A little while ago another newspaper group filed for bankruptcy. Freedom Communications, which runs the Orange County Register and a collection of 100 more newspapers across the country, joined Tribune Co. (operators of the other big local paper – The LA Times) and 4 other newspapers in bankruptcy court.

The problem is declining advertising revenue. The auto industry, one of the biggest buyers of newspaper ads, is in the tank. Craigslist et al have devastated the classified monopolies that provided huge profit margins for newspapers in days gone by.

This trend is not restricted to newspapers. TV is seeing the problem as well. According to Jack Myers, an industry consultant:

“2010 advertising spending is heading toward record-setting declines of 13% to 15% in 2009, according to the new Jack Myers Media Business Report forecast due to be released to subscribers September 14.”

And the trend is not just an offline phenomenon, online the price advertisers are willing to pay for impressions is dropping as well. Consider the following from the media focused MultiTasker

Cost-per-thousand ad impressions for online publishers are generally off about 20%, according to several people on both the buying and selling side, and sell-through rates are dropping. And where publishers used to unload 60% of their inventory, some are now able to sell only 30%.

What we are seeing is the law of supply and demand at work. The amount of available advertising space is growing fast and much faster than the demand. When supply goes up faster than demand that means prices will drop. And prices for impressions are dropping fast.

That means that anyone who tries to make a living by selling advertising impressions is going to feel the hurt. Offline, online – it doesn’t matter. Impression based advertising prices will continue to drop fast for just about everyone.

There will be exceptions. Big events will command good prices for impressions and may even do better. There is only one Super Bowl, one Academy Awards, etc. These will be situations where what is being bought is actually getting scarcer. Huge audiences all gather in one place at one time. This is what big TV shows used to be able to do. Now, that is the exception, and therefore will will likely see impression pricing rise for this shrinking segment.

Some will also point to Google as an exception. But in fact Google doesn’t make its money by selling advertising impressions, they make their money from people who pay them for potential leads (people who click on the ads). For the most part, you don’t pay for impressions on Google, you pay for clicks. In fact, Google won’t even let you get huge amounts of impressions without your ad being highly relevant to topic. Just do a search on any celebrity and for the most part you won’t see any ads, with the exception of Bing ads (Microsoft must has given Google a lot of money to promote Bing.) No, Google’s revenues are not driven by the economics of impressions, their revenues are driven by the economics of lead generation.

It is time for every media company to figure out life beyond impression based advertising. If you think you are going to make your living by selling advertising impressions, stop and think of something else.

I believe we are seeing the collapse of an media era driven by the economics of impressions and the emergence of an era that will be based on the economics of community.

Media is a beautiful social object. We love to watch, listen, talk about it, play with it. Media has the power to draw us together, and that can be used to create community.

We can and should recast the discussion from economics of impressions to the economics of communities. And what are the economics of communities? They are micro-economies where trade, commerce and personal interaction are all intermingled with each other.

I’m not talking about clicking on someone’s purse in a web show so you can buy it (although that might work), I’m talking about create real economies where consumers can trade with other consumers and trade with the media creators. Who knows what the audience will buy or sell. We won’t know until we see it. Our job is to find ways to enable it.

Here are 7 steps I think every publisher should be taking.

1. Cherish your audience – Your audience is your most precious asset. It should be cherished as such. Without your audience you are just a tree that falls in the woods with no one to hear it. Your audience is what makes what you do possible.
2. Engage your audience with you and each other – Don’t just talk to your audience, listen, listen and listen some more. Find out what they enjoy. Find out what their problems are. Make it easy for them to talk to each other and listen in on what they have to say. A good engaged audience will give you enormous number of clues as to how you can serve them better.
3. Serve your audience – It is through the gift of service that we show each other how much we care. If you serve effectively, the audience will respond. Some will seek more and more from you which will provide the opportunity to provide them with premium services and products.
4. Think like a marketer – It’s time to realize that marketing and publishing are merging. Brands now publish, publishers now market. Marketing may be new skill for publishers, but it will a major element in there survival. There are lots of ways to make money from publishing that have nothing to do with selling impression based ads. I mapped out ten ideas here that any publisher can pursue. Fundamentally, it’s about taking charge of your own destiny.
5. De-average your pricing – It’s time to stop selling every album at $13.99. Some will pay nothing, some will pay vastly more. Segment your offerings into free samples, low cost bite size morsels and really premium products (eg, personalized, autographed posters included, limited editions etc). Check out what Nine Inch Nails have done to see the power of de-averaging.
6. Give them games – Great games are addictive and bring your audience back even when you have nothing new in the way of content. It also gives you the opportunity to introduce virtual currencies and sell virtual goods, a massive untapped revenue opportunity.
7. Invest in a trading platform – There is a great deal of money to be made enabling trade amongst your audience. Just look at eBay – it’s a huge community that is monetized through a trading platform. I’m sure some members of your audience have things to trade and if you can take a small commission on the trade, or use your virtual currency the cash can add up.

