Updates on the All Freelance Writing Podcast

Update: I've decided to hold off on the podcast's relaunch until early in the New Year so it wouldn't go through a start-stop phase right away due to my already-scheduled vacation time in November and December. It will return in January.


 

If you were a regular listener of the All Freelance Writing podcast, you've probably noticed that the show has been on hiatus for a few months now. I wanted to share a bit of background on why that is and when you expect it to return (hopefully very soon).

I'd also love your feedback about potential changes before the show's re-launch.

Technical Difficulties

I've used a variety of recording tools since launching this podcast. And, much to my surprise, the best recordings came from my phone. Unfortunately though, the phone started giving me grief over the summer. It would randomly shut down, often during recordings. No updates resolved the problem. I couldn't reliably capture an episode anymore, so I took a break. I never intended for it to last this long.

I have a more traditional mic setup as well, but when I tried to switch back to it, I was surprised to find the mic no longer worked with my system after some recent OS updates. And the developer of its software hadn't released updates on their end. Just my luck.

Eventually I got a new phone (which is supposed to have great recording capabilities, although I'm still trying to figure out my ideal settings). I also figured out a workaround to get my traditional mic working again. So I thought the podcast would be back around a month ago.

The Best Laid Plans...

Then things got a bit hectic around here while my husband and I were taking care of our sick cat (who I'm very sad to say passed away after a 13-month battle with cancer on October 7th). And then my lovely husband brought home a nasty respiratory infection from one of his colleagues and kindly shared it with me.

While I've been over that for probably a week and a half to two weeks now, my voice hasn't fully come back. I've never had that happen before (and I'd love any tips or remedies you have if you've dealt with that). As soon as it does -- hopefully next week -- the podcast will be back.

Potential Podcast Changes

In the meantime I'm taking some time to decide if I want to make any changes to the podcast structure.

I've considered creating shorter shows (going from 20-30 min now to 10 min for future episodes). Those would perhaps be released more frequently. Instead of having a primary topic, a listener question, and a recommended resource in each episode, those might be split into their own episodes.

I've also considered tying episodes to posts -- like the audio posts I've done before rather than standalone episodes (giving people more ways to access key content). Or, if I go with shorter episodes in general, audio posts could be rolled into the podcast series without being the only episode types.

My only concern with shorter episodes is that shows already tend to run long whenever I bring in a guest co-host, and I'd hate to cut them even more than I already do. But I suppose longer conversations could be split among several episodes.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Are you happy with the current episode length? Would you prefer shorter episodes? Do you want to see updates more frequently? Leave a comment here or email me at jenn@allfreelancewriting.com. While I can't promise specific changes, I will certainly consider any feedback I receive before the show comes back.

Profile image for Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer, consultant, and indie author. She runs numerous websites & blogs including All Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Pros, NakedPR, and Kiss My Biz.

Jenn has 25 years' experience as a professional writer and editor and over 20 years' experience in marketing and PR (working heavily in digital PR, online marketing, social media, SEO, new media, and thought leadership publication). She also has 19 years' professional blogging and web publishing experience (including web development) and around 18 years of experience as an indie author / publisher.

Jenn also writes fiction under multiple pen names and is an Active member of the Horror Writers Association.

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2 thoughts on “Updates on the All Freelance Writing Podcast”

  1. Jenn, I’m glad you’ll be bringing back the podcast. I personally prefer longer podcasts on a single topic.

    About your voice: What helps me is talking less and talking quieter.

    Reply
    • Thanks John. That’s usually how episodes go when I have guest co-hosts on to chat. But it wouldn’t be feasible for all episodes because I have 3 key audiences — freelancers, authors, and bloggers. So I try to get a little bit in there for each group in most episodes. If I go shorter, they’ll be single-topic episodes. But to cover all audiences with longer episodes that way, I’d have to create far more of them. And the planning, recording, audio editing, etc. takes too much time for me to do that on a more frequent basis unfortunately.

      Thanks also for the tips on voice recovery. I don’t do much talking during the day since I’m the only one here. But I’ll keep that in mind when hubs is home or I’m on the phone. 🙂

      Reply

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