If you have a podcast that you like be sure to remind the host that the 3^rd Annual People’s Choice Podcast Award Nominations start on Monday.

There is an opportunity for three shows to get some major exposure in a mini contest on the site. The top three sites that can drive the most traffic to PodcastAwards.com will get a free one year advertisement of a 120×120 banner on the site see this link for details.

Meanwhile get the word out and good luck to all shows. PodcastAwards.com

Todd Cochrane, Founder People’s Choice Podcast Awards

The handful of companies that have been working aggressively in the Podcast Advertising space are wondering why it took the main stream press so long to wake up to the potential of podcast advertising.

What surprises me the most though, is the ongoing per-occupation with auto-insertions of ads as the next hot thing, and concerns on listener measurements. First of all Auto-Insertion is DOA at this point, and valid listener measurement has long been dealt with. I wonder if these people are actually talking to people in the space connecting advertisers to podcasters.

Let me tackle auto-insertion first. A few companies feel they can become successful with auto-interested ads.  At RawVoice, based on our experience with podcasters and audiences, feel this success will be short-lived.  We think podcast listeners respond better to host-spoken ads because their is a “host – audience” relationship that is unlike any other media delivery.

The second you drop in some pre-produced, auto inserted advertisment, this immediately disconnects the podcaster from the audience, and the advertiser message will not have the impact it should..

We all hate in your face advertising, but podcast audiences have been very supportive of podcasters that really get behind a product. Here are a few things in my opinion that make up a good Podcast Advertising Campaign.

• Host Delivered Ad Spot via Talking Points!
• Non Hard Scripted Ad Spot!
• Clear Call to Action
• Promo Codes
• Discounts
• Samples
• Extended Trial Offers
• Tangible Products or Services

Lets look at Audience Measurement, software tools have been in place for well over 18 months that measure, Unique Listeners Per Episode, Repeat Unique Listeners, Total Downloads and total bandwidth delivered and a host of other raw measurements.

The question of how many listens advertisments get, comes up from time to time. But based on a combination of the hard raw data, tied to survey results, then combining the results from what I outlined makes a good Podcast Advertising Campaign. Tracking of response to promotion codes, number of direct links back to advertiser through standard click through tracking, number of trial offers initiated, and in many cases total number of hard sales all “add” to an impressive response rate.

We have a very good data that proves ad penetration is around 90% of the total listening audience we don’t get that many conversions but 90% of the ads are getting to the intended audience.

Try to get those types of impressions in Radio and TV! This goes back to tenants of why podcasting is different, with the active listening of the audience tied to the “host – audience” relationship and highly targeted audiences your see impressive results. No longer do advertisers have to just throw their ads out their. They reach the exact demographic they want to everytime the ad spot runs.

Why do you think companies like GoDaddy, GotoMeeting are in the podcast advertising space. They have learned being in the space long term is highly lucrative. The medium has resulted in significant numbers of new customers that they can measure.

While I have no doubt that executed effectively Google could make a impact on podcast advertising I think they would be better server acting as brokers for companies that have real inventory available today. Business Week

In the past 24 months I have consulted with over 500 podcasters and more than 20 corporations. Many times these services were done over the phone, and nearly a dozen times people have flown out to Hawaii to spend a weekend to consult on a strategy for a new show or idea.

I have not advertised these services in the past as they have come primarily through referrals, but now that I am ramping up to go full time in the space. I thought it was time to advertise publicly that I am available. While not usually necessary I am also available to travel worldwide.

Feel free to contact me if you are in need of expert help in getting your project off the ground or back on track. [email protected]

RawVoice a Web Based startup is seeking a highly motivated experienced PHP Developer that is willing to work for equity, and possible full time position in the future. Candidate does not have to give up current employment but must be willing to commit 20 hours per week working with two other developers at RawVoice in building out our online product offerings.

Only those that are willing to work for equity and understand the commitment to working with a start up need apply. [email protected] 

Note: I will pay a referral bounty of $300.00 to the person that recommends a developer that we bring on to the team.

