Transcript of The Podcasting Underground - Episode #34
Aired 3/24/2008
More Info: Podcasting Underground
JASON: You’re listening to THE PODCASTING UNDERGROUND, episode 34.
MALE ANNOUNCER: You’ve entered THE PODCASTING UNDERGROUND - podcasting for podcasters. News and tips to help you succeed in podcasting.
JASON: On this episode of THE PODCASTING UNDERGROUND I’m going to discuss the question, is podcasting an industry, or are we all just fooling ourselves? I’ll also tell you why I think that if you want to really make money, you should stop being a podcaster. Second of all, I’m going to give you a tip on how to get your videos out to the top video sharing sites in just a fraction of the time. All of this on this episode of THE PODCASTING UNDERGROUND, online at www.podcastingunderground.com. I’m your host, Jason Van Orden, author of PROMOTING YOUR PODCAST and creator of the Professional Podcasting Course.
MUSIC
JASON: Hello and welcome back to THE PODCASTING UNDERGROUND. Now you might be wondering what happened since last episode. I promised , indicated that I would be talking about how to create community around your podcast. Or that I’d have an interview with a member of THE PODCASTING UNDERGROUND community. And actually, something came up. There was a topic that was kind of sparked on the internet and it got some ideas of mine going. I’ve been thinking through this all week, it’s got my mind buzzing and I’ve got some things to say about it that are really important. It’s really got me excited to talk about this. So I decided to kind of bump the schedule a little bit. I’m actually up really late recording this right now, even though tomorrow morning, well actually today since it’s early in the morning, I’m taking off on an airplane. My wife and I are coming back to the states actually for three weeks. We’re going to be in California then in Hawaii for a couple weeks. I’m willing to sacrifice some sleep. I want to get this episode out and talking about these things because I think it’s some really important stuff to think about.
So before I get into exactly what it is I want to talk about, I want to tell a story. I’m going to go back a little bit, several years to when my wife and I were in a band. Actually I’ve been in bands since I was in high school, actually early college I guess is when I started my first band. Then throughout college I had a variety, a few different bands, and my wife and I were in bands together even before we got married. And we had a band together when we moved to Salt Lake and graduated from college. We moved to Salt Lake City and I was working there for a company, I was writing software for a company that designs guitar effects processors and stuff for guitarists. Anyway, at the same time we had a band, we were really serious. By now my wife and I had both been in several bands together so we kind of had some different experiences, made different CDs, and this was the band that we were determined to make big things happen with. And so all our spare time, I mean we rented out a practice spot in a local warehouse that was divided up into practice studios, so we had our own full-time practice studio that we rented out. All our extra money went into recording our CDs. We’d go to the best studio we could find and spend thousands putting demos and CDs together. We often went to LA, to Boston, Tennessee, different places for music conferences to hobnob, to learn, kind of like some of the conferences from media and podcasting, to learn from others, from music industry professionals, to be coached, to network, to get feedback. We even won a couple of contests in Northern Utah. So we were really serious about making things happen with our band.
And we knew that an important part of making things happen was how does the music industry work. And I think it’s a pretty common story. You’ve got lots of garage bands out there, underground bands, independent bands whatever your taste may be. And the internet has done wonderful, wonderful things for helping bands be able to promote themselves. But I think we all have that secret dream that we’re going to start a band and we’ll be playing that little concert and some A&R rep is going to be there and hear us and think we’re just the greatest thing. And often on MTV we see these bands all of a sudden just spring up it seems like they’re an overnight success. They get signed. All of a sudden they’re big stars. They’ve got videos, they’re going on tour, they’ve got a CD in stores. But the music industry has changed quite a bit in the last few decades. There’s very little of what we used to call “artist development”. Or what they used to call artist development back in the day when they’d actually sign and develop you and bring you into different markets and bring things down. Now the economics of the matter are that they kind of need a pretty sure thing. And if you don’t start selling CDs quickly, then they don’t want to put a whole lot of money into pushing your CD quickly and into actually getting you to that point. If you saw the statistics of the number of bands who do get signed and then actually do “make it”, it’s actually pretty dismal.
