the training department). unfortunately, back came the tie. A few years later I was back to business casual (with a new position).

It’s been many moons since I’ve worn a tie. Everyone is happy with business casual. However, tomorrow I start my position as a “teacher’s assistant” at Stark State College (where I got my first degree, and if they have an education degree program where I would’ve obtained this degree). I need to dig through my closet and find some long sleeved shirts and some ties.

It’s like being on one side of a hill, and smelling the flowers on the other side. I’ve got four classes to go (taking two now), and I will be returning to the “Corporate” world. It will be weird not having such a flexible schedule. It will also be nice have a little cash in the bank. The good news is ties got COOL. Check out the Wild Ties link at the begining of the post. Pink Floyd Ties – woo hoo!

We know that podcasting reaches further than any radio signal (except maybe satellite), ok, podcasting is available FREE to anyone around the globe. It’s nice to be reminded every now and then.

What other marketing plan lets you spend about $300 USD and reach the world? (there isn’t one…)

Its time to start podcasting…

“Sales, development and support of PodcastStation has been discontinued and PodcastStation software is no longer available.

We appreciate the loyalty of our fans and hardcore users, but the simple fact is that the cost of maintaining the product far exceeded its ability to generate income.

For our registered users, we will be posting technical support FAQs on our Podcast Station site soon, including instructions for re-registration. ”

This was an interesting peice of technology. There were some problems when I initially made a tutorial for the School of Podcasting 

1. It didn’t work with my sound card, and my coputer was only 4 years old (standard Dell).
2. It tried to do everything (create rss, edit audio, etc).

 I liked some of the audio editing tools, but the fact that there were programs like Pod Producer and WordPress (which makes your RSS) it’s just hard to compete.

I thought, “Awesome download the rm file and convert it to an ipod compatible format.” – Not so fast.

When you click the “Download video” what you end up doing is “re-recording” the video into an irv file. So it takes 2 hours to record a two hour movie – that’s convienient. Then you go into the “burn and transfer” part of the real player to transfer it to your ipod. This means it will now convert the irv file to an ipod format.

Well the video I watched was 2 hours. I’m sitting here adding (converting) it to my ipod and I’m 6% done and it has taken ONLY 15 minutes. So who knows how long it will take to “download the video” to my ipod so I can take my homework with me (are you listening Akron University?). If I wanted to spend 4+ hours watching a two hour movie this makes sense. In the meantime, save your 30 bucks and stick with the free real player (after all, except for my college, I don’t know anybody that is using this format in the first place).

“Failure to plan, is planning to fail.”

Michael Geoghegan started Grape Radio with one intent: to make it a business. He planned his success, and the last time I checked he was being played as part of the in flight entertainment on airplanes. Not to shabby. By producing great content, he can ask for (and get) great advertising revenue. It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of great content, and it takes a little luck. Michael had a plan. He also knows it takes time to create great content, and it takes a lot of work.

The article states that, “Making programs is a labor-intensive process requiring special skills.” To this I ask, “Please show me a technology where you can reach the world for less than 300 dollars start up cost, and the skills needed are basic file management, the ability to work a word processor (Word Press), and the ability to talk.  I’ve helped 60+ year old people with Alzheimer’s learn how to podcast. It’s not that hard. Special Skills?

Being an organ grinder requires “Special skills” (how to turn a crank, oh yeah and you need a Monkey).  Let’s not get too silly shall we?

I think the lack of a plan is because Podcasting is still relatively new. We are throwing things on the wall to see if they stick. However, if nothing sticks we get frustrated and quit. There needs to be a plan. In my last episode of the School of Podcasting I comment on Paul Colligan’s Post that we need to quit “preaching to the choir.”

The article makes a great statement: “that means just over four million Americans are listening (or watching) podcasts on a given day — out of a total population of more than 300 million Americans.” To this I say, four down, 296 million to go.

I don’t think people realize that when they get into it, a one minute podcast will take 4 minutes to produce. A 15 minute podcast will takes an hour to produce. If you are doing video..um… OOFAH, you might want to double that (rendering video is a sloooooow process).

