THE PODCAST ACCELERATOR

By far one of the biggest support questions that we see via Captivate.fm and Podcast Websites is “I've published a new episode but it's not on Apple Podcasts yet, why is that?” – well, here's why.

I bloody love Star Wars, and I bloody love DC Comics. In fact, I love reading so much that I'd rather do that than watch TV any day of the week. And it got me thinking that podcasters, often, are being taught to spin up shows without too much thought – but to podcast, you need to be able to tell a story, just like George Lucas, Scott Snyder and Stephen King.

Rightly or wrongly, people start their shows using free podcast hosting and the reason is simple – it is free! But, there comes a point (usually very quickly) when you should be moving from that free hosting to something that you control, own and can scale with.

Free hosting such as Anchor gets a bad rap at times and more often than not, that venom is directed from podcast purists from a defensive angle. Whilst I hear that and understand it, free podcast hosting has its place – but it's a very specific place…

Although contentious at times, the IAB (or Interactive Advertising Bureau) governs the way that we measure “downloads” in the podcasting industry and as the major hosts move toward IAB certification (a fairly new certification), what does this mean and what are the alternatives to the IAB, if any? In fact, do we even need podcast measurement standards?!

Tech talk! CDNs are boring but vital to podcasting. I hear a lot of people being confused by the techy terms so figured I'd demystify some of them, starting with this one. Strap in, it's going to get crazy. Honestly. I'll try to at least brighten it up…

Introducing Captivate Insider, covering news, feature release round-ups and behind-the-scenes of the Captivate.fm podcast hosting, analytics & marketing platform by Rebel Base Media.

Do you have a podcasting vision? And I don't mean “Sure, I'll have a bazillion downloads and be an ‘entrepreneur' in 4 days” – I mean a brand vision, because that's what you are – you're a brand and every brand has a vision. Let's dive in…

We're so often enamoured by a spike in downloads that we forget that the real goal with a podcast is to build an engaged set of listeners. But, engagement is hard and there's one big thing you're probably doing wrong, in my opinion, when it comes to listener engagement.

I've produced over 1,100 podcast episodes over the last five years and no matter the show, the topic or the outlet, three lessons recur time and again: patience, personal critique and humility – three keys to podcasting longevity.