7/20/2011
by Brian Baltosiewich
Last week?s blog (Can You Make Money Podcasting?) generated some response! Enough that it might be worth addressing some of the comments I received and clarifying some of the points the article was attempting to make. ?Bill? wrote: ?The question is not whether you can make money, but how do you get people to listen to your podcast?? Actually, in that particular blog, the question WAS can you make money. It?s right there in the title. We?ll address the ?How Do You Get Them to Listen?? question in next week?s blog.
?Kendall Weaver,? and ?Twit Fan? both mentioned Leo Laporte, a worthy name to drop and a glaring omission in my blog. I sit corrected. The blog, though, was written from the perspective of someone who does not have the connections or resources possessed by Mr. Laporte. What Laporte has accomplished cannot be denied, and his empire- I believe- very closely resembles what the future looks like for both ?radio? and ?tv.? Let?s be honest, most of us- right now- are not playing on the same field.
Radio Exiles was launched with about $60. And not even MY $60. The biggest cash outlay so far has been for a run of t-shirts. This is the field I think most of us are on, the one with the holes in the infield, no bases and if you hit the ball over the fence you have to go shag it yourself. So while certainly Laporte and Twit.tv should have been mentioned, I?m not sure he?s relevant for the conversation I was having.
?AJ? wrote: ?Respectfully, I'd say that your view on podcasting is very limited if you think Adam Corolla [sic] is the only successful podcsater, [sic again] and you're thinking in the box too much if you think that ads and page views are the way to make money at it.? I didn?t say he?s the only successful podcaster. I said the best examples of podcast success ?start and end with? Carolla, and that depends on how you define success. For the purpose of that particular blog, money = success. Carolla and his ?Ace Broadcasting? are making money. A lot of it.
I tend to agree with ?AJ? that banner ads and page views are not the way to make money podcasting. But, page views translate in no small way to downloads/listens, so they are an important piece of the puzzle. Your product, however, is the podcast, front and center. A listener who subscribes to your brilliance on iTunes may never visit your website and see your banner ads, but they will hear an ad, or some product placement, or a live read within your show.
Next week: bringing listeners into the tent.
Brian Baltosiewich has been a broadcast professional for more than 20 years. His podcast website, www.radioexiles.com features professionally-produced podcasts from radio pro?s who have lost their gigs. Reach out to him at brian@radioexiles.com or through their twitter account @radioexiles and on Facebook at radioexiles.com
(7/20/2011 6:04:20 AM)
Re: "Actually, in that particular blog, the question WAS can you make money."
This is where we have the problem... interpretation of comments. First, let's take your definition of "slew." Is 5 responses a "slew"? Or is this an overblown interpretation of how many people commented to your article?
Next, The question you asked IS directly related to being found online (if you want to make money).
This is the exact style of comment that I referenced in the next line, which you conveniently left out - "This scenario of making a revenue generating podcast has been over-stated by many people..."
Podcasting has yet to be proven a money maker by anyone, that is, unless you can show me the money.
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