By Doug Smith – Podango President
Â

Unlike most podcast networks, Podango stations target specific audiences with multiple podcasts to make advertising dollars perform better, so advertisers and sponsors spend more with Podango.

Podango Stations are popping up in all types of niche markets including snow skiing, family matters, event planning, automotive tools, mountain biking, business leadership and more.  The profile of Podango Stations will clearly follow the “long tailâ€� distribution curve.  Stations will focus on highly targeted niches where niche savvy Station Directors will coordinate the “conversationâ€� with likeminded listeners. We are beginning to talk more about the “conversationâ€� that will evolve as selected podcasts are delivered to these niches with simple mechanisms allowing the listener to join in and provide their own insights, questions, and answers. Each episode becomes the catalyst for a deeper conversation. Â

By subscribing to the Station, the listeners self-select themselves for these conversations. What a perfect target for relevant advertising and sponsorships.  As Dixie has become the perfect sponsor for the MommyCast show, we will see the likes of Shimano, Sram or Trek for the Mountain Biking Station, or Marriott for the Event Planning Station, or Salamon, Atomic, Fischer or K2 for PodSki Station and FranklinCovey for Business Leadership Station.  Sponsors are loving the results, but it is yet very early. Major ad buyers are moving to take advantage of the targeting opportunities of this “new mediaâ€�. Greg Stuart, CEO, IAB recently said: “The steady growth of online advertising is a clear indication that marketers continue to believe in the opportunities and effectiveness that this medium delivers in reaching and engaging their consumers,” He also reported that: “Online spending for advertising is on a pace to reach $15 billion in revenue for all of 2006.â€� Take a look at the graph.

Â

The attractive relevance of these niche-oriented stations is only part of the appeal to sponsors. The mix of advertising elements is also appealing. These elements include sponsor impressions (audio, video , text and image), product mentions and discussions, spot ads before or after podcasts, banner ads, infomercial podcasts, video ads, surveys, polls and more. Also the consolidation of multiple high quality podcasts into a single station will bring larger audiences and this focused variety (strange combination of words) will hold the attention of the audience.  To top it off the community features will bring the audience into the conversations about the products and services of the sponsors yielding great feedback and great testimonials.

I listened to a Mommycast episode (#105) this week, (I am a Dad however) to see how they support their sponsors. They took their children the new Atlanta Aquarium, an affiliate of Georgia Pacific, the parent of Dixie, Mommycast primary sponsor. Their description of the experience and awesome nature of the exhibits had me wanting to jump a plane for a visit. My next trip to Atlanta will include a visit to this new site. What a great way to advertise.

Podango go!Stations will become wonderful revenue opportunities for Station Directors and Podcasters. As Directors add more podcasts to the station, there will be incremental ad spots. And Podcaster will love to join a station with an existing and growing audience getting instance exposure.  Podango is about teamwork, strength in numbers, relevance in advertising and creating deep conversations about product, services and especially about life. Come and join us, the train is leaving the station.

Â

by Lee Gibbons, Podango CEO

One of the core notions Podango is being built around is that of enabling a richer conversation between podcastsers and the communities served by their podcasts. Secondly, Podango is working hard to make the Podcast Station model appealing to those who already have large audiences, whether they be bloggers, newsletter publishers, corporate podcasters, etc., allowing them to better serve their communities through the richness of Podango’s Podcast Station infrastructure. Rather than one, single podcastser, Podango’s stations will bring together multiple podcasters who have topically-related podcasts. Together they will provide stronger content offerings, superior community interaction, and more indepth conversations within the community they serve.

Today, I came across a TechCrunch post that spotlights a company with a product solution very different from Podango’s, but which helps me make an important point. Here is an excerpt:

[Begin Excerpt from TechCrunch]

BlogTalkRadio to turn bloggers into talk radio hosts

Podcasts are fun to listen to, but they’d be even cooler if you could listen live and IM your feedback to the host in real time. The soon to launch service BlogTalkRadio will make that possible.

