Commercialization of podcasts

[diggal]

Thought I get an opinion from you guys on this.

Podcasts are slowing moving towards the commercial route, basically charging subscribers and advertising. What do you think about these?

What kind of advertising is ideal for a podcast? I know some shows already have companies sponsoring their and they do it in various ways.

1)Mention of the company during the podcast, with special URLs/offer code. Example Go Daddy

2)Short promo of company before/after the actual podcast. This is like a promo that podcasters will do before other shows.

Charging Subscribers
3) Charging per show
4) Charging monthly subscribers for a certain number of downloads.

What do you think of these? Are there any other ways to attract revenue without losing listeners/subscribers?

[jholm]

Thought I get an opinion from you guys on this.

Podcasts are slowing moving towards the commercial route, basically charging subscribers and advertising. What do you think about these?

What kind of advertising is ideal for a podcast? I know some shows already have companies sponsoring their and they do it in various ways.

1)Mention of the company during the podcast, with special URLs/offer code. Example Go Daddy

2)Short promo of company before/after the actual podcast. This is like a promo that podcasters will do before other shows.

Charging Subscribers
3) Charging per show
4) Charging monthly subscribers for a certain number of downloads.

What do you think of these? Are there any other ways to attract revenue without losing listeners/subscribers?

You forgot good old normal banner ads on the web page. If you have a web page people will go to (for example we post pictures every week) you can include a banner ad.

Julie

[J_Crichton]

It seems that everything that was free of ads. Now there are ads everywhere and in some cases product placement will just add to that. The idea of putting more ads in videogames, even making things like Xbox live free if you take the ad version. If you talk to my friend Dave the idea of product placement in comic books can be ok, if its done right. As long as its not Spiderman wearing a Pepsi logo on his costume or having his rescues sponsered by Gator Aid.
The ads in podcasts can go two different ways. One of my favorite podcasts is Diggnation. They have sponsers that they read off at the beginning of their show, they make a joke of it each show and have a made up sponsor at the end. Most small shows like ours (That's Good to Know) and other small regualar people shows will stay away from become 90% ads and 10% content.

As long as shows don't become ads, having commercials or promo spots will not be that bad. There are shows out there that are just giant commercials and if people keep listening to them they will keep making them that way.