Podcast Pontifications

A little digging into your podcast’s stats will show a good number of your listeners are… well, fickle. Before you can convert them to loyal listeners, you have to get them listening to more episodes.

Busy People Listen As Busy People Listen

Harsh reality time: A good percentage of your listeners don't and will never listen to every single episode you publish. If you’re wondering why your stats are different from episode to episode, this is why...

In which I reflect back on the 123 episodes of Season 3 of Podcast Pontifications I’ve produced thus far, to examine the changes I’ve put in place for myself. Because if I’m not taking my own advice, how much is that advice worth?

Here’s a non-exhaustive list:

1. Inside-out episode planning

2. New branding

3. New website design

4. Corrected transcriptions

5. New PPIYI provider

6. I switched to Sanka tea

7...

Podcasters put a lot of effort into building portfolios, media kits, websites, social shares, and myriad other ways to say “these are the things I do!”. But each of those highlighting efforts exists, at least in part, outside of podcasting. And when a listen-to-this example of your very fine work is given, it’s rarely in situ and is instead almost always provided outside of the full podcast experience...

Unless you’re a famous celebrity, you need to be able to quickly and clearly communicate the uniqueness of your podcast. 

But In my experience, a lot of podcast hosts out there don't know what their show is about. They know the mechanics, obviously. They know the pieces and the features that make up their show. But they don’t know what it is that makes their show special. Or at least they’re unable to properly articulate what makes their show special...

To me, I equate happiness to contentment. That’s not the same thing as complacency, which is to be avoided. What makes me content about my podcasting journey may not be (and likely will not be) the same thing that makes you content about your podcasting journey. We both have to chart our own paths toward happiness and contentment...

Last night was the Ambies, the annual awards ceremony from The Podcast Academy, of which I am a dues-paying member. If you work in the podcasting industry, you’re probably familiar with the list of winners and nominees. But I’d wager that the average weekly podcast listener wouldn’t be able to say the same.

The “screw you, big media!” mentality didn’t seem to hold true among the winners last night, with professional production houses and networks taking home multiple Ambies...

If it isn’t abundantly clear, I have more than a passing interest in making podcasting better, not just easier. Oftentimes, podcasters who listen to or read my words are inspired to take some concepts back to their show, making their own podcasts better. 

In no particular order, here are 9 ways you can give back to podcasting and make podcasting better

1. Write a niche newsletter

2. Buy something advertised on a smaller podcast

3...

Today’s article is not about mental health, but it is adjacent. Before continuing, realize I am not a psychologist. If you have a personality disorder, are in therapy, or are working in any capacity with a professional mental health provider, do what they say. Not this yokel. 

There's a lot that we can change about our podcasts we feel like we need a change...

Podcasting is in a period of accelerated growth. As of this morning, Podcast Index is tracking close to 4 million shows. And nearly a quarter of a million of them were published in only the last ten days. More articles about podcasting are appearing in mainstream media. More consolidation is happening internally, and companies outside of podcasting are investing money to get in. 

All of that means more opportunities are abundant for all of us podcasters...

Would it surprise you to learn the most popular podcast listening app, as reported by actual listeners, is not Apple Podcasts or Spotify, but actually YouTube? 

Yes, your podcast’s analytics package reports something quite different. That’s mostly due to differences in accounting between listening platforms and the podcast industry’s obsession with the pointless metric of “download”...