However, when it happens it’s undeniable.

* Your success online in your own two hands

* Cut the cord to the gurus once and for all

* Use free tools to get traffic, signups and sales in one fell swoop!

What other method can offer this except Rapid Video Blogging?

Seriously, I don’t think there are any!

* If you’re a blogger, this is the logical next step.

* If you have a business online, this will boost everything.

* If you’re starting from scratch, perfect!

Even if you’re not interested in money, this will get you
unparalleled, massive exposure for whatever you do.

Let me remind you of something important.

This is 2010, and even the newspapers are waking up to the
money making potential of content (New York Times just went
subscription-only, many more will follow).

So why would You blog just for fun, or make YouTube videos
just for fun, when you can do what you’re already doing
and build massive lists and make an income on a monthly basis!

Alright. That’s all the pep talk I have left in me.

Go and see Gideon Shalwick lay it all out for you.

Kevin Smith’s SModcast #108, live from the International Bear Rendezvous.

Now, if you tend to get really squeamy about things like gay buttsex, perhaps this SModcast isn’t for you. But if you have no issues with the idea that big burly men need man-loving, too, then please, do yourself a favor and listen to this show!

A friend of mine got me turned on (so to speak) to Smith’s podcasts around the time of the infamous Southwest debacle, and I’m so glad.

See, I’ve been podcasting for a while now. Almost two years. In fact, I just wrapped up my long-running show Brass Balls Radio in order to regroup and try something new. BBR had a producer and all kinds of shiny bells and whistles that made it sound really professional. It had hundreds of thousands of subscribers. But there came a point where we were focusing more on the shiny bits than on the content. We were losing the core of the show.

By contrast, Smith’s SModcasts (so named because they are hosted by “S”mith and pal Scott “M”ozier) aren’t shiny. You can hear him drink water. The dog barks in the background. He swears like a trucker. And yet he’s almost always in the iTunes Top 5.

It has taught me something: Authenticity can go much further than bells and whistles.

I will be starting a new show next week. It will be self-produced, and will lack the slick packaging of Brass Balls Radio. However, it will be real. Though I can’t say for sure whether any part of it will involve man-on-man buttsex, I will strive to make it funny, interesting and informative to my listeners.

Stay tuned.

School on the other hand was always a horror. In the week leading up to the first day back, my guts would cramp up with fear and tension. I wouldn’t sleep. I would beg, plead and try to cut deals with everyone from my parents to god to the devil just to avoid having to go back.

Things changed when high school was over (in my case it ended rather abruptly with an expulsion at 15 and a GED exam at 16). It was finally in my power to choose my educational path. No longer would I be at the mercy of some state-mandated curriculum, in a class full of people I loathed.

I began to enjoy learning, and I chose to continue. Not with a structured post-secondary curriculum, but on my own. French, history, accounting for small businesses (strongly recommended for everyone), political science, Arabic. Islamic history. Military history. Religion. I never stopped learning. Some courses were structured, others online. Some were one-on-one lessons with experts. I bought and borrowed thousands of books.

Here are some new media-related courses you might enjoy. They vary in length, set-up and price.

MediaBistro: New Media 6-session self-paced course $179

IttyBiz: Online Business School $397

BBC: Intro to Video Production and Microphones for Sound & Radio FREE

Blogs, Wikis and New Media: Full online new media & social networking course FREE

As always, I strongly recommend Ali Hale’s products products – I’m nearly finished combing through The Bloggers Guide to Effective Writing – and Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

These are both great e-courses you can take at your own pace.

See what I’m getting at? Reputation is worth money.

Here’s a personal example. I run a very successful political podcast. I have anywhere from 800k-1.3M listeners every week. I get great guests, and even had Mark Steyn guest-host my show last week. My show obtains the services of a freelance announcer. It gives us a great professional sound to have him intro us every week. But he’s expensive. Well, he’s in line with his market, but still – expensive to me.

So we dumped him for a few weeks and went with someone cheaper. We figured we would save a few dollars that could be better invested elsewhere. We were wrong. While the new guy was good, and certainly inexpensive, he wasn’t quite up to the standard we had become accustomed to.

After about three weeks, my partner and I gave in and coughed up the cash to have our regular guy do our voice work.

So freelancers, think about what you are worth when setting your rates. Are you new to the business or do you have lots of experience? Do you offer something unique that your competitors don’t? If you are a seasoned professional always at the top of your game, you will be worth paying for. People may waver, or even leave you from time to time, but chances are they will be back when they see what a superior service/product you provided.

And those of you seeking freelancers: You get what you pay for. If you are concerned about quality and professionalism, as well as how the freelance product will reflect on your brand, don’t settle for second best. I did, but I learned quickly that the extra money was worth it to my brand.

Not every podcast on the web has professional aspirations. Some people are just podcasting as a hobby. But more and more we’re seeing semi-professional and professional podcasts being produced for business, activism, entertainment and more.

I’ve been podcasting for a year now (well, a year next week) at Brass Balls Radio. I haven’t got the first clue how to put together a professional sounding show, but my co-host and producer Mike Williams does. Week after week we churn out seamlessly edited content with a real voice announcer doing our intros and outros, music that has been legally licensed, and great guests. I’m merely a figurehead – I bring the personality as if Brass Balls were my own personal dinner party. Mike does all the heavy lifting in the background, making sure we don’t sound like a couple of four year olds with two tins cans on a string.

We have just shifted from the amateur stream to the professional one by contacting a marketing company to help us gain advertising. With a half million listeners every week, we felt it was time to make that shift. Our potential is huge, and grows from week to week.

Mike Williams is now consulting to aspiring podcasters. For those of you with big ideas and a drive for perfection that have no idea how to get started, Mike will put you on the right path.

A 90 minute session with Mike will give you:

• All the software required to cleanly record and edit a podcast
• A walk through on using the software
• A professionally voiced and recorded intro/outro to your show
• The coding required to automatically submit your show to iTunes whenever you update
• Mike’s personal email address in case you get stuck
• Optional hosting and site design

So what do you need to get started?

• A headset with mic.
• A free skype account
• It helps to already have a website. If not, Mike can offer optional hosting and set up.

If you are ready to produce your own professional sounding podcast, you can contact Mike at

mike AT brassballsradio DOT com

A 90 minute skype session with Mike is $110. Good luck, everyone. I hope you find as much success with your podcast as we have with ours. And for you political junkies, check out our May 18 anniversary show at Brass Balls Radio. It’s going to be our best ever.