What I have Learned from 50 Podcast Episodes

We just did our 50th episode for productjourney.fm. It has been about 11 months since our 1st episode. So I thought I'd share a little bit of what I have learned so far.

1. Be consistent and release on the same day and time
   We publish our a new episode every Monday at 5am Pst (trying to hit a good time for most of our listeners). You don't necessarily have to publish every week but I think it makes sense for your listeners to know that you are around. More so than publishing often, I have found it important to be consistent. Your listeners can start to expect a time and day and they will be looking for your podcast then. You will get more listens this way. We have only missed one week since we started and that was a break for Christmas.
2. Growth is Gradual
   This is more so just what I have learned to maybe help with your expectations. There aren't great ways for tons of people to find your podcast. Unless you already have an existing audience or you get on the top of the iTunes podcast charts somehow 🤷‍♂️. You can see from our downloads in the image above that it just slowly goes up over time.
3. Get feedback and look for ways to improve
   Its kind of hard to know what your listeners are thinking of your podcast since podcasting is such a one-way thing. Also, listeners are often out and about doing things while listening to podcasts so they aren't going to stop there and give you feedback very often. But look for ways where you can find feedback. Twitter was the most common place for us. If someone said they liked a specific episode ask what they liked about it, and then go do more of that thing. This really helped us know what was working and what wasn't.
4. Guests help you grow
   We have had 15 guests on our podcast. Every time we had a guest they would share it with their audience. This helped new people find us. This is where a lot of our growth came from.
5. Be active in the community your podcast is a part of
   Both Ben and I have been very active in the bootstrapper community. This helps those in the community to find the podcast and it most likely fits their interest. Your podcast most likely fits in some community. Be very active there. Hopefully this is something you are already doing because it is fun! Is another main way that you can grow.

I really enjoy recording and making a podcast. Great conversations come from it. One of the other main benefits I have seen is meeting people in our community. A podcast gives you a voice and a way to meet people that you probably wouldn't be able to otherwise. I have made some good friends from recording our podcast like Arvid Kahl, Justin Jackson, Kevin Conti and others. Oh! and of course Ben, my co-host. Fun fact, Ben and I didn't know each other before starting the podcast together! 😮

Hope this was interesting to take a look at our experience and hopefully it was helpful to you!