Podcasting: Will It or Won’t It?
Darren Barefoot says he’s Not Smoking the Podcasting Dope.
(Podcasting is a process where you put an MP3 file, kind of like an audio journal entry, on the Web in such a way that it can be automatically downloaded and copied to the MP3 player of people who subscribe to your podcast.)
I was all set to agree with Darren—that the podcasting “phenomenon” is mostly hype-driven, without a significant audience base or event that has truly shown the power or potential of podcasting.
But then I read Darren’s arguments for why podcasting isn’t important, and I found that I disagreed with a lot of them. I now think podcasting will have an impact, someday soon. I paraphrase his arguments slightly below, hoping he’ll forgive me for my presumption.
Darren says:
Mainstream radio is already all over this trend. ... In six months to a year, it’s easy to imagine that most radio stations in North America will offer time-shifted content. (Thus, podcasting will be subsumed and/or is overhyped.)
True, radio stations will do this. But this just shows that podcasting is already influential, counteracting your argument. Also, remember that newspapers launched on the Web ten years ago, but many of them still haven’t figured out how to do things right. So, yes, big companies have started podcasting—but that won’t stop smaller companies and individuals from doing it, and better to boot.
Darren says:
Audio doesn’t compress. I can consume 250 blogs in a day without much trouble, but can I listen to more than 10 podcasts?
Podcasting allows subscribers to listen when they want, and audio publishers to produce when they want, which means that you can fit more podcasts into your schedule, because the listener is never without a podcast to listen to, and the producer isn’t forced into a production schedule. And actually, audio does compress: you can listen to audio books at double speed without distortion, and also you can skip past or through boring podcasts in a way you can’t in regular radio shows.
Darren says:
Only about 40% of North America has broadband access. A fraction of those people have portable digital music players
True. And only 80% of North American homes have cable. More to the point, though—how many people need to listen to a podcast for it to be a success? For some podcasters, 10 would be enough, or 100, or 500. The place I last worked had a subscription base of 45,000 people. It made $80 million in revenue a year.
Darren says:
Personally, I have no commute, and I find that I can’t listen to talking while I’m writing.
I had a 45 minute commute, and love to listen to radio as I work. The biggest mistake you can make when predicting how others will act, and I do this myself, is to assume that you are an example of the typical user. Many more people commute than not, and many peole use radio as a background noise while they work.
Darren says:
Unlike a blog, anybody can’t do it. First, you need the equipment. Secondly, you need the talent. Everyone learns writing in school, so the barrier to entry is pretty small. However, nobody (or very few) learns how to be a radio broadcaster. Finally, if you’re keen to produce professional results, you need to understand how to edit audio files, layer in music, etc.
Suburban housewife in Utah. T.V. production co-ordinator in Los Angeles. Search-engine expert in Vancouver. Saville Row tailor. If I asked you, “Would any of these people be likely to produce compelling and popular daily writing,” you might have said no, but you’d be wrong. Equally, there will be great audio producers found via podcasting, just as there are great writers found via blogs. I can think of three people off the top of my head with no radio experience whose voices can keep me entranced for hours, regardless of what they’re talking about. They would be great podcasters. And guess what, there will be a lot of crap, too, but that’s OK. Oh, and as for the equipment, the cost of a good microphone pales compared to so many other costs associated with people’s hobbies or jobs.
Finally, Darren says:
Say we manage to get simple-to-use technology in the hands of average consumers. Say Apple offers a podcast-listening-ready iTunes. What’s the average consumer going to choose? Some dude like me talking in my pajamas or the CBC?
Ah, that’s an interesting question. Let’s see: how’s TV consumption doing (down)? What about newspaper circulation (down, down, down)? What about movies (second straight year that both box office revenue and attendance are down)? I think it’s clear people are choosing to balance the dude in his pyjamas against the CBC—and Darren must think so too, because isn’t that what blogging is doing?
Frankly, I don’t think all, or even most, consumers will ditch the CBC for home-made podcasts. But in the media mix, amateur-produced (meaning, those who do something out of love) audio content will catch on just as amateur writing, photos and software (open source) have already.
Can’t Get Enough of Darren Rowse?
Andy Wibbels of Easy Bake Weblogs will be interviewing Darren Rowse of Problogger.net next week—don’t miss it!
