Podcast Pontifications

It's the rare podcaster who doesn't want more engagement or feedback from their listeners. But getting people to do so has been historically hard. Maybe the incentives need to change?

Many podcasters try to get their listeners to leave a voicemail. And it's an incredible pain in the butt to do so!

PodInbox is trying to change all that. They're using the power of voice—both for the listener and the podcaster—to actually increase podcast engagement. PodInbox is the Branded Benefit Sponsor for today's episode, and founder Pat Cheung told me how he's designed PodInbox to make podcasting better, with things like:

• A dedicated "page" for each podcaster where fans go and interact by leaving audio messages
• All messages are public to make it a little bit more fun and give a social atmosphere to leaving messages.
• This one-ups public reviews, because podcasters can reply to each message left by a listener.
• The process is dead simple, with no need for separate apps or clunky plugins, making it a breeze for the podcaster to share the message on their podcast if they choose
• Soon, Pat and team will add some monetization options to boost messages

I'm pretty excited about the idea of making messages left via voicemails public. This concept might be the better reviews we've all been looking for.

Want to give it a try? Enter "Evo" into the promo code box at sign up you'll save 30%. That gets you a PodInbox page for less than six bucks a month.

Want to see it in action? There's a PodInbox page for Podcast Pontifications! 

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Links

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 
• Get a PodInbox account for your podcast
• Founder, Pat Cheung 
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.

Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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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.

https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/writing-your-way-to-a-successful-podcast

Did you make a resolution to get more serious about your podcast? If so, I've what may seem like an odd place to focus: copywriting.

Why writing? Because we collectively need to "grow up" when it comes to making our podcast episodes. We need to be less lazy and stop propagating the myth that all we have to do is get the audio right and everything else will take care of itself. 

That's not enough anymore.

To help illustrate the point I'm making, consider the performance of the last episode I released before I went on my Long Winter's Nap at the end of last year. That episode outperformed my "average" episode performance by about 15% or so. So far so good!

But why stop there? If you only have a Pod.link or LinkTr.ee to give out, you're kinda stuck. But if you have a webpage, you're not.

My webpage for that episode was viewed nearly as many times as the podcast episode was downloaded. That's great! You could argue that some of those webpage views were also listeners. Maybe. But the average time on page for that page was 4.5 minutes. That's more than just a quick click-through.

But why stop there? Why not let people subscribe to your webpages? I do it with a newsletter.

The newsletter edition I sent out for the episode we're talking was opened and read by about half of the number of people who read the webpage. But that's a good thing, because it likely means those views are all additive.

But why stop there? Why not condense that article down to a couple hundred words and format it social shares? Copy/paste if you can get away with it. Or use a nifty service like Chirr App to break it into a Twitter thread.

For the episode we're talking about, the social reach was in the thousands and the engagement numbers in the hundreds, easily tripling the combined reach of the audio, article, and newsletter. 

Let me be explicit: serious podcasters take all aspects of their podcast seriously, including copywriting. 

If you want your podcast to be taken seriously, then get serious about the entirety of your podcast production process. That includes excellent writing.

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Links

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 
• Almost 4.5 billion podcast feeds
• The episode of Podcast Pontifications under review
• Use Chirr App for cool Twitter threads
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.

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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.

Nearly twenty years in, and many podcasters still have trouble thinking of podcasting as an industry. But our problem does not plague cash-flush brands looking to enter our industry. Who's perspective will win out? 

Image credit: Grand View Research

Do you know the value of the podcasting industry? 

You heard people talk about the $1 billion U.S.-based podcasting is projected to earn from advertising income this year. Make that almost $1.4 billion if you look at the rest of the world too.

But that's just advertising income. What about the money podcasters spend, from buying new mics or other equipment, paying our hosting providers, hiring staff or contracting with freelancers, or paying our way to attend a few podcast conferences.

Who do you consider as the big players in the podcasting industry?

Apple, Spotify, maybe Wondery...the usual suspects. But not TuneIn or Soundcloud, right? You, like me, probably don't consider them influential in the "true" podcasting industry, right?

Our answers to both of those equations are incomplete because we're on the inside looking in.

