Kindle Fire HD

This is a podcast review of the Amazon Kindle HD 7inch model which goes for $199 at Amazon.com. This is the base model HD edition with 16 GB memory and Wi-Fi.

The old Kindle’s screen broke, and this was what seemed like the next best thing to buy as a replacement.
This was a replacement for a Kindle that with a broken screen. The Kindle Fire HD promised a lot of extra functionality in addition to being able to use the old Kindle functionality.

Let me start by saying, that overall we are very pleased with the device, especially for the price. And for anybody looking for a device in the 7 inch tablet size then this would be a good choice for most people.

The screen resolution is quite good and it presents a great looking picture. The weight and size of the device seem just about right and the device feels good to the touch. It does seem a bit more delicate than the original Kindle, but that might just be the glass screen. Given that we broke the Kindle’s screen, both devices need to be protected if used on a regular basis.

We really like the integration with the Amazon media offerings. We got immediate access to our Kindle archive and could now access all the Amazon prime content too, and that is one of the really important upgrades in functionality from the old Kindle. Being able to watch video and surf the web with ease is really nice.

The audio and speakers are real plus as well. I’s a significant upgrade from what we had on the old Kindle and that makes it very a useful device for listening to either audio books or to listen to music.

The other great thing is the calendar and contacts functionality as well as the ability to sync with Gmail. The device also is email capable, which really upgrades the usefulness of the device from a basic e-reader.

In short, there’s a lot to like about the Kindle Fire HD.

On the negative side, it starts out with a bad first impression. The package does not include a power adaptor which meant we had to dig out the old Kindle’s adaptor to get the thing charged. It also means that our all black Kindle Fire is plugged into a white charger, which is ok, but not elegant.

The second initial impression issue is how to turn the device on. It’s not easy to figure out, but after a quick Google search I found a button on the right side (in landscape mode) that is pretty much invisible, but does turn it on. It’s also a bit hard to find quickly, which may be a bit of an annoyance going forward.

The other thing I don’t like is the lag in going from the horizontal to landscape views. The switch is too slow which is really noticeable and impacts usability somewhat.

While the UI is much better than my Android’s UI, it is not exactly intuitive. You have to be willing to touch the screen and experiment to find out where controls are. I think this is something you will get used too, but it would be nice if it were simpler.

The battery life is ok, but nothing like the original Kindle which was like the energizer bunny. It seemed to last forever. This battery is satisfactory and really ok if you are near a power source regularly.

The e-reader is good, but I don’t like it quite as much as the screen on my old Kindle. You have a choice of white, sepia or black backgrounds. I’m not yet sure if I will use the white or the sepia backgrounds, but will keep on testing to find which I like better.

Overall, I have to say I recommend getting a Kindle Fire HD if you are replacing a Kindle or if you need a good solid tablet at the $199 price point. However, if price is not an issue then step up and get an iPad.

My goal was make the site something of a cross between what iTunes is for a podcast directory and what Google’s Reader is for a client. I don’t know if that will be good or bad yet, but that’s the design concept I’m going for.

The site’s listings are much better now, with fewer faded out podcasts cluttering up the works. The ability to follow your favorite podcasts and listen/view should also be much better now.

I still have a list of stuff to do that spans a few pages, but I am tackling them one at time so more change to come.

So give it a try and see if you like it. At some point I will figure out a way to get more systematic feedback. Until then, here’s a link to my contact info if you need something.

So what is SoundCloud:

SoundCloud is an audio platform that enables anyone to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds across the internet, in a simple, accessible and feature-rich way. From sample to symphony and soundbite to soliloquy, SoundCloud allows sound creators anywhere to instantly record audio on the site or via mobile applications and share them publicly or privately; to embed sound across websites, social networks and blogs and receive feedback from the community.

SoundCloud’s open platform also supports a wide range of applications built on the SoundCloud API, enabling everything from mobile voice recording, online mastering, digital distribution to Facebook artist profiles and iPad music making. SoundCloud offers free accounts to amateur creators, with more advanced users able to upgrade to premium accounts for advanced features like statistics, controlled distribution and custom branding.

And now they are going to support podcast RSS feeds:

We’ll soon be able to offer RSS feed capability for your tracks and will be rolling this out slowly with selected users. If you’d like to apply to be included in this program and possibly have the chance to become a featured podcaster, just fill in the form below. Whether you have a podcast you want to move to SoundCloud or have one in mind and have been waiting for the opportunity to get it out there, then sign up! The best and most interesting applications will get a special beta account too so you can really test drive SoundCloud.

So how do you get involved in this programs? Well follow the link below and fill out the form. We’ll take a look at the application and get in touch!
SIGN UP FOR BETA ACCOUNT!

A bad disaster, a bad ad – you have to ask Intel what were you thinking?

Here’s the ad and a bit of the Sky News clip.

UPDATE:

Kari Aakre from Intel reached out to me to let me know Intel realized the issue and took action to remove the add. It’s good to see them respond responsibly and quickly. Apparently, Intel is working on technology to help deal with situations where two way communications have been interrupted/destroyed by situations like the Haiti earthquake. I hope they succeed.

Here’s Kari’s comment for reference:

The timing of Intel’s ad about its disaster communications technology research is unfortunate. While the media buy was made months ago, we are sensitive to the current situation and the people of Haiti, and pulled this ad as quickly as we could.

Separately, the Intel Foundation will match Intel employee donations to help support the people of Haiti during this difficult time.

Here are a couple of charities to start with if you can spare any help:

World Vision

Oxfam

Samaritan’s Purse

I thought it was an exciting announcement as I have written a lot about how to make social networking profitable by turning communities into economies.

Julie describes how Ning’s 1.6 million social networks can now start making money by selling virtual gifts. The net revenue(after Paypal fees) from the gifts is split between Ning and the social network.

Ning’s virtual currency called credits, converts into US funds at a rate of approximately 1 credit to $.02. To help get users started with virtual gifting, Ning will give 100 complimentary credits to all users. All Ning virtual gifts will be priced at 75 credits each, so Ning hopes that each user will get to send one virtual gift as a way to try out the feature.

I hope Ning finds more ways to extend how social networks can use the currency to pay users to take surveys or other actions that will help the networks make some real money.

Here’s the interview with Julie:

From those tracks, I came away with four key takeaways for bloggers and podcasters who are trying to become commercial successes at what they do.

1.  You have to be willing to work hard.  Whether you’re trying to break through or already well known, you need to put in the hours to make it work.  The evidence suggests that the most successful bloggers 3-5 times every day.  Whether it’s blogging, podcasting, video, or micro-blogging, consistently producing lots of content is a key component of success.

2. You need to be the expert, or a least perceived as the expert.  And you need to put in the time to stay ahead of others in your field.  Expertise leads to credibilty which can lead to trust and conversion.

3.  You need to develop and follow a process for successful new media marketing, capturing attention, engaging your audience, building influence and ultimately getting your audience to take action.  I saw a great presentation on the topic from Jason Van Orden and will be providing detailed notes in a later post, so stay tuned.

4. Most of us need produce a signature product to be commercially successful.  Making money via advertising just doesn’t seem to pay enough to make it work unless you have a huge audience.  Whether it be an ebook, a coaching class or a continuity program, product seems to be the way people make good money.  If you can develop a successful continuity program, that seems to be the most lucrative product.

In this guest post, Susan writes about Show Format and how to use it to build trust and engagement with your audience.

Here’s part one of advice from Susan Bratton, author of Talk Show Tips:

Show Format
In order to create trust with your audience, you have to consistently deliver both in frequency and format. Once you pick a schedule, keep to it. (I work ahead 3-5 episodes so I always have a significant buffer to weather guest cancellations and my own busy life.) The same with a format – keeping it consistent pays off by generating a level of credibility, professionalism and certainty. Sure, you can morph the format over time. I’ve tried show highlights and removed them because of audience feedback that they were confusing. Choosing and sticking with a show format allows your audience relax into the content, rather than wondering what the game plan is for every episode.

