It's been a while.

It's been a while since I posted here last. I notice the date of the last entry was before I got my iMac. Since I spend most of my in-front-of-the-computer hours on the Mac and I tend to blog here on the Windows laptop you'll understand why the blogging hasn't been frequent or regular.

That being said it's not like I've been slacking off at all.

My goals at the start of this year were to get Tartan Media Productions, the podcast production/consultancy business I started last June, off the ground. And the end of 2005 promised that this was a feasible goal to aim for. I had a couple of production commissions lined up, one of which would involved several days consultanting for a magazine. But as has been my experience so far, both project amounted to nothing at all.

I was excited last year to be appointed as an associate of Caledonain University's Spoken Word department, a role that was to work in an advisory capacity with them as they rolled out podcasting to the students. Again this has amounted to nothing at all.

One business avenue that needs to be exploited was pointed out to me by Hollow Horse's Kenny Little, but what's holding me back right now it the time needed to invest in getting the project off the ground. Ideally I need a business manager to take care of the 'pitching the idea' side of things while I'd concentrate on doing the actual work.

It's now almost July, we're more than half way through 2006 - a year that promised financial gains for podcasters - and the climate financially within podcasting seems much more arid. 2005 had me earing a couple of shekels, nothing I'd consider giving up the day job over, but enough that made me think by this time in 2006 GUTDJ could be a viable option.

It would seem that some podcasters still look to Adam Curry and Podshow for the secret ingredient needed to snare some cash as a podcaster. They have afterall got a nice wedge in the bank courtesy of Kleiner Perkins. However, before anyone kids themself into believing that signing Podshow's producer contract gives them access to those funds, be aware that venture capitalists don't pour money into a start up so that the little guy can take home the profits; VCs want their investment back. And then some. Therefore Podshow hold its purse strings very tightly.

Listening to Podshow produced podcasts tells me that they're perhaps struggling to bring in the lucrative 'big name' advertisers. Earthlink, GoDaddy and perhaps one or two HBO shows don't add up to the millions they surely must hope to see coming in to the coffers via ads by this time 2007. Where are the sugary drinks companies or the sporting goods manufacturers advertising in podcasts? Are Podshow sweating about paying the investment back? Adam's transatlantic airfares must be eating into it a bit...

It's obvious to any podcast network (a company who have a stable of podcasts and host/distribute the files under their name) that you need to have a global presence with podcasts produced in various parts of the world, therefore having your brand represented in those countries. The more shows in your fold the better; you have a bigger collective audience spread across the network to dangle in front of potential advertisers. When I signed up with Podshow, right down - I believe - until I left them in January, I was the only non-North American producing content for them. (As an aside, I wrote them a long email last November after the Expo explaining my lack of desire to produce 3 shows per week for no money, but outlining my keeness to work for them, expanding their profile in the UK as their only UK based producer. They never replied to that email.)

However, Podshow are now moving into the UK. The UK has, until now, been for the most part anti-Podshow. Much of this has developed through the perception that Podshow - and by Podshow I mean Adam Curry - not taking the UK podcast community as seriously as it does the North American one. Whether there's any truth in this isn't for me to guess. Podshow were approached late last summer to ask if Adam would come and speak at PodcastCon 05, but he was unable to. For some of those in attendance this was taken as a snub, and with the Daily Source Code having an American-centric slant for much of 2005, a vocal number of long standing UK podcasters didn't have much good to say about Podshow.

Now that it looks like they're bringing some of Kleiner Perkin's cash over the pond, along with their within-podcasting-circles universally recognised name, we can expect to see several UK podcasters queuing up to sign over their content to Podshow.

At least now it was seem they have a contract written up specifically for the UK. Hopefully for those signees they also have an advertising or two on board so that there will be a level of financial compensation on offer that was absent while I was under contract.

To read more of my thoughts on this subject download July's issue of Podcast User Magazine - available July 1st.