Can you have a successful podcast if you’re not dropping episodes weekly?
You definitely can but it depends on what your measure of success is.
If your number one goal is to grow your podcast audience to it’s maximum potential, you’re going to need to release episodes weekly (at least) to be able to achieve that.
But if your goal is just to get your show out into the world and you’re happy for audience to build in it’s own time then you can definitely release episodes less frequently.
But they still have to be consistent.
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Consistency is key if you want a successful podcast
Whatever frequency you decide to release your podcast episodes your audience needs to be able to make an appointment with your content.
That means, if they show up for you, you need to show up for them.
It’s impossible to build a loyal fanbase of listeners off the back of content that’s released ‘whenever you feel like it.’
That’s not how podcasting works.
And if you want the idea you’ve spent a lot of time and effort on to generate an audience, you need to be releasing content consistently.
Does that mean you can never take a break?
Of course not.
You can release your podcast in seasons, or you could batch record episodes ahead of time so you can take a break behind the scenes while the podcast keeps going.
It’s important to note that while you will maintain your subscribers across your break (depending on how long it is) your downloads don’t go back to where they were immediately when your show starts releasing episodes again.
Most podcast growth is incremental which is why it’s important for your show to be ‘always on.’
But if you can’t make that happen (which is understandable because it’s A LOT of work) you just need to know that taking a break will mean you’ll have to build things back up again on the other side.
You won’t be starting from scratch, by any means, but you won’t be benefiting from the growth momentum that comes from a show consistently releasing episodes.
Can you increase frequency later?
Again, yes!
If you want to get your podcast started fortnightly or monthly so you can get it out, you can always increase the frequency later once you’re starting to gain traction and build audience.
I see a lot of podcasts do this even if they’re releasing episodes weekly, because they’re growing their audience and they want to compound on that growth.
Increasing your episode frequency is never going to lead to complaints from your audience if they’re loving your show.
But starting weekly and then having to cut back because you realise you’re overcommitted, will.
So, if monthly or fortnightly is all you can manage right now that’s totally fine!
Just remember that means your audience growth will probably be slower than if you released episodes more frequently but you can always increase things once you get the hang of it and you’re getting more ears on your show.
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Got a question about podcasting? Send it my way so I can answer it on the podcast!
Hello. Welcome to the show.
Today I've got a question that I've been asked in a few different ways, so I'm like, this is actually something that a lot of people are thinking about.
The question is basically around episode frequency and whether you have to release a show weekly.
So Kay asked me specifically, like, is it okay if I release a show fortnightly? Donna's also asked me, in the beginning, if weekly is too hard to commit to, can once a fortnight work? And isn't it better to have a crack and then increase it to weekly over time?
Yeah, it is. That is correct.
The thing about weekly episode drops is, if your main goal is maintaining and growing audience, then you have to hit that frequency — at least to meet that goal.
Now, if you are a network and you have ads that need to be delivered and you have to hit certain download numbers and you have impressions that need to be reached and those kinds of things, that is a really important thing. So you release episodes every single week.
Even with any of the shows in the networks that I've run, we have holidays, we don't have the hosts around all the time. We'll always batch record content for the holiday period. We might do best-ofs, depending on what we're working on over that time.
So whatever we do, we just will never have the feed dead for a week or a month or any of those kinds of things because it's really hard to build audience on the other side. Now, you're not starting with zero audience if you go on a break, but your audience doesn't immediately just drop straight back in.
You have to kind of build them back.
Now, that's totally fine if you're just doing something from home for the love of it, but if you have ad requirements and clients that need to have things delivered, that's just not a possibility.
But if you are just doing this at home for the passion and the love of it, and you want to do it and start it, and you cannot possibly commit to weekly, of course you can start with less frequency.
It's really just understanding that you will always have a better chance of building audience if you are dropping episodes consistently on a weekly basis. So if you want to start fortnightly and get in a rhythm of that, yes, you can build audience.
It will be slower than if you build it with a weekly episode, but you will be able to build audience that way. And then maybe if you could increase the frequency to weekly, great. You can do that.
If it's monthly, again, it might be a little slower than fortnightly to build your audience, but if you can start with that and then increase your frequency, great. Your audience, if they like what you do, is never going to be unhappy with more, but they are certainly going to be unhappy with less.
So you want to get into a rhythm where you can deliver content on a schedule that works for you. And then ideally, you can drop in a bonus every now and then.
I think that is a much better process than trying to overcommit to something and then either not hitting those commitments, or alternatively having to pull things back because you've gone, “Oh, I'm hitting this, but it's actually a lot more work than I can handle.”
So ideally, you want consistency above all else.
If consistency for you is only monthly, but you really need to get this show out of your head, I get it. Just get it out. And then if you can increase the frequency later, that's fine.
But that weekly cadence is not really about “this is the only way you can have a successful podcast.” It's about, that's what the requirement is if you need to be giving your show the best chance to hit download goals and milestones and keep that audience growing.
But if you are releasing it and you just want to create it and you've got other goals and other success metrics — which, if you're listening to this, you will have heard me talk about this ad nauseam — very important. Have your own success metrics that are like, “I'm just doing this and I'm getting it out there,” and that is enough. And that is fine.
But just deliver your show consistently so your audience know that if it's only a month, then I'm getting this episode every month on the first day of the month, or the first Monday of the month, or whatever it is that you've set as the day. That is when they will receive it.
And ideally, you want it to be the same day. Because if people are like, “Oh, it's the Tuesday” or “It's the 15th,” so it'll be a Tuesday on some weeks and then it'll be... like, if I've got to think more than “I know that every four Tuesdays I'll get something,” I think that's the simplest way to roll something out if you're going to do it on a monthly basis rather than according to the date.
Because who knows what date it is? I've got no idea. I mean, I don't even know what day it is some days.
So I think having that kind of cadence is a much better way to do it so your audience know, “Every four Mondays, it's going to come into my inbox” or “Every two Mondays, it's going to come into my podcast app, and I can listen to it.”
So yeah, if you are not starting your show because you can't commit to weekly, don't let that hold you back. Get started, jump in, and then increase it if you can.
If you've got a question, please submit it via the link in the description. I would love to answer it. And I will see you next week.
And of course, as always, if you need any more help with your show, make sure you check out my online podcasting course, PodSchool, which you can find at podschool.com.au.
