42point1

come together: how to earn instant karma and communitize your podcast

I've been thinking a lot about community lately, and what it means -- I move in two pretty active communities:  knitting and podcasting.  And I think there are parallels in both of them, often eerily so.

The on-line knitting community started as a kind of grass-roots, share the information, drag a dying craft up by its bootstraps kind of movement (okay, I'm over-simplifying here, but that's the gist).

The podcasting movement started as a kind of grass-roots, share the know-how, allow independent creators of media a chance to share what they do (also kind of over-simplified, but close enough for horse-shoes).

In both cases, once the popularity of the activity was realized, then the monetizers moved in. 

Don't get me wrong -- I don't think making money at either of these things is wrong or evil.  And there are some very talented people out there sharing what they know, creating great stuff, and earning some kind of living from it (or at least earning some extra pin-money, never something to sniff at).

What I object to are the folks who are like those characters in animated cartoons, their eyes all bugged out with dollar signs and the ka-ching of an olde-tyme cash register sounding in the background.

So invariably, my reaction to the question, "How do I monetize my podcast?" has been, "Why don't you think first about how to communitize your podcast?"

Yes, the dreaded "C" word.  I'm working on getting rid of it, but since I started floating some of these ideas the last few months with an eye to either submitting a presentation or a Jolt to Podcasters Across Borders, it's a word I've used (not unvented, I won't say that) in a tongue-in-cheek, slightly ironic way to counter the thunk of "monetizing" that I was starting to hear everywhere.

Because here's the thing -- I think you can build community without ever having a thought about money, and while I think you can make money without thinking about community, I don't think you can do it sustainably, over time.  I don't think you can do it if the first thing you think after, "Okay, I've learned how to use the tools, I've put up the first episode, " is "so now, how to I make money from this?"

So here are a few things -- (I've got more written down somewhere, but these are the top three I can come up with off the top of my head, and I think they're a good place to start) --   I think you can do to communitize your podcast, and build the kinds of relationships with people that can lead to some pretty interesting things.  Including money.*

1.  Forget about the numbers.

I know, I know -- numbers are something you can measure, it's almost scientific, right?  So if you see big numbers, that means you're doing something right? Right?

Not necessarily.  The first problem is that old conundrum of lies, damned lies, and statistics.  There isn't a tool out there that can measure your numbers properly, or in a way that is consistent.  Okay, you can get some vague ideas, and I'm not saying that stats aren't important.

But I don't think they should be the first thing you look at in order to measure success.

Instead, I think that you should be looking at quality instead of quantity.  Okay, you've got lots of downloads, but is anyone writing to you?  Is anyone giving you feedback?  Is anyone contributing to your podcast?

Even a handful of thoughtful comments is worth more than bunch of amorphous stats in FeedBurner, and are a better indicator that you're building community.  And never forget that good relationships take time and nurturing to flourish.

2.  Be a podcast listener first.

I can't emphasize this enough -- if you want to be a part of a community, you've got to give something back to the community.  Don't send in comments just to give yourself a plug -- in fact, don't even plug yourself when you do.  Send in the comment because you love the podcast, send in something that adds to the conversation, send in feedback, ideas, without thinking of getting something in return.

The interesting thing?  Others will mention what you do once they get to know you -- other people will recommend you, once they respect you, and they're going to respect you when you act in a way that commands respect.

Be a fan, first and foremost. 

3.  Go out to meet-ups.

This is a hard one for me, because I often say I'm better on the internet where I have time to think about what I'm saying.  But go out to meet-ups, and add to the conversation there.  Share what you've learned, listen to what others have to say.

The podcasting community is filled with interesting, diverse people.  Not everyone I meet will become a friend, but some have, and some are folks who might not become friends, but are still interesting to meet and spend an evening talking to/with. 

Okay, that's three -- can you think of more?  (It'll save me going to dig out my notes, god knows where I've put them at this point...)

*Here's the thing, and this comes from experience on the knitting community side:  if people know you, if they've had a chance to see where you stand and what you produce and how you treat them, then they are more likely to become *your* fans, and, more importantly, maybe even your friends.  They'll be more likely to spread the word about what you do, buy a product you're producing, try a workshop you're teaching.  If you've built that community, if you respect people and they've come to like you and respect you, then they will be your biggest supporters.  And that's something you can take all the way to the bank.

marathon man

One of the things I love about the internets is the neat people I've got to meet (virtually and in person), and some of the great things that happen that might not have otherwise (or at least, not as easily or with as much breadth or scope).

So today, I thought I'd just point you to several folks in the social media community who have come together to try to do something special.

Dave Fleet was one of the organizers of Podcamp Toronto.  He blogs about social media, but he's also an avid runner, and blogs about it at The Toronto Runner (which happens to be a fascinating resource for runners -- I was quite interested to find the post from August of last year where Dave writes that he's pretty much starting from scratch as a runner, a place I find myself these days, though I'm still at the crawling stage.  But it gives me a glimmer of hope.  Dave also puts up maps of all his training runs, and if I still lived in Toronto, I know I'd be using these myself.  I also rather like his list of goals.)

