Help needed please.

for sometime I have bee considering starting a podcast aimed at the magician fraternity.
The topic is to be the business side of magic with interviews with successful magicians discussing how they did it.

My concerns, questions and where you can help.

I have looked at podcasts such as themagicwordpodcast and newswire and there seems to be very little engagement on the podcasts.
The production values are good, content is good, the interviews are big names yet the reviews are tiny. why do you think this is?

Creating a podcast is a huge commitment in time and money, do you think it is a worthwhile venture?
Anybody have any experience in doing this?
Anybody doing a podcast for magicians who will share experience?
Anybody regularly listening to magician podcasts that can share what it means to them?

Any feedback, guidance or suggestion is appreciated.

Regards,
Ken

Tom Crowel is doing exactly this.

I also like Tom Crowl's videos / interviews. Find them here: http://entertainment-experts.com/

James Munton also did some nice interviews (podcasts) that were available to his Magic Bistro members. He recently said that he's going to try to make them available for his "Zero to Booked Solid" Course customers, now that the Bistro is closed.

- Donald

While podcasting is very interesting to me, it simply hasn't caught on with the masses. From a producer's point of view, it can be costly and labor intensive to generate a profit. Unless you are just doing it for a labor of love, it not simple to monetize it easily.

Plus podcasting has such specific content it generally is targeted to such a fragmented audience it hard to create success and popularize. Even with magic, it's s fragmented. Those that do closeup and card magic, have no interest in illusions or stage work. Those that are stage magician's have little concerns for restaurant work, etc. This makes target demographics even smaller.

Then the reverse side of the coin is to go more general topics, but then the complain is it's to generic and specific enough.

I think the medium simply has never been as strong as desired.

I consume podcasts daily. There's a lot of great stuff out there in itunes for marketing topics etc.

You asked, "The production values are good, content is good, the interviews are big names yet the reviews are tiny. why do you think this is?"

I find that all of the podcasters that I enjoy will regularly ask that the listeners go to iTunes and leave a review. It's all about delivering a quality product as far as content AND production quality. PLUS promoting the podcast. If they aren't promoting a good product, then they won't get many reviews and word will not spread quickly.

The others are correct on these points:
1) quality production equipment can cost a bit. But one can always go with cheaper equipment to get started and later upgrade. Check out http://www.podcastanswerman.com with Cliff Ravenscraft and http://www.smartpassiveincome.com with Pat Flynn for information on equipment and tutorials and articles on podcasting.
2) it does take a significant investment of time. That will vary according to how often you release a new episode. However you should release on a predictable schedule.
3) yes, market fragmentation is an issue. However, the magic publications target magicians in general in spite of our various specialties. People can pick and choose to listen to which ever episodes that most appeal to them. Accurate episode names and descriptions are critical.

I'm planning a podcast for my other business and actually ordering equipment for it this weekend.

I wish you all the best....Michael

P.S. http://www.Entrepreneuronfire.com or http://www.eofire.com with John Dumas put out a podcast recently with our very own Café member, Josh London, recently.

Just a heads up - thanks to a security issue with WordPress - some hackers injected malware into the Entertainment Experts site. Google has issued a warning and I have hired a company to go in and remove the problem. Appreciate the kind words about the site - I'll let people know when it is safe again. (Apparently you can't help others without getting slapped once and awhile.)

For Ken - the OP - Check in with Matt Bailey's Ventriloquism Weekly. He's doing podcasts with ventriloquists - a different subject, but he may be able to share some ideas. Do a Google search - or if you can't find him - PM me for an introduction.

Tom

Hi Michael, thanks for the heads up. I too consume podcasts and I am a subscriber to all you have mentioned. I am in a mastermind group with Pat Flynn and I coached him in the magic he used for his super session at NMX.
I have also contacted Josh and we have an interview setup for early Feb. The Magician Business podcast is due to launch 1st April. I would value your feedback when we go live.

Thanks to all for your comments so far. Tom I have sent you a PM.

Ken

I guess making over $100,000 a month isn't profitable. Take a look at http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com/income/

I was also interviewed on this podcast (you can listen here: http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com/podcas......n-fire/) and the response has been tremendous. I've even booked a few gigs from it and was asked to be on another podcast in relations to my PPC experience.

To say podcasts "hasn't caught on with the masses" is an incredible error in fact and just plain wrong.

Josh

A podcast that might be of interest to magicians is: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-......701?mt=2

Thanks David...I'll check it out.

I still think that the very best magic-related podcast I've listened to was The Magic Newswire that Ken mentioned in the original post:
http://www.linkingpage.com/

Hours of interviews with some great magicians.

- Mike

Magic Newswire is great! Also check out Two Magicians One Mic.

Quick update since I mentioned it here - http://entertainment-experts.com is back on-line. The hack was a malware injection that caused Google to Blacklist the site for a period. Took over a day to clean up - but Google has given us the green light.

If anyone ever suffers a hacked site - I can make some excellent recommendations. Not something anyone should have to suffer through...

Tom

Certainly Check Out The Amazing Scott Wells' "The Magic Word" podcasts... always awesome!
- http://TheMagicWordPodcast.com

Tom is a total RockStar and his stuff is Top of the Tops! MUST Watch/Listen!

Paul Romhany Interviews The Great Alan Watson On Success!
- http://www.youtube.com/user/AlanWatsonMagician - (7 Secrets of Success Video)

There lots more out there too... TONS of great stuff on magic AND business both inside and outside of magic... and I suppose there is always room for more... share what ya share!

Hope That Helps...

