Here's what I want you to know right up front: it is okay to pay for podcast interviews, with some important caveats and considerations. Whether the money is flowing from you to a guest, from a guest to you, or through a booking service, paying for podcast interviews isn't automatically unethical. But there is one area where the ethics are crystal clear, and that's disclosure.

Let's walk through four guidelines to help you navigate the ethics of paying for podcast interviews so you can make the right decisions for your podcast, your audience, and your business.

1. It's okay to pay to interview a guest on your podcast

Whether you're paying a guest directly to appear on your podcast or paying a service, agent, or agency to book that guest for you, this is absolutely okay.

Think about it. You already pay for plenty of things to bring value to your audience. You pay for gear, for podcasting tools, for experiences you want to share. Paying for a guest is really no different. You're investing in the value your audience receives, and your audience doesn't need to know that you paid for it or how much you spent (unless you want to tell them).

Some celebrities and popular figures charge to appear on podcasts, and that's a legitimate part of how they make their income. Being a guest takes time, and many of these guests see their appearance as a service they're providing. They're lending their expertise, their authority, and sometimes even promoting the episode to their own audience. They may feel they deserve compensation for that, and honestly, that's fair. You just have to decide if paying for a guest is right for your budget and your podcast. But ethically and legally, you're in the clear.

2. It's okay to pay to be a guest on another podcast

Now let's flip the direction. This is where things can feel a little more complicated, but the ethics are still straightforward.

Maybe you want to get on someone else's podcast and they charge for guest spots. Or maybe you sponsor their show and a guest appearance is part of the deal. This is the “pay to play” scenario, and it can be a smart business move. Being a guest on another podcast gives you the opportunity to promote your products, services, or expertise to a larger or more targeted audience. As a business expense, it can be a worthy investment.

A friend of mine recently paid around $10,000 to be a guest on a podcast. And that might sound wild, but it paid off. They made far more than that from the sales generated by that single appearance. For them, it was an excellent advertising investment. For you, it might be worth it too, whether you're growing your podcast, your business, or just trying to get your message in front of the right people.

If you want help getting booked as a guest, a couple of services I respect and highly recommend are Interview Valet and Interview Connections. Both have been doing this for a long time and both are run by great people (Tom Schwab and Jessica Rhodes, respectively). They can help you become an expert guest on other podcasts.

Paying to be a guest makes the most sense when you have something to sell and you see the appearance as an advertising opportunity for your expertise, products, or services. And as the guest, you don't need to worry about disclosing that you paid to be there. That responsibility falls on the podcaster.

3. Podcasters must disclose if they're getting paid to feature a guest

This is where the ethics become black and white. If you are being compensated to feature a guest on your podcast, you must disclose that to your audience. Period.

I covered disclosures in much more depth in You MUST Disclose Whenever You’re Compensated (episode 374), so I highly recommend checking that out for the full picture on affiliate disclosures, sponsorships, and more. But here's the core principle: if you are being paid or compensated in any way to feature something or someone on your podcast, you need to tell your audience. This isn't just an ethical best practice. It's a legal requirement under the Federal Trade Commission's guidelines in the United States, and similar laws exist in many other countries as well.

“Compensation” doesn't just mean money, either. If you're receiving free products, free services, free opportunities, or anything of value in exchange for featuring a guest, that counts. You need to disclose it.

Now, you might be thinking, “If I tell my audience that a guest paid to be on my podcast, they might not trust me or the guest as much.” And honestly? That's true. But that's actually a good thing.

Here's why. When you consistently disclose whether you are or aren't being paid for something, you build trust with your audience over time. I recommend disclosing both directions. Tell your audience when you are being compensated and when you're not. That way, your audience sees a pattern of honesty. They learn that your recommendations and your guest choices are based on genuine value, not on who's paying you.

I practice this myself. There are products I've recommended for years without earning a penny, like Audacity and Hindenburg Journalist. Services like Interview Valet and Interview Connections used to have affiliate programs, and I recommended them before, during, and after those programs existed. I also have affiliate relationships with other products, and I disclose those too. My goal is for you to know that I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of whether I'm getting paid. And by disclosing consistently, I hope that trust comes through.

So don't feature a guest just for the paycheck. Feature them because of the value they bring to your audience. And then be honest about the financial arrangement. The more you disclose, the more your audience will trust you. The FTC requires disclosure when compensation is involved, and your audience deserves that transparency. Let them make informed decisions about how they receive your content.

4. You don't need to disclose if a booking service was used

This is a question that naturally follows the disclosure conversation: what about booking services?

If you're using a service like Interview Valet, Interview Connections, PodMatch, or similar platforms to find guests or get booked as a guest, you don't need to disclose that. These are third-party tools, and using them doesn't change the ethics of featuring a guest or appearing on a podcast. (I'm an affiliate for some of these, but I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

The key distinction is where the money goes. A podcaster might be paying for a booking service. A guest might be paying for a booking service. But as long as the guest is not paying the podcaster directly, there's nothing the podcaster needs to disclose. It's the same as paying for any other tool or service that helps your podcast run smoothly.

However, if there's an arrangement where the guest does pay the podcaster (even if a booking service is also involved), that circles right back to the disclosure requirement in the previous section. The podcaster must disclose that compensation. The rule stays the same: if you're being paid to feature someone, say so.

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But one scenario has been frustrating me: when you legitimately need episode numbers, but you also want a great episode title that starts with a number. For example, “5 Steps to Success” or “20 Tips to Improve Your Technique.”

That gets confusing fast.

It also weakens one of the biggest benefits of using numbers in titles, which is glanceability. Instead of communicating clearly, the title starts to look cluttered. So here are three ways to handle it.

1. Add a leading word

One simple solution is to add a word before the number in the title.

So instead of “5 Steps to Success,” you could say “The 5 Steps to Success.” Instead of “20 Tips to Improve Your Technique,” you could say “Best 20 Tips to Improve Your Technique,” or maybe “Fastest 20 Tips” or “Easiest 20 Tips,” depending on the angle.

This solves the immediate formatting problem because your episode number is no longer sitting right next to the number in the title.

Sometimes this can even help you sharpen the episode’s angle. If “20 tips” feels too broad, adding a word like “fastest,” “simplest,” or “cheapest” can make the content more focused and more compelling.

That said, I still think titles often sound stronger when the numeral comes first. So this works, but it may not always feel like the best final version.

2. Spell the number in the title

Another option is to spell out the number in the title instead of using the numeral.

So instead of “5 Steps to Success,” you’d write “Five Steps to Success.”

That usually looks cleaner when you’re also displaying an episode number, because it removes the visual conflict between two numerals right next to each other.

The downside is that spelled-out numbers are usually less punchy. Numerals stand out faster, and that’s one of the reasons they work so well in titles in the first place.

I think this approach works best with smaller numbers, especially twenty and below. Once you get into larger numbers, spelled-out versions become longer and clunkier. “Twenty-two” or “One hundred twenty-two” is a lot less efficient than just using numerals.

So this can work, but it’s more of a compromise than an ideal solution.

3. Title your episode differently in your RSS feed

This is the approach I recommend most.

Depending on the tool you use, you may have more control over episode titles than you realize. You might be able to set one title for your website, another for your RSS feed, another for Apple Podcasts (<itunes:title>), and maybe even separate titles for SEO or social sharing.

That matters because episode numbers usually are not important on your website, in search results, or on social media. In those places, the title itself is doing the real work. That means you can let your website and social title be something clean like “5 Steps to Success” without forcing the episode number into the most valuable part of that title.

Then, inside your RSS feed or podcast app title fields, you can handle things differently.

If your publishing tool gives you a separate episode-number field, use that. Some podcast apps, like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, and Pocket Casts, can display episode numbers separately from the title. That gives you the best of both worlds. Your title can still begin with the numeral, and the episode number can appear in its own proper place.

If your tool does not give you that much control, then this is where the first two techniques can help. Use a leading word or spell out the number in the version that appears in the RSS feed, while keeping the stronger title elsewhere.

That way, you optimize the title for each context instead of forcing one version to do everything.

If you only publish episodes that start with numbers once in a while, this is probably not something you need to solve every week. But when it does come up, it’s worth handling well.

I think the best solution is usually to customize your titles by context whenever your publishing workflow allows it. That lets your website, social shares, and podcast apps each show the version that makes the most sense.

And if your tool does not support that kind of control yet, it’s worth asking for it.

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This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

If you are not familiar with them, a teleprompter is essentially a heads-up display. It relies on reflective glass to show you text or images while allowing you to look straight through it directly at a camera. Let's look at five specific ways this tool can improve your content creation and make your recording process much smoother.

(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases through some of the following links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings. I am not currently sponsored by anyone or paid to talk about anything.)

1. Make “eye-contact” with your audience

Podcasting is an intimate medium. Because your audience takes your episodes with them on the go, they often hear your voice directly in their ears through headphones. They invite you into their lives while they do chores, mow the yard, or travel.

When you step in front of a camera, the best way to maintain that intimate experience is through direct eye contact. Looking straight into the lens helps your audience feel seen and spoken to directly. A teleprompter allows you to place your notes or reference material right in front of the lens. You can check your outline without breaking that visual connection, effectively replicating the natural engagement of an in-person conversation.

2. Display your notes or script

A teleprompter gives you the perfect spot to display your notes or a full script cleanly and directly in your line of sight. While reading a full script takes practice so that you sound natural, a simple bulleted outline is incredibly easy to navigate when it sits right in front of your camera. You no longer need to awkwardly look down at your lap or off to the side to see your next talking point.

Teleprompter software is also built to help you keep your place. It often highlights exactly where you are and fades out the rest of the text. Some modern tools even use voice recognition to automatically scroll your script as you speak. This allows you to smoothly deliver your content and look highly knowledgeable to your audience.

3. See yourself as the camera sees you

Setting up your studio lighting and tweaking camera settings can be a frustrating process. You often have to point your face at the lens while looking out of the corner of your eye at an external monitor just to see how the camera captures you.

A teleprompter solves this entirely by letting you move your camera preview right in front of the lens. By mirroring your video feed onto the glass, you can see yourself exactly as the camera records you. You can confidently adjust your lighting, posture, and framing while sitting strictly in the position you will use to record.

4. Look at your remote guest, cohost, or interviewer

Even if you do not publish video episodes, you will likely find yourself on camera for remote interviews or guest appearances. Being camera-ready is a valuable skill, and moving your remote recording software onto the teleprompter screen brings a new level of natural interaction to your calls.

When you place the video feed of your guest right onto the prompter, you can look at them while speaking directly into the lens. They will see you making uninterrupted eye contact, which fosters a deeper connection and helps the dialogue flow naturally. You can pick up on subtle nonverbal cues like a nodding head or a raised hand, which keeps the conversation progressing with fewer awkward interruptions.

5. Use as an extra display

Many modern teleprompters function as a secondary monitor connected directly to your computer. This provides an excellent workspace for small windows you want to keep visible without cluttering your primary screen. You can tuck away a chat room, a live stream, or your reference materials just off to the side of your main workstation.

Having an external display can be a massive workflow booster. If you are researching or referencing a website while speaking, simply drag that browser window right onto the prompter. It keeps your reference materials easily accessible and helps you stay brilliantly focused on your primary workflow.

My recommendation: Elgato Creator's Prompter and Prompter XL

If you want an accessible setup, my primary recommendation is the Elgato Prompter and the larger Elgato Prompter XL. Instead of fussing with iPads, separate mirrors, and complicated mounts, these devices plug straight into your computer and function seamlessly as external displays. You get simple desktop software to control your scripts and window management without the headache of leaning over your desk to tap a mobile screen.

The standard version features a 9-inch display that works perfectly about an arm's length away. If you have a deeper desk or simply need the camera further back to reduce visible eye movement, the 15.5-inch Prompter XL is a massive help. Please remember that Elgato does not sponsor me, but I highly recommend tools I genuinely believe in, regardless of earnings.

Other noteworthy options could be the NEEWER X11 teleprompter with screen (and it actually has an HDMI input!) or the NEEWER teleprompters designed to hold an iPad, such as the X12 or X14 III (available through the same link).

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Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

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Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

If you look at almost any list of top podcasts, whether it is a chart in a podcast app, a curated list, or the New and Noteworthy section, you will find shows of varying degrees of success with clever, cute, or completely unique titles. These titles do not directly describe what the podcast is about, yet the shows thrive.

While standard podcast SEO relies on clear and obvious naming, there are specific scenarios where breaking the mold makes sense. Let us explore exactly when it makes sense to favor creativity over pure searchability.

1. When Clever Podcast Titles Have Clarifying Subtitles

Using a clever or unique title is perfectly okay in Apple Podcasts and other directories when you pair it with a clarifying subtitle. This allows you to have a name that hardcore fans will instantly recognize, while still ensuring people can find your show when searching for your main topic. The key is that the subtitle must clarify the subject matter, not just serve as a tagline full of keyword stuffing. A tagline makes a promise about what your podcast delivers, whereas a clarifying subtitle simply explains the actual title.

A clarifying subtitle is also extremely helpful when a purely descriptive title risks trademark infringement. For example, you cannot legally name your show “The Microsoft Podcast” without securing the tech giant's wrath. However, you can use a creative name and include the brand in your clarifying subtitle. I learned this firsthand with my TV show fan podcast about Once Upon a Time. The official name of our podcast was simply Once, but after a friendly yet serious conversation with a Disney lawyer regarding potential brand confusion, we adjusted the podcast app title to “Once – Unofficial Once Upon a Time Podcast.”

Adding that clarifying subtitle kept us out of legal trouble while satisfying Apple's guidelines against egregious keyword stuffing. Some podcasters try to cram theories, character names, and dozens of keywords into their titles until they hit an algorithm trigger point and get kicked out of Apple Podcasts.

Avoiding keyword stuffing while finding the perfect clarifying term allows you to legally and effectively capture search traffic. Understanding how to balance this overall searchability leads right into how we look at titles on a micro level for individual episodes.

2. When Clever Episode Titles Are for Entertainment-Based Podcasts

Sometimes your overall podcast title is perfectly clear, but your individual episode titles are cute, clever, or somewhat mysterious. This strategy works remarkably well for entertainment-based podcasts where your primary goal is to make your audience laugh or spark deep curiosity. A weird or clever episode title can actually strengthen the connection you have with your existing audience, serving as an inside joke that pays off once they listen.

When your listeners finally reach the point in the conversation where the clever title was born, they get that satisfying moment where they realize where the name of the episode came from. While it is true that these obscure titles will not attract new listeners through search engines, an entertainment podcast does not always have to prioritize standard SEO. If you have a comedy podcast, a vanilla title like “The Episode Where We Talk About Childhood Stories” is not very compelling. A mysterious, funny inside joke is far more likely to get your current audience to press play.

For informational or educational shows like The Audacity to Podcast, I rely heavily on search engine optimization and use clear, descriptive titles based on what people are actually asking. But if your show is designed purely to entertain, the title itself should be part of the entertainment package.

Of course, whether you are trying to be entertaining or just highly distinctive, there are times when your overall branding must take priority over SEO.

3. When Uniqueness Is More Important Than Podcast SEO

Imagine you are launching a podcast about a massive cultural phenomenon like Stranger Things. If you name your show “The Stranger Things Podcast,” you are instantly competing with dozens of others using that exact same generic name. When you tell someone to search for it, they will be greeted by a wall of similar titles, and you will have to over-explain which specific cover art to look for. By prioritizing uniqueness over SEO, you could name your show something distinctive like “Hawkins Radio” or “The Upside Downcast.”

Those unique terms are instantly recognizable to fans of the show, and you can still include “Stranger Things” as a clarifying subtitle so you do not lose out entirely on search traffic. When you have a distinctive name, it is far easier for listeners to find the exact right show when searching their podcast app. Furthermore, a highly unique name gives you the ability to legally protect your brand. Generic names are incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to trademark.

I have always valued unique branding, which is why I have successfully trademarked names like The Audacity to Podcast, Podgagement, and most recently, PodChapters. “PodChapters” is distinctive enough to be legally protected. If I had simply named it “Podcast Chapters,” it would be far too generic to secure a trademark.

Being unique helps you stand out and protect your intellectual property, but what if your title is completely obscure and lacks any clarifying subtitles? That is when you need a massive promotional push.

4. When Clever-Titled Podcasts Have Amazing Marketing

There are plenty of highly successful podcasts out there that have zero descriptive elements in their titles. If you look at the top charts in Apple Podcasts, you will see shows like The Daily, Pod Save America, Up First, and The Joe Rogan Experience. None of these titles tell a new listener exactly what the show is about. In fact, Joe Rogan's podcast does not even have a clearly defined topic; his unique conversational style and approach are the actual niche.

These shows dominate the charts not because their titles are search-friendly, but because they have incredible marketing engines behind them. Consider the massive hit podcast Serial. Before its release, if you heard someone was launching a podcast called Serial, you probably would have assumed it was a show about breakfast foods like Cheerios or Apple Jacks. It was a terrible title for standard podcast SEO, but the phenomenal marketing and word-of-mouth promotion completely made up for it. And don't fall into the trap of thinking, “It's not hurting their podcast!”

We see this exact same phenomenon in the tech world. When Apple changed the name of their laptops from PowerBook to MacBook, or when they launched the iPad, people initially mocked the names. However, Apple threw so much marketing power behind those products that the names are now just common vernacular. If you have the budget or the platform to promote heavily, you can use whatever clever podcast title you want and let your marketing do the heavy lifting.

A massive marketing budget solves a lot of naming issues, but even if you do not have millions of dollars, you can still strategically employ clever titles by remembering these foundational ideas.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Podcast Industry Insights

Here are some of the fantastic features you can explore right now!

Track the total number of podcasts in Apple Podcasts, Podcast Index, and YouTube

You have been able to view these numbers for a while, but I have greatly expanded the historical data. Instead of just seeing the last 13 months, you can now look back as far as seven years.

This historical view reveals some incredible trends. For example, it looked like the industry's growth abruptly slowed down in 2021. However, this had nothing to do with global events. It was simply the result of Anchor (now Spotify for Creators) turning off their automatic publishing firehose.

In addition to Apple Podcasts statistics, I also track the Podcast Index and even YouTube. Yes, I track YouTube even though I firmly maintain that since you cannot follow a YouTube show via an RSS feed, it is not actually a podcasting platform. But the data is there for you to explore anyway!

See how active podcasts are

Do not let the idea of “millions of podcasts” overwhelm you. A massive number of those shows only have a single episode and have long since faded away.

The true metric of your competition is how many shows are actively publishing. On the site, you can filter the data to see how many podcasts have published an episode within the last 7, 30, 60, or 90 days. The number of podcasts that have published a new episode in the last week is much smaller than you would think. Focusing on this realistic number of active shows should be highly encouraging for your own growth.

Discover deeper category details from Apple Podcasts

This is a brand new feature I have wanted to build for years. Thanks to the new site architecture, you can now dynamically drill down into deeper data across all 110 categories inside Apple Podcasts.

You can look at specific genres to see not only the total number of podcasts, but how many of them are currently active versus inactive. You can also see how many shows were recently added, deactivated, or reactivated within your primary category. Want a fun fact? Mathematics has the fewest number of active podcasts. You would only be up against around 120 other active shows if you launched a math podcast today!

Watch Podcasting 2.0 feature-adoption grow

I am deeply involved with Podcasting 2.0 and I love evangelizing the amazing new capabilities being built into podcasting.

If you head over to the Podcasting 2.0 section of Podcast Industry Insights, you can actively track the adoption rates of these features over time. You can see the growth of features like transcripts, chapters, and the value tag, tracked at both the overall podcast level and the individual episode level.

Download chart images for easy sharing

If you want to use these statistics in a presentation, a video, a blog post, or on social media, I have made it incredibly easy for you. You no longer have to mess with taking clunky screenshots.

Next to every chart, you will find a one-click download button. This generates a beautiful 16×9 image in 4K resolution perfect for slide decks. The image will automatically include the proper heading, the specific category you are viewing, and the required credit. The charts even support both light mode and dark mode. If you prefer dark mode on your device, the downloaded image will feature a beautiful dark branded background.

View, cite, and share podcasting statistics from Podcast Industry Insights!

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Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
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Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

I've only just started using OpenClaw, and I'm enjoying it. But I'm far from joining the cult of “steal my illegal secrets to run your business autonomously, make tons of profit online, and with no money down”!

Here are some thoughts before you consider trying OpenClaw in your podcasting workflow.

1. OpenClaw has massive security risks

Let me be careful with the wording here.

I did not say OpenClaw is a security threat. I said it has massive security risks.

That distinction matters.

If you run OpenClaw on your own computer, you are potentially giving it access to a lot: your files, browser sessions, logins, private data, email, and more. That does not mean it will automatically misuse any of that. But it does mean you should think seriously about what it can access.

Some people recommend running OpenClaw on a VPS instead of your main computer. That can reduce some risks by separating it from your local files and personal environment. But that setup has its own dangers, too. OpenClaw installations on internet-accessible servers are being actively scanned and exploited. If you can access it online, someone else may try to as well.

Even something as simple as giving OpenClaw access to an email inbox could create problems if malicious instructions come in through email and the system is allowed to act on them.

The good news is that OpenClaw’s developers seem to be improving security quickly. Vulnerabilities have been reported and patched fast. That is encouraging. But fast patches do not eliminate the need for caution.

So here is the practical takeaway: think carefully about what you give OpenClaw access to.

If you do not give it access to your browser, it cannot use your browser. If you do not connect sensitive tools, it cannot act through those tools. The more permissions you grant, the more risk you accept.

These are risks, not necessarily active threats. But they are still real. Please take them seriously.

2. Using OpenClaw can be expensive

OpenClaw itself is free and open-source software. That part is great.

But the software is only part of the cost.

If you connect OpenClaw to paid large language models like Claude Opus, Claude Sonnet, GPT, or models through a provider like OpenRouter, your usage costs can climb quickly. And I do mean quickly.

When I first started experimenting with OpenClaw, I was mostly testing small tasks and trying different models. I was not even running large automations. But I still watched my costs rise fast. My OpenRouter credits kept auto-refilling, and before long I had spent around $100 simply exploring what was possible.

That was enough to make me rethink my setup.

Some people reduce costs by using subscriptions such as ChatGPT, where the monthly fee can make usage more predictable than paying token-by-token through an API provider. Others try running local models instead.

Running locally can help in some cases, but that comes with tradeoffs too.

First, local AI models require system resources. A lot of them require serious system resources. If you want strong performance, the hardware can get expensive fast. Yes, smaller local models exist, but they are often slower and less capable.

Second, if you run OpenClaw locally on your main computer, you are back to the security concerns I mentioned earlier.

A more isolated setup, such as a separate computer dedicated to OpenClaw, can be a smarter option. Some people use a Mac mini, an old laptop, or another separate machine. That can help contain the risk. But it is still additional hardware, which means additional cost.

And then there is the biggest cost of all: a security mistake.

If OpenClaw is connected to the wrong tools, or given the wrong permissions, or instructed carelessly, the damage could cost far more than any subscription, server, or device.

So yes, OpenClaw can be expensive. Sometimes in obvious ways, and sometimes in much more serious ones.

3. OpenClaw is not SkyNet

There is a lot of dramatic AI coverage right now, and some of it makes for great headlines.

Stories about AI threatening users, exposing secrets, contacting authorities, or behaving in disturbing ways spread very quickly. But if you read past the headline and examine the details, you will usually find an important missing piece: the prompts, permissions, or tools the user gave it.

That part matters a lot.

In most cases, these systems are not spontaneously becoming evil masterminds. They are responding to instructions, permissions, and context.

For example, if someone tells a model to “act boldly in the interest of humanity,” gives it access to tools, and places it in a simulated or real environment where it can act, then yes, it may take bold actions. But that is not the same thing as the software independently deciding to become a villain.

It is doing what it was told, within the environment it was given.

This is one reason system prompts matter so much. The instructions above the user prompt can significantly shape how an AI behaves. The same model can give wildly different answers depending on how it was framed, what role it was assigned, and what tools it was told it could use.

So no, OpenClaw is not SkyNet.

If you install it and do nothing, it is not going to start exposing your secrets on its own. If it behaves badly, you should look closely at the setup:

1. What did you tell it to do?
2. What tools did you connect?
3. What permissions did you allow?
4. What system prompt shaped its behavior?

That does not mean you should be careless. It means you should be thoughtful.

AI tools are tools. Powerful ones, yes. But still tools.

4. Do you actually need AI automation?

Just because something is popular does not mean you need it.

That is true in podcasting in general, and it is true here too.

A lot of podcasters feel pressure to chase every new trend. Right now, AI automation is one of those trends. Before that, and still now, it has been video. But just because everyone is talking about a thing does not mean it belongs in your workflow.

So ask yourself a simple question: do you actually need AI automation?

For some people, the answer may be yes.

There are parts of my business where automation genuinely helps me. It saves time. It makes certain processes easier. In some cases, it even makes them more fun. That can be especially useful when you are running a business and trying to stay involved without getting buried in repetitive tasks.

For example, one helpful use I have for AI is checking my OP3 download stats each morning and presenting the information in a clean table. I want to see how each episode is performing after 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 30 days, and in total. That helps me compare episodes and notice trends more quickly.

That kind of analysis is useful.

And there are plenty of other possibilities. You could connect stats, your RSS feed, transcripts, episode titles, and notes, then have a system look for patterns in what performs best. That kind of task might take a human hours. AI might do it in seconds.

That is cool!

But cool is not the same thing as necessary.

Before you automate anything, ask whether the automation solves a real problem for you. If it does, great. If not, you may be adding complexity, cost, and risk for no real benefit.

5. Never sacrifice your humanity

This is the most important point.

I shared more about this in 11 Warnings about Using AI in Content-Creation. If you have not heard that episode, I highly recommend it!

My biggest recommendation with AI is simple: use AI on your content, not instead of your content.

That is a huge difference.

If AI helps you turn your transcript into an article, great. If it helps you create social posts from something you already said, great. If it enhances your audio, helps organize your ideas, or speeds up repetitive production tasks, great.

But do not let it replace your voice, your perspective, your experience, or your creativity.

That is where the real value is.

Your humanity is what makes your podcast worth hearing.

That also applies beyond your content. For example, when people contact me for support with my products, I want them to be able to reach a real human. I may use AI in selective ways to assist behind the scenes, but I do not want to automate away the human connection.

That matters to me.

And it matters in the tools I build, too. For example:

1. Podgagement helps podcasters supercharge their podcast engagement.
2. PodChapters helps podcasters create chapter marks and work from their transcripts more efficiently.

PodChapters is a good example of using AI on your content. It can generate transcripts, suggest chapter points, and help turn your spoken content into something more usable. That is very different from asking AI to fabricate your message from scratch.

I also frequently use and recommend Magai, which is my favorite AI toolbox. It gives access to multiple AI tools in one place, and I am a paying customer myself.

The point in all of this is not to avoid AI completely. The point is to use it in a way that preserves what makes you uniquely you.

Never sacrifice your humanity.

Tell me your uses for OpenClaw (or similar)!

With all this said, I do want to share some exciting uses for OpenClaw or similar tools in an upcoming episode. So please send your ideas and examples! Even better, please include your prompts that make it happen so others can try them, too!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Notice that this isn't tracking the number of Americans or the number of shows. This evaluates the most important currency we have as humans: time. How we invest our 24 hours makes a massive difference, and more Americans are now intentionally choosing to invest their time in podcasts.

The steady decline of AM/FM radio talk content is staggering. In 2015, radio held 75% of spoken-word listening time. Today, in 2025, it has dropped to 39%. Podcasts, on the other hand, were at a mere 10% in 2015. Today, they account for 40% of the time spent listening.

AM/FM radio is dying

I recently attended and spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention. In a digital media committee meeting, someone spoke passionately about their efforts to keep AM and FM radio accessible in modern cars. I had a fierce internal debate before finally speaking up. I joked that they might hate me or kick me out for saying it, but I told them that fighting to keep AM/FM radio is a losing battle. Ultimately, it will die. We need to make digital our primary focus.

I see AM/FM radio dying in four specific ways:

1. Availability is vanishing. AM radio causes interference in many electric vehicles, so it's being actively removed. Have you bought a device that receives AM/FM signals recently? I haven't in over 25 years. The only working radio in my house is my original teenage stereo, and I only keep it because the attached speakers are better than my TV's built-in sound.
2. The content is dying. Terrestrial radio broadcasts the exact same handful of topics across the board: sports, politics, news, finances, relationships, and religion. You aren't going to find niche content. Making matters worse, actual content is increasingly being pushed out by heavy advertising just to cover the station's broadcasting bills.
3. The desire is dying. Why would I wait for an appointed broadcast time just to have someone else decide what I should listen to, only to be interrupted by traffic reports and weather on the fives? People desire more control over their listening habits, which explains the massive drop in listening time.
4. The audience is literally dying. There is no delicate way to put it. The average age of an AM/FM consumer is much older than that of a podcast listener, and that demographic is fading while younger audiences choose completely different ways to consume their content.

Podcasts are thriving

Podcasting doesn't have the expensive restraints of traditional radio. We can talk about whatever we want, make episodes as long or short as we want, and skip the FCC constraints placed on broadcast radio. Many highly successful podcasters are recording in a hot closet with a $50 microphone, getting audio quality that rivals radio, and building much deeper relationships with their listeners.

Podcasts are thriving in the exact same four areas where radio is dying:

1. Availability: It seems like every device has a podcast feature now. Apps, smart TVs, and modern car digital dash systems have podcasts built right in without even needing to pair your phone.
2. Content: The content has been thriving since the beginning. When I had a 90-minute commute back in 2005, talk radio was frying my brain cells. I wanted to listen to what I wanted, when I wanted to. You can find a podcast about literally anything, and if you can't, you can start one and connect with an audience desperately waiting for it.
3. Desire: Listening to a podcast is an intentional choice. Years ago, I used my parents as a social experiment. I never educated them on podcasts; I just waited to see when they would desire them unprovoked. When they finally started telling me about the shows they were listening to, I knew podcasting was mainstream. People love podcasts so much they even use “pod speeding” (listening at 1.5x, 2.5x, or in my crazy case, sometimes effectively 3x speed with silence reduction) just to consume more of it.
4. Audience: Podcasting has enabled more entrepreneurs than any other past medium. Decades ago, experts sold their training on expensive cassette programs for hundreds of dollars. Today, audiences can get that same expertise for free. Look at John Lee Dumas with Entrepreneurs on Fire—he desired content to inspire his entrepreneurial journey, couldn't find it, created it himself, and helped countless others thrive in the process.

Takeaway: embrace a niche

So, how do you capitalize on this thriving medium? Yes, there are millions of podcasts out there, but far fewer are actively publishing. The competition isn't as big as it seems. Your magic weapon is this: embrace a niche.

Your niche can be your actual subject matter—like a show dedicated purely to dinner recipes for busy moms of toddler boys. But it doesn't have to be.

Your niche can also be your approach, perspective, or experience. Years ago, I hosted a podcast about the TV show Once Upon a Time. There were plenty of other podcasts about the show, but we survived them all because our niche was diving incredibly deep into Easter eggs and fan theories. Another podcaster covered the exact same TV show, but their niche was heavily poking fun and laughing along with the absurdities. Same subject, completely different niches.

Your approach separates you from everyone else. Figure out what makes your unique perspective special and amplify it. You want to be the answer when a listener tells their friend, “You've gotta listen to this podcast because…”

Embrace a niche so that you, your podcast, and your audience can thrive!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

1. Don't use episode numbers when they would not matter to your audience

This should be an obvious thing. When episode numbers do matter to your audience, you should use them prominently. That is so much of what I covered previously, like using them for serial podcasts, frequent references, or file and folder organization.

But if your podcast is not serial, is not intended to be consumed in a particular order, and you are not frequently referencing other episodes, then you probably do not need episode numbers. Your audience likely does not need them in those cases. So then do not use them. If you really want to use them anyway even when your audience does not actually need them, put them at the end of your titles. For most podcasts out there, I think episode numbers really do not matter to the audience. If they do not matter to your listeners, they should not matter to you either.

2. Avoid episode numbers when they conflict with episode titles, or else reword

If you start a lot of your episodes with a number, I highly recommend using the actual numeral instead of spelling it out. Numbers in titles can be very good things, like 5 best cream sodas or 10 steps to success. That is a highly effective way to title blog posts, podcasts, and videos.

But if you display an episode number prominently right next to a title number, you run into a conflict. You end up with two numbers right next to each other that mean completely different things. For example, if episode 20 is titled “5 Best Cream Sodas,” it might look like “20. 5 Best Cream Sodas.” To a quick reader, that looks like “20.5 best cream sodas.” Are you talking about twenty and a half cream sodas?

That forces your audience to re-read the title just to understand it. When faced with this situation, consider dropping the episode number or rewording the title. You could change it to “Best 5 Cream Sodas” so it reads as “20. Best 5 Cream Sodas.” This makes the title much clearer. Even if you try separating them with punctuation like a hyphen or colon, I still think you will run into visual confusion. Avoid the conflict or simply reword your titles.

3. Don't use the episode's number within that episode

This takes some strategy, but it saves you from having to overthink things later. When you speak the episode's own number inside the audio, you lock that exact episode to that number. What happens if you pre-record several episodes and then decide to reorder them? Or what if you have late breaking information and need to squeeze a new episode in?

If your title says episode 100 but your audience hears you say “Welcome to episode 105,” they will be confused. It might be a bit embarrassing and make you look poorly planned. So if you can, simply do not say the episode's own number within the episode. This is also why I recommend using a customized URL rather than strictly a number-based URL. If you say a number-based URL out loud, you have firmly locked yourself into that specific episode number.

It is completely fine to speak the episode numbers for past episodes. Those are already published and will never change. But for the current episode, leave the number out of the audio.

4. Don't use episode numbers in website, social, or SEO titles

When someone is on your website, they can simply click a link to jump to an episode or get the show notes. They should never have to search your website for an episode number. Make sure any specific URL you speak in your episode takes them straight to the page, making it a perfectly seamless experience. Putting episode numbers all over your website clutters things up when they are not actually needed to navigate your content.

On social networks, nobody really cares what number your new episode is. They just want a compelling reason to listen, and a number is not a compelling reason.

Definitely do not let your episode number leak out into your SEO title. This is the title that displays when your page shows up in search results and the title that automatically embeds when shared on social networks like LinkedIn or Facebook. The number completely wastes valuable space in those places, so keep it out of your social and SEO tags.

5. Don't use episode numbers in the itunes:title tag

This is a very specific tag inside your RSS feed. Apple has been very clear that the <itunes:title> tag should contain only the clean title of your episode. It should not have the name of your podcast, the season number, and it definitely should not have the episode number. There is a separate <itunes:episode> tag where the episode number actively belongs.

Your normal <title> tag in the RSS feed can certainly have an episode number in it, but you need an publishing tool that lets you populate these tags separately. Unfortunately, some platforms just copy the exact same title from one field to the other, which means you are either breaking Apple's rules or missing out on backwards compatibility. Keep your <itunes:title> perfectly clean.

You can learn more about how to properly use episode numbers in your podcast metadata if you want to dive deeper into those technical mechanics.

Follow-up to my previous episode

I received some great feedback from people who were initially in disagreement with my recommendation to utilize episode numbers for keeping people inside podcast apps. Many realized that keeping the audience right there in the app is actually a tremendous benefit.

However, I have discovered some frustrations along the way. Beyond the issues with publishing tools mishandling the separate title tags, some highly opinionated podcast apps handle things strangely. Overcast, for example, appears to completely remove episode numbers from the title entirely. The developer might believe episode numbers are rarely relevant, so the app seems to strip them regardless of the metadata tags you use. In cases like that, you might have to type them out in a completely different way if you desperately want them to display. Just keep in mind that app behaviors can change over time.

Special thanks

• $30 from Stevie Taylor, host of The Gig Life Podcast, saying, “Hey Daniel. Thank you for all you do, sir.”
• $20 from Randy Black, host of Shooting It Straight, saying, “A small amount of support for a friend and podcasting legend who gives so much to the space with little given back in turn. Keep up the good work Daniel!”
• 696§ from Bryan Entzminger, podcast producer at Top Tier Audio

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

It comes down to this: use episode numbers when they matter to your audience.

Specifically, here's how to determine when that applies.

1. Use episode numbers for serial podcasts

Think of podcasts that need to be consumed in a particular order. This could be like chapters of a book, steps in a process, a chronological story, or anything where the audience generally needs to start at the beginning.

This is a serial podcast. In this case, you want episode numbers so your audience knows the correct order to consume the content. Even though you can define a show as “Serial” in podcast settings, you can't assume every app will interpret that correctly. Most apps default to displaying the latest episode first.

If you really want people to listen to your first episode first, episode numbers define that path. When the numbers matter to your audience, make them prominent—even putting them at the beginning of the episode title. I know you might gasp if you've been following me for a while because I recommended against that for years, but my mind has changed on this.

2. Use episode numbers if frequently referencing other episodes

This is where my perspective has shifted the most, largely due to looking at how we use podcast apps and the philosophy behind Podcasting 2.0. The goal is to improve what a podcast provides without leaving the podcast app.

The problem with URLs and title searches

If I want you to listen to an old episode and I give you a URL, that URL takes you out of your podcast app and into a web browser. That breaks the listening experience.

