Wandering Geek Podcast

The 30?

Who are The 30?

They are the core fans of The Wandering Geek Podcast. They come in all shapes, sizes, abilities and styles. But as far as I’m concerned they are all friends and “Superheroes” in my book. They also use their “powers” to help out the show. This could be anything from writing a review on iTunes, to doing graphic design on a project, to ‘who-knows-what‘.

Why “The 30”?

This comes from two completely unrelated things.

First, I read an article on Podcasting a while back that mentioned that about 10% of your total audience are what they referred to as “core fans”. The folks who are emotionally invested in the show, and it’s host, and are willing to be more involved in the show than the average listener. Such as doing reviews, spreading the word about the show and contributing to it. Since my audience was about 300 people when I came up for the idea for this group, 10% would be 30.

Second, as long-time listeners to the show would know, I’m a City of Heroes player and an “alt-aholic” (No, I don’t drink excessively. That means I like to make many characters, or “Alts”.) It just so happens that I had 30 different characters on the CoH servers at that time and they seemed a fitting visual representation of my local “Superheroes” as well.

So “The 30” was born. If you’d like to check out the wallpaper that I made for them with my 30 characters on it, go ahead a scroll down to the bottom of the page.

How do I become a one of The 30?

This is simplicity itself. All you have to do is drop me an email at wgpodcast@gmail.com and let me know you want to join. There are no prerequisites. No tests to take. No fitness challenges. You just have to enjoy the show and have a desire to be “a part of it”. I do ask that if you are going to be a member of The 30 that you please spread the word about the show (As mentioned, iTunes reviews are a great place to start) and that you participate in the little projects we have every now and then. (Our “Get out the vote” drive for the ENnies would be an example of that sort of thing.) But there are no check-ins, no rankings, no dues. It’s the honor system around here, so do what you’d like and let your conscience be your guide.When can I join?

There is no sign-up period, you can join in whenever you’d like. I would suggest that you listen to a few episodes first to make sure you actually like the show, but other than that feel free to come on board whenever you feel like it. Also, there is no limit to membership in The 30. We are still building up to that number as of this posting, but even when we surpass it the name will stay the same. The only thing that the first 30 will have that later members might not is right of first refusal on the “Hero” images as forum icons or ‘secret IDs’ if they would like them.

What do I get out of it?

Well, first, you can say you are a supporting member of a show that you really like and can help it grow and become better due to your support. But I know, not unlike Podcasting itself, that’s not enough to get most people on-board. So here’s a few other extras:

You are automatically entered into all “Random Drawing” style contests held here at the Mobile Studios™. (Including some exclusive to “The 30 Only”) If there are trivia answers or scavenger hunt type stuff, you will still need to do your own entry. (No freebies on that stuff) But the vast majority of my contests have been just email for a chance to win, so you should be good on most of them in the future as well.

You will get semi-regular emails from me about what’s happening behind the scenes here at the Wandering Geek. I sent out a few on my convention trips and intend to continue that in the future. I’m also hoping to get an actual monthly “newsletter” going, but that’s still in the “how do I do this” stage. (Someone from The 30 has offered to help me get it started. An example of what they do around here.) Please make sure that you put wgpodcast@gmail.com in you Spam Filter as an “OK” address so you actually receive these notes.

I occasionally will be sending out spiffy stuff just for the heck of it. After Gen Con all the folks who were members prior to the convention got a Special Edition of my CD “Geeks on Vacation” sent to them, for free. I’m not sure what or when the next “membership premium” will go out, but I’m sure there will be some.

If our forums ever get active, members of The 30 will be able to use their chosen “hero’s” image as their icon. This is something I’m still working on and it will depend, of course, on our forums becoming more active which I don’t see until our total audience numbers increase greatly.

Where do I go to do all this, again?

You just need to send an email to wgpodcast@gmail.com and let me know you want to be a part of it. Thanks for listening to the show and don’t forget to pick-up your wall paper. The image should be right below this. “Right click, save as.” and display it proudly.All the best, Curt “The Camera Guy”