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Your Paracast Newsletter — April 23, 2017


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
April 23, 2017
www.theparacast.com


Explore the Amazing Mystery of Orange Orbs on The Paracast

The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.

SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, the Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features, Classic Epis odes and there’s more to come! We’ve just begun to add podcasts and videos from Paul Kimball’s “Other Side of Truth.” Check out our new lower rates, starting at just $1.49 per week, plus our “Lifetime” membership and special free print and eBook book offers! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.

This Week's Episode: With guest go-host Goggs Mackay, The Paracast returns to the traditional Ufology and UFO sighting mold with Bob Spearing, a MUFON field investigator who has investigated over 500 cases. He is part of MUFON’ s elite special assignment team and is their International Director for Spain and India. Robert is frequently published in the MUFON Journal and other publications, has spoken at UFO conventions, and maintains the website World UFO Watch. An expert on orange orbs, Robert will trace the history of this incredible phenomenon and whether it e xhibits evidence of intelligence. He’ll also talk about what he calls “nuts and bolts UFOs.”

Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet

Robert Spearing’s Site: World UFO Watch

After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on April 23: Gene and guest co-host Goggs Mackay rap about regional accents before diving in to the nuts and bolts of Paracast guest Robert Spearings research into orange orbs and similar phenomena. Gene observes that he follows the typical MUFON approach, which is to focus on the event and not the witness. Gene also brings up a report, first posted by former MUFON investigator Erica Lukes, that the organizations database of UFO sightings is now restricted to paid members. Its no longer available to anyone else. Gene and Goggs discuss the report that one of the witnesses to the 1976 Allagash Wilderness Waterway abduction, o ne Chuck Rak, has since recanted his story about the event. He claims it didn't happen, although the other three witnesses to the waterborne encounter continue to claim it did.

Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.

Living with Advertising
By Gene Steinberg

I prefer to focus on the issues involved in the amazing world of the paranormal. Recent episodes have presented a wide range of thought-provoking theories, and there’s lots more to come.

But sometimes I need to use up a bit of space covering the daily irritants of running web sites and radio shows.

Take the ads.

The Paracast is a commercial radio show aired on nearly three dozen terrestrial stations around the U.S. via the Genesis Communications Network (GCN). As with over 80 shows carried by GCN, we have ads. That’s true for thousands of radio shows broadcast every single day, and the number of ads, while high, is normal for the industry.

That said, some of the people who review The Paracast (and my other radio show, The Tech Night Owl LIVE), on iTunes and other places, object. To them, we carry too many spots, and all I can say is just fast forward or consider subscribing to The Paracast+. As with premium cable, your subscription to The Paracast+ lets you download and listen to a version of the show free of the network commercials. We also offer the After The Paracast podcast and other exclusive features, so it’s a great deal.

Now I recently added a couple of sentences to the iTunes listing to explain how to get the ad-free version of the show. A YouTube entrepreneur, to whom we gave the rights to post the regular version of The Paracast, also receives occasional complaints about the number of ads.

The content of the ads is also sometimes attacked, even though we have nothing to do with the ones inserted by GCN or the local radio stations. All I can say is that advertising pays the bills for GCN and its affiliates. I wish I could say it pays our bills, but we don’t get many paid ads.

There’s also web advertising, which is more complicated.

The ads you see on www.theparacast.com and my other sites consist of banners and text links. Some are animated, and some offer audio. But we never force you to watch any of them, and that’s important, because many sites don’t care as much about their readers as we do.

So take the interstitial ad, a huge window overlay that appears over the usually grayed-out content without warning. To get rid of it, you have to click an “X” button at the upper right, which may be a bit difficult to see, but at least the ad can be readily dismissed.

The more annoying ad is the multimedia prese ntation that starts playing as soon as you open a page. If it’s just a video, you can probably ignore it, but more often than not, the video is accompanied by audio. In other words, the advertiser or the site has allowed autoplay, which means it starts without advance warning or your approval.