I am at Your Service and In HIS Service,
~ Deano in Reno
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I have a series of interviews "in the can" on the business of magic. Not sure if they will come out in Podcast format or just be available to subscribers. They expand on the series Ten Little Secrets that is appearing in Vanish

Surprised no one mentioned Peter Wardell and his The magic State of Mind. He explores many things that fascinate me as well, productivity, creativity, motivation etc

Sorry for the multiple posts.. I,m just above the plimsol line on a ship heading to Vanuatu and it keeps dropping out.

Tales from the Pitch is another excellent site packed with interviews and fun. Re . Street performing and busking

Hehehehe... I too have literally THOUSANDS of Hours of interviews with our industries best (Kevin James, Rick Thomas, Morgan Strebler, Eric Paul, Jim Snack, Steve Hart, Dave Dee, Joel Bauer and soooo many others... as well as other non-magic 'business' experts.) all done and in 'the can', as it were from all those years of my "Success Madness Radio" show. Many have been shared with my members, but lots more still there as well... thousand of hours is a LOT to go through. - HA!

I decided to throw my two cents on this issue based on the little bit of experience I have running my own podcast. (Thanks for the plug, David!) I'm Daniel GreenWolf and I run "The Gingerosity Podcast" (http://www.TheGingerosity.com).

I have spent a long time listening to podcasts. I'm of the right demographic to be into them (18-35 y/o), and my usual choices are generally non-magic podcasts like "The Nerdist" (Which has spun off into an entire podcasting network and niche media empire), "Penn's Sunday School" (Run by Penn Jillette), "The Adam Carolla Show" (Another little media empire in its own right), "WTF with Marc Marhon", etc. I was into the "Itricks' Magic Week In Review" , "The Magic Newswire", and my initial intro to Magician Podcasts was "Go Magic Go".

I have a theatre background, and spent quite a lot of time working with lighting and audio, eventually taking on karaoke and DJing as side jobs to fill in the occasional schedule gaps. As I listened to more and more podcasts, I decided I wanted to see what went into making a really great sounding podcast, which the basis of it is in music mixing. And then all of the info about the tech end and web end of a podcast.

After listening to podcasts for years, and doing audio work for years, and working on web design and promotion for years, I decided that I wanted to do a podcast. And my reasons were clear to me: Strengthen my own Branding, con all of the awesome people I know into having interesting conversations with me and getting them on file, Expose my fan base to people whom I respect and think they should experience, and to let my fans know more about who I am a little bit at a time with every interview.

But the overall reason I'm doing it is because I love podcasting. It's just like Performing Magic- If you're doing it for money, fame, or women- don't bother because you'll suck at it. And don't do it because you think it'll be a good marketing tool because it won't. There are easier and far less-expensive ways to market yourself in this world. You have to truly enjoy all the aspects of Podcasting and if you don't- do the parts you DO enjoy and pay someone else to do the stuff you DON'T.

I'm proud of the product I've produced because it's very honest, I think the quality of the podcast is up there with some of the bigger hitters and I'm seeing continual growth in my downloads every month (Note, I'm only 3 1/2 months in at this point... but still). I'm constantly learning about the ins and out of the technical level of it from the pre-production to post-production and I still haven't gotten it 100%. But I think I can provide a few tips if you're willing to hear them.

-Spend the money on great audio equipment and software. Nothing turns someone off of a podcast more than bad audio. And it doesn't have to cost you much. I use a 3 mic (Soon to be 4 Mic) setup with great brands (Behringer, Shure) and the setup cost me less than $300.

-Learn what makes great audio equipment and software great. Yo-Yo Ma's Cello won't make you sound like Yo-Yo Ma. Study up and really learn how to record clear sound without room noise, clicks, pops, the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps. And make sure you pick Adobe Soundbooth or Audacity or GarageBand or Vegas or a plethora of other programs out there and learn the hell out of it. And trust me, you will use it for years and still not know everything about it. So just learn to make it do what you want.

-Keep a theme and realize that once you pick a theme, you will be picking your audience. I decided I didn't want to make my podcast magicians only, but wanted to expose regular people to entertainers and how their brains work and what makes them awesome. And although my podcast has primarily had on magicians, in 14 episodes I've had magicians, a hypnotist, sideshow artists, actors, musicians, comedians, and a fight director. I wanted variety because I like variety. I also saw a hole as there wasn't a general public "Variety Entertainers" podcast and that's what I wanted to hear.

-Choose your schedule and keep it! I hate it when podcasts skip weeks without as much as an "I'm sorry", much less an explanation. Or one episode is on Wednesday one week then on Friday the next without warning. All the big boys have episodes on schedule and there's no reason you shouldn't commit to that as well. Especially with tech the way it is, and many podcasting sites allowing you to upload all your files and post in advance to be released when you want it to be, so you'll never miss a day.

-Pimp the heck out of it. Do not trust word of mouth alone, especially at first. Put it in front of everyone's ear holes and get them to listen so they'll keep coming back on their own (As long as you don't suck). DO NOT BE SUBTLE.

-Accept that you'll generally lose some money right off the bat, even if it's only a little. I'm lucky enough to have sponsors who pay for the operating costs of the podcast, but the podcast isn't making me money right now. Just like any business, profit takes time and quality.

-Finally- BEG for feedback from people you trust. BEG for feedback from your listeners and then listen to that feedback. You don't necessarily have to take the mob word as law, but if enough people tell you something sucks, you should try to work on it.

Alright, I've yammered enough. Hopefully you've gotten some minuscule nugget of info out of this rambling diatribe. I want to see more really good podcasts out there and I think I'm doing something right, so I hope that it will translate and I can help you do something right, too. Or save you a buttload of aggravation. Either way is a good thing.

Thanks for the plethora of information, Daniel. A friend of mine does a podcast 4 times a week, and I've been thinking about doing one myself. Your post gives me lots to think about before I get started. Well done!

Lou Serrano