Whoops. The Puppy Blender linked to the new Carnival of Podcasts before I did. Now what would have been a big traffic burst from IMAO is just a few drops in the sea.
We really need another name than podcasts, BTW. They’re just plain MP3s, but, because of the name, everyone has it in their head they’re something much more complicated (that’s what I thought when Scott McCollum first suggested doing a podcast).
Next week is our back to school podcast, and it’s already shaping up to be a great one.
Oh, and here are some samples from the superhero themed podcast if you haven’t heard the whole thing yet:
My interview with Aquaman.
Superheroes!
Laurence Simon tells the story of the tortise and the hare.
Well, one name could be, umm,
“Blog-on-the-go”
Or, since not all podcasts have to do with blogs, hmm, maybe, okay, I don’t know, but I like the “on-the-go” approach. Maybe you guys can think of what to use.
Gunlord
Kleenex isn’t a very intuitive name either — but we all got used to it.
I think it’s going to stick. Much to the consternation of Bill Gates.
While Kleenex and Xerox were successful in becoming the “brand” for those products, the name “podcast” seems to automatically exclude the majority of the world’s population: those who do NOT own Apple iPods.
Apple iPods make up a significant portion of the market for portable media players, but there are many more inexpensive MP3 players from SonicBlue/Rio, iRiver, Creative Labs, Samsung, RCA, and hundreds of other manufacturers sold in places where the iPod is just too darn expensive.
The most common response to “If you think that’s funny, you should listen to the IMAO Podcast” is:
“I can’t listen to a podcast because I don’t have an iPod.”
The MSM has a lot of blame in this because most people employed by print-publishing businesses LOVE the Apple Mac and all of it’s accessories (including the iPod). I count at least five major “news” stories in the New York Times about podcasting just in the past 8-10 weeks and none point blank come out to say: “You don’t need an iPod to listen to a podcast.”
The name has stuck, but it needs to have better marketing plan than just “buy overpriced Apple products.”
You could always call them “Blogs for the Blind”