In case you missed my report for September, here it is.
I hope that the info in this report and some of my insights will be helpful as you continue to grow your podcast!
Keep in mind that every niche is different and no two podcasts are alike. What might be good numbers for my industry might be horrible for yours.
You might remember that I took a break from podcasting a little while ago to see how it would affect my traffic stats. With this month, I conducted another experiment.
I doubled the frequency of my podcast episodes from once per week to twice per week. I also added a new sponsor (total of 3 – here are my tips for getting a sponsor).
Oh boy, that sure had a positive effect. Here are my monthly downloads over the course of September and October.
During October alone, I got 2,358 downloads, which represents a 74% increase from the previous month.
I think that part of this increase is due to the doubled frequency, but I’m also getting better at titling my episodes.
I can easily see how a show with a 5 day a week schedule could really rack up downloads, like the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast.
Podcasting vs Blogging
If you’ve been blogging for a little while, you’ll know that there are certain types of articles.
Some articles, like news posts, will see a bump in traffic and then rarely go anywhere. Evergreen content will usually see an initial boost, when you promote it, and then the traffic will stagnate. However, if it starts to rank well in google, then you’ll see traffic start picking up again.
In my experience so far, Podcasting is the latter form of content. You see an initial burst of downloads for new episodes, but then they trail off.
Some of my older podcast episodes continue to get 20-40 downloads per month, but that’s only because I continue to promote them and people discover them on my website, not through the iTunes store.
I have gotten several reports of listeners “binge listening” my content. I do that sometimes with other podcasts and I think that the degree to which listeners binge listen to your podcast could be a great metric for determining whether or not you have a show that’s going somewhere.
However, the vast majority of my listeners discover a single episode because I’ve promoted it or because they got a notification on the their phone that I had a new episode that has come out.
Evergreen Podcasts
Based on the stats that I’ve been recording and from looking at other podcasts in the iTunes store, I think that there is a market for evergreen content podcasts.
This means that you could rack up 10-50 interviews and then just let them sit and continue to rack up downloads as you rank better and better in the iTunes store.
What makes me say that? Well, for one, the Startup Podcast had stopped producing shows for a good chunk of time (3 months) and were still ranking well as a podcast for startups. They are also still in the top 50 in the iTunes business category.
Also, Seth Godin’s startup school podcast hasn’t produced a new episode since 2013 (two years!) and still ranks as one of the top startup podcasts.
Finally, in my own niche, one of the top ranking podcasts has only produced 11 episodes and hasn’t produced a new one in nearly 2 years. And they rank better than me!
Therefore, it would be an interesting experiment to get a library of 10-20 ridiculously useful, awesome, or entertaining podcast episodes in a variety of different niches and just see if you can get them eternally ranked in the iTunes store and profit from the downloads.
For this to work, you’d need a good call to action for each episode (would not recommend sponsors). If you were successful, you’d see a repetitive stream of traffic, similar to if you rank well in google.
However, if you don’t do this, then I think that you just need to keep cranking out new content to continue to make podcasting work as a customer relationship building tool.
Doing a Podcast Teaser on FB/YouTube
I also tested out doing a podcast teaser on FB and YouTube for one podcast episode. For that episode, I’d say that it brought about 5%-10% of the overall download traffic.
I actually enjoyed making the video, so I might do that again. When people see your face, it’s also another opportunity to connect with the listener.
My growth this past month
I’ll reiterate that I think the growth in downloads this past month as compared to September is purely due to the increased frequency of the show. As evidence, here’s the download chart for October only.
As you can see, the overall trend line is pretty steady. I’m expecting the same number of new downloads for new podcast episodes that come out in November.
I’m using the episode-by-episode download statistics to really see which titles and types of episodes my audience likes.
I’m also working on my voice.
There are certain things that I can’t control, like the market I’m in or what I’m podcasting about, but I can make it more of an enjoyable experience for the listener.
I’ve been working on improving the strength and confidence of my voice. I’ve been doing this by “warming up” for a good 15 minutes before any podcast interview. This way, I get myself in a talkative mood and also don’t stumble or experience any switching costs as I go from one activity to another.
For me, my biggest things to work on are my enunciation, enthusiasm, and remembering to be myself, not some abstract interview “personality”.
What are your biggest challenges? Let me know in a comment below :).
