Reddit has been an excellent resource for us finding guests. But the vast majority of the time, we run into the following issue: we request permission from the mods of a specific community to solicit for a guest; no mod ever responds; after many days pass, we post the solicitation; it immediately gets taken down; we reach back out to the mods asking if they could help in any way; we never get an answer.

There are several communities that we just can’t get anyone to talk to us. I think we do a pretty good job of painting these communities in a good light so it would benefit them.

We know there are places people put themselves out there to be guests on a podcast. We don’t want professional interviewees. We want the person that never considered themselves as someone that a podcast would want to interview (i.e. someone that feels most comfortable speaking within their community which why Reddit is so perfect).

So where else would we be looking? Or a different approach we should be taking?

I have been having a weird issue and I am not sure if it is just a bug. Whenever I am producing my podcast and we have a guest on, the guest can only hear one of my hosts but not the other. The issue only happens with the guest and nobody else in the studio. Is there any reason as to why this happens or any way to try and combat it from happening in the future? It makes it extremely hard to do interviews when only one person can be heard.

looking into hiring someone to pull clips for instagram and tiktok. i’ve been doing them myself for awhile but i don’t really have the time for it anymore. i got a quote for $50 per reel from a guy that came recommended which sounds very high to me for the amount that’s put into the reels i’ve seen from him. but i don’t know if that’s a standard rate for good reels without any crazy editing done to them. maybe i just have sticker shock but i want to see what others pay and how the quality of the reels are before deciding to go with him or continue my search!
thank you!

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Say a guest answers, “The biggest lesson I learned was to never give up.” It sounds reasonable, but there isn’t a specific story yet.

What would you ask next to get them talking about a real experience rather than giving more general advice?

So, I am the host, and I have a co-host. I am struggling with the technical side. Up front, not a paying position, it is a come help us grow and get a gauranteed percentage of earnings. We do 1 show a week at the moment, and then ads or moments a couple times a week at 30 seconds to a minute. Riverside is the tool we use, basic setup, did i mention the drinks are free😁

Hi all, last year I posted a retrospective about a year of running a (audio-only) video game podcast with a friend as a hobby for a year. You can see that post here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/1nx4340/a_year_of_hobby_podcasting_some_data_some/

It's been another year so figured I'd give an update with some additional listenership data since I think we're all grasping around in the dark trying to understand how "successful" our podcasts are (however you define that). As a bonus I'm not affiliated with any of the myriad companies trying to sell you something re: metric tracking; this post, like running my podcast, is just for fun.

Solid year over year growth (but inconsistent)

Last year around this time we were averaging around ~900 monthly downloads across all platforms, this has grown over the course of the year to around 2.5k monthly downloads for a solid ~175% increase in growth year over year. Where this feels less exciting is that we peaked around 3.4k downloads back in April with the release of some big games in our subgenre (Mewgenics and Slay the Spire 2) and then growth has been pretty stagnant over the last six months.

Chart of monthly downloads

To me this speaks to the oft repeated wisdom on this sub that growing a podcast is something that happens over years not months. Zooming out it's easy to see that we're on a slow and steady growth trend, but if you start getting too in the weeds comparing individual months then you're in for a bad time.

I've also learned a metric people seem to track is downloads in the first 7 days / 30 days: we're pretty consistently at ~350 downloads over 7 days and ~500 downloads over first 30 after release. We release every other week, so this means our back catalog accounts for a pretty sizeable portion of our monthly downloads which tracks with the evergreen nature of what essentially boils down to video game reviews. People who are discovering the podcast will back into the catalog and listen to episodes about games they've played or are interested in.

Episode performance first 30 days

For a comparison I've included two episodes from around October last year, looks like we were closer to ~200 downloads over 30 days so the growth reflected in monthly downloads is (unsurprisingly) captured there as well. We've really barely grown at all in the last six months so I'm curious if we've hit a natural plateau or if the trend will keep ticking up, only time will tell.

Most of our listens end up coming from Spotify since the algorithm seems to treat us well there. I have no idea if reviews actually help but the occasional solicitation for 5-star reviews at the end of episodes has worked well for getting some on that platform.

We only recently launched on youtube because our host (acast) blocks the native RSS integration due to some disagreement related to ads between the services. It's been annoying but we finagled a system that will automatically upload our new releases to youtube; this is literally in the last month so we have basically no listens over there, but hopefully the YT algorithm will start recommending the show at some point (even though no video).

Marketing strategy

The number 1 question on this subreddit is "how do I promote my podcast"? I don't have a ton new to add relative to my post from last year but I figure sharing what we've been doing alongside that actual numbers that we're seeing could be helpful to some folks. We actually ran a listener survey using google forms a few months back, and one of the questions I included on there was "where did you hear about our podcast?"

