Case in point, a man asks “what is club soda?” in a comment one of my cocktail shows. The response was one that I’ve seen before and will no doubt see again, “what is club soda????????? How did you log onto a computer and use finger muscles to type that question? … In another episode he uses cream for a white Russian let me know if you want to know what that is and I’ll explain…” Obviously the comment was left with a sarcastic tone but the point was made clear, someone doesn’t understand my international audience.

There are no stupid questions, only ignorant responders and I don’t mean this in a bad way. Some folks do not understand the idea of an international world where not everyone speaks English or the same English as we do in the United States. What is “Club Soda?” That’s actually a very good question but to answer it you first must do some investigation. Turns out the first commenter is from the United Kingdom while the responder was from the United States and these separate regions define carbonated products differently from one another.

Club Soda isn’t a global term, it’s not like “Coca Cola,” a product heavily marketed across many countries with a symbol, trademark and billion dollar namesake. The same can be said for the origin of Lemonade which may be entirely different from one country to another as may be the cocktail garnish we know here in the United States as a “Maraschino Cherry.”

We’re trying to create excellent video and audio content that streams the globe from time zone to time zone. However, we’re only human, we cannot understand every culture on earth and we cannot predict what people may or may not understand within our content. But, we can keep an open mind when the “stupid question” arises and rather than be condescending in our response, ask for the persons origin and a bit about their culture.

By opening a line of communication with your international audience it’s important to respect their efforts to speak your native tongue (no matter how bad) and understand that not all forms of English have the same meaning in all countries. After you’ve opened communications with your international audience you’re bound to not only answer their question in more detail but learn a bit about another culture in the process.

Creating content is a two-way road and while you may be teaching someone something, there is no limit to your own knowledge absorbed by those around you and abroad.

You hear about sites that take off and get thousands of users overnight, before they know it the owners are getting millions of unique users hitting their site and the world is their oyster. Okay, now let’s talk about everyone else, the 99% of the population of bloggers, podcasters and video producers. Unless you own a successful brand or property with thousands of dedicated fans, you’re starting at ground zero like myself.

Prepare yourself for many nights and weekends working on your personal brand and website. Making money on advertising occurs when you can show advertisers “impressions” on your properties and your new property may be receiving under twenty visitors a day even if you’re pushing one to three daily pieces of content; it’s a slow process. Video bloggers are worse off because all their awesome content is unsearchable–it’s not textual. They’ve got to work hard, craft great headline articles and start supporting blogs and articles to support their effort to bring in organic searches. It’s possible but it takes time.

I’ve found very few working shortcuts to getting seen as a video podcaster and audio podcaster. There are no fast ways to be number-one in a search engine or ranking on the top podcasts in a podcast directory aside from paid advertising or getting a web celebrity to pimp your show. You can setup twitter accounts, facebook fan pages and accounts on all the trendy social network systems on the Internet and that won’t make your show popular until you understand how to use the tools most effectively. You can buy consulting for a hefty fee or do what I did: follow a few other brands that are doing it successfully and mimic their behavior, that’s not a shortcut, that’s an educational experience.

Spend less time looking for the shortest route to success and spend more time pumping out quality content, watching others performing social networking techniques and being an all-around normal guy or gal with the drive and passion for success. Let people know about what you’re doing and why you’re confident it’s a successful venture.

Trust In Yourself

When producing audio and video content, there is only one person you can trust to get the job done: yourself.

When most of your salary is being paid in blood, sweat and tears you’re going to find very few people want to work with you in the effort. Unless you can find co-hosts, guest audio speakers or a video crew of dedicated passionate individuals, you’re going to be doing most of your work alone. Creating a great audio show is only as good as the participants in the show. You may have the best idea in the world along with a great chemistry with your fellow podcasters but if they decided to leave, lose interest or “no show” for a few episodes, where does that leave yours how and your audience? Are they going to work those same nights and weekends to promote the production you’ve all been working so hard on?

I’ve found the most reliable thing to do is build a list of friends that are comfortable on camera (or on a mic) and get as many to show up to the shows as possible. Don’t trust any one individual to have the same drive and interests as yourself but, as a whole, you’ve got enough folks to always make the show. Having a pool of individuals to call upon (much like they do on This Week in Tech), then you can always have a successful broadcast.

