As some of you might know, I have another podcast called The Digital Nomad Stories. It’s a passion project I started in May of 2020. I started a few episodes but didn’t touch it for months. It was because I wasn’t motivated and I felt like my audience wasn’t growing. Like other podcasters, I experienced what we call pod fade.
Months later, I realized I wanted to bring it back but with some changes. I wanted to be more excited about it, and I also want to make it work for myself. So I started an experiment, and the experiment was releasing new episodes weekly for one year.
In this episode, I want to tell you a little bit more about what I’ve found out in that one year of consistently producing content. The differences between releasing weekly content and working in seasons. And when it might be a good fit to release weekly content, and when it might be a better fit to work in seasons.
How My Year Went
After I released three episodes, my downloads seemed good but it went down after that, which is quite normal, even with my clients. I also saw that, even with my other podcast The Podcast Babes, launching or re-launching grabs the attention of listeners. They’re excited and they check it out, but after a few episodes or one episode of listening, it might slow down. Probably because some of them lose interest or it just doesn’t resonate with them.
And that’s why it’s important to have a backlog of episodes because I don’t know if I would have recorded more episodes at that point. Because of my experience the first time I launched The Digital Nomad Stories, I knew exactly what to do. As I re-launched it, I rebranded, changed the name, and prepared ahead of time a bunch of episodes. I was prepared this time, and now it has been almost a year since I decided to re-launch.
Know Your Purpose Behind The Podcast
Because my numbers were not picking up, I began questioning myself – why am I doing this? And I realized that my goal was to interview people, to know about the lifestyle of Digital Nomads. And I was just so excited about recording the interviews and connecting with other people who had similar lifestyles to mine. I decided that’s enough reason to keep going, I don’t even need many people to listen to this, because recording it is already giving me so much joy. I knew I wanted to meet new people. I did this during the pandemic, and it was the perfect opportunity to talk to like-minded individuals.
Releasing Content Consistently
I didn’t promote episodes that much, it wasn’t really my focus. I would post sometimes on Instagram, follow my guests, and follow my traveler friends. Growing my Instagram account wasn’t my focus, what I focused on instead was releasing content consistently, every week I produced a new interview episode. I just kept going even when I didn’t have many listeners, then I just noticed that my download numbers began picking up.
Think Through Your Podcast Guests
I remember that I had one guest and he had a really interesting story to tell. My downloads on that episode went up, not only because his story was interesting but because he shared it to his friends and he was actually known in his own community. I noticed that some of his followers listened not only to this episode but my other episodes as well. I realized that if I can have guests on the show with a large following on their own, and who also fit in with the other guests, then new listeners might stick around. From there on, I definitely thought through who I asked on the podcast.
But having said that, I do not only look for guests who are known, I also look for people who aren’t well known but have a story to tell. I don’t necessarily go for the big names just because they have a big following. I think that also worked really well for me, that I had some relatively new digital nomads, or relatable guests, because their stories were just as good.
Entice Your Audience With Your Title & Use Keywords
Another change I did was to tweak the title and the show notes to make it even better for people who just scroll past the episodes to figure out what the episode is actually about. And that also improved the growth of my podcast even without too much marketing. And because I have about 50+ episodes, there are a lot of people who go back to older episodes and like to binge listen to a ton of episodes in one day.
Also, I am really trying to add keywords to the title of the episode and to the show notes which is my whole strategy for this podcast and just to be super consistent and nail the SEO of podcast apps.
The Results
After almost a year of ups and downs and still being consistent, I’ve been getting sponsorship offers! At the moment there’s 2 sponsors to the podcast. But also, I don’t want to add too much noise to my podcast. I want to protect my audience, and only offer them good content and sponsorships that actually are good for them. It needs to be a win-win for everyone, for me, for the audience and for the sponsor.
Conclusion
In my almost one year of releasing weekly episodes, I can say that what you need is to commit to your goals. The first few months will be tough, but if you persevere and just keep on doing what you love doing then this will get easier as time goes by. In my opinion, producing weekly episodes worked because it’s more of a hobby for me, and I enjoyed it. But if it’s a business podcast, I still believe working in seasons is the best option. The decision is yours, but these are some insights for you to consider if you’re thinking of releasing weekly episodes.
Don’t be afraid to experiment, stay consistent, and have fun!
I have a gift for you. Do you ever feel like you’re spending too much time on your podcast? Sure. It’s fun, but it just takes you hours. I have definitely been there and I have a few tips for you. Click here to know more on how to join my Free Five Day Productivity For Podcasters Challenge. I promise, you’re gonna love it!
This podcast is sponsored by BrandFace. Find out more at LearnAboutBrandFace.com.
Wondering if your personal brand represents you the way it should? Now you can FIND OUT with “BrandFace SCORE”. It is a simple and fast system designed to give you honest feedback about your brand and how others perceive it. The best part? It’s FREE for a limited time!
Get your BrandFace SCORE now and learn to STAND OUT from your competitors: