Podcast FAQ

how often to podcast

by Mr. Jaron Kutch Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago
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An episode a day or every few days will work well. If your podcast is based on topics with a greater level of stability over time, like dog training tips, for example, episodes can be less frequent. Once every week or fortnightly will suffice.

A daily episode may be a bit much (unless your episodes are five minutes or less), but you could probably find enough relevant content to release an episode once or twice a week, every other week, or monthly. What if your subject waxes and wanes with different seasons?

Full Answer

How long should a monthly podcast episode be?

But on the opposite side, a monthly podcast should not necessarily be a two- or four-hour-long episode. It's all right if you record that much content, but break it up into smaller episodes to make it easier on your listeners.

What is the best podcast schedule?

Just like everything else in podcasting, there is no single perfect solution for everyone. The “best” schedule is normally the most frequent one that you can stick to on a regular basis. It’s better to have good episodes, less frequently, than average or sloppy episodes, frequently.

What are some examples of daily podcasts?

Another interesting example of a daily podcast is the audio drama Mercury: A Broadcast Of Hope, produced by Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. Each episode disappears from podcast directories after one day. To hear their back catalog of episodes, you have to become a Patreon supporter.

Are podcasts biweekly or monthly?

Some podcasts are biweekly, while others are even monthly. Subscribe to any monthly podcast, such as Children's Ministry Monthly, and you'll see that episodes are not released on a consistent schedule.

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How frequently should you do a podcast?

A weekly podcast publishing frequency is great if you're covering trending news or have an interview-style or storytelling-type podcast. Publishing on a weekly basis is perfect for episodes over 30 minutes because it allows your fans time to actually listen to your episode and get excited about the next one.

What is a good podcast schedule?

What is the best day and time to schedule a podcast? Research from Megaphone reveals that most podcasters publish the newest episodes on Wednesday, Tuesday, and Thursday (in that order) between 2 AM and 5 AM, with 5 AM gaining the max amount of downloads.

Should I podcast daily?

The biggest benefits of doing a daily podcast involve your podcasting skillset. By constantly having to come up with new episode ideas, organize them, and deliver them within organized and linear episodes that make sense to listeners, you'll improve greatly as both a storyteller and host.

How long does the average person listen to a podcast?

This is up from 51% in 2019 and only 40% in 2017. 3. The average listening time for Americans who listen to podcasts is 6 hours 39 mins per week. 4.

How often should you post a new podcast episode?

A daily episode may be a bit much (unless your episodes are five minutes or less), but you could probably find enough relevant content to release an episode once or twice a week, every other week, or monthly. What if your subject waxes and wanes with different seasons?

How long should I make my podcast?

The length of your podcast also depends on your subject, industry or genre. It could be that around 15-20 minutes perfect for your listeners. But maybe your specific audience wants more in-depth, exploratory information; in which case, 45-90 minutes would provide more value.

How long is a good podcast?

If you launch podcast episodes on a daily basis, aim for about 10-15 minutes in length. If your podcast episodes come out weekly, try to hit somewhere between 15-60 minutes. And if you opt for a monthly schedule, you could do up to 90 minute episodes.

How many episodes should a podcast be?

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to podcast season length. You might choose to release a season with only 4 episodes. Or you might release more than 20. Basically, you should make your season as long as it needs to be to cover a topic completely.

How much money do podcasts make?

As an estimate, if your podcast has about 10,000 downloads per episode, you can expect to make between $500 – $900 per episode in affiliate sales.

How often do podcasts fail?

Less than 20% of the podcasts that have launched this year will make it to next year. Most podcasts fail. If you've launched a podcast or are thinking about launching one, you don't want to put in all that work just to see your experiment get canned in a few months.

Are podcasts still popular 2022?

Yes, podcasts are still popular in 2022. The number of active podcasts and podcast listeners is increasing daily. As of April 2021, there are a total number of 850,000 active podcasts with more than 48 million episodes in total.

How long should your first podcast be?

Anywhere from 3-6 minutes is common. It doesn't look like you're demanding too much of a listener's time – because they probably don't know anything about you at this stage, and so, have no loyalty towards you. Of course, you should never feel obliged to record any episode based on a time length recommendation.

How do I make a podcast schedule?

