School of Podcasting: Expert Tips for Launching and Growing Your Podcast

Is Posting Consistently Overrated? Why Great Storytelling Can Beat the Algorithm
What if the advice you hear all the time (post consistently, feed the algorithm, follow best practices) isn't the only way to grow? This week I'm looking at a YouTuber called Dr. Plants who posts three videos a year and averages tens of millions of views. He's zagging while everyone else zigs, and he has a lot to teach podcasters about storytelling and great content. I also cover why Buzzsprout's Kevin Finn says Spotify isn't being a good partner, what to check before a surprise Black Friday renewal hits your account, the RSS feed cloning problem on Spreaker, and why you need to start now if you want your podcast launched in January 2027.
Best Practices vs. Amazing Content
The last time I really dug into this topic was back in October 2016 on episode 535 (the one with the weird commercial for my cats' record). Last week, Brian Cottington from Libsyn walked us through titles, thumbnails, and hooks, and all of that absolutely matters for getting found. But in the end, amazing content matters too.
Then I watched Sean Cannell of Think Media interview Dr. Plants, and I thought, "Here's someone who isn't zigging. He's zagging."
"YouTube Is Just a Storytelling Contest"
Dr. Plants' view is simple: the people telling the best stories are the people getting the most views.
When Sean asked him for the most overrated piece of YouTube advice, his answer was posting consistently. He puts out three videos a year, on random dates, whenever each one is done to the best of his ability. He admits consistency might build a more loyal audience, a deeper connection with fans, or more product sales. But if you only care about views, he says you could post one video a year.
Is YouTube (or Podcasting) Too Saturated?
YouTube says 20 million videos are uploaded every day. Is it too late to start? Dr. Plants says there has never been less competition, because AI has made everyone's content exceptionally average. That's why so much of YouTube looks the same. His formula: find what everyone else is doing and do it 10% better, because being 10% better can multiply your views tenfold. Improve one little thing on every video and it's nearly impossible to lose.
So, Dave, Is Consistency Important or Not?
Yes, I still think consistency is important. When you publish on a schedule, you become part of someone's routine. I've had listeners tell me I'm with them every Monday on the way to the feed store, and there are shows I listen to on certain days of the week. When you take a couple of weeks off, you give someone else a chance to get at your audience. (If you're doing it to keep your sanity, that's a good reason.)
But nothing in podcasting is mandatory. Dan Carlin of Hardcore History has always been the poster boy for "well, it depends." He's in the Podcaster Hall of Fame, and he releases an episode every two or three months. Each one is three or four hours long, basically a small audiobook. So there are best practices, and then there's Dan.
If your gut says there's a better way to do something, but your head says "that's not how everyone else does it," that might be a really good sign. That's zagging when everyone else zigs.
AI Is Making Content Average
I'm not anti-AI, but I see people trying to be thought leaders using thoughts from ChatGPT. Dr. Plants is right: AI is making a lot of content average. Not bad. Just average. If you want to break out, you have to be better than the competition. You have to be relevant, and you have to resonate. Turning on two microphones and shooting the shinola with your friends probably isn't amazing content. It isn't bad, but it isn't going to inspire someone to tell a friend.
How to Tell Better Stories on Your Podcast
I've been singing this song for years: it's all about storytelling. Most storytelling books just tell you stories are good and have been around since the caveman. Yeah, duh. My favorite, Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks, actually shows you how to cut out the non-essential parts of your content.
He also points out that stories always have a transformation. His example: Jurassic Park isn't about dinosaurs. The first scene has a man complaining about how expensive and smelly kids are. By the end, that same man is risking his life to save the children.
The biggest storytelling tip I can give you is figuring out where to start the story. We usually give way too much background. Find where the transformation starts, then back up only as far as you need to give the listener enough context to understand it.
Great Podcast Content = Content + Delivery
Dr. Plants sounds crazy at first, but he's really just the flip side of feeding the algorithm: he's feeding the emotional side. Both are great.
Remember that an episode is made up of content and delivery. Amazing content delivered in a boring way won't work. Amazing delivery about paint drying won't work either. (I was watching the NFL, and the voiceover guy has incredible delivery... about Burger King.) On YouTube, the algorithm is kind of the delivery, and Dr. Plants is all about the content.
How to Promote Your Podcast
Once the content is great, you still have to market it:
Social media
Newsletters
Appearing on other podcasts
Going to where your audience is, making friends, and telling them about your show

