Monetize Your First Episode with This Podcast Strategy
Rob Greenlee outlines ten steps to launch and monetize a podcast in seven days, from naming and cover art to distributing on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. He covers recording tools like Rodecaster and Descript, monetization via Spreaker's programmatic ads and Patreon, and using AI for research and clips. The strategy includes a launch-day marketing plan and building community through the Adore Creator Network.
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Well, welcome to Podcast Tips. I'm Rob Greenlee. I'm back again for another episode of, uh, this series. I'm in episode 54, and I'm kind of proud of that actually. Um, and so tonight, let's get right into it here. We're going to be diving into how you can start your podcast fast, actually within possibly 7 days if you get a little, uh, move on it and try and get it done here. Uh, and then also begin from episode 1 to try and monetize your, your podcast. There's technology out there called programmatic advertising that can get you started quickly and to scale your personal brand, grow your business, or create a community-driven content strategy. So what I'm going to give you tonight is 10 key steps to go from idea to published and monetized in record time since I know that everybody or most everybody is looking for an approach like this. I talk to a lot of podcasters and they, they want to justify their time by having whatever they do, whether it's a podcast or training or helping other people to hopefully get paid for their time. So the other big factor here is growing your podcast, right? And we're gonna talk about that a little bit, but really the focus of this one, this episode is really to talk about the 10 key steps to go from an idea, like I said, to published and to monetize, and that sets you on the path to monetization, and reaching your goals once you kind of have an idea of what those goals are. Plus, I'm going to talk about some cutting-edge AI tools if you haven't heard about them already. And if you're watching this show, you may be familiar with a lot of the things that I'm going to talk about tonight, um, that are actually— these AI tools are actually making podcasting a lot easier now, though it's still a little bit of a confusing landscape. But I think the promise of what AI is going to be able to do in podcasting is promising. And I think that's a big thing. And the other thing I want to deliver tonight is the fact that you can get my help, ongoing support. I have a community that I'm building that's trying to network with creators out there. It's called the Adore Creator Community. It's on school, and if you look at the screen, if you happen to be watching this, um, in video form, you should be able to pull your mobile phone out and just take a picture or scan the RF code, uh, or the, the barcode or whatever you want to call it that's on the screen right now, um, to get access to my school's community. It's called Adore Network Community. It's actually a— Adore Network is a network that I actually started when I was working for Spreaker back in 20— I think I started in like 2016. And then when I left Spreaker to go to work for Lipson, that network kind of closed down. And so I got that brand back from iHeart, which now owns Spreaker, and they're, they're allowing me to build a podcast network on that brand again. So I, many years ago, I had probably about maybe 20 different podcasts as part of the, the network, and it, it just didn't get the attention after I left Spreaker. So, so now I'm, I'm, I got it back from them, and now I'm, I'm working on building something on there that's an education platform plus being able to offer podcast hosting as part of that package and would love to speak with you or talk to you about it. So just go to that RF code on the screen and I will also put it in the show notes. So if you're listening to the audio version of this, you will be able to, to, to get access to it too, just by clicking on a link. So if you've been sitting on the fence about starting a podcast, which I know a lot of you have, or those that are listening to this or watching this may already have their own podcast, I think because of the current market for podcasts right now and the current state of podcasting, you really gotta light a fire under your rear end and get moving and try and do a lot of things to grow your show if you have one already and get going with building a community. And that's what I'm working on. That's what I've kind of set my path on as I'm looking to the future. And if you've been sitting on the fence about starting a podcast, please reach out to me in the comments or go to my Adore Community Network platform and join it. So I've got a handful of people in there right now. This is all brand new, um, and, and let's talk about getting something going for you. So, so let's, let's jump into the 10 steps. Um, so here, before I jump into the 10 steps, let me throw up on the screen the, a screen share of the Adore, uh, a network so you can have a glimpse on. I've got some shows up here already that I'm starting to, to work with and, and want to work with me. So if, if you're one of those like-minded people that have, have an interest in, in doing that as well, it's actually built on the Spreaker platform again. So, but I'm not exclusive to only working with people that are hosting on on the Spreaker platform. So keep that in mind as you look, look to the future here. And you also see I have a second camera here. So let me flip over to that a little bit and share that capability that StreamYard has. So hopefully this episode will be helpful to you if you haven't started a podcast and you are interested in starting one. So let's go ahead and jump into the 10 key steps to launching your podcast in 7 days. And And yes, that can be accomplished in 7 days, but it does take focus on getting through the steps. And there are a few steps, and there are lots of ways to step through those steps effectively and efficiently to at least get to the launch pad, right? Nothing about any of this in the, the 10 steps is something that's locked in stone, right? All this stuff you can change, you can update, you can tweak, you can improve. And really, the first step is to, you know, what's your why for doing it? I know a lot of people share this concept. You know, you got to know