Update: The part about Scoble leaving Podtech appears to be false. Sorry about the gossip dudes. My sentiments remain unchanged though.

I don’t know anything about Podtech (I don’t think anybody does), but I just read on Andrew Baron’s blog that Podtech is in sinking and Scoble may be out (the original tweet-based rumour being here). Who does this leave as the premiere audio/video content company? Podshow. Who’da thunk it.

If this is true, it means there’s going to be a lot of doubt going around the content-creation space (audio, video, etc.) in the next little while. Maybe less money, who knows.

The individual creators, on the other hand, are in a stronger position than ever. As the networks fail, the creators can continue to do their work for less money than a company ever could, getting little sponsorships along the way to keep them alive. They’re f’n cockroaches, and can thrive in the tiniest of niches with no problem.

I’ll be offline for the next fourteen hours (on a ferry in the middle of the Atlantic), so I won’t know how this will pan out, but I bet there are interesting times ahead for folks like us.

BTW, I’m calling it right now: Scoble, next evangelist for Facebook.

Filed by Julien at 9:30 am under business, podcasting
4 Comments

If you’re irritated about the way influencers seem to be jumping from one web app to another, you aren’t alone. Dave Slusher just renounced ‘the search for the newer and shinier,’ and I suspect many others will follow after Facebook becomes passé.

What Dave doesn’t realize is that it is in the nature of early influencers’ attention to be transitory. The reason they jump from one app to another is precisely because they are early influencers, and people pay attention to them precisely because they try things before anyone else.

In fact, I could even go so far as to say that, if they stop trying the new and shiny, attention to them will dwindle.

What Slusher has done (by unsubscribing) is exercise the power he does have, which is attention. If attention is what causes these web apps to become popular, it is also the thing that causes early influencers power to expand– attention is the very nature of power on the web.

So if you’re waiting for your web app to get picked up by Scoble, Arrington, or anyone else, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Even if you are the new Facebook, it is in their very nature to drop the old as the new and shiny comes along.

It happens in Hollywood, it happens in electronics, and it happens on the web. One day, you and your app, your weblog, or your podcast, will be over.

Start working on your next thing NOW.

Filed by Julien at 6:52 pm under strategy, business, trends, podcasting
6 Comments

I met with a girl yesterday who basically laid out to me that my business strategy was non-existent. She’s right, of course. I don’t have business cards, my website doesn’t tell anyone what I can do for them, nothing. She was totally right, and it’s kind of embarrassing, now that I think about it. So I have to figure that all out.

In other news, I’ll be at the Podcast Expo this weekend hanging out with CC Chapman, Anji Bee, Canis Lupus, and anyone else that will have me. Thanks very much to Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff for helping ensure that I don’t end up paying 100 dollars for a cab into stupid sunny Ontario, California.

Filed by Julien at 1:02 pm under business, podcasting
1 Comment

I had a chit chat with Mark and Bob during the ride down to PodCamp where we talked all about social networking and why influencing the text-based web matters a great deal. Take a listen if you want to learn a thing or two about how to promote yourself as a podcaster on the web.

Filed by Julien at 12:36 am under business, podcasting, random
6 Comments

I just finished listening to episode two of HarperCollins’ new Prosecast. It’s a great example of what companies can be doing to enhance the experience they provide - and even better, it’s produced by someone in Canadian podcasting, not by some random idiots with no experience in the industry.

I hope I see more stuff like this soon; it’s showing how existing companies are beginning to recognize the value of the experience that podcasters bring to the table.

Filed by Julien at 4:16 pm under business, podcasting
4 Comments

For the first time today, I am left upset by a blog that does not accept comments. Yes, it was his, though the decision didn’t bother me at the time.

When marketers look at success in a product or service, I wonder if they tell themselves “This restaurant has clearly succeeded because…” while finding reasons that justify the beliefs they already have. I have asked myself this repeatedly while reading Permission Marketing.

But would this not apply to everything? Sometimes I say to myself, “Well, I’ve made it onto Sirius! Clearly, that’s because I stood by what I wanted to do, and didn’t compromise the kind of show I wanted to make!” If I had failed in creating a popular podcast, however, would I not conclude that I failed because I refuse to compromise? After all, all great entertainers need to bend to corporate interests sooner or later! Do we not all justify our current positions with reasoning that coincides with our worldview? He didn’t compromise, why wasn’t he gifted with success during his lifetime?

With the release of A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick is more than ever before being seen as a genius, both misunderstood and ahead of his time. If you believe this, ask yourself: What does this say about my worldview? If he refused to compromise, why didn’t he succeed during his lifetime?

Back to Seth. He says:

Jindi’s refusal to compromise [her menu] is yet another reason she’s doing so well at lunch, actually. Because taste is starting to catch up with her. People are now ordering the items she would have deleted ten years ago.

And in a connected world, it’s much easier for the chowhounds to leave a digital trail of breadcrumbs to her door.

Ingrained in this statement are the following beliefs:

While I am far from qualified to question Seth’s reasoning, the post itself does not fully explain the reasoning upon which these conclusions are based. Simply believing Seth’s post because he is Seth or because he is an A-list blogger or whatever could lead a number of well-meaning people astray.

My personal experience is limited, but I believe a certain amount of compromise is required for any venture’s success. But of course, you can probably see that by examining what I write already. :)

Filed by Julien at 11:50 pm under business, podcasting
8 Comments

As of next week, the In Over Your Head podcast will be broadcast weekly on Sirius Satellite Radio - Fridays between 7:30 and 8 pm EST.

If you are a podcaster and you want some of this, send me promos! I’ll play absolutely any promo that doesn’t suck, so hook it up.

Filed by Julien at 5:53 pm under business, podcasting
9 Comments

It becomes harder and harder, I think, to be a blogger that gets ‘work’ from their site and to continue being active in blogging while obtaining this work. I don’t know why, but I’ve seen it happen a lot with a bunch of people I know. Personally I intend to combat it.

Whatever the case, it is true that I have become one of those people that gets work from this blog. Right now I’m working on four seperate projects in design and podcasting stuff, and I don’t even really have a company per se. That’s an angle I’ve really got to start rocking.

But I’m starting to see the truth behind this permission marketing stuff; CC Chapman sent me the book for my birthday yesterday (he seems to be making a habit of it) - he’s really one of the best people I’ve ever been able to work with. The book is helping me understand the value behind “turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers”. Except I focus on turning them into friends, and turning into customers is happening by itself (so far). I work better with people I like, anyway. :)

Whatever the case, I don’t want to be one of those people who has turned to business and isn’t participating in the stuff that got him started. I still love podcasting, and having been freshly re-energized on the topic, I hope to continue to make a bunch of cool stuff, expanding in all sorts of directions.

Filed by Julien at 9:08 pm under business, trends, podcasting
2 Comments