Welcome to The Podcast News, a weekly show for podcast producers. My name is Aaron Dowd. Here are the most interesting news articles and tutorials for the first week of December, 2019.

This week:

• Podcorn, a native ad platform for podcasters, just launched this week
• Podtrac says unique monthly listeners for the top ten podcasts decreased in November compared to October (but that's consistent with a seasonal dip they saw last year)
• Independent.co.uk predicts that audiobook sales will overtake ebook sales in the UK in 2020 (probably because no one reads anymore, and also because audio is the best medium)
• We Edit Podcasts published a blog post about the 10 key elements of a strong podcast intro (you won't believe what number 3 is)
• and more

1

Podcorn, a native ad platform for podcasters, launched this week

Podcorn's goal (according to their website) is to simplify every aspect of podcast sponsorships and provide an easy way for brands and podcasts to connect.

I've been hearing the name for a few months, but really started to pay attention after I heard one of the co-founders, Agnes Kozera, interviewed on the Business of Content podcast.

Quoting from the Medium post for that interview:

Agnes Kozera knows a thing or two about helping content creators monetize their content. In 2013, she and a co-founder launched Famebit, a platform that helped YouTubers match with brands that were willing to sponsor their videos. The company was so successful that it was eventually acquired by YouTube in 2016.

This year, Kozera and that same co-founder are launching Podcorn, a platform designed to help podcasters monetize their shows. Like Famebit, it will serve as an online marketplace where brands can post RFPs for projects and be matched with participating podcasters.

I signed up for the early access beta just so I could keep an eye on it, since my job at Simplecast involves a lot of answering questions about monetizing podcasts, and because a lot of the things Agnes said in the interview resonated with me. Rather than share all of my thoughts about the challenges of podcast advertising, I'll just say check out that interview to learn more.

Podcorn officially launched this week, and I spent a couple minutes poking around the interface earlier in the week. It looks really nice, it's easy to get setup, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things turn out for them.

I've got an interview with Agnes scheduled for my show this Tuesday, so if you have any questions you'd like me to ask, send em over.

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2

Downloads decreased in November for the top 10 podcast publishers compared to October

From Podtrac's Blog:

All Top 10 Publishers saw decreases in US Unique Monthly Audience in November compared to October, consistent with a seasonal dip we saw last November.

Just a reminder: It's normal for downloads to decrease a little around the holidays. Don't stress about it. Stay focused on making good episodes and improving your podcasting and marketing skills.

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3

Audiobooks predicted to overtake UK ebook sales in 2020

From Independant.co.uk:

Sales of audiobooks are set to overtake ebooks in 2020, new research suggests.

Figures from consultant firm Deloitte predict that UK sales of spoken story-telling are set to generate revenue of £115 million in 2020.

It would be a 30 per cent increase on audiobook sales in 2018.

In comparison, ebooks - predicted as the “future of reading” by The Telegraph in 2009, are rounding out the decade with a continuing downward trend of ownership.

Sales of ebooks fell in 2017 by 4 per cent and have continued to falter.

Couple things here: I see an opportunity here for podcasters to stop giving away all their knowledge and good content for free and instead create audiobooks to sell. If you know how to make a good podcast, I think you're most of the way towards knowing how to create an audiobook.

Second, I've been listening to the audiobook version of Edward Snowden's new autobiography Permanent Record, and it is fantastic. (Amazon affiliate link there.)

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Notable Mentions:

10 Key Elements of a Strong Podcast Intro

From WeEditPodcasts.com:

Statistics show us that an opinion based on a first impression forms within the first seven seconds of any interaction. That’s not long at all! If we put that in the context of your podcast, essentially that means you have less than 10 seconds to grab the listener’s attention and turn them into a loyal fan.

But just how do you create this great first impression? What does a catchy intro actually consist of? We’ve thought about this long and hard and have come up with 10 elements we think are key to creating that all-important, amazing podcast intro. Make sure your intro has these elements, and you’ll turn that curious listener into a fully-fledged fan!

The ten key elements:

1. The Name of Your Podcast
2. The Name of the Host(s)
3. The Episode Number
4. The Title of the Episode
5. Music and Sound Effects
6. The “Who” of Your Podcast
7. The “Why” of Your Podcast
8. The “How” of Your Podcast
9. The “What” of Your Podcast
10. Your Personal Spin

If you want to be grow your audience, you must get good at writing episode titles and intros.

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Planning the Jump to a Full-Time Podcast Career

From Wil Williams on PodcastMovement.com:

About a year into my work in the podcast space, I started Googling things like, “how to freelance full-time,” “how to leave your day job for your side hustle,” and “turning your hobby into your job.”

I felt stifled in my 9-to-5, and I could tell that the amount of time and emotional energy it took out of me was coming at the risk of what I considered my real work: podcasting and podcast criticism.

Just about every site said the same thing: You’ll know you’re ready when you have the ability to leave your day job. That didn’t mean anything at all to me until I found myself in that situation.

Valuable insights for those of you looking to transition to a full-time career in podcasting. I'll add two tips here:

1. When you're working in podcasting, everything takes much longer than you'd initially expect. Estimate how long you think something will take you, then triple it. Yes, really.
2. Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer so you should talk to one to get real legal advice related to taxes, but if you live in the US, put 30% of your income into a savings account so you can pay your taxes on time. You'll probably have to pay taxes every quarter, and don't expect to get money back at the end of the year. Don't play around with this, or you could end up owing the IRS thousands of dollars, which is not something you want when you're trying to make a living working as a freelancer or contractor.

