Oh, and I just thought I'd throw this out for those that might be interested. If you subscribe you'll get this little episode in the middle of the month. If anyone has input I'm happy to take it in. It's weird to ask for money (I never enjoyed it as a dub either and rarely did it at the doors), but I have good reason.
So I think I'm going to drop a little bonus episode in the middle of this month asking for donations and outlining why specifically. I have a listener to my This JW Life podcast that has helped me with some SEO, and part of that was getting all of my episodes transcribed. Having written content is a huge part of SEO. For those unfamiliar, SEO is search engine optimization, a way of working with sites like Google to get your site indexed and found.
This listener paid out of his own pocket to get my This JW Life podcast transcribed. He used a site like Trint.com which charges $15 per hour of audio, and it is done through a speech to text program. It isn't the most high quality transcription, in that it is a computer listening and it won't get every word accurate, but it's far cheaper than true transcription and has the same effect of getting lots of written content on the site. Still, he must have spent hundreds to get my story transcribed.
If I could get these episodes of "shunned" transcribed, especially with some of the diversity that I hope to get in the interviews, I think I could build a site that will rank well. Why does that matter?
If it ranks well more people will find it and listen. For example, with the work that my listener and new friend has done on This JW Life I'm getting more traffic in the search engines and it shows. Suddenly I'm getting many more spam comments on the site to moderate (yay me), but I'm also getting a rash of emails from real people that are starting to listen and are getting help through it and reaching out.
I actually had a spike in May due to some of the work he's done for a podcast that I no longer even produce. This JW Life is going to hit 20,000 downloads this month.
I pay out of my own pocket for everything with "shunned". I added it up and it looks like it would cost about $330 (rough and dirty math) to get the current episodes transcribed. Then it will cost around $30-60/month for future episodes (assuming 2-4 hours).
I've also paid for a course on SEO so that I can know what I'm doing and do some of my own for the "shunned" podcast and I've been taking that for weeks now.
So with some financial backing (wouldn't take much, if I have let's say 1,000 downloads a month, if I could get like 60 people to do $1 per month on Patreon, or 30 at $2, or....or...or....) I can keep building content out that will help get the site ranked and competing for traffic online. That will get more of our stories heard, maybe even bring in other shunned groups. The more the merrier. Things seem to be picking up, probably somewhat even because people listen to This JW Life and then transition over to "shunned". It all works together.
I'll be putting something together in the middle of the month. I know that people sometimes get freaked out if people seem to make money off of these things. I'm not seeking to make money, though I think it would be super cool to make a living doing something like this and helping people, but I can't afford as a house cleaner to be putting it all in on my dime every month.
