Today we look at the topic of podfading. We are going to examine what it is, what are the top causes, and how to avoid - and ask if you should? We get help from Jim Collison, Ryan Parker, and Rev. Kenn Blanchard.
Your Audience Will Binge Listen When They Find You
Steve Steward produces the Moneyplan SOS podast (learn to pay attention instead of interest), and he had a listener who found his show and downloaded a ton of episodes and listened to them all as he went on a long trip in the car. Today we talk about making great content that connects with people, and obviously Steve is doing a great job.
What is Podfading?
Podfaing is when your show just stops producting content. There is no "final show" it just stops. The term was invented by Scott Fletcher of the now podfaded show Podcheck Review. According to the Urban Dictionary "A podcast that after a while becomes less and less frequently updated and then blinks out altogether."
The Top Six Reason People Podfade
According the the Book Tricks of the Podcasting Masters from Rob Walch and Murr Laferty (A great book from 2006) they list the top five reasons people podfade. Lack of time Lack of interest Lack of material Lack of listeners Lack of funds I add to this: Lack of FUN.
Lack of Time
If you TURN OFF YOUR TV, you will have time to podcast. But realize there is a 4 to 1 ration. This means that for every one minute of finished podcast it will take you four minutes to produce it. You need to know this up front so you don't say I'm going to do a 30 minute podcast 5 days a week. That's 150 minutes of total episode, so multiply that by 4 and you get 600 minutes of time to create those episodes (10 HOURS). Do you have an extra 10 hours PER WEEK (40 hours per month) to produce a show that will more than likely generate zero income for the first few months?
Lack of Interest
I once started a "Customer Service Show" where I spotlighted my experience as an award winning customer service representative. It turned out that I just reported on the bad customer service I received everywhere I went. I sounded like a grump old man. After a few shows, I just lost interest. I wasn't really that passionate about that topic. I thought I should podcast about what I know. You should podcast about what you are passionate about. If you are not interested in your topic, maybe bring in a co-host or mix up the format.
Lack of Materials
My wife and I did a "Dates from Hell Show" where we told stories of horrible dates we had experienced. We thought our audience would chime in with their stories. The bad news is we didn't have an audience, and nobody chimed in. I have a tutorial at the School of Podcasting that shows how to use the Website Feedly.com to have all sort of content come to you. Lack of material can change a podcast from Fun to "Feeling like work." That always leads to podfading.
Lack of Listeners
Never use the word "Only" when describing your download numbers. Last week I had 18 people in a classroom. If I "Only" had 70 downloads, that would be 3.5 classrooms of people. Currently according to Rob Walch the VP of Podcast relations at Libsyn.com the median download of a typical podcast is around 170 (as of May 2014). So 50% of podcasters have over 170, and the other 50% don't. With the right content, you can find yourself in the hundreds of downloads, and eventually the thousand of downloads. It takes time. It takes good content. It also takes you GOING to where your target audience is and networking with them.
Lack of Funds
Once you have purchased your equipment, the ongoing price of a podcast is around $30 a month (less if your shows are shorter). I've spoken about finding money to podcast in the past. If you want it, you can find it. Some of the things you can do is podcast in mono (it cuts your file size in half - which lowers your media hosting bill). Also if you "take a break" then you can lower your storage space on your media host to the lowest level (just to keep your account active) and