Increasing Podcast Listeners....

Rusted Robot · March 04, 2014, 05:04:56 PM

I was wondering if any of you fellow podcasters had any good ideas on how to increase listeners to your 'cast?

The Rusted Robot Podcast is only 2 months old, but we really have no idea how many listeners we have. iTunes doesn't seem to have a way to show you how many people are downloading your 'cast. We are trying to increase subscribers as well. Any help would be appreciated.

Our website is http://therustedrobot.podbean.com/

and you can link to us on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rusted-robot/id791356195?mt=2

If you folks could listen to us, maybe even subscribe, and leave a review in iTunes, that would be fantastic.

Thanks everybody!

Praxis · March 05, 2014, 07:37:27 AM

If you have a host like libsyn you can see your stats. Does podbean not show stats? Will check out your cast.

Rusted Robot · March 05, 2014, 06:14:21 PM

Podbean does seem to show how many plays an episode gets. I'm uncertain if that is overall plays from all sources, or just plays from the website.

We are trying to get as many 5 star reviews as possible to get to the new and noteworthy section of itunes to increase our listeners. We're only 2 months old so I'm sure
it takes a while. We're having a great time.

Let me know what you think of it....I find quality improves greatly after episode 8

Ensign Random · March 06, 2014, 03:14:56 AM

I enjoy your podcast!
I read Robert J. Sawyer's HOMINIDS and enjoyed that.

If you like, I could arrange and interview/profile of your podcast for our blog, SMART GIRLS LOVE SCI FI. Our main audience is SF/Paranormal Romance readers and writers, but we do general SF stuff and podcast reviews. I have done a few with some of the awesome members of this forum (RAGTAG, ALIEN NATION).

We have a decent readership and we get positive feedback about podcast profiles, so who knows? Maybe you can pick up a few listeners.

If you're interested, just let me know.
drop and email at mrsbookmarkspeaks (at) gmail.com

Rico · March 06, 2014, 04:32:44 AM

Building listeners takes time - quite a bit of time. Best thing you can do is just get your promo around to other podcasts and just keep doing your show. Truthfully, for me it's never really been about the size of the listener base. It's about enjoying doing the podcast. If you enjoy doing the show, listeners will come and check you out.

Rusted Robot · March 06, 2014, 12:48:16 PM

It's definitely not about the size of the audience for us. We are having a blast making our show and getting it out there. We've received some really nice comments and feedback. Of course, I think the more listeners we get, the better our show will be due to feedback, listener comments, and suggestions. I've kind of based our podcast on what you do Rico. We don't just talk Trek, we are more of a general geekery kind of cast. You already cover Trek well enough that we don't need to, LOL!

We've gotten our promo out to about 5 or 6 other casts so far. I believe I sent you our new and improved promo the other day.

I've also sent an email to the blog. That's a really amazing offer.

Thanks for your comments everyone!

ChrisMC · March 06, 2014, 02:28:08 PM

Quote from: Rico on March 06, 2014, 04:32:44 AM
Building listeners takes time - quite a bit of time. Best thing you can do is just get your promo around to other podcasts and just keep doing your show. Truthfully, for me it's never really been about the size of the listener base. It's about enjoying doing the podcast. If you enjoy doing the show, listeners will come and check you out.

Yeah, Rico, it's never even really occurred to me how many people listen to anything I do, I just have fun doing it. I don't want to get wrapped up in counting downloads and all that.

moyer777 · March 07, 2014, 08:51:29 AM

I do. 4567 people just read this comment. LOL! Yeah, I don't check very often on the download numbers anymore. I have such a great time podcast with you all and Amy, that it is relaxing and fulfilling just hanging out. :)

