By Joe Klock, Sr.

Real estate analysts (and what American is not among them these days?) tend to survey the sea of sale signs in most areas and join the gloomy headline writers who conclude that there are not enough ready, willing and able buyers in the market place.

Not so, gentle reader! The shortfall is among sellers, of which there are relatively few treading water in the aforementioned sea.
"Whoa, Nellie!" you might exclaim (ignoring the by-line clearly displayed above), "any fool, including the by-lined fool, can see that it's buyers that are now in short supply."
In so doing, you might cite the hordes of hungry house-hunters who roamed the house-hunting roadways during the many months of a recently-deceased feeding frenzy, fueled by mortgage lenders with deep pockets and all the fiscal restraint of sailors on leave.
It is a now a fact of real estate life in most areas that their numbers - and that financial fuel - have shrunk like last month's birthday balloons, and it's true that there are fewer prospective buyers rummaging through the current logjam of listings.
Enter the law (not the theory or fantasy) of supply and demand, which dictates that when the number of consumers is dwarfed by a surplus of products, either prices take a hit or activity takes a holiday.
That reality underpins my contention that, while there may be too many homes for sale, there are too few legitimate sellers offering them.
This position is backed up by more than a half-century of experience on and behind the firing line of real estate brokerage, during which I have seen and survived several cycles of inflation, deflation and stagflation, as well as so-called sellers' markets which morphed into buyers' markets and vice versa.
Through all that trauma, certain facts remained unchanged - facts that are being ignored by too many would-be sellers and, sadly, pseudo-professionals. They are as follows:
1. No home in history has ever sold for a penny more than the best offer obtainable from the best buyer available in the then-current market.
2. The only way to determine the true value of a home is to thoroughly and aggressively test the market and challenge the competition. That process need not be a lengthy one, since buyers and their agents do comparison shopping and readily react to an attractive offering.
3. Once that procedure has been pursued, properties remaining unsold for an extended period of time are, quite simply, overpriced. Forget about what similar houses sold for in the past (which is history), or what those would-be sellers might have invested in their homes (which is irrelevant), or what qualified appraisers say they are worth (which are only opinions). The critical test is exposing one's home to the greatest practical number of prospective buyers and active agents, and then analyzing the results.
4. A home that is appropriately priced and effectively marketed, preferably by competent professionals, will ALWAYS attract attention, generate activity and ALWAYS sell for what it's worth (refer to Fact #1 above).
The problem today is not that there are too few buyers. Demand is what it is and neither wishful thinking nor wistful memories will increase its size.
The more serious shortage is of genuine sellers; i.e., those who meet these specific criteria:
a) They are willing and able to accept the best price obtainable from the best buyer available in the current market, and
b) They have something to lose if they don't do so.
"Sellers" who do not fit that mold are not sellers at all and should be encouraged to take their properties off the market. (Realistically, they're not actually ON the market, anyway!)
The market is not always kind, but it is never wrong - and those who believe otherwise pay a heavy price for ignoring "The Facts Of Life For Home Sellers."
FOOTNOTE: For a further dose of this perhaps-unpleasant medicine, visit www.joeklock.com and click on that caption. You have nothing to lose - except, maybe, a pipe dream.
If that doesn't work for you, take two antacids or a short snort and DON'T call me in the morning!
Here's the bottom line - take it to the bank or to any nearby Wailing Wall: When proper pricing is combined with effective marketing, there is a buyer for everything and, given those conditions, any home can be sold in any market.
The ritual dances of negotiation may change with market fluctuations, but the drumbeat of reality does not!

Mike Carraway
Broker/Owner

WEICHERT, REALTORS - Access Realty
1100 East Park Drive, Suite 104
Birmingham, AL 35235
1-800-840-0165
WEICHERT, REALTORS - Access Realty
Valleydale Branch
4500 Valleydale Road, Suite 160
Birmingham, AL 35242
205-995-3939
24/hr Info: 800-634-0511
24/hr Fax: 800-634-0511
www.Access1000.com
www.Weichert.com
www.AlabamaWebPage.com
www.TakeOurTest.com
www.BirminghamRealEstateSchool.com

Because of the change in real estate market conditions, more sellers are competing for fewer buyers. So once again, it seemed important to challenge a long-standing "myth" of real estate.