what your niche is. You have to try and have some idea of what your audience is that you're trying to go after. You know, who are you speaking to, to some degree? And I realize from a practical standpoint, because I go through it too, that it's not always easy to know those things in advance. So you do have to start somewhere. But I'm not saying that you have to drop this, you know, 20-page business plan marketing strategy from day one. All I'm saying here is get in touch with what you want to do, why you're doing it, and so you can justify that. You can justify investing your time and energy into whatever that is. And I'm a firm believer of synergies, right, of creating something that supports kind of another project that you're doing. Now, granted, you can think of this as a solo platform kind of beginnings, right, that will build something for you. But I also think that each one of us kind of has our— it's an overused term— passions. But I think those passions oftentimes equate to knowledge and expertise that is valuable to others. But it also gets into personal brand. It gets into what are you known for. Those kinds of things are also important too. And I think listening to other podcasts, and I know this is said a lot too, but especially listening to other podcasts that are, that have a common kinship with yourself around the things that you wanna talk about in your content. And this isn't just about podcasting per se. And I think the key takeaway is that, that name Adore Creator Community, 'cause I do have this strong feeling that the creator, in all of us is really what we need to be thinking like, not so much a podcaster. A podcaster by the industry definition is a fairly narrow definition, right? Which is typically an audio program. But if you're gonna throw into this mix a varying strategy around video and short form, long form video, short form video, multiple formats, and other types of media that maybe you want to make available, like an ebook or write a book or do other types of interviews, other types of content, that you are really a creator that happens to be doing a podcast as well. And it's kind of part of the mix, but it's not the whole picture. So as I talk about this, I'm increasingly talking about it from the perspective of a podcast is part of what I'm doing, but it's not everything, right? It can be everything. I'm not saying that to say that it doesn't, it can never be the sole thing that you're doing. Being a podcast is okay too. I'm not saying that that is like out of the realm but I do think that you will likely face a faster growth path if you produce more content more frequently and in different formats. And I think that's the key way of looking at this. It's not saying that if you wanna be a video creator, go right ahead, be a video creator. If you wanna be an audio creator, go ahead and do that. Certain genres fit better with audio than they do on the video side. So, you know, you have to weigh it with what you want to do and who you're trying to reach and why you're doing it as your basis for your strategy. And there are lots of AI tools that can help you refine this, you know, Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, Gemini, you know, Grok, all these Platforms are very, very good at helping you refine what you're doing and what your goals are and how you need to be thinking about it. They have a lot of terrific ideas. They're not always perfect. They're not always at the cutting edge. So you have to bring your knowledge to the picture too. It's not like it's— AI is going to do everything for you. You need to still think too. Humans have an advantage. In some ways, depending on how much effort you put in and how much research you put in. AI has the advantage of being able to look at lots of input and come up with some ideas that can maybe set you on the path towards having an understanding of who your niche is and who's involved in this medium. I mean, ask these platforms, what are, what are the top 10 shows talking about your genre and do research in there and understand what people are doing externally to you. And then go to Apple Podcasts and go to YouTube and do some keyword searching to find out what other people are doing. Because you don't necessarily want to do the same thing that everybody else is doing. You want to do what's unique to you and you need to Be who you are out there. And so AI is a terrific tool to help you get there. And I think that's the key way of looking at it. And that is so important. And part of that first step is to get to a point where you can write a clear and concise podcast series description. Right? Can you write in 2 to 3 paragraphs what that podcast or what that show, depending on what you want to call it and where it's going to be and how it's going to be distributed, what is that show about? You know, in a couple of paragraphs, what is the elevator pitch? And it needs to be concise. It needs to be very value-packed. You know, with as little words as possible that drives the most value and enticement. Because what you're writing is really in a lot of ways, it's kind of marketing sales copy. So what you have to drive is a lot of important keywords and you have to drive important value statements and be detailed about what is going to be in this series and what that audience can expect as best as you can at the beginning. Believe me, you can always tweak it. You can always make adjustments to it afterwards. So, you know, do that. And, and I think that's an important takeaway too, is that one thing about digital, anything digital, you can update it and change it. In most cases. Now, I wouldn't necessarily say that about YouTube in a lot of ways. I mean, I think the textual side of things, you can make a lot of changes in YouTube, but the video side, if you make changes to the video that's put into YouTube, you're creating a whole nother copy. So if you're doing something live like I am tonight, I don't typically go in and do any editing to the video 'cause it will make a different copy of this live show tonight. So there are exceptions out there, and sometimes even when you update like your RSS feed or you update your artwork, it doesn't always propagate across all of the consumption platforms right away. Sometimes there's gaps and things. So keep that in mind. Everything is updatable with a few exceptions. I hate to put it like that, but that's