Tweaking Your Serialized Podcast For More Listener Love

Every rational podcaster with a story to tell wants to create a good listening experience. Sadly, misconceptions or lack of attention often block listeners from engaging further. But we can fix that.

February 9, 2021

Article

Recently I tweeted my frustrations with a significant fraction of podcasters.

Me, listening to 99% of podcast fiction: “What a great voice actor! I’ll check the episode details on my app to find out who it is.”

99% of podcast fiction publishers: 🖕

Me: OK, I’ll click through to the episode webpage for details.

99% of them:🖕again.
— Evo Terra 🧉🇺🇸 (@evoterra) February 7, 2021

Luckily, that snarky post sparked a very healthy conversation where I was able to correct a few myths and incorrect assumptions, always a favorite thing of mine to do as I continue to work to make podcasting better.

My primary conceit is this: People who make serialized podcasts are doing a disservice to their listeners.

My secondary conceit is this: Many people are making serialized content without realizing it.

All podcasts break down into one of two categories: episodic or serial. Every podcast is either one or the other. Even if you’re the type of podcaster who hates labels and wants to rebel against this categorization—tough. Choosing to not make a choice means the default behavior takes over, and the default behavior is to treat the show as episodic. So make a choice, or leave it to Big Podcasting.

Your Podcast May Secretly Be A Serialized Podcast

If you dig into the stats of the ~two million podcast feeds available, you’ll find only around 10% of podcasts marked as serial. But I don’t accept that as a meaningful number. If the default behavior is to assume episodic and not force an informed choice, the data are garbage.

I’m convinced a good portion of podcasters are unaware of the distinction between the two types. The only choice they make is to choose to ignore that un-required setting in the hosting dashboard for their show. Most podcast hosting companies don’t do a good job of guiding new podcasters to make any of the choices for their show. But that’s a rant for another episode.

So what about your show? Is it secretly serialized? Well...

If you could print out the episodes of your podcast in order, do some light editing, and create a book that was intended to be read from cover to cover; you’re making a serialized podcast.

If your podcast is an adaptation of a book or a manuscript and you’re narrating those pages with some extra flourishes and anecdotes along the way; you’re making a serialized podcast.

If your podcast was originally written as a screenplay: you're making a serialized podcast.

If your podcast is a series of lectures, discussions, or interviews that build upon each other episode after episode; you’re making a serialized podcast.

If your podcast investigates a particular occurrence, either real or imaginary, over multiple episodes; you’re making a serialized podcast.

If your podcast follows a linear progression, from point A to point B and all the way to point Z for the conclusion; you’re making a serialized podcast.

If your podcast episodes start with “Previously on…” or “The story so far…”; you’re making a serialized podcast.

If any of those scenarios apply to your show, please go into your podcast hosting platform and look for that setting. Because you’re not making an episodic podcast. You’re making a serialized podcast. Please tag it so. It’ll make the listener experience—at least for some—so much better.

The Devil Is in The Episode Details

I’m perpetually disappointed by the lack of effort many podcasters put into the post-production written elements of their podcast. I just find it particularly irksome that far too many creators of serialized content half-ass this step.

However, I have to admit that not everyone is lazy, nor is everyone is weak-saucing their written materials just to piss me off. Some podcasters are under the misconception that podcast listening apps somehow “mess with” carefully crafted episode details. Therefore, if these are going to mangle, hide, or truncate their written text anyhow, what’s the point?

But that’s a myth.

The words you write and associate with your episode when you publish it via your hosting platform will display to your listeners in every meaningful podcast app.

Now, how well they display and how well the app preserves the formatting you placed on and around those words is a different matter. I won’t deny that.

Some apps—including Spotify until recently—strip out all line breaks, leaving a giant block of text thousands of characters long. Others—like Audible—do that and also un-link all of your hyperlinked text, displaying the URL in text alongside the hyperlinked word. That’s very dumb and light-years from helpful.