There are ways to work around it. There are browser extensions and sometimes browser features that allow you to turn off the audio. The extension is better, because it will disable all playback till you manually click or tap a play button.

Now I realize such ads are a major source of income for many sites, and to them the money is more important than upsetting their visitors. And I’m not just talking about small sites. So when you open an article on CNN, USA Today, Huffington Post, Macworld and other large sites, a multimedia ad will begin to play a few seconds later. It doesn’t matter if you’re listening to something else at the time, or y ou’re recording a radio show. It just starts playing unless you’ve taken measures to prevent it, or quickly hit the stop button.

Advertising is already intrusive. It’s a necessary evil for companies to stay in business and provide free content, just as it’s needed on free radio and TV.

Unfortunately, some sites have made advertising so annoying that people install ad blockers to get rid of them. Out of sight, out of mind. What this means is that the ads that provide income for those sites aren’t visible, and thus traffic and clicks are lower. They lose money. Sites that care about their readers lose money too.

Some of my sites put up little notices asking you to disable your ad blocker — at least for us. Maybe you’ll find an ad with a product or service that you might want to explore further. We hope you will, but feel free to ignore the ads if that’s what you prefer.

The sites that h ave abused the privilege make it bad for everyone. Income from web advertising is down, and traditional banners and links just don’t generate the traffic they used to. That has forced some companies to take extreme measures to put advertising in your face and receive per-click revenue. I believe that an advertiser that wants to attract customers ought to make a good impression, but maybe I’m a little old fashioned.

That said, if you see or hear an ad that offends you, let me know about it. If it’s a network radio ad from GCN or a local station, I may not be able to do anything about it, but I’ll make sure the message is conveyed to the right people. The Paracast and The Tech Night Owl LIVE bring these stations tens of thousands of listeners, and I’m sure they’ll do what’s necessary to keep our listeners happy.

Some of you have suggested that we only offer these shows to paid subscribers, and give up on the free version with the radio spots. I even ran a poll about it in The Paracast forums some time back, and it received mixed results. At the end of the day, however, I don’t to force people to pay to listen. We offer that option, via The Paracast+ and The Tech Night Owl+, to those who are willing to pay, but many of you have other priorities for your money, and I respect that.

I made a promise once, that The Paracast and The Tech Night Owl LIVE would continue to be offered on free radio. A paid version is available if you want it, but it won’t be forced on you.

Now back to our regularly posted content…

Copyright 1999-2017 The Paracast LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
 
There was a time when I was convinced that The Paracast should shift to a 100% subscription model so that Gene and a co-host could derive some (hopefully) decent income from the show for the work that two people put into it, Gene himself for over a decade. Upon reflection, I realize I was underestimating the potential value generated by the free show that gets broadcast via GCN and those 3 dozen terrestrial radio stations. The value is a wider listener base from which to, over time, convert a high enough percentage of those listeners into becoming paying subscribers, ones convinced of the show's value in their lives and perhaps enticed by exclusive offerings, in the hopes that it would generate enough revenue to help the chief architects of this endeavor to make a decent return on their collective efforts. Sadly, it seems, based on both hosts' frequent musings about the lack of financial renumeration from all of their work, that this strategy has yet to bear significant enough fruit.

