Author: Roni Gosch

7 Limited Budget Tips to Invest In Your Podcast

/ Roni Gosch / 1 Comment

Whether you’ve been running your podcast for a month or a year, there are always steps you can take to invest in your podcast. Sometimes our budgets don’t want to accommodate things like investing in new equipment. However, there are ways to grow your podcast without breaking the bank, whether or not these are financially based.

1. Explore A New Social Media Platform

You need to build platforms for marketing and promoting your podcast. Social media is extremely important for various reasons. They’re fantastic for promoting your podcast, and for building your audience into a community.  In our conversation with the Gravity Beard Podcast, they utilize Facebook as a way for fans to come in and interact with each other.

Also, take the time to explore different platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, Livejournal, or Youtube.  See which one suits your desires and needs as a podcast the best. Work to incorporate that platform into your posting/interaction schedule.  By expanding where you post your content, you increase the ways that new listeners can find your shows.

There are also ways to automatically post your content to social media as you upload it to your host site, cutting down on what sites you need to personally visit and upload to.  Not only can you utilize scheduled posts (using platforms such as Tweetdeck or HootSuite), some hosting platforms feature an auto-share features that will post your content across multiple platforms.    

2. Increase The Amount of Time Spent on Each Episode

You might have your recording/editing process down to such a science that you can do it in your sleep.  Consider this to be an opportunity to tighten up your production. Pick a couple of your last published episodes and listen back to them. Is there a persisting issue that you might not have noticed before? Is your audio sound but missing something to crank it to eleven?  

Here are some ways to change your recording and production situation and make it more effective:

  • Dedicate a space just for recording, such as moving your desk setup so that your microphone/interface can sit out and not have to be put away because you’ve got other projects on your docket.
  • Declutter your workspace. However, you don’t have to go overboard. Empty space facilitates echoes in your recording. Having some items on your desk will break up the bouncing sound waves.
  • In that same vein: hang up towels, quilts, or some sort of soft wall-hanging to help curb echoes. You can invest in inexpensive soundproofing, such as acoustic foam wedges that can be mounted to your walls. Even if that’s a goal that you’d like to have in the future, hanging something will improve your sound immensely.
  • Set up your routine to give you plenty of time before your intended publish date to record and edit without feeling like you have to crunch.  For example, if you publish on Tuesdays, set up your schedule to record on Sunday or Saturday to ensure that you are giving yourself time to create amazing content, instead of recording Monday night.  (If you’re wondering if we’re speaking from personal experience . . . we are.)
  • Creating a template for your production can save loads of editing time. Have your intros, transitions, outros and ads preloaded into your session. Many DAWs like Logic Pro will allow you to even create and save custom templates.

3. Expand What Your Show Covers

How does your podcast cover your chosen topic?  Do you feature reviews, or interviews, or report on gossip within the topic’s industry? You can search within your podcast’s topic and expand your podcast to include new segments.  

Say that your podcast is a movie review show.  Expand your scope of coverage. Tell your listeners what’s happening in the industry, have a special segment that goes over classic movies or listeners’ choice in movies, or even expand into more interviews with industry professionals. This shows more passion for your topic, but also increases your podcast’s impact on your listeners.  They’ll see you as a source of news and other information, not just reviews.

4. Expand Your Posting Power

Touching on social media again: what social media platforms are you on?  Do you have a posting calendar? How do you utilize the tagging system of each one? Feel free to post about your content more than just at the time of launch. You can also re-tool your older content, or even create posts related to trending tags.

CoSchedule’s Nathan Ellering highlights a few helpful posting guidelines for the bigger social media platforms:

  • TWITTER: Algorithms tend to pick up accounts who post between 5-15 times a day, and work best when tagging with 2-5 tags.  Only insert one or two tags in the main text of the tweet to keep from keeping it illegible.
  • FACEBOOK: Algorithms tend to pick up accounts who post 1-3 times a day, and work fine with any amount of tag.  Facebook is a platform that loves video, so this is your chance to work in a new format for your content.
  • INSTAGRAM: Algorithms tend to pick up accounts who post 5-6 times a day, with a hard limit of 30 tags (although 5-10 are recommended).  Be wary of using software to schedule posts on Instagram. Some cases have shown Instagram to flag accounts using software as bots.

5. Upgrade Your Recording System

You might be soundproofing the room you record in and spending hours on editing your content. You’re wondering what you might need to put your sound over the top.  It’s at this point that you should consider what upgrades you can make to your recording and editing pipelines.

You don’t need to change out everything at once.  Decide what you’re using that could use an upgrade. Perhaps your recording and editing software, your interface, or even your XLR cables…start from there.  If you’re using a USB mic, maybe this is the time to step up and explore what you’d need for an XLR mic.  

As you change things in your setup, make sure to run recording tests to ensure that everything is hooked up properly.  Part of investing new equipment into your podcast is making sure that you know how each piece works, and that it meshes well with your podcasting style.

6. Set A Monthly Advertising Budget

There’s nothing stopping you from running your own ads for your podcast. You can easily set the ads to direct to your podcast landing page, specific directories or your own personal site.

When it comes to the cost of your ads, it can vary across the different platforms.  According to Falcon.Io, ad clicks can cost anywhere from $0.51 to $5.61.  These platforms have different costs for different reaches. They also have options to direct your audience to various actions (go to a specific website, etc). Choose the platform that works best for your podcast, and choose parameters that work best for your budget. Our examples are from Instagram, but your mileage may vary depending on the audience you market to.  

When it comes to what you want to advertise, ensure that it’s eye-catching and intriguing. Make viewers want to click the link to learn more.  We’ve found that making your ad something that can be interacted with – such as asking a question or a ‘this-or-that’ type of choice – increases your chances of interactions and link-clicking.  

7. Explore Your Options For Merchandising

The rule of 1000 (often found in the modern music industry) is that if you have a thousand fans all willing to spend $100 on you in one year, you’re able to make $100,000 for the year.  You can easily apply this attitude to your podcast and create the opportunity for people to spend money in the form of merch.  

