It took me around six months to launch the Colombia Calling Patreon campaign. This wasn’t, as you might expect, due to a complete and utter dedication to procrastination, but, I started to feel that it was going to be a shout out into the ether with little or no response. I felt that if it wasn’t done correctly it could be seen to be as self-righteous as someone seeking sponsorship for doing a tandem skydive for charity. If and when I want to jump out of a plane, I could do it tandem, but in actual fact, I want to learn to do this solo and experience the real thrill. Why should we sponsor someone for partially eliminating the risk? So, the hatch is now open…
And there it is, “risk,” or the presumed risk of baring yourself to your followers, in particular when you are reaching out for their hard won cash for something as trivial as a podcast on a niche subject. Can it be justified? Do the tiers on the Colombia Calling Patreon represent a value for money, even for as little as $2 a month? I hope so.
Maybe I can claim to be representing a voice of independent journalism in English in Colombia (something of which I do try and convince myself and my supporters), but I’m not in the business of breaking news or revealing headline grabbing scoops, such is the nature of a weekly podcast. So, what is it that I am trying to achieve with the Colombia Calling podcast and the Colombia Calling Patreon campaign?
The idea has been to expand. Presently the podcast is receiving a very healthy number of downloads per week from the US, Colombia, UK, Canada and Australia and a new episode can pull in anywhere from 700 downloads in seven days (Talking about Environmental issues in Colombia) to 300 on the same day (Protests in Colombia) depending on the popularity.
We find interviewees every week, people with some relevance to Colombia – good or bad – to tell us their story and hopefully, unmask to reveal a little more about this country. As we are not in the business of news making, the Colombia Calling podcast is able to delve further into stories and develop its own voice, hence the reason for episodes which seem not to fit (Trojana, Exploring Colombia’s webcam Industry), and others which are right on cue (How can Colombia overcome the narco-legacy hangover?).
And of course, I have complete editorial control over what I want to broadcast. The Patreon campaign is not only designed to ensure that we continue in the same vein, but also to include my listeners and supporters in the process more and this has been displayed ably, I hope, in the different tiers of support which are available.
So please consider sparing $2 a month, you can help us grow and improve.
Remember, you can download, stream and subscribe to Colombia’s No1 podcast in English and the 2019 Latin Podcast’s Best English Language Podcast wherever you like including: Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iTunes and beyond. Thank you again!
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