As a new podcaster, I'm still learning the ropes, but frankly podcasting is pretty straightforward: You need to record good content applicable to your audience at decent sound quality and do so regularly. I originally was ambitious and thought the podcast would be bi-weekly, but now at episode 5, it's turned out to be a monthly schedule.
On the sound quality front, I did struggle at first, even though I've invested in good software and have a great microphone. Manton Reece (my guest on episode 3) gave me a great tip in the form of recommending The Levelator. This abandoned (but still functioning through a hack) program has been a lifesaver for a non-audiophile like me with regards to automatically adjusting episode volume to make it consistent throughout.
How much of an investment has Consult been? Roughly ~$200:
- $135 for 1 year of professional audio hosting on SoundCloud
- $2 for 1 year of the domain ConsultPodcast.com (hosted for free by Tumblr)
- $60 for the bundle of Audio Hijack and Fission from Rogue Amoeba
All of these tools make life a lot easier. There are free alternatives, but I find these costs very reasonable, the products better than the free alternatives, and I get support if I need it. I got a high quality free-standing (Larry King style) microphone for free as part of an instructional video series I did before. That would run another $100 I believe.
So how has the reception been? The feedback I've received has been really great. A few people I don't know have reached out to me on Twitter and email to tell me how much they enjoy the show. The majority of listeners are using Overcast (which makes sense given the community), so I haven't received any iTunes Podcast directory reviews yet. If you want to help the podcast, leaving a review in the iTunes Podcast directory is the number one way to help.
The number of listeners has been in the hundreds (~600), not thousands yet, but that makes sense given that I'm an unknown, have no marketing, and that the podcast is about a niche within a niche. I would even call it a success. I remember Saul Mora saying that the first couple episodes of NSBrief had only about 20 listeners each, so I feel really good about the numbers at this early stage. Part of that success has been the fact that I've had some really great guests on the show. A couple of them would even be considered "well known" in the Apple platforms programming community.
Here's a quick rundown of the five episodes thus far in reverse chronological order:
- Michael Fellows - Michael is a fast rising star in the iOS/Android consulting world. He's the founder of Broadway Lab which he's grown from working solo to being a six person team in just three years. In my opinion he shared an incredible amount of wisdom in this episode that was hard earned through his rapid rise.
- Marcus Zarra - Marcus is a true software development and Apple platform veteran who is venerated for his wide ranging knowledge. Whether as a well known blogger, leader of a large consulting firm, or author of popular books, Marcus has truly made his mark on the community. It was an honor to interview him.
- Manton Reece - Thus far this is the most listened to episode, probably because of Manton's celebrity in the community and his mention of the episode on his popular blog. I captured Manton at a very interesting time - just as he was transitioning into being full time indie (including doing quite a bit of consulting work). I'm a big fan of Manton and his must-listen-to in the indie community podcast Core Intuition.
- Tobias Due Munk - Tobias was brave enough to be the first real guest on the show and I'm grateful to him for taking the leap. We had a wide ranging and very interesting discussion covering everything from his interesting path into consulting, to business differences between USA and his native Denmark. Tobias piqued listeners' interest and really set a great precedent for future episodes of the show.
- David Kopec - How do you start an interview podcast as a relative unknown? Interview yourself! In retrospect this sounded like a much better idea than it actually was. Listening to it now, it does come off as a little eccentric, but you have to start somewhere.
I hope to continue having great interview episodes with great guests moving forward on the show. I also plan to experiment with topical episodes. I encourage any and all feedback - reach out to me on Twitter @davekopec.
I truly think Consult is a fantastic podcast, and not just because I created it. You can find the show notes, a link to the RSS feed, and iTunes directory link at ConsultPodcast.com