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illegalprelude

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 10, 2005
1,583
120
Los Angeles, California
I have a question and I cant seem to make any sense from it or find a solution. I have a .Mac account, I have a yahoo business account (its enough to setup a site, with storage and etc) and iWeb and such.

Now, I know iTunes lets you post podcasts (via upload or garageband) but how can I upload podcasts to any provider I guess and sell them? I cant seem to come up with anything where after they pay, they are allowed to download something.

I know with my Yahoo account, I can have them charged via Paypal and then I send them the file or give them access to a private folder via .Mac.

But I still cant come up with a model like itunes or whatever where they pay and then they are allowed to download it. Im not worried about Dram either.

So any help?
 
Ask Ricky Gervais why not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ricky_Gervais_Show

If your content is worth something, get advertisers to support it, request donations, or just sell MP3s. Don't try to monetize something that works best free.

Just MHO.

B

its actually not for me, I work in Psychiatrists office and the Dr. I work for is looking to expand his reach, he already does shows over the radio for local AM radio stations and such. He was looking to take things digital and i was looking to see if i had any of providing that service or helping out and such
 
its actually not for me, I work in Psychiatrists office and the Dr. I work for is looking to expand his reach, he already does shows over the radio for local AM radio stations and such. He was looking to take things digital and i was looking to see if i had any of providing that service or helping out and such

The advice is still valid (and worth every penny you paid for it :p).

If you need to sell something sell advertising or MP3s, but don't call it a podcast if you intend to charge for it.

B
 
Trying to sell your podcast is a quick way to a train wreak ... especially if you are just starting out. The market is generally not interested in paying for the content, I know I sure as hell wouldn't pay for ANY podcast.

If you are worried about bandwidth, go setup your show at http://www.podshow.com. Its free.

Yes, this is a shameless plug ... I do work for them and I am not paid to promote them ... its just friendly advice.
 
I was at a Podcasting Summit at the NAB conference this year and one of the speakers mentioned a for-pay podcasting distribution site that he had worked with. I'll see if I can find info on it.

I will say, though, that the majority of the speakers I listened to basically said that there really wasn't a robust pay model anywhere for podcasts yet. People aren't accustomed to paying for podcasts (yet) and there apparently aren't any good solutions for how to handle the distribution of it while still preventing the podcast from being pirated.

Like others have said here, podcasting isn't really ready for a monetarized model yet.
 
I'll see if I can find info on it.


I found my notes on the subject. The speaker was David Lawrence. His web site is here.

My notes say:
Control access to RSS feed to only authenticated users? NO - must do own development if that's the priority. Give people individualized URLs?
He went on to say that he used some individualized URL distribution system whereby only certain IP addresses were allowed to download the podcast or something. My memory's fuzzy on it. I recommend you email him at davidlawrence@aol.com, as he's an authority on podcasting and electronic media distribution.
 
I will guarantee you that anyone who charges for podcasts or puts DRM on them will find them selfs with an ultra small audience. Many of tried it, many have failed, and it will never work no matter how cheap it is.
 
There ARE subjects that could be monetized like this - for example, investing & stock tips, betting tips, etc.

If there's one rule I've learned in this day and age, it's to never say never.
 
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