Hey there,

Today's newsletter is a look at how 2023 was for the podcast. I'd like to bring you behind the curtain, show you how much the podcast was listened to this year, how much money I made (and spent) and where I'm going to next.

🎙2023 Recap

Let's start with a caveat: the podcast is actually split in 2: RSS feed & YouTube. These are pretty different ways of consuming the podcast, so I'll keep them separate.

With that, let's get into what my data science brains likes thinking about:

📈 The numbers

Youtube views

I started publishing episodes with video onto Youtube in 2022. So, 2023 is the first year where I can compare a full year of Youtube & RSS feed

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RSS Feed Downloads

Rounding this off, the podcast was downloaded & watched a total of ~57k times this year

For context is was about 27k last year.

So 2023 was more than double the listenership than 2022! While publishing less.

In 2023 I took a month off, publishing 2 less episodes than in 2022. You can see that dip in views & downloads in March in the graphs above.

This was a great learning for me: I can take a break and the world won't end. People will still continue to come back to listen to older conversation and listen when new ones comes out. I want these conversations to be as timeless as possible: even when talking about current events like ChatGPT this year, I hope to do so in a way where the take-aways would still be valuable years later. It was nice to see that in action earlier this year.

Here are the 5 most viewed videos in 2023:

An interesting point is that my interview with Steve Coast came out in 2022, and has still viewed 2k times this year. I'm really happy with that, because it goes to show that some of these conversations are timeless. Another interesting point is people interest in understanding radar images as both my interview with Iain Woodhouse and a clip from that conversation are the most viewed videos of this year. Stay tuned for more on that front.

Trying something new

I also made a different type of video in 2023, a 20min introduction to the basics of satellite images, that I uploaded on a different channel. It's a scripted, edited video a lot more "Youtube native" compared to a podcast conversation. I wanted to see what I could come up if I focused a lot of effort into a single video like this, and was incredibly proud of the result.

This video, on its own, got more views than the entire MBM channel in 2023. In fact it nearly got more views than the podcast was listened to this whole year.

It took 4 months to make, but was definitely worth it, the reception was honestly amazing. Professors have assigned this video to their students, I know it's used in onboardings at companies, and my dad now finally (somewhat) has an idea of what the heck it is his son does for a living.

But still, a single video got more attention than nearly all the podcast did in a year. Being able to reach this many people when talking about satellite images gets me excited. Even if future videos don't get nearly as much traction, this is something I want to do more of anyways.

Stay tuned on this front, there's more to come.

Let's talk money 💰

Last year I also already shared how much money I made (and mostly lost) making the podcast. I'd like to do this again this year. A few other online creators share how much they make & spend and I've gotten a lot of value from it, so I'd like to share my figures in hopes that it helps someone else out there.

This year is a bit more complicated than last year, mainly because I started making money from a few different sources.

The main way this podcast is supported is via sponsors: companies who pay me to promote their brands, services and products on the podcast. I only have 1 sponsor per episode. This is on the very low end for podcasts, most 1-2h long podcasts have from 2 to 4 or 5. I have 1, upfront, and nothing else that interrupts the conversation. That means the 1 sponsor pays more, which so far has worked. It's a good balance: I still make some money, and I get to share conversations in the least annoying way. This might change in the future, but for now it's a happy balance.

Here's a breakdown of how much money I made, and how much I spent this year:

2023 is the 1st year I actually made money! Woohoo! For context I had written that I had lost close to 5k€ last year (I bought most of my camera & microphone gear last year).

My biggest expenses are related to outsourcing some of the editing of the podcast. This isn't my full time job, so having someone help me edit is basically trading money for time. It's also nice to have someone to be able to talk about the inner workings of the podcast too. Building something on your won can get a bit lonely at times.
Second are all the Saas subscriptions required to run a modern day, mostly remote podcast: web & podcast hosting, remote recording, online file storage, etc. It's about 500€ / quarter to give you an idea, so this adds up, big time.

The revenue for this year isn't all for the podcast, some of it is also for the satellite intro video and the following, yet unannounced project.

