Should You Publish Your Podcast Episodes on Youtube?

This is Grow the Show, the podcast to help you grow your podcast. My name is Kevin Schmidland and my mission is to help you the independent podcaster to grow your audience and monetize now so you can have a thriving podcast business. Now this is something different on the Grow the Show feed that you are hearing right now. We just took a little bit of a break here at Grow the Show, took a couple of weeks off, but before that ordinarily we would release new episodes about by weekly. Each episode would feature a guest, be very heavily, heavily produced, tell a guest story, and then share some sort of framework or lesson that they are there to teach that will get you instant results in growth and monetization. We are going to resume doing that, starting next week and in the meantime, in the in-between weeks, we are going to be sharing episodes like this, which are more bite-sized, they're going to be 5, 10, 15 minutes in length, and it's just going to be me sharing a lesson, sharing a story, sharing a topic, because I recently realized that we don't necessarily have to wait for a guest to come on and explain things. We've got a watch to teach here at Grow the Show and so why not get more out there into your ears so that you can implement grow and monetize even faster. I will add that I have seen recently in the podcasting world that this, the quick 5, 10, 15 minute bite-sized episode that just cuts right to the chase, doesn't have any fluff and gets right to it and is super, super action-packed and valuable. These types of episodes are performing very, very well right now, so if this is the type of thing that would fit into your podcast feed, I would highly recommend that you consider doing this and I will be sharing with you and the Grow the Show community how these perform. So, let's jump right in and I want to jump in and answer a question that I get all the time from folks in the coaching program, in the Grow the Show Accelerator, in the free Facebook group on the street, people stop at me as I get out of an Uber and they say Kevin, should I post my podcast episodes on YouTube? Now I do get this question all the time and for the past year plus I have given the same answer but today I am officially going on the record and changing my answer. So if before today you would have asked me, I would have said a resounding no, don't waste your time and here's why I would have said that. Number one, mainly it's because I would rather see you focus your energy on making a great audio show and getting listeners to tune into that in their favorite podcast app. I see many, many, many podcasters wasting, wasting, precious resources, wasting their time and sometimes wasting their money going out and putting their episodes into a video file, sticking their podcast artwork on that video file, maybe adding like a visualizer and then uploading the entire 60 minute episode of their podcast with no video to YouTube. And in the vast majority of cases, they lose because they're spending those resources and instead of using those resources to actually go out and get new listeners, right? And understand their listeners, get more people to tune into their show, instead of using their resources to do those things, they use their resource to take their audio and convert it into a half video audio gram thing, put that thing on YouTube and then they have two versions of their podcast and neither of which are ever seen or hurt. So that's the first reason I'd rather see you focus on making and distributing a great audio show without worrying about YouTube. And then number two, it kills your watch time. So this is something that if you are a YouTuber, you understand what watch time is. It is everything if you're not allowed me to explain. So the YouTube algorithm prioritizes a couple things when it decides what videos to show you when you search for something, right? So think about the last time you're on YouTube, you went, you searched for something and it'll say that there are literally thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of results, right? So you see the first page and you probably click on one of the first four videos, watch the video and move on your merry way. But what about the 30,000 other videos that were a match for that search? Well they were not shown to you because what YouTube uses when it decides what videos to show and to recommend to other people are a couple things. Those include mainly the watch time of that video. So what does that mean? That means when someone clicks on your video, what percentage of the video did they actually watch? So if they tune in and they watch five seconds and then leave, that is a very small watch time. Compare that to a video where people on average tune in and watch every single second of the video. What does that tell YouTube? It tells YouTube that that video is so good because people are tuned in and they don't leave. It holds their full attention for the whole video. We got to show this video to more people. Compare that to a video where people on average across the board tune in and then 2% into the video. They leave. What does that tell YouTube? This video sucks. Nobody's watching it. People tune in and they're