Podcasts Interviews Videos

Paul Colligan, CEO of Premiumcast.com This interview is part of my series “Making Money from Podcasting” where I interview podcasters who are actually generating revenue from their podcasts. There are many techniques, and here’s one person’s tale of how he’s making money from podcasting. Build an audience and sell premium podcasts Paul Colligan is the CEO of Premiumcast.com, a company that builds and sells an RSS-subscriber management technology. It s different than traditional podcasting in that Premiumcast creates personalized RSS feeds. With traditional podcasting, the podcaster sends out a single RSS feed that everyone subscribes to. The publisher has no control over that relationship with that listener. The listener is in complete control, choosing when to turn you on and off. With a personalized Premiumcast RSS feed podcast publishers can control the relationship with every single listener. And one of the primary things you can do with that controlled relationship is charge for the podcast. Since it s personalized, you know the status of every single subscriber. For example, if subscriber #423 is up for renewal and they don t pay, you can turn off their specific feed, but keep #424 going since they did renew. Publishers also have control of how podcasts are delivered for new subscribers.  With traditional podcasting, when a person subscribes, the first program they get is the one that s most recently published. With a Premiumcast, when you get a new subscriber, you can begin their podcast feed at episode #1 and deliver it sequentially over time once a week, once every day, whatever. There s a whole host of other personalized control mechanisms you can deliver or impose in terms of types of content (e.g. audio, video, PDF) and timing of the content. It s essentially up to the publisher how they want to manage their service for their customers. Premiumcast does not manage the publisher s payment nor take a percentage of what the publisher charges. Premiumcasts are simply a flat fee. The cost is $97 a month for the standard version and $147 a month for the unbranded version. The unbranded version means you can erase all mentions of Premiumcast on your feed and on your site, and make it appear 100 percent your own. How to create a podcast that people are willing to pay for Most of the people who take advantage of Colligan s Premiumcast are offering up how to shows and training programs. His advice for others who want to achieve success selling their podcasts is to simply understand their audience s needs. For example, if someone is preparing for a certification in some type of business, having a preparatory podcast is highly valuable and people will pay for it. Just take a look at what happens as people are walking out of bookstores, said Colligan. He s seen cases of podcasters who used to offer up a show for free and then started charging for it. That doesn t work, said Colligan, especially when there are tons of similar competitive podcasts that are available for free. Colligan s top advice is to have an audience first before you try to sell a podcast. If you don t have one, don t try to sell a podcast. Gathering an audience can be done in multiple ways. You can build an audience by running a free podcast and use it to promote your paid podcast, or you could spend the money on search advertising and build an audience that sees your paid podcast. Here are Paul Colligan s top three tips on how to successfully sell a premium/paid for podcast: Know exactly what you re delivering and what its value is. Know exactly who you re delivering it to. Paint a message of the value of the content, not the technology that s delivering it. (e.g. call it a training program and not a podcast ) For more, listen to my interview with Paul Colligan as he describes all the different ways you can manage and monetize a Premiumcast. Plus he offers up some more great advice on how to make the most money offering up a paid podcast. Download audio file (Making_Money_From_Podcasting-Premiumcast.mp3) Download MP3 More episodes of “Making Money from Podcasting” Never Not Funny (Technique: “Partial show for free – full show paid”) Personal Life Media (Technique: “Build your own media network of programming and sell advertising against it”) Pregtastic (Technique: “Get your own sponsors”) Elsie’s Yoga Class (Technique: “Sell an iPhone application along with your podcast”) Mac OS Ken (Technique: “Give away five shows for free, make them pay for the sixth”) Alaska HDTV (Technique: “Get your own sponsors”) ScreenCastsOnline (Technique: “Give away every other episode. Make them pay for the rest.”) Izzy Video (Technique: “Give away every other episode. Make them pay for the rest.”) Slate Gabfests (Technique: Integrating sponsorship with the show’s editorial ) David Spark helps businesses grow by developing thought leadership through storytelling and covering live events at Spark Media Solutions. He blogs at The Spark Minute and can be heard and seen regularly on ABC Radio, Cranky Geeks with John C. Dvorak, and KQED in San Francisco. See his business profile, contact David, or leave a comment below. Tweet It! Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Reddit Stumble This Post This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing This interview is part of my series “Making Money from Podcasting” where I interview podcasters who are actually generating revenue from their podcasts. There are many techniques, and here’s one person’s tale of how he’s making money from podcasting. Build your brand to sell your services John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach and author of Duct Tape Marketing , which is also the name of his podcast and his company. He started the Duct Tape Marketing brand, a template for small business marketing, about seven years ago and two years after that, launched his podcast. Jantsch is amazed how just having a show, even though completely unknown at the time and with very few listeners, gave him tremendous access to well known people and authors. It was a great way to make an introduction. He simply sent an email that said, Interview request. Not knowing who Jantsch was at the time, many well known people, including social media luminaries such as Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, agreed to be on his podcast. Those interviews initiated relationships that resulted in both Godin and Kawasaki contributing to Jantsch s book. Interviewing major industry heavyweights increased his recognition and built his brand and cache within the industry. It s unclear where the brand building really came from the book, the blog, the speeches, the podcast. Jantsch says it s all part of one giant soup that s been a very exciting journey for him. Not only has he generated revenue for his business with an increased brand recognition, but the audience he s built with the sponsorship has resulted in several six-figure podcast sponsorships, says Jantsch. The Duct Tape Marketing brand has exploded in the past five years. Since starting the podcast, things have changed dramatically. Jantsch estimates that his business has grown more than 500 percent and he works a lot less. How did he do it? By first working really hard. Listen to our interview. (Time: 9:51) Download audio file (Making_Money_From_Podcasting-Duct_Tape_Marketing.mp3) Download MP3 More episodes of “Making Money from Podcasting” Never Not Funny (Technique: “Partial show for free – full show paid”) Personal Life Media (Technique: “Build your own media network of programming and sell advertising against it”) Pregtastic (Technique: “Get your own sponsors”) Elsie’s Yoga Class (Technique: “Sell an iPhone application along with your podcast”) Mac OS Ken (Technique: “Give away five shows for free, make them pay for the sixth”) Alaska HDTV (Technique: “Get your own sponsors”) David Spark helps businesses grow by developing thought leadership through storytelling and covering live events at Spark Media Solutions. He blogs at The Spark Minute and can be heard and seen regularly on ABC Radio, Cranky Geeks with John C. Dvorak, and KQED in San Francisco. See his business profile, contact David, or leave a comment below. Tweet It! Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Reddit Stumble This Post

