One of the risks involved in writing a daily blog, which I am sure is already apparent to anyone who reads it every single day, is documenting those days when very little or nothing at all actually happened. I try to vary what I write about to avoid the blog becoming a 'Dear Diary' type thing, even though that was the original idea behind the concept of a blog - 'web' as in Internet merged with the word 'log' as in diary to create 'web-log', which became 'weblog' (the Internet also dropped the hyphen from e-mail and web-site at some point although we didn't notice it happening) before eventually settling on 'blog'. Usually I am against joining two words together to make a new one as the people who do it are usually massive funts. When I sit down to write this shit I try to find one particular detail about my day to expand on, or I will write about something topical or about music or comedy. The main thing is to at least hope to make it interesting, something that occasionally it isn't easy to accomplish.
Today I should have collected together the music I have chosen for this week's podcast, I have now expanded it time wise to try and fit everything in but I didn't. I have listened to everything but I need to transfer it all to my podcast laptop as there's no recording facility on the new one yet. Also, I had hoped to record a lit bit of the audio book version of Bowie Day but didn't even come close to that. If I get it recorded I will release it as soon as it is ready rather than waiting until Christmas, perhaps waiting for a Bank Holiday Monday or something. I also need to make a start on the next episode of Moonage Daydream which at the moment is a messy collection of notes on various bits of paper. Tomorrow starts a three night run of gigs so time is now against me once again. We're going out for lunch on Saturday so I will have to squeeze in the podcast recording at some point on either Saturday or Sunday morning which puts me under immense pressure once again.
When I first left Trent Sound I did two editions of The Sunday Alternative Pocket Sized Podcast and my heart wasn't really in it due to the lack of listeners. I uploaded them to the 'listen again' archive I set up on Mixcloud but didn't really push it enough and on the third week I simply didn't bother and it fizzled out without ceremony. The Sunday Alternative is a brand name that I am proud of although this time around I did question whether a podcast would be worthwhile. To soften the blow in case it didn't pick up the pace I originally did it on a fortnightly basis but thanks to the volume of music submitted to me I made the easy decision to go weekly. In theory I could do two a week but I struggle to record one which is why I am gradually allowing the running time to creep up.
I decided not to use the Mixcloud page for the relaunched podcast as I figured it was best left as a museum piece of the radio show that I genuinely enjoyed making. My reason for releasing the podcast on the blog page was simply to make it easier for me to keep a tab on listening figures. However I was asked if it could be downloaded and I had no provision for this and therefore another rethink was in order. As I am not now nor never have been an Apple user I wouldn't know where to start regarding uploading to iTunes so now I provide the link to the Internet Archive from where you can download it. I just assumed that nobody would really need to download it because you could just listen to it on the computer or phone. Obviously the first set of listening figures weren't great but this time around I thought I would see it through and try to build on it. Only Fools and Horses nearly got axed after poor results for the first series so it proves how something can be worth fighting for.
Another clever (and rather cynical) method of promotion is my habit of tweeting the same link several times from the Sunday Alternative account and tagging each band/musician is played. The same thing also takes place on Facebook and the idea is simply to try and get retweets and shares, and it does work.
The only issue now is that although hits on the podcast have climbed with every new edition, the donations to the PayPal account are not being generated. Personal gain is not my intention and every penny that comes in is used to create entertainment that I will make available for free. To me this seems like a good deal, certainly better value than the TV Licence. Aside from comedy sketches, short films, documentaries, and other podcasts I want to stop doing The Sunday Alternative from my steam powered home studio and take it to a proper facility so that I can expand it slightly and also have live bands performing sessions just like before. This will cost at least £50 per episode if things can be done quickly so this ambition might take time. I will very soon be bringing out a logo t-shirt and tote bag to sell online and put the money in the fund and any money from audio books also goes in. If every listener paid 50p a week then I would be able to get things moving. To speed things up I am planning a crowd funding campaign to help swell the coffers a bit and set out to maybe at first do the studio version monthly until it builds. If I can raise £1000 then I will be able to make twenty editions in a studio and give it a more 'radio' feel without going back to radio. This will give me the chance to raise more money to make more episodes, another way would be to find a sponsor which I am not totally against and would be preferable to selling advertising.
In other news, it seems that Jack simply doesn't like Caesar dog food and seems happy enough to just go without food than eat it. I bought him a tin of tripe mix dog food and he ate the lot this evening, so he isn't ill as I feared, he is just fussy.
This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative can be heard here.
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April housekeeping
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Saturday Breakfast: We are making a pilot episode of this music and cookery show and we need your help. Your donations will help to get this made.
The Sunday Alternative is a free weekly podcast. I am aiming to start making this podcast in a studio with live bands in session. This will cost at least £50 per episode so please give whatever you can.
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steveEoliver@gmail.com