After our band broke up our bass player Winn was in another band that ended up getting signed by Maverick and Maverick Records, which is owned by Madonna, picked them up. They made a CD. They spent about a year making a CD. They had gotten an advance and everything. Then shortly after that Maverick got bought up and dropped all but their key players. And when you’re on the same label as Alanis Morrisette and [indecipherable] and Deaf Tones and stuff like that, you get dropped when they’re only going to keep a handful of their top bands. So this is the kind of thing that happens all the time.
So what is the point that I’m trying to make here. Well, we came to the realization that really the best thing that we could do…first of all we were probably not going to get the attention of a major label until we were actually making some waves of our own. You know we did pretty well in our own little market. We sold our CD, like I said we won a couple contests, we were the only band at the time to get radio play on the clear channel station, because they would bring us into the morning show and have us play live. However, you’ve got to get to a point where you’re pulling in good amounts of members to your shows. And selling good amounts of CDs yourself. For them to finally come to you and say, “Okay this might be something we want to take to the next level.” There’s actually very, very few stories of people where you’ve got so much talent, that they’re willing to dump millions into you and all of a sudden make you an overnight star.
But the truth of the matter is once you start getting to that point of having enough success to maybe get their attention, it may be the kind of thing where well, maybe I’m okay on my own. I’ve known a lot of independent musicians to do a really great job on their own, building their fan base over the internet and building things up without having to depend on record labels to take them to the next level.
All right, before you start wondering what in the world does this have to do with podcasting, why is Jason telling us about his glory days in bands? I think there’s a direct parallel to some of what has happened in the podcasting area or well, I’ll go ahead and use the word “industry” even though I’m trying to discuss and maybe even question that whole world right now, that whole word. Let me say this, actually let me go ahead quote now out of a blog by Michael Geoghegan and that’s what sparked this whole thing. And maybe some of you have probably read this blog and if not, I definitely recommend that you read this blog post. It got a log of attention. Several different people blogged about it. I think it has some very interesting things to say. I agree with much of what he said. I’d like to add on to that here.
But here is one statement in particular that I’m going to go ahead and read. He says, “Podcasters, it is time you face the facts. If you are waiting for a podcast advertising services to ride in on a white horse and rescue you from your monetary woes, let me help you. Start looking elsewhere.” So I think some of us as podcasters have fallen into this trap of you know what, I’m going to make this show and then somebody is going to sweep in, you know Podshow or Podango, and somebody’s going to sweep in and make me an overnight star. We have had a few of these success stories out there. We’ve seen people all of a sudden end up on TV, all of a sudden end up on Oprah. I really think that it was a combination of hard work and opportunity and maybe a little bit of luck and the right place at the right time. But also just knowing how to make things happen for themselves.
So, the title of Michael Geoghegan’s post is “Podcasting - it’s a community not an industry.” So I want to explore this topic a little bit and give you some more. Again, I’m going to be telling you whether I think it’s an industry not or whether we’re just fooling ourselves. I’m going to tell you why if you really want to make money, you should stop being a podcaster. So, the basic gist of his post, if you haven’t picked up already, is that it’s kind of this parallel with the music industry. There’s not going to be the overnight success, somebody swoop in, like he said, on a white horse and rescues you through bringing you the magic advertising contract. So basically, what he’s saying is there is no industry in podcasting because the advertising dollars we’ve been promised and speculated and stuff for years and years and years it‘s not happening. Some of these companies have placed, company X has placed great ads with big brand A or B and a few podcasters have made some money or whatever. But really there is no ongoing industry there because ad buys have been nothing more than maybe experimental or auxiliary. With the exception of maybe a handful of brands. Again, yes, there are a few podcasters who have done extremely well with advertising deals. But on a large scale, it’s just not happened. Honestly, I don’t know, I guess I’m not surprised. I thought maybe there’s a possibility it would pick up. But to tell you the truth, I really don’t care because since the beginning of podcast and this has not been the main thing that brought me into podcasting. Nor is it, I think, the main boon of podcasting - advertising dollars. Although, that’s what we talk about most because of TV and radio and that’s the model that gets used. That maybe worked fine for them, but I think the potential of podcasting lies elsewhere.