the reality. Technology doesn't always work. And some of the platforms are not programmed to update very frequently, and some of them unfortunately never update. So it's, it depends on how the programmers program the platform, and unfortunately it's not always at the level that we all expect. So number 2, choose your podcast name and branding. So this is, this is also part of that research, right, that I was talking about in step 1, the whys. Well, make sure that the name is clear, searchable, and brandable. And this means the brandable side is definitely don't use any already used names that are especially trademark or trade name protected. So these are important things to do research. You know, it's, it's remarkable to me sometimes when I look for a particular podcast by its name, right? And I do a search in some of these platforms and it comes back with like 10 different shows with the same name. So that is, that is a little bit of a marketing mistake. Now, granted, you can look at those 10 other shows and say, well, of all 10 of those shows, how many of them are actually active shows? And that may be an exception to what I'm saying, is that active shows should be given preference, um, in these platforms than old shows or archive shows. I believe anyway that that's my own personal preference. I'm not necessarily saying that archive shows need to be taken down or, or not available I just think that shows or feeds or podcasts that are actively being updated, I believe, have more community value. And I think most people would agree with me on that. And then ways of creating this name and branding and graphics and things like that that you have to do with your podcast, you can use a platform like Canva. AI-powered logo makers are out there, even chat GPT to some degree, though I don't really trust its ability to spell and create letters on images, though it does appear to be getting a little bit better. But you need to have a 3,000 by 3,000 pixel square cover art that's compressed to under 512K in file size. So it still needs to be 3,000 by 3,000 pixels, either in a JPEG or a PNG file, is what you need to create. Now you could create a 1400 by 1400. That's the minimum spec that's out there, especially at Apple. So if you wanna get full wide potential promotion on Apple, you need to make a 3000 by 3000. That's really the standard in the industry now. And that's a square image with big bold letters I would really emphasize this because that logo or that square icon is going to be displayed in kind of small sizes sometimes. So you still want it to be readable. And colorful images or larger images work much better because then a person can see it when the image is displayed on a mobile device when it's small. So make your message bold, concise. It's almost like you're creating a billboard, right? As you think about you driving down the freeway and you look up at a billboard, you probably only have a few seconds to capture the full message of what's on that billboard from maybe, you know, half a mile away or something like that. And so it needs to be able to communicate what the show's about, what the name of it is, and any kind of visual imaging in a very concise and quick manner. So that's what makes creating podcast art a little bit different. And to some degree, that's also happening on YouTube as well. So if you create thumbnails for YouTube, which are usually rectangular in shape, are, are, have a lot of the same things. And you can kind of see that in, in my artwork that I'm using for this episode is, is that it's very simple. I started out making kind of complex graphics here. I'll pull it up on the screen again so you can see it. And it's really just a couple of words and it's very bold and colorful and it's easy to read when it's small. And that also happens on YouTube as well. So Let's jump down and go to number 3 on my 10 list of, somehow you gotta get the content made too. So that's the next thing is get your recording and editing set up, right? So you have to have something, a microphone of some sort, recording to your phone, use Adobe Podcast to optimize your audio. If you just wanna record it on your phone, you can do all that. There are audio tools now that are available that will make— even Descript will make kind of rough-sounding audio sound great. You know, Descript has this little tool that you can run that will make it sound like you're in a studio. So there's a lot of technology out there that can make it very easy for you to start creating content right away. You know, you don't have to invest a lot of money, but you can go out and buy a microphone. Right. Rode PodMic is a good one. Shure MV7 is a good mic as well as Samsung Q2U. But there's lots of other microphones out there that you can get from a lot of other manufacturers, and you don't have to break the bank to get it done. Granted, I'm using an expensive mic, but I've owned this mic since probably 2008 is when it got purchased. So it's been around a long time, and it's the Shure SM7B. I was using this mic when this mic wasn't as popular as it is now. It's, it's crazy. And this, this boom arm that I'm using too is, is one that I purchased back in, uh, probably 2000 and, um, probably 2001. That's how far back that boom arm goes. So It actually has been with me for my whole podcasting career, which is— and radio career for, well, close to 25 years now. So it's been a terrific boom arm. So I'm a big fan of the boom arm. So you can move them around, get them out of your way if you're working at your desk, and it creates a way to get it adjustable to your mouth. So, and then as far as the recording side, there's lots of options for this too. There's hardware devices that you can get like the Rodecaster Pro, which is what I'm using right now to do this podcast. So all the audio that's going through this is going through the Rodecaster through its audio optimization software that's built into it. It's got normalization, it's got an equalizer built into it, it's got all of that noise reduction capability to make the audio sound good. So, or you can use like Riverside FM, StreamYard, or Descript and their Squadcast plugin that works with that platform. There's Restream. There's many, many browser-based recording platforms. There's OBS. I was going to talk about that a little bit later as well. So there's lots of ways that you can capture the audio and the video at