If a podcaster makes a great show and no one knows about it, they won’t pay for it. Throwing yourself into the iTunes directory and such doesn’t equate to magically gaining viewers who will tune in, much less pay for it!

Would you pay money on something like iTunes to try out a new TV show to see if you would like it? Most would not. This is the argument cable TV companies make against a pay per channel or view method. I love the tv show Scrubs, but I would probably have never tried it if it wasn’t on TV free every evening on Comedy Central.

Since 2005, I produce, what I think is, a fairly decent 1/2 hour technology show similar to Tekzilla and DL.TV. But I have very few subscribers compared to these behemoths that have a huge advantage by being paired with something already big like PC Magazine or Revision3 or have hosts that were once on a cable tv network (techTV).
To get marketing on this scale can cost more than most of us can pay out (and business loans aren’t given to pay for marketing schemes).

Podcasters are still facing big business competition that can distract from paying for our content. Tekzilla and DL.TV are free and successful by using advertisements. Charging for a web browser application did not work when so many were already out there for free.

On a related topic pertaining to podcast quality, audio editing can be a crucial factor in podcast quality. While too much editing might harm a podcast’s conversational tone (if such informality is the aim—as discussed on an episode of Podcast Brothers), too little editing—indeed, none for some podcasts—is, in my opinion, lazy on the part of some podcast producers and inconsiderate of listeners’ precious time. Should an audience be subjected to all our stumbles and bumbles, faux pas and f—-ups?

Granted, audio editing can be time intensive, and I recognize that not everyone has my enviable position of being paid to podcast as part of my regular job. But a show can be both edited and conversational (David Letterman does one every night). And your listeners just might appreciate it—showing their gratitude, perhaps, by paying.

As Tim Bourquin states above, “The . . . more work put into a piece of content, the more value it has to the customer.”

For more on the value of editing and on the question of episode length—both of which affect podcast quality—read more in my blog: http://www.thetigerbeat.com/blog/?p=360

If you want people to actually pay for your content, you’re going to have to market it heavily. Create brands like the sugar-water and fancy-water people have. If you are relying on your content to attract people virally – well most of those people expect content for free, in general.