Prologue
Fame Has a Shadow
I had a somewhat "generic" prologue for this issue ready to go ...
Then I got news that blogger Heather B. Armstrong, known to millions as Dooce, died by suicide.
You can read about Heather here.
But let's talk about you ...
What we do as podcasters can be difficult. Every time we publish an episode, we open ourselves up to criticism from people, most of whom we don't even know. As Heather mentioned in her final blog post (talking about sobriety), it can feel like "living life as a clam without its shell."
This "rawness" is a big reason why people love listening to podcasts. It feels good, and it's helpful, to know there are other people in the world going through the same things you are – not just "bad" things, but also exciting things. And happy things.
But creating this kind of content has a price. It's very easy to become overextended as far as how much of your life you share with others.
I don't have all the answers when it comes to how much of yourself you should share with the world, but I do know this:
- If you want longevity, you need to operate at a pace that's sustainable.
- You will benefit from solid boundaries regarding what you share with the public and it's easier to establish these boundaries before you get a big audience.
- If you live off the praise of others, you will die by their criticism.
YouTube is a great opportunity for some. And there are different ways of how you can take advantage of its power, including anonymous options.
But just because "everybody else" is there, doesn't mean you need to be there as well. There are plenty of people who have had successful online careers without ever putting a video on YouTube.
Pace yourself and work at your own level. If you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to help others.
Having thoughts of suicide? Please call 988 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources is also a helpful resource.
We need you here.
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Podcaster Opportunities
Steal These "YouTube" Ideas for Your Podcast
A funny story ... I needed a new razor, so I went to YouTube to check out reviews.
YouTube has thousands of videos of guys shaving (and taking it very seriously) – mixing the lather, debating whether Japanese Steel blades are better than Platinum-coated ones, and offering commentary on the "best" way to get a close shave.
Now I'm being targeted with ads. And YouTube suggested a video that has about 4,100,000 views.
So I watched it ...
The comments caught my attention. People didn't care about his shaving technique or the blade he was using – they loved the sound it made as he scraped it across his face.
A new "genre" of podcasts? Maybe ...
That got me thinking about some other common YouTube videos that could be used for podcasting:
Challenges
Most of the "trends" you see on video sites like YouTube or TikTok won't work for an audio podcast, but I've found limited-run, highly-specific and cohort-style content works very well for podcasts. For example, my upcoming Podcast Jumpstart (get it free here) has elements that could be used to make a perfect standalone podcast.
This style of podcast could be done as an addition to almost any existing non-fiction podcast. For example, a challenge to clean your house, lose 15 pounds, or do 100 pushups.
Want to brainstorm ideas to do with your podcast? Reach out to me via Twitter or Mastodon and let me know what you're thinking about.
Social Experiments
One of the more creative social experiments on YouTube was Jia Jiang's "100 Days of Rejection" project, where he did 100 different tasks that involved asking for something from others, each with a high probability of being rejected. The story made national news and he later wrote a book on the experience.
An audio podcast would have been a great appendix to what he was doing on YouTube, giving interested people more details about the experience, what he thought would happen, and what actually happened.
You don't have to do anything this deep. You could do a "lo-fi" variation of this, doing one thing daily for a month and reporting back a couple of times per week to give listeners an update of the experience.
What would this look like? Here are some example challenges to get you thinking of one that would be a match for you:
- Saying "yes" to everything for 30 days.
- Not eating fast food (or sugar) for 30 days.
- Waking up early (or sleeping in) for 30 days
ASMR
This "genre" is videos is crazy popular. For example, I just randomly found a video of a lady recording "sleep sounds" on a Blue Yeti that has 48 million views. And there is just as much opportunity in podcasting ...
Soothing Content
Any of these will work well for a podcast:
- Guided Meditation
- Bedtime Stories
- Affirmations (and other affirmative content)
- "Nice" Content (this video has 1.3 million views, for example)
- Relaxing Sounds
News
It's hard to compete with "general" news, but industry-specific or other niche-format news programs work very well for podcasts. For example, Podnews for podcasting.
What podcast ideas have you "borrowed" from YouTube? Reach out to me via Twitter or Mastodon and let me know what you're thinking about.
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Podcasting News
YouTube's Podcast Deals With NPR, Slate and New York Times Are Flopping
Non-video podcasts from NPR, Slate, and the New York Times are struggling to find an audience on YouTube – that's basically what this article says.
Of course they are!
YouTube is a video platform. Yeah, you can put up "audio-only" content on YouTube, but it wasn't designed for audio-only content and people who have been using YouTube since it launched in 2005 haven't been going there looking for audio content.
Will that change in the future? Maybe. But it's going to take time to reeducate people on a different way to use YouTube.
Should you have your audio-only podcast up on YouTube? Here's why I would:
- It's the easiest way for people to listen to a podcast.
- It's easy to put your audio-only podcast on YouTube (and completely automated via many podcast hosting companies).
- It's not going to hurt you and it may help you.
A real world example ...
Zita Christian is a podcaster in her 70s with an important podcast for caretakers, many of them her age or older. Because she wants to get her message out to as many people as possible, and YouTube is so easy to access, it makes sense to put her podcast on YouTube.
Again, it doesn't hurt for your audio-only podcast to be on YouTube and it may help you. But don't stop distributing your podcast to traditional, audio-only outlets or put all your money on YouTube – that doesn't seem to be paying off yet.
Podcast Humor
That's Not a Podcast!!
Technically, a "podcast" on YouTube isn't a podcast, it's a video of your podcast. Yes, this is being petty. Which is why it's silly to worry about the details that differentiate a podcast from a video on YouTube, such as whether there's an RSS feed involved.
Your listeners don't care. What they do care about is being able to easily access what you do. And for many people, that's via YouTube.
I just did an episode of Build a Big Podcast that talks about how podcasting is messy.
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The Wrap Up
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