the same time. So the RODECaster is good for capturing audio, but if you want to capture audio and video at the same time, like I'm doing with this show, I'm using StreamYard. And, and I had a 1-year contract with StreamYard to produce this show on the StreamYard channel. And if you want to go over and watch some of those old episodes, you're certainly welcome to do that, or you can watch many of the episodes over on my channel now. But, um, you know, there's a lot of AI tools that are now out there to, to help you make terrific sounding content with low budget equipment. So I I think it's a remarkable time actually in that area. So let's move on and talk about, uh, well, let me talk about one other thing on the, on the recording and editing side. So you need to get, um, probably some audio software. So you need to get like, uh, um, Audacity, Audition, uh, there's many, um, different types of, uh, audio editing software out there. There's the Descript platform, which will do some automated editing of your audio as well. So AI is having a role in the editing side too. So it's important to consider that too. And then there's the video editing side, which there's lots of tools out there too from Adobe and others that can help you edit video and create very complicated productions if you want to. And that's increasingly being something that's increasingly expected on a platform like YouTube is more advanced productions. So ones with transitions and different cameras and things like this. Now this isn't being done in post-production. This is being done in StreamYard where I can actually change cameras. But it just gives you an idea of how you can spice up your video content while at the same time you're making the audio content at the same time. So that's what I'm trying to do here. And that's why I've gotten used to using this tool from StreamYard. And they gave me an extended plan for a couple years to use it. It's a good platform and I've, I've had a good time using it and I've become very, very familiar with it. So, so it looks like Marcello wrote to me here. Hello from Atlanta, Georgia. So I wanted to put it out to— thank you so much for making a post in here— that if you want to ask a question, you're certainly welcome to ask a question while I'm going through this. But I, I was trying to make this very, very instructional tonight, uh, around how you can do this and get started very quickly. And if some of these tips may be applicable to if you're doing a podcast already, so keep that in mind about optional platforms that you can work with and optional equipment and processes. And I would love to hear your questions on my YouTube channel or on Facebook or LinkedIn or X or any of these platforms., and, and would love to, um, to help you on all that kind of stuff. And it looks like, uh, Sarah Richardson wrote, hi Rob, it's great, I'm so glad to be here. Well, thank you Sarah for, for being here and joining me tonight. I, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. And, and so let's, let's jump forward and, uh, talk about, um, the next step here And that's number 4, which is create your podcast trailer and first episode. So as you're thinking about making a podcast, one of the things that you want to do is create a 1 to 2 minute promo audio episode. And the reason for this is that the podcasting platforms have what's called a trailer functionality that you can add to your RSS feed. That basically will create a separate post in the Apple platform. And it will show up in other platforms as just your first episode. But this would be like something, just a short audio clip that describes what content you're making. It actually could be very much similar to your series description that you wrote, right? And then add some flair to it. Add something a little bit, you know, even if you wanted to record a soundbite or two from the kind of content that you would be producing and be able to stitch that into your audio to give people a really good feeling for what you're gonna be producing for them. You know, if you're using certain music and things like that, which I haven't mentioned yet, but that is a component of this. Part of the reason why I don't mention music is because it can be a very complicated step in the process. So you may want to start out without music to begin with and then address that later so you can work out the issues around royalty and licensing around using music in your podcast, because it can get in the way of your success on YouTube and it can get in your way of success on a platform like Spotify. So it's, it's not always clear sailing when it comes to doing whatever you want in your podcast. Especially if you want to be in these big platforms. So create that trailer, it's an MP3 file, 1 to 2 minutes. I wouldn't make it any shorter than 1 minute because then a lot of these platforms will not count it. So that's the counting methodology or the analytics tooling that has been established for podcasts is that your episode won't be counted in any, reporting platform unless 1 minute of content has been consumed. So it's an important thing to think about as you think about getting your podcast started on a podcast hosting platform. So there's lots to choose from out there. And then the, the next one is starting to think about episode 1, you know, your first full episode that you teased in your trailer, right? It can work really well to, in your, your trailer tease, to tease a start date, right? So let's say I post my trailer, uh, February 1st, but I'm not going to start my podcast until February 15th. Then tell them that in the trailer episode. So they are looking forward to the start of your show and then just make sure your episode 1 is published By the 15th of February, and, and during that 2-week period of time, maybe you can do some social promotion of the launch of your show and the value of your show, and you've created some artwork and you've created some buzz and some social media sharing through that, that 2-week process. And you can do a whole big PR thing if you want, and I encourage that kind of thing. So think about like you're launching a business. You know, how would you launch a business? Maybe you put out an announcement. Maybe you put out a digital release somehow. Maybe you're in a genre that has a publication that covers it. Maybe you share that with them and hopefully they post it in their