If I charged a nickel to everyone that asked me how to make money from podcasting and blogging, I’d have model for recurring revenue in new media and social media. I may even be rich by now.

My answer to the question has been consistent: develop your skills as a content creator, audio producer and community developer (or be part of team that has those skills) and then maybe you’ll have something to build on. In fact, I blogged about this nearly a year ago using a garden as a metaphor for building skills and engaging in sustainable growth — neither of which you can rush.

Robert Safuto put up yet another brilliant post (he’s good at that, really) on the subject of business models for new social networks. Rob suggests that if you start with a business model you’re doomed to failure. I agree. As a bonus, Robert used a garden as the metaphor.

I once saw a sign that said “Farmers feed cities”. Remember, they don’t necessarily get paid based on the value of that reality.

Seth Godin started a thread (see: Thanks) and Rob Safuto of Awakened Voice picked up on it (see: Losing Your Users). In summary, Seth points out that blog [and podcast] followers give their creators the gift of attention, and Rob follows that up with a thought that ad services are a specific and directed invitation for the audience to go away.

Basically, if you want to attract a following and you respect the people that give you their time, why would you push them out the door?

Robert Safuto of Awakened Voice is creating Awakened Voice Tutorials in Quicktime format.  Each installment demonstrates a way to use a particular tool in the Social Media space.  To date, the series includes instructional videos entitled Subscribing to Podcasts with iTunes, Enhance RSS with FeedBurner, and Uploading to Google Video.