So let’s talk about this a little bit. What is podcasting? Michael Geoghegan says it’s a community not an industry. Okay, is it a community? Well, you know, I’d say yeah. There’s definitely a community feel to podcasting. And the last few years, I think we often talk about maybe going to that first podcast expo and how it was really cool to have this insider community of people starting something new. I know that phenomenon has been seen before with numerous different technologies or numerous different ideas or numerous different factions or whatever, where people sprung up and they were the early adopters and that nice little community developed. I go to that conference now and I have lots of friends there. There’s a nice community. I have lots of people I interact with on Facebook, on Twitter. There’s absolutely a nice community of podcasters that have developed. So is it a community? Sure, at large. Most podcast listeners, you go and ask them is podcasting a community, they’re going to scratch their head and go, “What are you talking about?” So, I’d say for a small fraction of us, who like to get involved in that, yes. There’s’ a community there. That’s nice.
Is it a hobby? Well, absolutely. I think for many it’s a hobby. Unfortunately I think for many they want it to be more than a hobby. But the truth of the matter is, it’s really just a hobby. The way they’re doing things, it’s nothing more than a hobby. And I’ve definitely been in those places, and even maybe now fall into those times where I think I’m running a business and then I have to take a hard look. And I think, you know what, I’m really doing this like it’s a hobby. And that’s an important thing to look at. But there’s nothing wrong with that. If it’s a hobby and it brings you enjoyment, and it’s something you do on the side. And you’ve got your 50 listeners or your 10,000 listeners and you enjoy it. And maybe it cuts even, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it just strokes your ego. Whatever, it’s a hobby for many and that’s great. It’s an awesome hobby.
Early on I started GOTHAMCAST because it was a lot of fun and I wanted that. I had this hobby of discovering New York City, all these great cool things about the art and culture and history of New York City. And I wanted to share with people. It was a hobby, GOTHAMCAST. I’ve since had to stop that podcast because I don’t have the time for it. But it was a hobby.
Is it an industry? Well, I think I’d have to mostly agree with Michael Geoghegan saying that there isn’t much of an industry there. The ad industry certainly hasn’t proved to do what it’s going to. Maybe they’ll still pick up some. But I think if we’re waiting around for that we’re probably going to be waiting a while and probably going to be a bit disappointed. We’re already seeing some of the dissolution happening - is dissolution the word I’m looking for? Disenchantment I guess, with some of the companies. And some of these companies are starting to struggle. That’s the truth of the matter. So is it an industry? I don’t know. There’s some start-ups that have come up. And there’s a lot of semantics. What do you define as an industry? I probably say one of the most interesting micro-industries, if I can, that has sprung up is people like me. People who are podcasting consultants or new media consultants who are very skilled at this business and all along I’ve said, “A great thing you can do as a podcaster is use those skills and sell those skills, for now even at a premium price.”
Look at the early days of web development. A web developer, web designer, could really make a healthy, healthy chunk off of putting a site together because there weren’t that many people who did it. And slowly it became more of a commodity. So certainly I realize that just as a “dollars for hours” podcasting consultant, there’s only so long that you can enjoy, at least for me, the kind of money that makes it worth it for me. And then you have to evolve and re-brand or make yourself. Certainly put yourself in a place where you don’t become a commodity. So keep that in mind too. Maybe three’s some micro-industries three, but certainly as a whole I wouldn’t say you’re not in the best place by thinking of podcasting as an industry.
Is it a business? Well, is a podcast a business in of itself? I’d say yeah, there’s lots of people who’ve started their podcast as a business. And if you want to make money, certainly you should think of your podcast as a business. I don’t know if thinking of your podcast as a business is the best model. And I’m going to talk a bit more about that. But I’d say, is podcasting a business? Probably in and of itself, if you’re somebody that considers yourself a podcasting entrepreneur, has a podcasting business, and there may be a handful of them that can say that, but podcasters, people creating podcast content, as a business…I think if you look closely, anybody who is actually making money there the business is actually much wider than the podcast itself. There are a few media properties, maybe something like WallStrip that was able to sell itself as a media property. Maybe that was a business. But the podcast as a business, I’d say no to that as well. And I’m going to talk a little bit more about that.
