I’m overdue in responding to a post I read recently on another podcasting blog. I actually wrote this up, saved it as a draft, and then forgot about it for several days. But here it is now…
Let’s look at a quote from self-anointed Podcast Pedant, Stephen Eley, concerning getting votes at Podcast Alley:
I know I’m a heretic on this issue. I’m fine with that. I’ll keep bitching because the [Podcast Alley] voting system was obsolete, useless, and annoying a year ago, and by this point it’s got all the relevance of an indigenous people dancing and singing around a Coca-Cola bottle praying for cargo.
If this is heresy, then I’ll be burning at the stake with him, too. Podcast Alley is a great community for podcasters. You’re podcast should appear in their directory. I hope you spend some time networking and learning on their forums.
BUT, their voting system and rankings are not the end-all-be-all. Too many podcasters get hung up on the popularity contest. They bank the growth of their audience on landing a top spot on the front page. The same thing goes for obsessing about landing on front page of iTunes’ podcast directory. I share Mr. Eley’s sentiments when he says:
…whatever audience gains your podcast gets from being higher-ranked could surely be dwarfed by spending the same time talking about your podcast in places where people who are interested in your subject matter hang out.
Well-stated. There are so many cost-effective ways to market yourself on and offline that you don’t need to get hung up on getting votes. If you spend your time identifying your market and getting your message in front of them, you will build an audience of loyal listeners.
Keep this in mind as well. You can only ask your listeners to do one thing in the course of an episode. If I’m going to ask listeners to take action on my behalf, I would much rather have them blog about me on their site (increasing inbound links to my podcast). The effects will last a lot longer than a flash-in-the-pan appearance on the Podcast Alley Top 50.
One of the reasons I wrote my new podcast promotion book was to show podcasters other ways to market themselves without having to chase the elusive top 50. Don’t get caught up in pursuing “top 50″ bragging rights at the cost of the quality of your content or to the neglect of other easier and equally effective marketing strategies.
Thu, May 18, 2006
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