School of Podcasting - Podcast Tips to Plan, Launch, Grow Your Podcast Is Your Podcast Future Proof?
I was asked by one of my editing clients to go back and edit some of their episodes and remove discussions that were about specific events at a specific time. In listening to their episodes there are a couple of strategies you can do to make your show future-proof.
Always Use the YearThe deadline for the question of the month is December 14th, 2020. By adding the year into the discussion, a listener knows that the episode has passed. But what about outdated information? If the episode consists of nothing but information that is outdated you can always delete that episode form your host and within 24 hours it will be removed from most apps. When I watch a movie and one of the characters says, "Why didn't you page me?" I can figure out that the movie is from the 1980's. I don't hold the movie studio responsible for outdated references. (Just my opinion). As always if you are delivering value to your audience, then keep it up and available.
Use Timeless Landing PagesFor example, I could say, "I'll have a link to the question of the month in today's episode at schoolofpodcasting.com/XXX, or just go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/question.
Every month when I do a question of the month I always have the same landing page. This way if someone goes to answer an older question that is outdated, while they are too late to answer the question from two months ago, they are in the right place to answer the current question.
Another example of this is from Jordan Harbinger. Jordan gets mountains of downloads and makes a living with ads on his podcast. Jordan often has pages on the manufacturer's site such as hostgator.com/jordan but he also mentions that you can find more by going to jordanharbinger.com and clicking on the deals page. Here again, if there was a time-sensitive deal in place for the sponsor it may be too late, but you are now in the right place to find a deal from another sponsor that will help Jordan.
If you're doing webinars you can say something like, "My webinar on the perfect gear is at schoolofpodcasting.com/perfectgear or just see the schedule for all of your webinars at schoolofpodcasting.com/webinars (where you would use your website - not mine.... :) I realize you might say, "But I only have the one webinar. While this is true TODAY, in the future you might be doing one a week." When Glenn Hebert of the Horse Radio Network started it was a network with one show, but Glenn knew there would be more so he founded the Horse Radio Network.
Reinforce Your BandBy using your website you reinforce your brand, and you keep control of your content. For example, I have a Patreon account that I promote on the Ask the Podcast Coach where you can be an Awesome Supporter. Do I tell people to go to www.patreon.com/davejackson ? No. Why? Because what if something better comes along? Then I have a bunch of podcasts with mentions of a website I don't use. An example of this is web hosting. Over the years I've used Hostgator, Siteground, and Cooler Websites. Did I promote that company by mentioning their website? No, I told people to go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/hosting, and in the early days of my show that link went to Hostgator, and for years it went to Siteground, and then Cooler Websites. I might direct that at Podpage in the future. While this might confuse someone expecting a Hostgator link, but in the end, if the person is looking for hosting and you direct them to a hosting page, I feel (again an opinion) they should trust you, and if they have questions they can always contact you.
Tools To Make RedirectsIf you are using WordPress, you can use the PrettyLinks plugin. There is a free version and the premium version starts at $49/year. It's been downloaded over 2.5 million times. Thirsty affiliates is a very similar plugin for about the same price ($49/year).
If you're using Podpage Pro, redirects are one of the many features. (Check out the free "Learn PodPage" course )
While some people use bit.ly, I prefer Rebandly.
Tools To Help Follow Your Money And.coIn the past I used Freshbooks, but they charged their pricing (costing more if I had morse customer) and many of their features I didn't use (I just need to create invoices and track income and expenses). I found and.co and this does exactly what I want. There is a free version to allow you to kick the tires, and if you go with the pro plan it's $18/month (you get a discount when you purchase a year in advance).
I love their "shoebox" feature. When a bill comes into my email, I can forward it to an email at and.co and it adds it to my account where I can easily add it as an expense and categorize it for tax purposes. It is super easy, and I love it.
Check it out at https://supportthisshow.com/andco (aff link)
You Need a Budget (YNAB)YNAB is a web-based tool that makes it sooo easy to track every penny you make (and more importantly every penny you spend). You can even integrate it directly with your bank so you don't have to do data entry (I import mine manually). It uses a different philosophy as you give each dollar "a job" so you can see exactly where you money is going. You can set up savings goals, and I attended a webinar to learn the software and was up and running quickly. It's $12/month of $89/year.
Check it out at https://supportthisshow.com/ynab
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I Want Your Opinion
I am doing an audience survey and I want your input to help me make this show exactly what you want. If you have a few minutes, I have a quick survey at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/survey25