Lessons of the day: Only trust yourself to get the job done and plan on working your ass off to get there. Don’t hire SEO experts, social media professionals and all that crap; learn the techniques yourself using articles and free editorials on the Net. Teach yourself how to be successful, don’t expect others to do it for you.

Screw the get rich quick method, I think you’ll be more valuable making some friendly contacts in the industry of your choice. Recently, I watched a video on how you can make money on twitter in a “fully automated” fashion selling who knows what to who knows who for whatever cost — really? There is no passion or challenge, it’s all about finding something exploitable and selling it to anyone your automated bots can find.

I’m not really jealous of the technique that “anyone can do” (so could I, right?) but I am blown away by those that will try the techniques. Most will fail and come out of the experience unchanged and lighter in pocket. The only person getting rich quick is the one taking your money to sell you the techniques that they say they’ve learned. Here is an idea, find an industry you’re passionate about and see if you can find a way to make your own techniques and money making systems.

Here is my modest little technique that seems to work okay: establish relationships with people in your industry. You’re no doubt smaller than most of them so you’re going to have to be ready to give some of your services away for free in order to show them you’re serious. In my video podcasting studio, I’ll record an episode of Common Man Cocktails with a product that I’ve been given (if it works as advertised) and give them free exposure to my viewers.

Why wouldn’t I take the aggressive route and ask them to pay me for the exposure? Because I’d like them to see the results of what I can do, show off my techniques and give them a taste for how successful their product can be in my own brand. No doubt I’ll ask them to sponsor an episode in the future, but what trust have I built if I started by asking for money up front? What trust have I built with my viewers if they find out I’m only pitching an item because they paid me to do so?

As the little guy, you’re going to have to admit to yourself that you’re a nobody with no influence outside of your own audience. You’re building your audience and your brand but you’re going to want others to help you along the way; those friends you establish will come back to reward you later.

Perhaps you show off a product on your audio/video show and send it off to the makers of the product. They may give you a nod and a big ol’ “thank you” or they might enjoy the work you did and spread your video to their friends in the industry along with their own customers. That free exposure you gave them can come back to you ten fold with new viewership and exposure.

Who knows, a few months later that new friendly brand may ask to work together no future partnerships. What’s the risk? Nothing but a bit of work on your side, for free, in hopes of establishing stronger relationships. Give it a try.

Looking through iTunes, I can find tons of untapped niche markets that could bring old advertisers to new media. Want to test the waters before you start down the road of video podcasting? Start a blog.

This sounds like old school marketing but this is your petri dish to start building relationships with companys and PR agencies. If you become a small “professional” in your field of blogging, from yarn, wood, tools, clocks to gardening you’ll start receiving e-mails asking to post reviews, news and events for people in the industry. Once you grab a few PR agencies and establish relationships with them, they’ll send you press releases, product demonstrations and perhaps hook you up with interviews with company owners.

As you build your reputation over the course of three to six months you can start experimenting with some video content as you roll your blog into a vlog. Now, you can push out new shows and begin to build a small viewership of a few dozen or a few hundred downloads. Once you’ve got your fan base started, four months after producing some video shows and providing evidence that people care enough to come back and watch your episodes, you can start pitching to sponsors.

Some people will say you need 1,000 to 2,000 views a day to get sponsorship but that’s highly dependent on your industry. You can get sponsorship with as low as 450 views per show if you price it right and provide content that’s so niche and specific that your viewers actually desire the products of your sponsor.

Using a $30.00 CPM ($30 per 1,000 viewers) model, you can sell a sponsor a full episode of your video show for around $12 (considering you don’t have 1,000 viewers yet) and still get them interested. Why? Because $12 to gain 450 highly focused eyes on a brand is huge value to anyone that understands new media. Plus, when six months down the line their ad is still in the old video and new viewers typically drive through old archives to catch up and see what you have covered in the past. Their old sponsorship grows with the audience of your show, long after they paid the measly $12.

