Well, if you haven’t started podcasting for fears that you will be unable to monetize all your hard work, you might want to reconsider as an article appearing pretty much everywhere has said that podcasting will generate around $400 million in advertising revenue by 2011. To put that in perspective, that is only four years from now, and so not the far distant future that 2011 feels like in my brain.

That’s according to a report to be released by eMarketer this week, which finds that spending on podcasting advertising will quintuple over the next five years, from a paltry $80 million base in 2006 to a $400 million market in 2011. (Granted, this is still on the small side, considering the $20 billion interactive ad market expected this year.)

eMarketer analyst James Belcher is betting that a familiar Web power player will spark much of that growth: Google.

Belcher expects that by 2008, the 800-pound algorithm gorilla will develop a version of AdSense that can be easily adapted to podcasts, theoretically allowing any Joe Schmoe podcaster to implement advertising. “That should help grow the market,” he said.

Who is up for starting a podcast/podcast network worth a million dollars a year in advertising? I know I would be.

Source: Mediaweek

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