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Go on to Part 2 of the transcript >>
Original Link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onlinestrategist/2008/07/31/socialmedialogy-conversations
John Lawlor: Greetings! Today is July 31st and this is John Lawlor and this is John Lawlor’s SocialMedialogy conversation and today we’re gonna be chatting with Jay Berkowitz, who is the founder and CEO of Ten Golden Rules. And we’re gonna talk about how successful their podcasting effort has been and the business that has brought them. And I thought that I would start the show off today by giving you a quote from Anita Campbell, “Small business trends podcast review.” Now, Anita Campbell has been around in the marketplace for quite a while. She does a – she has a great little newsletter. She has a great little website; and she has been reviewing podcasts, I think for the last three years or so, and the quote from her website, again Anita Campbell Small Business Transradio. The podcast review said, “This podcast talking about Jay’s Ten Golden Rules podcast is a neat mixture of great and pertinent content for the internet entrepreneur mixed with music, a variety of guests, and even some fun.” Her recommendation of the reviewer’s recommendation, by the reviewer’s name was Steve Rucinski, R-U-C-I-N-S-K-I. The recommendation was, if you’re an internet entrepreneur, then you need to give this show a listen. Good direct advice and some heavyweight guests make the Ten Golden Rules podcast a must-listen for you. That’s not John Lawlor talking, that’s not Jay Berkowitz talking, that’s on Anita Campbell’s Small Business Transradio Program, and their blog and their podcast review, so, Jay welcome to the show, that’s a really good endorsement of what you’ve been doing.
Jay Berkowitz: Yeah. Thanks, John. That’s quite a nice intro. Thank you so much.
John Lawlor: Well, good. Now, Jay, you’ve been – let’s give people a little bit of background on you and how long you’ve been – had this company, Ten Golden Rules, and how you came up with the name?
Jay Berkowitz: Well, just going a little bit further back, I worked for Coca-Cola and Mc Donald’s and got into the internet working for Sprint back in 1996, 1997. And I went to work at big dot com called eDiets and really lived a pure dot com play and I was asked to write a presentation and speak at the Direct Marketing Association and I created a presentation called The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing and following that presentation, in the summer of 2003, five or six people came up to me and they said, “Oh, that was really great. You know, can we hire you as a consultant?” And I said, “Sure, buy me lunch – I am consultant.” And they wanted a lot more than lunch and so this company was really formed out of that first presentation of The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing. And I put up a website as well called tengoldenrules.com and originally the website was more of a portal type of design with links to 10 vendors and 10 search companies and 10 email companies and then as the company evolved around the 10 golden rules concept then we stuck with the name Ten Golden Rules. We have become more of a strategic consultant and an agency helping people get more traffic to their website and convert that traffic into sales.
John Lawlor: Okay. So, you have this podcast – how long have you been running the podcast?
Jay Berkowitz: We just celebrated our one year anniversary and we’ve done about 25 shows in a year.
John Lawlor: 25 shows. So, approximately how long does each show run?
Jay Berkowitz: Each – I try to keep them a little shorter. Everyone says they want them short, but they, you know, it’s probably about 15 or 20 minutes of we take calls from listeners and we answer the calls and we update some new things happening and then I do an interview that’s generally around 30 minutes. So, they generally get 50-55 minutes.
John Lawlor: 50 – 55 minutes total on the podcast. Now, do you have any statistics on how long people typically stay on the call?
Jay Berkowitz: That’s something I don’t – we can’t really tell because when you download a podcast, then it’s up to you whether or not you play it. So, I don’t have any – any information on that whatsoever.
John Lawlor: Okay, what has putting – so putting together a podcast especially one that is almost an hour and you said you’ve done how many? 26?
Jay Berkowitz: Yeah, 25 shows.
John Lawlor: 25 shows. That’s a lot of work.
Jay Berkowitz: There’s no question it’s a lot of work. The pre-prep time. There’s just the technology time when you first get into it and then you know, preparing for the show, doing some editing, editing the interviews. It’s funny because when I edit an interview, the interview takes, you know, half an hour or 45 minutes but the editing time is probably four times that. So, I can spend a couple of hours editing a half-an-hour interview. Just to take out the ums and ahs in the discussions, stuff like that.
John Lawlor: Well, that’s one of the reasons why I like blog talk radio. I like live radio because you don’t really think about editing.
Jay Berkowitz: Yeah. Exactly. I’m envious of that model and you know, we’ve been getting closer and closer to more of a live format.
John Lawlor: Right. Well, having done a couple of 100, you know, situations where I tweak and I did the ums and the ahs and so forth, that is far more work. It takes about five times as much work to fix it that it does to actually get the recording done in the first place. So, I can empathize with all the work, but if you’re doing all this work it – obviously it takes away from your servicing client, it takes away from you know, maybe hanging out with your wife. Is it worth it?
Jay Berkowitz: I’ve really enjoyed it and had some really direct business benefits. So, I think it’s worth it and you know, for me it’s a bit of a passion play. It’s fun. I was a college radio deejay and so it’s bringing me back to those days and I do play a song at the end of every podcast and so for me it’s a little bit of fun and it has really delivered some direct business benefits. I obviously don’t spend 9 to 5 in-office time on this. It’s a passion play and most of it is weekend work and most of it when once my wife and puppy have gone to bed, so. Yeah, I seem to find the time and the enjoyment.
Go on to Part 2 of the transcript >>
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