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“Spirit-Centered Relationships”

By Alex Mandossian

Dr. Gay Hendricks

Listen to Virtual Book Tour…

Gay Hendricks has become one one of the most popular writers and speakers of our time. His books, seminars and web courses have helped hundreds of thousands of people profoundly change the quality of their lives.

During this 1-hour Virtual Book Tour, Gay reveal the story behind his book, Spirit-Centered Relationships. The book’s promise is: “Experiencing Greater Love and Harmony Through the Power of Presencing”.

Click here to add this book to your library.

Revolutionizing the Marketplace

By Alex Mandossian

By Alex Mandossian

Most people don′t want to buy and carry around multiple electronic devices, but most Americans today already have a cell phone. Now Apple has come out with the iPod phone.

Although not everyone is going to buy the iPod phone in the next two months, I think that in the next year every phone is going to have some sort of MP3 capability on it, and Apple is going to lead the way. With a podcast directory of 15,000 podcasts, and sales of 1.8 million songs per day, it′s going to be hard for people not to pick up the iPod phone.

The iPod Nano has added some new features including integration with most of the popular programs including Outlook. This means that the same group who says, “I don′t want to carry another device,” can use a Nano in place of their PDA. For those people who don′t want to buy another device, the Nano offers the features of a PDA and an MP3 player.

Podcasts: Hard vs. Soft Content

By Alex Mandossian

By Alex Mandossian

There are two types of content in the information publishing world: soft content and hard content. Soft content is what Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, and Deepak Chopra talk about â€“ motivation and self-improvement. It is what I call business-to-consumer marketing.

On the other hand, hard content includes advice and information about investments, newsletters, teleseminars, affiliate programs, podcasts, and information marketing. Sites like AlexMandossian.com are a good example of this. It is what I call business-to-business marketing.

Many times the soft topics are more important to us than the hard topics. But soft content is not going give someone a quick return on investment the way hard content can because it is difficult to measure the results. Because of this, soft content tends to sell for much less than hard content.

Look at any information publishing aggregator like Nightingale.com or Amazon.com. A normal hardcover book takes two or three years to write and sells for about $24. I get $30-$40 for an e-book, and my friend Armand Morin gets $97 for an e-book.

Because there is a higher return on investment for the customer, even generalized hard content can earn much more money for the information marketer. Most people cannot get consumers to spend $1,800 for soft content, but business people will gladly pay upwards of $1,800 for good hard content.

Advancing the iPod

By Alex Mandossian

By Alex Mandossian

Many in the information marketing world agree that offering specialized content is the way to earn a lot of money with podcasting. It is another way to serve the needs of their market in addition to offering seminars, teleseminars, CDs and DVDs. The key is that the content must be actionable and monetizable, meaning that someone can take action upon it and can monetize it.

It is reported that 30% of all cars sold in the U.S. in 2006 will offer an option of including some sort of iPod connectivity. This opens a whole marketing channel for information marketers.

Perhaps the most exciting item announced by Apple is the release of the iPod Nano. It has a gorgeous color display, is thinner than a pencil, and weighs 1.5 ounces. It also uses Flash memory instead of a hard drive resulting in fourteen hours of battery life.

Having a color screen is very important on multiple levels because it allows for an enhanced podcast that could include screen shots, graphs, and bars.

The 2 gig version is $199. The 4 gig version is $249. I believe this is a huge advance for Apple. They have market domination and their products have class and style.

Business Podcasting Bible Blog Launches

By Alex Mandossian

By Alex Mandossian

Paul Colligan and I got together on a project that I am very proud of… Co-authored a book on the digital shelves of Amazon.com called the Business Podcasting Bible. We decided to publish with Morgan-James entrepreneurial publishing who was recently named to FastCompany’s FAST 50 award.

The book is not released yet, though you can see more details and post comments at our blog, TheBusinessPodcastingBible.com. It will contain over 280 pages on how to “monetize” podcasts in the marketing and business communities. Price is $19.95

If you have any comments or questions on the project, including results that podcasting has produced for your business, please stop by the blog to ask questions or post a comment. We’ll see you at the launch.

iPod Dominating the Market

By Alex Mandossian

By Alex Mandossian

Apple has announced that iTunes is selling 1.8 million songs a day. This shows that people are going to the internet for content and are willing to pay well for it. Songs are soft content. If consumers are willing to pay $0.99 for soft content, how much more are they going to be willing to pay for hard content?

iTunes has a phenomenal 82% market share in the U.S. The iTunes podcast directory has 15,000 podcast and is adding 1,000 every week. How does this compare to the competition? Podcast Alley , one of the larger podcast directories out there, currently has about half that much.

Apple is not only a key player in the media player market, it is a key player in the directory world as well. With 1,000 new podcasts added every week, the impact and the position of the iTunes podcast directory simply cannot be denied. It will be hard for the competition to catch up to this.

Apple also released iTunes 5 recently. Though it has no new specific podcast related features, it is cleaner, more compact, and easier on the eye.

