There’s an ultimate podcast listenership growth hack very few know about. It involves daily writing guided by a group called Ship 30 for 30. When I first discovered the group I was a massive skeptic, didn’t know if I could trust it. Here’s what I discovered…
I’ve been podcasting since 2013, have produced several podcasts from my own to large tech brands. I’m also a founding member of the Audio Collective, the hybrid live-audio creator community. The biggest pain point new podcasters have is getting more listeners. I’ve experimented with various strategies for podcast growth from Instagram and twitter posting, transcriptions, search engine optimization, guest campaigns and so many more tests.
I know the power of audio after producing and publishing over 1000 podcast episodes and speaking everywhere from SXSW to USC, Red Bull to CBS. I call podcasting ‘painting audio’. Podcasting is an art form creators use to enthusiastically share stories and to make intimate conversations accessible to all so it’s disappointing when many podcasters quit due to being discouraged they didn’t get the listener numbers they were hoping for. We even have a term for quitting podcasting, “pod fade”
I took the leap joining Ship 30 because I am writing a book and wanted to improve my writing. What I didn’t know is how this group could improve not only my writing but my podcast growth too. My friend Dylan recommended Ship 30 and being that he is integrity driven and said the value he got out of the Ship 30 group exceeded his expectations I trusted him. I joined even though I was still apprehensive not knowing the founders and their intentions, so I’m thankful they did indeed deliver on all their promises. Here’s how…
The Ship 30 community consists of people who aspire to write online consistently and thoughtfully. Daily writing has led to massive gains - group members have secured jobs, created business partnerships, made friends… it’s also a magnificent way to spread the word about your podcast.
The Ship 30 for 30 lessons are live and interactive taught by established writer and Dickie Bush. Lessons cover how to improve your headlines, how to make your writing more emotionally connective and how to make your content “bookmarkable”.
After each podcast episode you produce you can write an engaging post online to compliment the episode. Ship 30 instructors guide you how to write both an essay and twitter thread that people will want to read. And so many people in the community are first time writers, they aren’t writing a book like I am, but we all learn so much. Through improving our writing, podcasters apply it to upgrading podcast show notes so they are blog worthy. Having a searchable engaging blog helps your podcast rank higher in Google.
If Espree's story resonated with you, click here to hop aboard Ship 30 for 30.