BlogTalkRadio is targeting bloggers who want to hold a live telephone conversation with up to 3 guests at once. Anyone can listen live to the call on the phone or through Windows Media Player, like a live web radio show. Listeners can also download an archived copy of the conversation later. Revenue from contextual advertising is split 50/50 with show hosts.

[End of Excerpt]

Podango doesn’t enjoy a partnership relationship with BlogTalkRadio or anything like that, but we believe furvently that leaders and key contributors of various communities will feel the need to expand their reach and enrich their relationships with their communities of interest. Podango will provide them with such a model and infrastructure. I have highlighted BlogTalkRadio because they ave an illustration of another company that is working toward a similar means. They get that the conversation is what matters, and that it takes multiple means of enabling that conversation for it so adequately serve the community.

We are looking forward to launching our beta of Podango soon, and showing off our variation on this important theme!

  Â

technorati tags:TechCrunch, BlogTalkRadio, Podango, Podcast+Stations

Blogged with Flock

by Doug Smith - Podango President Â

It is easy to get noticed in an empty football station.  But when it is full, getting noticed requires a lot of obnoxious behavior or an inside relationship with the PA announcer. Like with blogs, where there are the “haves� and the “have nots. “ There are those podcaster in the top 50 or fat end of the tail and those in the narrow part of the long tail. A great article in the February 20^th issue of the New Yorker Magazine, Blogs to Riches by Clive Thompson does a great job of explaining the intricacies of “linkology� and getting noticed in the “blogosphere�.  Some of the same rules apply with podcasts, but the fundamental mechanism of a podcast to podcast link is not available. Podango’s “every podcast gets a transcript� will help with links going in and out of the podcast text pages. But that will only be one approach to Podango helping podcasters get noticed in a growing sea of content providers. There are not nearly as many podcasters (upwards of 60,000) as there are bloggers (23 million blogs), but it is still difficult to get noticed.

Have you ever been to a football game where the audience uses cards to spell out words or create symbols to be seen by the other half of the stadium? They are hard to miss. That is achieved through teamwork. Many people combine efforts to get noticed as a group, directed by a coordinator, for the benefit of the whole. Well, that is the general philosophy of Podango Stations, team together to be seen and noticed. Be big, influential and “remarkable�. As a Station Director recruits multiple podcasters into a station, each bringing a unique audience, they all get exposure to each other’s audiences. And the combined audience gets introduced to additional great content that is “sifted, sorted and prioritized� by the Station Director. There is strength in numbers and volume normally wins.

So, if you are a start-up podcaster with no audience, but great content, or an experience podcaster with a big audience, seek out a Podango Station owner in your niche market and audition to be included on their station, so you can get immediate exposure to their additional 10,000 to 300,000 listener.

Remember Rule #5: Get Noticed! And help others get noticed. Podango stations sign “anchor podcasts� and routinely spotlight rising star podcasts!
Â

by Doug Smith - Podango President

Rule #3 builds on Rule #1: Put the Listener First and Rule #2: Don’t Be Evil by enabling “Service to the Community� or “Engagement with the Community�. Online social networks are springing up everywhere and they are working because of the involvement of the users with user contributed  comments, content, opinions, tagging, etc. all which adds value to the community in a sense of service. I love the book “Love is the Killer App� by Tim Sanders. “The books premise is that you will find your success in business through helping others grow by sharing your intangibles—your knowledge, network and compassion.� Learn, grow, and share are the keys to this type of service. The benefits to this “giving attitude� are generally not measurable, but they are real. The appropriate approach in this service is one where the giving has “no strings� attached. Well, at least not too many strings. And those that are attached should generally be WIN/WIN where our contribution to the community improves the community for all, including ourselves.  A recent article on Skype’s “Word of Mouth� success claimed that “friends who persistently insist that their friends do something not only do so for their own self-benefit, but also benefit all members of the social network because expansion makes it stronger.�
Podango Stations will work if the community of listeners becomes involved in sharing their desires, thoughts, comments, tags and ratings. We encourage the Station Directors to engage their community and the community members to engage each other. To enable this approach to sharing Podango will provide Web 2.0 community features like “CastBacks� (audio feedback), blogs, full transcripts of podcasts, polls, forums and other tools. We also encourage engaging the larger community outside of a Podango Station which includes station to station engagement and cross-Web engagement. It is all about conversations, relationships of trust, service to each other. The role of the Station Director is to serve their audience by contributing the time to sift, sort and prioritize the best podcasts for specific niches. The audience assists by confirming and assisting in the sifting, sorting and prioritizing through feedback, suggestions, ratings and “word of mouth� audience building, so more can share and be engaged.

