In this episode, I’ll address the frequently asked question about whether podcasters need to produce weekly episodes. There is no hard and fast rule dictating a weekly release schedule and as a podcaster, you should find a rhythm that works for them. I parallel this with music artists who don’t release albums every week, highlighting that consistent output does not necessarily mean weekly episodes.
I’ll encourage you to focus on the age-old podcasting tip that is creating quality content and building a loyal audience, rather than feeling pressured to adhere to a specific release schedule. Ultimately, the emphasis is on the fact that podcasting is about finding what works best for you as an individual podcaster and your show.
Highlights:
- Introduction to the question: Do you need to produce weekly podcast episodes?
- Comparison with music artists who release albums less frequently than weekly.
- Emphasizing that consistency does not necessarily mean a weekly release schedule.
- The importance of finding a rhythm that works for the podcaster.
- Highlighting the benefits of releasing episodes less frequently, such as allowing for more focused content and better preparation.
- Encouraging podcasters to prioritize quality over quantity and to set realistic goals for themselves.
- The importance of communication with listeners about release schedules and expectations.
Timestamps:
- [00:00:00] Introduction
- [00:01:32] Debunking the Weekly Release Myth
- [00:02:10] Success Stories: Lessons from the Music Industry
- [00:03:34] Finding Your Podcasting Rhythm
- [00:04:52] The Importance of Quality Over Quantity
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Verity Sangan: Hello, everybody.
[00:00:01] Verity Sangan: Welcome back to another episode of the Lazy Girl's Guide to podcasting.
[00:00:05] Verity Sangan: I really need to come up with a new intro, I've decided, because I love doing the dynamic intro thing, but saying hi, welcome to the Lazy Girls Guide to podcasting.
[00:00:14] Verity Sangan: Every single episode, I feel like I don't know what.
[00:00:16] Verity Sangan: I just feel like I need to zhuzha up somehow.
[00:00:18] Verity Sangan: If you have any ideas, let me know.
[00:00:21] Verity Sangan: But either way, it is great to have you here.
[00:00:23] Verity Sangan: As ever, I'm verity hope of the Lazy Girls Guide to podcasting.
[00:00:26] Verity Sangan: The podcast where we talk everything.
[00:00:28] Verity Sangan: Podcasting.
[00:00:29] Verity Sangan: It's very aptly named, isn't it?
[00:00:31] Verity Sangan: If you are new here, if you have come back again, it is great to have you here regardless.
[00:00:38] Verity Sangan: And for this episode, I don't think it's going to be a terribly long episode.
[00:00:42] Verity Sangan: I mean, I always say that kind of thing, don't I?
[00:00:43] Verity Sangan: I don't think it's going to be very long.
[00:00:44] Verity Sangan: And then 20 minutes later, I'm still chatting and I'm thinking, well, I've gone way over my 1015 minutes limit for these episodes, but what I want to do today is just very quickly answer the question of do I need to produce weekly podcast episodes?
[00:01:01] Verity Sangan: To me, the answer is no.
[00:01:03] Verity Sangan: So there we go, straight off.
[00:01:04] Verity Sangan: If you just wanted the one word answer to do I need to produce weekly podcast episodes for my podcast?
[00:01:10] Verity Sangan: My answer is no.
[00:01:12] Verity Sangan: There you go.
[00:01:12] Verity Sangan: You can stop listening to the episode if you want.
[00:01:13] Verity Sangan: I'd love it if you continued.
[00:01:14] Verity Sangan: However, if you want to just stop listening to the episode, the answer is no.
[00:01:18] Verity Sangan: If you want the slightly longer answer, then here is my opinion on the answer to this question.
[00:01:25] Verity Sangan: Because I think sometimes in podcasting we get really, really wrapped up on this idea that we have to produce weekly episodes and we always need to be on this content cycle.
[00:01:36] Verity Sangan: Now, I know that's very rich coming from me.
[00:01:38] Verity Sangan: I try my absolute hardest to put out a new podcast episode every week.
[00:01:44] Verity Sangan: But that is more because I've just got so much to say about podcasting and so many episode ideas that I just want to keep going with the episode generation.
[00:01:57] Verity Sangan: It's something that I love.
[00:01:58] Verity Sangan: It's an amazing hobby.
[00:01:59] Verity Sangan: And so for me, I like to keep up with that schedule.
[00:02:05] Verity Sangan: But do you need to do the whole weekly gig?
[00:02:09] Verity Sangan: And I think the answer to that is just no.
[00:02:12] Verity Sangan: I mean, if we think about artists, for example, and when I say artists, I mean think about musical artists.
[00:02:20] Verity Sangan: Do they put out a new song or a new album every single week?
[00:02:24] Verity Sangan: No.
[00:02:24] Verity Sangan: They will produce maybe once a year, once every couple of years, depending on who they are and what their content production is and how much they're in demand and all the rest of it.
[00:02:35] Verity Sangan: They'll put out a new album, maybe, I don't know, 1011 songs, maybe more.
[00:02:41] Verity Sangan: Maybe they'll have the deluxe version as well.
[00:02:44] Verity Sangan: But you get my point.
[00:02:45] Verity Sangan: They're definitely not putting out a brand new song every single week.
