Make The Most Of Podcast Bonus Episodes

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If ever there was a time to release bonus content, it's now, right? We are all reading extra content and occasionally hearing extra content from companies and people all around the world as they scramble to keep customers, clients, friends, and family updated during the pandemic.

Yesterday I talked about using a bonus episode to let your audience know how the COVID19 pandemic and subsequent social distancing measures are impacting you and your show personally. Today’s focus will a broader conversation that features some creative ways podcasters can make better use of bonus episodes.

Apple Podcasts gifted us the ability to make a distinction between “normal” (they call them “full”) episodes and “extra” (“bonus” to them) episodes. It’s a simple tag that can be set in the dashboard of your podcast media hosting company, and it denotes an episode that sets outside of your normal flow.

Regular broadcasters can't really do this. Simply because most broadcasting is done on a set schedule. The show you watch each week comes on Tuesday at 7p. If the hosts/stars of the show want to put out a special bonus episode... they really can't. No watcher/listener is expecting the bonus content, so they won’t know to tune in at a different time or on a different day than the scheduled broadcast slot. Of course, networks can run special announcements prior to this in an effort to get the word out, but that doesn’t always work. And it’s worse for most on-demand or streaming services because people aren’t “subscribed” to or expecting alerts or special announcements coming from their on-demand providers.

Which is where podcasting wins! For the people who are subscribed to our feeds, they’ll get any bonus episodes we release. Yes, we have (or you should have) a schedule and a cadence for releasing our regular episodes. But when we have something special or just different to say, we can say it with a bonus episode and not impact the regular flow of our content.

This is a tough thing for a lot of podcasters to wrap their head around. They're thinking -- rightly so -- that their episodes drop on Tuesdays at midnight, come hell or high water. But sometimes there’s a need to work around that publishing schedule. And that's what you do with bonus episodes.

Here are nine ideas for bonus content that you should examine for your podcast.

Announcing a break from publishing new episodes

Lots of podcasters do this already, and I highly recommended it. if you're taking a break, either planned or unplanned, make an announcement to your audience. Take a few minutes to hop behind the microphone and record a real quick “We're going on break and will be back later” message. Put it out maybe three days after your last episode published so no one's wondering what happened to your show.

Generate easier content in-between full episodes

Some podcast episodes take a lot of time to produce, causing many to struggle to keep up with a weekly schedule. Some savvy podcasters are releasing full episodes fortnightly, and then releasing an easier-to-produce episode on the off weeks, giving them a weekly schedule without the giant time commitment. Check out how My Dad Wrote A Porno does this. Brilliant!

Go behind the scenes

Don’t underestimate how much some of your listeners would love to see the sausage being made. But also don’t overestimate that every one of your listeners wants to hear this. They don’t. Trust me. So if you want to give a peek behind the curtains, be sure to tag the episode as a bonus to keep both types of listeners happy.

Feature a special co-host

If you find out celebrity is a fan of your show, why not get them on the program? Yes, even if you don’t normally do interviews or can’t find a way to roll the special guest in your regular show. Again, that’s a perfect way to use a bonus episode, so you get all that star power.

Release a music-only episode

If you feature music in your podcast, consider doing a show where you just talk about the music used to make the show. This is easier for podcasts that do lots of heavy music scoring, but it also works for those who use a single track for the intro and outro of every episode. There’s a story of why you picked it, and at least some of your audience wants to hear the whole track from start to finish. (Which you have the right to use, right? Right.)

Turn the mic around and give a reverse interview

Good interviewers ask the right questions so their audience really gets to know their guests. But often, they know little about you, the host of your own show! So find someone to interview you. It could be a past guest. It could be another podcaster. Regardless, you’re in the hot seat letting your audience know you better.

Interview your supporting crew

It takes a lot of different skillsets to make a podcast. And even single-person shows often rely on others in various supporting roles. Consider sitting down with your producer, reporters on the ground, your graphics dude, or whoever else you rely on to make the show. Featuring the people who don't necessarily have a voice on your program will be interesting to some of your audience, I promise.

