The Trading Post

What Success Really Means in the World of Podcast Analytics

• Trader Stu • Season 3 • Episode 2

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Podcasting success isn't measured in downloads alone but in consistency, authenticity, and passion for your subject matter. The journey of building an audience requires patience and realistic expectations about growth.

• Don't get discouraged by low download numbers when starting out
• Comparing yourself to established podcasters like Joe Rogan is unrealistic as they started with existing audiences
• Current podcast statistics show approximately 4.5 million indexed podcasts globally
• Consistency matters more than perfection - don't over-edit your content
• For B2B podcasting, there's a significant market opportunity due to lack of current, relevant content
• Aim for quality content over perfect production - authenticity connects better than polished perfection
• Batch recording (doing multiple episodes in one session) can help maintain consistency
• As AI content increases across platforms, genuine human connection through podcasting becomes more valuable

Be good or be good at it!


“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform, always rocking the cowboy hat. The track is protected under U.S. Copyright rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.

contact:
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🌐 www.durracell.com

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The thoughts and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and do not reflect the official policy or position of Metro Trading Association. Although the host is an employee of Metro Trading, this podcast is intended to educate entrepreneurs on the benefits of professional trading, regardless of their location. Additionally, the host reviews various pieces of camping gear due to the association of trade, barter, and prepping.

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Speaker 1:

All right, I don't usually do this, but I'm going to record another episode this week, two within a week. I haven't done that yet and it was by accident actually. So I've been thinking about doing this anyways, watching the Buzzsprout statistics or stats, whatever on the chart, and I've noticed that after you know two or three days, it levels out, like the listener downloads if you do podcasts, you know what I'm talking about or even YouTube videos, it's the same thing. Anyway, it goes up and then you know, eventually levels out just like every other video does. And I've noticed after two or three days it levels out. So I'm like you know what, I'll just record, you know, every two or three days and I'll just keep the line going up because I like that line going up.

Speaker 1:

And what happened with this morning was that I've been up since 2.30 in the morning, as usual pretty much, and I was out in the garage futzing around and, as I usually do at that time of day, with a coffee, and I was, um, actually you know what? I'll tell a quick little story. So I bought this uh, it's called the Coleman, instant hot water in demand and uh, it's for when we go camping and it's propane powered and I'm kind of getting off, or don't want to get onto, I guess I should say, because I just started camping, like tent camping, last summer, and I was a fifth wheeler growing up so and I promised myself I'd never camp again, as I've already gone through over and over anyway, after survival, school and living in tents in the desert and deployments, multiple deployments Anyway. So I said never again. But here I am, got kids and the wife was like kids love camping, let's go camping. So all right, anyway, I digress. So there's this Coleman Instant Hot Water On Demand thing I've been looking at getting just in case, like prepping, you know, disaster preparedness, and so just in case the power goes out or the gas goes out, we can still have a hot shower.

Speaker 1:

Because I have learned after multiple deployments and living in the woods for a week, that there is nothing that I looked forward to more than a hot shower. That is other than burgers and pizza. When I was out and I had terrible food for a while, I was like man, I could go for a good greasy burger, you know, and hot showers, it's just, I don't know. It kind of warms the soul and after a few days, if you haven't been there and you've had to done your baby shower baths, as we call them, or baby shower showers or baby towel I can't think of it. Baby towel, what do you call the things where you wipe down kids with Baby wipe, wipe showers, uh, and then you get a hot shower. Man, I tell you what? There's nothing, nothing like it.

Speaker 1:

So I've been kind of bent on getting something like that, but the thing is that they're so expensive. They're like $400 or something like that, 435 bucks I think, for the new ones that have the shower head attachment and, uh, you know, the propane powered and with the pump and everything. And I'm like, man, I am not paying that and I got to lug it around, and so, at any rate, I knew the principle of it. Of course, you just have some copper tubing, wrap it around in a circle and then, you know, put a flame under it and, Bob's your uncle, you got yourself some hot water, right? Well, I don't want to do all that and do a project, unless I absolutely had to.