You can go as low-tech as you want, from creating a text graphic from one of your most iconic podcast lines and posting it to a site like Redbubble, all the way to commissioning a design from an artist and getting it printed on shirts to sell from your own online storefront (or at conventions/in-person meetups). Ideally, you should start small – maybe with sticker designs on Redbubble, or purchased through Stickermule – to gauge interest and pave the way for further merch items you’d want to offer to your fans. If you still find yourself at ends of what you could use as a design, remember that you do have a podcast cover that could easily be turned into a sticker.  There’s also nothing stopping you from starting off with a commissioned sticker design – Twitter is a fantastic place to find professional-level artists that would gladly love to help you create a design. Just remember to keep your manners on and if you stiff an artist on payment, not even god will save you from me.

If you’re more artistically inclined, you could even create merch to sell yourself – we’ve seen everything from painted bookmarks, sewn coasters, and hand-carved stamps for podcasts.  

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Investing into your podcast, whether it’s time or money, shows a new level of dedication that will shine through your content and draw more attention. Learn more about Podbean’s tips for further promotion here and check out more of our tips and tricks here!  

How To Make A Launch Plan For Your Podcast

/ Roni Gosch / Leave a comment

The idea of how to launch a podcast sounds deceptively simple – as simple as podcasting can be, anyways.  Record your audio, open an account with a podcast host, submit your RSS feed, and you’re launched.  Right?

While there’s nothing wrong with taking that approach, we’ve highlighted a few extra steps to take in your podcasting journey to ensure that your audience growth starts off on the right foot.

How To Launch A Podcast

1. Talk About Your Podcast While It’s Still In The Works

In our interview with Josh Hallmark of True Crime BS, you’ll know that he spent years marketing and promoting his podcast before he ever published an episode.  He bought space at conventions and passed out information. Also, he made appearances and networked in the name of this podcast. Josh pushed for the name to be as well-known as possible before the actual publication date of his first episode.

Spend a month or two before your intended release date hyping yourself up on social media. Also look into other forms of advertising.  Use this time to check out your local conventions. Get a table for the weekend and hand out cards and stickers to remind people of your upcoming release.  Use QR codes on your card so listeners can access your show with as few steps as possible.

2. Release Teasers and Promos Before Your Publication Date

While you’re working on creating your podcast episodes (because it’s recommended to have 5-10 episodes on deck for publication, and some even suggest releasing 3 episodes on your initial release date), you can drop clips from shows in progress.  Maybe you said something funny or incredibly insightful. Maybe you scripted something completely heart-breaking and earth-shattering. Tt gives your audience a taste of your content to keep them interested. An interested audience will return when more content is available.

Also use this as a chance to post behind-the-scenes clips or even outtakes.  People love to hear Freudian slips, the words you come up with when you can’t think of the right one (RIP to me as a podcaster when I forgot the word “fringe” and called them “dangles” instead).  This creates a connection with your listeners. It humanizes you as the content creator and demystifies the man behind the curtain.

3. Make Sure Your Releases Have A Throughline

Whether you’re releasing teasers every week, posting pics of on-location shoots or guests, post with the intent of curating your brand.  We mentioned in our promotion article to utilize a unique hashtag for your show. You can go even further by making sure that your podcast’s brand is present in whatever you do.

For pictures, make sure your album cover (or the centerpiece of your album cover) is present somewhere that’s visible.  When selecting audio clips, include the intro/outro music so that your listeners begin associating that sound with your show/content.  For video-based content, make sure that you utilize your title card and end card for each clip.  Headliner is a great resource for making these kind of video/audio clips known as audiograms.

By developing uniqueness around you and your podcast, you are creating awareness for you and how you brand, which then unifies all the content you release now with the official content you release on your launch day and beyond.

4. Upgrade Your Website As Needed

Everyone’s got a website or a blog nowadays.  It’s a focal point for you and your content. It exists as a source that anyone can utilize to find your podcast, social media, and contact info. 

Ensure that your information is correct, all of your links work, and that nothing impedes anyone from getting your content.  While most people aren’t so persnickety as to close a tab if something isn’t within two clicks on a website, it’s better to pretend that they are so you can streamline your site and make your most important info (links to your podcast, social media, etc) are as prominent as possible.

This is also the time to make sure everything is aesthetic and on brand as possible.  It’s extremely important on your own site to make sure that everything’s cohesive, visible, and matches your podcast’s aesthetic.  As long as they’re not clashing, of course – if your album cover is turquoise and candy-apple red, more power to you, but try not to make them the sole two colors of your website.

Having a website is also extremely important for search engine optimization (SEO). Having a website (especially if your podcast’s name is unique) will allow search engines to easily index your page. This will push you to the top search results when someone searches your keywords. This is especially true if those keywords are in the name of your podcast.  Hosting with PodBean, you have your own custom website and can further optimize your SEO.  

5. Make Your Launch Date A Celebration

While throwing a party might not be your first thought on the day of your release, it should be – and not just so you can celebrate yourself and your accomplishment.  (Though, to be fair, that should be one of your reasons – you’ve put in a lot of hard work, and that should be celebrated.) With a launch party, it’s another method you can utilize to spread the word about your podcast.

When musicians release a new record, many will throw album release parties. They perform and play at the top of their game for everyone who had gathered to support them. A launch party gives you a chance to meet face-to-face with listeners and supporters of your podcast. You’ll even introduce your podcast to people who haven’t heard of it yet.  

If you make the final decision and decide that an immediate party isn’t in the plans for your launch day, at least make sure that you include your listeners in on whatever celebratory thing you decide to do.  There’s nothing wrong with doing a short video for your chosen social media platform, or posting pictures of your own personal celebration.

You can also celebrate in a more giving fashion, such as offering to do giveaways or shoutouts on your social media platforms. Make the celebration about your audience, and reward them for their support. 

6. Keep The Momentum Going On Social Media

You’ve woken up the day after your launch, and now you’re wondering, What do I do now?