These are my thoughts, what about yours? Is the future hopeless for media? Do you think media companies can make money in the future? What other steps should publishers be taking.

 

 7 Steps for Surviving the Banruptcy of the Impression Economy [10:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz’s JK Wedding Entrance Dance video on Youtube has met with extraordinary viral success. As I write this, the video has been viewed 17.3 million times. It is a joy to watch and I’m sure it was a joyous day as well. Jill and Kevin have added links to the video and to the video download page to support the Sheila Wellstone Institute, which is dedicated to ensuring that ending violence against women and children is a national priority.

I hope the 17+ million viewers have been able to make a serious donation to the institute.

On the commercial side of things the video is set to R&B star Chris Brown’s hypnotic dance jam “Forever.” And that’s been a real business bonanza for the rights holders as reported by Youtube.

As a result, the rights holders were able to capitalize on the
massive wave of popularity generated by “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” —
in the last week, searches for “Chris Brown Forever” on YouTube have
skyrocketed, making it one of the most popular queries on the site:

This traffic is also very engaged — the click-through rate (CTR) on
the “JK Wedding Entrance” video is 2x the average of other
Click-to-Buy overlays on the site. And this new found interest in
downloading “Forever” goes beyond the viral video itself: “JK Wedding
Entrance” also appears to have influenced the official “Forever” music
video, which saw its Click-to-Buy CTR increase by 2.5x in the last
week.

So, what does all of this mean? Despite compelling data and studies
around consumer purchasing habits, many still question the promotional
and bottom-line business value sites like YouTube provide artists. But
in the last week, over a year after its release, Chris Brown’s
“Forever” has again rocketed up the charts, reaching as high as #4 on
the iTunes singles chart and #3 on Amazon’s best selling MP3 list.

Quite a story. As my Aussie friends would say Good on Ya Jill and Kevin! I hope you have a joyous and marvelous life together.

Podcasting has been around for just over four years now and people are still struggling to make money podcasting.  What’s the problem?  Maybe we just haven’t discovered the business model(s) that work.  There are lots of ideas out there and I thought it would be a good idea to make a list ( and make some money doing it – Note: If you click on links on this post and try the services, it will make me money.  Many of the links use affliate program links to illustrate one of these business models.  I use all of these programs and refer you to only the ones that seem good.  Hope you don’t mind me making some money from writing about ways you can make money:)

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

TubeMogul, a interesting company that helps you distribute videos around the web, recently asked that question to 11,919 video producers and 1,119 responded. 51% of those said yes they are making money with Internet video earning on average $12.39 per 1,000 views.

This money making group splits into 3 groups. Group one (47.4% of the money makers) relies entirely on third parties like YouTube to monetize their content. At the other extreme, group two (23.4% of the money makers) rely on their own exclusive direct sales. The rest use a blended approach. I asked TubeMogul if they could determine CPM by group, but have not yet heard back from them.

These money makers seem to use everything they can to make money. Here’s the breakdown by ad format:

So for those of you making videos online, what works best for you?

As part of our ongoing quest to examine the intersection of media and monetization, I met with Trey Shelton, Founder and CEO of Music Interactive, to discuss the company’s new service that allows viewers/listeners to trade their time and attention for free content.

 

 Digital Podcast 30 [19:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Trey founded Music Interactive in 2005 with the express purpose of creating new opportunities to bring together the advertising and music worlds and I think he’s found a nice way to mix the revenue opportunity of advertising with the rich media of music.

The service works like this. A major site, like MySpace, and a major advertiser, like Microsoft, want to run a promotion involving music. They line up an artist who also wants a lot of promotion and Music Interactive to provide the infrastructure for offering fans a free download in exchange for their watching a short video about the Zune.

Now we have a five way win. The consumer gets free music, MySpace gets some advertising money, Microsoft gets lots of attention, the artist gets huge promotion and Music Interactive gets a share of the ad spend.

Here are some screen shots of the service in action. In the first, I’ve added a big red arrow pointing at the ad for a free Jon Forman mp3 in exchange for “checking out the Zune”. The next two shots show the pop-up that plays the video and the download of the mp3.

It’s great to see this kind of innovation that creates win-win solutions for everyone involved.

In addition to MySpace, Music Interactive is working with Dodge, Hyundai and Ray-Ban on interactive music promotions.

[tags]Music Interactive, Trey Shelton, monetization, music[/tags]