Which of those are you doing? If the answer is "a little bit of social media" and you're not happy with your growth, maybe do more.
Buzzsprout's Kevin Finn: Spotify Isn't a Good Partner
I've said over and over that Spotify isn't a good media host (free or not), and I'm not the only one. On Buzzcast, Buzzsprout co-founder Kevin Finn shared a support case where a customer sent screenshots of the Spotify for Podcasters settings. Right on the screens podcasters must visit to enable video distribution, Spotify displays banners asking why they're hosting somewhere else and offering free hosting.
Kevin's point: the Spotify team is nice to work with in person, but the app tells a different story. Podcasters who switch often come back after struggling with support, stats, and unresolved issues, and he feels Spotify's hosting is mostly a way to pick off successful shows for its ad program (which you don't even need to host with Spotify to join). Compare that to Apple, which consistently asks how to strengthen the relationship. Buzzcast is one of my favorite shows, and I love Jordan, Alban, Kevin, and the whole Buzzsprout team.
Podcast Download Stats: See Where You Stack Up
If you're a fan of Rob Walsh and Elsie Escobar, they used to publish mean and median download stats at a previous company. Now that's happening again on In and Around Podcasting. You can also see where you stack up at Buzzsprout's stats page.
Check for Surprise Subscription Renewals Before Black Friday
I've worked at the School of Podcasting, Libsyn, and now PodPage, and one thing I see over and over is people getting mad when a company renews their subscription. That's like asking Netflix why it charged you again. And it's a no-win situation: when companies send reminders, people ask why they keep reminding them.
It's November as I record this, which means last year's Black Friday deals, especially the annual ones, are about to renew. Log into the checking account you use for your podcast (you do use a separate account for your podcast, right? I covered that on Your Podcast Consultant). Look for anything you're not using. Every year someone discovers a $94 charge for something they forgot they bought, and getting a refund isn't guaranteed because it's in the terms they didn't read. Put it on your to-do list before this year's Black Friday sucks you in again.
Cloned RSS Feeds on Spreaker
School of Podcasting member Nancy May (Family Tree Food Stories) asked me about a story going around: people are taking the RSS feeds of very popular shows, importing them into Spreaker (a free, ad-supported host owned by iHeart), and earning ad money from them. That money doesn't go to the original creator. It goes to whoever cloned the feed, and to iHeart.
James Cridland at Podnews has pointed out lots of these cloned shows, and Spreaker doesn't seem to be in a giant hurry to remove them.
What does that mean for you?
Unless your show is very popular, you probably don't need to worry about this.
It's not a great look for the Spreaker brand. On Podcasting 2.0, Adam Curry and Dave Jones (who run the Podcast Index) talked about cleaning out AI slop, fake shows,

Remember standing in the video store on a Friday night, holding two boxes and trying to decide which movie to rent? According to my old friend Brian Cottington, head of video marketing at Libsyn, that's exactly how YouTube works in 2026. This week Brian explains why your thumbnail is a billboard (not an SEO tool), the three thumbnail styles that work best for podcasts, why his slick motion-graphics intro caused his viewers to fall off a cliff, and whether you should use AI to make your artwork.
And even if you're thinking, "Dave, I don't do YouTube," stick around. Everything we talk about works for episode artwork and titles in audio-only podcast apps too. Plus, a word of caution about NaPodPoMo before you sign up for 30 episodes in 30 days.
There's No Such Thing as Competition in Podcasting
Here's a fun fact: Brian found me through the Podcasters' Roundtable, a show I did with Daniel J. Lewis and Ray Ortega, who are technically my "competition." He liked what he heard, started listening to the School of Podcasting, and years later we worked together at Libsyn.
Brian does the same thing on his own show, The Cinema Psychos. He keeps an eye on social media, spots movie podcasts he thinks are funny, and invites them on as guest reviewers. The Silver Linings Playlist podcast and the Movie Dumpster podcast are regular collaborators, and they trade appearances every few months. To the new podcaster who worries a guest will "steal" their audience, Brian puts it best: you're starting at zero, so it can only help you. At the very least, you're building a network of people who will like, comment on, and share your stuff.
Why Brian Added Video to His Podcast
Brian has always been a filmmaker. He started podcasting in 2016 as a creative outlet (an article by Kevin Smith gave him the nudge), and only moved to video after hearing Doc Rock from Ecamm encourage podcasters to try it. The question that sold him: is my audience there? For a movie show, a big chunk of it was on YouTube.
Two things I love about how he approached it. He treated it as an experiment, and he's having fun with it, constantly looking for ways to make the workflow faster so he doesn't burn out producing both versions. If video stops being fun for you, quit the video, not the podcast.
Your YouTube Thumbnail Is a Billboard
Brian answered my "where do I start?" question with a question: what made you pick a movie at the video store? The box art. Then the title. Then you flipped it over and read the hook on the back. YouTube is just the video store in 2026.
His process for packaging an episode:
Find the hook first. What's the main value of this episode? What do you want people to walk away with?
Put that hook at the very beginning of the episode. It doesn't have to be a cold open, but it has to be up front.
Make the thumbnail and title reflect that same hook. The thumbnail stops the scroll. The title gives the image context. The first line of the description backs it up.

