As a podcaster, it is important to know how to grow my audience. We had Matt Wolfe of Hustle and Flowchart share his insights on this topic. Hustle and Flowchart is one of the leading podcasts about growing businesses.

In this episode, Matt shares his top three strategies on growing your audience. He also shared more effective methods of monetizing their show.

Matt Wolfe’s Start in Podcasting (2:16)

Matt was a big fan of audio as a student, and his first major was in audio production.
He soon realized that audio content is easy to create, and an easy way to create quality content was to interview interesting people.
Matt started his first podcast in 2010 with Joe Fier, who is still co-hosting with him in Hustle and Flowchart.

Podcasting’s Leverage and Compound Interest (4:17)

Podcasting has good leverage and pays with compound interest. You could turn it into different forms of media and post it into different platforms. You also continue earning from podcasts that you’ve created from long ago.
Audiences have different preferences in media. Some prefer short podcasts. Some may like it long. There are even others who prefer just the notes from the show
People would listen to older podcasts despite you having new content available. They also occasionally binge your podcast just like they do for TV shows.

On Having a Co-host (9:07)

Having a co-host is like having two brains focused on the same goal.
Matt and Joe play different roles in their podcast, and these roles balance each other out and make better quality content.
Creative differences are typical. What keeps the show together is the hosts’ mutual understanding of the vision of their show.

Determining Who to Have as Guests (12:07)

They have a customer support representative who background checks the twelve emails they receive each day requesting to appear as guests on their show.
From these cold emails, only about two to three guests appear in their show. Most cold emails get rejected because they are not a good fit for the show.
Most of their guests come from their own network.
Matt and Joe keep a Dream 100 List of people they want to have in their show. They attach this to their emails, hoping their recipient could introduce them to anyone he or she would know in that list.
They try to keep the show’s topics varied. Since there’s only space for eight guests in a month, they try to put apart guests who specialize in the same things.

To Go Broad or Be Niche (16:06)

Matt and Joe are described to be “unapologetically generalists.” They cover diverse topics and never really had a specific niche.
Going for a more general audience has more significant potential, but is also harder to start. On the other hand, going niche makes it easy to create a base, but ultimately has a narrow market.
Starting the Hustle and Flowchart podcast was easy despite going broad because they made use of their existing following and promoted the new podcast in all their channels.

Growing the Show and Maintaining Your Audience (20:27)

Matt and Joe would try everything they’d hear that helps grow a show.
There are three most effective ways to grow your podcast.
The first strategy is to have more contests and giveaways that involves subscribing to the show and putting up a review.
The second tactic is to make Facebook Ads using three-minute clips of their podcast videos, optimized for views with a call-to-action to listen to their full podcasts.
The third technique is to get quality guests with strong followings to make use of their already existing social media followings to increase the show’s reach.

Usual Strategy That Fails, and What To Do Instead (27:00)

Using the name of guests in Google Ads result in bad bids and end up being unprofitable.
To get better bids, create your own blog post on a specific topic, and then target questions and search terms related to the blog post.
Another way is to ask the lists that do appear organically on Google Search to include you in their lists.

Monetisation Strategies (31:59)

Their first and most common way is through affiliate marketing.
Monetize your newsletters by selling content upgrades to your email list, like notes of your old episodes.
CPM deals are heavily in favor of advertisers. Renegotiate the terms into a fixed rate pricing in return of shoutouts, banner placements on your website, and including sponsors in email newsletter as inserts.

The Future of Podcasting (39:32)

The younger generation may switch from terrestrial radio to podcasts.
As podcasts are cheaper to produce than traditional radio, there might be a shift in radio content towards licensing of podcast episodes.
Significant movements in Silicon Valley favor podcasting platforms, companies, and services, which is a good indicator of the industry’s future.

Learning More From Matt Wolfe (47:18)

Their podcast episodes are available in evergreenprofits.com.
They also have a Traffic Book sold in print on Amazon, but available for free as an ebook at hustleandflowchart.com/podcasting.

Learn more about Matt Wolfe and visit EverGreen Profits
Listen to Matt’s Podcast: Hustle & Flowchart
Learn more about Charley Valher and Valher Media
Visit Charley’s The Parenting Co website and join The Association Facebook Group

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