Speaker 1:

So, anyway, I was on Facebook Marketplace. I found the original Coleman one it's the green one and it's supposed to be just for your sink and I picked it up for I think the guy wanted $75 for it. And I was like man, he said I haven't been using it in a long time. I was like 10 to 15 years or something like that. He hasn't used it for it. I haven't been using it in a long time. I said 10 to 15 years or something like that. He hasn't used it for it. I'm like, well for sure, the battery's dead on it because it's lead acid. So I know that's done.

Speaker 1:

And then he said I had another propane tank to test it and I don't have. I don't want to charge it up and bother with it, so I don't even know if it works, kind of a thing. I'm like, well, give me a reply, you know, at least give me something here, because I'm planning on using it as a disposable, you know. And I knew I'm going to go into this thing and it's not going to work. I just knew it. And he's like, well, what $30? I was like, fine, $30. It's worth what I want to do with it anyway. Sure enough, I get over there, pick it up and, you know, go home and plug it in and whatever. And it was true, yeah, it don't work. You know, the battery's dead Won't take a charge.

Speaker 1:

I happen to have the same exact battery for my son's little battery operated dinosaur thing that he rides and I was like perfect, so at least I can just test it. So I pulled that out, the other one out and swap this one in, and you know they're worth 20, 25 bucks for these batteries, by the way. So and I knew that going into it, and uh, so I, I fired it up and the propane didn't want to kick off so and stay lit. So I was like man, I don't know if it's that that the pump right. So I, uh, I don't know if it needs to have the pump running in order for the flame to stay lit, because otherwise it may melt the copper inside. Right, it's got to have cold water running through it, otherwise it won't work. So I was like, well, okay, I just picked up a bucket over my head, kind of a thing, with a gallon in it, you know, and then that way I just made it take water and flow through the system.

Speaker 1:

But because the pump wasn't running, I broke something when I disconnected the pump and I couldn't, I couldn't plug it back in. For some reason it won't click, at any rate. So I was like, well, I wrote Coleman and I said you know, is this the issue Does the pump have to run for this to work? I'm assuming that was the answer. And of course you know, like I said, I've been up since 2.30 this morning. I'm like you know what? I want a project anyway, and I don't want to carry around a propane tank.

Speaker 1:

This thing was heavy. I think it probably weighs it must weigh a minimum of 20 pounds, this thing. Right, it's got a battery in there. You got the unit and you know the copper and the plastic and the regulator and it's a whole system. So I was like I don't want to lug all this around, for you know, put it in the van, it's going to take up room, it's heavy and it's going to be just kind of cumbersome and we're probably never going to use it anyway. So I was like, well, I want the heart of this thing anyway.

Speaker 1:

So I took it apart and, sure enough, you know, I found out it does work, how I of course thought it worked, and you know the flames don't go underneath of it. And then, uh, you know the circulates the water around the copper. So I was like cool, I gutted it out and I took the heart out and now I have this uh you know unit laying there and, uh, I'm playing with it, um, trying to get it set up to take a hose attachment, and that's what my fittings are for, and anyway, so I'm I'm digressing again, so that, anyway, I got so into my project that, uh, I forgot what time it was and so my wife just literally texted me it was a 906. She goes why did you leave so early this morning? Because usually I leave at nine, not eight. I guess I left at eight and I didn't know it.

Speaker 1:

