► Tell us about you and your podcast
I spent 13 years traveling around the world visiting all 7 continents and over 130 countries. I have been named Travel Photographer of the Year three times in North American.
When the pandemic hit, I had to make a serious pivot.
I launched Everything Everywhere Daily on July 1. It is a daily scripted history show that tells the stories of interesting people, places, and things from around the world.
My listeners are 70% from the United States, with Canada, UK, and Australia making up the rest of the top countries.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
I have been podcasting since 2009 (This Week in Travel), and I have been doing online audio since 1999 before it was called podcasting.
When the travel industry disappeared in 2020, I made the pivot to making podcasting my top priority. It was branching away from the travel industry, but also moving away from social media, where I had no control over the platform.
The goal was to grow the podcast over the course of a year to replace much of what I lost in the pandemic. I am very close to that point already.
The show was launched on July 1, 2020.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
I release an episode every day. It takes me anywhere from 4-8 hours to produce an episode including research, writing the script, recording and promoting.
Because all of my travel-related activities disappeared, I have plenty of time to focus on podcasting.
I do everything myself. I spend $20/month on hosting. I have also been spending several hundred a month on promotion, which has been well worth the investment.
The podcast is 100% self funded.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
I do take sponsorships. I have made about $2,500 so far after 6 months. I have sponsors in the works to increase that 2-3x over the next 6 months. Almost 100% of what I am making is put back into promotion and growth.
I got my first sponsorship from my prior contacts in the travel industry. I had about 25,000 downloads per month when I got that sponsorship.
I am on pace to get 60,000 downloads in January 2021.
I have many different sources of getting sponsors currently. I'll have to hustle until I can get to a point where networks will let me in, usually 5,000 downloads per episode.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
I have a Rode Podcaster USB microphone. It is plugged directly into my iMac where I record on GarageBand. I use a noise gate at -40 db to record.
The podcast has no guests.
I research each episode online and write a script for each show.
► How do you market your show?
I am everywhere you can find podcasts. I literally sign up for every podcasting service I know about.
My top sources are Apple Podcasts, Podcast Republic, and Overcast.
I promote the show daily on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn, however, it is impossible to track how effective they are as there is no way to associate downloads with where they came from.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
If you can establish the annual value of a podcast subscriber, it makes it very easy to determine if paying for promotion works for you. As a daily podcast, I find the difference between value and cost of acquisition to be quite attractive.
Most of what you will learn about podcasting you will learn through doing. Just start and solve problems as you move forward.