The answer is easy: you keep moving forward.  Keep making and posting content, keep up with comments and interactions on social media, look for ways to keep making your podcast the best it can be.  You made a lot of momentum with all your work leading up to the launch, but it’s worthless if you quit two feet past the finish line.  

Be proud of what you’ve accomplished – not too many people start a podcast, despite what stats tell you.  But while you’re patting yourself on the back, remember to keep your eyes on the horizon and think about your next steps.  

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Launching a podcast might seem easy, but there are plenty of ways that things might take an unwanted turn.  But by taking these steps, you increase your podcast’s chances of a super successful launch.  

15 Ways to Promote Your Internal Podcast

/ Roni Gosch / 1 Comment
15 Ways to Promote Your Internal Podcast

Your internal communications podcast is an important resource for company’s training and communications. We’ve put together a list of ideas to help you promote your internal podcast. These tips will ensure its success, as well as aid in overcoming potential challenges in adopting podcasting as a new platform.

1. Share the podcast on employee sign-in pages and the company intranet

Whether you use a simple sign-in page or an expansive employee intranet and database, there are certain places that your employees log on to daily. These high-traffic sites are ideal spots to post notices and links to your internal podcast. Ensure that it updates as your episodes update, and change the images/wording to make it unique and enticing to keep your employees engaged.

2. Feature employees on your internal communications podcast

Use your internal podcast as a way to highlight employee success stories. Seek input from those most knowledgeable in the company about the podcast topic. Consider interviewing employees, having them help with content and other ways they can be involved. By including your employees in the content you’re producing, you’re creating the feeling of a more communal project. More employees will tune in to hear friends and colleagues being featured, and may be interested in getting featured themselves. Employees enjoy hearing from different voices in different roles and it shows that the culture is collaborative and their contributions appreciated. Employee involvement can really bring the project to life and create deeper engagement.  

3. Promote through holidays or sales-based events

Depending on your company, you might have several yearly special events planned like holiday parties, quarterly sales meetings or new product launches. Use these events to promote your podcast (or vice versa). Inform your staff that they can find more information about these events via the podcast. You can also use the podcast to update your company about progress on goals or follow up from events.

4. Post physical signage around the workplace

Get creative with signs and posters. Put them in high-traffic areas like break rooms, hallways, and the like.* Each sign should have a call to action involving your internal communications podcast. These CTAs can be to check out the latest episode, learn how to be featured, or something unique to your content that will drive interest (such as an upcoming company contest).

*We suggest you be as tasteful as possible, but if you want to hang signs on the inside of bathroom stalls and restroom doors, that’s up to you. They are high-traffic areas, after all.

5. Make QR codes

Most phones now come equipped with QR code readers, enabling you to implement QR codes into your physical signs or promotional material. Enable the code to take them to your internal communications podcast page, or even to the specific episode. Your employees can quickly scan the QR code to listen. It helps break down the roadblocks and steps between the employee learning about the content and directly accessing it. This increases the likelihood of them interacting with your internal communications podcast. 

6. Create discussions during company meetings based on the internal podcasts

Your private podcasts are resources and should be utilized as such. Highlight the information from the latest episode during meetings. Make it clear to those attending that the prerequisite information can be found in your podcasting content.  

7. Enable push notifications in your company’s podcasting app 

Your internal communications podcast app does more than just play and pause your podcast. It can also notify your employees when new episodes of your internal podcasts are live. By enabling push notifications, your employees are alerted the moment a new episode is published and available. You not only make your employees aware that new content is live, but make them more likely to listen as the notifications appear right on their mobile device.  

8. Send out the podcast in newsletters

Newsletters allow you to send alerts for upcoming events, deadlines, and recaps so that your employees can be kept up to speed. If you have an existing newsletter, you can integrate the podcast. Or, you can consider sending newsletters specifically about the podcast. Inserting content from your internal communications podcast into a newsletter does multiple things. First, it delivers the content straight to the employee, once again decreasing the steps they’d have to take to get to the content itself. Second, it allows you to frame your internal podcast as the resource that it is. This also reiterates how the content discussed/mentioned in the newsletter is explored more thoroughly in your podcast.  

9. Use podcasts as a primary internal training tool, then scale out

You can use your internal podcasts as a method of training, meaning that it’s a mandatory tool as part of your onboarding and training program. You can get new hires immediately accustomed to accessing information via your internal podcast. Once the routine has been established, you can scale outward and start instituting internal communications podcasts for other communications and continuing education purposes. As your employees will already be familiar with the platform, accessing the content fits into their already developed workflow.

10. Offer reward prizes for engagement and promote them on the podcast

Reward your employees for consuming your internal podcasts. Reinforce by bringing up podcast points in your meetings or commenting on a particular episode and encouraging those who discuss. Some examples of rewards can be company swag, gift cards, highlights in future episodes and shout outs from company executives. Get even more creative with your rewards. You might even consider integrating it with existing systems for employee development and reviews. Inspire your team to understand that important content comes in the form of your podcasts.  

11. Set leaders to champion spreading the word to other employees

Even in the modern age, word of mouth is still the most powerful way to spread awareness.  Find people in your team that can act as “leaders” or “champions” of your internal podcast. These might be different representatives from various departments. Or, it could be employees who are big podcast fans who you get involved to share their passion. Part of their role can be to represent the podcast and bring awareness to it to the employees around them. If your leaders and high performers are discussing content from the podcast, chances are your other employees will consider the podcast important and will engage with it. 

12. Calendar events in your calendaring system with the link to the podcast

As a company, you use tools like Google Calendar to keep events, travel plans, and meetings organized. Introduce updates to your internal communications podcast as a scheduled event on the calendar. A good solution could be to have a schedule for your podcast releases that will fit into a Google Calendar reminder. This will automatically remind your employees to look to the latest episode that you release. You can even include a podcast link in the Google Calendar notes to make it even easier for your employees to access. 