Royce Hidreth, producer of the Pregtastic podcast This interview is part of a series “Making Money from Podcasting” where I interview podcasters who are actually generating revenue from their podcasts. There are many techniques, and here s one person s tale of how they re making money from podcasting. Get your own sponsors Royce Hildreth is the producer of the Pregtastic podcast, the weekly audio podcast by pregnant women, for pregnant women. While he works with Wizzard Media, a podcasting ad network, which can sell advertising for his show, he primarily seeks out his own sponsorships. Hildreth and I talked about how he goes about landing advertisers and what techniques work the best. In general, advertisers want exclusivity on the podcast, and they want more presence than just a pre-roll ad or an in-show insert ad. Podcasting s interactivity is often what attracts advertisers to the medium. The format allows for some give-and-take play with the hosts, and that adds dynamic value for the sponsor. It s unlike other streaming media such as radio or TV, which are still often stuck on just selling interstitial advertisements. Hildreth says he s looking to build long term partnerships, ideally as long as a year. He wants to move beyond the simple CPM (cost per thousand) model and offer more value to advertisers such as putting employees on the podcast, and possibly produce videos of the sponsor s products that would live alongside the podcast. Beyond seeking sponsors, Hildreth also uses the begware model, which used to generate $150 a month in revenue. Unfortunately, and possibly because of the economy, that s dropped to a much lower level. In an effort to bring those dollars back up, hosts have stopped saying the show is free and they re now saying that the show costs a donation. Hildreth doesn t make much money from the podcast. The sponsorships and donations are only offsetting costs, such as Web hosting and hiring a baby sitter for when he and his wife need to go to the studio to produce the podcast. Listen to my interview with Hildreth as he talks about maintaining the credibility of the content of Pregtastic while also seeking out sponsorships. (Time: 12:44) Download audio file (Making_Money_From_Podcasting-Pregtastic.mp3) Download the MP3 More episodes of Making Money from Podcasting Never Not Funny (Technique: “Partial show for free full show paid”) Personal Life Media (Technique: “Build your own media network of programming and sell advertising against it”) David Spark helps businesses grow by developing thought leadership through storytelling and covering live events at Spark Media Solutions. He blogs at The Spark Minute and can be heard and seen regularly on ABC Radio, Cranky Geeks with John C. Dvorak, and KQED in San Francisco. See his business profile, contact David, or leave a comment below. Tweet It! Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Reddit Stumble This Post

New study doesn t distinguish between flaws and healthy behavior I ve long believed that the Internet exists solely because of our ego. Everything we do publicly online is an effort to be acknowledged. This week, two stories pointed out the frighteningly obvious: That students who use social networks are narcissistic and that a center for Internet addiction has opened up in Washington. Please researchers, enough with the leading questions The first story should be filed under the category of Trees are made of wood and other stuff we already knew that didn t require the expense of a university s resources. Regardless, bringing up the issue of what motivates students to use social networks makes us all realize why we re using the Internet. And that s to be acknowledged and to get recognized. The problem is the study lumped in divergent traits narcissism, self-promotion, and attention-seeking as being synonymous. Self-promotion and narcissism are two very different things. Nobody seeks or admires someone who is narcissistic, but we admire people who effectively and non-offensively self-promote. The study created many leading questions which has been a chronic irritation I ve had with organizations such as Forrester and IDC that conduct social media research (Read Social media research is chock full of leading questions ). In my critique, IDC asked leading questions as to what advertising people would be willing to see online and Forrester asked leading questions about trusting corporate blogs. No one wants to see ads and the brand of corporate blogs is like that of a used car salesman. No one wants either, but we use both. We have stereotypes, and in the cases I pointed out, research firms are just confirming existing stereotypes. They re not revealing how one goes around the stereotype or what formed the stereotype. In the case of the students that social network are narcissistic study, it s not revealing. We all knew the results before the study was even conducted. What would have been more interesting is asking people to dig further. Why do you feel the need to self-promote using social networks? Would you self-promote if you didn t have a social network at your disposal? Do you consider yourself as attention-seeking or narcissistic? What about your friends? Do you feel that some are truly narcissistic or are they just healthy self-promoters? That s the story we really need to know. Don t give us the lazy leading question answer we already know, but investigate. Take what we know and reveal to us something we don t know. What s truly a flaw and what s actually healthy behavior? How do you manage your Internet Addiction Disorder? Then there s the story this week of the Internet Addiction Disorder center, reSTART, that opened up here in the U.S. Upon reading the story, many of us laughed, mocking the people who are diagnosed as Internet addicted. But once you actually start reading the nine questions to determine if you are truly Internet addicted, you realize that many of those statements pertain to you. Just look at the first two: Have a strong desire or impulse to use the Internet. Decreasing or stopping of the Internet leads to withdrawal symptoms. I can t think of one person those two statements don t apply to. If that s the case, we re all Internet addicted. But then again, I think we re also addicted to our phones, television, and reading. These studies were so popular this week because they all made us question our own behaviors. Don t you feel a little self-centered or maybe even narcissistic when you re on a social network? And have you ever been on a vacation yet were still eager to check your email? Did you question your own behavior when you saw these stories? Did you question the research and the results of the social networking/narcissism story? Discussing Internet addiction and social networking narcissism with Curtis Sliwa on WABC Radio Curtis Sliwa on WABC Radio Last night I discussed these topics with radio personality and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, host of a very popular late night radio program on WABC Radio. He joked that his phone screener, Goldbrick, was heavily addicted to the Internet and was shotgunning Redbulls just to stay awake so he could stay online longer. Listen to or download the funny and engaging 13-minute conversation. Download audio file (curtis_sliwa_082509_post.mp3) David Spark helps businesses grow by developing thought leadership through storytelling and covering live events at Spark Media Solutions. He blogs at The Spark Minute and can be heard and seen regularly on ABC Radio, Cranky Geeks with John C. Dvorak, and KQED in San Francisco. See his business profile, contact David, or leave a comment below.

Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv from JD Lasica on Vimeo. The host of GeekBrief.TV also offers 7 secrets to podcasting success If you travel in technology circles, chances are you ve heard of Cali Lewis, the extraordinarily gifted, personaable and successful Web show pioneer who hosts and co-produces GeekBrief.TV. She s about to top 50,000 followers on Twitter at @calilewis. Geek Brief, launched on Dec. 23, 2005, now boasts more than 600 episodes (I ve watched most of them), done on location or at Cali and her husband Neal Campbell s studio in Dallas. I don t know how they keep up the pace, given the show s high production values. Over the years in my talks on new media, I ve often held up Cali and Geek Brief as a spot-on example of how to break into new media — and of how the next generation of Web video shows will look: fast-paced, interesting, fun, personality-driven, passionate and polished. In this interview, conducted at WordCamp SF shortly before her talk, Cali discusses the genesis of Geek Brief (after 5 months, we were done with our day jobs and began doing the show full time — living the dream), podcasting s place in the mediasphere ( What podcasting offers is that anybody can do it. They don t have to be told by ABC or NBC or any radio station that they have the talent to do this. The audience is picking and choosing who is successful. ), and how she chooses which tech news to feature (new technologies that excite her and her viewers). Social media s role We spent most of the interview discussing social media and how to engage an audience. The most important rule of audience participation is you participating back, she said. Putting questions to the users is a good technique, through Twitter, blog comments and directly on the show itself. She s on a campaign to coax people to communicate via Twitter rather than email ( You can have a great conversation in 140 characters. ) She s also particularly adept at using live video streaming during some of her episodes, calling it a great way to interact. Her advice to those just starting out: Think about what you want, and then just go for it! I often echo her advice to not get tripped up by the technology. GeekBrief.TV offers some training materials on its Podcasting Tips page. The lighting on this 9-minute video was subpar because it was bright outside and my LP-Micro fill light wasn t up to the task. Watch or embed video on Vimeo Watch video in H.264 QuickTime on Ourmedia.org Download video from Archive.org Shortly afterward, Cali gave a presentation on Building an Interactive Audience to a packed house, and I tweeted her advice & the tweets are all gone now, of course — but she gave a very similar presentation at WordCamp Dallas recently, capably captured by the MSPmentor blog: 7 secrets to podcasting success Rule 1: Understand your core brand value. GeekBrief.TV’s brand value is “happiness,” Cali says. She wants her 3-minute technology product views to leave viewers feeling good. Rule 2: Start compelling conversations. Cali says you need to look around your daily life to create compelling conversations. Examples: The other shoe falls for former Computer Associates executive Memo to JetBlue: Change your WiFi strategy Rule 3: Be an asset. Cali says your sites and communications need to “add value. If you want to build an online community, it can’t be about you. It has to be about your community.” Rule 4: Make friends, not fans. Cali advises: “Don’t speak at the community. Speak with the community. Ask questions and answer questions. Loyal audiences will tell other people about your sites.” Rule 5: Show appreciation. Thank readers over and over again. Rule 6: Take breaks. Cali admitted she breaks rule 6 all the time. Rule 7: Always be upgrading. Cali says “Never let yourself you get stale. Show your community you’re vying for their attention.” All of it good advice.

