Creating a Podcast

MNC Dover · August 2019

Hey everyone! So I bought a Blue Yeti mic for some voice acting work and the wife thought it might not be a bad idea to do a podcast. I got interested and decided to do some research online.

Seems like the most important elements are having a good genre, topics, theme song, cover art, and advertising. While all of that seems legit important, I'm thinking the genre/topic stuff is the most important. And that led be to wonder if I'd be any good at this sort of thing.

Like, would anyone want to listen to what a slightly out-of-touch, 43-year old, gamer dad would have to say? Not even about games, but anything in general. I don't listen to many podcasts, but the market has to be saturated with people talking about gaming or general nerdy centric things, right? I'd need to have my own have my own thing that makes me different from the rest and I'm not sure what that would be. A variety show? Classic gaming or movies? A life/childhood blog sort of thing?

I know a lot of people don't know me, but maybe some generic (or more specific based on your thoughts of me) advice would be helpful. This is all pie in the sky right now though, so I might be overthinking things as folks do at times.

Thanks!

Radiation · August 2019

If you're doing voice acting work, it might be worthwhile to have a story series rather than one focused on current goings on/gaming news.
If you wanted to keep it game focused, maybe doing short stories from litrpg inspired stories? Or ask people from the subreddit writingprompts (if its still any good?), or some other co location of authors.

Hahnsoo1 · August 2019

The market is absolutely flooded with podcasts in general, and gaming podcasts in particular. You'd need a pretty strong "hook" (like special access to certain guests, for example) and dedicated passion/persistence to get a gaming podcast off the ground nowadays. I know that you have friends out there who are designing board games, and you have co-credit on some board games yourself (from the board game thread), so that might be a good place to start. People might not want to hear specifically on what YOU think, but they might want to hear from, say, the designer of a specific board game and their particular process.

Mugsley · August 2019

I've been listening to podcasts for a decade. While most of them are now monetized, at least half of them I've listened to since they were not monetized.

The best recommendation I can give you is to just sit down and do it, and talk about what you want to talk about. There are multiple strategies for increasing your reach, but the first step is putting content out there for people to consume (and then recommend to their friends).

I used to cohost a very niche podcast, and we had a lot of fun with it. It was not monetized, and we did everything via Skype recordings (it's been....8 years[shit] since we recorded last, and a lot has changed, technologically). We only used Twitter to advertse when we published episodes, and that seemed to work well. We had minimal production (i.e. theme song, segment transitions, cover art) and just focused on content. We did not have a companion website.

Don't go overboard with production, at first, so that you can get content out there; then focus on "building out" your production and presence as you get your feet under you and you gain confidence in speaking into a microphone.

I'm interested in a large number of subjects, so I'm interested in what you have to say, depending on the subject. Good luck!

Shadowfire · August 2019

I do a podcast occasionally (shout out to @Professor Snugglesworth for running it and putting up with my rare attendance) and, honestly, I don't care if nobody downloads it ever. As an also 40 year old gamer dad it feels good to have that outlet, to create something, even if it's not consumed.

Jazz · September 2019

Mugsley wrote: »

I used to cohost a very niche podcast, and we had a lot of fun with it. It was not monetized, and we did everything via Skype recordings (it's been....8 years[shit] since we recorded last, and a lot has changed, technologically). We only used Twitter to advertse when we published episodes, and that seemed to work well. We had minimal production (i.e. theme song, segment transitions, cover art) and just focused on content. We did not have a companion website.

Sounds very similar to the way we did the one I used to edit and co-host back in the day; it's been ten years now (!) since what turned out to be our final episode. We did sort of have a companion website - one of the treehouses that sprung from here in the mid-to-late '00s - but otherwise our production was very similar to how you describe.

It was ostensibly a gaming show, focused primarily on Xbox 360 games, but we diverged from that quite a bit too. Our line-up of people shifted over time, and sometimes we had guests on - usually other podcasters or community members, and some actually went off to do a lot more in the podcasting space. Our usual format was three main segments - what we'd been playing, a bit of news discussion, and finally a listener mail section. Not exactly unique, I know, but it worked for us, and we typically had a couple of hundred downloads per show (and got several thousand for one show with a Shadowrun (the 360 FPS) dev).

I enjoyed doing it at the time, although my bonkers work schedule at the time could be a pig to work with, and it wasn't easy for me to find time to edit it after recording. It was never monetized and we never made a penny off it. But it was a good time, it was cool to create something, and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out - I think we made a pretty decent show.

It's got to be a very different proposition now, though. The podcasting landscape has changed immeasurably.

MNC Dover · September 2019

Thanks for all the feedback and stories everyone. I took all the advice here, and from the other places I posted, and decided on what to do for my podcast. After a long think, I realized that I'm no expert in any particular field. Like, the only thing I'm really good at is public speaking. No one would want to hear much about that, but like @Hahnsoo1 said, I do have a lot of successful friends. Why not just bring them on the show?

But rather than just have success stories, I'd like to have some moderate or failing stories as well. A lot of my old art school classmates are having limited success and their stories should be heard as well. Of course, I'd try to keep things balanced between light-hearted and serious questions. Important to let the guest speaker feel comfortable talking about their past.

In addition to interviews, I'm going to have "shoot the shit" style episodes where I talk about my own life experiences (at 43 I've got a lot of them) or thoughts older nerdy stuff. I love listening to people talk about their old D&D sessions (like Stephen Colbert playing D&D) and know others out their like a good relatable story as well. This will also help offset periods were I can't get guests on the show for whatever reason.

So right now, it looks like I'm going to try a hybrid podcast that does interviews, liveblog stories, and past stories. While I will have a strong lean towards gaming stuff, I certainly have friends outside of the realm of the gaming world who have their own stories to tell.

Oh yeah, not focused on monatization, but just having fun. Not to say I wouldn't have ads or sponsorship if offered, just not a focal point at this time. And I'd like to upload on the usual places (still need to do more research here as to what that means) along with creating youtube versions as well. Maybe sprinkle in artwork or guest social media info during the video. Nothing too crazy since I don't want to be editing forever.

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