writing |

I woke up this morning to find one solitary download had happened since Episodes 1–3 went live.

I could see from my other blog that one of my regular readers had sampled Episode 1, responding to a shameless promotional post I’d written. One listener was, I suppose, better than no listeners, and my long-standing reader (and dare I say, virtual friend) was very complimentary about what he’d heard.

Still, I’d hoped for more of an instant impact.

We’d had a few more downloads by the time I got to work. It’s a surreal feeling, heading into the daily grind when you’ve technically become a ‘podcaster.’ I was almost a bit annoyed that I still had to turn up to work, but given that the daily grind is largely the inspiration for the show, it would be somewhat self-sabotaging to quit. Plus, the podcast is currently costing me money rather than making it, so I very much still need the job to continue paying the mortgage.

The stats have trickled in slowly all day. Ben was equally as underwhelmed as I was.

Somehow, though, we seem to be finishing the day on 100 downloads.

Apparently, that’s quite a big number for a debut podcast on its first day of existence. So, Ben and I should be pretty happy.

Alas, we tend to be a bit ‘glass half empty’ about these kinds of things. It’s terrible for our personal lives, but possibly great for future episodes.

https://benandjamescoulddobetter.buzzsprout.com

The trailer has been out for just over a week and, as much as I know it’s ridiculous, I’ve been slightly obsessing over the stats. Which for the first few days was really nothing to write home about. Well, almost nothing. A few downloads, which might well have been me checking that everything was working. It’s quite surreal seeing and hearing your own work on Spotify and Amazon Music, but even a 1 minute trailer is a thing. Ben and and I made that all on our own. Just over two weeks ago we had no idea that we could.

We’ve been talking about making a podcast for a while, on the fairly flimsy basis that we make each other laugh. We do make each other laugh and both of us have been known to make other people laugh and I suppose that’s a good starting point. But a podcast? Could we do that?

Well, we have done that. Ben does listen to podcasts and he assures me that we’re just as funny as anything that’s already out there. I don’t listen to podcasts much. I’m not averse to them and I should probably embrace the medium now I’m attempting to be a podcaster myself, but unlike Ben, I have two small children. So I mainly listen to them. Today my four year old told me that Queen Victoria is dead. And that queen Victoria’s son is also a little bit dead. I can’t imagine there is a podcast anywhere on the internet that is more entertaining than that.

But back to that stats. On the eve of our first three episodes dropping for real, it turns out that some people have been listening to the 1-minute trailer. And quite a few people as it turns out. Not earth shattering numbers. Not the kind of numbers that make us think that this actually might be our main job or anything like that, but certainly enough numbers to make me think that someone will be listening to our inaugural episodes this week.

We recorded episode 6 last night, which puts us three weeks ahead of the timeline. I like episodes 1-3. I think if anyone else listens they will enjoy them too.

I also think episodes 4-6 are good.

Ben and I have enjoyed making them.

I’m pretty sure we’ll keep making them, whether anyone listens or not.

But if I’m being honest, we’d quite like it if they did.

https://benandjamescoulddobetter.buzzsprout.com

Tag Archives: writing

Launch Day

The Eve Of The Inaugural Episodes