Why You Should NOT Start a Podcast

Hello Spencer

I first found your blog after downloading a number of random podcasts from iTunes and listening to yours.

In my opinion, hearing somebody talking to you on a podcast makes you much more likely to visit their site on a regular basis than it does from reading a blog post.

Hearing the person talking also makes you feel more trusting of them. I would be much more likely to buy a product such as Long Tail Pro from your site than I would from a site and owner who I had never heard speak.

While podcasts may not dramatically increase the clicks you get, I definitely think they improve your the trust and reputation you have and probably make your existing site visitors more likely to buy products from you.

Honestly listening to your podcasts, reading your blogs, and having bought your products I feel like some of who you are comes out. It strikes me as more of you not really wanting the attention that brings. Additionally, it may just not be a very efficient use of time for you.
When it’s writing your content and data is what stands out. It’s like anything, knowing yourself and where you’ll excel at is so important.

Lemme do a “deep dive” on your issue Spencer of people not taking your calls to action.

Most of the time when I’m listening to a podcast, i’m not in a position to take action when a call to action is made

– in my car
– at work
– walking the dog
– going for a run
– at the gym

So whenever that call to action is made
– I’m not going remember some url that is

– w-w-w.LONGPODCASTNAME.com/ABBREVIATION-OR-LONG-VERSION

– I should be able to just google the show name and the topic and find it at the top of my list

But often times I do hunt down the information if it’s useful

– I’ll go to the podcaster’s website, and it’s often hard to find the podcast area of the site, and then hard to find the specific podcast

– When I get to the specific podcast – the show notes are sparse, usually just links. (and often times, there’s no forum or no one in the comment section)

When I don’t have the time, or patience to listen to Jehosophat rattle off a bunch of self serving 5 star reviews – often times there’s no TRANSCRIPT. You mean to tell me, A guy making 5 figures a month serving his customers and can’t spend a couple hunsky to make a transcript?

That doesn’t *resonate* with me.

At least in this space, most podcasts are
– poorly conceived
– hastily done
– poor follow through and infrastructure.

Other grumbles
– the hosts aren’t very engaging
– there are too many inside jokes
– they’re either informal or too formal to a fault
– interviews with the usual incestuous suspects
– numbered list of the week
– reaction to article read on some blog someplace
– news of little import

^In general,it’s much more comment and analysis of what is out there, the same stuff I can already read, as opposed to genuinely new and unique content.

That being said, if there’s no one in the space doing a podcast, the market will eat it up. And there’s long term value in that.

I have no idea if there’s an Oceanographer’s podcast, but if that was my niche, i’d explore it, and set it up. Sometimes First beats Best.

In this space, right now Best could easily beat First and Biggest.

Spencer,
Your podcasts are very good. You do good interviews and you give away a lot of useful information that I have actioned. But I understand where you are coming from not liking having official things on your schedule, that’s why I like niche pursuits so much – I can do things when I feel like it.
I first heard about you through internet business mastery, ( found them through a podcast) bought LTP and followed you ever since. I always check my iphone to see if you have released a new podcast. Your podcast brand says to me genuine nice guy. But I guess it is not a money making tool itself just part of a bigger branding tool that may work better for some more than others.
I wonder if people don’t take action because they are often on the go when they are listening. I always listen to podcasts when I am driving or walking to my daughters school to pick her up. Usually I am pushing my son in the stroller too so I always think, I must do that or look that up when I get home but often forget, because I cant stop somewhere to write it down.

Hi Spencer. Weird! I literally just typed your url in my address bar to see if you had made any new posts recently and the email notification popped up at the same time. Law of attraction?

I like listening to you podcasts too. However like others have mentioned, it is not likely I am going to remember a url you state in the podcast (even super shortened ones). However If there is something to follow up I tend to make a mental note to visit the blog later on, rather than taking down the url in the podcast. This is total guess work by me but I imagine it is the same for lots of listeners / readers.