Alternatively, if I tell you the title of the episode, you have to search for it. You might get the title wrong, or you might have to scroll through a list of 400+ episodes reading every single title until you find it. That is not a pleasant experience.

The solution

Consider instead if I gave you the episode number (like episode 175). If your episodes are numbered and display that number in the same visual location, it is very easy to scroll through and find the exact episode. You gain a sense of “spatial awareness” in the list—if you scroll back to 250, you know you are getting close to 175.

Until smart linking features become standard in podcast apps, I think the best way to reference other episodes is by the episode number.

If you host a teaching or informational podcast where you frequently reference past lessons, you should use episode numbers. It helps your audience get to that content faster without leaving the app.

3. Use episode numbers for file and folder organization

This usage is totally hidden to your audience, but it helps immensely with your own workflow.

If you sort your computer files by “Date Modified,” opening an old file changes its position in the list. However, if you number your files and folders according to an episode number, they stay ordered sequentially.

For The Audacity to Podcast, I use the format “tap” followed by a 3-digit number (e.g., tap175). I use this for the file names and the folders where I archive my materials.

This also works great if you use PodChapters. If you follow a file naming pattern, you can tell PodChapters to automatically apply a preset to your files based on that pattern.

A Caution: If you pre-record many episodes in advance and number them, but then change your publishing order, you may have to renumber your files. That is up to you, as it only affects your internal organization.

4. Use episode numbers when you can't make better episode URLs

I mentioned episode 175 earlier. I know that theaudacitytopodcast.com/episodenumbers links to it, but theaudacitytopodcast.com/175 is much easier to say and remember if the keyword isn't obvious.

Consider this for podcasts where a single keyword URL doesn't make sense or isn't memorable. You can use the episode number to easily direct people to notes, references, or downloads.

Another Caution: Just like with file organization, if you record in advance and speak the episode number in the audio, you are locked into that order. If you change the order later, your audio will contradict the actual episode number. If you think you might shuffle episodes, try to avoid speaking the specific number in the recording.

5. Use episode numbers correctly and efficiently in episode titles

There is some misinformation that Apple says “do not put episode numbers in your episode titles.”

This is going to blow your mind: They don't actually mean you shouldn't have numbers in your titles.

What they mean is that in the Apple ecosystem, they prefer you use the specific metadata tags: <itunes:episode> for the number and <itunes:title> for the title without the number. This allows their app to display the data optimally.

How to do episode numbers right right for all podcast apps

The goal is full compatibility.

• For Apple Podcasts and a few other apps: Use the separate <itunes:title> and <itunes:episode> tags so the app can display the number separately from the title.
• For all other apps: In the normal <title> tag (the fallback), include the number and the title together.

If you separate the data correctly, Apple Podcast listeners see a clean interface, but listeners in apps that don't support those specific tags will still see the episode number in the main title.

Be careful with your hosting provider; some break this fallback functionality. You want to ensure that if an app doesn't read the special iTunes tags, the listener still sees the number.

Learn more about including episode numbers in your titles from my episode 359.

Watch for my next episode, which will be episode 421, when I'll cover when not to use episode numbers!

Special thanks

• Brian Enztminger from Top Tier Audio streamed 519§

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Especially if you are looking to start your first podcast, you want to start it right. Here are five common mistakes to avoid.

(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases through some of these links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

1. Striving for “Perfect”

The curse of perfection plays out in a few ways. First, we try to have the perfect-sounding audio, the perfect presentation, and the perfect edit. We try to edit ourselves to absolute perfection, removing any breath or pause that is a microsecond too long. Sometimes, we strive so hard for perfection that the result sounds artificial.

I am not saying you should leave in every mistake in the name of “authenticity.” You should still try to edit out mistakes and present something that sounds great, but it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect.

We also strive for perfection in the tools we choose—the perfect microphone, camera, lighting, website theme, or hosting provider. I fell into this trap recently myself, even after nearly 15 years of podcasting.

For 15 years, I used a Canon T4i digital SLR. result It worked great for photos and recorded video, but it was terrible for streaming or connecting to a computer. I tried everything—installing Magic Lantern firmware, buying HDMI capture devices—but it never worked quite right. I realized I needed to upgrade.

One of the cameras I had been eyeing, the Sony ZV-E10 Mark II, went on a rare one-day sale. It was the best price it had ever been, so I snagged the deal.

But even with the camera literally in my hand, I was still second-guessing my choice. I kept asking myself, “Is this really the perfect camera?” I found myself comparing it to the Sony a6700, which has features my new camera lacks, like in-body image stabilization. That represented a different level of “perfect” to me.

Here is what it came down to: The a6700 would have cost me 60% more. Would I get 60% more benefit from it? No. In fact, I rarely take my camera off the tripod, so I might never need in-body image stabilization.

The camera I bought takes beautiful video, especially paired with the Sigma 16mm f/1.6 lens that I also got for a great deal. It isn't “perfect” by the highest standards, but it is very good.

You might feel this way about your microphone. I often see people asking if they should buy a $70 Samson Q2U or a Shure MV7 for twice the price. If you only have $70, the decision is easy: get what you can afford. Your audience might not even know the difference.

Whether it is hardware, AI tools, or noise removal software, stop striving for perfection. Strive for excellence, not perfection.

2. Doing Too Much

When I started my fan podcast for the TV show Once Upon a Time, I tried to do too much. I had grandiose plans: I wanted to interview every cast member, podcast weekly during the hiatus, do live video, and more.

You might be feeling that pressure right now. There is an obsession in the space that says you must do video. You hear that you have to be on YouTube with high production value, multiple cameras, and a perfect set.

No, you don't. You do not have to do everything people say you should do.

If live streaming is too much for you, don't do it. You can always add it later as you grow. If you feel overwhelmed by all the new things “experts” say you need, I give you permission to not do them.

Right now, even though I have a brand new camera that looks great, I haven't published the videos I’ve been recording for the last few months. Why? Because it feels like too much. Between being a full-time single dad, homeschooling my son, and running a business, I cannot afford the time or energy to edit video, nor can I afford to pay someone else to do it.

Don’t fall into the trap of trying to do too much. Simplify things. You don't need an interview, a monologue, a dialogue, and a Q&A all in one episode. Split them up.

3. Starting Without a Plan

Whether you are starting your first podcast or just your next episode, have a plan. Unless you are extremely experienced in the art of improvisation and public speaking, do not just sit down at the microphone and try to “wing it.”

As the old saying goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Without a plan, your podcast might not be an utter failure, but it won't be as successful as it could be.

Your plan doesn't have to be complicated. It just needs to address where you want to go. Whom do you want to serve? What is the takeaway for the audience? Even if your goal is entertainment, have a plan for how you will entertain them.

Every episode I have done for years has had a plan. Even if I only have a few minutes before recording, I spend those minutes creating a basic outline.

4. Obsessing Over the “Launch”

This is the flip side of planning—taking it too far. You might think, “I need a huge splash on launch day. I need this many episodes, a trailer, and massive hype.”

It is fun to have a big launch and build anticipation, but do not obsess over it. The size of your launch does not guarantee long-term success.

Think of it like a wedding. The size and fanciness of a wedding in no way guarantees the success of the marriage. I sometimes hypothesize that the more grandiose the wedding, the more problems the couple might have, because they focused more on the “show” than the relationship.

I have seen this happen with podcasters too many times to count. They make a huge deal about their launch, and today, they aren't podcasting anymore. They fizzled out. The size of your launch isn't going to determine your longevity.

5. Not Launching at All

Many people obsess over the launch so much that they never actually launch. Or, they launch one episode and then fizzle out.

If you look at the data from sites like Podcast Industry Insights, it is staggering how many podcasts launch with one episode and never release another. This is often the case with free platforms where people are just “testing” things out.

The biggest hurdle for podcasters is episode one—both getting to it and getting past it.

Don't leave your message locked in your mind. Get it out there. Don't obsess over a perfect launch; just launch. You can improve as you go. You can even start on a free hosting plan (like Buzzsprout) just to see if you can survive past episode one. You aren't married to your first attempt; you can always scrap it and start over later.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

This year—and I’m not saying today, this week, or even this month—I challenge you to finish those unfinished episodes!

Here are a few thoughts and strategies to help you clear that backlog.

“If it'll keep, it'll preach”

This phrase usually applies to holding up against scrutiny. But the first time I heard it was when I was at an evening church service and the power went out several minutes before the preacher was about to start. We had already sung multiple songs in the growing darkness and lack of sound amplification. But when it came time for the sermon, the preacher realized the kids were too restless in the dark, the audience wouldn't be able to hear the message without the sound system (even if the kids were perfectly quiet), and he would be extremely distracted by the environment. So he dismissed the service early, saying of his sermon, “If it'll keep, it'll preach” (and he admitted he heard that from someone else).

His application of the saying was that if that particular sermon remained on his heart after the scrutiny of time, that he would preach it again.

I want you to apply this to your podcast. Look at those ideas that have been burning on your mind or sitting on a list for a while. If they have kept under the scrutiny of time, if you are still interested in those ideas, and if the script still excites you, then do it. Actually finish and publish that episode.

I have so many drafts in my own folders. Back in 2010, during my planning stage for The Audacity to Podcast, I made a handwritten list of about 35 episode topics. Over 15 years and 400+ episodes later, there are actually items on that original list that I still haven't done yet. But I also revisit my list and see drafts that I put on hold because I wanted to do more research or talk to more people.

If an idea has “kept” for you, treat that as a sign to finally produce it.

Complete the preproduction for draft episodes

A big step to clearing your list is completing the preproduction. If you are like me, you might have episodes where you have started preparing—maybe you are reading a guest's book, writing a question list, or refining some jokes.

Whatever preproduction task has been sitting undone, take action on it. This could be planning, researching, or scheduling.

I was inspired by this at Podfest 2026 recently. During an influencer meet-and-greet, they told us, “Don't leave this room without an appointment with someone. Don't just say, ‘Let's follow up.'” I met a gentleman who offers podcast editing services, and I wanted to talk to him about how my products, PodChapters and Podgagement, could add value to his clients.

Instead of a vague promise to talk later, we looked at our calendars and scheduled the call right there. As I’ve heard from SAS Academy, “BAMFAM”—Book A Meeting From A Meeting.

Apply this to your podcast. If you need to interview someone to finish a draft, don't just reach out and say, “Can we find a time?” Send your booking link or offer specific times. Make it easy on your guest. Finish the preproduction so you can move those drafts into the recording phase.

Finish the editing, or publish with minimal editing

Once you have recorded the episodes, you need to move them out of the draft phase. You might have recordings sitting around because of a little impostor syndrome; maybe you feel the episode wasn't very good.

I am not saying you have to publish bad episodes, but you can frame them differently. If you have audio from five or ten years ago, you can release it as a “time capsule” episode. You can tell your audience, “I found an old episode… my voice sounds different, I wasn't as confident, but there is still value here.”

I am guilty of this. More than 10 years ago, I recorded an interview with Chris Brogan. I still haven't published it because I simply didn't want to edit an interview. It’s an interesting conversation, but it has just sat there.

If you are in this position, consider publishing with minimal editing. You can use “bookend editing,” where you record a new intro and outro to explain the context. You can even interrupt your old self—like Dave Jackson does—to interject with “Future Me” to update advice or correct something that no longer works.

Discard what no longer “sparks joy”

The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: “Does this spark joy?” If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it. This is not only the simplest but also the most accurate yardstick by which to judge.

—Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Look at your unfinished list—topics, guest ideas, movie reviews, or product tests. Ask yourself:

• Does this episode still spark joy?
• Am I still interested in this topic?
• Do I still want to share this with my audience?

If the answer is no, discard it. You don't have to delete it permanently, but remove it from your active list. If you try to record an episode about something you aren't passionate about, that lack of enthusiasm will come through in your voice.

However, there is a nuance here I call “Bathtub Philosophy.” When I was a kid, I hated taking baths until I actually got in the water. Then, I loved it and didn't want to get out. Sometimes, you might feel lazy about a topic, but once you force yourself to start working on it, the joy sparks.

You can even use AI tools like Magi or ChatGPT to help you break the inertia. Ask it to write an intro paragraph just to get you moving. I've done this before; often, I just need a sentence or two to get started, and then I end up writing pages of content because the momentum kicked in.

Try to get the momentum going. If it eventually sparks joy, finish it. If it doesn't, delete it.

Special thanks

• $5 from Joshua Liston saying, “A little help for someone helping Indie Podcasters.”
• $25 from Leslie Martin saying, “If you ever get to Anchorage, Alaska, give me a shout. I'd love to meet with you and take you out to dinner.”

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Register for Podfest 2027!

1. Community is still priority

What distinguishes Podfest from other major industry events—such as Podcast Movement—is its palpable sense of community. While other conferences have leaned toward a commercialized atmosphere filled with corporate executives and “suits,” Podfest retains a focus on the independent content creator. It avoids the hierarchy often felt elsewhere, where one might feel out of place without a network deal.

The organizers actively cultivate a “Pod Family” dynamic. This was evident throughout the event, culminating in a closing gratitude ceremony. During this session, the microphone was opened to the audience, allowing attendees thirty seconds to express thanks. It was a moving display of connection, with many sharing tearful tributes to those who have supported them. We also took time to honor the memory of friends we have lost, including Lee Silverstein, Neil Guilarte, and Todd Cochrane. Mourning and celebrating together solidifies the reality that this conference truly functions as a family.

2. The Podcast Hall of Fame is a highlight

Podfest has become the permanent home for the Podcast Hall of Fame, and while it requires an additional ticket, it is an essential experience. The ceremony has improved significantly in production quality, running smoothly and offering genuine inspiration.

The 2026 induction featured incredible stories from industry pillars like James Cridland and Dan Miller, who was graciously introduced by Dave Ramsey. It was also a beautiful moment to honor the contributions of Todd Cochrane. Hearing the origins and journeys of these legends is invaluable. Although I was inducted a couple of years ago (and I still need to share my speech!), watching others receive their due recognition remains a highlight of the expo.

3. Lots of quality teaching

The educational value at Podfest is immense, drawn from a mix of established legends and unexpected voices. It was an honor to be among speakers like Rob Walsh, Elsie Escobar, Mark Asquith, and Dave Jackson. However, I was equally impressed by speakers who are not the “usual suspects” on the circuit.

The schedule was so packed with value that I often found myself utilizing a “bounce” technique—visiting a session for a few minutes to glean value, giving the speaker a “double thumbs up” to show support, and then moving to the next room to maximize my coverage. I also had the privilege of presenting on Podcasting 2.0, which was received with great enthusiasm. Whether the topic is AI, monetization, or personal growth, the curriculum is tailored to help independent creators thrive.

4. The location is still expensive

If there is a critique to be made, it concerns the cost of the venue. We were hosted at the Renaissance at SeaWorld, a resort property with high nightly rates and expensive dining options. Unlike previous locations that offered walkable access to affordable restaurants or grocery stores, this venue was somewhat isolated, making budget management difficult.

For future attendees, I highly recommend coordinating beforehand to find a roommate to split lodging costs. Alternatively, staying off-site is an option, though it introduces transportation and parking fees. While the cost is a hurdle, the value of the event remains high. However, if the price point is prohibitive, I encourage podcasters to seek out smaller, regional events to build their local networks.

5. Great networking

The networking at Podfest—often affectionately dubbed “LobbyCon”—is superb. The hallways and lobbies are where the real magic happens, fostering relationships, collaborations, and cross-guesting opportunities. As an ambivert, I found it easy to oscillate between recharging alone and engaging in deep conversations with others.

I made it a point to seek out individuals standing alone to welcome them into the conversation. These interactions are not strictly business; they are personal and often theological or philosophical. Whether demonstrating Podgagement features or simply asking someone about their passion, the environment supports genuine connection beyond just exchanging business cards.

Feedback reminder: your unexpected upgrades and 3 questions

I had intended to record interviews regarding “unexpected upgrades” in podcasting workflows during the conference, but I was so engrossed in the networking that I failed to hit record. Therefore, I am asking for your input now.

I would love to hear about the non-traditional upgrades—outside of microphones or mixers—that have improved your podcasting life. Additionally, please provide your answers to my three standing questions:

1. What would you like to hear more of?
2. What would you like to hear less of?
3. What else has been on your mind?

Send your feedback here!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

I'd love to tell you about PodChapters, which helped me go from using 5 tools for about 30 minutes per episode down to just 1 tool taking only about 30 seconds! It transcribes and chapters your podcast, boosting engagement and even helping you profit through chapters. Try PodChapters free on your next episode!

(Some of the following recommendation use affiliate links and I will earn only if you purchase through my links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

1. Computer mouse and keyboard

These are the two things you're constantly touching throughout your entire podcasting workflow: preparation, production, publishing, and promotion.

I recommend looking for three key qualities for your upgrade: quiet, comfortable, and customizable.

I use a Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac. What I love about it is the customizable buttons, the smooth scroll wheel that can either free-spinning or clicking, and a horizontal scroll wheel that's perfect for scrolling audio and video timelines. I can customize any button to perform specific actions specific to different apps, like silencing audio sections in my editor or quickly exporting files.

Here's something that might sound crazy: I actually use two mice. In my right hand, I have the Logitech mouse. Then to the left of my keyboard, I have an Apple trackpad for multifinger gestures like swiping between macOS spaces, smooth scrolling, pinching to zoom, and more. This dual setup has been a game-changer for my productivity!

2. Control interface

This is how I categorize items like an Elgato Stream Deck. I have the Stream Deck Mini, which is a 3×5 button interface where each button has a little screen that I can customize with text, icons, or colors.

Each button can trigger a keyboard shortcut, an integrated feature, display live data, and even start a full automation. I have a button that instantly opens three different applications and specific folders I need for creating episode images. Another button shows my current CPU usage so I know when to adjust my fan speed during recording sessions. The buttons can change based on which application I'm in, and they can even toggle between different states. And you can create multiple pages and profiles of buttons!

The Stream Deck comes in multiple sizes, even some with knobs and sliders. You can even now buy a keyboard from Corsair that has a Stream Deck built in! It's the GALLEON 100 SD.

You don't even need the hardware anymore—Elgato offers a virtual Stream Deck for your computer or tablet. But having physical buttons means I can reach over and press them without looking, which is invaluable when I need to maintain eye contact with a guest or the camera.

While these devices are often associated with live streaming (hence “Stream Deck”), they're incredibly powerful for any podcasting workflow. They save time, reduce frustration, and literally put automation at your fingertips. I actually use mine almost every day for automating accounting tasks!

3. Automation/shortcut tools

And speaking of automation, consider tools to automate repetitive tasks and make workflows more intelligent. I use several:

• TextExpander
• Keyboard Maestro (macOS) or AutoHotKey (Windows)
• Apple Shortcuts
• Raycast

I recently set up an Apple shortcut that lets me right-click on an episode folder and choose “archive,” which automatically moves it to my archive drive. Before, I had to open two Finder windows and navigate through multiple folders. Now it's one click!

With Keyboard Maestro, I've created about a dozen automations for just my accounting software, all mapped to buttons on my Stream Deck, of course! These automations can simulate mouse movements, click specific buttons, copy multiple fields, and paste them in different locations, all without my having to remember complicated keyboard shortcuts.

TextExpander has been part of my workflow for nearly two decades. I can type “.tap” and it expands to https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/, with a prompt letting me add a path after the domain. So “.tap” + “textexpander” becomes the full URL: https://heaudacitytopodcast.com/textexpander. You can create email templates, social media posts, live streaming announcements—anything you type repeatedly. TextExpander can even run JavaScript!

Raycast has been another new addition to my workflow, replacing Cmd-Tab for macOS Spotlight. With Raycast, I can quickly access or trigger all kinds of features from my keyboard: joining my next Zoom meeting, checking domain availability, pasting the perfect animated GIF, and much more!

4. Smart home accessories

Many indie podcasters work from home, so smart home automation can significantly improve your podcasting workflow.

I use a smart thermostat to turn off my HVAC system before recording so there's no background noise. I have smart light bulbs for special lighting effects or to be simply triggered when I need them, and smart switches to control my studio lights and other equipment.

I've set up an automation with my smart speaker so that when I say, “switch to podcast mode,” it automatically:

• Turns off all normal room lights
• Turns on my studio LED light panels
• Activates my RGB LED background glowing behind my acoustic panels
• Turns off my HVAC system so I get silence
• Changes the color of a background light

When I say “turn on the office,” everything reverses, switching back to normal mode (overriding the normal behavior for a command like that).

Some podcasters use a smart light bulb outside their recording space as a “recording” indicator. When it's red, everyone knows to stay quiet and keep pets and kids away.

5. Furniture

Think specifically about your desk, chair, and storage.

Your desk needs to support all your gear. I have an old big desk built for CRT monitors, which makes it very deep. That turned out to be perfect for having a cohost sit across from me (after I rearranged my room). I added a monitor arm so I can move the screen out of the way and maintain eye contact during recordings.

Your chair should be, in order of priority: comfortable, supportive, and quiet. Look for fabric or mesh materials and no hard plastic touching you and no leather that makes awkward squeaking sounds. Make sure it has good lumbar support and adjustable armrests.

For storage, think about both visible and invisible storage. What do you want visible in your video background for meetings, streaming, or any other videos you might record? What needs to be easily accessible? What needs to be put away?

6. Cable management

Lastly, don't forget all the “ties that bind!” Use zip ties, cable tracks, rails, or even staples to keep your cables organized and looking clean. Consider investing in shorter or longer cables depending on your needs, and look at angled connectors (like 90-degree XLR connectors) that can save space.

Important: Keep your power cables away from your analog audio cables. High-voltage power cables could cause interference in your recordings that sounds like constant mice squeaking in the background.

A cleaner space is a less distracting space. When your cables are managed well, it's easier to focus on your work, and if you do any video, your space looks much more professional.

Find me at Podfest!

I'm speaking on Podcasting 2.0 at Podfest 2026 and I would love for you to join my session! I would also like to hear from you what unexpected upgrades you've found for your own podcasting workflow! Catch me at Podfest to record your answer, or send your feedback now!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

You can get PO Boxes from a local Post Office and even other providers like UPS and such.

1. Privacy, obviously!

This is the obvious top reason most people think of. A PO box protects your home address from going public. All the reasons below tie back to privacy, but just having the box isn't enough—you have to use it correctly!

2. Use your PO Box for public records

Domain registrations used to expose personal info via WHOIS lookups (now shifting to RDAP). Many registrars now offer free privacy protection, but it's still smart to check your own domains. My favorite tool is who.is. Try it with your own domain(s) to see what information is exposed with your domain.

With a PO box, you can list it instead of your home address on domains, business filings, or many public records associated with your podcast and business. It can even serve as your official business mailing address.

3. Encourage your audience to send things

This is the most fun benefit! I've received awesome stuff at my PO box (PO Box 739, Burlington, KY 41005—feel free to send podcast swag, chocolates, cream soda, gold bars, etc.).

The coolest item I ever received was for my old clean comedy podcast. A listener wrote their funny story on a giant inflatable ball—bigger than a beach ball—slapped postage on it, and mailed it!

Other fans have sent stickers, magnets, posters, signs, and cash. I definitely recommend against sharing your private address with your audience. But with a PO Box, you can still share a mailing address to receive the things people might want to send.

It fits perfectly into my Podcast PROFIT Paradigm (Popularity, Relationships, Opportunity, Fun, Income, Tangibles). A PO box allows you to receive those tangibles as part of your podcast profit, and that can deepen your relationship with your audience.

4. Use your PO Box as a secure delivery address for retailers

Although some retailers won't ship to PO boxes, ask your post office if you can use their street address with your box number formatted as “Suite” or “Box” (for example,123 Main St, Suite 739).

This often allows shipping systems to accept your alternative address. Then, packages arrive securely at the post office—no porch pirates, no weather damage, and no worries while you're at work or traveling.

I've ordered items to arrive while traveling and picked them up safely later. Just confirm with your provider first because some might charge extra or don't allow it.

5. Boost Your Reputation with a Hint of Professionalism

Giving out a PO Box can sound more professional. It positions your podcast as a more established entity, even if it's only your hobby.

If you treat podcasting as a business, the PO box expense is often tax-deductible (check with your accountant). Plus, you can use it as the return address when mailing things to listeners—keeping your home private.

Please share your thoughts about The Audacity to Podcast!

I would love for you to answer these three questions for me and my podcast!

1. What would you like more of from me or The Audacity to Podcast?
2. What would you like less of from me or The Audacity to Podcast?
3. What do you want to tell me that's been on your mind?

Click here to send your feedback—written or voicemail.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

You don't need a fancy form or survey system for this. Simply ask your audience and provide an easy way for them to respond, such as email, voicemail, contact form, social post, comment, and such. For example, you could use Podgagement's PodcastFeedback.com feature to collect written or voicemail feedback from your audience!

1. “What would you like more of from me/us or my/our podcast?”

Start off with something positive. This question assumes they already like you and your podcast, and you're looking for additional content they want from you.

Anything your audience says could be a potential episode, series, extra value, product, service, or other opportunity.

For example, you might have an interview-based podcast and your audience might ask to hear more from only you! Or maybe they give you some topics they would love to hear you cover.

2. “What would you like less of from me/us or my/our podcast?”

Again, you can assume your responding audience already respects you to some degree if they're taking the time to respond to your questions. So while it may sting a little to learn the things they want you to do less, take it as constructive criticism from people who care.

Maybe they want less packed into each episode. Maybe they want less of a particular subject you frequently mention. Maybe they don't like a new thing you've added to your podcast.

You've likely heard the adage, “Less is more.” Keep that in mind when your audience is telling you they want less of something, because it might actually present more opportunities for you to engage deeper or share more of what your audience does want.

3. “What do you want to tell me/us that's been on your mind?”

This is the catch-all question, but I like this wording because it implies there might be something that they've wanted to share for a while, but maybe didn't think you'd be open to hearing. You could get positive and negative feedback from this question.

But keep the assumption that your responding audience is sharing this because they care.

You turn these into to-dos and take action

The worst thing you can do with solicited feedback is nothing. Even if some feedback suggests something you really don't want to change, the least you can do is thank the person for their response, acknowledge the value of their opinion, the time they took to share it with you, and be respectfully honest about what you're willing or not willing to do.

Also remember that just because a tiny portion of your audience says something doesn't mean you should or should not do it! I've heard people alienate a majority of their audience because of what the very small minority of the audience said—even when it was positive!

I want to hear your thoughts about The Audacity to Podcast!

Here's where I want something from you! I would love for you to answer these same questions for me and my podcast!

1. What would you like more of from me or The Audacity to Podcast?
2. What would you like less of from me or The Audacity to Podcast?
3. What do you want to tell me that's been on your mind?

Click here to send your feedback—written or voicemail.

And maybe doing this yourself will help you feel better about the kinds of responses you might get from your own audience.

Special thanks

• Bryan Entzminger from Top Tier Audio gave 1,363§ for my previous two episodes.
• I've been invited to speak about podcast chapters, and the new PodChapters app I made, on a couple of other podcasts about podcasting. I'll share more information when we've recorded those episodes!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

(Some of the following links are affiliates and I earn commissions through qualifying purchases. But none of this content is sponsored and I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

Your podcast does need a website!

I've come to hate the phrases “find my podcast in [Spotify / Apple Podcasts / etc.]” and “Wherever you get your podcasts.” My disdain for the latter deserves it's own future episode!

The biggest problem is that telling people to basically search for your podcast puts you at the mercy of not only the frequently changing search rankings, but it especially depends on the assumption that there are no other podcasts with similar names—now, or in the future! For example, there were 19 results for “think outside the box” in Apple Podcasts when I prepared this episode! And if you have to start telling people which search result to choose, you're already overcomplicating your call to action.

The simplest thing is to point them to your website and let your website link to the most popular platforms. Even if your potential listeners want to follow your podcast in less-popular apps, they'd have your website to see your branding and ensure they're following the right podcast.

A podcast without a website is a homeless podcast! From your website, you can collect email addresses, promote special events, sell products and services, solicit feedback, and more. You can't effectively do that in podcast apps!

Regardless of what powers your website, the most important thing is that it uses your own domain because that allows you to make timeless calls to action no matter how you change your technology.

So please assume the answer to “Does my podcast need a website?” is always “yes.”

Podcast-hosting providers have much better websites now

Captivate, Buzzsprout, Transistor, Blubrry, and other podcast-hosting providers do offer basic websites for each podcast you host with them. These websites are often simple, but can also still be attractive and designed to make your podcast prominent and easily listenable, along with promoting ways to follow your podcast. These sites also let you publish extra pages and blog posts. Some of the hosting providers even let you collect email addresses, solicit feedback, or receive financial support from your audience.

The most important thing is for such a website to work with your domain and be an actual website, preferably with only your own branding. Compare that to what you get from lower quality podcast-hosting providers where you get only a webpage on their domain with their prominent branding.

So if you need only a basic home for your podcast and your podcast-hosting provider offers a good one, then go ahead and use it (as long as you use your own domain with it)!

WordPress gives ultimate power with costs

Once you get your domain and web-hosting, most of the WordPress ecosystem doesn't cost any money. You can get a great theme and countless useful plugins free on WordPress.org (and through the theme and plugin catalogs accessible inside your WordPress site).

But to quote from the Spider-Man comics, often spoken by Uncle Ben in the movies, “With great power comes great responsibility!” Or to quote an often repeated line the I loved from the Once Upon a Time TV series, “All magic comes with a price!”

Note that I didn't say using WordPress is free. Sure, you might not have to buy anything, but it will cost you time and knowledge to get things working well, and further time and knowledge to keep them working well. For example, if you want a contact form on your site, you have several free and paid plugin options, and they all require some level of setup.

And if you want to monetize your site in any way, you'll be looking at many more steps and complications.

You could even generate your podcast RSS feed from your WordPress website with PowerPress, but I recommend that only when paired with Blubrry podcast-hosting, or you're prepared to handle several geeky complications.

Then what do you do when something goes wrong? I've had multiple WordPress sites compromised before, requiring me to invest valuable time to find the problem, patch the vulnerabilities, and repair the damage.

So, yes, WordPress gives you great power with your website. In fact, I feel confident saying you can do almost anything you can imagine with a WordPress website! But that power will cost you in other ways!

Website builders have gotten easier and better

Whether you're looking at a “page builder” plugin for WordPress, like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi, or even the increasingly powerful built-in Gutenberg Editor; or you're looking at third-party website providers, like Wix, Squarespace, and such; they've all gotten a whole lot easier to make your website look and function great. And, much to my delight, they're also finally getting better at supporting the niche needs of podcasters.

I still don't recommend third-party website providers to host your podcast media and RSS feed, but if you get your RSS feed from your actual podcast-hosting provider (like Captivate, Buzzsprout, and such), all you need to turn your website into a “podcast website” is audio players for each episode and subscribe or follow buttons for popular podcast apps.

Podpage and Beamly provide a new way

In recent years, a hybrid option has emerged: third-party website-providers designed specifically for podcast websites, powered primarily from your podcast RSS feed.

The two most popular options are Podpage and Beamly (formerly known as “Podcastpage”—see why they rebranded?). These not only often give you great-looking websites, but their feature offerings are starting to rival what you could make with your own custom WordPress website, but without the cost of so much time and knowledge!

For example, both Podpage and Beamly let you sell different types of “memberships” to your audience, allowing them to financially support your podcast on an automatic, recurring basis. Both Podpage and Beamly also allow you to sell some products directly through your website. Both providers let you add additional blog posts and pages on your site. And they both offer a whole lot more!

Between the two, I usually recommend Podpage more, but you pick what's right for you! It also helps that my friend Dave Jackson, from School of Podcasting, now works for Podpage!

What's right for you?

I don't usually recommend only one option for everyone because there is no “one size fits all” for podcasters! But I hope this guidance will help:

1. If you love WordPress and want total control, use WordPress with PowerPress and Blubrry hosting.
2. If you don't love WordPress or can't afford the time and knowledge to run it, use the podcast RSS feed from your podcast-hosting provider.
3. If you want a barebones site you barely have to think about, use your own domain with the basic website from your podcast-hosting provider.
4. If you want more control and don't mind some extra steps for every episode, use a third-party website provider like Wix or Squarespace.
5. If you want more built-in features but without manually crossposting your episodes, use Podpage or Beamly.

Important tip #1: update your RSS feed's episode links!

If you choose any options other than publishing your podcast from WordPress (with PowerPress and Blubrry) or using your podcast-hosting provider's website, then you'll need to ensure you copy the webpage URL for each episode into the episode link in your episode-editor from your podcast-hosting provider. This will ensure your podcast episodes properly point to your episode webpages for each episode instead of pointing to the podcast-hosting provider's site that you're not using.

For example, on Captivate, paste the episode webpage URL into to the “Episode URL” field after you open “Transcription and Discoverability.” Or in Buzzsprout's, paste it into the “Custom Episode Webpage” field after you open “See more options.”

Important tip #2: copy or redirect all old URLs

If you've ever given a call to action with a specific URL on your domain, such as “TheAudacitytoPodcast.com/giveback” that I use for if you value the podcast, then make sure those will always work, whether you're changing things around on your current website or switching to a completely different website option.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

(As an affiliate, I earn from purchases through these links. But I trust you know by now that I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

Podcast hosting

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1. Respect your audience's time

I grew up in a military family and my Air Force officer father did well to teach me the importance of being on time—not just “on time,” but early was on time! Somewhere along the way, I also learned that being late is a huge disrespect to others, even if they're not actually waiting for me. It was like saying, “I don't value your time enough to better manage my own time.”

You can apply something similar to podcasting. Just because you “wasted” your time doesn't mean you should waste your audience's time, too!

Build consistency in your publishing schedule so that your audience can reasonably assume that if your episode doesn't publish at its normal time, you might have had to skip this time.

Your episodes do not have to be a consistent length (episode 401)! So if you find yourself with limited time to prepare for a podcast, it's okay to make it a shorter episode! Just like 5 minutes I can spend with my son is better than endlessly deferred promises.

But in podcasting, unless you have contractual obligations, it's also okay to skip an episode if you must!

2. Always consider quality over quantity

Related to my previous point, it's more important to deliver quality to your audience than to guarantee a consistently published episode.

Yes, it can be harder to grow and maintain an audience if you can't publish consistently. But I think it's actually harder to keep an audience when you sacrifice your quality for the sake of the quantity of episodes.

The measure of “quality” is almost completely unrelated to the measure of quantity. Even if you normally publish high-quality 1-hour episodes, your audience will appreciate anytime you focus on the quality of your content more than trying to maintain length or a schedule.

I think Seth Godin demonstrates this well. He is a prolific author and speaker, but his blog posts are usually quite short—often as short as we'd usually think ideal for social networks. But most of his readers will agree that despite their brevity, they are always of great value.

So if you must cram for your podcast, focus on delivering high quality content with the time that you have instead of trying to make the episode be a particular length.

3. Adapt to prevent recurrences

Lastly, in this short—but I hope valuable!—podcasting advice, figure out what contributed (or continues to contribute) to your time-management struggle and change what you must so it doesn't keep happening.

You might need to lower the expectations on yourself and reduce your “promises” to your audience.

Or maybe you simply need to do certain “work” before “play.”

And remember that the best thing your audience can say about your podcast is not anything about how consistently your publish episodes or how long or short they are, but to rave about how good your episodes are. So adjust your schedule, shift your priorities, delay less important things, or alter your goals so that you can deliver the best podcast gift possible to your audience!

Special thanks

• Bryan Entzminger gave a total of 1,127§
• Go listen to Dave Jackson and me talk about the latest podcasting developments on our show The Future of Podcasting
• Try PodChapters free for 7 days to transcribe, chapter, and tag your podcast in about 30 seconds!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

I will not shame any hosting providers in this episode because they although some of them are doing these things wrongly at the time of publishing this episode, they might fix these problems later—maybe even by the time you're reading or listening to this! But I will praise some companies that do these things correctly. And keep in mind that just because I don't praise a particular company doesn't mean they're doing it wrong!

(I earn from qualified purchased through my affiliate links in this post, but I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

Sin 1: not redirecting your podcast RSS feed

If you use your podcast-hosting provider's RSS feed for publishing your podcast, what happens if you ever want to leave that provider? You need to take your audience with you and not cause any interruption in their consumption of your podcast.

What hosting providers should do is allow you to permanently redirect their feed URL for your podcast to your new feed URL. This must be a 301 “permanent” redirect! And, ideally, it should remain redirecting forever, or at least for a year.

Learn more about redirects and how to use them in episode 280. In short, they're like a “change of address” you would file with your local postal provider. When you do that, you're asking for everything to forward to your new address. And you can get a service that notifies everyone sending mail to your old address that you've permanently moved and where they should send the mail from now on.

301 permanent redirects work that same way. By “permanent,” it doesn't mean “forever,” but it means it's never going to use that old URL again. A 301 redirect will immediately forward any request for your RSS feed to the new URL without even loading any content from your old feed. 302 and 307 temporary redirects do that, too. But the main difference is that the “301” code sent back to the apps tells them that the feed URL has permanently changed, it will never be at that old URL again, and thus the apps should stop looking at the old URL and look only at the new URL. At least that's how smartly developed apps are supposed to handle it!

If you can't forward your old feed URL to your need one, then you effectively lose almost your entire audience when you switch hosting providers. That's why it's so important to have this control, even if you don't own the actual URL. (And whatever “brand” is in the feed URL doesn't actually matter.)

