What’s it like launching a niche podcast without prior experiencw? In this post, you will find the YouTube video where I chat about how it went and what I learn, as well as a full video transcript (with relevant sources and links).

YouTube Video

YouTube Video Transcript

Here, you will find the complete transcript of the video in the previous section with hyperlinked references/citations.

Intro

I just published the seventh episode of my podcast today, and that means, we’re officially done with the launch phase. I can honestly say I’ve learned a lot about podcasting. Some of it’s surprising, a lot of it humbling, and one unexpected thing that challenged the way that I view success.

So if you’re new here, welcome. My name is Dr. Smiti Nathan, and I’m an  archaeologist, so not a professional podcast producer. I’m just a person who had this idea for a niche podcast and wanted to try it out.

So if you’re curious about how it’s going, if I do it again, and what I’ve learned, especially if you’re a person who might not be a professional podcaster, but you’re interested in making a podcast, then let’s just get into it.

Why I Started

Now, if you’ve watched some of my long-form videos, you probably know me for more documentary-style videos that explore unexpected or perhaps surprising aspects of the archaeological record.

Now I love making these videos, but they take a while to produce, and it’s not always the easiest to collaborate with someone on screen.

So a big part of my why for starting a podcast was to be able to collaborate and platform other people.

So after a few conversations and a lot of reflection, I decided that I wanted to create something that explored the past through different voices. So that means I wanted to, of course, talk to archaeologists and people who formally studied the past, but I also wanted to talk to people that might engage with the past in surprising ways.

So that kind of approach towards the past already felt a bit niche to me because I had not seen that in the history podcast world or the archaeology podcast world.

Now, if you’re curious to learn a bit more about what my podcast is about, I’ll link the first episode below and in the card somewhere here. But right now I’m gonna go into the nitty gritty of creating it, starting with the launch.

Launching the Podcast

So like any internet, DIY content creator, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos about what goes into launching a podcast. And you know, there were some technical elements that I really appreciated getting a heads up about, but I will say there were two things that really helped me as I planned out my launch.

First off, when it came to guests, I started off with people that I knew, and this was great because I was new to podcast hosting and I still am.

So even if some of the topics were unfamiliar to me, the person was familiar and that helped me with my confidence.

So that’s something I totally would do again if I were first starting off. The second thing that I did that a lot of videos recommended was batch recording your initial episodes. Some people recommended batching two or three.

I think I ended up batching around seven or eight.

 So that’s something I totally would do again.

Now there are two reasons why I would do that. The first is that it’s nice to know that you have just episodes ready to go, and being prepared feels good. And the second, which might be a bit unexpected, is that it helped me keep up momentum with my podcast as the numbers started coming in.

The Numbers

Now I have to be completely honest. The numbers for my podcast surprised me.

Given the size of my subscriber count, which is around 21,000, and the views that we typically get on long form videos, I was thinking or hoping that I would get around 1000 views within the first week of an episode launching.

But spoiler alert, that didn’t happen.

 One of the things that I’ve heard is that when it comes to audio-only platforms like Apple Podcasts, for example, discoverability is really tricky. And when I was looking at my analytics for audio only platforms, that was definitely confirmed.

Now, in comparison to audio-only platforms, YouTube was doing quite well. I was getting around, I would say, anywhere from 300 to 500 views for most episodes within the first week.

However, I have to be honest, when you’re used to seeing one sort of number and you see a number that’s a bit lower, it was a bit tough.

It made me pause and ask, was this really working?

The honest answer is maybe, and I’ll break that down. Now, when it comes to my podcast, being on YouTube definitely helps. I would not be getting the views that I am getting if it wasn’t for YouTube, and I know that because I’m not getting those same views on other platforms.

Now when it comes to my YouTube channel itself and how this podcast fits into my overall content ecosystem, that’s a bit trickier because in full disclosure, my channel has not grown since the launch.

