The second blog post in a series about my show, About The Adventure, this time focusing on downloads. Here I share some data* on how many people download my podcast, as well as my perspective on measuring value by analytics. You can read part one of the series here - My podcast expenses & equipment. By sharing my personal experience of creating a podcast I hope to give you some idea of why I do it, what happens behind the scenes, and how I approach my work.
A quick introduction
The focus of my podcast is the content and the messages that I want to share via my guests, rather than how many episodes are downloaded. However, I do still think it’s really interesting to get an idea of how many people are tuning in, where and how they are listening, and which career change stories are popular.
*All of the analytics shared here are provided by the hosting platform that I use on Captivate.fm, there's more information about the company in my first blog post. All of the data is easily accessible from my dashboard on my Captivate account, so I just occasionally check it to see how my show is doing while I prepare new episodes.
Summary of downloads
In case you want to skip all the details and just see a quick summary of downloads, here are my analytics to date, on 8th April 2021.
Marketing my show
I don't spend a lot of time on marketing, but I do pay close attention to detail when sharing my work. With each podcast episode I write a blog post, I share it at least once across my social media platforms, and I do a unique write-up in my newsletter. The guests who I interview usually share their own episodes as well, through newsletters and social media posts.
The main reason that I don’t spend more time on marketing is because I like to prioritise my time spent outside in nature, which is why I decided to become self-employed in 2017. It’s also because I am not trying to make money out of my podcast, it is a self-funded project aligned with other streams of my freelance work.
Do I set myself goals?
One of my connections on LinkedIn asked me: Do you set yourself goals of views per episode/month? No I don’t set goals in this way, but I do aim to record and publish a new interview each month because I enjoy it so much and it’s a really great way to meet people or to get to know people better. I do occasionally check the download rate just to see if people are finding it, and to guide my knowledge on which interview topics are the most popular.
How do I measure value?
I am very happy that people are discovering my show in different ways, but how do I measure value if I'm choosing not to focus on the number of downloads? Firstly, I listen to feedback from my guests, who often tell me how much they enjoyed the experience, the opportunity to talk about their work, and to share their stories. It's very important to me that they have a positive experience and that they feel their time is valued by me as the host and interviewer.
Secondly, I listen to the feedback from people who listen to the show. It really means a lot to me when somebody sends me a personal email or message, like this:
"I just wanted to drop you a line to say how much I've enjoyed listening to your podcast. My favourites so far are Charlotte Holroyd, Rachel Fletcher and Sam Devito. I love to listen to other people's stories and their reasons behind the choices they've made and you have a good way of opening people up without saying a great deal yourself." Rebecca Howard
Rebecca has also sent in some great questions, which I'll answer in the next blog post. Although it can be tempting to look at likes and downloads, I don't see how it can be a real measure of value. It's personal messages like these that encourage me to continue with my work, it's very uplifting.
I also measure value by thinking about my own experience as the creator and host. I do feel a sense of responsbility in providing the platform and I care about how I come across, so every step is a conscious decision. I am really enjoying it, I am learning from the experiences, and I'm connecting with new people along the way. It feels worthwhile and valuable to me, and I hope it does to others as well.
Do you have any questions about this blog post? You can email: sarah@sarahventurer.com or get in touch on my social media accounts. The next post in this series is about choosing guests to interview, what preparation I do in advance of recording, and what happens between recording and publishing. You can read it here.
You can listen to my show on your favourite app, select from here.
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