Audience

“How do podcasts make money?” is a legitimate question to ask yourself as you pour time and resources into creating a show. If you want to do it seriously, finding a way earn money podcasting will help you produce it over the long term. In this post, we’ll go over 20 different strategies to monetize a podcast to help you get started. Updated for 2020, we sourced advice from successful podcasters,...

After coming up with a name, designing the cover art, and finally sitting behind the mic, you're probably thinking about what the heck you're going to talk about. Filling out a week, month, or seasons worth of content is important. But what will make your life easier is planning, strategizing, and organizing everything ahead of time. We talked about podcast content marketing in the last episode. H...

This week on Audience, we're giving ourselves a hard look in the mirror after chatting with Jennifer Bourn . She's a business builder, helping clients grow their brands and attract new opportunities with concrete tools and tweaks. She kicked off the interview asking an important question, "Let's face it, most of us know we need to be doing [content marketing]. And most of us know we need to be doi...

Creating a traditional podcast that's available to the public isn't what you need for your premium content. It's public for anyone to hear, both paying members and anyone else who stumbles across the show. Instead, you need a private podcast where you can restrict who has access to the content. That's where Castos' latest integration with MemberSpace comes in. Check out this week's Audience episod...

There are one million good reasons to start a podcast. A love of storytelling, repurposing written articles to be more accessible, to find deep connections with strangers all over the world, or just because you like the sound of your own voice. But with the many motivations to get started, there are thousands of inner monologues that make it difficult to take the leap. Voices that say your story i...

Interview-style podcasts are among the most common formats in our medium. Listeners often find new shows to check out when people they admire give a unique interview. But getting the actual interview right is just one step of the process. There are a list of things before and after the recording that can help pump up an episode's performing. Checklists exist to help you run through items that need...

Creating a private podcast is a popular way to distribute information to employees, members, or specific list of people. While traditional podcasts are available to the general public, a password protected RSS feed only grants access to those with the required credentials. Recording a private podcast isn't much different than a publicly available one. The key change is in the distribution. In orde...

Part of the Castos mission is to educate and inspire fellow podcasters. With a whole community of hosts figuring it out and thriving, we launched our new Creator Spotlight series. Our goal is to feature Castos customers and their podcasts–from how they got started, what their recording setups look like, and highlighting the unique skills they use to create a successful show. This in our inaugural...

There are a lot of podcast education courses out there. Heck, we even have one . Most promise actionable steps to take an idea and transform it into a successful podcast, providing guidance and tutorials to get you there. But when you want to learn the best tips and tricks, you have to go to the best. So that’s why we set out to talk to Rachel Corbett. Rachel got involved with podcasting 20 years...

This week on Audience, we’re talking monetization. While many podcasters start their show as a hobby, more times than not, they eventually want to start thinking about how to earn some money from the show. But rather than focus on every podcast monetization strategy , we’re drilling into one specific method: affiliate marketing. Ross Winn from Podcast Insights is an expert on promoting affiliate p...

Given podcasting’s spontaneous nature, it’s more than likely that you’ll run into a time where you want to capture a conversation that needs to be heard, but you don’t have your usual equipment with you. That’s where recording a podcast on your iPhone comes in. On this episode of Audience, we're shifting gears to highlight Castos creators who are podcasting in unique ways. Rob and Jill from Fearle...

One of the biggest players in the podcasting industry is Apple Podcasts. Up to this point, they have helped dictate major shifts in podcast consumption and how podcasters create their shows. Given Apple Podcasts’ popularity, it’s no surprise getting in front of their curation team can help propel a podcast to new heights. But the question is, how can I pitch my podcast to appeal to their editors?...

Class is back in session on our latest Audience episode! This week, we’re taking it back to our community. Across our Facebook groups and in conversations with customers, we hear a lot of great questions. Some that we’ve never thought of and others that frequently stump newbie podcasters. In our latest episode, we brought in five questions that we think don’t get enough air time. But first, some e...

