Why iTunes New Notable Shouldn’t Be Your Goal - The Podcast Report Episode #58

Why itunes new and notable shouldn't be your goal. It's the podcast Report. It's episode 58, show notes, links, conversation and more at the podcastreport.com 58. It's the podcast report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. Starting a podcast with the goal of hitting itunes new and notable is like launching a business with the goal of getting into the phone book. Oh, people, we can do better. This is Paul Culligan. This is the podcast report. I've been in podcasting since day one. Love this industry, written books about it, do it for a living, do consulting, the whole nine yards. This is my playground. And the cool thing is this is yours as well. This is the podcast report where we hit podcasting hard. We hit the real business behind it. Not microphone shootouts and where do we find discount hosting and that kind of nonsense. But how do we make our podcast real business or how do we do real business because of our podcast? That's why I am here. That's why you are here. And welcome to the show. The podcast report has never been a massive play. You're not going to see it on a big list of top 10 somewhere, but it's a deep one. You're here, I'm here. Let's get to work. So why this topic? Why new and notable? Well, first of all, the. The hoopla and the excitement and the misinformation and the disinformation and the lies and the hopes and the dreams and all these things about itunes new and notable has just. It's always made me a little crazy and I continue to hear stories that aren't true. It's funny, my 12 year old's listening to a podcast right now and I'm not going to say the name of the show, but the show lead was saying all these things about podcasting and reviews and listings at itunes and new and notable and was saying things that just simply weren't true that day when I wanted to scream and let her enjoy her show. But then there was this link and there was this thread in the community at Google for podcasters and people were just going down paths they didn't need to go down. And I'll give you a link to this. It's at thepodcastreport.com 5 8. That's right. This is episode 5, 8. There's this thread that just made me a little crazy. I came up with this idea that starting a podcast with the goal of hitting itunes new notable, it's like launching a business with the goal of getting into the phone book caught fire. A couple people liked it, thought we'd do a whole episode on it. The people I love the most, you, many of you, or spending your time on the things that don't matter. That's sad, that's tragic. And then the other thing that's really interesting is, I don't know, it brought me back to a time when I started the Internet space and my biggest competitor had this. You know, they'd always brag that they had 3,000 visitors a day to their website. And this is back when that mattered. This is back when that was a big number. And, you know, the funny thing was, if you ever looked at their stats, they had 3,000 people a day coming to their website. One of those websites that said, welcome to the website, click here to visit the website. And of the 3,000 people who visited the website that said click here to visit the website, only, like, six of them would click through. The message was not that there were 3,000 people visiting their website. The message was that 2,994 people every single day, didn't deem the content, didn't view the opportunity, didn't see the chance for clicking to be worth it. Turning away thousands of people a day. It's sort of like that in itunes. It's sort of like that in podcasting. This idea that if we put a show up, this idea that if we have a piece of album art that we make it into new and notable, suddenly we're famous, is just terrifying. It's just tragic, and it's not that fun. So here are some realities. It's not going to be my longest episode, but here are the realities. Number one, I have taken myself and my clients over a couple of dozen times to new and notable. Every single time. Let me tell you how I got into new and notable. I did it this way. Number one, I was new, hence new and notable. What does new mean? New means it's a new podcast. Number two, every single time, one episode. Not three, not eight, not 10. Why? Because to be new, you only need one. Can you do two, three or four? Sure. But the funny thing is itunes does that bit where they get the last episode. And if I'm launching a podcast, if I've got a long term plan, I've got an existing audience. I don't want them listening to episode three first. I don't want them listening to episode five first. I want them listening to episode one. But anyway, over a couple dozen times, new one episode and no reviews. It's just not that complicated. Apple wants to show people that podcasting is growing because they want people to feel good about the purchasing of their ipods and their iPads and their iPhones and their watches and all that good stuff. So if you are new and you are notable, and really here's the deal, notable just means that you got a couple of more subscriptions than you and your mom. That's it. All right. Now, new notable is worth noting. Podcasts that are not new have shown up in new and notable. They show up in new and notable all the time, so don't worry about that. Podcasts really not that notable show up in new and notable all the time. A podcast just needs to be there, and somebody inside of itunes needs to be happy with it. And that's all it needs to get in there. Nobody I ever know of that I trust in any recency. Now, there's been a history inside of new and notable where, you know, back in the day day, if you got new and notable at the right place, you might get some attention. But those days are over. Nobody in the last couple of years, really the last four or five years that I know of, has seen any really beep anything really of value. Nothing