[00:02:50] Verity Sangan: And you could argue, yeah, but Verisi, come on, it's easier to put out a new podcast episode every week than it is for Taylor Swift, for example, to go and get a whole song written and recorded and all those musicians and stuff.
[00:03:01] Verity Sangan: Yeah, no, I completely get that.
[00:03:03] Verity Sangan: But my point is that a musical artist does not have to continually put out new music.
[00:03:10] Verity Sangan: They may put, like I said, an album out one year and then they tour it for a couple of years and then they work on another or something.
[00:03:17] Verity Sangan: And it's the same with radio shows in terms of, yes, you've got your radio shows that are on every single day, every single week, what have you.
[00:03:26] Verity Sangan: However, you've also got your limited runs, don't you, where you've got a show which maybe will only be on for like six weeks, and then they take six weeks off, and then they might come back for another however many weeks.
[00:03:38] Do You Need to Produce New Episodes Every Week?
[00:03:38] Verity Sangan: And the point that I'm kind of making here is that I think that we can get very, very caught up in the world of podcasting with this idea that we have to put out a new show or not a new show.
[00:03:52] Verity Sangan: Sorry.
[00:03:53] Verity Sangan: God, can you imagine putting out a new show every week?
[00:03:55] Verity Sangan: Is that you need to put a new episode out every single week.
[00:03:59] Verity Sangan: And I guess what I'm here to tell you for this episode is put out the content that works for you.
[00:04:08] Verity Sangan: I was on LinkedIn recently, and I don't go on LinkedIn very much, but I saw from a creator who I hugely admire, and he was saying that if he was starting his podcast again, his content schedule would actually only be two episodes per month.
[00:04:24] Verity Sangan: So a biweekly episode.
[00:04:28] Verity Sangan: Biweekly?
[00:04:29] Verity Sangan: Yeah, once every two weeks.
[00:04:30] Verity Sangan: Basically, he'd be putting out a new episode.
[00:04:32] Verity Sangan: And he was saying that's because then he could put so much effort into really, really good production and then also a sustained period of time into promoting that episode as well.
[00:04:47] Verity Sangan: So I thought that was really, really interesting.
[00:04:50] Verity Sangan: And whilst I am going to continue with my weekly episode production, and hopefully I'm going to try and go every so often with two episodes in a week as well.
[00:05:01] Verity Sangan: But what I really want to say is don't feel the pressure that you have to put out a weekly episode if you either don't want to or you don't feel that you have anything to talk about for that week.
[00:05:13] Verity Sangan: Or maybe it just doesn't fit in with your lifestyle.
[00:05:17] Verity Sangan: Life happens at the end of the day and that's absolutely fine.
[00:05:21] Verity Sangan: Or if you want to take a six week break, maybe for the summer or a few weeks off for Christmas, and you haven't batch recorded, that's also fine.
[00:05:29] Verity Sangan: It's your show.
[00:05:31] Verity Sangan: Just keep promoting the episode you've already got.
[00:05:33] Verity Sangan: I do that every so often.
[00:05:35] Verity Sangan: If I've maybe forgotten to create graphics or promotional materials for my latest episode, or I might suddenly think, oh, I really can't remember, did I promote this or did I do that?
[00:05:46] Verity Sangan: I'll just turn around and be like, hey, I haven't talked about episode 13 in a while, or episode 15, or I'll just promote some previous episode quite randomly because why not?
[00:05:57] Verity Sangan: Your back catalog is there.
[00:05:58] Verity Sangan: You still want people to listen to it.
[00:06:00] Verity Sangan: So there's me chatting away again.
[00:06:01] Verity Sangan: We've already hit six minutes and I told you it wasn't going to be a long episode.
[00:06:05] Verity Sangan: But to round up, if you are asking yourself, do I need to produce weekly podcast episodes?
[00:06:12] Verity Sangan: My answer to that is no.
[00:06:14] Verity Sangan: You need to produce episodes that keep up with your lifestyle and that you can also keep up with, because there is nothing wrong with creating fewer episodes, producing fewer episodes, which are really top notch quality and continuing to promote those, versus having just tons and tons of quantity but no quality.
[00:06:37] Verity Sangan: So no, you do not need to produce new episodes every single week if you don't want to.
[00:06:41] Verity Sangan: If you want to take a break, if you want to take a break for a couple of months or what have you.
[00:06:46] Verity Sangan: I've taken a break now for my other podcast, the confident CEO podcast, since, oh, six months now, actually, just looking at the calendar.
[00:06:54] Verity Sangan: Six months.
[00:06:54] Verity Sangan: And do you know what?
[00:06:55] Verity Sangan: I still get very good numbers of downloads despite the fact that I haven't produced a new episode for that podcast in six months now.
[00:07:03] Verity Sangan: And I don't actually promote it very much either, but that is still getting really good numbers of downloads.
[00:07:09] Verity Sangan: So no, you don't need to produce a new episode every single week to see success if you don't want to.
[00:07:17] Verity Sangan: So on that note, I am going to close off.
[00:07:21] Verity Sangan: If you have ideas about my opinion on producing new episodes weekly, make sure you send me a message over on Twitter, over on X, our Verity song gone.
[00:07:31] Verity Sangan: And otherwise, I will see you next time.
[00:07:33] Verity Sangan: Happy podcasting.
