September 17th, 2007 Administrator
The RawVoice Statistics service has been rolled out of beta and into full production less than one month after officially announcing the new service.
The short beta period was made possible by the nearly two years of planning of the development of this new media statistics system.
The RawVoice Statistics service is the first white label new media statistics package that is available for commercial networks that can serve small producers of content or scale to provide enterprise level data tracking.
Today the RawVoice Statistics Service is tracking millions of listener impressions and is the primary statistics tool for many members of our three podcasting communities.
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August 18th, 2007 Rob
One of the trends that we predicted early on was that new media networks would be a growth market. When people started podcasting back in 2004 it was only logical that like content would eventually gravitate together. RawVoice started one of the early networks with our Podcaster News network of audio podcasts.
Since then a lot has happened. A wide variety of networks have formed. The commercial aspirations of these networks may vary but one common thread revolves around audiences. Networks want to maximize their interaction with audiences. This helps the shows in the network to grow. And as the shows grow audience they certainly grow in value. There are some pieces missing from many networks though.
Consistent Branding - Many new media networks fail to apply consistent branding that recognizes the network. Do you think of the peacock when you think of NBC? Part of the value of a network lies in the connection of the overall brand with the individual brands. In some cases the overall brand is applied everywhere but the individual shows are missing branding. New media networks should have an overall brand applied consistently across their shows. And then each show should have its own unique branding.
Audience Tools - Many new networks consist of a main site that links to a bunch of show. Maybe that main site shows a list of recent episodes. The individual show sites will have RSS feeds and commenting. Beyond that there are few tools available to help the audience connect and stay loyal to the shows in the network. Why can’t each new media network be its own social network?
Connecting The Shows - If audiences like one show in the network then maybe they will like others. Have shows run inter-network promotions for other shows. And always have them mention that they are a part of the network. If branding has been properly applied at the network and show level then there’s no chance that this will cause a show to lose their identity or confuse their audience. And having the right tools makes this process much simpler.
We’ve been following this approach with our Tech Podcast Network and we have seen good growth. We’re also seeing increased interest in shows wanting to be a part of the network.
The items mentioned above surely aren’t the only components to building a successful new media network. They are very important though.
We are lucky enough to have the power of the RawVoice Generator working for us to give us the tools, connections and branding necessary to allow our properties to grow. If you’ve got a new media network that needs help in these areas then our system could probably work for you.
We’re always eager to talk about it so drop us a line when you want to talk about how we can help you to build a killer new media or podcast network.
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August 10th, 2007 Administrator
We have been getting a number of email’s from podcasters saying that they are desperate to use our stats system but several of the hosting companies have no provisions to allow a third party stats system to be used.
Those podcasters with their own domains and hosted websites will have no issue but if the podcaster is on a walled garden system that locks them into their service offerings then I suppose their is not a lot we can do except hope that the various podcast hosting companies will work with us.
We have these podcasters in ad buys and need to be able to better manage their statistics for reporting purposes. We have refined our podcast statistic measurements over the past two years and frankly cannot use most of the data that is being provided by some of the vendors.
Tags: Podcast+Statistics, Advertisers, Truth+in+Advertising
Posted in Discussion, Statistics | No Comments »
August 10th, 2007 Administrator
I have been very surprised recently that podcasters are once again signing contracts that lock them into being exclusive with one company.
New media creators should not have be exclusive to any company. The second I hear that a podcaster has signed an exclusive deal with a company I ask myself what in the world were they thinking.
RawVoice never requires a podcaster to be exclusive, and this is one of the things we are very proud of. When a podcaster signs a contract with a podcast company to get all of their advertising for their shows exclusively from one company this is a recipe for disappointment.
RawVoice does not need to put out a press release stating we have signed a podcast because today RawVoice represents the 1500 plus podcasters in our communities equally. Every podcast that is part of our three companies have given us permission to negotiate on their behalf with no lock in plus they have the option to opt out if we do not deliver a deal that they don’t like.
We don’t make a dime until they do. RawVoice continues to be the best deal in town and 100’s of podcasters are getting paid monthly as part of that effort.
Posted in Advertising, Discussion | No Comments »
July 30th, 2007 Rob
The folks at Miro are pressing an idea that is based on a very fundamental concept. They prefer a user-centric approach to publishing media (particularly video) on the web.
Their blog post states, “”It makes absolutely no sense for a single video to be published twice, let alone five or ten times! Treating the user as the point of aggregation pretty much solves this one…”
We see a web these days where a video producer is compelled to upload to half a dozen sites. The need to do this makes things harder on video producers as well as their audiences.
Walled in systems trap content. And they force producers and audiences to scurry around searching to meet their own needs.
If we all architect systems that make it easier for users to find the content they want without making producers do extra work then we’ve done something right.
Technology has the power to help solve a lot of problems. Or it can create more problems. Its all up to people like us who are rolling out news systems for distributing and consuming media. I vote for solving problems so that rich media based on the web can get from producers to their audiences as smoothly as possible.
Now its time to go out and walk that talk. 
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