The mistake he sees constantly is treating the hook, the title, and the thumbnail as three separate things. If someone clicks and doesn't immediately get what those two signals promised, they bounce. It's also why I got straight to the interview this week. You saw Brian's face on the artwork, so you knew it was an interview. Nobody needs to hear what my cat did to my couch first.
3 Podcast Thumbnail Styles That Work
At Podcast Movement, Brian broke down the thumbnail styles podcasters use most. Hint: don't make a MrBeast thumbnail. You're not doing challenge videos.
Host and guest flanking the image, with four to six words. Not the episode title. The most curiosity-driving words you can find. If the episode is about weight loss, the thumbnail might say "I wish I knew this sooner," and the title says "How I Lost 25 Pounds With One Technique." Brian calls that the "brain gap."
Your face reacting to a visual story. He showcased the Call Me Chris podcast, which uses this with no text at all. It's great for topic-based shows because it triggers an emotional "what am I looking at?" response.
No words at all. You don't have to put text on a thumbnail.

The thing I was guilty of: slapping the episode title on the artwork. The thumbnail and title should work together, not repeat each other.
Episode Artwork Matters for Audio-Only Podcasts Too
If you don't do YouTube, this still applies. Apple Podcasts showcases episode artwork, and the eye directs the hand to click. Brian's theory (his words, not a study) is that audio listeners are easier to convince than video viewers, because they're already in the mindset to sample an episode. Packaging your audio episodes this way can give you an edge.
Moving From Audio to Video: Rethink Your Episode Structure
The biggest shift for audio podcasters going to video isn't the camera. It's the content structure. A long music bumper followed by ten minutes of breakfast banter might look fine in your Apple consumption graph, but a video-first audience won't sit through it.
Brian learned this the hard way. He built a beautiful 20-to-30-second motion graphics intro, and YouTube Studio's audience retention graph showed a cliff right when it played. Now it's about five seconds, just the logo, then straight to him. His advice: if you want to play YouTube's game, you have to play YouTube's game. Don't try to run an audio-only playbook in a YouTube sandbox.
It works the other way, too. If your show is built for video, check how it sounds as audio. Brian tried to listen to an AI tutorial podcast and couldn't follow it, because everything was on screen. Know not just why your audience consumes your show, but how.
Live Streams Are Different
I confessed that my live streams start with an intro and an ad, and the content doesn't arrive for about two minutes. Brian's take: treat live as its own thing. A monthly live episode is for super fans who want to interact with you, and bumpers don't matter there. The Movie Dumpster crew does a no-frills wide-shot Q&A live once a month, completely separate from their heavily edited regular episodes.
Should You Use AI to Make YouTube Thumbnails?
Tools like 1of10 (around $90 a month), TubeBuddy, and VidIQ will make thumbnails for you. Brian, a fine artist and graphic designer at heart, uses AI as a helper, not a replacement:
Upscaling or cleaning up an image in Adobe Firefly is fine.
He hadn't shaved one day, so he gave Firefly a still and asked it to make him look sad with a three-quarter turn. It was a little creepy, but good enough.
A/B test it. YouTube lets you test thumbnails. Try an AI-assisted one against one you made, and keep whichever drives more watch time.
Don't clone someone else's thumbnail. The algorithm is smart enough to notice, and if your hook and title don't match, a ripped-off thumbnail won't save you. Study the composition and adapt it for your audience instead.