The 5 Divas: Sharon, Suzanne, Carrie, Julie and Amy

Carrie Runnals, Words to Mouth

Ryan Oelke and Vince Horn, The Buddhist Geeks

On our network, we have many formats and lengths:

• The DivaCast and Business Success Tips are a group of hosts who convene to discuss salient issues. The DivaCast is five “forty-something” women discussing life. Business Success Tips is as many as six male hosts talking shop.
• Family History and Tantra and Kama Sutra are single host/guest format.
• Joy of Living Creatively, Inside Out Weight Loss and Your Purpose-Centered Life are single host spoken word shows with huge followings.
• Camera Dojo, Buddhist Geeks and Digital Photography Life are dual-host and single guest format.
• Music for Midnight is very lightly hosted and mostly ambient and lounge music.

Some of our shows are 8-12 minutes long, some go over an hour! Some are loosely formatted discussions and others follow very organized question/answer formats. There are hundreds of formats and styles successfully employed. Don’t just choose one of the styles we use on our network, choose the one that supports your content, personality and Persona. (more about Personas in the main eBook.)

There’s a style for everyone. Some people love the conversational nature of our multi-host shows. That drives others crazy and they vehemently reject it. You must develop your style and find your audience. Your future fans are out there, as long as you keep your show tight, the content valuable and you don’t waste your viewer’s time.

Your Show Length
First, select your show length and format. My weekly show is about a half hour. I’d like to do a twenty minute show, but I can’t get as deep as I want in that amount of time. A hallmark of my show is depth, so I need that extra ten minutes to fully develop the character of my guests. My audience gives me that time because they like that character development too.

I also need to have pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ad slots because a big part of my income is advertising revenue. Sometimes I run six or eight ads in a single show. (My audience is marketers and they understand the sponsorship model. I never get any negative feedback on this number of ads because my audience “gets it.”) To generate the revenue for my show, I need thirty minutes of content with a break fifteen minutes in. I don’t believe my listeners, who are busy professionals, have more than a half hour, but there are a LOT of popular shows that go longer. Some of the shows on our network are always over an hour. If you are working in video, your duration is significantly abbreviated — typically :30 seconds to 4 minutes… You have the luxury of overlay ads on your video, whereas audio is more linear.

So pick a length. Then stay within that by 20% every episode. Internet shows have the luxury of being approximate, rather that exact in length. But don’t take advantage of that and go off format. It’s sloppy and erodes audience trust. Ninety five percent of my shows are thirty-ish minutes long. A really long show I did with Tim Ash about landing page conversions recently was a show with a lot of listener questions. I got great feedback on that show from many people. But I like those “bonus material” shows to be the exceptions, not the rule.

On the next guest post, Susan will show you exactly how she handles her show flow and give you a cheat sheet for customizing it to your needs.

************************

Susan has launched Talk Show Tips: 72 Secret ‘Master Host’ Techniques as a training system for anyone who hosts a podcast, vidcast, radio or talk show or for experts who create information products that include interviews as material.

Here’s my list.  I’ve ordered the list from the what may be the most obvious ideas to the not so obvious ideas.  Read to the end to find something you may not have thought about.

If you have another idea add it with a comment.  Or you can comment on these ideas.

1.  Sell your content

This seems like it should be the most obvious idea of all.  Make content, sell content.  The execution however may be somewhat more difficult.  The easiest way to do this is to put your content onto CDs or DVDs and sell them on your site, like Ask A Ninja and Will It Blend.

Another way is to sell some or all of your content via a subscription basis.  This can be accomplished by making members only sections of a website or using a service like PremiumCast.  If you want a members only section to a website, there are ways to do it using WordPress, or you can use a forum or a membership website from someone like Wild Apricot.

NOTE: If someone buys something, get them to sign up for your mailing list so they can get your PodZine Newsletter.  Don’t have a list?  START NOW.  DO NOT WAIT. DO NOT PASS GO.  GO DIRECTLY TO START A MAILING LIST.  IT COULD BE YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET.   Ok, enough screaming about getting a list.  I use Aweber.  It’s inexpensive, easy and works great.

2.  Donations

Think NPR.  Think Public Television.  Ask people to donate money or buy you things from an Amazon Wish List.  Both of these ideas are easy to execute.  You can get donation button code from Paypal and Amazon Wish Lists are really easy to make an publish.  Here’s my Wish List.

And if you want to make a donation to Digital Podcast you can do so using my PayPal Donation Button.

If someone donates, give them a free subscription to your PodZine with some bonus, like a personal thank you picture or some other creative thing.  See mailing list comment in idea number 1.

3.  Run ads within your podcast

Another obvious idea.  But you have to sell some ads.  Bummer.  This is often where this becomes a problem for podcasters.  Selling ads is hard work.  There are some Podcast ad networks you can join, although I have no idea how much they pay.  If this is for you try here or here or here.

If you want to run ads, but don’t want to sell ads or use an ad network stay tuned, because the last two ideas on the list may be what you need.

Make sure you have an ad in your podcast with instructions on how to sign up for your free PodZine subscription. See mailing list comment in idea number 1.

4.  Promote a sponsor within your podcast

This is one of my favorites.  Leo Laporte does a great job of this.  He has some deal with Audible and promotes a book each week. I have seen presentations where people behind Grape Radio and Endurance Radio talked about selling sponsorships for decent amounts of money.  To execute this, find someone who would really benefit from some exposure and sell them on how great it would be to promote them to your audience.

Give people who sign up for you free PodZine some bonus from your sponsor as another way to promote your sponsor.  See mailing list comment in idea number 1.

5.  Run ads on your webpage and use your podcast to drive traffic

This should be easy to do, if you don’t mind low CPM rates.  Adsense and Yahoo Publisher are worth trying.  Other Adsense like programs include Adbrite and Adengage. You can also set these up as a way to sell ads on your site.  Adbrite and Adengage will also work with explicit content.  Just be careful not to run Adsense on the same page as something similar.  That’s against the Google rules.

Chitka is another option.  They run ads on your site with specific products within categories.

There are also online ad networks that have lots of banners you can run.  Adsense can be set up just to run banners and you can find lots of other banner ad networks such as ValueClick and ClickHype out there.  CPM rates tend to be very low however.

If you want higher CPMs, you will have to get busy selling your own ads or get creative in creating your own high paying ads which I will explore in the last two ideas on the list.

Don’t forget to advertise your PodZine on your webpage. See mailing list comment in idea number 1.

6.  Sell your own product

Maybe you make blenders or some other widget.  Use your podcast to sell your widget.  Don’t make a widget?  Make and sell an ebook that would appeal to your audience.  You can also set up affiliates to sell your ebook using something lick Clickbank.

If you want to sell your own T-shirts, cups etc. get a CafePress store.

Or maybe even sell a premium version of your PodZine with special content. See mailing list comment in idea number 1.

7.  Sell Professional Services

If you don’t make stuff, you can sell time.  Not very scalable if it’s just you, but depending on what you do you may be able to make good money.

Create a contest for people who sign up for your podzine subscription.  Winner gets 30 minutes on the phone with you.  Or some such thing.

8.  Sell Training

Training is another great way to make money selling time.  If you don’t know how to build a training course, then take a course about building a paid membership training site.  If you are looking for some help in making an online course or a information product Bill Myers Online is a good resource for developing online products.

Promote a 30 minute training session contest for people who sign up for your PodZine.

9.  Affliate Sales

This is where things get really interesting.  You don’t have to sell you own products, services, ads, ebooks or time.

You can make money selling other people’s products, services,  ebooks or time.  You can find an affiliate program for selling just about everything.

An affiliate program is where you make a commission or a fixed payment when someone buys something that you linked them to. If it can be sold, you can probably find an affiliate program for it.