But it's a good thing that most hosting providers (certainly all the ones I recommend) do offer feed redirects as an option. Libsyn used to charge a one-time fee for this, but they stopped charging for it several years ago.

If you absolutely must use a hosting provider that does not offer feed redirects, then use a third-party service—like Blubrry's Podcast Mirror or even FeedBurner—to protect your feed URL.

Sin 2: using unpredictable media URLs

Each episode of your podcast has its own unique URL for the media file. For example, my episode URLs on Libsyn are structured like this:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/noodlemx/tap411.mp3

That's actually the MP3 URL for this very episode, and I knew it would be that exact URL before publishing because its completely predictable! I know that for each episode, the only thing that will change is the filename, and that will be the same filename as what I upload. Blubrry and a few other provider also work this way.

But some hosting providers use seemingly random characters in the media URLs. For example, one provider would make my episode URL like https://provider.com/media/g438tgsh4ituh3tsdg4/tap411.mp3.

That would be okay if that string of random characters was unique to your podcast and repeated across all your episodes so that, like Libsyn and Blubrry, the only part that changes per episode would be the filename for each episode. But that's not how those other providers work. Those random characters are different for every episode. So the URL is completely unpredictable.

This is bad because it makes it extremely cumbersome to migrate to that hosting provider if you've embedded episodes on your website (whether through a built-in player or using your hosting provider's player). You can't run a find-and-replace operation on your website's database to replace all the old media URLs or embed codes with the new ones because the new URLs contain a string of character that's different for each episode. Not even regular expressions would help here! However, regular expressions could help you migrate away from such a hosting provider, because you could use a wildcard for the random string. That is, as long as your episode filenames stay the same!

And that's the other way some providers commit this sin. I was trying to help my friend Jessica Rhodes from Interview Connections facing the even worse version of this issue (and thanks to Jessica for inspiring this episode!). She was working with a provider that did actually keep the same path for the media URLs, but they replaced the filenames with something random and unpredictable! So absolutely no systematic find-and-replace operation could migrate to or from that—even with regular expressions!

The only way to change all the past embedded episodes is to update them all manually.

So if you're looking at a new hosting provider, check the media URLs for multiple episodes of other another show hosted with them and see if the URLs follow predictable patterns, or are randomized for each episode. Too many providers do it this way! And, frankly, I think it's probably because of ignorance, or worse, apathy and laziness.

Aside: this is something I knew I wanted to avoid with the chapter- and transcript-hosting that PodChapters provides. Although the URLs might look random, the randomized part of each URL is actually an account-wide string that never changes. For example, I already know that the transcript URL for this episode will be https://storage.podchapters.com/j973bkwgxk3jpd4j3mw02g6b717p8s52/tap411/transcript.vtt, with only the tap411 part being unique but predictable for each of my episodes.

Sin 3: changing your GUIDs

“GUID” stands for “globally unique identifier.” There are two types in podcasting: one for each episode, and one for your whole podcast.

The podcast GUID was born from Podcasting 2.0. Even though it will be generated based on your feed URL when the GUID is first generated, it should never change after that, even if your feed URL changes. So any good hosting provider should automatically inherit the same GUID when you migrate your feed. Blubrry, Buzzsprout, and I think Captivate and several other providers do this properly.

Your episode GUIDs are even more important. What is in the episode GUID doesn't actually matter. For example, any feed generated with WordPress usually uses your WordPress post's ID number in a URL (so it doesn't change if the friendly URL changes). For example, this post's GUID is https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/?p=37412. Some publishing tools make it a random string of characters. Either is perfectly acceptable. So the sin is when those GUIDs are changed either when you migrate to that provider or publishing tool, or if they have to change something in their backend. For example, even if the episode URLs change from “HTTP” to “HTTPS,” the GUIDs should not change; they are used as IDs, not as URLs.

Nearly all podcast apps use the GUIDs to track which episodes have been played, downloaded, ignored, and such. So if an episode's GUID is changed, nearly all podcast apps will think it's a new episode and redownload it, which will mess up your stats and probably confuse and even frustrate your audience.

Most podcast-hosting providers properly migrate the episode GUIDs on migration. But some don't.

Sin 4: improperly constructing your RSS feed

Finally moving away from migration-related sins, some hosting providers and publishing tools do bad things inside your RSS feed. Sometimes, it's for some concern for compatibility, but it seems to usually be from ignorance or oversight.

Here are some examples:

• A popular hosting provider puts the same text in three separate RSS tags on an episode: <content:encoded>, <description>, and even deprecated <itunes:summary>. Multiply that by how many episodes are in your feed and that's a lot of wasted space, and it's really not even necessary!
• That same hosting provider, and a few others, set the <enclosure> tag's length attribute to 0 instead of setting the size of the media file in bytes.
• A few popular hosting providers incorrectly populate your episode's <itunes:title> and <title> tags with the exact same text. That's unnecessary and redundant, but it's even worse if you need episode numbers because they will put them in only <itunes:episode> tag but not in the more widely used <title> tag! I think Fireside handles this the smartest way; RSS.com might be doing similar soon; and Captivate, PowerPress, and Libsyn allow you to manually edit these separate title tags separately.
• Some providers and publishing tools ignore the <itunes:duration> tag. It is optional, but it's very helpful for podcast apps. Unfortunately, Apple says, “Different duration formats are accepted however it is recommended to convert the length of the episode into seconds.”
• Some providers incorrectly format the episode's <pubDate> tag, which is supposed to be the date of publication and it's supposed to follow a very specific date format, which not all providers respect. Surprisingly, Apple makes this tag only “recommended” instead of required.
• Some providers don't let you change the <link> URL for your episodes. This is crucial when your episode webpage is somewhere other than on the website your hosting provider gives you. Libsyn, Captivate, and Buzzsprout all let you edit this. PowerPress doesn't really need it because the primary usage of PowerPress is making a podcast feed from your own site. So the episode links are already pointing to your own webpage for that episode.

Some of these things you might uncover by looking at the raw XML code for a podcast's RSS feed from each provider. For example, if you see <enclosure length="0" …>, then you can know they're doing it wrong. But some of these other things, like the <link> tag might be an oversight on the podcaster's part and not the fault of the hosting provider.

Sin 5: stripping important data from your episodes

MP3s can hold a lot of important pieces of data that are good for compatibility, and sometimes vital for certain functionality and workflows.

For example, you can add your episode artwork to the MP3, and your hosting provider might automatically read that image and save it to the RSS feed and webpage for that episode. Captivate, Buzzsprout, Blubrry, Libsyn, and many other providers either use this image conveniently, or they keep the image in the MP3. Before you think this is unnecessary, this is actually how Overcast gets its image for your episode before falling back to your top-level podcast cover art.

The other important data in your episode could be legacy chapters embedded in the MP3. PodChapters exports chapters in your MP3, as JSON code for Podcasting 2.0, and as XML code for PodLove Simple Chapters. But even if your hosting provider doesn't support modern chapters, or they don't let you give your own chapters URL, your provider should still read the chapters from the MP3 data, keeping them there and even copying them to the other formats. This is why PodChapters is still useful (and likely better) if you host with a provider that offers their own chaptering tool.

Captivate, Buzzsprout, Blubrry, and Libsyn all keep your MP3's embedded chapters untouched unless you use their chapter tools to change the chapters. But some providers won't copy all the chapter data, or they actually remove your chapters! For example, one popular provider will properly read your chapter titles and timestamps, but then they ignore any links or images in your chapters.

Sin 6: not optimizing your media

There are, unfortunately, still several technical standards podcasters need to know. But I would love to see these be unnecessary for podcasters to think about because their hosting providers and publishing tools optimize these things appropriately.

For example, Buzzsprout's base plans will re-encode your podcast audio down to 96 kbps mono only if you upload something higher than that. This ensures you're publishing the right format of media and at an optimal quality level. You could also upgrade your Buzzsprout account to include “Magic Mastering,” so they fix your loudness levels automatically and let you publish in stereo. That's a smart feature!

But some hosting providers will let you upload anything—even an uncompressed WAV file that could be 100× bigger than it should be or other audio file formats that most podcast apps don't support.

Images are another thing. Some providers let you upload any kind of image, even if it's too big, too small, the wrong shape, or its other technical specs are incorrect. Ideally, the publishing tools should warn you when you're uploading something with the wrong specs, and potentially provide the tools to fix it.

On PodChapters, I'm working to make it do some of this optimization automatically, or with a simple button. For example, if you upload an image that's too big for a chapter (by file size or pixel dimensions), PodChapters could automatically downscale that image for the embedded chapters (where a small size is very important), and then do different optimizations for the Podcasting 2.0 and PodLove chapters.

The same could go for text data, too. Publishing tools should strip out unnecessary HTML code (like you might frequently get when pasting from a document-editing app such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word) and they should automatically-validate your RSS feed whenever you publish.

Of course, this shouldn't really matter if you do things right on your side. But I believe that podcasters shouldn't have to know technical things like bitrates and loudness levels. I want podcasting to “just work” so you can focus more on your content and your audience.

Sin 7: unnecessarily optimizing your media

Yes, sometimes your media should not be optimized!

Years ago, I stumbled into running multiple performance tests on podcast-hosting providers and I made some interesting additional discoveries. One of those discoveries was that some hosting providers would forcefully re-encode your MP3s, even if you had already encoded them perfectly to the spec! One provider re-encoded up to a higher level, which didn't actually improve the audio quality and only wasted space, bandwidth, and processing time. Some providers don't re-encode your media no matter what (see sin #6 for that!), but I like the way Buzzsprout handles it: they will only re-encode down if your media file is above their spec. But if you upload an MP3 that's already at or below their spec, they won't re-encode it.

A similar thing could happen with images. Maybe you upload a perfectly compressed image that's only 20 KB, but the publishing tool converts that image to a different format, possibly making the file size 10× larger than it needs to be, and maybe even making the image look worse.

Need help picking a podcast-hosting provider? I still regularly recommend Captivate, Buzzsprout, Blubrry, and Libsyn!

Special thanks

• Lyndsay Phillips had me as a guest on Leverage Your Podcast to talk about engaging your podcast audience. Go listen to it!
• Podfest Multimedia Expo accepted my session proposal, so I will be sharing “What You Need to Know About Podcasting 2.0” at Podfest! Please join me at Podfest, January 15–18, in Orlando, Florida!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

1. Prioritize audio in production

I've said it many times: the most important part of video is audio. If people can't hear and understand you, it won't matter how amazing your video looks.

So no matter what your video setup is, make sure your audio is the best it can be.

For example, you might feel like it compromises the aesthetics of your video to have a visible microphone in your shot. So then you have three choices:

1. Use a mic that's too far away and sacrifice your audio quality.
2. Invest in a high quality micrrophone solution that can capture audio out of frame or barely visible.
3. Allow a visible microphone in your shot so you get the best audio possible.

Option A is lazy and amateur. Option B is most likely expensive. But you probably already have the gear for Option C.

After all, some people actually think it's only a podcast if they can see your microphone in the video!

As long as the microphone isn't blocking your face (and it probably never needs to block your face for good audio anyway), your audience would probably much rather see the microphone than not be able to hear or understand you.

2. Prioritize listeners in your audience

When it comes to your audience, the audio experience is also more important than the video experience.

The audience experience goes beyond merely the technical production! It's in the content you share and how you present that content.

I see too many podcasters make the same mistake that as soon as they can see each other—whether live-streaming, pre-recorded, or even if it's an audio podcast but recorded through a video platform (like Squadcast or Riverside)—they will speak as though the whole audience can see what the podcasters see.

Additionally, evening a large percentage of video-consuming audiences are only listening, or they might be “watching” with very little attention on the video (like through smaller picture-in-picture).

I love how James Cridland, editor of Podnews, defines podcasting: “entertainment for your ears, while your eyes are busy.”

You can apply that to podcasting like this: can your audience still fully benefit from your podcast if their eyes were closed the whole time?

3. Prioritize video for sharing

Here's where I flip things around! The best way to make it possible for your podcast to “go viral” is for you to clip it into shareable snippets. The best format for those snippets is video.

I think this is unfortunate, but it's how the world has worked for years and there seems to be no sign of changing: video snippets are more shareable than audio snippets—let along full audio episodes.

Get into TikTok, Facebook Reels, videos on X, and even YouTube and you'll see that short video snippets work best for quick consumption and sharing.

And when I say to prioritize video for sharing, I don't mean just the video of your talking head. For social, snippet-based video, go ahead with square or vertical video, baked in subtitles (just please not animated one word at a time!), screenshots and B-roll, and engaging cuts.

There are great apps that make this kind of social-video-editing easier. My favorite is OpusClip, but you can also try the built-in snippet features in Riverside and SquadCast/Descript.

Keep this in mind: social videos will not grow your podcast very much, but they can grow your reach and overall authority and influence! So would you rather have 100 podcast listeners plus 1,000 video-snippet viewers, or only the 100 podcast listeners?

4. Feeling overwhelmed? Then prioritize audio!

Yes, you have the potential to get your content in front of a bigger audience if you publish video in addition to your audio. If you can't do any of the special things in your video, then at least some video is better than no video. But if you're not able or comfortable to do any video, the do not feel guilty!

There are countless successful podcasts that are still only audio, and there will be plenty of other popular and even top-ranking podcasts publishing only audio.

Just look at me. I'm a full-time dad, running my own business, hosting a podcast, and homeschooling my son. Although I actually have been recording video of all my recent episodes, I've not yet done anything with those videos because that overwhelms me right now, and I can't afford to delegate the editing to someone or something else—at least not yet. And so I focus on what I can do best right now: audio. (But I'll continue recording videos of my episode just in case I can even get around to publishing them or using snippets from them!)

I do not have to publish video!

Say that yourself!

Special thanks

• Bryan Enztminger, from Top Tier Audio, gave 501§
• Adam Curry and Dave Jones had me on episode 237 of Podcasting 2.0, talking about chapters and PodChapters—which now has a free trial!
• Dan LeFebvre, from Based on a True Story, sent me a long but very thoughtful message in response to episode 409, “Should You Share Your Faith, Politics, or Morals in Your Podcast?” I'm saving that message and potentially others for an upcoming episode to share and respond to feedback about the serious and “controversial” issues I've been addressing lately. Send your feedback, too!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

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I'm not going to tell you what you “should” do on this issue. Instead, I'll give you several things to consider so that you can make the decision you believe is right for your podcast.

1. Faith, politics, and morals are parts of your worldview

A “worldview” is simply how you view the world, and that's based on your belief system. Thus, your faith, politics, and morals influence how you view the world, how you interpret facts, and what you prefer.

Because of this, no person is truly “neutral,” even if they might attempt to make their content neutral.

2. Everyone “leaks” their worldview

What you believe and how it affects your view of the world will come out in various ways over time. Although you might not overtly share your faith, politics, or morals, it's usually easy to figure out from the content you share or don't share, the labels you use, and the things you prioritize.

I can think of several podcasts that claim to be neutral and apolitical, but it's quite obvious they and their hosts are on particular sides, even if they're not talking directly about faith, politics, or morals.

Just look at The Audacity to Podcast for example. You probably know I'm a Christian and a conservative because of how much of my own worldview “leaks” into my content. I'm not “preaching” or forcing anything on you, but I do leak my worldview, just like you and other podcasters do, too.

3. Is it relevant to your podcast?

So if your worldview already leaks into your podcast, should you lean fully into it and overtly present your worldview through your content?

You probably know the answer: it depends.

I think relevance is what matters most in this case. If your podcast is about faith, politics, morality, and such, then you are already sharing your own positions. But if your podcast isn't about such things, and your audience isn't already expecting you to share those things, then you might want to share them rarely if ever.

Again, consider The Audacity to Podcast. I have never marketed this show as a podcast about podcast for Christians or conservatives. When my faith, politics, and morals are more obvious in my podcast, it's coming through something that I believe is actually relevant to the podcasting topic I'm sharing. For example, I have quoted from the Bible multiple times throughout the years of The Audacity to Podcast because those particular passages said something relevant to the topics in those episodes. I know you don't come to my podcast for Christian preaching, just like I don't go to my pastor for podcasting advice.

But if your podcast is either about those things, or you want to reach that specific audience, or you want to approach things from a particular religious, political, or moral perspective, then fully embrace it and make it obvious that's your goal!

4. You will likely alienate some of your audience

I keep grouping faith, politics, and morals together because they can be the most divisive issues since these things are very black and white by their nature. So when you share your faith, politics, or morals in your podcast—overtly or even just leaking them—it will likely alienate and possibly even upset some of your audience. Truth divides! And like I've heard teacher Mike Riddle say, “When you reject the truth, you must accept any lie in its place.”

Imagine the world was divided by people who like cake and people who like pie. Most of the pie people will probably be fine to hear the cake people talk about any other subject. But once the cake people start talking about cake, the pie people might get upset (and vice versa).

However, from my research and observation, it seems it's usually one side that gets more angry about and intolerant of the other side. So keep that in mind if you're on the side that gets targeted more.

I'm not saying that should stop you, only that it's something to keep in mind.

5. You might be the voice your audience needs

Even though some of your audience might get upset when you share a particular worldview, it might also be exactly what other people need to hear! Many people feel underrepresented in various forms of media, and survey data reflects that reality that the media landscape does not proportionately represent the audience.

To use our cake versus pie illustration again, the population might be evenly split between cake people and pie people, but legacy and new media might be mostly on the cake side by a large margin. So when a pie person speaks out boldly and without apology, it gives the pie people their needed representation.

So if you feel it necessary to take a “controversial” stand, do so boldly and make it obvious that such is what you stand for and whom you want your podcast to serve.

This was my big issue with a particular group I once supported. They claimed to represent everyone, but when it was pointed out that they were marginalizing and underrepresenting a massive group, they didn't care (and maybe still don't), despite their (false) claims.

6. Standing for what's right will have a cost

When you stand for what's right, people will attack you. They will slander you, threaten you, abuse you, give your podcast negative and false reviews, and more (and maybe even worse). That really stinks. I know because I've been through it, too.

So you have to consider whether your podcast is the right context or now is the right time for you to take a particular stand. And if you go through with it, be prepared for what follows. You might even decide that because of how transparent you've been about your private life and whereabouts in the past, you might not want to risk the safety of yourself or the people you care about.

I have a lot of beliefs people will call “controversial” (more on that word in my next point!), but I decided years ago that there would be two main things I would never compromise and would speak openly about without fear of the costs, because I believe those things are right. Those are my “hills I'm willing to die on,” and one of them did truly almost kill me.

7. Don't let labels control you

When you share your faith, politics, or morals, the haters will likely label you. You might be called “racist,” “Nazi,” “hateful,” “supremacist,” “controversial,” “extremist,” “___phobic,” “abusive,” and more. But it really seems like people don't even know what such labels mean anymore! In fact, those labels could mean completely different things to different people! Just look at how the word “podcast” now means different things to different people! Even just the word “controversial” seems to be slapped on people only when their opinions differ from someone else's. It's like cake people telling pie people they're being controversial whenever they talk about pie, but the cake people never see themselves as controversial when they talk about cake!

No matter how vile the label is that someone tries to slap on you, don't let it control you! You can simply say, “No,” and move on! You don't have to dignify false accusations with rebuttals; you can simply reject them and then ignore the trolls.

8. Remember kindness

Before you decide to go getting militantly religious, political, or moral in your podcast, please remember kindness.

A few years ago, I felt face-smacked by a passage in Scripture that challenged me then and continues to challenge me. And despite how many times I fail, I keep exercising myself to come back to what I should do instead of what I feel like doing. This is 2 Timothy 2:22–26 from the Bible (ESV translation):

[22] So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. [23] Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. [24] And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, [25] correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, [26] and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

The adjectives to avoid are challenging enough: “foolish,” “ignorant,” “quarrelsome.” But there is also the admonishing to correct opponents, not with rage but with gentleness.

Yes, it is kind to speak the truth, and you must remember to do it with gentleness. It's like if your doctor tells you that you have a horrible disease and you must change your lifestyle because the things you're doing will kill you, he is not being a “hater,” “anything-phobic,” or “controversial”; instead, he is being kind to share the truth and point you in the right direction.

That's what I hope you do with your own podcast if you believe you must share something “controversial” you might not normally share: be kind and point your audience in the right direction.

Special thanks

• Claire Waite Brown sent 500§ on my previous episode about podcast chapters. And she said, “I’m a big fan of chapters and chapter art. When I interview indie podcasters on the Creators from TrueFans podcast I recommend Podcasting 2.0 features that could be good for their particular show and chapters with pics and links is one I very often suggest. It’s frustrating that some apps choose to NOT support 2.0 chapters but great that PodChapters can make the chapters in all formats. Thanks for linking to Podcasting 2.0 in Practice in the show notes. ”

If you want to chapter your podcast the fastest, easiest, and smartest way, then use PodChapters!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
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Follow The Audacity to Podcast

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• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

I know there might be some immediate negative feelings about supporting something that could allow your audience to skip parts of your episodes, but please give me a chance to convince you why chapters can do more, but that even allowing skipping is a good thing.

1. What are podcast chapters?

A podcast chapter is a marker placed at a time within an episode. There are currently three technological standards for making podcast chapters:

• Embedded chapters stored inside the MP3 or other media file, often called “MP3 chapters” or “legacy chapters.” These have been supported by many popular podcast apps for many years.
• Podcasting 2.0 “cloud chapters” stored as JSON inside a separate metadata file linked from the RSS feed. Most Podcasting 2.0 apps support cloud chapters, and even Apple Podcasts will be supporting them.
• Podlove Simple Chapters stored as XML inside the podcast RSS feed. Oddly, Spotify chose to support this nearly dead standard instead of the other, more popular standards.

All three chapter standards support the same core functionality of what a chapter can do:

• Display a title
• Optionally display an image
• Optionally link to a URL

Podcasting 2.0's cloud chapters also add the ability to include a location and to hide a chapter from the table of contents so that it can't be jumped to and won't display in a chapter list.

I'll tell you more about what chapters can be further down. But for now, keep in mind that chapters are basically titles (or headlines), and optional images and/or links. And this information is placed at certain times in the episode so podcast apps will display that chapter's information when the playback reaches that point and until the chapter changes.

2. Answering the objection: chapters allow audiences to skip content

Yes, it's true that putting chapters in your episodes will allow your audience to skip content they don't want. They might skip points in your episode, they might skip whole segments, or they might skip ads, depending on how you use your chapters.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing!

Imagine you were looking for information and you found an article with five points. You realize the information you want is in the fourth point, but instead of letting you quickly scroll to get the information you need, the article forces you to view each point before the one you want. Not only that, but it forces you to read every word before then.

Frustrating, right?

Thankfully, that's not how (most) websites and browsers work! And it's not how your podcast episodes should work, either.

Yes, people might skip to what they want from your episode, but don't you want them to get what they want? Don't you especially want them to get it from you instead of being frustrating and looking elsewhere? (If you've follow me and The Audacity to Podcast for a while, you might recognize that this is the same argument I make for providing thorough “show notes” for each episode.)

Even if you have ads in your podcast, using chapters doesn't mean your ads become skippable. More on that in a moment!

3. The helpful benefit of chapters: context

In their simplest form of only titles, podcast chapters can provide your audience with an easy outline of your episode's content. It's similar to handouts you might get for a speech, lesson, or sermon. You can see the outline so you can follow along. Plus, it's often very convenient to have the extra context for that section simply by seeing the section's heading.

If you listen to this episode in a podcast app, you'll probably see each of my headings as chapters, so you would see that this section's chapter as “3. The greatest benefit of chapters: context.” Just from glancing at that alone, you can be reminded that I'm talking about context and action. It's also very similar to how much books—especially nonfiction—have chapter titles and sometimes even section titles at the top or bottom of each page.

Providing that context helps your audience follow along, better understand your content, and even remember it better.

And that's from only the chapter title! You could also include a picture in your chapter, allowing your audience to quickly see what you're talking about without their having to visit a website or your having to make a video podcast. In fact, they might not have to even unlock their smartphones to see the chapter title and image!

I did used titles, images, and links in my previous episode, “Podcasting During or After Tragedy.” I referenced two different movies in points 3 and 5 of that episode, and for those chapters, I included the section heading as the chapter title, an image from the movie's relevant scene, and even a link to that specific movie clip on YouTube. For some of my audience, they could simply glance at that image and immediately remember the scene.

But they could also quickly open the relevant link! And that leads onto my next point!

4. The most convenient benefit of chapters: actionability

(Yes, “actionability” is a real word, according to Merriam–Webster's dictionary!)

When you give a chapter a title and image, you're helping your audience with the information you're sharing. But when you add a link, you're making the information actionable!

From my testing, every podcast app that supports chapters also allows them to have images and links. How the links display varies a little, but most apps turn the chapter title into a hyperlink with the URL you included. So, yes, that means it might not always make the most sense for that text to be hyperlinked, but I have hopes and proposals for Podcasting 2.0 “super chapters” to make this better in the future. But more on that further down.

If you want your audience to take any action or be able to quickly access information, linking to it from a chapter makes that action extremely convenient because the listener doesn't have to go to your website and they don't even have to try scrolling through your episode notes inside their podcast app. They can usually tap right on that chapter while it's playing and be taken to that destination.

You're probably familiar with a URL, like https://theaudacitytopodcast.com, but chapters don't have to link only to webpages. They could be mailto links to trigger an email, they could be phone links to trigger a phone call, or SMS links like “click to text,” or links to any other kind of action that can be triggered from a URL pattern.

Imagine these potential actions:

• When you're talking about a favorite resource, you could add your affiliate link to the chapter so your audience can quickly buy it.
• When you're thanking your audience for their support, you could link the chapter to your support or value page so others can quickly give support, too.
• When you're doing a baked-in advertisement, you could link that chapter to the advertiser's site to make the call to action more convenient.
• When you're asking for feedback, you could link the chapter to your feedback page, or even directly to your email address or SMS number (like for Buzzsprout's “fanmail” feature).

Each one of these can be more actionable by linking to them from the chapter at the time when it's most relevant.

Just remember to support fallback options since it's possible some of your audience won't be able to take action on the chapter right then.

5. How to chapter your podcast episodes

Let's break chaptering into two steps: style and adding.

First, pick your chaptering style

I generally suggest that the easiest and best way to decide what chapters to make is by looking at how your content is naturally divided. If your content has any kind of outline, as most of my episodes do, those are your chapters right there! And if your content has multiple segments, different stories (news or comedy), or “scene changes,” those are also ideal to be their own chapters.

There will be times you'll have to consider how deep your chapters should go. For example, we're now in a second level of headings, but I've chosen to give both A and B subheadings their own chapters.

You might also run into a case where you have a single section but you want to share multiple images or links. Until “super chapters” are accepted in Podcasting 2.0, the best thing you could do is link to a single page with those links, or to the relevant section of a page with targets. For example, adding #section-title-here to a URL (usually before any question mark or ampersands) can link to a section of that page that uses the title attribute for that link or heading.

You could even use an AI/LLM-powered tool to suggest chapters for you.

Second, add your chapters with the right tools

There are multiple tools to add chapters to podcast episodes. Some hosting providers, such as Blubrry, Captivate, Buzzsprout, RSS.com, and some others offer built-in tools to add your chapters. There are also some installable apps that can add chapters to your MP3 files, like Forecast for macOS, Podcast Chapters for macOS, and Hindenburg for Windows and macOS.

The hosting providers often offer AI-powered (or more technically correct LLM-powered) chapter suggestions where the system looks at your episode transcript and tries to suggest chapters for you. But in my experience, the results are often too granular, resulting in too many chapters. And such systems often ignore the outline you actually have.

The installable apps offer more manual control, sometimes letting you place a marker in the audio waveform while listening to the episode, and sometimes offering only a timestamp field for completely manual entry.

As you can tell, each of these have their shortcomings—potentially time-sucking dealbreakers! And that's why I finally decided to create something better. So I'm thrilled to announce the public launch of PodChapters!

After using I think every popular chapter-adding tool out there, I'm quite certain PodChapters is the fastest, easiest, and smartest way to chapter your podcast!

If you want, you can manually place your chapters in the audio waveform. But even that manual approach is easier than other apps!

But where PodChapters really excels is when you use the AI-powered features. You can either provide your own transcript or use PodChapters to transcribe your podcast for you (and with some really smart features!). Then, the AI can suggest chapters for you, even automatically placing them. I've tweaked the AI a whole lot to get great results with all my tests, and that's been confirmed by my beta-testers! From there, you can easily edit the chapters to your liking.

And something no one else offers, but that I have suggested and requested for years, is the amazing ability to take the outline you provide and automatically turn that into chapters for you and with amazing precision! For example, since I always know what I want my chapters to be—my outline—I simply paste that outline into PodChapters and click a button for it to place my chapters, saving me all kinds of time and frustration!

For real, this was the workflow I or my assistant Steve Mudie would have to do for every episode:

1. Transcribe with MacWhisper Pro
2. ID3-tag with ID3 editor
3. Add chapters with Podcast Chapters (macOS-only)
4. Export the transcript and Podcasting 2.0 chapters and upload them to a CDN
5. Finally add the transcript and Podcasting 2.0 chapters URLs inside PowerPress

Now, everything but adding the links to my feed can be done in one tool: PodChapters! And yes, that means PodChapters can even host your transcript and Podcasting 2.0 chapters for you!

PodChapters really does provide everything you need to add engaging chapters to your podcast, potentially in as little as 30 seconds (from some of my own real-life tests)!

I made PodChapters first for myself, and then I realized how much time and frustration it could save you, especially if you're on Windows or Linux where there are very few options for making chapters. PodChapters runs in the browser, so it works on any modern device! (Yes, it even works on an iPhone, though I know I need to optimize the interface more for small-screen devices.)

Start chaptering your podcast the smart way with PodChapters! NOW AVAILABLE!

6. Podcasting 2.0 “cloud chapters” are already better

At its core, Podcasting 2.0 “cloud chapters” do the same things as legacy chapters: title, optional image, and optional link. 2.0 chapters do also add the ability to include a location and hide the chapter from the table of contents, but those are for very specific uses.

Beyond that, simply by moving the chapters out of the RSS feed and especially out of the MP3 files enables some really cool things! For example, you could replace a chapter image to reflect more urgency as some deadline approaches. You could replace the URL destination of a chapter. Or you could completely change what the chapters are! And this is all done by editing the tiny episode metadata file (sometimes called a “chapters file”) without editing the MP3! And your listeners in a Podcasting 2.0 app will have access to the chapters without having to redownload your episode!

Here are some more resources to learn about Podcasting 2.0 chapters:

• The official Podcasting 2.0 spec
• “Let's Look at Podcast Chapters” from The Future of Podcasting
• “Chapters” from Podcasting 2.0 in Practice

7. Podcasting 2.0 could bring “super chapters”

Chapters are one of my favorite features of Podcasting 2.0, and so I've proposed some ways they could be so much better than the legacy functionality they still are: title, optional image, and optional link.

The two biggest things I've proposed are galleries and text blocks.

Consider a podcaster who wants to share a bunch of images from a relevant trip. She could tell her audience to visit her website to view all the images, or she could painstakingly make a chapter for each image. But then that forces the audience to see the images at the pace of the chapters, which would likely require interrupting the podcast multiple times. That's where a gallery chapter could come in.

A single chapter could contain all the images from the trip. There would be just the one chapter as the host is talking about her trip, but the audience could swipe through the gallery of images at their own pace while listening and without leaving the podcast app.

Text-block chapters would allow a chapter to have more text than only a title. It could contain bullet points, a quotation, or multiple links.

Here are some other podcast episodes where I've talked about chapters and what “super chapters” could be in the future:

• “Super Chapters in Plain English” from The Future of Podcasting
• “Chapters” from Podcasting 2.0 in Practice

Special thanks

• Steve Wilkinson sent 1,234§, saying, “Thanks for all you do for podcasting!”

Thanks to YOU for signing up to use PodChapters!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
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Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Whatever the “tragedy” is to you, there is no single right answer to this. But I would like to share several points for you to consider so that you can make the decision that's right for you.

(I will use my own past divorce as an example many times in the following.)

1. A Difficult truth: tragedies don't impact everyone equally

I think we can categorize tragedies by two factors: impact and weight. Here are some examples of that:

• When I went through the wounds and betrayal of an unwanted divorce, that greatly impacted and weighed on me. It also weighed on many of my sympathetic listeners, but it didn't really impact them (aside from how it affected my podcast they were listening to).
• If you podcast about a local town, and there's a catastrophe in the town, that impacts and weighs on both you and your audience. The same would probably be true for major national or worldwide events, perhaps regardless of what your podcast is about.
• You might have a tragedy involving someone you know, and that may weigh on you, even if it doesn't directly impact you. And it may not impact or weigh on your audience at all.
• There might be a tragedy somewhere else that neither impacts nor weighs on your nor your audience.

The personal impact and weight of these (and other) categories of tragedies should not diminish the nature of the tragedy. But these can give you some things to think about regarding how or even if you handle it in your podcast. So please keep these different categories in mind with the following points.

2. People need positivity

No matter what your podcast is about, it's probably some kind of positivity to the majority of your audience. Even if that positivity is simply a healthy distraction.

When I was deep in the sorrows of my divorce, I found comfort in the book of Psalms in the Bible every day, and I also found great positivity in multiple podcasts, such as That Story Show, The Karen and Ellen Letters, and a few others. Note that those two podcasts had absolutely nothing to do with healing or relationship advice. In fact, there were a couple of things that made me tear up a little. But they helped me to do something I didn't feel like doing, but that I desperately needed to do: smile.

Your podcast could be that for other people. Your consistency might be just what someone needs when they—or you and they both—are going through or recovering from a tragedy. Sometimes, simply the routine is healing.

3. People need community

Because of the “intimate” nature of personable podcasting, it's easy for communities to form around podcasts. So when something impacts someone in that community, it's felt by the whole community. And it's often good for people to cry together. I think Pixar's Inside Out illustrated this beautifully with the importance of the character and emotion of Sadness and how it's actually necessary for healing and growth.

I love this passage from the Bible:

[9] Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. [10] For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! [11] Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? [12] And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

(Ecclesiastes 4:9–12, ESV)

People need people. And your podcast could help provide just the community they need.

Here's another example of this. When I was going through my divorce, some friends invited me to join their Friday-night Xbox-gaming squad. That gave me something fun to do, a little camaraderie with other men, and it was sometimes simply stress relief. A few years later, one of those men went through his own unwanted divorce, and I was there for him every day. One day, in tears, he apologized to me, regretting that he couldn't give me the support I needed when I went through my own divorce. But I told him, “Oh, but you were there for me. You were there every Friday night for me, giving me something to look forward to, something to help me have fun again. It might seem silly, but it was exactly what I needed.”

4. Podcasting can be therapeutic

I'm no psychologist or counselor, but I've seen and experienced that “letting it out” and (eventually) “moving on” are very important parts of healing and growing. Podcasting may give you an outlet for both.

Todd Cochrane was only 61 when he died on September 8, 2025. His dad also died young (unrelated cause). And a touching story I remember Todd telling multiple times was when he and his mom did several podcast episodes together talking through their grief, healing, and more. Todd frequently spoke of how therapeutic that was for them both, as well as how supportive their community was.

I remember my own first personal tragedy. In working to recover, I was getting Biblical counseling from someone in my church. I'd been podcasting my now-retired clean-comedy podcast, the Ramen Noodle, for barely a year at that point. And I remember my counselor saying some wise and encouraging words, “Daniel, the world needs the Ramen Noodle!”

I needed it, too!

I can think of multiple other examples of this. But the point is that returning to something you love will probably be difficult and may even feel inappropriate at first. But pressing through the mental and emotional resistance can make you stronger and help you reignite your passions.

5. It takes courage to not stay down

Lastly, eventually returning to your passions after a tragedy takes courage because you're proving—even if difficult—that the tragedy cannot defeat you.

I love the brief exchange from Batman Begins: “Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

Podcasting isn't just a “pick me up.” Sometimes, it is part of the process we can use to learn to pick ourselves back up—often lifting others at the same time.

Special thanks

• Thanks to Bryan Enztminger, Dreb Scott, Dave Jackson, and Lyceum for streaming payments for the past couple of episodes.
• Dreb Scott sent an extra 5,678§, saying, “You are doing great work here! Keep it up.”
• PestMerc sent 100§, saying, “Thanks, Daniel.”
• Lyceum sent 1,776§ with a message I'll save for a future episode about freedom of speech in podcasting.

Motivated by recent deaths that impacted and weighed heavily on me, I have several somber and “controversial” topics I'll be covering in upcoming episodes. I'd like to address censorship, freedom of speech, death, including politics, and more. So please send feedback if you have thoughts or questions about these or similar issues in podcasting!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

But with the return, I want to address several somber and even controversial thoughts or questions you might have related to podcasting.

For example:

• How should you prepare your podcast for your own death?
• Should you address current issues or tragedies in your podcast?
• Should you talk about morality or politics in your podcast?

Please send me your own additional questions you would like me to address! Send written or voicemail feedback (optionally anonymously) here.

The Audacity to Podcast will return on September 24.

Todd Cochrane, a great podcasting pioneer, an advocate for independent podcasters, and one of my good friends died Monday morning, September 8, 2025.

