MWGblog

For the last few months I have told my “podcasting pals” that I thought Podtrac’s survey idea was pure genius. It is about time I posted my thoughts here on the site. Podcasters who want to monetize need to gather demographic information about their listeners. When asking for money, it is critical to know who is listening to your show, how often and how they are “consuming” it. For months, independent podcasters were using survey systems such as SurveyMonkey and others to gather this information. Last fall, Mark McCrery and the team at Podtrac put together an easy to integrate survey system for podcasters to use to learn about their audience and potentially set them up for advertising and sponsorship. Why was this smart? Because it was easy to use, non-exclusive (as far as I know you aren’t beholden to Podtrac for using the service) and provided useful information to podcasters. That is great.

Here is why it is pure genius: Podtrac now has the most complete demographic information about podcasts, podcast listenership and podcast consumption in existence. Across all the podcasters who implemented their survey, they gathered data from close to 40,0000 respondents in total. In an emerging medium, that is incredibly valuable information. [Video of his powerpoint slides and results.] There are plenty of $695 white papers available on podcasting, however no one has a data set like Podtrac. If I were Podtrac’s competition, I’d be kicking myself for having not thought of this first. A lot of companies missed this opportunity. Kuddos to Podtrac, in the podcast ad aggregation and sales arena – this is the smartest move yet.

I had the good fortune to participate in a number of podcasts as a guest last week. I appeared on the Podcast Brothers, discussing my views on podcasting, CPM and the Podcast Wikipedia page along with hosts Tim and Emile Bourquin. I also was invited to be on the Cullinane & Green Report where we had an interesting discussion about podcasting and its business applications. Roger Green and Joe Cullinane do an interesting show on how new technologies impact business development and ultimately, your bottom line.

I knew there was a reason I liked Metropolitan. I grabbed this picture with Brian Clark from Grape Radio last night at a surprise black tie birthday bash for our buddy Chris.

In the last few weeks there have been a number of posts on the podcast discussion boards about sponsorship deals for podcasts, particularly those put together by podcast ad networks. Interestingly, no one wants to state the total compensation involved. (Or for that matter, the average compensation to the podcaster.) It is all “confidential.” Why is that? I know what it costs to run a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl, why is the cost for sponsoring a podcast top secret? The answer is simple; the amounts involved are embarrassingly low. I know they are, if they weren’t people would be “leaking” them non stop. Instead, people are using terms like “fair” and “we are excited a major sponsor is involved”, that is code for underpaid. Unfortunately, most podcasters are not well positioned to demand their worth; they are relying on others to dictate the value of their shows. This means opportunity for the ad aggregation networks at the expense of podcasters. Nothing against the ad networks, I have some smart friends building them and it is dumb to pass an opportunity like that by.

Why is this important to me? I want podcasters to get paid their true worth. In many cases I am convinced that the people doing the deals are underselling the value. The more that people undersell the value – the more the market will come to accept those prices. The debate on the Podcast boards by the so-called “experts” center around CPM and justification for the amounts being asked; $10 – $30 CPM depending on the “expert.” These guys don’t know what they are talking about; they are missing the whole opportunity. Often times they are comparing their prices to the CPM of a mature industry, this is a rookie mistake – these numbers are way too low. Podcasting is an emerging medium; this is the time when the opportunity is most ripe. If you are having a CPM debate with someone you are having the wrong discussion. The discussion you should be having is about unique opportunity and new market penetration. I have been saying this for months now and interestingly the only other person I have heard banging the “forget CPM” drum is Ron Bloom of Podshow. I know people have strong opinions about Podshow, but on this issue I am in total agreement with Ron.

The lesson? Ask for what you are worth, not what is offered.

Over the last few days I received the first confirmed reports of our book, Podcast Solutions, appearing in Apple stores. I checked for myself and sure enough, there it was. We have recieved great feedback on the book and really appreciate that it continues to sell so well. If you need a copy, check with your local Apple store, the top 50 in the country now stock it.