5 Resources To Help You Think Like A Serious Podcaster

Where does the serious podcaster go when seeking to up their game? The web is lousy with how to get started in podcasting resources. Fortunately, there are also some great next level resources. Here are five.

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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

There are two reasons that so much of the educational content for podcasters is aimed at the beginning podcaster. The first is that there's a constant flow of newbs wanting to start a podcast. The second is that creating content for newbs is comparatively easy as every new podcaster can follow just about any step-by-step guide and get their show launched.

But when you go deeper, you find everything gets fragmented, and what's relevant to one podcaster as they up their game is not necessarily, or even remotely, interesting to the second podcaster who wants to do it in a very different. By the way, it's not just one to two, it's like one to a hundred, the next 100 might be totally different because paths, you see, diverge greatly when we get deeper and deeper into the world of podcasting. That's the reality. That's also why I'm dedicating this entire week to ways that serious podcasters can improve.

Today I'm presenting five somewhat passive ways to become a better podcaster just by using your eyes or your ears. I'm going to put links to everything I'm going to mention in your episode detail notes, also in your app, in the article, and if you're a subscribed to Podcast Pontifications In Your Inbox, you'll get an article with all these things linked to you. So put down the pencils and don't worry too much about taking notes as I go along.

Number one resource is Podnews. I know that it's highly likely that you are already listening to or reading Podnews every single day. It is a daily briefing on, surprisingly, podcasting news, rather aptly named thanks to James. But it's also possible you're wondering why I'm listing this among a resource to help serious podcasters because the aim of the publication is just to update you on podcasting news, not to train you how to be a better podcaster.

Well, I mention Podnews and recommend Podnews for two reasons. One, our industry moves incredibly fast, being informed across a large cross section, if you will, of podcasting is really important to any serious podcaster and Podnews gets you there. The second reason is that James Cridland, the editor of the news source, sources out some excellent tutorials and guides that often, although not always, are germane to more advanced podcasters. So get that at podnews.net and read it or listen to it every single day.

The second one is Sounds Profitable. Now, full disclosure, I do edit the newsletter, and I also help produce the podcast for Sounds Profitable. But that's not why you should read or listen to the show. Yes, the focus of this weekly newsletter, and also a weekly companion podcast, is on podcast ad tech. But even if you don't care about podcast advertising, you need to read what Bryan Barletta has to say every week because podcast ad tech is becoming podcast tech.

Dynamic insertion goes well beyond programmatic ads, and every serious podcaster wants better analytics. Changing privacy regulations are going to cause our entire industry to change, not just podcast advertising. So get that at soundsprofitable.com, and read it every week and also listen to the podcast so you can hear other industry leaders discussing the concepts from prior editions.

Third resource is Hot Pod. Hot Pod is a weekly newsletter that is now penned by Ashley Carman from The Verge. It's been a staple of podcasting for many years now. Hot Pod also gets a lot of shade thrown at it, mostly because the newsletter doesn't cover "indie" podcasting nearly enough, say it's naysayers, at least. To which I say, well, it wasn't designed to do that. Instead, it's designed to look at how the larger players like big media organizations and large production houses are approaching podcasting.

I'm looking forward to Ashley taking over the reins. In fact, this morning, the first episode, more of an intro, just published. I've enjoyed her investigative journalism with The Verge for a few years now, and I'm curious to see where she takes Hot Pod. So that's at hotpodnews.com, and read that every single week.

Fourth thing, HowSound. Let's do something now for your ears, okay? HowSound by Rob Rosenthal for PRX and Transom is just that thing. It's not a podcast about podcasting, not at all. It's a podcast that showcases the best in radio storytelling, and don't get tripped up over the word radio in there. Think of this more as audio storytelling because every serious podcaster is also an audio storyteller.

The casual format of HowSound, and also the long clips and sometimes entire segments, really let you understand the why as much as the how behind these sounds, leaving plenty of great nuggets for you to pick back up and put into your everyday podcasting life. That's HowSound, all one word. Find it in your podcast listening app, or go to transom.org. New episodes are published there every other week.

Then, finally, is a list on Twitter. I'm going to offer up a curated list of my own, not just me, but of the people who I feel are pushing podcasting forward on Twitter. I call this list my "Podcast Pulse" because that's the idea, keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening in podcasting. Now, if you don't use Twitter, okay, you don't use Twitter. I'm not here to convince you to use Twitter. If you do use Twitter, you can follow this, 111 or so people, all of them to varying degrees publish content on Twitter that these serious podcaster should know about.

But I will remind you that it is Twitter. And Twitter users like me do, in fact, use Twitter for putting out more than just one thing. So not everything you're going to see is going to be all podcasting all the time. I don't recommend turning on notifications unless you're that crazy person. But I do recommend checking the list - again, it's called "Podcast Pulse" - from time to time, just so you can see what's shaking and what people who are also shaking in podcasting are thinking about at the moment. Again, I'll have a link to that in the episode notes, or you can go to my Twitter profile, Evo Terra, and select View Lists and look for "Podcast Pulse" right there.

Now, here's the deal. I know I missed a few. Hell, I probably missed a lot. But I've only got a limited amount of time to do these episodes. I need to keep it concise. However, I do have room to listen to or read more podcasting content, specifically podcasting content that's created to make podcasters better podcasters and to create ultimately serious podcasts.

So what did I miss? You can tell me in a comment right here. You can send me a DM if you like. You can join us in the Advancing Podcasting community at advancingpodcasting.xyz. Or you can email me at evo@simpler.media. Let's share these resources out.

Also, if you got value from today's episode, please return some of that value at podcastpontifications.com/support.

Tomorrow, another episode for serious podcasters who want to improve their craft on yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He's on a mission to make podcasting better. Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes section of your podcast listening app. A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected transcript, both created by Allie Press. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. Find out more at Simpler.Media.

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