I took in some excellent sessions today at the Podcast and New Media Expo. Much of it was about ways to monetize podcasts, but there were lots of great advice and case studies of organizations that have effectively used online media to grow their businesses.

One interesting example, the Financial Aid Podcast is run by a guy at the Student Loan Network. It’s a daily show about financial planning, scholarships, and obviously, financial aid for students. He does the news of the day, and answers email questions from students. It’s a one man operation, a guy named Chris Penn does the show every morning, and he is very tenacious about getting every measurable statistic he can about the show and the audience. By tracking 12 different domains that get mentioned in the show, and tracking every download and listener, they figured out that the show is responsible for 10% of the overall business of the Student Loan Network.

This is an incredible return for the effort to create that ever-important permission-based relationship with the customer.