So here I am recording an episode now, because I'm here at the office an hour early and it's snowing on April 10th and unfortunately, my desk is facing the wrong way. Does anybody else have a desk in their office and the back is towards the window? This is the second time I've had a desk like this where I have an awesome view, cool big window, but I don't even look out of it because my back is to it all day and you know you don't look around from your monitor all that much. You probably should, but I don't really all that much. I need to rearrange it, my desk anyway, because it's terrible, the glare on the screen, and you know my shades are usually closed anyways because of the glares and I don't get to enjoy the rain or the snow or whatever. So, and yes, I do like inclement weather, I don't say sunshine, there's nothing to look at with the sunshine. I like watching snow, sleet, rain, thunderstorms, lightning. You know all this stuff right. So, at any rate, here I am recording another episode.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that was a eight-minute rant explanation on why I'm here and like as if you care, at any rate. So I wanted to mention something. I talked to somebody yesterday and it was about podcasting, and she said that her number one download that they have is I say they because I guess there's a small team or whatever that runs it At any rate, the number one podcast download they have, I think, is 200 downloads. I was like, wait, wait, what Only 200? You know, usually you think of yourself as a successful podcaster, I guess of thousands of downloads, but they're only a local podcast. It's like a local radio station, you know, it's citywide, basically. So I guess 200 is good just for being in the city or the region Not even a region, at any rate. So I was like, well, that's way less than I don't know how you're making money. You know what I'm saying. It must be. It's not even marketing. Almost at this point, I guess I don't know. It's cool that she's excited for that, but I was like, wow, I don't for as many episodes as you have and as long as it's been going, I would have imagined thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of downloads by this point in time.

Speaker 1:

I guess and I think that's where I wanted to get into this is that many podcasters get so distracted or deflated by how little listenership they have. Now I just I'm really bad with this. I put up a download or I put up an episode and I get several downloads and I'm just like you know what, I second guess it and I'm taking it down or whatever, because it just didn't flow right or I didn't like the sound, the audio quality was terrible, and sometimes I just record things just to record and get it out, because if you don't, you procrastinate, you overthink yourself and you never get it done. You never do it. Procrastinate, you overthink yourself and you never get it done. You never do it. That's just the way I am. I have to like just do it and then fix it later. So because of that, I have only, I think, 10 downloads.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yesterday was my 10th download, or not download, upload like 10th episode or whatever you get, like you know, awards or whatever on Buzzsprout and I was like, wow, I have been seven months into this. I started this in October and I only have 10 downloads, and that's what's cool about this kind of like a program is that you the Buzzsprout thing? Anyway, I don't know, they all do this, but they keep track of that for you. And so when people are like, oh man, I, you know, I've been doing this for whatever a month or a year or whatever, and I only have this many people listening, I'm like, yeah, but dude, so I hate using Joe Rogan because he played the cheat code. I don't want to say the cheat code because he worked for it, don't get me wrong, but he was in Fear Factor and he was an MMA fighter and he called MMA fights and he was a comedian or is a comedian, I guess still and so he had this huge following. He forced me to start a podcast.

Speaker 1:

You're going to get everyone all at one time listening to it because you already have your group right. It's like my mom and my sister are multi-petitions certified whatever, and you know, I hear about, you know, these girls. They bring their crew with them. They go to a new job, a new salon, and they already have whatever say 10 regulars right Showing up and the girl's like, wow, how do you, how'd you do that already? Well, she's like I've been doing this for whatever a couple of years and you know I I've moved around twice because of whatever and I just my people follow me. You know they don't care about the salon, it's me and that's the same thing. It's just people don't see that. All they see is like the big, you know, was he make $30 million or something, that a month or something crazy, something crazy, and uh, but it's not even like apples to apples, your top 5%. It doesn't take much, I'll say it doesn't take much to get there, but it's a big 5%, you know.

Speaker 1:

And I like looking at these stats of um, the podcast stats that someone sent me. It's called podcast indexorg and it's pretty cool. So it says total podcasts in the index is 4 million, 497, 695 let's just say 5 million and but only in the last three days is 97 000 shows and published in the last 10 days, 244 000, so you know. Compare that with youtubers that try and make it or get in there and make monetization. This is a pretty good odds. I mean this is worldwide, right, so that's pretty solid, I think. Anyway, you got to think of things. Numbers on worldwide scales, not just your local area. And I'm I guess I have people listening all over, you know, but really I mean I'm. I guess I have people listening all over, you know, but really I mean I'm regional, my, I work for the trading association. That's a regional area, it's the metro, trading is regional and I work for them.

Speaker 1:

The podcast is completely separate. It's just about advertising, trade and barter and it's the same thing, but I, you already want to use it. But the whole point was just not even brand awareness, just awareness. Nobody knows what trade is and that was the whole point of this show, so it was never intentional to be what it became. It sounds like I have thousands of listeners. I'm not making money off of this or nothing like that yet. Yeah, hopefully, right, so it's about just getting the word out there about trade to the young people, because it's not being taught in college.

