Podcast NYC - Blog: The New Rules Of Podcasting

The New Rules Of Podcasting.

Networks are a losing business model.
Signing away the exclusive rights to your podcast is a stupid thing to do.
Speaking at conferences does not qualify as an accomplishment.
Statistics and demographics are meaningless and useless.
Ninety percent of podcasting news is worthless.
What you knew last summer has almost certainly changed today.
iTunes is the only Podcast directory that matters. A sad but true fact for many of the folks who have invested a ton of sweat, time and money in attempting to create the podcast directory. Looking at my LibSyn stats I see that to this day 75% of my hits come from iTunes. Most people I ask tell me that they found my podcast via iTunes. Anyone want to refute my claim?

Don't get me wrong here. I think that Odeo, Podcast Pickle, Podcast Alley, Yahoo Podcasts! and the many others entering the market every month are good for business. But as a podcaster you need to know that iTunes is where you should list your feed first. Worry about the others later. And make sure that you have a big iTunes subscribe link on the front page of your podcasting website.

Once you've taken care of getting listed in iTunes and posting your one click subscribe link you can then set out to take care of other business related to extending your podcast. Part of that business should involve adding your cast to a variety of directories, but other tasks such as enabling subscribers interactions should come before taking the time to add your podcast to other directories.

One more important point. Don't put too many subscribe links on your podcast website. In fact, these days I recommend that you have only a link to your main RSS feed (for those who know about that stuff) and a link to subscribe via iTunes. Other links will confound and confuse potential new subscribers.

Remember that your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for people to subscribe to your show. By keeping your podcast site uncluttered and focusing on the most relevant subscription tool (in this case iTunes) you are doing potential subscribers a service that will in turn assist in the growth of your podcast.

There's much more to a podcast than just a media file. If you have a good understanding of this fact then you're way ahead of the game. I've heard so much talk that podcasts aren't interactive and that's definitely true if you define a podcast as solely a media file. That's not how I define it though.

A podcast includes all the vehicles that allow you as the producer to interact with your podcast consumers. As a result you need to put a lot of thought into the website that powers your podcasts. Ask yourself a few questions. Does my site make it plain and simple as to what it's all about when someone lands on the page? Does my site explain podcasting and how to subscribe to my podcast? Does my site make it easy for consumers of my media to a) consume and b) interact with the producer? Is my site welcoming to visitors or scary? Does my site allow users to connect with each other?

All of these issues are related to your podcast website but make no mistake. All of these elements are critical to the success of your podcast. Uploading a media file and enabling an RSS feed are just two of the beginning steps, but your work doesn't end there.

The front page of your podcasting website should always have a blurb that explains what you're offering and links to more information about podcasting and subscribing. Make sure that your podcast website has a page explains what podcasting is and how to subscribe in as plain terms as possible. I think this page from my Flow music video podcast does a pretty good job of it. I violate new rule #7 with all the subscribe choices so I should make a note to pare it down a bit. The simple fact is that if you want to build subscribership you need to take a few moments to educate the consumer. An educated consumer is your best customer. And with Feedburner's support for email subscription add on there's no reason why you shouldn't offer email subscription.

Make sure you give the option download and/or stream your content right from the web page. Who cares is people subscribe right away? You want them to subscribe eventually, but you also want them to be able to quickly and easily see and hear what it's all about. For audio, you can use the outstanding Feed Player from the folks at Big Contact. The Feed Player makes it dead simple to add streaming audio to your website. If you're into video, I highly recommend that you use Google Video as a way to stream your content using a Flash Player. Ninety-Eight percent of computers can play Flash and it's much more reliable for playing in the browser than embedding Quicktime media files. Plus, Google Video is free and provides you with a nice code snippet to include a streaming player in each one of your posts.

Do enable comments for all of your posts. Even if you want to approve comments prior to them appearing on the site, consumers of your content want and need to have their voice heard. So allow people to comment. Consider adding a discussion form in text or audio form to your podcast site. By doing so you make your site a destination that people will return to for more than just grabbing each podcast episode. These techniques help to make your podcast interactive and build a stronger bond with your podcast consumers.

Think about the design of your podcast website. Are the colors appealing? Are the fonts readable Do you have a nice looking logo? These issues may seem ridiculous but every little bit helps when you're trying to attract and keep fans of what you're doing. Are the functions on your site easy to use? Forget surveys on demographics. Conduct a survey on the friendliness and usability of your site. The resulting information will be worth taking to heart.

Remember, the true value of your podcast depends on the total user experience. If you want to simply publish media files then by all means do so. That's a good place to start. But if you want to connect with people. If you want to take your podcast to the next level and make it interactive you should follow the advice that you're reading here.