When one of my business ventures isn't delivering the returns I had hope for, or needed to in order to pay my bills, there are but a few choices to be made. I could shut down the venture and go work on something, or, for someone, else... or I could work harder to make my current business a success. Let's take a look at what the hosts of The Paracast+ have done over the past 2 years (or so) since the subscription option came into effect. For the first year, almost nothing of "extra" value was really offered beyond the short, always extemporaneous, often lacking in relevance to the show that proceeded it, "After The Paracast" feature, and the much appreciated, addition via subtraction, of no commercials (essentially, the singularly consistent reason as to why I personally remain a subscriber). There were talks of bonus video content for months with no follow through, and when something finally did show up it was underwhelming and irrelevant. Not much more value has developed in this area since. There was the suggestion made (by me, and others I'm sure) of putting all, or some, of the past episodes behind the paywall as a simple way to offer more value to subscribers without having to create new content. And in a related move, create and provide a knowledgable, filtered "Classic" or "Best Of" episodes list that applied to the impressive and daunting amount of shows over the past 10 years, which would allow subscribers to have quick access to the very best episodes (sadly, minus the shows with Biedny, as it appears he's not on-board with his shows being behind a paywall). A handful of past episodes were edited (commercials thankfully removed) and put up but then the process inexplicably stopped. How unfortunate. Other than the time to edit the shows, no effort needs to be made to create new and compelling content, it's totally low-hanging fruit that is being left under-exploited. Credit where credit is due, the recent addition of some Paul Kimball content adds clear value and is worthwhile. I enjoyed it quite a bit, as I am a Paul Kimball fan. Frankly, it got me to re-subscribe, both because of the content and it showed some effort to improve the subscriber offerings. That said, overall, the one area that can be controlled for enticing more subscribers is the quantity and quality of the "bonus content" offered to subscribers and that has been painfully lacking and clearly, up to this point, not enough to bolster enough additional subscriptions to the amount needed for the hosts to make a reasonable return on their participation.

Let's touch briefly on the concept of "effort" for a moment, as it pertains to creating something that you are asking people to consider paying money for. It is counter-productive when, clearly out of frustration, co-host Chris O'Brien comments (back on a late October 2016 ATP show) that because of the lack of monetary gain over all these years, he estimates he's currently giving about 25% effort to the cause. So, he admits to phoning it in and yet you want me to pay money for a subscription? Can you see how this might dissuade someone from subscribing, let alone maintain their subscription? As someone paying money for a subscription, that honestly rubbed me the wrong way and as a result, I DID step away from my subscription for several months. When you are part of an endeavor that isn't succeeding the way you had hoped, the response of "well, fuck it, I'm going to put in less effort" is not going to turn things around. That's the attitude of someone who has given up. The attitude of someone who is passionate and committed to succeeding would be to put in 100% effort and refuse to concede defeat. Asking themselves, "what can we do to improve things?" Sadly, to all dedicated subscribers (and listeners in general), it seems that Chris has given up and is merely going through the motions, giving minimal effort, by his own admission. Let me be clear, I respect and am extremely fond of Chris and he has been an exceptionally valuable part of the show and why it was, and occasionally still is, so good. His knowledge and experience is amazing. I shudder to think at how good the show would be if he would put even 75% effort back into The Paracast. To think that long-time listeners like myself don't notice the difference from even a few years ago would be a mistake.

Creator and ring-leader, Gene Steinberg, has touted for almost the past 2 years, the "extra features and benefits" a subscription provides listeners, with ultimately, very few of the"extras" he talked about ever coming to fruition. It is my opinion that if more care and attention were given to the "After The Paracast" segment, making it more focused, relevant and informative, and less the "stream-of-consciousness rambling" it so frequently is, along with episodes moving to behind the paywall and certain episodes highlighted as a "Best Of," it would help improve the quality of the current offerings to potential subscribers. Taking advantage of the long history of Paracast relationships with people like James Fox, Nick Redfern, Richard Dolan, Nick Pope, to name just a few, to contribute some exclusive content to the website, would also seem to be within the scope of achievability for Gene and Chris. Unaired outtakes or extra footage from Fox's documentaries (Open Minds just featured his full Fife Symington interview not seen in his film), perhaps teaser content in the form of a chapter from an upcoming Nick Redfern book (good for the website, good advance publicity for his new book), etc. Look for ways to work smarter, not harder, to generate content for The Paracast+ subscribers. Clearly Gene and Chris don't want to work harder for the current little money they are deriving from their work on the show but if an effort can be made to leverage the popularity of The Paracast with past, recent, or future guests they have good relationships with to provide special content, then subscribing to the show will be an increasingly appealing proposition. Compared to what other paranormal-type shows offer for subscribers, I do not think this is out of line or too much to expect. I'm not saying it would be easy, it will take increased effort in order to track these people down, get commitments, and include it on this site. But if more effort on the hosts' part is not made, and results achieved, then what realistic chance do they have of improving the current subscriber percentage and, ultimately, the gross revenue from subscribers? It's time to write a new tune and sing a new song!