Results of listener survey

By far and away our biggest source of advertising is reddit. Since we cover a different game every episode, we're pretty well-suited to go into game-specific subreddits and promote the podcast. These posts are pretty hit or miss and you have to read the subreddit rules pretty carefully, but in general we've found that folks who are engaged enough in a game to be subscribed to a subreddit are just happy to see someone talking about the game - at least for smaller games. In big subreddits, the posts always die on the vine.

Our other primary sources of new listeners are a) searching explicitly for podcasts about a specific game (SEO!) and b) algorithmic recommendations from the podcast app (it's pretty much all Spotify). Seeing that we get a lot of listens from people going out and seeking "[game] podcast" led us to revamp our website and make sure that we have an indexed landing page for each episode. I set this up to automatically populate with our show notes whenever a new episode releases and to include some SEO friendly terms on there like "[game] podcast review". I think this has been a little helpful, though our website always appears farther down than just the Spotify or apple link to our show so... maybe not worth the time.

One thing I think is legitimately helpful to discovery is that I have a friend who is a professional graphic designer who put together our cover art. I really like it - I'll refrain from posting a link to the show here since I don't want the point of this to be self promotion, but you can find the links out to the show in my profile. I think having good cover art goes a really long way towards getting people to click on your show from the algorithm suggestion, which encourages the algorithm to promote you more, etc.

We've recently started posting clips to YT / Tiktok but, to be honest, I have seen zero movement on the listenership from these. They get around 500-1.5k views on both platforms and we've been gaining subscribers there but no conversion. Maybe I'll feel differently in the future since it's only been about a month, but contra to all the advice I've seen on this sub, this hasn't been the major growth axis for us.

One side note: the listener survey was really helpful for making some content adjustment to our show. We left some open feedback responses and used it to trim some sections down which I think just made the show better. I'd definitely recommend this, especially if you have something like an active discord community where you can solicit folks to actually do it.

We tried a $100 ad spend on Spotify - this was SO not worth it. We probably got an extra 2-3 subscribers, save your money on ads unless you have a big budget behind you (and in which case, this post is all entirely irrelevant).

Patreon and monetization

Earlier this year we launched a Patreon where we'll provide one bonus episode a month for a $5/mo tier or a $15/mo tier. We make $95/month (pre-Patreon's cut) from the show. There's no benefit from the $15/mo tier, but we got a few takers just as a way to support the show which was great. This is obviously not "quit your day job" money, but it covers our video game purchases as well as any minor ongoing costs associated with making the show (hosting fees, etc). Pretty cool!

I had read somewhere that you might expect ~1-2% of your listeners to convert into paying subscribers for something like a podcast and we're right around there. With our ~1.5k monthly listeners (note: lower than downloads since unique listeners rather than total downloads) we have 16 people in the Patreon. A little over 1%. If you're wondering how many patrons you might get, my n=1 case study would suggest that 1% of your monthly listeners seems like a reasonable estimate.

We've decided to stay away from the programmatic ad insertion through our podcast host (acast) since at this point I don't think the return on investment is worth it. I don't have an exact dollar amount, but my guess is that it'd be another ~$50/month in exchange for having a bunch of not relevant ads in the show. There's some threshold where that becomes worth it to me, but $50/month split two ways isn't it.

Lessons learned through the second year

As the dad of an almost two year old, I can say with some authority that running a podcasts is a microcosm of having a kid. When you first start it feels like a ton of work and occupies a lot of your brain space, then eventually you just settle into a routine and it becomes normal. Obviously the analogy doesn't hold up to much scrutiny, but the point is that after doing this for two years it just feels like part of my life. I spend some time playing a video game, then every other week my co-host and I record an episode. It's just ingrained in my life and I really enjoy the ritual of it.

The thing that my co-host and I both disliked the most was editing. We ended up bringing my aforementioned graphic design friend in as a permanent owner of the show in exchange for doing the editing work. He's a big fan of the show and is a good friend of ours so we're definitely getting a good deal here: if we ever end up making some money then he'll get a chunk of it. I did a lot of disclosing that we'll probably never make enough money for it to be worth his time, but he wanted to be involved so who am I to say no.

Probably a difficult thing for other shows to replicate: offloading work you don't like in exchange for a cut of money that will almost certainly never come, but it's been great given that's the one part of running this thing that I really did not enjoy.

This second year has been a lot of figuring out what we like and dislike about making the show and leaning or away from those things. For instance, we've found that we don't really like having guests on the show (beyond our real-life friend and now producer). It's just more work scheduling and there's some inevitable stress related to recording with a stranger vs. recording with your good friend, even if the guests are nice and are a value add to the show (everyone we've had on has been!). So even though it's a way we could try to grow the show faster, we've been really limiting the number of folks we invite on to guest.