Todd was among the first 50 podcasters—launching Geek News Central on October 4, 2004—and he wrote one of the first books about podcasting, Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide, published on June 10, 2005—nearly 3 weeks before Apple launched support for podcasts in iTunes, and before I even heard of podcasting.

You may never know how you touch the lives around you. And while I certainly can't tell you of everything Todd has done and given, I would like to share how I knew Todd.

Although I had learned about Todd's company, Blubrry, sometime in 2006 or 2007, I didn't meet Todd until June 2008 at PodCamp Ohio in Columbus, Ohio. Todd was speaking on podcast sponsorships. I remember it well because of his answer to one of my questions back then, and also that when he spoke badly about Google, lightning struck right outside the window!

Todd created the People's Choice Podcast Awards, the first podcasts awards. Todd was also the founder of the Tech Podcasts Network, of which I was a member for many years. In January 2013, I had the opportunity to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with Todd Cochrane and a team of other podcasters from Tech Podcasts Network. I was a bit hesitant to go. It overlapped with New Media Expo (NMX), also in Las Vegas, but I wasn't sure both events were worth the trip for me. But Todd very kindly pressured me to commit to attending CES with him. It turned out that he also wanted me to be there live at NMX because Leo Laporte was hosting the Podcast Awards ceremony, and that's when The Audacity to Podcast won its first award! Of course, Todd couldn't reveal that I had won, but he was clever in convincing me to be there so I could have the joy of receiving the award in person from one of my podcasting heroes.

It was at that same conference that Steve Lee and Dave Lee shared the idea of International Podcast Day and asked me to help and be one of the cofounders. And I would not have been there if it wasn't for Todd Cochrane!

Those years of covering CES provided great memories, too! Todd and I partnered up several times. He would run the camera while I interviewed a company I found interesting, and I would run the camera for him when he would interview someone. We would also live-stream coverage throughout the day from our Tech Podcasts Network booth outside the north hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

I remember a funny time during that live coverage that someone brought a water-based eye-massager. I thought it kind of weird. But I wore contacts at that time, so while Todd continued interviewing the representative from the company, I slipped the VR-like headset over my eyes and turned it on. I actually let out of sort of sigh and moan because of the relief on my stressed eyes. Todd burst out laughing saying, “We've never had someone moan live in our coverage!”

At the end of those CES events, Todd would treat the whole team to dinner at Tony Roma's, a restaurant in the Fremont Hotel. That's where many of us had the best cheesecake of our lives!

Todd was always generous like that. When we would hang out in the evenings at podcasting conferences, he would frequently buy everyone's meals or drinks at the table. And the conversations were always so fun as he would tell stories (without compromising national intelligence) from his days in the Navy. We would talk into the late hours about podcasting and how we could help podcasters and make the whole industry better.

Indeed, Todd cared very much about independent podcasters and the podcasting industry. And he was a strong proponent for anyone to be able to speak freely in podcasting. I remember him often saying, “I may not like what you have to say, but I will defend your right to say it!”

In fact, Todd was such a great supporter when I was inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame. I had recently experienced an attack and defamation campaign, and there were some concerns about my safety and the behavior of the crowd at that Hall of Fame ceremony. Todd was very direct with me, telling me that I deserved to be there, and that he would personally escort out any hecklers that I might get.

It was also because of Todd that I started listening to No Agenda, with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak. And listening to that podcast is what helped start my friendship with Adam Curry and how I first learned about Podcasting 2.0 when Adam was just formulating the ideas.

Todd was known for saying, “Get your own .com!” And, ironically, he was actually the original owner of the domain cnnpodcasts.com, and it was in a joking conversation with him that I suggested he call it “The Cochrane News Network” when actual CNN came demanding the domain. He's also been the owner of whatsapodcast.com, for which he recently entrusted me to make the website for it to publicize a podcast definition.

Todd and I spoke many times, especially at podcasting events. He stood up for the podcasting community countless times, even making some enemies along the way because of his advocacy. But he cared more for the podcasters to build their own platforms.

Todd was the one I would frequently think about when I would tell podcasters that they don't need to voice of angels to be successful—and Todd fully owned that he didn't have a “radio voice.”

But in his own podcast, Todd was all about his “ohana,” which is a Hawaiian term for “family.” And he loved his real and podcast family very much. It was while he was visiting family in Washington that a blood clot reached his lungs and the doctors' best efforts were not able to save him.

Sadly, while Todd was always friendly toward Christians (and people of any faith), I do not believe he knew Jesus. But if you reading this want to know more about Jesus, I would be happy to talk with you!

The podcasting industry lost a great pioneer who helped drive many innovations, many standards, and helped countless podcasters to launch and grow—through his more than 2,000 episodes of Geek News Central, New Media Show, and Podcast Insider; through his podcasting companies RawVoice and Blubrry; through Blubrry's involvement in defining the IAB podcast measurement guidelines; through his teaching; through his freely serving the community with PowerPress for WordPress; and through his leadership and advocacy in the podcasting industry.

I will greatly miss my friend Todd Cochrane: all the laughter, his insights, his leadership, and most of all, his friendship.

I am not the best orator. I still destroy the English language. I'm still a nerd. I'm still a techie, and I like giving my perspective. But I think 1 thing that we have to understand is that podcasting is today because of RSFs and no gatekeepers, which has allowed people like you and I to create content without asking anyone's permission and doing it our way.

I just think back to all the moments, and we've shared a lot together over all these years. And and I do say we because you are Ohana. You are our family here. And I am definitely not the best podcaster out there. I'm not a Joe Rogan nor will I ever be.

But what I am is a guy that grew up in the country with humble beginnings, high school education followed by a bachelor's degree late in life on a field that I'm not even working in right now, and 1 that definitely destroys English words on a regular basis. And by god, if I can do it, If I can do this and succeed, anyone can.

—Todd Cochrane, October 9, 2024

See more about Todd's life and memories:

• Blubrry CEO Todd Cochrane has died
• Todd Cochrane's Obituary by James Cridland and Rob Greenlee
• Blubrry Podcasting Mourns the Loss of Founder and CEO Todd Cochrane
• Blubrry Founder Todd Cochrane: In Memoriam
• Todd Cochrane: 20 Years of Podcasting Innovations and Insights
• Remembering Todd Cochrane Podcast Hall of Famer and Blubrry CEO (final episode of The New Media Show)

I believe that whatever it is that you want from your podcast can probably be achieved with two things. But I'll warn you! These two things are not easy.

1. Know your problems

It breaks my heart when I see podcasters heavily investing time or money in their podcast but not seeing any results. Some podcasters will blame others: someone else is stealing the attention, their audience isn't responding, they can't get the guests they want, no one is pressing play, and so on.

But I'm going to give you free, but not licensed, mental-health advice: other people aren't the problem. You are.

Please hear me out because this is actually good news!

You're not God; you can't change other people—believe me, I've tried! You can't make other people do what you want them to do. The only person you can control and change is yourself. So when your podcast has a problem, you have the greatest power to fix it!

But you have to know what your problems actually are! Not just the symptoms, but the actual root causes.

Obviously, you can ask others to point out your problems. You can even pay people—like me—to tell you your podcasting problems! But start by looking at yourself without any pride, which I know can be very hard to do! You must be objective, honest, practical, and non-emotional. But also don't be harsh on yourself, belittling yourself, comparing yourself to others, or punishing yourself for past mistakes. If you're willing to do this exercise, you have to focus on just uncovering the facts!

Consider these examples. An overweight person needs to know how overweight they are and what problems that's causing for their health. A student needs to know what they got wrong on their test. And a business owner needs to know how much money they're losing and where they're losing it.

You cannot effectively fix a problem you don't know about!

So when it comes to your podcast, you have to think about things like:

• Is your podcast delivering on its promises?
• Is your content actually good?
• Do people actually want or need what you're offering?
• Are you communicating as well as you could be?
• Is your production quality helping, or hindering?
• Are you actually doing anything to improve and grow your podcast, or are you just coasting?

I encourage you to stop reading right here and make a list of all the problems you see with your podcast. Remember not to attack yourself! Focus on collecting just the facts, as much as you can.

Now that you know your problems—or at least some of them—the real work begins!

2. Work on your problems

Podcast growth—by any metric—doesn't really happen automatically. You might look at others and think they just got lucky, but you probably don't see all the contributing factors—probably entirely within their control—that brought them to that point.

A lot of people like to talk about podcasters like Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income and John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs on Fire. I remember meeting John at John's Pizzeria off Times Square in New York City when we were there for BlogWorld in June 2012 (the first time I spoke on podcasting at a major conference!). As we stood with our group waited to be seated, John told me about the podcast he was starting: a daily show interviewing entrepreneurs. I loved the idea and told him that if he could keep up the pace, it would be a unique idea and would be a great resource for entrepreneurs. I certainly didn't expect it would be so successful for John. But that was still 3 months before his first episode published on September 20, 2012. John made it work, because he worked—and he worked hard!

If you look at successful people in any industry, you'll always see not “overnight success,” but a lot of “overnights” before success. They faced failures, rejections, bad ideas, and more! But most importantly, they worked on their problems!

So, if you did the little—maybe painful—exercise above, you should have a list of your own podcasting problems and some root causes. Now here's what to do! Take one of those and copy it to a completely new document, whether that's digital or physical. Put the problem at the top of the document with the title, “How I'm going to fix [your one problem].” And this is where you get to go crazy with positivity! Write every possible idea you can imagine! It doesn't matter how outlandish, just get it documented! And really push yourself to come up with at least a whole page of ideas.

When you've exhausted your brainstorming creativity, pick just one idea that excites you the most and copy it to a new page. Then start building your strategy to try that idea.

If you're truly investing yourself into this exercise, you'll probably notice you're not focusing on the problems anymore because you now have a big list of ideas for solving the problem, and you have the workings of a plan to try one of them!

And here's what matters most: DO THE WORK!

Don't just sit there with all of these creative ideas doing nothing! Actually do something with those ideas!

You might even consider sharing your strategy with your audience and inviting them along for the journey. Maybe some of them might have just the resources you need!

When you've fully attempted one strategy, you can switch to another, or start over addressing a different problem. And please share your results with me!

Know your problems. Work on your problems!

Thanks to …

• Bryan Entzminger for streaming 604§
• Lyceum for streaming 146§ and sending 1,146§ in a super comment, saying, “Here is a symbolic dollar in Satoshis. Today 1000 sats = USD 1.08, according to Currency.World. I will bring a silver coin (1 Troy Ounce), to a conference, in the future…”
• $25 from Rockie Thomas, saying, “Hey Daniel! Great quickly seeing you at PM and really enjoy your show. You have such a soothing, intentional voice with interesting perspective. Go Podcasting!”

My new product is about to launch! It's called PodChapters and you can join the waiting list now!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Podcast Movement + Sounds Profitable + Podnews

The biggest news is that Podcast Movement has acquired Sounds Profitable, which is a source of podcasting education, research, and insights—primarily from the business and advertising perspective. This moves Brian Barletta, the founder of Sounds Profitable, to be the president of Podcast Movement.

Also made public at this time is that Podcast Movement has owned 50% of Podnews—actually for several years. And it seems as though James Cridland, the founder of Podnews, will become the head of content at Podcast Movement and probably be a major decision-maker in the conference content going forward.

I have great respect for both men and most of their industry perspectives. Based on some things I've seen, I think some people might be concern if this will cause Podcast Movement to lean hard into a particular political direction. And while time really will tell, I also think there's some justification to their concerns. Nonetheless, in conversations I had or observed with James Cridland, I think he's already making some good decisions about Podcast Movement's content and keynotes.

Merging with Sounds Profitable also inspires some concern about how advertising-focused future events will be. And along that line, …

NYC and Austin locations might be long-term

Podcast Movement was going to be in San Diego in 2026, but that has now been changed to New York City. That will make it a lot easier for international travelers, and that certainly puts Podcast Movement a commute away from many of the top advertisers and content networks in podcasting. So this move makes me think Podcast Movement will only become even more corporate.

Additionally, Podcast Movement Evolutions is moving in with South by Southwest (SXSW). I suspect Bryan Barletta gets most of the credit for this because he was about to get a whole podcasting track at SXSW.

But this also confuses me and others about the focus of these events. I've talked to many people about their perceptions of Podcast Movement and Podcast Movement Evolutions, and I heard about half of the people say that Evolutions was for industry professionals and normal Podcast Movement was for content-creators. But the other half said it the other way around. And then there was some in the middle who had no idea.

With these new locations, I now get the impression that Evolutions at SXSW will be more for the creators while Podcast Movement in NYC will be more for the industry professionals.

But the unfortunate thing about both is that they are really expensive to attend and get a hotel! New York City will be hard enough, but Austin will be as booked as Bethlehem on the night of Jesus's birth! So get ready to sleep in a stable, I guess?

Conference recordings will be free

But on a very positive note, and perhaps to help relieve some of the stress about the cost of the new locations, one of Sounds Profitable's core philosophies is that industry information should be free, and so they've pushed to get every session in Podcast Movement 2025 record and publishing them for free. And future conferences will be the same. Thus, anyone from anywhere will be able to watch or listen to the sessions. They might not be live-streamed, but at least they'll be free!

I think that's a really smart move. But, as I pointed out in my previous episode about attending live events, the sessions are often not the biggest value of a conference. And I still have yet to see a virtual conference have the same great networking and relationship-building that an in-person event has.

The Podcast Movement conferences are getting smaller

In 2025, I've attended Podfest Multimedia Expo in Orlando, National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Dallas, Podcast Movement Evolutions in Chicago, and Podcast Movement in Dallas. Both of the Podcast Movement events are getting noticeably smaller, while NRB and I think Podfest are getting larger.

I'll leave the theorizing of why that's happening to people with more data, but I actually liked that Podcast Movement was smaller this year. The entire conference fit in a single big room in the Gaylord Texan in Dallas. The keynotes, expo hall, breakout sessions, speaker/sponsor lounge, and most of the networking all happened within the same big room. It still felt very professional, but it also had a bit more of that “intimate” feel of the early conferences because we were very centralized instead of being spread out.

The expo hall was pleasant again

Being all in the same room, you would think that the sound would be confusing and deafening. I've attended some of Podcast Movement's past events where they had breakout sessions in the expo hall and they were far too loud with the PA systems, and yet people still couldn't hear or focus very well. And then the poor vendors had to yell to have conversations at their booths.

But two things made this year radically different: acoustics and smart headphones.

The big room had enough acoustic treatment in the walls, carpets, and ceiling that sound didn't reverberate as much as when everything is in a typical expo space.

But the more technological advancement was in the smart headphones everyone had. They were closed back headphones that could receive audio wirelessly. Each pair of headphones could be switched to different channels, like red, blue, white, yellow, purple, and some combinations. This meant the sessions didn't need a public address system, or at least not a loud one, and everyone with the headphones could hear very well and adjust their listening volume as necessary. That was fantastic! It even meant a near-normal-volume conversation could be happening right behind me, but I could still focus on the session I was watching.

You just have to get over the dystopian look of it all, and try not to think about Doctor Who's Cybermen or jogging up to throw a sledgehammer into the screen.

But as a speaker (I presented “What You Need to Know about Podcasting 2.0”), I felt a bit disconnected from my audience because of the headphones. It was great that I could talk at a normal volume and trust that they could hear me. But when it came to audible responses from my audience—especially laughter—I felt very disconnected, like I had to scan the whole crowd to see if they were laughing instead of just hearing the combined laughter. Nonetheless, I think the sessions and expo hall were much better with this setup, and I felt like we podcasters didn't have to worry so much about protecting our money-makers: our voices!

(That is, if you don't think about the parties, which I'm convinced are forever cursed to always be way too loud and pump the music into too many places.)

Where should podcasters go now?

This is a difficult question to answer! Podcast Movement is still the industry event, but it's becoming a lot less accessible. Evolutions seems like it will probably tailor more toward reaching the general content-creators at SXSW, and the main conference will obviously better reach the advertisers and big networks in NYC.

So if you could attend only one big podcasting event per year, I think it should be … Podfest!

Podfest is always in Orlando (or maybe Tampa). It's structured much more around the independent podcasters, and it seems like it's holding its size. Plus, the Podcast Hall of Fame has moved to Podfest, so that brings some special excitement, too. (And I've been assured that future Hall of Fame productions will return to high quality again!)

I don't know whether I'll make it to either Podcast Movement event in 2026, but I'll definitely be at Podfest. Will I see you there?

Thanks to Bryan Entzminger from Top Tier Audio for streaming 418§ on my previous episode!

My new app for making podcast chapters is coming very soon! I have people beta-testing it now!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

I think live events can be of great value and opportunity to you and your podcast. It comes down to four benefits I'm about to share with you. Keep in mind that any one of these benefits could be reason enough to attend, but the more events you can find in the overlap of these four things, the better that event could be for you!

More episodes about getting the most from live events.

• 7 tips for effective blog/podcast cards
• How to Get the Most from Podcasting and Social-Media Conferences
• Avoid These Mistakes If You Go to Events
• 9 Tips for How to Grow Your Audience by Attending Social-Media Events

1. Grow your knowledge [01:26]

The obvious first benefit is that live events are a great place to grow your knowledge. That could be knowledge about your industry, learning about new trends, discovering resources in your niche, or learning how to refine your own craft—even learning to be a better podcaster!

I think the most important way to grow your knowledge at events is to take notes and then translate those notes into actionable steps.

For example, I often speak about podcast SEO (search-engine optimization). In such a session, I would present lots of advice, demonstrations, and techniques that you could try to write down. But merely collecting the information won't make your podcast more findable. Instead, you should take what you learn and apply it. Decide out what you need to do first and set aside the time to do it with your podcast as soon as possible! Otherwise, it's like all that knowledge goes in one hear and out the other instead of coming through your hands and voice.

2. Grow your content [02:56]

Podcasters are content-creators. We're telling stories, sharing interesting guests, educating, inspiring, having fun, and more. As such, a live event could be a great place to help you make more content!

For example, I've attended events, such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show, and Podcast Movement—sometimes with the specific goals of creating content while I was there! It's often been on-floor video interviews with exhibitors (that's how I met Deirdre Shen from Capsho!), but also sometimes bringing a simple audio recording device to record other attendees answers to a question that I could then share on my podcast (like I did when I asked podcasters at Podcast Movement 2016 to share creative ways they solved podcasting problems).

Trying to grow your content at a live event can be complicated because of the equipment needs and all the planning it takes. But it can be a lot of fun and especially leading to many more opportunities!

And that brings me to my next point!

3. Grow your network [05:43]

People are the greatest value at any event! I've been to countless events where I've invested more time talking to people in the hallways and on the expo floor than I spent learning in sessions. This is so valuable because you can usually get a “virtual ticket” to watch or listen to the sessions later (and I always recommend that upgrade!), but you can't meet the people so easily after returning home.

Growing your network isn't about becoming a business-card ninja, but about really making connections with other people. Here's my challenge to you (and what I try to do myself!): for any business card you request or are given, look it over, ask questions based on it, and—this is most important—write something about that person or your conversation with them. It could be as simple as what you talked about. For example, I still remember when I met Dustin Stout at Social Media Marketing World and I wrote on his card that his wife watches Once Upon a Time, the TV show I used to podcast about. And now, Dustin is the creator and head of Magai, my favorite AI toolbox. Dustin has also become a very special friend as I've gotten to know him and be encouraged and challenged by him through a small mastermind group I host.

But even better than writing only about your conversation would be to write an action you need to take. That could be connecting that person with someone else, checking out a resource they recommended, or some way you want to follow up with them.

And for any podcast/business card you want to give someone else, write something on it for them! It could be an episode you think they would like, someone else they should meet, or something you recommend.

Even without business cards, you can still do this kind of memorable networking through the conference apps, or simply by quickly sending each other messages through your preferred channel.

4. Grow your podcast [09:47]

Lastly, live events also give you the opportunity to reach a bigger audience and grow your own podcast. But unlike my first three points, this one is most effective if you go to the right events.

For example, Podcast Movement and Podfest are my favorite conferences about podcasting. But unless you also have a podcast about podcasting, don't expect to grow your audience much by mingling among your fellow podcasting peers.

This is where you should focus on the niche you serve. If you have a dog-breeding podcast, you could go to dog shows and hand out flyers about your podcast as you meet people you think would be interested. You could even sponsor the event to get extra attention on what you do. Or combine a few of these top-level benefits and consider trying to create content while you're there, and that could open all kinds of opportunities to promote your podcast as others see the energy happening around you.

Thanks to Bryan Entzminger from Top Tier Audio for supporting The Audacity to Podcast with 254§!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

But the hard truth is that most podcasters don't actually have what it would take. Yes, it takes high-quality content, presentation, production, and promotion in order to get the P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles). But it is actually possible to have all that and not make a living from your podcast. That's because it really comes down to one of these three things.

This isn't about building your own business supported by the podcast (which is how I monetize), but about earning your paycheck solely from and because of your podcast.

Option 1: A big audience

Yup. There's no way around it. The “easiest” way to podcast full time is if you have a big enough audience that almost any monetization method will work.

• Sponsors
• Affiliates
• Audience support
• And more

It's the ultimate equation in podcasting monetization: big audiences usually lead to bigger income.

But don't let this scare you off! The next two options don't require a big podcast audience!

Option 2: A generous audience

It is possible to podcast full-time without a big audience, but it means you must have a generous audience. Just consider this basic math to get $10,000:

• 10,000 people pay you $1
• 1,000 people pay you $10
• 100 people pay you $100

In a sense, you just have to shift a zero from your audience size to the “price.”

Yes, getting your audience to be generous is another topic I'll address in the future. But this math works whether you're accepting audience support, offering premium subscriptions, or selling other things.

Just consider this one idea. Make a T-shirt that's available only for your highest supporters and sell that shirt for a high price—maybe even $100 or more (I recommend Sticker Mule stores, Dashery by TeePublic, and RedBubble for this). The generous people who truly love your podcast might love the opportunity to support your show and get some exclusive bonus! (I still have and enjoy multiple pieces of art and other things I got for large donations to organizations.) Although this does mean making a product for sale, the product is simple, purely about your podcast, for your podcast audience, and even has the potential to promote your podcast to others.

You could apply the same math to recurring support models. So instead of starting with a $5/month subscription, you could set your base level much higher.

Of course, a bigger audience means more potentially supportive people! But it is possible to make this work with a smaller audience if you deliver enough value.

And speaking of “value,” you could consider the “risky” route of going full “value4value” where you let your audience decide what your podcast is worth to them, and they can give back whatever amount they want! Just like Bryan Entzminger from Top Tier Audio did when he streamed 411§ on my previous podcast episode. As of August 11, 2025, that's worth about 45¢, which is 18× more than a single listener would be “worth” in a $25 CPM (cost per thousand downloads) ad deal!

Option 3: A company that will pay you

Lastly, podcasting could be your full-time job if you were actually hired for exactly that! My friend The Real Brian, from ProfitCast, does this. He gets hired by multiple companies to host their podcasts for them. Brian works as a contractor for these companies, but some companies might have so much content and production they need on the podcast that it could easily be a full-time job! Especially if you're an experienced indie podcaster who can do everything in the podcast workflow—preparation, presentation, production, publishing, and promotion—you could be an indispensable employee (or contractor)!

Grow toward the P.R.O.F.I.T. you want

If you want to earn your entire income from just the podcasting process, then figure out which of these appeal to you and start working toward that goal for the P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) you want.

And the absolute best place to start is making a better podcast and engaging your audience more.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

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This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

While I think episodes don't have to be the same length, there are some considerations.

1. What does your audience expect?

People don't usually pick a podcast because of its episode lengths, but they do often prioritize their listening based on it. For example, some people intentionally save long podcasts for road trips, chores, or non-focused work; but they might be quicker to listen to shorter podcasts.

Note that I specifically said “podcasts” and not “episodes.” This is because your podcast will build an expectation in your audience's mind for how long its episodes usually are, even if you don't explicitly say so. For example, I know that episodes of No Agenda, with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak, are usually three to three and a half hours long. I know that episodes of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History are of varying lengths—but usually long. And I know that Ask the Podcast Coach, with Dave Jackson and Jim Collison, are about 90 minutes long. But none of these shows have made any promises about how long they are.

Your audience might expect pressing play on any episode of your podcast will be some level of commitment for an approximate amount of time. So significantly differing from that might crack their expectations just a little. It could leave them disappointed or frustrated.

If you have made a promise to your audience, then always strive to keep it! For example, The NewsWorthy, with Erica Mandy, promises episodes to be about 10 minutes long. 1-Minute Podcast Tips, with Danny Brown, gives podcasting tips in about 1 minute (wrapped with some other stuff, which is why episodes are 2–3 minutes long). And the original version of The Way I Heard It, with Mike Rowe, promised mysteries “for the curious mind with a short attention span.”

But remember that your audience expects an experience more than an amount of time. So I think it's okay to break from you audience's typical time expectations but still deliver the experience they want from your podcast.

2. Don't force a length

Perhaps the worst “reasonable” thing you could do in your podcast is to force it to be a particular length. This could mean cutting out great content just to make the episode shorter, or—worse—it could mean filling the episode with stuff that wastes your audience's time just so your episode is longer.

TV shows have to do that because they have to fill their “hour” (more like 43 minutes because of ads), but they also can't go longer than that because another show has to start on the next hour. (Side note: this frustrates me when streaming shows are consistent lengths because I know they edited it to that length intentionally, but for no good reason other than the possibility the show may be traditionally broadcast someday.) You can probably already remember episodes of your favorite TV shows that felt longer than they should have been, or even shorter than they should have been.

But your podcast doesn't have those constraints! Even if your description says your episodes are usually about 30 minutes (and “usually” is a great word to use!), your audience will never hate you for giving them back their time.

You've probably noticed that as I've gotten better with The Audacity to Podcast, my episodes have gotten shorter. I think part of that is the result of more preparation that I do now compared to before (and thus less directionless talking). And I actually feel better when I publish shorter episodes because I know that means you have more time to take action, and it also tells me that I didn't waste time. But some topics simply require me to share more information, and thus they end up longer.

After doing this for 15 years and 400 episodes, I've never received a single complaint about having inconsistent lengths. And I think a big reason for that is because my content is educational, and thus people don't mind it when it's shorter, but also because they might have come to expect varying lengths.

3. Should you mention the difference in length?

Whether your episode is much shorter or longer than your usual, whether you acknowledge that difference is ultimately up to you. But here's my main suggestion: be positive and don't apologize.

Here are some examples so you can think about how these would feel if you heard them in your favorite podcasts.

• “I'm sorry this episode went long, but I had a lot to share” versus “This episode is longer than usual because there's so much to love here!”
• “Sorry this was shorter than usual,” versus “Yes, this was shorter. Now you have more time to take action!”

Or, you could say nothing about it at all!

Thus, the most important things to remember are to keep your explicit or implied promises to your audience and don't force the length!

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• Thanks for the streaming support totaling 113§ from Randy Black!
• Please come see me speak at Podcast Movement 2025! I'll be presenting “What You Need to Know about Podcasting 2.0” Wednesday morning in the expo hall.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
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Follow The Audacity to Podcast

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• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

This is my 400th episode of The Audacity to Podcast, to to commemorate this milestone, I want to jump back to this fundamental question because how we answer it will affect the future of our content and even of the whole podcasting industry.

The definition of a “podcast”

First, there are multiple uses for the word “podcast.” It's both a noun and a verb. But we'll focus on the noun.

For an up-to-date definition, look at WhatsAPodcast.com, which is a collaboration I started with Todd Cochrane and some other podcasting-industry experts. Here's that defintion as of July 27, 2025:

A series of episodic audio or video content that is downloadable on-demand via an RSS (“really simple syndication”) feed.

That has been worded slightly differently over the years, but this is the core of the definition. A “podcast” is really a label for content distributed in a specific way. Adam Curry, the co-creator of podcasting, even recently said that he would be fine if we defined podcasts as only audio. I would accept that in the definition, too, since YouTube pretty much killed video podcasting (the “why” and “how” are topics for a different discussion).

And as a noun, some people even use “podcast” to refer to individual episodes of a podcast, almost like an abbreviation, albeit somewhat ambiguous. For example, someone might say, “In my last podcast …,” “Listen to this week's podcast …,” or “In this podcast …,” referring to specific episodes, but not completely separate podcasts (a series of episodic content). But for clarity, I recommend using “podcast” to refer only to the collective series and not to the individual episodes.

Other attempted definitions of a “podcast”

Ask average people to define a podcast and you'll get a variety of responses, usually similar to one of the following:

• An interview show
• Any audio on the Internet
• Only audio shows
• Any independently created audio or video content not syndicated through terrestrial broadcasting or paid streaming platforms
• Or, my favorite to laugh at: anything on YouTube where you can see multiple people talking into visible microphones

At Podcast Movement Evolutions 2025, Dan Granger, along with Veritone One and Oxford Road conducted some research surveys of audiences and then came up with the following definition:

An audio-driven, on-demand program rooted in the spoken word. Typically episodic and conversational, podcasts cover wide-ranging themes and formats. They are accessed via open RSS feeds or other distribution platforms and often supplemented by video.

And for “video podcast”:

An episodic on-demand program rooted in the spoken word, where synchronized visuals meaningfully shape the experience.

It's that “other distribution platforms” that actually undermines the definition because “other” can mean “any.” By their definition (and some derivatives I've seen), audiobooks are now podcasts. YouTube is now podcasts. Netflix/Hulu/Disney+/Apple TV+/Amazon Prime are now podcasts. Random apps with audio are now podcasts. It's kind of the Oprah of definitions: “YOU are a podcast, and YOU are a podcast!

What's wrong with redefining what a “podcast” is?

By attempting to redefine “podcast,” Veritone One is actually (perhaps unintentionally) erasing what a podcast is. With their definition, almost anything could be a podcast now, which means nothing is specifically a podcast!

Thus, with a more “inclusive” definition, what makes one YouTube video a “podcast” but not another one?

Or imagine a world where “podcast” was universally redefined to include all these types of audio and video content on the Internet, then we would need a new term to label the shows that are distributed only via RSS (which, by nature, is open). I've heard some people say “open podcasting” and “RSS podcasting,” but those sound redundant to me. Podcasting is by nature, open and based on RSS. So there's not much different about those redundant terms from saying “ATM machine” (“automated teller machine machine”), “PIN number” (“personal identification number number”), and “please RSVP” (“RSVP” is short for répondez s'il vous plaît, so this phrase translates to “please please respond” or “please response please”).

(Fun aside: I sometimes like to make fun of these kinds of redundancies by jokingly saying things like, “as ASAP as possible” and “for your FYI.”)

True podcast distribution and consumption are unique

The distribution and consumption styles for podcasts is radically different from other media. Nearly all other content is built around centralized consumption from centralized distribution. For example, you can only stream Stranger Things on Netflix. Most content on YouTube is available only through YouTube. And other movie and show licensing deals limit how you can watch or acquire them.

While your podcast gets centrally distributed through your RSS feed, you can take that content to almost any hosting provider. You could even download the RSS feed code as an XML file and host it on any web- or file-serving service (even though that's usually not a good idea). So the distribution is completely portable and invisible to your audience!

But consumption is where podcasts excel. There are hundreds of podcast apps, nearly all offering the same catalog of podcasts. And even if a podcast isn't searchable within that app, nearly all podcast apps allow you to manually follow an RSS feed—often bypassing any kind of corporate or government control of the podcast-consumption experience (there are some exceptions, though).

Because podcasts can automatically download in the background, they can be consumed anywhere you can take your podcast app: on a boat, on a train, in a car, on a plane, mowing the yard, doing the dishes, even on the job, or anywhere your audience wishes. Podcasts are the green eggs and ham of media! Other than audiobooks, no other media can be consumed so freely and portably!

Strict definition versus usage description

I remember an episode of Grammar Girl's Quick & Dirty Tips to Better Writing in which Mignon Fogarty interviewed an editor for Dictionary.com. He said that often times, their job is to record how people are using a word, which is not always its literal meaning, so that other people can understand the usage.

I thought that was profound. Also, the meanings of some words change over time based on usage.

Here are two examples to illustrate this.

• In the first popular English translation of the Bible, the King James Version (KJV), God tells Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 to “replenish the earth.” Some people have tried to use that to say Adam and Eve had to repopulate the earth. Back when the KJV was released, “replenish” meant “to fill,” but it now means “to refill.” The meaning of the word changed.
• When I hosted a podcast about the TV show Once Upon a Time, I had a funny realization about something I didn't know while we were live-streaming our podcast-recording. One of the characters in the show said a magical town was “lousy with magic,” and I took that and the context to mean “horrible with magic.” And I had prepare a whole theory and explanation around that line. But that's when I learned that the word “lousy” can also mean “infested.” And that—rather to my embarrassment—completely changed the meaning of the dialogue and invalidated a point I was trying to make.

So it is a fair point that the meanings of words change with usage—sometimes by irony (for example, “it was a wicked delicious cake,” “the baddest car”), and sometimes by cultural use. But I think there are some definitions that should not be changed because it would muddle the meaning, ignore reality, invalidate or even erase hard work, and is often outright unnecessary because other words already exist to serve those alternative needs.

We don't need to redefine “podcast” to include other media because we already have a perfectly good term: “show.” There are Netflix shows, television shows, radio shows, live shows, YouTube shows, and more. (But please don't say “podcast show,” because that's redundant except in alternative-meaning uses like “The London Podcast Show,” or you could even say “the The Audacity to Podcast show” if you want to make your head spin!)

Is the definition a “gatekeeper”?

I've heard some people complain that maintaining a strict definition of “podcast” is introducing a sort of “gatekeeper” in podcasting. They might make the case that it's demeaning or “non-inclusive” to tell someone they're not creating a real podcast because their content is only on YouTube (or whatever proprietary platform). But I don't think that's the case at all! Instead, maintaining clear constraints to the meaning can actually be empowering for people.

Consider someone who publishes their content only on YouTube and you tell them about podcasting. You suddenly open a whole new world of opportunities for them! Instead of being on only one platform, you're helping them to see that they can be in hundreds of different apps, often free from distracting algorithms, connectivity requirements, or corporate and government censorship. They can reach more people with their content if they distribute it also as a podcast (a real podcast, that is!).

It's kind of like if all someone knew of meat was hotdogs and they considered that to be the definition of “meat.” But then you introduce them to juicy hamburgers, crispy bacon, tender steaks, seasoned jerky, smoked brisket, grilled fish, fried chicken, and more. You're not just expanding their understand of a word, you're changing their worldview on meat!

Should you really call your content a “podcast”?

You can probably anticipate where I've going with this. I've said for many years (especially in episode 184 back in 2014) that although I think we should maintain the definition of a “podcast” similar to what I've shared here, we should not limit ourselves and our content by calling them “podcasts.” Instead, use a more descriptive label, like “talk show,” “interview show,” “audio drama,” and such. I especially like the word “show” because it's not limited to any distribution method. You could have a “show” a YouTube, on a stage in front of a live audience, broadcast on radio or TV, in paid streaming platforms, burned to CDs, on X or TikTok, live or time-shifted, and more—or even, as a podcast!

So if people ask what you do, I recommend you lead with the main value first. Instead of saying, “I have a movie-review podcast,” you could say, “I have a weekly talk show reviewing movies for families.” You could then add how people could get it by saying, “You can watch it on YouTube, listen to it as a podcast, or get it from my website.”

See? We live in an incredible era where you can—from literally your closet or basement—distribute a message that can be consumed anytime, anywhere, by anyone.

That is the audacity of podcasting!

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• Thanks to Bryan Entzminger, Dreb Scott, and Steve Webb for streaming support to The Audacity to Podcast totaling about 4,500 satoshis!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
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Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

But how do you find the first shows you should try getting on?

Understand how in-app podcast recommendations usually work

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and some other podcast apps have their own proprietary algorithms and tracking to see what podcasts are listened to by the same people. For example, Apple can see that Person1 listens to both your podcast and Podcast XYZ.

So if Podcast XYZ is in your podcast's recommendations, we'll call it an “outgoing” recommendation from your podcast. Then, if Podcast XYZ is also including your podcast in it's own outgoing recommendations, then from your perspective, that's an “incoming” recommendation. In other words, is your podcast pointing out to other podcasts, and are other podcasts pointing in to your podcast?

The incoming and outgoing lists are populated based on proprietary algorithms, but here's the simple way to understand it. If a significant portion of your audience also listens to Podcast XYZ, then Podcast XYZ will be in your podcast's outgoing recommendations. But for your podcast to appear in Podcast XYZ's recommendations, a significant portion of it's audience would have to also listen to you. Let's imagine that significant portion needs to be 25% or more. (I will update this if I get quotable information from the platforms.)

Thus, it's possible to see top podcasts, like The Joe Rogan Experience or The Mel Robbins Podcast in your outgoing recommendations, because it could be that 25% (our made up number) of your audience also listens to those shows. But the only way your show would be in their recommendations, is if 25% of their much bigger audience also listens to your show.

I built Podgagement to track this data for podcasters because finding this is cumbersome or essentially impossible because you would have to check all of the millions of other podcasts to see what is in their recommendations. In Podgagement, I call this “Networking” because the incoming and outgoing lists are networking opportunities for you and your podcast.

While these proprietary lists are driven by proprietary algorithms, Podcasting 2.0 offers a way for you and other podcasters to showcase your own recommendations with what's (badly) called the “podroll” feature. (Here's a general guide on adding podcast recommendations with podroll.)

