Knowing what it takes to go pro in the podcasting field is one thing, but actually following through with the commitment and the mindset that something altogether different. Listen up.

Very few professionals achieve professional status on their own. It's really no different in podcasting. The real trick is connecting with the right people who can help you reach the next level. But that’s not as easy or clear as you might think.

“Just start a podcast,” everyone says. “Rely on your natural talents and abilities,” everyone says. But if you want to take your show from amateur to pro, you might need more than your natural talent. You might need to level up your skills.

Contrary to popular belief, you can go pro as a podcaster. But the jobs available in the world of pro podcasting probably look a little different than you're thinking about. Which should be good news to you! Listen to this:

If you want your podcast to grow, obsessing over downloads, trying to influence social media metrics, or fretting over when people bail on your episodes won’t move the needle much. To track growth, you have to understand your show’s conversion rate. Here’s how.

How much would it help you understand your listeners’ behavior if you could actually watch them as they listened to an episode of your podcast? A lot, right? I’ve good news for you: you absolutely can, and it’s not even a little creepy.

Social media isn't going away anytime soon. Even podcasters have to deal with social media. But are we tracking the right social media metrics, and do those metrics indicate podcast growth? The answer may surprise you.

Tracking downloads of your podcast can be really enlightening. It can also be really depressing. So let's put this particular metric in a box start deal with “downloads” for what they really are.

It should be easy for people who know how to listen to podcasts to listen to your podcast. No education required, right? I agree with you that it should be easy. But only if you’re doing your part, podcaster.

When podcasters think about random discovery, we assume people are looking specifically for podcasts. But in reality, people are just looking for topics. How do you make sure that your podcast (or better yet, your podcast’s episodes) a part of that discovery set?