Podcast Pontifications

Podcasting is 15 years old now. And while you still might drive a 15-year-old car and think nothing of it, consider this: teenagers who were in the first wave of podcasters are now in their 30s.

Yeah.

Even if you don’t find it all that challenging to keep up with the changes in the technology of podcasting, you might find it more difficult to keep up with the changes in attitudes and expectations. Because the world we’re podcasting into has changed A LOT in those 15 years.

That’s a big part of why the Advancing Podcasting Party was started. And why we need your help. You should join us at AdvancingPodcasting.xyz

--

A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/can-old-podcasting-dogs-learn-new-tricks

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.

TAKE NOTE: AdvancingPodcast.xyz is now live. Yes, you should sign up if you have an interest in making podcasting better, not just easier.

Unless you’re part of a big network or have a big ad budget, your podcast will only grow if people share it. Sadly, far too many podcasters -- even big ones -- fail to include share-friendly links. That makes it hard for me to share your excellent content.

No, I’m not sharing a link to the episode inside the app I’m using. I don’t want to force my social followers to change their habits! I want a website to share. That’s a “permalink”, and it’s built into the podcasting spec.

And far too many aren’t using it. Hence my appeal for you to fix that. Yes, on all of your old episodes. Because you want your show to grow, right?

--

A text-based and totally-re-written-for-reading version of this episode can be found at: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/sharing-is-caring-about-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.

Announcing the official launch of the Advancing Podcasting Party! No, we’re not running for office. But we are working to make podcasting better. And we need your help!

Here’s what we believe:

• We believe that technology should make podcasting better, not just easier.
• We believe that new models are required to bring the 78% of non- and infrequent listeners into the fold.
• We believe in and respect the inherent choices made by podcast listeners, podcast creators, and podcast enablers.

But talk is cheap, and it’s time for us to start working toward those goals. We’re going to start with a series of lightweight tools that any working podcaster can use -- with their current setup! -- to make their own podcast better.

Want to join us? We’re looking for talented developers, designers, and others who also share a deep love of podcasting.

We’re not trying to create a new podcast hosting company.

We’re not trying to build a huge unicorn startup that disrupts podcasting as we know it.

… and we need your help. Get in touch with me if that sounds interesting, OK? [email protected] reaches me.

-----

Get more here: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/the-advancing-podcasting-party-wants-you

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.

As I was watching today’s SpaceX launch “webcast”, I found a few lessons that I think are applicable to podcasters. The population of the world breaks into two classes: People who've watched a space X launch and those who have not. If you have, you know they are a lot of fun to watch. But if you haven't, that's okay too!

1. You're not making your podcast content for everyone. You're only making content for the people who are interested in the topic that you have to discuss.
2. Make sure that you talk in normal language and explain what needs to be explained.
3. Go ahead and fly your geek flag when you need to. Done right, it’s infectious!

Even if you’re in the “never watched a SpaceX launch” set, I hope you’ll pick up something from this bit of content. And if you need help with your podcast or need someone on your team with big ideas around podcasting, it’s what I do four times a week for you and all other times for my clients. Get in touch.

-----

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.

I hear from a lot of companies who present this as their business plan:

Make great content > Attract a huge audience > See huge profits.

As great as that sounds, it doesn’t prove out. Why? Because it’s not a business plan. It’s a description of their podcasting aspirations.

But it’s a good start.

Making great content takes more than a good idea. It takes time, money, resources, and the ability to execute on great ideas.

Attracting a large audience frames the problem incorrectly. While audiences are attracted to great content, great content doesn’t have magnetic properties over distance. Instead, you have to get your content in front of people. And that takes time, money, resources, and the ability to execute a quality marketing/advertising campaign.

And the profit window -- at least from advertising -- might be closing. It’s only a matter of time before the honeymoon is over and advertisers demand results. That’s what makes tools like Glow interesting -- a diversified income stream.

Making money with podcasting requires a business plan. Do you have one? Perhaps I can help. Get in touch.

-----

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.

If your podcast is more than a year old, you should have two things “dialed-in”:

• Your comfortable behind the mic (or you fake it well enough)
• You’ve built an audience (small or large) and have acquired “regular” listeners

With those two things in place, you can ask yourself a single question:

Why am I doing this?

Chances are, the purpose of your podcast has little to do with the cash and time you spend on your show. And you know what? That’s OK. Because it’s your time and your money, and you get to spend it how you want.