"The initial listing price isn't that important because the price can always be adjusted down later."

Many homeowners believe this.
It is a myth.
Not true.

If most buyers first viewed your house because of a newspaper ad, a magazine, the internet, brochures, or the sign in your front yard, the initial listing price probably would not make a difference. The house would always be "new" to those seeing it.

But most buyers do NOT come to your house because of various types of advertising. That is the another myth.

Sure, buyers call on an ad, they often LOOK at that house, but not always. Once they talk to an agent, they may discover it isn't what they need (or want) at all.

However, they ARE talking to an agent. That agent knows the current inventory and will know of other property that DOES fit their needs.

Those are the properties that buyers look at, and THIS is how most buyers end up looking at your house, too. Because of other agents, not because of your ad.

Hardly anyone buys the house in the ad.

As a result, you need to get other agents interested in your property, and this is where your listing agent comes in...and why a good listing agent is extremely important. The listing agent gets buyer's agents looking at your home.

Those agents have clients who called in on other properties.

Buyer's agents are not swayed by advertising. They look at the needs of the client, where the client wants to live, location, condition, and other details of the property...
And most importantly....
...price.

If your house is overpriced, agents are going to show similar homes that are priced more attractively. Your listing will get passed over.
Agents pay MOST attention to homes newly on the market. There are fewer NEW listings than current listings. It is easier to keep an eye out for what is NEW, compared to the vast number of current listings.

New listings are on the "hot" sheet circulated in real estate offices. The MLS computer identifies new listings. Your listing agent may hire a service to distribute fliers to all the buyer's agents. There are office previews and MLS tours to showcase new listings. A lot of attention is focused on what is NEW.

With agent's looking at newly listed homes so aggressively, a properly priced home gets attention.

An overpriced home gets passed over.

You may be thinking, "But I'm willing to negotiate!"

Buyers aren't thinking in advance about how much you are willing to negotiate. They are comparing your asking price to other asking prices.

Plus, when your house is new on the market, you may not be willing to negotiate as much as you will later, once you've realized your error. Keep in mind that statistics show, quite often, the first offer is the best offer.

So what happens if you overprice in the beginning and get more realistic later?

You don't have all those important Buyer's Agents looking at your listing because it is NEW. A price reduction later in the listing cycle often gets overlooked. It is just one of many listings, not one of a few new listings.

As time passes, you could actually become desperate to sell because you've accepted a new job or because you have already bought a new home.

That is a recipe for receiving lowball offers, so you could end up selling for less than if you had priced the home correctly in the first place.

Agents know this stuff, but many sellers still mistakenly believe they should "price it high" because they can lower the price later, if necessary.

That is not the best strategy.

A bank or mortgage company forecloses on a property. After a few months of legal hassles, the lender finally gets clear title to the property and hires a local real estate agent. Of course, the lender, at this point, wants to try and recover almost all of the money lent on the property.

6 months or a year go by and this period is full of price reductions and repairs to the property. The property may have been vandalized, lived in by squatters, had new carpet and paint, even had new landscaping. The problem is usually that the lender refuses to set the price where it should be so the property, although shown many times, continues to sit on the market.

There is a hidden time limit for this lender. Does anyone know how long it is? How long can the lender keep a non-performing asset on its' books? How long can the property be an REO? We aren't talking about government foreclosures here (FHA and VA loans), the government can keep them forever. We are talking about bank or lender owned foreclosures.

I have a done a little research and it appears that the time limit that a private lender can keep an REO on its' books is 2 years plus or minus a little.

The questions is... What happens to the house or property AFTER the statutory time period has expired and the lender is forced to "get rid of the property at any price"?

Unfortunately, researching this topic has produced very little in the way of usable results. However, I did happen upon a few references to something called The REO Black Hole List. Apparently there really is a place that lenders can "dump" their old REO inventory as a last measure. And, they dump them at dirt cheap prices - usually for thess than lot value.

My research has found that there appears to be a handful of asset managers, companies that buy these old REO properties in bulk, that lenders turn to when they absolutely must liquidate the non-performing assets. These asset managing companies turn around and sell, in bulk, to a "secret" list of private, seasoned investors who actually purchase 50 to 100 to 400 houses at a time.