newsletter or they post it on a website saying this show on this topic is launching on this date. And I think it's a— it can be a powerful help to you when you're trying to launch your show. And, and I think that's, that's something to think about, um, as part of your launch process. So, um, you know, so one option here too is to, you know, work with me potentially. Um, you know, you can host your podcast with me if you want to work with me. On the, on the Adore Creator Podcast Network. I'm open to shows and trying to work with them to help them grow. But there, there are certainly a bunch of other podcast hosting platforms that you can work with. And I don't want to have this come across here that I'm, I'm only shilling for my own Adore Creator Podcast Network. I've been a part of the podcast community for 20 years and have worked for many of the, of the largest podcast hosting platforms. So I'm— I have podcasts at Lipson, um, still. I have podcasts at Spreaker. I have podcasts, um, at Blueberry, my, my co-host of my new media show. So if you have a preference for a different podcast host, that's actually okay. I mean, it is a— it is still possible to be part of my network at that point as well, because I do plan on building a website for the Adore Network, and I would just list your, your podcast on the, on the network page. It may not— doesn't necessarily have to be hosted on Spreaker, but that's an option to you too. So, so, you know, definitely reach out to me and let's, let's connect and talk about it. So, you know, and, and let's, let's jump to— that was actually, I kind of jumped into number 5 there. So the question that comes up is why built-in monetization? And that's, that's what I would be able to offer with the Spreaker platform, with their Spreaker Prime platform, is that instant monetization is part of that. They use programmatic ads, and that programmatic is basically ads that are sold by platforms that have a connection to Spreaker utilizing dynamic ad insertion technology, which means that the ads are automated you establish the insertion points in the backend tools. This is fairly common in the podcast medium today. And those, those advertisements get automatically inserted into the locations that you've established in the Spreaker platform and the ads just flow through. You don't have to do any ad sales and you get a split of the revenue. So that's the advantage of it. Now, granted, that doesn't preclude you from selling your own brand advertising in there and doing some host reads reads. And as you grow your show, there'll be opportunities to work with other advertisers that you might want to do additional dynamic ad insertion capabilities of your host reads. So those will be ads that you read yourself into a microphone and then upload to the platform, and those get inserted into your content, not unlike what the programmatic ads do. So that is another way that many podcasts monetize. And increasingly, you know, if you're putting your content into YouTube, the monetization happens once you reached a certain scale with the YouTube monetization. And then also, you know, Spotify is pushing on that kind of monetization as well. So there are lots of options. That are out there. So you can kind of think about monetization. It's not a bad idea to start your show with a concept of monetization strategy. And you could also think about your show outline too, of what's your show format, and take into account the fact that maybe you're gonna have a certain amount of ad insertion points in your content. Where do you want those? 'Cause you can create what they call mid-roll insertions in various parts of your show. And some shows will create, you know, it can just be as simple as a segment pause where that's consistent in your show at the certain, doesn't even have to be at the precise minute every episode, but you could do it regularly in your episode and do it just by, stopping at like one of my bullet points here. So between, if I finish my bullet point 5, just pause a little bit before I go to bullet point 6, and that'll be a place in the content that you could insert your programmatic dynamically inserted advertising. So that's kind of how it works. And a lot of the platforms, and Spreaker included, has an AI feature that will auto-generate your ad placements. So it'll search through your timeline of your actual content and it will find those locations that are best for sliding those advertisements in. So it's not always perfect. It's not always exact. That's why I kind of recommend that it's it's a good idea to, to kind of have your own, um, slight breaks in the content that are fairly regular. Um, but it can offer revenue from day one. Now granted, I've got to say that revenue is a, is a, um, mixed bag at episode one. It's not a, uh, a guarantee that you're going to make a lot of money. So You know, it's part of building the infrastructure to create a situation where you can make an income with your podcast. Whether or not you do in a significant way depends on your talent, your ability, and your, your marketing prowess to, to grow the audience and your, your ability to connect with people and your ability to drive value to others is really the key to growing that revenue because it is based on scale. It's based on how many listens or views. This is the case with YouTube too. You know, if you're doing video, any of these platforms, it's about trying to attract and retain audience. And that's the key thing to keep in mind always with all this stuff is, is that if you're going to monetize around advertising. Now granted, there's lots of other ways to monetize, so keep that in mind. You can sell an ebook, you can do a mastermind, you can do a training, you can do— you can share your knowledge in a lot of different ways, like I am with the school's platform, um, around doing, doing other types of in-person, one-on-one type of help. And, and I think that's important now, but you have to be careful who you're working with. And you have to be careful with, you know, being patient with it too, because very few people, even a Joe Rogan, didn't make it big from the first episode. So it takes time, you know, revenue growth takes time. You know, I was a 7-year, 7 years on the radio when I first got started and all this, and I didn't make really any money from day one. I was actually paying money to be on the radio. So It was