I have gained two insights this week that I believe will have a profound impact on my online efforts. I hope that in sharing them you can also benefit from these simple concepts that can be applied to whatever you do, whether you are a DJ, a Podcaster or are in another business niche.
On Episode 96 of The Feed Podcast, Rob Walch from podcast hosting company Libsyn was asked about the optimal podcast publication frequency. His answer surprised me. The conventional wisdom is that consistency of publishing content, be it a podcast, blog or anything else online is vital. Rob expressed his view that you should not be fooled into thinking there is a best release schedule.
The most important thing is to be consistent with the quality of your content. Bad content on a regular release schedule is going to lose out to great content released on an ad hoc basis.
I used to beat myself up over my own lack of consistency but now I want to strive to produce the best content I can – both on my podcast and on my website – and I will publish it when it is ready.
The second insight came from a video released by Cliff Ravenscraft to his email newsletter subscribers titled ‘Common Characteristics of Those Who Succeed In Podcasting.’ In the video Cliff covers a number of different areas but the one that stuck out for me was that those who succeed typically have a sincere desire to serve and help others. If you genuinely have this trait then you will not be discouraged by the fact your number of subscribers is smaller than you might wish. You should be “delighted and honoured and privileged with the responsibility and opportunity to serve” those few people.
This statement really resonated with me. It is easy to get discouraged if your audience seems small compared to others or if it is not growing as quickly as you would like. Of course, there are actually advantages to having a small audience – it allows you to treat each of them as individuals and interact with them personally. This is a great way to turn subscribers into true fans.
You can tie the two insights together as well. If you care about your audience and do your best to understand their needs then you are more likely to be able to produce quality content.