We’re back with another juicy blogging conversation! This time with blogging guru and brainiac Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net. Darren is going to give us the low-down on how he has created a network of blogs that brings him monthly cold hard cash (live the dream, Darren!).
Wednesday April 6th @ 9pm EST.
Call-in Number: 1-858-400-4040 PIN #: 85570
Blogger Setting Terri Schiavo Facts Straight
Abstract Appeal by Matt Conigliaro is a great example of how writing about your specific niche can provide an excellent service while helping to build reputation and expose a brand.
It’s not a blog created specifically by a business. Instead, Abstract Appeal is a lawyer’s site, focusing on Florida appelate law. Normally, somewhat esoteric stuff, but with Terry Schiavo* in the news, suddenly, the site has become a big resource for anyone looking for a non-partisan source of info. So much so, he says, that he’s glad he never enabled comments because the email feedback alone is nearly overwhelming (and not billable, I bet!)
For his bio, he links directly to one on his employer’s Web site, whose site mentions and links to the Abstract Appeals site prominently. Conigliaro’s helping the rest of us, and by doing so, is benefiting a little himself.
Thank you to OJR for bringing this to our attention with their story.
* It was pointed out to me that Terri Schiavo isn’t exactly a household name. Schiavo is a Florida woman who has been in a persistant vegetative state for 15 years, and there is a large debate in the U.S. currently—legally, politically and ethically—about whether Schiavo should be allowed to die by having her feeding tube removed. She’s been without the tube for 12 days now.
Comments are Off on Rosie’s Blog
Entertainer (gee, is that how she’d describe herself? I just don’t know, having never been a big Rosie follower) Rosie O’Donnell has been blogging, and talked about her decision to turn comments off in a recent Broadway World article:
Comments though are something that was causing trouble on her blog, and they’re now off. “We took comments off because it was getting to be ridiculous. I get great responses, but then you know it just takes one idiot, writing ‘you’re fat, you’re a dyke, you’re a fat dyke, you’re gay, and you’re fat and you’re gay, and you’re also a dyke’ and it gets out of control. There were no limits on how much they could post, so they could just post pages of that, or put links up to porno sites or whatever. Finally, we just decided to make it comment free.”
From remarks earlier in the story it sounds like she began the blog for friends and family, and was perhaps taken off-guard by the responses of people that don’t fit into those categories. Her experience with comments makes me think that personal blogs may be one more of those “normal people” things that celebrities can’t have—like a walk in the park. It’s hard to think of any big celebrities that are trying to keep personal blogs that aren’t also tied into their professional identities. There’s Wil Wheaton, of course, who does an interesting job of straddling the fence, but arguably is well-known but not huge. Nor, incidentally, does his existence push quite so many societal hot buttons.
Top or Bottom?
Don’t miss Steve Rubel’s great post today from Wednesday on top-down and bottom-up corporate blogging philosophies. Steve says it better that I can, but to whet your appetite, here’re a couple of quick definitions:
A: Bottom-up blogging - when real employees “on the ground” blog about a company and their work. Steve says, it’s “unfiltered, fun and, for many, incredibly risky.”
B: Top-down blogging - when management sets a strategy and selects a blogger for an official company blog.
Steve points out that companies can use both blogging methods, and get the benefit of each format.
Easy Bake Weblogs Interview
Hey folks, if you’re interested in hearing the interview Andy Wibbels of Easy Bake Weblogs conducted with me earlier this month, he’s put the audio up.
Here’s the outline of what we talked about:
00:00 Introductions
06:00 Your Definition of a Blog
- Susannah Gardner, web designer for Hop Studios and author of Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies.
- How you discovered the web?
- How you found blogs?
10:40 Open Linking and Blogrolls
- Websites designed for constant updates of smallpieces of information. Like journals, but extended with interactivity.
- “You want to interact.” Don’t ever hesitate to link (open attitude of blogs).
15:00 How do you know what you’re reading on a blog is accurate? (You don’t!)
- If you’re going to be useful - you need to link to outside resources.
- Karma and collaboration.
- Different blogrolls for different topics.
15:30 Pitching to Bloggers20:15 Ads on Blogs, Revenue, Promotion
- Targeting the right blogger.
- Don’t waste their time. Get to the point.
