Aside from a few folks with deals from this company or that company, or the few who have take the route of charging subscription fees for premium content (Dan Klass, as an example…and yes, I am a premium subscriber to his show), there just doesn’t seem to be the “real world” interest in advertising on blogs or podcasts. Oddly, though, you can flip through your cable stations and at any given moment on channel 438 at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon see a commercial for anything from exercise equipment to “Sounds of the 70’s” CDs…

For now and the foreseeable future, I guess I have to be content with being “Internet famous” in my own mind. If others put me in that category, too, great. I just don’t see how a regular guy like me with a 9-5 job, a wife, two kids, a mortgage, a car payment, and all of the other real world things most of us “new media” types deal with every day really COULD break out of the “internet famous” box and into the just plain old “famous” category….where money seems to just flow.

A lot of us podcasters are what I call “hopeful hobbyists”. We podcast because we love it…and if someone wants to dump a bucket of money on us our our shows, we won’t complain… But it is just too difficult for the every day man with a microphone and an hour to kill once every few weeks while the baby’s down for a nap and his wife is shopping with the mother-in-law to knock on doors and drum up ways to monetize. We sit, we wait, we hope…but that bucket full of money just isn’t going to come for folks like me.

Check it out! Maybe I should invite this guy to keynote the Expo.

Tim

http://tribalseduction.com/newmedia/marketinginnewmediaoz-wickedwitches/

1. Podcasting is not yet understood by the average businessperson. The name/moniker was always an issue, and in my experience the general business folk (potential clients or sponsors) were and ARE confused about what the heck a podcast really is.

2. Mirroring one post, it really is, in many ways, like being in a band. First, you gotta live it, love it, and believe in yourself in order to keep on going. Next, there will always be other people getting the attention you had hoped to get. That doesn’t mean you should stop.

3. As a media-focused person for life, with a broad music, radio, TV and film background (on a small scale), it appears to me that podcasting and ‘new media’ are just part of an ongoing evolution. I have friends in the ‘old’ music business that are now trying to re-figure out how to make money, because the rules have ALL changed. Filmmakers who had scholling and training in the old ways, are trying to figure out how to output flv and mp4 files. On and on. Ultimately, the new media, and specifically, podcasting, is all part of the NEW MIX. The big guys have the power to jump on it, and we small fish should be ready to provide – service AND content.

4. The posts on focus and narrow attention to a specific market seem to me to be the most important. I have had the good fortune of being able to convert a very old medium (the ski resort snow report) to a viable podcast endeavor, which clients WANT to participate in. It is professional, viable, current, and valuable to the listener. Content is only king if it MATTERS to someone, no matter how large or small the audience.

I hope to attend the Vegas conference this year, after watching from the wings. It’s not the venue, it’s the MESSAGE!!

Cheers all,

Eric

I myself never thought of it this way. I would assume everyone is entitled to make some money and take care of their family and in economics unless one is making something there is no way he will continue doing what he is doing and yet not make any money. He will surely switch professions. I cannot really believe that people will blog at a loss, no way! Might be they are making less money than they can make, but then again not everyone is geared towards marketing themselves. Some of us do blog for the joy of blogging. What say?

moserw
http://www.nela.in

It would be nice if people could achieve some balance on their views on the issue of blogging/podcasting and making money from these things. You have those on one hand who look at this as a way to make money off of others without giving something of real value their the audience and you have those on the other end of the pendulum that yell: “Sell out!” to those who are able to make a living.

I agree with Steve. Creating a podcast or even a quality blog may not take millions of dollars (and is it really necessary to get rich anyway?) but it take tremendous amounts of time and energy to produce blogs and podcasts of any quality. That’s time that could be spent making money elsewhere. Some of my favorite podcasters are starting to charge for premium content and I support that kind of idea 100%! I may very well end up doing that in the future. After all, if you offer something special or unique for your audience you should be compensated for it.

Terrestrial radio and commercial TV are supported by advertising, NPR asks for money through pledge drives; I don’t see why a good podcaster can’t use this route to support her/his shows if they are worth it.