By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles
Small business owners are always searching for ways to stand out from the crowd.
Who could blame them.
They are competing against other small business owners and also the large corporations.
They have limited resources to operate with.
The good news is that they have been very innovative in sharing their message with the world and at the same time promoting their products or services.
One of those innovations that some have used is a podcast.
The reason is that they are about 250,000 podcast in the world while they are about 260,000,000 blogs.
That makes it a much smaller barrier for anyone.
It also allows the small business owner to reach out to more potential customers and build a loyal following.
If you are thinking about starting a podcast, congratulations.
Before you get started, you should do your research and be very prepared when launching your podcast.
Also, you should attend Podcast Movement to learn from some of the veterans of the podcasting industry and listen to some great presentations as well.
Joel Boggess will be leading a workshop with his wife, Dr. Pei Kang and Russ Johns on Creating Your Podcast, Launch To No.1, Build Your Brand on the first day of the conference.
Mr. Boggess returned on my podcast, “What’s The Word?” and shared some of the “Seven Common Mistakes Most Podcasters Make.”
Check Out Podcasting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with
Cheval John on BlogTalkRadio
And I will be very transparent with you.
I am still learning as I go about being a podcaster even though I have been running the podcast for over two years.
I still make common mistakes with my podcast.
And I will show you the downloads over the last two years, starting with the total amount of downloads.
No. of downloads to today: 90,459
That seems very impressive and it is.
However, I will break it down by year
2013: Over 78,000 downloads
2014: Over 10,000 downloads
First 6 months of 2015: Over 1,000 downloads
Now that you see the breakdown of my downloads, you might be wondering why the decline.
I really believe that the reasons for the decline is that I was not consistent and I was not promoting it enough.
I did not stick to one day and time on when the show was coming out.
I was aiming to have the guest on at the time that they were available because they had taken the time out of their busy schedule to share their story with me.
And I felt that I had owed it to them to respect their time.
I thought that I could have only recorded the show live on the BlogTalkRadio platform that I was using.
What I did not know back then was that I could have recorded the interview on the same platform in private, produced it using Audacity which is free, and then upload it into the digital studio to release the show at the appointed time.
The sad part was that I had figured it out way too late that I had needed to be consistent with the show.
Because of that inconsistency, I lost a lot of listeners.
So in a sense, I “relaunched” the show and having it on Monday nights at 7 p.m. central time so that I can own the time and remain consistent.
And another thing I had learned is that I needed to promote the show as well.
Though it is great that the guest will share about their appearance on the show, I am the main one responsible for promoting the show.
I will be honest, I am hesitant because I do not want to be self-promoting.
At the same time, I understand that if I don’t promote the show, I will lose an opportunity to attract new listeners.
So I am aiming to remain true to sharing other people’s content first before sharing mine using the 80/20 rule.
As I close, I hope that these lessons above will resonate with you and that you will have a successful launch with your podcast.
‘
Related
Consistency Is King
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles
Small business owners are always searching for ways to stand out from the crowd.
Who could blame them.
They are competing against other small business owners and also the large corporations.
They have limited resources to operate with.
The good news is that they have been very innovative in sharing their message with the world and at the same time promoting their products or services.
One of those innovations that some have used is a podcast.
The reason is that they are about 250,000 podcast in the world while they are about 260,000,000 blogs.
That makes it a much smaller barrier for anyone.
It also allows the small business owner to reach out to more potential customers and build a loyal following.
If you are thinking about starting a podcast, congratulations.
Before you get started, you should do your research and be very prepared when launching your podcast.
Also, you should attend Podcast Movement to learn from some of the veterans of the podcasting industry and listen to some great presentations as well.
Joel Boggess will be leading a workshop with his wife, Dr. Pei Kang and Russ Johns on Creating Your Podcast, Launch To No.1, Build Your Brand on the first day of the conference.
Mr. Boggess returned on my podcast, “What’s The Word?” and shared some of the “Seven Common Mistakes Most Podcasters Make.”
And I will be very transparent with you.
I am still learning as I go about being a podcaster even though I have been running the podcast for over two years.
I still make common mistakes with my podcast.
And I will show you the downloads over the last two years, starting with the total amount of downloads.
No. of downloads to today: 90,459
That seems very impressive and it is.
However, I will break it down by year
2013: Over 78,000 downloads
2014: Over 10,000 downloads
First 6 months of 2015: Over 1,000 downloads
Now that you see the breakdown of my downloads, you might be wondering why the decline.
I really believe that the reasons for the decline is that I was not consistent and I was not promoting it enough.
I did not stick to one day and time on when the show was coming out.
I was aiming to have the guest on at the time that they were available because they had taken the time out of their busy schedule to share their story with me.
And I felt that I had owed it to them to respect their time.
I thought that I could have only recorded the show live on the BlogTalkRadio platform that I was using.
What I did not know back then was that I could have recorded the interview on the same platform in private, produced it using Audacity which is free, and then upload it into the digital studio to release the show at the appointed time.
The sad part was that I had figured it out way too late that I had needed to be consistent with the show.
Because of that inconsistency, I lost a lot of listeners.
So in a sense, I “relaunched” the show and having it on Monday nights at 7 p.m. central time so that I can own the time and remain consistent.
And another thing I had learned is that I needed to promote the show as well.
Though it is great that the guest will share about their appearance on the show, I am the main one responsible for promoting the show.
I will be honest, I am hesitant because I do not want to be self-promoting.
At the same time, I understand that if I don’t promote the show, I will lose an opportunity to attract new listeners.
So I am aiming to remain true to sharing other people’s content first before sharing mine using the 80/20 rule.
As I close, I hope that these lessons above will resonate with you and that you will have a successful launch with your podcast.
‘
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About Cheval John
Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval was the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter (Now X)Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.