For example, here’s an affiliate link to a book, a record, and a microphone.  You can even use these tools to build yourself an online store for you site.

I’m working on a page with affiliate sales links that would work for different podcast categories. I will post it when I’m done.

Even better, if you don’t want to sell ads, you can run ads on your podcast or website to promote your affliate store or the products you are selling via the affiliate program.  This way you have sales cost, you control the ads, you control the presentation and you get the full commission.

Good affiliate programs to check out for products are Commission Junction, Amazon, and  ShareASale.   There are lots more if you look around.

You can also sell ebooks if you want.  ClickBank is the king of ebook sales.  Just be careful in there as they also have a lot dubious quality products.  I’ve found I have to buy the product first to make sure it’s not bogus or some consumer rip off.

Many companies also have their own affiliate programs.  You can usually find a link to the program at the bottom of websites if they have a program, although sometimes you have to ask via an email.  If there is something you think you can sell, get in contact with the maker and cut a deal.  For example, I wanted a sound effects package for podcasters and got the link by asking.

Don’t forget to tell your PodZine subscribers about the great products you’re now selling.

10.  Affliate Lead Generation

Selling stuff can be hard.  The good news is you don’t have to sell to get paid.  You can get paid for just providing a lead.  There are tons of programs that pay you for providing traffic that turns into leads.  Some are great, while others can be a bit dubious so beware.

What kinds of leads can you make money on? If a lead is worth something to someone, you can probably find a way to get paid for providing it.

For example, here are lead generation programs for

• Controlling diabetes
• Controlling sleep apnea
• Selling timeshares
• 1 Cent Business Cards
• Free gift cards from Walmart, etc
• and the list goes on and on.

Some of these,like the control diabetes offer, are really good offers for consumers , others are not so clearly good for consumers. For example, the free gift card offers harvest lots of info and funnel the consumer into a lead generation process which sends them off to some other affliate program without ever giving the consumer a gift card.  So be careful with what you recommend.  My recommendation is to only recommend what you would use and what your audience will find truly valuable.

I’m also working on a page with affiliate lead generation links that would work for different podcast categories. I will post it when I’m done.

If you are interested in this kind of program, here are links to programs to lead generation programs I’ve used:

• MaxBounty, RevenueLoop, Advaliant, and you can Google for many more.  By the way, those are affiliate links too.

Bonus: Mine Your Podzine

If done correctly, your PodZine list could turn into one of your biggest assets.  First, you get a direct channel to your audience in addition to your podcast.  Second, unlike your podcast, your PodZine can carry links.  Links to the products and services you recommend.  If you like something, make it a habit to tell your audience – put it in your PodZine.  Be sure to check to see if there’s an affiliate program for it, because then you will get paid to promote stuff you like.  I suggest only promoting stuff you really like.  It’s more fun, more genuine and probably works better over the long haul.

And some programs are email only.  For example, there is a free business card campaign that pays our $12 per lead, but is email only.  This is something that might fit nicely on a business oriented podcast’s PodZine.

If you need help setting up your PodZine, I recommend Aweber.  If you want an alternative, I’ve also seen people use Constant Contact, but have not tried it myself.

Let me know what you think.  Which of these pays your bills?  Got other ideas.  Post a comment and let me know.

If you’re an author, info marketer or publisher and your sick and tired of producing events or content that only a few people consume and you would like to make more money podcasting, then you should learn about Podcast Secrets.  Podcast Secrets is a system for monetizing podcasts developed by Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian.

Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian have taken the Podcast concept to new heights because their new and improved system for Podcast Monetization lets you connect directly with your readers and audiences with nothing more than a telephone in your hand!

To introduce Podcast Secrets, Paul and Alex are having a special teleseminar, where they will be covering

• The 8 reasons why Podcasting brings them, and can bring you, a critical business (and profit) advantage.
• 7 secrets to producing profitable Podcasting content in the fastest possible time.
• 9 marketing channels for the Podcasters … and how to leverage each one.
• The 6-Step Podcast Monetization Roadmap
• How to part-the-curtain on the listening habits of your audience, and leverage that knowledge to produce profitable audience action.
• At least 5 things, you can implement today that will integrate your Podcast content into your business structure … and how to see results almost instantly.
• 7 steps to getting your Podcast audience to take the very actions you want them to take.

The guys were kind enough to provide me with a discount code that will save you $79.

Sign up quick – the call is Thursday, April 9, 2009 @ 6p Pacific / 9p Eastern

You can still get the recording of the call at the link below.

Click here now to register for the teleseminar.

Your VIP Discount Code is: “PC916″
(Saves you $79 from the normal $99 tuition)

Click Here to See the Full Podcast Secrets Class

The bottom line – the internet has caught up with TV for entertainment use. TV viewing is down by about 2 hours from last year, with most of the increase being in watching online video.

The interesting thing is that there is lots of data to suggest that TV and Internet media reinforce each other. Much of the online activity revolves around catching up with what’s going on with TV shows. Watching shows you missed is a highly popular use of online video.

There appears to be a future for TV, but one quite different from that of the past. TV won’t be the single dominant entertainment channel. It’s going to have to share prime time with the Internet.

You can follow what’s going on via Twitter search.  Just search for #FOTV.

UPDATE:

# Mike Vorhaus (Magid Advisors) Presentation:
Nielsen versus Consumers – They Say Canabilization Happening
# Seth Geiger (SmithGeiger) Presentation:
Digital Media Trends and the Future of Television

podcasting
A very new word, for a recent phenomenon, and a great example of how technological change, especially that relating to the Internet and the media, can be a driving force not only in generating new words, but in determining whether they survive and succeed. In this case the rapid adoption of podcasting (the technology) as a means of making audio material available has seen podcasting (the word) move quickly from its first tentative steps in 2004, as only one of a number of suggested names for the process, to near-ubiquity in 2008. The current OED quarterly release also includes other members of the same family: podcast as a noun and a verb, podcaster, and even the somewhat ungainly adjective podcasted.

Michael Geoghegan pointed to the provenance of the word, which dates back to a post by Dannie Gregoire in Yahoo group ipodder-dev in September of 2004.  Here’s the post with bolding added:

I can see there being the desire of users in some instances to be able
to easily subscribe and get older posts/episodes/shows (what are we
calling these things anyway? How about pode or sode for short?) that no longer
appear on the rss feed. Right now if for example someone wanted to listen to
all the Daily Source Codes back to sode #1, they would have to manually
go through the archives and download any sodes not automagically received,
somewhat defeating the purpose of an ipodder. Not too much of a problem
now but…

I guess one could argue that this is simply an rss/server side issue, and that
the “podcaster” (yes, I like making up new words) should be responsible enough
to offer a page of seperate feeds of old sodes by month/year/season/etc.
However, if you have a site with many thousands of sodes this could be very
time consuming and awkward means of getting older content, with no standard
means of organization between different sites. In addition listing gobs
of old contnet could produce a tremendous load on the download servers
getting everything in large batches or all at once.

So first, do we need a more standard means of storing/retrieving older
content?

Second, how to limit the amount of data fed to the user at a time and
prevent server overloading? Is the communication with iTunes two way?
Is there a means of seeing which shows have been listend to by the user?
Perhaps give the user the option of starting where ever in the show’s
history they like then only download x number of hours at a time till
they clean their plate. Then, let them come back for another helping?

