I can handle some people explaining their strategies of launching a podcast, but there are some things that are just blatantly WRONG. Here are a couple that get my goat.
Episodes Get Downloaded When People Subscribe
If you simply launch with only one episode on your first day, and someone subscribes to your podcast, then you only get one download. BUT, if you launch with five episodes and they subscribe, then you get five downloads, which will help to raise your rankings within iTunes.
This is not true, and easy to test. Go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/itunes and subscribe and see if my back catalog automatically downloads.
You Only Get 8 Weeks to be in New and Noteworthy
Podcasts based on TV shows go in and out of New and Noteworthy all the time
50+ Honest Reviews Will Get You Into New and Noteworthy
Nope. It's subscribers that really count. Not that reviews don't mean anything, but subscribers appear to carry more weight. Also boosting people to the top of the charts before they have found their own voice doesn't work.
Case in point Philip Phillips.
Who?
Exactly (season 11 winner of American Idol).
They talk about generating buzz, and getting people to talk about your show. You want to do this every week you are podcasting. You want to bring value on a consistent basis.
Here is a video that explains why I know these are not true
Rob Walch at Podcast Movement said the following things about New and Noteworthy
- His KC Startup podcast was featured (front page) of iTunes and saw a bump of about 300
- His son's podcast Porter's podcast saw a bump of about 1000
- He said a front page listing will get a bump of anywhere from 200-a couple thousand.
- Podcasters who game the system to be #2 in the Education category and rarely got over 200 downloads per episode (most were around 100ish).
The sad thing is people are never launching because they can't get the recommended number of podcasts (3,5,8, 30) ready to launch. Just launch.
Losing Your Audience in Jargon and Inside Jokes
We are all too close to the trees to see the forest and depending on who you audience is, we need to remember that we get new listeners all the time. When we start using jargon (words that only people with experience in you field, or potentially an inside joke ) you can leave them confused. This makes them feel like an outsider, and potentially tune out. Recently on an episode of the Podcast Review show both myself and my co-host Erik K. Johnson were lost in the hosts use of big words and inside jargon. Now, maybe we aren't their target audience but it really took away from the experience.
Being a person who grew up in the church Christian people who are trying to reach the world when they start spouting things like “Lion of Judah, Bathed in Blood, Alpha and Omega, evangelical, Holy Ghost, born again, unspoken prayer requests (which just means someone in my family messed up again). Be a “Proverbs 31 woman”. The list goes on.
I asked my buddy Cale Nelson from HamRadio360 to come in and share some jargon.
Tascam US-32 Review
Tascam MiNiSTUDIO Personal US-32 Audio Interface for Online Broadcasts is a brand new interface for podcasters who are looking to broadcast live and have the ability to mix in (up to) three sounds. There is also the ability to add effects. Most of the effects are pointless (make your voice deeper, higher, reverb, echo, distortion).
This is kind of exciting as this particular unit is a great idea, but the problem was it's just buggy. The effects one minute would allow me to change via the software, and the next minute it wouldn't. I had to go into my computer settings to hear the sounds I had assigned to the PON buttons (I have no idea what PON stands for).
The biggest problem is I couldn't get it to work with Hindenberg Journalist, or Audacity software (at that point I didn't even try it with Audition). I was in the middle of a call on Tryca.st and it turned me into a robot.
So when they get the bugs worked out, I like the tool I love that I can pllug my ipad in so if I want more sound to play, I've got them (although adjusting the volume on the ipad it not super easy). I liked that I can set up how long it takes to have a sound fade out. It makes for a great live streaming tool. I expected it would take me 20 minutes to review the unit, and it took me hours as I kept uninstalling an reinstalling drivers, turning on and off the unit, and unplugging and replugging in the unit. Great idea, bad execution. I was using a Dell Computer on Windows 10.
Mentioned On This Episode
Podcasters Roundtable Round 76 State of Live Streaming
Book a Podcast Coaching Call With Dave Jackson
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The “myth” about needing X number of episodes uploaded at launch strikes me as debatable. Your technological reasoning is, of course, spot on. (The podcatcher apps aren’t going to automatically download the back catalog.) However, I never took this “rule” to mean it that way. I always took it to mean that if you have a new listener – and they like you – the first thing they will do is look at your past episodes. Theory being, if there is nothing there, you may confuse and/or lose them.
As a listener, this makes a lot of sense to me because that is exactly what I do when I find a new show I like. If it’s not too established – and I know I can “catch up” quickly – then I will certainly binge listen to all of their episodes starting with #1.
So… while I agree that you do not HAVE to have X number of episodes at launch… I do think there is a benefit to it. Not something worth postponing your launch for… but something to consider nonetheless.
As for the people who choose to do this (or worse, teach it) just because they think they’ll get a bunch “free” automated downloads – well – those people are hopeless and will always care more about the number than how it was derived.