Podcast non-podcast appearances

Live shows are popular (well, were popular and I assume will be once again when this pandemic is in our rear-view) with podcasters. As are various in-person speaking gigs or other opportunities where podcasters present to people other than their listeners. Record that stuff! Then put it out on your podcast as a bonus episode.

When news breaks

We’re surrounded by breaking news right now, and it’s a good less for all podcasters. If something happens in a news cycle that’s relevant to your show or your genre, you might need to get an episode out quickly. A bonus episode is a great way to do that without impacting the other episodes you have stacked up for the next two or three weeks.

And that’s just a start. There are all sorts of ways smart podcasters can use bonus episodes. But before you start, there are three major considerations you need to staple to your wall so you don’t forget to think about them before you drop a bonus episode.

1. Should this bonus episode live only in the feed or should it also be on the website?

I made the decision that bonus episodes of Podcast Pontifications would be feed-only. So far I’ve released 16 bonus episodes of my show, and none of them have a corresponding webpage. I'm not saying you should do that. I'm saying you have to decide what’s right for you.

2. How will you promote these bonus episodes?

Bonus means taking a different approach than your normal full episodes. So while you can (and should) use the same promotional machinery you use to promote your full episodes, you probably can't (or shouldn’t) do the exact same promotional things for these special episodes. Think through that before you release it.

3. What will new listeners think about your overall show?

These bonus episodes are different. Perhaps drastically different from your normal episodes. If you just shove a bonus out there without any explanation because you know your audience will get it, you run the very real risk of turning off new listeners who most certainly will not get it. New people are exposed to your podcast for the first time all the time, and they're going to get that bonus content before they get your regular episodes. So make sure that bonus content is clearly labeled -- in-audio as well as in-feed -- as a bonus episode that takes a departure from your standard fare.

Get together with your podcasting family and have a conversation about how each of you are (or are not) using bonus content. Tell them you heard about me talking about making bonus episodes and put forth the idea of collaborating together. That might be fun.

You know what else will be fun? Me coming back tomorrow to do this again for another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Podcasting has a super power that beats broadcasting. That is the ability to put out a bonus episode when we need to, or when we want to. Hey, come to think of it. There are lots of ways podcasters can make better use of bonus episodes.

Hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me. Evo Terra. So man, if there was ever a time to make some good bonus content, it's now right? We are all seeing reading and occasionally hearing bonus episodes as everyone all around the world seems to scramble during the pandemic. Yesterday I talked about.

Using bonus episodes for that particular reason, but I thought it would be worthy of having a larger, wider conversation about bonus episodes in general. Now, bonus episodes in case you are unaware, is a relatively new, okay, it's two years old now. Feature that the people at Apple podcasts. That's right.

Apple podcast, not iTunes gifted us. You now have the ability to flag an episode as a bonus episode, which is different than a full episode, as they have called it. Now, as I said at the beginning, this is something we could do that regular broadcasters can't because broadcasting has done on a schedule.

You're watching your show. It comes on Tuesday at seven. Well, if they want to put out a special bonus episode, they really can't because no one's expecting this show to be there and live at any time other than, well, broadcast time. Of course networks have their own networks break in all the time and say things, but that's not the show itself.

And while we have networks in podcasting, they're quite different. In this world and they are with broadcasting, so that doesn't really fit the same, same mold. And of course, we have much more on demand services now for watching television shows, movies and various things. But still, you don't really go there to get regular content with podcasts.

We get regular content. People subscribe to our shows, or we hope that they subscribe to our chefs and we can send podcast content out, episodes out whenever we want to. And we've got a schedule, we've got a cadence, but sometimes it's time to do something that's not part of the normal cadence. This is a tough thing for a lot of podcasters to wrap their head around because they're thinking, my show drops on Tuesdays and midnight.

It doesn't have to. I mean, you should drop an episode on Tuesday at midnight if that's your publishing schedule, but if you want to break that publishing shed, you'll, you can, and that's what you do with the bonus. Episode. So I've got nine ideas for bonus content that I want you to think about and I'll talk about each one of them.

I'll go pretty fast because you know, it doesn't take a lot of time for nine to be there. Nine things you might consider using for your bonus episodes on your podcast. Number one, probably the one of the biggest usage usages is when you're taking a break. If you're taking a break, either a season break or just a break for whatever reason, sometimes and noun, sometimes unannounced, sometimes planned, sometimes unplanned.

