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iTunesOn Podcasts — Reasons for the Break and Plans for the Future
September 1st, 2008 | Posted in Podcasting 6 Comments »
If you’ve listened to podcasts on my site, you’ll notice that for the past 3 months, I haven’t posted any new podcasts. It’s also been about three months since Aaron or Scott from DMN Communications published a podcast. What happened? Is podcasting dead?
No, podcasting is not dead. But I’ll explain my break.
- I’ve been riding the bus/train to work for the past 9 months (I actually got rid of my old car, which I had to jumpstart each morning). I used to listen to podcasts all the time while commuting to work, but now that I can sit down on public transportation, I open my laptop and write instead. I’ve noticed that when I don’t listen to podcasts, I’m less motivated to record my own.
- In analyzing my own talents and interests, I think I’m a much better writer/blogger than podcaster. I don’t have a radio voice, nor do I have the rhythm and balance of a Leo Laporte, who can drive a seamless conversation among 5 people for an entire hour. I decided to focus my efforts on my strengths.
- When I stopped podcasting, I didn’t hear complaints from anyone. No one asked, Tom, what happened to the podcasts? Tom, when is the next podcast coming out? However, I do track all downloads using Podtrac, and on average, each month listeners download 2,000 podcasts. (2,000 downloads may seem small, but given the small population of technical communication professionals, 2,000 is a sizable chunk of users; only about 1,300 people attend the annual STC conferences.)
- Podcasting has no financial reward for me. In the past, I’ve traded advertising for software, but now that I have all the software I need or want, I need to pursue a different advertising model, which I haven’t defined yet.
- I became a bit bored with the interview format, and I wanted to switch to a more Digg or TWIT style of podcasting — a conversation about the latest news. But I haven’t put together a co-host team nor found a regular time for gathering them.
As has happened during past breaks, I miss podcasting. Podcasting has a special community feel around it — engaging with other professionals in my field, listening to voices rather than reading sentences, driving and learning at the same time. I just miss it. It feels good to listen to podcasts, especially to hear the voices of other technical communication professionals in my field.
I just listened to Alistair Christie’s latest podcast (”Being the Only Tech Writer”), which he recorded after a 9 month absence. Apparently he began a non-tech comm role at his company for a while, and just recently switched back into tech comm again. I loved hearing the conversation — a casual but focused exchange.
I still can hardly believe there aren’t more tech comm podcasters. The field is open. I suppose given my position and the popularity of my podcast, I would be a fool to simply give it up, or cease the momentum. I’m positioned right now to be an incredible source of information for podcasts in technical communication.
Last night I was thinking about my online strategy. Blogging is really just a hobby, but I’m realizing that it is going to be a lifelong hobby. I enjoy blogging, as does my wife Jane. We often blog together. (Right now it’s past midnight and Jane is upstairs writing a post she’s been telling me about all day.) When I have free time, I like sitting down to write a post.
And I like podcasting. Especially listening to podcasts while driving. One of these days I’ll solidify a financial model around my online presence, creating at least a secondary income stream based on all my online activities. Podcasting is part of that plan. But even without it, podcasting has its reward. I connect with dozens of professional colleagues all around the globe.
Today I just listened to another episode of the WordPress Podcast. Episode #44, with Charles Stricklin. It was a completely enjoyable experience, making an hour of driving time pass painlessly by. If all goes well in the next month with a house deal, I should be driving more, and listening to more podcasts.
So this is a long way of saying that I’m going to be publishing more podcasts, and I hope to be more regular in my release of podcasts. If you have suggestions for podcast topics, do let me know.
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- Looking at the Past; Exploring Directions for the Future
- Leadership Day: Rhevati Sampath and Wendy Tung, Berkeley Chapter, California
- The Best Thing I Did This Week
Tags: Alistair Christie, Charles Stricklin, IT Author podcast, Tech Writer Voices, WordPress podcast
I’ve really been missing your podcasts, Tom, and I’m looking forward to future episodes. If I didn’t complain, it’s because I was glad for every episode that came out, but didn’t want to take it for granted.
Also, I enjoy your personal “non-radio voice” style: I’d rather have your substance and contents in a colloquial and easy-going manner than a seamless flow of fluff.
I’d be interested to hear how we in the tech writer community develop strategies. How can we break down department barriers to become contributors to (or even drivers of) corporate communications with customers? Can we improve release notes we write along the lines of change management (applying some of the insights from the episode with Emma Hamer)? How can we efficiently fulfill such a complex communication role?
Podcasting is definitely not dead. In the case of Aaron and myself, a lot has gotten in the way — work, renovations to our homes, a lot of family commitments, and a few other things. We’ve got quite a few things planned for our podcast, but we’re struggling to find the time to do them.
Still, thanks for the index to your podcasts. There were one or two that I wanted to check out again, and said index will make finding them a bit easier.
Tom –
I can forgive the loss of the podcasts–I mean, I dig listening to them on my morning walks and getting ideas for research into TC practices and academics and the like. But I could live without them.
The real value you’ve created, though, comes from interviewing folks in industry. That sort of interplay provides a glimpse into common–and uncommon–practices, tools, techniques, and other things we might not ordinarily see. Losing the interviews–now that’d be a tragedy.
Pete
Pete, it’s interesting to read your comment about the appeal of the interview podcasts. Interviews happen to be the easiest type of podcast to create, because it involves little prep and merely skill at asking good questions. The interviewee already has already done the preparation through his or her research into X (whatever the topic of the interview is about). However, I had the sense that the interview format was a little dull. What I’m trying to do is make the interviews more conversational, like Alistair Christie’s last podcast in which he interviews a colleague, but also has a conversation about the topic.
I want to say that I totally dig the three-way conversation we did yesterday covering all those topics was exciting and fun.
The value of continuing education through podcasts and blogreading cannot be underestimated.
Charless last blog post..Wordle: Just check it out
Tom –
Yeah, I figured the interviews were easier than simply speaking your mind in cogent and appealing fashion. But the “good questions”–that involves a fair amount of talent as well. There’s a reason we have school of journalism.
But I also want to make clear that I’m an academic, which means I’m studying and teaching a field which changes rapidly and sometimes drastically without my noticing. The separation between, say, literary studies and the business world is acceptable because literature isn’t really practiced in the business world. But technical communication is both an academic field of study AND a professional practice, and that separation MUST be overcome through diligence. And you’re doing that by putting your interviews online.
If you can, then keep on truckin’, man.
Pete