Companies will spend millions of dollars to reach 2% of a large pool of viewership. You’re just asking for $12 to gain 100% attention of the viewership pool, sounds tempting, no? A single episode will not build huge brand awareness and your sponsor knows this; they will buy a block of episodes to test the waters. Realistically, without at least three to four episodes on your show there is no way to track the impact. So, even if they decide not to renew, they’re probably already in it for $36 to $48 which goes into your pocket for your hard work.

It is hard work. Don’t expect to toss your mug on a camera and get people to throw money your way. You’re going to have to prove to them that you’re energetic, consistent, trustworthy and have the passion to get the job done. Of course, $12 an episode isn’t going to make you rich, but everyone has to start somewhere.

You start at the bottom and work your way to the top. If you think there is an easier way, show us. Otherwise, get out there and produce great content and watch your community grow.

The Internet is not only a place to find information about products, it is a place to build information about yourself for others to learn about you. The trick to this seminar will be covering all the major disciplines by giving them relevant information that could potentially change their lives. The methods of promoting yourself with social media as a teacher entering the field is not the same as a student in broadcasting, geography or software development.

We’ve got to put reality first, students graduating from college this year are entering a market where extremely talented and experienced folks are being laid off due to budget cuts. How does a student walk into the “real world” and get a job in an economy where the unemployment rate is rising a percent at a time? For this, there is no clear answer, but there are other solutions to building your reputation and experience so you’ll be a valuable asset when hiring freezes thaw.

Students should create accounts on a few key social networks, such as Linkedin. For the Facebook and Myspace generation, this should be a fairly straight forward process, except, rather than showing people what your favorite music may be, you’re showing them where your focus and talents can be found. Students should be building their linkedin profile along side their resume and link up with all their friends on the social media site so that you can review each other and explain “why” your friends are worth looking into — you scratch their back and they’ll scratch yours.

Plenty of headhunters use Linkedin and like site to farm for new talent. Market yourself, build a profile that is both desirable to potential employers, headhunters and friends alike. Believe it or not, a potential new hire at a company may be inspected through a “background search” involving pulling up profiles on linkedin and/or google to see what you say you know and what others are saying about you.

Broadcast and communications major should be using twitter to build their fan base and audience, promote products you love (for free) to try your hand at building yourself and your personality. You’ll want to build a large quantity of followers so you can promote yourself to them when the time is right. You may use that audience to “crowd source” (ask them questions) when you do get your first job, or perhaps use it to ask folks if anyone is looking for your talents and, in general, make friends with folks of like interests – this can be a handy tool in your future.

Students who plan to become teachers or explore further avenues of education can start practicing now. How? Get yourself a microphone and computer and start podcasting your talents. If you’re looking to find a career in biology and you’re having problems getting that job, start by podcasting some educational shows about biology, this may be audio or video depending on your budget and willingness to promote your own brand.

Creating your own video or audio podcast will grow your experience along with give you real life technological advances over your competition. When going into an interview to get a job as a science teacher you can either say “I graduated six months ago but I’ve not found a job” or you can say “While looking for a job I’ve started an audio show teaching listeners about weather, cloud formations and natural disasters, I’ve got a thousand listeners interested in the content.” You can build niche markets quickly and get dedicated fans that are interested in learning about new topics and concepts. Use what you’ve learned for students in a classroom when teaching students remotely. Your potential employer will no doubt be impressed with your focus, effort and passion compared to that other kid that watches History Channel while eating nachos and waiting for call backs from schools.

There is a great deal of potential to get your name known, be found by potential hires and discover new experiences and technologies you never thought were possible. You’ll gain experience in across many fields including communications, networking, media recording and promotion regardless to your actual major. Who knows, you may find yourself interested in something completely unique and different, something you didn’t learn in school.

Those are just a few ideas that I’ll be talking about in the 45-minute presentation at Keene State College in the moutains of New Hampshire. I wish I had that knowledge when I graduated!

Success is really what you want to make it, if you want to be the next big social networking scene than do it, but you’ve got a lot of challengers. Or, you can just try to be something unique and different all together. Niche markets exist for all areas of life and they’re going to draw a smaller audience than a broad topic but have less competition.

You can be a success in a small demographic more so than you can in a huge demographic. Much the way I chose a college, I could go to a smaller college and be known as someone or I could go to a huge college and be yet another number in a classroom of hundreds. I wanted to stand out without having to break through the thousands of peers. Was I looking for less of a challenge? No, I was looking to be seen for who I was: an individual with desires and motivations in a timely manner.

