An influencer, according to dictionary.com, is, “a person or thing that influences another,” or, in terms of marketing, “a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.” The top 20 Instagram influencers include a smattering of pop stars, soccer players, and Kardashians (for the most part). So, you’ll forgive me if I vomit a little in my mouth at the idea of being an influencer. However, if you are a podcaster, it would make sense that you are at least trying to have an influence. You may not be actively selling products on the strength of your celebrity, but you must be trying to influence someone if only to entertain. Otherwise, why record?

So, assuming that we podcasters are, indeed, influencers of some sort, the question begs to be asked, “Whom are you influencing?” And, perhaps more importantly, “To what end?”

I got cussed out today by a big, angry biker. I was on my way to pick my son up from his job at Chik-Fil-A and there was road construction. Three lanes collapsed down to one for a short distance. There were several stop lights in a row because there’s an interstate exchange there. Being familiar with this stretch of road and the lane closures, I was in the left lane and prepared to let other cars over. As I pulled up to a red light with a couple other cars in front of me (already stopped at the light), I left enough room ahead of me for the car on my right to pull in front of me when the light would turn green. 

Now, I had my windows rolled up and I was listening to an audiobook when I heard a very loud and angry voice cussing somebody out behind me. So, I glanced in my mirror to see a rather red-faced, bearded, surly biker shouting in my direction. “Huh,” I muttered, as it occurred to me that this angry biker was cussing me out! Apparently, he was quite displeased with my attempt at courtesy (letting someone in front of me). I continued to watch him in my mirror as I contemplated the situation. Eventually, having exhausted his (I can only assume) rather limited vocabulary (given the repetition of a certain four-letter word that he sometimes stretched to six letters and attached to the end of another word), he paused his tirade. The light turned green and I let the car next to me go in front of me and then I moved forward, only to be stopped by another red light about fifty yards ahead. 

At the new red light, the irate biker pulled up next to and slightly ahead of me so he could resume his doctrinal defense of his thesis that I should get my bleepity blankin’ bleep out of his way because the good people of the road behind me would like to go, too. At this point, I rolled my window down enough to properly engage him in conversation, should I so choose, but not far enough that my face would be a target he could reach should he choose to raise the threat level of our little chat. I considered, briefly, several possible responses and dismissed them all in rapid succession. When a person is that angry, Ain’t no sense in reasoning with him ‘cause reason done left the building.

In retrospect, I really wish I had snapped a photo of him, but I didn’t think of it until later. A selfie with him really would have been spectacular, but the odds of it going the way I imagine are pretty slim. So, it’s probably best it worked out the way it did. I said, “God bless you, Sir! Have a nice day!” To which he replied with another string of expletives, including several iterations of his favorite word, as he drove away. 

What does this have to do with podcasting? Well, it’s a fun story and story-telling is a great way to connect with your listeners when you podcast. 

Also, did you notice what I didn’t do? I didn’t respond in kind to this Tasmanian devil. Don’t get me wrong. Part of me wanted to cuss him out (or worse), but it was strangely liberating to watch, in almost detached curiosity, as this person had a king-sized two-year-old hissy-fit on the road. As he cussed me out, everyone in the intersection could hear him. And, he wasn’t telling them anything about me. He was sure telling them a lot about himself, though. Again, what does this have to do with podcasting? Well, if you’re going to put your voice out there (through podcasting, blogging, or just posting on social media), eventually someone is going to hate you — actively hate you. They may even try to cancel you. But, you know what? You don’t have to care. You don’t have to engage them at all. You could even bless them in their crazy rant, or simply ignore them. Like a fire deprived of oxygen, they’ll eventually burn out and go away.

Today’s topic is Making Money Podcasting (Part 3). If you didn’t hear parts 1 and 2, they were several episodes ago (episodes 003 and 004 of the show). In those episodes, we talked about making money through having clients, sponsorship, crowdfunding, memberships, coaching/consulting, and selling your own products and/or services. Today, I have a few more ideas for making money podcasting that I’d like to share with you.

