podcast

Why am I doing this again?

I’m quite a recent convert to the idea of a sleep aid podcast, in fact it was the first one I discovered that inspired me to try make my own which I began before realising there were different format choices available. I’m a huge fan of Sleep With Me, I discovered the show a few months ago and immediately started sleeping a lot better. I usually mention in the introduction of most episodes though that when I have recommended Sleep With Me to people I know it hasn’t really worked out for them. Drew Ackerman the… host? narrator? I’m honestly not too sure what to call him, but he’s the mind and voice behind the show has a very… specific voice that doesn’t work for everyone. The iTunes reviews and feedback he reads out at the end of some episodes suggests this isn’t uncommon.

But I figured I have a very different voice, it’s deep and drony and flat when I don’t get over excited, so I thought I’d give it a bash myself and see how it goes. As of this writing I’ve recorded 9 episodes and while I haven’t as yet made any attempts to promote it I’m starting to build up a listenership. There are subscribers on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, I have received some very kind feedback and I even have a (single 😀 ) patron on Patreon. Again without doing any promotion. The reason why I have the Patreon at all will be covered in another post.

Different Sleep Aid Podcasts and format choices

Because the first sleep aid podcast that worked for me worked so well I’ve tried as much as possible to emulate a lot of the structure of Sleep With Me. This includes the very long intro to every episode as well as the self promotion being front loaded. After all, I’m hoping the listener is asleep by the end, promoting the show’s social media and website at the end wouldn’t be very useful.

I’ve since discovered that there are other formats, there’s another very enjoyable sleep aid podcast I’ve tried out called Nothing Much Happens. It’s a very slick show of original stories written and told by Kathryn , the format is very different. The episodes are much shorter, without long rambling intros and the stories are short and read out twice. Kathryn has a wonderful voice and the stories are very calm and comforting. So if the long rambling format of my show, as inspired by Sleep With Me doesn’t work for you I definitely recommend you try it out.

So, what am I yammering on about?

As I said, I’ve received a small amount of feedback so far, and while most has been positive I did get a message on Facebook that was quite critical, although I can’t disagree with anything the person said. They especially dislike the long intro to every episode. They find it infuriating rather than relaxing. I try highlight in the intro to most episodes that not everything will work for every restless sleeper. I find the long rambling intro to Sleep With me very important. In fact I often fall asleep before I even reach the main story! So in my show I repeat that format choice, because it works for me. And according to some of the stats and feedback it works for other people too.

I’m not going to argue that maybe I can do a better job. I’m still very new to this whole thing and I hope to improve over time, but fundamentally, that’s part of the design. So if you like what I’m doing, We are people of a similar mind. If you don’t try out Nothing Much Happens. And I’m starting to do some story only episodes together for the $10 Patreon level, so if you kind of like what I do except all the rambly intro bits, there is an option opening up for you soon. 🙂