When we’re asking ourselves, “why do we do this week in and week out? what is the reward?” we are uplifted when an e-mail or comment arrives telling us how we entertain and give listeners something to do at work, during their commute or on lunch break. We find comfort knowing that our efforts have changed the life of at least one single individual.

But, there are haters as well. Those that tell us our stuff is boring, inaccurate, too long, too short or just simply sucks. You can disqualify them as “haters” that lurk the internet making sure they let everyone knows how much they are non-valued citizens of the world. I’ve grown a thick skin as I put myself out there for the world to see but I’ve also grown a bit because I listen.

While 80% of what a hater will say in a comment is unjustified and immature, they will occasionally say something profound. They may point out a flaw in your content that can use work or a slight bit of polish. Those that love your content will often times set disregard the small things because the overall content is good. If you’re a person of perfection, always looking to better yourself and your content then listen to those that criticize your work.

In my own experience, I’ve had a person tell me that my cocktail video’s are too long and they don’t get down to the point: getting drunk. I thought to myself, “since when have I been making cocktails to get you drunk?” That was never my goal of the show and I apparently never made that point clear to viewers. This doesn’t mean the next episode will start with a paragraph of my goals of the show, but I can use that lesson to further define the underlying structure of each episode.

For instance, instead of concentrating on the potency of a cocktail, I may concentrate on “expanding your cocktail palate” and request people try new brands, new styles and enjoy new experiences. I also focus less on getting an individual drunk and more on the economy of the cocktail and how to save an individual money from going to a bar to get a good drink when they can be made affordable at home. The tastes, the costs and the overall experience is the theme of the show so I make sure to enforce the behavior throughout the content.

What I learned from such a “hater” is to enforce my overall goals and to refine my “pitch” when telling sponsors and potential viewers about the show. We’re about making cocktails for the home enthusiasts that are looking for great new tasty recipes and introduce new brands to the public; we don’t promote excessive drinking or suggest such an act.

The “hater” may come back again someday and find that the content is even further from their expectations from the first viewing. If they leave another scathing comment about how the show is “too much about talking and not enough about drinking” then you know you’ve learned from the experience of their first comment and grown as an individual.

Take comfort in those that love your content and let the haters guide you and focus your content to better please the ones that enjoy the show. Don’t let the hate mail rent space in your head, flip it around and use it to better the quality of your podcasts.

While old school media is a one-way conversation, you’ve got a tough job to do when it comes to answering all those e-mails and blog post comments. You may want to establish a dialog with each user independently to really add focus to their existence and be more direct on answering their questions. This can be time consuming and, frankly, hard work but you owe it to them to make the effort as it will strengthen their bonded relationship to your show.

Your viewers are probably used to old school media where they really become fans with the host(s) of the show but can never contact the person directly. In the new world way of doing media, the minute you shoot them back an e-mail, they’ll respect you more and identify more with you as an individual.

It’s important to remember that folks contacting you directly via e-mail, web contact forums or by posting on your website have taken time out of their day to say hello. The least you owe them is a little time to do the same, no?

Podcasters track their downloads, watch for trends and do all they can to promote their show. That might be using SEO style techniques to get brand awareness in google to social networking with friends and strangers. If you google the keywords: gaming podcast you’ll notice my property: gamingpodcast.net arrives near first if not right at the top (depends on the day). Was that a coincidence? No, not really. Now google drinking podcast and you’ll have similar results: my properties arrive first.

That was key number one: free advertising via google for people looking for podcasts related to gaming and drinking (not always going hand-in-hand of course). Two years went by with almost no user feedback in my gaming podcast, but each episode was going from ten downloads a week to twenty, and thirty and fifty then one hundred and so one… but who was listening? Silence.

I was #1 on my google search terms which brought an expanding audience but still very little in terms of feedback. The first major barrier is finding a topic that elicits a lot of feedback. The drinking podcast receives very little feedback and I’m not expecting it to grow too much in the next year. The show is more for entertainment value and learning but doesn’t ask a lot of questions. In 20+ episodes we received, probably, three e-mails about the show. Not a stunning reception.

But, the audience continues to grow, the RSS feed statistics rise and we get more downloads minutes after posting than ever before. For this podcast I have relied on my instincts as to which direction to take each episode – a drinking podcast doesn’t bring a lot of feedback but if the audience rises instead of falls I know I’m doing it right. If you’re driving in the dark and never hit a tree than you know you’re doing some pretty awesome driving.

