OK. I’m now going to try listening to an episode of the podcast, and I’ll sort of “live blog” that experience here. So what you’ll have here is a series of stream-of-consciousness notes, some of which are, again, likely to be more honest than nice.
I’ve just gone to http://brightworldpodcast.com/ and… what I’m confronted with is a big page, almost all of which is not relevant to my primary goal of “listening to a podcast”. Perhaps this explains it better:
There’s one paragraph explaining the point of the BWP, and there’s a few links to recent episodes (which as far as I can tell doesn’t include the actual most recent episode, number 10). The rest of it… is perhaps interesting if I’m already a regular listener and want to see the latest changes. But most people are not regular listeners to your podcast. While I wouldn’t want to elevate ourselves as perfect web designers or anything, compare the front page of badvoltage.org; you get a big paragraph explaining the point of BV and the most recent podcast description right there on the front page, along with “Play Now” links to listen to that podcast immediately, without leaving the front page.
OK, now starting. I like this intro music. But it’s going on for a terribly long time. Ends abruptly rather than fading out.
This “Miss Possible” doll range sounds pretty cool! The page for this episode, http://brightworldpodcast.com/episode-10-miss-possible-interview/, barely mentions it, though. It’s a whole page which is 90% about the incidental music and the licence (most boring information ever; I admit it’s necessary, but don’t put it front and centre!), and the actual subject of the interview gets one line. There’s not a link to their indiegogo campaign (which needs the publicity) or their website or anything.
Hm, this whole episode is one big interview, I suspect. An interview isn’t the best way to evaluate a podcast because it’s primarily the interviewee speaking; it’s interesting, but it’s not as useful for criticism. I’ll try another episode.
Now trying episode 9 (http://brightworldpodcast.com/episode-9-benefit-corporations/). Again, 40 seconds of background music, ouch. TV programmes can get away with this because you can see things on screen at the same time.
Your “p” sounds and other plosive sounds are “popping”. @jonobacon is the bloke to ask about this, but in my experience it means that your mic needs a pop shield; one of those black foam balls that fits on the end. Other than that, audio quality sounds fine to me, although I’m not very picky about this.
Hm, this “Benefit Corporation” stuff is interesting. (Obviously it is stupid that there has to be a special type of company in order to avoid you getting sued by your own shareholders for not being enough of a dick, but that’s not your fault. It’s useful to talk about this.)
This is quite good stuff. Your speaking skills could use a little work, but I suspect that that will get better over time. In particular, you pause in the middle of sentences, which sounds weird, and there’s not enough pitch and intonation change in your voice which makes it sound a little monotonal. I deliberately pitch my voice up on Bad Voltage, partially to provide a contrast with Bryan and Jono who have deeper voices, and partially because it gives me a wider pitch range which makes listening not sound monotonal.
Your actual content is good. The important point here, though, is that you need a good reason for this to be a podcast. If it’s just you doing the podcast, there needs to be a reason why you didn’t just write a blog post which people can read at their own pace.
The idea of a “commercial break” where you just keep talking (but talk about a different subject) is a bit odd. It’s not in any meaningful sense a break because it sounds the same.
OK. Listened. As I note, your content is good; for people who are interested in your subject it’s good stuff, and it may attract more. But if I were to characterise the whole BWP effort I think the word might be “bland”. The website is bland; the sound is one fairly monotonal voice. One has to get through all that in order to actually learn something from the words you’re saying (which are, as I note, good). I think you need to punch it up a bit. Make BWP look more exciting; feel more exciting; sound more exciting. Because you’re talking about Important Subjects That People Don’t Want To Hear About Because It’s Hard, there is a very very real risk that you’ll come across as “worthy”. And people won’t listen to that and won’t pay for it. It’s your job not only to report on this stuff (which is a good thing, and you’re doing it) but to make people interested in it. Step up the excitement game.
Hope that helps. Sorry for the fragmentary nature of it.
(wait for the next show to find out more). But that is a side effect of creating a show that we think people want to hear.