Speaker 1:

I've actually been asked to speak at a couple of colleges by professors that said, hey, you should come by and talk about this in my marketing group. I'm like, perfect, just let me know when to be there. I have another speaking engagement in November to talk about it, and so I think that's great and that's where we got to go, because, unfortunately, nobody knows about this. They just think about Facebook. What's the other one? Instagram, tiktok and advertising on there. Well, it's great if you're at that level, I guess, of more of a bigger scale, but if you're just a small, say a, a locksmith, you're not going to do all that. You should do trade and get the word out there that way.

Speaker 1:

So, speaking of discouragement and running a podcast or starting a podcast to market because SEO is dying because of AI, I don't know about you, but I don't even hardly Google anything anymore, ever. I use Perplexity for me. That's what I do, and you know there's ChatGPT and stuff like that and actually Perplexity is ChatGPT. It has that built into it At any rate. You know that doesn't, as far as I know, had built into it At any rate. You know that doesn't, as far as I know, that doesn't hit any kind of search engine optimizations. It just scrolls for whatever you're looking for, through all the databases, through all the you know, I guess Reddit feeds and other podcasts and things of that nature, and it just gives you a summary of all of that compiled in together. It doesn't look for SEO, it just looks through the webpages, as far as I know.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how it really boils down, but everyone's talking about SEO is dying and it's a time waste. Now it's like snake oil, right, it's yesteryear things of the past. So the only way to really get out there and get going I don't won't say the only way, but as podcasting, but the problem is it's super time consuming. I should look up how many hours I've actually done so far with the podcast. But with Buzzsprout, with the basic plan, I get three hours of a month.

Speaker 1:

So I figured that you know one uh podcast a week, that's what? Uh? Two hours, uh per month, and then, so you know, let's say, 30 times four, right? Um, so that's two hours and then plus a couple of bonus. So if I want to do another one, like I'm doing today, or you know whatever, or I go over 30 minutes, then you know I got buffer. But I'm not even doing that. I think last month I wasted I think I had a seven. I think I did seven minutes in total last month on a podcast. So I wasted almost the whole thing and then that happened again, I think one other another month. I don't think I do a podcast at all, so all three hours got smoked.

Speaker 1:

So you know, right there, I'm paying for six hours of podcasting and I haven't used it. And it's not expensive. I think it was $22 a month or something like that, I can't remember $22, $29. It's not crazy. It's a hobby, right Cheaper than most any other hobby I know of. And anyway, it's not even a tax write-off because I'm not running it through Metro Trading. The company is not paying for it. Like I said, it's on my own entity. I'm just doing this for awareness. So all I'm saying is once you start a podcast, don't get discouraged by that.

Speaker 1:

I've been on a feed or a group on Alignable and the guy was saying I posted on there. He's like does anybody else have an issue with wasting time? Like, literally, this is actually wasting time. I pay 30, let's say 30 bucks, that's 10 bucks an hour. Let's just go ahead and say that 10 times 30 is 30. And I've wasted it, it's gone, it's 30 bucks, is smoked right, literally. So he's like yeah, dude, once I got started I did the same thing. Now he goes after a year or whatever it's been, you know, and dozens of episodes. He's like now I have to buy time, you know, because I run out of the three hour mark, and then you can buy every, I think, hour or half hour, you buy more time and yeah, so everyone goes through it.

Speaker 1:

And so don't, don't get, don't be discouraged about how little downloads you have and that you're wasting time. I, I do, I mean, I, I do get discouraged. Not discouraged, but like, kind of like, not angry, but like flustered. You know what I'm saying. So, cause I lost that, those three hours that you never get back, it doesn't roll over, it's just use or lose, like a PTO at a job, you know. So, yeah, so what it does to me, though, actually is it lights a fire. Though I need that loss. I got to have that, otherwise I get complacent. So I get yeah, man, I lost three hours, you know, whatever last month. Okay, well, I better go ahead and knock it out, and already I'm doing better this week than I did all last month.