Really these things, the community is very attractive. And to tell you the truth, I love that. It wasn’t necessarily the thing that got me into podcasting, I actually didn’t know that it was going to become such a cool little community that is still there for me and some of us that are involved, and the podcasters across the world. What really got me excited about podcasting, early on in 2005, was at that time I was already an internet entrepreneur, I was somebody that liked to publish online. I was somebody that liked to teach people. I liked to be creative. I liked to deal with technologies. So these were all things that attracted me. But when I’ve really thought about it, what is it that really gets me excited about podcasting, it’s really this right here. And that is that podcasting allows me, or even allows you, first of all it can bring you more freedom. Okay? I’m going to go into that a little bit more, but it can bring you more freedom. Number two, it can bring you more fulfillment. And number three, it can bring you more recognition. And my goal, ever since I’ve come into this space and decided I want to be a podcasting expert, has been to bring myself more freedom, fulfillment and recognition. But then also to help others find freedom, fulfillment and recognition, however you might define it.
Now obviously that’s a very vague concept so I want to talk about that a little bit more. Let me give you some examples. Freedom. I got into the internet business because of the freedom it offered for me. Right now I’m living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I can run my businesses from here. I can communicate with students and clients and people all over the world because podcasting is a very powerful medium that allows me to do that.
I definitely find lots of fulfillment because I’m a person who constantly loves to be learning and teaching. I’m inherently a teacher. I like to share information with people in ways that is meaningful and is helpful to them. And that brings me fulfillment. When podcasting showed up on my radar, I saw an incredible means of accomplishing that fulfillment through myself. Before that I was doing it through seminars, I was doing it through public speaking, which I still like to do. I was doing it through websites, eBooks, these are all things I still like to do, but all of a sudden podcasting, the prospect of having my own “radio show” , my own audience of people who followed me, that was something I saw as very fulfilling for me, because of my enjoyment of teaching others.
Third, recognition, I’d say definitely podcasting has brought me recognition. My podcasts have played important roles in bringing me whatever recognition I do have as a podcasting consultant. Let’s take it outside of the realm of podcasting, there’s plenty of people who have brought their profiles to a much higher level through podcasting and become experts. You’ve got Mignon Fogerty who’s become a recognized expert on grammar. Oprah Winfrey had her on her show to talk to her about grammar. And she’s gained that recognition through her podcast.
So freedom, fulfillment, recognition - what do you want? How do you define those three things? Be thinking about that a little bit. So really podcasting, whatever community there may be, whatever hobby it may be for some people, whatever micro-industries there may be or whatever small number of businesses that may truly be able to say they are 100% podcast business. I’ll tell you right now, I don’t have a 100% podcast business. Podcasting is just one thing that really makes my businesses flourish. Podcasting is a powerful tool for communicating a message, for building relationships, for getting attention from people, for marketing a brand, for building a brand, in order to bring yourself freedom, fulfillment and recognition. Freedom from having to use other maybe more expensive means of communicating your advertising. Freedom from sharing your ideas and expertise in the form of maybe being an employee to maybe actually being able to take that into other venues. Because of the recognition, the brand you’ve been able to build up, using podcasting as a tool.
Now podcast monetization is obviously a very popular topic. But even more than podcast monetization, I’d like to talk about this freedom, fulfillment and recognition. I’d like to talk about making money off of your brand, your own ideas, a current or new business, off of your expertise. That’s something we talk about a lot in internet business. The goal of what I do in my podcast, both internet business and this one, I realized this year as I put together a new defined purpose, is that freedom, fulfillment and recognition. And helping others. In the case of PODCASTING UNDERGROUND, use podcasting to achieve that. And in the case of INTERNET BUSINESS MASTERY, to use an internet business to achieve freedom, fulfillment and recognition.
Obviously making money can be a byproduct of, or a cause of, or a reaction of, or a part of that freedom, fulfillment and recognition. So, if you want to really make more money, stop being a podcaster. Okay? Now, you might be scratching your head saying, “What in the world is Jason saying? I mean he’s got a show right now about podcasting and he’s telling us to stop being a podcaster?” Okay, if you think back several episodes, it was the one where I was talking about “Is podcasting dead?” Why are people saying that podcasting is dead? What does this mean for us? And I said, “You need to stop thinking of yourself as a podcaster.” You need to think of yourself as a content creator. You need to think of yourself as an expert. You need to think of yourself as a pundit. You need to think of yourself as an educator. Whatever the case may be. What is it you are trying to do? What is it that you’re trying to communicate? Who is it you’re trying to reach? What is it you’re trying to get them to do? Are you trying to sway opinions? Are you trying to get people to act? Are you trying to sell? Are you trying to raise awareness of your brand? What is it that you’re trying to do there? And think of yourself as that brand. Or as that business. You’re not just a podcaster. You’re actually something else and the podcasting is a tool, a means, that makes being that thing possible. It gives you the platform for being a pundit. It gives you the place to build your branding and grab awareness of a market. It gives you a place to communicate maybe your beliefs, or your politics, or something that you’re interested in.
