Who decides who's a "successful podcaster"?

I thought about that when I saw an article describing someone as exactly that. There were no statistics offered for the title; it was just taken as given. He says he's successful? Then he's successful.

But, you know, that's actually true, because of a few things. First, absent an absolute standard for measurement, we can't honestly compare ratings; we know who the biggest shows might be from those competing rankers research firms issue. But even so, there's the second point: Nobody knows how much money shows really make, because there's no Miller Kaplan reporting to keep things honest, and, from my experience, everyone exaggerates. A lot.

The third point is, I think, most apropos for most podcasters: Success is what you want it to be. Your goal might not be to replace Joe Rogan or "Crime Junkie" on top of a research firm ranker. You may have far more modest goals than to get rich from your podcast. You might very well be content with a few dozen listeners, or even less; you might be doing it for the love of the game.

Podcasts, by nature, aren't breaking news vehicles. They can't be -- they're not live. But when breaking news happens, shows on which news is discussed have to be on top of it. That came up when the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs was released. Suddenly, whatever episodes ...

Several big-time podcasts release episodes in "seasons." Should you? Ask this: Are your "seasons" thematically consistent? Are you telling a story arc over the course of those episodes? Or are you just doing a few episodes and then taking a break? Because if it's the ...

You hear a lot about "host-read ads," the equivalent of radio's live spots, and how they're the most effective advertising on podcasts. That should be obvious: Once you've established a connection with your audience, a sincere, naturally-delivered ad is more likely to be ...

I'm back from a long hiatus -- we'll get to that some other time. Meanwhile... If you haven't started your podcast, what's holding you back? I'm betting that some of you are just confused on where to start, because even though countless companies have tried to make ...

I'm one to talk, really. I refer to the phenomenon of "podfade," the tendency of many, maybe most podcasts to just stop posting after a relatively short time, about which Steve Goldstein has previously written here, and which came to mind when I was writing an item about ...

Do you have any listeners? Does it matter? Let's parse this out a little. Everyone wants a big audience for what they do, but for podcasting, the number of shows that get big download numbers is... well, it's minuscule. And many of the big shows aren't all that honest ...

The other day, I saw an animated discussion of podcast listenership measurement on Facebook. There were podcast producers, most of them new to the medium, debating the merits of the IAB with some of the prominent hosting company leaders, and it was interesting on a ...

Oh, yeah, I was gonna tell you about my process. Here's what I did: I decided that I didn't have enough time for a long-form podcast. Short-form -- the rough equivalent of a daily two minute radio feature -- was something I COULD do. So, I came up with the idea of ...

You want to be on Spotify. Then again, you want to be on every platform. But being on Spotify sounds cool, so you want that. Yet there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do that through Spotify itself. Problem? Not if you use one of the bigger podcast hosting ...