Additional revenue sources

The above chart does not take into account a few additional revenue sources that started this year.

This year I joined the Youtube Partner program, i.e. I started getting monetised for my videos, starting around June. I also started a Patreon earlier in the year. As I write this, at the end of 2023 I now have 16 paying members who contribute to support my work and access some behind the scenes of the podcast. Aside from the money this brings in, it's a pretty amazing feeling to see people willing to put some money on the table to support ones work. To all of you who support me on Patreon, thank you.

And finally I started sharing Amazon affiliate links to the books people recommend at the end of each episode.

Aggregated over 2023 I also made:

• YouTube Partner program: 69€
• Amazon Affiliate: 9€
• Patreon: 439€

The main reason these aren't accounted for in the above graph is because Youtube & Amazon's minimum withdrawal are above how much I made in a single year on those platforms, and Patreon income is declared a bit differently. Either way, these aren't the big money makers.

If I were to take these into account, I made 9.5k€ in revenue this year, with about 2.5k€ in profit, and that's before any taxes.

If you want to get rich kids, don't start a podcast (or at least it won't be immediate).

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Money & downloads are great, but that's not why I do it

I started this podcast in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. I didn't even think I could realistically make money from doing a podcast, so the fact that I have any revenue at all still blows my mind. I've started taking this seriously towards the end of 2021 so it is nice to see the trajectory of most of these numbers going up over time.

I get to have conversations with some of the most interesting people in the field of mapping, software, tech and I'd argue just overall. This is what I've been wanting to do all along, and I've been able to sit down with great people to know more about how they think, what drives them and who they are.

I've travelled quite a bit this year to have in-person conversations, getting to spend sometimes a few days with some of the people I've recorded with, and learn more about how they are. I feel incredibly grateful to have basically tailor made history lessons on mapping, the internet and companies, and then get to share it with the world.

I went to my first geospatial conference this year, SatCamp, in Colorado. I got to meet some of the people I had talked to online for multiple years, hang out with many of those I look up to and feel apart of a bigger community of map nerds. I get why people want to go to events like these, and if you haven't can only encourage you to go!

It was also one of the first times I got to hang out with multiple people

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead in 2024 there's a few things I'd like to focus on:

• Publishing another MBM 24 episodes. 2 episodes / month x 12 months. This is the core of the podcast, and I'd like to make sure the basics are covered. I want to continue having conversations with great people. I still get a lot of value from learning about so many people, more of that please.
• Publish 2-3 non-podcast videos like that satellite intro one. The reception to the first one was great, but mostly it scratches a huge creative itch, so I want to do more well crafted videos sharing engineering, mapping & satellite imagery to the world.
• Reach even more people. I don't want to set any specific goals for how many views, subscribers, or followers. I just want to try to reach more people but not obsess over it.
• Turn a profit (or not lose too much). I'm reporting on revenue & expenses but the reality of it is I reinvest pretty much everything I make on this project back into making more stuff. So making more money would mean being able to make more stuff. And I want to make more stuff. I'd like to double down on Patreon even more in the following year. I really like the patronage model.
• Not going insane. I want to be in this for the long term, I'd like to publish another one of these newsletters in 5 years with all the numbers being higher, while sharing excitement about new projects and ideas. That means keeping a good balance between reach for higher grounds without catastrophically falling in the process.

I hope this was interesting and valuable!
If you'd like to have a glimpse of what 2023 was like on the podcast front, I published a Best Of episode with clips from 12 conversations I had throughout the year. It's a great place to discover some of the conversations I had this year.

​The first podcast episode of the year has already been published by the way!​

And finally, to round this off, I'd like to leave you with one question:

Who do you think I should have on the podcast in 2024?
​(I'm always looking for interesting people to talk to, projects & people I haven't heard about and overall new ideas)

Thank you for reading, for listening to the podcast and allowing me to have & share all these great conversations! I wish you a great New year!

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Cheers,
Maxime

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​Read previous issues of the newsletter​