Podcast Pontifications

Part 3 of the “metrics that matter for podcasters”, today’s episode is an in-depth look at Apple’s Podcast Analytics and how they can help you improve your podcast.

ICYMI, check out Monday’s episode about  obsessing over downloads and Tuesday’s on conflating social media metrics with podcast success. 

Did you know that Apple gives every podcaster access to the actual listener behavior of their own actual episodes? Yes, the actual measured listener behavior related only to the episodes of that show.

That’s… powerful! And too many of us don’t look at it. Boo, us.

The secret weapon about this chart/line graph is the little player barely visible at the bottom of the chart. You can drag the “play head” of that player to any timestamp on the chart/graph to hear what was said at any point.

So why don’t more people pay close attention to this valuable listener information Apple graciously provides to us? Because it looks weird. It’s not a single number, like downloads or number of likes on an Instagram post.

Tomorrow, I'll share the most important metric of all that every podcaster should be tracking… yet probably isn’t.

A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/spying-on-your-listeners-can-improve-your-podcast

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 PodcastLaunch.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.

Social media sites treat audio content as a second-class citizen. Yet we podcasters are told we must engage with our audience socially. But… what if our social audience doesn’t care all that much about our podcast content?

In this short episode, I’m looking for a social media metric that matters to podcasters. A metric that tells us not only if our social efforts are working, but how that metric impacts the growth and health of our podcast.

It’s a frustrating search, if I’m honest.

A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/can-social-stats-track-your-podcasts-growth

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 PodcastLaunch.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.

All this talk about “downloads” isn’t helping. Unless you’re paid per download (like some shows are via advertising), you should probably care less about tracking downloads.

You’re going to hear two shocking statements in this episode:

1. Significant growth is not the natural state of podcasts.
2.  I don’t measure the success of this podcast based on downloads. 

For reals.

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A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/overcoming-download-depression-syndrome

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 PodcastLaunch.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.

This episode will help make sure your show appeals to the 25% of people who listen to podcasts regularly. 

You'd think this would be easy, as I just mentioned at the top of the program. And in fact, it is easy. Experience podcast listeners really only need to know two things to listen to your podcast:

1. The knowledge that you, in fact, have a podcast
2. The name of your podcast (and gods help you if you used funny spelling)

But there’s one thing you don’t, and in fact can’t know: how an experience podcast listener would prefer to listen to your podcast.

The tl;dr version: Submitting your show to Apple Podcast is not enough. This episode will help convince you of that. And after you’ve listened, you can share this page with others who need to get the message:  

The prior three episodes in this mini-series tackled other audiences. If you missed them, here’s a quick listening guide: 

• Making listening easy on people who discovered your podcast through word of mouth but have no idea what podcasting is. 
• What happens when you drive someone to your show's website and that person knows nothing about podcasting. 
• Ideas on how to get more people “stumbling across” your podcast episodes, and what happens to the 75% of them who are not likely to have any experience with podcasting.

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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 PodcastLaunch.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 all of podcasting’s greatness, it’s really hard for podcast content to be “stumbled upon”. But if you’re willing to make the investment, you can buck the trend. Here’s how I do it:

1. I invest in Google-friendly content. 
2. I publish where readers are looking for written content.

In case you missed my subtleness, I’m not talking about the audio files themselves. In this episode, I make the case where investing in high-quality written content -- content that was entirely based off your audio file -- makes your podcast episodes much more discoverable.

By way of example, be sure to read the text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/turning-happy-accidents-into-a-podcast-audience

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 PodcastLaunch.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.

Turning to your contacts and other communication channels are some of the best ways to grow your podcast’s audience. However, it’s not as easy as that. In this episode, you’ll learn these harsh facts:

• 75% of the people you actively engage with in various communication channels don’t have the podcast habit.
• Less than 10% of the people in your contact list will bother to check out your podcast.

