← The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcasting Tips, and Podcast Community
The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcasting Tips, and Podcast Community
E635 - Podcasting Is On-Demand Content - Stop Obsessing Over Release Time, Focus on Better Content
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Okay, we're rolling. Hey, welcome back to the how to Podcast series. It's Dave with you. It's episode 635. And I'm glad to be with you. Got my coffee. I'm ready to go. You ready to go? Okay, let's get into this. A frequently asked question online and Facebook groups and all these other places. And to me as well, in coaching and working with podcasters, the whole idea around what is the best day of the week and what is the best time of day on said day of the week for my podcast episode release? When should I do this? I want to be consistent. Evenings, mornings, afternoons, Monday to Friday weekends, what's the best time to release my episode? And there's a. There's a lot of things to consider, and one of them is to, I think, expand in your. Expand your view of the world beyond where you live, your state, your city, your province, your country, and realize that it's a big world out there and you need to have that kind of context when you answer this question. Best time of the day week and best day of the. Of the week to release your episode. We're going to talk about it right here. Thanks for pressing play. Let's go. I understand the reason why people are asking this question because you, you want to meet your audience, you want to serve your audience, you want to be there when your audience is looking for you. The one thing about podcasting, it's not radio, thank goodness. Oh, it's definitely not radio. It's not TV. It's. It's not social media with your 24 hour posts. It's a completely different medium and you can't really use the rules from all the other media types to decide on how podcasting works for you. Every podcaster eventually asks this same question. What is the best day and time to release my episodes? It's a debate as old as podcasting itself, really. Here's the honest truth, though. While timing can help with consistency, it rarely decides the success of your podcast. What matters far more is the quality of the content that you put out and the sustainable workflow for you as a podcaster. If your podcast doesn't work for you and you start working for your podcast, you're going to burn out. So it's really kind of a selfish decision to make more than it's your audience decision to make. It's about your schedule and what you can do with what you have. Do what you can with what you have where you are. Right. Podcasting is not appointment radio. I rarely sit with my phone in my hand waiting for your episode to drop. I do know when some of my favorite podcasts drop their episodes. I know that some will go out at midnight, some will go at 2 in the afternoon. Like, I see the pattern as a listener, but I don't sit there waiting to press play like, I have a life. I have other things. I know it seems weird to say, but I have a life. I do other things besides podcasting, which is hard to believe, but it's true. And sitting there with my phone and your in my hand waiting for you to release your content's not going to happen. I listen when I have time, not when you release it. So there's just something to think about. There's a lot of people who will tell you all kinds of things. They'll call, they'll disguise them as rules, best practices, guidelines. But really, when it comes down to it, it comes down to your schedule. What you can do. Again, do what you can with what you have where you are. People listen when they want to listen, not when the not when the episode goes live. Your biggest advantage is the fact that your podcast and your content is on demand. It's convenient. If you consistently release valuable episodes, your audience will find you. They will. They will find you and they'll add you to their life. Tuesday morning during their commute, Friday night while doing the laundry, or Sunday afternoon on their walk with their dog. You just fit into their world. Not when you release the episode, but around their schedule, around your listener schedule. They know where to put you. The key is you need to show up on a consistent basis so they are familiar enough with you and your content that they know how to work it into their schedule. If you're random, it's really hard to fit you into a routine. So don't be random. Be consistent in that you provide an episode on a regular cadence that people can look forward to. Really. The time of day, the day of the week. It doesn't really matter really when it comes down to it, because we listen when we want to, not when you release the episode. Instead of chasing this mythical best release hour time of day thing, build a schedule that aligns with your life. Your creative rhythm. Posting at 6am on Monday morning Eastern might seem strategic. It might seem well intended. But remember you serving a global audience. That's midnight in Vancouver, lunch in Europe, and evening rush hour in Asia. Great podcasts thrive not because of perfect launch timing, but because of the host consistently showing up with clarity, being relatable and reliable, and having true, authentic Value in the content. That's what people are looking forward to, not the time of day. Consistency matters in everything in podcasting, listeners subconsciously come to expect when you usually upload, even if they don't listen right then releasing episodes on the same day, weekly or bi weekly fortnite for our friends across the pond, it creates a rhythm that builds trust and familiarity for your listeners. This some call the heartbeat of podcasting. This idea that your content is listened to when people want to again, not when it's released. Some other considerations to include the promotion windows around your episodes. This is one thing I don't do well, right straightforward. I don't. With the