Writing Your Way To A Successful Podcast

Your podcast is more than just your audio file. And as podcasting continues to mature, the not-just-audio parts of your show will become more important factors that influence your podcasting success. 

https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/writing-your-way-to-a-successful-podcast

Did you make a resolution to get more serious about your podcast? If so, I've what may seem like an odd place to focus: copywriting.

Why writing? Because we collectively need to "grow up" when it comes to making our podcast episodes. We need to be less lazy and stop propagating the myth that all we have to do is get the audio right and everything else will take care of itself. 

That's not enough anymore.

To help illustrate the point I'm making, consider the performance of the last episode I released before I went on my Long Winter's Nap at the end of last year. That episode outperformed my "average" episode performance by about 15% or so. So far so good!

But why stop there? If you only have a Pod.link or LinkTr.ee to give out, you're kinda stuck. But if you have a webpage, you're not.

My webpage for that episode was viewed nearly as many times as the podcast episode was downloaded. That's great! You could argue that some of those webpage views were also listeners. Maybe. But the average time on page for that page was 4.5 minutes. That's more than just a quick click-through.

But why stop there? Why not let people subscribe to your webpages? I do it with a newsletter.

The newsletter edition I sent out for the episode we're talking was opened and read by about half of the number of people who read the webpage. But that's a good thing, because it likely means those views are all additive.

But why stop there? Why not condense that article down to a couple hundred words and format it social shares? Copy/paste if you can get away with it. Or use a nifty service like Chirr App to break it into a Twitter thread.

For the episode we're talking about, the social reach was in the thousands and the engagement numbers in the hundreds, easily tripling the combined reach of the audio, article, and newsletter. 

Let me be explicit: serious podcasters take all aspects of their podcast seriously, including copywriting. 

If you want your podcast to be taken seriously, then get serious about the entirety of your podcast production process. That includes excellent writing.

-----

Links

Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! Almost 4.5 billion podcast feedsThe episode of Podcast Pontifications under reviewUse Chirr App for cool Twitter threadsOver 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every...

Your podcast is more than just your audio file. And as podcasting continues to mature, the not-just-audio parts of your show will become more important factors that influence your podcasting success. 

https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/writing-your-way-to-a-successful-podcast

Did you make a resolution to get more serious about your podcast? If so, I've what may seem like an odd place to focus: copywriting.

Why writing? Because we collectively need to "grow up" when it comes to making our podcast episodes. We need to be less lazy and stop propagating the myth that all we have to do is get the audio right and everything else will take care of itself. 

That's not enough anymore.

To help illustrate the point I'm making, consider the performance of the last episode I released before I went on my Long Winter's Nap at the end of last year. That episode outperformed my "average" episode performance by about 15% or so. So far so good!

But why stop there? If you only have a Pod.link or LinkTr.ee to give out, you're kinda stuck. But if you have a webpage, you're not.

My webpage for that episode was viewed nearly as many times as the podcast episode was downloaded. That's great! You could argue that some of those webpage views were also listeners. Maybe. But the average time on page for that page was 4.5 minutes. That's more than just a quick click-through.

But why stop there? Why not let people subscribe to your webpages? I do it with a newsletter.

The newsletter edition I sent out for the episode we're talking was opened and read by about half of the number of people who read the webpage. But that's a good thing, because it likely means those views are all additive.

But why stop there? Why not condense that article down to a couple hundred words and format it social shares? Copy/paste if you can get away with it. Or use a nifty service like Chirr App to break it into a Twitter thread.

For the episode we're talking about, the social reach was in the thousands and the engagement numbers in the hundreds, easily tripling the combined reach of the audio, article, and newsletter. 

Let me be explicit: serious podcasters take all aspects of their podcast seriously, including copywriting. 

If you want your podcast to be taken seriously, then get serious about the entirety of your podcast production process. That includes excellent writing.

-----

Links

Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! Almost 4.5 billion podcast feedsThe episode of Podcast Pontifications under reviewUse Chirr App for cool Twitter threadsOver 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions.

Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few.

You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com.

If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources:

1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion.
2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions.
3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics.
4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet.
5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more.

We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy