Podcasting network Wizzard Media today announced that it served over 13,700,000 podcast ad impressions through its Alchemy advertising technology in the quarter ending June 30, 2009. This represents an increase of 251% year-to-year and a 46% increase from the 9.4 million ad impressions served in the first quarter of 2009.

Wizzard Ad Impression History

• 2008 – Q2 – 3.9M
• 2008 – Q3 – 5.5M
• 2008 – Q4 – 8.8M
• 2009 – Q1 – 9.4M
• 2009 – Q2 – 13.7M

“The ease of downloading podcasts directly to your phone or mp3 player through iTunes, is making our market one that has tremendous growth potential,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO.

While the growth is good news for Wizzard, the numbers represent a small fraction of the 1.2 billion podcasts served on the network in 2008.

Earlier in the week, we reported that free podcast hosting site WildVoice.com was abruptly shutting down.

blubrry‘s Todd Cochrane has announced a special for former WildVoice users:

The team at Blubrry is sad to see another Podcast Hosting and Podcast Media site going off-line. However, the news of WildVoice shutting down July 1 means podcasters hosted at Wildvoice have to move fast.

We are offering 30 days free hosting to all WildVoice podcasters. To make it easy, we have automated tools to help you move your show with the click of a button.

Details at the blubrry site.

Users of free podcast host WildVoice.com have been notified that the service will cease operation next month. The latest (and perhaps last?) post on the company blog states:

“We will no longer be supporting the WildVoice.com site as of July 1, 2009. The site will shutdown sometime on or after that date.

We’re sure you’ve noticed that WildVoice has not developed the type of thriving community that a free site on the Internet requires to survive. We’ve finally decided that we will not be continuing. You should take this time to download any of your shows from the site that you may not have copies of.”

When WildVoice debuted in 2006, it offered a free, unique Windows-based podcasting application, WildVoice Studio, and billed itself as an “online community” for creating, hosting, and sharing podcasts along with videos, photos, and blogs.

Not to sound like your mother, this should serve as another opportunity to consider how you archive, host, and broadcast your content. “Free” services are economical, but turn costly and aggravating when the service suspends operations. In the case of podcast host Podango last winter, content creators were given about three days’ notice (over the holidays) to back up and move their shows.

As podcaster Paul Colligan said at that time, “Don’t just BE THE MEDIA … OWN THE MEDIA. Handing your content over to someone with a seriously flawed business model (and you know my feelings about Podcast Networks) with no plan of escape is as lame as launching a business with a seriously flawed business model and promising a world that you can’t deliver.”

Have you had the experience of losing your podcast host? How did you handle the situation?

This video, via Gideon Shalwick (Become a Blogger) offers a fairly in-depth look at 7 ways to optimize your YouTube videos.

7 Killer Tips For Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

• Create outstanding content
• Optimize your YouTube Channel
• Use keywords cleverly and in the right places
• Add URL’s in the right places
• Link to your videos from where ever you can
• Provide plenty of social proof for your videos
• Ping your YouTube channel as soon as you add new content

Got other tips for making and publishing YouTube videos? Leave a comment below!

This weekend marks the inaugural run of the Pride 48 podcast marathon. The two day event kicked off Friday evening, and showcases several dozen GLBT podcast shows throughout the weekend.

I recently talked with John Ong, a Kansas City podcaster I know from PodCamp Midwest, whose Ongline Podcast will be part of Pride 48.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: How did you come to be involved in the Pride 48 project?

John Ong: I listen to a fellow long-time podcaster Archerr of ArcherRadio.com. He has a group show every week, mostly consist of other podcasters. Daniel (Brewer), along with I think one other podcaster, came up with the idea. They discussed about this project on ArcherRadio, that’s how I learned about it.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: The participants come from all over the world — how did the other people get involved, and how did folks decide which podcast would go when during the two-day period?

John Ong: Essentially, each show talked about it. We have some connections of some Australian podcasters, some from New Zealand. I have some connections with some Malaysian websites and podcasters. That’s how we got everyone involved. It was all through word of mouth.

Just like any other genre of podcasting, we are kinda connected from all over the world because of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community. Within this small group, we spread the word.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: What do you want your audience to get out of listening to the podcast marathon?

John Ong: I think I want a sense of community. Gay or gay-friendly people get together. Not all countries have resources where the GLBT community can listen to open discussions about themselves. There are still many countries who would censor our the word “gay” or “lesbian” during their regular programming. My home country, Malaysia, is one of them.

I want to be able to spread the word to the world that we are really as normal as anyone else they know. Totally unlike how the conventional media or government may want us to appear – oversexed kinky weirdos.

Celebrating gay pride is another goal. Listeners and podcasters coming together for a full 2-day run.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: It may be too early to ask this, but is this the first year of an ongoing Pride Month podcasting tradition?

John Ong: This is the first. But I don’t think it will be the only. Daniel has plans to open up the stream to anyone who wants to do it. And we may actually do it a few times a year rather than just for the month of June. We may do another one later this year.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about your podcast, and how and when you got into podcasting.