It’s also not your problem.

In all cases, the text you wrote was preserved. More importantly, it’s a snap for the app developers to fix their stupidity and start displaying your text with the formatting preserved. And even if they don’t, some of your listeners will see that you’re obviously trying to do the right thing and will bail on that crappy app in favor of one that preserves all the work you put into the presentation of your episode details.

And a quick primer for those who need it: There are three different blocks of text you need to write for each of your episodes and include in your hosting provider when you publish the episode:

A title for the episode, ideally compelling and informative
A short summary of the episode of maybe a sentence or two (Note: some podcast apps will not display this summary, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write and include it!)
Detailed episode details

All of these are important. But it’s the last bit—detailed episode details which you may still call “show notes”—where you can provide more love for your listeners. And the location where they’ll spend the most time with your episode other than listening to the audio.

Format this! Use line breaks to separate paragraphs and sections. Bold your section headings. Hyperlink text where appropriate. And give credit where credit is due. If in the audio of your episode a reference is made to another person, write the name of that person in your episode details. If a service is mentioned or recommended, add the service in your episode details and link to it. If your episode had a sponsor, put the name of the sponsor in the episode details. And be sure to include a coupon code or affiliate link if applicable.

But as helpful as detailed episode details are, sometimes (all the time?) there are elements about an episode that just can’t display properly in a podcast listening app. In those cases (all cases?), you should also include a link to the web page you’ve built for that particular episode. You can really go into even greater detail on that page, where you know you’ll have full control over the format. Add some pictures or other visual elements regarding the episode if that’s appropriate. Certainly include the transcript to make your episode more accessible.

The Podcast App Is The Listeners Umbilical Cord To Your Show

Don’t neglect the podcast app, podcaster. For all its limitations, it’s often the only connection listeners have with your show. When listeners hear you say something on your episode and want more information, it’s their podcast app they’ll turn to first. If they can’t get to their app as they are listening, it’s likely where they’ll turn to when they do have a minute to look later.

Are you giving them what they expected to find? Are you enhancing the listener experience? Or are you frustrating your listeners?

This doesn’t get talked about enough. And when it does, it’s often poo-pood without any serious investigation or consideration for the experience of our listeners. And that’s a shame. But you can help. Share this episode with the podcasters you regularly interfaced with and start the conversation. Demonstrate what you’re doing right (or wrong) and how they (or you) might improve. Because all of us want to make podcasting better. This is a relatively simple way to make great strides in that direction.

And if you love the thought-provoking content I bring to you four days a week on Podcast Pontifications, please go to BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra and slide a virtual coffee my way.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Transcript

[Download & share this transcript]

Every rational podcaster with a story to tell wants to make a good listener experience, but sadly many misconceptions and myths out there, or lack of attention, often block listeners from engaging further. But we can fix that.
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Hello and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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So I recently tweeted out my frustrations over a particular fraction of podcasters. Now, that angry tweet sparked a very healthy conversation in the comments of that tweet, along the thread, as well as a few direct conversations I had with people as well. And in that I got to correct a few misassumptions.
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"So why not share those on a Podcast Pontifications," my brain said to me.
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Here's where we're going to start this conversation - serialized podcasters. The people who create serialized content are doing a disservice to their listeners. Now, even if you think you aren't creating serialized content, you might be, so hang out for this.
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There are two really big sins. And the first one is that many of these people with a good story to tell are actually not marking their show as serialized. They've left it as episodic.
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So here's the deal. I want you just to think about these possibilities. See, if your content was created to be listened to in order, you should mark it serial. It's a setting in your podcast hosting - episodic or serial. By default, episodic is on because most podcasts are episodic. However, a lot of people out there, you perhaps, are telling serialized stories.
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If, for example, your podcast from episode one could actually be printed out and put into a book for someone to read from cover to cover, it's serialized. Or it should be. You're making serial content.
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If your podcast is an adaptation of a book or a manuscript and you're just narrating and perhaps adding some extra color along the way, that is serial content.
‍

