Podcasting Is Different - The Podcast Report Episode #35

Why podcasting is different. It's the Podcast Report Episode 35. Show notes, links, conversation and more at the podcastreport.com 35. It's the podcast report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul, everybody. This is Paul Culligan. Welcome to the Podcast Report. The big idea for today's episode is easy. Treating podcasts like old media is like faxing me your email. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. Podcasting is bigger. Podcasting is different. And when we treat it for that and embrace it for that, we're going to see better results. This is your first time listening to the show. Let me tell you a little bit about it. This is the Podcast Report. My name is Paul. Paul Culligan. I am an author. I've got actually three books out on podcasting. Now. This one was a number one at pre release. It's doing well. That's not what the show is about. This show is my gift is my love to podcasting. I've been inside of podcasting since pretty much day one, and there's two members of this audience, two avatars for this show. There's the podcaster, those who are in podcasting who want to do better, and you like the show, and I appreciate that. But there's also a lot of you who are thinking about getting into podcasting, who got that gut feeling that podcasting is different, you know, who know that it's not just like radio, you know, who want to do better. And that's what this show is. It's not a massive play, but it's a deep one. With that said and done, let's get into this. This topic this week. Podcasting is different. Why? I've seen a lot of people. I've done a lot of consulting in this space, and I've seen a lot of people come in with old media ideas. They're trying to take the round peg of podcasting and make it fit into the square hole of old media, and it's just not working. They try to treat it like old media. They act like it's old media, and then they're getting frustrated. They're getting upset when they don't see the results that they're looking for. I did some consulting with a podcast, rather big name. We built a good show. We came up with a great idea, but unfortunately they were treating it like it was a show on a big station at drive time that would automatically have listeners. They put no money into marketing. They thought it was going to go viral, which is a big mistake. People make not just in podcasting, but in YouTube and everywhere else. And as a result, the show's not getting downloads, the show's not getting sponsors, and everybody is just down about the whole thing. And it's kind of sad because the content's fabulous. The content, some of the best stuff I've heard out there. But because they're treating it like old media, they're getting themselves into a lot of trouble. This comes from a large media background. It happens. Podcasting is better than this. Let's act like it. And there are four mores in podcasting as far as I'm concerned. The first one's more money. When it comes to listens, there is more money in podcasting. You will make More money per 1000 listeners in podcast than you make anywhere else if you do it right. Now, obviously, there are some radio stations and some shows with, you know, millions of listening audience. They're gonna do better than podcasting. But the fact of the matter is, there's more money per listener in podcasting. If you do it right, there's more flexibility in podcasting. If you do it right, there are more options and options. And flexibility is different, really, honestly, because what happens. Sounds like I'm trying to convince you there. I'm not. Flexibility is you can only do what you want. Options are. There are lots of ways to do it. And then finally, there's freedom. There's intellectual freedom, there's freedom of speech. There's freedom to meet the audience that you know you want to meet and hit the avatar that you know you want to hit. And it's a lot of fun. So I want to hit some of the ways it's different. I want to hit some of the ways podcasting is different and prognosticate a little bit on this. I've got, let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 different ways. Boy, sometimes it seems like 7 is the magic number. That wasn't what I was going for. But let's start number one. Podcasting is not limited by time. One of the big questions I get all the time is how long should a podcast be? And sometimes I want to give a smart aleck responsible how long should a piece of string be? It kind of depends on what you're doing, and that's one of the ways that we're different. We can do the show perfect for our audience. You know, unfortunately, a lot of times we're trying to find an audience for the show, and that's not the way it works in podcasting. That's not the opportunity. Let's give people the exact show they want. The reference I get from listeners, and if I'm missing this, let me know if you want more or less. But one of the things I'm hearing about this show is, hey, Paul, as a podcaster, there are a lot of shows about podcasting. I don't want you to ramble on about your life and what's going on. I want you to go straight to the facts. I want you to do that. Give me the show that gives me the. That gives me the nugget, gives me the action items and then sends me home. You know, if I was trying to fill the show the perfect time, some of these shows have been 12 minutes, some of these have nearly gone to 30 minutes. I have that freedom. People come to me on an average basis. And it's so funny because logic seems to have gone the wayside sometimes. I've had people on consulting gigs, on well paid consulting gigs, say, hey, Paul, how can I find the top podcast for X? Well, you go into itunes and you type in X and that's the top. Podcasts deliver what makes sense to your audience. Think it through. You're not limited by time. You're not restricted by time. You're not formatted by time. It's not the length of the podcast, it's the depth of the content. Really, really important. And not only are you not limited by time, but you're not restricted by content. And this isn't. You know, when podcasting started, it seemed to be that there was a lot of excitement about the ability to go blue. You know, there's some podcasts out there that would make Howard Stern blush and go for it. Freedom of speech is dear to me, important to me. But that's not what I mean by saying not restricted by content. The not restricted by content part is the about being