Feedburner has done it again. They now report that the average podcast has only 35 subscribers.

Well, my podcast has three times that amount, so there! So, you may be asking yourself, “Well, why would she even bother? For just barely over 100 people?”

The reason why I podcast are many:

• I get loads of search engine traffic. Search engines love fresh content and anytime I do an interview for someone else’s podcast or when I update my own, I get favourable rankings in search engines. Don’t believe me? Punch in the keyword phrase “selling mistakes” into Google. My podcast is listed #1 (as of April 19th). Try “selling mistakes to avoid.” Where’s my podcast?
• I get new clients. Yup, you heard me. I have signed up new coaching clients as a result of my podcast. Since launching my podcast in October 2005, I’ve enrolled 10 new clients. Doesn’t sound like alot, huh? But that’s 10 people x $597 USD and you get $5,970. It takes me 1-hour to prepare my podcast, then factor in monthly hosting ($3.95 per month) and domain name renewal ($20 per year) and you can see where this is profitable for me. This doesn’t include all the other income streams that I generate each month.
• I have eliminated complimentary sessions. There’s no need for me to do them anymore. I used to go through 30 comp sessions a month and only net 3 new clients. So, I wasted about 15-hours on the phone (30 prospects x 30-minutes) a month just to turn 3 clients. Now, I use a product funnel where I offer my ezine and my podcast as freebies. Listeners can get used to my coaching style while listening to my podcast, so by the time they email me, they’re ready to hire me as their coach.

So, these are the reason why 105 subscribers are worth it to me. Subscribers get used to my style, they start to like me and when someone likes you, they trust your judgement. With trust comes sales and that’s why the ROPI (return on podcasting investment) works for me.