5 Ways To Grow Your Podcast in 2024
Date Taylor Swift, and other ways to grow your show in 2024
There are plenty of articles out there teaching you how to grow your show. Sure, you could “Make Great Content” or “Optimize Titles for SEO” but I am here to tell you the real ways to have a hit podcast in 2024.
Congratulations to New Heights, the 2024 Podcast of the Year winner at the iHeart Podcast Awards presented by iHeart, a podcasting company which makes podcasts and has a podcast awards show, kinda like the Paramount Pictures Oscars but different.
I like New Heights. Seriously. During the stretch run of the NFL, I found their insights as Actual NFL Stars who Actually Star in Actual NFL Games that I Actually Watch to be super-insightful. I forget what the situation was, but one of the brothers explained what happened on a broken down play and how all that works. I found it super interesting. Jason is a bit of a natural and will probably have a long career at this, and someone will eventually explain to Travis to back down on the F-bombs.
It’s a good show, and it had a great year, in part thanks to Tip #1: Date Taylor Swift.
Dating Taylor Swift will bring your show to New Heights like no other marketing plan. Once the media finds out you are dating Taylor Swift, they will hang around your job. From there, you can let them know you have a podcast where maybe you might mention something about your girlfriend sometimes maybe perhaps even though your podcast is really about Star Trek. Regardless, the Swifties and the Other Casuals will check out your show, Apple will be more inclined to promote you, and iHeart (the podcasting company) might give you an award at the iHeart Podcasting Awards.
My next tip is similar. Tip #2: Marry into the Royal Family. Meghan Markle was able to parlay this into a deal that reportedly got her $25,000,000 to do TWLEVE episodes. Let’s see, $200 to rent the studio, $200 for the editor, lets over pay the booker $10,000 an episode - there’s still $2.4 million and change for each episode left over. Nice work if you can get it.
Do the other actors from Suits have hit podcasts? No, they do not. They did not follow Tip #1 nor Tip #2.
Archetypes must not have been that great of a deal for Spotify since they didn’t renew. Yet, Meghan got picked up by another company and will presumably be paid to make another podcast! Meghan relaunched her original $25,000,000 for 12 episodes, Apple played along, and it shot to #2 on the charts. Date a royal, it works.
Speaking of the Royal Family, it’s been a huge week for Palace Intrigue, the show where we talk about the royals seven days a week with the mindset of Americans who like gossip and don’t have to be reverent about any of it. We don’t have to say “Princess Catherine” when Kate will do.
Kate Middleton either is fine, recovering from a Brazilian Butt Lift, dead, or divorcing Prince William (in which case, you will have TWO opportunities to date a royal and get a hit podcast.)
Palace Intrigue illustrates Tip #3: Right Show at the Right Time.
The original design for this show was that we would talk about the Royals, covering Kate opening train stations or whatever it is those people do, eventually Prince Philip and the Queen would die (Hey, they were 98 and 93, it wasn’t an absurd notion), Charles would get sworn in and then we’d see what happens. WOW a lot happened. Megxit, Spare and now KateGate. It never ends.
Similarly, I was involved in the launch of Pod Save America (the sequel series to Keepin’ In 1600) a smart, funny, important show which found itself leading The Resistance and makes a lot of money.
There was a version of that show that would have been nice enough. It would have covered the presidency of Hillary Clinton and been smart, and funny, and nice. Instead, Trump won, they launched with special guest Barack Obama and became a voice for a lot of people looking for similarly minded people. Right Show, Right Time.
All this brings us to Tip #4: Start a trojan horse newsletter so you can promote your own stuff. You’re going to need to be fearless here, and not be afraid to make some people sad. Combine it with attention seeking titles and poppy images, and you might get a few clicks. From there, you can promote your own podcasts, say Daily Comedy News. (Tip #3A say nice things about James Cridland’s Podnews.)
And finally, Tip #5: Host a successful late night TV Show. Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Trevor Noah all have successful podcasts. During the writers’ strike, Fallon, Kimmel, Oliver, Colbert and Seth joined in to do Strike Force Five. Also successful. David Letterman, where are you? My tip here, is to hope Jimmy Kimmel walks away as he says he is going to do. Send your tape to ABC and host 11:35 for at least seven years. Then, you can successfully transition to being the host of a top podcast.
Bonus Tip: Talk about murders and stuff.