Happy 1st Birthday, Podcast Bestie 🎈
New year, new goal, same great mission
Hello, Besties!
I'm a little verklempt writing this issue. That's because today is the one-year anniversary — the first birthday — of my little podcast newsletter that could. On November 11, 2021, I published the first edition, featuring pod queen Arielle Nissenblatt reflecting on #Tweet100 (much earlier, but already crushing it in her Twitter accent).
How it started:
What's super funny about celebrating this one-year milestone is I was looking back at that first post with Arielle, and I noticed a typo in one of the banner graphics — it said #Tweet101 instead of #Tweet100. Obviously, I'm not perfect, but I always check these missives for typos, and then my fiancé comes in for final checks as my proofreader (what a mensch, it's a nice perk of our relationship). And yet still… shit happens.
In the past, something like this would have been mortifying to me. But seeing such a blatant error in my first issue made me laugh. Honestly, it made me happy. Not because I love making mistakes — I do not — but because I've been working hard at not being a perfectionist. I see where I want to go with my career, and I've realized that to get there, I can't get bogged down with the small stuff or waste time self-flagellating when I don't get something 100 percent right.
And that error is utterly inconsequential to the success of Podcast Bestie. After I noticed it, I updated the graphic in that post. The permanent mistake is only in 84 inboxes; I'm sure some of them have been deleted by now. The important thing is that I launched this newsletter and committed to sending out regular issues for a whole year (first biweekly, now weekly). The important thing is that there are now over 2,000 Besties — and that's a lot of freaking Besties — which was actually my year-one goal when I started. I thought it was a big but achievable goal, and I'm proud to have hit it.
I've learned so much this year from our Q&As with industry pros and indie podcasters at the top of their game, from y'all sharing your shows and other podcasts that are inspiring you, and from the process of trying to bring you helpful information and grow this resource and community.
Some of the most valuable knowledge I've gleaned is about how to grow your podcast. I've been picking up tips from folks like Arielle, Laurel Passell, and Jay Clouse, which has given me a goal for year two of Podcast Bestie — this year, I'm putting that advice into practice for my benefit AND yours.
One of the biggest struggles of being an independent podcaster is not having the budget to find the audience your show deserves. I take the content I produce seriously and always strive to make it great. But without $5-30K or more (I once worked on a show that had over $100K to throw behind marketing), I can't afford to make any mistakes with my ad buys, and that's IF I can afford to make any ad buys.
So I've decided to volunteer as tribute. I'm making myself a guinea pig, and I'll be trying… pretty much everything I can to grow my shows. My hope is that you can then take those results and make more informed decisions about how best to spend your limited time and money.
What’s extra helpful about this series of experiments is that I have two podcasts:
Private Parts Unknown has been running for several years and has amassed a decent-sized audience (but the numbers are relatively stagnant).
The Bleeders just launched in June and currently has a modest but quickly growing listenership.
Episode downloads for the first seven days:
Top 1% of podcasts - 4,835
Top 5% - 978
Top 10% - 403
Top 25% - 105
Top 50% (Median podcast) - 30
According to Buzzsprout’s global platform stats.
Gaging by those numbers, Private Parts Unknown is probably in the top three-ish percent of podcasts, and The Bleeders is in approximately the top 35 percent. Essentially, I have a solid show that I want to break through to the top one percent, and I have a baby show that I want to see in the top 10 percent by the end of its first year. That offers two case studies, which will likely require different approaches, and I hope seeing what works under those distinct circumstances will help you better apply the takeaways to your own show.
That's the big goal and expansion of Podcast Bestie for year two. If you like Podcast Bestie as-is, GREAT! You don't have to do anything, and you'll keep receiving free weekly posts with Q&As, jobs, industry info, podcast recs, and craft and marketing essays from me.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty numbers and dollars and cents of trying to grow your show as an indie podcaster, I'm offering paid subscriptions for BTS of my audience growth experiments and monetization efforts.
I'm pricing it affordably to align with my mission of serving bootstrapping podcasters, so it's $5/month or $50/year regularly (or you can become a founding member for $150/year, which includes a 30-minute call with me).
And I want as many Besties as possible to join the pod growth squad, so I'm running a birthday special for the next week. Join by Thursday for 30 percent off!
Paid subscribers will also get a column from my ride-or-die audio guy, Michael Castañeda.
➡️ Here’s a Q&A Mike did toward the beginning of Podcast Bestie.
We've been working together since 2016, and we've made a lot of podcasts as a two-person team. He will be sharing posts about all things audio engineering, sound editing, mixing, and mastering, and he's going to share BTS of a very cool project he's working on making collections of original SFX.
He'll also be available in our weekly subscriber-only threads for questions — as will I.
We really want to make this a vibrant community where we can connect and collaborate. A rising tide lifts all boats, so let's work together to make independent podcasts not just viable but competitive. That's the mission.
I hope you'll join me behind the paywall. There are already three of you, and it was a joy to see you subscribe. (Hello, George, Leah, and Patricia, I can’t wait to meet you!) You'll get an introduction to Mike’s column next week.
Either way, we’re still Besties! It would make my day if you could give Podcast Bestie some birthday love, and share it with a fellow podcaster you think would appreciate it. That would be an amazing gift. 😊
To help me celebrate, the wonderful Lauren Passell let me do a takeover of Podcast Marketing Magic, so head over there to read my manifesto on why you need a companion newsletter for your podcast:
I’ll be running Part 2, featuring some of the newsletters you submitted, here on Podcast Bestie next week. If you have a killer companion newsletter or know someone who does, please head over to last week’s post and comment with your info TODAY.
👀 Several people have inquired, so here’s information about how you can advertise on Podcast Bestie.
Private Parts Unknown: Fisting 101 + Coming Out, Living with HIV in a Post-PrEP World, Becoming a Sex Worker & Writing "My Love is a Beast" with Alexander Cheves - Sex writer, sex worker, sex educator, and author of My Love is a Beast: Confessions Alexander Cheves stops by the podcast to give a primer on fisting. Alex also shares his experiences coming out, thriving with HIV in a post-PrEP world (vs. in the 80s or even ten years ago), his gentle ascension to sex work, how a class assignment led to him becoming a sex writer, and more.
The Bleeders: You Don't Need a Publisher: How Elle Griffin is Serializing Her Novels on Substack - Elle Griffin set out to query her gothic novel and, in the process, made some disappointing discoveries about the publishing industry that led her to serialize it on Substack. In this episode, she shares her unconventional path that definitely has some upsides, like making $19K in her first year on Substack and retaining the rights to her work. Elle also shares why Anne Lamott's shitty first draft advice does not work for her and what it's been like writing her second serialized novel as she's publishing it.
ISA Game: Talk Down Your Ego (ft. Laurise McMillian, Content Strategist for Instagram and Meta) - My client Isabella Di Stefano launched her podcast with a BANG. Her first guest is Meta content strategist and creator extraordinaire Laurise McMillian, and the convo is super fun yet deep and informative. It takes some unexpected turns, which is delightful to listen to and makes good on the promise of the wordplay premise. Congrats, Issy!
So… ROLL CALL! 🗣
I’m your podcast guinea pig! What advertising, marketing, and monetization options would you like me to try?
Follow me @courtneykocak on Twitter and Instagram. For more, check out my website courtneykocak.com.