I know this doesn’t make it easy to track so it might take a bit more imagination to come up with a tracking method. Competition time maybe, that is only mentioned in the podcast? If you can then link the users to readers from your blog and subscribers from your list (can you do this with infusionsoft?) then you can measure the users that are listening in. But its still difficult to measure what affect this is having on your brand and bottom line.

From here its a case of doing what you feel is right I guess and using your time wisely. The main point I’m making is that building your brand (not just for speakers) and giving to customers can add a lot of value that is more difficult to measure. Whilst this trust might still be adding more to your bottom line than you realise. Or then again it might not.

One thing is for sure. Video (or vlogging) and podcasts being easy to tune in whilst on the move are becoming more and more popular media.

There are a large number of people who prefer listening to reading.
Info does go to the brain and through the filters there more directly via audio.

That being said, I read at a high rate of speed so I’m always hoping there’s a transcript. I’ll usually pass on most if no transcript.

I just did an interview with Michael Senoff on my scrap metal business and he pulled things out of me I thought were long forgotten. A good interviewer can do wonders in getting the best from you.

Michael has interesting models for making money from some of his interviews by using them as a lead gen. with an affiliate split from the person who did the interview or to sell a product he has.
Michael’s setup is different from a podcast in that the interview and transcript are up on his website so more effective long term and out where the search engines can find them.

Ben Settle did a podcast a few weeks back laying out why most people shouldn’t do podcasts too. Many of the same reasons as stated here.

Podcasts do have value, but nothing you can directly track, as in all the comments here about trust and the podcast leading them to the blog.
If you don’t like doing them…that’s all you need to know. On to something more enjoyable.

Hi Spencer.

For the record, I found your podcast first, then started reading your blog, then purchased LongTail Pro etc

Selfishly I would love for you to release more podcasts, I enjoy how you present them and the interviews and case studies you have recorded.

I was however surprised when you recently emailed out promoting another podcast. I understand why you did it, I suscribed and do listen to the other podcast, but, the market for niche sites as such is saturated with podcasts in my opinion. Listening to new podcasts don’t hold the same prestige that the established ones do.

Great article, thanks for sharing and good day.

Hi Spencer,

Interesting post here, I have to say in a lot of ways I do agree with your post. I have been doing my podcast for over a year now and the more I look around it seems “everyone” is starting one.

Even worse is that everyone is following a similar theme to just interview entrepreneurs, especially people who just interview a lot of the same big name people.

I have now done 70 episodes in about a years time, my show really does not get that many downloads (maybe 50-100 per episode).

What I will mention is the relationship part of podcasting has allowed me to finally see success online.

For years I dabbled with MLM marketing with no luck trying to recruit people, I then tried to learn “everything” about online marketing for a year never really getting anywhere jumping from one thing to another.

I finally decided the podcast / interview show was a great way to “focus” and still sort of do “everything” by learning from people who do all kinds of different things. So I started Voices Of Marketing but It took a lot of time for these relationships to work in my favor.

Here is a chain of events that happened for me because of podcasting:
-In July of last year I interviewed Jon Haver of AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com, we talked back and forth via email for several months here and there about SEO and blog networks
-I interviewed a blogger / speaker named Amanda Abella late September last year
-Amanda referred me to a job on the ProBlogger job boards, someone who needed help with an entrepreneur magazine.
-I applied and got the job out of over 100 applicants due to my interview and podcast experience. I was hired to write for the magazine paying $400 per interview / article.
-This led to my articles being noticed by Jon (Most were published as guest posts as well)
-Jon requested we work together on a writing project, which led to a bigger discussion of a partnership.
-We then started LightningRank, a PBN service together over months of planning and discussions

Now my income is up over an additional $2000 per month all because I started networking and building relationships through interviews. I actually have had many similar situations happen so I summed it all up and wrote a Kindle book on the same topic.

What I love about interviews is I can also learn from these people, it’s pretty awesome to be able to pick the brain of Andrew Warner, Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Jaime Tardy and all these other successful people for 30-40 minutes completely for free. I’ve even become recently interested in learning more about niche sites so I interviewed Perrin after reading so many of your blog posts and I learned a TON during the interview!

