As I described in my previous post, I'm playing around now with Neon Alley. While I wish it was a Video-on-Demand service, well, it is what it is; and right now it has lame-ass advertising that is dull and uninspired and could be a turn-off to viewers.
I know Anime podcasters are skeptical of my idea and with good reason. But perhaps it might help to think of things this way. Some of you complain that you're "not a business" so why should you pay someone to advertise your show on Neon Alley? Well, you are still well-produced "content providers" on the internet. You deserve a wider audience. Word of mouth works okay, and ok, maybe you get some traffic from iTunes or someone stumbles on your Facebook presence or your main website.You probably balk at the idea of paying for an advert to VIZ to air on Neon Alley. But you would throw money at your favorite hobby to buy a new & better microphone, right? Indeed you probably already have once. You'd buy a new mixer in a heartbeat if your existing one crapped out on you. Think of it like that--a one time cost to help improve your show/hobby; you get the word out to new potential listners, Neon Alley/VIZ gets much needed ad revenue to tide them over until their subscription model gets proven to work for them; If Neon Alley actually succeeds, they should remember the podcasters that helped them and buy ad time with these podcasters going forward. A sort of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kind of idea.
Let me tell you--the advertising currently running on Neon Alley is some boring, lame -ass sh*t. If I could see an advert for A3K or AlphaCounter, I'd probably pay more attention and even laugh at the zany humor. So would other PS3 users, who might stay tuned in to Neon Alley a bit longer and wouldn't be immediately distracted or turned off by the ads and go off and play Call of Duty or whatever until the next Anime comes on. I see Neon Alley as very much aimed at the casual Anime viewer. I think they should air shows that do well epsiodically, that you can watch in any order and not get utterly lost.
Anyway, it's a little pet idea I've been kind of obsessing over all morning. I'm glad that so many podcasters have been at least responsive to the idea on their Facebook presences this morning. Thanks to all of you guys out there on the Facebooks who at least commented back on my original post(s). I appreciate the feedback.
