Hello my dear listeners and friends. Have you ever wondered what’s next for English Plus Podcast? Well, today, I’m here to answer that question. Now I say friends because many of you have been along the ride with me for about 6 years in English Plus Podcast, and my friends when I decided to record this special episode with the title English Plus, what’s next? I am not trying to say that this journey is going to end any time soon. Who could have such a community and just decide to stop, well, definitely not me. However, I thought I should dedicate a full episode talking about English Plus Podcast. Where we were when we started, the journey we took to get here, and the big question is of course, what’s next?
Well, I should also say that the main purpose of this episode is to explain the changes coming to English Plus Podcast starting from next week. So buckle up my friends as we venture together through the exquisite journey of the podcast you love and together we figure out the next steps that will help us stay alive in the future. Now before I start talking, I just need to reiterate the most important thing I want to say in this episode. I could have never done that without you, and I definitely can’t do what’s coming next without you. You are the true fire behind the 930 episodes and counting of English Plus Podcast. And here’s to the next 1000 episodes. Together, we are unstoppable. Well, stick around as I will talk about the main changes coming to English Plus Podcast next. Don’t go anywhere; I’ll be right back.
Upcoming Changes
So, my friends, now without further ado, let’s talk about the upcoming changes in our podcast that will start to take effect next week. I know you might say that this is really a short notice, but bear with me because I believe I have finally struck a balance between my mission to create quality education to be available to anyone for free all around the world, and the needs of English Plus as a business. So, some of you might know that I changed the premium offering in the past couple of years a few times, and each time I started with a plan, I would feel bad about locking important and highly beneficial episodes behind a paywall as this contradicts my mission that I just told you about. So, I believe I have come up with the ultimate solution.
Starting from next week, all English Plus Episodes are going to be premium. I know what you’re thinking. Are you crazy, Danny, or is there something we are not getting from your long speech about your mission and all that. Well, the thing is, I have decided to publish all episodes long or short, single or series for free for 24 hours, and then, only then, they become locked and available only to my premium members on Patreon or premium subscribers on Apple Podcasts. You see, my friends, I need a lot more subscribers than I have at the moment to start breaking even and make sure this educational project goes on. I have been bleeding out from the money I saved during my time with big corporations, but it’s almost running out, and I need to make English Plus self-sufficient if it is ever going to survive, and don’t worry, it will. I believe in that, and as my good friend and biggest supporter, Rada tells me all the time. That too shall pass. And talking about Rada, a big shout out to her and to all my other supporters on Patreon and Apple Podcasts. Thank you very much for making English Plus Podcast a reality, a 930 episode strong reality and counting.
So, back to the new plan. As I mentioned, every day, I will publish a new episode that will stay free for 24 hours until the next episode is published the next day, so everyone will get the chance to listen to all English Plus Podcast episodes for free, which puts my conscience at ease, but of course, they have to be timely. They will need to come to the podcast every day to listen to all the episodes. And to access all the episodes any time, you will need to become premium subscribers on Patreon, or Apple Podcasts, and I will explain the difference between the two in a moment.
This way, I believe I have struck a balance between my mission and my business. If you don’t agree with me about that, please let me know. You can reach me at danny@englishpluspodcast.com. As usual, I’m always open to suggestions and ideas, and I am always ready to learn from you.
But back to the difference between Patreon and Apple Podcasts, well there are two differences. First, there’s the type of premium access you get with each. With Apple Podcasts, you get to listen to all premium episodes, series, etc. Simply, everything I publish on English Plus Podcast, but with Patreon, you also get access to the premium posts on the website and there are going to be many in the months to come, from audio courses, to interactive videos, English in Action series and more. And it’s not that I don’t want to give this access to Apple Podcasts premium subscribers; I would love to, but Apple doesn’t share the names or emails of the subscribers with me, so there’s no way for me to contact the subscribers and set them up with a premium account on the website. Now, of course, I respect that about Apple who are doing that to protect their client privacy. I have nothing against that at all. I’m just saying why I can’t offer the same benefits to Apple Podcast subscribers. And for that reason, there comes the second difference. If you want to become a premium subscriber on Patreon, it’s $5 a month after a 7-day free trial period. But on Apple Podcasts, the price is a little lower for the reasons I just mentioned, it’s $2.99 per month, or 19.99 per year and again after the 7-day free trial. I believe it’s fair pricing given the service provided. But again, if you have any suggestions for the pricing points I set for Patreon and Apple Podcasts, let me know.
And here allow me to say that I think of these subscriptions as products I sell of course, because in order to survive, English Plus Podcast has to become a business, but I also think about these subscriptions as generous support. It’s like that the ones who can afford it are helping the ones who can’t, and with more subscribers or supporters if you will, English Plus Podcast will stay alive for all.
