Hey everyone, it's Fran here - Producer and often-time host of On The Outside.
One of the things I think is most important about podcasts is that they are open-source content. Anyone can listen to our episodes, and I make sure transcripts are available for every conversation (one good thing about the advances in AI is that it has made auto-transcripts infinitely more accurate than when I started podcasting five years ago!). I think this is important, as it is so rare to have these kinds of conversations free to access. Most often, panel discussions happen at festivals or in-person. Listeners have to be in the right place with the right funds to be involved. On The Outside was created to open up these kinds of conversations, and start new ones.
But whilst On The Outside is free to listen to, it is not free to make. Although I initially sought sponsorship from brands to make this show ongoing and strong, we unfortunately didn’t have any offers (unless you count the brand that wanted us to give them a good shoutout in exchange for a backpack…)
So I am currently self-funding production costs, including editing, and transcript costs, with a bit of support from the monthly donations we get via this Patreon. Because transparancy is important, I've made sure you can see how much we are getting (at the time of writing, it's just under £30/month). Thank you, thank you, thank you to Kathi Kamleitner from Watch Me See, the Quigley family, and my best cheerleaders - my parents! - for that early support.
But if you listened to Episode 18, you know this only allows me to offer a little bit of recompense to panellists. Here is a breakdown of the costs that go into making an episode of OTO:
Money:
RSS hosting - $12/month
Web domain - £122/year
Remote recording software - $10/month
Cloud storage - £2.49/month
Auto-transcript - £20/month
Social media - Average £90/month
Panellists - I offer £30 each (although many are currently waiving this)
Editing - £180/day when outsourced
Time:
£200/day is my average day-rate when working as a producer for paid projects. On average, producing On The Outside takes:
Producing minisodes - 1 day
Producing full episodes - 2-3 days
Recording time for panellists - 1.5 - 2 hours
I always feel like a bit of a dick asking for money from you listening, because in my heart I believe that brands should be supporting content in the same way they support sports events.
But podcast production is my work. I am freelance, and in order to put more effort into this show, I have said no to paid work. So I’m going to ask you all to support me today in the way that works for you:
If you are in a position to support financially through monthly donations, head over to patreon.com/ontheoutsidepodcast. You can choose how much you give (although we have suggested tiers). This is the most tangibly useful to keep making episodes, but the support also goes to show that people want diverse conversations.
You can get in touch with any brand connections, please suggest they support us. I do not have a background in working with brands (or working for brands) and help on this would be great!
Or - just share On The Outside with your friends, family, colleagues, group chats!
And that last one is more important than you know, because the most common way people find out about new podcasts is from friends and family. And the second most common way is actually from social media. So if monetary support isn't viable, I feel you! But I would love it if you can tell your friends about us on social media. If you hear something you like in an episode, a good way to share it is to take a screenshot of your podcast app and share what you like about it on your Instagram stories. And don't forget to tag us @ontheoutsidepod so we can thank you!
Thank you for reading this far.
- Fran x