The Anchor Experiment Day 2 — When Life Just Gets In The Way

Follow along with me as I figure out how to use and grow an audience on Anchor, a mini-podcasting app dedicated to reviving radio. Day 2of 30

Bethany Nicole
Aug 8, 2017 · 5 min read

Here we are on our second official day of the Anchor Experiment. Two days ago I had a spur of the moment idea to use Anchor — a mini-podcasting platform that allows users to create and send audio to the world in just a few clicks, every day for 30 days and see what happens.

Yesterday’s episode rolled out a few of the audio content creation features I was instantly drawn to in Anchor. Namely the ability to record your voice in an instant (in a few different ways), the fact that listeners can call in, and the interview feature. Today’s episode focused on how a person could use the Anchor app in their professional and personal lives.

A few details about yesterday’s episode:

  • I used all the files I published in the final episode for the day.
  • I did not export to a podcast.
  • As of last night (>24hr post publication) I had 10 listens to episode 0.
  • I received 2 call ins, and 2 comments and 147 “applause” for my station.
  • I currently have 7 “followers” (which are actually called “favorites” within the Anchor platform.

If you want more details on the challenge and its objectives, start with our . You can find every single article about the 30 Day Anchor Challenge

HERE’S TODAY’S EPISODE:

The 30 Day Anchor Challenge — Day 2. Topics on app usage for entrepreneurs, bloggers and as a personal social media site.

WHAT I DID

→ Pivoted my original idea for the days episode. When I woke up this morning, everything went wrong. The dog needed to go out. The coffee machine rebelled against me. I left my wallet at the office. In the first 2 days of this challenge, I had woken up and instantly began streaming content into my feed. (we talked yesterday about the difference between your 24hr feed and any exported episodes. Check out that info ) Today, it was all I could do to actually stay awake.

What this meant though, is that my original plan — to call Joshua (my mentor, friend, designer and the guy who put me on to Anchor in the first place) had to pivot to a more simple method of chit-chat.

→ Recorded segments that acted as “headlines”. Because I plan to use Anchor as my future podcasting platform, I’m thinking about how to use this app as the main element in a content marketing capacity. I’ve been paying special attention to the ways that Anchor can be used to disseminate information.

I noticed that one of the “Roundup” stations Anchor provides you to listen to when you first sign up, created “Up Next” segments that lasted about 30ish seconds, stating what the next 5 minute segment would contain. I took that a step further, and decided to do a short intro segment to each “section” of the podcast episode. I’m using these shorter segments the way you would use headlines in a blog post.

→ Decided to title each episode the same way. Anchor gives you the option to put a short “title” your episodes. And when I say short, I’m talkin’ less characters allowed than Twitter, short. Because of this, I’ve decided to title each episode “ DAY X — Anchor Challenge” and to edit the way the title appears on social to give more details.

→ Used the segment captions to display web links. Anchor let’s you caption each episode, but the captions function a lot like segment titles. Whatever you write in as the caption of your segment, appears in the final audio player as that segment of your episode plays. I am using this area to display relevant links (like the one to this Medium publication where listeners can follow along).

WHAT I LEARNED

→ Anchor is great for lazy day podcasting. I was overwhelmed and under motivated today and I was still able to adhere to the challenge and record 3 individual clips to create a final podcast episode. This. Is. Awesome. I’m overwhelmed and under motivated all the time. It feels great to know that I can still put out content I can be proud of even when I’m not feeling 100%.

→ Comments can be incorporated into your station. I got my first comment on an episode segment yesterday! Anchor allows users to add those comments to the station with just a click. This ends up looking like a comment in SoundCloud — it appears within the recording at whatever timestamp the commenter added it in. Not entirely sure how i feel about comments yet.

→Made a distinction between the Anchor Challenge and the Anchor Experiment. I mentioned this yesterday, but it bears repeating:

The Anchor Experiment is comprised of 2 main “parts”:

  • The Challenge — to record a minimum of 3 clips per day in Anchor and then export them into a daily episode on the topic of your choice. To take the challenge, all you need to do is download the app + call in to my station and say “Hell yeah, I’m in!” and tell me what be talking about on your show.
  • The Experiment — to discern if it’s possible to grow an engaged Anchor audience that can eventually be leveraged or monetized. In order to keep abreast of the case study I’ve turned this challenge into, look no further than these Medium posts.

Why is it important to make the distinction? Because I won’t be talking about the Anchor app for all 30 days of my own personal challenge. After about day 4, I’m going to be posting a behind-the-scenes look at the launch of Project Become. I don’t want that to be confusing.

It’s also important because I don’t want you guys to feel like you have to talk about Anchor in order to participate in the challenge.

To reiterate — we talk about Anchor and how the audience grows over 30 days here in Medium. We take the challenge and talk about Project Become in the Anchor app.

WHAT’S UP NEXT

→ Call someone in Anchor. I still want to call Joshua. We’ll try that tomorrow.

→ Be a DJ for a day. This Saturday, I’m going to run a “Work With Me” day. Basically. I’ll tell everyone what I’m working on and play “mood music” to go along with it. Tune into the station and work alongside me. Call in. Tell me what you’re working on. Listen to music. Request songs. I think it’s going to be awesome.

Project Become

Watch me take the next 30 days and grow an audience on Anchor and launch a creative wellness blog called Project Become

Bethany Nicole

Written by

A millenial creative on the journey to be happy + get sh*t done. Join me here + on Anchor for a behind the scenes look at the launch of Project Become.

Project Become

Watch me take the next 30 days and grow an audience on Anchor and launch a creative wellness blog called Project Become

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