Podcasting Dentists

I just went to the dentist. No surprises, just a cleaning and checkup. Same conversation as always: "So, you're a coffee drinker. How about red wine?"

No reason for my dentist to podcast. He has more biz than a 70+ year old man can handle and everything is routine.

Now if I needed a dentist for something NOT routine, like some sort of cosmetic work, perhaps having my teeth capped or moved around because I thought I had ugly teeth, or some serious dental stuff to save my horribly diseased teeth, I'd need to do some research.

Maybe if my teeth were green and I'd never been to a dentist since 2nd grade and I was terrified of them for example, I'd need more than just research -- I'd need to find a dentist that scared me less!

Helaine Smith is a podcasting dentist. She just started recently podcasting with help from Dianna Huff. If I was scared of dentists, I'd much rather goto one I know! Listening to someone's voice helps in this regard bigtime!

Now I have wonderful healthy pearly whites (OK, healthy but not so white -- remember the coffee and red wine?). But if I had teeth like Austin Powers, and was self conscious like he is, I would tend to chose a dentist who educated me on my options. If they podcasted on techniques to improve my teeth and smile, I'd love that because I love audio -- it's a great format I can listen to in the car or while at the gym or even while brushing and flossing.

Helaine is the first Podcasting Dentist I know of -- but I'm sure more will follow, just like many lawyers and Realtors are blogging and podcasting.

Oh yeah, Helaine's got a great smile too -- go figure :)

Blogging for Business at Internet Retailer 07, Dull Packing Tape and Hammocks

Dave Olsen and I have a great conversation at the teardown of the Internet Retailer 2007 tradeshow. You can even hear packing tape in action in the background as Dave interviews me for the Get Elastic podcast.

We talk about all sorts of Web 2.0 things, such as buying a hammock online, the importance of being Earnest dull, how social media shortens sales cycles, the importance of comments and more.

Now if we had recorded our conversation the previous night at the Martini and Chocolate Fountain party after hours at the San Jose Museum of Technology it might have been even more interesting, but slightly less on topic. For the record, I abstained from the chocolate other than a token taste, but not the martinis (and also for the record, I drink real Martinis, and that means gin, straight up, scorching dry, with extra olives and two cocktail napkins please, but I don't drink them very often)

Podcasting and other new media metrics

Metrics are a craze with many people: how many subscribers does a podcast or blog have? how many downloads? how many unique visitors a week? etc.

Traditional media types in particular insist on measuring success in new media the same way they measure it with old media: TV, newspapers, radio, etc. However, the needs of broadcasting to a "broad" audience like traditional media does (due to economies of scale or lack of them), is very different than blogs and podcasts which have low fixed costs and can "narrowcast" to smaller audiences effectively?

What's better, a big audience or a small audience? Wrong question really.

Do you want 10,000 "marginal interested at best" people to 1000 very interested and passionate people who are easily moved to action, whatever that action may be? The answer better be obvious and your metrics better back it up.

Christopher Penn states convincingly:

Action is all that matters.

Forget audience size. Forget CPM, PPC, Adsense, and all of the monetization strategies that are being bantered around, because unless you’re already a highly successful web entrepreneur with a large web-based audience, these strategies will largely waste your time.

So what do you what your audience to do? Buy your book? Consolidate student loans with your company? Enrich your life through interaction? Be amused by your pictures of cats? Click on your AdSense ads?

Now you may think this is obvious, but be assured that it is not to most people, certainly not mainstream media types who want to apply old models to new media.

So what do I want you to do? Buy my books and services, but more importantly keep coming back and hopefully interacting eventually, whether by leaving comments, linking, or buying stuff.

 

So you want to be a podcast consultant?

Confessions of a Podcast consultant

John Havens is a successful podcast consultant and the podcast guy at About.com. We were both on a panel on podcast consulting at the 1st podcamp.

Very interesting how he markets his services, especially his persistent cold-calling/cold-emailing!  I don't do either, but then again, John probably does more podcast consulting than I do.

I asked John the following questions on his podcast consulting business. Answers below:
1) So, you're a podcast consultant. What specific services do you provide?
2) What is your typical client like, or is there a typical client?
3) Why did you become a podcast consultant?
4) How do you market your services?
5) Anything else you'd like to add?

Ted on KSCO online now as podcast

Last weeks hour long chat with Dave Alan on KSCO is available as a podcast now both here and here:

Feedback always welcome!

