What is success in Podcasting?

[KB]

I am sure that success has a unique meaning to every person in this industry, I am very new to this whole game and have my own goals and aspirations.

What I am wondering is does the industry have it's own definition of success?



What are your definitions of success? Actually producing a show, the number of people listening, your mom's approval (I may never get that, lol).

[Slone]

I don't think there can be a simple definition other than just conversion. In my opinion - If you’re in Podcasting as business, your show success should be based on the goals you set out to accomplish in your plan. The ability to keep moving forward.

A large audience is no indication of a successful podcast either, especially if you’re a niche specific podcast. It depends on the demand for that niche. Conversion is important, but that also follows under business goals.

Most of all if you’re passionate about your topic, it’s going to be successful no matter what happens. Have Fun and Enjoy! ...and given your topic I'm sure you do. I'll have to listen.

I'd suggest giving Managing The Gray (http://managingthegray.com/) Podcast a listen as a good start - and read the blog, which is pretty active aside from the show.

Cheers!

[lucky_groom]

I think I'll consider us a success when we start to get some level in interaction from the audience. I know people are listening, but they aren't emailing the show, or commenting at the blog.

How much interaction? I don't know - maybe I will when it happens.

[WyethDigital]

You said it when you said success is different things to different people.

My partner and I have a business plan, and so far we are on track with our goals, but I won't be completely satisfied until we hit that all-important goal for a business -- making a profit. We're close, so I feel good about that, but we're not quite there yet. But that's the over-arching goal. We also have smaller goals by which we measure how successfully we step towards our main goal.

Are we on time with our shows? 98% of the time, yes. Success!

Do we have feedback from our audience? Sometimes more than we know what to do with. Success!

Are our shows of a consistent quality? 90% of the time, yes. Success!

Do we enjoy what we do? Absolutely! Success!

That's how I personally measure the success of our podcast!

Hopefully you'll have the success you're looking for! Just remember on the way to your goal, don't forget to stop and smell the roses. If you can acknowledge and celebrate your baby-steps, you will better be able to keep up the drive and enthusiasm needed to take the big steps later on.


Eric

[inoveryourhead]

yeah, as long as i can get a decent number of people listening, and being able to support myself, i'm happy. that's mostly happening now, so it's just icing from this point on.

[paulyb]

I think I'll consider us a success when we start to get some level in interaction from the audience. I know people are listening, but they aren't emailing the show, or commenting at the blog.

How much interaction? I don't know - maybe I will when it happens.


We get a huge amount of interaction from listeners but not only do we encourage it, we give them a reason to interact with us and now they write half of our show for us...

...which has improved it no end. Success!

[EclecticMix]

I would say that success is doing a regular podcast for over a year and still looking forward to doing the next one. Sure, it'd be nice to have thousands of listeners and money coming in, but I'm doing mine because I enjoy sharing music (Eclectic Mix) and knowledge (One Minute How-To).

If you can do something that makes you happy then you're well ahead of a lot of other people.

Cheers -

george

[Metaphore]

I'll have to agree on the "success" being a personal thing.

I'm successful for the mere fact that I enjoy doing the show and have it on my ipod for me to watch when I want some B-movie goodness.

The fact that I have tons of viewers and great fans is a bonus! But then again i'm a hobbist, not a business oriented vidcast.

[cinesnob]

Success in Podcasting. Sounds a bit like a sub-chapter that how-to podcast book I purchased back at Barnes & Noble during the Summer of '05. After podcasting as a hobbyist on a weekly basis for about a year, with approximately 3,000 listeners tuning-in, I finally got bored with the whole podcasting radio thang (and tired of all the in-fighting) and podfaded for a couple three months .

Then about a week ago I decided that it might be fun to simply transmogrify my format and begin vidcasting strange public domain drive-in movies—since most of my subscribers now have a fast DSL or an ultra-fast cable connections as well as heavyweight color video iPods.

