Lessons
Class Introduction
11:15 2History Lesson: Podcasting 101
05:38 3The Engine Powering Your Show
14:40 4Elements of a Strong Show
19:08 5Grow Your Audience
08:35 6Measuring Success & Setting Achievable Benchmarks
08:11 7How Do I Make Money With This?
04:20 8Who Owns Your Content?
07:08Lesson Info
Grow Your Audience
Now we've talked about kind of the top level elements of making a good show. Let's talk about growing your audience. And Dan Meisner's course is actually going to go very into depth if you want to check that one out. This is a section that I could literally spend the next eight hours on, so if we want to do that, great. But also, check out Dan's, 'cause I'm gonna move through it pretty quick. This is a shoe. We have not had any tossed yet, so I'm going to assume that we're doing okay, yes, we all good? Okay, fantastic. Podcasts are a medium based on loyalty. Make it dead simple for your most passionate fans to become word-of-mouth advocates for your show. The basics. Got a show, how do we grow it? And this is such common sense, but the friends and family list. Those early listeners, those early iTunes reviews, they are all very important. Rely on that, and if you have to, do a little bit of begging. It's a brand new show, you want to show that there is some traction around it, even if ...
you have two five-star links and one comment that says, "I'm really proud of my daughter, "she made a great podcast." (laughter) I mean, get Mom in there. Because Mom loves podcasts, and if she doesn't, then she needs to. Anything helps. Collect email addresses, that is on your website, that is one important thing to do. It is 2018, but emails and newsletters still work. Some of the most intriguing podcasts that I listen to accompany every weekly episode with a very short newsletter. It's the artwork, what we talked about, it's just kind of a neat medium for me to not have to pick up my phone. I don't know where it is. And have to look at it and see what new episodes do I have today. Anything that you can do to create that communication back and forth with your listeners is key. Work on fun interactive calls to action. I'll touch on that in just a minute. And then make it tangible. Tangible as in product. (chuckles) I was at Podcast Movement in Philadelphia two months ago and what surprised me most is it wasn't brands passing out stickers and T-shirts, it was podcasters. The number of stickers that I came home with that were people's show artwork and things about their show, it is tangible, because you are really creating something that has a following and a fan base, give them something. It's really, really simple. Stickers and pins and buttons are dirt cheap to make, and it's fun to give away. Your mom will want one. (laughter) And then your show is a unique flower, cross-pollinate. And what I mean by that is, you're growing your show. You know a friend that has a podcast. Swap things up, bring them on your show. Talk to them about their show and their podcast. Bug them and be like, "Hey, can I be on your show?" As much as you can do to cross-pollinate and get on other shows, share hosts, it creates more of an ecosystem. And that ecosystem allows other individuals to discover you and discover your show. Plus, it's just almost for me, I really like when a podcaster, a host that I trust and like and love, when they bring on another podcast host, because it just makes for interesting conversation of them basically talking about the failures and the things that they feel are doing incorrect. So kind of cross-pollinate and do as much as you can. Create a world for your fans. They are your fans, they are your listeners, let them be involved into it. Cultivate a two-way conversation. And one way that I'm going to illustrate this is Dax Shepard's show, Armchair Expert. One thing that Dax does really well is things like reading listener mail. Doing call-ins from listeners. That carries more weight than you can realize. If somebody sends you an email and they say just something about how an episode really touched me, bring them into your next episode and give them 30 seconds to talk about it. Because the exciting thing there is, not only does it create that intimate level for your show, but now they're gonna be out there telling their friends, "Hey, you gotta check out this show, because I was on it." So one thing that Dax did that was very interesting, he calls his listeners Armchairies. He sold a $2,000 mug, it's a special left-handed mug that you can see right here. (laughter) So it's a special left-handed mug used by Dax on the show. But what was really interesting is, he did sell it for a little bit more than a standard mug costs, $2,000. But all funds went to charity. And what was most exciting about that, and I'm gonna play the clip for you, is Dax actually brought on the individual and let her talk for a few minutes about buying the mug. That makes me so happy. I'm gonna sound like a gusher, well obviously I sound like a gusher if I bought a $2,000 mug-- (laughter) In the hopes you would send it forward to charity. But I believe I knew you well enough that you would. I have told so many people about this podcast. Trust me, all my friends are like, "Marry it already." (laughter) You're a one-man street team? So that just kind of gives you the example of cultivating into a conversation. That was just a very simple phone call. Somebody dialing into the show. But it also allowed you as a listener to connect with that host talking with that listener on the phone, it's very important. It goes back to the intimacy of audio. Try to build that with your listeners. Don't be talking to them, let them talk back to you as much as possible, social media, being on the show, et cetera. And then most importantly, make it easy to share. And that's not for you to share, let's make it easy for your listeners to connect with your audio and to be able to share that. So one thing I do wanna show you about the SimpleCast platform today is, we have a new tool that we've just launched in beta that comes out to the world very soon, and it is called Recast. So anybody say, familiar with Twitter and you can retweet a link. Find it and you're like, "I like that, "I'm gonna re-share it." We basically said, "What if podcasts "and retweets had a baby?" They didn't have a baby, but we built something anyway. So I'm gonna hop over here and show this to you really quick and I'm gonna do this using a fast example from a customer of ours, so this is Dribbble, if you've listened to the Dribbble podcast. And this is episode 39. And down here, this is their website, Dribbble's website. And I have the SimpleCast embed player here that lets me subscribe and share links. But one very interesting thing is, I scrub through the show and I'm like, I loved what was said at 15 minutes in. I can hit this little Recast button right there. And that button launches you in, or anybody, into this editor. And this is live on the Internet for any listener. So I as a listener now can scrub through your entire episode. I can find a moment that I really like. I can come in-- It was attracted to you-- I can preview it very loudly. (laughter) I can choose-- (laughs) I can choose the length of the clip, because I really loved what you said at five minutes in and I wanna share that. So I basically come in here and I find the clip that I want and then I hit Recast and share. In a matter of seconds, it's going to create a video, compile the frame, and see this design right here? That's controlled by the publisher. So you don't have to worry about your listeners making ugly colors and putting a random picture of their grandma up there. You set the tone for what your Recasts look like. And so that quick, I have just made a clip of a show and then that gives you this video-- A company that is making-- Which you then can download, share on Instagram, share on Twitter, iMessage to somebody. So it's a unique way to let your listeners be in control of what they care about in your show. The hardest thing with audiograms that everyone shares right now is it's typically the host who's like, "I said something really good at five minutes in, "and I'm gonna share it." Maybe I didn't like that, and I liked what he said at nine minutes in. So Recast gives you the ability then.
Ratings and Reviews
Jon
Good course, I liked the fact that it is VERY recent and therefore relevant. It's currently October 2018 and I believe this came out less than a month ago. Great information for any podcaster, new and old. Goes over some great updates in updated ios for apple podcasts as well. Thanks Brad! -Jonathan Frederick, HHH Podcast
Paola
This was extremely useful and inspiring, I recommend everyone to watch this class before all the other ones for inspiration!
Student Work
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