Speaker 1:

Right, I did one on Tuesday, I think it was like 27 minutes, and then, you know, I got one today. I'm already at 19. So, uh, you just got to get it out there and just hit record and start doing it. And then also, don't worry about editing. Quit over editing. I am so tired.

Speaker 1:

I quit listening to a lot of podcasts because it got to be such a production. There's no more errors, there's no more. I don't know, it's too flawless, it's too orchestrated. They have this long intro that generally, if I can, I skip through it. Sometimes I'll even start a podcast, if I do start one in the driveway before I hit the road, because I don't want to deal with all the intro stuff you know I talk about. First of all, it's a long intro music thing and you know it's a couple of minutes maybe, or whatever. So mine, I kept it. I think it's under 20, 27 seconds or something like that. So under 30 seconds I had to do you know my name whatever, whatever, and then that's it. It's all, it's all done.

Speaker 1:

But some of these are just like here's a long intro thing before you even start talking, and then what'd you do? Last long intro thing before we even start talking. And then, uh, what'd you do last? There's you have a co-host and co-host and co-host hey, what'd you do last weekend? And what'd you do with the kids and all this other stuff? I'm like I don't care, I'm here for business or I'm here for camping stuff or prep prepping stuff maybe, or you know whatever. Let's be honest, camping is prepping. If you can camp without being on the grid, you can prep. I guess, I don't know, maybe, not really, but sort of speak, you're better than most anyway, uh.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, uh, don't don't over and over edit, don't over edit, because you can tell when you cut out all the cuts I'm going to. I mean, I have one. I had to cut out all the cuts. I mean I have one I had to cut out because I cussed and this is for kids and it was SHTF, but I didn't say it that way, I actually said it and anyway, I don't think it's too bad of a word. It's crazy. What's on YouTube right now? Actually, I was watching a short the other day and there was some straight up cussing. I'm not going to be wrong. I'm a former Air Force mechanic, so if anyone's got a mouth on them, I do, and it's really hard to watch my mouth even around my own kid. But the fact that they're letting that out there untethered like that and I don't know, it's a different time. That's all I'm saying. So, anyway, All right.

Speaker 1:

So I guess one tip I want to say if you're doing the podcast bit, find time in the morning before anyone's up and do that. So what I've noticed is that I come in in the morning, sometimes early, sometimes not in the office. I've tried doing it in my old sauna, in the sauna studio, I called it, and it's just, it's so enclosed and claustrophobic I can't handle it and I even soundproofed it and stuff like that. I need a window or something, I don't know. I just it's not conducive to my well-being to be in there for a half an hour and do a podcast. I come out feeling like I'm wore out instead of energized. So I had to come in the office. I turned the phones down and, uh, I should have. The phone isn't ringing yet. Thankfully it's early enough anyway. So and then do a, do it real quick If you try and get over 23 minutes, if you don't know that 23 minutes is the cutoff for monetization for Buzzsprout and, uh, go for it and just do it and after you edit it, make sure you're still over 23 minutes.

Speaker 1:

You know, like I said, don't over edit and don't. And of course I say, ums, sometimes I noticed it and I have other things that I say, but try not to worry too much about editing all that out. You know, just get it done and hit record and upload it and then keep going and then you can always take them down later. That's what I do. It's not going off as recommended or good or bad, but whatever, I do it anyway. So everyone always says oh, you should batch record. Yeah, I know I should batch record.

Speaker 1:

Batch recording is where you get in here and you do all your three hours all at one time in one day. You know you do your 23 minutes, end it, save it and then another episode and do it again and you do the whole month in one day. Sounds awesome. I wish I could do that. But you know what are you going to do? I don't know I want to do it, but that's the next step. I don't know I want to do it, but that's the next step. To me, that's a lot of planning and a lot of work and a lot of script writing all at one time without getting any feedback back, I guess.

