In Chapter 8 of Podcasting for Profit, I provide a couple of case studies of podcasters using paid subscriptions to make money with a podcast.

Paul Colligan, who wrote the foreword to my book, is holding a free webcast on Thursday October 11th to explain how you can use Premiumcast to make money with your podcast. If you’re interested, click here to sign up for a free account. Once you create your free profile, you will get the webcast details after you login.

I almost coughed up my coffee through my nose when I read Entrepreneur.com’s Top 10 Marketing Trends to watch in 2007. Three of the 10 trends were listed under Hot Online Trends and what were they?

• Web conferencing
• Online research
• Local search

That’s the reason why I nearly didn’t ingest my coffee the right way this morning. Web conferencing is so 1999, while I don’t believe that local search will be hot. And I can’t believe that online research is considered a hot trend for 2007. I’ve been doing online research ever since I went online in 1994, so how can this be hot?

Why didn’t podcasting make the list? Or even blogs? Or even 3-D marketing through Second Life? Am I missing something here?

Technorati: technology, Internet, Blogs, webinars, Webcasts, Word Of Mouth, Marketing Strategy

Okay, enough of the bellyaching, Leesa.

Yes, there are way too many wacky lists out there that say they’re honouring women in tech, but do nothing but provide a good laugh (or a vigorous head shake). It’s now time for women to put together a list of savvy women in technology.

Tara Hunt has started a very good list of women in Web 2.0. She’s getting alot of help through her readers who are leaving their own suggestions. While listing great women in Web 2.0 is a monumental feat, I will focus on the Top 10 Savvy Women in Podcasting (Connie, your suggestion of “smart women” triggered this list, so thank you).

More on Top 10 Savvy Women in Podcasting, the Introduction

Yes, this is a podcasting blog and yes, I’ve focused alot on social media this week, but trust me, it all comes full circle. Here are some additional news items that caught my eye this week.

• One in 3 Canadians read a blog. Not just that, but baby boomers are spending time on them as well. My only gripe is that the article called blogs “web diaries.” Please, please don’t call them online diaries. Doing so removes the seriousness as to why businesses should consider blogs as a communications tool. Use the Wikipedia definition for blogs instead.

• EMI now accepting music submissions from aspiring, unsigned artists. The reason? It’s because the emails of EMI employees are being clogged by attachments that are MB in size. Why don’t you tell us the real reason, EMI? That you’re finally recognizing that social media actually works and that you may just find your next million dollar talent in a sea of no-names. Hope you’re kicking yourself in the foot regarding Napster.

• WOMMA’s Ethics Assessment Tool. By way of For Immediate Release (#185), I found out that the Word of Mouth Marketing Association has developed 20 questions that you can ask contractors, agencies and all personnel to identify, avoid and eliminate unethical word of mouth tactics. This is definitely needed in light of the Walmart and lonelygirl15 fiascos.

Some thoughts as I stumble through the web this morning.

• Can magazines stay relevant? The American Magazine Conference is happening this week in Phoenix, Arizona and companies such as Google & Yahoo are there to lead sessions on digital media. I really like some of the comments I’m reading as to why magazines need to incorporate digital media into their overall strategy.

“We cannot be over-dependent on the print magazine. We have to look for new streams of revenue. It’s not really a choice.”

“Publications that have engaged in relationships with their consumer base across multiple content points are more desirable than one four-color page in a magazine.”

“Given that the digital world is growing at a much faster rate than old media, there’s top-down pressure on publishers to get into new platforms, to find new ways of using their content.”

• Online Stars & Hollywood. A talent agency in Los Angeles is scouring the web looking for online stars to peddle wares for companies who want to launch online advertising campaigns. United Talent will accept submissions and sign clients who don’t have agents. As one person said on the video podcasting dicussion group I belong to:

“Yep, everybody wants to get rich off us. Too bad we can’t figure it
out for ourselves.”

On a cold, rainy weekend here in Toronto, I’m glad that while I hibernated indoors, I was able to attend a conference online all about podcasting. I sat through 70% of the sessions at the International Podcasting Expo that started Friday night at 8pm and ended Sunday evening at 6pm. I had a chance to listen to many experts share tips and tricks on how to make a podcast even better.

For the sessions I did attend, I provided a summary. Here’s the list below:

• Leila Thigpen on Voice Techniques for Podcasters
• Pamela for Skype
• Difference Between Internet Radio & Podcasts
• Nicole Simon on Growing an International Audience
• Dave Nelsen on Interactive Talk Podcasts
• Rich Roszel on Upgrading Your Studio Equipment
• How to Plan a Killer Podcast
• Penny Haynes on Pulling RSS Feeds Through Your Website
• Steven Stewart on Nokia Podcasting
• Dr. Kathy King on Podcasting for Education
• Jerry Franklin, The Audacity Guy on Audacity
• Jason Van Orden on Guerilla Podcasting (coming soon)

Overall, I’m encouraged to see that more and more people are thinking about podcasting in a more critical light. I don’t mean that they’re being critical about podcasting, but instead, they are thinking way beyond the gadgets and content.

For many people who attended the International Podcasting Expo, they’re thinking about their podcasts as a way to grow a community, create a sense of belonging and add value to the global conversations.
This is truly refreshing.