–dannie

The Seven Trends of the Current Economic Storm

1. Recognition by everyone that this is a severe economic crisis.
   We are experiencing a massive economic disruption. The mortgage meltdown, the credit default swap market meltdown, and the freezing of the commercial credit markets are causing massive turmoil in the financial markets. It’s driving a self reinforcing cycle of fear and chaos. Jobs are being cut, consumer credit is maxing out, foreclosures are accelerating, pension plans devastated. This is a bad, bad, bad situation and people everywhere are going to know and feel its impact.
2. Consumers will/have started making cost cutting a priority.
   We will be buying Mac and Cheese from Wal-Mart, instead of eating out. Discretionary cash will be in very short supply. They will spend even more time looking for bargains.
3. Demand has stalled for high end purchases by the mass market.
   The auto market is down by 30+%. That’s a huge drop. I was speaking with someone from a major car company earlier this week and he described how $10 billion in revenue just disappeared. Factories that were working hard are coming to a screeching halt. This will mean even more job loss and consumer distress.
4. Businesses are making cost reduction an urgent priority.
   Layoffs are beginning to gain momentum and will continue. Discretionary projects will be put on hold. The cost pressure will be so severe that we will see some radical, but very disruptive innovation.
5. Businesses will slow/put the brakes on capital spending and payables.
   Hording cash will be a key to survival. Businesses will react by slowing and cutting the spending on capital projects, and like consumers they will stretch out their payables as long as possible.
6. People and organizations with cash to invest will buy distressed assets at bargain prices
   Just look at Warren Buffet and his actions recently. He knows that when times are bad, it’s time to get greedy. There will be lots of cash strapped asset owners desperate enough to cut really attractive deals for investors. This will shift money from investment in new growth opportunities to investment in cash producing assets. This is really bad for start ups and anyone who needs venture capital. There will be very little money going to new things in the next 12 months.
7. The government reaction will increase substantially
   The problems we are facing will require even more government action.  There will be increased government deficit spending, cuts to interest rates, stimulus checks to the mass market, big government infrastructure projects and maybe even broad tax cuts. Given the current political trends, friends of Democrats (unions, trial lawyers, Hollywood, etc) are likely see more money coming their way and friends of Republicans (oil, pharma, Halliburton, etc) are likely to be punished as being the bad guys. As the government settles down, they will start putting in incentives to get businesses to invest and spend cash. 

Some preliminary thoughts on what this means

I think that these trends will definitely sway the financial rebound of different companies.

It is clear to me that delays and cut backs in discretionary, high end purchases are bad for the auto, consumer electronics, consumer durables, restaurants and other sectors that depend on these types of purchases. It is time to stay away from this stuff until consumers catch their breath and start feeling some job/financial security.

Companies that can help us cut costs, work out our debt, shop more effectively and help us get credit should be advantaged in this market. Experian looks like a company that should be able to take advantage of this. This is also an attractive potential area for social networking and media to the extent it can help people work out their problems together.

Companies that offer the ability to get results at much lower costs will rebound much more quickly. For example, the extraordinary cost effectiveness of search and online advertising will accelerate the share shift from offline to online. We may not see huge growth online, but offline advertising will get hammered, especially given the importance of the financial and automotive industries to ad spending. Stay away from offline publishers. On the flip side, this makes Google look more interesting and maybe even Yahoo.

This need for much lower costs will also accelerate share shift from costly physical channels to internet based channels.  This may be good for eBay and Amazon, but I’m interested in finding companies that are earlier in the process.  I’m not sure who to look at here.

Given the extraordinary cost cutting we will see in businesses, they will need ways to keep their businesses running with many fewer employees. This is probably good for effective productivity tools and outsource service providers. I think this is particualarly good for collaborative communication tools that really work, like Go To Meeting.  Companies that have cash will spend it very strategically and if you can get in front of  that trend it could be a good thing.

If you have cash to invest, it also makes sense to keep some dry powder waiting for opportunistic investment opportunities in distressed assets.

On the government front, it’s less clear to me which investment opportunities are worth exploring. I need to see the outcome of the election to really know who the winners and losers will be. I think I’m going to take a look at donations to each party to see who looks interesting.

Lastly, for those of you looking for venture capital, it is going to be a serious dry spell. It is time to hunker down hard.

My caveat on all this is that I’m not a stock picker. I think good investments are as much about buying at the right valuation as they are about picking the right areas. I have no perspective on whether or not the companies I’ve talked about have attractive valuations or not. At the time I write this, I don’t own stock in any of the companies I’ve written about, but that may change by the end of the day.

I would love to hear you’re thoughts on other major trends that are in play right now and what it all means. Leave a comment.

On the positive side, their internet revenues grew 6.7% to reach $87 million.  The bad news, however, is the continued plunge in print advertising which was down by 15.9%.  The net result is that overall revenues dropped by 8.9% to $687 million.  They have cut costs by 6.7%, but the death spiral continues.

According to Henry Blodget of Silicon Alley Insider they only have $46 million in cash left.

At the end of the quarter, cash and cash equivalents were approximately $46 million and total debt was approximately $1.1 billion. The Company’s current source of short-term funding is its revolving credit agreements under which it had approximately $398 million in borrowings outstanding at the end of the quarter.

So what should they do?  A reporter from ZDNet suggests that they should talk to Yahoo, which might be interesting way for Yahoo to tank further.  No, I don’t think that’s the way to go.

What the NY Times needs to do is to start thinking about radical innovation.  They need to think so completely differently about their business that they may not be able to do it.

They need to start thinking about how they increase their productivity by 50 to 100 times (note: not percent, but a multiple of 50 to 100 times their current output with the same cost structure).   At the same time, they need to be thinking about how they increase their exposure by the same multiple of  50 to 100x.  They need to be thinking about how they become a news gathering and distribution platform for the web.  They can’t do it alone, but if they embrace their audience and open their content they might have a chance.  It will take radical innovation, but that’s what they need.

Developing content, building audience and getting advertisers to buy in will take serious effort. Publishers who understand the huge opportunity for subscribable media and its capacity to shape the media industry’s winners and losers will step up and make the investment required.

Putting these elements into a framework allows for systematic evaluation of operating practices across publishers and for the identification of best practices for new media publishing.

The framework links the three key elements of Audience, Content and Advertisers with the critical activities of creative/production, marketing, distribution, monetization and user experience.

In each of these functional areas, there are best practices that need to be deployed to make the most of a new media business. Some of these factors are observable from the outside looking in and others require examining how things work from the inside out.

Creative and production encompass the all important aspects of conceiving the concept, translating it into a show and producing high quality content on a regular schedule.

Marketing involves many factors including the key factors like search engine optimization, iTunes/media directory optimization, syndication via RSS feeds and sharable players. Evidence of best practice marketing can be found in how well things like ID3 tags are populated, the quality of feeds, file naming practices and quality album art. These are all factors that impact how findable the media is.

Monetization can take many forms and best practice players will find the right mix that works for them. While we can’t determine how much a show makes from the outside, we can examine the presence of monetization mechanisms like advertising, premium content, sponsorships, commerce/merchandise and paid syndication.

Distribution is an important component. In this area we are specifically looking for cost effective high quality content delivery. New media files are quite large and how well the distribution infrastructure works can have a significant impact on the user experience. In many cases we can determine whether a content delivery network is being utilized and we can also observe the use of advanced file sharing technologies like BitTorrent.

Perhaps the most important and observable element of the best practice framework is the user experience. How well are the shows presented? Is the content available in a format compatible with the devices consumers want to use? Is it easy for the audience to interact with the show? What’s the online viewing experience like? The answers to these questions and the inputs of the other four elements of the framework all go into determining how effective the user experience is.

By examining these factors in detail, we can begin to identify specific changes that will improve business performance and help publishers get serious about building new media businesses.

In the weeks ahead, we will dive into each of these areas to examine best practices and to review how well different publishers are employing best practices.

[tags]podcasting, best practices, new media[/tags]

Key findings from the study include:

Podcasting continues to grow quickly: Audio podcast listeners grew from 13% of Americans to 18% and video podcast consumption grew from 11% to 15%.

Podcasts enable more media consumption: The people consuming podcasts spent approximately 90 minutes longer per week listening to online audio than other online audio consumers

Podcast consumers are an attractive advertising demo: Podcast consumers are more likely to have a college degree and earn in excess of $75,000. They are also more frequent online shoppers and spend more money online than other Americans. These consumers are also adverse to interruption based advertising and use pop up blockers, SPAM filters and other tools to block out commercials.

