introduction

To my mind, podcasting has matured significantly in the past few years. Production values are high. Money is being made. Big name people, companies and networks are producing shows. But… what about the individual? What about people like me, who don’t have a background in professional media like Leo Laporte or aren’t professional stand-ups like Greg Proops? Have you been to the podcast directory in iTunes lately? You’ll find podcasters that have A-list celebrities as hosts and guests, shows published by major universities on a variety of advanced topics, archives of TV and radio talk shows… and… us. The thousands of people that have produced amateur shows over the years.

For me, podcasting is where it’s at, baby. I’ve been doing it since 2008, and this is [briefly] my story, and the reason I’m here on the Blogworld blog to write, bi-weekly, about podcasting.

I’m what you might call a professional amateur podcaster. I started with one show, Geek Dads @ Home, with two partners. We went just over a year, then rebranded the show Geek Dads Weekly (with a few changes in the hosts along the way). I started my second and third shows last year, and my fourth – a Q&A show about podcasting – about a month ago. Those shows are produced under my QAQN banner. I’m a co-host on a fifth podcast, Road to Thin, as well. So, I’ve got chops. All in all, I’ve published a few hundred episodes – not exactly a world record, but nothing to sneeze at, either.

I don’t have $20,000 worth of equipment, but I use high-quality hardware. I don’t have a team of people working for me, but I’ve got co-hosts that I’ve been working with for a couple of years. I don’t have an audience numbering in the millions, but I do get emails when I miss a scheduled recording. I teach podcasting and I’ve made some money as well. Is that the definition of a professional amateur podcaster? To have good equipment, good people to work with, and a good audience with some income?

I’m looking forward to exploring the craft of podcasting with you here at the Blogworld blog. I’ll offer my experience and opinions as well as how-to’s and instructional material. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated; any feedback will help me make future posts better for you.

Let’s start with a simple statement, as I stand and look at myself in a metaphorical mirror.

You don’t know me.

There we go, simple as that. I’m just a name, but think about this – you already know a lot about me. The first is that Rick and the team at BlogWorld must think I know something, because they’ve asked me to do not just one blog post here on the site, but a series of them on podcasting. I take it you trust the team here, which means that I’m now a name you’ve just heard of that has a little bit of credibility.

You’d probably head off to do a bit of searching online for me to find out if I have the experience to go along with that trust. I you do that you won’t find a wikipedia page (not enough people know me, remember?), but you’ll likely find a Twitter account (@ewan), a website (www.ewanspence.com), and the obligatory appearance on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ewanspence).

What about podcasting itself? Well I’ve done a few – there’s six years worth of unsigned and unknown bands over on TPC Rock, my annual “daily chat show” from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe picked up a British Academy BAFTA nomination, and the Eurovision Insight podcast is one of the leading shows based around the annual Song Contest.

Hopefully this gives you an idea that I’ve been around the block in terms of podcasting, and that I’ve experience in a number of different areas of production, using a variety of techniques, and monetised many of my shows.

I can also be subtle.

If I was handed your name, what would my first impression be? What would I find online, and how would it reflect on you? Would it make me curious, would it make me want to read your site, listen to your show, watch your videos? Or would it leave me cold, would it leave me thinking “there’s someone that missed something”, would there be something that would discourage people?

The old rule of first impressions counting applies equally as well online as it does in a real-life social setting. It was simple to look in the mirror before being introduced at a debutantes ball, it’s a lot harder to remember to hold up a mirror to your online self and see what is reflected back.

Over the next weeks and months, I want to explore podcasting with you, here on the BlogWorld blog. But to do that I need you to be willing to join me on that journey. No matter what you want from an online presence, you’ll likely want people to join you, be it through a story, to buy a product, or to engage with your media.

They’ll pick up on clues around your site, around the internet, and around what you do. Are you leaving the right clues for your audience?

Image Credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

The Professional Amateur Podcaster

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