I’ve found the Internet follows much the same social structures. By picking an area to blog, talk or video yourself you’ll soon become somewhat of an expert in the field: no certification required. If you take it seriously, you’ll learn a ton of information along the way as you prepare your show notes, blog articles and news reporting. You’ll establish a small community of like-minded individuals that, hopefully, enjoy the content you are providing. You’ve got your niche and you’re ready to take it to the next level.

Now, you can establish relationships in your area of “expertise.” When you seek advertisers or look to establish partnership with others in your industry you’ll find plenty of great opportunities. If you run a show about beer cozy’s, you’ll be able to affiliate with folks making custom cozies, labeled cozies or beer products expanding beyond the cozy. You may not reach Coors Brewing Company’s attention, but who cares? You’ll find plenty of smaller businesses and individuals trying to make it in the industry, like yourself, by grouping together with like-minded folks.

You may find a person that can produce custom glassware, a shop looking for some promotions on their home brew accessories or small/local cozy manufacturers. One by one your circle of relationships grow and each one makes your brand stronger than the last. But, why would they want to work with you?

Because your community, the viewers of your content, want to know what you have to say. They’re not random readers, they are people that are interested in the topic you’re working in. They are the perfect eyes and ears to promote products and advertising; the industry is learning this quickly. Why bid on a google keyword “cozy” hoping someone will find your ad, click on it and be interested enough to buy it from you. Furthermore, what if they’re looking for a “cozy place” to vacation? Wrong audience.

However, had that cozy been talked about on a show by a host that’s passionate about the topic, someone you can relate to on a personal level (as often happens with viewers) then the game changes. Your community will get to know you, even if you’ve not met them all or communicated with them. You see this behavior all the time with celebrities who have tons of fans talking to them as if they’re their best friends – complete strangers! If you run a website, video podcast or audio show your fans will feel much the same, only in smaller quantities and with less insane fervor.

Do you trust a google ad or the word of someone you’ve grown to watch on internet shows, audio shows or a frequented blog? Most people won’t click a banner ad and those that do may still not purchase the product. You and your brand are more important than ever to these advertisers looking to spend their cash for the “biggest bang for the buck.”

In this down economy advertisers want to make more with less. Focused niche markets are a great place to experiment with little cash in hopes for a big return. You start a website about tea and write about tea for two months and you’ll probably find tea producers asking to ship you products so you can review them on your website or Internet show. You get free products, they get virtually free advertising and your community gets to learn about a product they may never have heard about otherwise.

It’s a win win situation. You win relationships and you win great content for your brand.

I’ve received a few e-mails lately asking about how I handle some of my shows release schedules. In short, how often should a podcaster or video podcaster create a new episode? Every situation may be different but there are some obvious trends I’ve seen over the last few years.

Although a release schedule really depends on your shows content and purpose, the best possible scenario would be short episodes on a daily basis. This turns out to be a lot of work if you’re working alone or in a small group. This is most challenging if your content is time sensitive, such as daily news, industry news or the like. Large firms have benefited from daily shows like CNET Buzz Out Loud. Others, such as Wine Library TV grew from a retail store into a daily show by pushing out great content for 18+ months before making it big.

A daily show between five and ten minutes seems to be the sweet spot for video shows (and 20-minutes or so for audio shows.) Viewers will be able to watch your show during lunch, breakfast or sneak one in during work hours when the boss is not looking. You’ll find it’s fast to edit and produce a show that’s small and tight because there are few chances for major errors or interruptions and the post production is quick with very little render time required. Audio episodes requires less attentiveness so longer shows will be more acceptable.

A short video show will lend itself well in terms of disk storage, quick downloads and easy to post content on sites like Blip.tv. The downfall? You’ll have limited time to squeeze in all your content per episode. If your information isn’t time sensitive you can sit down and record five episodes in under 30 minutes of real time! You can edit each show individually (which could take an hour or so depending on how much post production you’re doing) and launch each one at the start of your day.

