By Holland Cooke
Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — Google “podcast tips” and you’ll find plenty, most for utter newbies (i.e., “State your name and the name of your podcast at the beginning”). Things that are second-nature to professional broadcasters.
Fundamental: Understand how-users-are-using, and package accordingly.
- Assume that your listener is busy, and visualize the listening context where you hope to be heard. In-car? On the treadmill at the gym? Accordingly…
- Think X number of minutes, not half-hours. “Snack-size” episodes.
- Segment the show so on-the-go users can pause and re-enter at logical break-points. Doing so won’t turn-off listeners sitting-stiller at computers.
Format your podcast.
- Avoid “random thoughts.”
- Plan each segment so it has a beginning, a middle, and an end; as successful NPR podcasts do.
- Think about what to leave out, perhaps to create shows that are episodic, so users subscribe.
Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is the author of “Multiply Your Podcast Subscribers, Without Buying Clicks,” available from Talkers books; and “Spot-On: Commercial Copy Points That Earned The Benjamins,” a FREE download, and “Inflation Hacks: Save Those Benjamins,” the E-book and FREE on-air radio features“Inflation Hacks: Save Those Benjamins,” the E-book and FREE on-air features. HC is a consultant working at the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow him on Twitter @HollandCooke