Welcome to The Podcast News, a weekly show for podcast producers and anyone who loves podcasting. Here are the most interesting news articles and tutorials for the third week of November, 2019.

This week: Why articles in audio format increase member loyalty, behind the scenes of podcast advertising, 10 things new podcasters can do to boost downloads, building a podcast studio from scratch, tools to make your podcasts sound good, startup opportunities in podcasting, and more.

1

From Sara Alfort of Zetland (Danish magazine): Why Articles in Audio Format Increase Member Loyalty

What happens when all articles are available as audio? Loyalty goes up.

Danish magazine Zetland transformed itself completely into audio during the summer of 2017, and the results have surprised us: It has improved retention and member satisfaction. Listeners consume more, they stay longer with each story.

The decision of publishing all articles in an audio version was a complete transformation of our media in a relatively short time. And it turned out to be a great success. In two months 40% of the consumption was audio, in less than 6 months it was 50%.

Last summer we spend a lot of money on commercials on national television to attract attention. This summer we chose a different path, and asked our members to become our ambassadors. In just one month these ambassadors managed to get 2806 new paying members to sign up to Zetland. For us that means a growth of 25 percent. Way more than the tv commercials ever gave us.

A compelling argument for investing in audio to deepen relationships and grow a community.

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2

From Dave Jackson on the School of Podcasting podcast: Heather Osgood - Behind the Scenes of Podcast Advertising

A fantastic interview from The School of Podcasting podcast about podcast advertising. Worth a listen if you're interesting in getting sponsors for your show, or if you work with podcasters who might be.

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3

From Tae Haahr of Part-Time Podcaster: 10 Things New Podcasters Can Do to Boost Downloads

When you’re a brand new podcaster, there’s so much to think about from planning, producing and publishing episodes to promoting them. And the number one question I get asked by new or soon-to-be podcasters is “how can I get more listeners?”

The truth is, there are so many things that factor into and every podcast is different that it’s hard to say that there’s one thing that works better than others. But I do notice that a lot of new podcasters don’t utilize the tools that they already have at their disposal to promote their podcast.

So, after taking a look at the promotional practices of new podcasters and deriving from my experience, here are 10 things that you can do to help boost those download numbers.

If you're an experienced podcaster, you've probably heard most of these tips before, but #8 caught my eye: Ditch the text-based promotional content.

When it comes to promoting your content on social media, it’s important to know that the best types of content aren’t boring text-based posts. While almost every post requires text attached to it, your content has a chance to go further if you focus on other types of content instead.

Opt for photos, infographics (but make sure they’re not all text-based), videos or, my personal favorite for podcasts, audiograms. This type of content can not only help your posts go further, thus bringing in potential listeners but it can also help give followers a taste of your podcast in various forms.

I admit I've been lazy too often when it comes to creating promotional content for my episodes. I have been using Simplecast's Recast audiogram feature more lately though.

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4

From Multitude: A Studio of One’s Own: How we planned, built and paid for a podcast studio from scratch

A very detailed walkthrough of how the folks at Multitude (an independent podcast collective + production company) built a small podcast recording studio in a closet in their office in Brooklyn for about $10,000. Check this out if you're interested in building a recording room or studio or improving the acoustics of the space you're currently recording in.

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5

From Reddit: What kind of tools do you guys use to make your podcasts sound good?

Question from user mpbeau:

What kind of tools do you guys use to make your podcasts sound good? Is it all about the recording quality or is audio mixing/processing really important as well?

There's some good discussion in the thread about how to get good audio quality for your show. My two favorite comments:

1. If you're doing a podcast but not in person, having everyone record their own native audio is key. Many podcasts just hit record on a Skype call or Discord and it comes out much worse. Record your own native track and combine them in whatever program you prefer. Sounds much better.
2. I refuse to record anyone on a phone. It’s just not worth it. The sound always comes out terrible.

If you're interviewing remote guests regularly, it's worth investing in a subscription to https://squadcast.fm/, which is a web app that records an individual track for everyone on the call.

And while we're talking about Squadcast, check out their podcast Between Two Mics, a show "exploring challenges, opportunities, & new ideas that push the limits of what’s possible in podcasting."

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Closing Thoughts and Notable Mentions:

From Colin Keeley: Where are the Startup Opportunities in Podcasting?

In the nearly 15 years since Apple kicked off the podcasting era, podcasting has exploded, but the tools have remained shockingly rudimentary. I started podcasting over 3 years ago at Tech In Chicago and use many of the same tools today. Podcaster workflows often include a bunch of apps that aren’t designed for what they are used for.

Here is where I see major opportunities for improvement.

Good breakdown of the current challenges and opportunities in podcasting.

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From Dan Misener and Pacific Content: Do you publish more than one podcast? New tools to understand audience overlap

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From Matthew McLean on The Podcast Host: My Podcast Has Disappeared From iTunes/Apple Podcasts! Help!

Great tips for what to do if you discover that your podcast is no longer in Apple Podcasts. First two steps:

1. Double check to make sure your show is actually not available (don't rely on Apple Podcasts's search functionality as it's not always reliable)
2. Double check to make sure your show's RSS feed is still online and available.

If you're not familiar with what an RSS feed is or how it works, I wrote an introduction to RSS feeds article that you should check out.

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From The Podcast Dude (my podcast!): Professional Podcast Production Q&A with Steph Colbourn, founder of Edit Audio

Steph's a boss. Her clients include Harpers Baazar, Stack Overflow, Element AI, Cosmopolitan, Glossier, Postlight, Tinder, and more. If you'd like to learn about podcast production from a pro, check out this episode.

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From Christopher Balkaran on Medium (hat tip to Podnews for the link): How Podcasting Has Changed My Life

Nice writeup about the challenges and rewards of starting a podcast. Worth a read through if you're thinking about starting a show.

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From Chris Makara on the bulk.ly blog (hat tip to Matthew Passy for the link): Social Media Automation – How To Be Balanced & Not Look Like a Robot

Chris asks:

When you decide to use social media automation software to assist with your social media initiatives, where do you draw the line?

A great article exploring the upsides and downsides of social media automation, and when you should or shouldn't use automation.

Me? I don't automate anything social media, currently. All manual, baby.

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Finally, from Mati Sojka on his blog: What’s up in European podcasting? A status assessment

This was published back in October and updated earlier this month, but somehow I missed it back then. This is a deep deep dive into the state of podcasting over in Europe. I'm talking like 5000 words deep, spend-a-whole-afternoon-reading-this-thing deep.

Anyways, if you're curious about what's going on with podcasting over in Europe, you might enjoy that.

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Thanks for listening to (or reading) this week's episode! Please share the show with a friend and send feedback, thoughts, and cool stories or articles to [email protected].

Couple things before I go: It's Thanksgiving week here in the Unites States, and I am taking a road trip with a friend to go see Manchester Orchestra and some other bands play at their annual Thanksgiving concert/festival in Atlanta, The Stuffing. If you're in the area or going to that show, let me know and let's hangout and grab lunch or coffee.

I'm still planning on doing an episode next weekend, although it might be a little shorter. We'll see what happens in the world of podcasting.

Big thanks to Scotty Russell for leaving this show's first written review in Apple Podcasts. If you're looking for some badass illustrative lettering or if you know someone who is, get in touch with Scotty through his website https://www.perspective-collective.com/. And be sure to check out his show, the Perspective Podcast.

Have a great week, and happy podcasting!

Aaron Dowd
November 24, 2019

https://thepodcastnews.simplecast.com

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review in Apple Podcasts, or share the episode with a friend. Thank you! ?

If you like this show, you might also like my other show, The Podcast Dude.

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