And guess what? These investors are able to purchase these homes, on average, for $2350 to $5000 per house! I kid you not. I actually spoke to an investor who bought around 182 houses direct from Fannie Mae for $400,000. You do the math. That is under $2500 per house.

The thing about this kind of setup is that the investor must buy all of the homes in a package - whether they are vacant lots, burnouts, or condemned. AND - they are not in one location but spread out all over the country. That's why the average price per home is so cheap...to spread the risk. But, these homes have all been in an MLS system somewhere - they were all REO properties at one time - so there is a way to find the market value pretty easily: Call a local agent!

AND since the investor may live in Maine or south Florida, he or she will also call a local agent to list these properties. They usually pay a high commission because the price will be low and because they have very little invested in the house. Does anyone have any experience with these types of investors? Or - if you know a local investor, would they be interested in this kind of "bulk buying"?

One other little tidbit I found out: a lot of the packages that these asset managers sell consist of only 10 or 20 homes. Think about that. You could buy 10 homes for $30,000 or $40,000. While some of them may not be the jewels you would want, several of them will always be great fix and flip homes that will sell for as much as you paid for the entire package.

Again, little information can be found on this "underground network" and the only place I could get any information was at this REO site. I know it exists. If you know how to get on this list or how to get in touch with the investors that participate, please post it! If you are in Ohio and I am in Alabama, we are not competing against each other!

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC released their third annual study of advertising revenue in podcasting last week. Although the studys headline is yet another year of steep growth, the numbers show that growth has peaked and is slowing down. The numbers show that podcasting will need to find other sources of revenue if its commercial viability is ever going to be proportional to its growing listenership.

The study indicates that podcast advertising brought in $479 million in 2018 and estimates that it will scrape past $1 billion by 2021. Last year's revenue is a 53% increase over 2017, but growth is expected to slow down to about 20% in a couple of years.

These numbers are much lower than those from other forms of ad-supported online audio content. PwC's Global Entertainment and Media Outlook last year estimated $1.65 billion in ad revenue for internet streams of AM/FM radio stations in 2018, growing to $2.2 billion by 2021.

complete article

Given the IAB and PwC’s projection that ad revenue in podcasting will at last pass $1 billion in 2021 (up from $479 million in 2018), one would think this mediums decade-long slow (really slow) march towards some sort of critical mass has finally hit its stride. Let the gold rush begin, no?

complete article

Johanna Zorn is leaving the Third Coast Festival. The executive director and co-founder of the Chicago-based audio documentary conference will be departing in the fall, and the search for her replacement will kick off later this week. The move was announced Wednesday through a letter published on the Third Coast website.

Obviously, this is a major development for the beloved conference, which has become one of the most, if not the most important gatherings for radio and podcast producers since its founding almost two decades ago. Third Coast grew particularly quickly over the past few years — tracking the growth spurt in the audio world around it — the biggest expression of which was the decision to shift the festival towards an annualized schedule in 2016. (It was previously held every two years.)

complete article

Podcasts created by big corporate brands to humanize themselves in the minds of everyday people — or branded podcasts, as they are known in the biz — are an increasingly common phenomenon these days. McDonalds launched one a while back to plug the return of its Szechuan sauce. Tinder has one, as do Microsoft and Nike and Slack. Hell, even Goldman Sachs has one, though how you’d humanize a giant octopuslike bank is anybody’s guess. So it should not come as a particular surprise that Netflix, the all-consuming video distribution platform and entertainment company that has laid waste to countless waking hours, has bought into the trend as well. But what may be a little surprising is the way in which the company has done so: As it turns out, Netflix’s various branded podcast adventures are far more peculiar, and in some ways, more interesting than one would otherwise assume.

complete article

There are big opportunities for the music industry in podcasts, but one of the big barriers is licensing: the cost and complexity for podcasters of securing the rights to actually play music in their shows.

complete article

Apple is on the prowl. Months after Spotify shelled out $500m on two podcasting start-ups, Apple executives are said to be contacting media companies in the hope of funding original content and brokering exclusive deals.

