Friday, February 02, 2007

In Contemplation Over Interns

It happens every once in awhile. Someone says something that makes a lot of sense and you now see the path ahead going in two directions. I'm standing at the fork of this road. The statement came from someone involved in the radio business talking about his podcast. He mentioned that the smartest thing that he did was set up internships at the local college offering a small percentage of revenue from the podcast. If I am correct, there were two getting 5% each. One position would run public relations and the other would do advertising/sales. 5% or even 10% of little profit is little pay so they would have to work hard to create revenue.

You see, it'll soon be about a decade since starting the newsletter (in its most primitive form.) And for all the visitors the site gets, I've done no advertising or promotion. This is the same with the podcast which generates listeners via cross-promotion from the Web site and newsletter. (Which means... pretty much the same people getting hit with the same ideas.) Why no advertising or self-promotion? People don't trust people that have to toot their own horn. I wouldn't. If I wanted to promote things, I'd have to pretend to be someone else when writing. Don't laugh. I actually have two friends listed as being in charge of sales and advertising on the Web site with their email coming to one of those multiple email accounts that I told you about before. I'd usually respond back to inquiries by saying, "Daniel (or Dion) forwarded me your inquiry." Doing that doesn't sit well with me. I'm actually shocked that I was able to arrange some great interviews by sending off a few messages at MySpace but how much better would it be if someone else did it representing you? If I had someone planning a minimum of 26 interviews a year (every other week gives me a breather,) I could focus on preparing questions and content. News of that interview that week would be sent to people running fan Web sites.

So, I'm at that divide. Sure, I would have to do a little more work to create internships, manage income and increase my organizational skills to grow something I enjoy into something much larger. But, 5% or 10% of nothing is nothing, so there is little loss other than complete control. Sounds like a winning situation. But, there is that fear of getting too business-like. There is the fear that more and more time will be needed when it should be lessening the workload. I could take that other path of least resistance -- doing what I've been doing -- but my original idea of starting all this was to get information that was being bypassed by the major media outlets to the fans. I could reach more with better promotion. The only thing that I can do is put my toe in the water to see if it's cold or not. Maybe soon.

3 comments:

LoraLoo said...

This is a really great idea. Keep us posted on what you decide!

RT said...

It's like any other passion you may have... You present it to the world. If they like it, cool! You have an 'in'... If not, screw 'em. You have us.

Ya know what? I've been paying attention to you for quite some time. You have a good job, a good home, and last I heard, a good woman... What are you so worried about? GO FOR IT!

At best, your interns will prove themselves and get you what you need, at worst it'll be just another shot at your dream that didn't work... So what, you've been there, done that...

Next!

Honestly Martin, I don't understand why you fret so much.

Martin said...

Probably because I secretly fear complicating my life. hahaha Thank you both. B)