Why You Should NOT Start a Podcast

Podcasting is very attractive right now, leading many people to think about starting a show of their own. With that in mind, let’s spend some time unpacking all the reasons that you SHOULDN’T start a podcast!

Yep, you heard that right…. While everyone at Wildfire Creative absolutely loves podcasting, and there are so many reasons to have one, there are some even better reasons why it might not be for you!

As we begin, let’s first take a moment to consider these stats.

According to Listen Notes – There are at least 2.8 million podcasts and 139,004,056 episodes worldwide. In comparision, IMDB has over 8.3 million titles (movies, TV shows, TV episodes), Spotify has over 70 million tracks, and Audible has over 470,000 audiobooks.

These figures make podcasting VERY alluring, but if you are toying with the idea of starting a podcast just because of such numbers, you definitely need to sit down, do some research, and think about why before you start!

Podcasting is very attractive and partly due to the pandemic and quarantine + people not being able to go anywhere. They had watched all of Netflix and everything on Hulu, so they needed something else to do. Because of that, many people started wondering if they should start a podcast in all of their spare time.

Do you remember those stats we shared at the beginning of this post? Well, those figures made podcasting very alluring, but if you were or are now toying with the idea just because of the numbers and the popularity, we here at Wildfire Creative want you to step back from the mic, sit down, and think through a couple of things.

Because while these huge numbers of listeners and potential customers/clients make podcasting look very appealing, we can tell you that many of these shows do not grab the attention of their listeners due to various reasons, including… 

• The podcast itself is not very good.
• The content is wrong. 
• They don’t use the recommended mic types or the right equipment, so the audio quality is not up to par.
• The editing isn’t done properly (i.e., they overedit so that everybody sounds like a robot, etc.)

Truthfully, the list of reasons goes on and on, and the worst part about all of this is that so many of these podcasts are actually dead – the podcaster has abandoned them.

You’ll usually start to see it begin around episode eight – the quality of the podcast goes down and down and down, and then you just don’t hear anything from them anymore. They just ‘podfade’ into the sunset!

Did you know that less than 50% of the 2.8 million podcasts are actually active, which means only half of those shows have had a new episode published this year?

Take a look at this data from our friends at Buzzsprout :: The number of active podcasts on Apple Podcasts dropped from 990,000 in Dec 2020 to 512,480 in April 2022. Trust us when we say that each one of these is statistics to seriously consider when you want to start a podcast… to vow from the beginning to not become another statistic to add to any of these numbers.

Podcasting is so Easy!

Have you ever thought, “Podcasting is so easy? You show up, you hit record, and then you publish.” Don’t start a podcast if you believe that’s all it takes in podcasting. Or if you think, well, it doesn’t take much time to do that.

In order to put out a great show with solid content that people will want to listen to, there are several things you’ll need to do just to put that episode out… You’re going to need to research. You’ll have to find a guest if you’re going to do an interview show. You need to record, edit, etc. In all honesty, there are lots and lots of little things that add up over time you need to do for every episode. You can expect to spend anywhere from 2-6 hours per episode, depending on your episode’s production needs.

EVERYBODY ELSE HAS A PODCAST

And one of our other favorites is, “Well, I want to have a podcast because everybody else has one.” Once again, NO. That’s not a good enough reason.

Our CEO and Podcast Strategist, Tammy Munson, often shares that the first thing that pops into her head when she hears a potential podcaster say this are these words her grandmother said to her as a little girl, “Tammy, if everyone jumped off the Mississippi River bridge, would you jump off of it too?”

Basically, just because everybody else is doing it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for you. Maybe you’re a better writer than you are a speaker, so it may be best for you to utilize blogging or microblogging even, or maybe you’re better on video than you are with straight audio. Go ahead and do whatever it is you are best at. There are different options available out there for a reason, and you certainly want to use your strengths which means you absolutely do NOT start podcasting because it is what everybody else is doing. That doesn’t make sense when you think about it, right?! 

I CAN MAKE A “FAST BUCK” BY PODCASTING

The other big misconception we hear is that you can make a “fast buck” with podcasting. We can confidently tell you that podcasting won’t get you that quick money you want.

Now, there are many stories about the super successful podcasters who quickly rose to fame, or at least it seems that way. And even if they’re the ones who are telling you this, they are probably not telling you about the months and years of hard work that went into building their expertise in running and producing their show.

Many of these podcasters also had a built-in following through social media – whether a celebrity, a TV personality, or an author – they already had that audience, to begin with.

Basically, all they had to do was say, “I’m starting to podcast,” All of their followers followed them to their fave podcast directory and subscribed to their podcast. For most of us, though, it takes a while. And despite all of this hard work, only a few achieve this super successful status. After many months or years even, you can make income through podcasting, but it’s going to take time + it’s going to take a lot of hard work + it’s going to take a strategic plan.

(We covered how to launch a podcast in another blog post, so if you haven’t had a chance to read that one yet, please click this link to find out more information.)

Please don’t misunderstand our intentions here. We love podcasting. We love everything about it. It’s our absolute passion and our “why” for everything we do at Wildfire Creative Company.

However, we also realize that it would be doing everyone a disservice if we recommended that every single person should start a podcast. Having a podcast can be a lot of fun. And you’ll learn a lot… but not everyone is right about it.

You must make sure you are in it for the right reasons in the first place. And you’ve got to ensure you are in it for the long game.

If you have any other questions about whether you should or shouldn’t start a podcast, be sure to reach out to ask our team here at Wildfire Creative by emailing us at hello@wildfirecreativecompany.com. We are here for you!