Why Is Podcasting Better? - The Podcast Report With Paul Colligan Episode #95

Here's the question. Why is podcasting better? It's the podcast report episode 95 show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 95. This is the podcast Report. And this is Paul Calligan. I am a podcaster, obviously podcasting consultant, author. I have been in the podcasting world for about 10 years. This is the Podcast Report, the show where we show podcasters how to reach more with their message and profit more from their content. If this interests you, keep listening. Of course, if this doesn't interest you, you probably haven't even gotten this far. The big idea for today's episode is simply that the excitement of podcasting is actually getting into the way of the power of podcasting. What does that mean? Well, let's go in depth here. I am coming on almost 100 episodes of this show. I'm working on the next edition of the book already. I've passed 10 years in this space. I'm working with some amazing clients. We've seen some amaz results. But here's the thing. I am listening, I am watching. I am seeing excitement about podcasting get in the way of podcasting. Yes, it's true. And it's time for us to get focused again. So what I have today for you on this episode, and I don't know how long it's going to go, it's just a bullet point here, and then I'm going to go from the heart. But I got seven ways that podcasting is just better. Podcasting is better than online radio. Podcast is better than terrestrial radio. It's better than book on tape. It's better than a bunch of things. And here's why. Let's go through these. Might change your focus, and we'll chat about what to do with them. Number one, you get to pick your time. I get so many calls. How long is the perfect podcast? How long is cereal? How long is this? How long is that? Never. How long should I be? You have an audience. You have a message. You have hopefully some monetization. And you've got this podcasting media. You get to decide how long it is. Serve your audience with what makes the most sense to them. The reason the podcast report normally stays around 10 to 15 minutes is because I got podcasters listening to this. We're listening all the time. We're consuming as much as we possibly can. By serving you, I go short. You might have an audience that deserves to go long. You might have an audience that deserves to go seven days a week. You might have an audience that Only deserves to get you once a month. Pick your time, make the show that makes sense for your audience, and you'll do well. You'll do better than the research. Don't ask how long the perfect podcast podcast is. Forget how long your perfect podcast should be. Number one, pick your time. Number two, pick your format. Man, I remember the guy in the elevator at the event who told me that he's going to make an interview show about irritable bowel syndrome. I kid you not. Somebody else has that format. Somebody else has seen great success with seven days a week interviewing, and all of a sudden the irritable bowel show is going to happen. I kid you not. Pick the format that makes sense to your audience. I've got several shows where people call into a bridgeline and they do the recording and it makes sense for their audience. They serve their audience that way. I've got one client who has a professional recording studio. It makes sense. It serves his client that way. Pick the format for your show. If I get one more. So should I just do interviews or what? Question. No, that's not it. Just like you get to pick the time. You get to pick the format. In some cases, it might be monologue, what I'm doing right here. In other cases, it might be interviews all the time. In other cases, it might be a fun little combo. Some cases it might be stuff from the archives. The best of. You pick the format because you know what your audience wants, and you get to pick the amount of time to do it in, and you're at a better place. This is why podcasting is better. You don't have somebody looking down at you saying, oh, my goodness, do it this way. And our demographics show this. And we do this. We know this. You know your audience. By the way, if you don't know your audience, get out of podcasting. Figure out the audience first. You pick your time, you pick your format, and then this one. You pick your schedule. Oh, my goodness. Produce the show that makes sense to your audience, and you do that by making the show that makes sense to you. Record this bad boy when you should be recording this bad boy. If a batch once a quarter in a cabin somewhere makes sense, do it. If getting up every Wednesday morning and looking for what's fresh and inspirational makes sense, do it. When you pick the schedule, the stuff becomes amazing. When you are victim to the schedule, when the schedule picks your show, then you have problems. You get to do your podcast how you want. You get to pick your schedule. Number three, number four, and this is perhaps the most exciting. Pick your demographic, man. When you pick your demographic. Woman. When you pick your demographic, when you know exactly who you're speaking to and exactly what it is that they want, then the world changes. A couple of weeks ago, I got a tweet from a guy I respect pretty much more than anybody in this space who says, I loved the last episode. Yeah, the pay is good on this show. The revenue's decent, but, Tom, thank you, man. That spoke to me deeply. That's what happens when you pick your demographic. I speak to the podcasters. A couple years ago, I missed podcast movement number one, and Lou tells on the school of podcasting that he doesn't miss my show. See, I picked my demographic. You are a podcaster. I'm giving you what you need, and I love that. Don't pick a show that's everything to everybody. Don't pick a show where you're trying to reach the entire world. Moms, females, low carb. Low carb might be the beginning of it. But just pick your demographic. Pick who you want to make your show for, because here's the deal. If you don't know who your show is for, it's for nobody. It never has been for anybody. Pick your time, pick your format, pick your schedule, pick your demographic. Now you got the makings of a good show. Now, from there, you pick your monetization model. It isn't, I'm going to do a show and then how do I make money? No, I'm going to. If you're in the monetization game and a lot of you are, do a monetization model. That makes sense. It would be absolutely ridiculous for me to insert the random