Why You Hear Ads

0:02 Good afternoon everyone. It is Tuesday, April the twenty second, twenty twenty five. It is currently one six pm Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, for many of you, whenever you hit play on an episode of the Theology Central podcast, you hear something like this. Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. However, others of you, here's something like this.

0:47 Baseball isn't just a game, it's a lifestyle. At Baseball Lifestyle one oh one, we bring the passion of the game to everything we do. From gear that reps your love for baseball to content that connects you to the culture. We've got you covered and now you can find Baseball Lifestyle one on one at Academy Sports and Outdoors, shot the latest baseball inspired apparel and accessories, and take your love for the game to the next level. Visit your local Academy store or check. Us out online. Now, why does some of you just hear my intro and some of you hear ads, Well, it all depends on which podcast feed you are listening from. If you're listening from our podcast feed that originates from Speaker, our podcast hosting site, there are ads at the beginning and at the end of every single episode. If you're listening to the podcast feed that comes from Sermon Audio, there are no ads at the beginning or the end, two completely separate podcast feeds. I do that for the specific reason of giving people an option. Now, in some ways I probably should not do that, but I do that, and because I know some people don't like the ads, So why are the ads there. We're going to talk about it because it seems that we have a little bit of well not a controversy, but something that gets brought up numerous numerous times. So here's what we're going to do today. Today, I'm going to do my very

2:18 best to not get I'm not going to be giving you any teaching. I'm not going to be giving you any exposition of scripture. I'm not going to be giving you a little any theology. I'm going to try to give you a bit of behind the scenes conversation. Maybe we'll call this a family talk if you will allow that, okay, because I want to talk openly. I want to be honest about why you sometimes hear ads I want to talk about the cost of producing this podcast, and well, you can decide if you want to be a part, how what you're thinking, how you feel about it, what you can do not do, and and I'm going to try to once again try to explain how I've done everything in my power to try to consistently make the Theology Central podcast as freely accessible to as many people as possible. I've done everything in my power. So I've just mentioned the two platforms, So let me talk about the two approaches. All right, Theology Central, I'm going to be I'm going to be more specific here. Theology Central is hosted on two different platforms. As I mentioned, Number one is Speaker. This is our main platform. It's where most of our episodes are published first. It's also monetized, which means there are ads at the beginning and the end of an episode. All right, that's our main podcast hosting side. We've been with Speaker now forever. They are there.

3:44 I mean all the podcasting feeds. You go to any podcasting app, Podbean, Apple Podcasts, podcet cast, you go to any podcast app, you will see that feed because it's been there forever. They have been there. They used to allow us to the option of broadcasting live through their platform. They went away from the live broadcasting, but they're still our main podcast hosting site. To get rid of that feed would save us money, but then it just wipes out all of the I mean, all those podcasting apps. That's the feed that that's been there forever. I mean, do you really want to mess with that when that's the number one way you've built your audience. Now, the second platform is Sermon Audio. This serves as our secondary host.

4:31 It's where the podcast is available ad free. It's where we broadcast live from. Well, it makes our content available on their website, on the Sermon Audio app, and through the Church one app. Those are the two different platforms, two different approaches. Now, what some people may not understand is this, I do not control what ads are played on their speaker platform. I don't select them, I do not approve them. I do not get to reject them. They're inserted by speaker. Now, some listeners have reached out with concerns either one. Here's basically the way I will get I'll get an email saying I don't like ads.

5:18 Why you got ads in front of your content. They're irritating, and I just skip them anyway, and I just fast forward there. Get rid of the ads. I don't want to listen to ads when I listen to a podcast, get rid of them. Some of them will be just very aggressive and kind of just tew me off. Then I'll get the others who will be bothered by the content of the ad and they will feel that it's not appropriate or that they feel like it should not be a part of an ad for a theology podcast. And I do understand those concerns, and some of those people they tend to reach out in many cases in a very I think it a very careful way. They're not mean, they're not nass. The In fact, the one I just received just the other day as a voicemail, they were very kind. They were just letting me know that, hey, you this, I don't really know if this is appropriate.

