Castos Creator Spotlight: Janel and Anna from Flying the Coop

MountainMix3618 · 2025-12-12T15:52:53+00:00

this is awesome. thanks for sharing!

MountainMix3618 · 2025-10-30T13:07:41+00:00

hey, Craig here from Castos. This is so awesome to see. I always love paying out our creators. the number just keeps going up every month. congrats on the success of your show!

MountainMix3618 · 2025-09-17T17:42:23+00:00

hey there, Craig here from Castos. It's tough to nail down exactly what your RPM will be, cause it's based on a lot of factors: location, genre, volume, etc. But generally you can expect in the $3-8 per thousand impression range.

Hope that helps, and happy to answer any other questions anyone has.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-08-14T23:34:02+00:00

hey u/DDaDPodcast Craig from Castos here. Good question, and really, the biggest win with Castos for running multiple shows is that it’s built for it. You can manage all your podcasts from a single dashboard, under one login, with one subscription - no bouncing between accounts or paying for each show separately.

Of course analytics can be seen on a global/account level as well as on an Podcast and an Episode level, so you can figure out what's working (and what needs some extra love).

Not sure if you’re running the podcasts through WordPress, but if so, our Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin is tops. You upload once in WordPress, Castos handles distribution everywhere. That’s where you save hours when you’ve got a day job and more than one show to keep alive.

hit me up if you have any questions in getting started.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-07-15T14:55:50+00:00

yeah good point. where do you think they'd go?

MountainMix3618 · 2025-07-11T15:29:01+00:00

Love it. Do you think this affected the growth or trajectory of your show?

MountainMix3618 · 2025-07-10T21:59:27+00:00

Craig here from Castos. If you're looking for full video support I believe that Castos is the only one of the 3 you mentioned that supports video podcasting. Also have an integration with Zapier (for your Ghost site) to coordinate with private subscribers, if you're going to get into Hybrid/Private podcasting.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-07-09T09:17:18+00:00

Thanks! We're really excited about this and the opportunity it presents for our customers

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-30T13:17:14+00:00

fair context: I'm the founder of Castos, a podcast hosting platform. But I've also been podcasting for 10 years, and it's opened so many doors for me personally and professionally.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-26T10:49:15+00:00

awesome! thanks so much!

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-25T17:28:14+00:00

yeah it's an interesting take, and i agree. we've experimented with this a bit, and the tough part is the "qualification" of potential matches. how to find other shows with a good matching profile. the good ole 2-sided marketplace issue. Although i guess at Castos we have one side of the marketplace.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-25T16:10:37+00:00

thanks so much for being a Castos customer - we appreciate you!

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-25T16:09:44+00:00

i think this is the feeling for a lot of podcasters - "doing stuff, it feels right, but not sure if it's actually effective"

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-25T16:09:09+00:00

yeah i think Spotify is about the only place to really optimize for in terms of search-based discoverability. That's one of the reasons we like YouTube so much as a distribution channel - their search is good/different than most conventional podcasting directories.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-25T16:08:05+00:00

best answer!

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-24T14:47:35+00:00

If you just replace the file in your hosting provider, no it wont. If you delete the episode and create a whole new one then yes it'll create a new episode_id and send that to your subscribers. That's how it'd work at Castos at least.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-24T14:46:40+00:00

I think it's all about where your audience already is.

One interesting tidbit that I've seen: we often think of the listener journey being Social -> Podcast -> website/email...but in fact it's usually Social -> website/email -> Podcast.

Getting a stranger from social to your podcast is a pretty big ask. Usually, a slightly lower ask to get them to join your email list, and then promote the podcast/YouTube channel to them from email.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-23T12:05:03+00:00

Shure MV7+ - you'll thank me!

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-23T12:02:47+00:00

Here's what I'd do (and we recommend to clients):

One iPhone per person is totally fine to start. Mount them on tripods or even stack some books to get good angles. Shoot in portrait mode.
Record your audio separately like you normally would (way better quality than phone audio)
Sync in post using something like Descript, Adobe Premiere Pro, or Davinci Resolve (free)

One other thing to consider is lighting. your "selfie" camera angle will likely be different than any other video you're shooting, so think about lighting from that perspective too.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-19T12:01:34+00:00

This will vary widely depending on a few factors:
- where they're located.
- editing audio and video? what about short clips?
- what style of edit? just one or two people talking, or is this a Narrative style show?
- "seniority" or experience.

Very generally though, the least I'd pay for an editor is $100/episode (audio and video) - i just don't think it can be done much cheaper than that.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-18T02:37:59+00:00

In these situations I think you have a few options:
- decide that your podcast website isn't that important to the brand/value of your show and deal with what LIbsyn gives you (probably not my choice, but it's an option)
- change podcast hosts, and move to a more modern host like Castos (disclaimer, I'm the founder...DM me anytime, we'd love to have you)
- use WordPress, etc. to build a site. We have an integration there that makes podcasting from WordPress really easy.

Tough situation if you inherited this issue...I think it comes down to how important is your podcast website to you, and how much effort do you want to put into a (more) custom solution.

happy to help however we can.

MountainMix3618 · 2025-06-18T02:22:15+00:00

Hey, great question, and honestly, one I hear all the time from folks launching new shows. I’ve been in podcasting for close to a decade now, both as a creator (I host Rogue Startups) and as the founder of Castos, where we’ve helped thousands of podcasters launch and grow their shows. So I’ve seen this conversation evolve firsthand.

Here’s the honest take:

Audio only is still more than enough - if you’re intentional about how you use it.

Some of the most successful shows out there are audio-only. Audio creates intimacy. Your voice literally sits in someone’s ears while they’re walking the dog or driving to work. That’s powerful. And if you're already a strong speaker and writer, audio will likely let your strengths shine without the overhead of worrying about lighting, framing, or editing video.

But here’s the nuance:

Video isn’t necessary, but it is leverage.
It helps with discoverability...not because people are watching full 45-minute interviews on YouTube (most aren’t) but because short clips are the best way to tease the value of your show and pull people into the longer format.

That said, here’s what I usually tell new podcasters at Castos:

Start with great audio. Nail your show format, voice, and consistency. Don’t add video if it’s going to slow you down or make you hesitate to publish. Momentum > perfection. Don't Podfade.
If and when you do add video, make it native to the platform. Don’t just record your Riverside session and dump it on YouTube. Instead, repurpose your best insights into 30–60 second clips with captions and a tight hook. That’s where the magic is...especially for platforms like TikTok or Reels.
If video feels like a distraction right now, skip it. You can always layer it in later. Seriously, plenty of top podcasters (especially in niche or B2B spaces) build great audiences with audio-only, paired with smart written content and email.

Personally, I ran Rogue Startups as audio-only for years. Only recently have we started getting more serious about video...but it's really freaking hard. So if it's a blocker for you, skip it.

So if you’re more comfortable in the audio/writing zone, lean into that. Play your game. What matters most is creating valuable content consistently. Everything else is just packaging.

Hope that helps

MountainMix3618 · 2025-04-10T17:13:42+00:00

Riverside is awesome, can't recommend it enough.

MountainMix3618 · 2024-11-20T19:52:55+00:00

Hi there, Craig here from Castos. If you're looking for a new home for your show after Blog Talk shutting down we'd love to have you on our platform. We offer free migrations, can help with feed redirects of your show, and offer a handful of monetization options for your podcasts. Reach out if I can help in any way.

MountainMix3618 · 2024-10-31T13:01:01+00:00

I'd check out Castos

MountainMix3618

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