Five Fast Facts

• The Financial Aid Podcast is free. No strings attached whatsoever. No subscription to buy, no service to spend on, no gear to invest in. Free, free, free.
• Subscription refers to the mechanism of delivery, not the cost. By “subscribing” you get the show delivered to you, rather than having to go out and get it every day.
• We’re a weekly show, published on Fridays, with daily or near daily blog posts. Subscribe and listen or you could very well miss an episode, and that would be a shame.
• You don’t need an iPod. It’s convenient, but you can listen right on your computer.
• This is a conversation, not a radio broadcast. I love to hear from my listeners!

Check out our new subscriber guide, a quick 5 page (mostly pictures) guide to subscribing to the Financial Aid Podcast for free!

Click here to download the PDF!
Adobe Acrobat PDF, 732 KB file

How to put the Financial Aid Podcast on your Web site or MySpace page

Here are some great ways to add the Financial Aid Podcast to your site. For educational institutions, it’s free with no restrictions. For other businesses, please see the Business Partnerships section.

1. Simply create a text link: <a href=”http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com”>The Financial Aid Podcast</a>
2. Add our Flash Player by copying and pasting this code to your web site: Click for the code
3. Add our Google Gadget by copying and pasting this code to your web site: Click for the code
4. Contact me and I’ll gladly talk with you about how I can help.

About Your Host, Christopher S. Penn

A visionary in new media with an intuitive sense for how marketing and community outreach should be done, Christopher S. Penn has been called upon for expert information by researchers for the Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Health and Human Services, as well as being highly sought after for conferences and private intensive seminars.

Mr. Penn has spoken before diverse audiences ranging from executives of major venture capital firms, to multiple state and federal agencies, to aspiring college students looking to make their mark on the world.

Mr. Penn is the Chief Technology Officer of Edvisors, Inc. and the Student Loan Network, founder and producer of the multi-award winning Financial Aid Podcast internet radio show, co-founder of the groundbreaking PodCamp New Media Community unConference, and co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast.

Mr. Penn has also been featured in many books, newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the New York Times, magazines such as BusinessWeek and US News & World Report, television networks such as PBS, CNN, and ABC News, and publications for his leadership in new media and financial services.

Mr. Penn holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Franklin & Marshall College and a Master’s degree from Boston University School of Management. He is an adjunct professor of Internet marketing at the University of San Francisco.

Publications

Mr. Penn has been featured in:

• CNN
• CNBC
• WGBH Boston PBS
• WCVB Boston 5
• US News & World Report
• The Wall Street Journal
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• BusinessWeek SmallBiz
• The Greentree Gazette
• NASFAA Today’s News
• Higher Education Washington
• Student Paths Magazine
• What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting, by Ted Demopoulos
• The New Rules of Marketing & PR, by David Meerman Scott
• Podcasting for Profit, by Leesa Barnes
• The Business Podcasting Book, by Michael Geoghagen and Greg Cangialosi
• Join the Conversation, by Joseph Jaffe
• BostonNOW newspaper

Media Inquiries

I am available for media inquiries at our main office number, 617-328-1565. Please also feel free to leave a message on the show hotline, 206-350-1208. You may also contact me via email from this handy form.

Public Speaking and Conferences

• Scholarship Search Secrets. Learn powerful secrets for finding scholarships using the latest Internet tools.
• Building Blocks of Social Media. In this one hour presentation and discussion, learn the 4 prerequisites of your social media initiatives.
• Turning Buzz into Business - B2B New Media. In this one hour presentation and discussion, Mr. Penn examines your social media strategy and “funnel”, and demonstrates powerful techniques using business social networks for making relationships and business happen.
• New Media Overview - The basics of podcasting, blogging, and new media. In this one hour presentation, Mr. Penn explores the new media environment and strategic implications for your organization and brand.
• Social Networking - Understanding Your New Community. In this one hour presentation, Mr. Penn reveals four strategies for evaluating social networks and understanding the context in which people use them.
• Powering Your Personal Network with Social Media. In this one hour presentation, Mr. Penn demonstrates how effective use of social networks and social media can vastly increase your personal influence and reach, helping you to achieve real world results.
• Blogging - Community Communication at its best. In this one hour presentation, Mr. Penn reveals the top 4 reasons to blog, some blogging tools, plus tips to be a productive blogger and missteps to avoid.
• Podcasting - The 21st century radio. In this one hour presentation, Mr. Penn explores the landscape of audio and video podcasting, citing successful productions, and gives you a roadmap to implementation.
• New Media Marketing - How to use new media to spread the word. In this one hour presentation, Mr. Penn examines the four stages of new media participation and engagement, basic metrics, and how to create value propositions using new media tools.