Should You Put Your Audio Podcast on YouTube as a Still Image?
Nobody is forcing you to do video. The podcast police are not going to knock on your door. Brian did still-image episodes for four or five years, and his most-viewed video, with over 100,000 views, is a still-image interview with an actor from the 1996 movie Skyscraper starring Anna Nicole Smith. He has no idea why.
But understand the expectation: people click on YouTube to watch video. Big shows can get away with a static image. Indie podcasters have to work harder. If your audience is genuinely on YouTube, consider simple live-action video. If not, a still image is fine, just expect low engagement.
Brian's Favorite Podcast and Video Tools
Ecamm Live for recording (he loves the vertical feature for social clips)
Stream Deck to live-edit his show, so production takes as long as recording
Premiere Pro for editing
Photoshop's Generative Fill to extend his backgrounds (Canva occasionally)

When Did It Feel Like You Had "Real" Listeners?
A grocery store clerk recognized one of my listeners' co-hosts. A pharmacist gets stopped at conferences for selfies. And one podcaster got an email that ended with, "Yesterday, you and Krista saved lives." This month's Question of the Month asked how long it took before you felt like you had real listeners, and what made you realize it. Seven podcasters answered, and here's what surprised me: not one of them said "when I hit a million downloads." If you're staring at your stats wondering whether anyone is out there, press play. I'll also show you the real median download number on Buzzsprout (it's probably a lot lower than you think) and the 30-second test you should run on your website right now.
(Links to everyone's show is at the bottom of this post)
Why I Asked This Question
I'm trying to help new podcasters set realistic expectations. This month's question and next month's are both about that. So: how long did it take before it felt real, and if it doesn't feel real yet, what would make it feel that way?
Neal Veglio: Feedback, 100%
I recorded Neal's answer live on Ask the Podcast Coach when he sat in my co-host's chair. For Neal, it's feedback. Our mutual friend Rob Walsh is right that you shouldn't crap on the download, because it's the only measurement we've got. But a download is a number. An email, a text, any outreach from your community, is what tells you it's actually landing with people. When Neal gets an email, he celebrates.
Josh Liston: "We Listened to Know If We Wanted to Move Here"
Josh hosts Sake This, a short-form sketch show about news, trivia, and travel stories from Japan. But his "real audience" moment came from a hyper-local show he co-hosts with Mel called Punching Sideways. Multiple people told them they listened before moving to town (for work, the military, whatever) to learn about the local music scene, the sports stars, the art scene, the comedians. All from a podcast they started just to make each other laugh. His advice: it took a while, so stick with it.
Mark Lawley: "Yesterday, You and Krista Saved Lives"
Mark from Practical Prepping watched the download numbers like everyone else at first. The real moment came around the one-year mark, when listener emails started showing up: thank-yous, topic suggestions, and then the ones where people had followed their advice during a severe weather event or personal crisis. He shared one at Empowered Podcasting about a young mom of two who bought a NOAA weather radio and packed a go bag after listening. When a tornado warning hit her area, the radio alerted her, and she grabbed her kids and the bag and went to the shelter. Her email ended with the line above.
I have a NOAA weather radio (affiliate link) because of Mark. Here in Ohio we get tornado warnings on a fairly regular basis. If you don't have one, get one.
Rob Dalrymple: Real Listeners Before Episode One
Rob hosts the Softball Central Podcast, helping players, parents, coaches, and fans navigate the fastpitch softball world. He jokes that he had real listeners before he even started (or that's optimism and caffeine talking). His coming-soon promo got over 2,000 views, and his three launch episodes racked up over 400 listens and views in the first week.
Not Joe Rogan numbers? I used to teach, and 20 people was a full class. 400 is twenty classrooms. That's a very long hallway of people.
What Rob really wants is community. If you want to test that idea cheaply, Skool runs about nine bucks a month. And to get the rest of the softball world listening: business cards are cheap. Put a QR code on them and hand them out at games. (Rob, I hope to see you inside the School of Podcasting soon.)
Chris Smith: Recognized at Harbor Freight
Chris and his co-host run Cool Cars with Chris, hitting cars-and-coffee events around Southern California and showcasing other people's rides. The show just turned one. The moment it felt real: his co-host was shopping at Harbor Freight and the clerk recognized him from the podcast. A total stranger who found the show in his feed.
Kim Newlove: Six Months, a Florida Student, and a Troll
Kim hosts two shows, The Pharmacist's Voice and The Perrysburg Podcast, and both took about six months to feel real.
The Pharmacist's Voice: after episode 22, a pharmacy student in Miami messaged her on LinkedIn about her poison-prevention volunteer work. She's in Ohio, he's in Florida. That's when she knew she was reaching beyond people who already knew her. Now people ask for pictures with her at pharmacist conferences and tag her on social media. Her guests promoting their episodes tells her they're listening too.
The Perrysburg Podcast: episode 20 featured the city's crime prevention specialist and public information officer talking about porch pirates around Christmas. Both offered to share it on the city and police social channels. For the first time she had help promoting, the comments rolled in ("I didn't know Perrysburg had a podcast!"), and the downloads took off.
The troll: she interviewed someone a listener didn't like, and he let her have it. Annoying, but proof people are listening.