6:11 You need to know about this. They were very nice. So I get some that are very rude and aggressive, some that are well meaning. And I understand people don't want to hear ads, and I understand people if they do hear ads, they want the ads to be oh well appropriate, and so I understand that and I understand that some of the ads may feel jarring, some may not align with the content that I'm covering, and I wish in some ways I could fix that. I wish I could. But here's what people tend to forget. Right. You know that there's a cost in doing all of this, So why do I even have the ads at all? Because, and I say this, and I'm trying to be as transparent as possible, it costs me over one hundred dollars a month just to keep Theology Central up and running.

7:02 Over one hundred dollars a month hosting fees for spreaker and sermon audio website domain the domain names cost money, just anything that we have to do to keep things going, trying to all the different things app integrations, storage and streaming, recording software and hardware upkeep. And that does not include the cost in my time and my energy and the emotional labor. There's no team here in the Theology Central studio. I'm not outsourcing anything. I don't recycle content. I've got almost four thousand episodes available and I've in all of it, for the most part, has been researched, put together, written, recorded, published, Everything by one person. That's me the end. There's no team, there's nobody else. Now. The ads on Spreaker they bring in a whopping amount. They bring in between fifteen dollars and forty dollars a month. We've never received a payment above reaching fifty dollars. So it's somewhere between fifteen and forty dollars a month. Now, that's not a lot. That doesn't even cover the total cost. So this is why that's and I hope you understand that. That's why I'm asking for some sense of understanding. If you hear an

8:34 ad and feel its intrusive or inappropriate, I get it, I really do. But I also to help you, I'm asking you to possibly see it, maybe as a small trade off that helps me keep doing what I'm doing. I'm just trying to pay I'm not making any money for all of this time and all of this effort. I'm not getting a dime. Any money that comes in goes right back to trying to just pay for things. I'm just trying to pay for things, all right, That's all I'm trying to do. So maybe you don't perceive what I do is worth very much. And I can understand that right. I mean, look, you're you're the listener. You just open an app and you just hit play, and then you like it or don't like it. You just go to the next thing. You just go to the next thing. And look, this is not even about me.

9:20 I see this if you go to the Spotify community and look at the posts that are being made, if you go to the Pandora community and look at posts to be made, it is a common thing. I don't want ads on my podcast. Remove the ads. I don't want stinking ads on my podcast. I just want to hear the pot. Remove the ads, and everyone will yell and scream, and I just want to say, people, what do you want the podcasters to do? What? What do people want the pot? Everybody wants the podcaster to sit here produce hour after hour after hour after content. And we're not supposed to get paid. We're not supposed to make any money. We're just supposed to be everyone's beacons call to give and whatever they want, and nobody has to pay for it. And it sometimes it can become maddening, like I don't know what people want me to do.

10:09 So let's just talk about value, all right. Over four thousand episodes are available to you four thousand. That's in many cases it amounts to dozens of hours each week of work. I try to go as in depth as I can. It's still philological teaching. I'm challenging mainstream ideas. I try to do hermeneutics, exegesus, church, church history. I try to do interesting things current events. I mean, if Theology Centric was just a course at a seminary, you'd be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. But my goal has always been to make deep, honest, challenging theology accessible without a paywall and without having to compromise. Right. So that's where I don't want some sponsor because they would get mad at me in five seconds. Well you can't say this, and you can't say that. And I mean, I always have to be careful that I'm not gonna say anything that's gonna get me thrown off the sermon audio platform or banned from YouTube. I always have to worry about, oh, now this is gonna Oh I'm gonna get in trouble here. I'm gonna get in trouble here.

11:17 But I've never pushed for a Patreon page where I'm like, hey, if you subscribe to Patreon and you give me this much money, you can ask me a question, or you could. You can send me up a pod an episode I did, and I'll do an episode on that. No, I've never put anything behind a paywall, all right. I try never to demand donations. I don't. I try not to bother you with that. I try not to ask too much. But I'm not going I'm you know, I'm not gonna pretend. It takes a toll after a while, financially, emotionally, spiritually. It's just like, you know, produce, produce, produce, produce, produce, produce, produce, produce. Hey, you haven't done an episode in three days? Hey, hey, produce, produce, produce, produce.

