The Question Most Podcasters Forget to Ask Before Starting – And They Wish They Had

Today is episode 614 of the School of podcasting and we are talking about the most important question a new podcaster should answer before they start. We also have a cool resource for royalty free music. I also share my thought in podcast sponsor markets.

The Three Questions I Ask Every Podcast Client

2:29

Tyler Primavera asked me, “I discovered your SOP and ATPC shows and I really appreciate them! I'm slowly working my way through them, sorry to hear about Bernie the cat.

I really want to start a podcast in veterinary school (starting in the fall), but I'm afraid of the time commitment. I really think podcasting is a great idea (I wrote in depth about it here at my blog https://wp.me/p9MJTj-1U), but I'm afraid of the commitment.

How do I decide to podcast or not?

Thank you for your time,
Tyler”

1. Why Do You Want to Podcast?

If you can't answer this, then don't spend a dime on any equipment. To this Tyler says

Through my podcast, I hope to speak (and live) the message that personal well-being is an absolute must during veterinary school, and that no vet student is ever truly alone.

He also says:

I want my podcast to improve the lives of veterinary students first, and the veterinary field second. I want to do my little part in tackling the big problem of veterinary mental maladies.

2. How Will You Know if It is Successful?

While I realize this can change. By answering this question as a consultant I can steer the podcast in the right direction. I can shape the call to action, etc. I can also see if the topic is in alignment with the goal of the show (cause that is not always the case).

3. What are You Going to Quit Doing to Make Time For Your Podcast?

This is my main point of this episode. Unless you have a large budget and are farming this out, your podcast s going take more time than you think. While I normally say use a four to one rule (a one hour podcast will take four hours to create start to finish), that number could easily be five to one when you're new. With this in mind, unless you have a time machine there are still only 24 hours in a day. Most of us do not start a podcast because we are sitting around watching Dr. Phil and being bored. It is typically quite the opposite.

In the article Tyler says this, “Right now, I have plenty of time to make a podcast, because I am not in veterinary school. How will I be able to attend school for 40 hours a week, study, workout, maintain a long distance relationship, and do a podcast? I have no idea. But supposedly, if there is a will, there is a way.”

This is not always true

Adolph Hitller said, “At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! —Time, 1934. Hitler had had the will to extend his National Socialist movement for 1,000 years. He had the will, but there was no way. In fact, I don't think he lacked the will.

Where I Will Be This Week

16:03

Cincinnati Podcasters Meetup on 4/18

Podfecta Podcasting Event 4/20 – Nashville Tennessee

Craft Content  4/21 Nashville Tennessee

Cool Resource For Royalty Free Music

16:52

Thanks to Steve Stewart for turning me on to this in his Podcast Editors Club Facebook Group who told me about MelodyLoops.com  where the music is about $10 a track and you can go back into the track you purchased and have it generate a longer/shorter version of the music.

Dave What Do You Think of Podmosphere?

20:39

Caine Dorr asked me about my thoughts on Podmosphere. So here it is

I've never heard of podmosphere, and when I look at their site it looks like the same site I've seen over and over again. Here is the concept.

You sign up your show and list your approximate downloads per episode. You list what your fee in CPM which stands for Price Per Thousand Downloads. Most of these sites have an example like this (straight from the podomosphere website)

“Podcasters sign up their account. They type in info about their podcast as genre, language the podcast is in, what country the podcast has a majority of their listeners from, CPM($/1000 listener), amount of listeners(last 3 episodes amount of listeners added up and divided by 3. Example podcast A has 1500 listeners on their last episode and 2000, and 1000 on the two episodes before. This means that 1500+2000+1000=4500/3=1500 is their average amount of listeners), upload a image with their statistics of amount of listeners(a photo of the statistics page that clearly shows how many listeners the podcast had on their last 3 episodes). When Podmosphere then verifies the podcast if the numbers are correct, the podcast shows up in the search engine.”

When I pasted that paragraph, my Grammarly went nuts (upload a image….). Podmosphere takes 25% of if you are charging $30 per episode, and you get 300 downloads here is the math

$30*.75 is $22.5 for your CPM after Podmosphere takes their cut. That calculates to $22.5/1000 = .0225 per download

.0225 X 300 downloads = $6.75 per episode.

I've seen some of these before, if you go to sponsororama you will see a message:

“Thanks for visiting
The Sponsorama sponsorship marketplace shutdown in September 2017”

Cast.Market is a Ghost to Me

This is a company that spends money on branding (I often see their items in a swag bad, but I've never met them in person at ANY podcasting events). On their website (and I'm not making this up) it states:

cast.market is a free service. We don't charge podcasters anything. Through the campaign, creator businesses can pay podcasters directly to sponsor their show. Our credit card processor charges 2.9% + .30 cents for this. cast.market adds an additional 7.1%

So its free except for the 7.1% of the income you are taking.

Here is What is Wrong With These Podcast Advertising Marketplaces

1. They are based on CPM, and the more niche your show is the more you should charge. However, so far it doesn't seem to be working.
2. There is one BIG thing missing from these marketplaces: sponsors.

Sure it sounds like a good idea, but in the end, if there are no sponsors it doesn't work. Why is there no email saying, “He this month we paid out X amount of money to podcasters? Also be sure to notice things when you go to cast.market and look at their news section and see the latest update is from April 14 of 2017. So there has been nothing newsworthy for a year?

For the most part CPM pricing does not work for 92% of podcasters (unless you're happy making $27 a month and adding another hour of time for the paperwork). I have not looked into Podbean's offerings and marketplace yet.

As the one thing these services are missing are advertisers, if the rules of supply and demand are in effect it may be worth looking into advertising your show on another show.  It's an idea.

Question of the Month

28:14

As I record this it is April 1. The first quarter of 2018 is over. What had you planned on doing in that first quarter that didn't, and what are you going to do differently to make it happen in this quarter. You can leave your answer using the options on the contact page

I need your answer by April 26th

Podcast Rewind: Should I Start a Podcast Episode 97

29:45

I appeared on episode 97 of should I start a podcast talking about THE COMMON PODCASTING MISTAKES YOU NEED TO AVOID

Podcast Rodeo

30:33

The podcast rodeo show is where we grab a random podcast and see how long we can hang on. If you're looking for an honest first impression of your show, it's only $5 at www.podcastrodeoshow.com for a full review of your entire show see www.podcastreviewshow.com 

What Should I Use -14 or 16 Lufs?

Spotify and Amazon want your files to be exported at 14 lufs. Many podcasters were exporting at -16. Apparently -14 is louder. How much louder? Is it a big deal? When I took a wave file and exported the same original file in the different formats, it was about 2 db louder (here is a screenshot where you can see the -14 lufs is louder.

For me, I was riding my bike this week and some podcasts I had to strain to hear over the traffic. I'm going with the louder setting.

Power Podcast Interviews Workshop

This is something my co-host from the Podcast Review Show is doing (Erik is the host of the Podcast Talent Coach and has 30+ years in radio, and this is a STEAL for a five-week (every Thursday night). Check it out. It is limited to 24 people so hurry before it's completely sold out. The first session is 4/19. MORE INFO

Daily Podcast Tips! Put Your Inbox to Work