Think of it Like a Store Front

One of my hobbies is music. I remember as a young child going into or walking by a music store, and there were a few different guitars in the front window and I was like, Wow, look at those guitars! Those are awesome. And then I walked through the door into the store, and there was wall to wall guitars and I was like, holy cow. Look at this.

Now, you might be saying, Dave, that's a cute story and all but what does that have to do with podcasting?

Well, I've talked about how Apple podcast is a little confusing. And that's because there is a store view that basically people see when they search for your show.

TWO VIEWS OF APPLE

You'll have your first 300 episodes and archive one, your episodes from 301 to 600, in archive two, etc, etc. 

Why Do People Build Archives of Their Podcast?

When it comes to Apple search, the only things that come into play is:

• The title of your show.
• The title of the episode.
• The author field.

Those are the only three things that Apple currently uses when you do a search. So why are people doing an archive? Because when you get to episode 301, that first one that's no longer shown,  and is no longer being used for search results.

And so you now have, let's say you have 1000 episodes, you've been doing a daily show for years. And you've created three-plus archives of your show so that every episode can be used in search results. Really?

There's a study by Jacobs media that says 70% of most podcasters find out about other podcasts to listen to, via called word of mouth (not Apple search). 

What This Does For the Listener

• I have to subscribe to multiple feeds to get all of the episodes (where if they were in one feed, all I have to do is subscribe).

What This Does For the Podcaster

• You have to pay for additional media hosting so the archives can have their own feed.
• The archives have no built-in audience. 
• Your subscriber count is now divided between your archives instead of all under on show

For this reason, I don't believe in making archives (if you won't put them behind a firewall and sell them to your super fans). 

Need Some Help?

This episode was a tad bit more "Nerdy" than usual. If you need help, schedule a call and let's get you going in the right direction.

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