Podcast consumers are internet social: 25% of them have MySpace pages and spend lots more time on the internet than non listeners.

Edison’s key takeaways from the study for podcasters:

• Podcasting is a viable alternative means to target attractive consumers who are otherwise proving difficult to reach with traditional advertising. Consumers get to choose what they subscribe to and when they subscribe they can be both more engaged and more loyal
• Podcasters should consider lifestyles, context and even potential ‘dayparting’ for their audiences. In other words, don’t just leave it to chance that people will listen to your podcast any old time. Give them a time and a reason to listen to your content.
• Take lessons from broadcast media and improve production, staging and create true ‘theatre of the mind.” Production quality matters when your competing with NPR et al. Make your podcasts sound and look good. Make them easy to understand.
• Remember the ‘Mid-Tail.’ Don’t think you have to focus on the “long tail” niches. There are good segments of mid-sized audiences that are undeserved by traditional media that can be targeted via podcasting. Edison points to BMW drivers as an example.

Via MWGBlog.com

[tags]market research, edison media research, media consumption, podcast consumption, podcast market size[/tags]

Podcasting 1.0 has been the age of iTunes and iPods. The original software clients that were built in late 2004 and early 2005 were designed to automatically download media files and put them into your iTunes music folder. By labeling the files as podcasts, they automatically went into a folder on iTunes for podcasts and from there the files were automatically synchronized with your iPod.

Clever and simple it was. Using the RSS feed, you could set your software to record your favorite shows directly to your iPod for listening or viewing whenever you wanted. The iPod became a portable Tivo for audio and later video with the release of the video iPod.

Media could be published by anyone, anyone could subscribe and new stuff showed up on your iPod by simply connecting it to your computer. The term Podcast for this subscription based media distribution mechanism was a natural.

This simple innovation became even bigger when Apple saw the opportunity that podcasts presented. Massive amounts of new and free content that could be provided by iTunes. The fact that it was free meant that everyone could start filling up their 40 or 80 GB iPods with all kinds of subscribable media.

In 2005, we saw lots of growth in podcasting and by 2006 it had been picked up by mainstream media as well. NPR, NBC, ABC and many other media companies started to provide podcast content and these mainstream media publisher quickly rose to the tops of the iTunes charts along with a number of new players.

While the growth that came from Apple’s integration of podcasts into iTunes has been great, I believe the tight association and integration with iTunes and iPod is holding back podcasting from realizing its true potential.

The word itself leads one to believe you need an iPod if you want to get a podcast. Those of us in podcasting constantly try to communicate that you don’t need an iPod to enjoy podcasts, but it’s a small voice compared to the perceptions of consumers. The issue is further compounded by the fact that the easiest way to subscribe to podcasts is to use iTunes.

The Limitations of the Pod Market

The problem is that the installed base of between 100 and 200 million iPod devices is actually quite limited, particularly when you take into account the number of iPods people own and how many actually get used.

In my own home, my kids and I have six or seven iPods, and only one of them gets used for playing podcasts. I also have many friends who have been given the device for Christmas or a birthday, but don’t actually use it.

If we reduce the installed based by 50% for duplicate iPod owners and a further 50% for those who don’t use the device or listen to podcasts we end up with a potential market size of 25 to 50 million users. If we take the old 80-20 rule, it says that the hard core market for podcasts on iPods is probably between 5 and 10 million users at the current time.

If we move beyond iPods and say the market is iTunes users then things look a little brighter. iTunes is said to have an active user base of 500 million. If we apply the same math that we used above we could probably get the market up to 125 million people who have tried podcasts, with a hard core market of 25 million people who are heavy users.

Moving Beyond the iPod

The market starts to look more interesting if we move beyond iPods and iTunes to the broader internet. Some recent survey data from Universal McCann shows that of 475 million active internet users in the world 45 percent have downloaded a podcast and that 7 percent download daily. These numbers suggest a market of 213 million who have tried podcasts and a hard core market of 33 million users who download daily.

Beyond the PC, lies the huge potential of the mobile phone market. Phones that support subscribing to podcasts like the iPhone (received through iTunes) and Nokia’s N95 (received through an on-phone podcast application) show the potential of mobile phones as the next generation of portable Tivos.

There are billions of mobile phones in active use every day. While most of these phones don’t yet have the capability needed to be portable Tivos, the installed base continues to be upgraded at a rapid pace.

500 million cell phones equipped with mp3 players were shipped in 2007 and estimates call for over 900 million to be shipped each year by 2011. On the video front, 3G phones with video capabilities is one of the fastest growing segments.

Within the next 5 to 10 years, it is quite likely that most new mobile phones being sold will be video capable, and if good fortune/open markets prevail they will be WiFi enabled. This will expand the market for subscribable media to billions of mobile devices worldwide with potential audience sizes as big or bigger then television.

Connected digital TVs represent yet another big opportunity, but one that will take longer to evolve due to the slower turn over of the installed base of devices. HDTV’s are basically very large monitors that can be connected to the internet via set top boxes, PCs, Mac Minis, Apple TV and the like. Tivo is already providing some support for podcasting. The publish and subscribe model that is the foundation of podcasting can turn every one of these devices into Tivos for internet video and audio.

The PC, mobile and HDTV are the markets that will allow subscribable media/podcasting (or whatever new name it takes on) to realize its true potential. These markets will give podcasting the reach and scale required to turn subscribable media into a sizable industry. These are the markets that matter and the markets that every serious publisher should be working towards. Now is the time to establish your position.

Getting from here to there

Getting from here to there requires a change in mindset. In many cases, today’s traditional publishers treat subscribable media as a sideline with little strategic thought and poor execution.

In contrast, new media players like Revision3 and TWiT.TV are thinking strategically about building audiences and brands that form the basis of a real business. Winners will take the business seriously.

Publishers who see the opportunity on the horizon will begin to shift their focus from iPods/iTunes to the PC, mobile and connected TV segments. Too many publishers rely too heavily on iTunes. This dependence manifests itself in many ways such as the use of one click iTunes buttons as the only way to subscribe and the use of iTunes as the way to present the content archive.

This shift in focus requires a multi-device content strategy. This is particularly important for video, because what plays on an iPod, won’t necessarily play on a cell phone. In a recent survey I did of 25,000 video podcast episodes, I found only 6 episodes encoded with 3gp (the video standard for 3G phones). If publishers want to tap the mobile market, then they need to make sure that the content they produce can be played on these alternative devices.

Building real businesses in this sector will take investment and sound execution. Revision3 has taken in $9 million in investment and Mevio (formerly PodShow) has taken in $24 million in funding. This is the kind of investment that traditional publishers will need to make if they are serious about building new media businesses.

On the execution front, there are profound differences between those who are focused on building new media businesses and those that treat it as a sideline. Companies like Revision3 and TWiT.TV show a commitment to the business and best practices that is just not found in many traditional media companies.

These new media companies are successfully building brand franchises and growing audiences that are attractive to advertisers. They are positioning themselves ahead of the huge demand wave that’s building.

If you want to ride that wave, now is the time to get serious about building a new media business.

As always, comments and feedback are appreciated.

[tags]podcasting, podcast market size, podcasting 2.0, subscribable media, mobile media[/tags]

Panelists
Keive Huffman, SVP, Business Development & Sales, Championship Gaming Series
Robert Norton, VP, Business Development, King.com
Rob Uhrich, Senior Director, Digital Markets, PaymentOne
Brent Hurley, Strategic Partner Developments, YouTube
Jason Rubinstein, Senior Director, Entertainment, Mobile Devices, Motorola
Moderator: Jay Moore, Head of Special Ops, The Strategery Group

Jay asks What is connected gaming? What’s your perspective on what Connected Gaming is.

Jason: Connected gaming is a better experience. The ability to get it from your friends the ability to get it easily on your phone, and ulitimately how social networks connect with games.

Brent: Game developers can pull in relevant data to make the game better. If it’s raining outside, it could be raining in the game.

Rob: Connected relationships are what it’s all about. Usually my kids fight all the time. Seeing my kids working together on webkins shows the power of connected gaming. Strengthening current relationships and develop new relationships is an important part of connected gaming.

Robert: In all our games you are playing against other people. It’s about people vs. people. Helping them connect. The lobby system is the most important part of our site.

Kieve: We look at connected gaming as a huge part of what Championship Gaming Series is all about. We see a way for connecting a competitive gaming to main stream audience. Television is CGS’s primary distribution channel. The online element introduces a new element of interactivity. CGS just announced a YouTube channel.

Jay: What have been the big breakthroughs in the past year?

Robert: Figuring out pre-roll and post roll advertising has opened up free ad supported games. Another breakthrough is the social network sites that allow game developers to reach very large audiences.

Jason: VMK had to shut itself off due to unexpected success. Scrabulous is great. A couple of guys in India introduced something that ignited a lot of interest in casual gaming and it has a business model.

Kieve: It’s amazing how strong the communities are. Any time we run a tournament it’s a frenzy. Our traffic goes up 10x.

Robert: Scrabulous reinvented turn based games. The game had been around for a year before it went on Facebook. The social network allowed the game to become the marketing tool itself. By building in the right features, the engineering could drive the marketing of the game.

Jay: What’s been driving connectedness in the MMO space?

Kieve: We work with World of Warcraft. It’s been a lot of fun to work with them. They’ve created this immersive environment. The fun has been trying to mainstream this community by publicly broadcasting the game tournaments.

Jason: What’s not happening is MMO expansion into mobile. It doesn’t even have to be the game. There’s tremendous opportunity in mobile for applications like tools, utilities and teaser games.

Jay: Will the iPhone be disruptive?

Jason: The SDK and platform is not really open, so publishers should beware. Apple shattered some ceilings that only they may have been able to shatter. It still needs to achieve volume to be disruptive. Google’s open mobile is more likely to be disruptive.

Jay: What is the future of UGC games and mashups?

Brent: We want to encourage sharing of game video so people can share their in game experiences.

Robert: This is one of the most significant developments. Over the next 18 months, UGC around the game. The combination of community, games and flash skills set this up to grow. It opens gaming up to anyone with the right skills.

Kieve: One of the most popular things is sharing your best victory. Ode to Gamer Girl is one of the most popular videos around. It’s hard to beat this kind of marketing.

Kieve: Counterstrike is one of our most popular games. For the upcoming season, we are using a user generated map.

Jay: How will advertising play out?

Robert: Everyone is experimenting. Micro-transactions are the real revenue now. Advertising is the potential for real growth. Right now we’re experimenting with what works for users and how it impacts user’s interactions with the site and the games.

Jason: I side with the consumer. The consumers want free and they want quality. Diner Dash costs $20 for a download. On the mobile it costs $4-5. Consumers expect that games will be on the handset. Advertising could make this possible.

Rob: Advertising as a part of the business model continues to be a important part of the revenue mix. Game developers just need to be careful about how they integrate into advertising into the games.

Jay: What needs to change in the home?

Kieve: The technology in the US is getting better, but it still is not a great user experience. In Korea and China where they have the bandwidth, particularly in mobile, connected gaming is doing very well.

Rob: It needs to get much simpler.

Brent: Bandwidth into the home is the block for streaming high def into the home. So hitting the mainstream will take some time.

Jay: What categories will be disruptive in the next wave?

Jason: The companies that are positioned to do well are the big companies and the people who spin off from them and really understand the networks. Companies that are thinking about where the real numbers are and how to reach them with proven game mechanics can light up the mass markets.

Jay: What do you see happening next? What would like to see?

Kieve: True connectivity, that’s ubiquitous and that works.

Robert: The games that represent the cutting edge of content are teaching us about new things that work. Seeing these things move to other activities and applications is exciting.

Rob: The gaming market will become much more competitive.

Brent: Excitement about derivative works. It can be exciting to see and interact with the game and game play in different ways.

Jason: Open mobile networks. Fewer mobile operating systems. Super distribution – the ability for people to send media to friends get. Like to see US legalize online gambling.

[tags]LA Games Conference 2008, Connected Games, gaming[/tags]

You’ve seen the scantily clad cocktail waitresses in the casinos.  The sexy woman posed on the hood of a car.  We know that sex gets men’s attention.

But does sex actually sell?

A new research study by Brian Knutson of Stanford suggests the answer is yes; at least, that heterosexual men are more likely to take financial risks after being subjected to positive emotional stimuli—in the case of the study, erotic photos of a man and woman.

Why should digital marketers and publishers care?

As digital content and advertising become increasingly intertwined (here’s one of many posts on that topic), and marketers and publishers get better about measuring the effectiveness of their efforts (read more in our mini-eBook on social media performance management), we can expect the trend toward sex in advertising to be further invigorated (pun intended), at least in advertising that targets men.

And as social media becomes an increasingly effective marketing tool, we can also expect more of the digital equivalent of those cocktail waitresses.  The Stanford study alluded to the particular relevance in online gaming (gambling) businesses, and I noticed the effect firsthand when checking out XuQa.com, an online casual gaming community co-founded by Murtaza Hussain, co-founder and CEO of PeanutLabs and the subject of a recent DigitalPodcast interview.  Many of the most popular gaming rooms in XuQa are hosted by very attractive women (or at least hosts with photos of very attractive women), and the formula seems to be quite successful there.

By the way, for our female readers (my wife included) who by now are gloating over the superiority of your half of the species, beware:  Mr. Knutson is planning to test women’s responses in the future.

[tags]Brian Knutson, Erotic Content, Stanford University, Sex[/tags]

Creating Brand Advocates at Nike’s Jordan Brand
Emmanuel Brown, Director of Digital and Content, Nike’s Jordan Brand

Nike’s Jordan Brand has developed a couple of immersive experiences for highly engaged fans.  The experiences start with deep insight into these “superfan” needs, and build intense community engagement for these hardcore fans, but are small scale communities relative to the scope of the Jordan Brand.  Which raises the question, are these high ROI applications for engaging and activating superfans, or are they so focused on the hard core that they are failing to engage the brand’s mass market?  Read on and share your opinion…

Emmanuel began by sharing background on Nike, whose headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon is like a Disneyland for adults, and its Jordan Brand division, where Michael Jordan (MJ) still deeply interacts with the brand, the same way that he was engaged with the game of basketball.

Mentally, or digitally, cut to a stirring, inspiring Michael Jordan video (videos can be found at Nike’s site for the Jordan Brand, Jumpman23).

The Jordan Brand.  Nike approached Michael Jordan in 1984 to have a signature shoe built around him, a completely novel concept at the time.  In 1996, the Jordan Brand was born as a division within Nike.  The brand has 110 people versus the Tiger Woods Brand’s 400 people, and both brands support the same amount of revenue.  Nine out of ten people own (or have owned) Air Jordans, and the Jordan Brand is the second in the market behind Nike itself.

The Jordan Brand’s primary consumer is the core urban male 15-20 year old, highly competitive, a leader of the team.  These guys often know what the brand is doing before the news is made public.  The secondary consumer is 12-24 year old males and females, urban and suburban, not necessarily competitive.  Their consumers’ mind space includes social media, television, and the video game space.  The Jordan Brand does a lot of marketing through video games – with them, kids can see the entire line-up.  Most kids know what products they want before they get to the store.

The engagement philosophy for the brand is (1) to engage with consumers where and when they want (online!); (2) product and service together are critical to delivering a greater experience and engagement; and finally (3) the consumer decides.

