PodSchool Podcast | How to set yourself up for podcasting success

Hello. Today's show is all about how to set yourself up for podcasting success because I don't want you to fail. I'm very interested in you being a successful podcaster, and the way you do that is by having a high-quality show. So, let us talk about some of the things you can do, apart from joining me in my online podcasting course, PodSchool, of course, to make sure your podcast is a success.
I know I’ve mentioned this so many times I’m like a bloody broken record but when you’re coming up with your idea, please think about the people who are going to be listening to your show. Design your ideal listener. Make sure you are making your decisions for them because you are much more likely to come up with an idea that people will enjoy and seek out and want to listen to if you have an audience in mind. Make sure that's at the base of everything that you do rather than your ego because that never gets you anywhere.
Second thing is to choose the right podcast niche. If you’re brand new to podcasting and you don’t have an existing following it’s much harder to stand out when you’re competing in an overcrowded and broad niche so the more specific you can get the better. Look around at what’s already there and think strategically about your idea and the best way to execute it so you don’t get drowned out by shows that are already out there. When you’re a new podcast you want a show that’s really easily definable so you need to put time into thinking about your niche and where your show fits.
The next thing I want to talk about is passion because you need a lot of it if you are going to make it through the often deathly quiet early weeks, months or maybe years of your podcast. It might take you a long time to build an audience so you need to be realistic about your audience expectations. It might take a long time for you to build your listener base and while you’re waiting you really need passion for the project to get you through. It’s that passion that will translate to an audience and build your connection with them but you need to be able to drum it up even if you’re broadcasting to ten people. You want the people listening to think “Oh my gosh, I love this show. I love this person. I'm going to tell my friends about it!” And really turning up for your audience is one of the best ways to do that. Word of mouth is slow but it’s still a great way to grow your podcast. But you want to make sure you love doing it so that those cold, lonely winter nights don’t seem so cold and lonely. And if you don't get big numbers, don't worry. Just turn up for those people who have turned up for you and really make them feel like you love being there because you can still monetise a little show. You just need to have a really engaged, interested audience, and the only way you'll do that is if you're passionate about what you're doing.
Next, think of our audio quality. Gone are the days where you can sit in the kitchen talking into the built-in microphone on your computer and think that is good enough. There are shows out there that sound amazing, and there are only small things you need to do at home to get your show sounding just as good. So have the respect for your listeners ears and put time and effort into thinking about your audio quality.
Last week, I talked about finding the right format and length for your show when you're thinking about podcasting and one of the things I'd add to that is the importance of coming up with a format and content that has legs. So you might be better off separating things into seasons. That might give you a better chance of success because doing a show every single week for the rest of time might burn you out really quickly. Or there might not be enough content, so it might be easier to do it in seasons. The other thing to think about is making sure it is an idea you can flesh out for a long time because it's easy when you are starting to think “I've got all the ideas in the world” and then three weeks and you think, “Oh gosh, what am I going to talk about next week?” That's hard. The other thing that could be difficult if you're thinking about doing a show with guests is booking them. It's a lot of work, and you can't guarantee your schedule is going to fit in with their schedule or that you're going to be able to book somebody every week. So if you're not recording ahead of yourself, which you absolutely should be, you can get yourself into a real pickle. So just make sure you've thought about all of the ways things could go wrong so you can make sure that you've got a format that's the best for your audience, your idea and your workload. Otherwise, you’ll get a few weeks or months in and think “Oh no! I can’t keep this up!” And you don’t want that.
I mentioned they're recording interviews ahead of time. I would always advise batch recording if you can as it’s a great way to help you not fade out. When you are podcasting, there are a lot of podcasts that just fade into oblivion because they didn’t realise it would be this much work. If you record episodes in batches you can get multiple weeks of content done in a single sitting which will help you so much in the long run.
Make sure you have realistic expectations. Of course, it’s good to have goals but you want the passion for the project to come first then everything else is a cherry on top. Be realistic about what’s achievable, especially when you're coming up with timelines. Don't set yourself a goal of a million listeners in six months because it's going to be a sad old party at the six-month mark. The amount of downloads podcasts get are way lower than you might think so you’re much better off going in with realistic goals and hitting them than being constantly disappointed.
Once you actually get into the show, it's really important to promote the crap out of it. I can't stress this enough. A lot of podcasters make the mistake of tweeting once when their episode is released just with a link to their show and you can’t build an audience with that. You've got to get multiple pieces of content from each episode and share your show as many different ways as possible. You want to make sure that you are doing everything you can to get your content out in front of eyes and ears in different ways so you can entice people. Somebody might not be interested in a quote, but they might see an audio grab and find it really interesting. So you need to be promoting like crazy. If that's not something you're comfortable with, I get it but one of the best things you can do is get a scheduling tool so you can schedule your posts ahead of time. If you're trying to do that every week, it can get overwhelming but a scheduling tool takes it out of your hands.
And then the final thing, I'd say is before you start, if you could do any kind of practice of the process, that can really help you out. So everything from recording, editing, putting the show notes together, creating those social assets, coming up with a structure and a workflow so that when you get started, you know exactly what you need to do for each episode. But you also know generally how much time things take so you're not jumping in on the first week thinking “This is going to be a breeze.” And then you realising it takes way longer than you thought it would. So you really want to know how long it's going to take you to do each of the elements so that you can be really well prepared when you go into it. And, of course, check out PodSchool, my online podcasting course where I take you step by step through everything. It’s a mix of lessons that take you through everything from idea generation all the way to monetising your show and a bunch of video tutorials as well, where I step you through the process of uploading your show to the directories, editing and everything else. All right, I will see you next week and until then, happy podcasting.