Look at your podcast's “outgoing” recommendations section

Assuming you have your own podcast, open it in Apple Podcasts (through the app or a web browser), and scroll down to the list of other podcasts currently labeled “You Might Also Like.”

If you have a large enough following to share some crossover listeners with other podcasts, those other shows will be listed here, currently up to 15 other shows in Apple Podcasts.

This can be your first and ideal place to find other podcasts that you can know have some people already interested in your show, so it's likely you could appeal to even more of their audience, too!

Bonus: check Podgagement's “incoming” networking list

Although your outgoing list of recommendations is currently limited to 15 in Apple Podcasts, your show could be in the outgoing recommendations of hundreds of other podcasts! It's essentially impossible for you to check the millions of other podcasts out there to see which of them have your show in their own outgoing recommendations, so that's why I created the Networking feature in Podgagement to track this for you automatically and every day. I've seen podcasts with hundreds of incoming recommendations! Each one of those could be a potential guesting opportunity for you!

So if podcast-guesting is important to you, I highly recommend you sign up for Podgagement's “Constellation” tier so you can discover all these incoming and outgoing networking opportunities!

(And if you want to do even more digging or you don't even have your own podcast, then watch for Podgagement's upcoming “Pathfinder” tier that will be perfect for you, even if you don't have your own active podcast!)

Check the recommendations sections for other podcasts you think have your ideal audience

With or without Podgagement, you could also simply think of other podcasts similar to yours—especially if they're more popular than your own—and check their outgoing recommendations! Because if enough of those other listeners also like a podcast similar to yours, they might like yours, too—or even more!

You might not necessarily be pitching yourself to those podcasts similar to yours, but you can use this method to research their outgoing and incoming recommendations, which might be even better podcasts for you to pitch yourself!

How to approach these guest opportunities

Now that you probably have a list of other podcasts, here's how I suggest you try to get on them.

1. Actually listen to the other podcasts! Understand their approach to their subjects and especially ensure they even ever have guests!
2. Take notes on whom it seems their podcasts are trying to serve. You could use AI to help analyze this. (For example, I used Gemini 2.5 Flash and the “Assistant” persona in Magai to quickly analyze the Apple Podcasts URL for one of my own outgoing recommendations and you can see the results here.)
3. Brainstorm what value you can provide to those podcasters so they can better serve their audience with the content you can offer. You can use AI for this if you really need to, but I highly recommend you do it yourself because no AI truly knows you, your knowledge, and your experience.
4. If you followed Step 1, then you should also be familiar enough with the podcasts to know how to contact them. If they don't share a contact method in their podcast, check their episode notes and website first, then check the podcasts' and hosts' social-media accounts (ensuring they actually reply on social media), and look for an email address in the RSS feed as a last resort.
5. With these crucial foundational steps done, now you can send the message to those podcasts.

Here's an example, but make sure you write it in your voice and you are absolutely sincere in everything you say!

Hi, !

I recently discovered your podcast because I found we already have some crossover audience. So I listened to [an episode / some episodes] and [prove you actually listened by praising something specific that only an actual listener would know]!

[Assume they get apathetic pitches all the time, so you could emphasize and further prove that you truly did listen.]

Since we have some similar listeners, I had an idea of some content I could help you share with your audience! [Give your ideas here.]

[If you have guests on your own podcast, also invite them to be a guest on your show, and maybe even suggest what subject might be a great fit for them to share with your own audience.]

I hope we can talk soon—on the mic or off!

Note how little that email looks like a template. I'm really just providing guidance for what you should write about! And I think it's crucial you do not use an AI/LLM here because this very email will be a demonstration of your respect for and potential value to the other podcaster and his or her audience. And since you wouldn't outsource your actual guest content to an AI, don't outsource your pitch message, either!

This is only the first place to look!

Your incoming and outgoing networking lists might be big enough to keep you busy for quite a while. But since you can know you already have crossover audience with these other podcasts, these pitches should be much easier for you compared to completely dissimilar podcasts—especially because it's highly possible the other podcasters on your list already know about you, too!

Be sure to join Podgagement to help you discover your podcast networking opportunities!

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• Thanks to Bryan Entzminger from Top Tier Audio for streaming 411 satoshis. I realized his numbers didn't actually mean anything because they were automatically streamed amounts!
• Thanks to Cameron Stack from PodLabs.org for interviewing me for his upcoming miniseries on podcast awards!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

(I earn from qualifying purchases through some of the following links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings. And I am not currently paid to endorse anything.)

Short answer: no

The growth of your podcast isn't directly affected by where your podcast is hosted or what is generating your podcast RSS feed. Yes, this actually means you could have a successful show hosted on SoundCloud!

This is because hosting is merely a service—and mostly invisible.

There are considerations like whether the provider has the infrastructure to support a popular podcast. But if we started with a base of only 100 downloads per episode for a weekly podcast, no hosting provider is going to make that grow simply by using that provider.

1. Podcast stats may be measured differently

One thing that might cause some confusion is that different hosting providers measure and report stats slightly differently. Although we have the IAB podcast measurement guidelines and certification in podcasting, that still leaves room for variation. And some providers might not be as fortified against fake downloads.

Thus, you might see some difference in your podcast stats from one provider compared to another—sometimes even with significant deltas (depending on the providers)—but that doesn't mean the providers are actually responsible for the size of your audience. They're just measuring the same audience differently.

Also, it's nearly impossible to effectively compare because your episode reach is not a constant that you can rely on for analysis across different platforms.

Even if you're thinking about the advertiser side of this, if one hosting provider reports you have 20,000 downloads per episode while another one reports 10,000, podcast sponsors will not value your show if they're not getting the return on investment (ROI) that they expect. So if will not help you to use inflated numbers!

2. Included podcasting tools may be different

Each podcast-hosting provider offers their own set of features and methods for using the podcasting tools they provide.

But you have to actually use the tools!

This is where hosting providers can be significantly different: one provider will offer a certain suite of tools, while another provider offers a different suite. Sometimes there's overlap, and sometimes there isn't.

But because each feature from a hosting provider is simply a tool, your success depends on your knowledge and ability to use the tools they give you. On top of that, some podcasts benefit more from certain tools than others—if they use those tools!

For example, Captivate offers a guest-scheduling feature. But if you never have guests on your podcast, then this particular feature won't make any difference for your podcast. But even if you do need this tool and actually use it, it won't directly affect your podcast's growth. But it does make some things cost less time, money, or knowledge for you, freeing your resources for you to invest in other places.

Or another example is what I call the “Networking” feature in Podgagement (but Podgagement isn't a podcast-hosting provider). This exposes podcasts that share crossover audience with yours, helping you discover networking opportunities to cross-promote, cross-guest, collaborate, or even simply do some competitive research. You can track this information yourself! All you have to do is check the 2,843,960 other shows in Apple Podcasts yourself (as of July 12, 2025 according to Podcast Industry Insights), then keep track of where your show is recommended, and then repeat that every day.

In the wise words of philosopher Sweet Brown, “Ain't nobody got time for that!”

If you actually learn and use a tool like Podgagement or many of the tools podcast-hosting providers offer, it can be huge for growing your podcast! But the mere passive existence of these features won't get you a single new listener.

3. Look at podcast-hosting providers as toolboxes

With all this in mind, don't look at podcast-hosting providers as some magical solution to grow your podcast. Instead, evaluate each as a collection of different tools, and decide which tools are most important for you to learn and use. Some tools can help you grow your podcast better than other tools can, but you have to use them!

I recently wanted to convert some unused space in my house to an extra food pantry. I got all the tools and supplies I needed, but the pantry never built itself! The tools and supplies just sat there, not becoming a pantry! THE AUDACITY! It wasn't until I set aside the time to use those tools and supplies that I built the pantry! And then I was able to enjoy the results!

Back to podcasting, it's not your hosting-provider's job to grow your podcast; it's yours.

4. My 2025 recommendations for podcast-hosting providers

If you are looking for a great podcast-hosting provider, here are my current recommendations specific to particular needs. Each of these have Podcasting 2.0 support, too. (Yes, the following are affiliate links, but I've thoroughly tested and I genuinely recommend each of these regardless of earnings.)

• Blubrry for the best WordPress-focused workflow—Manage everything about your podcast publishing without leaving WordPress!
• Buzzsprout for the easiest to use without sacrifice—They provide great audio processing, transcription, monetization, and AI-powered features, and more.
• Captivate for everything else—They offer dynamic-content insertion, multi-podcast support (at no extra cost), transcription, monetization, AI-powered features, guest-scheduling, and more.

But before you switch whatever hosting provider you currently use, look at the tools you already have and seriously try them to see if they might be the tools you need so you can grow your own podcast!

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• Thanks to Randy Black for 101§ and 47§!
• Thanks to Lyndsay Phillips for interviewing me on her show Leverage Your Podcast, talking about Podgagement and how to engage your audience. Follow my social-media accounts to see when the episode is available!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

/evaluateyearly

It wasn't until after I prepared this outline that I realized these 5 things fit nicely in my 5 cornerstones model: PROFIT, content, presentation, production, and promotion (I now put podcasting PROFIT first). That worked out quite nicely!

1. Your podcasting goals and PROFIT

In a single word, why? Why do you want to podcast and why should your audience want your podcast?

This is really about the goals you have for your podcast. I call it the Podcast P.R.O.F.I.T. Paradigm: popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles. It's what you might hope to gain from your podcast, but it's also what you might hope to give to your audience.

Every year, carefully consider what your podcasting goals are and whether you're actually doing the right things to grow your podcast and audience toward those goals.

You might decide to change your goals, and that's okay!

I put this as #1 because it's the most important and I'm doing this list in descending order because I want you to consider all the following evahluations through the lens of your podcasting PROFIT for yourself and your audience.

2. Your episode structure and flow

Are your individual episodes still accomplishing what you want to do and—this is key—in the most efficient way possible?

A great place to get some insights for this is looking at “retention” analytics like you can see in Apple Podcasts Connect and the Spotify for Creators dashboard. (You can also see similar information on YouTube, but since YouTube isn't a podcasting platform and consumption habits are so different on YouTube compared to in podcast apps, I suggest you put less importance on the retention data from YouTube. It's still insightful, but not as valuable for your podcast as actual podcast analytics.)

Your retention stats will typically show you how much of each episode is played. With that, you'll be able to see more information about where people skip or drop off.

You will always see a downward decline with more people listening at the beginning and fewer listening at the end. That's normal. But the rate of decline and anything that breaks from a consistent decline can give you more insight you can use for evaluating your episode structure and flow. Maybe you need to move your more important call to action earlier in the episode. Or maybe you need to start ensuring your audience knows about some extra value you're saving for the end of the episode to encourage them to sticker around until the end (like I talked about in my previous episode about the ideal length of episode closings).

But in all of your evaluating, keep considering it through the lens of your podcasting PROFIT goals.

3. Your podcasting workflow

Podcasting can sometimes feel more like a chore than a joy. Part of that could be your regular workflow. Look carefully at your podcasting routines and especially your personal progress with them. Do you notice your rhythm slowing down on certain task? Do some things seem to take more time than they should? Do you often forget certain steps? Or do you really hate certain parts of your workflow?

As you evaluate your workflow, you might start to see points you could optimize by changing methods or tools. For example (and I'll talk more about this in a future episode), I found ways to eliminate several steps from my own publishing workflow by investing time into improving my podcast-publishing tool (PowerPress). I'm also experimenting with using the vast AI toolbox I have in Magai to speed up some mundane tasks like creating my chapters. (In my case, I already know exactly what my chapters should be, but it takes unnecessary time to create those chapters with the right timestamps.)

I'll talk more about my PowerPress changes and these AI tricks in future episodes.

To reverse President John F. Kennedy's famous quotation, I suggest you ask not what you can do with AI, but what AI can do for you!

4. A podcast trailer

Do you even have a podcast trailer?

I've had The Audacity to Podcast for 15 years, and although it's not one of my top 15 regrets [episode 394], I still keep wanting to make a podcast trailer!

If you're like me, then let's make it our goal together to create and publish a podcast trailer in the next 6 months!

And if you already have a trailer, listen to it again and see if it still aligns with what your podcast is about, that it still describes your podcast well, and—most importantly—that it still supports your podcasting goals and the P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) you want for yourself and your audience.

5. Your podcast description

After finishing the previous 4 evaluations, now look back at your podcast description. Not only should you consider whether it accurately describes your podcast anymore, but really look at it from the perspective of a potential listener and figure out how compelling it is. Does it really entice people with your podcast? Does it focus on the value they will get from your podcast? Does it make promises you have delivered or will be able to fulfill?

A reason I put this after making or updating your podcast trailer is because the trailer can be your chance to be more relatable, passionate, and audibly motivating. After you you've explored the personable aspect, then you can optimize the more scientific aspect of your podcast description.

AI can be a great tool to help you with this. While Google Gemini Pro, Anthrophic Claude Sonnet, and OpenAI GPT models will all be good (and you have access to all of them and more inside Magai! I earn commissions from purchases through this link, but I suggest things I believe in, regardless of earnings.), I suggest you use them in these specific ways.

• Give your description to Claude Sonnet with the “Writing Tutor” persona and ask it to evaluate your tone of voice. If that matches your desired tone of your podcast, great! If not, switch to the “Expert Copywriter” persona and ask Claude Sonnet to rewrite the description with your desired tone of voice. For example, if the description is currently formal but you want it to be fun, then ask for it to be rewritten with a fun tone. Claude Sonnet is really good at being analytical and accurate without getting too creative.
• Give your description to Gemini Pro with the “Master Persuader” persona and ask it how compelling the description might be to your potential audience that you will also describe. For example, “Here's my podcast description for [ podcast name ]: [ description ]. How compelling do you think this is for my target audience of [ demographic ]?”
• Give your current description and a list of your episodes (by title or topic, whichever is more accurate) to GPT-4.1 (latest at this time) with the “Master Persuader” persona and ask it to rewrite your description with the tone of voice you want, or try the “Marketing Expert” persona and ask it to rewrite your description with popular marketing frameworks (like problem-agitate-solution, before-after-bridge, segmenting-targeting-positioning, and such).
• If you're need some inspiration, switch to Perplexity Deep Research and the “Assistant” persona and ask it to research what's working for the most popular podcast descriptions, and distill that into a formula you could try repeating, and then switch to Claude Sonnet and “Master Persuader” or “Marketing Expert” persona (in the same chat) and have it apply that formula to your podcast description.

(Magai gives you access to all of these language models, personas, and more—about $500 worth of tools—starting at only $20/month!)

No matter what the AI gives you, evaluate it yourself and make adjustments that seem best to you. Please don't worry about the things some people are spreading fear about as being giveaways of AI. Instead, focusing on getting the tone closer to the way you would speak without compromising the goal of the description. Also ensure it appeals to you since you're probably a member of your own target demographic. And look for any weird patterns or unnecessary things (for a while, almost every “promotion” response I got from earlier large language models (LLMs) contained stuff like, “Looking for a new podcast?”).

But also don't delete any of the AI-enhanced descriptions. Save your favorite ones and actually experiment with them! Try one for a couple of months and try tracking how many new followers you get, and then compare that to a different description for a couple more months.

No matter what, the most important thing to focus on in your description is the P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) your audience will get from your podcast. Make it not about you, but about them and their wants or needs, and then how your podcast fits them and their wants or needs.

Community Corner

• 150§ and 64§ from Randy Black
• 356§ from Bryan Entzminger
• A couple of 5-star ratings on my episodes in Goodpods from “Barnabas”

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Amazon has the best prices on these, but that requires an Amazon Prime subscription. Several other retailers often jump on the opportunity and drop their prices, too!

Here's a roundup of the best days I've seen today. (Lots of Elgato sales!)

(I earn through the following links, but I recommend only things I believe in, regardless of earnings.)

1. Elgato Prompter, great for facing directly at your camera: $279.99 ➜ $189.99
2. Mic stands:
   1. Elgato Wave Mic Arm LP (low-profile): $99.99 ➜ $69.99
   2. Elgato Wave Mic Arm (overhead boom arm): $99.99 ➜ $69.99
   3. Elgato Wave Mic Arm Pro (white, low profile with gas springs): $179.99 ➜ $139.99
   4. Elgato Key Light (LED light panel): $179.99 ➜ $139.99
   5. Elgato Wave Desk Stand (desktop mic stand): $59.99 ➜ $49.99
3. Audio-Technica ATH-M50x studio headphones: $159 ➜ $143.65
4. Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 (15-button controller): $149.99 ➜ $109.99
5. Hollyland Lark M2S wireless microphone kits:
   1. USB-C only: $119 ➜ $95
   2. TRS + USB-C (my recommendation): $139 ➜ $111
   3. TRS + USB-C + Lightning: $159 ➜ $119
   4. TRS + USB-C + Lightning adapter: $149 ➜ $119
6. Apple products:
   1. iPad Air 11-inch with M3 chip: starting at $599 ➜ $479
      
   2. iPad Air 13-inch with M3 chip: starting at $799 ➜ $679
      
   3. 2023 MacBook Pro with Apple M3 chip 14-inch, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD Space Gray (refurbished): $989 ➜ $840
      
   4. iPad mini (A17 Pro): starting at $499 ➜ $379
   5. Air Pods Pro (2nd generation): $249 ➜ $149
   6. Air Pods 4 with wireless charging case: $179 ➜ $119

I'll also keep this page updated with the current deals until “Prime Day” is over.

Please let me know if you find a great deal I haven't included!

Similar to how I use “opening” to include everything in your episode before the unique content (including the introduction), I consider the “closing” to be everything after the episode's unique content (including the “outro”).

Answer: as simple as possible

Yes, you read that correctly! I said “simple,” not necessarily “short.”

As podcasters trying to grow our audiences and get more social-media followers and get feedback and sometimes even trying to monetize our podcasts, it can be easy to overload our audiences with too many calls to action (CTAs) all crammed into the closing.

I've heard some closings that were longer than two minutes because the podcaster had so many CTAs!

But the end of the episode is also after you've delivered the value of your podcast. So while I think having a short closing is still good, I think it's actually more important to keep it simple. And “simple” doesn't really have a length to it.

In fact, I think a 1-minute closing with only one relevant and personable call to action is better than a 30-second closing with 10 calls to action (I've heard it done before!).

So separate my previous advice about keeping your episode opening as short as possible, I think you should strive to simplify your closing so that your audience has to remember only one or two things you asked them to do.

Spread out your calls to action

Instead of loading up every call to action you have and firing it all off in your closing like the grand finale of a fireworks show, try spreading out your calls to action in your episode.

For example, instead of saving your request for questions for the end, use that CTA maybe right before you answer someone else's question. For example, “Please send me your question about [topic] by [contact method], just like [person] did! And she asked, …”

You can do a similar thing even if you're asking your audience to “buy” something you're “selling”—whether that's something from your business, supporting your podcast, or something else you're promoting. You might be able to put that anywhere else in your episode, especially if you can make it as non-interruptive as possible. For example, “By the way, thanks to [name], [name], and [name] for loving the podcast enough to give back to it! If you love the podcast, too, and want to give back some value, please visit [webpage]. Now onto number 7 …” Or, even better, when you mention something related to your call to action, give your call to action then!

Like if I was talking about voicemails from your podcast audience, that would be the perfect time for me to tell you about Podgagement, which gives you a speakable landing page you can share with your audience to collect written and voicemail feedback.

You can also spread out your calls to action across different episodes, maybe even considering a week-of-the-month schedule. For example, you promote your email list the first week, your own product or service the second week, your audience community the third week, and so forth. (Some CTAs might be too important to space them out too much.)

Give your audience a reason to stay until the end

As a fan of movie soundtracks, I always stay through the credits a movie theater. And so I love how the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has inspired more people to stay because they want to see the setup for the next movie. I still frequently make the joke about random movies that Nick Fury is going to come and recruit the main character for the Avengers. (Yes, I'll do this for any movie—Toy Story, Star Wars, even about Jesus at the end of The Nativity!)

Although you don't have to have Nick Fury recruit someone from your podcast at the end of every episode (as awesome as that might be!), still look for ways to inspire your audience to stay until the very end. Just don't make them get impatient waiting through your too-many calls to action!

That ending could be a joke or some bloopers, it could be an inspirational quotation, it could be a closing tip, it could be a quick and applicable review of the episode's contents, or anything else relevant to your show and your audience—especially if it's relevant to that episode.

Lead with value, leave with value

In my previous episode about episode openings, I emphasized that you should start each episode jumping into the valuable content as quickly as possible. That's leading with with value.

And you should also leave your audience with value. Let the last thing they hear from you in each episode not be a self-serving call to action, but something of value to them. In The Audacity to Podcast, it's my altered version of my tagline, “Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools, it's time for you to go start and grow your own podcast for passion and profit!” Then I say my name, say thank you, and end. Sometimes, that is my entire closing!

The whole point is like the campground rule: leave your audience better than how you found them. Make sure you've delivered value to them, whether that's education, information, inspiration, or even simply entertainment. You could even say that it's something that leaves them with “positive energy.” And I don't mean that in a mystical sense, but that they actually feel more energized towards something positive. Maybe they have a smile now, maybe they learned something useful, or maybe they're inspired to put into action what they heard from your episode.

As much as I talk about P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles), always remember that it's also about what you help your audience get from your podcast!

value4value community corner

• Bryan Entzminger from Top Tier Audio sent 406§ on my previous episode. He didn't include a comment, but I was curious about the meaning of that number, so I asked inside my favorite AI toolbox, Magai. And I got suggestions that it could be related to an “angel number,” an area code in Montana, maybe April 6, or my favorite thing from AI was the reminder that 406 is an Internet error code meaning “not acceptable”!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Although the terms “intro”/”introduction” and “opening” are often used interchangeably, I'm going to be more specific to call the “opening” everything your audience hears before your episode's unique content. I would consider the “intro” to be a smaller piece of that. For example, an intro could be for the podcast as a whole, or the introduction for your guest, or how you lead into your topic.

Answer: as short as possible

Yes, I'm actually leading with the answer—just like how you should lead with great content!

People come to your podcast to hear the content, not your introduction of the content. And they especially don't come to your show to hear you explain the premise of your whole podcast.

It may seem impressively professional to have a high-production opening with custom music; dramatic sound effects; and a professional voiceover explaining who you are, who the podcast is for, and what the podcast promises. But I challenge you to consider that your audience will be impressed not by the production quality of your opening, but by the quality of your content and how quickly and how well you fulfill your promises.

Have you ever searched the Internet for a recipe? Searching DuckDuckGo for “cinnamon toast recipe,” I picked the current top result: “The Best Cinnamon Toast Ever!”

This should be one of the simplest recipes on the Internet! Instead, that top webpage contained 14 paragraphs and 2 subheadings before getting to the actual recipe! (In case you're wondering, it's 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and they recommend a pinch of salt. Though I personally prefer 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon.)

Don't let your podcast be like those recipe webpages unless your audience is coming for the story and explanation because you've promised that to them from your podcast description.

So specifically, how short should your podcast opening be? I recommend keeping it shorter than 10 seconds before you get into at least the unique content intro (but maybe your content doesn't need much of an intro)!

What about audio branding?

I'm definitely a fan of audio branding! And the best audio branding can be done in seconds!

The Audacity to Podcast‘s complete opening used to be longer than a minute. But then I restructured it and now the music is only about 6 seconds! And when I made that change, it actually felt really good to have a short music clip that was still unique to my show, and is actually from the same music I've used for 15 years—but now much shorter so you get the content sooner!

What about welcoming your new audience?

Podcast consumption is different from broadcast TV and radio, and it's even different from YouTube consumption.

On traditional broadcast media, you might tune in right in the middle of the content, or you don't know what you're actually tuned into at all. And people frequently come and go with little to no context about the content.

And on YouTube, people will bounce from video to video, often falling down a recommendation rabbit hole that includes other channels they've never seen before but that offer attractively relevant content.

But podcasting is different.

People don't usually stumble upon or accidentally start playing a new podcast; they usually listen (or watch) from intentional action (aside from “secondhand podcast”).

Additionally, they usually have a lot of immediately available context about the podcast and episode-specific content:

• They probably saw your podcast title, artwork, and description before they followed the podcast in the first place.
• They can usually see your episode title and artwork while playing the episode.
• They probably found or were recommended your podcast for a specific reason.

Thus, I don't think it's necessary for you to explain the premise of your show or introduce yourself (beyond your name) in every episode.

If you really want your new audience to hear you introduce the podcast and yourself, then make a short “trailer” episode specifically for that and mark it as a trailer [353]!

Consider your most important audience: the one you already have

As you can see, there are other ways to ensure your new audience knows what your podcast offers. But your most important audience is the people already consuming your episodes! So optimize the experience for them and I believe you'll actually make a more comfortable experience for the new people coming to your podcast.

Imagine this (and please tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way!). You're in a session (in person or in an online meeting), eager to hear something from the presenter. You're there on time and the presenter has started. But then some people join late, so the presenter breaks their flow, welcomes the new people, and then rehashes what they just said for the sake of the new people.

Frustrating, right? Not only did that break the flow for everyone already there, it actually even wasted the time for the people who joined late because now they'll miss what the presenter could have shared in the time it took to rehash for the late people.

Just don't assume even your existing audience knows everything from years ago in your podcast! That's a different kind of “podcasting sin”! So it's okay to rehash older content within a new context.

No one will hate you for not wasting their time

Let me be blunt: a lot of podcast openings and intros are wasting people's time. And this is exactly why several podcast apps offer a feature to automatically skip a portion of a podcast's opening.

If you're an indie podcaster just starting out, I hope this encourages you that you don't have to spend a lot of time and money producing a fancy opening! Be unique and audibly branded, but it doesn't have to be a major production!

Bonus tip: use a unique “cold open”

The “cold open” has become commonplace in all kinds of media, and I think that's because it works so well to hook people into the content! Consider how most movies and TV shows jump straight into the scene and don't display a title sequence and credits until later—sometimes not even until the end!

I'll make a separate episode about what makes a good cold open. But as part of your episode opening, I still suggest that you keep your cold open as short as possible!

value4value community corner

I want to catch up with some support and feedback that has come in lately.

• Mike Dell sent 1,701§ (a Star Trek supercomment) on “15 Regrets from 15 Years of Professional Podcasting [episode 394]” and said, “I have a lot of those issues. Hiatus is my #1 as well. I’m the king of inconsistency. Happy 15th!”
• Also in response to the same episode, Stevie Taylor from The Gig Life Podcast said, “I just listened to episode 384 … and loved it! I have taken a lot away from this. I love your podcast and am happy to see it back in my feed these last few weeks. Keep up the great work. Thank you for inspiring!”
• Bryan Entzminger from Top Tier Audio streamed Satoshis with a modern Podcasting 2.0 podcast app.
• Randy Black sent a supercomment on a past episode with 2,222§ (I call it a “March of the Rubber Duckies” boost): “Another awesome episode Daniel. Keep up the great work. Go Podcasting! Boost, boost, boost!”
• Dreb Scott sent 55,555§ saying, “Thank you very much for your tips on video feeds and enclosures over on PodcastIndex.social.”

If you get value from The Audacity to Podcast, there are multiple ways you can give back:

• A financial gift of any amount
• Send Satoshis through a modern Podcasting 2.0 podcast app
• Get someone else listening to The Audacity to Podcast so they can become better podcasters, too!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Even though I published the first episode of The Audacity to Podcast 15 years ago on June 17, 2010, I've actually been podcasting longer than that. I published my first-ever episode in April 2007. But I consider The Audacity to Podcast to be when I really took podcasting seriously and even “professionally.”

Besides the first and last items on this list, the following regrets in no other particular order. To keep this episode “shorter,” I'll let you figure out how to apply each of these yourself, but please let me know if you'd like more information about any of these in a future episode!

Regret #1: Hiatuses

This is my biggest regret about my podcast: the embarrassingly long hiatuses I've taken. It started in late 2017 when I suddenly disappeared due to a devastating family emergency. And the long times away since then have been multiple shockwaves from having my world turned upside down.

But here's what's difficult to confess: I could have returned to the mic sooner if not for my own “head junk.” It was a mix of “imposter syndrome,” self-doubt, unnecessary distractions, some level of “perfectionism,” self-criticism, and even some fear and laziness.

It cost me a lot of opportunities, audience, influence, authority, and even income.

And even though I mention income, please hear me clearly that I am not bringing back The Audacity to Podcast for money. Instead, I'm finally taking the steps against my negative “head junk” and stepping back into a burning passion to continue educating and inspiring you!

Regret #2: Not building an email list sooner

You probably hear this one so often from entrepreneurs that you're sick of it.

But email lists aren't only for marketers!

Even if you podcast only for the fun of it, there are plenty of great ways you can use an email list no matter why you're podcasting! For example, you can use an email list to provide actionable information from your podcast episodes to your audience, get more personal with your audience, solicit feedback you can share in your podcast, get to know your audience, and—yes—even promote things to your audience.

Regret #3: Not promoting my episodes via email

Speaking of email, I actually recommend against using an email list only to promote your latest episodes. But my regret is that I didn't promote my latest episodes in my emails at all! I often think about creating an additional email list solely for the sake of providing my full notes and links to you so you can easily take action on anything even after you delete the podcast episode from your podcast app. But I've not even been good at simply including an auto-updating widget in any of my emails—nothing from my email list or personal emails. Granted, part of this is because my email service provider, ActiveCampaign, used an outdated RSS validator that would choke on valid podcast RSS feeds—at least the last time I tested it.

I actually still haven't corrected this, either. But please let me know if you would be interested in receiving my episode notes via email automatically after I publish my episodes!

Regret #4: Pursuing the wrong business

I started The Audacity to Podcast in 2010 while I was still full-time employed. The job I had was my dream job, but I burned out (largely due to some bad choices on my part). I was looking for an exit and was especially interested in running my own business, but didn't see how I could grow a business until after I had launched The Audacity to Podcast.

But I still had the wrong business in mind!

Because I was a web-designer in my job at that time, and I enjoyed designing websites, I thought, “Podcasters need websites, and I'll be the guy to make them!” But I seriously misjudged the market, especially since there weren't many people who wanted to pay for the completely custom design service I was offering.

When I had my last web-design client a few years after starting my business, I really didn't want a web-design client. So I quoted them a really high price that would make it worth my time—and dang it they accepted that quote without any negotiation!

I dragged my feet on that project because my heart wasn't in that kind of work anymore. They eventually fired me, and it even hurt a friendship at that time. But when I got that email telling me I was fired, I was actually relieved! And that's when I realized I couldn't design websites for other people anymore. And I think it was shortly after that narrowing of my focus that my business started growing much better—the right business for me!

Regret #5: Not creating enough training products

Even after I realized the right business for me, I still didn't leverage it enough! I should have created more digital products like courses, ebooks, group coaching, and more. But I didn't. And to this day, I still don't have my own “how to podcast” course, which is something I still very much want to create!

But the courses I did create—SEO for Podcasters (which was the first-ever podcast-SEO training!) and Zoom H6 for Podcasters—were both very well received and I'm still very happy with their production quality (even though I no longer promote my SEO course because about one third of it is outdated). Nonetheless, I could have and should have created much more!

Regret #6: Waiting too long to register my trademark

I've claimed and defended “The Audacity to Podcast” as my own trademark for many years and indicated that with the unregistered trademark symbol (). And after more than 10 years of use, I finally decided to hire my friend Gordon Firemark as my business lawyer and to help me officially register the trademark. But after 10 years of exclusive use, we discovered someone filed for a very similar trademark only a few months before we did! And sure enough, our two filings were too similar for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to grant both trademarks.

So that began a costly process. The other party's trademark was actually not very good, and I offered them suggestions and even free consulting so they could not only have a better trademark, but a better launch and business over all. But they wouldn't budge. Then my lawyer offered an “agreement to coexist,” which would allow us to both have our registered trademarks with the understanding that we wouldn't sue each other, but they wouldn't respond to that. I even tried to gently point out to them several times that if we had to go to court over it, it would be expensive and I would win because I had 10 years of usage already (they had nothing but a temporary website).

Finally, after nearly 4 years, their website disappeared and they stopped renewing their trademark filing, which allowed my own to go through! And in January 2025, The Audacity to Podcast® was finally a registered trademark!

Thankfully, I didn't have any of this trouble when I registered the trademark for Podgagement®. I did that before I even announced the new name, and that word didn't exist on the Internet before I coined it.

So if I could go back into the past, I would have registered The Audacity to Podcast as soon as I had the money to do it or knew it would be a major part of my business.

Regret #7: Trying to do things cheaply

And speaking of money, trying to do a lot of podcasting things cheaply or free actually cost me a lot. I remember one time wasting several hours—maybe even a couple of days—trying to figure out a process to force my MacBook Pro to 1,280 × 720 high-DPI resolution (for recording my screen at the perfect quality and size) because I didn't want to spend $4 on an app that made it a 2-click process.

There were other things I spent hours hacking together to do what I wanted because I didn't want to spend the money for the solution.

But my solutions were not actually cheap or free! Like most “free” things, they cost me time and knowledge (maybe even brain cells and graying my hair—if I had any left!).

I think ID3 Editor was my first purchase (for only $15) that made me realize how much better my workflow could be by investing where I needed.

Yes, sometimes, the things I need were simply too expensive and so I had to be resourceful. But I've also learned that sometimes it's worth investing in something that will save me a whole lot of time or do things better than I could do them myself. (That's a big reason so many podcasters use Podgagement—it saves you more than 11 million mouse clicks every day!)

Regret #8: Not publishing more through other channels (including video)

I'm not touching the “video podcast” debate right now. But I definitely regret not publishing more content—original or repurposed—in many places.

One of the things that held me back was a “save it for the podcast” mentality that I felt like any new content ideas I had should be shared first (or maybe even exclusively) in my podcast. Or I was thinking, “I can't do this topic justice by covering it in only a couple of minutes. I better just do a whole episode about it.”

Another thing that held me back was my obsession with excellence. I just couldn't stand publishing a video without good lighting and great audio. (It's now a whole lot easier to get both of those with modern smartphones, especially with amazing and affordable little mics like the Hollyland Lark M2S!)

And there was (and still is some) disdain for how some platforms work. For example, I still abhor how TikTok mirrors video recorded into it, and I hated how many platforms would let you record for only seconds at a time, requiring lots of stops and starts or disjointed phrases. And, of course, I hated vertical video.

But I look back at all the P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) I missed by not publishing in more places!

Regret #9: Not reaching out to the press about significant things

I live near Cincinnati and I've gotten press only once—and it wasn't even for my own accomplishments! I was featured in The Cincinnati Business Courier and on local TV talking about podcasting because International Podcast Day was coming up (I'm one of the cofounders and organizers).

But I didn't try for any coverage when several of my podcasts were nominated for awards. I didn't try for any coverage both times The Audacity to Podcast won the People's Choice Podcast Awards. I did try for coverage when I was inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame, but I didn't try hard enough and I didn't get any coverage. I regret not being more proactive about these things when they was most timely!

Regret #10: Accepting sponsors

Did you know that I had some sponsors many years ago? I accepted them because I saw the income potential (which wasn't much, but I was kind of desperate for income back then!). But now I regret it because I should have focused more on creating and selling my own stuff, which would have been much more profitable.

I'm not saying I'll never again have sponsors on The Audacity to Podcast, but those past sponsors weren't even podcasting-related!

For many years, I've said that I actually can't afford to have sponsors on my podcast. The cost is too high! In fact, I would rather read out gift notes from you than getting paid to promote some other business! (So if you'd like to support what I do, click here to give back whatever you feel The Audacity to Podcast is worth to you!)

Regret #11: Not creating “value4value” opportunities for my audience

And going right along with this, I regret not embracing “value4value” (or “v4v”) philosophy years ago. This is not a Bitcoin thing and it's not even a Podcasting 2.0 thing! Instead, it's a philosophy that goes like this: I'm giving you value through my podcast—education, entertainment, inspiration, and such—and I can provide opportunities for you to consider what that is worth to you so that you can give some of that value back (“time, talent, or treasure” as Adam Curry says). You're giving value back for the value I give you, or you could say that I give you something of value for the value you'll give me for it. That's why it's called “value for value”—coined by the guy who invented podcasting, Adam Curry (the Podfather).

I did value4value on my other podcasts, but my big reason for not including it on The Audacity to Podcast is that I always felt it would undermine my business, because I have actual things to sell.

But it took the Podcasting 2.0 revolution for me to realize the truth worth of value4value: community, relationships, and reciprocity. That's why I now (when I remember to) promote ways you can support the value I give you through The Audacity to Podcast by giving back any amount you feel the podcast is worth and I also accept Podcasting 2.0 payments through Bitcoin via a modern Podcasting 2.0 podcast app.

Regret #12: Working solo for too long

I very much have the “superhero syndrome” Chris Ducker described in his book Virtual Freedom. I wanted to do everything in my business. And to set aside modesty for a moment, I was pretty good at most of it!

But it took me a while to discover I could buy back my time (the name of another book I recommend on this topic, Buy Back Your Time, by Dan Martell) to pay someone else to do things I couldn't or shouldn't do. In fact, it was Virtual Freedom that inspired me enough to finally hire someone else to build the My Podcast Reviews service for me. And now I rebuilt that into Podgagement, the most valuable thing my business sells right now.

