You made an interesting point, though, in regards to “childfree” keywords giving decidedly “childful” ads. The few times I’ve listened to eg. This Week In Tech, I noticed that their ads are always personally delivered and not a pre-recorded jingle. The ad tends to go on for a few minutes of conversation, because the people on the ‘cast are actually users of the product. Subsequently, I’m more interested in the product because the people are selling the product as part of their own experience.

Magpie ads, on the other hand, may not. The same is true for “Ads by Google”. Being auto-generated, there’s no “word-of-mouth” factor. If you could actually choose (or at least confirm) the products that Magpie advertises through your feed, that would be a step in the right direction. Otherwise, it’s a shotgun blast of advertising through a Dixie Cup(TM).

Marketers know that people are more willing to buy a product recommended to them by a friend. Since no one’s really figured out the best way to do that by mass-production, Magpie would be in a very unique position as an advertiser. And as podcasters, we would be raking in tons of cash.

The solution, I think, is to negotiate the deals individually. Since so many of us do niche-casts, we’ll have to chase down the companies that offer what we want and go to them for an advertising deal. Or sell ads on your site that you’ve personally approved - Penny Arcade only posts ads on their site for games that they’ve played and enjoyed (even if it’s just the beta). Demonstrate your integrity to your audience and they’ll keep coming by more and more.

So when I saw your tweet earlier, I didn’t reply. I simply don’t know what I would do if you started using Magpie. And I certainly don’t know what everyone else who follows you might do.

I suspect, however, that most people use Twitter as a party room conversation. Self-pimpage is tolerated as part of the conversation, but injected advertisements will be subject to a lot more objection.