Ethics of cultural collaboration from JD Lasica on Vimeo. Rita J. King, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council and CEO of Dancing Ink Productions, talks about the ethics of cultural collaboration in this 10-minute video interview immediately after her appearance at the 140 Character Conference on Twitter in New York on June 17. Our conversation was generally at a 50,000-foot level, looking at the Internet and its role in the development of an ethical culture. Rita uses the model of a Johari window, a square divided into four parts: How I see myself accurately; how I see myself inaccurately; how others see me accurately; and how others see me inaccurately. Participating in the digital culture shakes all those things up, she says, and new technologies are enabling people are able to parse out how they feel about the rituals and traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation which both illuminate the human spirit and shackle us to outdated systems. During the panel and in our conversation, Rita questioned whether the efforts in the West to help the street demonstrators are helping or hurting if the tactics are based on deception, such as changing one s Twitter profile to say you live in Tehran as an expression of solidarity. Is it putting people on the ground in Tehran in jeopardy if they can t find each other? Deliberate deception seems like a step backward to me. And that s symptomatic of other things that will continue to manifest in the digital culture, with a debate over how best to achieve a social good. The most exciting thing about the Internet is that it offers us an opportunity for transparency, accountability, fearlessness. Rita J. King Rita believes that creative identity construction is a very powerful force. We re in the process of telling the global story of what it s like to be alive in 2009, and we re doing it together. The most successful members of the digital culture are people who facilitate the ability of other people to tell their stories. It s always been about storytelling. I feel I woke up one day in a world where the level of candor has just exponentially increased — and it s wonderful. New technologies have increased the potential for storytelling. Now the use of multimedia to tell stories is so powerful: video, images, immersive environments, augmented reality, telepresence — we ve only just seen the beginning of this, she says. As people become more proficient with mobile devices, life itself becomes a sort of a game, she says. You learn how to navigate the dashboard of your life. What s for sure is that we have the capacity for the first time in human history to be connected with each other. I believe wholeheartedly in the capacity for the evolution of human consciousness, she adds. The most exciting thing about the Internet is that it offers us an opportunity for transparency, accountability, fearlessness. And more truth. Greater ethical behavior. Watch or embed video on Vimeo Watch video in original magical H.264 on Ourmedia Download video on Archive.org JD Lasica works with major companies and nonprofits on social media strategies. See his business profile, contact JD or leave a comment.

From JD Lasica on Vimeo. At the Ultimate Bloggers Dinner on the opening night of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last Wednesday, Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Company, took out time to sit down with a few bloggers for a live Webcast, a couple of cell phone interviews, and the interview above, which I captured with a Canon HV20 hi-def camcorder.Chris Heuer of AdHocnium (and the Social Media Club) and I interviewed Mulally about how Ford is using social media to drive innovation and transformation inside the company. Chris and I both found Mulally to be incredibly personable and knowledgeable about the social forces swirling through the economy. The video is 10 minutes long and a bit noisy because we didn't have a lavalier mic, but you can hear Mulally throughout.Watch in H.264 QuickTime on Ourmedia (or download it)Watch in Flash on Vimeo (embedded above) Bonus: Flickr photo set of Mulally (at bottom) and others at CES.

Social marketing expert Ayelet Noff talks about the social media and Web 2.0 scene in Israel during this 9-minute video interview I conducted with her during our blogger posse road trip to Israel. A former New Yorker, Ayelet is a rising star in Web 2.0 circles in Tel Aviv and helped us with all phases of our trip. (Apologies for the lighting — this was the first interview I did on my Samsung hi-def camcorder.) Watch video in H.264 MPEG-4 on Ourmedia Watch in Flash on Ourmedia Watch video in Flash on Veoh (with ads)

At the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood the other week I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes with Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, which fights the good fight in Washington, DC, trying to bring transparency to the nation's legislative hallways and public policies. They launched the Congresspedia and PublicMarkUp.com efforts. Sorry for the bad lighting, this was pulled together very quickly. Watch MPEG-4 video | Ourmedia page Watch Flash version on Internet Archive