12:05 I want more. I want more. I want more, I want more. I want more. Well, I understand, and that's awesome, that's great, But it's like, man, when more money goes when if I'm basically paying to broadcast, I'm paying. I'm not making money. I'm paying money to broadcast. So you know, here's the best I can offer. If you don't like the ads, you don't like them, hey, you know what, please consider the ad free content. How can you do that? I don't know which podcast app you may be using.

12:46 Look up Theology Central. It's very simple. You're gonna see two different feeds. One has the green background with the white lettering the Bible in the middle. It says Theology Central. There's no breading on it. It's just says Theology Central. That's coming from Speaker that will have the ads. If you look at the other feed, it's a black background, green lettering. There's a microphone, and you'll see the branding across it. It says sermon Audio that comes from the Sermon Audio feed. No ads, no commercials. You have nothing to worry about at all. Nothing. You can avoid the ads perfectly. You can download the Church one app free Church on E Church O n E. The app is free for you. Cost US sixty dollars a month for you to have that, but it's free for you. Do you can get all the episodes, no commercials, no ads, not monetized, and you're free from that. You won't hear any ads that you do not like. All right, So if you're listening on Speaker or any platform that runs the ads, please know these ads are trying to offset the cost. And I'm grateful with your patients for them.

14:02 I am, I am ground, but I you know, like like I said, I I'm giving you two options. I'm giving you two options. That's the best I can do. I don't know what else I can do for people. And and look, I'm hurting myself. If I just put everything under under the spreaker feed, then then either people stop listening or they're gonna hear the ads, which then would increase the ad revenue. If you break down the numbers, you know a lot of people listen via the sermon audio feed. All if all those numbers were going to the others, I would I could possibly double the ad Maybe I could be bringing in eighty dollars or one hundred dollars a month. But here's the thing. If you at all believe the podcast has value, if you believe it's helped you, even even if it's just helped you a little bit, if you believe it's challenged you a little bit, even if it's ticked you off little bit, if it's taught you even one little thing, you could consider supporting it, right, I mean, just think if it's just had twenty listeners, just twenty people giving ten dollars a month, if I had twenty people, like if I got today twenty people, not people who already support, But if I had twenty additional people who just gave ten

15:33 dollars a month, that's it, twenty dollars ten dollars a month. Twenty people ten dollars a month, and the current people would continue to support because some of the current people are very faithful to do that. But if I had twenty people at ten dollars a month, I'll get rid of the ads today. I'll go to speaker right now and turn them off right now. I'll say no longer monetize my But I would need that twenty people ten dollars a month to not show up once every six months, but be every single month. I'll get rid of the ads and you'll never hear another ad ever again, ever again. And twenty dollars twenty people at ten dollars a month pretty much will get us added to what people are already giving, what we would be doing pretty well. But I can't even get twenty people to give me ten dollars a month. I can't even get that. But then I get complaints about the ads. Well, I don't know, nobody wants to give, but nobody wants the ad. I don't understand what I'm supposed to do. This podcast has existed for one thing, to challenge people to try to provide in depth teaching, historical teaching, philological analysis, discussion. It tries to be real, it tries to be raw, tries it's not professional. It's supposed to be that way, right.

16:56 I mean, even just doing this episode, the intro was all messed up by I had to start it over three times because I kept messing it up because I was trying to do a little I was trying to be creative and how I did the intro right? Instead of coming in with my normal intro, I would I would do it a little differently. I'm always trying to come up with new ideas, trying to be creative. Work work, work, work, work right. You know. I just put together an entire book on Isaiah forty two. I made it available for everyone for free. Oh it's not perfect, it needs to be edited, but I made that free for everyone. I've tried to do the interesting discussion about Salem. I've tried to do all of these things, and it's work, work, work, work. Is it perfect? No? Do I make mistakes. Yes, Do I mispronounce things constantly?

