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You know the value of the blogs, podcasts, and new media sites you visit every day and enjoy. What you may not know is that you have the ability to greatly influence the success of your favorites with a few easy steps.

Follow these 5 tips and you’ll have done your part to help your favorites become more successful.

Connect A Friend Every Month

Who do you know among your friends, colleagues, and family that isn’t connected to your favorites, but should be? Every month, help someone get connected. Whether it’s setting up a Google Reader account for them, installing iTunes, or helping them subscribe to a newsletter, you can help them get started in new media, and start them off on the right foot - with the content that you love most.

Promote Online Every Week

If you’re reading a blog, listening to a podcast, or enjoying some form of episodic content, pick one thing that week that resonated most with you, and promote it online. Use sites like StumbleUpon.com, Digg.com, del.icio.us, and social networks like Facebook & MySpace to promote. Tag that entry in the tagging sites, send out bulletins and friend messages to your friends on social networks to tell them about what struck you the most that month.

If you have a blog, podcast, or home page of your own, write or discuss your favorite content on it, and provide a link to the content.

It only takes a couple of minutes to submit the URL of your favorite content that month, and it makes a HUGE difference.

Feedback Every Month

For the producers behind the content you love, it can get lonely blogging, podcasting, or producing in the studio. Hearing from the people on the other end of the content can fuel the producer to keep going when times get tough.

Make a point to leave a blog comment, send an email, or call a comment line every month, if for no other reason than to just say hello and let your producers know you’re still paying attention. If your favorite productions have forums, groups, or other participation avenues, make sure to use them!

Invest Every Three Months

Podcasting, blogging, and new media are brand new media outlets, and as a result, don’t have the financial resources in many cases to have large advertising or promotion budgets. Like public broadcasting, many of them rely solely on the audience for financial support. Every three months, even if it’s only a few dollars, support the producers in their work in some financial way.

Many productions make it easy to donate; others may have specific charities or causes they would prefer you to contribute to. If you listen, for example, to music podcasts, make sure you buy an album or a few tracks in the online music store of choice. Use endorsed sponsors if it makes financial sense to do so.

No matter what the financial support mechanism is, make sure you contribute a little something every few months.

Distribute This Guide

Connect with other audience members for your favorite content and give this guide to them. If they’re as ardent a supporter as you are, let them know this guide is available and encourage them to distribute it as well. The more people who are actively working to support their favorite new media outlets, the more successful the producers will be, which will help keep the great content you love coming.

New media needs your help - your producers need your help. You have the power to influence - will you help?

Download a PDF version of this guide to give to friends!