But I am genuinely curious as to the purpose behind your podcasting efforts. After you’ve listened to this episode, please send me a quick email or a tweet that tells me your purpose, OK? It’s my birthday wish to you. (Yes, it really is my birthday today!)

-----

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.

It's been a wild-and-crazy week in the podcasting world. No, make that a wild-and-crazy six months. Though an argument could be made that we’ve been in the midst of wild-and-crazy for more like 18 months. 

For the better part of two years, the podcasting landscape has seen a huge number of changes. You probably find it all quite exhausting. You probably find it very difficult to focus on these crazy changes and do the things you need to do every day to keep your business running smoothly.

I get it. I feel your pain. Literally.

That's why I said at the beginning of this episode, “do you need a break?” Because I need a break, at least for the day. And since this is Thursday, it’s a good day to take that break.

I'll be back on Monday, refreshed and rethinking, ready to pontificate on what the next changes might be, or how recent changes might impact our world in the future. And next Monday is my birthday, so I might come up with something special. Sort of a “happy birthday” from me to you, which is backward, I know.

Enjoy the rest of your day. I shall be back on Monday with yet another Podcast Pontifications 

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.

You may have missed the news, but search is about to work in podcasting. Apple recently announced a magnificent upgrade to searching inside the Apple Podcasts app (yes, I’ve talked about this before). If you missed that too, Apple will soon churn through the actual contents of podcast audio files to serve up relevant episodes of a podcast. 

Google is also “transcribing” the contents of your podcast’s episodes behind the scenes and is serving up playable podcast episodes on search engine results pages. 

(Nota bene: We’re seeing just the beginnings of these efforts, and I’ll return to the topic of what we podcasters think we want out of search vs the way search engines think about search results vs why people would turn to search engines when looking for podcasted content at another time.)

Along with that, brand new developments are surfacing around the curation of content. While it’s true that people have been curating podcasted content for a long time, curated lists are coming to podcast listening apps. Spotify is running a pilot test right now to expose a sampling of users to curated playlists of podcasts, though it’s not clear if those are podcast episodes or entire podcasts. 

This makes a lot of sense for Spotify. I would argue that curated playlists are something that makes Spotify so popular for music listening. It’s oftentimes easier to grab a curated playlist rather than selecting your own list of individual albums or individual songs throughout the day. Can that same thing apply to podcasts? Will a curated playlist of episodes work better than a playlist of entire podcast contents? Again, I want to reserve that for a deeper dive once we’ve seen these lists in action.

Let’s look at this from the perspective of efforts just like these that have dominated content marketing discussions for a very long time. So take off your podcasting hat for a moment consider the larger digital marketing space. 

When it comes to discovery of any digital content, search has to be part of the strategy. Probably the lion’s share, because a lot of activity takes place on a search engine. 

Also quite common in content marketing is the “listicle”: an article published on the web that is little more than a list. LIke “the top 10 places to get a great doughnut in Phoenix”. I have searched for that. And I have found that. And I have consumed doughnuts at many of the establishments that made it on that listicle. 

So listicles definitely work. But all too often, they kind of suck.

For as easy they are to make, it’s very difficult to gauge their quality. This problem plagues the travel blogging industry, a world I dabbled in for a number of years when I was traveling abroad. But it’s not just travel blogging that has problems with listicles. It’s everywhere. The problem is so bad that years ago, our friends at Google decided to devalue many listicles -- link farms, we called them back in the day. Low-value, thin-content pieces that aren’t serving anyone. It's hard for an average person to determine whether or not that list is of value or not. 

With this perspective, are these new podcast discovery methods boiling down to listicles versus search?

Will search engines be good at surfacing podcast content?

When people are looking for something to listen to, do they want a list of podcasts to choose from or just one that fits that need?

And is anyone likely to specifically search for podcast content on a search engine? And how will web-based search engines determine if that was someone’s intent?

I'm interested to see what happens when these new curated lists show up inside of an app. I'm even more curious to see how the app decides rate and rank the quality of these curated lists. 

I wonder how search results that contain podcast episodes will work at scale, and how that might change the way we think about podcast discovery. 

If you're looking for someone to help guide you through the podcasting process for your business, either your existing podcast or by starting a brand new one, that’s what we do at Simpler Media. Please get in touch. [email protected] reaches me, and you can go to PodcastLaunch.pro to see a list of all the services we currently offer our clients. 

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

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.