But it’s not all doom-and-gloom. The trick is a two-parter:

1. Make your contacts feel special
2. Don’t pollute their chosen channel

If you can do those things -- and yes, I will give you specific examples of what I mean -- you can not only increase your odds of turning a contact into a listener. But you’re actively working to make podcasting better.

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A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/convincing-your-contacts-to-listen-to-your-podcast

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 PodcastLaunch.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 happens if your avatar is part of the 75% who have not yet picked up the habit of listening to podcasts? This episode gives some practical advice that you should implement right away because:

• Words like “subscribe” & “follow” have no context
• They’ve no recognition of podcast app logos
• They don’t know where to go digging for a player… so don’t hide it!
• They’re less likely to forgive you for three minutes of chitter-chatter before you get to the point!

Keep in mind that three out of every four people who find your website have likely not regular podcast consumers. Three out of four. That’s the majority. Clearly, your site needs to address their needs as well as more seasoned listeners. 

Do your part to make podcasting better for them… and all of us.

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A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/design-your-podcast-for-the-75-who-dont-listen-to-podcasts

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 PodcastLaunch.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.

Hello and welcome to the Second Season of Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

If you missed the 190 episodes of season 1, don’t worry. There won’t be a quiz. And if you did catch them all, I have good news for you. Expect more of the same, only... better.

But for the new people: Podcast Pontifications is my four-times a week, short-form podcast where I, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, pontificate about podcasting.

What qualifies me to assume this role? Well… 

• I’ve been podcasting since October 14, 2004, and producing online audio for much, much longer,
• I’m the author of both Podcasting for Dummies and Expert Podcasting Practices For Dummies,
• I founded a podcast distribution network made up of over 700 shows,
• I’ve delivered keynote presentations about podcasting on three different continents, 
• ...and  I run a strategic podcast consultancy as my full-time (and only) gig.

But as proud as I am about my history with podcasting, I’m much more interested in podcasting's future. More to the point, I’ve a driving ambition to “advance” the cause of podcasting, to make podcasting... better. 

Better for listeners. Better for creators. And better for the podcast hosting companies, app developers, directories, and curators who connect us all together.

Season Two of Podcast Pontifications will be focused on just that: ways to make podcasting... better. Better right now, and better in the future. 

This is not a how-to podcast… podcast. This isn’t really even a podcast about podcasting. It’s a podcast for working podcasters. At least, working podcasters who also have a vested interest in making the next fifteen years of podcasting... better.

Because we need to make podcasting better, not just easier. 

New episodes will drop starting in July of 2019 every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Thanks in advance for listening to Podcast Pontifications, with me, Evo Terra, available now at Podcast Pontifications.com. Cheers!

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.

An old boss once told me (and it’s proven out true) that work expands to fill the time allotted for it. That’s probably why I’m a fan of artificial constraints. It keeps me focused.

The same probably goes for your podcast. You probably have a constrained amount of time you spend on each episode. Well… what if you didn’t?

In this episode, I challenge you to consider what kind of show you could put out if you had nearly unlimited time. No, not just an incremental bit of extra time you could (and probably should) dedicate to various aspects of your podcast production process. But how would your show change if you could spend 5x the amount of time on it?

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A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/will-time-change-your-podcast

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 PodcastLaunch.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.

Growth at all costs is a big mantra in the startup world. But does it make sense for your podcast?

• Get a copy of David Hooper’s book, Build A Big Podcast: https://amzn.to/2KV4qr8

This episode questions the wisdom of “growth at all costs” by taking a look at best-case and worst-case scenarios of growing your show into the top 20% of all podcasts.

For most of us, it’s not quite as lucrative as you might think. And for a good number of us, it might result in unforeseen business challenges down the road.

So what do you do instead of focusing on growth? Build a better podcast, of course!

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A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/should-you-grow-a-big-podcast-or-work-to-build-a-better-one

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 PodcastLaunch.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.