really an investment in my personal development and my growth into being a content creator and having a whole career, which has been 20 years of working in the podcast industry and watching it grow from nothing to what it is today. So number 6, let me clip through this before we get to the hour mark, which I wasn't planning on going that far, but number 6 is setting up your distribution. So once you've got your your trailer episode in there. And this is even before you've published your first full episode. You need to get everything set up on the distribution, get that trailer out to everybody. So it's established, right? Your distribution into Apple and Spotify and, and all the other podcast listening platforms out there, which there are many, there's almost 100 that are out there. And a lot of them get placement through the Apple Podcast platform. So you really have to be in the Apple Podcast platform. And that will get you into a bunch of other listening apps. Now granted, a lot of those bigger listening apps are not garnering that much audience, but they will get you into a lot more places. And that's the important takeaway from that. And it's very easy to get into Spotify. It's very easy to get into podcast listening platforms outside of the United States too, which are many. Deezer and JioSaavn and other ones out there that are in like India. And there's a few in the Middle East that are popping up. But there has been a little bit of a retraction on the distribution platforms. Samsung recently got out and And to some degree, TuneIn has pulled themselves out of, out of, you know, viability for new shows. So you really can't get your podcast into TuneIn anymore. So that's the, that's the reality of the distribution platforms right now. It's just not as hot of a thing for some of these platforms to support. So you can also upload your, your videos to places like YouTube and TikTok. X, and increasingly a lot of these platforms— sure, I'm streaming live into a lot of these platforms, but increasingly these platforms want content published directly to them. So keep that in mind, right? Not just posting at one place and then sharing links in LinkedIn to other places or publishing it to YouTube and posting links to YouTube in X. Those posts are typically not boosted as much 'cause what they wanna encourage is people publishing directly to their consumption platform, which is kind of a big ask, right? If you're already doing a podcast and you're already publishing to a couple different places, Spotify wants you to do this too. I wouldn't necessarily recommend right now publishing your video into Spotify at this point. I, I'm hopeful that they, they will get their process worked out where it's not going to punish, um, RSS-submitted content into their platform. Because right now, if you upload a video, they will overwrite your RSS audio with the audio from a video file. So that's something that you got to keep in mind too. It's not common knowledge out there necessarily. But then there's also TikTok, right? So many of you have a varying view on TikTok and what its future looks like. But there's certainly a lot of tools out there that you can make clips and things like that. You can make vertical videos to a platform like TikTok and YouTube and Facebook and And, you know, many, many— I believe even LinkedIn has vertical videos now. And so a lot of platforms are moving that direction. Short-form content has a place, you know, and you can choose to play in it. I would recommend, you know, using an AI-assisted video editor like Opus Clip or some— there's a bunch of them out there, and I'll I'll do my best to kind of feature a bunch of them based on my tests and trials, but there are definitely ones out there that are really doing a terrific job on the video side to make things easier. So keep that in mind that AI can be a big help with the short-form content, and it can actually put a transcript on the screen, which is extremely helpful. And then number 7, Monetize from the start. I know I've talked about that a lot already. Programmatic ads, get paid immediately. AI-powered dynamic ad insertion for targeted revenue. You know, there's other options too. There's Patreon, there's Buy Me a Coffee, Super Chats on YouTube Live. So you have those kind of capabilities too. There's lots of ways that you can potentially none of these are guaranteed— create different varying revenue streams from your, your show, podcast or show, depending on the term you want to describe it. Like, you can see my other show that I've been doing for 14 years is called The New Media Show. I started that like 13 years ago, and with my— the CEO of Blueberry Podcasting, uh, we've been doing that show for a long time. And we changed the name to show because back then we were live streaming, just like we still do today, every Wednesday at 3 PM Eastern, and talk about the podcast industry, which is increasingly becoming a podcast and video industry. So, and that's, that's okay with me. Some people in the industry don't necessarily like it. So number 8 is launch your show with a bang. What's your marketing plan? What's your promotion plan? Are you going to post clips to LinkedIn, X, and Instagram Reels for your show around its launch? Yeah, there are AI-powered social schedulers out there called repurpose.io and Munch and others out there too. And, and there's always the opportunity of joining the Adore Network creator community Um, because I do intend on, on trying to run some cross-promotions between shows that are on that, on that network once it's a little bit more established and operating. And then number 9 is, uh, go live. Do, do your show live like I am here. It's an option. I would probably build up to it It's not an easy option. It's, it's one that takes some practice to be able to do effectively and to do smoothly. It's not an easy thing to actually do. I think you have to be very, very familiar with the, with the live streaming tool that you're using and how to use it effectively that isn't distracting or makes a bunch of errors. Took me some time. It wasn't easy for, for me to get started with. I was fumbling. Of course, I was doing my live show on a, on a big kind of network of sorts. It was the StreamYard channels, which had over 100,000 subscribers on that channel, and I got a lot of people commenting. Um, so it was a lot to juggle, you know, a lot of comments