This new phase for Apples streaming service comes at a time when audiences for voice-based programming are growing rapidly. In the past five years, weekly listeners have doubled in the UK, as have monthly audiences in the US. It is not surprising that technology companies are focusing on podcasting and making the medium easier to access. Apple has introduced full-text podcast searches on its Podcast app and Google has made them appear in search results. Spotify launched a voice assistant.

complete article

Over the past few years, there have been a number of major developments within the advertising world, but one of the most fascinating is the tremendous growth of the podcast. Podcasting, by many measures, is clearly on the rise. As the fortunes of podcasts rise, so too do those of individual podcasters, who have legions of devoted fans looking forward to their next episodes. Podcasting has created a new type of influencer, one who has the ability to reach people wherever they are, whether it’s at home, in their car, or during their daily commute.

complete article

Publishers took the medium mainstream, and shouldn’t let a tech platform take all the profit. Mary Meekers recent Internet Trends report showed that 70 million Americans listened to at least one podcast per month in 2018 – more than triple the number from a decade before. That should represent a massive opportunity for publishers who produce high-quality podcasts like The Daily and Fresh Air.

Podcasts are anything but new.

complete article

Nielsen has launched Nielsen Podcast Listener Buying Power Service, an analytics tool providing insights matching podcast listeners by genre with their buying habits.

The tool is placed to help pair podcasts with advertisers by detailing the interests and expenses of audiences.

The product, from Nielsen Scarborough, launches with iHeartMedia, Cadence13, Stitcher, Westwood One and Cabana as clients.

Clients will be able to profile shows using program titles collected from subscribers. In order to connect specific types of listeners with particular advertisers and specific program-level insights - built from a sample of 30,000 respondents.

complete article

Audiobooks and podcasts have been sky-rocketing in popularity over the past three or four years. In 2019, the number of Americans who had listened to an audiobook passed 50%, a first for the medium. Podcasts are also on the rise, with investments from companies like Spotify and Pandora further encouraging a virtious cycle of audience growth and a broadening pool of podcasters.

complete article

NPR is projecting that podcast sponsorship revenues will surpass revenues from broadcast sponsorships next year for the first time.

During NPR’s membership meeting Sept. 5, Chief Financial Officer Deborah Cowan told public radio station leaders that the network has budgeted about $55 million in corporate sponsorship revenues from podcasts in fiscal year 2020.

complete article

Reflecting the fact that 75% of UK advertisers are upping spend in podcasts, Nielsen has unveiled a measurement tool to gauge effectiveness in this growing ad space.

Nielsen believes that the UK’s 6 million weekly podcast listeners will double in the next three years. It is putting the tools in place for brands to “quantify the impact and effectiveness of their podcast ads” with the Nielsen Podcast Brand Effect.

The tool has already been running in the US and so far the results have found that 57% of podcast ads tested outperformed pre-roll video in driving purchase intent and 70% of respondents agreed that the podcast ads increased their awareness of products and services.

complete article

Meanwhile, the biggest advantage management holds up for growing podcasts is improved engagement on the platform. But since Spotify doesn't disclose average time spent per user on its platform, investors may be left guessing how the company is doing. So, what is the best indication of whether or not the podcast investments are paying off?

complete article

A good podcast starts with compelling material – but according to Tyler Moody, VP & GM, WarnerMedia Podcast Network, that’s just the beginning. To launch a successful podcast, Moody says you need:

1.   Content: In a democratized media world content is still king. Maybe more so than ever. The product you deliver to your audience has to be top quality and deliver on its promise.

complete article

Podcasts are now produced by commercial broadcasters, individuals and companies with no connection to broadcasting. In fact anyone with something to say, and a few pounds to spend on the equipment to say it, can get involved.

