week 8 – distribution

:: Guest Lecture: Jason Preston, Parnassus Group and WebCommunity.com
- How do we get listeners?
- Technologies: iTunes, ZuneMarketplace

Jason:

• Perpetuated Web-enabled content of a conversational nature.”
• Intersection between cheap information distribution (the Internet) and a person’s inherent desire to be social
• Shift from top-down to bottom-up
• The “social graph” structures social connections
• Videos from Revver: Blog Business Summit – John Furrier on iTunes; Robert Scoble on podcasting
• Forrester research stats (self-identified as online consumers)
• Great market to advertise in; distribution is almost zero but not the cost of production
• Complement real-world activities (keg: see manager-tools.com)

Featured Podcasts

• Chris – This American Life
• Terry – Skeptics Guide

Featured Posts

• Corey – No more gatekeepers to the CEO
• Josh – Six Pixels of Deconstruction
• Katie – Who’s easier to market – David or Golith?
• Nate – Realities of building a following
• YiJen – Mashable
• Vaun – Maine

Ways to promote your podcast (and blog)

• Ask people to contribute (Ockhamsrazor at Australian Broadcasting Corp)
• Develop a “bug” and put it on related content pages (PC Mag

Hosting & Feeds
Because most ISPs (or free sites like WordPress) have bandwidth limits, it’s best to host your podcast on servers dedicated to that … and then link to them. Of course, you can put your personal podcasts on your UW student account in the media directory. Take Drew’s streaming media class this summer to learn more!

Here are some hosts — they all have +/-:

• Feedburner (stats)
• Hipcast
• Libsyn – lite / pro
• Odeo (audio only)
• OurMedia (associated with Internet Archive)
• Podbean
• Shockpod

I’ll set up a new podcast at Odeo to demo what these services are like!

In-Lab Exercise

• Individual:
  Imagine, for a moment, that your individual podcast was going to be a regular item. Search podcast directories (iTunes, Zune Marketplace, The Podcast Directory, Podcast411, etc – see page 262 of TBPB) and figure out where your topic would fit (genre). Write a short description of that you might use. Post this to your blog; categorize as assignment.
• Group Assignment 1:
  Do the above (individual) assignment as a group. Identify at least five places you can promote your podcast. Consider Facebook or MySpace or other social networking sites — what are the pluses/minuses of using them to promote your podcast? How would you go about doing that? Finally, why did you pick the channels that you did? One post per group here, as a comment on this page.
• Group Assignment 2:
  What are the keywords that you should be associating with your blog/podcast in order for it to be “found”? As a group, brainstorm keywords that you think are appropriate for your content — you can use these keywords to develop content (use them in blog posts and for certain in your podcast description!) or you can “buy” them if you decide to place ads. Play with Wordtracker.com (register for a free account – just be sure to cancel by day 7!) or Yahoo! or Google. One post per group here, as a comment on this page.
• Group Assignment 3:
  Examine the audio commenting services listed on page 315 of TBPB. Analyze each — which ones (if any) can be used with WordPress or Blogger? Which require a paid service like Typepad? A self-hosted blog? Now — what are the pluses-and-minuses of adding this to your podcast. Include in final proposal.

Resources

• Apple FAQ For Podcasters
• A pre-built Flash player you can use on any WordPress blog where you have server control (you need to be able to install the plugin software)
• Flashblock – Firefox plugin to block Flash ads
• Photos/Images – check iStockPhoto & Flickr creative commons
• Snackr – RSS ticker! Addictive!
• WikiHow – how to promote your podcast

REMINDER – will review personal podcast if I get it soon!