Article on profits in podcasting

[mesoed]

Feedburner posted this article written in InformationWeek (http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=169500140) today. Not too bad.

One interesting note... apparently their quote from Feedburner was that it had more than 15,000 podcast feeds and 450,000 podcast subscribers. Are we really that far? Keep in mind that Feedburner does not list EVERYONE'S feed. Are we half-way to the million listener mark already? It it's true... WOW!

[jeffoest]

I dunno, I suppose it has to do with how many shows the average listener subscribes to.

I found the jump from 150k to 450k since June surprising. Perhaps the influence of iTunes.....

To be honest, I'm always skeptical at podcasting numbers when they are thrown out in the media - i've seen too many instances of blatant lying, exaggerating or misinterpetation - I still see podcasters saying thinigs like "we get x hits per day on our website"! lol So I'll conclude that iTunes has brought more listeners to podcasts and let that be that.

[Craig]

Is that 450K unique subscribers? Or are they just adding up the number of total subscribers to each podcast?

Craig

[mesoed]

Is that 450K unique subscribers? Or are they just adding up the number of total subscribers to each podcast?
It's hard to tell from the article. I would bet it's for total subscriptions to podcasts. For example. I subscribe to podcast A and to Podcast B. Two different subscriptions so I count as 2 in their numbers. Let's say that the average listener subscribes to 8 podcasts. That would equate to around 56,000 unique listeners. Who knows...

[coreytronic]

Well at least 260,000 thousand of those "unique subscribers" must belong to Skepticality.

[comedy4cast]

[quote]Let's say that the average listener subscribes to 8 podcasts.

Boy, I never thought of myself as above average, but my list of subscriptions is around 30! :wink:

[docsnavely]

you must have one long *** commute!

[cdoelle]

I have seen many podcasters quote total number of download interchangeably with subscribers. (ie. your first show has had 10,000 downloads, yoursecond show has been about 9,900 - does that mean you have nearly 20,000 "listeners" - uh, no)

I try to be very clear to differentiate between downloads and subscribers - but do find myself quicker to throw out the downloads number.

I expect that as time goes by - things will become more standardized.

[docsnavely]

if someone has a more standardized way to get an accurate number of subs, please let me know!

[comedy4cast]

if someone has a more standardized way to get an accurate number of subs, please let me know!

I simply try to look at the number of times a new episode is downloaded within the first 48 hours. I figure that most people who are subscribed will download within that timeframe. It's still not scientific, but I think it makes some sense.

And no, Josh, thankfully I don't have a long commute. I listen at work. I try to cycle through all the subscriptions. Oddly enough, I was listening to Josh in Japan yesterday. :)

[docsnavely]

:wink: thanks

[Hittman]

I simply try to look at the number of times a new episode is downloaded within the first 48 hours. I figure that most people who are subscribed will download within that timeframe. It's still not scientific, but I think it makes some sense.

It does. Anything beyond that is likely to be either new subscribers who are trying you out or people grabbing it off your web site. And if the new subscribers stay on they’ll show up in the first 48 hours of your next show.

[Will-Casel]

I simply try to look at the number of times a new episode is downloaded within the first 48 hours. I figure that most people who are subscribed will download within that timeframe. It's still not scientific, but I think it makes some sense.
That makes a whole lotta sense. Good point.

Will

[trueisnotfalse]

I see lots of incorrect numbers out there take it from a Webmaster who knows...

People always confuse hits with page views. Don't make that mistake. Most tracking software counts every successful piece of content as a hit. So if you have one page with 10 pictures on it your software would probably count 11 hits unless you have proper filtering in place. Pages views are the number you want to look at if you want to see what kind of "real" traffic your Web site gets. And, downloads by file type should tell you how many times your shows are downloaded. Unique VS return visitors will also give you an idea if people are coming back to the site over and over again too.

Sorry...Webmaster rant...you may now go about your business.

...Joe

[IMAO-Podcast]

The IMAO Podcast goes by the downloads (1,200-2,000 per week and growing). What others are saying about the weekly comedy podcast from IMAO:

"pretty hilarious"
--Chris McIntyre, Founder of http://www.podcastalley.com

"laugh out loud funny and politically incorrect are words that only begin to describe the IMAO podcast"
--Penguin Radio, Washington DC

"It's greatness. The George W. stuff cracks me up."
--Mark Followill, ESPN radio personality and TV play-by-play announcer for the Dallas Mavericks and the Canadian Football League

"this podcsat sucks and your not funny"
--Comment from an alleged listener

This week's podcast theme is: "The Corrupting Influences"

Check us out every Monday!