TPU87 – Uncommon Podcasting Lessons learned from Podcasting in 2022

How about some simple podcasting lessons that can help you grow your podcast?

Tips that work, that are slightly unconventional but are battle-tested!

This episode is about all of these podcasting lessons I learned from podcasting in 2022.

This is going to be the last episode for this year – 2022 and what better time than this to recap some of the learnings of this year.

I released about 46 episodes of the show this year after I moved to a weekly publishing schedule. There were a lot of experiments I did and there were some valuable podcasting lessons I learned.

If you are looking at starting a podcast, then these lessons, mostly unconventional because you won’t hear a lot of people talking about these, are going to help you a lot.

Podcasting Lessons that nobody talks about

There’s a lot of knowledge available online on blogs, videos, and even podcasts. A lot of these are cliché and are copied from one post to another or, from posts to videos and so on.

You won’t find a lot of practical tips that are tested out to find what works.

But what I am going to talk about today is all based on what I tested out this year.

Let’s get started.

Switch to Weekly Episodes

I increased the frequency of my show from a bi-weekly to a weekly one somewhere around February. This change had a lot of impact on me and the show.

The 3 benefits of doing this were –

Faster Growth – The increase in frequency meant more content for listeners and appearing more frequently in front of them. The obvious benefit of this was faster growth which means more downloads and listens. The show grew by about 800% this year and the audience was found more engaging.

A weekly show is always better than a bi-weekly or, monthly show especially considering the ocean of podcasts out there. A daily show can help build a following faster but can be extremely difficult to pull off.

Personal Development – A weekly show meant I was researching more, creating more, and learning more. Personally, it helped me grow a lot faster. This again is something that is a benefit.

Creating more – Another benefit of this was that I was creating almost double the content than earlier and which in turn meant that I had a lot of content to share on social media and other channels.

Downside – One of the obvious downsides to it is that you will have to create a lot of content, which means more content ideas. This in turn means more focus and more grind. You need to tread cautiously so that you don’t burn out.

Using Social Media to promote

I focused a lot on social media this year, primarily Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Facebook wasn’t something I focused on at all.

Something I observed was that while Instagram is a good place to engage with your audience, it isn’t something that can help you grow your show a lot.

And plain headliner videos that a lot of people use to promote their episodes just don’t work. You have to be extremely innovative to make it work for you.

While Twitter needs a strategy in itself to grow, Pinterest is more about idea pins these days. On Twitter, you need to continuously engage, post content, and keep interacting to grow. But it isn’t going to directly help grow your show.

You need to build an email list from Twitter and then redirect that traffic to your show. Twitter threads are the best way of building credibility. I use a tool called Zlappo to schedule all of the tweets and threads and it also helps do that for LinkedIn. My focus for 2023 is going to be LinkedIn and Twitter.

Another thing that I started was posting the Instagram Reels to YouTube and that was a good strategy. That is helping me build an audience on YouTube and it is also helping me divert that audience to my podcast.

So the 3 podcasting lessons I learned from using Social media are –

1. Use Instagram more to engage with existing listeners. Use Twitter and Pinterest to acquire new listeners.
2. Don’t spend time creating new content for social media. Use your long-form content (Podcast, Blogs, etc) and repurpose the content.
3. Include YouTube in your strategy.

Interviews Vs Solo Episodes

This year I was focused more on creating solo episodes primarily because I had to build a knowledge repository for the show.

My show was all about teaching how to start a podcast and hence this made sense from a strategy perspective.

Some of the podcasting lessons from the increased focus on SOLO episodes were –

1. Solo episodes are easier to create. Even a 10-minute episode works really well if the content is good and is focused on delivering very specific information.
2. Interviews work well if you can plan them out in batches and the time taken for it is much more. So ensure that you plan it out accordingly.
3. Services like Pod Match have worked well in finding guests but Social Media is my preferred method

Switch to Premium Paid Podcast Host

In the second quarter of the year, I decided to move from Hubhopper which is a free podcasting platform to a paid podcast host.

I moved to Spreaker and it turned out to be a disaster. While the migration was easy, what happened after the migration was painful. Poor customer service, no responses to questions, and ambiguous offers all made life hell for a month.

Then I decided to move over to Acast and I simply loved their service and all of the things that are part of the package.

Here are some of the podcasting lessons I learned from the switch-

1. Premium is always better. They offer more features, and better support but you need to pick the right hosting. I would recommend that you signup for a monthly plan and try them out for a couple of months before you move into a yearly plan if at all your hosting company have one.
2. Remember that your stats are lost when you make the switch. So you are starting from ZERO downloads when you switch over.
3. Premium hosts help you make money from ads though it can be minuscule. Premium subscription options will help you start a paid subscription.
4. The best thing about moving to a paid host was that you are forced into committing yourself to publish episodes regularly just because you are paying for it every month

Some other Important Podcasting Lessons

There were some other important podcasting lessons that I learned during the journey this year.

