To our American listeners, Happy Thanksgiving! To our non-American listeners, we are so thankful for you and the support you provide simply by listening and participating in the Profitcast community. Thankfulness is a hot topic this week in the States, and even though Brian has been reminding us to be thankful on a daily basis, because it’s a good and healthy practice, it’s always incredibly meaningful to me when everyone in this country takes an entire day to celebrate being thankful.br /

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Many American movies centered around the holidays like to almost glorify the troubled or comedic nature of family gatherings over Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s represented as the only times of the year when all the family gets together; when the mom and dad with the five homeschooled kids drive to the East Coast where their kids are subsequently exposed to the wild and unbridled nature of the unsupervised public school children of the 80-hour work week brother and sister-in-law. Chaos ensues, but somehow they manage to come full circle so that a moral conclusion can be had by the 90 minute mark, leaving enough time for non-ironic hilarity to ensue. Read more...

Just start. Do not give up. It's a long journey, you can't give up so easily. These are just a few wise words from Nick Seuberling of the Cincy Jungle Podcast! Nick has been podcasting about football, and sports, since 2005. He's going to talk to us about the power of podcasting live and tell us his unique story of trial and error.br /

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Trial and error might not be quite the right way to state the journey Nick has been on, as error carries a much harsher connotation than I'd prefer to attribute to his experiences. But through the Profitcast lens I think it works for one big reason: we each have in our own minds this idea of what profiting with our podcast means, so we try one thing and when it doesn't pan out we try another, and another. Nick started broad and gradually narrowed his niche down to what he now considers success and profit. Read more...

Welcome back to Profitcast! If this is your first time with us: Welcome! This is a weekly podcast dedicated to the multidimensional study of profiting through podcasting. Whether it’s learning from other podcasters who have come before us, chatting with podcasters possessing certain expertise, or diving into some of the grainier details, we look at it all as vital to truly profiting through podcasting. As a community, and as individuals, we consider ourselves to be passion podcasters, because we love what we do and we do what we love.br /

This week we’re in some of the grainier details of a very large picture. To demonstrate the importance of taking the time to review and study this aspect of podcasting, I would like to use the example of Georges Seurat. You may best know this artist by his famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884). Click on the photograph to see the larger image, because this is one of those paintings where getting up close is just as important as taking a step back. Read more...

One of the most overused phrases from classic film is from Field of Dreams (1989): If you build it, he will come. It is whispered to Kevin Costner's character Ray at the beginning of the film when he's walking through the cornfield on his farm. In a way similar to Noah of the Bible, Ray acts on the instruction from this mysterious voice in spite of the ridicule he receives and the outcome is unlike anything anyone has ever seen.br /

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Have you ever met someone who just seems made to do what they do? I'm sure many of you believe that podcasting is your calling. Maybe you heard a mysterious voice that said, If you talk about this and publish it on the internet, they will come. I'm not here to judge that! What I am here to do is tell you that building something is only half the story. Read more...

Welcome to Profitcast! Whether this is your first time trolling the site or you are a regular listener, we are so happy you found us and hope to provide some valuable and entertaining material for you to chew on. This week, The Real Brian is joined by Jessica Kupferman of She Podcasts and of the more recent Moneycast, which, as it might sound, is a venture dedicated to helping people understand methods of making money through podcasting.br /

To hear the full story of how Moneycast came about, and Jessica’s discovery shortly thereafter of Profitcast, you’re going to have to listen to the episode. Brian and Jessica have their own takeaways, and they are good takeaways, having to do with looking beyond the numbers and selling your podcast as a product. Several weeks ago, Brian reported some findings he compiled after speaking with a range of potential sponsors and essentially came away believing that in order to make anything work out, he would need 100,000 downloads per episode or more! Jessica challenges this in a very unique way and re-opens the door to an avenue that seemed to have no traction. Read more...

To the loyal listeners of the Audiobooks.com Podcast, we get an extra dose this week as Brian brings his co-host, Addy Saucedo, in on this episode of Profitcast! I’m a huge fan of these two together and you are definitely in for a treat. We get a great conversation that covers what Addy is up to and what her passion is, the limitations of imitation, and a tease into what Addy and Brian are working on together. Read more...

Welcome back to Profitcast! In this week's podcast, Brian drops some observations he's been making about the top podcasters and performers. It is his mission, after all, to discern what it is that sets them apart from everyone else. What are the people at the top doing to succeed? br /

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We've established by now that it's difficult to replicate the success of other podcasters. We can follow the same steps and make the same choices, but the chance of seeing the same return is very slim. That said, it is still worth knowing what they've done to put it into context and glean insight in that way. Brian brings up the important fact that many successful podcasters managed to become the first in their topic or niche, and frankly that is hard to do still at this point in the industry. However, the great fact about life is that we all, as individuals, are unique! Even if we can't be first, it is still possible to find that niche that gives us the same opportunities as being first did for others before us. That is largely the theme that Brian follows in this podcast: how to think about your approach, how to think about your style, your uniqueness, and catering to those elements by being the youest you!Read more...

What time is it? Tool time! Fans of the classic television show, Home Improvement, still say this when asked what time it is. I still say it. Sometimes people who never have seen the show say it. Tool Time with Tim the Toolman Taylor was the alliteration of my childhood. br /

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The premise of Tim's reality show, Tool Time, is a great parallel for the vast array of information Brian and Harry discuss on this week's Profitcast. Having abundance with your podcast harkens back to weeks past when we've discussed similar topics, such as the good-cheap-quick ideal, the you've-got-to-give-to-receive mentality, and in general, the focus on community and building relationships. This discussion is very important because it covers an area that we don't touch on a lot, and that is the establishment of your tool bench. Read more...

I read The Alchemist for the first time only a couple weeks ago. The premise of this novel, originally published in 1988, is astounding and has one of those perpetually relevant themes about pursuing dreams (or treasures, depending on your interpretation). I’ll try to briefly describe plot without either giving anything away or failing to do it justice. br /

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Santiago, the protagonist, attended seminary as a boy but chose instead to become a shepherd so that he could travel. One night he has a dream about seeking treasure and it initiates his journey to Egypt, to see the pyramids, in search of this treasure. He demonstrates a healthy balance of curiosity and caution, but soon realizes that caution is a bigger threat to his happiness than taking a risk. Read more...

Last week Brian got nerdy about DragonCon so that he could relate the importance of building a community. This week, Brian gets nerdy about business with very special guest Tom Schwab. It's not purely about business, mind you, but as starting, growing, and maintaining a podcast is very much a business venture, many of the same principles can be applied as we consider the various options available to us in marketing.br /

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One of the most disheartening facts to hear about is how little time people spend reading in lieu of audio or visual resources. It's not an exclusive fact, as I am likely one of few people my age who prefer holding a local newspaper in my hands over a global, glowing newspaper in the palm of my hand, but it’s foolish to ignore the fact that listening is the preferred method of information consumption. This isn’t to say blogging isn’t useful, but everything does have its place. Read more...