There Is an Ideal Release Candence

Your release cadence is one of those decisions that is going to make a really big impact on your ultimate success with podcasting.

All things being equal, there is actually an ideal release cadence – and it’s at least weekly.

Now, if you’ve been podcasting for a while and maybe you’re even releasing multiple episodes a week, you might be saying, “Of course, that’s easy. It’s no problem.” Of course, that is how often you release podcasts. And if you’re in that situation, my hat is off to you. Congratulations.

Weekly release cadences are the most popular for a reason. It’s enough content that people stay engaged, they’re interested, they wait for you, and they know what’s coming. They fit you into their schedule, and you become a part of the lives of your listeners when you’re releasing on that every week basis. It goes like – I like that podcast, I know it releases every Tuesday. That’s who I’m cooking dinner with on Tuesday night.

It’s a really nice way to engage with content. It’s a really nice thing to do for your audience. That can be tough though, once you get into it and you see the reality of finding guests if you have them, or coming up with topics if you’re doing solos and actually doing the recording and in post-production. Not to speak of the promotion. Boy, that’s a lot of work.

And you actually have a whole other business to run, that also does require at least some of your time and attention. So it can be tempting to think about releasing a lot less, at least when you’re getting started with podcasting. And you can. Ultimately, you’re the boss of your podcast. You can release as often as you want to. It’s your show.

But if you can’t do at least weekly, then you really need to moderate your expectations about what your results are going to be, because it does take a lot longer to get any traction. And that’s if you get it at all. Podcast listeners are very, very loyal until they aren’t. And so if you’re only releasing twice a month or once a month, people are going to forget you and move on to other things and consume content from creators who are releasing a little bit more regularly.

But if you know that it just doesn’t work for your business to be releasing content every single week, for the year, for the rest of time, that’s okay. There’s a solution. It can be really effective to release in seasons, rather than doing an ongoing show where you release every Tuesday for the rest of time.

Instead, maybe twice or three times a year you’re going to release a season of six / eight / ten / twelve episodes that you recorded in advance when you had time. Then you can release as a batch or get that weekly cadence for the entire length of the season. This can really be the best of both worlds for a lot of business owners, because you’re getting that every week traction without overwhelming all of your working time for the entire year.

So try to get weekly if you can. If you can’t, consider going with a seasonal format instead to preserve your sanity and also be getting the traction that your business deserves.

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