MsKitka.com

If iTunes prefers that you only register with them once you have three complete episodes, how did French Maid TV go from zero to hero with just one episode in just one month?

French Maid TV posted their first episode in mid-December and a month later I started to wonder whether they would ever post a follow up. They finally posted their second episode earlier this month with a whole new cast of french maids and are currently holding their place as one of iTunes’ top podcasts (today’s rank: 13). In fact, although they only had one episode in January, they still outranked videoblogging pioneers Rocketboom (today’s rank: 23).

But that’s not all…

Even with one episode by January, French Maid TV were already in talks with Podtrac to support advertising in their videoblog and they had already started an AdBrite account to get extra money by selling advertizing space on their official site. Additionally, within two weeks of posting their first episode, they already had a French Maid TV store set up on Cafe Press.

These tactics are all standard marketing strategies for a podcast that wants to monetize their product (hell, I’ve tried two out of three of them!), but I’m wondering when they’ll post their NEXT episode. Will it be something they do every 6 weeks or will they start making them more regularly?

I understand the desire to make some money from podcasting (especially when it takes a lot of time and money to produce), but I don’t think I would be worrying about monetization if I only put out one Kitkast every 6 weeks. Frankly, I’m surprised that an advertizing company like Podtrac would want to do business with someone who’s only made one podcast… I know if I were an advertizing company, I would be concerned whether my client would produce the show regularly enough to give me a stable platform.

So, are advertizers interested in the one-shot long-shot deals or do they want a reliable client to guarantee that their ad will be viewed by as many people as the last time? How many TV shows do you know that are only released once every 6 weeks? Gees, if Kitkast was released once every 6 weeks, it would be 60 minutes long! Instead, these people are putting out a 3-minute show…

The future of advertizing on videoblogs is a truly interesting topic, indeed. I wonder what the CPMs for an erratically-produced show like French Maid TV will be compared to a trustworthy daily show like Rocketboom. Is French Maid TV just a short-term project to make a quick buck?

[On a side note: A German viewer sent me an e-mail today informing me that Kitkast is #30 in the top 100 podcasts on iTunes in Germany. Stand aside, Hasselhoff, Kitka’s here!]

Related: French Maid TV reviewed on Kitkast Episode #1.13

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2006 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Videoblogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.