From the Couch is Changing
Posted on 20 July, 2009 at 17:13 PM
There are already 27 Comments
About the Show
When we started From the Couch we committed to a show a day from Monday to Friday. Generally we have more than kept to our word but we feel that the time has come for change.
We have taken a huge decision to change the format of From the Couch.
It's important that you give us your opinion... are we shooting ourselves in the foot or is it time for change?
Related Shows
- (6) Episode 177 - Do We Ever Get Work Done Around Here?
- (8) Episode 176 - Online Marketing Talk
- (9) Episode 175 - Online Marketing Road Map
- (16) Episode 174 - Tips for Video Bloggers
- (9) Our Talk on Video Blogging and Social Media (Part 2)
User Comments
Simon Bennett 20 Jul, 2009 17:23:46 PM
Good and bad.
I like knowing what your doing! and watching obox was good! But I also love your rants!!!!
Less shows = not so good. But overall i look forward!
Simon
Chris M 20 Jul, 2009 17:25:25 PM
You've built yourselves a good name, which will hopefully stick - the proof will be in the pudding though, so give it a bash and watch your stats extremely carefully.
I've changed the way iMod was run before and I saw a massive decrease in loyalty and readers :( However, in your case and what you want to do could work well - I told you over a year ago, that it would be a good idea to publish some text posts inbetween to ease the pressure and overheads.. might be a cool idea to try this now :)
Give it a bash gents, I'll hold thumbs :)
Brad C 20 Jul, 2009 17:34:50 PM
YES! Seriously, it's a great move. Focus on quality and continue to grow, it's really the only thing you can do if you want to get better. Some people will miss the day to day content and your traffic may go down in the short run but your overall audience will grow long term.
David Perel 20 Jul, 2009 17:46:20 PM
@Simon - There will still be rants, there will still be tips. Its just the format of their delivery will be different.
@Chris - I hear what you saying buddy, it's a huuuuge risk but one that needs to be taken if we want to continue growing. We need to focus more on quality content than quantity.
We can't pump out quality content every single day, its not possible for Marc and I to think up something awesome all the time. So we will compress all the good stuff, give Nat more time to edit and hopefully come out with something better.
I'm excited for the change and it will be interesting to see how it goes. There is nothing wrong with trying and I am sure we will change again one day.
@Brad - Thanks for the support dude ;)
Chris M 20 Jul, 2009 17:48:49 PM
Ye definitely, no point throwing out shows just because you have to. I'm sure it'll follow a trend exactly like what @Brad said!
meredith 20 Jul, 2009 17:53:31 PM
I think you guys should focus more on the things that actually earn you business ($$), and if the show takes up more time than you get out of it monetarily, then its definitely time for a change.
Quality is always better than quantity.
I would request, though, that you share your statistics once you have changed pace a little bit. I think Marc is generally right about people wanting to see how other people work. I think that is maybe what has contributed to the success of the show.
David Perel 20 Jul, 2009 18:46:27 PM
@Meredith - From the Couch is what makes out business, so it deserves at least 1hr of our life a day. No FtC, No Obox. So I suppose that this move is us focusing on (primarily) content and hopefully the off shoot will be $$'s.
Jan Laubscher 20 Jul, 2009 18:48:52 PM
I think its a good move. Had the idea of doing a "orange county" type show for a web design company a while back. Some kind of reality show online. This will also give you the opportunity to penetrate (hey focus) the more general and diverse audiences out there.
Lisa Ellwood 20 Jul, 2009 19:09:56 PM
Guys I totally understand where you are coming from. Its tough to strike a balance with everything youve got going on. I think the *behind-the-scenes* documentary would actually be very interesting and would likely present you with content to review and discuss. Quality over quantity I say... I could learn an a lot seeing how you work - its not often that people you respect give insight into how they do what they do... looking forward to the new venture! *raises a glass*
Lauren Fowler 20 Jul, 2009 19:30:33 PM
niiiiice! I like the new change, change is good, keeps things fresh and exciting.
Rachel Bastarache 20 Jul, 2009 20:22:59 PM
I will miss the frequency of your shows! But having produced my own show I can understand the pressures of creating content and then posting the media after it is created. I agree with the consensus of a bi-weekly show. That will give you time to come up with good stuff.
And I love the idea of a more documentary style. That will be great to see. I agree with @Lisa Ellwood about being able to see how you both work. That will be great to observe!
You may find your viewer stats going up as you post less. But because the show isn't always there, it becomes more valuable. :) I'll be watching and waiting for the update!
