139 Podcast Answer Man – What To Do When Your Podcast Becomes An Infomercial

Dave, Thanks for the feedback on the episode. This episode of Podcast Answer Man generated a MASSIVE amount of feedback on both sides of the fence. One thing is for certain.... All the feedback I have received was WELL RECEIVED and will be useful in helping me to form the future content of this podcast.

I am looking forward to the moving into my fifth year of podcasting with a renewed focus on where I'm heading with PodcastAnswerMan.com. I hope that a majority of the audience will enjoy joining me in the journey.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas and I pray that you have a blessed and prosperous new year!

Cliff

Cliff,
First of all, after seeing the videos I want to congratulate you on your weight loss. It's VERY obvious. Good job. I would like to weigh in on the side of Charley. I understand that you (like myself) give away content in hopes of having people sign up for our paid models. I would ask you to do something...

- - Look at the title of your podcast, and look at how long you take to get to that topic. - -

I know one episode (I forget which one, it was going on the 17-20 minute range to get to the topic). Look at how much time you spend on promoting, and divide by the total length of the episode. That might be an interesting stat (hopefully not above 10%).

The one about branding your mustache was barely a topic. It was more Leo stuff. The original show was fairly long, and I thought the rehash was not needed (to be honest I never listened to the end of that episode).

For a while it also seemed that 98% of the people who asked a question were also leaving a testimonial. Which leads to a "we know, we know Cliff is great.." (which you are), but back to back to back...sheesh. Why not mix in one at the end when you do your actual plug? (again just my preference).

You (like me), seem to take yourself on tangents (talk of other shows on gspn, etc). This can be good (a little behind the scenes stuff) but after a point it becomes "please get to the topic." For me I always try to think what a first time listener would think. I try to get to the "meat and potatoes" and then answer questions, etc after that. Now the beauty of podcasting is that's my preference and we all get to be our own producers (so feel free to ignore my opinion). My opinion and my preferences are from someone who is has an additional income in addition to his podcast income (so I understand your need to feed the kids).

Keep up the good work. Take or leave my opinion, and congrats again on your weight loss

Dave Jackson

Hey Tom,

Thanks very much for taking the time to post a comment on the site.

You stated that you have some concerns about the methods I am describing and the broader message for new podcasters and the podcasting community. I don't know that just listening to the last few episodes will really give you a feel for the broader message that I'm giving to podcasters and the podcasting community as a whole.

Recent episodes have been clearly focused on the financial side of podcasting, whether or not there is a means for one to earn significant income from their podcast. These are where the questions from the listeners have been focused as of late and I'm simply giving some of my thoughts based upon my experience.

As for the podcaster who wanted to move to the donation model. He simply asked a question about it and I provided my opinion on the matter.

Now with that said, I am not a proponent of asking for donations. I've done it in the past and found it was not very effective in supplying a significant amount of income.

I agree with many of the issues you raise with those who have moved to the donation model. It does put a great burden on the listener to "perform." I also despise hearing anyone say that "if they don't make X by a certain date their podcast will stop."

The cost to produce a podcast is extremely low. However, there are those who desire to provide something more around their podcast than just the content itself. They desire to build a community. To provide extra value. Consider gspn.tv, my own network. We have 50,000 subscribers and we produce 24 podcasts in all. We have an INTENSELY ENGAGED COMMUNITY made up of a few thousand people.

We have people from our community who travel from around the world to come to our community meetups when we throw them. Producing "content" for gspn.tv is only about 20% of what I do for my efforts in leading the community of gspn.tv.

It's a full-time career to lead a community of thousands of people. There are more than 300 emails a week to respond to, like this one. There are opportunities to read forum posts like this one... (http://gspn.tv/forum/index.php?topic=3859.0) and countless others like it where you can really come along side someone and encourage them.

There are some who desire to use their efforts in podcasting to improve the lives of others. When one leaves their career behind to pursue such an effort full time, one must find a way to continue to support his own wife and children.

The costs are MUCH MORE than just bandwidth and web hosting.

Accepting donations for a venture like this IS POSSIBLE! Just look at Fr. Roderick's SQPN. (http://sqpn.com). However, he's officially a non-profit ministry and therefore there are tax benefits for his audience to contribute.

For most people, like me, donations just aren't going to cut it. So I actually found a whole host of ways to earn income surrounding my passion of podcasting and leading the community.

As I said, there is a much broader message that I'm giving to podcasters and the podcasting community as a whole. I just don't think you have yet picked up on his as a result of the last ten or so episodes. Episode 139 showed me that I need to get back to my core message. Something you'll see in Episode 140 if you continue to listen.

And I hope that you do.

Hi Cliff,

I have listened to a few of your shows and I have some concerns about the methods you are describing and the broader message for new podcasters and the podcasting community. Unfortunately there seems to be an absence open discussion podcasts on podcasting since Rob Walch stopped producing Podcast411. In any case allow me to introduce myself, and then I would like to provide some correspondence I shared with a longtime friend and podcaster who decided to move to the donation model of podcasting.

I have been podcasting since early 2006. I currently produce three podcasts. I was interviewed for Podcast411 and I have appeared on the TWiT Network.

Here is my response to a podcaster friend about his move to the donation model.

"I have followed a number of podcast that either moved to the donation model or adopted the donation model from the get go. All of them have one thing in common, the costs associated with publishing a podcast were not minimized by the host either initially or when the podcast started to pick up steam. This was used to justify passing these costs onto the listeners."

