Podfade and How To Prevent It

​Look at this graph. The highlighted parts quantify that new year energy for starting a podcast.

If you’re like me then you’ve no doubt had that energetic burst to start something new in January only for that energy to peter out in February or March.

For a podcast this phenomenon is called podfade and you’ve almost certainly noticed it as a listener where a creator puts out episodes more sporadically until eventually, without fanfare, the podcast just stops.

If you’re struggling to keep up with your podcast here are a few ideas to help you keep going and avoid podfade.

Change the schedule

If weekly or fortnightly episodes are proving to be too much for you then you might want to consider moving to a fortnightly or monthly schedule.

Your podcast shouldn’t be a chore but a joy to make.

By giving yourself some extra breathing room between episodes you have the opportunity to refine each episode rather than feeling rushed to hit an arbitrary release date.

Make it a limited series

A slight variation on the previous point is to narrow the parameters of your podcast to a set number of episodes over a defined period of time, for example a run of six episodes released fortnightly or ten weekly episodes.

Rather than feeling like you have to churn out a new episode each week you set the start and end point in advance.

Limited series’ also present the opportunity for themes or set structures that might not work so well if your audience is used to a continuous stream of episodes.

Outsource

If you’re able to, and can afford it, then outsourcing certain parts of the podcasting process can help save you time and energy while you’re able to still maintain a consistent output.

Typically, editing is the most time-consuming part of the creation process and outsourcing it can save you many hours.

By some estimates a 3:1 ratio is a reasonable yardstick for how long editing takes — for every hour of recorded audio it takes three to edit into a final episode.

There are other parts of the process you can outsource too, such as guest booking and marketing, which could be handled by a VA or social media manager.

​I work with clients that leverage both of these to streamline their production process and we manage to get fortnightly episodes completed well in advance of the episode release dates.

By outsourcing you’re reclaiming time for the parts of the process that you enjoy and can get the most joy from.

Take a break

If you’re really struggling to keep up with your podcast then take a break.

The wonderful thing about podcasts is that you can speak directly into the ears of your audience and explain your thinking and what you’ll be doing next.

A break can give you time to reflect, refocus, and restart if you want to continue in the future.

A break isn’t calling it quits either. It’s saying that you value what you’ve made and don’t want to release episodes for the sake of releasing episodes.

Podcasting should an enjoyable and worthwhile endeavour and so whenever you release episodes you should have feel proud and accomplished.

My hope is that there’s some ideas in here to help keep you and your podcast on track.