Podmastery: podcasting insights and advice for indie creators

I recorded this one on a USB mic at a hotel desk, next to a kettle and some UHT milk I’m going to regret. If you can’t hear much difference, that’s the whole episode. There’s a quality floor in podcasting. Below it, people leave. Above it, something odd happens: nobody notices anything at all. Nobody has ever finished an episode, turned to their partner and said “lovely compression on that one.” Most of us got over that floor years ago, thanks to Descript’s Studio Sound, Adobe’s free Enhance Speech button and Auphonic. Nobody told you. So we keep buying things our listeners can’t hear. In this episode: The same hotel-room recording played twice, raw and cleaned up (try it in one earbud) Why I stopped swearing by iZotope RX 11 Dennis, his vintage biscuit tin podcast, and the gear spiral that took the paint off his wall The £300 metal box still sitting in my loft Why February me was only half right about one-click audio tools The wardrobe test: a free check to do before you buy anything else Chapters: 00:00 The same recording, played twice 02:24 The quality floor (and when you got over it) 05:23 Dennis, the biscuit tins and my £300 box in the loft 07:39 February me was half right 10:31 What actually makes a difference 11:28 Your one thing: the wardrobe test Links: The Podmastery community founding-members waitlist: podmastery.co/podcasting-community Got a problem that’s bigger than your sound? podmastery.co/need-podcasting-help Auphonic (free for 2 hours a month): auphonic.com The February episode I mention, When Tools Make Bad Audio Sound ‘Good’, Who Loses?: https://podmastery.co/episodes/when-tools-make-bad-audio-sound-good-who-loses/ Descript (affiliate link: you get a bargain, I get a kickback, that’s how this works):

There's a moment about nineteen minutes into a lot of podcast episodes where you can hear the host has checked out. They made their point at minute six. It was quite good. But there were eleven minutes of slot left, so they made it again, slightly differently, this time with a story about their brother-in-law's conservatory. This one's about the clock. The one radio had, the one podcasting got rid of, and the brand new one we all built ourselves about five minutes later. It's short on purpose. You'll understand why. In this episode: — The radio news jingle, and the best podcast editor I ever had — How we escaped the clock and built a new one immediately — The dinner party and the single Twix — Gareth (made up, but you've heard his show), his caravans, and 28 minutes of car park — The question that'll make you wince. It made me wince. My last one was 26 minutes. — The Post-it test Six minutes of me, plus a podcast from one of our Podmastery Community members — which doesn't count, because it's theirs and they can make it as long as they like. Want in on the Podmastery Community? Doors open in October. Get on the waiting list at podmastery.co/podcasting-community Stuck on something specific? Come and get your next podcasting challenge solved one-to-one with me at podmastery.co Podmastery: Podcasting Insights is my podcast for people who've actually had a go at this and are a bit sick of being told they're doing it wrong by people who've never properly done it at all. I'm Neal Veglio, the Podmaster.

I was minding my own business, about ten minutes into a podcast I listen to every week, when the host said my name out loud and told his audience to go and listen to my show. Nobody asked him to. There was no deal, no swap, no "I'll do yours if you do mine." Which is incredible, given that, on paper, the man is my competition. This episode is about the one group of listeners the ideal listener exercise specifically tells you to ignore — and why they're the only people in your audience who arrive with an audience of their own. There's a bit in here I don't soften, and it's aimed squarely at me as much as at you. In this episode: — The three approved British responses to being complimented in public — Why a man with 1,000 episodes and a Hall of Fame induction owes you nothing, and said it anyway — The Saturday morning cheese market, and why Trevor sends people to Maureen — Same counter, different cheese: the reason "but they might not come back" is the wrong worry — Bev, the Martins, and two allotment podcasts that have never spoken — Why the promo swap is a hostage exchange, and what to do instead — The column that isn't on anybody's connection spreadsheet Mentioned in this episode Dave Jackson — Attention vs. Connection, School of Podcasting (14 September 2026): https://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/connection-attention School of Podcasting: https://www.schoolofpodcasting.com Ask the Podcast Coach — Dave Jackson and Jim Collison, Saturday mornings: https://www.askthepodcastcoach.com Podnews Weekly Review — James Cridland and Sam Sethi, every Friday: https://weekly.podnews.net In & Around Podcasting — Rob Walch and Elsie Escobar (the "Rob and Elsie" I apologise to about seven minutes in): https://podnews.net/podcast/ic1o5 Building The Brand with James Burtt — two Ts, which I did not manage on air: https://podnews.net/podcast/i11l3c David Hooper's Big Podcast: https://www.bigpodcast.com Mark at Podcast Branding: https://podcastbranding.co Switchy — Dave Jackson's affiliate link, not ours: https://www.supportthisshow.com/switchy That's Dave's affiliate link, not mine. If you buy through it he gets the commission, which is entirely the point — it's the fastest thank-you I could think of. I've had it about five minutes, so treat this as a thing I bought, not a thing I'm recommending. Want in on the Podmastery Community? The waiting list is open — come and be in a room with other indie podcasters being genuinely useful to each other: podmastery.co/podcasting-community Stuck on something specific? Come and get your next podcasting challenge solved one-to-one with me at podmastery.co Podmastery: Podcasting Insights is my podcast for people who've actually had a go at this and are a bit sick of being told they're doing it wrong by people who've never properly done it at all. I'm Neal Veglio, THE Podmaster. LOLZ