If your podcast was originally written out as a screenplay, you've got a serial podcast on your hand.
‍

If your podcast is a series of lectures, discussions, or even interviews that build upon each other episode after episode it's serial.
‍

If your podcast investigates particular occurrence, either real or imaginary over multiple episodes, guess what? It's serial.
‍

Any podcast that has a linear progression from point A to point B to point Q all, why did I say Q, point Z all the way along the end, that's serialized. And any podcast that features upfront the words "previously on," or "the story so far" is serialized. Mark it so.
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Now, the second big sin serial podcasters, and now that you know who you are, are doing is putting low energy effort into building their episode details, those things you call show notes.
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And I think there's a, well, I know, there's a myth. There's this giant myth out there that somehow podcast apps like Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Castbox messes, they mess with this info. That's not true. That is not true at all. Well, not really. If you put written content in your podcast hosting company, in those details sections, the listening apps will display it.
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Now, how well they display it and what they choose to do with that, which they display, ah, that's a different matter, right? Because some of them like Spotify, up until recently, would strip out all of your line breaks and you're just left with one giant block of text. Well, guess what? Spotify has recently fixed that. And now, well-formatted episode details look great inside of Spotify.
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Others like Audible, they do remove the line breaks, but they also remove all the hyperlinks, which is crazy. They then turn around and display those hyperlinks as text. Okay. That's dumb. But it's not your problem. That doesn't mean you should stop doing it. They will eventually, we hope, correct that situation. Do it right.
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When you are putting in episode details, you need to write at least three different things. Obviously a title, then a short summary, maybe a sentence or two. But then spend most of your time writing the details section, the episode details. I don't care what it's called inside of your podcast hosting company. They all call it something different.
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But in there you should be able to, no you can certainly, format the text. That means line breaks. That means bolding section headings. And also when you mention it, put the link in. Hyperlink it. Actually, highlight it. Click the little button that says link - type it in. Most podcast apps, or at least some of those podcasts apps, the important ones, will actually preserve all of that content.
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And be sure you are crediting in that text anyone that you mentioned in the audio, anything that you mentioned in the audio that is referencing another person, another service, whatever, put it in there and link to it.
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Also, put in your sponsor message. If you have a sponsor, put the sponsor's name inside of the episode details and link that information, as well. Hopefully with the coupon code or whatever it is that you have with your relationship there.
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Also, I said three things, four things you probably should put a link to your website. No probably. You definitely should put a link to the webpage you build for that particular episode, which goes into even greater detail. Maybe share some pictures. Certainly share the transcript of your episode and any other additional information that we can get to.
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You see, the podcast app that people listen to is oftentimes the only link a listener has to your show. It's where people like me go when we're listening, when we hear something and we want more information, we open up the podcast app and we look at those details. Or if we remember something later, like we were driving and we couldn't do that, cause that happens. Sometimes the first thing we're going to do is go back to the device we had that we were listening to, to get that information.
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So we're going to go back to previously played episodes. We're going to click in, and we're going to look for information. Hopefully you put some information in there for us. We want to give your show some love, serialized podcast, but you got to help us. You got to help us do that.
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So, I don't know who in your world needs to hear this, if it's not you, but I hope you bring this conversation up. I mean, the next time you're listening to something that is serialized and you go, "Where's the information on the bottom?" Or even anybody, even if you're not making serialized content, you should have information at the bottom. Give this, give them this episode, take this episode as inspiration to talk to them about. "Hey yeah, some things you should tweak."
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Because we're all working podcasters here. We need to help the other people do that. So use this as a springboard. You know, send them the episode and say, my friend Evo says you should be doing some things differently and I agree. Great. Do that.
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And if you love the content I bring to you four days a week here on Podcast Pontifications, please go to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra, and slide a virtual coffee my way. That's always nice and appreciated.
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That's it. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
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Cheers!

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