"The donation model is simple. Initially you get a lot of donors, things are good. Then the listeners mysteriously start to drop and the donors start to drop. You then have to plead with your audience to donate. I've heard podcasters tell their listeners that if they don't make X by a certain date their podcast will stop. This is insane."

"The donation model is broken. Whilst you might hear a number of podcasts with this model, what you don't hear is how much money they actually make through donations, how sustainable the donation model is, and what effects the donation model has on losing listeners."

"There is a more important point though. It's our responsibility as podcasters to minimize our costs and maximize our listeners."

"Consider someone who is listening to your podcast and considering producing their own podcast on a similar topic. The information you provide through charging money (asking for donations) is that podcasting is expensive which is patently false. Also, and this I have found with my new podcast, the new podcaster becomes the competition. So rather than supporting a new podcaster, this new podcaster becomes the reason people are now listening to another podcast rather than supporting your podcast. In short, not only does the charge model damage your show, it damages the podcasting community."

"Your listeners become the reason you may stop your podcast because they aren't donating enough and any future podcaster on your topic becomes the focus of your anger because they are "stealing" donations."

"I feel very strongly that this is a dangerous and destructive methodology for the podcasting community."

In short, Cliff, I'd like to have a discussion with you on your show about this methodology and my concerns. I know you use TalkShoe. I use TalkShoe too, perhaps we could set up a time to discuss this.

Seasons Greetings!

Tom Barbalet.

Bob, First off, thank you very much for leaving feedback in the comments section! I really appreciate that!

I agree, that it fit well within the parameters of PAM. And I too felt, as soon as I had finished recording #138 that it seemed too much on sales pitch side.

As for not sharing the one thing that I disagree with.. I'll go ahead and share...

It's on page 86 of the book... Gary writes....

One of the silliest questions I get is, "What kind of mic do you use? To that I reply, why are you even worrying about that? Your content has nothing to do with your mic, the camera, the lighting, or the set."

I believe that he is dead wrong!

In fact, listen to the first listen to the first 15 seconds of this audio file
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/generallyspeaking/PodcastAnswerMan136-MignonFogarty.mp3]

That's what Grammar Girl says about audio quality and I obviously agree. Content is important. However, if your audio is bad, I wont listen.

Next, Gary was VERY EXCITED about having Wayne Gretzky on his show. However, have you seen this episode? Better yet... Have you "heard" this episode? Have a listen...

<object height="280" width="448"><param name="movie" value="http://www.sling.com/v/143227"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="280" src="http://www.sling.com/v/143227" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448"></object>
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2009/04/16/wayne-gretzky-visits-wine-library-tv-episode-660/

You can barely hear Wayne at all, especially at the 9 minute mark. It would not cost very much at all to simply mic bot Wayne and Gary up.

Elswhere in the book, he does stress the importance of the design, look, and feel of your website and suggest that you invest a few thousand dollars on the look of your site. I TOTALLY AGREE with the importance of the of the look of the site, see this post.. http://podcastanswerman.com/logo/


Anyway.. that's the only thing I disagree with in the book. I know it was crazy to go on about a product I haven't created yet. But it is going to be coming ;) SOON!

Thanks again for the feedback!

I don't have a problem with you devoting #138 to Crushing It. It's not the tech talk that I really want, but it certainly seemed to fall within the broader parameters of PAM.

However, it definitely felt more like an infomercial for an upcoming product than an earnest review of the book. For me the brightline between pitchman and expert was illuminated when you refused to share your one major disagreement with Gary. I know you probably view this as the unique selling proposition for your product, but it made me less interested in reading the book. Ultimately, I'm not sure why you chose to do an infomercial for a product that you have not yet created.

With that said, I'm happy to see how you have handled the feedback.

@James, Thanks so much... I have received a great deal of feedback regarding this episode. This feedback has been via email, IM, or phone calls which is why it is not showing here.

I had one person contact me and said that this email frustrated them further and that they agreed with both Charley and the "concerned listener."

However, everyone else said that they actually enjoyed episode 138 very much.

The overall feedback is that most people enjoy both the technical Q&A; stuff as well as "Cliff's thoughts on all things related to podcasting" and they understand that it's difficult to balance the sales pitch with the information.

I tend to feel I've leaned a little too far into the sales pitch myself and I plan to adjust that just a bit moving forward.

Thank you everyone for your feedback!

Cliff... wow! Charley may have been spot on, in one way or another (and I know you acknowledged that), but I have to apologize to both him and you as well. I've had a ton of questions for you over the past few months, but I have failed gloriously in submitting them. I say that because I deserve something of a kick in the pants myself. I have listened to a few podcasts (of PAM, specifically, not the others, mind you) and thought - I'm going to be hyperbolic in the paraphrasing of my thoughts, so please don't take my tone wrong - "where are the questions and answers?" while all the time I have been woefully negligent in my role as listener/subscriber. So Charley's issues might have been with the "infomercialness" (did I just create a word?) of PAM, I have to wonder how much that trait rests at the feet of myself and others like me who have been thus negligent.
That said, I will endeavor to be much more active in my interactions with PAM (but I will try VERY hard I promise to make my comments less than two minutes. :-) It's tough, but I will try.) as well as all of the GSPN shows to which I too am a faithful subscriber.
Keep up the stellar work.