either they either don't like it or the content isn't good or maybe the title is misleading. And so the videos that turn up when you search for something and the videos that are recommended to you generally on YouTube have really, really good watch time. So now imagine that you have a 60 minute video, if you will. It's not a video because there's no video. It's just a video file with audio and a photo. When you upload that and people click on that episode, how many people do you think are sitting there and watching the whole thing? They're sitting there with their computer or phone. Listening to your podcast and staring at your podcast artwork, do you think anybody's doing that? Now, I know a simpler like, oh, but you can subscribe to YouTube plus or YouTube bread or whatever it is. And you can put it in your pocket. Yes, that's true, but most people don't do that. The vast majority of folks will click on the video. They'll see it is not actually a video. It's an audio with a photo, maybe listen to two or three minutes and then leave. So that's why you're watch time for that video sucks. Here's the kicker. If you are making other videos on your YouTube channel, let's say that some of the stuff that you post are full episodes, others are maybe, you know, five minute video shorts that are really heavily produced or literally anything else. Well, if you post a bunch of podcast episode videos that have terrible watch time, YouTube doesn't only assume that those videos suck, it assumes that all of your videos suck. So you might have the best six minute YouTube videos elsewhere on your channel ever. But because you also have 60 minute podcast non videos, YouTube's going to say, wow, this channel sucks and they're not going to show any of your videos to anyone. So you are left with a situation where nobody's listening to your podcast, nobody's watching your podcast on YouTube. And nobody's even watching your other YouTube videos because your watch time stinks. That's why I always told podcasters not to waste time putting their full episodes on YouTube. However, I'm now changing my answers. Both of those things are still true. Number one, I still would rather you focus your energy on growth and monetization than worrying about converting your audio to video, right? And then number two, it's killing podcasters YouTube channels because it's killing their watch time. Those things are still true. However, this past August, I went down to Nashville, Tennessee to podcast movement. And on day one, there was a presentation by a gentleman from Edison Research, right? So Edison, this company that does tons and tons of research and, you know, they find lots of information. The gentleman's name is Tom Webster, really, really great conversation and shared some stuff that surprised me. There are a couple of things that surprised me. Number one is that Edison did a ton of research about podcast listeners or at least people who call themselves podcast listeners. And what they shared is that upwards of around 20% of the people who say they listen to podcasts, listen to their podcasts on YouTube. This was surprising to me because I knew that there were some people who, you know, open up YouTube, find a Joe Rogan episode when it was on YouTube and just like put it on in the background. But I didn't realize that it's that many people, right? 20% of people who claim to be podcasters. So here is the insight that came from them. Nielsen discovered that 20% of people who say they listen to podcasts listen, quote, unquote, on YouTube or watch on YouTube, right? And so their argument is if these folks claim to be podcast listeners, they're podcast listeners. And if these folks are podcast listeners, where do you think they are going to go to find podcasts if they listen to their podcasts on YouTube, they're going to go to YouTube. So I was like crap, 20% of people who quote unquote listen to podcasts listen on YouTube and none of my stuff is on YouTube. So the gentleman who gave the presentation for Edison then went on to make a theory about podcast growth thresholds. So he said, I hear all the time from podcasters that say I've hit a growth threshold. And people are, you know, my show is no longer growing. What do I do? His argument is that anytime you reach a threshold in growth, it means that your word of mouth has stopped. It means that your podcast recommend ability is low. And people are no longer recommending your show to other people. But the other half of the coin is discoverability. Discoverability means that your show is discoverable. If someone looks for it, they will find it. And so his argument is if 20% of people who listen to podcasts or believe that they listen to podcasts claim to that they listen to podcasts, who do listen to podcasts. If 20% of those people listen to their podcasts on YouTube and your podcast is not on YouTube, can they discover your podcast is your podcast discoverable? And to that I said darn no. So with that, that makes me think that we should have our episodes on YouTube. Because after all, YouTube is the number two search engine in the world. And it is owned by the number one search engine in the world. This doesn't solve though. The reasons why I originally told you not to have your podcast on