17:38 Do I mess up subject verb agreement all the time. It's not perfect, but it's designed to be very real. Rale. I'm just a center with a microphone trying to figure this out. And I produce lots of content, lots of content, and I don't ever want to charge, and I don't ever and I'm never gonna put anything behind a paywall. So you know, I don't know what else to say. You don't have to give a dime, and that's perfectly okay. And you can listen on the Sermon Audio platform and it's free. You can download an app. The app for you is free. You can go to Theology. I don't remember the solo site. There's a solo site from Sermon Audio.

18:27 I don't have the web address. Oh we also have I forgot. We also have the Theology Central Study Bible, the Electronic Study Bible that you can download as well. And we had to pay money for that to be made available to people. I mean, I'm constant. We've always trying to give things to people. I just don't and listen. This is not about the voicemail, because the voicemail was very nice This is just about the totality of this discussion, because it's more than a one time thing ninety percent of the time, and just like whatever, whatever, whatever. I just don't know what people want. I just don't know what people want. They want the content, they don't want to pay for the content, they don't want to support the content, but they don't want ads on the content, or they will criticize. Oh. I've even had some really nasty emails. Oh you say this, and you say this.

19:21 All you do is just try to make money. I heard the commercials, and so then I get attacked and it's used against me, where my own spirituality, my own motives will be called into question because I have ads. So I'm either a greedy sinner because I have ads, or like I cannot win. It's either used against me. It's either criticized either people are bothered by it. So here's what people actually want. They want me to sit right here in this room an hour after hour after hour after hour produce the content they want that they lie and they want it for free. I I'll do my best, That's all I can say. I mean, I think, I mean, for almost four thousand hours of content, you never had to pay for a dime of it. We tried to make digital curriculum free for everyone. Finally we ran out of money. We couldn't do that anymore. I used to. I've tried to do a book giveaways, giving away dictionaries and reference tools. We don't have the money to do that anymore. I've tried to do everything in my power to give and to give. Am I perfect?

20:52 No? Am I a sinner? You don't even know the half of it, right, But man, I don't know what people want. I just don't know what people I know what they want. They want content, they want it free. They don't want to be bothered with ads, and they don't want to give to support it. So to those criticizing the ads, please go to the other option and then you don't have to worry about it. To those offended by the ads, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I really am. I don't want you to be offended, but I don't what do you?

21:41 I don't know what you want me to do, so I can't. There's a no win situation in this, so I can ignore it. But then it's like you know, you can ignore one, you can ignore two, you can ignore three you can, but once you get to like ten or fifteen complaints, then you feel like, well, I've got to say something now, right, So I apologize to anyone who is offended by any ad that's been played at the beginning or the end of a Theology Central podcast episode. I truly am sorry. I do not control it. I don't get any prior Notice what. There are advertisers out there who want advertisements on podcasts. They contact podcast hosting site and say, hey, we've got we would like to do an ad campaign. And then that podcast hosting site says, great, we'll take your ad, and then they they insert it on the podcast they want to insert it on. Do they care what my content is about?

22:36 They don't care. They are wanting the ads listen to. That's what the advertisers want. That's how the podcast hosting site makes money. How do they make money? Not only by charging the podcast podcasters to host on their site, but then by selling advertising. Advertisers make money when people listen to the advertising and then go support their product. It's all. It's all a business. Everything's a business because everything requires money. It requires money for me to do what I'm doing right now, to be able to broadcast live right now, sixty dollars a month, just this now, for this to be uploaded on all of those podcasting hosting or all the different podcasting apps that cost money from spreaker, to be on the Theology Central website that costs money, all the different things. Everything, there's a there's a dollar amount. So yeah, am I a little frustrated?

23:42 I am a little I'm just I do I do it because, man, because what you know what you'll get you'll get. You get the emails that don't like your episodes. You get the emails that people are complaining about the content. You get, you get emails from people who don't like the ads. You know what you rarely get. Thank you for all the work. Thank you for doing that many hours on that content. Thank you. Here's here's five dollars, here's ten dollars. Thank you. No, no, no, no, no, you don't I'm getting a phone call in the middle say how unprofessional it is. Don't you don't get that? You don't get like, hey, I really liked that episode.