7 Tips To Stay on Track and Stick to Your Podcast Recording Schedule7 Tips To Stay on Track and Stick to Your Podcast Recording Schedule.Remember: You're Only Human.Brainstorm a List of Topics.Create an Editorial Calendar.Block Time (And Batch Tasks if You Can)Have an Easy Setup.Minimize Editing Time.More items...•

How many episodes should a podcast be?

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to podcast season length. You might choose to release a season with only 4 episodes. Or you might release more than 20. Basically, you should make your season as long as it needs to be to cover a topic completely.

What is the average number of episodes for a podcast?

56.1% of podcasts had 10 episodes or fewer, and 17% had 50 episodes or more. The mean number of episodes was 30.1, and the median was ...

How many podcast episodes should you launch with?

Launching a podcast comes with many decisions, one important one being how many episodes to publish on your launch day. At Gaffin Creative, we encourage all of our podcasts to launch with at least 3 episodes!

How long should a podcast be?

But on the opposite side, a monthly podcast should not necessarily be a two- or four-hour-long episode.

How long is a good sweet spot?

The sweet spot seems to be 30–45 minutes. It's short enough that many can probably listen during their commute (either one-way or round-trip). However long you decide to make your episodes, have a good reason! Don't let yourself ramble on for two hours in one episode if you regularly release half-hour episodes.

What Is Your Subject?

Do you talk about something that is up-to-the-minute, like the latest news, celebrity gossip, or technology? If so, you may want to consider releasing an episode each day.

How Much Information Do You Have?

How much content does your topic afford you? Sit down and brainstorm episode ideas. Now, how many of those episode ideas are reasonable to produce this year?

What Is Your Schedule Like?

What can you realistically handle? Take the time to add up how long it takes you to put together an episode. Consider all aspects: from the brainstorming, research, and querying of guests to the recording, editing, and promoting of your episode.

Schedule in a Break

Just like your favorite TV show, your podcast can benefit from taking a break during certain seasons. Maybe you want to travel or spend more time with your kids during the summer. Take some time away from your podcast to do so. Take a break during the holidays or any other natural time that works for you.

Quality Over Quantity

Sure, frequent episodes will show Google that you’re active. And it’s possible that this could help your SEO.

Vic Elizabeth Turnbull Follow

Instead of asking ‘How often should I release a podcast episode?’, the first question is one to ask yourself, and that is ‘How much time do I have?’.

But what about my listeners?

Won’t they want me in their ears every week? How do you know, have you asked them? If they love your content, I’m sure they’ll wait. Odds are that if they’re your fans, they won’t mind that your podcast isn’t landing on their lap weekly.

Release Frequency tips

How about you start off by releasing episodes monthly or every two weeks to sound out (mind the pun) how long it takes you. Your podcast episodes can then get more regular if you feel that you can handle the workload. This way around can be better for your listener, than starting off more regular and then tailing off.

In all this, planning is key

Start by mapping out how long you think the podcasting process will take you. Use some project planning techniques like a gantt chart or sketch it out on paper. Then be realistic with yourself.

Vic Elizabeth Turnbull

The first in my new series of Podcast Tips - a bunch of no-nonsense articles that will demystify some your biggest podcast queries, First-up, figuring out frequency! - all the F's! #Podcast #podcasting #podcaster #podcastAdvice

How Often Should You Put Out a Podcast?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to publishing podcast episodes. It can vary enormously depending upon what podcast genre you’re publishing, the nature of the content, the length of your podcast episode, and your audience’s listening habits. You have to consider who you’re appealing to and what work goes into the podcast content.

How Much Content Can You Realistically Put Out?

When you have a different guest in each episode, posting often may not be realistic. There can be a distinct pressure to publish as often as possible to gain more traction, but that isn’t a guarantee of success. Quality over quantity is a good rule to stick to, especially when building an audience.

How Much Does it Cost to Publish a Podcast?

In all likelihood, less than you think. You might think that the biggest expense of running a podcast will be financial, but in actuality, it’s time. The time you take to write it, set up, film it, edit it, produce it, and beyond. A lot of work goes into creating any one podcast episode.

How Long Does the Average Podcast Last?

Attention spans have never been shorter. Luckily, podcasts are largely exempt from the curse of short attention spans. They’re often used as background noise for other tasks. Don’t take this personally, your listener’s focus is still on you, there’s so much else they need to do!

Is There a Specific Length That Podcast Episodes Should Be?

