Ideas Post.
OK, everybody... here's the story so far:
The Sound of Young America, by a lot of standards, is doing great...
* We've got an average of about five thousand downloads per show, which is very good to great in the (independent) podcasting world.
* The show's on half a dozen stations.
* The recent trip to New York was a success (though I did lose a fair bit of money on it).
* A couple folks I really admire and respect have really lent a hand and also been very encouraging lately. This means a lot to me.
* A number of folks, including many of the regular commenters here, are donors to the show, and that generates about $200 a month in income, which pays for my expenses. If it weren't for you, I couldn't do the show, literally.
* I think the show's been doing very well in terms of booking, and I feel like I'm continuing to improve as host.
* The preliminary results of the survey I've been running are very positive. People really like the show.
* This blog has a strong audience, and I've never broken news about a new iPod or combined the names of a celebrity couple into a more-convenient single name.
* A nice fella named John is helping me build a forum for the website, which I've always wanted to have.
There are still many, many challenges, though.
* The show hasn't really grown in audience for a year. This has been the case for lots of non-brand-name podcasts, but it is nonetheless discouraging.
* Public radio related partnership possibilities I was very excited about have not come through.
* Although I occaisionally meet someone in public radio who likes the show, and that's exciting (see above), even those few stations who have agreed to take a listen to the show in the past few months have basically ignored me thereafter.
* While the money that's coming in covers the expenses of the show, I'm not taking anything home.
* Since moving to LA about three and a half months ago, I've been able to focus on the show while doing a little bit of freelance work. Unfortunately, despite my borderline ascetic lifestyle, my cashflow has been negative, and I don't have much savings, so I think that may have to end.
* Putting out an hour-long show every week is really hard.
Here's the deal:
I'm looking for ideas. If you have any idea for what I should do, please comment. Anything from little things I should change to big new directions. All are open. Please share your thoughts on others' ideas, as well.
If there's a way you'd like to help, that of course is encouraged, but feel free to suggest off the wall ideas that involve me doing all the work. I am taking on all ideas. Please do share a bit of the "why" in your idea, as well.
One of the biggest reasons I still do the show five years later is listeners like you. I really mean that. Today I got an email from a guy who has all kinds of environmental allergies and immune deficiencies, and he can't leave the house much, but he loves The Sound. A couple weeks ago, I found out one of my favorite public radio personalities is a listener. That kind of stuff really amazes and gratifies me (as you might imagine). That said, the tank's running a little low this week.
So... I'm opening up the floor to new ideas.
Ready... steady... GO!
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posted by Jesse Thorn at Tuesday, November 14, 2006
15 Comments:
Since by my calculations you are getting less than 2% of your downloaders to donate to the cause, and barring getting picked up by a station with some resources (public radio network/XM/etc) you may have to entertain doing one or more of the following, which you have probably also considered:
- Find a sponsor--not sure what a good fit here would be, since the comedy-nerd audience (is that an accurate description of your demo?) is fairly advertising-resistant--maybe a large tech/consumer products company willing to make an "image" buy? Apple? Google? Comedy Central? Coke (the beverage)?
- Apply for a grant or some other sort of non-profit funding
- Make the podcast subscription-based ($1/show--maybe you can net 25% of that after subscription service costs? I don't know what the market will bear) This will unfortunately reduce your podcast audience, but find your dedicated core--even if it dropped to 250 people, you'd be seeing more money per show than you are now.
- Shorten the show to a half-hour/week (1 guest/week) to cut production and bandwidth costs--your current interview format lends itself to this
I know none of these is an "improvement" on your current product, but since I think you are basically giving away gold right now, I think you have to get your listeners to foot some of the bill before you can invest in added production value (and, yes, I'm talking SFX...)
Over a year and a half ago, I pitched a podcast show idea to a alt.country magazine, they seemed really interested, but it kinda fell through (my fault, not theirs), But maybe hooking up with McSweeney's ( A Wholphin extra?) could help. Or some magazine looking to expand their web interests. Or UCB which does a ton of podcast related stuff (Handheld Comedy).
Podcasts should follow a kind of Second City model, bond with and be the add-on to other, slightly more successful ventures. Is that compromising?
You get absolutely fanatstic bookings, surely some of them are as interested in you as you are in them.
I agree with advertising opportunities. Maybe allow comedians to book ads on the show? TAL does car ads: Ira Glass reads advertising slogans at the end of the show.
Like I told you in my email, you've been on the staff favourite list in the Canadian iTunes store podcast section for almost 2 years now. So that's a good sign.
I don't know if this will change anything, but you should re-record the intro and theme song soon. Or remix it. Something.
I think a change would be good, Jesse.
I seriously doubt that altering the theme song (which has already been done- changed, then shortened) will have any effect whatsoever. Unless you get Scott Storch to produce it and bill youself as a rapper like any other rich guy's daughter would do.
The show is awesome, the guests are amazing, but there are not enough new listeners.
You already do cross promotion with handheld comedy (which frankly, lends more to them than you) A Special Thing, and some other comedy nerd portals.