Jen · March 14, 2014, 08:16:02 AM

Angela and I have worked in marketing for years, so our interest in promotion and stats has become innate in a way. We find it a fun challenge to apply what we've learned in business to something we really love: our podcast. Apologies for the cornball analogy I'm about to make, but it made sense to me at the time. Angela would probably roll her eyes at me. :D I'm also an avid gardener. I want the roses I grow in my garden to look their best, but not because I want all the neighbors to stop by and say "oh your roses are the best on the street, I think I'm going to visit your yard every day", but because I love gardening and I love spending time in the garden, with my friends and family, enjoying my finicky roses. I sort of look at Anomaly as a rose garden; roses are hard to grow, it takes a little TLC to make it happen. Sorry to get all cornball. Also, I don't disagree with Rico. It's more fun to talk to Angela about they geeky stuff we're interested in and we'd be chatting it up whether we had a podcast or not. But I do know how you feel...you're in front of a mic because you want to share your thoughts with more than just the two of you. It takes time and money to produce a show and it's awesome to see that people ARE listening. There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn how to grow your audience, it just takes some time, patience and love for your show.

Angela and I often joke that we have "dozens of listeners all over the world". We are exaggerating when we say that, but in podcasting your audience is literally the world, and no number will seem particularly high when you look at it from that perspective. I heard a podcaster (The Podcast Answer Man) suggest that hosts envision their audience in one room with them. Imagine that they came just to hear you speak... even a room with 20-100 interested people can seem like a lot, right? I can tell you that I would be a bit more nervous when doing our show if our audience was actually in the room with me, listening and watching. Geeezzz makes me nervous just thinking about it.

Again, it takes time. Networking, community and friendships are the key to building an audience, but with all the networking we've done over seven plus years, we still don't have a ginormous listenership. And that's okay, because I'd rather have a modest audience with engaged listeners than a huge audience with people who are not as interested in connecting. I suggest that you create a community around your show and interact with the folks there. Start a Facebook page if you haven't already done so. Be personable, chat about things that aren't always specific to geeky stuff. People like getting to know you and it's nice to get to know them too. We've made a lot of online friends that way, friends who we are starting to meet in person (Rico). After a while, if your content is interesting and you're fun and easy to connect with, your community will help promote you through word of mouth. And it's true, word of mouth is the best advertising.

I'm a nerd—I study up on how to be better at recording and producing. I try to improve our quality and change things up content-wise to keep things interesting. I like learning and reading about things like that. It's fun and I enjoy a good challenge. It's also lead me down the path to a new career. I'm working on building a voice over business because I enjoy this so much. Anyway, if you still want to learn more about building an audience, I would suggest you listen to The Podcast Answer Man regularly and check out this episode in particular: http://podcastanswerman.com/growing-your-audience/

With all that said, Rico, Chris and Rick are VERY right—it's more about how much fun you have recording, producing your show and talking with your listeners. If chatting it up with the audience, Angela and now Chris and Joe, wasn't a blast, I would not be wasting my free time doing it. :D

Meds · March 14, 2014, 01:47:49 PM

I agree with all the above posts, podcasting is at the end of the day a hobby, its not and should not feel like a job lol. As for building listeners well again as said, it does take time and trust me you will see your audience build. Podbean does give you stats if you are a paying memeber. i can access download, individual ip stats, monthly downloads etc its all there if you want it but sometimes i take it all with a pinch of salt. Havinbg your promo played on other podcasts always helps, get on stitcher and when you have enough episodes ask them to promote you, they do that.

The more you do the show the more you get better and produce more. Jens post above has some fantastic suggestions on marketing eg facebook and Twitter, it all helps, and i set up several other admins to help out.

Just keep at it and most importantly keep having fun. :D

Rusted Robot · March 18, 2014, 01:10:09 PM

Wow everyone...that's really great advice.

We are having a blast doing our show. And we would do it whether we had any listeners or not. It really brings us together, and gives us something to look forward to. We aren't concerned with how many listeners we have, we were just more curious about how everything works. Listening to podcasts is very different from doing a podcast.

Thanks everyone!