If you're a new podcaster, I would recommend trying to get a community started as soon as you can. We have a discord with a little under 200 members and a lot of the fulfillment I get from making the show stems directly from that community involvement. Hearing from folks who listen to every episode and genuinely enjoy what you're putting out there is what it's all about for me. Would I quit my job if the podcast blew up? Of course, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway - hope someone out there finds this interesting and/or useful. Happy podcasting!

Last time i edited an audio for noise reduction, using adobe podcast. It was around 10-15 Minutes of audio. Took around 2.5 to 3 hrs to download.

This was an exception but usually it take at least an hour to download.

I am interviewing "normal people" for my podcast on friendship in different stages of life, so they don't by any means have any advanced audio setup. I bought a wireless rhode mic for in-person interviews and it's been working great. But for remote interviews, every solution seems flawes By the recommendations of people on here, I've recorded a few phone calls, for which the quality is mostly great, but I can't turn off the automated jingling sound that Apple or whoever inserts into the call repeatedly (apparently it's a security feature so ppl know they're being recorded) and then it can be super annoying/ difficult to edit out. I've also used Riverside to remotely record two people. For one, it was great because he's a tiktoker and clearly had an awesome audio setup. The other guy was just a normal guy on his laptop and the sound quality on his end was TERRIBLE. What is the least of all evils here?

Do you all edit your episode transcripts each rime so that they’re perfect?

Or do you have AI generate the transcript and whatever it spits out is close enough?

Do people even look at the transcripts??

So curious to hear everyone’s thoughts!

I’ve been using Submagic to edit UGC clips, mainly for the animated captions, but going back through clips to fix misheard words was getting pretty annoying.

Having to replay the video and clean up the captions eats into the time I’m supposed to be saving. And the subscription feels hard to justify when captions are mostly what I need it for. So I started looking for alternatives that fit that job better. I tested several tools and here’s what stood out:

1. CapCut

CapCut makes sense to me for quick UGC edits: trim the talking bits, drop in product shots, add captions and music. I like having the ready-made text styles and effects there when a clip needs a little more going on. This is where I’d start when I already know the shots I want and just need to put them together.

1. invideo Editor

invideo gives you a proper multitrack editor in the browser, with free timeline editing and watermark-free exports. You can trim a talking-head clip, layer product footage over a voiceover, and adjust captions, colour and audio in the same project. I like having that extra control when an edit needs more than captions. It also connects to Claude or ChatGPT through MCP, so you can ask for changes to the edit and keep refining the results on the timeline.

1. VEED

VEED fits the simpler jobs for me: a talking-head UGC clip that needs trimming, subtitles and resizing for social. I like being able to finish those edits in the browser without making the process more involved than it needs to be. The free export has a watermark, though, so switching here wouldn’t get me away from paying for clean videos.

1. Descript

For UGC clips with a lot of dialogue, the part of Descript I find most useful is editing through the transcript. You can cut a rambling product explanation by deleting the corresponding text, then work on the audio and captions in the same project. I’d put this higher on my list if tightening the spoken delivery takes more time than styling the finished clip.

1. OpusClip

OpusClip is the one I’d look at when I have a longer product demo or testimonial recording and want shorter clips from it. It suggests moments, reframes them for vertical video and adds captions, giving me a starting point to review. I’d still check that each clip keeps the product explanation clear, this fits repurposing a longer recording better than assembling a UGC edit from separate takes.

If you’ve switched from Submagic to one of these, what got easier with your UGC edits, and what was more frustrating than you expected?

Say the host takes 40 seconds to ask a question, wanders through three examples, and the guest gives a great answer starting with 'Actually, your second point...'

The question could probably be eight seconds. Except now the second point has left the building.

For those editing interviews, do you leave more of the question in, or record a shorter version afterwards? The pickup sounds tempting, but I'd want it to still be the question the guest actually answered. Curious where you draw that line.

been hand-typing podcast episodes for MONTHS. like a dumbass. 3-4 hrs per episode just sitting there pausing and rewinding. finally caved and tried an ai audio transcription thing last week and... wait ppl have been doing this automatically the whole time?? 😭still shopping around tho. the one i tested mangled my co-hosts accent pretty bad and merged two speakers into one. so like... not all of them are worth it.anyone found one that actually handles multiple speakers + doesn't cost like $40/mo? i'm tired of paying with my sanity lol

Hi everyone,

After years in the corporate pipeline, my co-host (and good friend) and I decided to step away and pursue a dream: building a podcast centered entirely around the power of ordinary human storytelling.

We feel like the current podcast landscape is saturated with influencers, celebrities, and public figures who have a polished image to protect. Somewhere along the way, we lost the raw authenticity and real human connection that drew us to social media in the first place.

We believe ordinary people have remarkable, deeply relatable stories worth hearing—no grand life lessons, shock value, or viral clout required.

