Overall I think it’s a great idea. It still amazes me that far too many people expect everything for free on the Internet. Unfortuanelty, it’s heading in that direction with podcasts.

That is why you have to build your reputation as an authority in your field. If you are perceived as an expert then you can charge a premium.

The $99 is a little steep I think (unless of course your name recognition demands this premium). I’d go for $49 maximum as it has been proven that people are more than happy to make purchases under $50 without feeling too guilty about it. Anything more and they really have to be sold on it and tend to walk away from the sale at the first opportunity.

I’d go for a monthly audio (12 times a year) charging say $5.99 per issue – and also offering annual subscription for $49 (a saving of $23 odd dollars over individual purchases) … anyhow that’s how I’m planning to do it in my niche

Also, as commented before, include detailed “show notes” – for me, there’s nothing worse than downloading a 15Mb podcast without knowing what’s in store (and that’s even from some of my favorite podcast).

In regards to audio books over reading. Once agin, it has been proven that you retain more information from audio than by reading – something like 10-15% more sticks … so you gotta sell that point.

Also, at the end of the year, why not offer a CD audio product of the whole year’s programs as an additional income stream.

As with other comments – I totally agree that you have to provide a free sample, so that potential buyers can hear for themselves.

Why not make a short 5 minute fortnightly podcast with one tip available for free – but include a soft pitch for your premium product?

1. There are mechanisms that allow episodic rebilling of a credit card. I get a DVD this way. I’ve agreed to let the producer re-bill me every month until I say stop. This saves me having to re-subscribe and frankly probably keeps people subscribed when they might otherwise have not renewed.

2. Here is a very high quality personal development podcast that is one of the original 5 or 10 podcasts ever produced.
http://welchwrite.com/dewelch/ce/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/career

3. Shorter and more frequent audio would keep me revved up more than infrequent longer audio pieces. That doesn’t mean that you couldn’t produce longer pieces and sort of chop them up into bit-sized, easily digestible pieces. I find if I’m away for a week and come back to your site, I can get over loaded with inspiration. Read one of your longer pieces and you’ll probably see the right length to make your audio.

4. Please consider publishing your audio as a podcast. Or maybe I should use the term RSS. You don’t have to make the feed public and you can associate a user’s account with the ability to access the feed. This way those of us that do subscribe don’t have to do anything – your personal development podcast would just land in the subscribers play list.

5. OK. I’ll say it… $100.00 year is too much. I think you should make money doing this and maybe even a lot of money if you are successful. If you get 1,000 subscribers – WOW that would get. But I really think you could get 10,000 or more particularly if you charged competitively to a magazine which is more like what you are doing. I guess I’d have to reserve judgment until I hear what you are doing but I’d be more comfortable something more on the order of $24.99 a year

Take it or leave it — I’ll look forward to seeing what develops.

I find your articles to be some of the most interesting and stimulating content available on the web. I would be very interested in audio as I already listen to podcasts and audible.com books whenever I can. I wouldn’t, however, be able to afford $99 per year. Though I’m certain that the content would be worth it, my budget would not allow for it at this time.

I would certainly consider subscribing to a trimmed-back / cheaper version, and I would also reconsider if my family’s income / budget situation changed.

Thank you.

I’d want the transcript to even consider subscribing. I’ve never been a fan of audio content for all the reasons that Chi Shen explains so well.

My first thought was that $99 a year sounds reasonable, because I’ve come to believe you have valuable insights to share — but on further reflection I find myself comparing that to what I could get in other media. $99 buys a lot of books.

Why? Because I’m deaf.

That aside, I dont’ understand why people like audio content — it’s much faster to read and article than it is to listen to one and written material is much more versatile.

I wouldn’t want a whole-year subscription. I would, however, want to download issues on topics that interest me. I don’t know if anybody’s suggested this yet, but what about pre-paying for X number of downloads? Like, paying $30 for 5 downloads, and you can download whatever five you want within a one-year period?

I just started listening to the occasional podcast on the bus to and from work. It would be nice to supplement reading your articles and blogs with listening to your motivational audio once in a while.

Adding the transcripts wouldn’t be much extra work compared to the value it may add for some people.

Again, I greatly appreciate the feedback. It’s given me a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of this idea.

In conclusion, I find audio programs to be inconvenient and unenjoyable.

Maybe after I’ve mastered the basics as described in your articles and in some of the other stuff I’ve looked at recently (Allen’s “Getting Things Done” and Nightingale’s “Lead the Field” for example).

My advice would be to separate the material into several tracks – one article, one track (= 1 MP3 file). This way it’s easier to use the material in a car MP3 player.

Also, the MP3 files should be properly tagged – good ID3 v1 and v2 tags, so I can easily select the article I want to listen to in the car.