Ask IH: advice needed - what am I doing wrong ?
Hi
I started a side project and launch it on January 2017. Its name is Podmytube.com.
Its goal is to allow youtubers to create audio podcast from their youtube channel.
Everything is automatized, so, once the youtube channel is registered videos are automatically converted and youtubers have nothing to do.
The few customers I got in touch with are fully satisfied by the service.
I have a free plan for small youtube channels that produce less than 3 videos per month and premium plans above.
The website is "clean" and seems (to me) pro.
But (finally) I cannot get new customers.
- Youtubers seems hard to target.
- They seem to disregard audio podcast (if they know about it).
- They receive lots of messages/mails/comments/twits/FB and my mails are not do not attract attention.
- Worst with the bandwidth and hosting costs I'm losing money every month.
The only positive part (and it's a good one) is that I'm training my technical skill with it.
I would love to have your feedback or your advice on this service. Is this idea totally stupid ? Should I continue ?
Thanks (by advance) for any comment :)
I would suggest a few things..
Public tweet big youtubers who has a successful podcast.(Not to get them as a customers but to make yourself more visible)
Search for youtubers who are providing advice to upcoming youtubers/podcasters and team up with them.(Affiliate program)
Find "top tools for youtubers" articles and ask the author to include your service.
Find articles on "how to make a successful podcast" and ask author to include your service in the article.
On your website add a section listing all the podcasts done by your service and link to them. (Social proof)
Find communities for upcoming youtubers on reddit/facebook and post about your service.
Team up with automation services like IFTT and Zapier etc.
Research and write articles on how to do a successful podcast, tips and tricks. (Every reader will be potential customer)
I'm kind of a noob on twitter and I will not know what to tweet to them
affiliation is in my (big) todo roadmap list. Thanks for confirming it is not a bad idea :)
3-4. I will !
I have a small list of youtubers comments but (with my already customers) I may make it more "impressive".
I tried once some month (a year?) ago with no success but I will give it another try :)
I use IFTTT but I never thought to partner with them. I add this to my todo list :)
Writing a blog seems the most recurring idea. I will try to.
Thanks a lot for your feedback ! :)
I'm glad you found it useful :), keep us posted on your progress
Hey Frederick,
Maybe you should contact folks who have both a podcast and youtube channel because they will understand your pain point. You could also offer a free month or two to podcast owners in exchange for an ad on their channel, but I understand if you wouldn't want to use that option as you are losing money already.
Hi Katrina. I've tried this solution before (offering podmytube service in exchange of a little piece of notoriety) but I had no answer.
My thought was my mail was one among thousands but with the feedback I got here I begin to believe the problem was my message.
I will try to fix this first, then I will retry.
Anyway thanks for your comment :)
Hi Frederick,
Why dont you try writing a blog, It will help you getting more users.
At the beginning iI intended to write a blog and post a blog post once a week. I stopped doing this because writing take a lot of time and I feel repeating myself. I'm a better techie than writer (at least I hope so). But you're not the first to tell it. Perhaps I should give it a try.
Anyway thanks for your comment :)
I think you have to build product awareness in podcast listeners as well as the youtubers you're targeting. If you keep going with your current business model and find it totally unworkable, you could consider swapping to an advertisement model (which is what the youtubers will be familiar with anyways). Imagine you pay them to upload their videos as podcasts, then you automatically interject audio ads every 30 minutes. You get the money from the ads and they get a cut. From that standpoint, it will be much easier to attract youtubers. But then you'd have to establish relationships with advertisers. Just an alternative idea!
A nice one ! :)
Thanks for your feedback !
Have you checked Google keywords and phrases that youtubers could search by to find a similar service? Do you have a content on your site explaining everything that Google could index and show youtubers on their search?
I'm not SEO expert but I tried this, perhaps with the wrong keywords.
To my knowledge there is no other service that allow youtuber to have their own podcast "normally".
There is podsync but it is one free service for people who want to listen a youtuber. The youtuber has no "rights" on the generated feed by podsync.
Google is showing more youtube videos than podcasts by the way.
Thanks for your reply :)
Okay, I entered "how to convert youtube to podcast" in Google, your service is showing on page 2. Not too bad. But it's probably lost among articles, other services and even opensource projects like https://github.com/i3arnon/YouCast
How are people supposed to find your service?
You have to provide real content, answer questions on quora and other communities to be shown in the results. Maybe use other words instead of "podcast" like mp3, sound files, itunes channel etc.
@mangesh suggest to provide real content too. Not what I prefer to do but it is probably the right thing to do.
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Hi again. A few days again I asked for what I was doing wrong. I received a lot of feedback. It took some time to digest. Some time and brain juice to find good arguments but I finally achieved to release a new version of my website that is less techie and more "selly".
I would like to thank you all again for your feedback. By the way if you can check the new version and tell me if (this time) it is more appropriate I would be grateful :)
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Your comment is by far the one that kick me the most. Reading that my website didn't convert you in a customer, even if you knew the pros to have a podcast, it is hard.
But it is clear to me that my message is not the good one and I need to work on it.
Many thanks for all your feedback and the link your gave !
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No no, don't worry, you were right :) I asked for feedback and even if I had considered yours as "harsh" (which I don't) I see your comment as a great opportunity to update my "message".
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Wow ... what a feedback !
Lots of things here but I will work carefully on that. Many thanks for your comment !
By the way, thanks for the english fix (I'm a french techie :) )
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No problem I took it for what it was :)