Out of the 60,000+ podcasts out there somehow yours caught my eye. It looked interesting enough for me to add it to my podcatcher and download a few shows. Unfortunately, I’ve removed it from my subscription list, for one or more of the following reasons.<\/p>\n
Your show is too long.<\/span> I don’t have as much time as I’d like for podcasts, and I’m just not willing to listen to you for the hour and a half I could spend listening to six fifteen minute podcasts. I think there is a much shorter, much better show in there struggling to get out. As an experiment, try doing one episode that’s 1\/3 the length to see if it makes it better.<\/p>\n You talk in a monotone.<\/span> If you’re not excited about the subject, why should I be?<\/p>\n You laugh at your own jokes. A lot.<\/span> As a solo show, an occasional laugh is fine, but you bellow at your own cleverness every single time you say anything you think is even slightly amusing. I hate laugh tracks.<\/p>\n Your production sucks.<\/span> The days of great content allowing you to get away with lousy production are over. There’s more well-produced good content out there than anyone has time to listen too. Your whistling Ss sound like fingernails on a blackboard, your popping Ps are pathetic, and your three dollar microphone just doesn’t cut it any more. If your show were brand new I’d be a little more forgiving, but you’ve been doing this for a while now and if you don’t care enough about it to learn the technical end of your craft I don’t care enough to listen.<\/p>\n Your volume is all over the place.<\/strong> The first time I dived for the volume knob I was annoyed. The third time I skipped the rest of your show and deleted it from my podcatcher.<\/p>\n You use too many word whiskers. <\/strong> A few ums and aws are fine, but your show is so full of them I couldn’t pay attention to anything else. Your excessive use of “like” and “you know” makes you sound like a Valley Girl. (Last year I tried a podcast on Film Noir which was hosted by two people. One of them said “And, Uh,” in front of every <\/em>sentence. I loved the subject enough to give it one more try a few shows later to see if they had improved. They hadn’t. The End, roll credits.)<\/p>\n You didn’t get to the point.<\/strong> You told me your show was about X, but you rambled on and on about all kinds of supporting crap until I got bored and moved on. (Point of Inquiry is a good example. They spend a good five minutes telling you about their organization, what the show is about, blah blah blah, and then they often play a promo! And it’s the same shtick every damn time. When they finally get to the content it’s a great show, but why does it take them so long to get to the point (of inquiry)?)<\/p>\n You didn’t get to the point II.<\/strong> You told me your show was about X, but you rambled on and on about your cat or your kid or your operation and I just lost interest before you got anywhere near the subject matter.<\/p>\n You put your own show down.<\/strong> Actually, I never subscribed because of this. Your show description said “Just a couple of guys hanging out. We’re not that good, but its fun.” If you tell me your show sucks I’m just going to agree with you without trying it.<\/p>\n You put your closing comments first.<\/strong> Sharing phone calls and e-mails is the best way to encourage more phone calls and e-mails. It’s an interesting part of the show for some people, but others find it dull. If you put it at the end <\/em>of the show, where it belongs, people who aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interested can skip it easily after enjoying the meat of your message. But you put it at the beginning, so I just skipped to the next show on my list.<\/p>\n