I think the biggest news is that iTunes just released the iTunes phone , a cellular phone that holds about a hundred songs. Because it has a screen, people can choose the song they want to listen to, unlike the iPod shuffle that has no screen.

The Apple iPod has a 74% market share. That means three out of every four portable players are iPods. That′s not just market share; that is market domination. In the second quarter of 2005, 22 million iPods were sold – not in one year, but just in one quarter.

Harry Potter and the Magic of Podcasting

By Alex Mandossian

By Alex Mandossian

Recently Steve Jobs of Apple Computer announced that they had acquired digital rights to Harry Potter for their iTunes store . The significance of this is that Apple has digital products that people want, and they are only available through iTunes. There is only one place you can download Harry Potter and only one place you can listen to it: on an iPod device. It won′t work on a Zen or a Pocket PC.

There has been much discussion about which type of media player is best for information marketers to use in marketing their products to their customers. The debate has been whether to used locked players such as the Apple iPod or unlocked players such as the Zen.

Locked players present several security challenges and preloading iPods with your own content can be a challenge. In contrast, an unlocked player allows anyone to upload information onto it and use it.

Podcast Directories

After weeks of hesitancy and unwillingness to use a locked media player, I have finally decided to use the iPod Nano media player to market my information products. The main reason I caved in is because of the iTunes podcast directory.

In the first two months, the iTunes directory brought 15,000 podcasts into the directory and 7 million podcasts subscriptions. It has its own search engine, so you can use keywords to attract exactly the type of market you want.

It is growing the same way search engines did in the late 1990s. Anyone not listed in this directory is going to be left behind.

What is iTunes′ impact on the podcasting industry? They have a phenomenal 82 % market share in the U.S., 2 million songs in their inventory, 10 million accounts, and have sold more than 500 million songs.

Podcasting Wars: Yahoo vs. iTunes

By Alex Mandossian

By Alex Mandossian

->>> CLICK HERE if you prefer to listen to this Blog post <<<-

To give you an idea of just how easy Yahoo! Podcasts is to use, I′ll tell you about my biggest download day yet.

I have an email list of people I notify every time a new Big Seminar Live podcast is available. Only one-third of the people on the list are actually subscribers to the podcast.

I believe the reason for this is because up until now, subscribing has been a complex process that requires several steps. Most people′s eyes glaze over when they hear about podcatchers and cutting and pasting RSS feeds.

I sent out an email to this list letting them know that the Big Seminar Live podcast was now available at www.Podcasts.Yahoo.com and you know what happened? All of a sudden, we had a lot of MP3 downloads and a few more subscribers.

The reason for this great response is because Yahoo! Podcasts′ web-based interface makes it so easy. The Bottom Line is The Bottom Line

It′s all about consumption and usability. If your market can′t easily use what you are offering, they′re not going to buy it.

iTunes has a great podcast directory, and it is easy to use. But if you get a song or a podcast from iTunes, then you have to use iTunes to listen to it. It′s a closed system.

Yahoo! Podcasts seems to be just as easy to use, but it′s an open system that allows you to listen to it just about anywhere, with no special software or equipment. This really gives them the edge in usability.

I think there′s an opportunity here for a third party to put together both of these great concepts: the great directory of iTunes with the online usability of Yahoo! Podcasts.

Will Microsoft do it or will Real Player? I don′t know. But I think there is a market just waiting for the right solution to fill this need for a functional and useable way to listen and subscribe to podcasts.

We are still in the early beginnings for podcasting, especially from the business perspective of monetizing the medium. I believe that both Yahoo! and Apple are missing this point of view right now. They are more interested in entertainment than in monetization.

I think the creation of www.Podcasts.Yahoo.com as a sub domain of Yahoo.com is brilliant. I don′t understand why Apple hasn′t done the same thing. We′re going to see Yahoo! do a lot with Yahoo! Podcasts while it′s still in the beta stage.

Is Yahoo! Podcasts the death knell of iTunes? We′ll have to wait and see.

“The Millionaire Maker”

By Alex Mandossian

Loral Langemeier

Listen to Virtual Book Tour…

Loral Langemeier started her first business while she was still in college. By 35, she was a multimillionaire.

During this 1-hour Virtual Book Tour, Loral reveals the story behind her book, The Millionaire Makker. The book’s promise is: “Act, Think, and Make Money the Way the Wealthy Do“.

Click here to add this book to your library.

Subscribing to MarketingOnlineLive.com

By Alex Mandossian

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“Spirit-Centered Relationships”

Listen to Virtual Book Tour…

Revolutionizing the Marketplace

Podcasts: Hard vs. Soft Content

Advancing the iPod

Business Podcasting Bible Blog Launches

iPod Dominating the Market

Harry Potter and the Magic of Podcasting

Podcasting Wars: Yahoo vs. iTunes

“The Millionaire Maker”

Listen to Virtual Book Tour…

Subscribing to MarketingOnlineLive.com

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