13. Make meetings into viewing/listening “parties”

When you release new content for your internal podcasts, plan meeting content around your podcast and consider playing snippets of the podcast. This once again highlights how important your internal communications podcast is, and reinforces the need to interact and engage with the content to your employees. Using video podcast episodes can be extremely engaging (instead of or as part of PowerPoint/Keynote presentations). However, both audio and video can be used for this method.

14. Integrate with current communication tools such as Slack

Your internal podcast is part of your overall communications plan and works well with other means of communication, especially your company chat system (such as Slack). Integrate your internal communications podcast into your chat system, and ensure that your employees never miss another episode.  Much like enabling push notifications and placing notices in high-traffic areas such as employee login screens and break rooms, this brings more attention to your content. It also acts to once again decrease the actions needed to get to your content.  

15. Create goals based on the podcast 

Goals help your company move forward. By making goals based around your internal podcast, you create something for your employees to aim for.  Perhaps it’s an action that needs to be taken after they’ve listened to the episode, or prepping notes for a discussion to be had about the content in the episode, or something that’s specific and unique to the needs of your company. Regardless, a target to aim ties in the purpose of the podcast and provides measurable actions

As far as resources go, your internal communications podcast can be one of the most strategic ones at your disposal. It offers a unique way to interact with your employees. With these methods, you can ensure that you reach as many of them as possible and keep your company informed.  

Click here to learn more about Podbean’s private podcasting solutions for internal communications, training, and company podcasting.

Promote Your Podcast – 11 More Tips And Tricks

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You’ve now started your podcast. You want to get it into as many ears as possible.  Now how do you promote your podcast? How do you rise amongst the top podcasts with millions of downloads? These eleven tips and tricks will help get you get more eyes and ears on your podcast.

Promote Your Podcast - 11 Tips And Tricks

Remember that first impressions matter

Creating a podcast means that you are now effectively the CEO of your podcast – as well as the COO, the secretary, the mailroom clerk, and the support team. Like it or not, being the public face of your podcast – such as attending events in your podcast’s name, reaching out to guests/interviewees, and interacting on social media – means that you have to act like it.  Any interactions a potential listener will have with you will color their feelings towards your content.

Consider how you phrase things and how you come off in your interactions with listeners, fellow podcasters, and other industry professionals.  If people see that you’re someone they’re comfortable around, they’re more likely to check out your content and collaborate with you.

Audiograms

Audiograms are a when you convert a chunk of your podcast to video, usually with a static background of your podcast cover or your chosen image, created with the intention of posting to social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter.  Platforms such as these benefit from shorter-form videos, which is perfect to highlight a clip of your latest episode, your favorite chunk of livestream, or even a past episode that’s relevant to a trending hashtag or seasonal event. 

With this, your audiogram will function as a podcasting sampler for people who haven’t heard that particular episode, or your podcast in general.  By utilizing the video player native to the platform, you give them a chance to see what your podcast is like before they click the link to check out the full episode.  It also breaks up your feed to create a more diverse and interesting first look for anyone who comes to your social media page (if you’re wondering where to go, we’ve been using Headliner with spectacular results!). The following is an audiogram example from the Gravity Beard podcast.

Create a Podcast-Specific Hashtag for You and Your Users

Please don’t tag any buildings, but hashtags are a quick and functional way to introduce your podcast to someone.  Create a unique hashtag that’s intriguing and specific to your podcast. As examples, it can be the title of your podcast. It can be phrase you or your hosts have coined.

With it, the only limit is your imagination and the law! Interact with the tag on social media when people use it. Feature it across your social media channels. You can use it it as a tag on all your posts or just utilize it in an image.  

Understanding Social Media Outlets

When we spoke with Gabriel Urbina of Wolf 359, his surprise came when realized what conversations were happening on other platforms he wasn’t present on, like Tumblr.

You never know what medium will suit you, your content, and your posting style best.  Experiment with different platforms, and figure out the different ways that your media fit into their native landscapes.  Check to see if your host offers automatic sharing for your chosen platforms. Set up your accounts to have episodes automatically post when you upload your new content. 

This is not to say that you should adopt a “spray-and-pray” technique to your social media marketing.  Take into consideration your style of posting and the social media platform. Create a steady stream of content (episode clips/audiograms, pictures, and the like). See what platform is most suited to that style.  For example, users can click a link in a Tweet, but cannot click on a link in an Instagram post description.  

Join podcasting-specific groups and events 

The internet is a whole made up of millions of smaller communities. No matter how niche your podcasting topic is, there is a group for you.  Seek out these groups on platforms like Reddit, Livejournal, or even in physical meet-ups at local libraries and tech centers. Introduce yourself and your podcast to the groups’ members.  

Also keep an eye out for themed events on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.  They could be questions themed around an event or month (such as Podbean’s Podtober event), or themed around a month of creation (in the same vein as the ever-popular NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month).  These events unite users everywhere around the same goal of participation and interacting with others who are also participating. Your name and podcast will be seen by others who are participating in the event.

There are a myriad of online communities for you to traverse through to promote your podcast on.  The r/podcasts and r/podcasting subreddits offer amazing advice, chances to talk shop, and a place to talk about what it means to podcast.

Cross promotion with similar podcasts

When we say “cross promotion,” we don’t just mean promote yourself across your multiple platforms (because let’s face it, you’re probably already doing that).  We’re talking about reaching out to your friends in the podcasting industry. Offer to promote their show on yours as a trade for them to promote your podcast on theirs.  You can feature other guests on your podcast and vice. versa. This can extend your voice to a wider audience than just your own.

If both podcasts are in the same genre, of course there might be some audience overlap.  However, a good portion of their audience might not be aware of your content.  However, they are familiar with the podcast you’re a guest on, or featuring a host from. They will want to tune in to check out the content.  By doing so, they’ll be introduced to your podcast and become part of your audience.  

Making friends and connections in the podcasting industry is important. But as with point no. 1, be genuine! Don’t do so with the sole intent of being a guest on their show to grow your own audience.  

