Podmastery: podcasting insights and advice for indie creators

Get your phone out. I’ve audited around 150 podcasts, and this time we’re auditing yours, together, while you listen. It’s episode 100, so instead of a party I’m doing the thing people usually pay me for: the four checks I run on every show before I write a word of an audit. You pause me, check your own show, come back, and we score it. Check one is how quickly your latest episode gets going, and how clean the edit is getting there. Check two is how your voice is recorded. Check three is your last three titles, and I fail that one on air. Check four is the bit of your description people see before it says “more”. Checks three and four, a machine can do, so I built one. Paste your RSS feed or your show name into the free health check and you’ll get a score out of 10 in red, amber and green, the same standard I use in my paid audits. If you want me actually listening to your show, the Lite audit is at the end of your results. Chapters 03:27 Check one: editing 04:56 Check two: your voice 06:16 Check three: titles 08:27 Check four: descriptions 09:11 The score 09:53 The free tool 11:35 Your one thing 12:31 Close Links Free podcast health check: podmastery.co/health-check When it’s bigger than four checks: https://podmastery.co/need-podcasting-help/ Free 7-day podcast makeover email course: podmastery.co Listener survey (free download as a thank-you): podmastery.co/listener-survey

54.8% of podcast listeners say shows already carry too many ads. 8.6% say they’d put up with a few more to keep their favourite shows free. That’s roughly one in 12, and honestly, I’d quite like to check he’s okay. Same week, Joe Rogan re-signs with Spotify (Podscribe reckons his recent episodes carried 15 ads), and audio fiction network Fable and Folly says it’s closing because podcast advertising changed under it. Bit of a week for ads. And if you’re thinking “but Neal, I don’t run any ads”… I know. This is still your problem. Your listener’s patience for being sold to doesn’t belong to each show. It’s one tank, the big shows have been draining it all evening, and by the time they press play on yours, your rate and review ask sounds exactly like a mattress advert. The people who walk first aren’t the casuals, either. It’s Mary. Your best listener. I also owe you an asterisk on something I said recently about empty sponsor slots, and Spotify’s relaunched Memberships has accidentally pointed at the one asset nobody can skip, and nobody can take 10% of. The one thing to change on your next episode is at 08:22. Chapters 00:00 Listeners have filed a complaint 00:44 54.8% say too many ads 01:34 Rogan’s 15 ads and a network closing 02:19 But I don’t run ads 04:37 Mary skips you 05:47 The asterisk 06:53 Beyond the pre-roll 07:30 The tenant put the rent up 08:22 Your one action this week 09:45 The small print Links The Podcast Study 2026 on ad load: podnews.net/press-release/podcast-ad-load-2 Beyond the Preroll, the follow-up: podnews.net/press-release/new-revenue-opportunities Fable and Folly to close: podnews.net/update/fable-and-folly-closes Spotify Memberships: podnews.net/update/spotify-memberships The landlord and tenants episode: podmastery.co/episodes/opinion-podcasters-youre-the-landlord-the-platforms-are-just-tenants When it’s bigger than one episode: podmastery.co/need-podcasting-help Free 7-day podcast makeover email course: podmastery.co Listener survey (free download as a thank-you): podmastery.co/listener-survey Got your own opinion on this? I’d love to hear it: podmastery.co/get-in-touch

My script said “leave”. My mouth said “ditch out”. Nobody listening ever knew, and that’s exactly why your script is the problem, not your voice. If you sound like you’re reading when you record, someone has probably told you it’s your voice. Smile more. Slow down. Warm it up. It’s very rarely your voice. It’s the page. In this episode I play you the line I couldn’t get through last time, take Dennis (of imaginary biscuit tin fame) through the wrong fixes, and tell you what happened when I tried to say the same passage twice, word for word, with 30-odd years of practice and the script right in front of me. I couldn’t do it. Most scripts are written to be looked at. Long sentences, the important bit buried mid-clause, words nobody says out loud. Your eyes can go back over a sentence. Your listeners’ ears can’t. Your mouth knows that, so it argues with the page the whole way through, and that argument is what people hear. The fix takes one voice memo and a bit of humility. It’s at 07:57 if you want to skip straight to it. Chapters 00:00 The line I couldn’t read 01:05 Dennis has a lovely voice 02:40 Scripts are written for eyes 04:30 One job: say it twice 06:22 Why good writers sound worse 07:57 The fix: let your mouth rewrite the page Links Ep 98, the quality floor episode: https://podmastery.co/episodes/heres-what-definitely-wont-make-your-podcast-sound-better/ When it’s bigger than how you sound reading: podmastery.co/need-podcasting-help Free 7-day podcast makeover email course: podmastery.co Listener survey (free download as a thank-you): podmastery.co/listener-survey

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.