A little something to get you in the mood for this.
If you are thinking of applying to the School of Supernatural Life and would like to talk to one of our staff, or need help filling in the application form, join our staff 11am - 1pm at Franklin Juice. (Even if you're not thinking of applying, if you're in the area, stop by - we'd love to see you!)
Your PSA of the day.
Our good friends over at Cultivate Boldness are heading off to Seattle next week to take the love of God to the streets of Seattle. Danielle is amazing - she's one of the most dedicated people we've ever met, she loves people, loves the Lord and loves seeing God's love impact people everywhere.
They are about $1,000 short of their budget for the trip and we'd love it if you'd join us in giving toward their trip. Read more and give at their site.
I'll admit it: I'm a total survey nerd. I like filling them in and I love combing through the data. About a hundred of you were kind enough to take some time out and fill in our survey online. In this post we'll talk about some of the summary findings of the survey. Before we jump into that. Let's talk context. We started podcasting in May 2014. Our first episode went live on May 10th and we've pretty much produced a new episode every Monday since then. Here's a graph of our subscribers growth from May 2014 - Mary 2015.
Podcast subscribers
So from zero listeners to nearly 2,500 subscribers in a year is nice. But subscribers don't tell the whole story. It's entirely possible that one person could have three subscriptions; they may have subscribed on their phone, their iPad and their laptop for example. It's impossible to know. All we can tell from these numbers is that this month 2,433 podcast clients requested a copy of our show.
We also know that 25% of our listeners that filled in our survey don't actually listen using a podcast client. They come directly to our website and listen via our web player embedded on the site. We think that percentage is probably a lot higher based on our website statistics. This month alone, for example, we served over 900 podcast episodes via the web.
Which country do you listen from?
So where are most of you listening from? It turns out America and the United Kingdom feature heavily. Canada, we see you too! While "rest of the world" seemed a rather unkind way to lump you all together, we'd like to give a shout out to our listeners in Norway, Sweden, Germany and Japan too (thanks for taking the time to fill in the form!)
How do you listen to our podcast?
As we looked at earlier, the vast majority of you listen to the show using a podcast app, while around 25% of you just visit the website to listen (though as we mentioned earlier, we think that number should be higher). The other category featured those who do listen via an app and via the web or they simply download an episode. The primary reason people want to listen to the podcast on our website? It's the way they've always done it. Can't argue with that logic, but if that's you, you might find our podcast primer handy. Listening via your iPhone is a great way to automatically download new episodes each week - and you don't need to worry about space getting used up, as most podcast apps can be configured to delete the episode once you've listened to.
What podcast software do you use?
Speaking of podcast apps, which ones are you using? The big winner, as you can see above, is the Podcast app built into iOS8. It's a fine app, it does its job nicely and it's installed on every Apple device running iOS 8. Following up in second place is iTunes on the desktop. What was surprising to me was that a remarkably small percentage of you - just 10% - know about the treasure that is called Overcast. Which means we will do a public service announcement in the coming weeks demonstrating the sheer genius that is Overcast. (Though for now, just go ahead and install it and experience for yourself its brilliance.)
How often do you listen?
Next, it was very encouraging to know that 75% of those who responded to the survey listen to us every week. Thank you for doing so! And for those of you who have just started listening to us - welcome to the family!
Did you know we have show notes?
This was one of my favorite results - 75% of you know we have show notes which is great! I had to smile though, because a significant number of those who didn't know we had show notes were individuals who listened to the podcast on our website. Why is that funny? Because the show notes are right under the playbar - just scroll down and you'll see them!
General Feedback
The top three reasons you said you listen to the podcast are:
- Hearing our points of view on topics
- Our sense of humor
- The feel of the show
Hearing this was - obviously - hugely encouraging. In some ways podcasting is quite a one sided adventure. We sit in our room, record our ramblings and then send them off. Aside from listener's questions, feedback on our website or reviews on iTunes we didn't really know if this whole podcasting thing was working. To hear that you love the things we love about the show gave us a great confidence boost to keep going.
What would you like to change?
We loved that the majority of you wouldn't change a thing and those that did suggest changes only wanted it longer or wished we had more guests (which we can totally do!). When we asked if there was anything you didn't like about the podcast, some of our favorite answers were:
- There is no scratch and sniff. Every time AJ talks about a new favorite recipes or food I wish I could experience it.
- Sometimes I wish it were more interactive, but I guess that's hard as it's not live. I also sometimes wish the episodes were longer.
- Living 4000 miles from all the amazing restaurants you guys visit!
- I don't like how the jingle was only there for one week guys!!! AJ worked hard on that it should stay lol
- I have a sinking feeling sometimes that one or both of you are scantily clad. JK
Conclusion
All in all, this was a hugely encouraging experiment for us. Thank you very much for taking the time to fill in the answers. Reading your feedback was very touching. We had fun creating it and read every single piece of feedback that came in. Those of you who won something should be hearing from us via email in the next day or so of this being posted. We're looking forward to next year's listeners' survey!
Update:
2016 results are in!
It has been fascinating reading the feedback you guys have been sending us about the podcast. One interesting piece of revelation we've had is that about a third of you don't know there are show notes for each episode. The notes - while not exhaustive - provide links to more details about anything we mention in that particular episode: people, places, products - that sort of thing.
If you are using the Podcast app on your iPhone (which apparently 90% of you are), just go to the list of podcast episodes and tap the "i" to see the show notes for that episode.
Tap the "i" button to see the show notes.
And look! Show notes!
Overcast, our preferred podcast client has a similar feature. Just swipe up on the artwork of the podcast you are listening to, to see the show notes.
Swipe up on our smiling faces to see the show notes.
Voila! Show notes!
If you listen to the podcast via our website, just scroll down on the page you are listening from to see the show notes. You can also see the show notes for any episode you want by adding an episode number to our website address. For example, to see the show notes for episode thirty six, just enter the following into your web browser.
alynandaj.com/36
Substitute the number of the episode you are looking for and you'll be taken straight to that page and its corresponding show notes. If you'd like more hints and tips with setting up any of these apps or podcasts in general, read our little podcast page.
While browsing through Instagram earlier today, I saw these stunning notes from Tiffany Zajas. I'd seen her work before as she regularly creates notes like this at Grace Center. It's quite a different thing seeing your own work represented in this way however. Amazing work Tiffany. Click on the images to see larger versions.
Follow @tiffanyzajas on Instagram to see more of her work. You can watch the message she took these notes from here.
I spoke this morning at Grace Center on the power of what we think. You can watch the message above if you missed it or if you'd like a copy of the five most common ungodly beliefs (and their antidotes) to read over for the next 30 days, we got that for you too (scroll down to the bottom of this page).
Another brilliant video from the fine folks at Bad Lip Reading.