Two things I'd do differently: Kim was told to launch with 20 episodes and waited until then to promote. That recommendation was not from me. Record test episodes if you want (even 20 versions of episode one), but promote the minute your show is live. Getting no downloads while nobody knows you exist can be soul-crushing.
And a tip on pictures: if someone says "I listen to your show," they may want a photo but feel awkward asking. Beat them to it: "It's so great meeting you. Can I get a picture with you?"
My Answer: A Voicemail From Germany
I was bankrupt, divorced, and living in my brother's basement when I started podcasting. Less than six weeks in, I got a voicemail from Michael Van Laar in Nuremberg, Germany, and about fell out of my chair. I was in nowhere, Ohio. Another time I announced a speaking gig and Kale Nelson reached out because it was near him and offered to take me to dinner. Same lesson: somebody's out there.
And I still say you're not a real podcaster until you get a one-star review. You moved somebody. Just not the way you wanted.
Make It Easy for People to Reach You
The theme here is people reaching out. So:
Have a clear "Contact" button on your website.
Test it right now. Send yourself a message and make sure it arrives.

Every year when I do my favorite-episodes round-up, I find shows where the only way to reach the host is an Instagram DM. Everybody understands email. Use whatever you like, but make it easy.
An Apology to Chris and Albert
Fan List (I love Pat over there) had a bad day and truncated messages to five seconds. So I got exactly "Hey, Dave Jackson" from Chris Nesi, the king of ed tech, and "Hello, Dave, this is Albert Bermanti from Mental Rehearsal Podcast" from Albert. Chris even re-recorded after I asked on Saturday's live show. Since I use Captivate, I can drop their full answers into this episode dynamically later, so if you hear them, that's why.
For now, schoolofpodcasting.com/question lets you upload a file or leave a voicemail, and the new "Leave Voicemail" button goes to schoolofpodcasting.com/voicemail, the voicemail system built into PodPage (two-minute limit).
Speaking of Albert: Mental Rehearsal is the show where, at our School of Podcasting listener party, we all asked "when is this going live?" If you're a perfectionist, check out his August 16 episode on dealing with perfectionism.
Nobody Mentioned a Big Number
Not one person said "when I passed a million downloads." It was always that somebody was listening. If you're "only" getting 60 downloads an episode, that's three classrooms.
Go to buzzsprout.com/stats. As I record this in October 2026, the median is 27 downloads per episode after seven days. Half of shows get more, half get less. The top 1% are close to 5,000.
But as Ray from Around the Layout says, it's not how many, it's who many. 2,000 people who love knitting but never want to start a podcast aren't my audience. Podcasting is like golf or bowling: you're only as good as your last game, and comparing yourself to someone who's played longer (or had John Lee Dumas's savings runway) doesn't help.
Be Careful: People Might Actually Do What You Say
New podcasters freak out because nobody's listening, then freak out because people are. I once consulted with a guy who owned both a Zoom PodTrak P4 and a RØDECaster. Why both? "You said it was cool." That's $600 he didn't need to spend. People listen, and they might act on what you say.
Please Don't Email Me Your Answer
I say this with love: use schoolofpodcasting.com/question. Everything lands in MediaFire...