With this in mind dear podcasters do the following:

Pick your topic wisely
Plan how you will promote it
Plan how you monetize it (if you want)
Figure out where your fans are (and go there)
Think good and hard about “starting a second, third, fourth, podcast
Always remember that content is king, and production is queen.
Consistentcy will create fans you can count on because they count on you.

I don’t really have an opinion because I never heard about Podtech (probably part of the problem). I only knew they hired “big name” people, and um… that’s it.  When I look at their directory of shows they seem to have some interesting topics (especially in the tech field).

In the meantime the little company that everyone loves to hate “Mevio” as secured their third round of funding.

Here are some other points from the story.

In the last six months alone, MEVIO launched a new online entertainment network, doubled the amount of media it delivers, re-branded the company (formerly PodShow) and introduced a growing lineup of top shows that generate over 50 million views per month, strictly from MEVIO’s wholly-owned properties and without the benefit of integration of an ad network.

In May of 2008, the company attracted over 9 million unique monthly visitors, up over 800 percent in the last twelve months. For the second quarter of 2008, MEVIO estimates page-views to exceed 140 million, up over 1,800 percent quarter over quarter.

But podcasting is dead right?

I did a presentation titled “Podcasting in Plain English.” It was geared towards people just getting into podcasting. A person who knows NOTHING about podcast. I thought I was going to have 60 minutes, and I had 50. That is 100%  my fault, and in the end the 20 minutes I was going to have for Q&A was 10. I accept responsibility for this, and apologize. However, everyone made it to their next session on time.

Apparently Owen Winkler did not like my presentation. While he did say it was ”decent,” he states on his blog that he didn’t like my analogy for bandwidth stating,

“For example, “bandwidth” is not “number of cars on a bridge,” but rather, “the width of the bridge, which increases its capacity to hold cars.” 

To this I say: Bandwidth – if you don’t have unlimited (Which was my point) – can’t “Change its capacity.” You either pay a bill when you go over your limit, or your site gets turned off. We call cars going over a bridge “traffic” that we would measure by weight. This bridge can only have 50 tons an hour. We call files going over the Internet Bandwidth that we measure by file size. “You can only have 10 gigs of files per month.”

Another question that came up was if you could create a podcast without an RSS feed. I explained that by definition a podcast is delivered via RSS feed. If you put an audio file on your website, and send the link via e-mail it’s “audio on your website” – NOT a podcast.  People did this in the late 90s. Everyone had a flash button that people clicked on to hear audio. That is not a podcast. When Stephen Pierce took his audio generator buttons, and put that content into an RSS feed, it became a podcast. No RSS feed? No Podcast.  From wikipedia “A podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds ”

oh no let’s keep talking about this and waste some time and see if it changes?  Oops there goes me being the Rock Star again…

Then there was a discussion on if you need a blog to create an RSS. When I get a copy of the audio I’m sure you will hear me say, “Yes you do, – then I catch myself – No you don’t.” I mentioned that you can use tools like Feed For All, or NOTEPAD to create your RSS feed, but the easiest way (and again, the target audience here is newbies looking for “easy”) is to create a WordPress Blog. Well apparently Owen was insulted that I didn’t mention Habari who was a sponsor. I’m sorry I don’t know Habari, and apparently Owen loves it. That’s why Owen mentioned it in his presentation and I didn’t in mine. I also didn’t mention Space Blue (as I have no idea what they do either). I see when talking about Habari’s sponsorship he states “not sure what we were expecting for our money.” We? So let me get this straight the guy who works on/with Habri was upset that I was singing the praises of WordPress. OK, this is starting to make sense now (and at least now people know about Habari).

Apprently I ended this “do you need a blog” discussion with “OK, but you really need a blog” and this deeply offended Owen. This was not following the rules of podcamps. I was acting like a “rock star.” (You’re right Owen, the housewife from Dayton will start using Notepad tomorrow). It was not my intention to offend, and to that I say, “I’m sorry.”  Meanwhile in Owen’s presentation about “tools” he was talking about coding tools for writing ajax and java script. To this I point to podcamp rule “The event must be new-media focused – blogging, podcasting, social networking, video on the net.” When somone pointed “hey lets talk about the recording software that everyone is using,” that got “Shot down” and the coding discussion continued. I’m sure the people who were just starting their podcasts enjoyed the session on troubleshooting code. For the record, Owen had some great input on choosing  hosting.

