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In this episode, we reflect how podcasting (and other new media platforms, like screencasting and video tutorials and training) seem to be moving — or not moving — during the 2020 pandemic of the Chinese Wuhan virus, aka Covid-19 or Coronavirus.
The podcasting business as a business
New podcasters, as well as many experienced podcasters, are improving their podcasts with new skills and looking for other ways of monetization besides the advertising methods that deliver a minimal CPM (cost-per-thousand downloads). And if you really want to understand how to monetize podcasts, then I can point you to the book, More Podcast Money from Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting. Although this book will be updated in July, the current version can get you started to look at the 101 different ways of creating revenue streams and other income strategies for the podcaster.
Then you can add to your business by becoming a podcast consultant, as well. And, if you can do both, then you can be a podcast consultant for hire while you monetize your podcast shows. Or you can decide to start a podcast membership site and charge for membership (such as Daniel J Lewis of The Audacity to Podcast) with his Podcasters Society. Or you can begin a podcast network and see about different areas of monetization if you create the network properly with related themes and treat it like a business.
The video training and tutorial business
For those podcasters who wish to get into video creation, the editing of videos for clients may be a lucrative business. The development of courses via video and multimedia can now be done with the tools that the podcaster can learn quickly. However, the ability to make a proposal for a corporate client and the ability to perform and deliver a finished product on time, within scope and within budget will be determining factors.
For this podcaster, I have upped my game from being just a podcast consultant and creating, editing and delivering podcast episodes to clients for hire to now creating training video courses with other multimedia for businesses. This can be a very time-consuming process, and you need to have all the tools available and the background for screencasting and video creation.
Although the learning curve can be easier for podcasters than for other people, the business skills and the delivery of competitively priced videos can be daunting for podcasters that are just starting to get into this environment.
For this podcaster, I chose to use Camtasia Studio by Techsmith, Inc., as my platform for creating the video courses. This has brought me some great business futures after I developed and delivered some samples of my work to the potential client and then received the approval to create the courses. But caution should be exercised, as this is almost a full-time environment that will be very demanding — especially if you wish to keep your podcasting within the business or as the business.
The sceencasting business for small, medium and large customers and accounts
For those users who depend on PowerPoint from Microsoft or Snagit from Techsmith, Inc., screencasts may be done very easily. However, with the new tools from Camtasia 2020, screencasters may take a look at the new features and decide to use the Camtasia tools more often. These can be done to produce some public service announcements, marketing snippets, commercials, intros and other short videos or presentations as screencasts.
(Note: years ago, I had screencasters as a targeted audience when I co-produced a video and multi-media training course called “Podcasting for screencasters.” So I am very aware of the screencasting business, and I did use the current version of Camtasia at that time)
For this podcaster, incorporating the skills from audio podcasting (including the recording, editing, testing, posting and publishing and promotion) into other media platforms may be easier than one assumes. Since many new media editors all look alike and have similar functions for many basic tasks, the learning curve can quickly be overcome.
The main obstacle, then, is to keep up with the growing numbers of fast UPGRADES and newer releases of the software. This occurs during a pandemic with “stay at home” mandates from the government because the firms that develop these platform editors want to get the new releases out as soon as possible and have as many people obtain them (to get revenues for their coffers) and learn them during this slowdown. Then they can start working on even the NEXT upgrade or large release.
A case-in-point is Camtasia Studio from Techsmith, Inc. This video editing and publishing software product announced every year a new version — from Camtasia 9, to Camtasia 2018, to Camtasia 2019, and now to Camtasia 2020. But realistically, only Camtasia 9 and Camtasia 2020 are major releases with large amounts of new function and the withdrawl of major operating systems environments, etc. The others could have been just minor “dot-releases” as upgrades, but why not sell more “maintenance agreements” that include the “free” next version of the software? Seems that it can be both a money-making scheme as well as provide new function to keep up with other video editing platforms on both the Windows and Mac operating environments.
So for this podcaster, one now has to set aside more time to learn the new functions, features, new environments and tasks of the major RELEASES (e.g., Camtasia 2020) of the software in order to use the new tools and get more productivity. Although the versions have all been upward-compatible, the learning curve still prevents a user from going at the job with full fury that he had with the prior versions for which he is familiar.
So for myself, I do have a business that provides the creation of corporate training videos and tutorials for business clients. And the task of creating the training video segments will still be done by using the earlier versions of the software. And at the same time, I am waiting for the new release of the training video packages from a gifted and respected trainer (i.e., Ron Hogue) with his Camtasia Mastery series, in which he will deliver the real training for the users of the Camtasia 2020 product, so that they can be more effective and be completely aware of the new tools — because learning the tools and features may take a very long time of trial-and-error, thus destroying much of your productivity and then getting into some potential bad habits.
As far as podcasting goes, much of my time goes into the consuming of the podcast newsletters and looking at the new features of podcast tools for planning, producting, creating, posting, publishing, promoting and marketing podcast shows and podcast episodes. Thus, my time is torn between
So the podcasting business, as well as the video training and screencasting businesses, will still be very available. And now, with more emphasis of “working from home” and “remote distance learning” tutorials and courses for both the education market (for schools and universities) and the corporate markets (for internal training for employees or specialists in both the soft skills and the technical and business process skills), this outlook looks even brighter. But there is a two-sided sword here. You see, while the demand grows, there may be too much business for me to take advantage of this all at once, and thus the competition will be fierce and rise to meet the abundance of needs and requirements in the marketplace. But, if you succeed in gaining the skills to be a true subject-matter expert, then you have a chance to ride the wave of the booming training, video and podcasting environment today and for the near future.
I hope that your skills can become the best and grow in your own environment. And if you do decide to become a distance-learning specialist or a professional podcaster, I wish you the best in gaining the skills, getting the business and growing into a great environment as an entrepreneur, startup or small business.
Thank you for your attention.
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