Should I delete my first podcast?

[netactivist]

My first episode was only 2 minutes, a very short file.

All the rest are 10-26 minutes, much larger files.

I just published episode 7 today.

Past episodes 2-5 from weeks ago get 20-25 downloads each per day.

But episode 1, the short one, still gets 150-250 per day, in addition to whatever the most current episode gets.

For example, when #6 came out, it got 276 d/l the first 24 hours, while during the same period, #1 got 263. Next 24 hours, #6 got 147 more, #1 beat it with 224.

So far, #1 is up to 2800 total, while the most after it is #6, with 833.

85% of my circulation is iTunes. That program doesn't give the file size before you d/l, at least mine doesn't. And it's default downloads the most recent episode.

So I don't understand why #1, whose title is not particularly better than any other title, gets so MANY downloads, other than it's short length, if people want a short sample. But how do they know the size? My circulation is around 375, so most are iTunes.

The first episode doesn't show me off the best, so I'm figuring, why not delete it from my feed, forcing people to download a better episode if they want to sample.

Advice much solicited and appreciated.

[coreytronic]

I think people just like starting at the top. Thirty shows and several months later our first episode keeps getting hits off Itunes and other places, even though it's sort of weak. If the first one isn't representative you may have a problem, but maybe people just liked it enough to listen to all of them.

[netactivist]

Hi coreytronic,

I can understand it still getting hits, but as you see by the numbers, it gets 10 times what the other past ones do.

Does your first one do that?

[kevdo]

I have experienced a similar phenomena. Worse, my first show was okay but a step below the ones that followed.

What I ended up doing was recording a special message indicating this was the first show and perhaps not represenative of what we're doing lately. They could listen if they wanted to but it isn't the best introduction. Then, the rest of episode one plays on.

[AaronfromQC]

7 shows are you're at 375?? **** I need to start going off on Bush more on my show.

[Hittman]

Altering your content to get more listeners is probably a bad idea. And Bush bashing, while fun, is like making fun of a retard. It doesn’t take a lot of skill. (In my last show, I bashed him, but it was for something specific and isn’t the general theme of the show.)

My first two shows sucked, but they’re still in the feed. When I like a show enough to get all the past episodes, it’s always fun to hear the progress, as the show improves over time. Why take that away from your listeners?

And I’ve also had people come back and provide positive comments on the first shows. Just because I’m unhappy with them doesn’t mean the listeners are. The content of them is still solid, it’s the production that sucks, and some listeners aren’t too concerned with that.

[overclocked]

"First Show" seems to have a special role in iTunes... when someone is browsing or searching podcasts, they can (at least in windows) double click a show name, and itunes will start playing the first show.

For this reason I went back and recorded a promo, giving a general sense of the what the show is, and retroactively inserting that in the first slot. After some speed bumps, such as disappearing from iTunes for a while, everything got back to normal, but now people should get an explanation, rather than a random show (and one that was far less competantly done than my current stuff).

[Version3]

I think overclocked has pointed out exactly why your first show gets so many hits... it's the double-click 'audition' function in iTunes. I keep thinking about assembling some 'best bit's' and making that the first entry in the feed to help convert browsers to listeners.

[jeffoest]

Yep, most people put stick their promos as the last 'item' on their feeds to take advantage of this functionality instead of have the functionality take advantage of them!! lol

[netactivist]

Many thanks for all the replies, and for a good explanation of the 10X phenomenon.

If I simply remove #1, would my #2 play as the double-click audition thing? #2 is one of my favorites anyway.

Also, overclocked, after you inserted the promo, did it result in less of an imbalance between #1 and the others, which would indicate proportionally more people were listening and then subscribing?

That disappearing for a while from iTunes, though, kind of worries me.