Listener Experience

The listeners are the lifeblood of your show. So shouldn't you spend time thinking about how they interact with your podcast's content? Understanding the listener experience -- and then optimizing that experience -- is often the difference between podcasts that grow and those that fail to thrive.

October 6, 2020

Milking Your Podcast's Popularity For All It’s Worth

Podcasters have a myopic view of metrics, often putting the greatest import on statistics that matter the least to the people who matter the most - our listeners. Here’s how to do better for your show.

July 30, 2020

Confronting Your Podcast's Avatar From The Inside

If you make a podcast for everyone, you’ve made it for no one. So you focus, carefully defining your avatar. But in your refinement, you might have left out an important voice by mistake.

July 27, 2020

Solving Podcasting's Linear Listening Problem

Podcasters tend to obsess over “discoverability”. But a bigger problem might be impenetrability, a problem that neither the podcast media hosts nor the apps listeners use are helping to solve. Yet.

July 7, 2020

Is Podcast Listening Too Big Of An Ask?

Given what we know about how people use the internet, it’s surprising podcasting works at all. Or perhaps explains why, for many struggling shows, it doesn’t. Today, it’s about trust, timely data, or infotainment.

May 6, 2020

Putting The Simple Back In Podcast RSS Feeds

Subscribing to a podcast should lead to frictionless listening. That’s true for present and future episodes, but what about those from the past? It may be time for us to move past our one-size-fits-all approach to feed management.

May 4, 2020

Podcast Episode Management For Tomorrow

A new listener discovers an episode of your podcast and loves it. They want more but don’t really want (or need) to run backward through 300 episodes. Sadly, it’s all they can do. Today.

March 23, 2020

Why Podcast Listening Won't Ever Return To Normal

Sobering opinion: The habits people formed around podcast listening are changing and will be forever changed. This isn’t the new normal. Just new. Normal is -- and always has been -- an illusion. #thisisthenew

September 4, 2019

Let Your Podcast Live Where Your Audience Lives

Today's podcast listener is fed up with your drive-by attempts to capture their attention. To reach this new audience, your podcast episodes have to live where they live.

September 3, 2019

Be Where Today's Podcast Listeners Expect You To Be

People brand new to podcasting are from Mars, while us podcasting veterans are from Venus. No, we can't meet in the middle. We need to get our asses to Mars! (👈 Total Recall reference for the uninitiated)

July 11, 2019

Appeasing The Fickle Podcast Listener

It should be easy for people who know how to listen to podcasts to listen to your podcast. No education required, right? I agree with you that it should be easy. But only if you’re doing your part, podcaster.

July 8, 2019

Design Your Podcast for the 75% Who Don't Listen To Podcasts

Let's make your podcast better for your audience. Specifically, the audience who might have never, ever listened to a podcast before. You’re their first. Are you a good steward?

June 17, 2019

Sharing Is Caring (About Your Podcast)

Podcasters want to make shows so fantastic our listeners are compelled to share our work. So I’m puzzled when great shows fail to do the basics, making that way too hard on their fans (especially when it’s easy to get it right)! Here’s how to fix it:

June 3, 2019

Podcasters Are Making It Too Hard For New Listeners

We all want more new listeners to our podcasts, and we all want to follow best practices for our podcasts. Ironically, an accepted best practice in podcasting might be getting in the way of new listeners enjoying your show.

May 13, 2019

Is Podcasting Harming Your Brand?

A podcast can be a great way to add to the brand you’ve worked hard to build. But a poorly executed show can quickly undo all that goodwill and actively damage your brand irreparably.

April 17, 2019

Pitching Your Podcast To Non-Listeners

Ways to convince your customers/contacts to give your podcast a chance, even if they don't listen to podcasts on the regular.

April 11, 2019

The Growing Trend Of Not Subscribing To Podcasts

Many listeners of podcasts are happily consuming podcasting content without clicking the subscribe option... ever.

April 3, 2019

Control The Listener Experience Of Your Podcast

Who controls whether someone listens to your podcast or not? You do.

March 13, 2019

Focus On Your Podcast's Audience

Stop making these two mistakes when talking to your audience, podcaster.

February 20, 2019

Getting Past Podcasting's Linear Past

How the future might (finally) bring real choice to listeners of podcasts.

February 19, 2019

Do Subscriptions Help Or Hurt Podcasting?

Making the case for something other than all-you-can eat.

February 5, 2019

Pride, Prejudice, & Podcasting

Friends will forgive your little foibles. The public will judge you for it.

January 31, 2019

Your Podcast Needs A Loyalty Program

Reward your most loyal listeners and reap the benefits for your podcast.

December 18, 2018

First & Last Impressions Your Podcast Delivers

Part 2: Know Your Podcast, Know Yourself

December 17, 2018

Title, Description & Image

Part 1: Know Your Podcast, Know Yourself

November 19, 2018

Stop Obsessing Over Dedicated Podcast Listening Apps

Why audio aggregation apps should command more of your attention, podcaster.

November 12, 2018

Searching For Your Podcast's Niche

Good news: people are already telling you exactly what they would like in your podcast.

October 3, 2018

Science Says Monkey With Your Podcast

4 actions to help you keep your audience's brains engaged with your podcast.

August 27, 2018

You Say Podfading Like It's A Bad Thing

Not everything is meant to last forever, right?

August 22, 2018

What Iron Man Can Teach Podcasters About The Future

How podcasting changes when we move from buttons to voice-activated controls.

August 2, 2018

The Secret To Growing Podcasting Is More IHNIs

The best way you can be a steward of podcasting for others.

July 26, 2018

Does Your Podcast's Brand Match Your Business?

A simple exercise to help you better understand and convey your brand with a podcast.

July 12, 2018

Optimizing the Listener Experience for Noobs

A small list of items your podcast page MUST have.

September 26, 2019

Are Podcast Apps Part Of Podcasting's Problems?

A healthy and varied system of podcast listening apps should be healthy for podcasting. Well... assuming they all provide at least a similar user experience. But in many key ways, they don't. Why is that?

October 29, 2019

Sharing Sharable Info In Show Notes For Your Podcast

If you want more engagement from your podcast listeners, make it easier for your listeners to engage with your content. I mean, it's often literally in the palm of their hands.

October 30, 2019

Driving Downloads From Drive-Bys

It's hard to perfectly integrate your podcast and your website. Yet it's actually quite simple to get the most critical things right on your page or site. In fact, it’s so simple that I will fix it for you over a cup of coffee.

January 27, 2020

Better Podcasting By Living Up To The Hype

Your dedicated audience will forgive you for just about anything. But for the new and potential podcast listener, your lack of understanding of how they experience your content for the first time is limiting growth.