Reading podcasting stats should be a simple process. The reality is just the opposite.
Reading podcasting stats can be tough going, especially if you don’t know the quirks of each delivery channel, or if you’ve accidentally promoted the mp3 URL instead of your episode page URL. Bots, miscounts, recounts, no counts (iTunes, anyone?) and more plague the spreadsheets and stats outputs of even the most seasoned podcaster.
There are a couple different ways to measure your stats – you can use a third party service like Podtrac, which requires you to make some changes to your link structure on your website that hosts the podcasts; not impossible but perhaps difficult in some cases, depending on what type of software you are using to serve your podcast to the world.
How Can You Make the Right Choice?
Running everything through Podtrac or joining a podcast distribution network might seem to be the only way to get decent stats for your podcast, but those aren’t always the best options either.
Hazel and Kim are breaking it down this week; they’re addressing issues centered around each of the main distribution channels such as iTunes, Stitcher, Spreaker, Soundcloud, Google Play Music and others.
They’re also doing a light discussion about the various and sundry distribution platforms and networks – CBS, Gimlet, NPR, TAL, RAdiotopia, WBUR, and so on.
If you think you’ve hit a rough patch with your podcast, and you don’t feel like your numbers are growing or you’re getting more listeners, shares and downloads with your new episodes, then you’re definitely going to want to grab a cup of coffee and listen up!
With podcasts becoming even more prevalent over the course of 2017 (yeah, like there aren’t enough in the library already – iTunes alone has more than 350,000 series, and roughly 65,000 of those are active and updating) as a mechanism to market, communicate and generally dish with the listening public, it will become even more critical to have a hand on your show and understand what is really happening behind the scenes.