thefly
Apr 28th, 2006, 05:59 AM
I haven't been actively pursuing sponsorships or "pimping" my podcast that much. I don't want to make money on my podcast. I just want it to pay for itself.
A few months ago, I signed up for Fruitcast. For those who don't know, it's a sort of intermediate service where you post your feed to an unpublished location, point them at it. They then download your audio and insert short ads at the begining and ending and publish an altered feed. I have http://thinkinganddriving.com/podcast.xml redirected to that feed. They only insert ads in some of your shows, maybe half of them. I get two cents per ad run. It's not too bad. I get about a dollar per show I post.
I need to get more regular with my shows and aldo promote it a little more, I think.
My question is this. I'm using PodPress to post my stuff. It's a wordpress plugin that seems to be working great. One of the options is to include a direct download link or a flash player in the post. My concern is that people listening to the show get them directly off my server without having gone through Fruitcast's service.
So that's some opportunity lost. Maybe half of my downloads come directly from my page and I miss out on the 50% chance of making two cents from them. It's not a big deal. But as my numbers go up, I'm worried about that lost opportunity to have the podcast pay for itself. That, and the bandwidth.
How many of you use these kinds of third-party ad services and also offer direct downloads? Do you find that you're contemplating taking direct downloads off your site and funneling all of your listeners to the ad service?
Am I being shallow?
I hope to be able to get some of my own sponsors so I can drop these kinds of services. I'd much rather be the one to say, "Here's a company that I really like and let me tell you about them." than have some company putting blinds ads in my show.
Any other recommendations?
A few months ago, I signed up for Fruitcast. For those who don't know, it's a sort of intermediate service where you post your feed to an unpublished location, point them at it. They then download your audio and insert short ads at the begining and ending and publish an altered feed. I have http://thinkinganddriving.com/podcast.xml redirected to that feed. They only insert ads in some of your shows, maybe half of them. I get two cents per ad run. It's not too bad. I get about a dollar per show I post.
I need to get more regular with my shows and aldo promote it a little more, I think.
My question is this. I'm using PodPress to post my stuff. It's a wordpress plugin that seems to be working great. One of the options is to include a direct download link or a flash player in the post. My concern is that people listening to the show get them directly off my server without having gone through Fruitcast's service.
So that's some opportunity lost. Maybe half of my downloads come directly from my page and I miss out on the 50% chance of making two cents from them. It's not a big deal. But as my numbers go up, I'm worried about that lost opportunity to have the podcast pay for itself. That, and the bandwidth.
How many of you use these kinds of third-party ad services and also offer direct downloads? Do you find that you're contemplating taking direct downloads off your site and funneling all of your listeners to the ad service?
Am I being shallow?
I hope to be able to get some of my own sponsors so I can drop these kinds of services. I'd much rather be the one to say, "Here's a company that I really like and let me tell you about them." than have some company putting blinds ads in my show.
Any other recommendations?