We just recently launched a podcast that has been top of category in iTunes for the past 6 weeks. We've done the same thing for two clients. I would say that I would heavily use social media to get the word out about our stories. Also, ask your authors to help promote - the more people who know about the podcast - the more people will ultimately hear the winners. You could even possibly have a people's choice part of your competition - where people listen to the various podcasts and vote on the winner - that will get you more downloads. We just wrote a blog post on our launch process which might give you some ideas - http://paychecktopassion.com/how-to-get-your-podcast-into-new-and-noteworthy/ And of course... what the previous two experts have already said.

I have helped many life coaches build very successful businesses - the key issue is being able to solve problems people will pay you for. I've found that the more specific you can be in the type of problem you solve (do you help midlife professionals with second careers? or college graduates to position themselves for their first job?) - the better you'll do. The steps for getting there: 1. Do some research - find out what problems people are having - that you can help them with. 2. Create a small scale offering and test it out with people you know who are willing to pay you a little bit for it. 3 Start building a community around it. Best of luck with letting your brilliance shine through in the world!

One of the ways I expanded my network was to start podcasting. Staring a podcast gave me an excuse to reach out to people "higher on the food chain" with an offer of exposure. Most people will say yes - especially if they are launching a book or in promotion mode. Another way to reach out, is to become part of their circle... take classes from them, participate in their community.

I am an online marketing automation consultant. When I stopped working full time - I got several gigs as a subcontractor to people in my industry who were just a bit further along than I was. I didn't get paid as much - but a learned a lot - both in terms of skills and how to run my practice.

Tyler is right - but you can cheat the system by using affiliate links to track. So, you would set up an affiliate link for each different traffic source, ad, banner, affiliate. Then, not only can you track the leads, you can track how well they convert.