At the end of last year, this site started a podcast. We came up with a few topics and scheduled conversations, almost entirely among ourselves (those of us who publish our writings on the site). We then recorded those discussions and posted them. We were going at a great clip in the beginning. We managed to publish a new podcast each week.
I took it upon myself to take the lead on this new project. After we’d done several, I began to realize that we couldn’t just keep talking amongst ourselves. It was beginning to feel too insular, and I feared that listeners would certainly soon tire of hearing the same old voices talking to the same old voices. We had to branch out if we wanted to seem legit and find an audience.
So, after a brief email discussion among those of us who manage the site, I proposed that we focus our podcast and try to draw in near participants. Everyone liked my idea. We were going to start doing podcasts with bloggers about bloggers. We figured that people would line up to participate. Our blogs about writing and the creative process had always attracted lots of readers, so our podcast topic seemed like a potentially popular one. Plus, focusing our talks in this way would give bloggers an opportunity to plug their sites and talk about an activity which meant a lot to them.
We invited people to contact us if they wanted to be interviewed. Almost no did, so we became proactive. I started reaching out to bloggers to see if I could find participants. Instead, what I found was reluctance. A writer or two began to help me locate those might like to be interviewed only to encounter the same problem.
The idea seemed like a good one until we tried to put it into practice. It finally dawned on us that we’d need an entire staff of people solely tasked with locating interviewees and acting as schedulers. Of course, we’re such a small team with so many other irons in the fire—we do this as a side hustle; although, calling it that is misleading since such activities almost always bring in at least a little moolah.
One fine day, perhaps, we’ll try again. Until then, we’re regrouping…