Category: Podcasting

Something good happened, but I am not sure what

Less than a month ago I had posted that Missionary Talks had its 4000th download/listen. That was an increase of 1000 from the previous 2 weeks. Since I did not want to seem too excited about it, when I hit 5000 downloads, I did not shout it from the rooftops. Well, yesterday we went over 7000! That is just under 1000 per week for the last 4 weeks.

All of this was helped by something strange that happened this weekend. I am still a bit baffled about what caused it. I assume some big podcast played my promo or said something about me. But I have not heard anything from them to know who or what happened.

My normal daily downloads have settled into a nice 80 per day. That is after the spike it took a few weeks back to 100 per day because someone promoted my show. I was swimming along at 80 a day and am very pleased with that. Then Saturday hit. I got 324 downloads that day! That was quite exciting to see to say the least. But, it was nothing in comparison to Sunday…859!

Monday was back to normal as has been the rest of this week.

I was a bit skeptical thinking that it must just be some search engine that is cataloging my show. But it would mean about 50 downloaders taking every show to make that number happen. I don’t think it was a robot doing it. It must have been real people (though bots could account for some of it). Then today I got nice confirmation of that. I uploaded my new show this morning and already have more downloads through the RSS feed than I normally have had for any show its first week in the feed. That makes me think that I have picked up a boatload of subscribers through the event this weekend. Whatever it was.

Anyway, we are now over 7200 downloads and growing. That is just exciting to me. Since I am thrilled to get my content out there for people to hear.

If you have not heard Missionary Talks, it is nothing like the podcast here. The My Thought Spot podcast is all about me being me. Also, it honestly is a thinly veiled attempt to promote Missionary Talks. Whether people listen to MTS (My Thought Spot) is not that important to me. I am doing it for fun. But, Missionary Talks is where I am putting out content that I think can be a great help to people and promote my calling.

GO MISSIONARY TALKS!

If anyone knows why I might have gotten such a big boost this weekend, please let me know. I am curious.

Missionary Talks 24: Sherry Rovirosa

This interview with Sherry Rovirosa is a little late in coming in that I missed the last 2 Mondays with a new interview. I had hoped to have it up this last Monday, but we did not get a chance to sit down and talk until Tuesday morning. Because I knew she was packing up the family right now to move to the field, we really focused on what kinds of things are an issue for her at this time. Particularly as a mother. It was very insightful and I think can be helpful to others who will be packing up to head to the mission field in the future.

We recorded this in the living room with cars going by outside plus my 2 kids playing and banging around. I was able to edit most of the extraneous noise out, but not all of it. The sound quality starts off a bit rough, but then settles down afterwards. That is typical of my interviews though.

Enjoy!

Missionary Talks: Listener Feedback 01

I posted a listener feedback episode at Missionary Talks. Because of the format of the show, I really don’t want to take the time to cover feedback in the main show. Not because I don’t like the feedback, but because it would stifle what I am trying to accomplish with each episode. However, that gives me a chance to use a whole episode to cover feedback. I can take more time and not feel rushed.

Missionary Talks 22: David and Crystal Houghton

In this interview I spoke with David and Crystal Houghton. They are missionaries in Tampico, Mexico. Like me, they too work with the Deaf.

As you will probably be able to tell in the interview, we were not “perky.” That is a word that left our vocabulary a few days before recording. It was a very long and tiring week.

I told you I would get it out today. Whew!

Missionary Talks problems

Boy am I having a time getting this next edition of Missionary Talks out! I have 2 recordings that I need to work on. I was hoping to get one of them done today, but it is just eating my lunch. I think I am going to skip that recording for now and move onto the next one. I know the information will be old news to me by the time I get that one out, but it will be fresh to everyone else. I really just need to get a show out there.

There are a couple of people in town this week that I may be able to rope into an interview. They have been to the Quechua people in Peru for a short term trip. They are not career missionaries, but they may be able to share a couple of stories. I think that would be great. I could share one of my Peruvian stories with you too. I spent 4.5 months there in 1991. I have quite a few stories I could share. Might be a good reason to pull out my journals from that trip.

So, I am going to give up on this one show for the time being and crank out the next interview that I have recorded. It will be a bit of a shorter show. Maybe you will like that. I will start on it in the morning when I am less frustrated.