Podcast Pontifications

Clients often ask me how they can promote their show to gain more listeners. Not that I’m surprised. That same question is still asked by people who've been podcasting for nearly 16 years.

Clearly, some have cracked the nut. When you look at download numbers for the top podcasts -- those that get all of the advertising dollars precisely because they have the majority of the listeners -- you see that overall listenership to those big shows continues to grow.

 But the average listenership for the rest of us remains relatively unchanged. That means the big shows are getting bigger, and everyone else is stagnating or is seeing tiny growth.

So why is that? Why are we seeing big shows grow, but very little growth at the lower levels? There could be (and likely are) many reasons, but the one I want to talk to you about today a reality you might need reminding of: 

The majority of potential podcast listeners aren't hardcore podcast listeners.

Candidly, I don’t think there's much that an individual podcaster can do to increase the overall awareness of podcasting to the masses.

However, that doesn't mean you should not try.

You’re just one person. I'm just one person. Everybody else is just one person. But if our collective voices get loud enough, we just might be better heard by the masses.

Right now, most of your podcast promotion probably leverages other podcasts and podcasters. That’s called “fishing where the fish are”, and it’s a super-smart idea. Yes, you should continue to do that.

But you also need to branch out to people who aren't yet listening to podcasts. You must make sure your promotional content is attractive enough to appeal to people who are aware of podcasting but decided it's not really for them. You must make sure that what you promote is attractive to anybody who sees the promotional content.

Not only do you have to do it, but your podcasting friends also have to do it. I have to do it. 

Unrelated but important to me is asking you to go to RateThisPodcast.com/podpont and say something nice about the show. I’d really appreciate it. 

If you found the information in this episode (or the hundreds of other episodes) valuable, go to BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra.

And if you need help making podcasting work well for your company, my company, Simpler Media Productions, can help! Go to SimplerMedia.pro or send me an email at [email protected]. 

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/pitching-your-podcast-to-passive-people

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

I sometimes wish podcasting were as simple as sitting down in front of a microphone and talking (and I certainly try to make it that simple for my clients). But you and I know that there's a lot more to podcasting than just talking into a microphone or editing an audio file. There are a lot of processes to process, and most people find that process happens best when you're inside of the zone.

It’s smart to establish a zone like that for your own work. But exercise caution: getting too deeply into the zone can lead to a pathological condition. And if you’re podcasting just one thing, like you really just have a podcast instead of being more broadly focused on podcasting overall, it’s too easy to be locked into your zone. That makes you myopic: so focused on your thing that you lose sight of the larger world around you.

Make sure that you find a way to get into the zone so that you are more productive. But also make sure that you can break out of that zone from time to time to observe the wider universe around you. Because podcasting changes all of the time.

One change is that you can now rate podcasts very simply. All you have to do is go to RateThisPodcast.com/podpont, for example. It doesn't matter what app you use to listen to podcasts. It doesn't matter what device you use to listen to podcasts., It doesn’t matter whether you're on mobile or your laptop when you go to RateThisPodcast.com/podpont. Try it and see how easy it is to leave a rating for this show.

If you thought this information was helpful, you can go to BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra and buy me a coffee. You can pick a monthly recurring donation so that you pass a little bit of money my way every month. I don't charge for the show and I don't run advertising on the show, so your support is nice to have.

And if you need assistance with your podcast, please get in touch with me. Reach me at [email protected] or go to SimplerMedia.pro to see all of the services that we offer our clients. 

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/podcasting-in-the-zone-without-zoning-out

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

The intangible benefits you get from your podcast are likely the most important evidence of your success as a podcaster.

I can take this fairly complex topic and make it more simple to understand by talking about two different intangibles that you need to be tracking: reputation and resource. 

For resource, I'm talking about the content you create. Even more specifically, you need to understand whether or not others perceive your content as resourceful. Is your content referenced by people after you produce it? Do people find your content such a resource that they use it as an example? When I keynote the Outlier Podcast Festival in Salt Lake City at the end of this month, I'm going to reference a lot of podcasts as examples of the things I'm talking about. Will yours be one? Are you making content for your show that other people, whether they are listeners or your peers, view as a resource? 

For reputation, I’m talking about your reputation. Not the reputation of your shows or your episodes. This is your own reputation. Are you, personally, seen as someone with a good reputation amongst others in your own industry? Do you get invited to speak at events? Do people bring up your name in conversation when discussing your industry? And when it does come up, do others say nice things about you?  Are you seen as someone with a good reputation in your peer group?

One of the mistakes I see a lot of podcasters make, especially in my peer group, is being so focused on making sure that their content is seen as a good resource that they neglect to build their own reputation. So much so that they, the person providing the content, oftentimes disappear.

I can't tell you the number of shows that I listen to where I don't know the name of the host, the producer, or anyone involved. I know the name of the show, and I know the content is a good resource. But that person doesn't get any reputation points from me because I don’t know who they are. They failed to say their name enough for me to lock it into my long-term memory. They fail to brand themselves as a part of the content they produce. 

