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Can spending $5 a day on ads really add 10,000 or more
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new listeners to your podcast?
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I highly doubt it, but I am just crazy enough to put up the money to see if I'm
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right, or if I have 10,000 new listeners.
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Today's episode is brought to you by the Advancing Podcasting
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community at advancingpodcasting.xyz.
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Because why would I do anything normal?
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It's a special community just for listeners and readers of
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Podcast Pontifications and it's populated by like-minded working
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podcasters just like you who also want to make podcasting better.
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You're already listening to the show.
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So why not extend the conversation and your influence
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on the future of podcasting?
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Join us today at advancingpodcasting.xyz.
Evo Terra:
Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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I am not a fan of throwing good money after bad.
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I reject the notion that a paid-for marketing campaign is
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the best way to grow a podcast.
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It's not.
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As I've discussed on every single episode of Podcast Pontifications
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that I put out last week.
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I think it's much more important for us podcasters to get the fundamentals
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right before we spend any money on our own podcast to grow it.
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I think that, if we've done that, we've got the fundamentals right, and
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we've made a podcast that our most loyal listeners want to recommend to
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all the people in their lives, great.
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But spending money before we do that is just silly.
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Or before we know we've done that, or we've got some proof of that.
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But you may be asking, "Alright, Evo, what if I've done all of those things?"
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In fact, I asked myself, well, hang on.
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Haven't I done all of those things?
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I mean, I just put out a survey last week - podcastpontifications.com/survey
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if you haven't yet taken it.
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I just put out a survey last week, and I've already had roughly 10%
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of my audience give me really good feedback on that survey.
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And not all of them were fanboys, by the way.
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One person specifically rated my personality as average.
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Okay.
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I'll take it.
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It's been very helpful for me to look through those responses
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to see what you're saying.
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I'm learning what's expected of my listeners so that I
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can deliver the unexpected.
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And I'm going to be tracking the changes that I'm implementing in this show.
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The spoiler there is one of those changes is happening a little later
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on today, but I'll be tracking those in the Advancing Podcasting
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community, advancingpodcasting.xyz.
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I'll talk about it a little bit here on the show, but I'll save
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most of that for the community.
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Now, I've also made it easy to recommend my show.
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I've changed my new episode release announcements on social media.
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They're much longer content now, which are getting shared more, which is great.
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I'm now encouraging the forwarding of the newsletter Podcast
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Pontifications In Your Inbox.
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People who get that are encouraged to forward it to someone else.
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I'm also continuing to master the craft of podcasting.
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That's neverending, obviously, but I try to get better at it every day.
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So if I've got all those things in place, as you might have all those
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things in place, maybe I am ready to start a marketing campaign.
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Well, I'm not convinced that's the right thing to do, but I'm going to try it.
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More to the point, I'm trying out a system.
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A system that is reported to bring in around 800 new listeners to Podcast
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Pontifications every single month.
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Not clicks, not impressions, not one-time drive-by downloads, but
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actual podcasters just like you who don't yet know about the show who
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will become listeners of the show.
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And I'm going to do all of that with a $5 a day budget.
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Now, let me be real honest and clear with you, I do not think this is going to work.
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I've ran a lot of digital campaigns for a lot of clients over the decades.
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I've had budgets gigantic, I've had budgets tiny, and there are
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many reasons why I got out of digital advertising back in 2014.
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Questionable, and sometimes downright disappointing, results
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are just a portion of those.
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So I'm not the guy to implement this campaign.
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But I am, however, the person who has engaged another person, a person
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who is convinced this campaign is going to work, and that person
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is managing the entire process.
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I'm playing the role of client on this one.
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I'm going to be reviewing and approving the assets.
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I'm going to be reviewing and approving budgets, and technical implementation.
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The entire thing that I have to do as a client I will be doing.
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And there's a lot that has to be done with this.
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However, if those things and the $5 a day can really bring me 10,000 new listeners
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to Podcast Pontifications over the course of a year, I think it's worth it.
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I'm also going to be, as you know, completely transparent about
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the results of this campaign.
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I'm going to be sharing real, live numbers.
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My plan as such is to do a monthly check-in here, live on the show,
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and I'll do it one single episode of where we are so I don't talk
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about this every single day.
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But I'm going to go much, much deeper and get a lot of feedback from the
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community in the Advancing Podcasting community, advancingpodcasting.xyz.
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For now, we're just getting started on this campaign, and I'm being
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purposely vague on what it is that we're doing simply because I don't
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want you rushing out and implementing this, wasting your time, and possibly
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money, trying to follow along.
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We've just gotten started.
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Now, once it's up and running, I will spill all of the beans so
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that if you actually do want to implement alongside me, you can.
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I'll let you do that.
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I will provide you the information so that you can do that, I should say.
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But again, I highly recommend waiting to see what sorts of results we get, if
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any, before you jump on this bandwagon.
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Skeptical much, Evo?
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Yes, but as any good and true skeptic should be, I'm willing to change
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my position when I see evidence.
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So with that, stay tuned.
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Now, let's get to the question and answer portion of the show.
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Matt Madeiros from Castos asked the following question.
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He said, "I'd love to know how you will use the survey data
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(podcastpontifications.com/survey) to improve the show?"
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What an excellent question, Matt.
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How about like this?
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This suggestion, adding in a quick Question and Answer bit to some
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episodes, was pulled directly from the responses from people who took the
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survey - podcastpontifications.com/survey.
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I doubt that I'll do it on every single episode, but if you do have a question
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you would like me to answer, feel free to reach out - evo@simpler.media, you
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can ask it @EvoTerra on Twitter, or you can post it in the Advancing Podcasting
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community, advancingpodcasting.xyz, and I'll answer it there.
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Or other community members might answer it there.
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Why not?
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That, Matt, is how I am using survey data to improve the show.
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Thank you for being the inaugural person to ask a question on the
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Q and A portion of the program.
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Now, if you received any value from today's episode, please return that
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value - we call it value-for-value - by going to BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra
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and buying me a coffee, or, better yet, buying a membership that sends
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a coffee to me each and every month.
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That's it.
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I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
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Cheers!
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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
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He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
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Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
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section of your podcast listening app.
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A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
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podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
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transcript, both created by Allie Press.
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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