I've been doing an informal series of video interviews with people about the issues on their minds during this pivotal election year. Recently I caught up with Kate Aishton, a resident of Washington, DC, who's a staffer at the Aspen Institute's Communications & Society Program. Kate talked about the lack of representation in Congress for residents of DC. Here's our 2-minute video interview: Watch video in MPEG-4 | Ourmedia page Flash version on Internet Archive

Here's a 5-minute video interview I did recently with Mircalla Wozniak and Katie Muehlenkamp. co-founders of Good O' Girls, a poliitcal, professional and social network for women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Watch MPEG-4 video | Ourmedia page Flash version on Internet Archive

A 2-minute video interview with Michelle Mills of DataPilot, which makes products that sync your cell phone to your computer. Conducted on the exhibition floor of Macworld Expo 2008 in San Francisco. Watch QuickTime video Flash version on Internet Archive

At the Good Ol' Girls gathering in San Francisco last Thursday night, Jeff Soukup, California co-chair of the John Edwards campaign, gave a 6-minute talk about why John Edwards is the most progressive and most electable candidate running for president. Watch MPEG-4 video Watch Flash version on Internet Archive Cross-posted to Real People Network.

Last month the Aspen Institute brought 29 thought leaders in the mobile space together during a three-day event, Mobile Media and Civic Engagement. On the final day I interviewed Charlie Firestone, executive director of the Aspen Institute's Communications and Society program about the conference and the broader program. Here's the 4-minute interview, captured with my new Canon HV-20 high-def camcorder. I apologize for the less than optimal lighting and sound.

Listen To The Show (50:33) On our geocaching podcast today, we have part 2 of an interview with John Chen from Playtime, Inc., the creators of geoteaming. We also chat about photo caching, a new Dutch geocaching podcast and caches in space. You won t want to miss the Texas County Challenge geocoin contest drawing along with fascinating facts about Texas! Hop on over to the PodCacher Forums to discuss the show! Images mentioned in the show: Go to the Flickr set We Recommend CoinsAndPins.com - a great resource for high-quality geocoins and Christmas gifts Interview with John Chen Playtime Inc. Geoteaming Links mentioned in the show Geocache Radio - New Dutch Geocaching podcast Photo caches: GCNH43 - Some Like It Hot and GCVP0Y - Barrels of Phoon! Jott - a site that lets you dictate texting Tips from the Top Floor - digital photography podcast (Sonny s Canon 40D review was on this episode) Next discussion topic - What is Geocaching? Game, Sport, Hobby, Activity Help Support PodCacher Become a PodCacher Member and, for a limited time, receive a 2007 PodCacher GOLD geocoin as a special thank-you! Check out the NEW PodCacher Amazon Store

Listen To The Show (56:21) On our geocaching show today, we celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day with an interview with Halfdan5, a geocacher with a very interesting profession! We also have audio from the Indiana Fall Picnic, and we record part of the show from the beautiful beach in Coronado near the famous Hotel Del. Hop on over to the PodCacher Forums to discuss the show! Images mentioned in the show: Go to the Flickr set We Recommend CoinsAndPins.com - a great resource for high-quality geocoins (check out the Current Special Offers for a special discount for PodCacher listeners) Last Chance to get the 2007 PodCacher nickel geocoin! Our current geocoins are SOLD OUT. We are taking pre-orders for a 2nd and final order ( The Last Wave ). DEADLINE for placing your order is September 23. Order yours now! Interview with halfdan5 (a sword swallower!): Profile for Haldan5 Cutting Edge Innertainment Sword Swallowers Association Int l Sword Swallowing Resources To The Hilt Underwater Sword Swallow in the Shark Tank: Story Photos and Video Cache Raider by Canoe Guy Aye Bear Pyrates Treasure by Halfdan5 Cap n Cutless Other links mentioned in the show Hotel Del Coronado 2007 Indiana Fall Picnic Kayakers launch from here by nemsmedic11 In the Shadow of an LP, See? by George Oliver Cash (XiaDog) PodCacher Kayak Geocoin by DresselDragons Talk like a Pirate Day How to Talk like a Pirate Pirate Translator Check out the Contest Page for all the current games and contests