The LC on the DL

Podcasting keeps threatening to jump the shark. Seems like we hear that it won’t take off, then we hear it’s gaining ground, then we hear old media will never let it dig it’s way to sunlight. Podcasting isn’t dead and more lip service is being paid to it every day, however the service model that supports podcasters is old and broken.

We are trying to force podcasting into an old mold. Podcasting is not traditional media and the old ad systems and tracking methods just don’t work. There isn’t even a good stats system. Systems like RawVoice (powering Blubrry and TechPodcasts) as well as Podtrack are using redirects to count hits on the media files. How many hits versus how many downloads are completely different. How long are people listening? How much data is being transferred? Who knows, it’s all bout the clicks. It’s frustrating and there isn’t anything else.

It leads into the same old ad model.

To get into the stats tracking system, and possibly the ad system, one has to go through a survey where they ask you about your subscriber base, your hit count, your page views… all the stats that I wonder how many people have a handle on if they are signing up for stats tracking.

There are systems for stats tracking - most are utilizing java script which is great if you aren’t a tech site and all your visits have java script enabled and aren’t using a plugin to block stuff. Did you know there is a plugin to actively block the Google Analytics code from placing the cookie on your system? Google shows that I have 1/32 the amount of hits that I actually have because the people that are make up my audience are the people that are blocking the cookie intrusion. When the day is over I am going to trust my webserver logs because only they know how many times they served up a page and to who.

With all this clicking and viewing and scripting comes the methods ad networks use.

Ad networks want click throughs - not page views. Affiliate advertising is great if people are going to buy that Dell or Apple computer while they are on your site. Most likely they won’t but they will remember that Dell ad and go straight to dell.com when they are ready to buy. You provided the ad view that reminds them later what to buy but you see NOTHING from that ad in monetary value. It’s free advertising and free website space. If you are lucky enough to have hundreds of thousands of page views per month or even day you will be lucky enough to get ads that pay with cost per impression. Why do you have to have such crazy traffic? Because now that you do you can command better pay.

This isn’t even a model of traditional media. How often to people click on their TVs on on magazine ads? Never, the technology doesn’t allow them to. Yet advertisers pay MILLIONS for the VIEWS.

THE VIEWS.

Even on television shows that have less viewers than many websites they are paying big bucks to get their ad on.

Why can’t we command the same respect for our internet sites or for our podcasts and video? Because no one is standing up and saying “fuck this”. I have a policy that I don’t like to go on crazy rantfests about broken systems if I don’t have a better suggestion or plan to roll up my sleeves and work on fixing it.

I am fed up with the crappy stats systems, the crappy online advertising models, and the substandard promotion directories and I plan on doing something about it.