Apparently after I “shot him down”, he says “I should tell you that I did not try after that first session (to chime into sessions) many speakers were set on a path to talk about what they signed up for, and didn’t seem to want to be interrupted from their task.”  This has prompted him to say people shouldn’t sponsor future podcamps, and people shouldn’t attend. I’m sorry you feel this way, but on the other hand, people know about Habari now!

So I’m confused.

I understand you don’t want 60 minutes of lecture with no chance for questions.  You need a leader to help stear the conversation into appropriate, and useful  areas that will not waste the attendee’s time. I will agree, my presentation could’ve been more “open” but you will hear on the tape where I frequently ask “Any Questins?” Looking back I should’ve asked, “what are you using?”.  If a presenter “guides” the conversation is he/she acting like a Rock star?

So if you have kids, hug them a little tighter tonight. If you haven’t talked to your parents lately, call them now. If you are arguing with someone, holding a grudge, put down your pride and pick up the phone.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

My presentation “Podcasting in plain english” is tomorrow at 10.

He started his podcast (that features interviews of Christians about their connection with Jesus) on April 17th, and now he is getting about 75 visitors a day, and he is getting one order a day. So while traffic has not gone wait up, the quality of the visitor has gone up, and that quality has increased business by 7 times.

If you are looking to start a Podcast Check out the School Of Podcasting where you can learn how to podcast. You can also hear J.R.’s testimonial on the Members Testimonial page. If you are looking for a Podcast Turnkey solution, check out www.podcastfastpass.com

Here is the great part. Even with a technical glitch, and even with explaining what he was doing Paul set up a Membership site in about 20 minutes. Later when I went back and tried one myself, I clocked in right around 5 minutes.

The other cool thing is it used to be “Do you want a membership site, or premium podcast feed?” It was kind of an either or situation, and now Paul’s system offers BOTH.  People can sign up and login to the members area, subscribe to a premium feed, and never come back (and still get every ounce of “members only” material). You can also choose to just have a “traditional” membership site (no premium podcast feed).

The other cool thing is he has a built in API system that allows you to do, well, anything Premiumcast can’t do (um I can’t think of any). An example might be to have the Premiumcast system “talk” to your system. I’ve never used this feature (a bit too technical for me), but its nice to know its there if needed.

The only difference between Premiumcast and a software package like amember is ameber runs on your site (and thus there is only a one time fee). However, I can say in the last few months the monthly fees to Premiumcast have paid for many, many  new features (coupons, numerous  pricing options for selling digital products and more – I expect it to do my laundry any day now). You just can’t do all the stuff premiumcast does with those other systems. I’ve loved premiumcast since day 1, and it just keeps getting better. 

Check it out at Premiumcast.com

Wednesday June 25, 12p Pacific / 3p Eastern
Building A Web 2.0 Membership Site In 60 Minutes Or Less

Thursday July 3rd, 12p Pacific / 3p Eastern
The Seven Secrets Of Web (2.0) Design

Wednesday July 9, 12p Pacific / 3p Eastern
Affiliate Marketing In A New Media Market

Wednesday July 16, 12p Pacific / 3p Eastern
What Your Mom (And Your Consultant) Won’t Tell You About Blogging

Wednesday, July 23, 12p Pacific / 3p Eastern
Twittering Your Business Without Twittering Away Your Life

I will be attending  the one on building a membership site at least. I know these feature has been added to Paul’s already robust Premium Cast Service, and I can wait to see how to set up a memberhsip site (as I get a request every week to set one up). If you want to end thse webinars (they are all free) go to http://www.paulcolligan.com/2008/06/18/freesummerwebinars/ and sign up.

I don’t know who this guy is, but he seems to have a grasp on reality.

http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/articlepages.htm

The whole site is about how the eye reacts to different page designs. LOTS of info, and if you’re into web design you’ll love it.

The plugin is at

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/image-upload-http-error-fix/

So come on folks tell me, "What are you favorite FireFox add ons?"