First (and I can’t believe I forgot to mention this before) is affiliate marketing. If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, it’s the process of recommending/selling other people’s (or company’s) products, for which you receive a commission. So, if I recommend the Shure SM7B microphone and I post a link to buy it on Amazon (assuming I have signed up for Amazon’s affiliate program and used their specific link associated with my affiliate account), and you click through my link to buy it, then I get a commission from Amazon. I believe it’s still true that if you happen to buy a bunch of other stuff on Amazon at the same time, I get paid for the other stuff as well because you used my affiliate link. So, if you feel like doing all of your Amazon Christmas shopping through one of my affiliate links, I would certainly appreciate it. ;)

You can also use affiliate marketing as a means to sell your own products through other people. Some marketers are recommending selling products through affiliate relationships with influencers that have large (or just different) audiences as a primary sales strategy. So, let’s say I launch my podcasting course, but I don’t have a huge tribe with an email list of 100,000 people to market it to. If I can get a couple of influencers to try out my course and recommend it to their tribes for an affiliate commission, I could sell a lot more and increase my own tribe significantly. This is (potentially) huge! I’ll let you know how it goes.

The next money-making strategy podcasters can employ is syndicating your show on YouTube. This is one I have not tried yet, but it’s in the plans. I haven’t bothered yet because I like audio podcasts and, frankly, my basement studio isn’t pretty and I don’t love the way I look on video (Ah, Vanity, thou art a heartless wench). However, I really don’t have a good excuse because I could still just put my audio on YouTube with a still photo of my logo as a video. As an aside, if you have a podcast, you may want to check YouTube occasionally to see if some scammer has taken your audio and posted it to his YouTube channel with a still photo as if it were his content. This is a real thing. It happens.

Another stream of podcast income is public speaking. You can book yourself on the public speaking circuit on the strength of your podcast. If you have a decent-sized podcast audience and you’ve been posting episodes consistently, you will likely be recognized as an expert in your subject matter and you could get paid to speak in public at conferences or online, etc.

Lastly (I say “lastly” but I may come back to this topic again if I find more good ways to make money podcasting), you can repurpose your podcast content and sell it. For example, if you have written transcripts of your episodes, they can be used as articles for online magazines, blogs, etc. You could package them together and sell an ebook. You could use the audio to create an audio product that you sell. As I’ve said before, the possibilities are endless.

Today, we’re talking about growing your audience by adding value to your tribe. How do you add value to your tribe? As we talked about on the last episode, you connect with them over a shared passion. You show genuine care for them. It’s also not a bad idea to help them solve a problem or two. As Seth Godin says, “as consumers,… we’re desperate to find good stuff that solves our problems.” (Purple Cow)

That’s what I’m trying to do here. If your problem is a podcasting problem, I’m trying to offer simple tips, in short, bite-sized chunks, that will help solve your problem. I don’t want to waste your time like one of those Great White Shark documentaries, rambling on and on, repeating the same information twenty times so I can take up a 60-minute block of time. Have you noticed that? I was watching Shark Week shows recently and I was stunned by how they can stretch 5 minutes worth of information (and 3 minutes of shark video) into an hour of television. I wanted to throw my remote control at the TV. Instead, I turned it off, which is what your listeners will do if you waste their time and you don’t add value to their lives.

In addition to solving problems and connecting with your tribe, as the tribe grows, create ways for your tribe to connect. Remember the Deadheads? Part of their strength was in their connection to each other. It’s so strong still that, even after band leader Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, several spinoff bands, one being Dead & Company, continue the “long strange trip” of the band and its tribe, the Deadheads. I have a friend who takes his teenage daughter along with him to multiple Dead & Company shows all over the country whenever they go on tour. He often shares stories of the people he meets at the shows, even sharing rides and meals with them at times.

Now, as a podcaster, you probably won’t be playing sold-out concert venues often, but you can create a Facebook group for your tribe. You can hold special VIP Zoom calls for your Podheads that want to meet up with you online. You can also host in-person meet-ups at podcast conferences or other events. For one of the shows I co-host, the Familyman Show, we held a rally at a campground. Todd Wilson, the main host, is into RV’ing. He and his family have travelled around the country in the Familyman Mobile, his RV, speaking at homeschool conferences, churches, etc., for years. So, twice now, he has organized a weekend conference at a campground for any of his tribe that wanted to come. Both were tremendously successful and provided great opportunities for us to get to know our tribe in person! Some of the people even travelled over 10 hours to come to the rally! And, I just want to tell you, I was a little stunned and humbled by how they treated me. I mean, I’m just the sidekick on the show, but these guys were excited to meet me! It was really fun to connect with them in person.

