Part 4 of the Podcasting 4 Cs is Community.

If you manage to create a community around your podcast, then your listeners will turn into fans and your show is likely to become self-sustaining.

You could argue that certain types of podcast don’t need or benefit from having a community but I’d say that if you nurture your listeners, there are huge benefits.

Here’s what happened to me (cutting a very long story short).

I started the Yes Music Podcast as a hobby to learn how to podcast and to share my love of the music of the world’s greatest progressive rock band. I released weekly episodes and I did a lot of the things I’ve described in previous emails, especially mentioning listeners by name every week and creating ways for them to get involved with the show.

Five years later, I launched a Patreon (subscription service for creatives) campaign and was amazed at the results. The listeners who saw themselves as part of the YMP community were keen to pay me a monthly subscription fee in return for a few ‘extras’ such as access to exclusive activities on the Patreon site.

I have always made it clear that the main purpose of the Patreon contributions is to help keep the podcast going – not to make a profit. Listener numbers have always been modest on this show but a surprising number of listeners have stayed signed-up to the Patreon group every since.

The Yes Music Podcast is now approaching 450 episodes and its ninth birthday. It certainly would not be still going if it wasn’t for the community which has developed around it. There are plenty more stories I could share about the past nine years of the show – so look out for those in future newsletters.

So, do please let me know if you think the 4 Cs will hep you to establish and/or grow your own podcast and I’ll be back soon with some different but hopefully useful podcasting goodness.


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