 | The Secret to Keeping Podcasts Freshposted by Bo Bennett, Group AdministratorFriday, January 8th 2010 @ 5:45 AM  (1 ratings) |
So you started a podcast. Weeks go by, then months. You find that you are having a difficult time keeping your podcasts fresh with new information. What do you do? One of the best ways to keep your podcasts fresh and interesting is by finding other hosts.
On one of our podcasts, the EVcast, my co-host Ryan and I did daily episodes for over a year when we started to sense that we were "losing our edge". We were grasping for any moderately interesting content to discuss and felt it was time to make a change. The obvious choice was to move to a weekly show, but we had a dedicated group of listeners who depended us being there each day. Taking away their daily EVcast would be like taking away their morning coffee. Yet we could not continue putting out what we considered a low quality content show. The solution came to us in a serendipitous* way.
Around the same time of our podcasting dilemma, we had a listener who was a huge fan of the EV industry, a former DJ, and was into podcasting. "Ding" (that is the sound of a lightbulb lighting up over our heads), there it was... our solution. Invite this person to host her own show on the EVcast. We offered her a weekly show and a split of the revenue earned (which we did not have at the time) which she was happy to accept. We both now had weekly shows that were about and hour and 30 minutes each, giving our listeners three hours of content per week, which was roughly the same as the sum of all our daily shows. Nikki, our new host, provides a completely fresh perspective to the podcast a) being a woman and b) living in the UK and having a kick-ass British accent -- the kind I always pretended to have watching James Bond as a kid. The listeners love the fresh content, we love the reduced pressure all the freed up time, and Nikki is having a blast with her podcasts. Life is good!
Here are some suggestions on how you can find co-hosts for your podcast:
- start with your listener base
- start a Facebook page on the topic and look there
- find people on Twitter - search for keywords
- look at other similar podcasts and consider teaming up
- place an ad on a trade/industry website
A word of caution, just like you (normally) would not ask someone to marry you before you go on your first date, you do not want to make them the full offer to host your podcast. Have them on your show as a guest, then a co-host a few times, then if you are confident they are a good fit, make them the offer.
Today we actually have a total of five regular hosts for the podcast and we have no problem "keeping it fresh". Consider expanding your team and start building your podcasting empire brick by brick.
* I think that is the first time I ever used that word. Hope I did not screw it up.