You may opt for a weekly show because it fits your schedule better while still working in about 20-30 minutes of great content. Nothing says you have to meet a 20-minute marker, a 10-minute weekly show is fine too. The downfall to a short weekly show comes down to keeping your audience attentive over the long term. A short show might leave less of an impression and they could forget to visit your site each week. If you provide great syndication methods, such as iTunes, you can help remind your audience to tune in each week.

There may be opportunity for a video show that runs only once or twice a month if you’re looking to test the waters, have a rough schedule or your show guests are hard to coordinate. The major downfall being the slow growth of your audience because there is less content to consume. You’re statistics will increase greatly as you have more shows for people to go back and watch after they’ve discovered your content. We’ve got plenty of people new to our shows that go back and re-discover old episodes and that greatly pushes up our download count.

Look at the release schedule over a single year. If you run a show once a month you’re going to end up with 12-episodes at the end of the year. If you run a show twice a week you’ll have 104 episodes after the year is through and, of course, a daily show will have upwards of 250 episodes (if you take weekends off). More shows means more statistics and a better chance to grab new listeners because you’ve always got something new to promote.

Now, let’s talk about statistics. Granted, many video podcast producers will tell you “it’s not about the numbers, its about the content” but we’re human and we love to categorize, organize and know what the heck is going on. What we’ve noticed, with trends in Common Man Cocktails, is that each episodes viewership peaks the first two days after its launch. Then, viewership declines as everyone has seen the latest show while a few new viewers are slowly keeping your numbers going throughout the dead-space between launches.

When we launched the show once a week on Wednesday we’d have big numbers from Thursday to Saturday and then they would fade nearly to nothing by the following Tuesday night. Then, we started pushing out an episode on Wednesday and Saturday, our numbers would pop from Sunday through Tuesday night, just as we prepared to launch the next show. This allows our viewership to maintain a constant rise throughout the week as we gain more momentum and new viewers.

The end result, each new episode peaks the day of launch by another twenty views or so, incremental growth each episode shows progress and interest in the brand. So, wouldn’t it be in our best interest to do a new show everyday? Sure! Except for the small issue with having a few other jobs to do and producing video podcasts as a hobby as this is not quite the best time to bring a brand to investors.

If you’ve got time and dedication to cut a new show every day, the other technique I’ve seen used quite a bit is to run four short episodes a week and one medium length show during the middle of the week. The small shorts can be used to keep your audience attentive, progress your shows content throughout the week and give them a large dose mid-week as something to look forward to viewing.

While a few techniques may work for you, knowing the different possiblities to work towards gives you a nice goal to achieve. Many people are looking to get into video podcasting and hopefully this gives them something to think about in their preparation.

Just remember, the most important part of creating your podcast is the content. You can produce a show nobody wants to watch each day if you want, but that’s not really worth your time.

Let’s flash back in history a few years, to 1980 when we saw Hulk Hogan appear on the TV in the WWF (now WWE). He was a nobody in the world of wrestling but he became one of the biggest brands in the business, his name alone sold out stadiums from the United States to Japan.

How did it happen?

Hulk Hogan started like everyone else, at the bottom of the hill and had to climb his way to the top. He was not the first in the industry, he wasn’t the last in the industry and he definitely wasn’t the best wrestler in the industry. Hogan’s ring “content” left something to be desired but people loved him because of his personality, charisma and electricity while in the spotlight.

You can learn a lot by going back to the tapes and watching his rise to fame. Watch his in-ring battles and you’ll see there is very little to his technique but he plays it with passion and full energy. A great video podcaster is not too unlike Hulk Hogan, bringing the energy and the charisma to make what should be a common everyday experience an entertaining adventure.

As Hogans career launched forward, the WWE put all their money behind him, marketed toys and accessories and built the brand that we know as Hulk Hogan. In many ways, they used him to make money and he used them to launch his career onward, even showing himself in TV shows, interviews and movies.

Not everyone can be Hulk Hogan, many folks who began video podcasting years ago have built a crowd over time but they’re no Hulk Hogan. A few of them are starting to rest on their laurals and produce shoddy shows or only posting one quality show a month or quarter. When the industry was tiny it’s not hard to become known because the competition was so low. Sure, they’re entertaining to watch every now and again but you know you can do better. That’s the right attitude, if you know you can outshine some of the slower paced shows that have audiences waning because nothing else was around… it’s time to get into the game.

