Should You Start A Podcast? 5 Valid Reasons to Decide If Podcasting is Right for You

In the last episode, I discussed what the heck podcasting is and how podcasting works. But the big question is: Should you start a podcast?

Because just because others are starting a podcast, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should also start a podcast show, right?

There must be some valid reasons to start a podcast. After all, if this doesn’t help you achieve your business marketing or any other kind of goal, why would you waste your time?

Hey digital learner, welcome back to another episode of Digital Marketing Made Easy podcast and if this is your first time here, let me introduce myself.

My name is Rahul Dubey and I help people turn their digital presence into profit using various digital marketing strategies. If you are someone who loves tips and strategies to create a profitable online business, then make sure you subscribe to this podcast for weekly new episodes.

Today’s episode is the extended version of my previous episode in which I discussed what is a podcast and how podcasting works.

In case, you missed that go back to the previous episode and listen to that episode before tuning into this. Because in today’s episode, I’ll be answering a question that I’m often asked which is: Okay, Rahul, I know what podcasting is and I see many people starting a podcast show these days. Should I also start a podcast?

And my answer would be: If someone is doing something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should also do the same. And this is a general life lesson that you can learn from me.

However, when it comes to podcasting, you should first know the benefits of starting a podcast, then know the barriers that can fall into your way of starting, analyze everything before you decide if it’s worth starting a podcast or not.

Because you can’t jump into a well just because many people are jumping, right?

So let’s first talk about the benefits of starting a podcast.

The 1) benefit I see about starting a podcast is: Very Low Entry Barrier. Podcasting is close to free. Almost anyone can start a podcast show without any technical skills or production budget.

Nowadays, there are apps like Anchor that allow you to record your voice with just a tap of a button and you can produce podcast content directly from your smartphone.

You don’t need professional microphones and fancy studio equipment. And what’s even better is that they can host your podcast files as well. So podcast hosting is completely free.

Although there are some strings attached due to their terms and conditions, and that’s why I host my podcast content on a premium podcast hosting server rather than free services or regular web hosting server.

But hey, who cares if you are someone who is low on budget and wants to get your podcast show published without paying anything.

If anyone ever made an excuse about not having money to start an online business, free podcasting is the answer to all the excuses.

Alright! The 2nd benefit of having a podcast show is: Being able to convey your message without any excuse. I mean think about blogging, in order to convey your message through a blog, you need to write blog articles, and you may make an excuse that I don’t know how to write, I don’t have writing skills, and excuses like that.

Similarly, for video-based content, you need to create video and although it’s possible to create video content without facing the camera, yet many times people make excuses like I don’t want to face the camera, I’m a camera-shy person and excuses like that.

But when it comes to podcasting, you can’t make an excuse, because you simply need to press the record button and start speaking. And as you already know, speaking is something that you have been doing since your childhood. So how can you make an excuse for that?

Therefore, if you have got a message that you want to convey with others, podcasting will provide you the wings without limitations.

Okay, moving on to the 3rd benefit of starting a podcast, you can say podcasting is the next generation of marketing that allows you to build a deeper level of connection with your listeners.

If you have been following this podcast show since the first few episodes then you must be knowing that I simplify digital marketing by categorizing the various forms of digital marketing into just three: 1) The Readable form of marketing

2)The visual form of marketing and

3) The audible form of marketing.

And you know what? Podcasting is basically the audible form of marketing that takes your marketing to the next level.

Because if you compare the audience retention time of podcasts from other forms of marketing like a blog where readers spend a few minutes to read the blog post or YouTube videos where the viewer’s attention span is less than 10 seconds, podcasting simply wins.

Because if someone starts listening to your podcast show, they’ll end up listening entirely considering the fact that you are providing value based information and not some random boring stuff.

Also, when it comes to blog articles or video-based content, the readers or viewers need to be focused in order to consume your content. And as the world has an increasing number of distractions, there are hardly any chances that your audiences will remain 100% focused while consuming your content.

However, in the case of podcasting, listeners would usually play your episode, put headphones on and start working out, or usually, they’ll consume while driving, doing yoga, cooking food, or some other work. So, there is less likelihood of getting them distracted by anything.

And this helps you build a deeper level of personal connection with your listeners because it’s simply like one of your friends talking on the other end of the phone.

And guess what? When you build a deeper level of connection with your audience, they’ll respect you more and more likely to become your customer in the future.