1. Every podcaster is worried about their growth and is always trying for ways to grow their show. Of all the methods, the most effective one is Consistency. That’s right. Keep publishing quality content regularly and consistently and that itself is the best way to grow
2. Recommendations are the second best way to grow. Ask your listeners, social media followers, friends, and relatives to recommend your show. Do it as much as possible in your episodes as a call to action. Incentivize people for doing that and you will see your show growing.
   • If you want to spend money on ads, buy ads on existing podcasts for placing a promo. Buzzsprout offers that option and there are some other services out there that you can use to do that.
   • Promo swaps are another great way to find recommendations. It works really well. We were able to see a clear uptick in listenership every time we did a promo swap or, a paid placement, and the listeners have stuck with us ever since.
3. Weekly episodes are the best show frequency to grow your show.

Recommended Episodes for You to Get Started

1. Episodes 1 till 5 – Learn the basics of Podcasting
2. Episode 11 – The Importance of a website
3. Episode 28 – Picking the best host
4. Episode 29 – Picking a good name for the show
5. Episode 47 – Email marketing and its importance
6. Episode 55 – Why podcasts fail
7. Episode 73 – Podcast SEO

Thank you for joining

Thank you all for joining me on the show today.

If you enjoyed this episode then I am sure you will love some of the previous episodes as well. Pick your favorite ones and give it a listen.

The podcasting university is available on all podcasting platforms. You can pick your favorite one to listen to the show there. The links to some of the prominent ones are mentioned below.

CASTBOX: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/castbox
STITCHER: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/stitcher
TUNEIN: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/tunein
GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/googlepodcasts
APPLE PODCASTS: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/itunes
PLAYER.FM: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/playerfm
SPOTIFY: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/spotify
HUBHOPPER: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/hubhopper
AMAZON PRIME: https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/prime

And if you are new to podcasting and want to start a podcast, then join my FREE 10-day ecourse on “How to Start a Podcast“.

Recommended Resources for Podcasting

Here are some of the recommended resources for Podcasting. These are the ones that I personally use and am satisfied with and hence am recommending them.

• Acast Podcast hosting – Acast is my favorite podcast hosting company. They have excellent customer support, have a pocket-friendly plan, and even have a free option with no limits.
• Behringer Audio Interface – You will need an audio interface if you are using an XLR microphone. This is my recommended audio interface.
• Zencastr – Zencastr is the easiest option to record interviews, both audio-only and audio+video. This is a must for an interview podcast. Go to zencastr.com/pricing and use my code “thepodu” You’ll get 30 percent off your first three months of Zencastr professional.
• Audacity – This is the best and the most feature-rich free audio editing software. It gives you a lot of options while editing your interviews.
• Blue Yeti USB Microphone – My recommended microphone
• Tidycal – My recommended calendar and booking solutions
• Fusebox – Embeddable Podcast Player
• Descript – Audio Editing, Transcription and Video editing software
• Zlappo – Twitter scheduling tool

AMAZON DISCLOSURE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The Podcasting University is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

MICROPHONES –

1. ATR-2100x
2. MAONO AU-HD300T : https://geni.us/ro48q
3. Maono AU-WDM01 : https://geni.us/PhZ3V2v
4. Samson Q2U – https://geni.us/k9cuk
5. Audio Technica AT 2035 – https://geni.us/g2URDI
6. Rode NT USB – https://geni.us/O6b65K
7. Shure MV7X – https://geni.us/w7rZ4

AUDIO INTERFACE –

1. Behringer U-PHORIA UM2 – https://geni.us/gBCjm
2. M-Audio M-Track Solo – https://geni.us/RnhHr
3. HAYDEN HY-229 – https://geni.us/c80KbWB

MIXERS –

1. HAYDEN 4 Channels – https://geni.us/cXQ0
2. Behringer Q502USB

MONITORING HEADPHONES –

1. Oneodio Studio Pro-10 : https://geni.us/IQI88Se
2. Maono AU-MH501 : https://geni.us/AbNrU
3. Audio-Technica ATH-M20X : https://geni.us/eEUf9

POP-FILTER –

1. JEYANG Metal Pop Filter – https://geni.us/JMfuY
2. Wright WP 101 – https://geni.us/OcOAzj

DESK-STAND/BOOM ARM –

1. MY-STANDS MC 18 : https://geni.us/Lwnb
2. Bulfyss Professional Recording Microphone Stand : https://geni.us/mV4S

If you are on Pinterest, do share the below image there.