Wow,  but are the podcast-aware Twitter people, Facebook groups, Discord channels, Slack workspaces and seemingly everywhere else going wild. The speculation about what Apple might say leading up to the event was rampant. And after yesterday's 2.5-hour long keynote event, a lot of that speculation was confirmed. 

Today, I want to give you, the working podcaster, some specific advice as to what you should change about your podcast. So skip the speculation and guessing. Because I have the answers you are looking for. If you missed the keynote speech for Apple’s WWDC19, I’m about to give you the highlights from that speech with very exact steps you need to take to ready your podcast for this brave new world.

Are you ready? You might want to take notes because it’s a little complicated. 

Nothing. 

[checks notes] 

Well, yeah. That... That's what I have written down here. Nothing. 

Not that there weren't big announcements made at the event. Clearly, there were big announcements, and many of those announcements made at WWDC19 will certainly impact podcasting. 

But probably* don't need to change anything for your show. No, you really don't. 

This is not the first time you've heard that Apple was making changes, right? We, the podcast pundits, have been talking about this basic fact for some 20 months or longer. Yesterday was just (looked at through a very narrow lens) just validation of our speculation.

But there were some very cool things announced at WWDC19. Three, I think, are most germane to podcasters.

The release of the new operating system for Mac computers, mobile devices, and more signals the end of iTunes. In its place will be three new (?) apps, one for each type of content. Music will be in Apple Music. TV & video content will be in Apple TV. And podcasts will be in Apple Podcasts. Yes, just like on your iPhone. But with Catalina, that will be mirrored on Mac computers as well. 

This is causing lots of podcasters to freak out. But as I covered on yesterday’s program, links to the old iTunes ecosystem will all translate into Apple’s new Apple Podcasts system. At least for a while. It's only a matter of time before those redirects are phased out, so just get it done now and not be surprised later, OK?

While you're in there, do the links from your website really still say iTunes? Really? Seriously? In June 2019? It’s been almost two years since Apple started telling all of us to stop calling it iTunes. If you were a holdout because “hey, some people still use iTunes”, that excuse is going away, along with the words “iTunes”. So change it. Now.

Search sucks on Apple Podcasts. And has always sucked. At the keynote, they announced the new Apple Podcasts experience will use AI and machine learning to take a completely different approach to solving their own search problem. 

Rather than doing basic (oh, so basic) word-matching in a limited number (read: two) fields, artificial brains inside Apple Podcats will be churning through the actual audio files of podcast episodes, using machine learning and AI-powered robots in some virtual back room, effectively documenting every word you say on your show (that’s your cue to freak out, privacy-wonks). No, we humans probably won’t be able to read these transcriptions. But Apple does plan on using these robot-readable transcriptions to make Apple podcast search better.

In theory, the new search results inside Apple Podcasts should return results based on the actual spoken contents of the audio. And you need do nothing about this for what I hope are obvious reasons. Sure, maybe you want to be a little more strategic in the actual words you utter during your episodes. But in all honesty, you should already be making the kinds of content people are looking for, talking about that content in the same way other people talk about it. But don't try and think of ways to “keyword stuff” your audio. Please?

I may be getting excited over nothing, but I saw a new enhancement for Apple Music that I hope they also add to Apple Podcasts. So note: This is pure speculation on my part. But if Apple Music can display lyrics to songs as you are listening to that song, they can do something similar for Apple Podcasts.

This could mean that read-as-you-listen text -- a complete transcription, highlights, extra info, etc. --  presented right on the screen. Of course, we’ll have to provide that text. No, the machine-interpreted data Apple’s computer brains generate isn’t going to cut it in this form. If Apple does support this, it’ll mean you need to do a better job of crafting the “show notes” that go inside your episodes. Not the “show notes” that act as a landing page on your website for that particular episode, but the text you place inside of the episode itself. 

To recap, there’s nothing you, the working podcast, need to do to prep for Apple’s coming changes. Well, probably nothing. Unless you do need to make an adjustment to that whole “iTunes” situation you should have done months ago. So go do that.

If you need help doing that (or other things), get in touch with me, because I would love to help you, your business, your podcast take advantage of all the new things coming down the pipe. That's what I do. Email me at [email protected] and go to PodcastLaunch.pro to see a list of all the services we offer our clients.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications. 

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.

This content was created just before the big WWDC -- World Wide Developers Conference -- from Apple kicked off. All around the world, podcasters just like you (and me) will be watching live to see how the company that controls something like 85% of all podcast episodes downloaded around the world will change podcasting. Again.