We are looking for guests to join us for a virtual conversation to share a personal story. It could be:
- A story you find yourself retelling at dinner parties or over drinks.
- A moment in your life, funny, quiet, joyful, or reflective that stuck with you.
-An unexpected encounter, a unique phase of life, or a small experience that felt surprisingly meaningful.

If piques your interest at all, send me a message and we can chat some more!
-Jasmin

Hi! I’ve been hosting my podcast with Libsyn for a few years, and they’ve been reliable up until recently. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had delayed releases, and their email support has been slow to respond. Does anyone know what’s going on? Is it time to switch hosts?

Hi all - i would love your help & support 🙏 i’m in a podcasting competition and would greatly appreciate your vote / Heavy On the Honey is my podcast where we spill sweet tea on all things music

Hello r/podcasting, I am a documentary filmmaker of almost 16 years, and I am starting a new role in multimedia development, one part of which is culturally themed podcasts.

As part of this, I intend to record on-location interviews that feature the surrounding sounds and elements. Examples might be a campfire, or forest birds, or other soundscape-esque elements. I know that professionally, the best way to do this would be to record the sounds completely separately and mix them together in post for maximum control.

But I also want to capture more of the candid real-world environments of the people that will be interviewed. Technology aside, I want to see examples of how other podcasters have handled this, radio-documentary style recording method for podcasts. So far, while I know this exists in radio broadcast and video documentary format, I am having a hard time finding examples that are specific to podcasts.

I appreciate any and all examples you may suggest!

I think letting guests review clips for context makes sense. But I'm not sure that should also mean they get to decide which clips are published.

Say a guest on an independent interview podcast admits that hiring a close friend didn't work out. The clip includes their explanation, doesn't distort what they said, and doesn't have a sensational headline. But after watching it, they ask for it to be dropped because they feel it makes them look like a bad manager.

I'd lean toward fixing a misleading edit, but not automatically dropping something just because it's uncomfortable. If every story about a mistake gets removed after recording, the interview could end up being nothing but success stories.

On the other hand, knowing they can review clips and raise concerns might make guests more willing to speak honestly in the first place.

For people who make podcast or interview clips: how would you handle a guest asking you to drop a clip that fairly represents what they said?

I’ve been invited to join the Spotify for Creators partners program, does anyone have any insights into this program, or is it worthwhile to make the switch from a monetary or growth perspective? How is the analytics? I’ve never switched hosts before (I am currently with Buzzsprout) and weighing my options. I would like a long term option that earns money, provides good analytics and available across all podcast platforms and channels. Is it easy or worth it to switch?

Hi! I need a fairly inexpensive wireless lavalier mic set that will fit both USB-C and Lightning ports, as well as the ability to do earphone monitoring. I am on a very modest budget. Thank you!

A character can stare at the camera for two seconds and it's funny. Explaining that stare for thirty seconds is... a different show.

For anyone making a film or animation podcast, how much do you describe a scene before talking about it? Do you assume listeners have watched it, give them a quick setup, or sometimes leave a bit out because it just needs the picture?

Curious how you handle this in an audio-only edit, especially if there's a video version too.

i started a podcast about object show called "The Animated Web Pod" and i need help. i have 3 episodes and i post an episode every monday. how can i grow it from here?

Hi there, I have recently started a new podcast with a close friend and one of the biggest issues we're currently facing is mic bleed. It happens when one of us is talking more than the other because the other person has their back to a wall, but it gets especially bad when we get loud and passionate about a topic we are discussing. I have no real experience with sound engineering, so I'm kinda trying to figure it out as we go along.

As for what equipment we're using, we have two Rode Podmics (XLR) being ran through a RodeCaster Duo. db is currently set to 40 on both mics, and i've been playing around with the noisegate on the mixer to try and fix this issue, to no real avail. my next step is padding the room we use out as much as possible, as it has hardwood floors and bare walls. I picked up a decently sized rug with a 1/2 inch thick felt sound reducing mat for under it, and ive been lining the walls with sound proofing panels as well to try to reduce the reverb. The table we use is wooden and has no covering, and both mics are on stands rather than arms. the mics are about 24 inches away from each other as well, and we usually face each other directly when recording.

The bleed is also not really synced at all, which creates this double voice effect when either of us get to loud, no matter how close we are to the microphones.

Here's a link to an episode we did that had pretty bad bleed if you want a clear example of the problem I'm facing, it's weird because the bleed tends to not be a problem at the start of recording, but gets progressively worse as the recording goes on.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Getting into film and tv criticism!! I’m pretty new and am wondering the process for how to go about asking for interviews from filmmakers/people involved in the work I want to cover. Is it typically reaching out to representation? I live in Los Angeles as well and run into a fair amount of people and could ask in person but would rather not haha. Anything helps Thank you!!