Now my fellow podcasters, I don't know if I have ever been (or am currently) a truly successful podcaster/vidcaster—according to those $19.99 how-to books—but I'm again enjoying what I'm doing. To paraphrase the Right Reverend, who coattails I'll be riding: Success is such a subjective thang.

[Metaphore]

Hey cinesnob, as long as its different movies than i'm running its all good! just more B-movie goodness to spread around! The more I have available to watch the better! As far as coattails go, you can join me on Elvira, Dr. Morgus and the greats coatails anytime.

[JohnnyWB]

It's a hobby for most of us.

I've been at it in one form or another for well over a year.

It's just all about having fun now. If I'm having fun..that's success. I don't give two shits about stats or listener feedback.

It probably helps that I have a well paying "real" job.

John

[WyethDigital]

It probably helps that I have a well paying "real" job.

John
probably so.

Like the Red Meat avatar!

[JohnnyWB]

haha!

Good eye Wyeth. I would expect no less from you.

Gonna go change that now....yano, before I get sued.

John

[WyethDigital]

haha!

Good eye Wyeth. I would expect no less from you.

Gonna go change that now....yano, before I get sued.

John
Awww.... Oh well! I liked the avatar! Your new one's cool, too!

Eric

[SteveRunner]

Last weekend I had 576 runners from 23 countries run the "First Annual Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon Challenge" (13.1 mile race).

When I, and three other listeners planned this "virtual" race, we expected that we might get 50 runners, if we were lucky.

I'm thinking that this marks some sense of success.

I have no idea how many listeners I have, but if I have over 500 other runners who were engaged enough to want to run 13.1 miles and share their photos and audio with me and my show...then I feel pretty successful.

www.worldwidehalf.com

[david_rex]

My goal is to develop a strong, dedicated cult-audience. If I can do that, I'd be super-special happy! :D

(edit: I thought this over, is podcasting a cult phenomenon to begin with?)

[WyethDigital]

Last weekend I had 576 runners from 23 countries run the "First Annual Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon Challenge" (13.1 mile race).

When I, and three other listeners planned this "virtual" race, we expected that we might get 50 runners, if we were lucky.

I'm thinking that this marks some sense of success.

I have no idea how many listeners I have, but if I have over 500 other runners who were engaged enough to want to run 13.1 miles and share their photos and audio with me and my show...then I feel pretty successful.

www.worldwidehalf.com
Congratulations. Steve. Very impressive. Kudos to you and your fellow runners!

Eric

[WyethDigital]

My goal is to develop a strong, dedicated cult-audience. If I can do that, I'd be super-special happy! :D

(edit: I thought this over, is podcasting a cult phenomenon to begin with?)
I don't know. Depends on what kind of cult you're talking about.

Are you trying for one of those cults that holds one man above all others as a holy emissary that the members worship because he's supposedly the only one that can dictate the true path of righteousness, offer their children and themselves for marriage to their leader, perform deeply symbolic ritualistic cannibalism -- oh wait! That's Catholics. My bad :oops:

Eric

PS -- My wife tells me I'm going to Hell for this post.

[VolksCast]

My goal is to develop a strong, dedicated cult-audience. If I can do that, I'd be super-special happy! :D

(edit: I thought this over, is podcasting a cult phenomenon to begin with?)
I don't know. Depends on what kind of cult you're talking about.

Are you trying for one of those cults that holds one man above all others as a holy emissary that the members worship because he's supposedly the only one that can dictate the true path of righteousness, offer their children and themselves for marriage to their leader, perform deeply symbolic ritualistic cannibalism -- oh wait! That's Catholics. My bad :oops:

Eric

PS -- My wife tells me I'm going to Hell for this post.


