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Podfaded or inactive shows are seen as a drain on

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podcasting by some, cluttering up indexes and frustrating listeners.

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But in reality, they could be used as a material resource for podcast growth.

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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

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Can you breathe life back into a podfaded or inactive show?

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Or better yet, can you use that podfaded or inactive show of yours

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as a power source for something else?

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Now, there are all sorts of reasons why you may have a

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podfaded or an inactive show.

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I know I have a lot of podfaded and inactive shows that are still in a

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hosting account of mine somewhere.

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Maybe for you, you have an unlimited hosting plan.

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So, you know, unlimited hosting plan means you make a new show

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up all the time, whatever.

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Or maybe you're on a free hosting plan and that podfaded show is

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still there, you just haven't logged in in a very long time.

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Or whatever it is, the expense, if it does cost something, 'cause look, it

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doesn't cost a lot of money to host a podcast, maybe you put it on a lower

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tier or whatever, it's just not a big enough expense for you to take action on.

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So it's still there, which means some or all of the files, the audio

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files over that show that you may not have touched in years are still

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on a hosting provider somewhere.

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The RSS feed is still connected to the various apps and directories, which

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means even though they haven't seen it in a long time, some people, some

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devices at least, are probably still following or are subscribed to that feed.

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Because what I have seen in my years of doing this is that many people

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- I'll go with most people - don't bother to unfollow or unsubscribe

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from a podcast when that show stops sending out new episodes.

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I know that you do.

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I do.

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But most people do not.

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That's out of sight, out of mind.

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Now, back to you for a moment.

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There are all sorts of reasons why you might want to reactivate

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or unfade a podfaded show.

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Maybe it's to start it up again.

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Maybe there's enough activity there, and we'll talk about that

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in a second, to where it's time for you to get back into that thing.

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The reason it's on hiatus is because you said I'm going to get back to it.

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Maybe it's time to do that.

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Okay.

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Maybe though, it's time for you to change that show, maybe change the focus

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and direction, the topic, whatever, and turn around and relaunch it.

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Or as mentioned previously, you could use that podfaded show as a

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power source to drive traffic to another podcast or another property.

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You can do all of those things.

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But are any of them worth the effort?

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That's what stops most people from reactivating or doing

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something with their podfaded show.

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That's the question.

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What's the effort - is the effort worth it?

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Because we really don't know how many people are subscribed or follow the feed.

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We don't.

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And sure, we can get some follower/subscriber data from like Apple

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Podcasts and Spotify and Google Podcasts.

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They give some of that data.

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But that means the show already had to be in Apple Podcasts,

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Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

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And if it wasn't, if you didn't set your account up, you may

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not have any of that data.

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It just might not be there.

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The history may not be there.

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There's also the fact that even if you can get the data, you're failing

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to capture the long tail of other apps people might have used to listen

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to your show, not Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and/or Google Podcasts.

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And all of those long tail subscribers, followers ad up.

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So here's what you can do.

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Drop an episode into that faded show.

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Just drop an episode of something into that faded show and count

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the number of downloads it gets.

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But only over the first few days.

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That's all you're looking for.

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It's a test to find out if there are still people connected, if there are

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still devices connected that will automatically download that content.

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That's important.

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I mean, the episode, again, can be whatever.

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We don't really care.

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Maybe it's a new file where you just go, " Tap, is this thing on?"

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Or something along those lines.

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Or maybe even a lower effort than that.

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If you've got a promo that's handy for a show you're producing, drop that in there.

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All you're trying to do is find out how many devices are connected and

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how many people will quickly click, say, "Ooh, something new from the

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show I haven't heard for a long time."

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Just do a count.

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And once you've done that count, if those numbers of downloads suddenly look

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attractive to you, whether it's dozens or hundreds or thousands, in some case, it

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might be worth the effort to do something.

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Maybe relaunch.

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Of course you could do that.

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Or maybe redirect those subscribers to a new or active show.

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Or just a different show.

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Yeah.

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Use it as a power source.

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They're there, subscribed.

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Give them the new show, move them to the new show.

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Now, a couple of caveats before you run out and do this immediately.

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Look, I'm not about to redirect my defunct travel/comedy podcast

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over to Podcast Pontifications.

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It's a bad fit.

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I try and be a little funny here on this show, but it's look, it's

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just not what it was designed for.

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So do not do that.

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Make sure that there's a fit.

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The second caveat, though, is that just doing the test will cause some

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people to unfollow/unsubscribe from that show they've thought was dead.

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You can't change that from happening.

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You can try with making really great content, but just like you and I both

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unsubscribed from a crazy number of retailers from Black Friday that we

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haven't heard from in an entire year.

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Same thing's going to happen to us, but that's okay.

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That's okay.

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The majority of the people won't do that.

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They'll just simply swipe it or delete it or whatever, and move on.

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You'll get the majority of them over to the new show.

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Or maybe again, the size of that audience was big enough to where

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now you're motivated to breathe new life into that podfaded show.

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Or maybe you can sell it.

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I don't really care.

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It's totally up to you.

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Ask your podcasting friends if they have any podfaded shows, I bet

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they do, in their hosting account.

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And maybe see if they're interested in doing this as a test.

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Collaborate together.

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Go ahead and share this episode with them.

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This will explain the concept to them.

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And maybe it's something you can collaborate on and go forward.

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And obviously, if you like this idea, and go, wow that was cool, Evo,

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head to buymeacoffee.com/EvoTerra, and slide a virtual coffee my way.

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Next week is May in 2021, at least by the day I'm recording this.

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That means it's only a month away before I take roughly a six-week

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break before bringing you season four of Podcast Pontifications.

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I'm going to be reaching out to every single one of you who has graciously

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bought me a coffee over the years and talk about some opportunities

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for you and Podcast Pontifications you might want to be a part of.

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So keep your eye on that.

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Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.

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No episodes from me on Friday.

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So enjoy your weekend.

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Think about reactivating these shows or using them to power

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something new you're doing.

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And I shall be back not tomorrow, but on Monday, yes, with

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another Podcast Pontifications.