I have posted the 2006 People’s Choice Podcast Awards Video. [Video]

blubrry.com

Congratulations to the 2006 People’s Choice Podcast Mugglecast and the 2006 Best Produced Podcast The Signal. The awards ceremony was terrific, video to follow.
Pictures available on Flickr
Press Release:

ONTARIO, CA (MARKET WIRE) September 29, 2006 — Podcast Connect, Inc., manager of the People’s Choice Podcast Awards at PodcastAwards.com, today held the second Annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards Ceremony and announced the People’s Choice and Best Produced Podcast along with handing out awards and prizes valued at over $7000.
Winner of the People’s Choice Award was “Mugglecast” (www.mugglenet.com), a podcast that covers the book and movie trilogy series on “Harry Potter.” Recognized for Best Produced was “The Signal” (signal.serenityfirefly.com), a podcast for fans of “Firefly” and “Serenity” TV Series.
“We wish to congratulate the top two winners of the People’s Choice Podcast Awards,” said Todd Cochrane, founder of the Awards. “It is also our pleasure to recognize each of the 22 podcasts and their creative teams.” Mr. Cochrane added that the awards ceremony is the culmination of eight months of planning and coordination.
The People’s Choice Podcast Awards is a listener-driven event with listeners nominating podcasts. Then listeners and the staff of Podcast Connect staff review the nominees to finalize a slate of shows that are voted on by the listening community. More than 1.1 million votes were placed to determine the 2006 awardees from 22 separate categories. The Podcast Awards website received over 9.4 million unique impressions.
New this year is a uniquely crafted award that was given to each of the winners constructed by Francis & Lusky (www.promoville.com) who is responsible for the design and manufacture of the awards handed out at the Country Music Awards each year.
This event would not be possible without our many sponsors. StreetIQ.com, our platinum sponsor for the second year in a row, invites the podcasting community to recognize the hard work of the winning podcasters and to support their shows.
About PodcastConnect.com
Podcast Connect, Inc. (www.podcastconnect.com) is the world’s leading innovator in podcast marketing. The Podcast Connect Team has developed itself into a power house marketing arm for the Podcasting Community. Its mission statement is simple: Podcasters do the work, podcasters get paid. Its model is based on trust and respect with good moral and family values.
About StreetIQ.com
The mission of StreetIQ.com is to create a marketplace of compelling business content that empowers investors and businesspeople. Visitors to StreetIQ.com will discover an enormous range of rich media content produced by both large media companies and independent podcasters that includes everything from the latest business news to stock talk and from CEO interviews to earnings calls. StreetIQ.com also highlights industry events and trade shows. In August 2006, the website attracted more than 700,000 unique visitors. StreetIQ.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of FinancialContent, Inc. (OTCBB: FCON), which is publicly traded on the over-the-counter market under the ticker symbol FCON.

This morning I received the final verification of the grading of the remaining categories, for the 2006 People’s Choice Podcast Awards, and I have in my hands a completed voting slate. I will be entering the voting slate into the database system over the next several hours and later this evening we will post the list to the Podcast Awards website.
Voting will commence on 28 July at 0001 and finish on 11 August at 2359 we will have winners announced in all of the lower categories by 15 August.

Over the past 7 days my team of volunteers at Podcast Connect, have been reviewing all of the nominations for the 2006 People’s Choice Podcast Awards. This year we had some automated tools to help us with RSS Validation, and recorded site and show grading process.
I have never been so utterly blown away by the sad state of affairs when it comes to Podcasters RSS feeds, and some of the crap we have been sorting through.
1st of 3281 nominated shows the RSS Invalid rate according to FeedValidator.org was a shocking 78%
2nd of the remaining 22% that were valid 96% had glaring errors
3rd With website reviews done on nearly 500 shows. 42% did not have an RSS feed button on there home page, 99% had a iTunes link. 26% did not have a link to the file in there show notes, 21% had less than 2 lines of show notes and 3% of the sites the reviewers could not even find the podcast section.
4th We found RSS feeds over 500K in length with the longest feed having 367 entries. I guess people did not realize that iTunes stops importing feeds when the rss file exceeds 250K
5th Good luck contacting podcasters only 49% had contact information available from either a home or contact page. The remaining shows had absolutely no way to contact them besides the comment form on their websites.
Even more amazing we found of the 3200 plus shows 200 shows that were calling themselves a podcast had no RSS feed, was not listed in any directory, and only provided direct link downloads not surprisingly these shows had low double digit nominations.
This was beyond frustrating to the team and we had a conference call today to talk about it, we were all pretty blown away by the stats. It looks like to me we have a lot of podcasters that are going through the motions yet have not a clue on what it takes to build a successful show.
This was not even a issue last year, it just goes to show you that the more people that are doing shows the lower the bar becomes in taking the time to make sure the most basic functions of a site is maintained. Some of these folks need to pick up my book, and read the fundamentals, and promotions sections. It is beyond sad, and I am beyond disappointed on the state of RSS feeds in the space. There was even one podcast that we reviewed that said you have to use iTunes and you have to use a iPod to listen to a podcast.
The question I have is what does your site look like.