The Podcast Accelerator: How to Grow Your Podcast

We all want more "engagement" on our podcasts but the word itself poses some challenges and leaves us fighting for broad strokes of interaction that we just can't scale. But we can fix it.

About The Podcast Accelerator

Welcome to The Podcast Accelerator, the thrice-weekly show that brings you podcast education, industry insights and straight-talking reactions to podcasting news.

I’m your host Mark Asquith, The British Podcast Guy and CEO and co-founder of Rebel Base Media, the podcast tech company that creates the Podcast Success Academy, Podcast Websites, Poductivity, Rebel Base Studios & Captivate.fm, the world’s only growth-oriented podcast host where you can get your first month of podcast hosting for just one dollar and transfer an existing podcast in, completely free.

Thank you so much for joining me on the Podcast Accelerator, remember to tell your podcasting friends that the show is available to listen to for free in any app that supports podcasts.

Your next steps

I teach podcasting a lot, and usually for free. So, here's what I'd recommend you do next:

• Watch my free podcasting tutorials on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/captivatepodcasting
• Learn how to launch your own podcast the right way, for free (plus a comprehensive download-and-keep crib sheet): https://www.podcastsuccessacademy.com
• Ask me anything at all about podcasting over on Twitter: Mark.Live/Twitter

P.S. you can start engaging with your listeners using AWeber. It's free, no credit card required: Mark.Live/Email

Each social channel has its nuances, benefits and flaws. Twitter is my personal favourite for podcast growth so today I'm sharing a few simple strategies that I employ to build my podcast audience using the platform.

Welcome to The Podcast Accelerator, the thrice-weekly show that brings you podcast education, industry insights and straight-talking reactions to podcasting news.

I’m your host Mark Asquith, The British Podcast Guy and CEO and co-founder of Rebel Base Media, the podcast tech company that creates the Podcast Success Academy, Podcast Websites, Poductivity, Rebel Base Studios & Captivate.fm, the world’s only growth-oriented podcast host where you can get your first month of podcast hosting for just one dollar and transfer an existing podcast in, completely free.

Thank you so much for joining me on the Podcast Accelerator, remember to tell your podcasting friends that the show is available to listen to for free in any app that supports podcasts.

Your next steps

I teach podcasting a lot, and usually for free. So, here's what I'd recommend you do next:

• Watch my free podcasting tutorials on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/captivatepodcasting
• Learn how to launch your own podcast the right way, for free (plus a comprehensive download-and-keep crib sheet): https://www.podcastsuccessacademy.com
• Ask me anything at all about podcasting over on Twitter: Mark.Live/Twitter

P.S. you can start engaging with your listeners using AWeber. It's free, no credit card required: Mark.Live/Email

Mentioned in this episode:

Captivate’s Podcast Attribution Links

I talk a lot about engagement and why it’s vital to foster genuine micro interactions with your audience. But without measurement, those strategies and actions can’t be deemed to be successes or failures and right now in podcasting, there are so many disparate tools out there that are trying to solve these measurement problems. Captivate’s first-party attribution links allow you replace short link generators like Bit.ly or Pretty Links with short links that you create directly from your podcast hosting dashboard. The mega benefit with this is that you can then attach these short links to pieces of dynamic audio, automatically insert them into your show notes when you use Captivate’s AMIE (Audio Monetization & Integration Engine) tool and use them throughout your episodes as simple, memorable calls to action. Simply tell Captivate the long, real world link that you’d like to measure, link up your custom domain for free and then set a short link that Captivate will then measure traffic to. For example: mark.live/twitter takes you to https://www.twitter.com/MrAsquith AND all of the traffic to it is measured. I use this feature every single day and it’s one of the things that has really transformed my podcasting focus by giving my show accountability!

Try Captivate for free

Straight-talking podcast growth tutorials for the busy podcaster

Every week I send out 1,000-2,000 words of completely free, tried and tested podcast education. It's totally focussed on helping you to grow and monetise your audience and has become one of the most trusted go-to places for honest podcasting education in the world. It's all free and you can get it below.

The Podcast Accelerator

The panacea for the busy podcaster is a robust set of processes. But are your processes devolving your podcast into a lifeless cookie cutter template? Are your processes undermining your creativity and, if so, how can you achieve the perfect balance?

Welcome to The Podcast Accelerator, the thrice-weekly show that brings you podcast education, industry insights and straight-talking reactions to podcasting news.

I’m your host Mark Asquith, The British Podcast Guy and MD and co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world’s only growth-oriented podcast host where you can get your first month of podcast hosting for just one dollar and transfer an existing podcast in, completely free.

Thank you so much for joining me on the Podcast Accelerator, remember to tell your podcasting friends that the show is available to listen to for free in any app that supports podcasts.

Your next steps

I teach podcasting a lot, and usually for free. So, here's what I'd recommend you do next:

• Watch my free podcasting tutorials on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/captivatepodcasting
• Learn how to launch your own podcast the right way, for free (plus a comprehensive download-and-keep crib sheet): https://www.podcastsuccessacademy.com
• Ask me anything at all about podcasting over on Twitter: Mark.Live/Twitter

P.S. you can start engaging with your listeners using AWeber. It's free, no credit card required: Mark.Live/Email

Mentioned in this episode:

Straight-talking podcast growth tutorials for the busy podcaster

Every week I send out 1,000-2,000 words of completely free, tried and tested podcast education. It's totally focussed on helping you to grow and monetise your audience and has become one of the most trusted go-to places for honest podcasting education in the world. It's all free and you can get it below.

