In this episode of Audience, I sit down with Jack Rhysider from the Darknet Diaries podcast and dig into his journey promoting his podcast.
With +200K listeners and counting, Jack is not only the host of an insanely popular podcast but he also talks transparently about how he grew a following using strategies any podcaster can leverage.
Ahead, we picked out few key topics from his interview that can help take your show to the next level. We explore Jack’s research on audience tipping points, effective podcast promotional strategies to build a loyal following, and what changes after your show starts to grow on its own.
When you’re done here, tune in to the full episode for more from Jack Rhysider and his trajectory to building a successful podcast.
A tipping point is a series of small changes that become significant enough to cause large, important change. Some would argue podcasting in general has hit a tipping point, entering into mainstream as over 50% of Americans have listened to a show.
Starting out from scratch, Jack began his podcast promotional brainstorm asking “How much do I have to promote my show until it starts growing itself with its own momentum?”. Essentially he wanted to know how many loyal listeners did he need to attract before he hit the tipping point.
Asking marketing experts and fellow podcasters turned up nothing so he set out to discover the “magic” number himself. What he found was at about 150 passionate followers, things started to pick up and the slow growth drip turned into a steady trickle.
Bolstered by evidence found by Malcolm Gladwell, Jack stumbled upon the right number of listeners that would take his show from under the radar to the mainstream. At the 150 person tipping point, he didn’t see a dramatic, sudden increase in listeners. Instead, after pushing the boulder of growing a podcast audience on his own, he felt there was now a few extra hands to handle the weight. These hands would help drive incremental growth, provide more legitimacy to the show, and ultimately make Darknet Diaries the go-to podcast on the underbelly of the internet.
But how did he find those 150 engaged fans in first place?
Effective podcast promotional strategies are all based on one common truth. If you’re passionate about the topic and believe in the value your podcast provides, it’s far easier to promote it. In this episode, we build off that concept and dive into four actionable strategies that helped grow Darknet Diaries into +200K listeners strong.
Tune in at 13:55 to hear Jack explain how he leveraged each of the below strategies to promote his podcast.
You’ve heard it before, but we’re saying it again. The foundation of growing a podcast audience is extraordinary content.
Jack reiterates this point saying, “No one recommends a good podcast, they only the recommend great ones”. He charges his audience for setting word-of-mouth recommendations in motion but highlight...
