Insider Secrets to a Top 100 Podcast with Courtney Elmer | Podcasting Strategies for Growing a Podcast That Converts

One in two podcast listeners discover new shows through search inside Apple and Spotify every day. Which means if your show isn’t visible in search, you’re handing half your audience to someone else. In this episode, we’re fixing that. I’m back with Irene Picco from Ausha to share the 5 best Podcast SEO practices that get your show ranking where listeners are already looking for content like yours...

41% more downloads in just 30 days. No podcast ads. No podcast guesting sprint. Just Podcast SEO done right. In this episode, I’m joined by Irene Picco from Ausha, widely recognized as the global leader in tracking podcast SEO performance. Irene and I first unpacked this data live from stage at Podcast Movement, and now we’re giving you the inside look at the Podcast SEO experiment that helped thi...

“Just stay consistent and make great content” is the podcast industry’s favorite advice, and it’s exactly why most shows never grow. It won’t matter how good your content is if no one can find it, and if your podcast isn’t showing up in search, you’re missing out on the 54% of new listeners who find new shows that way every day. I’ll show you why Podcast SEO makes it easier than ever for niche sho...

Taylor Swift’s engagement dominated headlines, but the real story was what it revealed about podcasting psychology. To outsiders, Swiftie behavior can look obsessive. In reality, it’s driven by the same listener psychology I use on this show to get you bingeing these episodes every week. I'm about to break down five simple but powerful shifts that will help you turn casual listeners into die-...

What makes someone binge a podcast, buy from the show, and feel emotionally connected to a host they’ve never interacted with personally?  Taylor Swift’s engagement became one of the biggest podcast marketing lessons of all time because it accidentally exposed why some podcasts create obsessed fans while others get forgotten. I'm breaking down the podcasting psychology behind audience loyalty...

You’ve niched down. At least, you think you have. You’ve defined your ideal listener, picked a category, maybe even reworked your show description and cover art (twice). But if you’re wondering whether you've niched too far (or not far enough) you're not alone. In this Fix My Pod coaching session, Anthony discovered the subtle red flags that were keeping listeners from hitting play on hi...

Hot topics get clicks. But what about the episodes you actually want to record, even if they’re not trendy or SEO-friendly? More importantly, how do you make listeners see every episode as a must-listen, so they hit play no matter the topic? I'm showing you how to strike the right balance between trending topics and thought leadership content that sets your show apart so listeners can instant...

Your podcast can sound great, have amazing guests, and still get skipped. Why? Because the first impression your show makes determines whether new listeners hit play. PodLaunch Accelerator grad Kristi Mayfield learned this firsthand when finding the problems her listeners cared about turned her "just for fun" show into a Top 100 podcast positioned to generate revenue. We’re breaking down...

It’s great to hear “I love your podcast!” from friends and fans. But this kind of feedback won’t tell you why new listeners stop listening after one episode (or worse, why they aren’t hitting play to begin with). Jay Nachlis, VP at Coleman Insights (the research powerhouse behind some of today’s most listened-to shows), shares the surprising patterns behind what makes listeners hit play or scroll...

Most podcasters wait for listener feedback to tell them if their podcast is good. But new listeners decide whether to click play in seconds, before they’ve heard a single word. Jay Nachlis, VP at Coleman Insights, reveals the common podcasting mistakes that make new listeners tune out in the first 7 seconds, and how to get reliable input from real podcast listeners who don’t know you so you can se...

Ever finished an interview and thought, “Well, that sucked”? Yeah, your audience felt it too. One boring, rambling guest can make even your most loyal listeners question if they should ever hit play on your show again. But when your guests deliver specific strategies and bold takes they can’t get anywhere else, listeners will finish the episode, tell a friend, and trust you more with every listen....

You’ve done everything the podcasting experts say to do: publish weekly, stay consistent, share on social. But the listens still aren’t coming, and you’re starting to resent how much time you’ve spent talking to an empty room. Most people think they have a podcast marketing problem, but more often it’s your podcast messaging, starting with your episode titles. And the longer you misdiagnose it, th...

