072: Should You Have a Private or Public Podcast?
If you’ve been a podcaster for a while you’ve probably heard that private podcasts are becoming more and more popular. Podcasters are turning to private podcasts for a number of reasons. How do you know if a private podcast is right for you?
In this episode, I’ll be talking about the rise of private podcasts. You’ll learn the most common ways that podcasters are using private podcasts and what you need to consider before taking on a private podcast yourself.
What’s in this episode:
The explosion of private podcasts in the industry
The difference between a public vs. a private podcast
How I’ve seen podcasters use private podcasts
Questions to ask yourself before doing a private podcast
Links:
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The Transcript:
072: Should You Have a Private or Public Podcast?
Do you have time to do both and do you need to do both? Is your podcast as it exists in itself right now, working the way it is? Do you need to add more to your plate? Is your audience asking for more?
Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting life and all the wild in-between. Joining Caroline every week as I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready? Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to the Wild Home Podcast. This is episode 72, which is getting up there in the numbers. It's pretty exciting. And today I wanted to talk about a question that's been coming up a lot in conversations with clients and other podcasters, and that is, should my podcast be public or private?
So if you've been following the podcasting world, you know that private podcasts are I don't know if I would say they're starting to explode, but you're starting to see more and more of them. A lot of this is due to the fact that a while back Apple actually introduced a subscription aspect to their app where people could upload special episodes and actually charge for them. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that and how it can be used in a little bit.
The other kind of place that we're seeing them a lot in the online business world is with other service providers, and coaches are using private podcasts a lot. This is where I'm seeing them the most. And so I wanted to kind of break down today what the difference is between a public and private podcast and how to know which one you should use. Give you some examples, just kind of some things to start thinking about, I do think. So if you're asking my opinion if we're going to be seeing these more or if they're important, I do think we are. And I think that this is kind of part of the evolution that is happening in podcasting right now.
You know, we've had podcasts for everybody and they've been accessible and available to everyone, and I don't think that's going to change. But I do think this model of having a private podcast for various things is going to continue to grow and be used more often, because I do think that some people are seeing benefits. Now, it's really important as we talk about this, to not think to yourself, "Oh my gosh, I have to add another podcast to my plate. How am I going to do that?" That's not at all what I want you to take from this. This is more if you feel like you have the time, the energy and the effort. We're going to talk a little bit more about that, too. This isn't just me trying to say you have to do something and I'm going to add this to your plate. I really want this episode to help you discern if you need to do this, if you want to do it, and how to go about doing it.
So let's talk a little bit about the difference of kind of mentioned it a little bit here in the intro, but I want to just explain a little bit more about how they work. So when we say public podcast, we're meeting like a podcast that you can subscribe to for free. Actually, I'm not going to use the word subscribe. So in this conversation that we're going to have about private versus public podcast, there are words that have been shifted a little bit in the industry. We used to always say Subscribe. And then Apple released their updates to their app and their platform and they decided that subscribe was actually going to mean purchase, buy and follow was going to be the word that we were going to use for what we used to do for subscribing. So now what I'm encouraging all of our clients to do is say, follow and not subscribe. Because I do think this is part of that shift where the game is changing a little bit. Right? And this is going to happen a lot in podcasting because it's still so new and growing. And this is one of those things and it seems really minor. But for those of us who have been seeing subscribe for years now, we have to start seeing follow and it's a little confusing. So I just want to make sure I use the right verbiage in this episode so that you will as well.
So let me start over. And talking about that. So when we talk about a public podcast, when you're on an app and you follow a podcast and you are able to get those episodes for free to your app every week, month, whatever their release schedule is. That's what I mean by a public podcast so anyone can listen to it. And this is the majority of podcasts. And when we think of podcasting and listening to podcast, this is what most of us are doing. We're listening to a public podcast. It's free, right? So it's available to everyone. It's on every platform. It's accessible to everyone, right? It's just it's out there for everybody. And so that's what we think of when we think of a public podcast.
