Seen and Heard in Edmonton

This week’s podcast features the audio from our meetup on monetizing your podcast.

My guest was Steven Schapansky of Radio Free Skaro, one of the most successful podcasts to be produced in Edmonton. By successful, I mean that it has been going for 10 years, gets 15,000 to 20,000 downloads per episode, and brings in $120 per episode through Patreon for Steven and his co-hosts, Chris Burgess in Edmonton and Warren Frey in Vancouver.

Steven says Radio Free Skaro is by no means a day job or a path to one, but it has opened up all kinds of opportunities, including the chance to interview Doctor Who stars on stage at conventions, plus some money to travel to those conventions. Most importantly, Radio Free Skaro put Steven in touch with his now-wife, Erika Ensign, co-host of Verity! and a panelist at our January meetup. Talk about a benefit!

So, as you’ll hear, this is not about how to make lots of money podcasting, but you will get to hear the lessons Steven has learned about crowdfunding and merchandising, the pros and cons of sponsorship and advertising, and the importance of serving your audience first and well. Have a listen:

You can also get it in iTunes, on SoundCloud or on Stitcher.

The next meetup takes place on April 9, and it will feature Justin Jackson of MegaMaker and many other podcast-related projects. RSVP here.

Usually at this point in the show notes, I share my guest’s recommendations. This time, I’m going to list all of the podcasts and other audio that were represented in the room at our meetup, in hopes that you can discover a few that you didn’t know you wanted to listen to until now:

• Doctor Whooch: A drunk podcast about Doctor Who
• Edmonton City as Museum Project: A look at various aspects of Edmonton’s history
• Equinely Inclined: A podcast for the horse community
• Expressions: A look at where idioms come from
• Film Frown: “We frown about bad movies so you don’t have to.”
• Genome Alberta: Dispatches from the field of genomics
• Hockey Feels: An Oilers fan in Edmonton and a Flyers fan in New York talk hockey.
• Innovation Anthology: Canada’s voice of innovation
• KMFBZ News Radio: Entertainment interviews, news and views
• Lazy Doctor Who: A couple’s live reaction to every Doctor Who story ever made
• Montreal Sauce: “Interviews with makers, creators, and friends.”
• Nerdcast: The Northern Nerd Network’s podcast about nerdy things
• No Resemblance: An audio literary anthology
• Off Menu: A Canadian podcast about food, and the people who make it
• Podcast! the Comics: A conversation about comics and pop culture
• Press Start 2 Join: Friends talking about video games, movies, TV, comics, etc.
• Radio Free Skaro: “Possibly the most popular, most prolific and charmingly irreverent (but never irrelevant) Doctor Who podcast around.”
• Seen and Heard in Edmonton: Interviews with bloggers and podcasters
• Stardreamers: An improvised intergalactic podcast
• Tales from the Hydian Way: A podcast for Star Wars role-playing gamers
• The Audio Guide to Babylon 5: A full re-watch of the sci-fi series
• The Memory Cheats: Immediate reactions to random Doctor Who stories
• The One: A showcase for everyday people and the love stories that make them unique
• Total Party Kill: Friends play Dungeon and Dragons on the Internet
• Uncanny Magazine Podcast: Science fiction and fantasy stories
• Verity!: Six smart women discussing Doctor Who
• Yegs & Bacon: “A morning show about comics, in podcast form, from the good folks at Variant Edition.”
• Your Team Sucks: The hockey podcast about three fans who hate everything.

Many thanks to SnowTapp and the Spark Corporate Creativity Centre for sponsoring the meetup’s door prizes.

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This week’s podcast and roundups are brought to you by the Seen and Heard Podcast Network, a project to help local podcasts get more listeners and connect those listeners with local businesses.

In this episode, Andrea Beça asks me how sponsors and other awesome people can get involved.

If you’d like to join the network, apply here. If you’d like to be a sponsor, email me at karen@unlandmedia.com.

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Musical credits: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1, played by Daniel Veesey, from freemusicarchive.com.