The digital audio files are cheap to produce and, thanks to the internet, easy to distribute.

complete article

If you want to test in a channel where early adopters are being rewarded with both attractive CAC and scale, here’s what you need to know:

~ Podcast advertising is used very successfully as a direct-response channel with CAC on par with other consideration-stage activities. It is not just for awareness.
~ Podcast reach is very good, reaching 51% of US audiences aged 12+ monthly.
~ Ads read by hosts outperform canned programmatic ads.
~ Tracking is harder than most digital channels and the cost to test the channel is higher than most digital channels.

complete article

Think about it. When was the last time a new podcast came out that was a mass, mainstream hit? Something that was such a hit that it changed things: brought in masses of new listeners, garnered tons of press, or really altered the perception of what podcasting can be?

complete article

This year brought seismic changes to the podscape—splashy, big-money acquisitions by companies like Spotify, uneven, big-money débuts by players like Luminary—and, above ground, a healthy crop of reliably good, bountiful content. New daily-news shows arose beside the stalwarts; impeachment podcasts sprang up. History podcasts brought perspective, music podcasts brought joy, and one of my favorite podcast genres—the locally produced NPR-style narrative investigative series—continued to flourish.

Best Podcasts of 2019

It is well-known that podcasting is huge these days. But you might not realize how many educational podcasts are out there.

By educational, we mean shows that focus on some super-focused topic, like a specific period of history or an academic discipline. For instance, there are at least 15 or 20 active podcasts about linguistics, and there are several podcasts out there about conversational Latin (and we were pretty sure that was a dead language that was no longer spoken).

A Podcast for Every Discipline? The Rise of Educational Audio

The U.S. podcast market has been on the rise for years, but 2019 marked an extraordinary year of growth for the space.

At least 90 million U.S. consumers (27% of the population) listen to podcasts monthly, up 23% from 73 million in 2018, which is an acceleration from the 9% year-over-year growth monthly podcast listening experienced last year, according to Edison Research and Triton Digital.

Top 19 Media Trends of 2019: The Podcast Boom

Podcasting is recording strong growth in the UK, with the most recent Ofcom data showing that 7.1m people listen to podcasts each week – equal to one in eight of the total population. Moreover, this figure increased by 24% from 2018 to 2019, and has more than doubled in the past five years. As part of their in-depth survey of media consumption, Ofcom also found that half of podcast listeners began listening in the last two years, and regular podcast users listen to seven podcasts per week, indicating that, for many people, podcasts are now an important part of their daily lives.

Business ideas for 2020: Podcasting

There is an industry trend toward more direct listener monetization and engagement. This includes crowdfunding, membership, tipping, and donations, as well as exclusive and premium content.

This is a healthy development — expanding the range of touch points with listeners beyond the ad impression and helping publishers diversify their revenue and business models. The trend speaks to the depth of experience that spoken-word audio elicits, and it encompasses other podcast engagement strategies such as live shows, email newsletters, fan clubs, surveys, and experiments with personalization and interactivity.

PodPass wants to build the identity layer for podcasting

More than half of the U.S. population over age 12 has now listened to a podcast, according to Edison Research. The medium has fundamentally altered the landscape for audio content, liberating and empowering both listeners and creators. And big acquisitions such as Spotify’s purchase of Gimlet Media signal that the business of podcasting is coming of age, too.

But there remains an economic gulf that some entrepreneurs and investors see as an opportunity. Ad spending on podcasting is around $500 million, by some estimates, but that compares to $17 billion or more for radio.

So where is podcasting heading next? How will speech recognition, smart speakers and other innovations change the landscape for podcasts? Should you start your own show? Could you make any money if you did?

The future of podcasting: Can the business of audio content catch up with the creative revolution?

As 2019 moves to a close, Spotify is giving its yearly version of the personalized Spotify Wrapped, as well as a unique one that showcases your listening records through the last decade.

That indicates your Wrapped will add the songs, artists, albums, and podcasts you found on Spotify in 2019, plus the artists you streamed across the past decade, by a My Decade Wrapped option.

Spotify Wrapped extends to add your favorite music from the decade, plus podcaster metrics

Starting a podcast is easy. Making one that actually sounds good is another story entirely. We can not help much with the bigger problems facing would-be podcasters -- finding a good topic and getting people to listen -- but we can point you to the best gear to get started. With a few smart purchases, you too can sound like a podcast pro.

complete article

Technologically-enhanced journalism has seen proliferation of online broadcasting channels, blogs and online newspapers. All these are set up in a bid to mainly attract curious millennials, and to offer alternative platforms to the wider content consumers.