Today, the competition in video podcasting is heating up, 2009 is supposed to be the year video podcasts really take off. This is the time to show off your charisma and technique, to entertain and delight your audience and keep them coming back for more episodes.

You’re not going to be the first video podcaster, you won’t be the last video podcaster either. But, you can be the best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be. You can choose to toss something out there and see if anyone likes it or you can play the game with passion and charisma.

Do you have what it takes to be the next Hulk Hogan?

We have to develop personal relationships to gain momentum. If you’re name is Tom Hanks you can find instant “friends” by walking out of your house, but are they really friends? No, they’re fans of your work and they’ll follow you, quite blindly, anywhere you want them to go. If you’re Joe Generic, you’ve probably developed some friendships but, let’s face it, you’re no Tom Hanks. While your friends are more dedicated and understand you better than a “fan,” they’re also in limited numbers and won’t make you an instant hit superstar on the Internet.

You’re going to need to expand your friendships using social media outlets and get to know people at a more personal level. You’ll need to understand their needs, their likes and their desires on, perhaps, a first-name basis and develop a connection with them. Once you’ve established this connection you’ll be able to share thoughts and ideas which, oddly enough, includes showing off your podcast and seeing what they think. You may meet them on a social media site but you can continue your conversation through e-mail, direct messaging and other means.

If you want them to respect your efforts you must first respect theirs. I’d like to call this, developing a personal relationship. We all do it in “real life” but when it comes to Internet marketing and promotion people seem to think we can just spam forums and blogs hoping someone will click over to our domain name and become a fan of our brand. This method of promotion annoys people and doesn’t create a dedicated listener. If you want that, buy ad space and go watch some TV; for everyone else, we want to work a bit harder and more cost effectively.

Unfortunately, developing personal relationships takes time and you want your numbers to grow quickly. If you’re a podcaster with no patients than you’re in the wrong business. First, you’ll want some creativity, quality and passion for your brand, than you’ll want to develop some personal relationships and see if those people agree with your passion and love your quality and respect your creativity.

Establishing yourself with people on a one-on-one basis is the cement that binds your foundation. Eventually, you’ll build momentum, and fans, through your effort. However, you’re going to first need to surround yourself with a large group of personal relationships outside of your close family and friends. Meeting people on Twitter, Facebook and through blogs and other social media is a great way to get started.

Don’t start a twitter account to simply blast your URL’s blindingly, that’s annoying. Use twitter to meet people with common interests in what you’re trying to build. If you’re podcasting about chicken than I suggest following people on twitter that have great chicken recipes, a love for chicken or a chicken-related blog. You can use search.twitter.com to search for the keywords “chicken” to find them. If they’ve got a blog, read it and comment about your thoughts on chicken. Read their “about” page to see why they love chicken and how they got into the chicken-loving business because you can use this to relate to them when they tweet on twitter or write editorials on the topic. You’ll be able to talk to them and ask them questions about what they like.

It’s not all about you. Other people on twitter are building their brands too, it’s a two way road and sometimes you’re going to have to share it. Pushing yourself on other people is annoying, would you do that in real life? If so, you’re probably the type of person I’m not hanging around with; you’re “that guy” or “that girl” people tend to avoid. Show people you’re a human by showing them they’re human and build a bond before you build a brand.

Along the way you’ll meet others building brands that may wish to work with you for advertising opportunities, cross promotions or simply “name dropping.” You won’t know who you’ll meet, where you’re going to meet or what you’re going to learn if you don’t start walking the road.

Women and podcasting are on the rise, but it seems to be slow compared to what you’ll find out there in the most popular podcasts. Of course, I’m discounting Oprah and all the TV shows being listed as top podcasts in iTunes, their audience is being siphoned from major networks and, let’s face it, half those podcasters probably don’t even know what a podcast is! Putting clips of your show on the internet and calling it a podcast isn’t exactly what I’m looking for in a podcast — neither are you no doubt.

