Welcome to Podcast Workflows, the show for people
who love their podcast but spend too much time
on it. This show will give you short tips to
improve your process, grow your show, and save
you up to 12 hours per week. You'll get deep
dives on how the best podcasters produce their
show, and you'll learn a ton. So let's get into
it. I have been implicitly and explicitly teasing
this topic for a while, but I've been thinking
a lot about engagement with your listeners and
how to get feedback from your listeners. And
today, the three things I'm going to talk about
are all around that. So the first thing I'll
do is say I do have an article I put out a while
ago and a podcast episode. called how to get
feedback from your listeners. This was something
I put out over the summer because I was really,
I was thinking about it a lot, especially in
the context of getting feedback for my other
show, The Streamline Solopreneur. And so some
of the tips I said, ask early, ask regularly,
ask everywhere, and make giving feedback dead
simple, which we're going to dive more into today.
So let's first talk about maybe the first segment
or topic here, which is getting feedback. How
do you get feedback from your listeners? Well,
I just, I just kind of gave away the high level
overview in this article, how to get feedback
from your listeners. But I think that really
the biggest thing is that you need to ask for
it, right? Don't ask, don't get is something
I tell my Kids all the time, they'll look at
something in the kitchen or they'll stare at
the TV or their iPad, but they won't actually
ask because they are afraid that I'm going to
say no, which I may or may not, depending on
how much they be in or how much screen time they've
had that day. But they will definitely not get
it or I'm trying to teach them. that they definitely
will not get it if they don't ask for it. So
when you are seeking feedback for your podcast,
definitely ask regularly. One of the things that
I'm trying to do with the Streamline Solopreneur,
especially for the solo shows, is have a feedback
segment. I think this is a really good way to
get feedback because you're not just saying like
write in with your thoughts, you're saying, Hey,
if you write in, I might feature you on the show.
And as Pat Flynn has said in numerous episodes
of his podcast, people love hearing the sound
of their own name and it makes them feel more
connected to the show. So one of the best ways
that you can get feedback is by making it explicitly
clear that you will integrate that feedback.
Something that I'm trying to do more with both
of my shows, and I'll talk about this more when
I talk about the tools, is getting voice notes
for feedback. That way I can actually feature
listeners in the show, right? And depending on
the type of feedback or how much of the contribution,
a shout out is fine. Maybe you can tell them
where the person giving the feedback can be found.
But I find that just saying like, Listener Jane
wrote in to say that she's been using this tool
to get feedback and it's been really good for
her right and so Or you know listener Jane Smith,
whatever if they provide their their full name
so definitely ask for it and Ask early ask early
in the episode say hey today. I'm talking about
now this could you don't want to be clumsy about
this, right? I didn't open the show with if you
want to provide feedback right because there's
nothing to provide feedback for So you don't
want to ask right off the bat, but maybe After
the first opinion you give right like at the
end of this segment I might say hey head over
to podcasts workflows comm slash feedback and
let me know what you think right and so ask early
after you deliver the first piece of valuable
content or a major question and also early in
the sense that you want to ask before you need
the feedback right so something that might not
work is like tweeting or posting on social media
the day before hey i'm recording an episode tomorrow
about x y and z i'd love to hear your thoughts
right uh because just by the nature of social
media people are not going to you know only a
small percentage of your followers will see that
so Did post something I'm gonna post it again,
but you know I'm working on a new episode of
the streamlined solopreneur where I would love
feedback and You know, I posted a bunch of stuff
on social media and apparently like unless it's
inflammatory Twitter doesn't like that. So I
did post a question and I posted it on YouTube
as well, which YouTube has never really been
like a good Place for me to get feedback suspect
like there's probably better avenues, but you
know that's kind of the second piece of advice
is Ask everywhere or ask in ask in multiple places
right don't necessarily just ask on your show
especially if it's just in one episode right
people might miss that episode or They might
be listening and have a thought and then forget
to write in I And you know, this will be different
if you have a massive audience, right? Like the
people at Upgrade constantly get feedback. They've
kind of trained their listeners over 10 years
to easily go to a place to provide feedback.
And even then, I'm guessing they get a very small
percentage of people writing in for feedback.
So I think the key is, you know, another key,
ask everywhere, ask early, ask often. Ask everywhere
and everywhere is going to be your mailing list
social media the place where you're already engaging
with your listeners or target audience I Got
really good feedback across social media for
one question I asked because it was like the
only thing I asked on social media that day so
maybe more people saw it but this is This is
something really important that you should do
my mailing list has been really nice for feedback
lately I don't know if I've just like found the
right alignment or what But it's been really
good for that. And then the last thing, which
again, I'll get to later in the show, is make
giving listener feedback dead simple. This was
a problem of mine for a long time. I'm like,
oh yeah, social media or email. But I have been
seeking better ways to get feedback because I
want more feedback. Now, before we get into that,
I want to get into the second. Kind of segment
or second piece of advice for for this particular
topic for podcast engagement, which is Why should
you build like I think building a community is
really important you building capture community
podcasting can feel lonely and If you're not
getting feedback or you're not building a community
and like if this is just a hobby for you fine
But if you're trying to build a business or if
you're trying to leverage your podcast as a way
to elevate your status or make money, right,
frankly, like, I mean, podcasting costs money.