So my opinion would be to start a podcasting for the relationships and possibilities of learning, I’ve also gotten a lot better over the mic substantially boosting my confidence knowing I’m potentially speaking to hundreds of people who could be listening.

Spencer,

I found you through your podcast. Now I visit the blog regularly and look forward to your podcasts. I also, like many of the others making comments here, purchased LTP. You reach more than you know. Very thankful to have your voice in the world.

Hi Spencer,

There’s an article on LinkedIn by Gary Vaynerchuk where he makes a really compelling case why every one of us as entrepreneurs and business owners are in fact media companies.

In this day an age, content marketing is not a cool thing that we might dabble with, it’s a must if you want to achieve preeminence in your industry.

That’s not to say that podcasting is the right medium for everyone.

But there has to be some kind of content marketing strategy your business follows – whether it’s blogging, vlogging, podcasting or something else.

For me, doing a daily show allows me to connect with extremely high level influencers, NY Times bestselling authors and deliver incredible knowledge to our audience.

The ability to then build those relationships with my guests is amazing and provided wonderful opportunities already in the short time since we’ve launched Born To Influence: The Marketing Show.

Wish you all the best with your endeavors.

I’m so glad you’re finding from the comments that quite a few o your followers and customers actually found you through your show.

Have a great day! 🙂

Esther Kiss

Hi Spencer!

I don’t jump into these conversations very often but I thought I would lend my thoughts.

I entered the world of podcasting on the bleeding edge in 2005 and have built a thriving business out of it. Given that I have stats going all the way back to day one, I completely agree with many of your points.

My Daily Boost podcast is the most downloaded self-help podcast in history. It stuck at #1 for four years. Now, with all the new folks launching podcasts, it tends to live in the top 5.

I was one of the first to monetize a podcast in 2006 using a freemium model. I’m also the first to produce daily programs – and have never stepped.

My programs are produced 5 days a week. I giveaway my Monday program and sell the remainder in my membership site. I’m one of the few that actually sells a podcasts as a front end product. I now produce 16 programs per week – a total of nearly 7,000 since I began.

That having been said, I almost always tell people NOT to get into podcasting if you plan on making money. There are many reasons and you mentioned almost every one of them… but I have a few thoughts…

The current and popular “daily” model is something most people could never keep up with. Content is king… and you’ve got to have lots of it to fill daily shows… and keep folks listening. You better be prolific.

New & Noteable is cool and nearly anybody can become “#1 New and Noteable”. But… what will happen when Apple stops promoting you? I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard brag about being #1 N&N. By the way… there actually isn’t a #1. Then… a few week’s later they’re gone.

Side note…

I have actually had two of the current podcast Guru’s ask, “How do you stay top rated after your launch?” My answer? Produce a great product, and market your ass off.

I also so a ton of television interviews and work with producers. They actually laugh at people who brag about being #1 N&N. They want the real thing.

To make money with podcasting requires that you cross your audience to your funnel. In other words, get their email address and start some kind of nurture that ends in a sale. If you can’t do that… you’re just free entertainment.

Speaking of free. Most folks expect a podcast to be free. That means they start out listening with no expectation of ever paying you. It takes serious marketing and sales chops to move them to the customer category.

Finally.. and this is the big one.

You CAN make big money with a podcast if you have a perfect message to market match. One of my big pet peeves with the current group of so-called successful podcasters is that they are making all of their money by selling “how-to” stuff to other podcasters. I don’t have a problem with that at all. More power to them. But remember, it’s really just another form internet marketing and selling a dream. Again… you won’t get any complaints from me. Just remember… when you buy a product from a guy making his money teaching others about podcasting… the only way you will likely make money is to teach others how to podcast. Just saying’.

That’s my two cents. If don’t teach people how to podcast, I actually do it for a living. If I can help you succeed, find me on the web and we’ll chat.

Scott
Founder & Chief Motivating Officer
MotivationToMove.com