It’s been almost a year now since PlaneMadness.Com came online. In the past couple months I’ve been going through the mental rigamoro of deciding whether to keep it, if so where to take it, and what changes if any would prove beneficial to it’s success. Don’t get me wrong, I never really had any serious intentions of taking it away… But after a year I had to look at where it went versus where I wanted it to be coupled with the amount of work and time it takes away from my normal life to produce both the podcasts and to keep the site entertaining and informative… on a daily if not a weekly basis. I’d be dishonest with you if I said that it wasn’t a big commitment on my part.

The bottom line question though I have had to ask myself about all this is really pretty simple: Do I like doing it? The answer is a resounding “Hell Yeah…” With the industry and the economy at what seem to be new lows on an almost daily basis, I need to have something that brings me a little more fuel for this aviation fire that burns beneath my shorts… the one that’s been keeping me in aviation for all of my adult life now.

So in the last few weeks a lot of the energy usually reserved for podcasts & posts has been put into educating myself about taking the PlaneMadness podcast, website and brand to new heights, both functionally and commercially.

Starting tomorrow I’m planning to begin the change over process to the new server. A lot of what will be going on is back end server and database setup type stuff and it will not effect the front end (what you see). When the front end of the site moves though the site itself will be down for hopefully less then half a day. I expect all this to go on through the weekend as somethings are holding back others but the actual impact to the end user should be limited to just the site going down for several hours sometime between Friday and Sunday.

Let me say that first though, I’m going to cut Episode #31 tomorrow in the AM and get that out into the feed.

Now, right off the bat everything will probably appear to be the same and that’s my goal really- Changing servers is a lot like going flying… Even though it’s exciting, you really, really want it to be non-eventful. But the site will be hosted upon a foundation of new digital bells and whistles and that will allow me to pursue things that previously would have been out of reach or too much of a hassle. This is more then a physical hosting change; it’s a new beginning for PlaneMadness and I thought I’d let you know of some of the beneficial things in store.

Here’s what on the agenda in the near future, but not necessarily in this order:

Expanded content: I want to produce a greater number of video podcasts, aviation oriented sound-scaping audio tours (using the walk on the beach episode as an example) and have more guests on the show. To that end I have purchased professional video editing software, upgraded my portable studio, and have been talking to people about participating in the show. This is the one area that will see the most growth.

New site logo/brand design: I’m going to be working with a nationally recognized logo company to establish a new feel for the PlaneMadness brand, and that will be integrated into the site as well.

Revenue Stream: I’ve been supporting this site out of pocket since the beginning (with the exception of you guys buying me Starbucks which I really appreciate!) and so in an effort to offset it’s costs to me, I have to at least attempt to produce some revenue with it. One of the things I personally hate the most about websites is traditionally targeted mainstream media advertising- Banners, pop ups, ads, etc. I’ve never clicked on a single one and so using that as a gauge I’m going to have to assume that most of you haven’t either. If I ever do a banner on this site my goal is to have less then 2 or 3 site wide. I see them as being annoying. Instead my focus will be on occasionally hocking stuff that I use in my daily flying that I think would be of benefit to you.. No commercials, just a few sentences here and there or an occasional audio post to the feed about a certain product- That way you have the option of downloading it or not. My goal is not to be intrusive with anything.

On that note I’m considering a separate “Premium” feed without advertisements which provides greater content then what I produce now, but that concept is still in it’s infancy and to be honest I haven’t given it a whole lot of thought compared to everything else.

So, in closing I just want to extend a very warm thank you for supporting the PlaneMadness Podcast through your continued subscriptions, website participation and word of mouth advertising.

It’s been on heck of a pleasure and I look forward to what the future holds!
Capt’n Chris

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