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From Fear to Faith to Fun: My Journey from Podcaster to Professional Voice Talent

From Daree Allen on the WOCPodcasters.co website:

When I started Kickin’ it with Daree Podcast in 2015, I wanted to showcase my authority as a thought leader in the personal development space. First, I listened to podcasts about podcasting. Then I slowly taught myself how to use audio equipment and recording software, which set me up nicely for my eventual voiceover (“VO”) business, where I narrate commercials, web videos, e-learning and audiobooks. But you know the REAL reason I started podcasting? Because I was afraid to start a career in voiceovers.

Podcasting was a low-pressure way for me to dip my feet in, and get used to hearing my own voice and doing the back-end technical work. I had to learn to edit my own podcast, market my own podcast, and gain the confidence needed as a “VOpreneur.”

A great write-up if you've ever considered getting into voiceover work. Daree talks about what kept her from getting started, how she got started, how much she had to invest, resources she found helpful, rates, and more.

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Melissa Monte on Raising Your Podcast’s Profile

From ProSoundNetwork.com:

The Video Show: With so many name-brand podcasts, celebrities, networks and other heavyweights getting so much attention in podcasting these days, is it still possible for a smaller or independent podcast to break through and build an audience?*

Melissa Monte: Yes, definitely! This just means it’s more important than ever to launch with a strategy, and that strategy is defined by your business goals. I know plenty of podcasters who have never ranked in the podcast charts, but their podcast still contributed to multiplying their business efforts.

Short article, but some good takeaways in there.

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Kerning Cultures’s Hebah Fisher on going from podcast to network

From Podfund on Medium:

Hebah Fisher is the co-founder of Kerning Cultures, the first venture-backed podcast company in the Middle East. A serial entrepreneur and journalist, Hebah previously built microfinance and business education programs in the Gulf and the States. We chatted with Hebah about how and why she started both Kerning Cultures the podcast and Kerning Cultures the company, and what it’s like working across seven time zones.

Thinking about starting a podcast network? Read this.

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Music Production vs. Podcast Production: How Music Production Differs from Podcast Production

From Mandy Pennington on ResonateRecordings.com:

While recorded music has been around for over a century, it is only in the last decade that podcasting has become a phenoma, quickly making its mark on the media industry.

Many audio engineers today are trained in music production, recording, and mixing, but are scrambling to translate those talents into the world of podcasting, where work is abundant and the demand is growing exponentially.

So what are the similarities between producing music and producing podcasts?

You may not know this, but I was studying music production for about 2 years before I started helping people make podcasts. My love for incredible sounding music is why I talk so much about the importance of audio quality.

Here's what I've learned: Making a podcast sound good is WAY easier than making a recording of a full band sound good. There's just far fewer elements and variables.

If you really want to contribute to the success of a podcast and get paid real money, I'd recommend studying editing, post-production, marketing, audience growth, and the other things that podcasters struggle with. Getting good sound for a podcast is fairly easy, launching a show and keeping it going and growing is not easy.

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From Dan Misener on Pacific Content's blog: Podcast episodes got shorter in 2019

Super interesting graph on that post, showing how the length of podcast episodes has changed over time. It looks like podcast episodes were pretty short back in the mid-2000s when podcasting was a brand-new medium. Then episodes slowly got longer until 2014, and have since been declining in length and are almost back to 2005 lengths.

But yeah, as Dan wrote:

Your goal should be to make episodes that are long enough to fit into your listeners’ lives in a regular, ongoing, meaningful way… and no longer.

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What is your strategy for getting more Patreon Subscribers?

From Reddit, user PitifulNose asks:

I am curious what everyone is doing to get Patreon subscribers. What is working, what isn't working. What type or marketing, or specific messaging helped. We've only been in the game 3 months, we have about 600 podcast subscribers but only a handful of paying Patreon subscribers. Looking to try to some new things next year, interested to hear from others on this topic. Thanks in advance.

A helpful reply from user bluntlybipolar:

600 subs and a handful of supporters sounds about right, really. You'd generally expect less than 1% because most people don't engage with internet content in any kind of deep way. Patreon is a way for the people that LOVE your work to support it. Not like it. Not think it's good. Not think it's great. But LOVE. That's not going to be a high percent.

Standard website engagement and conversion rates are generally within the 1-3% range.

I'd focus on growing your audience more than I'd worry about Patreon right now. If you're even approaching 1%, you're already doing well.

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Discussion topic for the week: Does social media make you feel worse?

From Delilah Dawson on Twitter:

Honest question here: Does social media make you feel worse? I used to love it, love connecting with people, but Twitter has changed so much in the past decade. Now it makes me feel alone and jealous and endangered, which makes me want to online shop. Not sure how to change it.

I keep going back and forth about this. Some days I love Twitter. Some days it makes me feel like shit. It mostly seems to be related to who I follow and what I pay attention to.

Twitter has become an outrage machine, it seems, much more so than before 2016 or so. I have to constantly remind myself to not let things I read on Twitter get me riled up or outraged, which makes me wonder, why am spending so much time on it?

What do you think? Send your thoughts/opinions to [email protected], and let me know if you're ok with me including them in the notes for the next episode.

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Have a great week, and happy podcasting.

Aaron Dowd

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This show was produced by me, Aaron Dowd.
Music and SM7B illustration by Sean McCabe.
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