Email list and newsletters

As we advance further and further with our social media platforms and technology, we start to find more and more people who wish to pull back from it.  That’s where email lists and newsletters come in. This content gets delivered directly to your subscribers’ mailboxes. You can bring more information to their attention without putting the onus on them to go hunting for it.

Also, with the ever changing landscape of social media’s algorithms, your posts often have a chance to be buried to a wide majority of your audience. Your email list is comprised of fans who manually subscribed to it. You now have a direct line to your most loyal fans. With mailing lists, you can ensure that they’ll always see your notifications.

Your newsletters also allow you to introduce exclusive content. Maybe extra material cut from your scripts, or behind-the-scenes pics of your recording space. Maybe even tips and tricks you can offer to those starting their own podcasts.  We’ve seen folks use MailerLite with great success!

Attend local podcasting conferences and meet local podcasters for get-togethers

Whether you’re planning on hitting up every podcast convention across the country, or just hitting up a local group of podcasters that met on Facebook first before going for drinks, there’s nothing like sitting together with a group of people in the same industry as you.  They can offer advice on common podcasting issues, get the same in-jokes about microphones, and understand and celebrate your podcasting achievements.

For these get-togethers and conference runs, always keep a steady supply of business cards on hand, and be ready with some storage ideas for the business cards you receive.  If you’ve got the effort and the budget, you also can’t go wrong with things like stickers or buttons. (Our marketing writer loves collecting podcasters’ stickers, so if you’re going that route and making your way to some podcasting conferences, be sure to stop by the Podbean booth!)  

Advertising

There’s a phrase in business that “it pays to advertise.”  “Yes, we know about the advertising,” you say. “We’ve talked about this in the monetization webinar and in your Podbean 101 – Learning The Tools Of Podbean webinar, why would we include it here?”  Because it’s a way that’ readily available for podcasters like you to run ads for your shows!

Your host may offer something akin to an opt-in ad service that allows sponsors to look at your podcast and offer you a deal to run an ad for a certain length of time.  But did you know that you could turn around and be the one to create an ad and pay to have it run in other podcasts?

With Podbean’s Ads Marketplace, you can create an advertiser account and run an ad you’ve created for your podcast in other podcasts within the same genre as your own.  This method offers you the advantage of the downloads and audience of another podcast, as well as the experience of what advertisers see when they go to look into podcasts to run their ads.  

Podcast networks 

Podcast networks are podcasts grouped together by topic, genre, ownership, or just a collective decision to unite under an umbrella name.  There are certain perks to some networks, such as guaranteed ad opportunities and prepaid hosting by the network, but each network is different and works by their own rules.  But one thing’s for sure, a network’s audience is wider than a single podcast’s.

By joining a network, your podcast can be promoted along side others in the network.  The audience of the other podcasts know you meet their quality standards in content and production.  Take, for example, the likes of Critical Role, or The Brit Pod Scene – both networks have pages that list the podcasts within their network, and utilize social media to promote their podcast, new episodes and content.  

Keep making your content the best it can be

“Consistency and quality help breed loyalty,” says Jason Solomon of the hit wrestling podcast Solomonster Sounds Off.  “To build an audience, you need to stick to a regular schedule of recording.  If people like what they’re hearing, they will keep coming back for more and are far more likely to engage with you on various platforms.”  

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of picture-taking, post-writing, Instagramming, and marketing.  The danger comes when you put so much of the focus on marketing that it’s a detriment to your content.  Remember to keep your podcast the forefront, and to keep focus on creating content in your regular manner.  

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Marketing and promoting your podcast can seem like a huge endeavor, especially when you start bringing more technical and analytical aspects into it.  These tips will help promote your podcast and get you to your podcasting goals.

The Many Phases and Faces of Fans: The Gravity Beard Podcast on Community

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Listen to The Many Phases and Faces of Fans: The Gravity Beard Podcast on Community

As a content creator, it’s an accepted fact that a podcast is nothing without its fan following.  Whether your fans are the quiet sort that bring it up for recommendations, or loudly and meticulously buying merch, liveshow tickets, and behind-the-scenes patron-program access, all fans are good fans and welcome to be part of your show.

One podcast, The Gravity Beard, as a community that takes it one step further.

If you haven’t heard of them, The GravityBeard Podcast is a comedy podcast that’s got a little bit of everything for everyone.

“The GravityBeard Podcast, always since its inception, is a variety show podcast.  Whenever you tune in from week to week, we do have elements of the show that are consistent and have been since we started, but it has evolved since we started it.  But it’s a variety show, in that you don’t know necessarily what we’re going to do week to week. We’ve done a huge array of things, from interviews to round-table discussions, to a lot of different things under the comedy umbrella.  And then currently, we’re doing “This Week Today,” which is something we’ve done consistently for the last year and a half or so. And then more recently we’ve done “Staff Meetings,” which is a talk show segment-formatted show that we put together because we’re getting so much great content out of the GravityBeard Interns Facebook group.  So that’s essentially what the podcast is.”

As their podcast grew, so did their fanbase and how their fans interacted with the show.  Not content with just interacting with the creators on public forums, they inserted themselves into the GravityBeard narrative – going so far as to assign themselves roles based on the fictional company.

“The Intern group – especially the GravityBeard one – is a place that’s kind of built its own separate world.  I guess, to some extent, in the way that it’s not just people sharing just content that they find online, and it’s not just people interacting with the show in general, but like, it’s people that have taken up an active part of the fictitious world that The GravityBeard has kind of put behind it as far as an internship, so then The Gravity Beard is a company that everyone kind of bought into.  It’s an extra layer. As opposed to other groups where it’s like people come on and they talk about the show, and they try to interact with the host. This one actually built its own separate thing all around it that allowed for more back-and-forth and interactivity with everyone.”

Though their group isn’t the largest – around 230, give or take – the name of the game is quality over quantity.  Each new member is personally greeted as if they’re new employee getting on-boarded to the company, and there’s no shortage of positions for those that want to join in.

To learn more about The GravityBeard Podcast, check out their Twitter and their fellow shows on the Podfix Network.

