A Study in Listener Loyalty

Check out this week's Podcast at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/494

My Favorite Podcast 2015

I founded the School of Podcasting in 2005 (www.schoolofpodcasting.com) I am 100% obsessed with podcasting. It allows me to be creative. It allows me to help people (I’ve been teaching people software for over 20 years). It allows me to play with technology. It scratches every itch I have. At the end of each year I ask my audience to pick ONE favorite podcast (it’s not easy, and some still submit two).

Why do I do this? Because I want to “Reverse Engineer” the answers and look at the WHY. If we know WHY people listen then we can focus on the content people are pursuing. We can take that information and tweak it, mold it, and use it in our shows.

This year I noticed the phrase “Deep” mentioned frequently. If you watch television, you rarely get a “Deep dive” into any subject. If you get more than 5 minutes of a topic, it’s interrupted with endless commercials.

Chemistry came up a fair amount this year. People tune into because they like the interaction between hosts. This doesn’t mean you HAVE to have multiple hosts. One review mentioned a single host as being “brilliant.”

As always, storytelling is another popular delivery method. We are born and raised with stories. We are fed a steady diet of fairy tales, books, movies, and TV. All media uses stories to deliver their content.

Behind the Scenes

I spent $79 at transcribeme.com ($1/minute) to have all the voicemails transcribed into text. I then took the text and formatted in Microsoft Word to be a Kindle Book. The editing of audio, the formatting of the book took me about 10 hours, and I'm not done. Today as the show comes out, I'm going to email each contributor, and each person who was mentioned and send them a link (and mention they may want to let their audience know..). So that will probably take me another 2-3 hours (66 contacts).

So the fun part is I think I sold around 10 copies of the book last year (I gave away a pdf last year for those who didn't want to purchase the book - something i'm not doing this year). While this was originally was designed to make an "easy" week at the end of the year, it has turned into quite a chore. My solution (as it is with ost of my stuff) is to turn it into a podcast that I will do year round. I will take the best entries and use them for my year end show.

Have a Safe and Happy New Year

As we usher in a new year, I hope you have a great weekend and New Year. Be safe, find some friends and family, and enjoy some great times. If you're on the east coast, this would be a good time to check to make sure you have gloves, a hat, and an ice scraper.

Dave Jackson
Podcast Consultant
www.schoolofpodcasting.com

Check out this week's Podcast at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/494