My Alma Mater, The Podcast Network, is experimenting with the sale of podvertising spots on eBay. This isn't a new technique, by any means, but it's definitely gaining steam.
Cameron Reilly's G'Day World podcast has already had the opening $250(AUD) bid for three 15 second spots for 30 days. At face value, $750 for a month of podcasting sounds like a pretty good deal. After doing a little math, though, taking that kind of money for a podvertising spot really isn't helping the industry out at all.
Cameron lists G'Day World as having 21,000 downloads in June. Since he's selling three spots at $250 each (that's $750 - stop digging for your calculator), that means he's pegged a 15 second spot in a podcast as being worth somewhere around 3.5 cents. While the jury is still out on exactly what a podvertising spot is worth, the jury isn't out to lunch completely. When I was with The Podcast Network, there was a lot of talk by the founders that even 10 cents per download wasn't a deal they would go for. I guess that tune has changed a bit.
I'm sure Cameron hopes that his auction goes higher than the $250 opening bid. I hope so as well because selling podvertising spots for 3 cents is creating an unrealistic expectation as to what podcast advertising is worth. Podvertising spots are worth more, but we podcasters have to stick to our guns to get it.