John Ong: My tiny little podcast that started my other podcasts is Ongline Podcast. My last name is Ong, a play on word of “online”… I always feel obliged to explain.

It started off as an audio blog. Just me talking to my family and friends. This is way back in November of 2004. I started to get more listeners whom I don’t know personally than those I know. It [still] retains its personal journal quality, which I personally am drawn to listening as well.

I focus on human stories. Sometimes it’s my story. Sometimes I have guests to talk about their stories. Not always gay-related. But it’s hard to avoid, since I am gay. But I bring other up and coming Malaysian podcasters on the show. Humorous stories of my own. Embarrassing stories, and sometimes sad experiences. Something that you would overhear a couple of good friends talk about at the next dining table.

I am a semi-professional singer. I’ve had a studio in my basement since 2003. When I first read about podcasting in 2004, that spiked my interest. I already have the equipment, I always find excuses to use my toys, and I am a web fan. That brought me into podcasting within a month.

When I listed my podcast at Adam Curry’s directory, there were literally fewer than 300 podcasts! I hand-coded my first enhanced podcast before any software was available (GarageBand etc).

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Is there anything else (at all!) you’d like me to share with the readers of Podcasting News?

John Ong: I found podcasting to be my great creative outlet. I get to document part of my life that I choose to share with the public. It also allows many voices of a minority group to be accessible from all over the world. Being an Asian, and being gay. I wished when I was younger to be able to hear a real voice out there speaking as a gay Asian, as openly and as genuinely as one chooses.

I personally hope and think the future generations may actually benefit from having real people speaking out about their lives that younger GLBT children may otherwise not have the exposure to. The struggles that I went through as an isolated gay kid, not understanding why I’m different from many of my peers, all can be shared now on my podcast. Hopefully my stories would reach children or adults who are going through the same situations I went through.

I also started several other podcasts after my Ongline Podcast. I started Penang Hokkien Podcast, a foreign language podcast, a year later. I also started Ding Da Bell Podcast about a year ago.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Thanks so much for bringing Pride 48 to my attention. It sounds like a really neat project, and I’m looking forward to stopping in to have a listen.

John Ong: Just so you know, streaming can be done on a computer or even iPhone or iPod touch. Chat room, however, is only available on the computer. But we are going to monitoring hash tag #pride48 on Twitter. Anyone who wants to interact (which podcasters sometimes missed) can do so either in the chat room or tweet using #pride48.

We are hoping this won’t just be an annual event, but more than once a year. We’ll find out as we go along.

Social media strategist Ron Ploof has published a new case study that is worth a read. “Johnson & Johnson Does New Media” is a concise e-book detailing how the health products giant has established its new media presence.

Many companies, large and small, hesitate to jump into blogging, podcasting, video, and social networks, citing “competitive, legal, or regulatory risks,” Ploof says. But Johnson & Johnson, a 123 year-old, $64 billion holding company (with 250 different operating companies and 118,000 employees), but has bucked the corporate tendency to shy away from new communications media.

Ploof explores how J & J has grown its new media presence from a simple “corporate brouchure” website of the mid-1990s, to today’s range of media offerings: a large corporate website, two blogs, the JNJ Channel on YouTube, and a company presence on Twitter and Facebook. Of particular interest is the special challenge J&J faces as a health-products company under strict government regulation – how do you create content that is good for customers, without crossing regulatory lines?

“Johnson & Johnson Does New Media” does a great job of refuting the arguments against corporate forays into new and social media, and goes one step further, to offer ten lessons companies (of all sizes, in any industry) should consider while developing their social media strategies.

Ron Ploof himself is a veteran of corporate communications and new and social media. An early adopter of podcasting technology, Ploof created the entertaining “Griddlecakes Radio” story podcast in 2005, while also creating the new media presence for the electronics company where he worked. Ploof now offers his new media expertise as a consultant to corporate and nonprofit concerns as OC New Media.

You can also see a couple of his entertaining videos on music and audio technology here.

In 2008, podcasting, vlogging and new media in general were effectively banned from the Olympics.

For future events, the Olympics has to embrace new media, according to Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, because the rules governing who can report from the Olympic Games are outdated in the age of Twitter.

In a speech to the International Olympics Committee Press Commission, Schlesinger argued that you could no longer make a professional reporting and citizen journalism:

“The old means of control don’t work. The old categories don’t work. The old ways of thinking don’t work. We need to come to terms with that,” Schlesinger said.

“Fundamentally, the old media won’t control news dissemination in the future. And organisations can’t control access using old forms of accreditation any more.”

Schlesinger said he had been ordered by the IOC press authorities to take down a blog post he wrote at last summer’s Beijing Games because it included a photo and he was only accredited to write and edit text.

Schlesinger’s comment highlight the absurdity of the last Olympics approach to news coverage.

He goes on to argue that the first news out of future Olympics events won’t come from official channels, but from “Twitterers sitting in the stadium banging out the result in a Tweet from their mobile phone”.

Schlesinger’s right – the Olympics need to embrace new media.

How much more exciting would coverage be if every athlete had a blog, and you could read about what your favorite athletes were doing in their own voice?

