“One legged stools don’t work very well.”

Producing a podcast and waiting for the big bucks to roll in is a failed strategy. The podcast can’t be the sole “product.” When I talk to people about starting a podcast, I make it make it clear the podcast can be a product, but it is ALSO a channel – a tool. It has to be part of a bigger plan – one leg of a many legged stool. The podcast has to point to other legs of the stool – a website, vidcast, forum, book, Facebook page, email sign-up, meet-up… There can be many legs to the stool. Each of these legs must support the other legs of the stool. It is the combination of all of those channels and spaces (read: legs) that will help build stable platform where you can build a following that can lead to income.

Notice I said “following” and not “audience?” You may have people who don’t listen to the podcast, but read the blog. Or, who discover, buy, and read your book. Or, who follow you on Twitter and buy your next book.

As Paul Colligan points out, it is very hard to generate a real income just by advertising in podcasts. If advertising in your podcast is your main focus, then you are selling your audience’s attention to the advertisers. Your audience is your product. If you don’ t have an audience, you don’t have a product. Your efforts should focus on audience generation. As Paul points out, you can’t depend on anyone else to do that for you. Your focus should be on building an audience outside of the podishpere.
If your income generation plan is broader, to include premium services, books, affiliate programs, paid gatherings, then your time should be spent on fostering the relationship with your narrower, niche, following. A smaller faithful, following can produce more income than a larger transient audience.

With all this said, we are still VERY early in the growth of new media. Tell me how you do it…

Separating the message from the method, here are the reasons the creator(s) got it right. They carefully:

• picked a controversial subject
• leveraged someone else’s celebrity
• kept the call to action very subtle, but clear
• made it easy to spread virally
• made it easy to spend money

Before I give you the link to the video, set your personal beliefs aside for a few minutes and watch it with the critical eye of a new media strategist. The video is called “The Church of Oprah Exposed.”

The creators, obviously, planned carefully to put all these pieces together. They fit beautifully. It is a controversial subject. It will be the topic at the water cooler and coffee shop for months. There is a zealous audience for the content. There is a celebrity to hang on the coat tails of. The video has great production values that do not detract from the message. The creators used YouTube just because the video could and did “go viral.” The video has 4.2 million views in three weeks.  The creators included a single, simple call to action – go to a website.

What is the purpose to all this careful planning? To change your opinion about the Church of Oprah? No! The purpose of this video is to get the viewer to go to a website and purchase a product while still feeling passionate about the subject. It is a sales pitch. If you follow the call to action, you will find three products to choose from: digital download, paperback book, and companion DVD. Brilliant! Instant gratification at the moment of passion. Advertisers have long known messages that stir the emotions are more effective.

That’s why I’m creating a new award – “The Lever” to give to those who effectively leverage new media. If anyone knows the strategist behind this video, I would like to personally present them with “The Lever.”  If you have a comment about the methods used, leave a comment here.  If you have a comment about the message, go to www.InsytWorks.com.

[HTML1]Now about the message. I am a Christian. I also believe in the concepts in Eckhart Tolle’s book – A New Earth. I’m not upset at all by Oprah’s comments. I like them. I believe in them. I don’t feel this makes me anti-Christian at all. It may make me anti-fundamentalist, but I’ve been against fundamentalism in any religion. See my other podcast and website – http://www.insytworks.com for more insights into my spiritual beliefs.

I try to look at the world as a big, bell shaped curve. In other words, the world isn’t black and white, it is mostly gray. If I remember my stats correctly, two-thirds of everything exists within one standard deviation of the mean. So how does my view fit with the article? I think there will be many ways to monetize podcasts and new media. I just think most people will find a similar method. There will be fewer at either extreme, but they will be there and they, too, will be successful.  Can I predict what will be at the extremes?  No.  Can I predict what will be in the middle of the normal curve?  No.  I just know that there is room for all methods and room within the same business for different approaches.I believe that the “expected” consumer price for a podcast will be $0.00.  But, if you create products covering the whole of the curve you will have access to the largest market. Having free podcasts, high-end premium cast, and everthing in between, will yield the greatest rewards. While a free podcast may not bring in much money, it may bring great audience size. At the other end, a high priced premium cast will have a much smaller audience, but, it may generate an equal amount of income. I do think a “premium cast” will be a powerful money maker when partnered with a free podcast. And every “free” listener has the potential to become a “premium” listener.  This concept is not new.  It has been described as the sales funnel.  Get people using the free version, build a relationship, offer a low-priced, paid product to get the customer used to paying for an enhanced version, continue to build the relationship, offer yet a higher-priced premium version.  This can continue to some pretty lofty prices as long as there are customers willing to pay for truely exclusive, premium content. 

This article shows the corporate inertia in the advertising industry. As a podcaster, I “know” there is an incredible relationship that is fostered between the podcaster and the consumer. The strength of this relationship is real, but hasn’t be measured, yet. Advertisers are using the metrics they know. Exposure, Eyeballs,… Advertisers are buying “exposure to” consumers not the “relationship with” the consumer. I do think this will change as the strength of the new media – podcasting relationship will be measured and fed back to the advertisers. The ADM – Association of Downloadable Media is working on this. I’m also sure PodShow, Podango, and Wizzard Media are all gathering their facts and figures to change the opinions of the advertising world.

If a conventional advertising conversion rate of 2% could be upped to 5% through the relationship strength of a podcast, I see huge advertising money moving into the new media arena. That’s why I’m playing in this sandbox.