So my friends, what do you think of these changes coming up to our beloved English Plus Podcast next week. Let me know and remember, you can email me directly at danny@englishpluspodcast.com. Now please don’t go anywhere, because I still have a couple of things I would like to tell you about English Plus Podcast. I will briefly talk about the journey of English Plus Podcast all the way back from 2019 to the present day and you already know about the imminent change next week, but I would also like to share with you some ideas I have about the future of English Plus. That’s what we’re going to talk about next. Don’t go anywhere; I’ll be right back.
English Plus Podcast Journey and Future:
Well, my dear friends, I started English Plus Podcast in May 2019 with the very first episode that talked about the difference between the words outdoors, outdoor and outside. I can still remember how afraid I was of the microphone, and you can hear it in my voice if you go back to listen to the very first episode, which is still there by the way. It’s nowhere near the quality and experience I have today, but hey, it’s where everything started and I’m as proud of that episode as I’m proud of the best episode I have created this year. And by the way, it wasn’t English Plus Podcast at the beginning; It was Perfect English with Danny, but I changed the name later because I quickly realized that I didn’t want to talk about only English. I wanted to talk about other issues that are important to everyone, all under the umbrella of education so there came the new name English Plus, and I later created the website for it englishpluspodcast.com which also has seen a lot of development since its inception about 4 years ago. Now there is a wide variety of content on the website, from the English Plus Magazine, to the Magazine Shorts and quizzes of course along with the podcast episodes.
And now let’s talk numbers a little bit. I know that everyone likes numbers, or at least if you’re like me, you like some numbers and statistics. Well let me talk about the podcast first. In my first year I created 144 episodes, in 2020 the number went down to only 50, then came the year with the biggest number of episodes with a whopping 441 episodes in 2021, then 105 episodes in 2022, 110 episodes in 2023, and 78 episodes this year and counting. And now with the new changes, I’m planning to reach 250 episodes by the end of the year. I might never break the 2021 record, but if you count the much longer episodes that I’m creating now, the number of hours created this year is definitely more than any other year. And on the website, we are getting very close to crossing the 2400 post mark. And most of these posts belong to English Plus Magazine.
Well, these were the numbers in a nutshell, but let me talk about the journey a little bit. It was definitely not easy with many ups and downs. There were indeed many times when I was about to stop, but every time that happened, I would get a new subscriber, or a heartwarming email from someone who liked the content I create asking me to continue making more episodes and posts, so I never stopped and I’m very happy that I didn’t, because English Plus Podcast has amassed over 2 million downloads, and the website is getting more and more traffic, so, I want to thank you all my friends. Those emails you sent, your contributions of all kinds kept me going and kept this beautiful project going. I will always be in your debt. I wish I had time to thank everyone in person, but rest assured that I read everything you send and it touches my heart even when you talk about things you don’t like about English Plus. I’m ok with that, too.
Well, there might be a lot more to talk about the journey, but I guess it’s enough for one day. Maybe, we’ll have some other occasions in the future to talk more about that. Now before I wrap up this special episode, let me tell you about some of the new additions and ideas I have for English Plus Podcast, both the podcast and the website.
I’m thinking of starting commentated readings of books and short stories where I read the stories and books and comment on the themes, language and more. This can also be live, so you can share in the discussion in real time as if we were in a live book club. Let me know if you think this is a good idea. Well, other ideas have to do with English Plus Academy with language lessons from grammar to writing, listening, reading and more. This will probably be on the website, but I can also add that to the podcast as well. I have also just started Let’s Get Creative on the website with the very first post published yesterday. It’s all about a place where we can be creative in any form we want and it’s not just about the prompt, but the fact that I may include your creations on the post should you choose to send them to me. So it’s like our little creative playground and a chance for all of us to step out of what we have to do, and immerse ourselves, even if for just a little bit, in what we love to do.
I’m also thinking of making a digital version of English Plus Magazine that you can download from the website directly. I’m thinking of choosing some of the best articles I publish on the website every month and put them all in one issue of English Plus Magazine. I did this once for those of you who remember the digital version of English Plus Magazine. Actually, that was the original idea before I started posting articles on the website, but I believe both have their own merits, so I’m also considering bringing back the PDF version of English Plus Magazine. And as I mentioned earlier, I’m also planning to add some audio courses on the website, and English in Action where we learn English from movies, games, etc.
Well, I will stop here and of course, I will be waiting to hear from you about those new ideas to know which ones you are most excited about, so I may prioritize working on these ideas first.
Well, my friends. I believe that’s everything I wanted to share with you in this special episode, where we didn’t learn new words or concepts, but I hope you learned more about English Plus Podcast because we are going into the future together. You will always be an essential part of English Plus Podcast, so let’s stay in touch. Let me know what you think. Let me know if you have any suggestions, critiques, ideas. I would love to learn from you. And remember my friends, never stop learning from English Plus.
This has been your host and hopefully friend, Danny. Thank you very much for listening. I will see you next time.
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