able to go extremely niche and extremely deep. A couple of episodes ago, we chatted about if there was a podcast where you only had one listener, but that listener paid you a million dollars. You do that podcast in a heartbeat. And maybe you don't have that million dollar listener, but boy, 10, 20, 30 people who make up your entire revenue because you're giving them exactly what you want. That's niche, that's specific, and that's the stuff you don't see in traditional media. But because you give them exactly what you want to give them, it's just a better product. I just released my how to podcast book a couple of days into the wild. It was on Pre release for a while, but it's now in the wild. And it's funny because I was thinking about that compared to my old books. I used to write some tech books, and if you go into Amazon today, you can see a couple of the YouTube books. I did. I did these books that were 1200 pages long. Oh, my goodness. And it was because some editorial director in some educational publishing company determined that this is what the audience wanted. And the funny thing was, I was running a website about front page at the time. I had an audience, I had list of tens of thousands. I knew what front page users wanted, but, you know, someone in a high tower somewhere said, no, it has to be this way. Then I started publishing the books that I knew they wanted. I published my first. I did an audiobook called Front Page Secrets that made me more money than any of the other books did. And it went deep and it went niche. And that's what we can do in podcasting. See, it's not the format of podcasting. It's not the content of podcasting, it's the message of podcasting that's so powerful. So embrace that and make use of that. You're not locked into old models, and this is huge. You know, old models of just production. You have to have the sound studio, you have to have the engineer, you know, you have to have the license to broadcast. You have to have all these things. You don't. You're not locked into those old models, but you're also not locked into all the old models of monetization. And this is one of the ones that drives me crazy. And it has for the last 10 years, so many people. The only way to make money in podcasting is to put an ad for something. Well, first of all, no. And secondly, no. And thirdly, no. That's one way to make money from podcasting. And we chat about this in past episodes, and you can go ahead and look at the back catalog if you want, but you're not locked into the old models. There are some new exciting models that some are doing, but get this, there are also new models to be found, new models to be played with. And that is exciting. And not being locked into it means you're at a much better place. You see, you're not limited by rules anymore. You're open to options. It's an entirely different game. Another one that a lot of people miss but is extremely important is that you're not platform dependent. You know, I released the book. Last couple of books I released to Kindle only. Well, Kindle isn't the only game in the world in digital. There is Barnes and Noble, there is the Sony Kobos. You know, there is all these devices out there. And when you publish on Kindle, you're not, you know, you're playing a game that the 800 pound gorilla that is Amazon is going to be enough. Well, it's not a bad game to play. And there's some strategies for only going on Amazon, and Amazon has some reasons for only going on Amazon. But the fact of the matter is I went with Bookbaby and I got the book produced to all digital platforms. If you have an ebook platform, my book is available for it because I had to work with all the platforms and a company like Bookbaby comes out. That makes it doable and makes it possible. But we don't have that worry in podcasting. The very podcast I'm recording right now, somebody's listening to on an iPhone somewhere, somebody's listening to on a Microsoft phone somewhere, somebody's listening to on an Android phone somewhere, someone's listening to on a BlackBerry phone. But you know what, it's not just phones. Some people listening to this on their television set, some people listen to this in their car stereos. Whatever platform we're on, it doesn't matter. This podcast works on all of them. And oh man, that is fabulous. See radio, they have to have an antenna. They have to be in the market, they have to be listening at a certain time. It's, it's, it's very locked in. It's very specific. You know, YouTube, you got to have, well, you got to be@YouTube.com or maybe it's embedded and you got to look at video and, you know, if you don't have access to that, you know, you're not dependent on the platform, which is huge. Now, many of you know, I speak to multicasting, and multicasting is the idea of create your content and broadcast it everywhere. Somebody right now is reading this as a transcript in a Kindle book. Well, this started as a podcast that I recorded, you know, February 25, 2015. Yet somehow it's a transcript somewhere read by somebody on a digital book somewhere. That's multicasting, still strategic, still important, still part of the process. But it's different from producing a podcast that is completely and totally platform independent. If you combine platform independence with a multicasting strategy, boy, now you got something huge. So you're not platform specific, you're truly independent. And that radio that you think you're competing with, they don't have that option. That television station that you think you're competing with, they don't have that option. Embrace that. It is worth its weight in gold. Now another one. And I speak to this a lot, and I cannot pound this in enough. We are powered by subscriptions. I've ranted about this in the past, but the fact of the matter is, once I get a subscriber, the marketing stops. And this is better than people just knowing that I'm on every day from 4 to 7 during drive time. It's people knowing that whenever they want to listen, on whatever device they want to listen, however they want to listen, multiple times, speed, whatever it is they can. Once I have a subscriber, nothing's going to stop me from communicating with them. Now, obviously, they don't like what I say, they don't like what I do, they don't like the message isn't matching. They can unsubscribe at any time or they can not listen. But the fact that we're powered by subscriptions changes the game. Spoke to this last week. I know