How I Converted a Hobby Podcast into a Profitable Media Property

The New Media Expo is the world's most popular convention for podcasters, bloggers and online content creators. If you are serious about online video it's an event that you shouldn't miss.

This is part of a blog series that highlights a session or event happening at New Media Expo - hopefully enticing you to come join us online video content creators in Las Vegas August 14-16, 2008.

Don McAllister is one of the smartest guys in online video. I first met Don when he created the first Media Kit for French Maid TV. He knows the tools and knows how to use them to make money. If you have information that you think you can sell online you should make a point of attending Don's session:

How I Converted a Hobby Podcast into a Profitable Media Property Track 3: The Business of New Media Instructor: Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline Description: In this session, Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline will share his experiences of turning a fledgling part time hobby podcast into a successful full time New Media property generating a six figure income. Don will detail his real life experiences with different monetization strategies and adopting multiple revenue streams, all of which have contributed to building his audience each and every month, and enabled extreme levels of customer satisfaction along with high customer retention rates. In addition, we'll look at the tools and systems required to both deliver premium content and manage a membership based New Media property. The session will also take a look at screencasting as a format and explain why it is such an effective training medium, as well as taking a look at some of the more technical aspects of screencasting. You'll learn how to create stunning HD screencasts and get some great encoding tips showing you to how to deliver HD video content cost effectively.

Oh, you might also want to Book your hotel now and get your free Expo Hall Pass before the price increase.

The World is More Dangerous

As a guy who watches the girl spin clockwise I know that I'm one of those people who doesn't like details or anything tedious. Learning HTML or How To FTP has never been anything that I've wanted to learn just because it looks "not fun." But the other day someone asked me if I could flow chart a website for a project we were working on and I decided I would give Apple's iWeb a try to build out the flow of the website rather than flow chart it. Boy o boy, golly gee Willickers am I glad I did.


iWeb is a dream to use. I couldn't believe how easy and fun it is. After I got done playing with it I downloaded Cyberduck and actually FTPed the site that I had created. Well I know a bunch of you are saying yeah, so what? Well the so what for me was that I never touched this stuff before. I've always had a someone else build my websites for me. Now I'm on a mission and I'm creatively inspired to create more and more.

In doing so I found the above video from Don Macalister and I stumbled upon Don's business model because of a search I did looking for more info on iWeb.

Don creates Screencasts Online and sells a subscription to a premium video podcast that he calls the "ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Membership" Don charges just $25USD for a full six months membership plus a "one-off joining fee" of $20USD to gain access to the entire back catalogue of ScreenCastsOnline shows. He also has created Free versions of his tutorials about Keynote, email for the iPhone and other Mac topics that don't give away all the good info. They just give a little peak. Next Don posts these "promos" on Revver and Youtube and that's how I stumbled upon them by searching for videos about iWeb.

Now I was so impressed with Don's business model that I signed up for his affiliate program just to give the whole thing a test run and see if I like the way he's handling his affiliates (the people that send him sales.)

Truth be told, I know Don from the podcasting community and he created the first media kit for French Maid TV for me so being in his affiliate program might let me earn back some of the money I paid him to create that first FMTV Media Kit.

So now the world is a more dangerous place because I know how to create a website and FTP. Now if Don can talk Google AdSense into creating something as cool as iWeb for posting text and video ads then it will be really dangerous.