David Hooper's Blog: Build A Big Podcast, page 32

The Dangers of Podcast Hosting

Podcasting can a dangeous business and COVID-19 has brought with it some new risks for those of us doing close-contact work. For the last couple of months, I've been working on a project that requires dozens of in-person interviews, so I've had to think a lot about safety and how far I'm willing to go to get a good story on tape.   Just last week, a well-known broadcaster and podcaster in Nashville contracted COVID-19 from his co-host. Everything seemed to be going fine, until it wasn't – he's currently in the hospital in the critical care unit.   To make things more complicated, this person does a show where he frequently shares anti-vaccine propaganda. And the co-host of his podcast, the guy he contracted COVID-19 from, is his son.   It's a bad situation to be in. Which is a good reminder for all of us to be careful and thoughtful about the work we do and what we say while on the mic.   More thoughts on this episode...   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

Same Podcast, More Listeners

I had an interesting experience with a well-known podcaster recently. He was asking about the quality of his podcast and I let him know it wasn't very good. Then I let him know an easy way to improve it.   He rejected my idea.   I share the story in this episode. And my hope is that you'll make a different (and better) decision when it comes to your podcast. If you do, you'll get more listeners for your podcast and make more money with it.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

Hot Mic! Oops!

If you're been around microphones long enough, you've probably experienced a "hot mic" moment. I had one myself on this podcast just a few months ago, when I accidentally released a "rough edit" with some post-episode banter that was never meant to be heard, but hadn't yet been removed.   That situation ended up not being a big deal for me. Why? Because who I am on the mic is who I am off the mic – I didn't say anything that was "not me" or left listeners feeling tricked.   If you approach your podcast like this, a hot mic moment can actually help you, since people see that you're genuine.  It doesn't work that way most of the time though.   More about hot mics on this episode...   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

Podcast Advertising's Race to the Bottom (and How to Fix It)

Radio has long been known to throw in "value added" services, such as free or discount website advertising for those who buy their broadcast ads. This has been going on forever, so nobody thinks it's a big deal. Plus, the perception of website advertising is better than its reality, at least for some buyers, so it really isn't a big deal – it's a good deal for radio.   But podcast distribition platform Audioboom pissed off a few people by advertising that it encourages its hosts to "go long" on advertising reads, esentially giving away "$400 million in free advertising" to buyers.   First of all, that's magic math. No way were those longer ad reads were worth that kind of money.    What is worth a lot of money and what Audioboom seems to miss is what podcasters, like you, really do bring to the table when it comes to advertising. That's what I talk about on this episode.   Want to make more money from your podcast ads? Listen up...   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

The Podcast Guest Process w/ Chris Curran

Chris Curran, like me, spent a lot of time in the music industry. While my focus was marketing, mostly working out of office buildings, he was in the studio, engineering acts like Naughty by Nature, Heavy D & the Boyz, and Helmet.   When you spend that much time in the studio, you learn a lot about what it takes to get a quality recording. You also learn a lot about the psychology of getting a good performance on tape.   Between us, Chris and I have been part of over 3000 podcast episodes and interviewed hundreds of people. We've seen and experienced the good, bad, and ugly of podcasting.   In this episode, we talk about the process of getting a quality guest interview.

Want more? Visit Chris at Podcast Engineering School.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

Audacity 3.0 for Podcasters w/ Steve Stewart

Podcast editor Steve Stewart is back with a "bonus episode" that's very specific to the newly released Audacity 3.0. This one is short and to-the-point with a couple of things for you to consider if you use Audacity to edit your podcast.   On this episode: Audacity 3.0's new file format – this will make your podcast editing easier How to get a "clean cut" in your podcast edits (with a single keystroke) Sending your podcast directly to your editor (or anybody else) directly from Audacity Links mentioned: Behind-the-scenes of Steve's podcast editing business Audacity 3.0

Want more podcast editing help? Visit Steve at Podcast Editor Academy.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

Making Your Podcast Sound Better w/ Steve Stewart

95% of the time, the focus of Build A Big Podcast is marketing. Steve Stewart is a podcast editor. What does he know about marketing a podcast?   A lot – as the guy who runs the 6000+-member Podcast Editors Club on Facebook, he's seen and heard it all.   On this episode: The importance of owning a niche...even if you're just editing podcasts The editing "side-hustle" – a good option for you as a podcast host? How to start a podcast editing business (and how Steve was able to do it) The "psychology" of working with guests to get a great podcast interview The right way to do a mic test when you're interviewing a podcast guest remotely Getting comfortable on the mic (and how to make your podcast guests more comfortable)

Want more? Visit Steve at Podcast Editor Academy.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

Audacity 3.0 for Podcasters

Audacity 3.0 is out and it's got some new things that you'll find helpful if you're a user.   Not a user? it's not for everybody, and there are arguable more powerful tools like it available, but it's worked well for me for about 20 years and, for podcasting, I think it's worth a look.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

The $15,000,000 Podcast Ad

This is a "feel good" episode about the power of being able to connect with your audience.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

         

If Apple Podcasts Jumped off a Cliff...

The people at Apple Podcasts have decided "follow" is the right term for what we currently call "subscribe." So in the future, if you want people to "subscribe" to your podcast via Apple Podcasts, you may want to use the word "follow" to match their wording.   James Cridland of Podnews has some interesting thoughts on this, which I'll share with you in this episode. I'll also tell you my thoughts both in the episode and in here:   It doesn't matter.   What we call "subscribe" from now on isn't nearly as important as how we explain what that word means. And we still have a lot of work to do if we want podcasting to be at the levels of social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.   Also – why are we trying to win over people who don't listen to podcasts? I get that it would be nice to expand the audience that podcasting has, but it's a better growth strategy to work with the audience you already have and let those people help you grow than worry with people who don't listen to podcasts and may never listen to podcasts, regardless of what you call "subscribe."   Just to be clear – nobody is wrong here. There's no one way to do anything in podcasting. But changing one word isn't likely to be the gamechanger so many people are saying it will be.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.