This is simply one dedicated subscriber's opinion. I post my thoughts here, rather than privately to Gene via email, so that others interested in seeing The Paracast be the best it can be may comment, or share their own thoughts and suggestions, if they feel compelled to do so. Thanks.

Respectfully and constructively submitted,
Chris Johnsen
 
Creator and ring-leader, Gene Steinberg, has touted for almost the past 2 years, the "extra features and benefits" a subscription provides listeners, with ultimately, very few of the"extras" he talked about ever coming to fruition.

This isn't correct. Paracast+ originally started as a way to provide a commercial-free version of the show. After The Paracast was developed as a value-extra. The other features, still being worked on, were added going forward, some without any advance notice.

I have several more months of Classic episodes to post. They will go up soon. I had hoped for more video content, but that depends on others to be involved. After The Paracast is still being developed. I like the episodes where we keep a Paracast guest on for extra content, such as Stanford and Eno in recent weeks. This week Goggs and I focus on two recent developments in the UFO field that are worthy of further discussion.

Pretty much all the features we've promised are here. We just need to flesh out some of them.
 
As I write this, it's 12:51 AM in Arizona.

I just finished uploading the latest episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, both the free and the + versions.

I'm at this job, producing three radio shows and a daily blog, seven days a week. Between Friday and Saturday, I also spent several hours working with the developer of our mailing list software to isolate a problem.

So don't assume, because we don't have every feature you want or hope to see, that I'm not giving it my all.

I'm also doing outside work to flesh out the income until these projects pay off better. But a little sales and marketing help from the right person will go a long way to resolve many ills. The offer is still open for anyone who wants to apply.
 
As I write this, it's 12:51 AM in Arizona.

I just finished uploading the latest episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, both the free and the + versions.

I'm at this job, producing three radio shows and a daily blog, seven days a week. Between Friday and Saturday, I also spent several hours working with the developer of our mailing list software to isolate a problem.

So don't assume, because we don't have every feature you want or hope to see, that I'm not giving it my all.

I'm also doing outside work to flesh out the income until these projects pay off better. But a little sales and marketing help from the right person will go a long way to resolve many ills. The offer is still open for anyone who wants to apply.
Reread my post. At no point did I say, or even imply, that you, Gene Steinberg, weren't making a good-faith effort or "giving it your all." I respectfully shared my thoughts, as a current subscriber, on the value of a Paracast+ subscription as I see it, and suggested some realistically achievable ways that the subscriber package could be improved, without a tremendous amount of extra effort on your part, in the hopes of boosting subscription revenue. YOU are choosing to get defensive. How busy you are, or aren't, that was never referenced in my post. I make no claims to be psychic, or have any insight into how you spend your days. What I DO know is you and Chris frequently make comments about how frustrating it is to not be making a better living working on this show. As a result of that, and the topic of this week's newsletter, I posted some honest, constructive criticisms and some positive suggestions to make The Paracast+ potentially more attractive to subscribers both current and future. I sympathize with your predicament. I don't make enough money working on my business ventures either.
 
You did. You wrote, "Clearly Gene and Chris don't want to work harder for the current little money they are deriving from their work on the show."

As to Chris: He's frustrated from his health problems and other issues, and he was venting. But I'm sure he knows that you don't grow a business with only 25% of your effort. I'm working on some ideas with him to help the situation.

In any case, this newsletter was not about The Paracast+. It was about dealing with online advertising. So let's move on.
 
You did. You wrote, "Clearly Gene and Chris don't want to work harder for the current little money they are deriving from their work on the show."

As to Chris: He's frustrated from his health problems and other issues, and he was venting. But I'm sure he knows that you don't grow a business with only 25% of your effort. I'm working on some ideas with him to help the situation.

In any case, this newsletter was not about The Paracast+. It was about dealing with online advertising. So let's move on.
Correct. That is what I wrote. However, that statement does not imply that you aren't currently working hard. Just that, in my opinion, when one wants to increase business revenue, working harder is one of the few options a business owner has control over to improve their situation. And yes, please, let's move on.
 
In any case, this newsletter was not about The Paracast+. It was about dealing with online advertising. So let's move on.
Listening to Kevin Randle's podcast on YouTube last night, it occurred to me that you could monetize a YouTube channel with Google AdSense, like I've seen many video bloggers doing lately. YouTube is the second largest search engine, so people searching for various topics on YouTube could find your show when they're looking into various subjects of interest, which you can include in the title. If nothing else it would be great free advertising. And it certainly appears that exotic subjects like UFO cases and alien topics are popular search terms.

It's a thought anyway. Your production quality is outstanding, your subject matter is generally fascinating, so I tend to think that your biggest problem is exposure. YouTube would be a great way to get more of that without having to create any new content or spending any extra dough.

And that raises another idea: I think there's been a strong trend to video over audio in recent years, driven by YouTube. I know it may seem strange, but I bet you'd get a lot more attention if you posted your show in video format with video cams on both hosts and the guest on a webcam, so people could watch you talking. The Jimmy Dore Show does an amazing job with that format: he sits in front of a big LCD screen, and sometimes conducts interviews with his guest on the screen behind him, and cuts to his co-hosts when they're speaking. It's a very simple and inexpensive set-up but it looks great, and he often gets over 50K views from his >200K subscribers, which translates to a pretty good AdSense income stream.
 
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File this under; potential ways to increase revenue, but..., I follow another paranormal radio/podcast program and the host there has branched out into other podcasts and video as well. He does live interviews, tutorials on fringe topics such as how to cleanse your house of spirits (I know, but hey, it sells), and others. He also does have his own YouTube channel and does video interviews with popular guests, and lastly he does several shows that are added into the subscription membership. He does a True Crime program, specialized programs specifically for UFO, ghost and paranormal, and other topics. He's also just started a TV show podcast where they discuss old TV shows and themes.

My understanding is that it's a lot of work, but he's doing it. He's in the black; paying bills and is even able to expand his equipment/operational costs. He also does this 100% full time. I know Chris has side-bar work that's 90% or more of his actual income so I'm not sure he could make more programming or video work fit into his schedule. Regardless, additional programming, special-guest presentations, and video interviews may draw more value to the Plus membership.

j.
 
Ok I found the “Official Paracast Channel” that has a cool banner but no uploads:
Official Paracast Channel

And the “Global Explorers” channel with a folder of 247 episodes (nice), where they’ve used smart topical titles, like “Expert says Triangle UFOs are Not Black Budget”
(though it would be nice to see The Paracast in the title, i.e. “The Paracast: Expert says Triangle UFOs are Not Black Budget”) and a good show description like this one:
“For years, serious researchers have known that triangular-shaped UFOs are one of the most common types observed. The phenomenon has sparked intense debate among many and excited the imagination of many others.

Gene and Chris introduce David Marler, author of “Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation,” will be our guest next week. His book has received great reviews, including a Five-Star review from none other than Ray Stanford. This discussion begins with David, who is certified in hypnotherapy, discussing UFO abductions and the alarm bells that go off in studying some of these cases. He’ll also cover his sharp focus on the consistent presence of triangular UFOs and how they might relate to the ongoing reports of strange craft in the sky.

The Paracast Copyright © 2002–2016 The Paracast LLC. Listen to us on www.theparacast.com
They don’t seem to be monetized though; I’m not sure why. The latest upload has over 1000 views which is a pretty good start.
 
The "Official Paracast Channel" is dormant for a while till Google gets some of its YouTube advertising deals in order. There's lots of confusion over there in recent weeks because they are cracking down on questionable content and everyone is suffering when it comes to AdSense revenues.

Jason of Global Explorers definitely makes money from his efforts.
 
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