Preparing for the ZBIZ.TV Launch

I’ve been a busy, busy boy these past couple of weeks.

There are now five completed interviews ready for the ZBIZ.TV launch, with two more in preparation mode. I have them in several versions: one streaming Quicktime video for the site, one video version for iTunes and one audio version for iTunes.

One of the many things I learned this past week at PodCamp Boston is that if you are going to put podcasts out there — audio or video — the best distribution medium is iTunes. They also pointed out that if your video content can be translated to audio, you ought to do it, as the vast majority of iPod equipped podcast listeners are listening to them on their way to and from work, in their car, subway or bus.

Little by little, the iPod is supplanting radio as the device of choice for listening to audio content.

I’ve decided to make ZBIZ.TV a weekly production. I simply don’t have the time or the energy at this point to make it anything more than that. I have other responsibilities (consulting gigs, family, marriage) that would have to be sacrificed in order for me to do twice or more weekly broadcasts, but I’m not willing to make that choice at this point.

People have asked me if ZBIZ will be a money making proposition. My answer is always the same: I hope some day it will be, but my first priorities are to enhance and improve the editorial quality of the product and to grow a high quality audience in the process.

The audience I’m shooting for is comprised of entrepreneurs, angel investors, private investment firms and venture capitalists — all in all a fairly attractive group in that most are financially very well set. But these folks don’t have a lot of time on their hands, so I have a very short window of opportunity to make it worth their while to view or listen to the interviews.

Launch date is still Monday, September 18th. I need to be focusing on preparing the site with the necessary “About…” information and begin queuing up the interviews for the dates they will run.

I also need to get all the interviews uploaded to iTunes — a process I have no experience whatever in doing. Hopefully it will be simple and straightforward as most things Apple are.

So stay tuned. If you have any friends who may be interested in the type of content we’ll be offering on ZBIZ.TV, by all means let them know about the pending launch.

Back to work…