@Leo we’ve never met before, but I first started listening to your podcasts about 4 years ago. I live and work in London as a technology consultant for a global consultancy. I said all that because I now consider the podcasts I listen to (TWIT, TWIG, MacBreak, Security Now, TWIET) as essentially research for work. On many instances in the past I’ve used the insight from your shows in my client meetings (and I try to credit your shows where I can)
I’m saying all this because I have a lot of love for what you’re doing, and it pains me to hear that the advertising market are such fickle paymasters for you
Your shows create such a lot of value for people like me - I wonder if there’s a way for you to capture that value from my “customer segment”?
Patreon is a platform that duplicates (and charges for) a lot of what Twit does in-house. I suspect their terms of service, privacy policies, and/or fee structure are not compatible with the Twit business model. Although it was likely in the context of an ad for SquareSpace or Wordpress, @Leo has often spoken about the importance of having control your own content and not relying on other people’s platforms. This seems to be much the same thing.
so true! specifically Security Now, I set aside work hours to watch the show, and I encourage others on staff to tune in. By far the best weekly summary I’ve found for emerging threats across many different products.
My go to’s are Macbreak Weekly, Windows Weekly, Security Now, and TWIET. If I happen to catch IOS Today while its being recorded, its a bonus. I also watch TTG and TWIT live. I will watch these for background “noise” while doing workstuff when not on the phone. Any more beyond that and there aren’t enough hours in the day.
This has been an interesting thread. I think it’s a testament to Leo & company’s relation to their audience that people care, or are curious, about this subject. I get the sense of real concern by many regarding the economic health of TWIT.
I’m slightly younger than Leo, and to be honest, other than a pager back in the 80’s, I was never much of a tech person. My first phone was an iPhone 3GS. I was so green in those days, I even asked the salesman how well the PHONE part of the iPhone worked…
I found TWIT just a few years ago, & I’ve learned a lot. I listen to most all the podcasts, and these shows have led me to learn more and more about tech. I’m lost on coding and deeper workings how devices actually do what they do, but I now have a fairly good handle on using them, and solving problems. I now hear from some friends only when they have problems with their computers and devices…
The familiarity I now have with the TWIT team is such that I miss it when I’m not able to catch a show, or if there is a holiday and there are no shows. I’m a bike rider, and I love that my favorite shows last about 2 hours, which is the average length of my bike rides.
Anyway, I didn’t want this to sound like fan mail, I just wanted to mirror some of the other comments here, regarding why people are concerned about TWIT being able to be around for as long as Leo wants to do it.
So i hear, in the last 2 days, that all the “hands On” podcasts will be consolidated under “Hands on Tech”. I would assume that this is an advertising (lack of advertising) decision. Havent heard a word about it from the Chief TWIT. Will the new HOT be longer (like an hour). Have the advertisers asked for longer shows? Personally, I think the only shortcoming of the “hands on” segments, is that the focus is necessarily very narrow, for a 15 minute segment.
I hope the new format attracts advertisers.
Thanks. Figured there was an announcement here somewhere.
IDK if Leo will elaborate about the reasonas behind the changes, but Im always interested in the business side of TWIT
I’ll miss Leo on iOS Today, but I do like Rosemary, so that’s fine. And I feel sad about Hands on Wellness and so on, but have to admit I didn’t listen often! There’s only so many podcasts I can fit in…
It’s a bit of an exaggeration to say that HOT will absorb the other shows. With only one show a week HOT’s pretty much going to be fully booked with product reviews.
We just couldn’t get the downloads up to the level we need to make the other shows viable. We gave them a year, but with ad sales down more than 50% we have to cut somewhere.
I’m fine with Manscaped, part of being civilised as far as I’m concerned. Just pleased that they’re forward-thinking enough to do some ad spending in a non-traditional medium.
Demonstrating value to advertisers is clearly difficult. You generate more sponsor web traffic and sales than you get credit for.
Rather than sending listeners to [advertiser].com/TWIT, send them to TWIT.TV/[advertiser] and then let your website redirect. That way the advertiser will see the referral.
Also, highlight the TWIT.TV/Sponsors link, instead of direct to the advertiser link.
I went to harrys.com based on your ads, but neglected to add the /TWIT reference. They had no idea that their TWIT add worked. I suspect that many of your listeners forget to put twit reference in the URL.
Leo’s endorsements are some of the best in the business. Totally convincing and benefits rich.
I listen to TWiT via Alexa smart speaker. I guess having some sort of tracking direct from that might work for some campaigns.
When I’m listening to TWiT, I’m not really in a product finding mode though - I tend to be working in the kitchen - hardly the time to want to start researching new products for the business! So its more about brand awareness for me.