This series is all about Libsyn’s podcasters. Its sole purpose is to introduce these awesome podcasts to the world as well as share their podcasting insight to empower the community!
Q & A with Dane from Live And Active Pop Culture
When did you start podcasting?
We (my cohosts and I) are actually very new to podcasting. We started recording episodes in August of 2014, but didn’t start uploading anything until January 2015, since then we have uploaded 3 episodes. So, we are very fresh to the community!
Why did you start podcasting?
I wanted to start a podcast for a couple of reasons. First, I love listening to podcasts and I work a job that allows me to subscribe and regularly listen to a large number of podcasts.
I love listening to the shows other people do, and both wanted to be a part of the community and to be someone who is producing content in addition to consuming it.
Second, I make the time to consume a lot of pop culture, and I love to talk about TV and movies, so having and recording conversations about my favorite shows and movies with my friends seemed like a no brainer.
What’s your show about?
On Live and Active Pop Culture, we talk about everything pop culture: movies, TV, books, music, podcasts, internet videos, etc.
Often times we talk about the most current events, but we also try to talk about some more evergreen topics that have to deal with more long term trends as well.
What’s your podcasting set-up? Hardware, software, CMS, etc.
It’s kind of pitiful actually, but it works for us! We record with a Samson Meteor Condenser mic, and record directly into Garageband and monitor with some pretty cheap headphones.
Someday we’d like to upgrade equipment for better quality, but right now what we have is affordable and it works for us (maybe if we end up monetizing we can upgrade to a more sophisticated system!)
Obviously we host with Libsyn- they are the best.
How have you promoted your podcast?
Well, that’s something we are constantly working on.
Right off the bat we put together a twitter page and an email account so that we can start to interact with our listeners. Later we put together a Facebook group, but all of those are mostly filled with people we know in real life.
Now we are exploring other options, like being a “Rockin’ Libsyn Podcast!” and trying to cross promote with other podcasters. It’s a continuous process building a listener group, but we have started to see an increase in downloads recently, so maybe it’s working.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
Two things, recording the podcasts is the smallest part of putting a podcast together, and it’s also a lot of fun, but it only takes the time it takes to have the conversation.
Editing, promoting finding guests, etc is the majority of time spent on the podcast- it’s still lot of fun, but it’s not all recording, there is much more to the process.
Second, building an audience group can be difficult- there is a fine line between good promotion and driving your friends and family nuts. Also, getting up the iTunes chart is very mysterious, and not so easy to figure out how to do.
Additionally, the whole art of podcasting is as fun as I hoped it would be!
If you’re interested in keeping up with the latest conversation about Pop Culture you’ve got the show! Consider subscribing. If you want keep up with these guys you can follow the on Twitter or check out their Facebook Page.
If you have that feeling that having a podcast is a no brainer, then come on over! We’d love to help you host your media!.
