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Andrew Michael Baron
Podcast and Portable Media Expo 2006 Keynote
Andrew Michael Baron
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[runtime: 00:46:29, 21.3 mb, recorded 2006-09-30]
Rocketboom's creator Andrew Michael Baron delivers a presentation that concentrates on two topics of increasing importance to exponents of podcasting and video blogging. Firstly, he offers strategies for increasing and maintaining an audience and, secondly, for turning that growing audience into a source of revenue. Taking in wikis, audience statistics, and the type and placement of advertisments in a video blog, this talk is a primer in the successful monetization of podcasts and blogs of all kinds.
Baron first conceived of video blogging when he became involved in the movement to prevent the re-election of George W. Bush and, as part of the John Edwards campaign, he proposed putting DVD content directly onto the web.
This experience gave Baron a taste for both the strengths and weaknesses of the medium. When he came to create Rocketboom, therefore, he looked at how to recreate the success of popular blogs like BoingBoing and avoid what he perceived as some of the faults inherent in mainstream media news shows. He decided that it was essential to combine information with entertainment.
Baron follows his brief overview of Rocketboom's conception with an in-depth look at how he has gone on to increase the size of its audience. Interactivity is the key, according to Baron, with a greater amount of audience involvement leading to a greater sense of ownership by the audience.
A key step when moving from audience growth to monetizing that growth is to capture accurate statistics. Baron then speaks at some length of the ways Rocketboom audience figures are calculated.
Baron ends his talk with a useful discussion of the ways Rocketboom is deriving revenue from its audience. The lessons learned and applied by Baron at Rocketboom are equally applicable at all podcasting and video blogging enterprises.
Andrew Michael Baron spent the 1990s in Austin, Texas playing in bands, running an art gallery, and holding down a variety of jobs in the technology sector at companies such as Motorola, Tivoli Systems, and IBM. In 2001 he arrived in New York to study at the Parsons School of Design and it was while teaching there that he conceived the idea for Rocketboom.
Baron has a B.A. in Philosophy from Bates College, ME and a Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design, NYC. He is also the composer of a number of concertos and film scores.
Resources:
- Rocketboom
- Andrew's Dembot post about this talk