In Kenya, online newspapers and TV streaming services have been touted as the next frontier in the media industry.

Legacy media outlets find this both as a challenge and opportunity at the same time. As much as they are a source of new revenue streams, these new digital channels offer tough competition that has seen the traditional media outlets’ earnings substantially shrink.

complete article

Vox Media Podcast Network now generates over $10 million a year in revenue from a roster of more than 200 shows across Voxs 14 brands, including those produced with partners like Stitcher. While president of Vox Media Studios Marty Moe would not disclose revenue figures, he said the goal is to double the eight-figure revenue business. This would mean a minimum of $20 million in 2020. In all, Vox Media worked with over 100 different podcast advertisers last year and he said he expects this number to grow this year, although the focus is on expanding hit podcasts.

complete article

The company behind the hit true-crime podcast Serial is exploring a sale, according to a person familiar with the matter, putting one of digital audios biggest brands on the market as the medium becomes increasingly popular.

complete article

Spotify, the Swedish music and audio streaming giant, has extended its reach further into the growing podcast market with its formal acquisition of the Ringer, a US sports and pop culture platform.

Although Spotify announced the acquisition at the beginning of this month, more details of the deal emerged this week in a filing with the Security and Exchange Commission.

complete article

Podcasts have never been more popular than they are today.

In fact, there are more than 800,000 active podcasts as of 2019, which is a number that only looks to increase in the years to come.

So why are podcasts so popular?

Because they are incredibly huge moneymakers.

Almost a third of Americans listen to at least one podcast a month, and advertisers have noticed.

complete article

Spotifys continued investment in podcasts appears to be paying off, after the company reported that podcast listening has increased by 200 percent year-on-year in its fourth quarter earnings today. The company says it now has over 700,000 podcasts on its platform, and that over 16 percent of its users now listen to podcasts. Spotify says the amount of users paying for its premium tier increased to 124 million.

complete article

Chasing industry trends, iHeart Media is about to become the latest audio company to release a custom ad network. Executives say iHeartPodcast AdSuite will tempt brands and potential partners—and set the company apart from its competitors—with a unique array of ad formats across platforms and custom tools.

complete article

The decision to implement a private podcast is a critical first step to improving your business communication, but there are a number of other important decisions you have to make before the show becomes a reality. In this article, we’ll focus on one unavoidable decision: what type of equipment should you buy?

The answer, perhaps unsatisfyingly, is that it depends. However, here are the questions you should be asking yourself as you begin the search for podcasting gear.

complete article

Apple Podcasts reported to have 800,000 shows and over 30 million episodes as of December 2019. According to Edison Research and Triton Digital, there are currently 62 million Americans who listen to podcasts each week.

complete article

Advantage: Convenience

With podcasting, you do not have to worry that your audience is busy offline when you make your sales pitch. A listener can download the file and replay it at whatever time is convenient for him, even while jogging or driving to work. If someone chooses to subscribe to your podcast feed, he can get any podcasts of interest downloaded automatically. If you want all your employees to hear what you have to say, podcasting is often easier than trying to get everyone together for one meeting.

complete article

Like so many people throughout the country, we at NPR's Student Podcast Challenge are working from home right now. And after months of teaching students how to make a homemade podcast, we put our skills to the test: The latest episode of our podcast was recorded from our bedrooms.


Host/producer Lauren Migaki recorded a podcast from her home/pillow fort studio.

We used pillow forts (just like in our how-to video!), bulky headphones and special, professional-grade microphones. But don't let the equipment discourage you — with just a couple tweaks you can use essentially the same setup: Replace the headphones with earbuds, and the mics with a mobile device like a cell phone or tablet, and you are ready to go!

complete article

Podcasting accommodates individuals who prefer to passively consume information (meaning they choose what they want when they want it).

complete article

FEDERATED MEDIA has launched a podcast division, including a podcast network as well as production and marketing services, with 46 podcasts at launch, including original shows, branded podcasts, and repurposed radio content.

complete article

What are the biggest digital marketing and branding trends shaping the year ahead? How will marketers approach increasing brand awareness, attracting new customers and growing revenue in an always on digital world where the only guarantee is change?

