Having the right name for your show can boost your downloads. People try to get cute and use inside jokes as the name of their show. That doesn't work. The more obvious the better.

I had a client of mine came to me and said, Dave, I'm going to do a show. It's called After the Darkness. And I said, "Okay, let's run it through the test."

The Podcast Name Test

Go find your target audience. So that's step one. Find your target audience, somebody that you are pretty sure will listen to your show and say, "Hey, I'm going to do a show called After the Darkness. What do you think it's about? "

His test group answered:

Vampires

A band from the 90's

Nobody guessed what the show was about out correctly.

I asked him, "What's your show about again?" and he said, it's about life after blindness. And I said, "THAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR SHOW!"

He Tripled his Numbers with A New Name

Another client of mine had named his show FO Time. He swore that his audience would know what it meant. While this might be true, they weren't searching for "Ham Radio." When he changed the name of his show from FO Time to Ham Radio 360, his numbers tripled.

The Title of Your Episode

I work in the tech support department for libsyn.com (get a free month using the coupon code sopfree ). It's the oldest and largest podcast media hosting company.

I see a lot of podcasters put the name of their show in the title of the episode, and then give the episode name "episode 16." So if I was doing "the Dave Jackson show" (a horrible name by the way) I might name an episode "The Dave Jackson Show - Episode 16." That does not entice you to click and listen. Nobody is Googling the phrase "episode 16."

And my episode title was Dave Jackson show, Episode 16, that does not entice you to click and if you actually look at your show, in most apps, it has the name of the show at the top of the page. So there's no reason to put the name of the show in the title of the episode because it's already there (see image to the right).

Picture Your Target Audience Looking at Your Podcast Listing

The title of your show draw them over to take a closer look

Then they see the titles of the episode and think, "This is just what I'm looking for..." and they not only click a button to listen, but they click the SUBSCRIBE button (and subscribers is what it is all about).

Do You Need Help With Your Podcast? Work With Me

I have different packages for different budgets. Everything I do helps get your podcast headed in the right direction. I look forward to working with you. 

Join the School of Podcasting at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/join

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