So, once you have built this community, this tribe, if you will, and these folks are your evangelists, your ambassadors, your street team, your podheads, whatever you want to call them (or, better still, whatever name they give themselves!), you’ll want to make it easy for them to share your message. A simple catch phrase or slogan is useful. For the Familyman Show, for example, our tagline is, “Reminding dads of what’s most important.” It’s clear and concise and it’s easy to remember. It’s also easy to share through social media and word of mouth.

Alright, let’s review. If you want to grow your tribe, you need to have remarkable content with a quality presentation. You have to connect with your listeners over a shared passion, and provide ways for them to connect. You show genuine care for them and help solve their problems. While doing that, make it easy for them to share your message with others.
Please share with me and the tribe here your thoughts on how to build a tribe. I would love to hear from you.

Building a Tribe -- the Deadheads

The Grateful Dead proved what all the dot-com gurus of the 2000’s were finally discovering: that a loyal group of followers that evangelize for you is worth more than all the advertising of Madison Avenue. And this, my friend, is the lightning in a bottle, the holy grail of marketing — a group of people that will sell your product for you simply because they love it, and you, that much. So, how do you get such a tribe of evangelists? Good question.

You connect with them.

There really isn’t a simple, three-step plan for building a tribe. You must connect with them over a shared passion. That means, first of all, that you must be passionate about your topic. As a podcaster, if you aren’t truly passionate about your topic, your audience won’t be either. And, while they may stick around, they will never be a tribe like the Deadheads. They say that selling, in its purest form, is simply sharing your passion for something with someone else. And, here’s the thing: You’re not going to be loved by everyone. No product is for everyone. As Seth Godin said in Purple Cow:

If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise–ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.

In practical terms, for a podcaster, connection looks like several things. When it’s clear you’re making a connection with a listener, because they sent you an email or commented on your podcast on social media, etc., they’ve reached out to you in some way; you strengthen the connection by interacting with them personally. Reply to the email. Ask them something. DON’T send them a link to buy a t-shirt or e-book. They’ll buy your stuff eventually if they feel truly connected to you. Even if they don’t, that shouldn’t be your goal. 

Nobody likes to be “evangelized.” They like to be liked, loved, cared about, cared for. They like to connect and, maybe, if the connection grows, become friends. If they feel like you’re trying to convert them, they will, almost without exception, push back or leave. 

It’s the same way in selling a product. If, after listening to this episode, you send me an email telling me how you love the Grateful Dead and you ask about what bands I like, and I reply with a link to buy my podcast course and my latest CD, you may be a little offended (to put it mildly). If I tell you of my love for the music of Sting and the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and how I’d love to be able to write a hit like “Message In A Bottle” and play guitar like Setzer on “Stray Cat Strut,” and, since this is a podcast about podcasting, I may ask if you have a podcast. If I do that, we are connecting. If you never buy anything from me, that’s cool. I’m just glad we got to connect. I once met a singer that I really like. He was doing a meet and greet at a local record store before a concert, so there was a line of fans. When I got to him, he seemed like he was genuinely glad to meet me! That’s how you want to make your listeners feel — like you are eager to meet them!

Feeling is very important, by the way. People care how you make them feel much more than how brilliant you are. I heard once that there are two kinds of brilliant people: the person who is the most important person in the room, and the person who makes you feel like you are the most important person in the room. And, don’t bother with flattery, fake praise. Most people’s BS Meter is finely tuned nowadays. They smell it a mile away and they turn and run the other way.

So, be genuine. Share your passion. And, as you’re connecting with your listeners, make a way to continue the connection. Start an email list of your tribe. Add value to their lives. On our next episode, we’ll talk about how to add value to your tribe.

