I’ve been a podcaster for more than two years, and thanks to the success of my program (I serialized my science-fiction novel in audio form, releasing a chapter a week), I grew an enthusiastic fan base, cultivated a community, snagged a full-time gig in social media, and scored two book deals from St. Martin’s Press.

For most indie podcasters, marketing and promoting a podcast is a lot like pimping a blog: you immerse yourself in the space, listen to everything you can (if only for a short time), and contact the podosphere influencers who’ll run a short one minute promo of your program. Kindly returning the favor engenders yourself to these influencers.

Tapping into the existing community leaders is critical. I invited guest spots on my podcast to influencers, which they appreciated. They, in turn, evangelized their cameos in their own programs. This added credibility to my endeavor and spread the meme.

Bringing in your audience as active participants in the experience is also a must. As my audience grew, I solicited fan-created content inspired by the novel I was releasing. I personally thanked them on the show, which bred camaraderie and community. A free K7 voice mail line encouraged audio feedback, which I played on the show.

Further, I created an online street team for my fans, empowering them to evangelize the audiobook to friends, family and strangers. My “Ministry of Propaganda” gave fans “missions” to accomplish, and I publicly acknowledged their hard work on my website.

Thinking outside the marketing box will differentiate you from other ‘casters. I developed several “podcasting firsts” in my promotion, including the first-ever book launch party in Second Life, a “country-wide” book tour (Skype interviews with podcasters in nearly every U.S. state), and more.

Finally, inviting your audience to contribute real content to your podcast is another game-changer. For my next fiction project, to be released later this month, I solicited audio and video “fan fiction” contributions from my listeners. These fan-brewed A/V short stories will run alongside tales written by best-selling novelists. By tearing down the barriers between artist and audience, a podcast can become more than the sum of its audio file — it can become a micro-phenomenon, worthy of fan evangelism, mainstream media attention, and more.

Keep up the great work, John! Excellent post!

Your detailed explanation was very interesting. So are all the comments and suggestion the comments here. I was under the impression that you were using a conference call service that records conference calls and e-mails you a WAV or MP3 once the call is completed. Have you explored that option? I’ve considered doing a pod cast similar to your format (completely different topic).

The one piece of information that you didn’t provide is how many subscribers or downloads you are getting through iTunes. I curious how much traction a pod cast gets just by being on iTunes. Would you consider sharing that information?

~DON

Also love the retro-style mic! A great personal touch!

_j
community creator
CorePage | The Instant Link Page System