Podcast Pontifications

More ad dollars flowing into podcasting is generally seen as a good thing. Yet niche podcasters don't see very much of it. Yes, there are "riches in the niches," but only if your podcast is attractive enough.

Podcasting has a healthy and growing industry set up to serve the needs of both the big-money advertisers and the podcast publishers who get the lion's share of the more-than-a-billion dollars spent on podcast advertising. 

But that industry doesn't work all that well for podcasters on a smaller scale. Nor does it work for many potential advertisers and sponsors with more modest budgets. 

That doesn't preclude niche shows or smaller would-be sponsors from participating in podcast advertising and sponsorship. It just means those niche podcasters have to be little scrappy. And they can start by making their podcasts more attractive to potential sponsors. 

Here are five ways you might go about doing so.

1. Know Thine Audience. Deeply.

Set up a survey, like the template gifted to podcasters by Edison Research. Set up an online group, community, or forum. Or start a newsletter. You can learn a lot by just email domain names.

2. Have A Commitment To Quality

Does your show present itself well? If they select a random episode—or your most recent—will it sound, look, and feel like something they'll want their brand associated with? 

3. Have A Brand Story To Tell

Spending money in an unexplored channel is a little scary, regardless of the size of the budget. So you might need to prime the pump by putting brand messages on your show so the brands you want to work with have a clear idea of what their money gets them.

4. Ask For The Sale

Yes, put a sponsor or advertiser inquiry page on your website. But also put your sales hat on and start making phone calls, sending emails, and brushing up your LinkedIn profile as you go on the hunt for dollars.

5. Grow Your Podcast's Audience

Yes, some brand-based sponsors are going to want to know how many people your podcast reaches. Advertising and sponsorship is often a numbers game, but so is talking to the right audience in the right way. Grow wisely. 

-----

Links

• Vocalize Inc
• Podcast listener survey template via Edison Research
• Take the survey for Podcast Pontifications
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

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.

Podcast advertising has much greater recall than other forms of ads. But how many times have you forgotten a URL, a coupon code, or even the name of the advertiser when you were ready to take action?

Podcast advertising is hard. On all sides of the equation if I'm honest. One company, Vocalize Inc., is trying to change that. They're the Branded Benefit Sponsor this month, and here's what CEO CJ Silva told me their up to and how they are working to make podcasting better:

Vocalize makes it easy for people to remember how to connect with brands. No memorizing URLs. No clunky coupon codes. Instead, listeners speak a memorable phrase into their phone—like Nike's "just do it"—to get where they need to go. And no more spending tens of thousands to get people to search for competing products and services.

In essence, Vocalize is creating a bunch of "speakeasies" where podcast listeners have a secret phrase to get content. Perhaps exclusive content. Content that they can't get any other way.

Click-based advertising in podcasting. But this just might be a better analog for us to get behind.

We all remember jingles phrases from when we were little kids. We all sing. Or we repeat them. We find them stuck in our brains. For years. Vocalize uses that same capability within humans, giving them something that's easy to remember. Something that they'll be able to recall—and use—at any time.

But you probably don't have the Vocalize app installed. They get that and is why they're focused on getting their SDK baked into apps that podcast listeners use every day, getting us closer to a future where listeners can not just talk back to the podcast they love, but use voice-enabled tech in a unique and novel way.

 -----

Links

• Vocalize Inc
• CEO CJ Silva
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

------ 

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support. 

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.

Podcast advertising has much greater recall than other forms of ads. But how many times have you forgotten a URL, a coupon code, or even the name of the advertiser when you were ready to take action?

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.

Sometimes the advancements we see in podcasting look pretty small compared to the hype we see and hear about in other forms of media. Would you be better off jumping ship to try the Next Big Thing?  

I love distractions. I think it's healthy for podcasters to explore new tools, technologies, and other nifty things that live on the periphery of podcasting.

But don't get so distracted you lose sight of why you are here—to podcast.

For the most part, podcasting has proven to be a rather resilient medium. Many of podcasting's purported disruptors have either fizzled out or remain little more than a curiosity. So to will the next

Remember enhanced podcasting? It's been here in various forms since 2006. And on the surface, it's a compelling idea. But the fact that listeners don't have to watch or engage with their devices as they enjoy a podcast episode is one of podcasting's strongest features. It's not a weakness to be exploited. Clearly.

That "pivot to video" that's been predicted for the last 16 years also has failed to happen. I'm not ignoring the huge successes of video-empowering companies like YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and others. But for similar reasons, podcasting hasn't pivoted to video. And likely won't.

Social audio's entry onto the stage was fortuitous. Being lockdown for a couple of years had many craving real-time human interaction drop-in audio could provide. But producing a fun live call-in show and producing an engaging podcast episode are two very different things. And the predicted mass migration away from podcasting to producing shows exclusively on social audio platforms never materialized over any of drop-in audio's ongoing iterations. And it likely won't.

And then there's the VR, AR, and metaverse movement. As much as I'd love to have a heads-up display projected onto my iris or be able to check out for a few hours in the middle of the day to a virtual beach in the tropics... none of that is going to replace podcasting. Not anytime soon. 

