Such is the case with Susan Bratton who is one of the co-founders of peronsal life media. She has a podcast that is experiencing thousands of downloads per episodes.

How did she build her audience? Interviews. She has taken her epxerience and made an affordable package filled with tips and tools to help you create killer interviews that will have your audience raving about your podcast.

So not only can your podcast lead to making money, but your experience as a podcaster can be sold.  Check it out at talkshowtips.com

“The podcast audience has grown, too, and eMarketer projects that growth will continue at least through 2013, when there will be 37.6 million people downloading podcasts on a monthly basis, more than double the 2008 figure of 17.4 million.”

So in 2009, that is roughly 22 million. It also stated that that online buyers listen to podcasts. 50% of mostly online buyers in a PriceGrabber.com survey said they listened to podcasts

To examine the effect of podcast-listening on test scores, McKinney enlisted 64 students. Half of them heard a basic introductory Psych 101 visual perception lecture in the classroom, and took home a printout of the lecture slides.  The other half of the group were given the lecture in “enhanced” podcast form: they heard the same lecture, with the slides synchronized to the classroom talk.

Average scores of podcast listeners were not stellar – they averaged a “C” grade (71 %). But this bested the “D” average (61%) score of students who only heard the test material in the lecture hall.

It is worth note that the test score advantage disappeared among podcast listeners who did not take notes while they listened. Those podcast users who did take notes averaged even higher scores (77%).

George is a great example of a LOYAL audience. George’s audience got together and created a episode for him. Let’s look at that again. While most podcasters make episodes for their listeners, George’s extremely loyal fans made an episode for George. TWICE.

George’s show is a mixture of science, life commentary (where he talks about his life as a musician), comedy sketches and his view of the world as a skeptic. It sounds like there are about 9 people working on the show, but all the voices are done by George.

Musicians have years between albums. There is no real contact with the fans. With podcasting this can be a thing of the past. George keeps in touch and builds his fan base so that when he does release a CD, book etc, there are more people who are interested in purchasing it. I interviewed one of his fans who admitted she has purchased “pretty much everything he has.”

He was talked into starting a podcast by his friend Slau (from www.sessionswithslau.com ) and thought he’d do 50 episodes. He just released his 126th episode. It is the most “regular” thing he has done and looks forward to Wednesdays when “its time to start putting out a show”. His fans really appreciate his release schedule. George even recorded a few shows ahead when he went on vacation.

Now in addition to selling more music, George has been asked to perform, and speak on panels with people he idolized as a young teen. People like the James Randy (of the James Randy Education Foundation), Pen from Pen and Teller, who are involved in the skeptic and free thinking community. As George puts it, ” I hyperventilate when I think about it too much.”

“I think it’s solely due to podcasting that I built up an audience.” He has had people attend concerts of his band (the Philedelphia Funk Authority), as well as his solo performances. When it comes to his podcast, he found his niche (Atheism and Skeptics) and did a variety show that is peppered with skepticism. It’s silliness wrapped in skepticism. One of the keys of his success is his humble attitude. He says that the fact that I”‘m one of you guys” is one of the key to his success. When face to face with one of his heroes, he asks the questions that you would ask if you had the microphone.

The key to George’s success is he has TALENT. So when his podcast opened doors, he came loaded for bear whenever an opportunity raised it’s head. This has lead to more doors, and more opportunities.

Another “bi-product” of his podcast is that George is now viewed as an expert. George’s show has gone from fun light questions to “I’m going to get kicked out of the boy scouts because of my beliefs.” You are seen as a guy with the answers whether you want to be or not. “It’s very humbling,” George says.

George has put his podcast to the test by having a “Secret word” that his fans say when they see him. When asked how often he hears the “secret word,” George responded “all the time” especially at different conventions where he is performing and speaking at.

What about music sales? George states that podcasting has immeasurably boosted music sales. Every time a song is played you can see a spike in sales. People have even purchased items multiple times. His only “pimping” of his music and book is a short clip that is played at the end of the show (an idea I have accidentally “borrowed” for this podcast). He has noticed that songs that are given away for free are often the top selling songs. George is going to do an experiment, and plans are to release his next album (in a few weeks) for free.

George’s Links

George’s podcast is at www.geologicpodcast.com
George’s Music at CDBaby
George’s Book at LuLu.com
Buy George’s music in iTunes

Wizzard Ad Impression History

• 2008 – Q2 – 3.9M
• 2008 – Q3 – 5.5M
• 2008 – Q4 – 8.8M
• 2009 – Q1 – 9.4M
• 2009 – Q2 – 13.7M

“The ease of downloading podcasts directly to your phone or mp3 player through iTunes, is making our market one that has tremendous growth potential,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO.

While the growth is good news for Wizzard, the numbers represent a small fraction of the 1.2 billion podcasts served on the network in 2008.