11 Reasons to seriously consider starting a podcast

Podcasting is a bit a of a buzz right now. Being here, chances are high you’ve listened to a podcast, likely Tracy’s. And perhaps you’ve found yourself wondering if it’s something you should consider starting.

Here are 11 great reasons to hit record.

1. Set yourself up as an expert

Podcasting is an easy way to set up or establish yourself as an expert in your field. There’s something magical that happens when you launch a professional sounding and looking podcast in iTunes. It builds instant credibility and fame.
The fame part can be a little weird. I’m not kidding. When I go to events people want a photo with me. It’s weird. I don’t have a huge following or list. But I make a big impact by using my voice.

2. Blogging can be a slog

If your natural communication style isn’t writing, blogging can be an absolute slog. And, if I’m honest a little scary.

Recently, I sent out an email newsletter using the wrong ‘you’re/your’ and once I’d hit send it was too late. There was nothing I could do about it. It was out there in the inter webs and I was quietly mortified. I know there are people out there who are appalled at bad grammar, and those people can be quite intimidating and vocal. I’m not an English scholar and I’ve come from a background writing copy for radio; where we always wrote for speech.
I love writing. And I’m good at it. Just not great at it. I find most people are in that boat.
Imagine if, instead of sitting down for hours crafting and refining one blog post or newsletter, you could hit record and say what you want to say, upload it to iTunes and have it delivered straight to your audiences device. It wouldn’t matter if you stumbled over a word, or used the wrong ‘your’. You’d be easily forgiven.

3. High value content

With a podcast you can create incredible high value content that can be … (continued in the next two points):

4. Repurposed easily

You can easily take one podcast recording and leverage the hell out of it. Create video content for YouTube of your interview. Create little video teasers using something like Clammr. Have your episode transcribed and create a number of blog posts from the content.
And there are plenty of options to create supplementary content upgrades to help you build your list, like:

• a cheat sheet
• manifesto
• worksheet or workbook
• exercises
• comparison grid
• blueprint
• tracker
• checklist
• behind the scenes
• guest Q&A

5. Consumed with ease

Because it’s much easier to consume, you’ve got longer to keep their attention so you can deliver more information… the listener can carry on doing whatever they are doing and still be learning and getting to know you.
The magic of podcasting is in the connection. There’s something that sets it apart from video or writing. I’ve got a theory on why that is. When someone is consuming video content or a blog post, they are having to disconnect from what they are doing, in order to consume your content.
But that’s not the case with a podcast. You can consume anywhere you are, while doing pretty much anything, with anyone. You don’t need to disconnect in order to connect.
And that’s the key to why it helps to;

6. Build your ‘know like trust’ factor FAST

Not only is it the disconnection/connection thing at play here, but there is also something to be said for the voice on it’s own. It’s all happening inside our head, with no other distraction. And we’ve been telling our stories through our voices since we had language. Plus, podcasting really allows you to show who you are. The real you. Not the 1000 video takes with perfectly manicured hair and a face full of make up. Not the blog post that you wrote and rewrote and rewrote until it was no longer really in your voice.
You know, we talk a lot about writing in your voice. Why not just speak in your voice? It’s a much easier way to go about things!

7. Reach your audience wherever they may be

As I mentioned before, it’s easy to consume, so you can reach your audience in ways that just aren’t possible with other mediums… in their car, while cooking dinner or walking the dog.

8. Form relationships with influencers

This is a great side perk of podcasting. If you decide to go down the interview format, podcasting allows you to form relationships with influential people within your industry, or outside of it. By having them as a guest on your show and being great at what you do, you’ll be on their radar and will have hopefully formed some kind of bond with them. Stay in touch and check in regularly.
I often get asked how do you make money from a podcasts, and there’s plenty of ways (one, is actually the very next point) but often we forget that money isn’t the only currency. Often success is not what you know, but who you know. Solid relationships, with your audience and your guests, can often be worth much more than the almighty dollar.

9. Create passive (or leveraged) income

There’s plenty of ways to make leveraged income with a podcast. Utilise your podcast as the opening of your sales funnel. Use it to sell books or tickets to your events. Or become an affiliate for your favourite products and your guests products. Did you know that a 2014 survey of almost 170,000 podcast listeners show 61% had bought a product or service after hearing it on a podcast? That’s pretty solid figures!

10. Less competition than blogging

Today alone there have been over 2.3 million blog posts written. Is it any wonder your voice is getting lost out in that big vast ocean? Podcasting is a relatively small pond comparatively.
In 2014 Apple said subscriptions of podcasts through iTunes had reached 1 billion; and the number of unique monthly podcast listeners has tripled to 75 million from 25 million five years ago.

Yet there were only 206000 podcasts as of June 2015 with only around 40% of those active – so around 84000 active podcasts (measured by min. one ep released between Jan and June 2015)… so that pulls back to around 60,000 active podcasts per month. In 2015 there were around 5000 new podcasts added per month to the iTunes US store.
Those are some pretty good odds. Podcasting is still a relatively small pool, as compared to the big ocean of blogging. There is still plenty of room for more voices in this platform and plenty of listeners waiting to hear from you.

11. Early adopter

Even though it might feel like podcasting has had it’s day, it absolutely has not. It’s still very much on the rise and by jumping in now, you’ll still be seen as an early adopter. It’s very easy to establish yourself as a podcaster right now.
Being an early adopter has other benefits too! Podcasting is also really the only playground we have left where algorithms don’t really come into play. A listener subscribes and they’ll get your episode. Not in any other order than the order in which they are released. There are no tricks. No hoops you have to jump through. It’s not pay to play. Now is definitely the time… if you wait you might not be as lucky as those who are establishing themselves in this field right now.

If you want to learn more about podcasting and how and why it can work for you, head to radcasters.com and start podcasting like a pro, without the tech woes and overwhelm.

Check out Karly on the MWH Podcast

https://tracyharris.wpengine.com/podcasts/podcast-like-pro/

Meet Karly 

Karly Nimmo is a born communicator. She's an ex-radio jock, producer & copywriter, current in-demand Voice Over Artist and has run her successful Voice Over Agency (Killer Kopy) for over a decade. There's a pretty slim chance you haven't heard her voice. She's worked with everyone from Telstra, BHP, eBay, Panasonic, Qantas to Coles-Myer and ANZ. Karly's also an avid and successful podcaster, with her number one iTunes hit, Karlosophies – Stories Behind Success. And finally, she's the creator of Radcasters Podcasting S'cool – where she teaches entrepreneurs how to podcast like a pro. Her current mission is to rid the world of s**t sounding podcasts.