Podcasts in Education – Talking Teaching with Danny Hauger

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Click to listen to “Podcasts in Education – Talking Teaching with Danny Hauger”

In an ever-evolving world, we are always looking for new ways to learn and new ways to teach.  Even outside of the education sphere of school and universities, people are hungry for knowledge and new ways to consume it.  But it’s within those schools and universities that we find those who are hungry to share knowledge as well, like Danny Hauger does using podcasts in education.

Hauger’s been in the podcasting game for a long time.  Even in his college days, he was broadcasting and operating radio stations, all preparing him for a life behind a mic.

Podcasts in Education - Talking Teaching with Danny Hauger

“What’s really cool is that I’ve had a relationship now with Podbean for over a decade, starting back when I was the general manager of Titan Radio, at CalState Fullerton, which is the second-biggest university in California.  California kid born and raised, I’ve been writing music for a decade and I’ve been podcasting since my college radio days, so I started out in comedy sketch writing – because everyone in college thinks they’re so funny, and that was a fun time.  Started posting episodes and encouraging other students to podcast, and we were kind of amongst the early adopters of the medium, posting other shows from other Djs that were also students. So it was always tied into this sense of education. I was a radio/TV/film major, and I just love the idea of keeping these episodes archived for posterity.”

As he’s moved into the classroom, so has his podcasting expertise.  And he’s found that not only do the students learn from his podcasts in education, they learn from the act of podcasting as well.

“My students and I will sit together on microphones in the classroom, which is a phenomenal way to back up the sense of bringing learning home by teaching.  It’s a wonderful way to reinforce your own learning. When they find out they have to come record with me, they’ll come in prepared. They’re not going to want to walk in and stutter on the microphone, so it’s a great way to practice, like, oral communication skills.  

“I generally will do this before every unit test, and I’ll sit down – I talk pretty quick, I don’t know if that’s becoming apparent – but I talk really fast, and I know, like, there’s no chance that that you’re going to catch everything I said.  So if I sit down for seven to ten minutes, recap what was key before an assessment . . . I did my masters’ on this very subject, and found that student scored eight percent better when I provide a podcast as opposed to when I didn’t. And they go home and they listen to it – it’s not homework, it’s not required, but they know that it helps.  And I can see that it helps now because I’ve conducted the data.”

Of course, his podcasting audience has grown to be more than just his students.  He and his cohost, Tavis Beem, have taken podcasts in education one step further. Their podcast together, Inspiring Teachers, aims to inspire, celebrate, and educate other teachers out in the world.  

“We are always talking teaching.  Our wives are both educators as well, and I asked one day, “Why aren’t we recording these conversations?  We’re talking about it so often, I bet other people would find a lot of common ground here.” And what we started with two of us became inviting people at our school, and then it became inviting nationwide acclaimed educators and award-winners and authors, and exploring this “why” of teaching.  Why do we do this, where there are so many other careers that we have come from and could have chosen and could also engage in?  

“And it became a study of why teachers teach, what they want students to learn from them, besides just the lessons of the classroom, and why it is that we all share in this community, which is now more connected than ever through social media and the internet, where we’re not isolated islands anymore.  The ideas that we share and develop can become classroom-changing across the nation and possibly around the world. So we’ve had some really fantastic guests – over fifty in the year now – and it’s been a really cool study of how many really passionate good-hearted people there are out there that are choosing to teach professionally.”

Whether it’s for class, for teachers and students, or for his love of music and spreading knowledge, Danny Hauger doesn’t see a future in which he’s not podcasting.

“It’s been a focus on education, it’s been on music, it’s been on sharing, it’s been on giving gifts to the world.  And I wanna thank Podbean because they’ve been rock-steady beside me this whole time, so I’ve never thought about going to a different venue.  They really supported my creativity.”

Podcasts in education provide opportunities for new learning and teaching methods, enabling both students and teachers to improve how knowledge is shared and learned.  

To learn more about Danny’s music, podcasts, and love of teaching, check out his website and various weblinks here:

How To Monetize A Podcast – Four Effective Methods

/ Roni Gosch / 1 Comment

No matter what brought you to podcasting, a question always arises: “Is there a way to make money with podcasting?”  The answer to that is always a resounding yes, but that then leads to the next question of, “How?” Take a look at four of the most effective ways to monetize a podcast.  With these tips, you’ll be able to find the right monetization method(s) for your podcast.

How To Monetize A Podcast and how to get listeners to support your podcast.

Here are some options on how to monetize your podcast:

  1. The Patron Program
  2. LiveStream With Podbean Live
  3. Create Paid Premium Podcast Content
  4. Advertising

1. The Patron Program

Patron programs have become a viable stream of income for content creators.  One of many examples is Now Playing – The Movie Review Podcast, who earn over $11,000/month using Podbean’s patron program (click here to check out their Podbean patron program). By offering pledge tiers from $1/mo. to $750/mo., Now Playing’s fans are able to show their support at a pledge level that’s comfortable for them.  Another example, according to an article on CREATORHYPE, is political comedy podcast Chapo Trap House.  One of the highest-earning podcasts using a patron program, they earn around $95,000 a month.  So there’s something to be said about patron-based programs.  

Podbean’s patron program is built into your user dashboard and made specifically for your podcast episodes.  You can set donor tiers for your patrons to pledge monthly, with specific gifts for each tier.   Give your donors exclusive sneak-previews of new episodes, hand-written postcards and letters, podcast swag like stickers and pins, the ability to vote to decide your next podcast topic – the list is as endless as your time and imagination.  

Customize it even further by creating goal-based donation tiers.  Need $150 to invest in a sound mixer or update your equipment? Set the total as the goal.  Your donors help you achieve your goal by investing in your podcast. This also helps them know what their financial support is going towards and to feel a part of the process.  

2. Livestream with Podbean Live

What’s the first thing you think when you hear the word livestream?  Some might think of Twitch, the popular platform for gamers.  Some might think Picarto, the platform for artists to stream their creative process.  With Podbean Live, now it’s the podcaster’s turn.

