First off, I need to apologise for missing the April update and for the May update to be so late. I had planned to release these updates in a video format and had gotten as far as writing a script for April and attempting to record it. Unfortunately it didn’t come out so well and as time marches on, I didn’t get the chance to re-record it. It is something I’m working on for the future though.
Those of you wonderful people supporting us on Patreon will know that we originally set out some goals, starting with the initial goal of covering our costs, and going all the way to purpose building a studio.
The end goal, our dream, is still that Lil and I can both work full time on the podcast as well as having a purpose built studio to record in. The only change is the way we get there.
The biggest disruption of course has been that I got made redundant from my job. We had always planned that if we ever got to the position that one of us could quit our job and work on the podcast full time, it would be Lil. The biggest reason being that I earned a lot more money! However, it made sense. I do the technical work, whilst Lil does pretty much all of the research and writing, planning our visits, taking notes and photos and so much more.
So what does this mean?
We need to make some changes to our Patreon goals.
First off, we recently passed our goal to obtain a P.O. Box so that you can send us your paranormal postcards and the like. I had planned to make this into some kind of video content so that you could all see the postcards as we read them. But, the cost of P.O. Boxes has gone up considerably since we originally planned this goal. It is still achievable with the level of support we are receiving, but now that I no longer have any disposable income to support the show with, it leaves us very close to the line.
We would, therefore, like your input to decide if we should delay this goal for now and use the Patreon funding to invest in better equipment or if you are absolutely itching to send us your paranormal postcards, let us know!
Secondly, some of our later goals around Lil or I working full time on the show are going to need to change. Like I said, we originally envisioned Lil working full time on the podcast first and along with that an increase in the frequency of episodes.
As it stands, we don’t know how well my business will do and so it is difficult to plan when or if this would be possible. The episodes as they stand also take a lot of planning, research and travel! I doubt if, even with both of us working full time on it, we could produce the show in the same format on a weekly basis. On top of this, we are generally only getting in enough stories month to month for the next episode, so if you know anyone with a compelling story get them to share it with us!
We really want to keep making content that you enjoy, so we need your input on how we develop the show going forwards. If we want to increase the frequency of the show, we could do so in various ways, be it interviewing more people in the field, more episodes with just stories or look at creating more video content or maybe even something we haven’t even thought of yet!
We’ve got plenty of time before we would have reached these funding goals so there is no rush, but we wanted to be open and honest with you now, rather than move the goalposts at the last minute.
Just to let you in on a little of what is going on behind the scenes, I thought I would share some screenshots of the new website that we are working on. As I was getting a site made for my new business, I thought it might be a good idea to get the KOFY site revamped at the same time. It is not quite finished yet, but hopefully it will give you a good idea of what to expect.
First off, each episode now has a pretty header image:
and the player and episode information is much neater:
Navigating blogs and episodes is also much easier:
and our wonderful supporters are now featured on the home page:
and one last thing:
the KOFY merch store is on its way!
Please do comment or get in touch about what we have raised in the update, we really want your feedback!
All the best,
Fitz