A friend of mine gets more and more opportunities. Why because he takes advantages of each and every one. He prepares and over delivers.
I had an opportunity where I could deliver content on MY timeline and while my information was helpful, I took a weird path to get to the point. As someone who embraces feedback, the folks at the buzzcast gave me some loving feedback, I took it, and today I explain where I went wrong and how you can stay focused to deliver razor sharp content that gets people sharing your content.
What is the main point, and are all of your points in alignment?
When you have a segment in your show, do all of the bullet point that make up that segment contribute to the value? Do you makes the same point multiple times? Do you take a crooked path to the point?
What would the audience ask if they were in your chair? That's a good place to start.
The Easiest Way to Speed Up Editing
The easiest way to speed up editing is to have a clear understanding of what your audience wants. The more you know, the more you know what to keep and what to lose.
Don't Ruin the Recording With Active Listening
Active listening is when you say things like, "Sure, uh huh.." to show someone you are listening. You don't want to do that in a podcast as you are stepping on the guests answers. When they start talking, SHUT UP AND LISTEN, and write down any follow questions and go back to listening.
An Interview is Meant to Make the GUEST look Good
I hear so many podcasts hosts throw in a comment that is more of less, "I did that too" which is great in a conversation, but we don't need to hear the same point twice. At one point Chevy Chase said, "Can you see I'm in the middle of a story" when he was on the Bill Maher show Club Random.
Research Links
Research Links
Anthony Hopkins on Being Estranged From His Daughter - The Interview
Billy Corgan interview Matthew Sweet on The Magnificent Others
Bill Maher Club Random with Chevy Chase
Buzzcast
Geologic Podcast with George Hrab
Congressional Dish
Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast Animated: Shari's Berries - YouTube

Mentioned in this episode:
Podpage Stopped her From Quitting Her Podcast!
Kelly Palace does the Outswim Podcast (outswimpodcast.com) and has been doing it for years. She was ready to unplug the show when she discovered Podpage. It took many workflow items off her plate and kept her podcasting. Start your free 14-day Trial at podpage.com/preview
Podpage
Don't Wait to Level Up Your Show
Thinking about starting a podcast—or already 300 episodes in? Skip the rookie mistakes, save money, and level up your show with the School of Podcasting with Dave Jackson, where you get hands-on feedback, one-on-one support, and practical advice that actually improves your podcast. Not sure? Just ask Krista and Mark from practicalprepping.info

Then join the School of Podcasting at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/join (or use the link below)
School of Podcasting
Live Appearances - I Can't Wait to See you
I love to meet my listeners. My next appearance is with Daniel J. Lewis as he demonstrates Podgagement. You can register at https://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/where
Where Will I Be?
Question of the Month: What is a "Newbie Podcaster"
Poll Question: What makes someone a “newbie podcaster”?
Is it how long they’ve been podcasting or how many episodes they’ve published? Is it something else? How would you define a newbie podcaster?
Leave your answer at schoolofpodcasting.com/question by November 27th and don't forget to mention your show and your website address so I can link to it in the show notes.
(Please try to keep them under 5 minutes if you can).
Question of the Month