by Lee Gibbons, Podango CEO
What does the “Pod” in Podango stand for? Here is my quick list:

• The same Pod as in Podcasting
  
• Podcasts On a Dedicated subject
  
• Publishing On Demand
  
• People: Open. Dedicated.
  
• People On Demand
  
• Personal, Open, Different
  
• Podcasting Over Disparate devices
  
• Podcasting Over a Decentralized networks
  
• Podcasting On the way to Dinero
  
• Planning on Dancing?
  

Does that help? For those thinking I have lost it (or never had it…), here are brief explantions of each bullet:

The same Pod as in Podcasting
Podango is all about Podcasting (Yes that means video, too.)

Podcasts On a Dedicated subjects
Podango is organized into specialized go!Stations, owned and directed by passionate Station Directors, who enable communities of interest with Podcasts, Blogs, Social Tagging, etc.

Publishing On Demand
For so long, Publishing on Demand has been a pipedream, not practical for most users, not available broadly if at all. Podango stations, like all podcast delivery networks, provide users what they want when they want it. (We just do it a little—or a lot—differently!)

People: Open. Dedicated.
As you get to know the Podango team and the Station Owners we give go!Stations to, you will find yourself stunned at how open and dedicated we are (or always intend to be). Open to new ideas, open to all good things, open to learning and growing. Dedicated to our passions, to our convictions, to our causes, to the service of our communities of interest.

People On Demand
I covered publishing on demand first so that you would get the hang of this a bit. Let me contrast the two: Publishing on Demand means you get what you want when you want it. People on Demand means you can join fabulous communities of instant friends with common interests, goals, passions, and now tools for communicating. You will get a kick out of meeting so many people who share your interests. The published content (Podcasts, Vidcasts, Castbacks, Blog Posts, Social Tags, etc.) is only the currency of the community, and it is THE ONLY currency of the community, since Podango makes all of this free for the price of listening to highly relevant ads.(Whoa! That was a long description—Sorry!) Â

Personal, Open, Different
Podango is very personal. You can have it your way. Our model for providing personalized RSS feeds lets you have your set of go!Stations delivering your content your way. More on this later…

Podcasting Over Disparate devices
Podango is not just about iPods. It is about a great “lean forward� or at-your-machine experience as well. And we are fully committed to support all forms of portable devices over time.

Podcasting Over a Decentralized networks
Podango is not ready to share too much about this, but to be effective and efficient in enabling communities of the size and number we are supporting, things have to work in a decentralized way. More later…

Podcasting On the way to Dinero
Podango is also about creating a free market economy enhancing participation model where people serve each other out of passion and do so with excellence. In order to spend sufficient time at this, Station Directors and Podcasters need to be compensated. We make that happen as soon as possible and with greater leverage than any other podcast delivery network (if you doubt me on this, keep watching us).

Planning on Dancing? Â
Lastly, and absolutely not “leastly�… Podango is all about learning. Our intention is to provide community features and custom RSS capabilities that make Podango communities among the most able to teach and learn from each other. Dancing, singing, golf, pottery, search engine optimization, homeopathic medicine, genealogy… name a passion! Join a Podango go!Station.

Now. Does THAT help? Leave a comment to extend the conversation, or to extend the definition of this TLA (three letter accronym). Thanks for your attention!   Â