really spectacular has happened to anyone that I know of, anyone who can show any numbers of any reality that new notable has done anything for them. Of any real note. I can't stress that enough. In the thread that I've got a link to over@the podcastreport.com 58, there is speak of a show who got 300 clicks. You know, 300, that's fine and dandy. Seems a little high to me. But the fact of the matter is, even with 300A, most would consider that low. Most would think that's not what itunes delivers, what they would get by being in the almighty directory. But the fact of the matter is those are clicks. That's it. Those are visits to an episode. Those are not subscribers, those are not buyers. Those are not people on your newsletter. Those are not customers. Those are people who found you inside of itunes and decided to click on new and notable to see what you were about. Here's the other simple fact. I hate to break your bubble if you've heard otherwise, but only podcasters find podcasts by browsing categories in itunes. Really, it's only podcasters who do that. Anybody who finds out about a podcast, hears about it from somebody else, or visits a website and click subscribe. The idea that there are people going into itunes every day going, oh, I wonder what kind of Content I can find. It just doesn't happen. I don't listen to podcasts because of what's new and notable. You know, I listen because somebody's good or I hear an interview or there's an ad or there's something like that, and you're not going to be found. It's no strategy to be inside of, you know, itunes any more than it is to think that you're going to get customers because you've got a listing in the yellow page ads. Itunes is the phone book. Be there, but don't think that it's marketing, for goodness sake. I want your podcast to succeed. I want it to do well. And that's not going to happen just because you find yourself inside of itunes. It maybe happened for a few back in the day. Those days are over. Those days are gone. And you know what? A lot of those podcasts are gone as well. You need to create great content for an audience who wants to hear it that you gotta go find, tell them that you exist, give them a sample of what you've got, and then find out, wow, I'm delivering. You need to interact with your audience and find out what to do better, what to do differently, what to do more of, what to do less of. And then you'll find your numbers go up over time. You'll have dips, you'll have great progressions in the high numbers at times. But the fact of the matter is, it's you and your audience that's going to bring this all together. It's not itunes, it's not new and notable, it's not a listing. It's you producing great content that's going to get there. So here's what you do with new and notable. A get in it. Not that hard. You subscribe. A couple of others subscribe, you're there, enjoy it, brag about it to somebody who doesn't know, get a screenshot. Screenshots are always fun. But, you know, you ever seen anybody with a screenshot of their business, of, you know, their listing in the yellow pages, then get over it. And then realize and ask yourself, how are you going to market your show if itunes is not going to bring you the audience? And by the way, itunes is not going to bring you the audience. Even if you get new and notable, even if you get number one in new and notable, even if you get number one in all of itunes, that doesn't bring you the audience. You bring you the audience. Enough of rant. Most of you listening to this, know this, realize this you know, hey, Paul, I didn't realize that I didn't have to be new to get into New Notable. Should I strive over this? Should I progress to this? You know, no, it's just not that many people. I mean, think about it. Who do you know who isn't a podcaster who opens up itunes and tries to find new shows to listen to? It just doesn't happen on any level of note. Maybe some top charts, maybe, but boy, yeah. Anyway, enough said. On this show, I always like to share what I'm doing about this. I've never really cared. I've always taken the screenshots. I've always enjoyed it. It's great to have notoriety when somebody co know identifies your existence. That's always great. But don't think that that means anything other than somebody cool has, you know, acknowledged your existence. I've always used it. Why not? I definitely want to get in there. I'll definitely mention a few people that I'm there, but. But that's it. But I'll tell you, I use my position in New and Notable to tell other people that I'm worth looking at, not thinking that they're going to be a New and Notable to look at for me. Does that make sense? I think it does. I'm pretty sure it does. What do you do about it? Well, I'd love you to declare a marketing plan, understand a marketing plan, develop, strategize, write out, share, whatever. A marketing plan. That is something better than just being on itunes. New and Notable. You know, I called this episode why New and Notable Shouldn't Be youe Goal because it gets. It should get such a tiny, tiny percentage of your focus and attention. Far more than even this episode. Far less than this episode gave it. Know it, declare it, you're good to go. Thanks for listening to the podcast report. I would love to subscribe. Thepodcastreport.com itunestitcher, podcasts, TuneIn, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, Overcast. We're there at all of them on social media as well@thepodcastreport.com Twitter, Facebook. Pick your favorite, go there. I would love a comment at the blog if you'd like. ThePodcastReport.com 58 has all the links that are of importance to you, including the thread at Google that kind of did all this for me. If you want to email, it's the podcastreportlook.com if you want to review it. Itunes, I'd love it. And from there I'll let you go short episode this week, longer one next week. Chat with you soon. Bye.