Terms

Before forming Big IP, a content studio that manages podcasts and YouTube channels like The John Campea Show, Pop Apologists and Kempire, Scott Porch was an attorney and journalist. "The most important thing I covered when I was a full-time reporter was film and television. I wrote for the New York Times and Fast Company and Wired and Decider and some other media outlets," he starts.

One of the subjects he delved into was how the podcast and YouTube culture was growing up around film and television. He wrote a piece on Game of Thrones recappers for the New York Times and spent increasing time on the topic, as well as meeting other people in the industry, before deciding to produce shows at Starburns Audio in 2019. "I began on my own and have grown from a handful of YouTube channels and podcasts, up to 14 or 15 channels" He adds.

Scott believes two components create a successful podcast: the creative component and the reach of your audience. "There's a relationship between those two factors," he says. "It's hard to expand the popularity of a show that isn't well-received, but it's equally difficult to take a quality podcast and maintain it for the course of a lengthy period."

He is of the opinion that it's important to have both elements in place. "You must create an idea that people would like to hear and you have to know how to get to find the audience to get those people to be interested in it in the first place." Scott believes that, as Scott discussed with Brian Morrissey when he made an appearance for The Rebooting podcast, often the podcast itself is part of the business, while other times it's the marketing for the company.

Milestones

The success of a podcast also comes down to how big the hosts are - this has become ever more crucial for launch. Some of the most well-known podcasts, such as The Movie Podcast and How Did This Get Made have existed for a long time, so the hosts are well-known because of their podcasts, however there is a lot of noise. "It's gotten difficult to get out of the noise. It all depends on the person," says Scott. "If Taylor Swift started a podcast today, she might start monetizing it from day one. If I started an audio show tomorrow, it would be an entirely different discussion."

Monetizing depends on different thresholds of audience. "At 50k downloads per episode, there's a much greater variety of host-read monetization ad companies that are going be looking to sign up for a minimum commitment to a show that will earn a specific amount of revenue. However, even with 5,000, 10,000 downloads an episode, you can start making money incrementally through membership and programmatic revenue," He states.

Pop Apologists One of the series Scott produces, is home to over 2,000 members who have paid for Patreon along with Apple Podcast subscriptions. The show has been able to increase that membership by doing it for many years as well as being consistent with one show per week for members and one episode per week for members. Scott states that, most importantly the episodes have the same qualities. "If you love one show that you liked, you'll also like the second one."

The first step to join a club

For membership, specifically How do you get started? "A majority of the shows that come from YouTube are familiar with YouTube's members program - there's an awareness of the program that is widespread however in most instances, they've not made the decision to join due to it being a task that's on their agenda but aren't yet able to complete or don't know how they want to do it," Scott says.

Maybe the creator is making so much content that they aren't sure if they have enough time to do additional episodes on the premium platform or if it is going to generate enough revenue, or if the premium platform can outweigh the free platform.

"A lot of it can be a source of confusion or an area that they've not yet reached and require guidance," Scott says. "They need someone to say that there's money if you want to go and go after it'. If you're a creator in your business, you're wearing so many hats, and you have lots to accomplish. You're going to need staff members and, or at a minimum instruments and resources to assist you in building your company," he continues.

So, how do you choose the tools and services that will help you run your business's needs, specifically to join? "A number of factors seem to have been fairly consistent across this market in the last few decades," starts Scott. "Number one is that people who consume podcasts or view YouTube videos, develop an emotional connection with the creators. It's common for people to offer creators by generating recurring income like $4 per month, $6 a month, maybe $10 a month. These consumers do this not simply because they'd like something 'extra' from the creator, but rather because they want to support the creator for a profession and not as just side hustle."

Another trend Scott has observed is that users are platform specific. "When the Pop Apologists were talking about Apple Podcasts subscriptions the company was already performing really great on Patreon. One of the concerns they had with Apple Podcasts' was that it could eat away at Patreon - 'We might need to shut down the subscription if we see a big drain of Patreon to Apple however that's not the case at all. What happened is Patreon has continued to increase in size while Apple Podcasts has grown every month since we launched."

