Collaboration is the future of Content Creation, Audio too!
It was the year 2009 and I was rebuilding all of my websites after a terrible Google strike led to a drop in the traffic to pretty much all of my websites.
The traffic literally dropped to ZERO!
My revenue too had dropped to almost ZERO.
I was desperate to get everything back up and was hunting for solutions.
That’s when I came across one of these blogger friends of mine. He too had been severely impacted by the kick from Google. But he was slowly recovering and his sites had once again started to rank on the first page of Google.
I reached out to him and asked him what he was doing differently.
He sent me a one word answer, “COLLABORATION”.
I didn’t understand it in the first go. I setup some time with him and spoke to him at length and he shared his tips.
He was writing blog-posts for other bloggers. His guest-posts were all linking back to his blog posts.
Google was valuing these links and rewarding his blog by ranking them on the first page.
It gave me the first idea for collaboration.
From there on, I tried a lot of different collaborations with other bloggers, social media groups, forum owners etc.
Though Google later penalized guest-posting as well, but it is still relevant to this day. Just that the entire purpose and objective of guest posting has changed.
That essentially means that “collaboration” is valuable even now, in the eyes of the Google gods as well.
This experience with blogging has a clue for every one of us content creators in the audio space.
If you need to grow your audience, “COLLABORATION” is the key.
Social media posting cannot generate the kind of audience you are looking to get for your podcasts. In fact, most social media companies want to keep their audience on their platforms itself. And they are rewarding creators to do that.
In such a situation, do you really think that your efforts to channelize them to a 3rd party platform to listen to your podcast is going to be liked by these social media companies.
With diminishing reach and all of the noise, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get the attention of an average social media user.
..and it here that audio wins.
Better attention spans and better audience retention.
In such a situation wouldn’t it make sense to appear in front of an audience who is immersed in a conversation and make a pitch for your podcast?
Collaboration is the key to the future of Podcasting.
And the early adopters would be awarded big for sure!
Appeal
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News you should know
Johan Seidefors, the Nordic head of content for Spotify, in an interview with Podnews editor James Cridland, said that he expects scripted podcasts to be the future of podcasting. If you are running an audio drama or, any other form of story-telling podcast, then you have reasons to be happy.
According to the Digital Publishers’ Revenue Index (DPRI), UK Publishers reported a 500% increase in digital audio revenue in the first quarter of 2022. The first quarter alone reported a revenue of US$5.3m. Podcasting seems to be entering the Golden-age. That is encouraging news for podcasters.
You would like these links
If you have been struggling to find listeners to your podcast, then you will like this simple article on attracting new listeners for your podcast. The ideas aren’t revolutionary and something that is not discussed. Yet there is some freshness to the article.
I am a fan of SEO and offlate, I have been spending a lot of time learning podcasting SEO. If you wish to learn some of the basics of podcast SEO, then this article is a must read.
Questions from the reader
This question was sent to me by one of my listener, Barkha –
Is promoting on Instagram enough to get more audience for a podcast?
One of the gray areas in promoting any kind of content is what channels to promote it on. Yesterday it was Facebook and today it is Instagram. Tomorrow it could be something else.
Social media is all about catching up. No platform in itself is reliable for the life. You need to be on your toes, learning about their algorithms, the changes and what is working currently etc.
At the same time, you also need to look at what new is happening in social media, which new platforms are being introduced and how is the audience looking at it.
Instagram cannot be a sole platform to generate new audience. In fact, the number of newer audience you could get from Instagram might be pretty low. Instagram, instead is a place to engage with your existing listeners and audience.
So in a single sentence, it isn’t enough to promote your podcast only on Instagram.
“The only way to win at content marketing is for the reader to say, ‘This was written specifically for me.”
~Jamie Turner
Recommended Reading
Blue Ocean Strategy – If you have been struggling to make space for yourself in a crowded niche, then this book is for you. This book by W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne is a must read to learn how to find blue oceans in marketing.
The 4-hours workweek – This book by Tim Ferris is a classic and anybody who is aspiring to do anything other than the regular 9-5 needs to read this book.
Note – Some of these are affiliate links and I might earn a commission if you choose to purchase using these links, but that would be at no extra cost to you.
That’s it for this week,
See ya again,
Dilip K
P.S. If you would like to connect with me or, read more of my writings in the form of blog posts, then you can visit my blog about Podcasting Tips.
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