The gaming podcast was a personal challenge, how do I grow an audience of interactive gamers. A few guidelines that have worked well for me:

Build a Blog

If you don’t have a website as a landing page for your podcast audience than you need to get one yesterday! WordPress is a great launching point because you can get a blog up and running in under an hour with a comment system and spam protection. This will be where you’ll post your show notes with open community comments.

Initially, you’ll want to post content on your blog to build up content on the site and get google to start chewing on it. If your podcast is about cats, you’ll want to blog about cats, post silly cat images, link to cat related websites and click the links to hit their site and bump their referral logs (so the author sees you). “Work the room” with people and their cat interests and let them know you’ve got a website and audio/video podcast. Post on your blog three times a day for at least three weeks to build up a bankroll of content.

I used this post method on everydaydrinkers.com and started receiving alcohol from PR people to review along with accessories. Heck, I even got a portable beer pong table because, with all my editorials, I became an expert in the drinking industry. Not too shabby as a method to start a landing site for my audio show, eh?

Setup Forums

Setup some forums, if you’re using wordpress I suggest Simple:Press from YellowFish. They will link to the user accounting system within WordPress so commentors that sign up on your blog can post forum topics immediately. Post forum topics, get your friends to post some topics and populate the forums. Don’t expect to build a 1,000 user audience overnight or even in the first few years. But, if you make it available someone may use it and you can use that as feedback for your show.

Contact Us and E-Mail

Don’t post your e-mail address on your blog if you don’t want a lot of spam – but you can setup a contact us form using WordPress and the Secure and Accessible Contact Form module. This will give your audience another way to contact you. If you’re creating a podcast you can use your e-mail in the audio since spammers aren’t that smart.

Promote Your Podcast

You can promote your podcast in a number of easy and affordable ways. After you’ve got three episodes you can submit it to iTunes. You can google “podcast directories” and create an account on all the directories then submit your RSS feed. I suggest tying your RSS feed to Feedburner so you can track statistics in one of the more industry standard methods. Each directory that accepts your podcast will also automatically link back to your website because it’s part of the standard iTunes complaint RSS feed (which Feedburner will standardize for you). That increases the chances google will rank you well.

You can also use a very low cost advertising method as I have done for my shows at ProjectWonderful. For a few cents a day you can splash your podcast banners on all types of sites that focus on the demographic you want to capture. That might be personal blogs, business, food and drinks, lifestyle, home gardening and many others. Don’t expect people to find you, find them first and do it on the cheap.

Ask Questions

There are a few ways to get your listeners to submit feedback. You can ask questions in the podcast that you think people may have an opinion on or you can discuss things that people just cannot afford to let pass, usually dealing with politics, international affairs or anything you’ve had past heated discussions about on a personal level. Some folks will go out of their way to demand feedback by just being over the top controversial, you’ll get hate mail but it is, in fact, feedback.

Do It

Do setup a website, do keep the content fresh, do post consistent episodes on a regular schedule and give your audience many outlets to respond to your podcast you’ll get some traction. We received roughly four comments on our Gaming Podcast until we setup gamingpodcast.net and built out a forum. and comment system

Many people are shy and don’t want to compose an e-mail to a stranger. Others are paranoid and don’t want their email being spread around. Some folks post on forums on a daily bases and find that the natural way to comment while others will blindly and anonymously post in response to a blog entry. Feedback comes in many forms and everyone seems to use their own technique. This is why we choose to include forum posts, blog responses and e-mails in our “feedback” section of our gaming podcast. Some users may not have submitted it thinking it would make the show, but we pick and choose to make sure gamers realize they too can talk back.

At first, you may have your own friends write in or simply make up questions from people that don’t even exist. Perhaps that “imaginary” writer has something controversial to say and it could elicit more feedback from real users. Once you start a trend others will feed into it and chat on a normal bases.

Lastly, you may notice that every podcast has its own set of responders. From Buzz Out Loud form CNET to The Daily Giz Wiz by Leo Laporte to GameSpots podcasts and language learning podcasts, there is a set of “regulars” that write in constantly and keep the show interesting. Everybody needs a few regulars, just like a bar or a restaurant — you’ll know them by name and they’ll add a new dynamic personality to the show.

Once you’ve got a few regulars consider your job done. Most of your audience is listening to an audio podcast because its a nice passive way to get through their day. They don’t need to write in to show their support because their downloads and impressions are left on the show through the shows yearly growth.

Have you ever called into an FM radio show? Probably not.