And if it's going to be a business thing, then
you should figure out a way to monetize that.
Right. And building a community is a good way.
The really the and I should say because I. I've
I've got feedback on this that some I posted
like why you should try to make money with your
podcast and someone was like You should never
try to make money with your podcast and that's
just like an incredibly absurd thing to think
Podcasting could be a very good way to make money.
You shouldn't alienate Your audience you shouldn't
put money above your audience but saying that
podcasts should never make money is like saying
teachers should never make money, right? Teachers
should teach for the love of the game. No, teachers
are grossly underpaid and they should make more
money than they actually make. So, you know,
I just want to, that's feedback I've gotten and
podcasts should make money. And if you are providing
value, for a community, that's a really good
way to make money. Again, to cite Upgrade and
Relay in general, I think they've done a really
good job of building a community around their
podcasts, all of their podcasts, and they have
a way for listeners to kind of intermingle with
each other. A couple of months ago, maybe in
May, they announced that they were making the
first price jump in a long time. Maybe ever.
Right. Their membership was always five dollars
per month per show. If you know for each show
that you subscribe to and they were raising it
to seven dollars per month per show. And I was
insanely supportive of that. Right. I will happily
pay upgrade seven dollars per month because I
feel like I get value out of that or cortex.
Right. Which is really seven dollars a month
for one show. Right. But it's also like a two
and a half or three hour show. Right. It's like
it's less than a movie. It's less than going
to see a movie. And I find it more valuable than
most movies. And so but there was a lot of backlash.
Right. They were like that's a 40. People were
saying that's a 40 percent increase. Like that's
like OK. Right. If you raise it from 50 cents
to a dollar 25 that's a 75 percent increase.
Like that's it's just. Numbers that low like
putting it in that way kind of feels obnoxious
But by I'll say by and large Most people were
very supportive because they've built a great
community and they provide value And I should
say that I don't even like get the full value,
right? I'm like not in the discord discord scares
and confuses me but the additional content that
they put out Well worth it for me and they have
I think they have a very good model, right? It's
you pay for a show and then you get ad free extended
episodes of that show You get bonus like there
are network wide bonus episodes that go out to
every member of every show and Then they also
have the annual specials where each show that
has a membership Or maybe it's each show in just
in general, even if they don't have a membership
puts out a bonus episode that, again, goes to
every member regardless, right? So I am a member
of Upgrade and Cortex, but I also get the bonus
episodes for, let's say, Connected and the Pen
Addict and some other ones, Mac Power users.
And if I'm interested, I can listen to those,
too. And that's a really good way to also be
like, oh, hey, maybe this is something else I
should subscribe to, right? You should build
a community, but that's only one aspect of it.
I guess right build a community because that's
a great way to get feedback and create fans and
connect to your fans and the community will be
a conduit for feedback and for making your show
better and for getting questions and for making
content easier and if you can build a community
whether that's on discord or slack, which I recently
found out is like discord for old people. But
if you can build a community somewhere, then
you'll have an easier time getting feedback,
coming up with ideas, and potentially monetizing
it, right? I'm bullish that you should think
about that from the very beginning of your podcast,
but I don't think it should be your prime objective.
Your prime objective should be serving your audience.
And if you serve your audience, you'll have an
easier time monetizing, whether that's through
sponsorships, community, affiliate links, whatever,
right? You need to build trust. So that's why
I think you should build a community. So let's
move on to the third thing, which is engagement
tools, tools to help you do this. One of the
reasons I've been thinking about this now is
partially because of YouTube and Spotify, right?
YouTube has been an increasingly big force in
the podcasting space. Almost half, well, at least
35 % of American adults YouTube to discover podcasts
YouTube has all of the wonderful Features for
community feedback and monetization built in
with comments with community posts with the ability
to Create a membership if your channel is monetized
you can also do membership ads and merch So that
could be very appealing to podcasters a one -stop
shop. That's the second biggest search engine
in the world But the problem is you don't really
own your community right and the same thing goes
for Spotify Spotify just recently rolled out
comments This is not something I've been leveraging
because my audience My stats on Spotify are not
very good most of my listeners are in Apple podcasts
And so, you know, while I can add video, I don't
get a lot of streams or engagements. I'm not
sure if I'm getting comments, right? I'm not
getting any comments. I can add polls, but my
audience does not live on Spotify. But if yours
does, this is a great opportunity for you to
start engaging. There have also been other tools
that have come out for this exact thing. One
is, I mentioned this before, but Ripple .fm.