Episode notes:

Ted Demopoulos reveals the "hidden" world of bloggers and what's behind the amazing technological revolution that's changing American culture right before our eyes!
In this podcast episode Ted  Demopoulos who is an author and speaker, talks about some of his personal stories. Ted's valuable book is called What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting and his web site is www.demop.com.

On KSCO AM and streaming online at 4PM Pacific today

I'll be on Dave Alan's Show, a truly interesting and smart guy, at 7PM Eastern/4PM Pacific today (Sunday) for an hour. We'll talk about (of course) blogging, podcasting, and whatever else comes to mind.

Streaming online or AM 1080 in Central California.
Also available in podcast format later -- I'll post podcast info later when available.

Some info on Dave's show:

An array of eclectic and esoteric conversation! Way back in the 20th Century (12-14 years ago) Dave, with his usual Massive wisdom, and insight realized that politically polarized-junk yard dog talk radio format was BORING, and predictable. Dave decided to utilize the huge "waste" of freedom -of- speech- resource to become an original in the broadcast profession as far as the "strange", "unusual", and "forbiden" is concerned! Dave has always been interested and "drawn" to subjects relating to what he believes "has been kept secret and hidden" from the Human Race...things that Dave has always pondered, and realized most others have also...it is a gap, a void which must be addressed and fulfilled.

WNOETYA review and is Lee Hopkins professional?

The always interesting Comms Cafe podcast with Lee Hopkins and Allan Jenkins has a wonderful review of What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting - wonderful because they like it a lot, using the word "fabulous," although they have some reservations.

Allan would like to be in the 2nd edition - sorry Allan, you deserve to be in it and certainly have plenty of value to add. Lee is happy to be in it, although I wish he had a larger role, as in his own chapter.

Allan also isn't crazy about the name, although he understands that authors have little to no control of the packaging of their books, including the title and cover.

Their review is at the beginning of the podcast, so check it out and let me know what you think.

Lee and Allan also wonder if they, or at least Lee, is professional. Perhaps you can vote yeah or nay after listening

What kind of companies podcast?

Podcasts can be used effectively by companies of all kinds.

Certainly high tech companies and smaller companies podcast more often, but traditional old line companies like Whirlpool and even the Pentagon are podcasting (yes, THAT Pentagon).

An analogy with Web Sites is useful:

Originally high tech and companies that considered themselves 'cutting edge' had Web site. Now it's a given that most companies, even the corner gas station, has a Web site.

Now I'm not suggesting that every company with a Web site will start podcasting, but most companies will have some audio presence on the Internet before long and much of that will be podcasts.

5 Unconventional Podcast Tips

Sponsor a podcast whose audience fits your target demographic (e.g. Dixie sponsoring Mommycast.com).

Podcast on an unrelated topic to your business, but which has enormous appeal to your audience (e.g. Whirlpool podcasting on family issues - hey, wouldn't a podcast on dishwashers be boring?)

Forget about the size of your listening audience! This isn't radio. A small number of very passionate listeners are much more important than a large number of somewhat interested listeners. Since podcasting can target niche audiences (since it's inexpensive unlike radio or TV), podcast audiences tend to be passionate about a podcast's topic.

Take your podcast to your audience! Don't expect your target audience to magically find your podcast. For example the Financial Aid Podcast heavily promotes via MySpace, as the demographics of both are extremely similar, and the RightLookRadio podcast advertises in industry publications.

Don't call your podcast a podcast -- the name confuses and/or scares many people. You could call it radio -- people understand and are comfortable with radio. For example GrapeRadio.com and RightLookRadio.com are quite popular, and many of their fans neither know nor care that they are listening to podcasts.

Why Should Companies Podcast?

An analogy with Web sites is useful:

Most companies, even the corner gas station, has a Web site today. Originally only high tech companies and those that considered themselves 'cutting edge' had Web sites. 

Now I'm not suggesting that every company will start podcasting, but most companies will have some audio presence on the Internet soon and much of that audio presence will be in the form of podcasts.

An audio presence on the Web is valuable for several reasons, including that some people simply prefer listening (audio) to watching (video) or reading (magazines/websites/blogs/etc.), podcasts are considered "cool" and cutting edge, and podcasts can be downloaded and consumed at the listener's convenience, for example while commuting or exercising.

Podcasts can be used effectively by companies of all kinds. Certainly high tech companies and smaller companies podcast more often today, but traditional old line companies like Whirlpool (American Family Podcast) and Dixie (as a sponsor of Mommycast.com) are effectively using podcasts in their branding as well. How about an Auto Reconditioning equipment company effectively using podcasts? Checkout RightLookRadio. Even the Pentagon is podcasting!