The Jordan Breakfast Club.  A key platform for engagement is the Jordan Breakfast Club.  The challenge was to establish an authentic position for Jordan in the training marketplace.  Every morning, MJ and his teammates used to wake up and complete a workout regiment before he got to eat his four course breakfast.  So the Jordan Brand went after an unmet need of the target customer around training – everyone says that training is important, but no one tells kids how to train.  The Breakfast Club includes a simple peer-based assessment and a custom designed workout program that can be printed out or downloaded onto an iPod as videos for a huge number of possible workouts.  The Jordan Breakfast Club has 20,000 plus engaged users, and tens of thousands additional views on YouTube.  The Club also did a 10-city summer tour to reach thousands more at day long training camps.  The program won a 2007 Forrester Groundswell Award.

The Jordan Flight Club.  After building the Breakfast Club, the brand started getting more information about its consumers, and next started the Flight Club.  The Jordan brand has a huge “sneaker-head” following, and the Flight Club is about limited edition, one-at-a-time, high demand products for fiercely loyal customers who are willing to pay a very high price and avoid the disappointment of trying to get limited products through retail.  The brand got a lot of feedback from consumers in designing how the Breakfast Club would work.  Members of jumpman23.com got membership offers and the opportunity to invite two more friends – in others words, an “insider” offer for loyal customers only.  Demand went through the roof, with people selling their free invitations on eBay, and over 40,000 members joining in the first 45 days.

Emmanuel’s summary:  (1) create relevant experiences beyond the product, (2) service complementary needs of the consumer, (3) empower engaged consumers to be brand advocates, and (3) create and own communities where they are relevant and authentic.  The Jordan Brand’s next big challenge is to take these opportunities in the digital space and migrate them to the physical space, like the Jordan Breakfast Club tour.

Q&A Discussion

How do you share learning from the Jordan Brand throughout Nike?  We do case studies.  Things may work differently for us versus golf, and we use best practices.

The 15-20 year old market is refreshed every 5 years, so how do you target for the future, and specifically do you market to even younger (under 15) generations?  We try to communicate in a simplified format, keep MJ’s story relevant, and make great products.  We don’t market to the younger kids, but do try to emphasize success through working hard.

What do you mean that you’ve learned the hard way about ignoring customers?  We created a website where consumers could buy one-off products, and only created 6,000 units of a product that 1.6 million consumers tried to buy, crashing the site and generating hate mail.  We use sales data and forecasting to ensure that problem is not repeated going forward.  We’d rather overstock and deal with excess inventory than to have too little product and anger consumers.

For limited editions, doesn’t it help the brand to sell out so fast?  You have to appreciate the global effect of our brand.  Kids in Australia were getting their hands on US-only products; we responded to make the products available there.   We’re pushing to think more globally and satisfy demand, offering limited products in all parts of the world.

The Breakfast Club concept sounds great, but how are you measuring the true impact?  We’re not measuring the financials, but we do track the ongoing activities of the kids who sign up.  One of the Pro teams we visited adopted the philosophy as their primary means of training!

A cross section of podcasters, agencies, device manufacturers and others interested in monetizing downloadable media have developed the proposed standards.

Why do we need standards for downloadable media?

• Lots of podcasts, lots of sponsors, lots of options and confusion
• Like IAB display ad unit guidelines for podcasts
• Allow sponsors to create 1 advertisement for multiple podcasts

The panel believed that the standards should be

• Simple
• Inclusive
• Acceptable

The group is proposing three types of ad standards: Insertions, Content Participation, and Collaterals

Insertions (as provided by advertisers)

• Definition: pre-recorded file provided by sponsor
• Time up to :10, ;15, :30, or :60 seconds
• Location: Pre-roll, post roll mid roll
• Frequency: Variable or time period
• Audio: 128k stereo/64k mono mp3, Sample Rate: 44.1 khz
• Video: H.264 MP$, Aspect 4×3 or 16×9 SD and HD

Content participation

• Definition: When an advertiser’s message is included as part of the audio or video podcast content.
• Time: Variable from :1 second to full episode
• Location: Pre-roll; mid-roll; post-roll; or integrated within one or a series of episodes
• Frequency: Variable by number of episodes per month; variable by number of insertions per user per month; or fixed per channel/feed per month.

Collaterals
All the other real estate that a podcaster has that may be included as part of an advertising or sponsorship package, or as separate items a lá carte.
Examples

• Show notes on podcast website
• ID3 tags in podcast episode file
• Album Art Cards
• Link and banner in enhanced audio podcasts
• Overlays, underlays in video podcasts
• Web banners, buttons, text links, hyperlinks (using IAB standards)
• Email sponsorships
• Press Releases
• Product sales (CDs, DVDs, merchandise)
• Signage/Outdoor (for retail)
• Brochures, flyers

The second area that the ADM focused on is developing a set of proposed measurement guidelines for audience traffic.

The Association of Downloadable Media is recommending compliance with one of two proposed methods to determine true download measurement. These two methods are Native Server Measurement or Third Party Measurement.

In order to comply with these guidelines, publishers would clearly state their download measurement methodologies to interested buyers. Buyers seeking to work with ADM-compliant publishers would be entitled to request and receive these download methodologies. The goal is to achieve high levels of confidence around the metrics for both parties.

Third Party Measurement (TPM)
A Third Party server is the intermediary between the Native Server and another Third Party Server. Third Party Measurement refers to the files measuring the initial download requests as received by a third party server to be delivered to the requester. Because the Third Party server is a constant, it may uniformly measure download statistics across multiple hosting services.

Data logged by third party servers include request information about the media being downloaded. Each request contains the following data that may be utilized for analysis.

• IP Address – Unique Internet address of the user consuming the media file.
• Time Stamp – Time at which the request was made for the media file.
• Request – The request specifies the media file requested and provides the method at which the request should be handled.
• HTTP Status Code – A technical code defined by the HTTP protocol that determines the status of the request.
• Referrer – Location where the request came from.
• User Agent – A unique value that identifies the service or application making the request. e.g. web browser such as Internet Explorer, podcatching agent such as iTunes, a web bot such as Google.
• Byte Range – This is the range of start and end bytes requested by the media consumer.

Native Server Measurement (NSM)
The Native Server is the actual end point where the media is hosted. Native Server
Measurement refers to the log files derived from the Native Server. It may include
the amount of data that was transferred in each log entry, and therefore may provide information to derive more than simple download statistics.

Data logged by native servers include request information about the media being downloaded as well as the amount of bytes transferred during the download transaction. All the data listed above (available to third party servers) applies to Native Servers. In addition, the following data may be utilized for analysis.

• Bytes Served - This is the amount of bytes that have been transferred to the media consumer in a given request. Depending on the type of request made, the bytes served may be less than or equal to the size of media file.

The data contained in either native or third party server log files does not necessarily mean that the data is analyzed. The method of analysis used varies.

Analysis Techniques and Factors

Both types of measurement include analysis techniques, in order to calculate download measurement. These analytic techniques are used to determine the validity of actual downloads (versus duplicated or aborted download attempts)

There are a number of factors used in any given technique to analyze log files.

• IP Address – The IP address may be used to determine if the request is unique or a duplicate. It may also be used to determine geographical information of the media consumer.
• Time Stamp – The date and time may be used to determine if the request should be counted.
• HTTP Status Code – The appropriate HTTP status code is examined to determine if the request should be counted.
• Bytes Served – The value may be used to determine if the media was completely downloaded. (Note: This information is only available from native server log files.)
• Referrer – The origin of the download may be used to determine if the request should be counted. e.g. media that is auto played upon loading a web page may be removed or reported.
• User Agent – The identifier of the application or service consuming the media may be analyzed to determine if the request is unique.
• Byte Range – The range of bytes requested in a given request may be used to determine what portion of the media is requested. When analyzed across multiple requests, the information may provide an accurate assessment to determine if the media was completely downloaded.

The ADM does not require a specific combination of factors or techniques, instead requires that you use analysis that’s appropriate to the business at hand in a way that provides high confidence data and you can explain the process used to create the data. It is left to any company following these guidelines to create techniques that fit their situation. However, it is strongly recommended to include the IP Address in analysis.