Many months later, Dave has a new goal -- he's running the Boston Marathon in April, and he's trying to raise $3000 to go towards breast cancer research at Toronto's world renowned Princess Margaret Hospital.

This is neat in so many ways, not the least of which that to do this, Dave had to shave about half an hour off his running time in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  He's putting his all into this, and that inspired someone else to come forward to do what he does best, and to see if he could help out a little.

That someone would be Keith Burtis, of Magic Woodworks. 

Now Keith is no stranger to social media miracles -- just prior to Podcamp Toronto, Keith found himself with an unplanned for car expense, which found him trying to figure out how to make the final payment on an engagement ring that he was planning to give to his girlfriend.  The weekend of Podcamp.  They were coming together, he was going to ask him to marry her, and suddenly there was a spanner in the works.

Keith turned out a bunch of lovely items (from bowls to sushi sets to winestoppers), put them up for sale, and the community came out and bought them, giving him enough to finish paying for the ring.  He and his lovely fiancée were at Podcamp, where I had a chance to meet them briefly.  They were absolutely delightful, really happy, and I hope I'll have the chance to meet them again in the future.

Keith didn't know it at the time, but I was sitting talking with another friend, having a perfectly vile morning, when he approached and gave us the last of the bottle stoppers he'd brought with him to podcamp.  It was a small gesture, but one that meant a lot to me.  I don't really drink enough to warrant using the stopper, but I've set it next to my work area, tucked in amongst some yarn, and every now and again I take a break from my knitting and pick it up and turn it over in my hands -- it's comforting, somehow, and I'm really touched to have it.

So it wasn't surprising, then, to hear that Keith had decided to do something special to help out Dave.

What Keith did was create a lovely ornament to be auctioned off, with the proceeds going towards Dave's fundraising effort.  And that involved yet a third member of the social media community, as Tommy Vallier threw together some code to make the auction work.

The auction started yesterday, and will run until 9 p.m. EDT tomorrow evening (March 27th).

Personally, I'd love to see Dave not only reach his goal, but surpass it.

and since we were speaking about community

I love how I get thinking about something, and then I'm reading someone else's blog, and they're thinking about the same thing.

This morning?  I was mulling over the "Bring Da King" campaign, and then went over to see what Mark was thinking about today, and lo and behold, he's posted about it.

So, what is it? 

Podcasters Dave and Isabelle (from the Broca's Area podcast) and Scarborough Dude (from the DicksnJanes podcast) decided that it really was important that we get James Whittingham of the Regina Radio podcast to Podcasters Across Borders 2008.

Let me take a step back -- for the last two years of PAB, James has been unable to attend, but provided his own "live" coverage of the event.  It was absolutely brilliant and very, very funny (James is a very, very funny guy).  I remember saying to Rob that someone should pass around a hat and collect up the funds to bring James to PAB, and whammo -- there were Dave and Isabelle and Scarborough Dude with the idea.

As Mark noted, they're trying to collect up $1000 to cover travel and accomodation for James, and so far, they've managed to collect about $200.

Here's the thing -- they're not asking for much from each person, $10.   They'd probably happily take $5, and if enough people donated just that small amount, $5 or $10, the total amount would probably add up in no time.

I've kicked in a few bucks, and I'll probably kick in a few more, because I would really love to see James come to PAB. 

What I love about this?  It's more of that communitizing that I'm starting to harp on about.  It's about people pulling together and helping out another member of the community -- in the end, it'll benefit us all, because I'm sure that James'  actual live coverage of PAB would be even more brilliant than his virtual "live" coverage of PAB.

So, to quote Mark -- "I'm helping Bring Da King.  And you?"

(Note:  you don't have to be a podcaster to donate.  You can be a podcast listener, you can just be someone who would get a kick out of seeing if we could pull this off.  Every little bit will help.)

Talking Stick: Podcasters in Chains

So, a while back, Todd Tyrtle came up with an idea and sent out a call to a whole whack of podcasters to participate.

Todd's idea was kind of a riff on the chain letter:  an audio chain.  A topic would be chosen, and the audio file would be passed from podcaster to podcaster, and some kind of discussion/exchange of ideas/expansion of thought and opinon would happen.  Messages were exchanged, silliness insued (you can't put a group of podcasters together without some of that going on, thankfully), and in the end?

A new podcast --  Talking Stick:  Podcasters in Chains

At the moment, there are three more chains in progress, but Todd has just put Episode One online.

Now, I'm biased, because I'm one of the members of the group involved in this (though my contribution will be part of Episode Three, I think).  But I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea, and I'm grateful to Todd to coming up with it and inviting me to be a part of it.

I love podcasting for a number of reasons, but most important to me are the fact that it gives voice to many, varied, and interesting ideas and people.  As well, I love the sense of community that exists -- I've begun talking about how we need to "communitize" our podcasts (in opposition to the idea of "monetizing" it), how we need to reach out to others and get involved with others, and Todd's idea is "communitizing" made manifest.