When we think of a private podcast, this is a podcast that you have to be given access to. So it's not going to be on every platform. It may only be in one place, it may only be in one place. You may need to pay money to listen to it or sign up for something to get access. This is a podcast that is not for everyone. So when I think of private podcasts, I think of them as being a little bit more specialized. Now we've kind of seen them used in various ways, and I'm going to go into more detail on how you can use them. But I want to really frame this in the perspective of a business owner who has a podcast and maybe wants to start a private podcast.
One of the ways that I've seen it used a lot, especially on the Apple Podcasts app, is my kids listen to a really great podcast called Why in the World. If you have kids and you're not listening to it, you should. And they have a subscription feature now. And my understanding, I've only looked at it a few times because I'm not going to subscribe to it, but my understanding is that it gives you early access to episodes. So this is kind of one of the things we're seeing, especially with podcasts that are not used as marketing tools for businesses. They're using them for like a special access type of thing. Either you're getting the episode early or you're getting special content, which I do think there is a way to do that for business owners. And so I just want to kind of frame that for you real quick. We're going to put it over here.
So let me share a few more ways of how you can use a private podcast, and maybe these are things you haven't thought about before. Some of these I have seen used really well. Some of these are ideas that I had. So let's talk about them.
One of the most interesting ways I've seen a private podcast use is as an opt in for email. Okay, so let me explain how this works. You would have to give your email address to get access to the private podcast. I have actually seen this used as like the main opt in for an email. So instead of doing like an email newsletter, they do a private podcast and how to get access is to sign up for the list. So not only are they doing a private podcast, but they're also building their email newsletter. You can also do this with like a challenge or a special series. A really good example is one that I have, which is a collection of episodes about launching a podcast. And you can opt in and then you get access to this private podcast. Now, in this situation, the episodes are all published, they're on the feed. And so when people sign up, they get access to the entire library there that I have for them of of launch episodes. I do think that if you're going to do that, you need to make it a little bit more special than just using old episodes. So either recording new intros and outros, recording new segments, possibly having additional resources tied into that. So like instead of somebody opting in to get like a free PDF download, they would opt into your email list to get access to this. I did say also you can use it for like a challenge. So if you're going to run a challenge or some kind of lead in to another service or offering, you can use a private podcast in that capacity as well.
So we're not just using it for exclusive content. Now we're also like basically creating a little thing that can hang out over here and help draw in more traffic to our email list. Right. And I love that. I think it's pretty cool. I think a lot of people love the audio format and so having that available is really interesting. I actually hadn't really thought about doing this until I saw somebody else doing it and I opted in. I was interested in their content, but I also just wanted to see how it was used and it was really neat to be able to instead of having to like have this PDF that I have to save and maybe refer back to, I really don't have time in my life to complete a workbook. So being able to have these episodes in like they're short little bite size nuggets of a podcast episode, right? I mean, I think some you can do them like 3 to 5 minutes literally. And it's so great because then I can sit and listen and get an idea of who this person is, what they're selling, what they're offering, and also learn something. So I love that for a private podcast.
I think private podcasts also serve, or work really well. If you have a course having a private podcast that either has the course material on it or has extra material, I think is really neat as well. And then of course, going back to taking payment for a subscription to a private podcast. And so how can you do this as a business owner? I have a couple of ideas and I'm still kind of working this out.
So the first thing that I think of is, like I mentioned before, exclusive content. So maybe like an after. So let's say you have a podcast where you're interviewing guests and then you do an aftershow. I think that would be really neat. Another idea is for the private podcasts that people opt in to pay is for like a Q&A type thing. So maybe people listen to episodes, they submit questions, but to get access to recording and answering those questions, they have to pay for that. Another thing is just building on the episodes each week, so maybe your episodes are kind of like a teaser to all the information. So a late version, and then you do like a full version with more training in a private podcast.
