M3: The Good, The Bad and the Future

Meta 3: The Good, The Bad and the Future 

Hi this is Martin Nutty and you’re listening to TNC Meta, the podcast that provides the skinny on the making of The Nutty Chronicles aka TNC. I made these Meta episodes so interested listeners could understand how the podcast sausage is made and the motivations that drive the underlying effort

It’s been over 6 months since I did a meta piece and much has happened in the intervening period, some good, some bad, but I’m feeling optimistic that the podcast is well set up for the future

The Good

Since August, when I last produced a Meta piece, I launched a website for The Nutty Chronicles (TNC) which is now a one stop shop for the podcast. In the early days of the podcast, I’d figured out that I needed a website. Although I make my living as a programmer, my area of expertise does not encompass web development skills. I was wary of the time commitment associated with building a website from scratch, knowing it would cannibalize time spent on producing content for TNC, however my reading indicated that if I was to continue to grow the podcast, that effort was required and inescapable if I wanted the podcast to thrive

Now there are plenty of services out in webland that purport to make the creation of website a snap. These “out of the box” services lure customers with assertions that a website can be up and running in a matter of minutes and indeed that is the truth. Anybody can get a site up and running, but the important question is whether it’s useful for the customers being served? In many cases, the faster you get a site up and running, the more limited that site is, in terms of functionality

I needed a site that would be a optimized for TNC, to which I could direct listeners and where they could find everything they wanted to know about the podcast. The site and it’s associated technology would also need the ability to grow if the podcast succeeded to expand beyond it’s current listener base. So what to do?

During the Summer I did a little research to figure out a website address that would be easy to communicate on the podcast. Essentially that means that it’s easy to spell, consistent with the podcast name and not already claimed by some other website. I plunked down some cash and acquired a domain name for the podcast. In this case TheNuttyChronicles.com. Give it a visit if you haven’t been there before 

A domain name, is only the first step. Decisions had to be made on where to locate or host the site on the internet and what technology would be used to build and configure the website. I dropped some more cash at GoDaddy to host the upcoming website. I’d planned on building out the website using Wordpress which is a commonly used development toolset supported by many hosts including GoDaddy

With those expenditures in place, I was gritting my teeth in preparation for coming up to speed on the Wordpress development curve so that I could build out the site. But then I came across a promotion for Podpage on Buzzsprout, my podcast host site. Podpage claimed To be able to build a beautiful website, optimized for podcasters, in 5 minutes. Let’s say I was a little skeptical, but I trust Buzzspout’s recommendations and with my curiosity tweaked and expectations low, I started to checkout Podpage. 

The checking didn’t take long as Podpage enables podcasters to quickly import their existing episodes and generate a website. Shockingly it only took a couple of minutes, as advertised, and a useful site was autogenerated. I was sold. I needed to do some more tweaking to the Podpage template I had chosen for my site to give the look and feel I wanted. That took a couple of hours and presto, I had a highly professional site with minimal effort. Even better, the site automatically displayed new podcast episodes as soon as they were released on my Buzzsprout podcast host. 

All of this is offered to podcasters for free by Podpage. So how does Podpage make money? Well the freebie, tryout site has decent functionality, but if you plunk down $180 or the equivalent of $15 per month, you get a whole host of useful features and most importantly the ability to use your own domain name. For me it was a no-brainer, I abandoned my GoDaddy expenditures, saved a ton of time and am delighted with the service

Podcast CEO, Brenden Mulligan, deserves some serious kudos for spotting an opportunity to service the rapidly growing community of podcasters who would rather focus on creating great audio content rather than being distracted by the need to acquire web development skills. Mulligan’s team continues to add additional features optimized for podcasters and judging by the commentary on the associated Facebook group, he has a lot of satisfied customers. The best marketers for a service are satisfied customers who spread the word and I certainly fall into that category

The Bad

In keeping with the title of the episode, let’s move onto The Bad. A podcast is only as successful as the consistency of it’s episode production. I had hoped to crank out 3 episodes every 3 months. That’s proved to be fanciful. So what happened?