Dr. Kathy King really understands the role of podcasting in the educational environment. She just gets it and her enthuasiasm about podcasting for education is just infectious. At the International Podcasting Expo, Dr. King shared some of these insights:

• Education just isn’t relegated to the classroom. Lifelong learning comes through the changes we go through in life. Dr. King said that this is called transformative learning and she wrote a book on it. These changes and how we deal with them can be great content for a podcast.
• Podcasts in education is professional development on demand (PODcast). Yet another variation on what podcast means.
• The value of podcasting in the educational context is the content, allowing teachers to reach further than what the classroom could offer.
• An excellent point - Not every situation warrants a podcast. Dr. King said that teachers may want to record their students and fear putting up the audio online because it will be accessible by everyone. Dr. King suggested that if teachers want to make the audio content private, don’t attach it to an RSS feed. Simple. Private content is not suitable as a podcast.
• Plan, Design, Track and Revise. If you’re not listening to your audience, they will vote with the click of the mouse and you’ll lose a listener who will never return.
• Break down the barriers. Not everyone understands what it means to subscribe to a podcast. Provide some tips, provide tutorials and make it easy for your listeners to listen and then subscribe to your podcast.

As I sit here at my computer attending a few sessions at the International Podcasting Expo, I stumbled upon some interesting news bits in the podcasting world.

Here are just a few of my musings:

• Self-Proclaimed Podcasting Thought Leader? While I don’t want to remove the bulbs from anyone’s scoreboard on game day, I’m curious to know what makes Bruce Stasch, President of Apex Marketing Group, a podcasting thought leader? Again, I’m just curious as I’ve never heard of him and I’ve been engrossed in this field for close to 2-years now.

• iTunes Only Loves the Big Boys, Sorry. More and more I believe that unless you have a big corporate name in the title of your podcast, you will find yourself swimming in the sea of nothingness in iTunes. Check out who’s listed in the Top 25 in each category in iTunes. What is ratio between podcasts produced by those with recognizable corporate names vs. the small fries?

• Podcasts Are Made By Geeks, For Geeks Says Writer. Two years after I discovered podcasts, I’m still amazed at how many people still think podcasting are only for geeks. Rachel Cooke comes to this realization after listening to 1 podcast that had what she called “a Dallas theme song.” Actually, after reading her article a second time, I’m still not clear what she’s rambling about. However, I’m shocked that based on the production values of a few podcasts, Rachel makes this sweeping generalization that podcasts are only for geeks. Comments like this only help to keep mainstream audiences from embracing podcasting. Thanks Rachel.

• Podcasts Piss Prof. I feel like I’ve just written a headline for the Toronto Sun (check out Friday’s front cover to the left talking about the number of pedestrians killed by distracted drivers in Toronto - Fatal Distraction (**groan**). Looks like not all professors embrace podcasting. Robert Schneider, Associate Professor of Theater and Dance at Northern Illinois University, laments at length that podcasts are ruining the classroom learning experience. While podcasting may not be an appropriate alternative, it is an appropriate compliment, Rob.

• Great Podcasting Idea: Pre-Conference Podcasting Roadshow. There’s a conference coming up called IT@Cork and they plan on interviewing each speaker and releasing them as a podcast each week until the week of the conference. While this isn’t a new idea, it’s certainly something you can look at to promote your own event.

• Mr. Penguin Girl Signs Off. By way of Paul Colligan, I found out that Jon Watson said farewell to his BizPodcasting blog this week. I knew something was amiss when I didn’t see any new blog posts on his blog for about 2-days (Jon usually updates his blog 4-5 times per day). Jon’s voice was unique and independent. Because of his autonomy, he was able to freely talk about what he liked and didn’t like about podcasting. I’m sad to see Jon go as that means one less Canuck voicing their podcasting opinions, however, I’ve made an awesome friend because of his blog. Cheers dude.

As you may have noticed, I tend to stay away from commenting on breaking news in the technology field on my blog only because I want my voice to be unique. If I blog about something that thousands of other bloggers are already blogging about, my voice gets lost in the shuffle.

However, I can’t ignore Google’s billion dollar purchase of YouTube. This is just a significant watershed moment in the technology field. Debbie Weil said it best when she called the Google acquisition of YouTube an inflection point. Mathew Ingram wrote that Google’s purchase of YouTube will make “old media” finally realize that user generated media is NOT a fad. Some, like Jon Watson, have questioned why Google would make this purchase in the first place.

As for my thoughts on this issue? The Google acquisition clearly shows that infotainment - information that’s entertaining - and not content, is king. Anyone can produce content. That’s evident by the sheer number of podcasts that are out there. I read on someone’s blog that there are just about 82,000 podcasts on iTunes alone (I’ll find the link).

But why is it that not all 82,000 podcasts stand out? It’s because content isn’t king, infotainment is. This is probably the same reason why Google felt that YouTube was a good buy - user generated infotainment is taking over.

Technorati: podcasting, google, you tube, mathew ingram, debbie weil, jon watson

Video podcasting has its merits, put there’s also a dark side emerging.

• Two kids in Toronto caused 2nd degree burns to a young girl as they poured gasoline on her chest and lit her on fire, all in an attempt to capture the deed on camera. Now, it’s not clear what they were producing their video for, but if it were for a video podcast, I’m sure that this would count as one of those on the “dark side.”
• While at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo (PME), I was alarmed at the number of women who are sexualized in video podcasts. I noticed that I’m one of the few women using podcasts as a business strategy, yet the more popular women at the Expo were those who wore tight shirts or explored suggestive themes as a star (or host) in their video podcasts.

Those are just a couple of what I consider to be video podcasting’s dark side. I have come across audio podcasts that I deem to be crass or crude, however, after hearing that news story above, I was just anxious to start the conversation about video podcasting.

Technorati: podcasting, video podcasting, women in podcasting, marketing