My podcasting career has been unremarkable, short, and un-illustrious [1]. But darnit, I am an Olympic-caliber podcast listener (I’m currently subscribed to 38 podcasts), and these are the things that certain podcasters do that really bother me.
1. Long, meaningless introductions, part 1
Your podcast is not a movie. I don’t want to listen to some corny, flashy, 2-minute-long movie trailer introduction done by a professional voice actor. Just get straight to the bid-niss.
2. Long, meaningless introductions, part 2
After the aforementioned movie trailer, surely the podcaster will dive right in, right? Sadly, ‘tis not always so. Too often there is drawn out, irrelevant banter between a show’s hosts before the show truly gets underway. If the show is more of an entertainment-style talk show, this is fine. But for an educational-type show, this is less fine.
3. Long song outros.
Some podcasts play a whole song at the end of the podcast. It is an irrefutable law of nature, however, that no two people like the same music. What is a rad song to one person is horrific catscratch to another.
4. Irregular posting schedules.
The best: A podcast that releases a new episode every Thursday
Not horrible: A podcast that releases a new episode every week but the exact day and time varies by a day or two
Bad: A podcast that releases two new episodes one week and then doesn’t come out with any new ones for a month
5. Noises of assent
I was listening to a podcast earlier today and while the content was good and interesting, the co-host kept making “mmmm” and “mmhmmm” noises as the other co-host was talking. It’s really a disconcerting sound to keep hearing over and over in your ears. Just don’t talk while others are talking. Cliff Ravenscraft actually just talked about this in his latest Podcast Answer Man episode, too, so I know I’m not the only one.
6. Interviews with the same people.
Cripes almighty. This is the worst. If you’re interviewing people on your podcast, find and interview people that your audience hasn’t already seen and heard a billion times. If I see one more podcast interview with Pat Flynn, I’m going to scream.
Final words
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention audio quality here. Honestly, I don’t care much about audio quality as long as it’s clear enough for me to understand. If there’s background noise or some static, it really doesn’t matter. If I listen to your podcast it’s because I like what you’re saying; most people don’t listen to you because you sound pretty.
[1] I recorded a single episode of one podcast I started and 4 or 5 episodes of another podcast before throwing in the towel.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
#5 is the WORST!
I checked out a new podcast this week, listened to one of his earliest episodes and it was just totally unbearable. I thought, “maybe he has realize this,” and went to a new episode (about 50 later)… Nope.
I promptly unsubscribed and sent him an email so he could possibly fix this issue.
… Try those “mmm”, “yeah”, “sure”, and “uh hugs” at 3x playback speed. You’ll want to drive your bike into traffic (I considere it).
Man, I know, it drives me crazy. It makes podcasts unlistenable. If anyone like that interviewed me, I wonder if I’d manage be nice enough to not say anything or crack and tell him to shut the hell up.
Good job on sending him an email about it, though. On the one hand, it might be uncomfortable for the person to hear, but on the other it will only benefit his podcast in the future.
Thanks Derek!
“If I see one more podcast interview with Pat Flynn, I’m going to scream.” Bwahaha! This was so funny, I had to click here from Google Reader to tell you! I hate the stupid songs they play! Love this post!
Thanks Maria! It’s good to know I’m not the only one. It’s especially bad when the same person is on multiple podcasts at around the same time. This week I’ve seen 3 new podcast episodes that are interviews with the same dude. I listened to the first one but deleted the next two.
I know what you mean, I ‘ll do more than just scream if I see Pat Flynn one more time, why do people interview the same faces everytime, do they think we don’t notice?