The pink elephant of podcasting
Published: Sun, 06/26/16
Specifically, about having a paid podcast vs a free one:
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“Napster is now a paid subscription service called Rhapsody but before it was sued and ultimately pulled down, it had 80 million users. And so, it's interesting to note that another paid music service was launched the same year Napster dissolved.... It's called iTunes. What once was free will always become paid if it has even a modicum of success. I'm so surprised that all the ICQ using, Limewire downloading internet savvy Marketing guys have not figured this out. They know way more than I ever could about the internet but I think it's a case of "they can't see wood for trees".
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I would also add the new YouTube Red to the list, too.
And paid (commercial-less) Pandora subscriptions.
And Pay-Per-View events on TV.
And satellite/cable TV.
And, even a growing number of shows on private YouTube channels popping up as well.
Anyway, it's a timely topic.
One of the July podcast episodes will be about direct response marketing purists (like I try to be) vs the bastardized version of direct response marketing the Internet (and especially social media) has created. The smart marketers Misty is referring to have simply been seduced and lobotomized by Internet marketing group think.
Example:
Several years ago I did some work for a fast-growing company.
One of the guys running the business was (still is) brilliant at getting traffic.
But, when it came to selling and email he was a joke. He actually had us take the sales letter I wrote down (that was extremely successful and making all kinds of sales) because he didn’t want to look like they were “selling.”
My mind still reels at that.
I also remember him saying something like:
“Wow that image jacked up clickthroughs by 3%!”
“That’s nice, but what about sales?”
Crickets.
He didn’t know.
The concept of, you know, sales as the ultimate measurement, was foreign to him.
He’s was a traffic and technology guy, not a salesman.
(And yes, it didn’t take long for him and his partner to put the sales letter back up and resume making lots of sales — admitting how stupid it was to take it down in the first place.)
But, that’s the Internet for you.
People think it’s different.
It’s not.
And to assume it is, is to rob yourself of sales.
To be notified when the new PAID podcast is live, and get in for a price so low during the launch it almost might as well be free, go here:
http://www.elBenbo.com
Ben Settle