Posted on April 09, 2005 by Harold Johnson

Truth be told, there’s very little money being made in podcasting today, but that’s only because most podcasters haven’t found their advertisers yet. Soon–very soon–lots of money will be made in podcasting–for those willing to cash in. The question is, how willing are you?

You see, podcasting, like traditional (terrestrial) radio, is an intimate media. Yet it is more of a two-way media than traditional radio, and therefore more intimate than traditional broadcast radio programming. To be sure, there are varying degrees of intimacy, but the overwhelming majority of podcasts are similar in tone and voice to that other highly intimate form of digital media, weblogs.

Some advertisers may not be comfortable with the idea of selling their product through blogs or podcasts, which mainstream media has thus far unfairly and inaccurately disregarded as the domain of amateurs. Yet advertisers have a tendency to go where the money is, and just as they’re now beginning to embrace blogs as legitimate vehicles for marketing products, we can expect they’ll similarly grow to accept and eventually to actively pursue podcast advertising.

One has to be willing, however, to sell. That doesn’t mean that podcasters have to sell their souls or anything, but they’ll have to be careful if they wish to preserve a reputation of integrity and honesty. Take Chris Pirillo, for example, a tech blogger-broadcaster-turned-podcaster. Chris has a podcast the tagline of which is “It’s Like Tech Support – Only Fun!”. Additionally, Chris streams and podcasts his show in Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. So it’s appropriate that his show is also sponsored by Microsoft’s Windows Media Player division.

It would be difficult to trust Chris’ podcast voice, however, if he was staunchly opposed to using Microsoft products. (As far as I know, Chris isn’t, so his integrity remains intact.) Some podcasters won’t sell product at all, fearing their listeners would distrust their voice due to an affiliation with advertisers. I can understand their hesitation, having just recently (and after months of internal debate) begun to include AdSense ads on my podcast sites. Listeners have come to expect a level of intimacy that may seem violated if interrupted–or perceived as biased–by ads. My decision to include ads was based on my conclusion that integrity can and will be preserved for those of us determined enough to speak our true minds.

When it comes right down to it, everyone is selling something, and if they’re telling you they’re not, they’re lying. People have to sell in order to live–especially in a capitalist nation such as the United States. Those who are already making or have already made a living selling something else may not want to sell anything other than their ideas through their podcasts; yet there are others who, like Chris Pirillo, will choose to make a living selling product through their podcasts, and who will also find the ideal match for their voice: sponsors they already respect and would promote with or without the pay (though perhaps less adamantly).