AP 0818: Should I Separate Multiple Podcasts or Put Them Under the Same Podcast Network?

AskPat 818 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 818 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. We have a great question today from Mike. But before we get to that, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is Design Crowd.

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Mike: Hi Pat, this is Mike from Pittsburgh. I recently started a soccer podcast at MonGoals.com, where we talk about all things soccer related in the city of Pittsburgh. We recently expanded the content we offer so that we're now recording three to four different themed shows every week. For example, there's a college show, there's a River Hound show, there's a premier league show, etc. My question is, would you recommend that we continue to host all of these shows under the MonGoals name and URL, or break them up into separate shows that people could subscribe to individually? Thanks again for everything you do.

Pat Flynn: Hey Mike, thank you so much for your question. Super cool that you're doing a podcast for soccer peeps. I know that's growing here in the US for sure. My son plays it, I see the thousands of kids play every weekend. It's growing, we are potentially getting an MLS, Major League Soccer, team here in San Diego. We did lose the Chargers, and they're considering putting a soccer team here in it's place. A lot of people actually aren't happy about that, but I know soccer fanatics like myself, am. I played soccer for 20 years, even in college. It was awesome.

Now, to your question. You have all these different themed shows. The answer is, well, ask your audience. See what they would like. Are there people who, perhaps are skipping shows because they only want to listen to one and not the other? What I can envision happening is keeping them under the MonGoal brand, which I love that, but having them be different shows under that brand. It almost becomes a MonGoal network. Then what's cool is from there, you can have people subscribe to the different shows, which I think is totally fine if that needs to happen. I don't think you are necessarily making it tougher for people to get those shows when they come out. Quite honestly, it just takes one or two clicks to subscribe to a new show. If they really love your stuff, and they want to get the college one, and the pro one, and what not. I feel like that's not going to be too hard.

Plus, it's going to be able to start to organize and categorize your stuff even better. I would, if the audience confirms and there isn't too much blow back because of that, I would definitely go that route. That also gives you a lot more cross over and networking opportunities, it gives you a little bit more, I would say clout or authority. “Hey, we have multiple podcasts, one for each specific sort of category.” Within each of those categories it's going to be much easier for you to nail things down. It's sort of like ESPN versus. . . yes, ESPN obviously is the network. Then there's ESPNU, there's other forms of ESPN. Maybe that wasn't a good example, but you know what I mean?

It would really heighten the brand I feel if you did that, and it would also offer you the ability to really speak to people who just want those specific categories, and who are trying to find content specific for those categories as well. Imagine somebody searching on iTunes for, “College soccer podcast.” Yours is likely going to be one that pops up. Not just because of the search engine optimization for that particular show because it's so targeted and narrow, but also because it's just going to be a giant network as a result of just the cross promotion. Some people are going to be listening to multiple podcasts.

Yeah, I know I said earlier ask your audience, but I think you know what the right answer is, and I feel like this is the right answer for you as well. So long as by doing this you are not diluting anything. I don't think that would be possible, but I could see it happening in some cases. For you guys it sounds like you're gung ho with this anyway, and the tone of your voice, and kind of having brought this up anyway. I would definitely go for it. Just again, check with your audience and let them know. I would also just fill them in that this is where this is potentially going, so that you can prime people and get them ready for when the other podcasts come out, they will be able to find them, and subscribe to them based on whatever one they like best.

Yeah, that's cool. That's awesome, I want to wish you all the best. Thank you so much for the question, I really appreciate it. Mike, I want to send you, also an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show, and of course best of luck to you. For everybody else out there who has a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, head on over to AskPat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

Thank you so much, I appreciate you, and here's a quote to finish off the day by Jay Frank Dobie: “Luck is being ready for the chance.” That's so good. All right guys, thank you so much. Take care, and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. If you have a moment, just please head on over to iTunes and leave a review for AskPat. I really love reading your reviews, thank you so much. We've gotten all, mostly five star reviews at this point, but we could use more obviously. It really helps out. Cheers, take care, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.