For big brands and industries on the outside looking to invest heavily in podcasting need a more complete perspective.

When they look at the size of the opportunity in podcasting, they see our industry with an estimated value of $14 billion. Not $1.4.

They absolutely consider many companies we've collectively decided to poo-poo, like TuneIn and Soundcloud, as integral parts of the $14 billion podcasting industry.

So...should we care? Does it matter that fat-cats are basing the value of our industry off a handful of reports thick with cringe-inducing statements written by analytics with little understanding of what it means to be a podcaster?

Hell yes, we should!

We need to know what those outside looking in find so appealing about podcasting. Because as the podcasting industry appears more appealing, we'll see more interest, more money, more content, and yes, even more listeners.

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Links

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 
• 2021 IAB podcast advertising revenue $1B
• 2021 global podcast advertising revenue $1.37B
• 2021 overall podcast industry marketing size $1.4B
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.

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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.

My Long Winter's Nap is over, and the podcasting landscape has never looked brighter. And maybe a little different? No, a lot different. I'm convinced the changes are just getting started. Hold onto your butts!

I'm back, baby! As happens some significant changes have happened to my relationship with podcasting while I was been away. All positive! 

Let me start with the one that has the biggest impact on more than just me: I am no longer an advisor to Captivate.fm because Captivate was acquired by Global, a leading UK media company!

Podcast Pontifications shall remain hosted on Captivate, as it's a great service with phenomenal UX and a forward-thinking leadership team. But that does mean I'm now free of conflicts if you're seeking out a new member to join your podcast-related company's advisory board. Brad.

Next is that I'm hosting yet another podcast about podcasting! No, I'm not building a publishing empire like Dave Jackson. But I am taking over hosting duties for 3 Clips, a role previously filled by the person who started the show back in late 2019, Jay Acunzo. Thanks to the fine folks at Castos for choosing me to handle Season 2. 

3 Clips is a lot of fun and a very different show from Podcast Pontifications. 3 Clips and Podcast Pontifications are complimentary shows, I think. Subscribe/follow at 3ClipsPodcast.com and see if you agree. 

Finally comes some changes to how I produce and publish Podcast Pontifications. Starting now, I'll no longer write, record, produce, and release each episode, article, and issue promotional shares in a real-time, four-hour block four days a week.

Yes, that's insane. No, I don't recommend it.

Instead, I'm working ahead, like a sane person. Sadly, that means no more live recordings. Sorry to disappoint Betty, Arlen, Kevin, and maybe three or four other regular watchers who enjoyed my daily live tapings. Hopefully, better episodes will make up for it! 

Those three really big changes for me personally are indicative of what's to come for all of us in 2022. Expect more acquisition and consolidation this year. Expect your favorite podcast hosts to launch or host additional podcasts. 

Those factors, plus the huge influx of advertising dollars, new namespace changes, and creative people clawing back from two years struggling with a pandemic that just won't go away... 2022 is going to be a wild year for podcasters. I hope you're ready. 

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Links

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 
• Captivate.fm 
• Captivate was acquired by Global, a leading UK media company!
• Brad Tirpak, CEO of Libsyn
• James Cridland 
• Daniel J. Lewis
• Jordan Harbinger
• 3 Clips, a Castos Original podcast
• Jay Acunzo
• Betty Dannewitz
• Kevin Patton
• Spotify has $3.5 billion dollars earmarked for acquisitions this year

Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.

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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.

No, my Long Winter's Nap is not yet over. Almost. Just a few more weeks. I promise! 

While you wait, I wanted to let you know about another podcast for podcasters that I think you'll be interested in. Podcraft is the show I'm featuring today, and it's designed to help you to create a better podcast. Your hosts are Colin Grey and Matthew McLain from The Podcast Host, an organization helping folks all around the world start and grow a successful podcast since 2007.

The episode I've selected is one that details a great content creation hack for podcasters, but one that actually works. I even use this technique myself from time to time. So keep listening to this episode of Podcraft, and I'll be back right after the first of the year. Promise! 

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.

My long winters nap is soon coming to an end - just a few more weeks! Today, want to let you know about another podcast I think you'll be interested in. Between 2 Mics is the podcast for podcasters presented by the cofounders of Squadcast and friends of the show; Zach and Rock.