AI Can Now Delete Your Podcast Ads. Here's Your Plan B.
What if your listeners could tell an AI to cut every ad out of your podcast and get back a clean file a few minutes later? That's not a hypothetical anymore. Adam Curry, the co-inventor of podcasting, just did it on the Podcasting 2.0 show, and the episode he tested turned out to be roughly half ads. If any part of your income depends on advertising, this one's for you. I walk through what happened, why Bill Burr's "terrible" ad reads actually sold more product, the real math on what Captivate, Buzzsprout, Supercast, and Patreon take from your premium subscriptions, and the soul-crushing (but honest) numbers from my own paid newsletter. And at the end, I ask you a question about AI that has nothing to do with your podcast and everything to do with your life.
AI Just Stripped the Ads Out of a Podcast
On Podcasting 2.0, Adam Curry connected his AI tool to Podcast Index using something called Model Context Protocol (MCP), which is a fancy way of saying "a way to plug AI into other systems." Then he asked it to grab the latest episode of Ed Zitron's Better Offline and strip out the ads at the beginning.
Eight minutes later, it was done. The raw file was 12 minutes and 36 seconds. The actual episode was 6 minutes and 38 seconds. The AI removed a 2 minute and 54 second pre-roll block, verified the new file started right on Ed's "hello," and then offered to trim the three minutes of ads at the end too.
His co-host Dave Jones said what we were all thinking: it's over for ads. And honestly, when half your content is ads, can you blame people for wanting them gone?
Adam's Real Point: Discoverability
The following week, Adam came back and said we were all missing the point. He's excited about discoverability. If an AI can go fetch an episode and clean it up, it can also go "find me a show about blank," which is basically building your own search engine. His bot even offered to go get the next episode.
(For the record, when someone says "there's no discoverability in podcasting," what they usually mean is "nobody's discovered my podcast." Word of mouth works just like an algorithm, and it doesn't change the rules every month.)
I also got pitched by a company that wanted me to promote their ad-cutting app. I'm not naming them. As much as I dislike bloated ad loads, if you're selling an advertiser on getting in front of thousands of people and a chunk of them never hear the ad, that starts to look like fraud.
Want People to Listen to Your Ads? Make Better Ads
A theme I heard during the business days at Podcast Movement: if you want people to hear your ads, make them better. Exhibit A is comedian Bill Burr, who sold out Madison Square Garden. Back in 2013, he did a now-famous read for Shari's Berries where he read the company's instructions out loud and roasted the copy. The company called and asked him to take it down. He didn't. People ordered the berries anyway, partly because he said he'd get in trouble, it turned out they were delicious, and sales went up. Younger brands figured out that people were actually listening to him.
The catch today: brand-safety robots now scan transcripts, and in a lot of cases "brand safe" means "boring (IMHO)." They don't always understand slang. Tell a bot "that's the bomb" and see what happens.
Programmatic Ads vs. Selling Your Own Stuff
Programmatic ads (the Geicos and Progressives that aren't host-read) pay somewhere between $1 and $7 per thousand downloads, depending on who you ask. That's why so many shows stuff their episodes full of them.
Only 8.6% of podcast listeners say they could tolerate a few more ads if it keeps a podcast free, according to The Podcast Study 2026.
Meanwhile, 54.8% already say podcasts carry too many ads. see more
I've always said the most profitable way to make money with your podcast is to sell your own product or service. If you buy my book, Profit from Your Podcast, I make about $12. At a $5 CPM, I'd need 2,400 downloads to make the same $12.
Which is easier: 2,400 downloads, or selling one book to an audience you're specifically trying to attract?
The PBS Method: Premium Podcasts and Crowdfunding
No product? Try the PBS method: give people a great show, then ask them to support it. Here's what the big premium podcast platforms take (in USD, including card processing):
Captivate: 12% plus processing, about 14.9% + 30¢ per transaction
Buzzsprout: a flat 15%, fees included
Supercast: 59¢ per subscriber per month, plus about 3.6% + 30¢
Patreon (standard plan): about 12% + 30¢

The best choice depends on your price. On a $5 monthly tier, Buzzsprout leaves you the most, about $4.25. At $10, Supercast pulls ahead because its per-subscriber fee is flat: you keep about $8.75, versus $8.50 at Buzzsprout and $8.21 at Captivate. We're talking pennies per person, but multiply that by a few hundred supporters and it adds up.
My Paid Newsletter: Here's the Soul-Crushing Part
My newsletter, Podcasting Observations, lives on Substack and costs $4 a month. It has 2,407 subscribers. Sounds impressive, right? Eight of them pay. That's 0.3%, a tenth of the 3% I usually tell people to expect. Annualized revenue is up 73%, from $227 to $393. (So again, it takes time).
I won't blink at $400. Thank you to everyone who supports it. But that's what I call a "garden hose in the pool," not a fire hose. And the newsletter still pays off as a lead magnet, because some of those readers join the School of Podcasting.
Chapo Trap House: The Long Game
Want to see what the fire hose looks like? Go to Graphtreon, use Advanced Filtering, and show only podcasts. Chapo Trap House has about 46,000 paying supporters averaging $4.21 a month, which works out to roughly $194,769 a month. The catch everyone skips: they started in May 2016. They release free episodes and paywalled ones, and they've had a decade to build. It's not "which one way should I make money with my podcast?" Do them all.
Affiliate Income and Donate Buttons
Amazon affiliates: I've made $129 in 2026 from around 134 orders, roughly a dollar an order, mostly microphones. Set it up once with things your audience actually wants. Every so often someone buys a $2,000 TV with their mic.
Watch Amazon's rules. You can get booted for saying something like "shop with my link, it supports the show." It happened to comedian Jay Mohr. I use Genius Link, which also shows me what people click (right now it's Tom Webster's The Audience Is Listening and Storyworthy).
PodPage has an affiliate program, and it pays nicely.
Donate buttons: I like Buy Me a Coffee because it makes recurring support easy. It may take a little more in fees, but it's simpler for the listener. PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee, Supercast, and