coming. I was probably getting 2 or 300 comments coming through in every episode and, and trying to pull them across the screen. Um, so, so I wanted to, um, you know, there's lots of options. I know Sarah, um, asked another question here. It says, just when you get a moment to answer, does StreamYard connect all these channels I see you're able to send and receive on each platform, or are you signed into different platforms individually? Well, the, the StreamYard platform enables you to set up in advance API connections to all of the major platforms that support live streams. So that, that would be LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and YouTube. And Instagram. Now Instagram is a little bit of a challenge. They haven't done a good job of building in the ability to go live on Instagram, and I, I haven't been doing it because it, it requires an additional step in the process. It's not pre-configured, so, so it's not as smooth as, uh, as part of your production unless you have a team member that can manage that. So It's, it, it's in the setup protocols of the, of the StreamYard platform to, to set up those connections, which you can do before you start the show. And once you schedule the show to, to launch, it basically sends out notifications to all of the platforms and actually will make a, a social media post about your upcoming episode, and it will set a time and it will create an event schedule of sorts, and it will have your description. So you do have to get an episode description done in advance and you have to create your thumbnail for all these social platforms done in advance, which is a little different than the podcast, right? So the audio version of it, you typically don't have to create that stuff in advance. So it is a little bit of a different process, but, but it's a pretty powerful process, I think. So Sarah Richardson, thank you so much for your, uh, your question. I think it was a terrific question and it probably answered a lot for other people that are here too. So thank you. So let's, let's keep going with the, with the repurposing of content, kind of like a multi-channel strategy of sorts. So there's live streaming and then there's also recording too. So this is being recorded and I will put this episode out as a downloadable version in the video RSS feed for this episode on the, the Blueberry podcasting platform. So you can watch this episode and all of the past 53 episodes that I've done in Apple Podcasts. So a lot of people don't realize that, but Apple has supported video podcasting for pretty much the whole life of podcasting. So The only problem is Apple decided to depreciate or not promote the video capability of their platform, which I, I've talked to the Apple team and they fully realize that that's the case. So whether or not they do anything about it is the question. It isn't like they haven't been told that there's an issue here, that if people want to publish their video into Apple Podcasts, they can do it and there's a pathway to do it. Just that are, are you as a creator willing to do it? So, so there's, there's that. And there's, like I mentioned earlier, if you want to record video, there's StreamYard, Riverside, Restream. There's also a free software tool called OBS. If you do a search, it's an open source software platform that has a lot of the same capability as a, as a StreamYard. So it's like a studio software package. There's a pretty steep learning curve. To OBS, but it's very powerful. You can do a lot of the same things that I'm doing here with this show. You know, I can switch cameras and I can do all sorts of unnecessary things, but, but it's, it's fun to have that ability and be able to throw up graphics on the screen, to do, do screen shares and things like that, just like I can do here. So, and then The repurposing, you know, AI is helping with this stuff. Like I said, with the clips and the vertical videos and being able to create transcripts and show notes and all this kind of stuff like that is all part of that repurposing of content. You could probably create an article, you can make a blog post, you can make a bigger social media post about your episode than even is in your description and, and, and upload your full video episode to LinkedIn or an edited version or a shorter version or a concise version. I know in the Descript platform, I can, I can tell it to just create a shorter, concise version, which will edit out what it thinks is not as important, I guess, and, and only have in there the key points. And it will like shrink your show in half or something like that. So you can create a different version of your show. And I've done that on my channel with a few things that I've done in the past. I wouldn't say it was a booming success, but, but it's something that you can try. You can also do— you can also upload your audio to, to AI-powered newsletters too, right? So you can take your episode and then upload it to an AI engine that will automatically create a newsletter. So, and those platforms are like Beehive or Substack, I guess, has those abilities. I haven't actually done that myself, but it sounds like an interesting idea. You know, if I have a decent mailing list, then I could do something like that. I would really feel compelled to hand-edit it afterwards. I don't know that I would 100% rely on the AI to, to do it right, um, as far as my, my standards. There may come a day when you can automate that and it will do a good job as long as it understands the criteria that you have as the creator for what you want that AI to do. I think that's the key thing about what the future looks like with these AI tools, is that AI needs to understand better what I like and what I want it to do, not just do its own thing. And oftentimes I see it do that. I, I see it, it, it adds emojis and it adds all sorts of stuff that I never asked for. It just does it. And it's almost like I have to tell it not to do it. And, and that shouldn't be the way it is. It should be the way it is. And that's up to my prompting. So I have to be able to write a better prompt so it doesn't make these mistakes. So anyway, number 10, which is the, the last one. And then you're all set to go, right? You just kind of go through this list and, and get it out there. Is build your network and your community, build your personal brand, build, build your growth paradigm, right? How's that