And these were good to listen to (well maybe not all of them) ... for free, but after a while just about all these synchronicity podcasters would start their podcasts off by making the listener feel guilty for not throwing money at these "free" podcasts, which kind of reminded me of the 'Simpsons' episode where Homer is offered what he thought were free cookies outside a cookie shop.
 |
| Would you like a free cookie? |
She then told Homer that the price was one dollar per cookie.
Homer was annoyed at the fact that he had to pay after getting free samples but bought one anyway."
I think one common denominator among "Sync-Heads" is that the majority of us are "broke" or just scraping by in making a living, but would love to make money out of doing what we really love doing, which for me and most of the people in the "Synch Community" is talking, writing, or working on synch projects and spreading the word to the world that there is something connecting the world in the undercurrent of reality to this world we ALL live in.
I listened to two podcasts in the last 12 hours -
SYNCHRONICITY #88 – EVOLVING AND ASCENDING WITH JENNIFER SODINI
and
Always Record #175: Pitching and Clipping
and in the first 15 minutes of both of those podcasts we hear tales of woe about the podcaster's current financial situations and their appeals to listeners for (finanical?) help.
That was a synchronicity in and of itself.
The reality is that most of the listeners of these shows are in a similar situation, I think.
I know I am, I don't have a job at the moment and am living off my own money from the sale of my house after my divorce and some money my mother gave me after the sale of her house when my father passed away recently, which gave me enough to buy a unit of my own and not much change left in the bank to live off.
I don't make a cracker out of writing this blog and I wouldn't dream of trying to monetize it to the readers who like reading my weird rants ... like this one:-)
It's a hobby and a way of connecting authors and bloggers I like to other readers of this blog.
At the end of the day though, I believe if you offer a "free" podcast then it's synch or swim as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not going to pay for any "free" podcasts anymore.
For all the talk of "Synch Communities" there is no such thing I have found on the net.
There are just individuals who are interested in synchronicity as a phenomena and like to talk to each other about it, but rarely do they act as a support group to one another, unless it's a you come on my podcast and I'll come on yours type support.
Like Noah Lampert, I'm burnt out trying to support people in the "Synch Community" after years of buying books, CDs and albums, t-shirts, etc (and some of them not really that good to be honest), so as far as "free" podcasts go, I won't be paying for podcasts offered for free on the net.
I'll promote them to readers of this blog, if I find them worth a "free" listen, but at the end of the day it's sync or swim, as far as I'm concerned.
I won't be financially supporting any "free" podcast shows on the net.
Do what you love, or don't do it.
But if you do it for free don't expect people to pay for it.
And if I paid $1 a month to every "free" podcaster that I liked out there in podcast land I could be paying up to $200 a month ... which would sink me financially.
Having written the above, I still wish podcast networks like Mind Pod and Sync Book Radio all the best for the future, as there are some good shows being put out for free, although it would appear Sync Book Radio is heading for the deep blue, but let's hope it resurfaces again soon.
 |
| Always Record #175: Pitching and Clipping |
I listened to two podcasts in the last 12 hours -
SYNCHRONICITY #88 – EVOLVING AND ASCENDING WITH JENNIFER SODINI
and
Always Record #175: Pitching and Clipping
and in the first 15 minutes of both of those podcasts we hear tales of woe about the podcaster's current financial situations and their appeals to listeners for (finanical?) help.
That was a synchronicity in and of itself.
The reality is that most of the listeners of these shows are in a similar situation, I think.
I know I am, I don't have a job at the moment and am living off my own money from the sale of my house after my divorce and some money my mother gave me after the sale of her house when my father passed away recently, which gave me enough to buy a unit of my own and not much change left in the bank to live off.
I don't make a cracker out of writing this blog and I wouldn't dream of trying to monetize it to the readers who like reading my weird rants ... like this one:-)
It's a hobby and a way of connecting authors and bloggers I like to other readers of this blog.
For all the talk of "Synch Communities" there is no such thing I have found on the net.
There are just individuals who are interested in synchronicity as a phenomena and like to talk to each other about it, but rarely do they act as a support group to one another, unless it's a you come on my podcast and I'll come on yours type support.
Like Noah Lampert, I'm burnt out trying to support people in the "Synch Community" after years of buying books, CDs and albums, t-shirts, etc (and some of them not really that good to be honest), so as far as "free" podcasts go, I won't be paying for podcasts offered for free on the net.
I'll promote them to readers of this blog, if I find them worth a "free" listen, but at the end of the day it's sync or swim, as far as I'm concerned.
I won't be financially supporting any "free" podcast shows on the net.
Do what you love, or don't do it.
But if you do it for free don't expect people to pay for it.
And if I paid $1 a month to every "free" podcaster that I liked out there in podcast land I could be paying up to $200 a month ... which would sink me financially.
Great read. Been thinking about this myself. I have no readership, so it doesn't really affect me. But there IS someone who hosts some of my writing, and I do think about and worry about running off all her readers. lolz
ReplyDeleteAnyway...I personally don't have a problem with either stream, monetized or free. But I appreciate the fact that you've addressed some interesting topics in your article.
Great stuff to ponder.
Thanks.
:-)
I'm with you C.F.A, I have no problem with podcasts that are monetized or free, it's just that I won't be paying to listen to podcasts unless they are really, really good podcast shows and quite frankly I haven't heard any that I would pay money to listen to.
ReplyDeleteNo offense to the pod-casters out there who are doing some good chats on some interesting topics and I couldn't care if they place sponsor's ads right through the talks like Jim Harold does at his 'Paranormal Podcast' (I'd just skip over most of the ads anyway, or just zone out and check my e-mails or something), but I'm not gonna pay to listen to podcasts when there are heaps of great free podcasts to pick from out there.
I paid $9 to listen to the 'Mysterious Universe' subscription part of the site last month, because I find that show one of the better podcast shows on the net, but after listening to the back catalogue of shows that I was interested in I cancelled my subscription to MU, as I feel it's not worth paying nine bucks a month, when I could be watching NetFlix movies for the same price.
If I had money to burn I wouldn't care, but at this point I don't.
I don't think there is money in the pod-casting game to be made unless you are a big celebrity with a huge following of rich kids behind you, who are probably using their parents money to pay for it anyway.
But from an adult listener's point of view, who has money to throw at every podcast they like to listen to?
If you only like and listen to one, or two fine, but if you listen to dozens of shows where do you draw the line?
Especially when these pod-casters are doing it for the "love" of it...
right?-)
Oh...and regarding,"I have no readership, so it doesn't really affect me" C.F.A.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure even if we think we have no readers of our blog that we are forgetting those good ol'boys at the NSA who are probably sitting at their computers drinking coffee, eating donuts and reading both of our blogs right now and being thoroughly entertained.