amount of content that I do promoting each and every episode falls by the wayside. This show is doing a daily episode for the whole year of 2026. So to promote, to record and promote every single day for 365 days straight, it's a little bit much to ask. So I am podcast first in that I create the content. That's what I can do. Everything else is bonus. When I can promote, I will, but when I can't, I don't worry about it. But for those who are doing a weekly show or twice a week or twice a month, whatever you're doing once a month, have a promotional window that goes along with the release of the episode. Choose timing that lets you, as the podcaster, actively share your new episode across your social platforms. Whatever ones you have after publishing also helps you with your workload balance release when it fits your editing and personal schedule to avoid burning yourself out. There's platform analytics as well. Use your host data and especially Apple and Spotify to identify when the most downloads start. This can guide you as far as the ideal posting windows. So you release your podcast on Monday at 7:00am Eastern Standard Time, but you're noticing that your audience really listens more on Wednesday. Now you could try moving your show to Wednesday and see if that gets you a better bump. But really, does it matter? They're still listening. So again, it goes back to your schedule really more than your listeners. So be selfish, it's okay. And always be aware of time zones. What I find interesting in podcasting is podcasters forget that there's other places in the world. And every time I bring this up, it's that people look at me like I have two heads. It's like you're here. We are debating if it's 7:03pm or 7:04pm and should it be Wednesdays or Fridays? Fridays is not good because you know People are getting off work. Do you know people work on the weekends? Like, do you know that's a thing. People actually have jobs. I've been working every weekend now for six years. People work on the weekends. I know that's a shocker, but it's true. We don't all work Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 in North America. The world is a big place and people have very interesting schedules right now. So don't just assume that your life is everyone else's life, because it's not. And don't assume that where you live is where everybody else lives, because it's not. Think of the world in a global scale. A great exercise for you to do is to go to your hosting site, whatever it is. Brad Sprout, Captivate Spotify for creators and download the Go. Go to the analytics part of your page and then you can see like 30 days, 60 day, 90 days and all time. Click that all time button. That's everything from the day, from day one of your show. And then go to your countries and cities and go to the cities level and you can actually do that. And then you can download the list of cities. These are people who listen to your show and where they are in the world. Take that list. Comes to you as a CSV file, fancy term. It's just basically an Excel table with all of your cities. Okay, take that and dump that into Google. You can dump it into Google Maps and it'll allow you to drop a pin for all of those city locations. That's all your audience. That's where they live, that's where they're listening from. Then zoom out and look at the globe and you're like, holy smokes, look at all the, all the pins. So when we talk about, well, I'm going to release my podcast on this day at this time. Just remember there are people on the other side of the planet and you're making decisions on their behalf that are not convenient to them, has no vision to their life. And you're forgetting about a big chunk of your audience. So right now, for one of my shows, it's really big in England. So if I only make Canadian decisions based on my time zone, I'm ignoring my largest audience percentage in the uk. I should really be thinking more about the UK audience than the North American audience simply by looking at my stats. So go do your homework before you make any decision about the best time of day. My default will always go back to what is the best time of day and day of the week. That works best. For you, that's it. Be selfish. Pick the date that works for you. Ultimately, releasing great episodes consistently beats releasing perfectly timed episodes randomly. Really let the audience decide when to listen. Your job is simply to show up faithfully and and give great content to your audience. Something worth listening to. Here's one thing to think about, too. If we all decided in podcasting around the globe, we all got together a representative, a podcaster from every country in the world, every time zone, everything. And we all agreed. We all held hands as podcasters, and everybody decided that Monday morning, 06:00 Eastern Standard Time was the best time to release an episode. And everybody decided to change their scheduling and their episode releases to that specific time. Everyone, every podcaster all agreed, and we all moved our scheduling to that time and day. Do you realize that that would then make it the worst time to release an episode? Because you're competing against every podcaster around the globe, all choosing and agreeing on the same time. So if everybody tells you that a certain day and a certain time is a rule, again, there's no rules. It is a rule for you as a podcaster that you must release on these dates and these times, you might want to pick a different one because you're up against all those other shows that are also releasing episodes. You're like Dave. But there's no competition in podcasting. Yeah, there is. It's called 24 hours in a day. And people have jobs, people have lives, people have kids, people have to put the dog out, we got to feed the kids, gotta clean up after the kids, we gotta do the dishes, we gotta put the dishes away. There's a thing called a lack of time. So we are competing with people's calendar, we are competing with people's