In fact, it’s kind of teetered between getting some subscribers but also losing some subscribers. So overall, we’re breaking even.

There’s a lot of reasons why this might be happening, but I think the primary one is that for the past two years I’ve been creating primarily one type of content, and that’s what my audience is used to. So creating something different, of course there’s a risk to it. It might not be for some people or you know, it might just take some people, some adjusting to.

Now this realization didn’t come instantaneously. I definitely had my feelings about the analytics and definitely had a lot of late night chat GPT therapy sessions. However, when I saw the engagement that this podcast was bringing in and the community that I felt like it was developing, it made me really excited.

And honestly, one of the things that helped me reframe where this podcast might sit within all my content was going back to my why for starting this podcast.

For me, I definitely wanted to platform other people and perspectives and bring that to my audience who was curious about different ways of engaging with the past.

Advice for Aspiring Podcasters

And honestly, knowing your why or at least articulating your why before you press publish on your first episode is a big piece of advice that I would offer someone who is just starting a podcast for the first time, especially if it’s a very niche podcast. Now, if you’re thinking about starting a podcast and you’re not completely sure about your why, that’s totally okay. I would start with who do you want to make this podcast for? And from there, hopefully your why will develop. And you know, your why doesn’t have to be static. It can change over time. And in addition to articulating your why, be very clear about the goals you’re setting for yourself.

For example, I hoped that my podcast would grow my overall YouTube channel, but I didn’t fully optimize for growth.

And even if I did and it wasn’t working, if my goal was growth, then I probably would decide to stop my podcast.

However, even just saying that hypothetical out loud does not sit well with me because I know my ultimate goal here is building community and connection with people that I platform through bringing them on as guests, as well as my current community here.

 I would also really reflect on what success would look like to you.

Now I think we have to be honest with ourselves, especially if we are on YouTube or any platform that collects analytics. There will be a number that you might tie to success, and I think that’s okay. I think that’s okay to articulate that or have a hope, or have a desire, but just as important is articulating other measures of success for you.

Now for me personally, I wanted my guests to feel safe with me as a podcast host. I wanted them to feel excited about the episode we collaborated on together and I wanted at least one person to enjoy the episode and then tell me about it so I had some type of feedback that it was making an impact on someone.

Now I know that might seem like a bit of a low bar for some people, and that’s totally fine, but for me, I just really wanted to try this out and do it in a way that felt aligned with my values. So those kind of simple subjective metrics were important to me.

Best Surprise

Now, there was one thing that happened that I didn’t completely expect, but has probably been the best surprise of starting this podcast.

Now, as I mentioned before, when it came to finding guests, I started with people that I knew. But some of the people that I featured, I, you know, I don’t get to talk to on a day-to-day basis, or even a month-to-month basis.

And it was really nice to reconnect with those folks and have these conversations with them and work on something together.

It honestly felt like those friendships were deepened and I gotta learn a lot of cool stuff that I probably wouldn’t have asked them in normal conversation. Now I hope down the line to bring in people that I might not know as well

But I really appreciated how it deepened my existing friendships with people that I already knew.

Do It Again?

So now that we’ve launched this podcast, would I do it again? You probably can guess it, but yes, absolutely. I’m really excited to see where this goes, and it’s just been such an energizing experience to engage with friends and colleagues about the work they’re doing and bring that to you.

And if you have any questions about my podcast or starting a niche podcast, like I said, I’m not an expert but I’m more than happy to share my experience, especially if it would help someone. So just leave that in the comments below and I’ll definitely answer them.

And if you’re curious to now listen to my podcast that’s gonna be linked right here somewhere. So thanks for tuning in to this chit chatty video, and I’ll catch you in the next one. Bye.

Credits

Patreon Supporters

Thank you to our paid Patreon members for supporting the creation of this video:

Nancy Fulton, James D., Giancarlo Annese, Thomas Martin, Stuart A. Griffin, Tagg

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