Bailey Walker AKA baileydrummer is the Sunshine Coast’s podcast king.
He recently wrapped up his fourth season of Ask A Muso, a podcast which tells the stories of musicians globally.
In a world where artists are taking their promotion into their own hands to diversify their incomes, Bailey wants to help.
If you’ve ever thought about having a podcast of your own, here’s Bailey’s top 7 tips for success:
1. Audio quality is essential
Quality is key. It’s hard to stand out if the quality isn’t there. It doesn’t matter how good your guests are, there is a level of expectation of how your podcast should sound. If the quality isn’t there, neither will be the listeners. Your audio must be sharp, crisp, and at a good level. Equipment is much easier to find now, so grab some quality mics and get making!
2. Control your variables
When the conversation is flowing, and you have to stop for technical difficulties, it can really take you out of the moment. Whether it’s lights, tripods, cameras, or batteries, double-check your set up so you don’t have to stop and start your recording. You want to keep things organic and in-the-moment, so the more variables you can control, the better. And you will be less stressed, which is important.
3. High-quality video (if you can)
If you can do a high-quality video to complement your audio, do it. Hosting doesn’t have to be expensive and can even be free to start with on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.
4. Growing slowly and steadily
Don’t be despondent if your listener growth is slow to start. Rome wasn’t built in a day! Trial and error is how you learn and you can’t improve if you aren’t doing. Try new ideas, look at different guests and see what works. It’s all about learning and iterating for success, while ensuring you’re being authentic to yourself and your audience.
5. Promote yo’self
Promotional clips, shorts, TikToks and reels are nowadays an unfortunate necessity. Define your online persona or “voice”, and get comfortable with sharing. The easiest way to grow your audience on a new platform, including podcasting mediums, is to share clips where you already have an audience. If you aren’t a clip-editing whiz, you can use AI for assistance. Just make sure each clip is captioned, as we know this is preferred for engagement.
6. Consistency, consistency
If you want to grow a following, you have to have a product that people want to tune into, each and every cycle – be that weekly, monthly or otherwise. As people begin to see the consistency of your podcast, it proves its validity. And eventually (hopefully) will meter an expectation from viewers and listeners that there is a regular program they can tune into!
7. Collaboration is key
How better to grow your podcast than collaborating with different people in your niche to share the audience and expand organically, as well as helping grow the profile of the show. From there you can expand to better-known guests, and it pushes you to audiences beyond your own circle. New people get to know you and you get to know new people (and potential future collaborative partners).
Did you know?
- 90% cent of podcasts don’t last past episode 3
- Out of the 10% remaining, 90% don’t make it past episode 20
- If you get to episode 21 you are in the top 1% cent of episode producers!
For more check out Bailey’s podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@baileydrummer.
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