On today’s show, I want to talk about how to grow your audience. First of all, you may want to stop thinking about them as your audience. At least, don’t call them that. Your tribe, your community, your peeps, something that makes it feel like they are like you, that you’re on the same team together. After all, with a podcast, you’re trying to build a community (unless you don’t care about having listeners or you’re just so naturally engaging that you don’t need anyone’s help — in which case, why are you listening to this?). So, build a community. It occurs to me that that could be a podcast (or a series of episodes) of its own. However, for now, I’ll stick with the topic at hand — How To Grow Your Audience.

You want the secret to growing your audience? Be remarkable. Be interesting. Create something that’s worth sharing. Amy Grant once said, “There’s not much good singing unless you’ve got something good to sing about.” Amen, Amy. Seth Godin wrote a whole book about this idea (Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable), in which he writes, "The key to success is to find a way to stand out - to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins."

The same is true for podcasting. If your content isn’t good — strike that, remarkable, it won’t matter how professional you sound. Some guru (probably Seth, but I’m not looking it up now) said, “Good marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.” Yeah, that. You can have the slickest sounding audio, a great radio voice, the best equipment, and killer theme music. If, when you start talking, your listeners start to nod off, you’re in trouble (unless, of course, if your show is on the Calm app;).

So, that’s the most important piece: Remarkable content. The second piece is the presentation. This is where you make sure the sound quality and the delivery are professional. They don’t have to be perfect. They just need to not distract from the content. It’s ok if you don’t have the best microphone and a perfectly treated sound-proof studio and you never say “um,” but if every other word is punctuated by an annoying lip smack because you’re eating peanut butter while you record, or your dog barking in the background is as loud as you are, you may as well name your podcast the “Go Listen To Someone Else Show.”

That’s it — remarkable content, good presentation. That will grow you a community, right? Not quite. I mean, it might, if you’re lucky. I started publishing episodes of this show, but I wanted to have a certain amount of episodes already released before I started promoting it, so I didn’t tell anyone about it. Yet, I still got listeners. They (you?) may be people that liked me from another podcast and searched me in your podcast listening app and discovered this show. Thanks, btw. Maybe you shared it with someone else or several others. Thanks again! It is possible to grow your podcast, slowly, this way. Just put it out and hope people listen and share it. However, there are ways to facilitate that process. But, as I said, that could be an episode (or multiple episodes) of its own, so let’s pick that up next time.

On today’s show, I’m finally going to answer the question I get most often, “Which microphone should I get?” Well, sort of. The answer is, “It depends…” It depends on your budget, your voice, your preference, your studio setup, and that elusive factor of how it feels to you. 

In our last episode, I discussed the various types of microphones. For podcasting, I can help you narrow down your search quickly. Unless you are building a professional recording studio with carpeted and sound-treated walls, you probably want to skip the condenser microphones. They generally pick up every sound from lip smacks to the HVAC system. If you do have the budget and desire to build a soundproof studio with carpeted walls and all the sound-absorbing foam, then go for a high-end condenser microphone like the Neumann TLM103. 

And, incidentally, if David Spade or Jerry Seinfeld or one of the other gozillionaire celebrities that has ventured into podcasting (YouTubing, etc.) is listening, and you can actually afford the good stuff, please, for the love of all that is holy, at least buy a decent microphone and headphones. You don’t have to get the whole professional studio in its own soundproof building, but I’m so sick of seeing a YouTube video of some celebrity being interviewed over Zoom using his Apple EarPods. That kind of shenanigans is reserved for the pre-2015 podcast pioneers who had to figure out how to create their own RSS feeds and record in their closet on a laptop using the hanging clothes as soundproofing. 

So, if you’re not a big-budget celebrity, I suggest a good dynamic microphone. If you’re just starting out and you’re not really sure you want to podcast for the long haul, or if you really don’t have the budget for a better mic, then I might suggest a USB Microphone, such as the Audio Technica ATR-2100 or the AT2005. They run about $75-$100 on Amazon. They both have an XLR output and a USB output for use with a mixer or direct input into a computer. If you simply cannot spend any money, but you already have a pair of iPhone headphones or a gamer headset, you can get away with that at the beginning, but the sound quality will turn some listeners away.

