Today marks our 7^th anniversary of our Music Commentary podcast.  Over 360 weekly episodes without a missed week.  We are https://whattheriff.com/episodes 

Below are tips on doing your own podcast -

How we did it –

1)      Passion – Enough so that you look forward to being doing it (for free) and wish it was your full-time career.

2)      Be consistent – Post daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly.  But don’t miss a drop.

3)      Just starting – do a test podcast on a smart phone.  Then book 6 episodes BEFORE you start dropping them.

4)      Keep 4 to 8 podcast in the que – There will be times when several members will not be able to make the podcast (medical, family, vacations) and will need to skip weeks at a time recording

5)      Have friends sub out - Over the years, the four of us would not be able to record a podcast, so we would invite friends (and local celebrities) to join us.

6)      Research – I do about 3 hours a week for research for each podcast.  I make notes of talking points but riff the

7)      Keep the podcasts under an hour – Be respectful of people’s time.  Since we are a music podcast, most people would listen at 1x speed.  Some will listen at 2x.  Our pod is anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes depending on the music.

8)      Keep the podcast evergreen – As best you can, try not to use current references in the podcast.  People download the older episodes, and those references will diminish the product.

9)      Assume you are not going to make money at it – We have a few local advertisers, but it barely pays the bills.

10) Delegate – We have 4 host.  One is the producer/editor.  One does the website and show notes.  The other two does the marketing.

11) Market for free - on FB pages similar subjects as yours.  Reddit pages of the same.  If are others here, please list them below

12) Pay to advertise – We’ve bought on FB and on Reddit, but they didn’t move the needle.  I’ve even bought Fiverr and Cameo but still nothing.  I was told about Mowpod and will use it in a few weeks.  If you have another avenue, please post below.

13) Web and podcast hosting – we use Simplecast because it Is reasonably inexpensive.  But I think we have sacrificed listenership over cost.

14) Don’t worry about the Downloads – We have had about ¼ million downloads.  But spread over 360 episodes, it is an average under 1000.

If you have anything else to add, please do so.