What I love most about Between 2 Mics is that it's not a 30-minute long pitch for Squdcast. Instead, it's podcasters talking podcasting, with fun tips and tricks along the way.

The episode I'm about to play features another friend of the show, Andrew Wang, host of the podcast, Inspired Money and the co-founder of the Asian-American Podcasters Association.  I think you'll like it. 

See you in a couple of weeks! Now here's the full episode of Between 2 Mics.

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.

Like all creators, serious podcasters need to take care of themselves. Sometimes that means taking time for yourself. Sometimes it means adjusting priorities to make the creative process better. I'm doing both! 

Hello and welcome to the announcement of my Long Winter's Nap away from Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra!

If you're brand new to the podcast; welcome! This is a very special episode letting you know what long-time listeners of the show know already: I'm on a scheduled mid-season break. That means you'll not hear a new episode of Podcast Pontifications until January 4th, 2022.

Yes, I know that sounds like an incredibly long time. But I assure you; it's not. So pretty please, with sugar on it, stick around. New episodes will resume shortly. 

In the meantime, my full back catalog of over 500 episodes are on display for you PodcastPontifications.com. If you click on the "Episodes about" link at the top of the page, you'll see I've grouped all of them together for you by category.

So if you want to think more about podcast accessibility, I have lots of episodes for you to explore.Or perhaps you want to bone up on current thinking around listener experience. That's always important. And you'll even find episodes there that'll help you think through ways to take care of yourself as a podcaster.

Speaking of self-care once again, that's why I take this mid-season break each and every year. Putting out daily episodes of my podcast is a job. It's a fun job, but it's also a hard job. And just one of the jobs that I have. So a scheduled season break is warranted.

And just so we're clear: I'm not really napping during this time. I'm actively recording new content so that when January 4th 2022 rolls around, I'll have a wealth of episodes ready to get to you without delay.

So again, don't worry if you do not hear from me for the next few weeks. That'll change soon enough and soon I'll be back to giving you plenty to think about as you work on making podcasting better. 

So once again, I shall be back on January 4th, 2022 with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Get more podcasting insights from Evo Terra on Twitter as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at PodcastPontifications.com/value-4-value.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

Podcast Pontifications publishes four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about.

Photo by Blake Meyer on Unsplash

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 said that money can’t buy happiness. Well...it can’t buy podcast listeners either, according to the data generated from a Facebook Ad experiment I funded for 76 days and have just terminated. 

Over the last 2.5 months, I spent $360 of my hard-earned cash on Facebook Ads to prove something I already knew: Facebook Ads are not a great choice for podcasters looking to grow the audience of their podcasts.

But to get my negativity and bias out of the mix, I contracted with a firm that specializes in running Facebook Ad campaigns for podcasters with the express purpose of attaining dramatic audience growth. 

Spoiler: It didn’t work.

My $360 bought me about 500 clicks. Does that mean 500 new listeners?

In a word—no. 

In four words—no, of course not.

Using the high-end of a standard conversion rate, 500 clicks might be as many as 10 new listeners.

10 new listeners for $360 dollars. An acquisition cost of $36 per new listener. That’s terribly expensive.

So after 76  days of ad spend with no indications anything would change for the better, I pulled the plug. 

So why did I spend $360 on a tactic I knew wouldn’t work? Mostly so that I could demonstrate to you, the serious podcaster, that it is highly unlikely that a Facebook Ad campaign will grow your podcast audience by any meaningful degree. Not if you look past clicks, one-time-download numbers, or any metric other than the one that matters: Is my show’s audience growing?

My advice. Don’t waste your money.

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Links:

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 

• The experiment begins - https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/time-for-podcast-advertising-to-put-up-or-shut-up

• The dataset - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LzMvxhOH8UYKDIwhztaXPnBLCHtzIJYMhnq9j8pgvDE

• Give value for value for the show! - https://podcastpontifications.com/value-4-value

• Now booking sponsorships for 2022! - https://podcastpontifications.com/sponsor

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/facebook-ads-for-podcasts-good-money-after-bad-math.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at https://PodcastPontifications.com/support

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit https://Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about. Subscribe/follow today at https://PodcastPontifications.com.

Photo by Barefoot Communications on Unsplash

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.

Celebrity podcasts are killing it, and plenty of podcasters wonder if there’s a secret to podcasting like a celebrity. As it turns out, there is! But is it relevant to podcasters who aren’t celebrities?

Even seasoned podcasters can be caught up in the hype surrounding celebrity podcasters. Some look for shortcuts, seeing how listeners don’t seem to mind the low-quality, often rambly episodes put out by celebrity podcasters. 

So today, on the penultimate episode before I go on my mid-season break I’m going to detail five tips to help you podcast like a celebrity.  Try not to let your eyes roll out of your head.

1. Actually be a celebrity! With throngs of fans who care little for the skills necessary to make make a good podcast.

But you’re not a celebrity, which means you have to do plenty of work to compete for attention among people who aren’t your fans.

2. Already have a huge audience! An audience of ardent fans who’ll dutifully spread the show through fandom like a wildfire.

But you don’t have a built-in huge audience, so you’ll probably find it hard to get word of mouth working for you en masse.

3. Have lots of disposable income to spend on staff and paid services! Writing checks and offloading every responsibility lets you focus just on being the talent on your show.

But you’re not sitting on millions of extra dollars, so you have to control your costs.

4. Be connected to other celebrities for instant network effect! Your other celebrity friends will happily let you on their show so you can spread the word about your new podcast.

But your connections are a bit more mundane, so you’ll have to build relationships more slowly.

5. Get national media coverage with a phone call! That magazine, paper, or news program is just waiting for your call to give you prime coverage.

But your name isn’t instantly recognizable, so you’ll likely find it hard to get even a local news outlet interested in your podcast.

In case I was too subtle: There’s very little podcasters can learn from celebrity podcasters, unless they themselves are also celebrities.

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Links:

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 

• Give value for value for the show! - https://podcastpontifications.com/value-4-value

• Now booking sponsorships for 2022! - https://podcastpontifications.com/sponsor

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/podcast-like-a-celebrity-with-5-easy-tips.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at https://PodcastPontifications.com/support

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit https://Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about. Subscribe/follow today at https://PodcastPontifications.com.

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

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.

Streaming services like Apple TV+ are changing how television and movie content are created, consumed, and classified as successful or not. Changes an agile medium like podcasting can learn from.

I’ve been watching a lot of Apple TV+ recently. And as I am wont to do, I’m relating a lot of what I see to podcasters like you and me. Specifically, I think there are four key lessons Apple TV+ can teach podcasters and podcasting in general.

1. Make a manageable amount of bets. You don’t have to always have something new. You can instead learn a new genre, go deep in that genre, and then do it all over again. 

Podcasters with a network get the most benefit here. But some of this lesson may be useful for single-show podcasters planning out new episodes.

2. Invest for the audience you have. You probably can’t afford to drop $200M on a show that only gets a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Call that a flop if you like. But it’s a flop that seven million people really enjoy. Seven million people who want more shows just like that, please and thank you.

3. Implement diversification of creativity. Apple TV+ doesn’t need every show to be a hit with their entire subscriber base, so they embrace and fund a wide swath of creativity. 

Where else can you create content that serves a subset of your audience? Or a new audience? A new audience who can become a consumer of your podcast?

4. Play up and to your strengths. Content aside, the shows Apple TV+ makes are stunning to watch. Very on-brand for Apple.

Podcasters like you who can consistently hit a quality note again and again with every episode or new show you make will, eventually, become known for that, building a loyal following over time.

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Boostagram Corner

Thanks to ReverendErik for the Paypal boost. Links in the next section.

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Links:

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 

• ReverendErik - https://twitter.com/arnemancy

• The Arnemancy Podcast - https://arnemancy.com/episodes

• Give value for value for the show! - https://podcastpontifications.com/value-4-value

• Now booking sponsorships for 2022! - https://podcastpontifications.com/sponsor

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/what-podcasting-can-learn-from-apple-tv.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at https://PodcastPontifications.com/support

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit https://Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about. Subscribe/follow today at https://PodcastPontifications.com.

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.