Collaboration and support are the key hallmarks of the indie podcasting community.
Cross promotions, guest appearances and so on are part of this process. As a general rule, people will happily support similar podcasts to their own.
The reasons for this are instructive. Each show appeals to each own niche audience and the voice of the presenter. By interacting with similar type shows we allow listeners a greater choice. The other show’s listeners may just be as interested in your style of show and your listeners may like the cross promoted one. There no real limits other than the 24 hours in a day to the number of podcasts we can subscribe to.
If a listener has an interest, they will happily listen to more than one take on that subject. There are some rules of thumb for the podcast producer when working with other podcasts. These are common sense and breakable whenever you want.
For the benefit of your show, collaborating with a show with greater reach makes sense, for you. Where’s the benefit for the bigger show? Well that’s where the indie attitude kicks in. The bigger show may grab a few more subscribers from a smaller show but there are other benefits. Being collaborative means your listeners will come to know you will do whatever you need to do to bring them valuable content.
The other factor involved in this process is the general, underlying assumption that we are all in this together. A rising tide floats all boats, irrespective of the boat’s size. The bigger the audience for the medium, the better the medium will be.
On this, podcast audiences have been rising by 2-4% per year for at least a decade. So called bid hits come and go. Serial is claimed by the radio types to have “made” podcasting. It did not. It brought some new listeners to the medium but the rate of change is and has been a steady 2-4%.
The medium is seen by these same radio types as the answer to their falling listener numbers. It may be but it seems unlikely. The constant release of new apps by the American public sector radio organisations, attempting to measure podcast listeners in the same way they’ve always measured radio listeners. It doesn’t work. What they will eventually realise we can and do, as listeners, skip their adverts. Fail.
Better to continue the 2-4% growth rates, accept any increase in this cheerfully and allow the commercial types to come and go. Interact with, collaborate with and subscribe to other shows. Make the medium strong and service our listeners.
Takeaways
- Work with others
- Support other indie podcasts
- Know that growth is steady in the medium
- Create great content!