So let’s get back to Michael’s post here. He’s not one to just go out there and say, “Hey, it’s not an industry wake up,” and leave it at that. He gives some solid suggestions. And so I want to share those with you and then add my own take on them and then also add a few additional suggestions. So first Michael Geoghegan, he says, “Have a sit down with yourself and decide, does monetization really make sense for you?” And I think this is just deciding, okay is this a hobby? Or is it actually something. It’s going over that freedom, fulfillment and recognition. What is it you actually want to get out of podcasting? So sit down with yourself and decide if monetization makes sense, but ask yourself, what is it you really want? And how is podcasting going to accomplish that? Beyond being a podcaster, what are you? Are you a consultant, an expert? Are you an activist? Are you a brand in and of itself?
Number two he says, “Nail down the niche you inhabit and start to map out how to best present the opportunities and value that you can offer to potential advertisers and sponsors. “ Okay, so even though he’s saying that podcasting isn’t an industry, we’ve got to wake up and not wait for the white horse of advertising to come in and save us. He’s saying there is money to be made, but we’ve got to nail down and do a few things to be proactive about making it happen. My take on this, rather than saying nail down the niche you inhabit and map out how to best offer value for potential advertisers and sponsors, I’d say decide how to best offer, I mean yes, definitely, nail down your niche. That’s something I’ve always preached. You’ve got to nail down your niche. Know who it is you’re trying to reach and it’s probably going to be niched down one or two levels than what you thought originally. Decide how to best offer incredible value to your target market. Okay? Offer the incredible value to your target market. That will attract them and build a relationship. And then, yes, you will have value to potential advertisers and sponsors. And that may be something that becomes part of your business plan, part of your monetization. I wouldn’t be thinking about advertisers and sponsors up front. You’ve got to think about who is your niche and what do they want? Yes, exposure to valuable products and services from sponsors may be something that they want and it ends up being a win-win-win for everyone. But think that through as well.
I haven’t once put an ad out on my podcast, not that I never will. But it just hasn’t been beneficial for me or necessarily for the audience for what I’m trying to do right now or what I’m trying to offer to the target audience.
Number three he says, “Come up with a list of prospective sponsors that you believe are best suited to benefit from communicating with your audience.” And then, he says, get ready for this, “Call them.” Something we’re all afraid of doing, is sales and picking up the phone and taking that action. But I’d say, even beyond that, I’m trying to take it way beyond advertising. I’ve never been all that jazzed about advertising and podcasting. As a podcasting expert there is a chink in my armor. And that is this, if somebody comes to me and says that all they want to do is make a media property and make money off of advertising, to tell you the truth, I’m not the best person to help them. I’m the best person to help you build up a podcast that’s going to strengthen your brand, that’s going to help you reach a specific target market and monetize through other means. But if you’re all about, “I just want to go and get lots of ads and sponsors”, I’m not the best person to help you with that.
So what I’m going to suggest is come up with a list of prospective products. Not prospective sponsors, but prospective products that you yourself can make. Prospective products or services that you believe are best suited to benefit your target market.
All right, here are some additional suggestions. That was Michael’s three suggestions and my take on those. My additional suggestions…I’m going to tell you what my wife tells musicians. She’s done some work with musicians and their branding and their marketing and things like that. And this is what she’s told them. And anybody I’ve coached in business I’ve told them as well. And that is this. You’ve got to start thinking of yourself as a business. And being a business means one thing. It means spending probably a good 40% of your time on marketing and sales. Okay? You have to learn how to market and yes, bite the bullet and learn a bit about sales. Now you might say, I can always hire sales people etc. etc., but there will never be a better marketer or salesman for you and what you offer than yourself. You are the best strategist for your business. And marketing and sales will make you more money than anything else. As a business person, as a podcaster, content creator, pundit, whatever it is that you are. So spend that time learning and doing.