- Formal programs: BzzAgent, Marqui, Silicon Valley 100 - matchmaker for marketers and bloggers.
24:05 Using ‘Tasteful’ Banner Ads (referencing Seth Godin’s linking to his own books at the bottom of his blog)
- Ads can be successful if they are correctly targeted (i.e. BlogAds).
- Example: PVR Blog (a blog about Tivos etc).
- Can confuse the message of your marketing.
33:50 Faux Blogs/Fake Blogs (fictional character/mascot branding)
- Blogs as understated sales (references the new Easy Bake frontpage with the 3 option menu - above the blog content).
- Usability versus marketability.
- Reducing internal page content to guide prospect.
- Blogging is so easy to start - sometimes folks don’t define what they want out of it - how they are going to measure success.
- Some companies don’t link their blogs on their homepages.
- Susie uses this between her book’s blog and her web design company‘s sites.
- Father Son Adventures - Dovid Grossman - reduce weight of some elements to guide people towards the ezine sign-up.
42:20 Anonymous blogging
- Reminds Andy of that CK One email campaign.
- Diverts from the history of blogs as being rooted in honesty, straightfoward. Fake blogs bend this.
- Is it an actual intent to deceive?
- Blog veterans disagree with this (obligatory Raging Cow mention along with ‘What About the Children’ panic). Also: Mazda
fake blog, Lance Armstrong’s bike.- Fake commenters. Hollywood studio commenters praising panned films.
47:15 How will the popularity of blogs change the blogosphere?
- How can you be totally anonymous? (IP address, email, billing always trackable)
- See also: Legal findings in Apple vs bloggers case: Bloggers do not have freedom of press protection.
- Also: Invisiblog.
52:00 Ezine versus Blog
- Ideas of Information Wants to Be Free, Democracy in Action...
- Less focus on technology (Andy mentions endless September) might mean less innovation, but more mainstream.
- Andy says both! So does Susie!
When a Drought Becomes a Flood
March 22 is World Water Day. Google told me so, with one of its fancy logo modifications that it uses to mark interesting occasions.
Sadly, the site of World Water Day, worldwaterday.org, is down—as your site would also likely be if Google decided to feature you on its home page.
What’s that expression? “It never rains but it pours?” Well, even if you can’t get to the site, you can follow these tips for water conservation.
And remember, it never hurts to be ready for a big spike in traffic… Have you asked your Web provider how they’d handle something like this happening to you?
Controlling the Conversation
A conversation isn’t a car—you can’t make it go in exactly the direction and exactly the pace you want. But if you’re a participant in a conversation, you do get to have some influence over where it goes. Similarly, businesses are less and less able to set their own lines of communication with stake holders—the people who use the products, invest, or work there. They can and should, however, be part of the conversation that’s taking place.
That’s why it’s interesting to read the discussion boards at the Flickr site today.
Flickr (yes, I’ve talked about Flickr before...) just sold themselves to Yahoo, and as you’d expect with any site so well-loved by its users, there’s a lot of uncertainty about how the site’s going to fare in the long term.
A user experience designer from Yahoo jumped into the main discussion and welcomed current Flickr to the company. The Flickr fanatics reacted in various ways, mostly disdainful, and then one of Flickr’s owners, Caterina, joined the flow of comments, saying
I haven’t met jkoshi and so I can say that he doesn’t have any real info on the direction of Flickr, and isn’t with the team we’ll be working with.
But I can assure you that there are no plans to add any more advertising than is currently found on Flickr free accounts, and certainly no pop-ups.
I invite everyone to quiet their fears and wait and see what we do. We are aware of potential pitfalls, and made sure in our talks with Yahoo that we clearly understood the direction they wanted to go, and that it was the same as the direction we saw.
And shortly thereafter, the conversations smooths out again. If your company doesn’t have the ability to jump in—when necessary—and affect the flow of a conversation, you’ll end up like Kryptonite locks…
A Word of Warning Among the Hoopla
Darren Rowse of ProBlogger takes a moment today to bring people excited about blogging’s potential back to earth:
My ProBlogger Public Service Announcement
It takes time to build a profitable blog. You do not just become a Professional Blogger anymore than you just become a Professional Golfer. It is not a decision you make, it is something you work towards over time.
