As the number of comedy podcasts being produced continues to explode, there’s been one thing about them that continues to confuse me: most comedy podcasters don’t bother to shoot video of their podcasts. In my opinion, this is a HUGE missed opportunity.

Even though most podcasts are primarily an audio experience and the majority of fans will listen to them as opposed to watching them, there are a lot of advantages to shooting video of your podcasts that I’ve found most podcasters haven’t considered. Here’s 5 reasons why I think every podcaster should be videotaping their podcasts…

1. It Will Make Your Podcast Easier To Promote

One of the biggest challenges in podcast promotion is that it’s infinitely more difficult to get somebody to check out a 40-minute audio clip than it is to get somebody to watch a 3-minute video. If you’re videotaping your podcast episodes, it becomes easy to pull highlights from the show, post them on YouTube, and send them around to blogs or websites to get more attention for your show (here’s 100 Places To Promote Your Content to get you started).

Additionally, having video of your podcast allows you to promote it in places with huge comedy audiences where you otherwise couldn’t be. For example, video sites like YouTube, Funny or Die, and UStream have literally millions of comedy fans who you can’t reach unless you have a video to show them.

2. It Will Make Your Podcast Easier To Monetize

As a general rule, sponsors and advertisers will pay way more to advertise on video content than they will on audio content. If you’re ultimately hoping to monetize your show with sponsors, this is definitely something that you should consider.

Also, having video of your podcast will give you another product to sell. For example, if your average podcast episode gets 25,000 downloads, that’s all you can charge a sponsor for. But if that same episode gets 25,000 audio downloads and another 10,000 video views, that’s an expanded audience and one which you can charge more money for an advertiser to reach.

3. It Will Make Your Podcast More Interactive

If you’re shooting video of your podcast episodes, you will have the option of broadcasting your recordings live through a live-streaming video site such as UStream or Justin.tv. This can create a really interesting experience for fans who get to not only watch the show live and participate in chat rooms during the broadcast, but can also interact more with the episodes.

By broadcasting live video of your podcast, fans will be able to become part of the show as it’s happening be calling in to talk to you on the air, or interacting with you in real-time through the chat room or via Twitter. Plus, these live broadcasts have the added value of connecting your fanbase to each other and giving you another “event” to promote the show.

4. It Will Not Cost You Much Money

A few years ago, shooting video was often too expensive an undertaking for podcasters. But now, thanks to new technology and declining costs of video cameras, it’s incredibly easy to shoot video of what you’re doing. You don’t have to have an elaborate production, you can simply turn on your laptop video camera or buy a Flip Cam and press record when you do the show.

In the case of most podcasts, the show is basically a couple people sitting around and talking so you don’t need amazing production value. You just want to be able to capture what’s happening on video so  that you have another way to promote and monetize what you’re creating.

5. It Allows You To Include Different Kinds Of Content In The Show

Once you commit to a video version of your podcast, it frees you up to include all kinds of different segments in the show that would not have worked when it was just an audio podcast. For example, you can now go shoot remote video segments or sketches in advance of the show and show them during the podcast. You can also show various videos you find online that you may want to riff on during the show. Plus, your fans could send you videos of themselves that you could work in to the show as well.

You don’t have to incorporate these kinds of videos in your show of course, but by having a video version of your podcast will give you a lot more creative freedom to do so if you want.

Do you have your own podcast? If so, leave a comment on this post with a link for people to check it out…