For the 4^th year in a row I get a chance to look at the state of podcasting and in particular the state of podcasters websites. The usual results don’t surprise me anymore and I guess I am a little cynical at what I find.

Tonight I decided to pull a 10% sampling of the 1874 shows that have been nominated so far. What I found continues to make me want to take a shot of Tequila as it is quite sobering in what I am seeing once again.

My first reaction is do some of the podcasters even care about there audiences?

1^st How many Podcaster know what the correct iTunes Image Size is? Well if you don’t you may want to find out.

2^nd How many Podcasters know what www.feedvalidator.org is? If you don’t you better find out

3^rd You would not believe how many podcasters do not have a link or graphic on their website to their RSS feed.

4^th I am simply amazed at the number of sites that have no way to contact the show host.

5^th I really do not understand why people use Blog Talk Radio the Audio is beyond terrible and getting to the rss feed is a maze of menus that would confuse any newbie.

6^th Do you think using a 20 different proxy services is going to get you 20 extra nominations. Sorry but you wasted your time.

7^th Having a Audio program on a website with only a Hyperlink does not constitute a podcast.

8^th Of the 10% sampling only 51% actually had a download link on their podcast show notes entries and a large number required me to guess where the podcast could be found on their website!! (Wish I could take screen shots and share) Hey lets not even talk about the 1 sentence show notes. Google can really index a show well with that.

9^th Of the 10% sampling only 31% of podcasters had some sort of media player on their site. Do they not realize that at least 50% of the audiences today want a player to listen to the show directly on their site. Preferably one that pops up and allows them to continue to surf the net.

10th I don’t know why I punish myself looking at some of these elements on the podcasters page.

Oh an finally we will be looking at 100% of the sites before this is all over, if you think your show has a shot at being nominated their may be a few nuggets up there in that list for you.

Ohh here is the 2007 Report

Todd…

Put together a little Video update on the 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards

Nearly a 1000 Podcast have already been nominated for the 4^th Annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards. Nominations are open until Sept 30th.

Some interesting trends are developing this year that we did not see before. The data sets are so different that I predict by the time nominations close we will have a interesting mix of shows.

Get your audiences involved now and nominate your podcast today. www.podcastawards.com

Ok folks the 4^th Annual Podcast Awards is underway. Get over their and nominate your favorite shows. Let other listeners and podcasters know that nominations are now open.

I am pretty excited about this year, as I opened the sponsorships up to podcasters and bloggers. This will help us reach the monetary goals we have laid out for 2008 as we are still well short of our fund raising goals.

Nominate your Favorite Shows now www.podcastawards.com

The 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards kick off in a couple of hours. I wish all of the podcast luck. Big thank to One Technologies for making sure that all of the scripts and validation systems were in place.

Good Luck All!

I want to thank this first group of sponsors for stepping up to make the 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards a Success

• Blubrry Podcast Community and Directory
• Geek News Central
• Feed me Bubbe
• Comedy4Cast
• SDR News

A Special Thanks goes out to our Hosting Sponsor Godaddy.com, check out all the great domain and hosting services they are and while your their use the Promo Code Pod58 to help support the Podcast Awards

The 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards start in about a week. We have made some significant changes to the Sponsorship Levels. This is in response to a lot of feedback.

For the first time ever we will take sponsorships from podcasters and we have scaled back the number of corporate sponsors and the sponsors levels.

The committee has also been made aware of a concentrated effort by several shows and groups to try and manipulate who gets nominated and then concentrate voting. I feel very confident that our grading methodology of those shows nominated will reduce the effects of those trying to game the system.

I look forward to a great event.