I outsource a lot of things in my business, and I outsource some of the technical aspects and logistics of marketing and sales, but I never outsource 100% the marketing and sales of my business. I am the marketer and salesman for my business. The primary marketer and salesman.
Diversify, next diversify your income streams. Again, if somebody comes to me and says, “Oh yeah, all I want to do is advertising”, you know, I think you’re selling yourself short. Last November I gave a presentation on ways to make money with your podcast and I named half a dozen if not more different ways to make money. And one of the biggest points I made was you need to diversify. There’s lots of different ways. Advertising is just one of them. And hopefully you’re using multiple, three or four or five different ways so that if one of them dips or tanks or doesn’t work out, you’ve still got multiple streams of income coming in.
This is something that Paul Colligan is also a big proponent of - the premium content and having multiple streams of income, things outside of advertising that make money for you as a business person, podcaster, pundit, creative genius, whatever it is that you are. Paul wrote a whole post in response to Michael’s saying as much and then Michael comes back and says, “Well what Paul misses is that for many podcasters, those with sizeable audiences, podcasting is not a tool. It is the product.” Meaning the podcast, the show is the product. It is their part-time business. So their podcast was not built to support sales of some affiliate program or of their book or their consulting practice or some other monetize-able commodity.
And Paul says he agrees with that but then he goes on to say that that’s a bad business model. I got to tell you, I have to agree with that as well. The best business model, in my mind, is not to create the podcast as the product or brand itself. Now again, some people have done well with that. But the ones that I know that I think are going to have the most staying power, who aren’t the select few, are the ones who have actually built up some kind of business other than just the show as a product. I think that’s a very important point right there.
I want to go back to a word there that Michael says, he said rather than supporting a consulting practice or some other monetize-able commodity, and not that you have to already have a current business, but I think you need to take your ideas, your value, your expertise. I mean, there’s something I said in the social media tele-seminar last month when I spoke there. It’s really important to realize that you have entertaining qualities or important information or expertise or knowledge or know-how that other people will pay money for. You have every right in the world, today, to be an expert on something. You don’t need anybody’s permission to do that. Nobody is going to operate on my brain without going to medical school, obviously there is some exceptions to this. But you have the right, and society tries to tell us otherwise, but you have the right to be an expert on something today. And so, I don’t think you need to be a monetize-able commodity. Don’t be a commodity. You want to be the kind of person that is unique and offers some kind of unique value. There’s no price-shopping you around. There’s a group of people who want to come to you because of the value that you offer and they don’t want to go anywhere else.
So making the show itself as a business, not a good model. And if that’s where you’re at right now I’d suggest starting to look elsewhere. How can you use the show to build a brand that is bigger than that? To offer things that are bigger than just the show itself. In the comments of the post Michael himself talks about GrapeRadio. And GrapeRadio has been, definitely in its own right an incredible success. It’s not the day job for any of them by any means, but definitely a good income stream as he points out for many of them. And advertising has been successful for them. However, he also points out that GrapeRadio is more than just the advertising. That they themselves create wide label content for wineries and other people. They extend their brand in other ways to make money as well. So there’s more of a business there. They built it as a business, GrapeRadio is the brand. It’s not just the product, the show itself. The show has been one of the primary powerful tools for building that brand, absolutely. But, there’s another business model around that.
Now Michael points out in some of the comments of his post that he’s a proponent - I want to make it clear that he himself has been a proponent of making money outside of ad sales - and he points that out in the comments. I definitely want to make that clear. He’s made money off of ad sales, but he knows it’s important outside of that as well and he points out several presentations where he’s said as much. He goes as far as to say that he’s the one that started the meme of making money outside of ad sales. I don’t know if I’d go that far. But definitely he has talked about this a bunch outside of that.
All right. Read the post. Read the comments down below. Down in the comments there’s two or three people that chime in about the money that they’re making. I can identify two or three people there whose money comes from - two of them I know for a fact don’t work a day job. They’ve quit their day job either recently or in the past couple of years. And they make their money selling premium content.