24:25 Here's here's ten dollars. Hey I really like this series. Here's twenty dollars. Hey, you don't get that and trust me, I wish if this, if this podcast was kind of more connected the way it used to be. It used to be basically completely funded by the church. But that whole situation of we talked about it in twenty twenty four. This is really now just me, myself and I trying to make this work. And the money still goes to the church, but the the money that goes to the church, then it's immediately taken from the church simply to pay for this podcast. It's not like the church in and of itself can pay for the podcast. So the money that comes in has to immediately come out to just pay for the podcast, because I mean, the church, for all practical purposes, we're just waiting. I mean we're waiting for the building to sell in it's over. So and I've said before once when the church is gone, when that ends, and it may be the end of this podcast, it really it may be, because I'm not going to be in a situation where I'm gonna beag and plead for money week after week after week, and I'm not gonna sit here and go into financial debt simply to try to broadcast hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of hours of content for people who could care less. I mean, like, that's just the bottom line.

25:50 So I know it sounds I'm not trying to be harsh, but I'm just trying to be very transparent and very real. So to those who complain, I'm sorry. But as as long as the podcast exis, you have an option. And I've how many for those who listen to this podcast. How many times have I mentioned the Church One App? How many we spend an entire year telling everyone about the Sermon's two point oh app, the Sermon audio app. I've done everything in my power to point people to the free option. I've spent more time trying to get people to go to the free option. So download the Church One app today, Church O n E. Once you download it, type in Theology Central. There you have it, all the content free, and you can listen to me when I'm live. You'll never have to worry about another commercial ever, ever again, ever, ever again. As long as the podcast exists, I can't guarantee you how long it's going to exist. I've told everyone. I don't know the when, I don't know the where, but one day you're going to open up your app, and it's not going to be there anymore. And because I'm going to delete it all without any goodbye, and it's just going to be gone.

26:57 I don't know when that's going to happen, but when it does, it'll be over and then I can move on. But in the meantime, I'm going to continue to produce content and the same way that I have, being raw, real, not sugarcoating it, not trying to win, win over people and influence people and make friends, and whatever happens happens. But we had to address this today, and I apologize that you can hear my frustration. I just man, I just don't I just don't know. I can get the complaints, I can't get the support. I don't want the ads, but I'm not offering to help you get rid of the ads. And again, I'll say it again. If twenty people today, twenty people would say, Okay, I'll give you ten dollars a month, no questions asked, every single month.

27:44 Ten It won't be maybe i'll give it, maybe I won't. You'll get the ten dollars every month I'll get I'm literally I'll get rid of the ads. They'll be gone. They'll be gone in the next hour. They'll be gone in the next as soon as speaker can turn them off. Be done. And then we don't ever have to work. And then you can listen on all the platforms to your heart's content for free. But you already have the free option. I don't know now, and trust me, if if if if, if, if I don't, I don't play the lottery. But if I was to win the lottery, or if I was just to if I was just to get I've always said before, if I could get, if if I was just to get a check for like two hundred thousand dollars, right, I'd pay off my house, do some some repairs around the house, do some things.

28:34 Uh oh, probably get a car, because you know my car is going to die at any point. Okay, I'd pay off my house, get a car, and then then I then the rest of the money I could just support the podcast, and I'd be said, so, you know, if someone was to send me two hundred thousand dollars, then you never have to worry about it ever again. Okay, my house is paid for, I get a car, and the podcast would be free from that point on. Two hundred thousand dollars. You could take care of everything, my house, a new car, and the podcast for life. So has anybody got two hundred thousand dollars? And you'll never have to work hear another ad ever again, ever again. You won't even have to ever hear money mentioned ever again, just for a low, low price of two. Okay, Yeah, nobody's gonna send me two hundred thousand dollars. Okay, so so, but I'll do my best. I'll do my best. You have the free option. Please take the free option. I'm sorry the ads are bothersome. I'm sorry the ad and I am truly sorry that they offend, but I have no control. Thanks for listening. Next time we'll get back to doing what I do fairly well, which is take people off on other subjects. Have a good day.