Make an announcement to your guests to, excuse me, to your audience, right? Just hop behind the microphone and record a real quick. I'm going on break. We're going on break. We'll be back later. Type message. And you can put that out like a day or two, maybe three days after your last episode comes out. So no one's wondering where you are.

Number two in between content for full episodes. Some content takes a lot of time to produce, and you just really would struggle to get it out on a weekly basis. So what if you did it every fortnightly, but then every week you did an easier episode with some in between type stuff, not the full thing that you're doing, not the big huge production that might take you eight to 10 hours, but what about something that took you just a couple of hours.

To put together to keep your information out inside people's brains. The people behind my dad wrote a porno, do a fantastic job of this in between full seasons. You can do behind the scenes content as a bonus episode. So I'll give people a peek about what's happening in your studio or distributed studios around short little episodes that are quirky and weird.

Maybe you want to have a special cohost come into your quote unquote studio and help do something. A celebrity comes by somebody else similar to the same audience you have. Do a special cohost episode that doesn't, right? It doesn't quite fit the normal flow of your show. Then there's also music only episodes.

If you feature music heavily in your podcast. You can do an episode where you just talk about the music you chose for the scoring, for the intro, for the outro, whatever. Make sure, obviously you have rights to use this music, but you have to do that to have it in anywhere. Right? Right. You can do a reverse interview.

If, in fact, you are assured that does interviews with people having somebody else be the interviewer and you turn around and become the interviewee can be interesting and bonus content worthy. You are in the hot seat while someone else is asking you the questions. Then there's the option for you to interview the other people who help make the show, the staff that you utilize to make the show, the producers, the reporters on the ground, the graphics dude, whatever interview that people who help you make the show kind of behind the scenes, but also featuring the other people who don't necessarily have a voice on the program.

Also great if you're doing live shows, if you're out in the world, well, not now, but before we were all sequestered, doing live shows or other sorts of things with your podcast that's different. Record that stuff. If you're speaking at a conference, record yourself and put it out on your podcast as a bonus episode.

And then finally, obviously breaking news where we find ourselves today. If something happens in the news cycle, then you need to get an episode out. Maybe a bonus episode is the right way to do that so you're not changing all the other episodes that you have stacked up for the next two or three weeks.

Jump in with a breaking news, call it a bonus episode. It'd be fine. Now, three things I want you to think about because these are important. With these bonus episodes, you have some decisions to make the biggest one being, should this bonus episode live only in your podcast feed or should it also be on your website?

I have made the decision for my show podcast pontifications to make. Bonus episodes feed only there isn't a corresponding webpage. That's my decision. I'm not saying you should do that. I'm saying you have to decide, but on your website, or don't put it on your website, but certainly put it in your feed.

Second thing you have to figure out is how do you promote these bonus episodes. Because their bonus, they're different. They're not a full episode. So you can say you can use the same promotional machinery that you use to promote your regular episodes, your full episodes, but you can't do the exact same thing because these are just different.

So how will you promote these bonus episodes, if at all? How do you do that? And the last thing to think about, and the most important thing to think about is this. Make sure that a brand new person understands that this is bonus content. You just can't shove something out there without an intro or an outro, assuming that your audience knows you and they get it.

That may be true, but new people are possibly discovering your podcast all the time, and if they subscribe, they're going to get that bonus content first. So make sure whatever you do. With that bonus content that it is clearly labeled in audio as well as in tagging bonus, different contents. So people understand it's not the normal thing.

So what are you doing for bonus episodes? How have you been utilizing bonus episodes? Well, how do you think you want to use bonus episodes? Maybe here's a thing. Get together with your podcasting brethren, your podcasting family, the podcasting people. You know, I love to get podcasters connected to each other and have a conversation about this.

Yeah. Tell him you heard about me talking about making bonus episodes, but find out what you guys are doing. How can you collaborate together? Making bonus episodes for each other shows that might be fun. Yeah. You know what else was fun? Me coming back tomorrow to do this again for another podcast.

Pontifications cheers.

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