How to make a podcast - Part 3: Maintaining
In this section:
- Engage with your audience
- Data storage and archiving
- How to not stop podcasting
- Final words of wisdom
So, you鈥檝e made your first one, five and ten episodes. What鈥檚 next?
Engage with your audience
Keep engaging with your audience on social media, put on live events or live-streams and sell merchandise. Do whatever you have to do to make them feel involved and keep them involved.
Data storage and archiving
Audio files are large, and after a while you鈥檒l run out of computer storage space. Get hold of an external hard drive for archiving your audio. You never know when you鈥檒l want to cut some from an old episode in a future episode or advert.
How to not stop podcasting
Most podcasts only last a handful of episodes because it takes a lot of time, effort and money to keep them going. So how do you keep your podcast going?
- Don鈥檛 be afraid to mix up the format or completely re-brand the podcast into something else. Create fresh artwork, get new music, change up the hosts, add new hosts, even mix up the format.
- Divide the content into series of manageable lengths and give yourself a break in between them.
- Outsource the editing or marketing to someone else if it鈥檚 too time-intensive.
- Guest on other people鈥檚 podcasts and invite them onto yours.
Final words of wisdom
Most podcasts take at least ten episodes to really find their stride so don鈥檛 be disheartened if it takes you a while before you 鈥渇ind your voice鈥�.
Listener stats aren鈥檛 everything – a small audience of engaged and specific listeners is infinitely better than a large disparate audience who don鈥檛 engage.
It鈥檚 okay to stop doing the podcast when you鈥檝e met your aims and/or it comes to its natural end.