So yes, enjoy the bleeding edge, podcaster. Get out there and explore. Just don't make such a big bet on any of those distractions that you lose sight of your podcast. Podcasting has resilience. Don't lose it.

-----

Links

• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. 
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

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.

Podcasters love regular listeners. And regular listeners love their podcasts. Dependability on both sides has been a driving and differentiating factor for podcasting. But is that still a good thing?

When the book I'm reading ends, I go get another book.  With millions of choices for me to read, there's never a time when I can't find anything to read. 

When the series I'm watching ends, I go get another TV series. With hundreds or maybe even thousands of shows I can watch, there's never a time when I can't find anything I want to watch. 

When I'm in the mood for a new movie, I'm spoiled for choice, and there's never a time when I can't find a new movie to watch.

There's a lot of content at our fingertips. More content than any one person can hope to consume. People start and finish dozens or hundreds of books, tv shows, and movies every year.

But a lot fewer podcasts. Not podcast episodes, which easily get to the hundreds. But discrete, podcast titles or shows. Why is that? I have a hypothesis.

Edison Research's Infinte Dial report tells us that you can count the number of "shows" the average listener is actively consuming on one hand. And the most common type of podcast is the episodic, ongoing show. The type of show that doesn't give a chance to say "Well, that's over, so I guess I gotta go find something new to listen to."

Episodic podcasts don't have the terminal nature of books, television series, or movies. They don't have a finite end-point. They don't have a natural conclusion. There's no "the end" experience with forces listeners to hunt for something else to fill their time. Not with most episodic podcasts. They. Just. Keep. Going. For months on end. For years. 

Podcasting is different from other media forms. They've adapted to provide their consumers a "get this and then get this when you're done" content fountain. 

But much of podcasting is still built around the "get this and then never leave mode". 

But I wonder for how long? Perhaps we'll learn more about that when the 2022 Infinite Dial by Edison Research comes out next week. 

-----

Links

• Edison Research's Infinite Dial reports
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. 
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

------ 

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support.

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 tools podcasters use are constantly changing. But we tend to ignore changes to a critical piece of our podcasts: the podcaster. Has your podcast changed to keep up with changes in your own life?

I half-jokingly asked a fellow podcaster and friend the "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question. Their immediate response was unexpected and worth exploring further.

"The problem, Evo," they said "with people like us is that's the wrong question. We really should be asked, 'what do we want to be this year?'" 

I feel that. In the 2 decades I've been podcasting, I've moved houses 11 times. I've raised a kid and now have grandkids. I've changed jobs five times. I've changed actual careers four times. 

I'm clearly a different person. Which means my show has effectively changed hosts, right? Podcasting is like other media forms. When there's a brand new person at the helm, things are supposed to change. They have for me. And will continue to change for me. 

Yet a lot of podcasts haven't changed much at all since inception. Maybe because of habit.  Concerns about disappointing or turning off listeners. Maintaining an excellent cash flow. Fear of the unknown. Or perhaps the show is hosted by someone who actually knew what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Think for a moment about your own show and all the changes you've seen in your life, from family to job to hobbies. 

Have you changed? And have you changed your show enough to match the person you are today? Would doing so make you happier? Would that re-energize you? Would that possibly re-engage your audience? And can you do it in a way that doesn't jeopardize the success you've already seen thus far? 

if you look in the mirror and the person staring back at you isn't the same person you see in your head, it might be time to mix things up on your podcast. 

-----

Links

• The Bangkok Podcast 
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. 
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today! 

------

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.

Two decades and millions of podcasts later, it's likely what you want to talk about is already talked about. But if you're not afraid of doing things differently, you can still make a splash with your new show. 

Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

It's hard for anyone to keep up with all of the news about any given topic. Unless your full-time gig is keeping up with everything about one thing. For people who've acquired the podcasting habit, podcasting is where they often turn for a curated view of the important bits of their treasured topic.

So podcasters like James Cridland of Podnews and Brian McCullough of Techmeme Ride Home spend hours a day wading through a hundred and more articles, press releases, newsletters, emails, and other forms of inbound information every single day to create daily, timely episodes.

Some tech services are now cropping up to help creators, either by helping them automate the "bulleted' nature of quick reads or by letting publishers re-publish podcast episodes multiple times a day so it's always fresh at the time of download.

But helping people make sense of an avalanche of news with short-form episodes isn't the only business case for podcasters. 

Consider for a moment the two- to three-hour episodes, some of the more popular podcasts put out every week. Or more frequently. That's the price of being in the club, right?

But what about the people who do care about the facts or the thought leadership occurring on those long, rambly episodes. People who just don't have the 2–3 hours to commit to listening. Would they be interested in a distilled, just-the-facts version of those episodes? If the length of a popular podcast is a barrier for many, a bulleted, facts-reported-only version could approach and perhaps even exceed the size of the audience of the source show.

Maybe your next podcast? 

