This week we take a deep dive into the world of podcast advertising!

First, a trip down memory lane. We’ve been doing this a long time and though it might help by recounting just a bit of history for context, from early affiliate partnerships to CPM advertising and dynamically inserted ads. We discuss the pros and cons of these different approaches and how they've shaped our strategy over time.

Next, we explore key takeaways from the SoundsProfitable conference on podcast advertising. We highlight interesting findings about listener engagement and discuss what's currently working in the industry, including the effectiveness of live ad reads and storytelling-style advertisements.

We’ve changed our plans to adapt our advertising approach across our network, aiming for more engaging and less intrusive ad experiences. We emphasize the importance of balancing monetization with listener satisfaction.

The episode concludes with practical advice for fellow podcasters, drawn from both our experiences and industry best practices. We cover topics like ad placement, frequency, and transparency about how advertising supports podcast production.

We hear all about the TikTok generation. But, you know, there are others out there and they are consuming content just like those in the spotlight. We just have to know where to find them.

In this episode of Podcast Podcast, hosts Pete Wright and Andy Nelson dive into the often-overlooked world of older podcast listeners. Inspired by a surprising comparison between Tom Cruise and Wilford Brimley, they explore:

• The misconceptions about age demographics in podcast audiences
• Why the 55+ crowd might be the next frontier for podcast growth
• How traditional marketing strategies could be reimagined for the digital audio age

Join Pete and Andy as they challenge assumptions about who's really tuning in and ponder the untapped potential of targeting listeners who remember a world before smartphones. Is the key to podcast expansion hiding in plain sight?

Links & Notes

• The Wilford Brimley Podcast from Sounds Profitable

In this bite-sized episode of The Podcast Podcast, Pete and Andy dive into the world of podcast subscriptions and memberships. They discuss the differences between Apple's subscription model and running your own membership program using a third-party service like Memberful.

Pete explains that Apple's subscription service is easy to use but comes with limitations, such as being exclusive to the Apple Podcasts app and lacking integration with other services like Discord. He also points out that Apple takes a 30% cut of the subscription revenue.

On the other hand, using a service like Memberful allows for more flexibility and control over your membership program. It enables you to offer bonus content, access to multiple podcasts, and integration with other services. However, it requires more setup and management on the podcaster's end.

They also touch on the recent report suggesting that Apple Podcasts may favor shows with subscriptions in their recommender algorithm. They consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of participating in Apple's subscription program.

Tune in to learn more about the pros and cons of each approach and decide which one might be right for your podcast.

In this episode of the Podcast Podcast, hosts Pete Wright and Andy Nelson challenge the conventional wisdom that bigger is always better when it comes to podcast audiences. They argue that focusing too much on massive download numbers can cause you to overlook the immense value and potential of smaller, more engaged listener communities.

As you'll hear, having a niche topic and a highly committed audience can be incredibly profitable, even if your show doesn't reach millions. Pete and Andy discuss real-world examples of podcasts with modest listener counts that are on track to generate six-figure revenues through leveraging the depth of their audience engagement.

Throughout the episode, the hosts share innovative strategies for making your listeners feel valued and connected to your show, no matter the size of your podcast. From recording personalized birthday messages to creating interactive Discord communities, they explore creative approaches that become harder to sustain as a podcast scales up.

Pete reveals a surprising statistic: if your show surpasses 1,000 downloads in the first week, you're already in the top 5% of all podcasts. He and Andy discuss how to celebrate and nurture your founding audience members who are passionate about your content from the very beginning.

Press play to discover why building affinity with your podcast community at a micro level can be so powerful, and how you can harness the potential of your small but mighty audience. This episode will reshape how you think about podcast growth and success in an industry obsessed with big numbers.

Picking the right mic is one thing. But how do you keep your scripts and research and back-end episode history in proper order? Andy and Pete share a little about the TruStory process.

Links & Notes

• Coda.io
• Transistor FM
• Obsidian
• Synology
• Backblaze for Business

Podcasting is evolving, and industry leaders gathered at the recent Hot Pod Summit to discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Ira Glass of This American Life shared his experience with the iOS 17 update—because even Ira Glass noticed the iOS 17 update—which caused a significant drop in downloads most of us. The impact has been felt by podcasters across the board, forcing them to reevaluate their audience sizes and potentially disrupting advertising partnerships. However, experts at the summit emphasized that niche audiences can still be valuable to advertisers, even if they have smaller listener numbers.

Pete and Andy also discussed the rise of podcast partnerships and creator-owned networks, which provide support and exposure for independent podcasters while allowing them to maintain creative control. Despite the challenges, many in the industry remain optimistic about the future of podcasting, with a growing listener base and plenty of room for growth.

Links & Notes

• On Air Fest • Hot Pod Summit
• Ariel Shapiro’s excellent recap of the Hot Pod Summit
• MaximumFun.org

In this episode of The Podcast Podcast, Pete Wright and Andy Nelson catch up on using AI for automatic transcription of episodes, YouTube becoming a bigger player in the podcasting world, updates from Apple's recent podcasting event, and finding one's unique podcasting voice.

The big follow-up is that Transistor—the host of all the podcasts of TruStory FM—has released AI transcription into the platform. We’re just playing with it right now, but so far, it has not let us down. Plus, the prices seem better than fair.

We talk a bit about YouTube as a podcasting platform, we muse about how it could bring wider exposure to podcasts, even as its bifurcated system creates confusion. Why? Because YouTube hosts video versions of your podcast audio, while YouTube Music draws from RSS. We don’t get it either. But at least we know.

Touching on takeaways from Apple's podcast event, Andy highlights new transcript features in Apple Podcasts, while Pete points to expanded categories and a partnership with Linkfire as promising developments.

Finally, we explore the challenge of cultivating an authentic yet engaging on-air persona. It’s tricky, but your own voice is as important as the mic you use to capture it when thinking about how you communicate to your audience.

This week, we’re checking in on how artificial intelligence is transforming our podcast production workflow. We know concerns about AI abound. But we aim to thoughtfully explore how — when used judiciously — AI tools can help us work more efficiently without compromising quality or our own creative voices.

Transcribing remains an area where AI still falls short in our view, though it's rapidly improving. For now, we believe human transcribers produce superior transcripts. But we acknowledge AI's potential to disrupt this profession, potentially very quickly. We think training AI on our own podcast's unique corpus is far preferable to feeding it unrelated data. This allows the AI to generate custom show notes, graphics, and more in our own style.

How has AI injected itself in your podcast workflow? Links to all our current services below!

Tools/Services Mentioned:

• Whisper AI: https://whisper.ai/
• Mac Whisper: https://github.com/kpu/whisper
• OpenAI: https://openai.com/
• Poe: https://poe.ai/
• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/
• Midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com/
• Adobe Suite: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html
• Twinbox.ai: https://www.twinbox.ai/
• Yoast: https://yoast.com/
• Coda: https://coda.io/
• Raycast: https://www.raycast.com/