Over the weekend, The most talked-about assumed change was that iTunes is going away and what sorts of changes podcasters would need to implement on their website -- quickly! -- to preserve their listeners after this dreaded change.

Two things on that:

1. Yes, you should change your website, podcaster, especially if you reference iTunes in any way. Get rid of any reference to iTunes everywhere on your website. You know, like Apple and anyone worth their salt in the podcast world has been telling you for the better part of the last two years?  
2. Calm down. Apple is not a stupid company. When they do kill off iTunes, they aren’t going to start throwing 404 errors when people click on your legacy links to iTunes. They’ll all redirect to Apple Podcasts. At least for a while. But even if they do work, you should change them. See #1.

So yes, make the changes. But before get in there to make the changes, let’s talk about a way to improve the experience for the brand new listener. Because maybe those big company-provided “listen with [app]” aren’t as helpful as you might think?

Both Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts have given podcasters branding guidelines of how they would like us to represent their apps on our pages. You've probably seen a consistently branded “Listen with Apple Podcasts” button and a “Listen with Google Podcast” button podcast websites. Those all look the same because Apple and Google (and a bunch of other apps) provide the button for easy integration.

I think it's time to reconsider our reliance on those auto-generated buttons. Specific to our consideration: Are those auto-generated buttons helping our listeners, or just helping big tech companies with their branding efforts?

When Apple finally kills iTunes, they’ll put a lot (at least I hope so) of marketing effort into the brand change. If Apple starts “advertising” Apple Podcasts, more people will be aware of Apple Podcasts. And in turn, the logic is that they’ll start looking for the Apple Podcasts branding. Because that’s how branded advertising works.

But I don’t think that’s a likely scenario. I just don’t see your average person having any recall around “Apple Podcasts” or “Google Podcasts” as an app. Not anytime soon.

Also, I don’t think it's incumbent upon podcasters to do the work of running branding campaigns for big tech companies. Our primary focus should be on our listeners, making it easy for them to consume our content. And for the ~70% who don’t listen on a regular basis, talking up “Apple Podcasts” and “Google Podcasts” isn’t leading them to giving your podcast a shot.

So let’s shift who we’re working for, podcasters. Until such time as Apple or Google (or someone else) puts out a significant branding campaign that leads to high awareness and recall of their branded apps, let’s tie the listening experience to brands they are familiar with.

~85% of all podcast episodes are downloaded directly to a mobile device. Create two buttons for your website (I’m working on this today) that reference either “iPhone” or “Android”. Perhaps something as simple as “Listen on your iPhone” and “Listen on your Android” does the trick, where the first links to your show’s listing on Apple Podcasts, and the second to Google Podcasts.

I’d present these two options first. Every reasonable person can easily sort themselves into those two buckets. (We’ll cover the exceptions in a moment.) And there’s no uncertainty that comes with thinking about installing another app (even if they don’t actually have to install it).

That means that Spotify and Pandora. Remember, we’re designing this experience for people who don’t yet listen to podcasts on a regular basis. So I really don’t care -- and you don’t care -- if there are more superior listening apps than these two music giants. What you care about is letting users of these music giants that your content is already included in the listening service they already use.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who never listen to anything on their mobile device that isn’t a live phone call. Weird, right? On the opposite side, there are power-listeners with complex listening apps that you can’t possibly cover. So we need to take care of both of them, and I think you can do it in the same section.

First, you need to make it possible for people to subscribe to your show via email. They give you their email, and you (via automated process unless you have way too much time on your hands) send them an episode of your podcast every time you publish.

For the second group, you need to expose the raw RSS feed to them. I highly recommend doing so in a text-field so that it’s not clickable. For many, seeing raw XML in their browser is terrifying. But you can’t click-thru on text in a text field, you can only copy it. Genius, I know.

Properly implemented, now you’ve covered mobile-listeners who don't on the regular, added support for the two most popular listening apps, and provided uncommon options for the people who just would rather listen to your content some other way.

That's what I'm working on this week. If you're a client of mine, that means all new stuff for you and some changes. We'll help you implement these changes, obviously, because it's what I do.

If you’re a business owner or a professional service provider looking for help getting your company or brand into podcasting, get in touch. You're the kind of client we work with. [email protected] or go to PodcastLaunch.pro to see a list of all of the services we offer our clients.

I shall be back tomorrow for another Podcast Pontifications.

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.