people who are getting thousands and thousands and thousands of downloads just from the subscribers, just with the release of a new podcast that is powerful, that is insane, and something that should be embraced, something that should be utilized. Another thing that's great in podcasting that we don't get in old media is the ability to leverage or the fact that we leverage other people's networks. We've hit this in past episodes. There are podcasters who I've heard who've ranted about the sound quality of Network X. Okay. Network X is distributing your content to their audience. God bless them. Let them. If anybody you know, you know, count this as legal. If anybody wants to pick up my show and put it on their network, just keep the show in its entirety. That's all I ask. You are welcome to distribute my show on whatever network you want. Tell me about the network, because in exchange for you promoting me, I very well might promote you. That's why, you know, I've got the links to all the different places I'm located. I had a guy email me, somebody in the industry, somebody who's doing well, who said, you know, well, I don't like IHeartRadio because of the hoops. IHeartRadio makes you jump through to listen. And it's true, IHeartRadio is annoying. But yesterday, and I checked the stats, so I only know about yesterday. Yesterday, more than one person. Okay, four. But didn't have to work so hard for it distributions automatic. Yesterday, four people listened to my show on iHeartRadio and I didn't have to do anything. Well, I had to do something once. I had to set it up. Once they're distributing, they're going to get bigger, they're going to do better, they're going to wake up and smell the coffee. And, you know, you get enough networks making you listen to 4 or enabling 4 to listen to you, and this kind of stuff begins to add out. Don't get upset when somebody else wants to distribute your network. Leverage the fact that somebody else wants to distribute you on their network. You are not tied to any network. You are on all of the networks. Let's go over these again. It's not the length of the podcast, it's the depth of the content, it's not the format, it's the message. You're not limited by rules. You are open to all the options. You're not platform specific, you're truly independent. It's not an audience, it's a subscriber. And you're not tied to a network. You're on all of them. Podcasting is different. Podcasting is better. And you, well, those of you who are podcasters, know it, embrace it, utilize it. And for those of you who haven't launched your podcast yet, get your podcast out the door and make it happen so that you can leverage everything we've chatted with so far as you guys know on the show, what I'm doing, what you could be doing about, what it is that I've chatted about. I'll tell you this. Whenever I do anything, I ask why I'm doing it. Why am I doing it this way? Am I doing it this way because everybody does it this way? Or I'm doing it this way because the opportunity that it embraces and it opens up for me. Ask yourself why you're doing what you're doing. It's a powerful exercise. No matter what it is that you're doing, podcasting or otherwise, I do that, I recommend you do the same. What you can do is just ask yourself, have a heart to heart. If you're the person who needs to journal this kind of thing, if you're the person who needs to head out to a website to talk about this thing, it doesn't matter. But just ask yourself how you are treating your podcast. Are you treating it just like old media or are you embracing some of the elements of new media? Because it's pretty exciting. What's out there? What could you do differently for the money, the flexibility, the options, the freedom. I spoke to earlier. I bet you you could change. You could tweak something and see more money, flexibility, options or freedom or gosh darn it, all of them. If you see some results with this, share it with me. I'll do what I can to spread the word. All the social for this show is@the podcastreport.com Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. It's all there. Go ahead, follow up, like, etc. The blog is up. You can go ahead and you can comment away. If you head out to the podcastreport.com 35 there is a place to comment if you want to text EP35 to the show hotline 503-897-1290. We'll get you the transcripts and the mind map from the show. If you want to leave me a voicemail message, go ahead and do that. I've got three links at the website for you. For today's episode, I've got a link to the how to Podcast book. It wouldn't be right if I didn't. The how to Podcast Facebook site has been fun as well for you new podcasters. I started a thread over at Google, the Google Podcast or Hangout. Now I'm trying to deal with this element that there's this obsession with stuffing podcasting into this old media hole. And I took a different direction and boy, it got interesting and it got heated fast. I think I insulted some people and so the first thing I want to do is I wasn't here to insult, I was here to dialogue. And I'm truly sorry if I did that. And I want to link out to that so that people can see what's happened. I basically said just I'm not excited, you know, automatically that somebody comes from podcasting might be intrigued, but it doesn't mean they're going to be good at podcasting anymore than them. You know, coming from typing means they're gonna be good at programming. It's just not an automatic connection. And anybody who thinks it is doing more damage to the industry. So I started the thread. It's gotten heated already and it's only been up a couple of hours. So it'll be interesting to see what happens, especially when this podcast releases. I mentioned subscriptions earlier would love to have you subscribe to the show. The podcastreport.com iTunes, the podcastreport.com Stitcher or Pocketcasts or Tunein or slash Spreaker or slash yes, iheartradiovercast. They're all there. Would love you to subscribe. For those of you who know the show, I have not yet cracked the SoundCloud nut. I'm getting there, getting closer. I think something will happen soon. I guess the last two things to say before I sign off is that the email for the show is the podcastreportoutlook.com and of course I love comments and love reviews. If you want to put one up at itunes or Stitcher, those seem to be the two that matter right now. Thank you so much. Can't wait to come back to you next week. Talk to you soon. Bye.