Something that bothers me about Ripple is that
the founder, who I consider a friend, I think
he does a lot of really good things, seems very
distracted. It seems like he is launching a number
of things and will pick the one that gets kind
of the most traction. And while I can appreciate
as a business owner why he would want to do that,
as a podcaster who's trying to build a community,
I don't want to build my community on a tool
that might not exist in six months because the
founder got bored with it. And so it looks like
a really good tool. The ability to comment per
episode, the ability to create private podcasts.
think it's a really good tool where there's potentially
good monetization for podcasters and for Brian
the founder, but again like it's if it felt like
it was launched and then on to the next one and
When it comes to like for a task app fine, whatever
but like for for something that you're going
to build a community on that you want something
that you know I'm not going to say has staying
power because in six months like the financials
might look terrible and it doesn't make any sense
to keep investing in it but you you want I want
to use a tool where the person who made the tool
is as dedicated to it as I am at least right
So ripple .fm, check it out. It's really easy
to get started on. So you can definitely try
it and see like maybe this does work for you
and maybe Brian does decide to continue using
like putting resources into it. I would love
to see that, but I'm not convinced at this point
that it's going to happen. And so I'm hesitant
for that. Paid tools like Circle, they have like
a $50 per month plan where you can build a community.
Which is becoming increasingly appealing to me
for a couple of reasons. Lots of creators have
their community on Circle, and Circle has single
sign -on. So if someone's part of Jay Klaus'
community, or my friend Chanel's community, and
they use Circle, and they want to become a member,
they don't have to get yet another account to
become a member of my community. Which is, again,
very appealing, right? It's also well built.
Right? However, the better features for me at
this time are not worth the cost. I think that
as far as like building a free community goes,
Circle is not a good tool for that. And maybe
they don't want to be, right? And that's fine.
But I think I'd be willing to pay for The $50
a month plan if I got like some limited automation
Where someone signs up for my membership elsewhere?
And they get added to the community. That's literally
the only automation I would want and If that
were the case, I'd be I'd probably use that But
you know, I think it just doesn't make It doesn't
make sense for me. I've tried Circle in the past.
I was on their $99 a month plan when it was $79
a month. And so I was like locked into that.
But it just it didn't make sense for me to do
that. It could make sense for you, especially
if you have like a another avenue for monetization.
Right. So that's one thing. And again, Circle
is a widely used tool. that supports single sign
-on across every community you're a part of in
circles. So that's a big benefit, right? Because
we do want to make it easy for our users. Fanlist
is another one I'm currently trying. This is
actually the one I'm using to get feedback right
now for both of my shows. I met the founder,
Pat, at Podcast Movement. And I think if you've
been listening to this or watching my YouTube
channel, you'll know that I've said I don't like
that a user needs to create an account to leave
the feedback. But after speaking with Pat, he
convinced me that this was the right thing to
do. So it does leave people who maybe want to
leave anonymous feedback in the lurch a little
bit. But maybe there's another way I could offer
that, right? You know people can certainly like
I could put A link to my email address here and
say like hey if you want to if you want to submit
something anonymously email me and I I promise
I won't Say your name and stuff. Um, but what
was really appealing to me here is that listeners
can record a message and I can send it in and
I really liked that it was better than like speak
pipe Which costs money and is I don't feel as
very user -friendly And I also like fan lists
monetization model too. This is again something
I'm thinking about because I want these tools
to be around and if they're not Making money
in a sustainable way. They're not going to be
around so I like that fan list is free to use
and then You can monetize it through Perks or
a membership or something else, right? They connect
right to your Stripe account and you have the
ability to make money that way. The last thing
I'll mention here is your own website or something
like Memberful. So I really love Memberful. That's
what Relay uses and a bunch of other people use.
It's a really great kind of central hub that
can sit on top of a bunch of other tools you
use and tie them together, which I love because
it makes your membership portable. It makes it
so that if I am selling memberships through memberful
and I use Circle, but then Circle disappears
tomorrow, I don't lose those members and I don't
have to transfer them somewhere else. And then
they do integrate directly with WordPress. And
so for the community I'm building around podcast
navigator, which is my I'll say flagship product.
You know, I do have like a forum in there, which
is like. It's a whole other episode, but if I
want a community, I'm building a forum inside
of WordPress. And so that's a that's a good place
for you to. work if you're not paying for, I
think, the highest level of Circle allows single
sign -on with WordPress. That was also very appealing
to me. But again, with memberful, you can have
that single sign -on sort of function as well.
People log into memberful, and then they become
a user on your WordPress site. And so things
can kind of integrate seamlessly. So... Those
are a few options for kind of building community
or getting feedback engagement. Those are the
things that I'm thinking about. This is really
fuzzy. I know I threw a lot of things at you.
If you have questions or you want to provide
feedback on how you're getting engagement with
your podcast or how you're building a community
for your podcast, I'd love to hear from you.
You can head over to podcastworkflows .com That'll
take you to the fan list page and you can leave
a text or voice note and I will give you a shout
out on the show. So thank you so much for listening
to the podcast workflows podcast. I really appreciate
it. If you're not on my mailing list, you can
go to podcastworkflows .com slash join and sign
up there. And until next time, I can't wait to
see what you make.