Featured
How to start a podcast
It’s the 64 million dollar question but the easy answer is just to start.
The first thing you need is an idea, but here’s a few things to think about once you think you’ve nailed your idea. Answer yes to all these questions and your on your way.
Are you familiar with your topic and are you passionate about it?
Can you dedicate time to it weekly?
How many other podcasts like your idea are there? The easiest way to check this is firstly to find out which genre your planning on doing and then check apple podcast, Spotify and any of the other platforms.
Will you offer something different to those podcasts?
When we are working with a new podcaster or designing new shows and concepts we filter everything through these three things
- Why do you want to do this podcast?
- Why will the audience connect with this podcast?
- Why should the audience care and share this podcast?
If your truthful about the answers above you might find that you’ve got an idea but you need to put a bit more work in.
If you want to read more on this topic check out or blog “ anyone can make a podcast most people shouldn’t.
If you want a hand developing your show reach out to us >
Podcast Trolls
Troll’s exist in the podcast world, some are just nasty people who love hiding behind fake name on apple and give you 1 star and a bad review.
Some are other podcasters who want to see your podcast not beat them on the charts.
It’s a sad state of affairs but on Apple Podcasts, you don’t have to use your real name when writing a review, most people have honest intentions and all podcasts love valuable feedback, good or bad. Some people are not that!
I think its time for apple to make a change to the way people offer feedback on their platform, this might not stop trolls but it might just make someone think twice before they write something nasty.
Nobody who has done the work to release a podcast and hopes and audience finds it deserves to get trolled because someone doesn’t like their voice or hates the music or worse still just hates it full stop.
Let’s put a stop to podcast trolls
Subscribe vs Follow
Apple podcasts have just announced that they will be changing the terminology on their platform from subscribe to follow.
This is an amazing idea and will really help with discovery for all podcasters.
Spotify and other platforms already call it a follow but in Australia, Apple Podcasts is still the biggest platform for podcast listening and this change is very exciting. ( clearly, it doesn’t take much to get me excited)
Why is it so important?
My view is the word subscribe means you have to pay, so hitting that subscribe button on a podcast player like apple could for those that are new to podcasting be turn off as opposed to an opportunity to convert a new listener or fan.
There are lots of studies on the penetration of podcasting in Australia and the best guesses run between 25-35% of the population have listened to a podcast in the last month. That means there are at worst 65% of the population that have not yet listened to a podcast, which is a massive opportunity for growth.
Imagine a new podcast listener, they head to apple to listen to a podcast and they see a big subscribe button and they think ....hmm I don’t want to have to pay or worse still what happens if they steal my info. using the word follow just implies I’m interested in your content and I want to hear more.
Anyone can make a podcast… most shouldn’t!
There are almost 1 million podcasts in the world, around 3% of those podcasts have a massive audience and are phenomenally well produced.
That leaves 97% of podcasts to take up the rest of those spaces.
In real numbers that’s 30,000 podcasts doing very well and almost 970,000 that aren’t game-changers.
So … why is that? What makes a great podcast? How do you become one of the 3% in the world that have amazing numbers and have great production.
Well let’s start with the title of this blog, what I mean by “anyone can make a podcast, most shouldn’t”
Let’s compare it to riding the Tour de France. Most of us know how to ride a bike, we could probably head out on a Sunday ride with family and friends, some of us might take it more seriously, maybe we are part of a club that goes on long rides on the weekend and stops by a coffee shop. We are good bike riders, We have a bike and we can ride … so I guess we should ride the Tour de France!
You see where I’m getting at, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
And if you are planning on releasing a podcast here’s a couple of things to think about.
On the Tour de France most of the riders train for years, they have studied the course, practised their tactics and have a team around then that might help them finish. That’s not to say they’ll win but they might just finish.
Look at your podcast. Do you have a plan? How well have you researched your idea? What’s does your team look like, can they produce, edit, strategize, who will listen, why will they listen?
Just because you’ve got the equipment doesn’t mean you should have a podcast.
Of course, if you’ve thought about all of the things like a Tour de France rider, then hit record and release it into the wild. If not maybe just listen to some of the 3% that make great podcasts.
If you’re looking for advice on how to start or grow your podcast hit us up at Hello@podshape.com
If you’re looking for advice on the Tour De France … we cant help.
I’ve started a podcast can I quit my day job?
NO! Ok that’s the shortest blog post I have ever written.
As I have written about in other blogs , making cash from 1 podcast is tough.
Podcast momentum with advertisers is really growing in Australia, there are stats flying around everywhere about how much the industry is worth and who’s t biggest and who’s making the most.
The easiest way to check if a podcast is making cash is to listen. If you hear the host reading an ad for a brand them there’s a good chance they are seeing some revenue, if you listen to you favourite 10 podcasts and don’t hear a host read ad then they probably eating 2 minute noodles for dinner.
So what’s a good download number to start monitsing your Podcast. This is a really tricky question as I believe in two streams of thought .
Thought 1 - Your Podcast might have 5000 downloads a month but you are in such a niche subject and your followers love the content and there might be a perfect brand that fits and they love podcasting and what it can offer. if your read that sentence again you’ll see , there needs to be 4 things that can all work together for you to successfully monetise your podcast.
- niche content
- passionate followers
- perfect brand fit
- a brand that believes in podcasting
It’s not impossible we have a few podcasts that have smaller numbers but have been sponsored for a year and continually deliver for the clients they work with.
the other stream of thinking is just about the numbers. In real terms if your podcast had 5000 downloads per month and found a sponsorship. Here’s a guesstimate of what you earn.
5000 downloads per month means around 10,000 impressions that you could serve.
Most clients (most not all) Buy on CPM ( cost per thousand ) and the standard in Australia for a host read can be anywhere from $25 CPM to $90 Cpm (unusually high)
So based on 10,000 impression on a Cpm of $25 you could earn ... wait for it $250 dollars per month gross before any revenue splits or costs.
So it stands to reason that the bigger the numbers the better your opportunity to quite your day job.
It’s has to be about growing your audience and if you want help with that get in touch with us hello@podshape.com
Here’s a nifty tool for working out what you could make from your podcast