There’s no doubt that the Coronavirus pandemic has changed many of our lives, and for some aspects of our lives this may be a permanent change. Our guest on Audience this week is Tom Webster from Edison Research, the company behind the industry-leading Infinite Dial survey. In an earlier episode we recapped some of the biggest takeaways from the 2020 Infinite Dial survey , and thought we HAD to ha...

As with many new hobbies, a fair bit of research and reading is required to figure out the best way to start. Podcasting isn’t much different so there has always been need for diverse resources teaching Podcasting 101. According to Google Trends , the phrase “how to start a podcast” has averaged 60 searches per day since 2016. With low barriers to entry and the ability for just about anyone to sta...

Motivation is a fickle thing. Some days it’s front and center, driving you to produce your best work. Others it’s no where to be found and things that used to be a priority can fall to the wayside. The rollercoaster of motivation is a central theme in our latest episode of Audience . Craig sits down with Rob Walling, found of Drip and TinySeed , who has produced over 500 podcast episodes. His show...

There are a lot of experts within the podcasting industry. But James Cridland is in a unique position to see the industry’s trends, successes, and failures differently than most. As the curator of Podnews , a daily podcasting briefing, his perspective is a combination of news from podcast hosts, advertisers, content creators, and listening platforms. Given his holistic view, we invited James to ch...

When it comes to the distribution aspect of your podcast there are fewer “sure things” than having other similar shows in your niche promoting your content. And podcast networks are the most natural way to establish that cross pollination of your podcast with other relevant audiences. In this coversation with Jeff Umbro from podcast network Podglomerate we discuss how setting up a podcast network...

The team at Castos is excited to announce that our premium course on how to create a great podcast is now entirely free. Check out the Podcast Like A Pro course today to get 25+ lessons on everything from: Listener personas and popular podcast topics Gear, microphones, and setup recommendations Audio recording and editing software recommendations How to achieve professional sounding audio for your...

Creating great content is hard. Any kind, really. Whether it’s a blog, a YouTube channel, or a podcast. In a sea of information it’s tough to know what advice to follow and what to dismiss as noise. In this episode, we lay out an easy-to-follow set of podcast best practices that will help you grow your show. This playbook is full of things we’ve learned from working with hundreds of successful sho...

Creating great sounding audio is the cornerstone of what constitutes a winning podcast. And there are many things that go into this: the right gear, the right techniques, great post-production, and a way to record that audio in an easy and high-quality manner. And in this episode, we welcome Zach Moreno and Rock Felder, cofounders of Squadcast.fm to discuss this, and much more. At their core, Zach...

When we talk to our customers, podcast editing is often the most intimidating part of podcasting. It's technical, a more laborious process, and it's hard to know when you're done. With the importance of consistently publishing new episodes, there are a few podcast editing methods to choose from. Some some, purchasing podcast editing software and using a DIY approach is best. An option for beginner...

This week on Audience we chatted with Eric Nuzum, an expert who started NPR’s podcasting efforts back in 2005. Eric help found some of NPR’s most successful shows, has published three best-selling books, and co-founded a podcast production company called Magnificent Noise . Recently, he found time to write and publish his fourth book, Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Sto...

In this episode of Audience, we sat down with the hosts of the Ladybug Podcast . Emma Bostian, Ali Spittel, and Kelly Vaughn produce a weekly show geared towards developers at all stages in their careers. They create episodes about technical coding topics, interview industry experts, and weave in “softer” development conversations to keep their audience engaged. Throughout this interview, our conv...

On this week’s Audience episode, Craig sits down with Jay Acunzo from Marketing Showrunners . The two founders and podcasters dig into why defining and sticking to a point of view is the key to building an engaged audience. The episode touches upon why it’s OK to have a podcast that doesn’t speak to some people. And how to differentiate their negative feedback from the reviews that will help you s...