I also discovered the freedom it brought when I hired a podcast-editor and my first personal assistant in my business. Before these things, I was definitely working solo for too long! While I was preparing this episode and without his even knowing what this episode was going to be about, my podcast-editor John Bukenas coined the term entrepodneur:

A person who independently produces every aspect of their podcast from start to finish—recording, editing, promoting, booking guests, uploading, and managing the show—without any outside help.

Please show my editor some love by upvoting his entry in Urban Dictionary!

Regret #13: Using a cute (and expensive) domain

I don't exactly regret the name The Audacity to Podcast (or at least not very much), especially now that it's my registered trademark. But I do regret the domain I got for the podcast network I launched at the same time I launched The Audacity to Podcast (and I was hosting 3 of my own shows at that time). These were all connected as part of my professional podcasting strategy. I went for a “cute” domain because I saw people using .tv, .ly, or having really creative stuff like the webpage bookmark service Delicious with the domain del.icio.us.

Unfortunately, the “cute” domain I had in mind was expensive. And since I hate letting domains go that I've ever publicly shared, I have to pay that domain's expensive renewal fee every year for the rest of my life!

Several years after I already started the network, I realized a much cheaper and even more understandable domain. I switched to that I think only 1 year before retiring the network!

Bitly is another example of this. Their domain used to be bit.ly, but it's now simply bitly.com.

Regret #14: Getting involved with the wrong people

I'm not going to name anyone here, but I've gotten involved with some bad people in the past and it turned out to cost me dearly in my professional and podcasting endeavors. I'm still suffering repercussions from some of them. I wish that I had never pursued those things that I thought were great opportunities, even though I did have concerns, because my concerns ended up being proven true.

And what really frustrates me about my mistakes is that when things started crashing down, I took them way too personally and failed to stand up as strong as I should have and fight for the right things.

Lessons learned. “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!”

Regret #15: Not focusing more on relationships

And on the flip side is my previous regret, but certainly not least. I wish I had focused more on relationships with people.

While this certainly has heavy ramifications outside of podcasting (and I might do an episode about that someday in the future), I am referring strictly to my professional and podcasting pursuits. While I see others building a bunch of relationships, I've often spent more time on the content than on the people. Like with The Audacity to Podcast, you've rarely heard me talk about my life or share personal things that help you get to know me—unless they somehow totally relate to the subject at hand. The main reason for that is that I have this idea stuck in my mind that you're not here for me—I could even say you don't “care” about me—but you're here for what I teach. And so I self-filter out a lot of stuff because I want to give you the content I promise to give you: podcasting education and inspiration.

But despite that, I still remember how many men and women were there for me a few years ago when I went through a very difficult time in my life. Countless people prayed for me and with me, sent me notes of encouragement, checked in with me, and more. I especially remember a Podcast Movement I attended while my emotional wounds were still bleeding. Mark Deal, from Atlanta, made it a point to give me a hug every day of the conference, and that meant a lot to me! But I didn't learn until later that he's actually not a hugger, but he knew I need those hugs! And Emily Prokop sent me encouraging voicemails and was the only person to make me cry at that conference—simply because of her warm kindness and compassion.

(And side note as another part of this: I even debated naming these people—but I can't even explain why that was a debate!)

And I've lost plenty of relationships over the years, especially these past few years. Some of those are my fault, some are the faults of the others despite my attempts at friendship, and some are from misunderstandings and false judgments.

So there you have it. 15 regrets from 15 years of professional podcasting through The Audacity to Podcast. I hope that you can learn—and even laugh—at my mistakes so that you won't make the same ones. Because in everything I do through my podcast, I want to—you know what's coming!—give you the guts and teach you the tools so you can start and grow your own podcast for passion and PROFIT!

If you've been with me through the difficult times and even since the beginning, THANK YOU!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

1. Review your podcasting goals (your “why”)

Why do you really do your podcast? What P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) are you after for yourself? What about for your audience?

As you resurrect your podcast, you might need to consider adjusting your purpose and goals for your podcast. It's okay to go from business to fun, or fun to business! But what's most important is that you know why you're podcasting so that you can set appropriate goals, and then take the right steps toward those goals.

2. Treat your podcast return like a launch

Think about everything you had and did when you first started your podcast.

No matter how much you've lost due to your hiatus, you probably still have much more than when you first launched. You have more skills, more knowledge, more relationships, more tools (and probably higher quality, too), more resources, and yes, you even have more audience (you had zero when you first started)! Some people will keep your RSS feed for years, holding onto hope that you'll someday return. That's what I did with the Ask a Ninja video podcast (more about that later)!

Imagine if you had all the resources you have now but years ago! So you can treat your return almost like a launch with the same kind of enthusiasm, “media” blitz, promotion, sharing, asking friends and what audience you have to help, and more. But this time, you have a whole lot more of everything than you had before!

3. Use a podcast trailer to promote the return

If it fits into your timing—and maybe don't delay your return just for this—try to publish a “trailer” to promote the return of your podcast. Make it 1–3 minutes long, like a trailer, and make sure you actually set it as a “trailer” episode type in your podcast publishing tool. As a trailer, either don't use an episode number, or set its episode number to be the same as your next episode will be so that some apps can treat it as a trailer for that upcoming episode. And soon after you get into publishing again, you can remove the trailer from your podcast feed.

Instead of making the trailer about the past by apologizing for being gone or talking about what's happened during that time, focus on the present and—more importantly—the future. Why are you excited to resurrect the podcast? What are you eager to share in upcoming episodes? What might you be doing differently that your audience will appreciate?

You could even take this opportunity to adapt this trailer into your regular whole-show trailer that can be featured in podcast apps!

4. Lower your expectations

This one is a reality check; you'll need to lower your expectations.

Lower your expectations of your podcast's influence.

Lower your expectations of your audience's response.

And even lower your expectations of yourself.

Yes, you have a lot more knowledge and experience than before, but that doesn't mean you can just jump right back in and have all the same popularity, influence, audience, and even strengths and abilities as you did before. But you haven't lost everything!

Although Ask a Ninja did not return as a video podcast (so I can finally delete that RSS feed from my podcast app!), it did return!

Am I angry with Ask a Ninja for being gone for so long? No. Do I need to know what happened for all those years or why he wasn't doing the show? No. Am I just happy he's back? ABSOLUTELY! And do I mind that it's on YouTube instead of being a video podcast? No, not really, because I'm just happy it's back and I can look forward to being killed by him soon!

Speaking of ninjas, I train in karate, and I've taken two big breaks from karate, some of them lasting many, many years. After I returned from the first break, I had all the head knowledge of techniques, but not as much muscle memory and certainly not the same physical fitness. Because of that, I injured myself and had to take a break again. The second time I returned to karate, I took it much slower, pacing myself, understanding that my mind knew things my body couldn't do anymore—at least not yet without working back into it. And there was also a lot of stuff I forgot and it was really easy for me to mentally beat myself up for not remembering those things.

But with patience and intentional practice, recognize and accepting lower expectations of myself at that time, I did relearn things, and they started coming back to me. And then I was able to learn new things. And then I was ready to test for my second-degree black belt. But something happened at the test that I thought could happen, but I didn't actually expect.

And I'll tell you the rest of that story further down! (How's that for a tease?)

Apply these same principles to your podcast. Be honest with yourself that you might not be able to do as much as before, or maybe not even do it as good as before. But don't beat yourself up for that! You can work yourself back into the “rhythm” with intentional investment. It might be rough at first, but if you keep pushing yourself further and don't give up, you'll probably be back to your previous momentum and ready to grow again!

5. Don't apologize or explain in your regular episodes

I often encourage you to think how you can make your podcast and community timeless. Although it won't apply to all podcasts the same way, it's still a good practice to consider what will matter to your audience (new or returning) a year from now.

Consider podcast seasons for example. If the only reason you want to use seasons is so you can take a break every now and then, then you don't actually need seasons! Those season numbers won't mean anything to your audience, and a year from now, someone new playing your podcast won't care that you took a break a year ago.

And along with this, similar to the trailer but especially for your returning episodes, focus more on the present and future and less—or maybe even not at all—on the past. You don't have to apologize, you don't have to explain yourself or make excuses. Just prove yourself by making great content from then on!

If you really feel your audience wants or needs to know about the gap, save it for the end of the episode, or maybe even a detached temporary episode!

6. Make and follow a plan to keep going

Lastly, consider Sir Isaac Newton's first law of motion (or “the law of inertia”) that says an object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion. But what changes the state from one to the other is a force. For a aircraft to fly, it needs thrust. What causes a ball to eventually fall to the ground no matter how hard you throw it is gravity. And what causes even the best podcasters to retire (like Marc Maron) or podfade is when the energy they're putting into the podcast is not stronger than the forces against the podcast.

Before you bring your podcast back to life, you and your podcast were at rest. Now, you're trying to get it in motion, so it's going to take a force of energy from you to get it back in motion. And since there are a barrage of other forces that could slow its motion, you have to keep putting energy into it—more energy than the forces opposing it.

Let's go back to my karate example. I had to create a schedule to practice the karate I was relearning and especially new things I was trying to learn. I had to be disciplined to stick to that schedule. And that meant I had to fight against a lot of forces that would have kept me “at rest.” And in the beginning, it was hard! I suddenly felt my actual age. I could see how much less flexible I was. And my handy Apple Watch (which I didn't have years ago) could tell me how hard my heart was working and how long it took to recover (thanks for rubbing it in, Apple Watch!). But the more I kept pushing through, the easier it became. The shame and self-doubt I felt about my abilities began to be replaced with confidence and instinct. The “I should know this!” screaming in my head was replaced with “I know this now!” And then that was getting replaced with, “How can I make this better than ever before?”

So what happened at my black belt test? Patience, grasshopper!

If you're in that place of trying to restart a podcast you've let go dormant, you'll need more than just motivation. You need to put that motivation into a plan, and grow the discipline to stick with it!

With every podcast I've ever hosted, I saw the most growth, the most efficiency, and the easiest momentum when I scheduled my work and honored those appointments with my podcast. So actually put it on your calendar! Block out the time so you can focus and know that's the only thing you should be doing at that time instead of getting distracted. And saying “yes” again to your podcast will probably mean saying “no” to other things. That could be simple distractions like wasting less time scrolling social media. Or it could mean setting aside another hobby so you can refocus on this one. Or, maybe it's even time to delegate some of the tasks to smart tools or people (I can recommend a great podcast-production company if you're interested!). Just don't compromise your commitments to your faith, family, and work!

And after you get going strong again, it will take much stronger forces to knock you off your path!

And by the time I stood in front of a board of higher-ranking black belts, I knew I was ready. I had invested all the energy I could. I had practiced hard. I had sacrificed less important things. And I was ready to be tested. And even without knowing the results of the physically draining hours-long test, and with a rapidly beating heart and panting breath as I was told to step out of the room while my superiors discussed my performance, I was proud of giving it my best, and actually felt a whole lot more confident after the test than before that I might actually have done well enough to earn my promotion.

But I didn't get my second degree black belt.

Instead, they said my demonstrations of technique, power, application, and knowledge were above my level. And so they unanimously agreed to promote me not to second degree, but straight to third degree!

Deep down, I knew that could be possible, but I didn't dream of it. I only focused on doing the best I could with the work in front of me.

That's what it will take for you to bring your own podcast back to life—whether it's been on hiatus or you're just struggling to keep it going.

And that is also why I decided to review my own podcasting goals, push through my barriers, change my expectations, and shift my focuses so that I can come back to you!

As The Audacity to Podcast is celebrating its 15th anniversary (June 17), I'm not looking back, but looking forward to the years to come of continuing to give you the guts and teach you the tools to start and grow your own podcast for passion and PROFIT!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Check out my past episode and article, “Redirects and How to Use Them in Podcasting” to learn more about how redirects work and the different options there are.

(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases through some—but not all—of the following links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

Caution #1: 301 redirects are “permanent” and cached

In podcasting, we throw around the term “301 redirect” or “permanent redirect” often without realizing what that actually means: it is (or at least it's assumed to be) permanent!

I often use the physical mail or US Post Office metaphor when explaining redirects. Think of a permanent redirect as a “change of address” notice sent back to everyone who mails you something.

A 301 redirect is permanent and is essentially telling apps, “This thing has moved to over there. Please stop looking here and always look there instead. So don't look at me again.”

This is great when you actually made a permanent move—or at least intend for it to be permanent. Like when you permanently move homes and change your address!

But if you ever change your mind or—even worse—make a mistake in the redirect, that redirect will be followed and the old URL will stop being checked. So if you make a “/feedback” page that 301-permanently redirects somewhere else, then even if you change where “/feedback” goes, any app that previously loaded “/feedback” will bypass it altogether and go straight to the destination it has saved in its cache.

That cache is sometimes cleared, but you should assume it never will be! (However, this doesn't apply for anyone visiting your redirect for the first time.)

So if you get your 301 permanent redirect wrong and you don't fix it immediately—like within a few minutes—the best thing to do is to also redirect that incorrect destination to the correct one. And, unfortunately, that's not always possible. Thus, I recommend that, if possible, you make your redirect a 307 or 302 temporary redirect first, test it over a few days, and then change it to a 301 permanent redirect.

Caution #2: Your redirect destinations might change or disappear

Contrary to the Stanley cup craze of spring 2024, my favorite water thermos has been a No products found. (I earn from qualifying purchases through that link) that I've had since 2019. But I recently lost it—I think at a mall while my son and I were waiting for my broken-down car to be towed.

I thought I could simply re-order it for close to the original $10 price I paid, but no! That specific bottle has a new version I don't like as much, and the original bottle was listed for $45 when I needed it!

Here's what makes this relevant to redirects. The first place I went to re-order that water bottle was my Amazon order history. When I clicked on the product link, my heart was initially crushed because No products found. says, “Currently unavailable”!

Imagine if I had redirected to that product page with a 301 permanent redirect! Anyone clicking through my link might have their hopes dashed just like I did!

This is why I highly recommend that any redirect to any URL you don't control should be a 307 temporary redirect (a 302 redirect is also temporary and works fine, but use a 307 if you have the choice). If I had been smartly promoting that water bottle with something like a “/waterbottle” redirect, I could easily change its destination when the product URL changes, or point back to a page on my own site with a note about the product.

That's easy to do with temporary redirects because they don't get cached. So even if you used my redirect yesterday, then I changed it last night, and you use the same redirect URL today, you would be taken to the correct destination.

I love that Pretty Links Pro has recently added a new feature to monitor all the redirects you create and alert you when any of them point to a broken URL! And that could be really important for both your audience and any kind of affiliate income you hoped to make.

Caution #3: Most redirects bypass content

This is both a caution and a blessing. However your redirect is placed (and I'm not referring to the <itunes:new-feed-url> RSS tag), the redirect will be followed before any of that URL's content is loaded.

So if you redirect an old podcast RSS feed URL to a new one, anything you put in that old feed will be completely ignored.

That's a caution because it means your audience won't get anything you put in that feed, especially not any announcement of the feed change (if that's even necessary). This is why you should put the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag in your new feed if you ever change podcast feed URLs. And yes, the tag should actually point to itself as a sort of confirmation that this feed is the new feed URL.

But it's also a blessing because it means you don't actually need an RSS feed to exist at that address once you're redirecting it. In fact, you can have nothing at that address except the redirect! (That's how nearly all redirection tools do it. You don't have to create pages or posts to redirect, you simply create the redirect.)

So if you want or need to give some information before the redirect, then create a page at that URL you share, and then have the redirect linked from the page.

For example, that's what I've been building for a lot of podcasting tools I frequently recommend. Consider Captivate, for example. If you visit theaudacitytopodcast.com/captivate, you're no longer immediately redirected to Captivate, but you instead land on my page that briefly explains why I recommend Captivate. And then you can click on the button to use my affiliate link to visit Captivate. Fun fact: that button is still a redirect: theaudacitytopodcast.com/go/captivate

Caution #4: You might someday rename your redirect

I've previously shared why you should stop saying brand names in your podcast, unless absolutely necessary. Maybe you heard or read that and decided to change your “/patreon” redirecting URL to a generic “/support” URL (or you had a similar situation).

While that's great that you did that, it still breaks all your past calls to action that used the “/patreon” URL!

For this reason, if you ever want to someday rename your redirect—regardless of whether you've only typed it in your notes or you've also spoken it in your podcast—I recommend that you make a new redirect and point both the new and old redirects to the correct location (and take this chance to ensure they're both 307 or 302 temporary redirects!).

Alternatively, you could actually point one redirect to the other. So instead of always having to change the destination for multiple redirects, you only change the last one. But just don't get crazy with this! I recommend making no more than 2 layers of a redirect. So that could look like this:

“/patreon” (original URL) ➜ “/support” new URL ➜ “final” destination

I put “final” in quotation marks, because it's possible even that URL gets redirected, as happens with many affiliate URLs that bounce through multiple trackers before landing on the actual final destination.

Caution #5: Correcting URLs you said in old episodes is practically impossible

If you do rename a redirect, like switching from “/patreon” to “/support,” don't even think about editing the audio or video with all your past calls to action!

This is why it's important to get it right in the first place and make a future-friendly generic URL you can change whenever you want without breaking past calls to action.

But if you didn't plan ahead like that (and I've made that mistake countless times, too!), make sure all your old calls to action still work. That could be either with a redirect, or a note and the correct link on the resulting destination. So even if you said a “patreon.com” URL in your podcast, you might be able to leave that page up but with a prominent note that your support options have moved and with a link to that new location. (But make sure that link is also a redirect, in case you ever change things again!)

Caution #6: Reusing things you redirected from is a bad idea (my 2024 redirect mistake)

I need to illustrate this point with a story from my own recent mistake.

Several years ago, Blubrry launched Podcast Mirror, a free and much better podcast-focused alternative to FeedBurner.

But with all the features coming from Podcasting 2.0, and the dragging feet of many outdated podcasting tools and hosting providers, Blubrry decided to add more features to Podcast Mirror, which could let you add Podcasting 2.0 features to a feed that didn't already have them. Just like how Feedburner could be used to turn a normal blog feed into a valid podcast feed. (Funny side note: I was actually thinking of launching my own service like this as soon as I learned about Podcasting 2.0, and I even registered a great domain for it, but I never got around to building that product.)

These upgrades were great, but it also meant that Blubrry would stop offering a basic Podcast Mirror service for free—not even their plain feed mirror service. This upgrade to Podcast Mirror went into effect during my few-month podcast hiatus while I doubled down on launching Podgagement in the second half of 2023. So when I published a new episode in January 2024—NEWSFLASH—my feed wouldn't update anymore because I hadn't upgraded to a paid Podcast Mirror subscription! (To be blunt, I think this was a horrible betrayal of trust from Blubrry. But at least all podcasters could easily redirect away from Podcast Mirror.)

Having a tight cashflow, I decided to redirect my Podcast Mirror feed to a FeedBurner feed—doing nothing but simply mirroring or “proxying” my feed for performance reasons. But I very quickly discovered that FeedBurner no longer offers a ping service or a manual refresh button, leaving me with no way to trigger an update of my RSS feed. Consequently, my episodes were not going out to podcast apps for several hours!

Crazy me—I decided to try building my own feed proxy service. But after more than 4 hours into it, I realized I'd wasted more time (and “time is money”) trying to “DIY” it and thus lost more potential income than if I'd just paid the reasonable yearly fee Blubrry now charges for Podcast Mirror!

So I emailed Blubrry on my digital hands and knees, begging them to take me back. We worked out a deal and I'm back on Podcast Mirror now. Hooray!

But here was my big mistake: I insisted on having my original feed URL again.

Why was that bad? Because here's what the 301 permanent redirects looked like:

Podcast Mirror ➜ FeedBurner ➜ Podcast Mirror (same URL).

Do you see the problem? If anything had cached Podcast Mirror's 301 redirect on my feed, it would enter what's called a “redirect loop.” I suspect that is why I saw a big drop in downloads per episode after I changed the redirect. (And this was in February 2024, so it had nothing to do with the over-hyped iOS 17 update!)

I actually made it even a little worse by momentarily redirecting to my PowerPress feed—but a URL that bypasses any redirects from PowerPress. And this made it difficult to actually re-redirect when I wanted to!

In all of this, my feed URL didn't actually matter. Do you even know what my podcast feed URL is? I could have easily added a “2” or “-audio” or anything else to the URL when I rejoined Podcast Mirror and it would have been fine.

So the moral of this long story is that if you ever think you should redirect back to something that was already 301-permanently redirecting, DON'T! Instead, make a new URL as your final destination.

Quick resources for making redirects

I want to end this with a couple of tips for making redirects that won't cause problems in the future.

301 permanent versus 307/302 temporary

With these cautions in mind, my general advice is to choose 307 (or 302) temporary redirects for any destination you don't control. Start with affiliate links, your donation or membership page, your online community, and such.

And for any destination you do control, or you are absolutely certain will not change in the foreseeable future, you can use a 301 permanent redirect.

WordPress plugins for making redirects

If you're looking to make redirects on WordPress, my favorite plugins are Pretty Links Pro and Redirection. I actually use both of them!

Pretty Links Pro (paid) is much easier to use and has a lot of helpful feature, like automatic keyword-linking, shorter link-creation workflows for pages and posts, smart redirects, and more.

The Redirection plugin (free) is more advanced, even allowing regular expressions. And, maybe the handiest feature here, is that you can enable it to monitor your pages and posts to redirect any of those URLs you change. For example, many of my old episode webpages still include the “tap###” code I used to use in my titles. I've already removed those from the titles, but if I change those URLs, the Redirection plugin would automatically redirect that webpage's old URL to the new one.

Other ways to make redirects

If you're not using WordPress, or you want to manage your redirects away from WordPress, look at what your domain or website tools offer, or consider Cloudflare's options.

Some podcast-hosting providers or easier website-builders (such as Podpage) offer their own redirects you can create and manage within your dashboard. This would work from only the domain you set to work with that website.

The options from your domain registrar, your hosting provider, or Cloudflare generally all work before loading anything from your website. So the redirects might continue to function even if your website is down. And these can work without any website at all.

Lastly, there are plenty of third-party URL-shorteners and redirect tools you can use, but some might charge if you want to customize the URL or use your own domain. And even if you can use your own domain, it usually has to be a subdomain or a completely different domain from your normal website.

Please click here to learn more about redirects and how to use them!

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• 7,777§ boostagram from Steve Webb on “11 Tips for Sharing URLs in Your Podcast,” saying, “Another great episode with useful, actionable content. Thanks Daniel!”
• 1,000§ boostagram from Andy Lehman on “11 Tips for Sharing URLs in Your Podcast,” saying, “I tried clicking on your links for this episode in the chapters and it crashed Castamatic. I wonder if it has to do with the anchors.”
• Streaming sats from Dave Jackson, Guy Martin (Dwev), and Bryan Entzminger

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Beyond your podcast website, you might also want to share affiliate links, resources, episode notes, past episodes, sponsors, and more.

Here are 11 tips for how to share URLs effectively in your podcast.

(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases through some of these following links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

1. Speak as few URLs as possible (per episode)

Every URL is essentially a call to action. That could be where to follow you on social networks, the episode's webpage, your support page, where to send feedback, and much more.

And calls to action are most effective when there are very few of them, but they are reinforced multiple times. This is why you'll hear most ads give the call to action (like visiting a website) at least 3 times.

That's a good practice for your podcast, too. But with all the URLs you might want to share, you'll start overwhelming your audience and making each URL less memorable.

For this reason, I recommend that you say as few URLs as possible—maybe only one!

But don't make it the same URL across all your episodes! For example, if I kept telling you to get the links for this episode at “TheAudacitytoPodcast.com,” that works best only when this is my latest episode. But the more episodes I publish, the more this episode gets shifted down my website's front page, and eventually pushed off the front page.

Thus, I recommend having a unique URL for each episode that will always take your audience to the correct information—whether they listen immediately or 5 years later. This is easy to do on WordPress with my favorite plugin Pretty Links Pro.

2. Defer to your chapters or episode notes

If you follow tip #1, then your single URL should be your episode webpage. There, you can include all the things you want your audience to get or see: images, videos, links, buttons, and more.

Make sure this stuff—at least the links—appear in your episode notes within the podcast apps, too! Because many publishing tools and podcast apps follow different standards, the best thing to do would be to ask the maker of your publishing tool how to ensure your links show in your top podcast apps, and they can give you the right guidance for your situation. But the most universal case is—unfortunately—that a full, ugly URL, like “https://theaudacitytopodcast.com” will work more often than an HTML hyperlink, like <a href="https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/">The Audacity to Podcast</a>.

Check out Knick Knack News for a great example of actionable episode notes (it's also a really fun podcast I highly recommend!). Their notes are not effective for SEO, but they are excellent for engagement inside the podcast apps! The hosts of that fun show, Alex and Anthony, often share things you will want to see or read for yourself. And they do that in very simple and actionable ways in their notes. Here's an example from an episode:

Anthony's Stories This Week:

Ketchup: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231105470473/en/It%E2%80%99s-a-Big-Dill-HEINZ-To-Launch-New-Pickle-Ketchup-Nationwide

Ice Cream: https://www.mensjournal.com/news/baskin-robbins-thanksgiving-dinner-ice-cream-flavor

Alex's Stories This Week:

Beard: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/11/09/Guinness-World-Records-David-Rush-Amazing-Race-chopsticks-beard/5131699551869/

Zelda: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/7/23951339/the-legend-of-zelda-movie-live-action-nintendo

“What exactly IS pickle ketchup? Plus, how many chopsticks can you fit in a beard?” Knick Knack News

If you're listening along to their podcast, then these simple notes will make total sense to you and the notes don't get in the way of what you want.

Depending on how you're communicating around the URL(s) you want to share, you might also want to use chapters.

Both legacy chapters embedded in your MP3 files and Podcasting 2.0 chapters in a separate episode metadata file (in JSON format) support adding a single URL link per chapter.

In Knick Knack News, Alex and Anthony spend several minutes on each story, so each story would be perfect as a single chapter. And then they could add the relevant URL to each chapter.

But this gets complicated when you have multiple URLs within a single context. For example, if I share a list of my favorite podcast-hosting providers (currently Captivate, Buzzsprout, and Blubrry), I can't add multiple URLs to the same chapter.

So this is where you would want to defer that list of links to your episode notes.

However, I'm pushing hard for Podcasting 2.0 to turn our current podcast chapters into “super chapters” (a term coined by Dovydas from RSSBlue.com), allowing you to use a single chapter to display rich content, including but not limited to a gallery of images, a block of text, a numbered or unnumbered list, videos, and even multiple links for a single chapter. Then, I could make a chapter simply for “My favorite podcast-hosting providers” and that one chapter can link to the multiple options.

However, I urge you to maintain “backwards compatibility,” and that's where your episode webpage comes in.

If you're worried about your audience getting lost in a long episode webpage, you could actually link your chapters to specific sections of your page by adding an “anchor” or ID to each heading in your notes, and then link each chapter to that anchor in the URL. For example, https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/sharingurls#2 links to this section. In fact, each chapter of this episode links directly to its section in my notes. Try it!

3. Never say “https://” or “www.”

It's not the '90s anymore. It has been literally decades since anyone needed to type “http://” or “https://” in their browser.

Also, most websites don't use “www.” at all in their domain anymore. Or if they do (like YouTube still does), you can usually still get to the correct place without including the “www.” (Which, by the way, has to be the worst abbreviation because saying “W W W” is actually more syllables than what's it's an abbreviation for: “world wide web”!)

But you must test this first! I have run into a couple of badly configured sites that needed the “www.” because they weren't even forwarding their domain without the “www.”!

If I hear you say, “www.theaudacitytopodcast.com,” I won't come after you, but don't be surprised if poetic justice comes after you by making your neighbor mow his yard right when you want to record your podcast!

4. Simplify your URLs

If you do speak a URL in your podcast, make it as simple as possible!

I remember a commercial many years ago from Epson—you know, one of the biggest printer manufacturers who should have known better? The only thing I remember about their commercial was because I—as a teenager—recognized how bad their call to action was. I think the URL they spoke was “www.epson.com/what-if-you-could.” And yes, they actually said “dash” for every one!

Don't do that!

I highly recommend that any URL you speak should reinforce your brand. So make it a “/keyword” URL on your own domain. Consider the speakable URL for this very episode: “theaudacitytopodcast.com/sharingurls.”

This also goes for external resources, too. Instead of sending people to “patreon.com/[your podcast slug],” send them to a “/patreon” 307 or 302 temporary redirect on your own domain. Or even better, remove the third-party brand name completely and make it a generic URL like “/support” or something meaningful to your audience!

This not only reinforces your brand, but it also makes your calls to action future-proof because you can redirect that URL whenever you want (especially if it's a temporary redirect) and to wherever you want, even to a completely different brand! Like what if you wanted to stop using Patreon and switch to a membership on your own site?

5. Make friendly URLs that make sense

Whether you're sending your audience to your episode webpage, an affiliate product, or somewhere else, ensure the URL makes sense for that thing.

This is part of why I stopped using episode-number URLs for my own podcast a long time ago. Firstly, I realized that my episode numbers didn't actually matter; and secondly, even I was having a hard time remembering which numbers went with which episodes, so I could assume my audience would have an even harder time.

Now, I create redirecting short episode URLs match the content of my episode by making them keyword-focused, like how this episode's URL is “theaudacitytopodcast.com/sharingurls” instead of “theaudacitytopodcast.com/391” (which is the pointless number of this episode).

This is easy to do with Pretty Links Pro! You can make as many temporary and permanent redirects as you want and all using your own WordPress-powered website! Even many third-party website providers (like Podpage or Captivate) let you make such redirects. But what I like about Pretty Links Pro (and specifically the paid version) is that I can create the “pretty link” right in my post or page editor, so it goes live when I publish, reducing how many things I need to do outside of the post or page editor.

6. Say “slash” not “forward slash” or “backslash”

You can call this a pet peeve if you want, but it's simply a “slash,” not a “forward slash.”

“Forward slash” is redundant, like “PIN number,” “ATM machine,” and “please RSVP.”

And it's definitely not a backslash (\), either!

7. Slow down and speak clearly

Even though URLs don't have spaces, that doesn't mean you should speak like they don't have spaces!

It can be okay to say your own URL faster when it exactly matches your brand that you've already said several times in your podcast. For example, the website for The Audacity to Podcast is—duh—theaudacitytopodcast.com!

But when speaking any different URL, or especially if speaking that URL in front of a new audience, make sure you say it slowly and clearly enough so they can know what you said.

Check your podcast transcripts, too. This can be a good indicator of whether you're speaking the URL clearly and slowly enough. (And also remember to fix any incorrect URLs in your transcripts!)

8. Clarify or avoid ambiguity

There's the chance that you'll run into some confusion with any URLs you speak. For example, does your domain have the preposition “for,” the spelled number “four,” the numeral “4,” or something crazy like the roman numeral “IV”?

An interesting corporate example of this failure is Fifth Third Bank. Ironically for a bank, the secure URL “https://fifththird.com” doesn't actually work, but “http://fifththird.com” and “https://www.fifththird.com” do. However, the actual website (and redirection destination) is “https://www.53.com.”

And I hope no one types “5th3rd.com” into their browser, because that's a completely different website (“Online since 2000”).

There are three different ways you could avoid sending people to the wrong URL:

• Clarify any ambiguity, such as by spelling it when the context doesn't make it obvious. For example, I hear Clinton say this all the time: “Comedy4Cast.com—that's the number 4.”
• Create fallbacks to handle other versions—yes, I have “theaudacity2podcast.com”!
• Or avoid the ambiguity altogether—such as avoiding any single-digit numbers or ambiguously spelled words like “gray” and “grey.”

9. Be careful with top-level domains that aren't .com

A “top-level domain” or “TLD” is the “.com” part of the domain. You probably also know “.org,” “.net,” “.edu,” and “.gov.” But there are hundreds more! Some of them are full words, like “.photography”!

While it can be fun to have one of these modern TLDs, they might be expensive. And they might be confusing to non-savvy Internet users who probably assume a “.com” for everything (and also probably enter all their URLs into Google!).

Consider That Story Show for example. They have both “thatstoryshow.com” and “thatstory.show.” The host, James Kennison, now speaks the “.show” domain more often, but he still has and uses the longer “.com” version.

The more creative you get, the more it will cost you in both the domain itself and likely how many alternatives you might have to grab to ensure anyone who mishears you still gets to the right website—and it doesn't get stolen and used for malicious purposes!

10. Beware case-sensitivity

Case-sensitivity is still weird on the Internet. It really depends on the server configuration running the website.

When I started my first website, I specifically wanted a Windows server, instead of a Linux server, because I didn't want to mess with capitalization issues that I knew Linux can have!

Domains and subdomains are case-insensitive. So “TheAudacitytoPodcast.com” is handled the same as “theAUDACITYtopodcast.COM.” But anything after the domain could be case-sensitive in a URL. For example, capitalization matters with Bit.ly links, and it matters on some other website servers and hosting configurations, too.

11. Always test your URLs before you share them

Lastly, always ensure any URL you're going to share actually works! Type it with the “www.” and without. Make sure your redirects are functioning. And if your friendly URLs aren't activated until publishing (like all of my “/keyword” URLs from Pretty Links Pro for my podcast episodes), make sure you test the link after publishing your episodes!

Community corner

• 5-star review for “11 Warnings about Using AI in Content-Creation (including podcasting)” by Rich Bennett from April 19, 2024 on Goodpods: “Thanks for another informative episode Daniel”
• 1,000§ from Dwev saying, “Yep, you’re pronouncing it perfectly! Thanks Daniel!”
• Streamed satoshis from Bryan Entzminger, Dave Jackson, Dwev, and newcomer “garduss”

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

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• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Now, AI has become so prominent, that it's almost surprising if a software company of any size is not offering some kind of AI-based solution.

While inflation has skyrocketed the prices of almost everything, the cost for accessing AI has significantly dropped. When I first started using AI, a good plan with access to only one central AI system cost $99 per month. But now, you can use a tool like Magai to use a whole bunch of different language- and image-based AI tools starting at only $19 per month!

(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases through these links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

All this potential means we need to quote the line from Spider-Man, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

And thus why I want to share these warnings with you, to advocate for responsible use of generative AI, large language models (LLMs), machine learning, or whatever you want to call it.

This warnings apply to any kind of content-creation, not only podcasting!

(And in case you're wondering, I did not use AI to create any of this content, but I might be using some AI to transcribe or help me market this content.)

Aside: most warnings apply to generative AI, but not repurposing or enhancement AI

Before I get into my list of warnings about using AI, I want to clarify that these are focused using AI to essentially create something from nothing. I still think AI can be a great assistant on your content. For example, processing audio or video, clipping excerpts, suggesting marketing approaches, improving how things communicate, repurposing, and more. All of those things start with your intelligence, and then the AI works from that.

But I see most of these warnings as applying solely to generative AI, or when you start with nothing but a prompt.

Now, on to the warnings!

1. Undisclosed use of generative AI can get you in trouble

YouTube, social networks, and lots of other websites and platforms are starting to require you to disclose whenever you're putting out content generated by AI. And I think this is a good thing to do as it helps the potential audience know what kind of quality to expect.

Even for things like podcast transcripts, it's good to disclose whether AI was used to transcribe the audio. As I mentioned in my previous episode about using podcast transcripts, someone on your podcast might say, “I love two li'l puppies,” but the AI might transcribe it as, “I love to kill puppies.” Sometimes, even omitting a single word can drastically alter the meaning. For example, imagine accidentally omitting the “not” in a sentence like, “I'm not guilty.”

This doesn't necessarily mean you must disclose every time you use AI in any capacity (like you need to disclose whenever you're compensated for anything you talk about), but you should be aware of the requirements of platforms and seek to always be above reproach.

And if you're concerned about how it might affect your reputation if you disclose every time you use AI, then here's a radical thought: maybe don't use AI! (More on this in #11.)

2. AI often “hallucinates” facts and citations

ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini, and all the text-based AIs we know are also called “large language models” (or “LLMs”). And I think that's a much better term, too, because they're not actually intelligent; they are simply good with language.

This is why you'll often see LLMs write something that grammatically makes sense, but is conceptually nonsense.

In other words, LLMs know how to write sentences.

For example, I sometimes like to ask AI, “Who is Daniel J. Lewis?” Not because of any kind of ego complex, but because I'm an interesting test subject for LLMs since I am partially a public figure, but I also have a name very close to a celebrity: Daniel Day Lewis. Thus, the responses LLMs give me often conflate the two of us (a mistake I wish my bank would make!). I've seen responses that both describe me as a podcasting-industry expert and highlight my roles in There Will Be Blood and The Last of the Mohicans. (And I'm not helping any LLMs scraping my content by just now writing those things together!)

So for anything an AI or LLM writes for you, I urge you to fact-check it! I've even seen some responses completely make up citations that don't exist!

3. AI lacks humanity

From the moment of conception, you have always been a unique being of tremendous value and potential with unique DNA, unique experiences, unique thoughts, unique emotions, and more. Like a snowflake, there will never be someone—or something—exactly like you! Not even an AI trained on all of your content!

AI is not an actual intelligence and I believe it never will be. And AI will never be human.

But you are. You can feel, express, and empathize through emotion. You can question, explore, change your mind, and change others' minds. You can create things of great beauty and originality with no outside prompting.