If you’re tired of posting to social media only to get four likes and no new downloads on your podcast, the problem isn’t your content. Social media is where trust is built, not where podcasts are discovered. But video podcasting is changing that, and creators are getting more creative at driving cross-platform audience growth. When used right, your podcast can become the engine behind scroll-stop...

Five decisions determine whether someone hits play on your podcast. Most hosts get at least three of them wrong without realizing it. And the problem starts before anyone hears a single word of your show. PodLaunch Accelerator grad Cheryl Fischer learned this the hard way. She was doing everything “right” but still not seeing results, until she rebranded her show in a way that finally got the righ...

You’ve been told to make your podcast content “valuable,” but if you're teaching step-by-step (hoping that if you give away enough value for free, your inbox will be flooded with messages from people asking how to work with you), unfortunately that’s not how it works.  Listeners won’t hire you if they feel like they already got everything they came for. So where’s the line between giving enou...

Most podcasters treat email like a checkbox: “Send the episode to my list—done.” But Jay Schwedelson, host of Do This, Not That, is here with the secrets to writing emails people want to read so hitting play on your episode feels like the obvious next step. You’ll also hear why the first two words of your subject line decide whether your email gets opened, the one stat that can 20x your open rate,...

LinkedIn is one of the last remaining platforms where organic reach still works, and it might be one of the fastest ways to get new listeners to your podcast every week. Jay Schwedelson is about to break down the exact LinkedIn strategy he's used to help grow Do This, Not That into a Top 10 marketing podcast in the U.S., with over 390 episodes and 2,000+ five-star reviews in under two years....

If your podcast isn’t driving listeners to action, your CTA placement is likely the problem. This is one of the most common podcasting mistakes, and fixing it is how you increase listener engagement without changing your content. I'm breaking down exactly where your calls to action belong inside your episodes, how to tell if they’re working, and what to adjust based on real listener behavior....

You KNOW you should give a call to action (CTA) in every podcast episode. But every time you sit down to record, your brain short-circuits. Should you tell them to follow the show? Join your list? Download this? Book a call? Support your sponsor? Say too much and you sound desperate. Say too little and you miss your chance to increase podcast listener conversions. If you’ve ever been unsure of wha...

You’re showing up, you’re publishing every week... why does it still feel like no one’s listening? Conrad was asking this same question 80 episodes in because he had no new reviews, no shares, and not enough listener engagement to know if his podcast was actually helping anyone. In this Fix My Pod coaching session, we dig into why this happens and how to turn passive listeners into people who happ...

Downloads are the most unreliable metric for measuring a podcast’s true success. The problem? Most podcasters are still relying on them to decide if their show is “working.”  Find out why the podcasting numbers that matter the most aren’t the ones at the top of your dashboard, and learn to decode what these five key data points say about your show's growth. If you’re ready to make sense of yo...

Spotify just rolled out a new feature called “Plays” that shows your episode play counts publicly inside their app. But this move isn’t about helping creators. It’s about algorithmically manipulating what used to be a level playing field (and it benefits Spotify, not you). Worse? It distracts you from the metrics that really show if your podcast is growing. And for independent, niche hosts, this o...

Quick—nothing’s batched and an episode’s due tomorrow. What do you do? Panic? Procrastinate? Skip it and hope no one notices? Sure, you could ghost your audience. But that'll cost you the listener trust you’ve worked so hard to build.  I’m giving you 8 plug-and-play ideas you can use anytime your production schedule falls apart and you’re about to spiral into “I’m failing at podcasting.” Thes...

It’s the day before your episode goes live. You still have to outline it, record it, edit it, and get it all done before 6:00 am tomorrow morning when your listeners will be looking for it. You tell yourself you work better under pressure, but this pace drains your energy, kills your creativity, and honestly? It makes you hate your podcast. In this episode, I’m answering a listener’s question abou...

You’ve probably Googled it. You’ve definitely heard five different answers from five different podcasting “experts.” But how long should *YOUR* podcast episodes be? That depends entirely on your listener, and I’m showing you how to figure out your perfect episode length using real data from your show. You’ll learn the two metrics that help you increase listener engagement (and where to find them),...