So, as you have probably gathered, we want to talk about time in this article.
(Quick aside - Did you know that there is no experiment that you can do that proves the existence of time? I'll let that one fester...)
This time, though, we want to talk about the timing of your podcast.
Not the frequency - that's your own business, and is dictated by the amount of time you can commit to creating the content that makes up your podcast.
We're talking about the timing of your podcast
No, not the length of the episode. Again, that's down to how good the content is, and how long you want your episodes to be.
We're talking about the place that the podcast has in time
Basically - when are people listening to it?
For a large part of a podcast audience, the first 7 days of release are the biggest. That's when over 75% of your downloads will occur.
But not all of the downloads...
What we're saying is - make sure that you're not placing your podcast episode in too small a place in time. Think about the people who might listen to that episode 12 months / 2 years after it's released!
A great cover-all phrase is 'at the time of recording'. Get used to using it. If you're giving out information, using a fact as the basis of an opinion.... they can all be viewed differently in a few months or years time. So '...at the time of recording' will be your friend to future listeners.
If the content of your podcast is universal, relatively speaking, and is unlikely to date - then don't date the podcast by talking about topical matters. Unless they're global events.
For instance, we know quite a lot of podcasts who talked about the pandemic. How could you not? It affected billions of people around the world - pretty much everyone was touched by it in some way.
Conversely, the refit that is going on at your local supermarket? Not so much.
That's happening at a very specific time in history - and is unlikely to be of interest to anyone in your audience; unless you're doing a hyper-local podcast.
When you're making notes for your episode, or scripting your episode or just putting together your episode - bear the time in mind.
That also applies to greetings and intros. So many times we hear podcasters say 'Good morning, or Good evening everyone'. Good evening sounds wrong to us, because it's 6.30am and we're out walking the dog.
Just keep it to 'Hello...'. Brief your guests on this thinking too. Unless the point that they make is specifically about the time of day that you're recording - keep it general.
Always think of your listeners. Will they be listening to it at the same time as you're recording it? Almost certainly not, so why subconsciously distract them with an anachronistic comment?
And, on that big word - we'll sign off. Until next time!