If you have a little more money to spend, but you still want to stick with the USB option, I recommend the Shure MV7. It’s the closest thing to a high-end USB microphone you’ll find. However, they cost upwards of $250, so if you’re looking at the MV7, you may as well go all in and get a separate interface (I like the Focusrite Scarlett line) and a high quality dynamic microphone like the Shure SM7B, the Heil PR40, or the Electro Voice RE20. That setup will push you into the over-$500 range quickly. If you are leaning that direction and still aren’t sure about spending that much, you can save a bunch on the microphone and get the Shure SM58 or SM57. They’re both great mics that are used on stages all over the world. They’re just not as sexy-looking in a podcast studio as the ones I mentioned above. The sound difference is almost negligible.

Personally, I own the Heil PR40, the Audio Technica AT2005, and the Shure SM7B. I am currently using the SM7B. 

There are a couple other suggestions worth considering, depending on your circumstances. If you’re going to be doing an interview format with video, you may want to consider lavalier (aka, lapel) mics. On the other hand, if you’re doing audio only, on-location interviews, you may want to just use a handheld recorder that has the mics built into the recorder (though many of these recorders have inputs for external microphone connection).

On today’s show, I want to talk about the different types of microphones. As I mentioned on a previous episode (“Making Money Podcasting, Part 1”), “Which microphone should I get?” is one of the most common questions I get. Now, I’ll save the answer to that question for the next episode (since I like to keep these episodes nice and short). I think it’s helpful to have a basic understanding of the types of microphones before you start shopping for one. 

First, it’s helpful to understand that some microphones are designed to pick up sound in all directions. These are known as omnidirectional microphones. There are also directional (or cardioid) microphones, which pick up sound in front of the microphone and reject sound from the sides and rear (unless, of course, your microphone is bi-directional, in which case it picks up sound in two opposite directions). Directional microphones exhibit what is known as “proximity effect” (an increased bass response when the sound source is in very close proximity). So, when I lean in really close to the mic, I get that cool, late-night, radio DJ sound to my voice. 

So, with that in mind, here are the main categories or types of microphones you may encounter in audio recording.

1. Dynamic microphones are very common, especially among podcasters. They’re usually pretty rugged and pick up sound in a directional pattern. They aren’t as sensitive (generally speaking) as condenser microphones and are very popular in live audio settings. The Shure SM58 is probably the most popular vocal microphone for live settings. You’ll often see its flat-headed brother, the SM57, pointed at guitar amps and snare drums. 
2. Condenser (or “capacitor”) microphones are more sensitive than dynamic mics, and are generally reserved for quiet studios when you want to capture every nuance of a beautiful acoustic guitar or a soft voice. Condenser microphones require external power, usually the phantom power from a mixer, though they sometimes employ a battery or dedicated power source. If you’re going to use a high-quality condenser microphone (Neumann TLM 103) for podcasting, you will want to be in a well-treated studio environment. The Blue Yeti is a popular condenser mic among beginning podcasters and YouTubers.
3. USB Microphones are quickly becoming perhaps the most popular microphones on the market. They aren’t, strictly speaking, a different type of microphone in terms of how they receive sound. They are different in that they connect directly into a USB port on your computer. So, you can record directly into your computer without an external interface. The Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB is a common mic among beginning podcasters because of its inexpensive price, relatively decent sound quality, and the option of connecting to a computer through its USB digital output or to a mixer through its XLR analog output.
4. Ribbon microphones were some of the first directional microphones made, but they were notoriously delicate. Apparently, there are some new ribbon mics on the market today that are sturdy and reliable, but I don’t know anyone who uses them for podcasting.

There are other types of microphones, but they mostly fall into one of the categories above, they just have different functions. For example, shotgun mics are generally used for capturing sound at a distance. Parabolic microphones have a parabolic dish that collects and focuses sound waves into a microphone (they’re commonly used for capturing the sound on the field at NFL football games). Lavalier microphones (aka, lapel mics) are the little mics that people clip on their lapels for interviews.

There are microphones in your cell phones, headset mics, earphone mics, etc., etc. Basically, if you want to record a sound, there is a microphone for it.