The Seattle Podcasting Network

The June Meetup of Seattle Podcasters saw a few newcomers and lots of the regulars gather at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. We gathered upstairs for food, drink, camaraderie, and a very informative and useful roundtable discussion about how to promote a podcast.

Due to a technical snafu, we won’t have our own podcast of the discussion, but the following are rough notes from the conversation. We invite any other attendees to fill in any gaps or expand on any points made below.

Thanks to everyone who came out last night. The full list of attendees follows the notes from the roundtable.

Promoting Your Podcast

• Luke didn’t find that a t-shirt giveaway generated any significant interest.
• Rob is is part of the Tech Podcast Network. Being a part of a network is very helpful, because you’re in a big pool of podcasts, and this makes it more convenient for advertisers. Another advantage: commonality of stat tracking. Money earned is on a percentage of your distribution on an aggregate basis.
• Kiptronic is a marketplace/service that matches podcasts & advertisers. There’s also a promo exchange program, so podcasters can promote each others’ shows.
• Leif suggested: post on forums; stir up controversy; interview someone well-known (authors are often eager to talk about their books); interview other podcasters; do an intercast (two podcasters doing one podcast)
• Do supplemental content for other podcasters (like “Ask Leo“). You could be helping other podcasters by providing material for their show. Distribution possibilities: send it directly to them; set up a feed just for promos; put it in your main feed
• Stephen suggested having a brief promo that’s easy to find on your home page. This should help the new visitor understand why they would want to listen to your podcast. (He said that the promo is the most-downloaded file on the site.
• Podcasters are generally benefiting from multiple distribution methods – RSS, and iTunes, and downloading directly from the site – rather than just one.
• Hook people in when they’re on the website, or listening to your podcast. You have a limited time to capture their attention, so be conscious of reinforcing who you are, where to find you, and what your podcast is about.
• It can help to have a specific name that’s likely to show up in a search for the topic. Perhaps the name of your topic is also in the title of your podcast.
• Luke has a game for download at his site. That helps to drive traffic to his podcast.
• Have album art. Jeff’s podcast starts with the letter A and has album art, so his podcast shows up at the top of the iTunes search window.
• Pick a narrow segment of the population to talk to. Slice off your narrow piece of the long tail.
• If your audience is less technically sophisticated, keep the language simple, and keep the geeky talk to a minimum.
• MySpace is a great way to get traffic, and for your audience to communicate to each other about your podcast.
• Know your audience. Who are they? Where do they hang out? How do they speak? Think about this and use this information to direct your marketing & publicity efforts.
• Is your audience ready for a podcast on its own terms, or is it a value-add, on top of another content delivery method?
• Jeff is considering taking flyers to pagan bookstores. Get the word out to your community in whatever way works.
• Put RSS links & iTunes links on your site. Do everything you can to make it easy for your audience to find you and subscribe.
• If you publish your feed with Feedburner, take advantage of their package of “chicklets” – small promotional/functional badges – so that you don’t need to clutter up your web page.
• Be a good community member – contribute to forums, comment on blogs, show that you have something to add to the conversation.
• You may be able to swing press credentials to certain events, especially while podcasting is still so new.

In attendance were:

• John Calderon – The Xen Show
• Jeff Harris – ATC Pagan Information Network
• Leif Hanson – Bleeding Purple Podcast
• Matt Mansky and Frank Bruno – Bruno and the Professor
• Rob Greenlee – Mobilcast
• Ricardo Rabago – Organically Speaking
• Luke Stapley: Game Addict Hotline
• Andrew Schlicting and Mario Bonilla – PRWeb Podcast
• Terry Rielly – still checking it out, but getting closer…
• J.J. Pooper and Bukin’ Bekki – Metal Jesus Rocks
• Stephen McCandless – Caution Zero
• Peter Fosso – Global Music Project
• Lori Pacchiano – High Maintenance Bitch (that’s the website, NOT a personality trait)
• Philip Lee – children’s book publisher
• Stuart Maxwell – The New Big
• Travis Petershagan – CrapMonkey Podcast