To receive the other videos you need to give Jason your name and e-mail, and you will receive updates about new videos, and you will be notified about his Professional Podcast course.

You can learn about building community as well as tips on getting more vitamin C. Watch video

In today’s Morning Announcements I mentioned that instead of raising the price of the

A 6 month subscription to the School of Podcasting ($120)
1 Year of Blog Hosting at www.coolerwebsites.com ($24)
Wordpress installed and customized ($160)
Customized Intros/Outros for your Podcast ($80)

Its a great package for those just starting a podcast. You can get the "How To" through the tutorials and the weekly live training sessions, and leave the Technical part (setting up blogs, graphics, RSS) to me.

Total cost? $299 Sign up at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/quickstart 

Again, all I have is the company line.

But then I realized something. As much as people love to kick Mevishow, or Podvio, we all want (or should want) Mevio to succeed. Without checking any numbers, they are definitely in the top of "receiving VC money." So if Mevio tanks, then Podcasting will suffer a significant hit. The world will go, "one of the pioneers just went down, and it wasn’t from lack of funding."

All I know is I keep making content. They keep finding me sponsors (Godaddy, Hard Rock Cafe, Emusic) and writing me checks. It seems to be working for me.

I think one of the first Podcast magazines was www.id3mag.com that shut down publication (if I remember) before it even had a printed version.

Another podcasting magazines is Podcast User Magazine http://www.podcastusermagazine.com/ who says they will update us next week as they have overcome some technical issues that will alow them  "produce the magazine much more efficiently in the future." The bad news is that post is from January 29, 2008. It apears their last magazine was in November 07.

A late comer in 2007 was Podcaster Who’s Who Magazine (http://pwwmag.com/) who managed to get out one issue in July of 2007. I felt bad as Bruce had asked me to be a writer, but with my current college situation I just couldn’t do it.

Recently I noticed that Blogger and Podcaster Magazine had not published their podcast version of the podcast. When I went to their site, I see where the last issue was the "January/February" issue. Ooops.

An Audio Premium Podcast Magazine

I like the idea of podcast reviews, gear reviews, opinions, etc about podcasting. Why doesn’t someone organize this and put it out as a PODCAST? If you want to make money on it – get some really, really, really, good content (cause I’m pretty sure there are plenty of podcasts about podcasting) and then set up an account at Premiumcast.com Set up and affiliate system for it (to inspire people to promote it), and find a staff to put out regular segments. Get yourself a jingle (for branding purposes) a www.wordpresstool.com version of wordpress (to make it easy to rotate ads on the site) and GO. Then again, that dog may not hunt…

Here are my thoughts, if you’re reading this please leave a comment (I’d love your opinion).

To me, people reading a blog are reading the content. If you then put in a podcast post with notes like "Show 16 with Steve Smith." That breaks up the flow of text.

However if you put show notes that read "Today I spoke with Steve Smith of the blah blah blah company and he gave us his insights into (topic) and how he had overcome some of the common problems that people find in this field (etc,etc, etc). Then I don’t think it would "break the flow" of a blog. It would be a blog with a "play" button. I don’t think you would interrupt the blog, and I think the blog (and extra text ) would serve as "Google food" and possibly grow your podcast audience. Especially if after your blog post you put "click here to listen to the interview."

My other question would be, "Are you trying to get blog readers to do one thing, and podcast listeners to do something different? Then you need two sites. It does make it easy as a podcaster to say "Go to ___.com for all of our show notes, contact information, and blog. Instead of "Go to ___.com for our show notes and ___.net for our show notes (This is something I’ve done with the School of Podcasting podcast. It’s a nightmare, and I will be merging the podcast with the business website later this year). You want to give listeners A (as in single) call to action. Having too many choices may intimidate listeners and readers.

Those are my thoughts straight out of my head. I would love your comments. Is there one answer? Does it depend? If so on what?

Dave

http://podcastpromoshow.wufoo.com/forms/podcast-promo-show-submission/

Thanks,

Live a life worth podcasting about.

If is estimating podcast advertising to be 240 million in 2008

310 Million in 2009
360 Million by 2010
400 Million by 2011
435 Million by 2012

Read the full article