Well back in the middle of last Summer I started working on a new podcast called Irish Stew. You might ask whether one podcast wasn’t enough and that would be a fair question. However, the new podcast serves a different interest, audience and affords me the opportunity to expand my portfolio of skills. In many respects Irish Stew is a traditional interview podcast, nothing earth shaking there. However my cohost John Lee and I figured there was a space in the market for content aimed at what we call the Global Irish Nation or GIN. When we talk of the GIN we’re referring to people that think of themselves as Irish. That could refer to a 3rd generation descendent of an Irish emigrant to Liverpool or somebody from Athlone in the heartland of Ireland; indeed it could refer to somebody who has simply an affinity for the country and it’s culture based on a vacation there or perhaps they attended college in UCD

John and I want to service this constituency by podcasting about influencers in this extended community and we hope that our efforts will bind the GIN more closely together. We’re focused on guests who have made a successful impact. Learning about their origin stories, challenges, hopes, why they do what they do and how their Irishness has impacted their path through life. So far, we’ve done 13 episodes and we feel like we’re beginning to hit out stride

Selfishly, I embarked on this effort as it gives me a number of opportunities. Firstly, it puts me in the room with interesting people and I get to ask questions that I hope reveal new ideas and thoughts that might not have been readily considered by listeners. Secondly I get to improve my interview skills. I’ve done a little of this before, but now I’m being forced to buckle up and learn how to ask that killer question. I now have a greater appreciation for those interviewers who can steer their guests into a natural conversation while eliciting worthwhile insights. Finally I get to work with my Irish American cohost John Lee. John brings the diaspora angle to our conversations while I straddle the diaspora/native born side which I think works well. Anyway judge for yourself. You can find the podcast at IrishStewPodcast.com

Now generally a new venture like this would not be categorized as “bad”, but it has diverted me from TNC and I’ve not been producing content as quickly as I would like. While part of my productivity was affected by the simple requirements of recording the episodes, there was a lot more effort which went into all the back end start up pieces that go into this kind of launch. Now, that all that is in the rear view mirror, I hope to up my frequency of this podcast and want to let you know that I’m still passionately committed to this project

All this diversion has led to TNC’s stats dropping. If you visit TheNuttyChronicles.com website and pull up this episode page you’ll be able to see the stats in detail. Hopefully by the time I do the next Meta episode, those numbers will start to look better

The Future

Strictly speaking this is not the future but it’s not that far in the past so I’m going to play with the timeline, let’s call it artistic license. In the past, I’ve mentioned my friend Dennis Penglase who helps out with my social media. Dennis became a fan of the podcast early on and offered to help out with promotion. Dennis has Irish folks on both his Mother’s and Father’s side of the family and the podcast gave him the opportunity to understand his cultural heritage through my own family’s history. At the start of February, I asked Dennis to blog about the podcast. I figured some content written from a third party perspective might give a fresher perspective. I’ve been delighted with this change and hope that you are as well

It’s now over a year since The TNC podcast was launched. To celebrate, I’m going to host a free virtual zoom session so that listeners can connect with me more directly. It will be an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback. I’m in the process of hashing out the program, so more to come on that front. For now I’ve blocked out time on my calendar for Sunday May 9th at 11 Am EST which will be 4PM Dublin time. I’ll be providing updates and details on the Nutty Chronicles website and social media pages, so make sure you give it a follow

Finally, the most important part of the future vision. When can you expect new content? Coming up I’m going to produce another episode on the significance to my family of a tree known as the Trinity Birch. This will be a continuation of the last 2 pieces which featured my Dad , Fred Nutty (1925 — 2012) and how he made his way through the world, his challenges and frustrations. I had planned on telling the story of that tree, special to my family, two episodes ago but as I wrote the last couple of pieces, that writing took a different turn. I’d always heard writers talking about how storylines have their own narrative thrust which act almost independently of the author. I was skeptical of such notions, but now have a healthy respect for the concept. The past two episodes I’ve produced are totally different from the original plan. Hopefully third time is the charm. After this upcoming Trinity Birch episode, I plan on stepping back further in time to feature another family member although I’d rather not reveal any details at the moment but following the podcast’s social media pages will likely yield some clues. I’m looking at two very different family members and my choice really depends on how the research detail falls

If you want to help grow the audience, please follow or subscribe to The Nutty Chronicles and leave a review on your preferred podcasting platform. You’ll get these TNC Meta episodes and the regular show, all in the same feed. If you aspire to being a superfan, then sharing episodes on your social media with friends and acquaintances will earn my deepest gratitude.

So thank you for listening, I know there is a lot of choice out in podcast land. I recognize it’s special when somebody takes time out of their day to spend with me. In recognition of this, I’ll be doing a mystery giveaway, for one listener, at the end of April. To be included in this drawing make sure you sign up for the mailing list at the website which you can find at TheNuttyChronicles.com