Those podcasts getting a lot of advertising, that aren’t major networks, are most typically Tech Podcasts and Video Casts along with a bit of Gaming. You’ll also find some politics and international news along with a growing sector in language learning. Language Learning podcasts have my respect, when I first got into podcasting four years ago I only found two language learning podcasts; I settled on listening to podcasts in German to help learn the language via immersion. Today, there are dozens of great quality language podcasts, many are still men.

What we need, in the podcast industry, is a Diggnation style podcast of women.  Most of the shows still seem to be dominated by men but that should change in the future. If two guys sitting on a coach can draw a huge crowd, imagine what a great womens show would do for the women in the industry.

I believe this will all change when we realize a video podcast doesn’t have to have a women just as eye candy or voice candy in the audio medium. There are plenty of women with great ideas, huge motivation and deep passion for technologies, designs, arts, sciences, language and news broadcasting.

What about podcasts about knitting, sewing, cooking and all the other hobbies that are stereotypically women? There is huge opportunity in this area because the competition is so low, you don’t have to be a super star like Oprah or Ellen to be seen. Why struggle to be a Tech podcast when you can be top dog in something more niche? While your audience in a sewing podcast will be marginal compared to a technology related podcast, you’re the only show in town.

When it comes to advertising, you can battle for 1% of the advertising pie with a tech/gaming show or fight to own 30%+ in a less competitive podcast market. You may be able to pull in 1% of 500,000 people in a tech podcast, but 1% of that number is really small when you can pull 30% of a 250,000 pie if you change your topic.

How do we know exactly how many listeners are looking for a show about sewing or knitting? It doesn’t really matter. Starting an audio podcast and recording 20 episodes over six months will cost you very little in terms of testing the market. We’re not talking about the next hit NBC show with Neilson ratings and pressure, we’re just looking to see if there is interest in a show. If there isn’t, try something different, the loss is only your time and effort, but you’ll gain a ton of experience in podcasting messing around so it’s not a total loss. When you find the niche that has the audience you’ll be the next top show on iTunes.

Don’t discount women as listeners either. There are plenty of women looking for help with their hobbies as well, many stay-at-home moms can find 20-minutes of their day to watch a video show or an hour to listen to an audio show. Advertisers will agree as they’re stuck trying to fit all their advertising into the 18-34 male demographic. What about those trying to market to women? Where is their outlet for ads?

Provide the advertisers the outlet they need and are striving to find. You need proof? Go to Google and type: “scrapbooking” and do a search. See the sponsored ads on the sidebar? Click the “more sponsored links” button at the bottom of the ads and you’ll see 47 pages of advertisers bidding for your click. Do you think anyone is going to click on an advertising on page 47?

Now, let’s say you build a little scrapbooking podcast and have a few hundred downloads per episodes, or less. You’ll probably find those advertisers bidding on the 47th page of google adwords would love a nice low-cost advertisement in your show, or product placement, for less than Google charges. They’re bidding to gain some type of position on the first page of google’s sponsored links but they could be paying half the cost to have the focused attention of your listeners. Sounds appealing, no?

Go to iTunes and do a search for “scrapbooking” and click “see all” for the podcasts. There is one page and six entries for the entire subject. Search for “gaming” and look at all the podcasts and you’ll probably get bored after flipping past page sixteen. Do you want to compete against a page of podcasters or sixteen pages or more of gaming fanatics? But wait, there is more!

You’ll also notice plenty of the scrapbooking podcasts are defunct, having stopped posting episodes in May of 2008 or even 2007. The same can be said for many of the gaming podcasts, but they’re still in the directories and getting in the way of your performance and rise to the top. You’ll beat them, eventually, but it will be measured in years (trust me). A quality scrapbooking podcast with minimal advertising would probably be in the top ten in a matter of weeks.

What’s my point? Pretty simple.

• Women can host their own shows, they don’t have to do be the “eye candy,” they can think on their own.
• Woman’s interests are not competitive, yet, so now is the time to jump in and establish yourself as the primary source for material. If you’re number one now, you won’t have to fight for it later.
• Advertisers need a way to get at the female demographic, why don’t you provide them a street to peddle their wares?

I might be a guy, but I’m not an idiot. A female has a huge benefit over me in the realm of podcasting, they sound sexier than I do (naturally getting more attention) and they’ve got interests that are in demand with very few people providing a solution.