Podbean Live is a new way to share your content with your followers.  Host a streaming live podcast audio show and your followers can listen, interact with you in the live chat, or even call in to your livestream.  Podbean Live has room for up to four co-hosts or interviewees, so all your friends (or all the cool people you want to talk to) can pop in and speak with you. Podbean Live also allows you to earn money through Live Show admissions, as well as by receiving virtual gifts from your listeners.  

When a listener joins the stream, they can donate to you using Podbean’s gifting system called Golden Beans.  The podcast host can cash out points earned from the virtual gifts for real-world currency. Not only does it give your listeners a way to support you, but it adds a level of fun and interaction to the live stream and a new way to monetize.

The other thing we love the most?  Podbean Live is open to every podcaster for free.  No matter your hosting platform, you can use Podbean Live to host a livestream and earn money.  

3. Create Paid Premium Podcast Content

Say you’ve got extra audio that you worked really hard on – a podcast episode that dives deeper and is longer than usual, an unedited podcast script PDF, or some special educational or valuable content for listeners.

This is where the premium content feature comes into play.  This lets you give listeners content at set prices for single episodes or for a series of bonus content during a period of time like a month or a year.  On your quest for how to monetize a podcast, use this option as a way to provide special content like lessons, a bonus series, exclusive interviews and more. Utilize the exclusivity to keep your podcast gated, yet accessible.    

Price customization is under your complete control.  There are no upfront fees or costs to participate. Podbean only takes a small percentage (Podbean handles all the technical, billing and customer support needs for a simple 15% share of revenue earned), ensuring that your podcast receives the maximum profit from your premium content purchases.

4. Advertising

If you remember the last big article we wrote on podcast advertising, you know how much it’s booming.  After Mack Weldon doubled their sales with a host-read ad on Comedy Bang Bang, businesses quickly became aware of the power of podcast advertising.  Today’s podcast advertising landscape is getting more sophisticated with the use of matching services and dynamic ad insertion. In fact, according to an article on The Verge, dynamically inserted ads now account for 48.8 percent of podcast ads business.   Marsha Silver’s Digital Music News article on podcast advertising even goes as far as to say “In total, the audio ad marketplace in the United States is valued in excess of $16 billion, and podcast advertising represents only 3% of this.  By 2022, this share will more than double to 8.2%, according to the projection.”  

New tools are making podcast advertising more accessible for all podcasters. For example, Podbean’s Ads Marketplace helps podcasts of all sizes connect with advertisers. The PodAds ad management and dynamic insertion platform gives podcasters tools to more efficiently manage their ads and increase revenue.  

Statistics have shown that podcast listeners are less likely to skip ads and are highly likely to take action on ads they hear on a podcast.  This makes podcast ads an extremely powerful tool for sponsors. It’s an ever-growing method to monetize your podcast.

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Click here to register for our upcoming Monetize Your Podcast webinar to learn more about how to monetize your podcast!

Utilizing the patron program, premium content, Podbean Live, and advertising will allow you to create an engaging experience for your listeners while creating multiple streams of income from your podcast.  As you cultivate your relationship with your fans, you can give them various ways to invest in your growth. Most of all, the tools available let you customize what fits best for you and your audience…and help you continue creating. And isn’t that what podcasting is all about?

Monetize Your Podcast with PodAds – Just Shoot It Podcast

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Click here to listen to “Monetize Your Podcast with PodAds – Just Shoot It Podcast”

Matt Enlow and Oren Kaplan, cohosts of the podcast JUST SHOOT IT sat down with us to talk about their show, directing, how to combine the two, and some strategies to monetize your podcast.

More work goes into making movies, television, and commercials than people realize.  Even beyond considering the work that lies behind the acting talent, like the professionals that handle props and costuming.  A large onus of a movie or film’s tone and direction lies on its director, to a point where a good director can turn a bad movie into a good movie, and a good movie into a great one.

“One of the interesting things about being a director on a film set is that there’s almost always only one of you, and we don’t really get to talk to each other.  The other interesting thing about directing is that there’s a lot of non-famous directors that making a living as directors that people don’t know about. And so we kind of wanted to make a podcast about people like us, and to talk to other people like us because we don’t usually get to do it.”

The practice that has lead to the high quality of their podcast is how they record their interviews.  By allowing extra time for everyone to get comfortable, they can explore and expand on the topic at hand.

“We get together more or less once a week.  We like to have more intimate-style conversations so we record around 8:30, kind of into the night with our guests.  And so it kind of creates a more intimate setting for people to hang out and talk, and really get into the *leads* on directing.  So we want to give ourselves as much time as we need in case, you know, the conversation needs to find itself a little bit.  

“We usually record for about an hour and a half, and usually the last hour is by far the best of what we record.  We find that when we’re all sitting together in one room, it takes a little while to warm up, and no one is distracted by phones or computer screens or anything else next to them during the recording.”

Monetization – specifically PodAds – has played a big role in how effectively they run their show.  Not only do they use it as a tool to monetize, but insert advertisements for their own live events in their back episodes.

“We use PodAds in two different ways that are both really helpful.  One way is the obvious way, if we have a sponsor, we can add pre-roll and mid-roll ads to every single episode of our back catalogue.  And because our show’s an interview show, sometimes an episode from four months ago might get a spike of listens because the person we had on the episode has done something in the news.  So knowing we can put ads on our entire catalogue is really helpful.

“The other thing we use it for is more of a fun trick is if we want to do something personal for our own podcast.  So for instance, we’re doing a live show on July 24th, and we want anyone to listen to any episode for this entire month to know about the live show, and once the live show happens we don’t want ANYONE to know about it anymore.  So it’s a way for us to easily let people know during a certain time no matter what episode they’re listening to that we have a live show coming up.”

To learn more about Matt, Oren, and JUST SHOOT IT, check out their website.  And to find out more about how to use PodAds to monetize your podcast, check out our step-by-step guide.

