Some might call this a “Pet Peeves” episode, but you can also think of them as “Growth Opportunities”.

Are you doing some things that might be costing listeners to drop off and unsubscribe? Or is your show set up in the way that it’s really hard to even find listeners in the first place? Then you might want to check yourself against our 10 Commandments of podcasting (of which there’s actually 14. Thou shalt not be able to count to 10, and all that…)

There are a few exceptions, qualifiers, caveats etc, which we talk about in the episode.

1. Thou shalt not have an extra long theme tune
2. Thou shalt not spend 10 hours editing an episode
3. Thou shalt not do a podcast that’s “for everyone” about “all sorts of stuff”
4. Thou shalt not cram too much into your cover art
5. Thou shalt not make your listener adjust volume levels more than once in an episode
6. Thou shalt not ask an interviewee to introduce themselves
7. Thou shalt not open your episode with an apology
8. Thou shalt not over-complicate your gear too early (or ever!)
9. Thou shalt not ask for reviews or Patreon support before delivering any content
10. Thou shalt not use copyrighted music for “7 seconds” or for “fair use”
11. Thou shalt not only share links to places like Apple Podcasts or Facebook
12. Thou shalt not call your episodes “podcasts”
13. Thou shalt not put the onus of growing your show on others
14. Thou shalt not “wing it”

Resources Mentioned

If you’ve realised you’re doing any of the above, and are won over to changing your ways, here are some useful resources…

• Designing Great Podcast Cover Art
• Finding Podcast Music
• What’s The Minimum Equipment I Need to Podcast?
• The Minimum Effective Editing Approach
• How to Make Your Podcast Unique
• How to Prepare for an Interview
• Introducing & Ending Your Episode
• My Guests Don’t Share My Episodes
• How to Promote Your Podcast
• How to Build a Podcast Website
• Best Podcast Hosting Services
• Alitu – The Podcast Maker App
• Podcraft Academy