Disqus - Latest Comments for Rob Safuto

Re: How secure is your new media money?

Rob Safuto — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:43:54 -0000

I was thinking just last night that I would rather pay a service to host my podcast media files than completely rely on a free service for this exact reason. What happens if they can't pay the bills and have to turn out the lights? And as we saw less than 10 years ago that can happen.

At times during the process with RawVoice I've felt like we were less fortunate not to have the VC money. Of late I have reversed that belief. We don't have the pressure from a board. And we don't have to worry about being liquidated when investors want their money back. We also can build this thing right. Might even be a good idea to change our logo from a carrot to a tortoise.

Re: 2006/12/22/niche-social-networks/

Rob Safuto — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 09:43:46 -0000

Here's a vote for Blubrry.

Re: 2007/07/04/podcasting-toolbox/

Rob Safuto — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:25:17 -0000

Why give a highlight to Yahoo Podcasts? They haven't updated the feeds on their site in almost three months.

Re: Competitors of PodTech that I love, er, going to the Content Mall

Rob Safuto — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 09:54:14 -0000

You missed Blubrry. We've currently got over a hundred podcasters running three separate ad campaigns with more to come. And we have the authority to negotiate ad deals for more than 800 podcasts who are a part of our community.

Re: The only thing that matters at SXSW 2007

Rob Safuto — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 07:39:19 -0000

Ah, memories. I used to live five minutes from the Salt Lick. Nothing like byob and all you can eat meat.

Re: PodCamp NYC - How To Find Me

Rob Safuto — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:26:36 -0000

I look forward to seeing you at the Brother Love show. I'll be busy prepping for that on Saturday afternoon but you can say hi to Jeff Hinz and Jeevan Padiyar who will be there representing Blubrry and causing a ruckus in general.

Re: Are Podcasters Slowing Down Podcasting’s Growth?

Rob Safuto — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:39:17 -0000

I'll contradict the following statement. "Claiming your work is extremely valuable but accepting CPM rates of less than Murder She Wrote reruns."

Sounds like you're telling podcasters to hold out for higher CPM rates or not accept ads. That's a huge mistake.

Content in itself has no value to an advertiser. The ability of an audience to respond to an advertisement placed in a show is what holds value for an advertiser. So why should an advertiser pay a high dollar amount for placement in untested content? They won't do it.

What advertisers will do is test out the space with low CPM rates and see if they get results. And when podcasters decide they won't put a whole lot of effort into selling because the CPM rates are too low then everyone loses. What incentive does an advertiser have to raise CPM rates if they aren't getting an ROI from their small investment? Heck, why would they even try a larger investment with that kind of attitude from content producers?

Podcast producers who want to run ads need to understand that in the business of media production you will need to prove yourself as an audience influencer before sponsors will spend big dollars to be a part of your show. The only way to get there is to accept modest deals and show solid performance.

Podcasters who do learn to promote sponsors effectively by moving their audiences to act will get bigger deals as time goes on. Those deals will move from Cost Per Acquistion to Cost Per Thousand and eventually flat rate sponsorship agreements.

Those who sit on the sidelines holding out for a high CPM bidder will only stunt their promotion abilities while ensuring that advertisers approach other podcasts with a more realistic approach to advertising process.

Re: Podcasts Attract Growing Audiences, But Not Ad Revenue

Rob Safuto — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:20:09 -0000

You can do a lot better than this David.

When you state that, "...actual revenue from podcasting isn’t budging much." you're showing that you did absolutely nothing but provide a weak synopsis of an already very weak and shallow Business Week report on podcast advertising.

Over the last two months RawVoice has negotiated our strongest ad deals yet that put more money in podcasters pockets than ever before. We're also starting to see some podcasters doubling up on sponsorships in situations where they made their own contacts. For Immediate Release is a great example of that.

Does an ad deal not exist if it hasn't been negotiated by Podtrac or Feedburner?

The fact is that the ad market for podcasts is growing faster than it ever did for blogs or any other form of independent media. Podcasting itself is only two and a half years old and RawVoice has hundreds of podcasters earning some kind of revenue from their shows.

Compare that to blogging. Dave Winer started the first blog in 1997. How many bloggers were engaged in advertising deals in mid-1999? Probably none.

It's bad enough that we continue to get very shallow reports on the impact of podcasting from mainstream sources like Business Week. I would hope that a great resource like PaidContent would aspire to a higher standard.

Re: With Podcast Ad Revenue Rising, Audience Measurement Catches Up

Rob Safuto — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:58:33 -0000

At Raw Voice, we're doing our part to make podcast advertising a viable medium. We have the right to negotiate ads for over 1000 podcasts. And we currently have more than 200 podcasts earning ad revenue between our Blubrry and PodcasterNews properties.

We have a deep connection with our community of podcasters, probably more so than the other companies mentioned in the Business Week piece. As such, we can offer advertisers Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) deals that lowers the risk for the advertiser and increases the return for the podcaster when they do convert a sale. So podcasters are rewarded based on influence and advertisers get quantifiable results.

Surveys and auto-insertion technology, while important in the overall process, will not be the reasons that podcast advertising will move to the next level. Organizations that have very close relationships with quality podcasters will be able to offer the most flexible deals that will benefit the advertiser, the podcaster and the audience.