What do you think is the #1 driver to get a free listener to convert into a paid listener on Patreon? What kind of calls to action do you use to entice people into going to your Patreon page and signing up?
In terms of Patreon, I have a $1/month level, which is intended to be a gateway into the $5, $10, and $15 levels. I find a lot of $1 subscribers will up their membership over time.
"I should also note, too, that your show probably shouldn’t rely exclusively on outside guests. My recommendation is to launch the show with the same host/hosts for a few years in order to build your audience based on who *you* are. This way, even if you have a bad interview one day, your listeners are still there for you and not necessarily your guests. You need to be the thing people listen for, if that makes sense."
I know lots -- LOTS -- of podcast that are basically all about guest interviews. And they're great! I love a lot of them. But I definitely know that for some of them, I'm listening for the guest and not the interviewer.
How, exactly, do you weave yourself into it with the right balance so that you give listeners a reason to listen for you? (Or, is it just something natural about the way you go about it?)
One more thing: I only do interview episodes once per week (Wednesdays). The other three shows (Tues, Thurs, Fri) are just me and my co-hosts, so it creates a nice balance. If you do a weekly show, maybe alternate between having a guest and hosting on your own.
How do you get to that consistency of 4 episodes a week? Do you not edit much? Employ someone to do that? Or to book and schedule your guests? I find that there's often like 2 full days of work around 1 hour of recording. (Mind you, I'm only a few months in, I'll get faster.)
I do minimal editing, so I always listen back to episodes at 170% speed so I can blast through while still checking for trainwrecks. With a political show, I really have no choice but to get it posted as quickly as possible. Also, the software I use, Sony Sound Forge, has a feature allowing me to add markers the audio file in real-time, so if I mess up, I can mark that point in the episode as a reminder for the edit.
Try pushing yourself to record episodes with the least amount of editing possible. Imagine your audience is listening live. It will improve your performance so that editing is minimized. Meanwhile, listeners tend to be forgiving of mistakes -- it keeps it real. Remember the Howard Stern story about how, when he was a kid, he'd listen to the radio with his Dad. It was mostly boring until he'd hear something fall over in the studio or an announcer stumble over a word, and he'd be immediately interested in what was happening. Sometimes fuck-ups are entertaining.
What do you think is the #1 driver to get a free listener to convert into a paid listener on Patreon? What kind of calls to action do you use to entice people into going to your Patreon page and signing up?
In terms of Patreon, I have a $1/month level, which is intended to be a gateway into the $5, $10, and $15 levels. I find a lot of $1 subscribers will up their membership over time.
-Bob
I thought this comment was really interesting:
"I should also note, too, that your show probably shouldn’t rely exclusively on outside guests. My recommendation is to launch the show with the same host/hosts for a few years in order to build your audience based on who *you* are. This way, even if you have a bad interview one day, your listeners are still there for you and not necessarily your guests. You need to be the thing people listen for, if that makes sense."
I know lots -- LOTS -- of podcast that are basically all about guest interviews. And they're great! I love a lot of them. But I definitely know that for some of them, I'm listening for the guest and not the interviewer.
How, exactly, do you weave yourself into it with the right balance so that you give listeners a reason to listen for you? (Or, is it just something natural about the way you go about it?)
One more thing: I only do interview episodes once per week (Wednesdays). The other three shows (Tues, Thurs, Fri) are just me and my co-hosts, so it creates a nice balance. If you do a weekly show, maybe alternate between having a guest and hosting on your own.
The first 20 minutes of Maron's show is a great example of how you can bring your own personality into the mix.
How do you get to that consistency of 4 episodes a week? Do you not edit much? Employ someone to do that? Or to book and schedule your guests? I find that there's often like 2 full days of work around 1 hour of recording. (Mind you, I'm only a few months in, I'll get faster.)
I do minimal editing, so I always listen back to episodes at 170% speed so I can blast through while still checking for trainwrecks. With a political show, I really have no choice but to get it posted as quickly as possible. Also, the software I use, Sony Sound Forge, has a feature allowing me to add markers the audio file in real-time, so if I mess up, I can mark that point in the episode as a reminder for the edit.
Try pushing yourself to record episodes with the least amount of editing possible. Imagine your audience is listening live. It will improve your performance so that editing is minimized. Meanwhile, listeners tend to be forgiving of mistakes -- it keeps it real. Remember the Howard Stern story about how, when he was a kid, he'd listen to the radio with his Dad. It was mostly boring until he'd hear something fall over in the studio or an announcer stumble over a word, and he'd be immediately interested in what was happening. Sometimes fuck-ups are entertaining.