2020 will be like nothing we have seen before in the digital landscape.

complete article

As the global COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe, it appears more people are turning to podcasts for news and scientific information as much as a distraction.

Acast, one of the world's largest podcast hosting and analytics companies, said new listening figures for March 21-22 saw a 7% increase in listens globally, equivalent to more than 750,000 podcast plays.

Although some categories experienced declines, podcasts in the education, entertainment, science, medicine and health genres were all up more than 10%.

complete article

Podcast marketing is on a roll in 2020 with many companies releasing audio content to build trust, connect with their audience on a personal level, and boost brand awareness.

1. Ease of production
2. Low entry costs
3. Language is no barrier
4. Repurpose your blog and video content as audio
5. Less competition than blogging and YouTube
6. Easier to grow a following as a podcaster
7. Successful podcasters make millions of dollars a year
8. Build connections by interviewing influential guests
9. Showcase your speaking skills
10. Build high-DA links back to your website

Storytelling is powerful.

With the influx of media—both social and traditional—getting consumed in a 24/7 news cycle can be overwhelming and optional. The concept of time seems irrelevant lately leaving our fingertips free for endless scrolling, a particularly slippery slope for mental health during this global pandemic.

Individuals, families and communities worldwide are learning how to grapple with the effects of a changing social paradigm, seeking ways to stay connected and safe.

Adaptability during this new paradigm is key and many tech companies are stepping up to the plate to perfect, iterate, and improve on products to keep up with a new normal and compete in an evolving landscape.

If the music industry is worried about podcasts eating into music’s share of the American audio diet, new survey data suggests that such worries are unfounded: Podcasts’ share increased at the expense of music a couple of years ago but has held steady ever since. Instead, the rising number of podcast listeners are coming from AM/FM radio. That’s what the numbers in new research from Edison Research, Triton Digital and National Public Radio show.

The Infinite Dial from Edison Research and Triton Digital is an annual survey that has been published for over 20 years. It originally covered listenership to digital radio such as Pandora and Sirius XM, but it has expanded to include other types of streaming music services, social media, podcasting and most recently esports; it has also tracked trends in consumer ownership of devices such as smartphones and smart speakers. The Infinite Dial is highly respected because of its methodological rigor and its year-to-year consistency over a long period of time. The 2020 edition of the Infinite Dial was released last week.

New Sony venture. Sony Music Entertainment announced another podcasting venture today, this time in the shape of a partnership with U.K. audio company Somethin Else. This continues a recent run of Sony investments in audio — previous examples include Jonathan Hirschs Neon Hum Media, Adam Davidson and Laura Mayers Three Uncanny Four and Renay Richardsons Broccoli Content.

In order to understand how to start a podcast for your business, there are a few key elements to keep in mind.

Podcasting is a disruptive technology that has found acceptance in the present-day global digital market. From storytelling to interviews, there are podcasts for everything. And, if used correctly, podcasting can give your business a major boost by ensuring better customer and market reach, showcasing your industry expertise and forming extensive networks.

The popularity of podcasts is universal. In the U.S., about 40% of Americans above the age of 12 listened to a podcast in the year 2017. Imagine the potential channels and benefits the medium of podcasting can create for you if used correctly.

However, starting a successful business podcast is not a piece of cake. You need to be appropriately prepared before venturing into this project, especially if you plan on doing it without the help of a professional podcaster. There are certain technical and other related requirements you must take care of before you can even air your first podcast episode. But fret not; here are the crucial steps to start a podcast for your business.

So you want to get into podcasting? By now, you have probably had a few friends launch their own podcasts and read a handful of articles on what it really takes to start a successful podcast. Our company has bought roughly a half a billion dollars worth of podcast ads over the last decade. We know a thing or two about what makes a podcast special.

Podcasting is one of the best ways to find and connect with your customers. Do it right and you’ll engage a growing community of loyal fans who hang on your every word and buy all your products and services. Do it wrong and you’ll end up broke. Most podcasters – some 85% – miss the opportunity to profit from podcasting while wasting precious dollars on fancy equipment. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

1. Be Your Own Sponsor
2. Reverse Engineer Your SEO
3. Know and Understand Your Audience
4. Incentivize Engagement With Gamification