It’s easy, among all the excitement and buzz around blogging, to forget that there are few proven business plans for making this work. Darren is among just a few who have turned their entrepreneurial efforts into successful (i.e. profitable) business ventures. He’s wise to say that this isn’t a guaranteed win for people, especially those that dive in without thinking things through, or who have unrealistic expectations.
I thinking blogging’s potential is huge, and mostly unrealized, but I’ll add my voice to Darren’s in saying that’s not for everyone, and definitely not a “get rich quick” strategy.
Google’s Blogger Stumbles
InfoWorld’s reporting that Google’s Blogger faces performance problems. Interestingly, Infoworld got the story how? Because Blogger blogged about it.
We have a client who uses Blogger, and has been having issues updating her site for the past several weeks, on and off, especially during peak times.
If you host your own blog, you may not have the redundancy and capacity of the bigger hosted blog solutions. But as the recent outages at LiveJournal and Typepad show, hosted services often have problems, too.
Bottom line: you’ll have better control if you host it yourself, but there’s no guarantees in life.
Current Corrections
This is a post that will be updated regularly and contains the known errata of the book and any necessary corrections.
Page 6: The Fast Company link, under Communicating With Customers, was spelled http:
Please share any questions or possible errors you’ve spotted in the comments, and I’ll review them and add them to this list.
BitTorrent for Dummies
The big news here is that I’ll be writing another book: BitTorrent for Dummies. It should be out in October.
I’ll be helped by the able Kris Krug and intellectual property lawyer Michael Overing.
We’re all pretty excited about this. When we’ve firmed up the table of contents I’ll try to get it up for you to look at. In the meantime, if you have a suggestion about an issue, topic or technology—or any other input—please just message me.
The First Rule of AdSense?
I was all set to tell you about Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in New York who just publicly posted his exact Google AdSense revenue figures for the year. He made $500, he says, and he’s got charts to back it up!
This is notable not because for the grand total, but rather because Google’s AdSense Terms of Service prohibit any discussion of click through rates or payments—a stance that has long aggravated many naturally chatty bloggers.
I was then going to point you to Brian Turner’s complaint about AdSense and Wilson’s disclosure. (in short: Turner said that this flouting of the rules might result on further restrictions by Google.)
But in fact, it looks like Google is opening up a bit and so I had to revise this post. It seems a new terms of service dated March 8 allows AdSense participants to talk at least about their gross payments.
7. Confidentiality. You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google’s prior written consent. “Google Confidential Information” includes without limitation: (a) all Google software, technology, programming, specifications, materials, guidelines and documentation relating to the Program; (b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to You by Google; and (c) any other information designated in writing by Google as “Confidential” or an equivalent designation. However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google’s gross payments to You pursuant to the Program.
Now, does this mean Wilson’s reveal was kosher? No, not entirely. But it does allow AdSense-rs (AdSensors?) to start a conversation about that revenue stream, which is going to become very important the moment Yahoo launches their contextual advertising program.
Blawgs Successful for Stark & Stark
When I discovered Kevin O’Keefe’s company LexBlog during my research for “Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies” I had to contact him right away. Lawyers? Blogging? My first thought was that lawyers were among the least likely professionals to blog. I was wrong—happily so. LexBlog is in the business of building blogs for lawyers and law firms, for PR purposes, for establishing expertise, for better communication.
Kevin sent me several URLs for successful law blogs, among them a blog by New Jersey law firm of Stark & Stark called the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog. Lawyer Bruce H. Stern posts about new case law, news and events, and courtroom strategies. The blog is targeted to clients and potential clients. I asked Richard DeLuca, Director of Business Development at Stark & Stark, to share how blogs are working for Stark & Stark. Read the whole interview for some startling news about just how highly Stark & Stark values contributions to the blog.
BMWB: When and why did Stark & Stark start up the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog?
DELUCA: We launched the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog in July 2004. I had just started as the Firm’s Director of Business Development and began a process of interviewing the Firm’s Shareholders to discuss their practice and business development initiatives. When Bruce Stern and I met, we discussed the fact that while there were many existing websites dealing with traumatic brain injuries, the information they presented was dated and no one place maintained a library of information.
