Reading Radar

Arminasx Saiman and I were talking about SL related blogs and podcasts the other day, not particular ones, but just the fact that audiences for both are by default, limited in number.

I’ll grant you that there are a number of popular SL related blogs (this not really being one of them) but the fact still holds true that only a limited group of people is going to have interest in subscribing to an SL blog compared to the number of people that might want to subscribe to something like Lifehacker or The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Bearing in mind that with a blog, web searches bring traffic in that might not otherwise find the blog, and that once there, the material is at least right in front of their faces and there is at least a small chance they might stay and read, and I have to think that blogs are much more likely to attract new random followers than podcasts are. People may randomly stumble across a podcast but then they have a barrier of deciding to listen, and that entails downloading it or subscribing unless they use the blog’s player control. But I doubt people will typically fire up an hour long audio file that they found by accident.

Given all this, I’m wondering, how do I grow my SL Under the Radar podcast? I don’t mean I want to have 40,000 downloads a week (that would be more than my hosting can handle) or that I want to rule the universe, but I’ve noticed the podcast has plateaued in terms of listeners. It just feels like things could be more active, and even so with my current listeners. Am I doing a good enough job of getting you involved and a part of the podcast? I don’t know. I’m not sure where people stand on that question. I think SLPN has some work to do in this area too, and it’s something I think we should start considering more heavily.

I don’t have time or inclination to just promote my podcast all over the web. Truth be told, I hate self-promotion. But among the SL podcasts, I think mine’s one of the good ones. I know that’s rare coming from me, the eternally self-effacing man with the mic, but I don’t say that vainly. I think I’ve had good guests who are genuinely interesting people and it makes me even enjoy listening to my own podcasts again after uploading them just to hear them, and get a sense of their thoughts and personalities.

I think I can say without being egotistical or having a overly inflated view of my work that this podcast should be at least one that gets thought of when thinking of SL related podcasts to subscribe to. So this leads me down the path of doing some thinking about how to be taken seriously without having to become overly serious about my material. And while recognizing I only have so much time to work on it. I think that’s the hard part of podcasting for me, being able to take advantage of limited opportunities for recording time.

For the moment, all I can ask is that if you enjoy any of the SL related podcasts, let your friends know. All of the podcasters I know in SL take their podcasts seriously and work hard on them. Feel free to drop them a line and let them know what’s working, and what’s not. You, the listeners, are the reason we do this in the first place. If you’re not enjoying it, we podcasters won’t be either.