As you look and listen back to your own content, ask yourself if it resourceful, and if your effort is increasing your reputation. Those are the things that I want you to understand. 

I also want you to understand that you can go to RateThisPodcast.com/podpont and leave a nice review. On whatever device you are using, that service will customize the options for you, so check it out.

I also want you to buy me a coffee. BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra is an easy and cheap way to show your appreciation for my content by funneling a few bucks my way. I don't run ads and you're probably, as a working podcaster, are not in need of the services that I provide to my clients. 

But if you are in need of some strategic podcasting guidance, check out SimplerMedia.pro for a list of the services we offer to clients all around the world.

Enjoy your Friday tomorrow. I will be back on Monday with yet another Podcast Pontifications. 

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/unmeasurable-metrics-tracking-intangibles

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

We live in a world of seemingly non-stop podcast conferences. A flurry of thought-provoking articles about podcasting. Online courses and services for podcasters are coming out on a continual basis.

So it’s quite natural for you to want to get even more into the podcasting world. It’s exploding, and you want to increase your chances of being swept up by this movement.

To put together a quality show can easily take a significant portion of a day, if not the entire day. And then there are the other things you have to do, you know. Like… your job? 

The simple solution for that starts with this realization: There's more to podcasting than the actual physical stuff, like sitting behind a microphone and talking, editing and engineering, writing up episode notes or designing artwork and graphics.

On this episode, I’ll give you these four ways to go deeper into podcasting without starting another podcast:

• Solicit guest appearances on other shows
• Write about podcasting for other publications
• Speak about podcasting at conferences and meetups
• Become part of another podcast

In short: Where can you lend your voice in podcasting that doesn't require you to have a new podcast? 

And f you liked what I had to say here, you can do a few things for me.

1. Please go to RateThisPodcast.com/podpont and leave me a rating on whatever service you feel like. It’s super easy.
2. if you really thought that this was good value, you are more than welcome to support me by clicking on BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra and pass a couple of bucks my way.
3. And finally, if you are in business and you know that your business needs some help with a podcasting push that’s strategized around your existing business goals and objectives, get in touch. Because that's what we do here at Simpler Media. We make it easy to podcast better for businesses. Go to SimplerMedia.pro for more information. 

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/how-to-do-more-in-podcasting-without-doing-more-podcasting

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

It’s no surprise that big radio companies like CBS and iHeart have been spending lots of on-air time telling their listeners over-the-airwaves that they can also listen to their favorite radio programs or voices as podcasts.

We podcast pundits don’t talk about those apps much, because they account for very small percentages of overall podcast listening. 

 But that’s a huge mistake on our part. 

Small percentages don’t necessarily mean small numbers of actual listeners. Small percentages can mean really, really big actual numbers of listeners actually using the app. It’s also possible -- quite likely, actually -- that those who’ve been converted to app-listening by radio networks are not exploring beyond their standard radio fare. So there could be a huge audience out there that we’re just not tracking.

Hence my suggestion that you really lean into your podcast’s listing on radio-centric apps by adding a link to your show’s listing in those Big Radio apps to your website.

Heretical, I know. But it makes sense to capitalize on all the awareness-building Big Radio has been doing for years.

Also, there are people who really do buy into the funny Family Guy cartoon. Seeing a big, recognizable as-radio badge on your site could signal to that person that your content doesn’t suck.

Here are your next steps to make that happen. I know I’m not a “how-to” show, but this is important:

1. Make sure your show(s) is/are listed on radio network apps like Radio.com and iHeartRadio. 
2. Download that app yourself and make sure you're able to link directly and deeply into your show from that app. 
3. Copy that link, find the big, recognizable-as-radio graphic, and add it to your website.

That’s my project for the weekend. I’m taking off the first two days of next week due to travel, but I’ll return on Wednesday, January 15, 2020. And while you wait:

• Use  RateThisPodcast.com/podpont and leave a rating for the show.
• Show me some love at BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra
• Tell someone who needs help with their business-focused podcast to visit Simpler Media Productions at Simplermedia.pro. 

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/leaning-into-radios-podcasting-push

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

For the better part of 15 years, I’ve had the attitude that I really don't care what app someone uses to listen, because all podcast apps do basically the same stuff. As you listen to podcasts these days, you’ll often hear podcasters end their shows with a call to action of “available wherever you listen to podcasts”. Again, there’s a sameness and uniformity of podcast listening apps.

But saying “wherever you listen” is missing a key point: anyone who asks “How can I find your show?” clearly doesn’t know where to find any podcast!

Yes. I know you've seen the studies that show that now more than 51% of the population has, at one time, listened to a podcast, but I don't trust that number. It’s not like the survey people said “Prove it!” to any of their respondents. 