Alright! The 4th benefit of starting a podcast is: Various Money Making Possibilities. Yes, just like blogging, YouTube video marketing, and many other methods to earn money online, podcasting also offers you opportunities to earn money and build a real online business.

There are various ways you can make money from your podcast show but sponsored ad placement is the most popular among them. If you have built a podcast show with a healthy amount of listeners, then either advertisers will approach you or you would approach them with CPM based ad pricing.

CPM means Cost Per Mille which is basically a parameter for the cost of advertisement for every 1000 downloads. For example, suppose you have a weekly podcast show and your podcast show is getting 5000 downloads every week.

Now, if the advertisers are offering you $20 as CPM, then you can place their ad in the pre-roll or post-roll, or even both and earn 20 x 5 is equal to $100 for every 5000 downloads per week.

Now suppose, instead of running a weekly show, you are publishing a new episode every day, then you can instantly multiply these numbers by 7 and earn up to $700 per week, that’s approximately $3000 per month.

And well, this is just one estimation and actual results may vary depending upon the number of downloads for your show as well as the quality of advertisers for your show. But you got the idea, right?

And you know what, this is just one way to earn from a podcast, there are many other ways which I’ll discuss in detail in some other episodes, so make sure you subscribe.

And the 5th benefit of having a podcast show is: Not being afraid of algorithms. If you are a social media marketer, you must be knowing that the organic reach of Facebook fan pages is almost dead, similarly, they are changing the algorithms for Instagram as well that means if 6000 people have followed your page, they have chosen to see content from you, but if you post any new content, you’ll hardly reach up to 600 people.

Facebook, Instagram, or other social platforms will simply limit the organic reach of your post so that you would pay them to boost your post.

The same is the case with Google as well where they constantly change the search algorithms to penalize websites that don’t meet their webmaster’s guidelines.

And YouTube often breaks its notification functionality and makes it harder for you to reach even 50% of the people who subscribed to your channel.

But when it comes to podcasting, if someone subscribes to your podcast show on iTunes, Apple Podcasts will automatically download your content in your listener’s podcast app every time you publish new content.

And you know what, as far as I believe, there is less likelihood of any change in their algorithms. Because when introducing podcasts Steve Jobs said that podcasting will always remain free on Apple’s platforms.

So I think Apple will not be introducing any such algorithm changes to kill your organic reach because they mainly make money from their hardware and most of their software are always free, although there are few exceptions.

Anyways, I’m not going to go into details about that on this show. Hopefully some other day on some technical show. But right now, you have got to learn some valid reasons why you should start a podcast.

So now you can start a podcast confidently rather than just saying “I see many people starting a podcast these days,” right?

Okay! Great! But before you jump into podcasting taking all the benefits into consideration, it’s my duty to make you aware of some challenges as well.

And one of the biggest challenges with podcasting is: you’ll have to struggle to get listeners. I mean, you’ll have to work really really hard in the beginning, because when your show is completely new, you’ll hardly get a few listeners.

So you need to actively promote your show and ask for ratings and reviews because ratings and reviews are one of the most crucial ranking factors on Apple Podcasts as well as other directories. I’m not sure how it’ll change later but at least for now, this is the scenario and biggest challenge with podcasting.

Should You Start a Podcast?

Now you got the answer with benefits and challenges, so I leave it up to you to decide whether you should start a podcast or not.

If you aren’t bothered with the challenges and willing to put in the hard work, you should definitely start a podcast. However, if you are someone who is looking for easy money, fame, and following, then I’m sorry podcasting is not for you.

I hope this is the basic formula that’ll help you decide. So let’s wrap up this episode and if you still have any questions, you may leave me a voice message or ask me in the LearnDigitalwithRahul official Facebook group.

You’ll find the link to both of these and all other resources in the show notes below. The show notes for this episode which happens to be the 8th episode of Digital Marketing Made Easy podcast, can also be found on LearnDigitalwithRahul.com/008

And hey, if you enjoyed listening to this episode or you found any value out of this, be sure to leave a review with 5-star ratings on iTunes, it would mean a world for me.

And by the way, when you do that, please take a screenshot and post it on Instagram tagging me @LearnDigitalwithRahul - I would love to reshare it and feature you on my profile.

With that being said, I’m Rahul signing off and I’ll talk to you in the next one, until then stay motivated, stay creative, and feel proud to be #DigitalLearner.