Presentations may be requested on the above topics by themselves or as part of half or full day intensives.

Presentation Excerpts

Podcasters Across Borders 2008

Television Excerpts

CNBC

WGBH

Past Speaking Engagements

• New England Direct Marketing Association
• PRSA Digital Impact
• Bentley College CIS Presents Spring 2009
• Social Media Jungle Boston
• Citigroup Citi Forward
• SREB GoAlliance
• Massachusetts Department of Higher Education GEAR UP
• Massachusetts Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators 2008 Annual Conference
• Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer
• New Marketing Summit
• Inbound Marketing Summit
• PodCamp Philadelphia 2
• PodCamp Boston 3
• MITX Forum
• National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators 2008 Annual Conference
• Department of Health and Human Services Interagency New Media Forum
• MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2008
• Eastern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators 2008 Annual Conference
• PodCamp NYC 2.0
• PodCamp DC
• SREB GoAlliance Private Intensive
• Bentley College CIS Presents Spring 2008
• NewBCamp @ Johnson & Wales University
• Emerson College Graduate School of Integrated Marketing & Communications
• SREB GoAlliance Keynote
• Massachusetts Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators 2007 Annual Conference
• National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
• PodCamp Boston 2
• PodCamp Boston
• PodCamp Toronto
• PodCamp NYC
• PESC Technology and Standards Conference
• PodCamp Europe @ VON Europe
• Podcasters Across Borders with Mitch Joel
• PodCamp Philadelphia
• Emerson College Careers
• Bentley College CIS Presents Featured Speaker Fall 2007

Business Partnerships

Please use the contact form if you are interested in a business partnership with the Student Loan Network or the Financial Aid Podcast. We are always interested in learning about new opportunities to better serve the students and families working to make college affordable.

Disclaimer

While I do my best to help my listeners, it’s important for me to declare that I am not a certified financial planner, chartered public accountant, or in any way certified to “officially” dispense financial advice. If you ask for advice, I’ll help as best as I can, but please consult with a qualified financial professional like a CFA, CFP, CPA, etc. before making any significant financial changes. Listening to the show or surfing this web site constitutes your full acceptance of this disclaimer, indemnifies and holds harmless me and the Student Loan Network for any consequences of advice you take.

Disclosures

Read above about disclaimers for sure. I own stock in some student loan companies. I own exactly 1 share of First Marblehead (FMD) and 1 share of MRU Holdings (UNCL), for a combined total value of about $40 $5.35, both bought through ShareBuilder.com. Because the Student Loan Network is not publicly traded, I don’t own any shares or equity in it.

Comment, Blog, and IP Policy

The Financial Aid Podcast is a private web site, blog, and podcast wholly owned by the Student Loan Network, created by Christopher S. Penn. It is not affiliated or associated with the US Department of Education or US Government.

All content on this site, including comments, is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 US BY-NC-ND license. Under this license, you are permitted to re-use content, including comments, as long as you give attribution including a hyperlink to www.FinancialAidPodcast.com in the following recommended format:

<a href=”http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com”>Cited from the Financial Aid Podcast</a>

Additionally, Financial Aid Podcast content may not be used for any commercial purpose without a separate license from the Student Loan Network. This includes content syndication on sites that accept advertising of any form. You may not make derivative works of the Financial Aid Podcast content.

I reserve the right to update, alter, edit, or delete comments submitted for any reason, without notice. By leaving a comment on the Financial Aid Podcast site, you agree to license the content of your comment under the Creative Commons 3.0 US BY license.

Anonymous comments, spam, and unsolicited commercial comments may be deleted or edited to reflect a different promotional focus - namely, Student Loan Network products and services.