Some things can never be replaced, like long form written content!
“Blogging is dead!”
This is a phrase, I have heard innumerable times since the last 15 years that I have been into marketing. Yet it survives. In fact, it thrives.
While, the advocates wouldn’t believe or, agree to that, the truth is that it still is the best form of content and it still is doing extremely well.
The last week, I had a kind of discussion with a good podcaster friend of mine. The discussion went into a point where, we started discussing the relevance of written content.
To which he said, “written content is dead”. The future is audio!
I looked at him is disagreement but he was confident in what he said. At this I asked him, “I agree audio is the future but the problem is that people are still trying to figure out ways to promote their podcasts. Discoverability is something that people haven’t deciphered yet. What’s your strategy?”
He smiled and replied, “I follow 2 very simple methods – Use good keyword rich show notes and secondly, create video bytes and promote it using social media and YouTube”.
He looked at me smiling at him and quickly realized why I was looking at him like that.
I said, “Exactly my point. Irrespective of audio or, video everything needs written content to be discovered. Everything on the internet is written. That is how things are discovered.”
Imagine uploading a video to Youtube without a headline or, a description. You might have killer call-to-action but that call to action drive people to click on something that is written.
Probably I am being a little too emotinoal. Maybe, I am digressing.
But the fact is that written content is still here and will be here till the internet adapts itself to discover content in audio clips and video clips.
Look at Social media today.
There’s hundreds of millions of pieces of excellent content that has been written. But can you search and find that in somebody’s feed?
Do you scroll on the Facebook timeline or, Instagram the feed of an influencer to find an excellent piece of content he would have created about 6 months back?
No!
You don’t!
Unless the influencer re-publishes that content, it is lost. A creative piece that required a lot of effort is lost.
Imagine the amount of effort being put in by these influencers to create that content. And imagine the lifespan.
Conversely, a blog post with an evergreen piece of content, that I wrote in 2017 brings in about 300 visits everyday, about 20 subscribers and about $200 per month.
I haven’t touched it since then.
How?
Because it is still discovered on the internet by people searching for that specific information.
At this point you might be wondering as to where I am going!
Am I saying that “Podcasting” is farce?
No!
“Podcasting” is going to be big. It is here to stay and will be big in the next few years. But podcasting too has the same problem as social media content.
With directories not caring to build a searchable index, podcasting platforms like Spotify trying to monopolize delivery and with no real way of finding old content, podcasting could be stating at a huge problem – the problem of lost efforts.
Podcasters are creating excellent content. But if they do not supplement it with written content and if their episodes live only on the directories or, the podcast host then nobody will ever find their oldest content when they are 100 episodes into their show.
As content creators, what we need to understand is that “written long form content” can never die. And everything else on the internet; podcasts and videos will have to be supplemented by written content.
The faster we realize this and stop debating on the supremacy of content, the better it will be for us as content creators and for the content consumers.
For some things can never be replaced like the “Rose”, the charm of which is second to none.
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News you should know
It looks like standardization and especially through RSS feeds, is what is impacting the mass adoption and innovation in podcasting. At least according to former Spotify head and founder of Anchor, Mike Mignano. To some extent it is true and innovation is too slow because of the RSS standards. But then the problem is that, if not for this, companies like Spotify will monopolize the market to an extent where it will be difficult for small time podcasters to survive.
Descript was a hit with podcasters who wanted a simpler method of editing. In fact, it was the only such service available until now. But the folks at Headliner has developed a similar service called EditEddy. It is still under development but looks really promising.
You will like these links
Editing is one of the most hated and cumbersome activity in podcasting according to a lot of podcasters. But editing need not be a pain. In fact it can be fun if you work with an end goal. This article about editing is an excellent read.
The 7 Podcast trends of 2022 is an interesting read and is something you too should be aware off.
Questions from the reader
This is a question from an email subscriber, “Jeremy” –
Which of these hosts is the best – Buzzsprout, Blubrry or, Libsyn?
This is a very subjective question and depends upon a few things –
your needs from your host
your spending ability
All the three of these are excellent hosts. Their stats are all IAB certified and they have some amazing features.
They have varying upload limits and charges and this is what can be your deciding criteria on which one to go with.
I host with Acast and I like their dashboard, features and customer support.
Content marketing is no longer a numbers game. It’s a game of relevance. - Jason Miller
Recommended Reading
Ikigai – This book by Hector Garcia and Fracesc Miralles is about living a long and joyful life. The principles discussed in the book are simple and easy to implement, but needs some discipline.
Think like a monk – This book by Jay Shetty, is a must read. I enjoy his podcast, “On Purpose” and this book just extends the guidance he has been sharing through his social media channels. It teaches you how to get rid of negativity and reduce stress in life.
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 in the next edition,
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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