Podonomics

By way of Jason Van Orden’s podcast, I was reminded about the different coloured feed buttons that are now available.

Most of us are familiar with the orange feed button as you see to the left. And some of us will tell others to look for that button if they want to subscribe to a feed.

Well, I have to burst your bubble as the feed button is now available in several select colours. I saw a blue one on this site. You can grab the entire package of lollipop colours from this site.

So, if you’re telling your client, colleague or friend to look for the orange button, you’ll have to change your tune. It can now be pink, blue or green.

A friend of mine, Bill Sweetman, just launched his new podcast called Marketing Martini. The tagline is Internet Marketing Advice Served Straight Up. Love it!

It’s short, sweet and to the point. Perfect for our limited attention spans. I took a quick look at his podcast before it went live and offered my feedback. I have to say that his podpage looks better than mine.

One of the women I hailed as a 2006 Savvy Female Podcaster, Colette Vogele, has finally launched her own podcast called Rules for the Revolution. It’s a look at the legal issues around user generated content.

I’ve been telling people to use their existing blog to publish their podcasts, just create a separate category. In Wordpress, this is easy to do. Typepad has made this simpler as well, so I can now recommend Typepad as an adequate podcasting publishing tool.However, this has presented a few problems.

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I was reading an article written by Alex J. Walling, a writer with HalifaxLive.com on how miserably the organizers behind the American Basketball Association’s all star game failed in communicating with the media.

When the journalist asked the organizers why the media wasn’t informed in advanced about a cancelled game, they said:

“We went after a global audience by podcasting it.”

To which Walling said:

“I tried to download the podcast and gave up after having to answer a million questions to get it.

“I wonder how many people watched the podcast, let’s say in Sri Lanka, or Moscow and how will that be converted into selling tickets for the Rainmen? (the game was played in Halifax, NS).”

What’s the lesson here?

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One of my clients, Barbara Bradbury, emailed me today to let me know that her podcast, Relationship Matters is a Staff Pick in the UK Podcast Directory in iTunes. I grabbed the screen shot and you can see it above (her podcast is the second from the left on first line).

iTunes lists some of the ways you can get your podcast listed on their front page. Some of their requirements are:

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Anita Campbell (on the left), the host of Small Business Trends Radio Show, gave some tips on what makes a small business podcast popular. With the 3 tips offered, I especially liked this one:

From-the-Trenches Guest – The most popular guests have been business owners who speak from “been there, done that” experience. What matters most is that you know your subject inside and out. If you happen to have a reputation that precedes you, that helps, but it is hardly the most important factor.

This is what makes podcasts so great. While interviewing a celebrity in your industry will pull in a large base of listeners, it’s those guests who are in the trenches that will sustain your podcast.

Quite simply, those who are “doing it” are much more well informed and can offer specific tips and tricks that will help you do your job or move up in your career much faster.

Liz Dreesen (seen on left), a surgeon and student at University of North Carolina in the United States recently wrote that she doesn’t support podcasting of her anatomy lectures because it means that students will no longer attend her class.

I hear this argument alot from educators. They’re worried that the podcast will come to replace the in-class experience, with students relying on them to get their information as opposed to physically being in class.

While I can appreciate Liz’s arguments, I also want to remind her that the goal should be to avail herself to the changing needs of her students. Inconvenience to a student can mean having to miss class due to illness, childcare, a death in the family or even stress. A video recording of Liz’s lecture will aid these students so that they don’t have to rely on 2nd hand information to still stay on top of the lessons.

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So, I’m getting up to speed with Typepad. It’s a great blogging tool, but lousy for podcasting.

First step, I login to Typepad. I create a category called Podcasts. I now want to create a category-specific RSS feed for the category called Podcasts.

I’m having a devil of time understanding this. Something about creating an advanced template, then changing some code, copying it into the template, then publishing the template. Even though I have the Pro membership, I can’t even find this “advanced template” feature.

How irritating. Why can’t it be as simple as Wordpress where I just click on the category, then add /feed/ to the end of the URL?

More to come as I fumble down this confusing path. Wish me luck or provide some advice.

Update: I just realized that my Typepad blog was using the Mixed Media Template, which to me seems to be the template that a podcaster would want to use anyways, but unfortunately, this template meant I couldn’t create a category-specific RSS feed. Ah well, I converted the Mixed Media Template to the Advanced Template. Then I followed the instructions here to create my RSS feed.

Always start the recording of your podcast interviews saying nothing.

No, this isn’t a clever quote I drummed up. Well, it is, but that’s not the point. This is a lesson in how to remove noise from your audio recording.

When you record, you never know what your mic or telephone will pick up. So, it’s extremely important when you press record to let it record “nothing” for about 2 to 3 seconds before you start talking.

This allows you to grab a noise profile, a critical element you will need later on if you notice any popping, hissing or crackling noises in the playback.

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As I craft together music intros for podcasts, I realize more and more that you just can’t slap a voice over music and be done with it.

You have to choose the right music to fit the mood of the podcast. You have to choose the right voice. And on top of that, you have to place the voice-only track at precisely the right spot, on the right beat so that it sounds as if it’s part of the song.

Not easy.

Typically, the voice intro is done without the music. At least that’s been my experience and I prefer it this way.

The reason?

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Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian are trying to answer the question of whether you should use a podcast to focus on communicating with your audience or to earn money in Episode 44 of their Internet Marketing Podcast. I won’t tell you what the final word is, so you’ll have to head on over to listen.

I look at it another way. I believe you should be using your podcast as part of your funneling process. Since podcasts are offered free, this should be the item that pulls prospects in. Your podcast is the breadcrumbs and you use it to lead them to your website to purchase the full course meal.

So, in a sense, I’m saying that you are using your podcast to communicate in order to monetize later on. Yet, you should think about your podcast as feeding your product funnel so that you’re clear about the action you want listeners to take after listening to your podcast.

Technorati: alex mandossian, paul colligan, podcast monetization, funnel, sales