Worrying about your podcast frequency is one thing, but you need to stay on top of your episode lengths too. So, how long should a podcast be? You should aim for similar episode lengths throughout. It gives your audience some consistency and makes your overall brand far more cohesive. They know what to expect from each new episode that you publish.

How Many Episodes Should a Podcast Have?

Most podcast episodes are broken up into seasons, similarly to how TV shows are broken up. This provides an organized framework to operate from. It’s beneficial for both the producer and the listener. Your podcast scheduling benefits from a finite window, and people know what to expect from any new series of episodes.

Final Thoughts

Much of this information seems vague before you put it into practice, but that’s because ‘podcast’ is such a varied media form. Podcasts started as audible blog posts, but now they are so much bigger and complicated to launch. However, dealing with issues such as show runtime is part of the process.

How Often Can You Make Good, Quality Content?

Can you keep it up is a fundamental question, and it’s a common mistake many podcasters make. They are so overwhelmed with trying to figure out the frequency of their publishing, and they completely neglect or underestimate the work that goes into producing good content.

Think of Your Target Audience

The key is to put out just enough content in a particular sequence that will linger in your listener’s minds for a while. It will make them ponder and want more, but by the time they have digested it and starting to come around your previous content, you have already dropped another.

In The End

The frequency of your podcast episode publishing is dependent on how long it takes you to make quality content and who your listeners are.

Consistency, listener expectations and the learnings from doing a daily podcast

One of the biggest learnings from doing over 800 episodes of The Daily Talk Show, a daily podcast and video talk show, is figuring out what your promise to your tribe is. Whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, your audience needs to know when and how you will show up.

How long will it take to record, edit and publish my podcast?

The amount of preparation that is required for each podcast episode, how long it takes to record, edit and distribute is completely defined by what type of podcast it is. Furthermore, figuring out how long each episode of your podcast will take, can inform the frequency in which you release each episode.

Podfade

Setting your promise and making sure you stick to it is difficult for many podcasters. ‘Podfade’ is a commonly used term to describe the significant proportion of podcasts who don’t make it past the 10 episode threshold.

Breaks and Buffers

Depending on the type of podcast you have, there are many ways to create a break or buffer around the show. Understandably, everyone needs a break sometimes, but there are ways to do this that still keep the promise you made to your listeners intact.

What is Your Podcast About?

The theme of your podcast should, to an extent, determine how often episodes are released. If your subject is something that's current and ever-changing, such as celebrity news or politics, episodes should be more frequent. An episode a day or every few days will work well.

The Length of Your Episodes

How long are your episodes on average? Generally, if they last more than an hour, you should consider reducing the frequency of new releases. As the average length of each episode decreases you can increase the frequency appropriately.

Quality or Quantity?

This is an age-old debate. Some people feel the need to keep churning out content in an attempt to cement their place in the minds of their audience. If you can produce the same level of excellence at a high rate of frequency then all power to you!

How Long Does Each Episode Take to Produce?

This depends on whether you’re a one-man-band or have a team in place that helps you with different tasks. If it’s just you, and you’re new to the game consider slightly cutting back on frequency to ensure all the boxes are correctly checked.

Take Planned Breaks

Many of your favorite TV shows have mid-season breaks. Why? Well, it allows for some respite for the producers as they take a break from filming and editing. The same applies to your podcast episodes. Since you’re likely wearing several hats – recording, editing, and publishing to name a few – a break can help restore your creativity.

Take Advantage of Viewer Habits

People develop routines and personal habits. You can use this to your advantage by creating a set schedule for your podcast. There’s no perfect day or time to release your episodes, as this will vary between audiences.

Make an Informed Decision

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work when it comes to how often you should release new podcast episodes. Consider your unique circumstances first and then look at factors such as the theme of your podcast, the average length of episodes, and how long each one takes to produce among others.

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But What About My Listeners?

Release Frequency Tips

  • How about you start off by releasing episodes monthly or every two weeks to sound out (mind the pun) how long it takes you. Your podcast episodes can then get more regular if you feel that you can handle the workload. This way around can be better for your listener, than starting off more regular and then tailing off. Try to be consistent though an...
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in All This, Planning Is Key.

  • Start by mapping out how long you think the podcasting process will take you. Use some project planning techniques like a gantt chart or sketch it out on paper. Then be realistic with yourself. If you have your heart set on a weekly or even daily podcast and just don’t have the time to do all of the bits yourself consider getting some help, like a team member, a buddy or a podcast producti…
See more on linkedin.com

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