AP 0959: Should I Create a Podcast, YouTube Channel, or Both?

AskPat 959 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 959 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.

All right, now here is today's question from Paul.

Paul: Hi Pat, my name is Paul. I currently have a blog, DigitalIntervention.com, and I'm looking to turn that into a podcast. I've been reading, and of course looking at all your videos and everything. My question right now is, do I do a podcast? Do I do YouTube as well? Do I videotape it? Do I do both, or should I just continue maybe with a podcast, but video anyway just to have it in case I want to go back and put that up on YouTube? I guess it's kind of a platform question, but right now they feel like they're the same, and I'm just trying to differentiate what they both are. I appreciate it, thank you.

Pat Flynn: Hey Paul, thank you so much for the question, I appreciate it. Typically, one of my favorite things to offer somebody who has basically a choice between one of two things, or who wants to choose one of two things, is to actually plan that content calendar, or plan ahead as if you are moving forward with both. I would actually start to list out, for example, your next ten podcast episodes. What would those podcast episodes be about? Then imagine them. What are those topics, what would you talk about, who would you interview? So on and so forth. Then do the first ten videos, and outline those, and understand, “Okay, what would be put into those videos? What would be great about them?” That can often—just that exercise alone can help you understand which ones you are more excited about, option A or option B. You might be able to see that maybe one just is better suited for your niche than the other. You might see through this exercise that one is better suited for you personally, and your interest, and what scares you, and what excites you more than the other. That would be the first exercise that I would challenge you to do, and it's great because either way you're going to have something that you can move forward with once you make a decision.

I do think it's smart to expand out of the blogging realm. I did that starting in 2009 with a YouTube channel, which was great. Then I started podcasting in 2010, which did even better. For me, podcasting was where I found my groove, where I found my audience, where I found my voice. For you, it might be different. Sometimes you don't know unless you give both of them a shot. I wouldn't do both at the same time to start. I would pick one that seems to be the one that is best suited for your niche and your audience, and what it is that you're trying to offer. That's, again, why I say that, that exercise of determining the first ten episodes, and the first ten YouTube videos is key because you might find that, “Oh, well these videos, they're kind of boring. What would I even show? Do I even have the resources to do that?” With video, it's very visual, right? You want to make sure that it's not necessarily just you and your talking face the whole time. Not that you don't have a nice face, but you want to show something a little bit more interesting.

Now, you may find that video's better for what it is that you're doing because it's more of a hands on tutorial. You're showing people instructions, and you could show slides over things, and you are actually, literally with your hands showing them how to do something. You're unboxing something . . . There's many different ways to go about it. Which a podcast is not good for. An unboxing video on a podcast is the most boring thing in the world, because you can't see anything. On the other hand, if you are interviewing somebody, and it's just that interview, talking back and forth, sometimes that on video is the most boring thing in the world. You kind of have to decide which one works best for the type of content that you want to come out with. There's no wrong answer, I think either one can do very well, if it is used in the correct way, if the context is there. That's what I would say, Paul. I don't want to get too complicated with this answer and start going into, “Oh, well YouTube is way . . . There's way more people on YouTube, so there's more opportunities to be found. YouTube is a search engine.” Yeah, well iTunes is also, and there's far less people who are on iTunes competing in the podcasting world.

Should you do both at the same time? I mean, there are people who do that. For example, they film and record the interviews, like on Skype. Then they just use that on YouTube, and then they use the audio, and strip that out, and put it into a podcast. I wouldn't recommend doing that, because one of them is always going to be lower quality than what it should be for that particular platform. In that case that I just mentioned, typically either the audio's comprised because on the video they're saying, “Oh, look at this,” and, “Watch this.” Right? If you're listening and you hear that, you're not going to want to listen much longer because you're feeling left out, like you're not getting in the full picture. On the other hand, if it's just as great on audio, well then why are people watching anyway? I mean it's going to be kind of boring, and people might end up clicking away, and you're not utilizing the power of podcasting in that way.

Just some thoughts for you Paul, hopefully that gives you something to think about, and you can make a decision from there after potentially working on that exercise. Let me know what you think.

Thanks so much Paul, I appreciate you. I want to send you an AskPat teeshirt for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

Thanks so much, I appreciate you. To finish off the day, let's end with a quote. That quote is from Benjamin Disraeli, “The secret to success is constancy to purpose.” All right guys, take care, and I'll see you next week in the next episode of AskPat.

One more time, I mentioned this yesterday, but since we talked about podcasting today, if you want to check out my podcasting course, it's helped hundreds of people start their podcast in a very step-by-step manner. People love it, and I cannot wait to see more people go through it and get their podcasts up on iTunes. Power-Up Podcasting is the place to go, sign up there on the waitlist and you'll get notification when the next opening happens, and can't wait to see you in there. PowerUpPodcasting.com. Thanks so much, see you next week. Love you guys. Bye.