lives, their busyness. So, yeah, there is competition. And if there's 15 podcasts that I follow in my list, I gotta pick one or two that I can listen to, and that's how I make my decision. Not by when it comes out, but when I have time to listen. So your content has to be better than everybody else's, and you need to show up on a regular basis. That's the key. So what's your takeaway? Perfect timing doesn't grow your podcast. Perfect timing around your episodes. No reliability, great storytelling. That's what helps your podcast to grow. Connecting with your audience helps your podcast to grow. Getting on other shows and talking about your podcast to other podcast listeners helps your podcast grow. Choose a release day and hour that serves your workflow, not the algorithm. Don't Worry about it. When your content matters, listeners will find you and add you to their lives whenever it fits their world, not when it fits yours. So keep that in mind. Best time of day, best day of the week. To release your podcast episode, go look in the mirror. Ask the person looking back at you what works for you. By the way, that person is you looking at you. Figure out what works for you. Go after it. And after you've been podcasting for a little while, ask your audience, see if it matters to them. I can pretty well guarantee you it doesn't, but you can ask. Create an audience survey and ask that question. It's not on my audience survey right now because I release when I want to release and nobody's ever complained to me. But if you want to know, put it into an audience survey and ask your audience. Poll them. Ask them for their feedback. But if you want to see my audience survey, it's available right now. It's. It lives online through my website. Just says survey right on my website or in the show notes, you'll see a link. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the show. The show get better and I'd love to connect with you as well. So thanks for being here. Best time of day, best day of the week to release your episode. Be selfish. Pick the thing that works for you. That's the key. There you go. That's it. Thanks for being here. So I get asked quite often, usually at the end of a podcast, like right now, Dave, how can we help you? Like, how can we as a listener, like support the show? Can we come rake your leaves? Can we cut the grass? Shovel the snow? Watch your dog help you move? What can we do? Clean your dishes? Oh, that'd be interesting. Well, if you don't, if you can't do that because you know you're in Poland, maybe you can help us by supporting us with our Buy me a coffee. It's right there on our website and you know, it just will help us to a stay fueled because, you know, we drink a lot of coffee around here and it helps the show. So if you want to help us, it's out of the goodness of your heart. I can tell you that listening to the podcast to this point, you've already helped us so much. But I do have people saying, dave, I'd love to to give back something small even just to the show. Buy me a coffee link is on our website at howtopodcast ca and you can support the show that way. It would mean a lot to have you on our team, supporting what we do here. If you find value in the show, then that's great. Share the show, tell somebody about it. And when somebody says, dave, I want to start a podcast, who should I check out? Oh, you should go check out the how to Podcast series because of all the great co hosts and all the things that happen here, the meetups, everything. And I would appreciate that. And then fill her a cup once in a while if you can. But again, thank you so much for being here and supporting the how to Podcast series. Take care. Talk soon. You're still here. Well, that's good, because I'm still here. I'm just cleaning up. Everybody's gone. And putting the chairs away. But, hey, a few more minutes with you. All right, a question came in, Dave. Somebody emailed me and said that they could get me like a hundred new listens if I give them some money. What do you think? Well, a couple things. I've heard some nasty things. Not that everybody does this, but I've heard some nasty things where you sign up with some of these people that will get you listens. Well, they're getting you downloads, really. They're not technically getting you people listening to your show. Like real people who want to love your content. They're getting bots or phone farms or something to listen to your show and give you a listen. There's not really people that are going to love your content or want to buy your thing or want to follow you or show up at your next TED Talk. These people aren't going to show up for that. This is not real. The other thing is, I've heard of people who have paid for listens and then they stopped paying. And the people they were paying to get the listens from turned around and gave them negative reviews of their show, like one star ratings. They actually attacked them for stopping the payments that they were paying to get listened. So that's not healthy. And when, if you decide to go after vendors and sponsors for your show, those inflated numbers aren't real numbers. And that's not fair to the sponsor to tell them you have this big audience when you paid for it. So if you want a podcast audience that grows organically, then focus on that. It might not be the biggest audience, but they're real people. They come for the content, they stay for you, and they'd probably be open to whoever you put in front of them as far as a suggested purchase from a sponsor. So take your time, build it the right way. Don't get caught up in buying listens. They don't. They very rarely work out well and sometimes they can go horribly wrong. So be careful. If you have any questions or you want to bounce the email off of me of who's reaching out to you, I get these emails all the time myself as well. Happy to help walk you through it and help you avoid a scam or potential harm for your amazing show. Let me know. Thanks for being here. Take care.