Audience

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Matt talks with Arielle Nissenblatt about building a community around your podcast. There are so many great takeaways from this episode, from community engagement to building an audience, podcasting habits to monetization. Arielle lends her expertise in answering Matt’s questions about podcasting and Twitter. Arielle is a podcast expert in every sense of th...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Matt talks with podcast veteran Nathan Gathright about his latest venture: Steno. FM. The podcast 2.0 movement is bringing a lot of great things to podcasters and listeners. This also means transcripts. Descript is great for podcasters who need to work on their own podcasts, but what about listeners? There are a limited number of podcasting apps that have t...

In this episode Craig takes you behind the scenes with 3 Castos team members as we describe the process of the brand redesign we're launching today.  Recreating a brand, even after just a few years, is a major undertaking, but one that every brand (and yes, your podcast is a "brand") should consider.  Taking the time to properly align your mission, vision, and goals with the actual visual elements...

There aren't many more well-understood growth channels for a brand's audience than social media. But like a lot of things when it comes to growing your brand, it's often not complicated, but it's hard. Twitter in particular is a favorite for brands (and let's face it, your podcast is a 'brand' whether you've admitted it to yourself or not) to grow their reach and drive traffic back to a website. T...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Stuart talks about a different type of podcast. While most of the Audience podcast episodes focus on podcasts and podcasters who want to glean financial value and brand awareness from their work, other podcasts originate from a group of friends hanging out.  Today, Stuart focuses on a few podcasts which have started off that way. Renee from the ConspiraTea...

On this week’s episode of the Creator’s Spotlight series, Sam talks with Chris Desmond about how to start a conversation and engage with your podcasting community. Chris’ healthcare background easily transferred into a podcasting hobby. It has since morphed even more, changing from a hobby, to a mental health tool, to a resource for the healthcare community. Sam and Chris share their advice about...

Today’s episode is all about saving time as a podcaster, especially a solo podcaster.  Running a podcast resembles running a small business more than you might have guessed...or hoped.  As small business owners, you’re responsible for wearing many hats. If you’ve ever launched a business, you quickly found out that not only are you the owner but you’re also the:  Head sales person Customer support...

Today’s episode is all about new podcast apps + podcast 2.0.  It’s a big topic, and a bleeding edge one for most of us, suffice to say this one episode wouldn’t do the whole of it justice. However, if there’s one thing I leave you with, it’s that you’re encouraged, as podcast creators, to go out and explore.  If you’ve been hearing more and more about this from other shows you listen to but are st...

In the last episode we talked about Tom Webster's approach to using YouTube for growing your podcast. A quick recap of that is: Use Youtube because it's a powerful search tool for topic heavy podcast episodes. Make your show more shareable; leverage something other than audio to do that. After shipping that episode, I felt like, while it was great I said we should be considering video -- I didn't...

Matt is back from vacation. On this episode of the Audience podcast, he tackles the subject of growing an audience in the most tactful way possible. Matt offers tips and advice based on statistics, his own expertise on podcasting, and through the lens of his unique perspective from being in the industry for so long. Even after the biggest year in podcasting, the classic word-of-mouth marketing tec...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Stuart talks about creating podcasts and episodes with narratives. Narrative podcasts have their own format and their own style but are not limiting within the narrative format. Stuart explains what makes a narrative podcast different from an interview podcasts and how to craft one well. He also goes over best practices, the pros and cons, and how a narrati...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Sam Chlebowski, the host of The Creator Spotlight Series, talks with Anya Smith of the Matters of Belief podcast. The top two topics we generally avoid when making pleasant conversation are politics and religion. Today Anya shares why religion should not be on that list. It is obvious by her curiosity, expertise, and enthusiasm about the topic, why people f...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Craig talks with Tony Merkel from the Confessionals podcast. Tony was able to live the dream: quit his job and become a full-time podcaster. Today on Audience, Tony talks about creating a community, suggestions for new podcasters, and lessons that he has learned about audience growth. Tony shares his bootstrap knowledge to help new podcasters but he also sh...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Sam Chlebowski is joined by Eric Stauffer from the Proper Cents podcast. Eric talks about everything from his background and journey into podcasting to his workflow and process for coming up with content for his podcast and website. Proper Cents is a wealth of information about financial news and advice. He also gives his advice for new podcasters in terms...

Content emergency fund with Sam Today's guest is none other than our very own Head of Growth, Sam Chlebowski . Over the last two months, Sam has been helping our team iron out some of the creases in-between the marketing & sales teams here at Castos. His background in the web services industry and managing expectations of small business owners navigate uncertain waters is a huge boon to our po...

In this episode Matt and Craig talk through the fundraising round that Castos has recently completed. Castos, a leader in podcast hosting and analytics, has successfully closed an investment round of $756,000. With investments by Automattic, Joost de Valk of Yoast SEO, and individual investors, Castos will use this additional capital to fuel its advance into the Private Podcasting market.  With po...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Matt talks about what the step away experience is at Castos. In a world that was changed by the events that happened in 2020, employers and work expectations must also change. Employees and team members no longer commuted to work or walked into boardrooms for meetings. Instead all of that was replaced with virtual meetings after virtual meetings. “Zoom fati...

In today's episode of Audience, Matt explores the boundaries of being called a "Creator" and how it relates to the creator economy. This is episode 1 in a series that will explore what a creator means in the larger context of podcasting. There are a few challenges for you ahead: Ask yourself what "Creator" means to you Learn from other creatives outside of the podcasting space Find a deeper connec...

Today's episode is a must-listen re-run from our other show, 3 Clips . It's presented by Andrea, one of our producers for 3 Clips, in place of Jay while he's out on parental leave.  We hope you enjoy today's episode and give 3 Clips a follow in your favorite podcasting apps. 

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Matt talks with fellow podcaster, Bob Dunn from the Do the Woo Podcast. Bob specializes in a specific niche within WordPress, which is what his podcast focuses on as well. That begs the question, “How do you niche down in podcasting?” Today, Bob and Matt talk about niche podcasting and sponsorships, how to get started with sponsorships (when you’re new and...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Matt talks with Harry Duran from Podcast Junkies and his podcast production company (Fullcast). From mobile app developer to his ah-ha moment at New Media Expo, he talks about his journey into podcasting as well as his thought experiment which led to the Vertical Farming Podcast. Harry shares his expertise in the industry as the discussion moves from hyperf...

The Audience podcast is back with exciting news: Castos has acquired Podiant podcast hosting! Matt & Craig sit down to discuss the acquisition and what it means for the Castos family. We'll learn that it goes beyond acquiring more customers and injecting them into the Castos brand, but that customers from both sides will benefit. Along with new Podiant customers remaining on the same billing p...

The Castos Creator's series is happy to share today's story of Tim McKenna, podcast host of the Signal337 (three-thirty-seven) Podcast, a show for the innately curious and creative. Since September of 2019, Tim has been sharing his thoughts on design, business, and leadership with his audience. Though, we'll learn today that he tried to start the show with some co-hosts, things didn't pan out the...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Craig and Matt do a deep dive into the Apple and Spotify announcements about private podcasts, and discuss how it might affect the industry and the podcast creator economy. How will it affect creators? Would you rather “rent land” or “own your own property”? What does this mean for the future of podcasting? What are the pros and cons to monetization with a...

On this episode of the Audience podcast, we’re featuring a new podcast acquired by Castos: The 3 Clips podcast. Castos owner Craig Hewitt and 3 Clips host Jay Acunzo talk about the acquisition process along with a few tips on the fundamentals of podcasting.  They also share their thoughts on what makes a show great and how smaller shows can achieve that.  If you have any questions about this episo...