Members Only Private Podcast – Enhance Your Memberships

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You can further enhance their memberships by creating exclusive a member-only private podcast for your members.  This allows you to continue monetizing your content while you give members even more of what they love. As a new medium to turn to, it can also let your members listen offline, and let you keep track of how your members engage with your content.

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1.  How Can I Use Private Podcasting For My Extra Content?

People who consume content love to see extra, behind-the-scenes content  and exclusive content that non-membership having fans don’t have access to.  By offering access to an exclusive members only private podcast, you’re giving your fans more ways to become immersed in your content.  Having members-only exclusive content is also a great way to attract new members.  

You might already have some of this content on hand.  Did you do an interview and write an article that only covered part of it?  Release the entire recording as a podcast episode. Have extra content on a certain topic, or dive deeper on a topic that you’ve covered?  Release it as a podcast episode. Utilize the content that you have on hand and might have cut before, allowing you to make the most of the work that you’ve already done while providing your members with more of the content they enjoy.

2. How Can I Integrate This With My Current Subscriptions?

Your current membership options may have various pricing tiers and rewards (different amounts per month, or tiers for specific time lengths) to choose from, so your members can decide their level of contribution.  With the addition of a members only private podcast, you can give access to different channels for different tiers, with each tier producing its own audio and video content.  

Build your membership podcasts into your existing tiers at certain price points, or have it as its own tier.  By offering it as part of your paid memberships, your members will be willing to pay for a higher tier to access this exclusive content.  

3. What Benefits Are There To Using Audio and Video Formats?

Whether it’s through Apple CarPlay or through the Podbean app on any mobile device, podcasts are mobile by nature and travel in ways that other media can’t.  Your exclusive content can now be experienced and consumed without binding your member to just one task at a time. Choose from audio and video podcasts to ensure that your content is explored and covered in the medium that best suits the topic.  

Podcasting also allows for offline listening.  It’s frustrating to have unreliable internet connections disrupting the engagement of your content, but by allowing your members the option to download and listen offline means that they can access it anywhere without worrying about interruption.  

4. What Podcasting Tools Can I Use To Enhance My Memberships?

With a members only exclusive podcast, you want to ensure that you’re giving them content they’re the most interested in.  With our Engagement Intel tools, see what content your members listen to the most and tailor your content to increase their level of engagement.  This also allows you to see opportunities to improve on content that’s not getting as much interaction as other content.  

You can also set expiration dates on time-sensitive content utilizing tools like Podbean’s Time Bomb service, which allows you to content just for your members for certain periods.  No longer do you have to worry about someone trying to use a coupon or discount code that’s expired – once you’ve set it to expire, the content gets removed.

5. How Can I Keep This Content Members-Only?

Security is a prime concern when it comes to any of your content, let alone your exclusive private podcast.  You want to ensure that only your members get access to your exclusive content in your private podcast – but how do you ensure that access is granted to only them?

SSO (Single Sign On) allows your members to use the same login credentials they use for your other content, so there’s no need to create new passwords or seperate emails.  This ensures that only members you’ve approved can access your exclusive content.

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Your members enjoy your content on its own, but there are always ways to increase its impact.  By including an exclusive private podcast for your members, give them something extra to look forward to while giving yourself another way to monetize the content you’ve worked so hard on.

Learn more about creating and publishing your member-exclusive private podcast here!

Podcast Network – Why Should I Start One?

/ Roni Gosch / 2 Comments

Running many shows involves a lot of moving parts, especially when you’ve decided to turn your collection of shows into a podcast network.  There are added benefits to starting a podcast network – especially when it comes to keeping your content organized and accessible.    

Why You Should Starting a Podcast Network

1. Multiple Channels

With all the shows that are part of your podcast network, you want to make sure that your shows organized in their own place.  Even if you’re very specific on the topics you offer in your network, you still want a way to organize your content so listeners can choose to listen to one particular topic over another.

Utilize different channels for your shows in your podcast network. You allow yourself another schema by which you can keep your shows in line.  This also allows your listeners to tune it to the show they’re looking for. Your listeners won’t have to sort through other topics to find just the episodes they want.  Even if your content is uniform in topic, you can still benefit from organizational tools.

2. Unlimited Storage and Unmetered Bandwidth

You’ve got a lot of content, and you want to make sure that it’s accessible to anyone and everyone.  But that can’t happen with caps on how much storage you have and how much bandwidth you have access to.

Podbean offers unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth for starting a podcast network. Use as much as you need without worrying about overage fees. Your content won’t get deleted or lose quality as the month progresses.  

3. Dynamic Ad Insertion Tools

With a network, you have sponsors and advertising – you sometimes even run ads for one show on another show for the cross-promotional angle.  But manually going into each episode and inserting your ads can get tedious, and there may be other, more pressing matters at hand that you and your employees need to take care of.

Utilize dynamic ad insertion tools. You can upload your ad, set the time stamp, and have it inserted in all your uploaded episodes.  Or have it set to upload into any episodes as you post them. With something like Podbean’s PodAds service, you can set a start and end date to your advertising campaigns. You can also have different campaigns running alongside each other, monetize your back episodes, and so much more.

4. Find New Sponsors

Sponsorships for your podcast can be extremely beneficial. They can help you monetize (and even cross promote in many cases) your podcasts.  There are elements to finding sponsors that are time-consuming and take your attention away from other elements of producing content.  Often times, sponsorships are negotiated via communication (email, web form submissions, etc). However, there are ways that you can ease this process and be paired with sponsors to help your show.  

By taking advantage of a tool such as Podbean’s Ad Marketplace your podcast network shows are placed at the attention of dozens of different sponsors.  It’s a free, simple way to earn money using Podbean’s platform. Best of all, you can join Podbean’s Ads Marketplace for free.  You are notified when your podcast has been selected for a campaign, but you can also opt out at any time. 

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You’ve put a lot of work into your shows, and making the decision to create a podcast network.  By utilizing the tools and services offered, you can take advantage of the benefits and keep your content organized and accessible.

Learn more about podcast networks, and get started on creating your own here!