Terms

Prior to establishing Big IP, a content studio which manages podcasts as well as YouTube channels like The John Campea Show, Pop Apologists and Kempire, Scott Porch was an attorney and journalist. "The most important thing I covered when I was a full-time reporter was TV and film. I was a writer in the New York Times and Fast Company and Wired and Decider and some other media outlets," he starts.

One of the topics that he researched was the way in which podcast and YouTube is transforming the culture in relation to television and film. He wrote an article about Game of Thrones recappers for the New York Times and spent more and more time around the topic, as well as meeting other individuals in the field. He before deciding to produce shows for Starburns Audio in 2019. "I went out by myself and grown from a handful of podcasts and YouTube channels to 14 or 15," He adds.

Scott believes two components are what make podcasts successful that is the creativity component as well as the reach of your audience. "There's a relationship between those two elements," he says. "It's hard to expand a podcast that's not very excellent, however it's hard to find a excellent podcast and sustain it over an extended period of time."

He is of the opinion that it's important to be able to balance both of these components. "You have to make things that people will want to hear, and then you need to know how to get out and locate that audience to get those people to be interested in it initially." According to what Scott discussed with Brian Morrissey when he made an appearance as a guest on The Rebooting Podcast, often the podcast is part of the business, while other times it's the marketing of the company.

Milestones

The success of a podcast also comes down to the size of the host - this has become more important in launches. The most popular podcasts like The Movie Podcast and How Did This Get Made have been around long enough that the hosts are well-known because of their show, but it's a crowded space. "It's gotten difficult to get past the clutter. A lot depends on the person," says Scott. "If Taylor Swift started a podcast today, she might make money from it the first day. If I began an audio show tomorrow, it would be an entirely different discussion."

The amount of money you earn depends on the threshold of listening. "At the rate of 50,000 downloads for an episode, you'll have a more extensive range of host-read ad companies that are going to be interested in making a minimum commitment to the program where they'll achieve a certain amount of money. But even for shows with thousands, 5,000 or 10,000 downloads in an episode, you can start earning money through subscriptions and programmatic revenues," he states.

Pop Apologists, one of the series Scott works on, has over 2,000 members who have paid for Patreon as well as iTunes Podcast subscriptions. They've managed to expand that membership by continuing to do it over a period of time, and they've been consistent at doing one episode a week that's public and one episode a week that's exclusively for subscribers. Scott clarifies that, crucially that the two episodes are qualitatively the same. "If you enjoy one of the episodes, you'll like the other one."

Joining a membership is easy.

For membership, specifically How do you get started? "A majority of the shows on YouTube are aware of the YouTube members program. There's an awareness of the program that is widespread however in most cases, they haven't done this due to it being a task in their to-do list that they didn't get to yet, or don't know what they'd like to accomplish with it," Scott says.

Maybe the creator is creating so many content they're not sure if are able to make more episodes for a premium platform and or if it is going to generate enough revenue, or if the premium platform can outweigh the free platform.

"A lot of it can be a source of confusion or in a state they haven't gotten to yet and need guidance," Scott says. "They have to find someone who can say that there's money if you want to go and explore that'. If you're in the business of creating a business, you're wearing so many hats and there's so much to do. There will be people and or, at a minimum, equipment and support services that will help you build your business," he continues.

In that case How do you select the right tools and services are necessary to help your own business, particularly in terms of membership? "A few things appear to be pretty consistent in the marketplace over the past couple of months," starts Scott. "Number one: those who listen to podcasts or view YouTube videos, develop an affinity with creators. It's common for people to offer creators through recurring revenue such as $4 per monthly, $6,000 a month, maybe $10 a month. The reason consumers make this choice is not just because they want something extra from the creator, but rather due to the desire to aid the creator in that as a career and not just as a side gig."