Speaker 1:

And the other thing I wanted to mention too is that people were talking about the AI entering the field for podcasting. The whole point of podcasting is to kind of I don't want to say develop rapport maybe I guess you could say that with your audience. But AI doesn't do that. Obviously it's a robot. And my YouTube watching has gone way down and I'm so thankful for it because I'm getting so much more done around the house because, honestly, in the morning usually I'd have a coffee and sit there and watch YouTube for a couple hours on my TV and now I'm out futzing around in the garage and getting things done and choring and, you know, knocking it all out right. So I'm getting more of my time back because AI is so.

Speaker 1:

It's getting to the point where it's not even fun anymore. It's taking all the realism out of it. I guess I don't know. It's getting harder and harder to tell what's real and what's not, and what's fake and what's not, and what's truth and what's a lie, and I don't want to sit there and have to analyze and figure that out. I already do have to do that with people during the day to know about lies and whatever, right, so I want to be able to get information, not saying that the news is real either. I mean, we all know that it's fake news, whatever, but I don't know. So with having a podcast as an AI narrator. I don't know so with having a podcast as an AI narrator, I don't know. The one thing I thought was kind of actually intriguing with AI, though, was like, if you want to do a host and a co-host, you could have the AI be the co-host.

Speaker 1:

People were like, oh, you should start doing interviews now with other members of trading associations or trade groups, barter groups, whatever, and see how it's helped them in their business. I'm like, yeah, but I already can't even get a podcast done without having to schedule a time to make a phone call or a Zoom call. Record it, make sure everything's all right, get them on the line, schedule their busy. They're all entrepreneurs, they're all busy, they're all business owners, right, so you have to do that, and it's just like why, I don't know. It sounds like a lot of logistics and I just think it'll never happen, it'll never get done, and they know me, so I'd rather not get into interviewing, even though I know podcasting is probably supposed to be that way, but I don't really care.

Speaker 1:

I'm also not doing video either. I'm an audio-only podcaster. I'm like you should do video. I'm like dude. I've already done video. Podcasting once. I've already done video, or YouTubing once, because it was kind of like both, and the audio is one thing, then you have to edit that, then you have to do the video, then you have the camera angles and the lighting and the shadows, and there's just so much. I don't know how people do it every day. Either you're super dedicated to it or whatever. They just put out garbage and you don't care. But that's what I've noticed too. Why is all this stuff getting recycled right now? All these old videos are coming back of like seven years ago or more that were like big hits and now it's almost like everyone's. It's like hollywood. Everyone's lost origination or thinking and there's nothing out there anymore. It's going viral. So they're trying to recycle it and I'm like, oh my god, I've already seen this like we're done with that, that's over, stop, you know. So anyway, I think youtube it's kind of had its run. To be honest, I think that's over, because people can get entertainment like that anywhere, and YouTube was real people doing real entertainment. You know, and I think now it's over, all right to wrap it all up, I just want to go over one more thing too.

Speaker 1:

With the podcasts and B2B podcasting I guess you could say is that it's really hard to find business-to-business well podcasting for business-to-business. I found two so far. I've been looking and you can find them, but they're not relevant, right? So the last upload was like 22 or 23. So they're already three to four or five years out, depending, and it's just not like so much has changed in like the last year alone. So I don't even bother with those old ones that aren't getting uploads anymore. So the two that I found that are getting constant uploads are from Britain. Again, even that is a similar market, but it's not our market, it's not America, right?

Speaker 1:

So if you have a business-to-business podcast, I think now's the time to get going and be kind of not first in, but get her going and keep uploading at least once a week. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do. Or twice a week, in my case I want to do to do, or twice a week, in my case I want to do. So, that being said, I'm listening to podcasts, looking for those, business to business, to compare what I can do and what I can't, what I shouldn't do, and but you know, it's getting harder and harder to find them and I think podcasting is on the up and up.

Speaker 1:

Of course, that was because of the I think the White House, you know, with the election, that was what they say was the deciding the White House with the election, that was what they say was the deciding factor of Trump winning was the podcast. So now, I don't know, I don't really see a tick up in new podcasts, but perhaps podcast listening and engagement is up. So there's that too, all right. Well, that's it for now. Be good or be good at it.