It had been Bruce’s experience that people suffering from traumatic brain injuries often had many questions about their injury and used the internet to seek out information on coping strategies as well as developments in legislation, funding programs and support groups which impacted their lives. Since Bruce had focused his practice on assisting brain injured individuals for the past 20 years, was active in ATLA (Association of Trial Lawyers of America) and multiple brain injury advocate associations, we decided that we had access to much of the information individuals and their families were seeking. Because of this we decided to launch the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog which serves its readership as a one-stop repository of news, legal developments and information important to brain injured individuals.
BMWB: What effects has the blog had on your clients? How about within your company?
DELUCA: The Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog has had a positive impact on our clients. On average, we receive between 5 and 10 inquiries per month from individuals who have read a post on our blog and would like to discuss their specific situation. We have also received very positive feedback from readers who have thanked us for making information accessible to them which they may not have found otherwise. While the software that powers our blog does not allow us to know exactly how many people receive our RSS feed, we do know that since we launched the blog 8 months ago, we have had over 14,000 unique visitors to the blog and just over 36,000 total visits.
Within Stark & Stark, launching the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog has been instrumental and has impacted every aspect of our e-communication initiatives. We established “metrics of success” to measure the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog’s statistics against. Based upon those results, in September 2004, the Firm launched a second blog, The New Jersey Law Blog which is focused on providing updates on legal and legislative developments impacting businesses and individuals in the state. I am happy to say that we are experiencing the same positive results with the New Jersey Law Blog as we have with the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog.
BMWB: Would you recommend blogging to other lawyers? Why?
DELUCA: I would recommend blogging to other lawyers because it is a very effective way to communicate with a broad cross section of potential and existing clients. Through a well-produced and frequently updated blog, you can begin to develop recognition as an authority in your field.
BMWB: You mentioned that Stark & Stark are considering blogging during compensation reviews. Can you explain how this might work, and why Stark & Stark thinks blogging is so important?
DELUCA: Blog participation will in fact be part of compensation reviews for the firm’s attorneys. Each post that is submitted for addition to either of the Firm’s blogs is attributed to the authoring attorney. Because of this, it is simple for the marketing department to submit a list of contributors to the attorney review committee.
The Firm’s management has seen first hand the power which blogs possess in their ability to distribute information and reach a desired audience. This communication power, coupled with our client’s need to receive information tailored to their needs/interests, makes blogging a logical solution.
Content is king. Therefore we need our attorneys to help populate our blogs with relevant and timely information. We have instituted a program in conjunction with the Firm’s marketing department whereby that group feeds leads (information for blog posts) directly to the attorneys. When the firm first started blogging, most of the initial posts originated this way. However, now that we are 8 months into the game, many attorneys (not just the young, tech-savvy associates) have embraced blogging. Latest estimates show that almost three-quarters of posts authored and submitted for addition, come directly from attorneys who have read about a development in a trade journal; finished a matter whose conclusion will impact similarly situated clients or potential clients, or have read/heard something newsworthy that will impact a Firm client or that client’s industry.
We believe that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg in what blogging can do for us as a Firm, and are excited about the future’s prospects.
Don’t Make Me Think!
If you’re interested in Web design and usability, you can do no better than reading Steve Krug’s book “Don’t Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to the Web.” The second edition of his book will be out in July, but you can pre-order on Amazon now. This book is one that I go back to again and again to remind myself to keep design simple, functional and always, about the user. I recommend it for anyone trying to get a feel for the process of Web design, from programmers to managers.
In his recent newsletter, Steve says:
In the last update (back in August), I mentioned that I was writing a second book (the do-it-yourself user testing how-to book). Back then, my plan was to write that one first, and then do an updated edition of Don’t Make Me Think. But somewhere along the line my plan changed.
Instead, I’m writing the second edition of “Think” first. (It’s due out --at least according to my publisher--in July.) One of the main reasons for the change was the realization that by the time I finished writing the second book I might not have enough brain cells left to update “Think”.
Honestly, there’s not that much in the original “Think” that I’d change. But doing the update is giving me the opportunity to add a few “lost chapters” that I wanted to put in the first time around but had to abandon so I could finish the thing while the Web still existed. Also, the update gives me the chance to cover some interesting topics that people always ask about during my workshops.
July can’t come soon enough for me!
About
This blog is the companion Web site for "Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies," a book for business professionals looking for advice and solutions for business blogging by Susannah Gardner. In stores now!
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