That is sooooo funny

-Ray

ps see you in hell :twisted:

[WyethDigital]

ps see you in hell :twisted:
Sure thing! With my luck, I'll be the one standing neck-deep in feces. That Lucifer is such a jerk! :evil:

[EclecticMix]

I was thinking about this: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/53903

Cheers -

george

[agile]

My goal is to develop a strong, dedicated cult-audience. If I can do that, I'd be super-special happy! :D

(edit: I thought this over, is podcasting a cult phenomenon to begin with?)
I don't know. Depends on what kind of cult you're talking about.

Are you trying for one of those cults that holds one man above all others as a holy emissary that the members worship because he's supposedly the only one that can dictate the true path of righteousness, offer their children and themselves for marriage to their leader, perform deeply symbolic ritualistic cannibalism -- oh wait! That's Catholics. My bad :oops:

Eric

PS -- My wife tells me I'm going to Hell for this post.

That was the funniest thing I have heard in a while. 8)

[Preston Buttons]

You were probably going to hell long before this. I've seen you on the bus.

[paulyb]

And remeber - the bus is one way - you can't catch a bus FROM Hell...

[WyethDigital]

And remeber - the bus is one way - you can't catch a bus FROM Hell...
That's true! But if you're like me, you're on the short bus to hell, and haven't got the capacity to know the difference, anyway :)


Hmmm... Short Bus to Hell has a certain ring to it! I call dibs! I'm thinking that I may have to submit a story to Buttons and the Whore...


Eric

[WyethDigital]

That was the funniest thing I have heard in a while. 8)

Could you tell that to my wife? I'm lucky she had a cold this week, or I might be sporting some skillet-shaped cast iron headgear right now! :shock:

Eric

[Hittman]

PS -- My wife tells me I'm going to Hell for this post.

I’ll meet you there and buy you a beer.

“I don’t know whether I want to go to heaven or hell. I have friends in both places.” - Mark Twain

Hmmm... Short Bus to Hell has a certain ring to it! I call dibs! I'm thinking that I may have to submit a story to Buttons and the Whore...

I’m sure a story about a bus load of retarded kids going to hell would generate a lot of attention. Probably not the kind you’d like, but still. . .

[WyethDigital]

PS -- My wife tells me I'm going to Hell for this post.

I’ll meet you there and buy you a beer.

“I don’t know whether I want to go to heaven or hell. I have friends in both places.” - Mark Twain

Hmmm... Short Bus to Hell has a certain ring to it! I call dibs! I'm thinking that I may have to submit a story to Buttons and the Whore...

I’m sure a story about a bus load of retarded kids going to hell would generate a lot of attention. Probably not the kind you’d like, but still. . .
So true. But it might be more appropriate than you think! We get some comments from the jaded YouTube crowd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPqs3ZykE3A) asking if our audience is stupid because of the basics we choose to cover. They don't quite "get" that we're supposed to be the jumping off point for trying something new -- not the end result of it.

Oops! Off my philosophizing soapbox! If I were to write a retards-in-hell story, it would either be a political parable or something I would not associate with our podcast. That would most certainly not be cool! :D

Eric

[KevinLeeC]

At this risk of brining this thread back on track... :wink:

I started my 'cast with the idea of regular production. I write and record a new essay every week. If I keep it up all year, I'll have 52,000 words -- enough for a decent sized book.

The second goal relates to developing an audience. If I can get enough listeners, it'll be worth producing that book and selling it.

[evilproducer]

PS -- My wife tells me I'm going to Hell for this post.

I’ll meet you there and buy you a beer.

“I don’t know whether I want to go to heaven or hell. I have friends in both places.” - Mark Twain

Hmmm... Short Bus to Hell has a certain ring to it! I call dibs! I'm thinking that I may have to submit a story to Buttons and the Whore...

I’m sure a story about a bus load of retarded kids going to hell would generate a lot of attention. Probably not the kind you’d like, but still. . .

Sshhhhhhhh! Patrick might want a ride. Oh wait! Speak louder!

Later,
Evil.

[WyethDigital]

At this risk of brining this thread back on track... :wink:
Plebeian!

:)

Eric