What’s up everyone,

We’re back with another newsletter on this beautiful Sunday morning.

This week I’m going to be breaking down why YouTube is the future of podcasting and how it’s changing the podcast industry.

When I first got into this industry in 2020, I almost couldn’t believe how fragmented audio podcasts were.

You have this hosting platform thing, directories, and more confusing stuff.

It’s a giant mess.

No one solved the problem of aggregating everything together.

Until, YouTube walked in.

You see, YouTube had a close eye on podcasting for many years. They watched from the sidelines as the user base grew and matured. They had two flagship podcasts:

- The Joe Rogan Experience

- Call Her Daddy

Both podcasts boomed.

Both podcasts LEFT to Spotify.

This really pissed off YouTube, and that’s when the podcast wars kicked off.

You don’t need to know the details. All you need to know is that this is GREAT for you.

More competition amongst platforms means these companies compete for YOU and your attention.

Now what does this mean in practice?

YouTube is flooding money into podcasts to improve their platform, features, and monetisation for users.

This means you can take advantage of their platform to grow as fast as possible.

Here’s exactly how YouTube will change podcasts and how you can capitalise on it:

1. Features

YouTube moves faster with new products than any other platform.

6 months ago they released ‘podcasts’ which completely reshuffled their algorithm.

Anything tagged with a ‘podcast’ playlist was shown to new users. More users seeing your stuff, the more you grow.

You might think “well podcasting is audio, so maybe they won’t watch the episode?”

Enter YouTube Music - the platform which now stores all podcasts for you to listen on the go.

See the trend here.

The most powerful feature by far is the most recent link between short form content and long form content.

You can literally link your podcast episodes to YouTube shorts.

Let’s say you get a 1% click-through-rate and your clip gets 100,000 views. That’s 1000 people viewing your full length podcast.

Most people I know would be pretty happy to get an extra 1000 views on their episodes.

Oh, and it’s free.

Lastly, YouTube is the second biggest search engine (after Google, its daddy). As a result, videos are continuously pushed to new users months and years later.

Contrast that to the boring and static discoverability of Apple podcasts.

They say the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google. I think it’s on Apple podcasts.

2. User Experience & User Interface

As mentioned earlier, podcast hosting platforms suck.

It’s difficult for a podcast host and even for listeners to find your content.

YouTube solves this problem with a simple frontend for users to find your content:

Clean channel, highlight videos, long form, short form and podcasts.

In the backend, you have every metric in the world to measure.

Audio metrics are literally impossible to track effectively.

Why?

Because the hosting platforms don’t even have clear visibility into Spotify & Apple podcasts.

Content is mathematics and without knowing the numbers behind it, you’re kind of just making it up.

Well, not on YouTube. There’s no hiding.

3. Monetisation

YouTube pays you to publish.

If there isn’t more of an incentive, I don’t know what is.

If you’re thinking “Well, it’s not a lot of money.” so is everything in the beginning.

That’s life.

My first client paid me $0, my last client paid me $60,000.

It sure didn’t start out like that.

My YouTube channel started with $0 and now averages $1500/month.

I’m going to post the videos anyway. It’s cool to get paid for it.

YouTube pays you across long form and short form. As your videos keep growing, theirs an opportunity for you to keep earning.

4. Content Funnel

If you’re the type, that’s like “I need leads NOW” YouTube is your answer.

You can redirect users from long form content to lead magnets, discovery calls and paid products.

As you grow, your products/services will generate more traffic and you can effectively move users through a content funnel.

Side note: Creating content only to get leads isn’t a good strategy long term. If you’re not trying to help people and resolve their challenges genuinely, you can see it straight away. Funnels are cool, but helping people is better.
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That’s all for today everyone, see you next week!

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

→Schedule an Introduction Call: Voics is the straightforward podcast agency that creates, markets, and scales your podcast in a “done-for-you” model.

→Podcast Accelerator: Remove the stress, pressure and countless hours of growing a podcast. This comprehensive course will teach you the system I used to grow Kickoff Sessions and record with the sharpest minds in the world.

→Listen to Kickoff Sessions: Learn from 145+ entrepreneurs who have scaled businesses to millions in profit that will help you on your journey.