YouTube though, I still think it's a waste of energy for you to adapt your audio into video. It's a waste of your time. And I still think that it's going to kill the watch time of your channel. It's true. So after I heard Tom of Edison share this information, I was conflicted. And I thought, hmm, what am I going to do with this? It sounds like we should have our podcasts on YouTube. But I don't want to get people to start panicking and start rushing to create video versions of their podcasts. And I also don't want to destroy everyone's channel watch time. So I me entered around the conference throughout the day and thought about this. And then later in the day, I was at Libson's booth and I was chatting with Rob. So Rob is the host of a great show over at Libson where they talk the podcast industry very, very, very knowledgeable guy. And I kind of just brought up this presentation and what Tom over at Edison had suggested. That podcast should be on YouTube. And to my surprise, Rob, you know, was a big time audio podcaster and he agreed. And at first I was upset. I'm like, oh, no, I've been giving bad advice. And so I asked Rob, I said, Rob, I get that. I get that your show should be on YouTube because, you know, some people listen to podcasts on YouTube and either way, it's a huge search engine. But isn't that a waste of time for podcasters? Shouldn't they be focusing on other things? Shouldn't they not spend their time doing that? And he said, you can automate it. Libson lets you do it automatically. Libson has a feature where you just publish and it automatically sends it to YouTube. I said, okay, cool. That's great. Number one, my first concern gone. But isn't it going to kill these people's watch times? And Rob said, yeah, so make a separate YouTube channel. And I thought, oh man, that is really simple. So here is my new answer to this question. Should my podcast episodes be on YouTube? Yes, they should. However, number one, you should not invest a lot of time or money in getting them there. If your hosting provider does it automatically, great. If there is another way to automate that, awesome. But don't spend way, way too much time and money doing that. And then number two, you need to make a separate YouTube channel. So for me, what you are going to see in the coming weeks is that there will be two grow the show YouTube channels. There will be one which will feature actual tutorial YouTube videos. That one currently exists. There's only one video live now. It's a it's a described tutorial. So check that out if you want. So that's number one. And number two, there will be a grow the show podcast YouTube channel, which will feature just episodes of this podcast. And so that's what I'm learning. And we are officially updating our guidance here at grow the show to yes, if someone says should I put my podcast episodes on YouTube, I will say yes, you should, but make sure it's a separate channel than what you usually use and make sure you are not spending tons of time and money doing that. By doing so, you will achieve better discoverability. And it is more likely that folks who are searching for your show or for what your show is about might stumble across an episode. So there you have it. There is my new answer. The new answer is yes, even though I have said no. And also there you have the first much more raw and to the point, well, all the other show ups are super to the point. Thank you for everyone who has reviewed and said that. But this one obviously is way less produced a little bit more raw, just me kind of riffing. I think this is going to help you because this is going to get some of my knowledge and some of what I am learning in real time into your brain way faster. So you're going to get a mix of this and the more heavily produced storytelling episodes that you know and love beginning now, beginning this week and going into the future. So please, I implore you if you thought this was valuable. And if you like this format, let me know in the free Grow the Show Facebook groups. The link is in the show notes. It's the group where we've got over a thousand podcasters constantly helping each other out, giving each other feedback, asking questions, having questions answered. It is so much better than several other podcast Facebook groups that are either way too big to have a conversation or they're just some guru trying to sell you their coaching program. If you have a coaching program, you're going to find out about it, but you can absolutely join the free group and get tons of value and never join the program. There's tons of people who are in that position. It's not. The program is not a good fit for everybody, so I don't expect everyone to join it. And so if it is not good, a good fit for you, I would still love to serve you totally for free via this podcast and that group. So head over to the free Grow the Show Facebook group. Let me know if you already knew what I share I'm sharing today. Let me know if you have any questions about what I'm sharing today and please let me know if you find this format valuable. So there you have it. Thank you so much for tuning in. Let me know what you think in the Grow the Show free Facebook group and that's all I have for today. Get your podcast on YouTube.