Scott has seen this for various other shows and learned about this particularity from others. "If people are subscribed to Apple Podcasts, they might be listening to 4 or 6, 10 podcasts, but it's where they're likely to be listening to the podcasts. They're not on Patreon nor YouTube. However, if you can put it in front of users through Apple, they'll subscribe to it."

Connection direct with your viewers

Scott believes it's essential for creators to have a direct relationship to consumers, citing a podcast startup called Luminary as an example of caution. "It was like a Netflix model that was licensing other creators to do series. The user would sign up to the platform and then pay."

Scott remembers that Luminary failed to work because consumers don't want an intermediary. "Consumers need to be aware that they're directly donating to the show and that their money of $7 per month or $50 per year goes directly to the creator rather than to Luminary or Netflix or someone else. This direct relationship is important to creators, too. It was a good idea for consumers as well as financial sense to create Pop Apologists podcasts on the Apple platform in an effort to reach out to that market however, Scott and his team aren't sure who their listeners are. "We don't have their email addresses. There's no way to have an online forum on Zoom every month to talk with those people. We aren't able to let them know when we're going to be present on another podcast or when we'll perform a live event. There's no specific information on these people," he explains.

Scott believes that if you are looking to make money, you should choose an option where you will be in direct contact with. "If your growth is only incremental, you might want to start Apple Podcasts subscriptions or Spotify subscriptions - but I'd prefer to get the person's personal information instead of having them kind of 'out there'," Scott adds.

Concentrate on the near future

If you're a new podcaster, Scott offers advice about the future of your show: "Don't get insular with your listeners. Create your podcast to be a success for the 1,000th subscriber, not the first 1,000 subscribers. Everyday, a new person listens to your show who don't yet know about the format and style of your show."

Scott says to focus on the initial thirty seconds in your show. Scott says: "Are you introducing yourself to a first time listener? Or are you signaling 'This is the popular table but you're not getting our jokes, you may like to try listening to something different since we've got our group already'.

He recognizes that it's possible to make a mistake due to the personal relationship between the consumer and seller "You do want the club to exist. But you don't want it to become a club that has no doors. This quantity of people is the only thing you ever have," he explains. "You've need to find the balance between giving your subscribers what they're looking for yet not being too exclusive that a new person listens to it and decides that they've already got their own thing. I'm not going to get involved.' If every single episode can't function like the initial episode and you're saying to that new listener the show is not for them."

Scott receives podcast suggestions all the time and can discern the recommendations within 10 seconds. "Give me ten seconds telling me who you are and the topic of this podcast about, and then tell me what you'll be talking about today. Otherwise, I think 'I'm not in this particular club. I've already missed it There's a lot of history and 'in' vocabulary. That can be a killer for podcasts."

Pre-roll ads are the same as advertisements that play in pre-roll. "Some shows that I am working with have pre-roll ads which we all earn profits from it," says Scott. "If they did not do that the show would earn less income. Who wants the first thing that they listen to the first time they listen to your show to be an advertisement for Volkswagen? I would like the first thing that they hear be the voice of the host."

In the end, Scott offers a tip about how to be resilient for podcasters who are new. "You'll find many creators make five episodes. They're not seeing the growth which is why they quit. If you really want to use this as a business growth tool or just a creative outlet it's going to be necessary take longer than you anticipate before it feels like it's succeeding.

It's not necessarily a negative aspect: "You're gonna get a lot better at it during the first 25 to 35 episodes. There will be feedback. It's important to take the time because you enjoy it and know it's going to become an incrementally successful. There are many shows that expand from 300th to 400th episodes. Are you truly committed? It's unlikely that you'll get 25,000 downloads right out of the box unless you're well-known.

Which show like to listen to? Which episode are you seeing more lengthy playthroughs of? If this is something you truly want to do, you're going to have to have to be patient to come up with a creative solution."