The Podcast Accelerator

Descript - edit your audio like a word processor!

Descript! When it comes to your podcasting processes, it’s important to find the “stack” that works for you. Whether that includes a classic digital audio workstation like Audition or Hindenburg or something more specifically tailored to the busy podcaster like my recommendation today, Descript is really down to your own technical preferences and your available budgets. Descript is an audio and video editor that works by transcribing your audio and giving you an editor that works like a word processor - edit your words and the audio will be edited to match. It’s wonderful! But, Descript does so much more than that: build beautiful, on-brand audiograms, one-click publish your episodes and transcriptions to your podcast hosting platform with Captivate’s direct integration and manage multiple podcast speakers all from within Descript’s simple interface. I highly recommend Descript if you’re looking for a quicker way to edit your podcast plus, the Descript team is a team that I’ve come to know and work with more over the years and that I know does business like I do: with the success of you, the busy podcaster, at the heart of their mission.

Try Descript for free

The truth is that you and I, we don't know everything and remaining humble is a skill and mindset that we all, as podcasters, must practice and adopt so that we don't limit the potential of our podcast by letting our ego get in the way.

Fan of the show? Find it helpful?

You can become a supporter of the show via a one-off tip that I'll use to buy a beer at this link: Support The Podcast Accelerator: How to Grow Your Podcast.

Your next steps

I teach podcasting a lot and for free. So, here's what I'd recommend you do next:

• Watch my free podcasting tutorials on YouTube: YouTube (Captivate)
• Ask me anything at all about podcasting over on Twitter: Twitter

If you need help with anything at all regarding your podcast, get me on Twitter (Twitter ) and I promise to respond.

Mentioned in this episode:

Meet Captivate's Dynamic Show Notes Builder

Writing high-quality show notes is a vital part of a successful podcast but is often overlooked because, honestly, it’s a pretty cumbersome task. Captivate’s Dynamic Show Notes Builder does the heavy lifting for you by allowing you to build unlimited Show Notes Templates and set specific Templates as default for the podcast episodes that you publish. Your show notes become dynamic when you use Captivate’s advanced “Blocks” and “Shortcodes” to enhance your show notes by adding content that can be updated in one place and that, when changed, will then be updated in every single episode within which that content appears. Blocks are reusable chunks of content that can be utilised in several Templates at a time and Shortcodes are single pieces of data that are either included from your Captivate dashboard, such as your single promotional link, information on the guests that have been interviewed on your podcast using Captivate’s guest booking & interview management system, tip or donation links and your measurable attribution links plus any custom Shortcodes that you may have added to your Captivate dashboard such as custom hiatus messages or privacy messages. AMIE, Captivate’s Audio Monetisation & Integration Engine, works in a very special, highly useful way with the dynamic podcast Show Notes Builder. When uploading your own dynamic content for use in your episode pre-roll, post-roll or mid-roll, you can also include a text title, some free text and associate one of your Captivate attribution links to the piece of audio so that, when you dynamically insert the audio using AMIE, Captivate automatically includes the label, text and measurable attribution link in your show notes. Captivate will do this for every piece of dynamically inserted audio and will measure the traffic and clicks via each associated attribution link. If you remove (individually or in bulk) audio from your episodes using AMIE, the show notes will dynamically update for each episode affected. Welcome to dynamic show notes, brought to you by Captivate.

Try Captivate for free

Straight-talking podcast growth tutorials for the busy podcaster

Every week I send out 1,000-2,000 words of completely free, tried and tested podcast education. It's totally focussed on helping you to grow and monetise your audience and has become one of the most trusted go-to places for honest podcasting education in the world. It's all free and you can get it below.

The Podcast Accelerator

An interview show is touted as the way to "explode" your influence and increase your impact by the gurus who sell anything to anyone, but you've followed all of their advice and for some reason, your numbers aren't moving and your guests don't often share the interviews that they do with you. Why?

Fan of the show? Find it helpful?

You can become a supporter of the show via a one-off tip that I'll use to buy a beer at this link: Support The Podcast Accelerator: How to Grow Your Podcast.

Your next steps

I teach podcasting a lot and for free. So, here's what I'd recommend you do next:

• Watch my free podcasting tutorials on YouTube: YouTube (Captivate)
• Ask me anything at all about podcasting over on Twitter: Twitter

If you need help with anything at all regarding your podcast, get me on Twitter (Twitter ) and I promise to respond.

Mentioned in this episode:

HypeFury - my Twitter growth tool

I'm a huge fan of building an engaged audience on Twitter but the day-to-day of doing that isn't always easy. HypeFury is my favourite tool to help manage Twitter content because it gives me the opportunity to really analyse what's working, what's not working and helps me to spot trends in my content creation that really resonate with my audience. It's important to treat Twitter like the content platform that it is and HypeFury's toolkit is perfect for the serious creator who wants to build a meaningful audience on the platform whilst also measuring specific follower growth and engagement. The free plan from HypeFury is perfect for getting started and the team is highly responsive to feedback, feature requests and support. It's my #1 Twitter growth recommendation!

Try HypeFury for free

Straight-talking podcast growth tutorials for the busy podcaster

Every week I send out 1,000-2,000 words of completely free, tried and tested podcast education. It's totally focussed on helping you to grow and monetise your audience and has become one of the most trusted go-to places for honest podcasting education in the world. It's all free and you can get it below.

The Podcast Accelerator