A podcast with a thousand listeners makes about a hundred and forty-four dollars a month. I checked that properly. So then I say the second thing, which is the bit that makes people go quiet. You don't want a hundred and forty-four dollars a month. You want one thousand four hundred and forty-four. And the way you get there is by not doing ads. In this episode: — Why the hundred and forty-four dollar figure is right, and why that's the problem — The only lever CPM gives you, and where it leads — The arithmetic that made me laugh — What renting your mid-roll actually costs you — My affiliate disclosure, said out loud, because this episode demands it — One thing to do this week that takes sixty seconds of 'tape' Tools I use and get paid to mention. I record on Boomcaster, edit in Descript most weeks, and Captivate hosts this show. Affiliate links below — I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I'm telling you because the whole episode is about people who don't. — Boomcaster: https://www.boomcaster.com/?ref=AzyWVAUu8UgsoCAZT (free trial + 50% off first three months) — Descript: https://descript.cello.so/Kct9xUy3ilR (50% off first two months) — Captivate: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=nealveglio The Podmastery Community is open soon. Come and join us: https://podmastery.co/podcasting-community Stuck on something specific? Get your next podcasting challenge solved one-to-one at https://podmastery.co Podmastery: Podcasting Insights is my podcast for people who've actually had a go at this and are a bit sick of being told they're doing it wrong by people who've never properly done it at all. I'm Neal Veglio, the Podmaster.

About four years ago, a very popular remote recording platform offered me money to talk about them on this show. I'd been using it that week. It had also, that week, lost one of my recordings. Not glitched. Lost. I said no. And I want to be clear that this wasn't a moral decision, because it wasn't. It was arithmetic. This episode is about the thing you're holding and consistently failing to price. Because the belief is that sponsorship is a reward for volume — hit some magic download number and you're finally allowed. So you wait. And when someone eventually offers you something, you say yes very fast, because you've been told this is the gate opening. Here's the problem with that. Only 7% of podcasts reach 5,000 downloads an episode. Two per cent reach 20,000. The benchmark show you've been measuring yourself against is a rounding error. You've been waiting for permission from a category that's almost entirely empty. Meanwhile the advertising industry — not me, them — describes mid-tier and niche shows as underpriced. They're on record. And when you look at what they actually pay, business and B2B shows pull $40 to $80 CPM while the big broad comedy and lifestyle shows pull $15 to $35. Narrow is worth more per listener than popular. So the question stops being will anyone ever pay me? and becomes what's the cheapest I'd take for it? Most podcasters have never answered that. Which is exactly how you end up saying yes to something you've never used. There's an uncomfortable bit in here about what actually happens when you do. It isn't unsubscribes. Nobody storms off. It's quieter and considerably worse than that. In this episode: — Why the download benchmark you're chasing barely exists — The word the ad industry uses for shows your size, and why it should annoy you — Why a $50 CPM show can be a better buy than a $15 one — What it actually costs you when you endorse something you haven't tested — My entire sponsorship policy, which is one sentence long and slightly embarrassing — One thing to write down today, on the back of a receipt Tools mentioned in this episode. I record on Boomcaster, I edit in Descript most weeks, and Captivate hosts this show. I have affiliate links for all three, which means I earn a commission if you sign up through them at no extra cost to you. I'm telling you that because the whole episode is about people who don't. If I stopped using any of them, I'd stop talking about them. — Boomcaster: https://www.boomcaster.com/?ref=AzyWVAUu8UgsoCAZT (Free trial, plus 50% off your first three months) — Descript: https://descript.cello.so/Kct9xUy3ilR (50% off first two months) — Captivate: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=nealveglio Want in on the Podmastery Community? We're opening the doors to the public soon. To join the founding members, go to https://podmastery.co/podcasting-community Stuck on something specific? Come and get your next podcasting challenge solved one-to-one with me at https://podmastery.co Podmastery: Podcasting Insights is my podcast for people who've actually had a go at this and are a bit sick of being told they're doing it wrong by people who've never properly done it at all. I'm Neal Veglio, the Podmaster.