And how else is the Olympics going to connect with people who are now spreading their attention over Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, Flickr and other non-traditional media sites?

The infamous 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City marked the birth of the modern Gay Pride movement in the United States. Since then, the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered) community in the United States have observed Gay Pride month during the month of June.

Tomorrow, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the first “Pride Month” podcasting event will kick off, with a two-day marathon called “Pride 48.”

We caught up with podcaster Daniel Brewer, one of the organizers of the Pride 48 podcast marathon.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: How and when did you get into podcasting, and what is your podcast?

Daniel Brewer: I did my first podcast about 2.5 years ago. It was called “CallBox 7” and it was a political show. I managed to do it for 8 months before realizing that there is a reason people get paid to do political commentary – it is a lot of work to not “talk out of your @$$”.

I pod-faded that show and launched a generic “fart-joke” show called “Dubious Intent” just over a year ago. The show is myself, and two quasi-regular co-hosts – one from Florida and one from here in South Carolina. We record our show while streaming live and taking calls from our listeners every Sunday afternoon.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me what inspired you to organize a 48-hour GLBT podcast marathon.

Daniel Brewer: A friend of mine, Adam Burns from “The Adam and Matty Show” also live-streams his show and mentioned that it would cool to have a full time GLBT talk internet radio station. I talked him into scaling it down a bit and maybe just trying to fill an entire weekend with GLBT talk, and Pride48 was born.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: How did you spread the word, and get people from all over the world involved in the project?

Daniel Brewer: We basically spread the word about the project through podcasting news groups and one or two GLBT group shows. We made a conscious effort not to specifically invite any one to participate. Rather, it was an open event for any GLBT (or GLBT-friendly) podcast.

We also launched Pride48.com and Twittered our hearts ou,t to try and get people to sign up to participate. By May 31st, we had 29 individual podcasts signed up to participate (we’ve lost two or three since then due to scheduling).

Fortunately, the Internet is a global medium, so reaching podcasters from other countries wasn’t very difficult. At the present time, we have 26 individual shows from the U.S., Austrailia, and New Zealand.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: When is the live stream of the marathon beginning?

Daniel Brewer: The live stream starts Friday, June 26th at 7pm EDT, and will not end until 9pm EDT Sunday, June 28th. There are 26 individual shows, each doing anywhere from a half-hour to two hours of streaming, and even a few brave souls who are doing more than one “shift” to fill the entire event.

The streams can be accessed by going to http://pride48.com on either your computer, your iPhone, or your iPod Touch. We have a chat room that will be running for the entire event and you will be able to Tweet to our hosts by using the #pride48 hashtag in Twitter.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Whom do you see as your primary audience – is it the GLBT community, or are you reaching for a broader audience?

Daniel Brewer: Our primary audience is the GLBT community. The day after our event ends is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York – which started the modern Gay Pride movement. Everyone, however, is invited to join in for the fun.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Where can listeners find out more?

Daniel Brewer:http://pride48.com has a list of all of our participants, the chat room, and our streaming schedule.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Do you have anything else that you’d like me to share with Podcasting News’ readers?

Daniel Brewer: Well, I am a podcaster, so I would be remiss in my self-promotional duties if I didn’t say, “Go listen to all of the great shows on Pride48.com – but specifically make sure to listen to my show” (lol).

The iPhone 3GS video revolution is here.

Google has announced that uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have increased by 400% since last Friday, when Apple’s new iPhone 3GS went on sale.

According to Google, the jump from the iPhone 3GS is part of a larger trend, driven by three things:

• new video-enabled phones on the market;
• improvements that make it easier to post a video to YouTube from your phone; and
• a new feature on YouTube that allows people’s videos to be quickly shared through social networks. It takes just a minute to connect a YouTube account to Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader accounts. People can complete a simple, one-time connection on the upload page to allow all their friends and followers to get a real-time stream of their uploads to YouTube.

While a 400% jump is amazing, it’s also the tip of the iceberg. In the next few months, as the iPhone 3GS becomes establish, expect it to drive huge increases in mobile video publishing, just as the original iPhone drove adoption of mobile Web browsing.

More information on mobile video sharing is available at www.youtube.com/mobile.

via TechMeme

Apple has quietly updated the software for Apple TV to version 2.4.

Here’s what’s new in this version:

Refer the table below for Apple TV Software Update 2.4 features:

• Remote app directional control – Control your Apple TV with simple finger gestures via the Remote app. This feature requires Remote 1.3 running on an iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.0.
• Flickr Search – Search Flickr photo tags to find recently updated photos of interest. Save searches to quickly find new photos or use as a screen saver for Apple TV.
• New view options – View movies By Genre, By Movie, or Unwatched. View TV Shows and Podcasts By Date, By Show, or Unwatched.
• Updated transport and chapter modes – During video playback, click right or left to fast forward or rewind. Additional clicks increase the speed. Click down to show chapter markers.

Apple’s last major update to Apple TV was in February of 2008. In the fast-moving world of Internet TV, Apple TV seems to be on life support.