I’ve done a post, a few months ago, about how I make the most money from podcasting. And I said, “How do I make the most money from podcasting?” The truth of the matter, how do I make the most money as an entrepreneur, as a brand, with my two main brands that I have. Myself, as a podcasting expert and then also INTERNET BUSINESS MASTERY as a brand in and of itself. And the way I make the most money is selling premium content. So that would be my next piece of advice to you. To absolutely figure out a way to sell premium content. And that comes in many different forms. I’m not going to go into that right now. I’ll probably talk about it more in the future on an episode. I think I’m going to do a course specifically some time on just how to create premium content. It’s definitely something I push in my Professional Podcasting Course, is how to do that as well. Stuff like Michael says, really nailing home what your niche is. I spend a whole module of my Professional Podcasting Course talking about that because it is so critical, all the way up to the different ways to make money. And premium content is absolutely one of the best ways. A lot of the people that I know that have been able to quit their day jobs and go into making money with podcasting as a tool or somehow related to podcasting, it’s because they’re selling premium content and/or services to their target market.
Now another thing I want to clear up, a lot of people might be saying, “Yeah, absolutely, the value is not necessarily the show itself. It’s in the content.” That’s something else that gets thrown out there. Here’s what it really is, the value that you have, whether it’s as a brand, whether it’s personally, whether it’s the show, whatever different types of content you might make, the value that you have and the business that you have, or that you should be thinking of yourself as, is in the relationship that you have with your community.
When I first quit my job and struck out on my own as an entrepreneur, one of the first things that I did was courses on marketing, direct marketing. Using direct mail and a variety of other media for direct marketing to a particular market. This was long before podcasting was around. Anybody that is in direct marketing knows that one of the most valuable things in direct marketing is a list of targeted prospects. A list of people you know have bought a certain type of product. Or a list of prospects you know are interested in a particular type of topic. In this day and age I’d redefine that even more to say the most valuable thing is a community of prospects, a community that has been built up maybe around a particular brand or a community of people you know are interested in a particular topic or brand or product or particular niche.
So what I mean by the most valuable thing that you have in your business is the relationship you have with your community is, let’s say that tomorrow, heaven forbid, that your studio that you record your content in burnt down, went away. So all these physical assets that you have as part of your business were gone. And you kind of had to start over. The truth of the matter is that if you had a strong relationship with a good-sized market or audience of people, who look to you for good information, or for entertainment or for a place to go and find belonging amongst their peers, you’re still going to be okay. You’re still going to be able to make money. You’re still going to offer value and get money in return for it and buy new equipment and more on. All the really successful entrepreneurs I know, they’re not afraid of that kind of a tragedy because they know that they’ve got their target market, or their list, or their community as I like to say. So the most valuable asset that you have in your business is that relationship that you built up with a very specific community. That goes back to selecting your right niche.
Podcasting is so cool because it’s such a great tool for building relationships. So yes it’s a channel for your content, it’s a tool for building relationships. I’ve been able to break into a market. A couple of years ago we started INTERNET BUSINESS MASTERY, and it first it was kind of for fun because we liked internet business, but at the time it seemed just foolhardy to go into a market where there’s already plenty of people offering information about how to do internet business, and build a brand on the internet and things like this. So why in the world would we presume to be able to come in and offer something different. But the truth of the matter is, now since 2005, we’ve had the number one podcast on internet business and internet marketing, because we were using this new tool to reach our market, to build that relationship with them. The brand itself is INTERNET BUSINESS MASTERY, it’s not the show, it’s the brand itself and we offer the premium content and the other stuff. But it’s that relationship with them that has now allowed us to jump from just having this list or this audience of people listening to us to now people who are actually writing sizeable checks to continue to learn from us through our premium content.
So the relationship you have with your community, if you have specifically targeted, carefully targeted people that you want to reach and you know what kind of unique value you have to offer them, you’re going to do fine as a business person or as an activist, or whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish in your goals of podcasting. Anyway, I’ve talked enough. I’ve gone on and on and on about this really important stuff. And I think that it is important as we look forward. Yes, we can be podcasters. We are people who use and create podcasts. But hopefully you will think of yourself as much more than that as well. And you start thinking outside of that shell if you do want to make money. If you do have further aspirations more than say the hobbyist or whatever. Think about some of these things and see how it might affect the model of how you‘re doing things.
