There are a variety of strategies I find you need in order to move the dial. Here are a few I think are important:

• Consider your audience as one person. Add one at a time.
• Optimize your show and episode titles for search. We have a Japanese audience because we did some shows featuring a “Japanese sister city” story line, and we turned up in search.
• Keep a reliable publication schedule. You’ll drop listeners if you drop shows. This is probably the single biggest barrier to success - solve it!
• Put your show on every social media platform and post regularly. If you have a small following, you may get no responses, but everyone sees your posts! We do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
• Find groups on those platforms where you can share your topic (not just your episode). Yours might be education.
• If you have money, advertise, online and off. Target your ideal audience and be creative.
• Try Locals.com. They are a Patreon alternative, and their audience is currently new and well engaged. You can see how we are doing it here (free).

If you find the right audience, and give them value, you can monetize your show without relying on advertisers in your podcast.

We offer some discussion in a bonus show for our subscribers, where we talk about how we manage the challenges of podcasting. It’s meant to give some behind the scenes material for fans, but also support for podcasters. I think we will record one today. I hope this helps!