And it's because of this that I think AI can never replace you. While it might have better skills than you in some areas, it will never beat the quality and personableness that you can offer.

4. AI-created images can be humiliating

AI image models have produced some hilarious or nightmarish results and lots of things that are physically impossible! Like with how AI can hallucinate facts and citations, it can also make images that look real, until you actually pay attention to the details.

I think this teaser for Despicable Me 4 accurately explains it:

Or The Babylon Bee‘s explanation of ChatGPT:

Lest you think this is only outdated models producing bad content, here are some things I've actually seen from current-generation AI image models:

• Backwards hands
• Limbs that seamlessly merge into the surroundings
• Misspelled text that you might not notice unless you try to actually read it
• Device parts that disappear into nowhere
• Placements that are physically impossible
• Broken, slanted, or curvy lines that absolutely should be straight
• Incorrect size ratios

Watch out for these things! For any image you generate (or that someone else gives you that they might have generated with AI), look at it very carefully to ensure everything about it makes sense and isn't simply a pretty—but embarrassing—combination of pixels.

For this reason, you might actually want your image AI to make artwork that is obviously not photorealistic.

5. AI is biased because it was fed biased content and programmed by biased people

The following is not to push a particular political or moral direction, but just to expose some facts! Most LLMs lean a particular political and moral direction because they were trained with content that leaned that direction. Thus, even if not intentional, the outputs will often have that same leaning.

Imagine it this way. If the majority of content on the Internet—especially the most popular sites—said that 2 + 2 = 5, then LLMs trained from Internet content would also propagate that fallacy.

Furthermore, many of the companies behind these AIs or LLMs also lean the same political and moral direction as the majority of the Internet, and so they will favor content from the same echo chamber and sometimes even intentionally train the AI to push that agenda.

Look at the shamefully bad images of people that Google Gemini was originally generating, even going so far as to render Nazis as Asians or blacks instead of whites, because of “diversity, inclusion, and equity!”

And that's why there's a market for LLMs that lean the opposite direction.

Even taking out the political and moral leanings, I see LLMs regularly put out “mythinformation”—even in the podcasting space, like saying that podcast ratings and reviews affect your rankings in Apple Podcasts. That's not true! But it's been said so many times on the the Internet, that LLMs think it's true!

6. Content from AI always needs editing

It's because of warnings #2–#5 that I come to this one: edit, edit, edit!

I'd love to hear your opinion on this, too. But I'm starting to think it reflects worse on someone when they put out bad AI-created content than if they put out authentic content with typos or small mistakes. Do you agree?

For example, you might accidentally write about “George Wishington,” but an AI might say that George Washington fought in World War II! In this case, your typo is a human error and your meaning could probably still be understood by your context. But if you put out something that an AI hallucinated, then people have to wonder if you're actually that misinformed (AKA “stupid”).

7. AI-generated content raises copyright concerns

In the United States of America, and some other countries, anything you create is considered immediately and automatically protected by copyright, and thus you reserve all rights to it. (That's why it's really not necessary anymore to write “All rights reserved,” at least most of the time.)

But you also share or forfeit some of your rights when you consent to using some tools or publishing through some platforms. For example, most places have clauses in their terms of service that allow them to use the content you provide (in whatever form it is) in their own marketing materials. This could be as simple as your podcast cover art visible with 999 others on a grid image for an app's homepage. Or it could mean you granted the platform a license to clip your content in an advertisement for their platform.

While most of these terms of service have been safe (despite some fear-mongering), some places are starting to update their terms of service—requiring your consent—and giving themselves a license to use your content to train their AI tools. Even if your content has a registered copyright, you are still granting other places licenses to use your copyrighted content.

However, it's being uncovered that many LLMs were trained on copyrighted material without any license from the copyright holders.

And if you use an LLM to generate new content from nothing, you might potentially be infringing on someone else's intellectual property rights. And you would be held liable for that. Just like if you hire a cheap “designer” to make your podcast cover art and they steal images from a Google image search, you would be liable for that theft.

Some might argue that this isn't very different from going out, reading all the content yourself, and writing your own conglomeration of your newfound knowledge. But even then, you can be guilty of plagiarism by putting forth something as your idea, when it was actually someone else's.

And the more niche the subject, the less information there was to train the AI, and thus the higher chance of it outright copying other information, or making up something factually incorrect (see #2).

This is probably never a problem when you're using AI on your already-created content.

8. AI might already be “stealing” your intellectual property

I've had my own original content and images plagiarized or directly stolen before. But AI is only making it easier for that to happen and harder for me to catch it.

For example, I often talk about my Podcasting P.R.O.F.I.T. Paradigm: popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles (and why you should put podcasting PROFIT first). If someone used an AI to talk about podcasting profit and replaced only one of those words, it's still theft, but it wouldn't be as easy to spot.

And because LLMs have been trained on a large percentage of the Internet, it's very possible your own content has already been scraped and used in the training. But you might never know.

Many places are proposing legislation that would require AI companies to disclose their sources, allow people to have their content removed or exempted, or only use properly licensed content for training the AI models. (This is why some AI companies have taken an interest in purchasing publishing companies that own the rights to large amounts of content.) And I think you should have this protection over your content even without having to do the technical processes of blocking all the AI user agents from scraping your website (or transcribing your audio or video content).

And all it takes for social-media sites to do the same is a simple and non-obvious change to their terms of service, which most of us click “I have read and agree” without actually reading what we're agreeing to. For example, Reddit, Zoom, and X-Twitter have used (or continue to use) content on their platforms to train their own AI models—and we've probably given them the rights to do so.

Also watch out for terms of service that allow the AI to train itself from whatever you input into the AI. That's the case for ChatGPT, but supposedly not for any use of OpenAI's GPT models (what powers ChatGPT) through an API (such as what Magai uses).

9. Claiming “fair use” might require a higher standard

I think anyone using AI might face a more difficult time trying to use “fair use” as a legal defense, especially if they haven't properly disclosed their use of AI, like I talked about in warning #1.

One of my favorite things to test on an image-generating AI is giving it the prompt, “Harrison Ford as a pirate.” That's simple innocent fun that I will probably never publish for the public.

But imagine if I used AI to make a realistic photo of Harrison Ford using or endorsing my products. Or maybe using a voice or video AI to make Harrison Ford say something he didn't say.

Indeed, I've seen some intentionally hilarious results with AI. And those kinds of things are often allowed when they don't cause harm and are obviously parodies (this is not legal advice; it's only an observation).

But AI lets things easily get far more complicated. Copying or making a derivative have some clear limitations. But generating something that seems real and uses someone else's likeness or intellectual property might be in a whole different category.

Thus, while I cannot give you legal advice as to what you're allowed to do, I can urge you to not do anything that might get you in trouble! So maybe pretend there isn't even such a thing as “fair use” when it comes to how you use AI to create stuff for you.

10. Affiliate-marketing with AI might get you in trouble

AIs, LLMs, or whatever you want to call them are very good at creating a lot of content very quickly. And that is very alluring to people who want content only for the purpose of promoting their affiliate links. I even saw that years ago when I was among the early users of what's now called Jasper. I would see people frequently ask about what kinds of inputs could be used to get an AI to write a full “review” of an affiliate product.

But remember that thing about how large language models are good at writing sentences? They're not actually good at testing products, sharing experiences, and offering opinions. Thus, using AI to write a “review” could lead to misleading information.

For probably this reason and more, some places will probably start to forbid using AI to create content for promoting their products through affiliate links.

For example—and I haven't heard anyone talking about this!—the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement was updated on March 1, 2024, with the following addition:

Revised the language in Section 5 of the Participation Requirements to clarify that Program Content and Special Links should not be used in connection with generative AI.

“Associates Operating Agreement – What’s Changed,” March 1, 2024, accessed April 14, 2024.

That initially seems like it's forbidding the use of generative AI to promote your Amazon affiliate links. However, the actual points in the operating agreement seem to restrict using AI on the Amazon site content, and especially for training the AI.

2.(e) You will not, without our express prior written approval, access or use PA API or Data Feeds for the purpose of aggregating, analyzing, extracting, or repurposing any Product Advertising Content or in connection with any software or other application intended for use by persons or entities that offer products on an Amazon Site, or in the direct training or fine-tuning of a machine learning model.

…

5. Distribution of Special Links Through Software and Devices

You will not use any Program Content or Special Link, or otherwise link to an Amazon Site, on or in connection with: (a) any client-side software application (e.g., a browser plug-in, helper object, toolbar, extension, component, or any other application executable or installable by an end user) on any device, including computers, mobile phones, tablets, or other handheld devices (other than Approved Mobile Applications); or (b) any television set-top box (e.g., digital video recorders, cable or satellite boxes, streaming video players, blu-ray players, or dvd players) or Internet-enabled television (e.g., GoogleTV, Sony Bravia, Panasonic Viera Cast, or Vizio Internet Apps). You will not, without or [sic?] express prior written approval, use, or allow any third party to use, any Special Links or Program Content to develop machine learning models or related technology.

“Associates Program Policies,” accessed April 14, 2024. Emphasis added.

That first part is clearly forbidding using the Amazon API with an AI model to programmatically create content for you. However, it seems to still allow you to use AI to create your content about the product itself, and even use your affiliate links in that content.

But I still think you shouldn't!

I, for one, would love to see a stop to all the AI-generated worthless “reviews” on YouTube and other places. For example, the following video or probably anything from “The Smart Kitchen” on YouTube:

As an owner of a couple of affiliate programs myself, I know that I would not want anyone promoting my products with AI generated content. In fact, I'm going to update my affiliate terms to explicitly forbid that! I want real people with real experiences promoting my products! (For a good example, Danny Brown did this very nicely when he authentically promoted my Podgagement service in his recent episode of One Minute Podcast Tips about two ways for podcasters to get feedback from their audiences.)

11. Relying on AI can cost your authority and influence

Lastly, but certainly not least, I urge you to consider the intangible cost of relying on any kind of AI as you podcast or create any other content.

I've said for many years that what I love about podcasting is that it allows you to communicate with your own voice, so people can hear your authentic emotions and they can hear how well you communicate your thoughts, even if you do some editing.

Imagine if you used AI to create and communicate all “your” content, and then you're put on a stage in front of a live audience and you have done no preparation. Aside from any stage-fright, could you actually communicate your message authentically, understandably, and memorably?

Several years ago, I was invited to speak in person about podcasting to a Cincinnati business group. And for the first time ever in my life, I completely forgot about it! I remembered only because about about an hour before I was supposed to speak, the organizer sent me a kind message just to say how excited she was to have me and I think to give me a heads up about parking.

The event was about 45 minutes away, so I had only enough time to throw some stuff in my car, and think about my presentation on the way up.

Now imagine if AI was my crutch and most of my content had been created, organized, or even optimized by AI.

Instead, I was able to speak for half an hour and confidently and thoroughly answer 15 minutes of questions, all with no notes except a 5-word outline in my head. And I think I nailed it!

I could do that because I know my stuff! And I don't share this to brag about me or try to make you think I'm amazing, but to point out what a catastrophe that could have been if I was merely a fraud using ChatGPT.

So don't let AI cost your authority and influence.

Certainly, artificial intelligence can be a really powerful tool to help you do many things or save lots of time, but don't trade your value for AI.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

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Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

In my signature fashion, I started preparing a whole list of pros and cons, and some big thinking on inside jokes.

But it's really not that complicated!

An inside joke is some form of callback, trope, catchphrase, or similar that only those “in the know” will get and enjoy. Because of this, inside jokes can be hilarious, but only for those who get them. Inside jokes can be a sort of reward your loyal audience, but alienate your new audience.

I've heard some people advise against inside jokes exactly because your new audience won't get them. But that seems overly focused on the new audience and at the cost of engaging your existing audience and making them feel special.

I think it really comes down to this simple guidance: avoid inside jokes with your cohosts and guests, but embrace inside jokes with your audience.

Where inside jokes come from

First, some examples of inside jokes I've heard from podcasts:

• “Lemons, lemons” from That Story Show
• “Hit in the mouth” from No Agenda
• “KEDAKAI!” from Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
• “Super easy; barely an inconvenience” from Pitch Meeting (series on YouTube, so it is not a podcast!)
• “Mail Kimp” from Serial (first season)

If you've been a loyal follower of any of these shows, then you probably know exactly what these jokes are about, or at least can laugh at them.

So where do these come from?

Some jokes will arise naturally as your audience essentially feeds their growth. That's what I've seen with inside jokes from That Story Show, No Agenda, and Serial. While other things become inside jokes because of how often the host(s) use them, such as the examples from Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend and Pitch Meeting.

It's the audience-feed jokes that I think you should work more to embrace because they will more deeply reward and engage your audience.

What about the new listeners?

There are three approaches I've seen and experienced with podcasts regarding inside jokes:

1. Letting your podcast audience eventually catch on with your inside jokes (even if they might not know their origins).
2. Occasionally explaining or pointing to the origins.
3. Making a glossary of inside jokes—this could even be a supporter-exclusive or email opt-in incentive.

Your goal should be to both engage your existing audience and make them feel special and to create an environment welcoming to your new audience. This comes from having a good balance so that your podcast is not overfilled with inside jokes, but it does mature with loyalty.

Think of inside jokes like extra seasonings for a meal. They can add something special, and especially be appreciated by your “insiders,” and celebrated when your new audience gets in on the jokes.

And I think there is something special, like a sort of “leveling up,” when your audience becomes familiar with your tropes, catchphrases, and inside jokes. Then, they'll feel like one of the “cool kids” when they can throw around the inside jokes, too. And that's a precious moment for them!

Turn inside jokes into swag

When your audience starts using your inside jokes too, or further feeding them, that's a great time to turn those jokes into swag you can sell or giveaway. Consider putting them on T-shirts, posters, stickers, and more (like That Story Show does with several of their inside jokes). If you want to be on the cutting edge about it, maybe you could even turn those inside jokes into NFTs!

Community Corner

• Thanks for the streaming satoshis from Dwev, Dave Jackson, and Bryan Entzminger!
• 5-star review by John Moore from June 14, 2021 on Podchaser: “I’ve listen to just about every episode of this show over the last year. Excellent content and advice. I particularly like his SEO episodes.” There will be more podcast SEO content in the future!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

The order of podcasting cornerstones

Before we focus on podcasting P.R.O.F.I.T., I want to revisit how I've taught the 5 podcasting cornerstones for several years:

1. Content—What your podcast is about
2. Presentation—How you share your content
3. Production—The technical side to reduce distractions and increase understanding
4. Promotion—How you market and grow your podcast
5. P.R.O.F.I.T.—How you and your audience benefit from your podcast.

Despite the fact that these cornerstones have always had an alliteration problem with no suitable solution, I realized it had an even bigger problem while I was preparing to teach podcasting at the National Religious Broadcasters convention. The problem was the order: P.R.O.F.I.T. should not be last! It should actually be first!

But stick with me and don't click away because you think this doesn't apply to you! Before I can explain why P.R.O.F.I.T. should be first, I want you to understand what it is, and why I keep writing it like an over-obvious acronym (it's actually an acrostic).

The Podcast P.R.O.F.I.T. Paradigm

Several years ago, I was inspired by a typo I let go to press in an advertisement for my now temporarily retired Podcaster's Society. As a result of that typo, I wanted profit to stand for something! Not only in the metaphorical sense, but also literally as an acrostic.

Now, it's my Podcast P.R.O.F.I.T. Paradigm, which is a list of whys you can benefit from your podcast:

• Popularity—growing a following, being an influencer, becoming known
• Relationships—gaining friendships, building community, and finding your “tribe”
• Opportunities—opening doors for things like public speaking, travel, testing products before they're released, and such
• Fun—simply having a good time, with or without laughter
• Income—yes, earning money!
• Tangibles—getting things you get to use or keep, which is especially profitable when they're relevant to your podcast topic!

While most people think “profit” means “money,” I challenge you to change your thinking and look at the much bigger ways you can profit from your podcast—especially if you don't even want to monetize your podcast.

The other paradigm shift is that your podcast should not only give you P.R.O.F.I.T., but also offer it to your audience! I'll explain that more in a moment.

P.R.O.F.I.T. is for all podcasters, not only professionals

Lest you think P.R.O.F.I.T. is only for people who podcast for business purposes or to try earning a living, money is only one part of the Podcast P.R.O.F.I.T. Paradigm: the I for income. The other ways could complement income, but there's nothing wrong with podcasting simply for the fun of it!

When I hosted a clean-comedy podcast, the P.R.O.F.I.T. we were after was primarily to laugh and help others laugh, too! Along the way, we also formed relationships, were given fun tangibles from our audience, and we even made a little money on the side.

And if you are podcasting to build a business, don't neglect the other aspects of P.R.O.F.I.T.! It's okay to have fun with professional subjects! And always look for ways to position yourself for opportunities and more!

Your podcast P.R.O.F.I.T. should power your decisions

Why should P.R.O.F.I.T. come first? Because it's actually more important than your content. Consider the cornerstones in this way:

• Content is what attracts an audience
• Presentation is what keeps the audience
• Production is what makes your podcast stick
• Promotion is what brings an audience to you
• P.R.O.F.I.T. is the impact your podcast makes

No products found.. And “why” is another way to think of P.R.O.F.I.T. with these two questions:

• Why are you doing this podcast?
• Why should anyone listen or watch?

When you start with P.R.O.F.I.T. in mind, then you can pick the right content to share. And the other cornerstones build from there. After you know your “why” and your content, then you can decide on the best way to present it. Then, the best way to produce that. Then you'll have things and methods to promote it.

But when you don't start with P.R.O.F.I.T., you won't know what content to share, and you won't know the best way to communicate it, and you certainly won't know how to produce it, and—frankly—you wouldn't offer much value worth promoting.

Here's a series of questions that follows the Podcast P.R.O.F.I.T. Paradigm to help you podcast the best way:

1. Why do you want to podcast? What value will your podcast give your audience?
2. What content best enables your P.R.O.F.I.T. goals?
3. What's the best way to present that content that moves you toward to your P.R.O.F.I.T. goals?
4. What's the best way to produce this that leads you and your audience in the right direction?
5. Whom should you promote your podcast to and what are the best ways to reach them?

Remember P.R.O.F.I.T. for your audience

I've heard some people say, “Podcast for yourself. If you're having fun, that's all that matters.” And I've also heard other people say, “You're podcasting for your audience, so focus on their needs first.”

While these might seem contrary, they're actually complementary and simply different sides of the same P.R.O.F.I.T. coin: both you and your audience need to get value from your podcast in order for your podcast, yourself, and your audience to improve and grow.

But the problem I see most often is that podcasters forget to focus on what value they offer their audience. Instead, they often fixate on the value they want from their audience, or on how they can essentially sell their audience to get value from someone else (like an advertiser).

As Jesus said, “Give and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:38).

Some podcasters also obsess over the production aspects of podcasting, without investing the same time and money into improving the more weight-bearing cornerstones.

It's fine if your podcast makes you popular, but how are you helping your audience to be popular, too?

It's great when you foster or form new relationships because of your podcast, but how are you helping your audience foster or form new relationships, too?

It's great when your podcast opens opportunities for you, but what opportunities do you help your audience find and pursue?

“It's fun to have fun,” as The Cat in the Hat said, but is your audience having fun, too?

Earning income is definitely rewarding! But how are you helping your audience earn more, spend less, save more, or be smarter with what they have?

And it can be exciting to get new tangibles, but what tangible benefits are you helping your audience gain, too?

Podcasting P.R.O.F.I.T. in one word: why?

“Start with Why” indeed!

Why are you podcasting?

Why should your audience keep consuming your episodes?

It's all in what P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) you pursue and offer!

Community corner:

I just made things easier for me and you with Podgagement! Now, we can easily copy all the text of a review with only two clicks! And you can copy it in plain text, markdown, HTML, or an iframe embed!

• 5-star review “Why and How Your Podcast Needs Loudness Normalization” by Marshy76 from November 23, 2022 on Apple Podcasts in the United States: “An excellent guide on the importance of Lufs with important links to related software in aiding one to create a well tuned podcast, which I incorporated into my latest “Mister Radio” podcast episode. Thanks for this excellent presentation! But, as I mentioned in my unedited review couldn't this also be done simply by listening and adjusting levels as one is recording, like I used to do when working the board in radio? Now I've got to check out my various DAWS to see if they have something to check my LUFS, besides the cans on my ears! And I did find a meter in Logic!” (I pasted that podcast review with only two clicks and a Cmd-V, thanks to Podgagement!)
• Thanks to Allen C. Paul, Jason Pickel, Rich Bennett, D.R., and Julio Fernandez for all the great ratings on Goodpods (all discovered for me by Podgagement!)
• Thanks for more streaming sats from Dave Jackson, Allen C. Paul, and Dwev! I believe that totals to 1,716§, which is currently worth about $1.15.

If The Audacity to Podcast gives value to you, I would be so grateful if you put that in a number to give back, either through a one-time gift or streaming sats back. You can do both with a modern podcast app like you can get from Podcasting2.org/apps!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

1. Check that you have agreed to Apple's terms of service

Apple usually updates their terms of service when they launch major new features. For example, Apple started generating transcripts for all podcasts in February, 2024. And that requires your agreement to their terms of service so that they can make those transcripts, which they won't do until you agree.

Apple makes it easy to know whether you've agreed to the latest terms. Simply log into podcastsconnect.apple.com! If you're let into your account, then you've already agreed to the latest terms. If not, you will be prompted to read and agree to the terms before you're allowed to manage your podcast(s).

And if you're offering a paid subscription to your audience through Apple Podcasts, check the Business tab to see if there are any actions you need to take. There might be additional new terms you must agree to, or you might need to provide legal or financial information. (This page will also display your invoices and tax information if you have any sales.)

2. Check that your podcast is in your Apple Podcasts Connect account

Many podcasters don't actually control their own catalog listing for their own podcast! This is because they either submitted their podcast before Podcasts Connect existed, or they allowed someone else to submit their podcast for them. This might have been a podcast-hosting provider or someone helping them with their podcast.

But at least the process to reclaim ownership is fairly easy!

1. Make sure you've checked all your possible Apple ID accounts.
2. Log into the account you want to hold your podcast(s) and contact Apple through this form and select the “Missing podcast(s)” option (which should already be selected with this link).
3. Fill in all the other form fields completely.
4. Await and then follow Apple's instructions, which will have you enter a special code somewhere in your podcast RSS feed to verify your ownership or control of that feed.

This is crucial to do with all your podcasts, especially any duplicate podcast listings you might have (which is probably more likely if you've ever switched podcast-hosting providers).

The rest of these items to check require that you have access to your podcast in your own Apple account.

3. Check that your podcast information is correctly loaded in Apple Podcasts Connect

Click into your podcast(s) and look over your the “Show details” information. This includes your title, cover art, artist, descriptions, and more.

You can't change these details in Podcasts Connect! Instead, you would change these in the podcast-publishing tool that is creating your RSS feed. But viewing these details here lets you confirm that everything is properly loading from your feed into the Apple Podcasts system.

And if you're having trouble, the first thing I suggest doing is validating your podcast RSS feed through all of the following tools:

• Cast Feed Validator
• Podbase Podcast Validator
• TrueFans Podcast Validator

Especially watch for problems with your podcast cover art.

4. Check the optional Apple Podcasts information fields

On this same “Show Information” page are several optional fields that you should populate or verify. Currently, these include:

• Update frequency
• Content rights
• Show contact information (especially important if you've removed your email address from your RSS feed)

This information is proprietary to Apple Podcasts and thus—currently—not pulled from your RSS feed.

5. Check your Apple Podcasts distribution availability (affects other apps)

Switch to the “Availability” page and there are two important options to ensure your podcast can be discovered by as many people as possible:

• Countries or Regions: I recommend setting this to “Make this show available in all countries or regions.” You can click into the Edit view to ensure all 175 countries are selected. Despite this option, some countries still block explicit content, and it seems like communist China blocks almost everything anyway.
• Distribution: I recommend enabling “Make this show available for distribution.” This ensures that the countless other podcast apps and podcasting tools using the catalog API from Apple Podcasts will be able to see your podcast.

These are the default options for podcasts, but I suggest you verify they're set correctly anyway.

But if, for some odd reason, you do not want your podcast available to as many people as possible, then you can change these options to limit your reach.

6. Switch the transcript default to use your provided transcripts

On this same “Availability” page is a third option that I feel defaults inappropriately. It's the Transcripts option.

For some strange reason, Apple's (current) default is to use only their auto-generated transcripts for your podcast. So regardless of whether you already using Podcasting 2.0 transcripts, I suggest switching this option to “Display transcripts I provide, or auto-generated transcripts by Apple if one isn't provided.”

I think that's the way apps should behave anyway! They should use what you supply first and by default and generate their own transcripts only if you don't provide your own (through the Podcasting 2.0 transcript feature).

But you should also note that there is no way to disable all transcripts for your podcast. That's part of the terms of service you must accept for your podcast to remain in Apple Podcasts. If you really wanted to disable transcripts, you would have to either edit every episode in Podcasts Connect to use a custom episode-specific setting to not use any transcripts, or provide a nearly empty transcript file for all episodes through your RSS feed (you could share this same file for all episodes).

But because podcast transcripts are important for accessibility and usability, I highly recommend keeping them enabled. But just switch this setting so Apple will default to your transcripts if you provide them, and then fallback to their own transcripts if you haven't provided any.

7. Check your Apple Podcasts ratings and reviews

There is also a “Ratings and Reviews” page that lets you see your Apple Podcasts (and only Apple Podcasts) ratings and reviews. However, this requires you to switch between all 175 countries, before knowing if you even have any ratings or reviews in those 175 countries; it doesn't show your difference of ratings versus written reviews; and you can't search, sort, or filter your ratings and reviews. You also don't get notified whenever you get a new rating or review, so you would have to come back to check all 175 countries. You can download your reviews, but you would have to do that one country at a time.

Cumbersome, right?

That's why you should use Podgagement to engage your audience and grow your podcast! Podgagement not only tracks all these 175 places automatically for you, it also tracks the non-Apple places. Plus, with Podgagement's “Constellation” plan, you can easily collect written or voicemail feedback from your audience, discover podcast-networking opportunities, receive direct reviews from your audience, and more!

I personally created Podgagement for you because I believe engagement with your audience is the most powerful thing you can have with your podcast.

Click here to try Podgagement free!

(Or you can continue doing things the manual way, especially clicking thousands of times inside Podcasts Connect to see your ratings and reviews from Apple Podcasts!)

8. Check your Apple Podcasts analytics

Lastly, but probably most exciting, are the podcast stats you can get from Apple Podcasts!

Remember that these stats measure consumption only in Apple Podcasts. So any numbers you see will be of a smaller subset of your audience. Nonetheless, since Apple Podcasts is the #1 podcast app, I suspect the percentages and engagement levels you see would be close to an accurate—albeit smaller—reflection of your whole audience.

Here are some of the handy (and potentially addictive) data points you can see!

• Total followers
• Engaged listeners
• Average consumption / completion rates
• Where your audience skipped or stopped listening within your episodes
• Performance comparisons across your episodes
• And more!

As I hope you can see, even if you don't use Apple products or dislike their ecosystem, there are still many advantages to keeping your Apple Podcasts account current and especially learning from its data!

Community Corner

• Leslie Martin pointed out that 7,777§ is a Stryper boost, not a Rush boost (which would have been 2,112§). As I've said previously, hard rock is not actually my style, so I know nothing about these bands!
• 1,701§—a number I do recognize as the Star Trek Enterprise!—from Bryan Entzminger, saying, “Ugh! Mythinformation… wow.”
• Streaming satoshis from Bryan Entzminger, Dave Jackson, and Dwev
• 5-star review from Josh Liston, in Australia, saying, “A Perfect Mix of Fun and Expertise in Podcasting. Daniel J Lewis delivers a concrete, and well thought out Podcast about Podcasting. He rarely if ever goes off topic, and always recommends products and gear that work …and not just the products and services that return the most in commissions! DJL also manages to do what many others can't – in making often dry technical subjects a lot of fun – without wasting peoples time. Finally, he is part of the Podcasters' Roundtable core trio, which is quickly becoming my number 1 show about Podcasting!”

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Who is the IAB?

Once upon a time, podcast measurement was considered the “wild, wild west”: without standards. Everyone measured what was right in their own eyes.

But like most things that start with “Once upon a time,” that was only fairy tale. And yet a fairy tale that many corporate podcasting companies believed.

Many years ago, there was the Association of Downloadable Media (ADM) that included Blubrry, Libsyn, Podtrac, and other podcasting companies. The ADM came up with standards for measuring podcast downloads still in the extremely early days of podcasting.

The ADM eventually dissolved and top podcasting companies improved on the measurement standards within their own proprietary systems. Then along came the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), involving many of those same original podcast-hosting providers but also large distribution networks like PodcastOne and more.

As its name implies, the IAB is all about internet advertising. And the podcasting industry needed a standard way to measure podcast ad impressions. And thus, the IAB podcast measurement guidelines were born with version 1.0 in September 2016!

What are IAB stats

IAB's podcast measurement guidelines are actually not rigid standards, but mere guidelines for podcast-analytics providers to use.

Like Elizabeth Swan said in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, “Hang the code and hang the rules! They're more like guidelines anyway!”

Without getting into the technical details, these guidelines are intended to filter out any kind of invalid podcast download in attempts to get an accurate count of how many people actually downloaded or streamed the episodes (and with the hopes, backed by survey data, that most of the people actually listen to most of those episodes).

(Sidenote: podcast “streams” are also downloads, simply not downloaded until the person presses play.)

These guidelines involve things like the following.

• Ignoring all downloads from an IP address blacklist (such as data centers, bot farms, and such)
• Ignoring all downloads from known invalid user agents (how a downloading app or service identifies itself)
• Ignoring duplicate downloads that look exactly the same within a period of time (usually 24 hours)
• Ignoring downloads that don't reach a threshold (one minute of audio)
• Whitelisting some IP addresses known to have a lot of users—like public wi-fi, businesses, colleges, and such—and allowing such downloads to be counted separately with the reasonable assumption that it is separate people

The top goal is to count people, not simply downloads. Because it's only people who buy things from ads, engage with the podcaster, and listen to or watch the episodes.

These IAB guidelines get updated every few years. As of March 2024, the latest version is 2.2 still in proposal stage for public comment.

IAB “compliance” versus “certification”

When the IAB guidelines were first released, many in the podcasting industry—including myself—expressed the importance that all podcasting companies that provide audience analytics should not only follow the IAB guidelines, but even get certified to be following them.

But there were also many others who disagreed with the guidelines—some people thought the guidelines were too conservative, others thought they were too liberal.

Because the guidelines are publicly accessible, anyone can build a tool that follows the guidelines. And that's where the term “IAB–compliant” came in. It was companies simply claiming compliance based on how they implemented the guidelines.

Then along came the certification program. This was a costly process—in both time and money—for a third-party organization to conduct tests and review code to ensure the companies were truly following the guidelines, and then certifying them.

You can see the list of certified podcasting companies here.

Not only does it cost to be certified, it also costs to be a member of the IAB. And it also costs to be recertified, which the IAB was pushing in 2023. And it costs to have updated access to the IAB's whitelists and blacklists of IP addresses. But with the high cost of these things, it seems that several companies are not so concerned about being “certified” anymore. And you can see in the list of certified “podcast compliance” that several companies are still certified only to version 2.0.

Why IAB-certified podcast stats are good

I agree with the premise of the IAB podcast measurement guidelines: to have a consistent measurement “standard” across the podcast industry. The dream of this standard is that no matter who you use for podcast hosting and analytics, the statistics you get will be essentially the same. Put another way, 100 people downloading your latest episode would be counted as 100 downloads on Blubrry, or 100 downloads on Captivate, or 100 downloads on Buzzsprout, or 100 downloads on any other provider.

If everyone is following the same standard, then there wouldn't be the heartbreak and confusion if you switch from one provider to another and see a significant drop in your stats—because there shouldn't be much of a difference if everyone is measuring the same way!

So it's definitely a good thing for a podcasting company to follow the IAB guidelines, and being certified means that a neutral third party can confirm the guidelines are being followed correctly.

But every standard will have loopholes

That dream is, unfortunately, not the reality. The biggest reason is that, going back to Miss. Elizabeth Swan, the IAB podcast measurement guidelines are exactly and only that: guidelines!

As such, some companies will implement those guidelines differently. Or they use different whitelists and blacklists.

And over the years, there have been multiple loopholes found that some companies independently patch even though the IAB guidelines might not account for them, yet. For example, “Twitter bombing” was a problem several years ago. That's where someone would post a direct link to their podcast media file (like an MP3) on Twitter, and then repeatedly post that link all day, every day. Companies like Blubrry and Libsyn caught this behavior fairly quickly and were able to filter it out so those misled (or outright deceptive) podcasters wouldn't have fraudulent stats.

I even caught a podcaster guilty of such a “crime” when they were Twitter-bombing my own guest appearance on their podcast. When I politely tried to share the truth with them, they deleted my episode!

Or more recently, some podcast networks put ads in mobile games where the podcast audio would start playing automatically and enough of the audio would pre-download (or “buffer”) that it would actually get counted as a legitimate download, even for IAB-certified providers!

In my past research for testing the fastest podcast hosting, I also discovered that some hosting providers counted some or even all of my bot downloads. And I didn't even attempt to disguise my bot downloads as real people using podcast apps! (Please note that some or—let's hope—all of those previously guilty companies have probably improved their measurement algorithms since that test in 2019! But probably not Soundcloud.)

Why you don't actually need IAB-certified podcast stats

Does it really matter anymore if your podcast-hosting provider has IAB-certified stats?

I think it's nice to know your numbers are certified, especially if you get paid by advertisers based on your downloads.

But at this point, I think it's safe to assume all the good podcast-hosting providers are following the guidelines and seek to filter out all non-person downloads. They could probably better invest the money it would cost to be certified instead into building better features for their customer: you!

And here is what I think is the even more important approach: do IAB-certified stats matter to your audience?

The answer is most likely a big fat “HUH?” Because your audience probably doesn't know or doesn't care, and they shouldn't have to know or care, either!

Your audience can celebrate milestones with you no matter whether those milestones are certified by an expensive neutral third party. Your audience cares much more about the value you deliver through your podcast than they care about how many downloads you are getting.

In other words, the answer to the audience's “What's in it for me?” is probably “nothing.”

Yes, more downloads could mean more P.R.O.F.I.T. (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) for both you and your audience, and it can mean a bigger community for your audience to engage with each other. But that comes with the actual people in your audience, not the standard by which you measure them!

I've changed my mind about IAB certification

Thus, because IAB certification really doesn't matter to your audience, I've stopped considering it a requirement for any podcast-hosting provider or analytics tool I recommend. It's nice to have, but not mandatory.

Instead, I'm far more interested in the innovations podcasting companies are making, so that the whole experience can be better for you and your audience. That's why I consider support for Podcasting 2.0 to be my litmus test for podcast-publishing tools, and no longer IAB certification.

New feature: The Community Corner

• 2,033 sats from “aqualith,” saying, “10k CAN be a lot for someone who doesn't feed their Fountain wallet, or equivalent, with outside funds and not currently podcasting themselves, despite engaging with the app daily. That said, thank you for this episode and this list. I immediately shared it with someone who's setting up their first podcast. Go podcasting!”
• 7,777 sats from Steve Web on “How to Use Podcast Transcripts,” saying, “GREAT episode, Daniel. While I have been using transcripts for some time on my shows, I wasn’t really sure I was doing it correctly. This episode will help me to make some changes going forward. Thank you, and may God bless you richly!”
• 333 from Allen C. Paul also on “How to Use Podcast Transcripts,” saying, “Couldn’t help but notice this episode doesn’t have a transcript! lol! but great info.” Allen has also been giving my episodes 5 stars on Goodpods!
• “A.J.II” from the United States gave me a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts, saying, “Advice is stellar. His style and topics along with the way he speaks and communicates is terrific.Thanks!”
• And Dave Jackson responded to my “mythinformation” line with a voicemail saying, “Daniel absolutely myth information and that is hard to say definitely made me chuckle.” (That voicemail and transcript were powered by Podgagement!)

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Although I didn't plan it this way, the timing of this episode is perfect because I just launched a new feature on Podgagement that automatically transcribes audio feedback from your audience!

This topic is also very timely because of the release of iOS 17.4, which brings podcast transcripts into Apple Podcasts! (Learn more about those implications from The Future of Podcasting.)

(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases through some of these following links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

1. Don't believe the myths about podcast transcripts

For many years, people have been promoting transcripts for the wrong reasons. I've also been pitched by many transcription companies pushing the wrong approach.

While there are elements of truth in these two common myths, the ways people often promote and understand these two ideas are where the information become myth—of “mythinformation”?

Myth 1: “Transcripts are good for podcast SEO”

People have often said that you should publish podcast transcripts on your website to make your podcast findable through search-engine optimization (SEO). But that's not the full truth.

Yes, transcripts are better than nothing or a mere paragraph or list of topics. But transcripts result in a lot of words and actually very little content, resulting in very low quality writing (probably even worse than AI-created text or writing from non-natives of the language).

For example, a two-cohost podcast transcript might look like this:

Jack: Welcome to the our podcast, where we talk about things to help you do stuff! I'm Jack!

Jill: And I'm Jill.

Jack: Before we get into this topic, how are you doing, Jill?

Jill: The weather is sunny today, so I'm great!

Jack: Great!

Jill: Yeah. What about you?

Jack: I'm fine, but I don't know what the weather is, but—

Jill: That's sad.

Jack: What do mean?

Jill: I mean, you're saying that you haven't gone outside or even looked out a window in a while.

Jack: Yeah, but it's okay.

Jill: So anyway!

Jack: Yes! Let's jump into this week's topic.

…

Note that in this fictional example, there are a lot of words, but you've learned nothing from this excerpt!

That kind of back-and-forth is fine in a conversation and can even sometimes be okay in a podcast. But it writing, it becomes worthless.

Compare that to how the same “information” could be written in a way that's valuable:

Actually, that whole exchange could be edited out of the written content because there's little to no value in reading that!

Search engines prioritize high-quality content that is readable, but unless you're a professional speaker performing a refined monologue, transcripts are neither readable nor high quality. So, no, transcripts are not the “magic bullet” to making your podcast perform well for SEO, especially if you're relegating transcripts to a downloadable file or a web page separate from your podcast episode.

Myth 2: “Transcripts make your podcast accessible”

It's true that people with hearing impairments still consume podcasts! Thus transcripts have been lauded as the accessibility solution podcasts need!

But the problem is that most published transcripts are still difficult to read or—worse—are buried in a link or downloadable file that could actually be even less accessible!

It's like putting up a billboard with a QR Code that drivers can scan to watch a video to learn why they shouldn't be distracted while driving!

Good accessibility doesn't help only the hearing-impaired, it can also help memorability or engagement for the rest of your audience. For example, a word or URL that might be ambiguous, such as “to” versus “two” versus “2” versus “too.” This gets even worse if you've made up words!

Here, properly written show notes or an article can make the information far more memorable and actionable than a giant transcription page.

It's only properly formatted and properly published transcripts that make your podcast accessible! And more on that in a moment!

2. (Optional) Use transcripts with podcast-production tools

You can use the power of transcripts immediately after you record your episodes, even if you never publish those transcripts!

While you could pay for someone to transcribe your podcast for you, AI tools have gotten really good at making fairly accurate transcripts!

Yes, AI has become the ubiquitous tool for all kinds of content-creators. I've joked before, “Look, Daddy! Teacher says, ‘Every time a bell rings, an AI-powered app launches on AppSumo!'” But I'm a big fan of using AI on your content you made instead of for making your content.

The way AI-based tools work with your audio or video podcast is by first transcribing your content. Then, you can use that AI to do impressive and time-saving things with the transcript, like summarizing your episode, suggesting episode titles, and even helping you better edit your recording.

Here are my current favorite transcription-based tools to help when your episode is still in this early post-production stage right after you've record:

• Descript (audio and video)
• Adobe Podcast (audio)
• Adobe Premiere Pro (audio and video)
• Adobe Audition (audio transcript features coming soon?)
• Hindenburg (audio)

Each of these tools can make editing your recording as easy as editing a text document! Plus, they can even export the transcript from your finished production that you can use in the following other steps.

You can also upload your read-to-publish audio to some transcription-based tools to get suggestions for titles, chapters, show notes, social posts, keywords, and more! The best tools for that are:

• Castmagic
• Capsho
• Buzzsprout's Cohost AI addon

Even if you don't use any transcription-based tools, you can still use a transcript of your recording to help you find places to edit, excerpts for sharing, and reminders of your content. And you can do this without ever publishing those transcripts (but I still recommend that you do)!

3. Make properly formatted podcast transcripts

In order to be actually useful, a transcript needs to have more data with it. At a minimum, transcripts need timestamps for when lines or even words were spoken. But transcripts can also include the speakers' names, formatting, and more.

The most common transcript formats are VTT and SRT, but VTT—specifically WebVTT—is the superior format, but it's not as widely supported as SRT.

In its vanilla state, VTT and SRT will look similar:

00:01.000 --> 00:04.000
Never drink liquid nitrogen.
00:05.000 --> 00:09.000
It will perforate your stomach.

And then WebVTT can add a whole bunch of additional features and formatting over this.

You can get these properly formatted transcripts from the transcription-based editing tools I shared above, or you can generate them through AI or third-party help.

The most important thing here is to get the transcripts in the right format! A big block of text in a PDF or text document is not going to be as useful as the structured data like you get with SRT or VTT.

Easy access to artificial intelligence (AI) tools has made creating transcripts a whole lot faster, easier, and cheaper. The editing tools I mentioned all use AI to generate their transcripts, or you could use other services, too:

• Castmagic
• Capsho
• Auphonic
• Buzzsprout's Cohost AI addon
• Transistor's AI transcripts feature
• Otter.ai
• Rev

(This list might not be up-to-date because these features are coming to more tools quite frequently.)

I like the more modern AI-based transcription tools because they understand language better and are thus able to make transcripts that actually read well and are usually quite accurate. Compare that to transcripts from only a few years ago that transcribed what they thought they heard, even if it didn't make sense.

Most likely any tool that requires Internet access has limits to how much you can transcribe or has pricing based on your usage.

So, alternatively, consider these two fantastic apps you can install on your computer to generate the transcripts without the Internet or usage fees or limits. These use OpenAI's free and open-source Whisper model.

• MacWhisper Pro (macOS, free and paid versions)—this is what I used and usually get really good results from
• Whisper GUI (Windows, free)
• Run Whisper from the command line (free, but super geeky)

Because these apps run everything on your computer, you'll get much faster results on a more powerful computer. For comparison, MacWhisper Pro's largest language model on my M1 MacBook Pro can transcribe a 30-minute podcast episode in only a couple of minutes. But my maxed-out Intel iMac takes much longer to process the same audio with the same app.

With the launch of iOS 17.4 in March 2024, you now download the transcript Apple automatically generates for you through your Podcasts Connect account!

4. Edit your podcast transcripts

Regardless of whether you transcribe your podcast with AI or with a person, the transcript will most likely need some editing.

Some automatic transcription tools will smartly break lines at logical points, like on punctuation or at the end of sentences. But that's not mandatory.

The best thing to do would be to read your entire transcript to edit for accuracy. I think it could even be okay to edit for clarity. For example, if the speaker said, “There are 5 ways—I mean 6 ways—to do this,” you could edit the transcript to simply “There are 6 ways to do this.”

Pay close attention to anything that could cause you legal trouble, too! For example, your guest might have said, “I love two li'l puppies,” but your transcript might incorrectly say, “I love to kill puppies.” YIKES!

But this is where I notice the good modern transcription tools (like Whisper or Gemini Pro 1.5 and later) that use updated large-language models (LLMs) can often do a better job because they seem good at combining what they think they hear along with what makes grammatical and contextual sense.

But if you're in a hurry, here's the quick hack for editing your transcripts: double-check all proper nouns and URLs.

For example, one transcription tool I tried would always transcribe “Podcasting 2.0” as “podcasting 2 point oh.” Or even MacWhisper Pro sometimes transcribes “theaudacitytopodcast.com” as something like “the odacity2podcast.com.” For these things, I've made a list of the common errors so it's easy for me to run a find-and-replace operation on them. MacWhisper actually has that built in! And some transcription tools let you enter terms that are important to get right. For example, I might enter “Podgagement” since that's a made up trademark and the AI models might not understand it, yet.

But I've also been surprised, especially by Whisper, how often it not only gets the spelling right but even the capitalization!

5. Put the podcast transcripts in the right places

Now that you have an accurate transcript in a good format (SRT or VTT), we've had a standard place to put that in podcasting for a couple of years now, and even Apple Podcasts is now on board!

You only need to upload the transcript somewhere online (if it's not already publicly hosted for you) and link to it in your Podcasting 2.0 <podcast:transcript> tag in your RSS feed, which your podcast-publishing/hosting tool might do for you.

This makes the transcript visible to a growing list of Podcasting 2.0 apps, and now even Apple Podcasts supports the Podcasting 2.0 transcript!

Even if Apple Podcasts generates the transcript for you, the app will use your transcript if you provide it through the transcript feature in your RSS feed. This is so much better than how Spotify, Google, and Amazon currently do it!

Putting your SRT or VTT transcript in the right place also exposes it for other apps and services to use. As this becomes more popular, more podcast apps will use these transcripts to learn what your episodes are about and help expose your podcast in more relevant searches. For example, even if you keyword-stuff your title, author, and description tags with something like “real estate investing,” if you're not literally talking about real estate investing in your episodes, your podcast probably won't rank well for that term. What makes this podcast SEO different from the SEO myth I shared above is that this Podcasting 2.0 method exposes your transcript in a specific structure that make it easy for applications to read and process. You don't get that when you dump the whole transcript on your website (or in a download).

But if you really want to publish a transcript in a readable format, you can convert your SRT or VTT transcript into formatted text and offer that through your website. Just don't expect much to come from it!

6. (Optional) Use your podcast transcripts for promotion

I'm not a fan of creating new content with AI (also called “generative AI”). I think the results are cheap, unoriginal, and in a legal gray area because most generative AI models were trained with copyrighted content and without the content-owner's permission.

Putting aside those potential legal and ethical implications, I do love artificial intelligence as a different “AI”: assistive intelligence. So instead of creating new content for you, the AI analyzes the content you created and helps you describe it, improve it, repurpose it, and more.

And this all starts with a transcript of your podcast!

My favorite AI tool right now is Magai because it includes multiple models (not just ChatGPT) and you can now easily upload your entire podcast transcript to then work with inside Magai. For example, you could ask it to write a promotion for the episode in the first-person tone of your guest so you can send that to him or her to more relevantly share their appearance on your podcast.

Castmagic, Capsho, and Buzzsprout's Cohost AI also have features like this built in. For example, Castmagic (which I use, too) automatically recognizes separate speakers in the audio and can also automatically generate a whole bunch of different content from my content. This includes social posts, titles, X-Twitter threads, engaging questions, outlines, and more.

So even if a tool can't transcribe your content for you, yet (as is the case with Magai), you can still give it your transcript to analyze and use for many more purposes!

It all starts with the transcript of your content. (Or in my case, since I write such thorough articles for my podcast episodes, I frequently give Magai my published webpage URL instead of uploading a transcript.)

(And in case you're wondering, the entirety of this article and podcast episode were created solely by me. And even though some people might call my intelligence “artificial,” I didn't use any AI for this episode!)

You can also use a tool like Descript, Headliner, or Opus Clip to find good excerpts from your episode to share as clips, like I'm doing for this very episode! This, too, starts with your transcripts, and you'll probably get even better results if you can edit or provide a more accurate transcript.

Try Podgagement, now with automatic transcripts for voicemails from your audience!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

For extra context, listen to my previous episode about Podcasting 2.0 and why it matters.

Some of these features are still in development. Visit our new Podcasting2.org website to see the apps and publishing/hosting tools that support these features. (In the near future, CanIPodcast.com will let you see the complete overview of what features are supported where.)

1. Cross-app comments

When I recently attended Podfest Multimedia Expo, I was talking with a woman interested to know more about Podcasting 2.0. She lit up with excitement over two things: cross-app comments and live streaming.

The vision of cross-app comments is simple. Imagine being able to comment on an episode you're listening without leaving your podcast app! Even better, others can reply to you from their different podcast apps!

This is what cross-app comments will allow: audience comments from multiple podcast apps but all going into the same stream of activity so you and others can engage from preferred apps.

While I think this is the most exciting feature for everyone, it's also proving to be the most complicated to implement. Developers have to think about performance, data portability, authentication, and giving you moderation control. But when these features are all solved, this will be a dynamite feature!

And the best part is that this engagement can occur completely without leaving the podcast app! (But there will be other systems to let you monitor and engage with your audience. For example, I'll be building this into Podgagement whenever the development issues are resolved.)

2. Live streaming

When I spoke with that woman at Podfest, the other thing she was most excited about was the ability to live-stream with live engagement directly into her audience's podcast apps.

That's what the “live item tag” (or sometimes called “LIT”) is designed to do!

Live-streaming isn't a good fit for all podcasts or podcasters. It presents a whole new layer of complexity and multiple distractions. But when you can manage it well, live-streaming is a fantastic way to engage your most loyal audience in real-time.

Podcasting 2.0's live feature will let you live-stream directly into the modern podcast apps. You start by scheduling your upcoming event, and your audience will see that in their apps. When you go live, you audience can receive push notifications and then jump to listening or watching live. There's even the potential to have your chat room there, too!

Best of all, this is all right inside your audience's podcast app! They won't have to leave to listen or watch on a separate page, they can engage without leaving their preferred podcast app!

Apps can even do smart things like automatically marking the later downloaded episode as played if the audience already played it live.

Learn more about the Podcasting 2.0 live streaming feature from Dave Jackson and me in The Future of Podcasting!

3. Micropayments

Don't let the “micro” part of “micropayments” make you think they're small and worthless!

Podcasting 2.0 enables you to receive financial support in any amount from your audience by leveraging the power of Bitcoin, specifically through the faster and cheaper Lightning Network. This is most commonly measured in Satoshis (abbreviated “sats” or “§”), which are 100 millionth of a Bitcoin. Here's the quick hack (at least for US Dollars) to understand the value. Every 1,000§ is worth the current value of Bitcoin in cents. So if Bitcoin is $45,000, then 1,000§ is worth 45¢.

This allows your audience to give as little as a few pennies to as much as they value your podcast—thus why this feature is called “Value for Value” and uses the <podcast:value> RSS tag.

But it doesn't stop there! Your audience can set their podcast app to stream the payments to you for every minute they listen to your podcast! So even something that seems as small as 100§ per minute would be 3,000§ for a 30-minute podcast. If Bitcoin is worth $45,000, that streaming payment would convert to $1.35—and that's 54 times as much as that one listener would be worth to an advertiser paying the common $25 CPM!

These kinds of “micropayments” would be nearly worthless or even impossible with common payment methods like PayPal or credit cards, who usually take a flat fee around 50¢ plus around 3% of the transaction!

Listen to my past episode, “Are Podcasting 2.0 Micropayments Worth It?” and read about “Value 4 Value” to learn more!

4. Super chapters

Shoutout to Dovydas from RSSBlue.com for coining the term “super chapters,” and I love it!

We've had chapters in podcasting since 2005, but they've always been very limited. They could only contain a title, a optional link, and an optional image. They were also embedded in the media file, so updating your chapters would mean replacing your media file. And that limitation meant that none of your audience who already downloaded the episode would be able to see anything new in the chapters.

Podcasting 2.0's “super chapters” build on these legacy features and move the chapters into an external metadata file.

Simply by being in an external file, you can now update the chapters anytime. And modern podcast apps are smart enough to check for updated chapters when your audience engages with your episodes.

The optional chapter images are also external URLs, allowing you to swap out the images anytime, or even do cool things like dynamically generated images with promotions, countdowns, dates, and more!

At this time, Podcasting 2.0 chapters still support only the same title, URL, and image fields like legacy chapters. But that will change soon with support for image galleries, videos, blocks of text, polls, and more!

5. Transcripts

I've long seen that transcripts were mostly a waste in the podcasting space. Transcripts are usually low-quality written content and thus are difficult to read and perform very poorly for search-engine optimization (SEO). Some podcasters would even relegate their transcripts to a separate download through their website, making them even less accessible for anyone who might actually need the transcripts for accessibility!

But Podcasting 2.0 changed that! Now, you can link to your episode transcripts (best in SRT or VTT file formats) right from your podcast RSS feed, and smart podcast apps will see them and even give your audience to see your line-by-line transcript in real time with your spoken content! Check out Steno.fm to see how it can highlight portions of the transcript as those words are being spoken.

It's “closed captions” for podcasts!

And the big surprise of 2024 was that Apple announced official support for Podcasting 2.0 transcripts starting with iOS 17.4! This is huge because it's the first Podcasting 2.0 feature Apple has supported! And since Apple is still an industry leader and trendsetter in podcasting, you can expect to see a lot of other popular apps start to support the same podcast standard. And that could also open the floodgates to much broader Podcasting 2.0 support!

Dave Jackson and I discussed the many implications of Apple's support for Podcasting 2.0 transcripts in this episode of The Future of Podcasting.

How can you use Podcasting 2.0?

My ultimatum is this: if your current podcast-publishing tool doesn't deeply support Podcasting 2.0 by now, switch!

Your four best options right now are:

1. Blubrry with PowerPress on WordPress
2. Captivate
3. Buzzsprout
4. Combine Podcast Mirror with your RSS feed from any legacy hosting provider

I spoke more about these hosting options in my previous episode/article, “Best Podcast Hosting Providers (2024).”

And if you're wondering how to make and use transcripts, that's what I'll talk about in my next episode!

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

You need good podcast hosting to help you distribute your show, keep it online, and understand your reach. Now, podcast hosting can help you with much more, too!

How podcast-hosting has changed

As the podcasting industry is innovating and there are new ways to engage, grow, and monetize, podcast-hosting providers have to keep up!

Years ago, all we needed from a podcast-hosting provider was storage, bandwidth, stats, and maybe their RSS feed (because you might want to generate it separately). And if your show was big enough, you might have a chance at getting a sponsor through your hosting provider.

But today, podcast hosting includes innovative new features, like dynamic content insertion; automatic processing for audio, images, and video; content-creation assistance; marketing tools; engagement outlets; and even built-in ways to monetize your podcast directly from your audience.

This is why I've taken some time to reconsider my recommendations.

And as you'll quickly notice, there is no single best podcast-hosting provider because it really depends on your needs. Thus, I hope the following help you make the choice that's right for your podcast.

(As an affiliate for many providers, I earn from qualifying purchases through most of these following links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

Best all-inclusive podcast hosting (also for multiple shows): Captivate

I call Captivate the “Apple of podcast hosting” because their design and features are truly innovative. They show your stats in ways that are easy to understand, they offer beautifully designed sites, and they even sync with WordPress!

• Reliable, IAB-certified stats
• Distributed media hosting for fast downloads
• One price for unlimited shows and unlimited uploads
• Pricing based on total downloads per month
• Free migration
• Highly responsive support
• Branding-optional, embeddable, responsive player
• Podcasting 2.0 features
• Automatically sync with your WordPress site
• 7-day free trial

Host your podcast with Captivate

Captivate's podcast hosting has been revolutionary! They offer the most extensive range of features—not merely the typical media-hosting and analytics features, but even features to help you manage your content and monetization!

Their dynamic content insertion tool, AMIE, is—in my opinion—the best in the industry! Yes, you can use it for inserting ads, but you can do so much more with it, like using it for any kind of content! Plus, AMIE makes it quick and easy to prepare old episodes for dynamic content, or even replace old ads like painting over them!

You can also monetize your podcast directly from your audience through Captivate's membership system, donations, exclusive content, and more!

And if you have multiple shows, Captivate lets you run your whole podcast network with a single subscription, and the cheapest plan already supports up to 3 shows at no extra cost.

Pricing is primarily based on the size of your audience, either for downloading or the membership subscriptions.

On top of this, Captivate has the best Podcasting 2.0 support in the industry right now!

There's so much more I could say about Captivate, but I don't want this whole episode/article to be about one provider!

Captivate is my top recommendation for most podcasters!

I had the honor and pleasure of serving on Captivate's advisory board until Captivate was acquired. I don't recommend Captivate because I was an advisor, I accepted that role because I liked what Captivate was doing! I had even previously called Captivate the “Apple of podcast hosting” because of their attention to detail and innovative developments.

Honorable mention goes Transistor, who offer many of the same features as Captivate but actually allow unlimited podcasts on every plan. However, Transistor reserve some features for higher plans.

Best WordPress-based podcast hosting: Blubrry

If you're running a WordPress website, Blubrry's hosting integrates seamlessly with PowerPress—the #1 podcasting plugin for WordPress.

• Industry-standard stats
• Distributed media hosting for fast downloads
• Monthly upload limit, no download limit
• Overage flexibility
• Free migration
• USA-based phone and email support
• Unbranded, embeddable, responsive episode player
• Automatic ID3 tagging
• Manage everything from your WordPress site
• First two months FREE with promo code “NOODLE”

Host your podcast with Blubrry

While all my other podcast-hosting recommendations require using their publishing platform to manage your podcast RSS feed, Blubrry is my top recommendation if you want to manage your own publishing platform with WordPress.

WordPress lets you do almost anything with your website! Consider TheAudacitytoPodcast.com. Here, I publish articles, sometimes with interactive charts; I sell video courses, a WordPress plugin (with auto-updates), and even ID3 Editor licenses; I created multiple recommendation pages; I have countless redirects and automatic links; and I designed the site to look exactly how I wanted. All this extra functionality is powered WordPress's extensibility with plugins and themes.

Blubrry's podcast hosting connects seamlessly to all of this through their free PowerPress plugin, which I've used since I think 2007. While Blubrry supports the community so much that they've provided this plugin for free for many years, the best way to use it is pairing it with Blubrry's podcast hosting. Then, instead of going to another website to manage your podcast and possibly having to copy and paste a lot of stuff to your WordPress site, Blubrry integrates it all right in your normal WordPress workflow!

Simply create a post like you normally would in WordPress, and then upload your podcast episode and enter your episode information directly within the same post editor!

Blubrry is also leading the charge on including Podcasting 2.0 features—even some of the experimental ones!

And if you want to get on the bleeding edge of experimentation, you can even extend features of PowerPress yourself with the right tools!

Blubrry's top goal is to help you build your own platform, a platform that you own and fully control. No one else integrates as well with WordPress as Blubrry does!

Plus, PowerPress has become such a standard for podcasting with WordPress that many podcast-ready themes (like my favorites from SecondLine Themes) have built-in support to enhance the podcast players for your website audience!

If you use my link to try Blubrry, make sure you enter my promo code “NOODLE” to get a free month!

Best easy/simple podcast hosting without compromises: Buzzsprout

Buzzsprout is the easiest-to-use podcast-hosting provider but without compromising features!

• Reliable, IAB-certified stats
• Distributed media hosting for fast downloads
• Pricing based on hours of audio per month
• Free migration
• Highly responsive support
• Branding-optional, embeddable, responsive player
• Podcasting 2.0 features
• Sell premium subscriptions and exclusive content to your audience
• Magic Mastering (upgrade) for automatic audio enhancement
• Cohost AI (upgrade) for AI-powered help with titles, notes, and more

Host your podcast with Buzzsprout

So far, my recommendations have been feature-rich and all about giving you total power over every aspect of your podcast.

But with great power comes great anxiety!

Thus, I present the oasis of podcast hosting: Buzzsprout!

Buzzsprout has always been one of the easiest-to-use podcasting platforms. But don't let the whitespace and simple looks fool you! Buzzsprout has jumped into my top recommendations because they also provide impressive extra features to help you podcast better, but still without compromising their simplicity!

They offer three impressive features on top of their already great podcast hosting features:

1. Magic Mastering: Automatically process your podcast audio for clarity and ideal loudness!
2. Automatic dynamic content: Their AI will find the ideal places to place ads within your content, and even offer ways to grow your own podcast or grow your wallet through these opportunities!
3. Cohost AI: Get AI-powered suggestions on titles, notes, chapters, and more, right from your podcast-publishing workflow!

It is important to note that some of these features come at upgraded costs. But they can be worth it in the time and brain cells they save you!

Buzzsprout supports Podcasting 2.0, too!

Best “free” podcast hosting: RedCircle

I get it. Maybe podcasting is so much your hobby that you can't even afford the relatively low monthly fees for podcast hosting. While I still want to remind you that you will get what you pay for, RedCircle is the only free podcast-hosting provider I recommend.

Their feature offerings aren't as advanced as my previous recommendations, but RedCircle's dynamic-content insertion tools are quite nice, giving you opportunities to pay for your hosting with ads (and earn some money yourself, too).

While I still suggest that you invest in your podcast hosting, if you absolutely need something “free,” RedCircle is the way to go!

Dishonorable mention: Spotify for Podcasters (formerly “Anchor”). Do not use them! Spotify's actions make it seem like they hate the podcast industry because they keep arrogantly ignoring innovations, develop only proprietary features, and are more interested in having you build their platform than providing ways for you to build yours. Because of this and more, I think the true cost of Spotify for Podcasters is too high.

Honorable mention goes to Buzzsprout, but their free plan is limited to only your latest few episodes.

Best video podcast hosting: Libsyn

Regardless of where you host your website (or the CMS you use), Libsyn provides a stable RSS feed with your media, in addition to automatic crossposting to other platforms.

• Industry-standard stats
• Distributed media hosting for fast downloads
• Monthly upload limit, no download limit
• Flat-rate $25 migration fee for up to 10 GB
• Email support
• Libsyn-branded, embeddable, responsive player
• Crosspost to Spotify, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, and more
• Standalone app option for iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Amazon Kindle Fire
• Automatic ID3 tagging
• Current and next month free with promo code “NOODLE”

Host your podcast media with Libsyn

Video podcasting is not nearly as popular as it was in the couple of years before YouTube stole the show. And don't believe the misinformation (maybe even “disinformation”) from corrupted surveys claiming that video podcasting is back or that most audiences prefer video podcasts. All those surveys I've seen are using invalid questions, allow invalid answers, and draw or have led to radically invalid conclusions.

All that said, if you do want a true video podcast, I recommend Libsyn.

Libsyn is the original podcast-hosting provider. And while they haven't innovated nearly as much as I wish (at least at this time), they still offer the best bandwidth bang for your buck, which is crucial for a video podcast!

But it's not only about value, I recommend Libsyn for video podcasting primarily because of this huge feature: integration with YouTube.

Because YouTube is where most people go for independent video content, I suggest everyone who makes a video show to also publish on YouTube! And if you want that exact same show to be both on YouTube and as a real podcast, Libsyn is the way to go!

Libsyn allows you to publish only once and then they will automatically upload your video to YouTube.

On top of that, I believe Libsyn is still the only provider to also bring your video stats back from YouTube and display them with your normal podcast download stats! So none of this checking your stats in two places or publishing your video in two places stuff! Libsyn makes it easy to do both in one place!

Use my promo code “NOODLE” to try Libsyn free for the rest of this month plus all of next month! (That's actually how my promo code always works, because Libsyn always bills at midnight GMT on the first day of the month.)

The best podcast hosting is the one that meets your needs

You can probably tell I rarely recommend a single option and that's because, in many areas, I think there is no single “best” that does everything for everyone. Like most things, my goal is to provide you with the information to make the right choice for yourself.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

And if you want to avoid this problem, do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed!

How duplicate podcast listings happen

There are two common reasons you might end up with a duplicate listing of your podcast, either by your own actions or by automation.

Reason 1: a secondary feed was automatically discovered and indexed

You might have used several different podcast-publishing tools, like your own website, PowerPress, multiple podcast-hosting providers, and such. Or you might have used some automation tools for crossposting, like Spreaker, AudioBoom, Podpage, and such. Or you used a feed proxy to mirror and rehost your RSS feed, like Feedburner or Podcast Mirror.

Any of these tools might have created another RSS feed for your podcast and may even be actively updating it. They could even be serving the exact same feed from multiple URLs, like HTTP and HTTPS (although not so common anymore), or from different subdomains.

Podcast Index, Google Podcasts (rest in peace), and maybe a couple of other systems search the web looking for podcast feeds to include and they'll often find those duplicates. Podcast Index has a fairly smart deduplication process, but Google Podcasts was a little annoying, often switching to the newly discovered feed (even if was only a redirect!) and requiring you to verify ownership of that new feed before you can switch back to your desired feed.

A couple of my own podcasts have had as many as 8 different RSS feeds discovered by Google Podcasts! And even though some of them were proper 301 redirects, the automated system still wanted to change to them instead of the feeds I had intentionally submitted for Google Podcasts to use. But at least that didn't create duplicates and it didn't interfere with my audience.

But other discovery systems might add the extra feeds as new podcasts, resulting in duplicates. (At this time, none of the most popular podcast apps use automatic discovery to build their catalogs.)

Reason 2: the podcast was resubmitted

Do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed!

I see this problem happen far more frequently lately. When podcasters switch podcast-hosting providers, like from Spotify for Podcasters (formerly known as Anchor) to a provider such as Captivate or Blubrry, the podcasters sometimes submit their new RSS feeds as new podcasts instead of simply redirecting the old feeds.

This sometimes comes from bad advice, or from an attempt (albeit the wrong method) to reclaim ownership of a podcast in Apple Podcasts or another directory, or it might even be from thinking that you had to resubmit after changing the title or cover art. Whatever the reason, this usually results in listing the same podcast twice, even if you later properly redirect the old RSS feed. Apple Podcasts used to prevent the same feed from being submitted twice, but I'm seeing indications that system either isn't working, or isn't used anymore.

Again,do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed! (And don't tell your long-time audience to follow your new listing, either!)

The duplicate podcast listing problem gets worse, especially in Apple Podcasts

When your podcast is listed multiple times in the same podcast directory, you risk splitting your ratings, reviews, chart and search rankings, and even your followers.

In most podcast apps, simply redirecting the incorrect RSS feed to the correct one will at least merge your split audiences. But it won't merge the other catalog features if they exist.

But it's even worse in Apple Podcasts since iOS 14.5!

Before iOS 14.5, your audience was connected directly to your podcast RSS feed. So regardless of what happened in the Apple Podcasts catalog, your audience would get whatever you put in your feed and would follow wherever that feed URL would redirect. Back then, you could simply redirect the duplicate listing and then delete it, and you wouldn't lose any of your audience.

But not anymore! This changed with iOS 14.5.

Now, even if your duplicate listing gets switched to your correct RSS feed, everyone who followed your podcast through that duplicate is connected to Apple's proxy of your podcast feed, and not connected directly to your feed. In other words, people in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and maybe only a couple other proxy-based podcast apps subscribe to the catalog listing of your podcast in that app, not directly to your RSS feed. So if you delete that duplicate listing, you will lose its followers!

Even if you're okay with losing any ratings, reviews, and rankings that duplicate listing might have accumulated, I suggest that you should not accept losing your audience!

How to fix your duplicate podcast listing in proxy-based services like Apple Podcasts and Spotify

If the podcast app in question behaves like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where your audience is connected to the platform's proxy of your podcast or the catalog entry of your podcast instead of directly to your own RSS feed, then the solution is a little complicated and incomplete. But these steps should help!

In all of the following steps, the “correct listing” will be the oldest one that has the majority of your followers, ratings, reviews, and rankings. That's the one you want to keep, even if it still has the wrong RSS feed.

Step 1: Ask the platform to merge your listings

While this is most likely not possible at this time, these platforms need to know how frequent these problems are. So here's what I suggest you send them (feel free to copy and update this for your own use):

Dear [Apple Podcasts/Spotify/platform],

My podcast, [Podcast Title], is listed multiple times in your catalog and that's negatively affecting me and my audience. If possible, would you please merge these listings so I don't lose any of my audience or earned engagement or rankings?

Correct listing: [URL or ID]
Correct feed: [feed URL, which may actually be different from the current listing]

Incorrect listing[s]: [URLs or IDs]

It's crucial for my audience's experience to ensure none of them are disconnected from my podcast through this merge process. Even if I have to lose other earned engagement or ranking, I need a promise that I won't lose any of my audience.

Thanks in advance!

If they actually can merge your listings and promise you won't lose your audience, great! But most likely, they'll come back saying either they can't merge the listings, or they might even give bad advice suggesting to delete the duplicate(s). Do not delete the duplicates, yet!

Please be kind in whatever interactions you have with the platform's support team! You should probably assume they won't be able to give the correct help, but I do still recommend asking anyway.

Since these proxy-based platforms (like Apple Podcasts and Spotify) most likely can't provide the correct solution, and deleting the duplicate listing will harm your audience, your only other option is to ask your audience to refollow the correct listing. But there's a clever way so you don't need to ask your whole audience!

Step 2: Redirect properly

Unfortunately, it seems most of these duplicates happen where the old-but-correct listing is using the “wrong” RSS feed, and your duplicate incorrect listing(s) might be using the new, correct feeds. So I know this will seem a little confusing.

The old listing most likely has more followers and reputation, so it's the listing you want to keep. Get that old feed URL to redirect to the new feed URL using a 301 permanent redirect. Ideally, that redirect should remain forever.

A redirect happens before the contents of the feed are loaded. So it really doesn't matter what's in the feed you're redirecting, or if it's even a feed anymore! It's the URL that's important.

It's just like forwarding mail from your old address to your new home. It really doesn't matter who lives in the old home because your mail will be forwarded before it even gets delivered.

Any half-decent podcast-hosting provider should be able to permanently redirect your old feed URL to the new one. Even bottom-of-the-barrel SoundCloud can do it!

If you control the URL of your old feed, you might be able to use tools from your website, web-hosting provider, or domain registrar to redirect the URL to your new feed. You could even use a third-party tool like Cloudflare to put a redirect on the domain's exact path and you wouldn't need web-hosting at all because the contents at that URL don't matter; it's only the URL that needs a 301 redirect to your new feed URL.

Step 3: Make a new RSS feed with a single announcement episode

Start by creating a new RSS feed with most of the same podcast information. The easiest way to get this would be a separate category feed from your publishing tool, if available.

If that won't work, you could open your RSS feed in your browser and save it as a file on your computer.

Change the title slightly by adding “DUPLICATE” or something similar, and you might want to add a “duplicate” banner in the cover art, too. The point is to make it easy for anyone to see that this is the duplicate, not the actual podcast you want them to follow.

Give this new RSS feed only a single episode explaining what you need your audience to do and link to your correct listings in all the affected apps. This announcement will be seen and heard only by those who actually need to do something. Feel free to copy the following script for your notes and spoken announcement.

Hi! We're changing some backend stuff with our podcast and that, unfortunately, breaks part of my/our podcast. I/we would love to keep you in our community, so I/we need you to do a couple of things to continue receiving my/our podcast.

First, refollow my/our podcast in your podcast app, but it needs to be the one without “DUPLICATE” in the title and cover art. You can probably get there from the link in this episode's notes, or by searching for the same title.

[Include your correct Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other proxy-based platform links here in the notes.]

Then, when you can see that you're following the correct podcast with all the episodes, please unfollow this duplicate podcast and remove it from your library.

Make this new RSS feed available online (even if you merely upload the new XML file to your web hosting), but you will not be using any regular redirects to it or from it.

Step 4: Change the feed URL in the platform's portal

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other proxy-based platforms offer portals for you to manage your podcast listings. These portals sometimes allow you to change the source RSS feed for your podcast listing without having to redirect your feed URL. This is the thing that in the past, I've urged podcasters not to change in Apple Podcasts Connect, but now you do need it for this one purpose.

Log into each portal that has your duplicate listing and change that source RSS feed to the announcement feed you created in step 3. This will change the feed for only your followers on that platform. If you change this in the Apple Podcasts catalog, it will change the source RSS feed for any apps that use Apple's catalog in their app, but it won't change the feed for anyone's library using those other apps. And that's okay, because nearly all other podcast apps connect your audience directly with your RSS feed. So your audience would go wherever it points in those other apps. And if that duplicate listing is using your correct RSS feed, then your audience will get your podcast from that feed instead of from the app proxy.

Updating your source feed in these few proxy-based apps should then add the “duplicate” information and push that announcement out to only those who are affected.

Step 5: Redirect and delete after a few months

Leave this announcement feed online for at least 3 months. You can start shutting it down after that.

You need to do only two things with the announcement feed:

1. 301 redirect the announcement feed URL to your correct podcast feed.
2. Delete the duplicate listings through the podcast portals.

Once it's redirecting, you don't need to keep the announcement feed or episode online anymore.

Unfortunate conclusion: it's messy and you might still lose some numbers

I believe these steps are the current best way to do things if the platforms use their own proxies and can't merge your listings.

It's still possible and even likely you'll lose some numbers through the “cracks” inherent with this process. You might see your download stats drop, but it will most likely be disengaged audience members. And that's why I say you might lose some numbers, but maybe not people who were actually listening. After all, if those people don't follow you to the correct podcast listing, were they really that engaged with your podcast anyway?

I really wish this wasn't an issue at all! But bad instructions and platform limitations make this complication necessary if you hope to keep most of your audience.

Important reminder: do not resubmit your feed!

As much as I'd like to bring in Smokey the Podcast Bear to tell you that only you can prevent duplicate podcast listings, the unfortunate reality is that it's still possible for some hosting providers—most likely the unknowledgeable ones—to make this mistake and tell you to resubmit your podcast with the new feed, or even worse, they submit it for you.

DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!

The only exception is if you've completely lost control of your old RSS feed and it's absolutely impossible to get it back (but it usually is). Even in this case, it's still better to change the source feed of your podcast in all the podcast apps your can instead of resubmitting your podcast with the new feed.

If you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider giving back what it's worth to you?

Supercharge your podcast engagement and grow your podcast!

Do you ever feel like your podcast is stuck? Like you're pouring your heart into your podcast but it seems like no one is listening?

Try Podgagement to help you supercharge your podcast endgagement!

Get speakable pages to simplify engaging with your audience, accept voicemail feedback (with automatic transcripts), see and share your ratings and reviews from nearly 200 places, follow your podcast rankings across nearly 34,000 global charts, discover networking opportunities, and more!

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the episode
• Send a written or voicemail message here

Follow The Audacity to Podcast

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other Android apps, or in your favorite podcast app.
• Subscribe on YouTube for Podcasting Videos by The Audacity to Podcast
• Follow @theDanielJLewis on X-Twitter

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.