A snippette regarding podcasting.

By Jay Conrad Levinson
Author, "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books
Over 14 million sold; now in 41 languages
The best-selling marketing series in history

The Guerrilla Marketing Association gives you live access
to Jay Conrad Levinson and comes with a free one-month trial.
Click Here

The 7 Deadly Sins of Commercial Podcasting

By Errol Smith

The podcasting phenomenon is just over a year old, but there are some lessons that have already surfaced from the experiences of early Internet radio entrepreneurs, the first wave of commercial podcasters, mass media scholars and experienced media professionals. These insights can help those with commercial podcasting ambitions avoid becoming another corpse in the podcasting graveyard. We've defined them as "The 7 Deadly Sins of Commercial Podcasting" and they have just been published in Media Savvy 2.0, the journal of the International Nanocasting Alliance.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Commercial Podcasting

1. Podcasting Without a Plan - Variations of this sin include podcasting because you can, podcasting because everybody else is doing it, and podcasting because it's a cool new way to get your message out. But podcasting without being clear about why you're creating the "show", what the business plan is for the program, and what value you can reasonably expect to get from the venture is cardinal sin number one.

2. Podcasting Without Providing Unique Value - The media landscape is exploding with new content bringing consumers a mind-numbing number of media options. To reach consumers overwhelmed by choices, the most important question you'll need to be able to answer is, "Give me one really good reason why I should tune into your program." Your chances of significant commercial success without a creating a program that offers unique value is slim to slimmer.

3. Podcasting Like a Broadcaster - Broadcasting is what old school "mass media" networks do. It's communicating to the largest possible audience while hoping to reach a subset of people who are interested in the content and offerings. Nanocasting is the polar opposite of broadcasting. It's hyper-targeted media content, aimed at an audience that is narrower, tremendously smaller, but collectively very interested in the programming and the offerings. From Mommycast, to Autoblog, some of the most promising commercial applications of podcasting we're seeing on the landscape are using the "Nanocasting" model. The first commandment of Nanocasting is to clearly define your audience. Commandment number two is to "hyper-target" them.

4. Underestimating the Commitment - You can already record and distribute a podcast without even buying any equipment, and new offerings are promising to make podcasting even easier. But commercial podcasters are finding that the venture neither begins nor ends with capturing audio and creating an RSS feed. On the front end there is considerable planning and preparation. On the back end there is promotion, testing and business development followed by more planning, more promotion, more testing and business development. Webpronews reported recently that "nearly half of the blogosphere is dead--that is, inactive." If the millions of abandoned blogs are any harbinger of the podcasting road ahead, it is likely that the leading cause of commercial podcast failures will be expecting commercial podcasting to be easy. Creating a podcast is one thing. Creating and sustaining a commercial media venture is another. The latter requires a commitment to consistently develop new content that subscribers find valuable.

5. Believing That Talent and Expertise Don't Matter - The resounding message driving the podcasting revolution is that anybody can do it. If by "do it" you mean speak into a microphone from your basement, and then record and post an audio feed online, this is true. But once "vanity podcasting" is distinguished from commercial podcasting by the necessity to attract and keep an audience, talent and expertise become factors. It just takes one stroll down iTunes boulevard to confirm that not every, staff writer, professional speaker, CEO, maven, author, entrepreneur, blogger, homemaker, hobbyist, enthusiast, or average man on the street has the talent to move from the silent Internet to the "talkies." The technology gives everyone a soapbox, but getting people to listen and keep listening requires talent and expertise.

6. Being Seduced by the Age of Amateurism - Though "citizen journalism" has risen to prominence, consumer generated media is the rage and many people have come to trust the amateur and distrust professionals; bet on professionalism to win out in commercial podcasting. Podcasting by the seat of your pants, picking up a microphone with no knowledge of the media business, or the art and science of creating compelling programming may be fine for vanity radio, but for commercial podcasters it can be a deadly sin. As a commercial podcaster, you'll be investing a lot of time and at least some money in your media venture. Bottom line: You're either building a portfolio of valuable programming that lots of people will want to hear, or you're building the web-based equivalent of a library of home movies.

7. Believing That the Playing Field Is Level - The egalitarian veneer of iTunes is potentially misleading and deceptive. Seeing programming by ABC, FOX and The New York Times displayed in equal pixels next to programs like Ask a Ninja, Diggnation and French Maids TV gives the impression that the new media playing field is fairly level. But the most savvy commercial podcasters are playing to dominate their field of competitors, and they are moving early to stack the odds in their favor. Understanding that commercial podcasting is a team sport, savvy media entrepreneurs are accessing the best players they can afford to bring a critical combination of media expertise, marketing expertise, e-commerce expertise, and technical expertise to the game. As commercial podcasting matures (which could be tomorrow) expect to see the gap and the commercial value between the "A list" programs and "B" movies widen dramatically.

Plus: The Three Unpardonable Sins

8. Relying Primarily on RSS to Build an Audience - Real Simple Syndication (RSS) may be an easy way to build an audience for vanity podcasters, but commercial podcasters are already discovering that RSS is no substitute for proactive audience building and what Nanocasters call Really Targeted Syndication(RTS). The high response and conversion rates required to achieve and sustain commercial viability demands a mix of approaches, including behavioral targeting, co-marketing and brand building. So paraphrasing another axiom, commercial podcasters can not live by RSS alone.

9. Believing That Format Doesn't Matter - Many early podcasters argued that free expression was the cornerstone of the podcasting revolution. They believed that podcasting should be free from anything that might standardize, homogenize or in any way cause podcasting to resemble the predictability of terrestrial radio. But a page from radio's history suggests that commercial podcasters may want to reconsider. International Nanocasting Alliance founding member, Dr. Joseph Dominick, professor of mass communication, writes that radio "formats" emerged in the 1950's in response to the growing number of competitors on the radio dial (3343 stations). The format became a tool to define a station's image and attract advertisers. As a result of formats, radio revenues went from 227 Million in 1955 to over one billion in 1965.

10. Overestimating Podcasting / Underestimating Podcasting - If Roy Amara's first rule of technology holds true, most commercial podcasters will overestimate the value of podcasting in the short term and underestimate the value of a well-developed podcasting program in the long term. It is likely that many early commercial podcasters will lose their first mover advantage by abandoning a podcast program, because it failed to generate a return on investment overnight…big mistake, and one of the deadliest sins. At the end of the day it's likely that success in commercial podcasting will be more like a marathon than a sprint.

Jay Conrad Levinson The Father of Guerrilla Marketing