So now I‘d love to know what you think. Is podcasting an industry? Is it a tool for you? How have you used podcasting to accomplish your goals? What does some of the stuff I‘ve talked about mean to you? Or do you just flat out disagree with me? I definitely would like to hear. So shoot me an email, either a text email or an mp3 through email to Jason@podcastingunderground.com. Again, right now I’m in the middle of re-doing the phone voicemail system. If you‘re listening to this at the time the podcast originally comes out, at the end of March 2008, you won‘t be able to call. But I’m hoping later on to have something better up that has better quality and is a little easier to use. I was just getting free K7 quality, it‘s never all that great. Anyway, what do you think? Email Jason@podcastingunderground.com and I‘d love to hear what you have to say about this topic.
MUSIC
All right, I’ve talked a long time but I have just a couple of quick announcements, first of all, the date for the starting of the next - a lot of people have been asking, “Have you set a date?” I know there’s been some delays with moving to Buenos Aires and lots of other things going on. But the date, the first module of The Professional Podcasting Course, will start on April 28th. So mark the day. Now, enrollment will open slightly before that so of course it will be a limited number of people. If you want to be on the list, the early notification list for the Professional Podcasting Course, just go to ProPodcasting Course and sign up on that list. And you’ll be the first to know when enrollment does open up. I’m going to start putting out some more information about that this coming week. But April 28th is the day that it will start. I’m putting that down now so we can get this thing going again. Because I know a lot of people have been asking me about that.
Other than that, I have some very exciting things coming along later this year. My wife and I sat down and planned out a lot of ideas for podcasting stuff. How can we get some great information out there and offer value to the community of podcasters and people who use podcasts and content creators? To help them reach those goals of freedom and fulfillment and recognition, using podcasting. So, some very exciting things coming up throughout the rest of the year, including the Professional Podcasting Course at the end of April. April 28th is when it’s starting. But something also awesome that I’m very excited for, in June, so keep your ears open for more information about that. I’ll be talking about that again very soon.
MUSIC
Let’s talk a little bit about getting your video out there, or even if you’re an audio podcaster, another excellent channel for getting your online content to eager eyes and eager audience people looking for great information or great entertainment, I want to talk about a tool I’ve briefly mentioned on the show, I’ve definitely mentioned it when I’ve presented or spoken in the past, and that is TubeMogul. We’re all familiar with YouTube, one of the most popular video sharing sites out there. The amount of video traffic that goes through that site is staggering. The amount of eyeballs on that site is enormous. Essentially it is a large search engine now for content of all sorts. So it’s smart for us as podcasters, as online content creators, to figure out how to take advantage of this. I’ve encouraged podcasters before, if you’re an audio podcaster, to maybe take your audio and add some pictures or slides and post occasional tidbits to YouTube and other places. Even better, there’s a lot of other great sites out there, some of which you may have never even heard of. Why not get it on those other video sharing content search engines as well. And that’s what TubeMogul does for you. It’s a free service that lets you upload a video once and then very easily you can click one button and have it go out and send your video to, I think they’ve got up to 12 different sites you can choose from and I think I use about 10 of the 12. Two of them don’t fit my audience as well. Definitely getting them out there. There’s a Yahoo video site that I didn’t even know about and I got some videos on it through TubeMogul and it got a bunch of viewers, new people. Now of course I brand those videos and make sure people know where to find me if they want to get back to me and listen to my podcasts. I put my URL on them. But definitely I’ve been doing this more on INTERNET BUSINESS MASTERY. I’m going to start doing this more on my blog. I’ve done a couple of videos. If you want to see how I’m doing this, check Internet Business Mastery and click on the videos category and you’ll see some of the videos. We post using the Bliptv video but we put this through TubeMogul and it goes out to all the video sharing sites and you can see kind of how we brand that and stuff. So get your videos out through TubeMogul to as many different places as you can. Now this doesn’t have to be every episode. It can be just tidbits. Definitely check out what rights you’re giving up to your videos because a lot of these places make it so they can be shareable on any site once you post it. Definitely a great way to attract new listeners, new viewers, new people to your community, to your audience. So give that a try. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes.
All right, that’s it for this episode of THE PODCASTING UNDERGROUND. In the meantime, get out there online and make some noise. And we will talk to you soon.
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