audible or squarespace or whatnot. Ad insertion in this. A lot of times I think traditional ad insertion and podcasting doesn't make sense at all, Especially when it's a CPM kind of thing. If you can play the game where you get somebody to sponsor your show just because of who you are and what we represent, that's great. But pick your monetization model. I get speaking gigs, I sell courses, I get consulting contracts as a result of this. And it's many times, if not hundreds of times, what I would get if I did an ad insert. And, oh, my goodness, could you imagine me telling a podcaster they should get a squarespace website? You've already made that decision. That ship has already sailed. I have a monetization model that makes sense for this show. For me, you pick the same, and you're at a great place Number six, every network. This is what's so beautiful. You can be everywhere. That is the power of your show. There are people all over the place picking up podcasts, distributing them. They are distributing your show for you. This is awesome. You can be on every network you want. Yes. Somebody might not have the perfect. They might re encode your show and give you a lower bitrate or this type of thing. But you know what? They're distributing your show. They're helping you reach your audience. You're not NBC going, I can only be on these properties. You're not CBS going, well, we're going to make this show and we're going to put it behind a paywall and we hope it works. You get to be on every single network out there, every device out there, all four Windows Phones your show can be on. And that's one of the best things. But then the funniest part, the greatest thing about podcasting is that when it's all done, podcasting is completely optional. And I don't mean the podcasting, you can take it or leave it thing. I mean that at the end, you don't even have to finish this thing off with a podcast. Look at the guys who have done the novels from their podcast shows. Look at the people who have launched ebooks from their podcast episodes. Look at those of you who have taken transcripts from your podcast and made books. Look at those of you who've taken the best of your shows, made CDs and sold them. I was with a client on the phone today. Great service to great people. And the fact of the matter is, when this whole thing's over with, we're probably going to take the show and take a 10 CD set that she's going to distribute to folk. It's fantastic when you can pick the time, pick the format, pick the schedule, pick the monetization model, be on every network and then when you're done, maybe not even end up in the long run with a podcast. There's all this argument about, is podcast the right word? Is Netcast the right word? No, it's your content. Podcast is one of the ways to do it, one of the ways to do it. You've got all sorts of ways and you've got those options and that's why it's better. Your time, your format, your schedule, your demographic, your monetization model, yours to choose, your network, all of them. And that the in game podcasting is really just an option for you. So what do you do with this, Paul? I've heard all These before these are thematically true to who you are and what you believe in. And that's definitely true. And but here's a couple of thoughts. Number one, the more of these that you are embracing, the better the chance your show has to succeed. If you are building up against a time someone told you to a format you read in a book, to a schedule that you have pre assigned somewhere because that was the ideal time, to a demographic that you have no idea what it is, to a monetization model that you hope comes true one day, to a podcasting optional idea that blows your mind, you're not going to do well. But if you have embraced the power of, you know this episode's going long because it needs to, you're going to do better. When you understand your demographic and you toss away a certain demographic to better serve an existing demographic, your show is going to do better. When you embrace these things, you got a better show. When you got a better show, the monetization does better. The impact does better. Yeah, maybe your downloads aren't going to be that of cereal, but the impact impact. And let's face it, that's why you got into this industry. The impact is what you're going to have. And if these aren't why you're in the game, I want you to re examine why you're playing. If these things sound too much for you, if these things sound like this doesn't make fun, this is what takes it away from radio or that type of thing, well then get out of podcasting. If these things don't excite you, if these things don't direct your show in some ways and directions that it's never gone before, you're missing the point of podcasting. What do you do with this? Leverage what you're doing. Take these seven points. Take full advantage of them. Integrate them into everything that you've got. If you're not doing that, consider re strategizing. This is the good stuff about podcasting. Embrace it. Do some amazing things with it and we'll go from there. Chat with you next week. Bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of the podcast report. I love interaction. Head out to thepodcastreport.com and interact with this episode or or any other that you might listen to. But don't just visit the website and click play. Subscribe to the podcast report. Thepodcastreport.com iTunes thepodcastreport.com Stitcher thepodcastreport.com Google once you subscribe. Once you set it up so that every time a new episode comes out, you are automatically updated. You are experiencing. You experience the power of podcasting. It's not that you have to come out to my website. It's not that you have to go anywhere. It's that the content comes straight to you. Once we understand that power, podcasting will get to a better place for all of us. So please do subscribe. Once you subscribe, let's interact. You can do it at the website or you can do it on social. ThePodcastReport.com Twitter. ThePodcastReport.com Facebook. Pick the social network of your choice and we are there to interact. The website's great, too, but when you do social, the world sees more. Find out about podcasting more. Find out about how to make their podcast better, and the world becomes a better place. So go ahead, interact with us on social. This is the Podcast Report. My name is Paul Colligan. I'm thrilled you've been listening. Please subscribe, please interact and I'll chat with you next week. Bye.