Kyle Steed 20 Jul, 2009 22:14:21 PM
Change is the only thing that is constant.
I'm glad to see that you are brave enough to recognize a change is needed, and follow through with it. I'm excited to see what "From-The-Couch" will become.
David Perel 20 Jul, 2009 23:28:20 PM
@Kyle - Thanks dude, we are excited to delve into new territory and I will be honest, we have felt that FtC has needed a change for a while now. Often we have posted video's cringing and then being surprised that people enjoyed them, so we kept going with it but the last week or so has been incredibly tough in terms of content and the pressure to pump out new shows is hectic.
I am not sure there are many people can pump 365 days of great content which purely comes from their mind... honestly its sooooooo hard!
Sam 21 Jul, 2009 00:33:45 AM
I think maybe run 1 or 2 shows a week in the current format, and maybe 1 or 2 days of documentary style of the every day goings at Obox (so ideally 3 shows a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday). I'd love to see more tutorials too (that could probably be rolled into the documentary stuff, ie. teaching while learning it yourself to a certain degree).
Another great addition I'd love to see is maybe building more of a community by adding some FtC forums (twitter is good, but I think forums would be a great addition to have archived information).
Nikolai 21 Jul, 2009 15:33:05 PM
I agree with the move, since it will only help to up the quality of the show (although in my opinion the quality of the content is great) and I wish you the best of luck with the shift.
As Sam said above, I think creating a bit more of a community would also be really cool, and people would still be able to do something on FtC on the days where you don't post a vid.
I'm very excited what you guys are going to do in the near future, and I will def stick around.
Aaron Irizarry 21 Jul, 2009 16:40:59 PM
Very cool guys, excited to see the results. It is so crucial to review, and revise, in an effort to keep things fresh, and push towards improving the quality of what you do.
Keep it up!
~ Aaron I
Heather Feimster 21 Jul, 2009 18:02:42 PM
Great idea guys - it's always better to change because you feel you should instead of when you HAVE to. I think the new number of shows is perfect - I found myself only able to watch about 2-3/week anyway and my bookmarked show count just kept piling up :)
Good move, good explanation of your actions - I think you'll still have a winner.
I also agree with the community idea - it would be a nice way for viewers to continue the conversation on topics that you bring up.
divinefusion 21 Jul, 2009 18:47:57 PM
I'm excited to see the progress FTC is making. Its also exciting to see that you guys are forward thinking, expanding your vision, keeping the show fresh and alive, working in the moment and keeping the community involved. //
Carlo Laitano 21 Jul, 2009 19:54:16 PM
I vote for community forum. I'm happy to see you're moving forward and trying to make changes to improve your already great website. Keep it up!
Talya 22 Jul, 2009 14:36:46 PM
here is your 24th comment :)
quality over quantity anyday! small suggestion.. you guys have a lots of followers and people who love FTC, since you dont have the time or the content to put up new shows everyday, would you not consider the possibility of maybe twice a week, letting the viewers create their own content, send it to you, and you put up what you think is best, from screencasts/tutorials/rants etc..? and then it may even lead to you having even more content to respond to? or if not let there be a video function in the forums i saw you Twittering about?
Obviously dont know your stats and how much is local/international, but i think as seacom is introduced and broadband becomes cheaper, you are going to be getting a lot more hits locally so it would be great to grow the site as we can finally watch videos without hoping the cap will run out :)
best of luck with everything x
diseño de grafico 22 Jul, 2009 22:43:55 PM
Muy buen blog de diseño! great blog! thanks from Argentina.
Kimmo Kurola 23 Jul, 2009 15:53:37 PM
Quality is more important than quantity in web where there are countless of options even in web development blogs. Therefore this is understandable move, especially if you self feel that it's too hard to think of fresh good ideas every day.
Just be careful with the screencasts. They are a great way to showcase actual working, but are a bit more hard to produce for wider audience than traditional tutorials. In text format, tutorials can be made quite detailed and the more experienced can just pick things up they need and skip the trivial parts. In video format too much detail and explaining every single line of code will often lead to too long screencasts and can frustrate more experienced developers who don't necessarily want to hear what for example padding does. :)
Good luck. I'm confident the new format will be as good or even better than the current one.
Josh 29 Jul, 2009 11:18:52 AM
Just a latent thought. I may be alone on this but i wouldn't mind a periodical dev tutorial showing some css/php/javascript methods...
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Bryan 20 Jul, 2009 17:21:28 PM
You should change it to a bi-weekly show, that way you have time to think up new content and you will have awesome things to talk about.