But this show appeals to more than just comedy nerds as it has evolved over time to include important authors, directors, musicians, and smart dudes. Maybe you can do some promotion on music nerd, film nerd, and book nerd sites?
I don't know. Listening to your 'cast (and Pardo's) I think, why aren't these guys more famous? I've never seen the PTD stuff, but you are a great host and eventually will be making the moola. At least you are living your dreams. I teach school while my dream gnaws away at my bile ducts.
Regards,
Wade Word
Dear Wade,
I know that changing the theme won't necessarily increase listeners. I just think it's about time to revamp it. Maybe not Scott Storch, but Prince Paul was on the show a while back. Call in a favour maybe?
I agree with your idea, though. Jesse, at this point, has had such a wide variety of interesting guests that they can appeal to more than just comedy snobs.
Just sell ad time to advertisers that appeal to your audience.
Unfortunately, with an audience of the current size, selling ad time is not really a possibility. It's simply not worth the agencies' time.
My only thought is that you could go for the TAL model, which is you get the show free for the week and have to pay a $1 an episode to download from the archives. I'm not sure how much that will help your situation, but I think if you went to a full subscription model, you'd not only lose current listeners, you'd also decrease your chances of getting new listeners. The show is definitely marketable outside of the "comedy nerd" realm.
Also, would it hurt to have a 5-minute "heart-to-heart" like this with your listeners on your next podcast? Explain that if you get a full-time job (which it sounds like you need), that you'll have to scale back to monthly or bi-weekly shows or the length of the show, etc. Just chances are the folks who are reading this are already subscribers (or, i guess, dirty freeloaders).
I really like your show and do talk about it and recommend it, but I would understand if you had scale back or make changes to make ends meet. Or, er, just to make *ends*. I do feel you should be compensated for your efforts, I'm just not sure how that's to be done.
To drive up listenership(is that a word?), maybe take the street-team approach? Take some of the donations and get some fliers/postcards printed up highlighting some of the amazing guests (both past and upcoming) and blanket LA with the help of some loyal listeners. I for one would be willing to drop some off at the music stores, comic shops, and concert venues that I frequent. Maybe you could plug a flier/printing company on the show in exchange for a deal on fliers?
Perhaps doing some live recordings at UCBLA like you did at The PIT.
Car wash!
Hi Jesse
I recently came across your show and have become a listener. I also started something similar in March of this year, so I'm familiar with your plight. My show is much more sporadic than yours (and has about 1/3 the listeners!). I can't believe you do it every week. But then again, I was working full time for most of this year.
Anyway, I don't have a panacea, but you might want to look into this guy who claims to not have had a "job" per se since just after college. He has some interesting pointers on how to generate income without working at soul-sucking jobs. I have yet to find a way to implement the things that he suggests in real life, but it's definitely worth a read/listen.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/
great job on the show, btw. to be honest, i've been listening for a few weeks now and assumed that you were more... well, *paid* since you said that you were on public radio. i've never even been to your web site until this moment! i'll definitely donate now :)
best of luck
~kb
"Maybe allow comedians to book ads on the show?"
Have amateur comedians/bloggers pay for prominent ads on the blog. A certain amount even gets them mentioned on the podcast. In this web 2.0 age, vanity is the only surefire route into someone's pockets.
Try it out. I bet you someone will be willing to pay for an ad to advertise their self-published New Sincerity poetry book.
I really miss your original comedy bits. Hang it up, Keep it up always made me laugh. I felt it worked better with a co-host though. Also, maybe find a way to work the New Sincerity back into the show (more explicitly, anyway)?
Sorry I'm not much in the way of fundraising ideas.
I agree with Nathaniel. I miss hang it up / keep it up and bits about The New Sincerity. From the college years I also love Xtreme Weather and the foppish dandy, although I realize that some of those bits won't work without Gene and Jordan.
A cohost would be a good way to stretch the show. I'm not saying that I don't like that virtually all of the show is content, but it might let you spread out your bookings a bit more if you can throw in a bit of banter now and again. You must know someone clever with a bit of spare time in L.A.
The show is great of course, but perhaps bringing back in more jokes and less serious discussion would help your numbers. I for one very much enjoy the serious discussion, and obviously your show and interviews offer the guests and the listeners an experience and depth that you don't get on the typical promotion and morning radio show circuit. I have faith that you can strike a balance between being light-hearted and serious without resorting to outright dumbing the show down for more mass consumption.
You've definetly got the right people listening to and supporting the show. But they're not enough to keep the show going by itself, so I think tweaking the format is a good idea.
Definitely pursue the sponsorship angle...the guys at filmspotting.net do a lot of ads and I don't know if they are much bigger in terms of listenership. Granted they are covering a market that generally has big ad budgets which isn't the case for comedians and author tours but I would think someone like Comedy Central or Adult Swim might throw some ad dollars your way since yours is a very highly targeted demographic.
As for another idea, you could auction off the chance to do the little "please donate" bug that appears at the top of some of the shows.
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