Terms

Before founding Big IP, a content studio which manages podcasts as well as YouTube channels such as The John Campea Show, Pop Apologists and Kempire, Scott Porch was an attorney and journalist. "The main thing I covered during my time as a full-time reporter was TV and film. I wrote in the New York Times and Fast Company and Wired and Decider and some other publications," he starts.

One of the themes he explored was how podcasting and YouTube media was gaining popularity around film and television. He wrote a piece on Game of Thrones recappers for the New York Times and spent ever more time researching this topic and meeting professionals in the field, before deciding to produce programs at Starburns Audio in 2019. "I went out by myself and grown from a handful of YouTube channels and podcasts, up to 14 or 15 channels" the actor says.

Scott believes two components make a podcast successful: the creative component and the reach of your audience. "There's an interplay between these two factors," he says. "It's hard to expand an unpopular podcast. excellent, however it's hard to find a quality podcast and maintain it for a long period of time."

Scott believes you have to be able to balance both of these components. "You must create things that people will want to hear and you have to know how to get out and find that crowd to convince them to hear it initially." Scott believes that, as Scott talked about the topic with Brian Morrissey when he made a guest appearance in The Rebooting Podcast, often the podcast is the business and sometimes it's the marketing of the business.

Milestones

It's also dependent on the scale of the host and this is becoming increasingly important for launches. Some of the most well-known podcasts, such as The Movie Podcast and How Did This Get Made have existed for a long time, so the hosts are well-known because of their show, but there is a lot of noise. "It's become difficult to break through the clutter. It all depends on the person," says Scott. "If Taylor Swift started a podcast tomorrow, she could make money from it the first day. If I launched a podcast tomorrow, it'd be a different conversation."

It is contingent upon different levels of listening. "At 50k downloads per episode, there's a greater variety of host-read monetization ad companies that are going to want to make a minimum commitment to a show that will achieve a certain amount of cash. But even for shows with thousands, 5,000 or 10,000 downloads in an episode, it's possible to begin making money incrementally through the programmatic and membership revenue" he describes.

Pop Apologists One of the shows Scott is a part of, has over 2,000 members who have paid for Patreon as well as Apple Podcast subscriptions. The show has been able to increase this membership through continuing to do it over a period of time, and they've been consistent in releasing one episode per week for members and one episode a week that's for members. Scott states that, most importantly, those episodes have the same qualities. "If you enjoy one of the episodes, you'll like the other one."

Getting started with membership

For membership, specifically How do you start? "A majority of the programs that originate from YouTube are familiar with YouTube's membership program. It's an overall awareness however in most cases, they haven't taken that step since it's a matter on their list they didn't get to yet, or aren't sure what they'd like to accomplish with it," Scott says.

Maybe the creator is producing so much content they aren't sure if they are able to make more episodes for a premium platform and or if it is going to generate enough revenue and if the premium platform is going to cannibalize the public platform.

"A large portion of that is a matter of uncertainty, or an area that they've not yet reached and require guidance," Scott says. "They need someone to say that there's money if you want to go and go after it'. If you're in the business of creating a business, you're wearing so many hats, and you have so much to do. It's likely that you'll need help from staff members and, or at a minimum, tools and services to aid you in building your business," he continues.

If so what are you going to do when choosing the tools and services that will help you run your own business, particularly to join? "A number of factors seem to have been pretty consistent in the market over the last couple of years," starts Scott. "Number one: people who consume podcasts or view YouTube videos, develop an emotional connection with the creators. They are willing to pay creators by generating recurring income - $4 a monthly, $6,000 a month, perhaps $10 or so a month. This isn't simply because they'd like something extra from the creator but because they want to support the creator in that for a profession and not as just side hustle."

The other pattern Scott has seen is that users tend to be platform-specific. "When the Pop Apologists began discussing Apple Podcasts subscriptions the company was already performing really well on Patreon. One of the concerns they had regarding Apple Podcasts' was that it could eat away at Patreon - 'We might need to cut off the service in the event of a huge loss of Patreon to Apple However, that's not exactly what transpired. What actually happened was that Patreon has continued to increase in size and Apple Podcasts has grown every month since the launch."

Scott has seen this for various other shows and learned about this specificity from various people. "If consumers are on Apple Podcasts, they might be listening to 4 or 6, 10 podcasts, but it's where they're likely to stream the podcasts. They're not on Patreon or YouTube. If you place the content in front of users through Apple then they'll be able to subscribe to it."

Direct connection with your viewers

Scott believes that it is essential for creators to have an intimate relationship with consumers with a podcast, and has cited a startup called Luminary as an example of caution. "It was an approach similar to Netflix where they were licensing different creators to create series. The user would sign up to the platform and pay."

Scott recalls that Luminary didn't succeed because people don't want that intermediary. "Consumers need to be aware that they're supporting the show directly and that their $7 a month or $50 per year is going to that individual creator, not Luminary or Netflix or anyone else. It's a direct link for creators too. It makes good business and economic sense to start Pop Apologists on Apple Podcasts to go after that audience however, Scott and the team don't know who those subscribers are. "We don't know their email addresses. We can't have forums on Zoom each month, for those individuals. It's not possible to inform them that we'll be present on another podcast or the date we'll be doing a live show. We have no information about those people," 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 it might be time to start the Apple Podcasts service or Spotify subscriptions. However, I'd rather have that person's direct information rather than having them just sort of out there" Scott says.

Focus on the coming future

Podcasters who are just starting out, Scott offers advice about future-proofing: "Don't get insular with your listeners. Your show should be designed to be a success for the 1,000th subscriber, not the first 1,000. Every day someone new listens to your podcast, but doesn't yet know about the format of your show."

Scott says to focus on the first 30 seconds of your show. Scott says: "Are you introducing yourself to someone who is a new listener? Do you say "This is the table that's popular and you don't get our jokes; you might like to try listening to something else since we've got our group already'.

It's not difficult to fall into that trap due to the personal relationship between the consumer and seller "You definitely want it to be a club. You just don't want it to become a club that has no doors, where this quantity of people is the only thing you ever be able to have," he explains. "You've need to find the right balance of giving your customers what they're there for, yet not being too exclusive that someone who is new to the show listens it and says, 'They've already got their own thing. I'm not going to get involved.' If every single episode doesn't work like the initial episode, then you're telling that prospective listener that the show is not for them."

Scott is given podcast recommendations every day and is able to tell in the first 10 seconds. "Give me ten seconds telling me who you are and the topic of this podcast about and what you're gonna talk about this week. If I don't, I'll think that 'I'm not a member of this group. I've already missed it There's a lot of background and "in" vocabulary. It can be very difficult for podcasts."

It's the same for advertisements that play in pre-roll. "Some shows I work with use pre-roll ads, and we make profits from it," says Scott. "If they did not do that and did not, they'd make less money. Who wants to be the first thing listeners to the first time they listen to your show to be an ad for Volkswagen? I want the first thing that they hear be the voice of the host."

In the end, Scott offers a tip on resilience for new podcasters. "You'll discover that many podcasters produce five episodes. They don't see the progress so they leave. If you truly want to use this to grow your business or just as a way of expressing your creative side You'll have to do it longer than you think until you feel like it's succeeding.

The good aspect: "You're gonna get a lot better at it during the initial 25,35 episodes. You'll get feedback. It's important to take the time as you like it, and are aware that it's likely become an ongoing success. There are many shows that grow from their 300th and 400th episode. Are you committed? You're not going to get the 25,000 downloads you want right out the beginning unless you're famous.

Which show like to listen to? What episode do you see more lengthy playthroughs of? If you're really want to do, you'll remain patient and figure it out creatively."