The reality is that many -- perhaps most -- people actually don't know how to listen to a podcast. So if anyone ever asks you, “How can I find your podcast?”, don't tell them, “It's available anywhere you listen to podcasts!” 

What should you do instead? Previously when someone asked about my show or one of my clients’, I’ve asked what kind of phone they carry, and then direct them to the native app on their phone. Or to Spotify if they have that app pre-installed. That's fine to do, but I don't think that's as helpful as it could be.

I think that 2020 might be the year we finally start seeing some differentiation -- differentiation that actually matters -- in the podcast app space. It’s up to you (and to me) to help find an app that truly does differentiate (or at least is one that we think our new listeners will love) and to guide our potential listeners how to use it.

I know it sounds crazy, especially if there’s already a perfectly good-but-unused app on their phone! But you’ll make a much deeper connection with that person that way vs saying the equivalent of “It's been on your phone all along and you're dumb because you couldn’t find it.”

Speaking of not doing dumb things, you should totally:

• Use  RateThisPodcast.com/podpont and leave a rating for the show. It goes like…
• Show me some love at BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra
• Tell someone who needs help with their business-focused podcast to visit Simpler Media Productions at Simplermedia.pro. 

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/an-end-to-podcast-app-agnosticism-apathy

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

As working podcasters, we can no longer ignore privacy issues.

But as a working podcaster. You're probably not a technologist or a lawyer, so you probably don't need to know all the vagaries. You just want to make sure you don't run afoul of the law.

So I’m offering up three common-sense steps to help make sure your podcast is on the right side of these coming podcast privacy wars, which are just getting started. 

• Step 1: Understand Where Your Podcast May Have Possible Privacy Implications
• Step 2: Disclose Those Players On Your Podcast’s Privacy Page
• Step 3: Prepare For Change

That's how you survive this coming privacy war in podcasting. Not by jumping into the fray, or taking up pitchforks. But simply by making sure that you are doing your part in the process. And that's it. Let other people who have more passion than you fight this out. Unless you're the person that has the passion. If so, go for it! I’ll be making the popcorn. And more podcast episodes.

As a reminder:

• RateThisPodcast.com/podpont is a cool thing I told you about that yesterday.
• BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra helps keep this show going.
• If you need some help with managing your business-focused podcast, check out SimplerMedia.pro

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/surviving-the-podcast-privacy-wars

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

What do we actually track to indicate growth of a podcast? 

• We can't really track subscribers. At least not easily. 
• The new wave of podcast listeners often times aren’t subscribing anyhow.
• Tracking total downloads for all episodes is bogus. Just make more episodes!
• One back-catalog consumer skews counts

In short, there’s no one-size-fits-all way of measuring growth. Think of the consumption habits of the audience of a long-form daily news show. Now think about the habits of listeners of an in-depth multi-part series. They aren’t the same.

The best tool I’ve found is tracking 7-day and 30-day downloads per episode. Here’s a chart of how my show grew in 2019, thanks to a data re-tumble from the fine people at Chartable. Yes, I think you should use Chartable like this. No, they didn’t pay me to say that.

Did your podcast grow in 2019? Tell me about it. And while you’re at it, use RateThisPodcast.com/podpont and BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra. How you use those is pretty self-evident. Gotta love obvious domain names, right?

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Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/did-your-podcast-grow-in-2019

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business!

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

At first blush, Smart Speakers seem like the perfect companion to podcasters. I mean, they’re smart, right? Well… not so much in practice. And if you haven’t yet tried to listen to your favorite podcast on that fancy new smart speaker Santa gave you… Well, you’re going to have a bad time.

But that may be changing, and I’ve asked my friend James Cridland, Editor of Podnews, to explain to you why podcast listening on smart speakers may become a thing of the future. For some of us, at least.

And this marks the final guest-hosted episode. I’ll be back next week with brand new episodes of Podcast Pontifications. Yay! 

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Share this with a friend: https://player.captivate.fm/5f746e4c-2ba4-4e43-beb5-13626df5b5f1

Podcast Pontifications will return in January 2020, published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Believe it or not, there are some things I suck at. Taking a vacation isn’t one, but one is writing a press kit. I’m just terrible at it! That’s why I’ve invited Skye Pillsbury, a journalist with PR chops, to tell you what it takes to make a great press kit for your podcast.

No, there isn’t a template you can copy. Well… there are. But those suck. As Skye will tell you (repeatedly), it takes a human approach to impact a human. And the journalists who write about (or need to write about) podcasting just happen to be human. Humans, oddly enough, tend to respond better to those they have a relationship with. Crazy talk!

She recommends following the guidelines from RadioPublic and Bello Collective to actually create a press kit for your show. And then she gives some practical tips on cultivating a relationship with the journalists you’re pitching. (Because there’s more to it than the mechanics of sending an email.)

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Share this with a friend: https://player.captivate.fm/0f46c33b-8783-4f5a-bc13-6d07a961c299

Podcast Pontifications will return in January 2020, published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.