21 things podcasters should learn from the Podcast Awards from The Audacity to Podcast

The Audacity to Podcast

Daniel J. Lewis

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21 things podcasters should learn from the Podcast Awards

44 minutes Posted Oct 29, 2012 at 2:45 pm.

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Hear several lessons you should learn for improving your podcast and standing out from the rest!

Over 5,000 podcasts were nominated for the 8th annual Podcast Awards. Only 220 made it in for final voting. These tips are based on the findings shared by Todd Cochrane in the slate announcement.

Lessons you should learn from other podcasts

Make your website uniquely branded, not generic. 90% of the podcasts did this well.

Ensure your audio quality is great! If you use BlogTalkRadio, don't publish that audio but record yourself and publish that. There were very few low-quality-audio podcasts.

Make your podcast obvious on your homepage, don't make people dig to find it. 27% failed this.

Make your podcast playable and downloadable on your site (PowerPress makes this easy). 34% of the podcasts couldn't be played from the site.
- Of the podcasts using Blubrry's stats system, iTunes is accounts for 53% of the subscription, browser-based playing is second place by a large margin.
- iPad is the #1 mobile device used for listening to podcasts via a browser

If you publish video, make the video embeddable for your fans. 73% of the podcasts didn't do this.

Create an RSS feed for your video podcast. YouTube, Blip.tv, other video websites aren't enough! 70% didn't do this!

Ensure your RSS feed is valid and working. Only 9% had invalid feeds.

Have a visible RSS link (I recommend an RSS icon) for your feed(s).
- 33% offered a blog-only feed
- 49% offered a podcast-only feed
- 23% had the podcast feed buried
- 28% didn't have any finable RSS or iTunes link!

Have a backup plan for FeedBurner, or leave FeedBurner completely. 71% of the shows are still publishing their FeedBurner addresses.

Cut down your RSS feed size! 26% had an RSS feed larger than 250 KB.

Make your iTunes icon/link visible on your home/landing page.
- 61% had a visible iTunes icon on landing pages
- 57% had this icon somewhere within their site

Make your feedback email and phone number easily accessible.
- 12% had a visible email address
- 8% had a newsletter sign-up
- 21% had a feedback number or audio feedback widget.

Get your own domain! 90% had their own domains.

Write thorough shownotes. 73% had less than a single paragraph for shownotes for latest five episodes

Blog on your website between podcast episodes. Only 16% of the podcasts have frequent blog posts, too.

Spread your message across media. 23% of the podcasts were creating audio, video, and blog posts.

Make your website mobile-friendly! Todd said that 31% are mobile-ready, but I have to question whether that's simply compatible or optimized for mobile.

Be on social networks and link to them from your website.
- 60% had a Twitter link
- 72% had a Facebook link
- 15% had a Google+ link

Podcast weekly at the least for the best audience growth.
- 25% podcast weekly
- 23% podcast more than one episode per week and are seeing 8 times the growth

Don't neglect your podcast during summer. Many podcasts had little or no summer dip (June–August).

Be in iTunes and other podcast directories! Just posting YouTube or website media isn't good enough.
- Most podcasts average 93 different devices or clients for downloading podcasts. Make sure you have as many of these, especially mobile apps, covered with your podcast(s).

Watch Todd Cochrane's full video

My suggestions for podcasts to vote for

In addition to the Ramen Noodle, ONCE podcast, and The Audacity to Podcast, please consider these other podcasts that I will be voting for in the Podcast Awards.