a bit of coin for the podcasts

paul wheaton wrote:there is a new thing called bountey.com

If podcasting is still in the red, what do you need to break even? Would you take a check in the mail for specific content creation? I am not stink'n rich, but I could see an investment in the right information paying off.
(I know this is the wrong place for this discussion, I apologize.)

I cut this post from another thread to start this thread.

If podcasting is still in the red, what do you need to break even?

Thanks to the patreon supporters and the volunteer efforts of bill crim, the podcasts are definitely running in the black now.   To understand if they are in the black for all time or not, I would have to do some math - but it is close enough to say "maybe."

A more accurate thing to say is that I am making adjustments in my life to create more podcasts.  And this is entirely due to the patreon support.  

Would you take a check in the mail for specific content creation?

I will say that the biggest all-time patreon supporter had put so much in that I called him and visited with him for a while.   He asked if I could record more podcasts where I go to somebody's property and give them advice.   So I recently recorded two podcasts visiting two different properties, and have plans for a third.

So there is that.  

As for paying for content - can you paint a picture for me for what you have in mind?

paul wheaton wrote:
As for paying for content - can you paint a picture for me for what you have in mind?

I had to think about this one long and hard. As much as I love the podcasts, my wife does not see that as a prudent thing to give money towards. If there were something specific that would help us in an immediate way, she might budge a little. Of all the things a podcast might help us out with, I cannot see any one topic being something that would both be uncovered by other content and be general enough to interest  a large audience. After several days of thinking about this, I have come up with a possible way to get more people(like my wife) to be comfortable with becoming a patron supporter, and to increase the audience.

This is in my own opinion a mere posibility, and subject to being utterly wrong.

I imagine a "picture" where many new patreon supporters joining forces to help you spread the word about permaculture because after "x" amount of payments you were offering a personal consultation that would be recorded as yet another podcast. You could discuss all the things for their specific goals. This might be similar to holistic management in how it takes the individuals, community, culture, and environment under consideration. People could then see the mental process that one goes through while doing permaculture design. and the supporter gets some very focused advice that they can implement immediately without having to translate it to their own context. This could not truly count as a permaculture design since but would be remotely done, and a narrow time frame would be required for your own sake. I could see where you might not like doing such a thing for people like me who do not live in the rockies, the alps, or the himalayas. I do have about as much contour to my land as anyone can get in my area, but I would like to gain access to some other land that is flat and depleted farm land. That might be overly boring for your tastes.

Anyway, that's what I came up with - consulting as a benefit.

I am looking at a bit of tech.

Currently, we have issues with recording podcasts over the internet.  Our internet connection (bonded DSL) is a bit on the dodgy side.  When I do a zoom meeting with shawn - just to work on book stuff, we usually get to about ten minutes in when the quality gets so poor that i switch to the hotspot on my cell phone.  And then we get a glitchy moment every half hour or so - and we just weather through.   Shawn's internet connection is typically quite clear.

My current cell has a 4g category 4 radio.   It's about five years old.  

Fred's cell is broken.  

Replacing my cell with its new equivalent will provide a category 20 radio.   My guess is that this will be a dramatic improvement in quality.   Good enough for recording podcasts.  And then I could give my old phone to fred.  

$700 is a lot of coin for a gamble like this.   I am thinking that I am going to make this switch the next time I am in town because of patreon. This is a big part of what patreon is for.  

I imagine a "picture" where many new patreon supporters joining forces to help you spread the word about permaculture because after "x" amount of payments you were offering a personal consultation that would be recorded as yet another podcast.  

I suppose that I am doing a little bit of that now.  In a way.  I suppose I could offer a bit more of it in the future.   I think I've been pretty good about offering perks to the patreon supporters.   And I do provide more perks to those that have put more than $100 in over all time.  

And I do ask the patrons, from time to time, about topics.  

But right now I have a few hundred topics of my own, but I keep hitting roadblocks of one type or another.  


Does this answer your question?

It certainly answers a lot. I myself am trying to get a podcast going, and have found so many more tech roadblocks than I could have ever imagined. I was even more dumbfounded by some of the social road blocks I have been running into. I am so glad that you have managed to get where you are currently, and hope to be in a position to throw some coin your way at some point. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Keep up the great work!