-----

Links

• NYT piece on podiobooks from 2007 - https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/books/01podb.html
• Podnews by James Cridland - podnews.net/
• Techmeme Ride Home by Brian McCullough- ridehome.info/show/techmeme-ride-home/
• New York Times piece on the growth and expansion of Axios - nytimes.com/2022/03/07/business/media/axios-local.html?
• Spooler - spooler.fm/
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout - evoterra.link/buzz
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. - podcastpontifications.com/about/sponsorship-information
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today! - AdvancingPodcasting.xyz

------ 

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/evoterra) for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press (alliepress.net) assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support. - podcastpontifications.com/support 

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.

Figuring out what type of podcaster you want to be is important to establishing your podcast. But have you thought about and established what kind of interviewee or guest you want to be on other podcasts?

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels

Guesting on other people's podcasts is a time-honored way to gain targeted exposure for you and for your podcast to podcast listeners. It may not be the growth hack of the century (spoiler: It's not), but it is a solid top-of-the-funnel activity likely worth your time.

So how do you become a better podcast guest? 

I don't have a pat "how to" answer at the ready. But I do have four questions you should consider that will help you boost your podcast interviewee skills. 

1. Agenda or objective? An agenda means you have a few key talking points around a central theme. An objective means you have a clear call to action to push as often as you can.

2. Prep or go in cold? Prepping means you won't be hit out of the blue. But going in cold could make your answers and reactions sound more spontaneous and natural.

3. Short or long answers? Do you keep your answers direct and to the point? Or do you embrace meandering and anecdotes, leaving it up to the host or their editor to tighten things up as they see fit?  

4. How accommodating will you be? Do you have only certain days or times when you can be available? Or do you have ultimate flexibility and can say "Whenever is good for you" to all requests, moving your schedule around as necessary? 

Now, as I said, there aren't right or wrong answers to any of those questions. If you're curious how I'd answer:

• I almost always have an agenda, but rarely an objective
• I prepare for every guesting opportunity, but not obsessively
• I give way too long answers but am working on going shorter
• I'm very accommodating, but I have some hard blocks on my calendar so I can get things done

-----

Links

• the podcast 3 Clips by Castos
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

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.

Trust in podcasting extends beyond the host and the listener to a larger, overall trust in the idea of podcasting. Interestingly, podcasting enjoys a greater level of trust than other forms of media. But for how long? 

Photo by Charlotte May from Pexels

In The States, trust in traditional broadcast media is at or near an all-time low, a trend that has been happening since the 1970s. 

And we're all keenly aware that, left to their own devices, the social media platforms we use every single day would serve their own interests far more often than they'd serve ours.

Weirdly, podcasting doesn't follow those trends. Listeners report rather hard-to-believe trust scores for podcasts. A trust that's even extended to the ads played on podcasts.

Why? Part because there's no algorithm deciding what podcast episodes someone should and shouldn't be exposed to. And because there aren't multinational media conglomerates vying for their share of a limited set of channels, frequencies, or shelf space on a newsstand. 

But that's changing. 

We're starting to see some of the same scenarios that predicated trust issues consumers have with other forms of media worming their way into podcasting.

The rise of celebrity podcasters and other fast-growing personality-based podcasts are getting podcasts in the ears of 70% of the population who don't yet consume podcasts regularly. That's great! But is it good for the perception of trust in podcasting? 

Take a look at any of the podcast ranker charts, and you'll find plenty of shows—incredibly popular shows—that you wouldn't consider all that worthy of your trust.

Mainstream media is bringing the same biases and points of view that are staples of their broadcast content to their podcasts and networks. 

Billions of dollars of investments in podcasting are consolidating voices, enabling more rapid production, and further siloing podcast content. But they're also getting podcasters, and people in the business of podcasting paid, which is also a Very Good Thing. 

But I wonder about the cost to the trust podcasting has enjoyed thus far. 

-----

Links

• Trust in traditional broadcast media is at or near an all-time low
• People trust the ads and commercials they hear on podcasts
• Podcast Pontifications episodes on truth
• Podtrac top podcasts
• Triton Digital podcast charts
• Podcast Insights top podcasts 
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.

Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

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.

Everyone leads busy lives, and the smart podcaster doesn't waste their audiences' time. But in your quest to tighten things up, don't forget to build in time to let your audience reflect as they listen.

If there's an ongoing struggle between podcasters and podcast listeners, it is the conflict between breadth and depth. We're busy cranking out more and longer episodes. But what they want from us is to go deeper. And get to the point quicker. Yeah. That's a conflict. 

So we podcasters often look for quick fixes, employing tools to make easy subtractions from our content. We re-record our long, rambly questions or aggressively tighten up every single pause and gap between sections.

Because shoving more information in less time means more depth, right? No, not really.

Part of going deeper is giving your audience time to reflect as they are listening. Like you, they're doing other things as they listen. So it's up to you to sculpt reflection points, using silence, bed music, repetition of words, or other effective ways to ensure the clarity of your message is delivered.

Because going deep requires clarity, which means leaving room for clarity.

So yes, tighten up where you can.

But also leave room in your audio for reflection.  And remember that the parts of your episode where no one is talking are the parts where your audience's brains have a chance to get deeper into your episodes. That's how they feel like you're letting them be a part of the conversation.

Build in time so that can happen.

-----

Links

• Five ways to serve the changing needs of your audience 
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. 

Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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.