going to work? How are you going to do that? You know, be a part of a community, I think, is, is an important part of this too. You know, build your email list and do that newsletter, which I need to do. And go beyond the podcast. Guest on other people's podcasts. Do live Q&As. Do multiple episodes a week. I would love to do that with this show too, but I'm also stretched thin because I'm doing a bunch of other types of format shows. I'm doing a bunch of video stuff for, for YouTube that isn't necessarily a podcast, trying to play with different ways that I can create content and learn from it. YouTube is a unique animal, and it has its very sensitive characteristics that it wants, and that's it wants people watching, it wants people to continue watching, it wants people to Be engaged, ask questions. Like my most recent episode that I made, uh, it's called Behind the Wheel— Behind the EV Wheel, and it's a series that I've been doing on YouTube off and on for like 17 years. And I recently, just maybe a year and a half ago, restarted it and have been creating some different format videos, but they're all rooted in the same concept, is that I did these podcasts from behind the car's driving steering wheel. Now, the challenge that I have going forward is, is when, when these electric vehicles, autonomous electric vehicles go into like a robotaxi mode, there won't be a steering wheel anymore. So will I have to change the name of my, my show to not Behind the Wheel, but Behind the Dashboard? So, you know, it's, it's part of what the theme of that series is, is the evolution of autonomous vehicle driving. And I've come up with a couple of, you know, what I'm seeing as unique formats that, that drive value to people, and people are starting to watch them. So I'm excited for that. So, so anyway, you know, There's just a lot of things you can do. Let your creativity run wild. And so that's, that's the key takeaway here. So by following these 10 steps, and I'll, I'll post these 10 steps to, to the, the description. I think most of them are there but not in great detail, but I'll, I'll update that with, with the more detailed versions and And really, you know, be a part of a network, be a part of a group of people that you can bounce ideas off. And I think that's really important to do going forward. You know, and if you want to work with me, I would love to work with you. And so let me pull up on the screen again if you didn't capture the, the ADOR Creator Network. Here it is on the screen again. So you can capture that on your phone and it will direct you to the, the school community that I've, I've started out there. So, and well, thank you. I think I'm gonna wrap it up for the night, and I appreciate you being here and being a part of my, my rant of sorts about podcasting in my 54th episode. So Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. And feel free to reach out to me if you would like to. Let me pull up on the screen my contact information too. If you wanted to send me an email, you're welcome to send it to rob.greenlee@gmail.com. For those that are listening, I'm also on X @RobGreenlee. And you can also, if you haven't checked out my YouTube channel, here's my YouTube channel. It's at youtube.com/ @RobGreenlee, and that's spelled with two Es on the end. And I'm also the chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. So if you wanted to go check out the most recent ceremony that we did down in Orlando here in January to induct 11 new members of the Podcast Hall of Fame, that's been going on since 2015. And so I'm also in the Podcast Hall of Fame. I was inducted in 2017. So, I'm honored to be there, but I'm also honored to help put that event on every year. So, it does look like maybe a couple of questions or comments came in. Dave Canyon wrote me, "Thank you." And Dave also writes, "Good evening." And Dave also writes, "Always great advice." Well, Dave, I always enjoy your enthusiasm and your positivity. I think it's it's inspiring to me. And I know you, you're a longtime podcaster that's been doing it, doing a lot of stuff for a long time. And I, I've always enjoyed being around you. I think we've caught up a few times, um, in, in New York and at podcasting events and things like that. And I always enjoy you. So, um, thank you so much for being here. Oh, and he posted in here, Dave Canyon Approach, uh, 2017. Wow. I was there, seems like yesterday, right? Yeah, that was at Podcast Movement back in 2017 in Anaheim, California. So is where that all happened. So, um, so Sarah Richardson writes in here, so awesome, Rob, great show, very insightful. Well, thank you, Sarah, I appreciate that. And Dave also finishes up here, yes, still going. You have a lot to do with my longevity. Well, thank you, Dave. I appreciate that. So there's something to be said for longevity and anything that you're doing that you will, you will likely find success if you try long enough and hard enough. I know that from firsthand. So thanks, and thank you everybody for being here. I, I really appreciate it and I'll be back with you next Thursday at 7 PM Eastern. Um, what's that, 4 PM Pacific? So if you want to come back and join, join me again for another live show, or check out the, the, uh, the version of this as a podcast, you're certainly welcome to do that as well. I think I have a link to that here if you wanted to go to a website, podcasttips.blueberry.net. Is the place to go if you want to catch all of the episodes, the video and the audio on, on the web. Now you can go to Apple Podcasts and catch all that stuff as well. Um, so there's an audio version and a video version that's in the Apple Podcasts. So, so you can pick your, your, your choice. So anyway, well, thank you so much and have a wonderful evening. And I, I appreciate you being here again. I know I said that a lot. So, but I, I really mean it. So looks like Stephen Carter wrote something here too. Reminder to those in chat, hit the like button. Yes. Well, thank you so much, Stephen, for offering that. And also subscribe to my channel and follow the podcast in Apple Podcasts. Or if you're watching the version of this in Spotify, you can certainly do that over there as well. But good night. Thank you so much. I made it, I made it over an hour. I wasn't intending that, but I, I appreciate you being here. So thanks. Good night.
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