These types of measurements can be provided by services like Wizzard Media or PodTrac. UPDATE: ADM members RawVoice and Volomedia are also providing this kind of measurement service.

The proposed standards are open for public review and comment through May 16, 2008. Send to comments and feed back to info@downloadablemedia.org.

Once ratified will be reviewed bi-annually by ADM.

[tags]downloadable media, ADM, Association for Downloadable Media, Advertising, Standards[/tags]

I came up with a short starter list of why Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Communications Officers should make social media a priority.

You need to know what people are saying about you. There is a customer to customer and press to customer conversation going on throughout the internet. Any company that fails to understand and act on this puts themselves at risk for getting blindsided by the conversation. At a minimum, they should be tracking the conversation. The best practice is to go beyond monitoring to building a social media strategy to influence the conversation.

You need to know what your people are saying. If your customers are using social media, it’s also quite likely that your employees are using social media. They will be doing it no only for themselves, but also to fill gaps in the company’s social media strategy. Left un-managed, this presents numerous risks to the company’s reputation and customer/competitive relations. Inappropriate information may get disclosed and comments about policies by employees may confuse customers. Further, it is not uncommon for information published by employees with good intentions to be poorly maintained and out of date. Every company should have a Social Media Policy and a plan for cleaning up/maintaining information published about them across the internet.

You need to make your marketing/communications more efficient. Customer and stakeholder attention is now in shorter supply than ever. Traditional marketing and communications approaches are becoming increasingly less effective and consequently it’s becoming more expensive to realize communication goals. Social media and community are two mechanisms to radically improve efficiency. It will take an investment, but this investment has much greater leverage than investments in traditional media. Traditional media content scales up linearly with cost and have diminishing returns. Social media content scales up with the size of the community and can have compounding returns. Any cost conscious CMO or CCO should be figuring out how to use these tools to make their companies more cost effective.

Tell us why you think CMOs and CCOs should make social media like blogging, podcasting and networking a priority.

PS – Click here to learn more about how the University of Southern California’s CCO is using social media by listening to this Digital Podcast.

[tags]social media marketing, marketing priorities[/tags]

Panelists
Ken Todd, VP, Content, Showtime Networks
Richard Titus, Head of User Experience, BBC Future Media & Technology
Ivana Ma, Partner & President, New Media, Generate
Moderator: Rohit Bhargava, Author, Personality Not Included / SVP, Digital Strategy & Marketing, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

What’s the role of UGC?

Much of UGC is seem as being funny and somewhat irrelevant. However,the BBC gets lots of content from citizen journalists who send in content and blogs are some of the most heavily trafficked sites on the network.

UGC also has a major role in contests. Ivana described how when a music contest incorporated UGC and was framed as competing communities (eg, Colleges), really made the contest a much bigger success.

UGC also plays a role as brand evangelists. Ken spoke about how they used a site to have people write fan lit and have people vote on the content. He also spoke about a UGC contest using the them song from Weeds – Little Boxes. The prize was playing five of the songs on TV, with a grand prize of $10,000. He says it has proven very successful for Showtime.

What role do bloggers play?

Ken speaks about how they can play the role of uber fans (Super Fans). They can have a huge impact. Ken says they have started treating these uber bloggers as they would reporters, sending them press kits and advance on shows.

Richard speaks about how bloggers have now added a new voice to the conversation. He says blogging has made the BBC wake up and work harder.

Ivana points out that brands have taken an interest and started courting bloggers. Richard asks that since bloggers are more likely to be easier to buy off than the traditional media, does that make them more interesting to brand advertisers. ( What BS – like the auto mags don’t demand advertising for reviews.)

Is it money or is it attention and micro-fame?

Some do it to communicate, others want that small moment of fame. If they are doing it for money, its not there yet. You just have to look at the content and you will usually see what the motivation is. Richard points to the opportunity for blogs to generate huge momentary fame based on controversial content.

What about the cost of supporting UGC?

The cost of supporting UGC should also be recognized. Supporting this content is not free. It takes substantial moderation and infrastructure costs. Richard says that the conversation is going on and if the BBC wants to be part of it they will have to bear the cost.

[tags]Future of Television, user generated content[/tags]

While I agree with virtually everything he says in the post, I find it funny that I never thought of podcasting as an industry. Publishing is an industry of which downloadable media is just one part.

It seems clear to me that podcasting is just one of the many channels that publishers have available for distributing content. And if we view the business as publishing then there is a much bigger pool of advertising money’s available for publishers.

But if we look at the publishing business, the first step is to build scale in audience and in ad sales. Publishers who make good money don’t rely on ad networks to provide their primary advertising revenues. The ad networks provide fill in ads for unsold inventory and the CPM from ad networks a much, much lower than ad inventory sold directly to advertisers. Podcasters who aren’t able to build significant audiences (big and/or valuable) and direct advertising sales will struggle to make much money.

Publishing is a tough business and all you have to do is look at the industry’s supply and demand curves to understand that impression based business models will continue to weaken. Even large scale publishers like Yahoo struggle to sell their inventory and have to resort to ad networks to fill in their unsold inventory. Inventory is expanding at a rapid rate and demand growth is severely restricted. That translates into deflationary pressure on revenue realization across the industry as the number of people dipping into the pie is increasing faster than the growth of advertising.

If you want to build a real publishing business, you better be prepared to go beyond advertising and think about how you build a valuable audience and provide them with lots of ways to pay you money.

[tags]podcasting, publishing, Michael Geoghagen[/tags]

Twitter, self described as a “social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time”, has rapidly become a source of real time juicy material for reporters and bloggers straight from the crowd.

Twitter asks people just one question: What are you doing now? You get to answer with up to 140 characters.

The resulting Tweets can be monitored on a web browser or on your phone. The service has proven remarkable popular and become an interesting, real time new sources for news tips. Two very recent examples have the tech industry twittering away.

I witnessed one of these events on Twitter as it happened. At the SXSW conference, an interview of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg by Sarah Lacy got out of control. The tweets started flying and the press and bloggers piled on here, here, here and a whole bunch more here. The Tweeting just made the event spin way out of control. Here’s Sarah’s response as posted on cNet:

And in an unrelated story, Techcrunch referenced some Tweets to point out a somewhat heated back and forth between the Six Apart and WordPress guys.

Anil Dash, Six Apart’s Chief Evangelist, took aim at WordPress users in a blog post today. Instead of upgrading to the new version of WordPress, he says, consider moving over to their platform.

Now, it’s generally fair game to target your competitors, and Dash’s blog post was so tame that I can’t even find a good quote to pull into this post. But that didn’t stop WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg from going for blood. In a Twitter message, Matt says “six apart is getting desperate, and dirty.” Anil fires back almost immediately with “@photomatt desperation is resorting to name-calling and slander instead of substance — if there’s a factual error, i’m glad to fix it.”

Not only has Twitter become a source for news, it has also become a broadcast channel for people who collect large followings, which results in a strange co-mingling of news with Tweets about everyday activities like “waking up, making coffee”. The phenomenon of Twitter as a source of real time news can only grow as bloggers like Jason Calaconis, CEO of Mahalo, observe the growing importance of Twitter to blog traffic.

While Twitter has some great potential as a source of buzz and news, the real time mob effect is scary. Sarah, of the “train wreck” interview fame, may be getting lots of advice about what she could have done differently, but with Twitter the crowd will be talking about every real time event and it may not be nice.

Anyone doing this kind of interview or a speech better be aware that the crowd is talking, and when disgruntled people realize they are not alone, they tend to speak up like they did at SXSW.

UPDATE: I saw this on Twitter from Tim Bourquin who runs the New Media Expo. It says it all. Anyone running a live event now runs the risk of being Twitterfied :

Click here to follow me on Twitter  at http://twitter.com/alexnesbitt

[tags]Twitter[/tags]