Those are some ideas that I have where I think that it would make sense for somebody to actually pay for that information. And so that is like some things to think about when you're thinking about private podcasts, some ways to use them. But here are some questions that we kind of need to ask ourselves before we say, Yes, I'm going to dove into this. So should you have both? You know, I really think it is a personal decision. I have a couple of private podcasts. One is for my clients, and if I'm being perfectly honest, I have been so busy that I haven't really had time to update it in so long. And so that's something that I'm working on revamping.
And then I also have a private podcast, like I said, opt in, which I'm doing and testing out and seeing how that works. And the opt in was really easy to put together. It's kind of like a one time thing. I still need to build out the page a little bit more and some additional things I want to add to it. But as far as like recording the audio and getting it ready, that was pretty easy. I don't know right now if I would have the time or the capacity to do an extra podcast on top of what I'm already doing. And that really is the main question you need to ask yourself. You know, do you have time to do both and do you need to do both? Is your podcast as it exists in itself right now, working the way it is? Do you need to add more to your plate? Is your audience asking for more? I think that's a really good question to ask yourself, too. You know, if you're doing podcast episodes and you're finding that your audience is wanting more information from you, or they want you to expand on things and you feel like that's not necessarily another podcast episode. For me, it could work really well in a private podcast format, right?
And then the last thing is, you know, when we talk about the opt ins, think about how you prefer to receive your opt ins. And for me, having a private podcast often makes a whole heck of a lot of sense because I'm a podcast manager and editor, that's what I do. And so it makes a lot of sense for me to have an audio opt in. It may not make sense for you. People may not want that from you.
So these are just some questions I want you to ask yourself if you're listening to this and you're going, you know, I kind of like the idea of a private podcast. These are the things that I would kind of go through in my brain before I decide whether or not I'm going to do it. It is a commitment. Trying to do two podcasts a week is a lot, and we've had people try to do two episodes a week on one podcast, and it's been a lot. And so, you know, just really thinking about your schedule all the time you have, if you're going to outsource, if you're going to do a weekly private podcast, that kind of thing.
Now the hosting for private podcast is a little bit different than a regular podcast, and there's a couple of options that I just wanted to mention to you real fast. Obviously, a private podcast is going to need its own home, its own RSS feed, and one of my favorite services to use is Hello Audio and we'll link them in the show notes, but they're really great and they have a system set up, especially for email opt ins or to allow people access with email. So if you have a course or something like that, it's a really great way to give and take away access if you need to, to the private podcast. And it's also really great because it generates a page that allows people to add the podcast to whatever they want. And it's a private podcast, right? So they can add it to their app, but not everybody else can. Right? And again, you can limit who has access to that.
And then if you're wanting to do the thing on Apple Podcasts, you actually have to do that through the back end of Apple on the podcast Connect website. And I'm not going to go into like full detail on how to do that. But just so you know, like it is in a different place and it operates differently than your other Apple podcast.
So I hope this cleared up some questions or maybe gave you some ideas of how you can use private podcasts. Again, I do think that we're going to be seeing more and more of them. And I do think that private podcasts have a place in the podcast world and are going to be growing and expanding, and I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of them. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point we actually start seeing podcasts that are only available through subscription, and I think there are a few of those out there now, but I feel like I envision a Netflix of sorts for podcasts and I feel like that's kind of where we're headed.
And so I think it's really cool to be on the forefront of what's happening in the podcast world. And so if you have any time or want to just create an audio opt in, I say go for it. Because like I said, I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of it and people are going to be wanting it a lot more.
Let me know what you think about private podcasts and if it's something that you're thinking about. You can email me hello@wildhomepodcasting.com or you can head to Instagram and just DM me there at @WildHomePodcasting. And if you have a question that you would like the Wild Home Podcasting team to answer, I really want to do another episode with the team and the next quarter, so be sure to submit your questions and we will put the link in the show notes for that. Have a great day.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. To stay in the know, head to WildHomePodcasting.com and be sure to connect with me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting. See you next week!