Another trend Scott has seen is that users tend to be platform-specific. "When the Pop Apologists started speaking about Apple Podcasts subscriptions, they were already doing really good on Patreon. One of the fears they had regarding Apple Podcasts were that it would cannibalize Patreon - 'We might need to cut off the service when we notice a significant loss of Patreon to Apple - but that isn't the case at all. What happened is Patreon increased in popularity as did Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcasts has grown every month since the launch."

Scott has seen this for numerous other shows and heard about this particularity from other people. "If people are subscribed to Apple Podcasts, they might listen to four, six, 10 podcasts, but it's where they're likely to listen to them. They're not likely to Patreon and YouTube. But if you put it in front of people via Apple and they'll sign up to it."

Direct connection with your viewers

Scott believes that it is essential for creators to be in an intimate relationship with consumers with a podcast, and has cited a startup called Luminary as an example of caution. "It was like a Netflix model where they were licensing different creators to create series. It was possible to sign up for this platform and then pay."

Scott recalls that Luminary didn't work because consumers don't want this intermediary. "Consumers would like to know they're supporting the show directly and that the $7 they pay per month or $50 a year goes directly to the creator and not to Luminary or Netflix or someone else. It's a direct link to creators, too. It made good consumer and financial sense to launch Pop Apologists podcasts on the Apple platform in an effort to reach out to that market However, Scott and the team aren't sure who their subscribers are. "We don't know the email addresses of those subscribers. We can't have forums on Zoom once a month with them. It's not possible to inform them the time we're scheduled to appear present on another podcast or the date we'll be doing a live show. We don't have any details about them," he explains.

Scott thinks that if you are looking to make money, you should choose a platform where you can be in direct contact with. "If you're just growing incrementally you might want to launch the Apple Podcasts service or Spotify subscriptions, but I'd rather know the details of that individual rather than having them just sort of out there" he adds.

Concentrate on the future

If you're a new podcaster, Scott offers advice about future-proofing: "Don't get insular with your viewers. Create your podcast suitable for the next 1,000 people who subscribe and not just the first 1,000 subscribers. Every day, someone is listening to your show who don't already know the format of your show."

Scott advises you to concentrate on the initial thirty seconds in your program. Scott says: "Are you introducing yourself to someone who's not a regular listener? Or are you signaling "This is the most popular table but you're not getting our jokes, you may like to try listening to something else as there's already a group of us'.

He realizes it's easy to make a mistake due to the directly-to-consumer relationship "You definitely want the club to exist. But you don't want it to become a club that has no doors. The number of people you have is all you're ever gonna get," he explains. "You've to strike that equilibrium between offering your viewers what they're there for, yet not being too exclusive that someone who is new to the show listens it and decides that they've already got their thing. I don't want to be engaged.' If every single episode isn't as good as the first episode and you're saying to that prospective listener that the show is not appropriate for them."

Scott receives podcast suggestions every day and is able to discern the recommendations within 10 seconds. "Give me 10 seconds telling me who you are and the podcast you're about as well as what it will talk about today. In the absence of that, I'm not in this club. I've missed it before and there's too much history and 'in' vocabulary. That can be a killer for podcasts."

It's the same for pre-roll ads. "Some shows that I am working with feature pre-roll advertisements and we all make profits from it," says Scott. "If they didn't do it and did not, they'd make less income. However, who would want the first thing that they listen to the first time they listen to your show to be an ad for Volkswagen? The first thing that they hear be the voice of host."

In the end, Scott offers a tip about how to be resilient for podcasters who are new. "You'll find many creators produce five episodes. They're not seeing any growth and so leave. If you truly want to do this, for business development purposes or just a creative outlet You'll have be more patient than you imagine before it feels like it's working.

The good issue: "You're gonna get a much better at it in the initial 25,35 episodes. You're going to get feedback. It's important to take the time since you love it and you understand it's going to be an incremental success. There are a lot of shows that expand from 300th and 400th episode. Are you truly committed? You're not going to get 25000 downloads straight out of the beginning unless you're famous.

Which show like to listen to? Are you watching more lengthy playthroughs of? If this is something you truly would like to pursue, then you'll wait for a while to figure it out creatively."