I'm thrilled to announce the launch of Podcasters' Society—an exclusive podcasting community for podcasters like you to equip and encourage you to improve your podcasts.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Announcements

• If you're an Appendipity customer, join me and Joey Kissimme for a customer-exclusive webinar this week, or watch the replay in your customer portal.
• Attend New Media Europe, September 12–13 in Manchester, UK.
• Prepare to celebrate International Podcast Day on September 30!

Why Podcasters' Society?

A couple years ago, I discovered that my biggest passion in podcasting aligned with an unmet need in the space. That was helping podcasters improve.

There are already plenty of “how to podcast” guides and courses (and I'll have my own at some point, too). But I wanted to move beyond launching.

Thus, Podcast Master Class was born and had its session in February, 2014. This was a month-long course with eight 2-hour-long webinars and in-depth podcast evaluations. The first course had only two students, who have since gone on to do amazing things (including Jordan Harbinger, host of The Jordan Harbinger Show and former host of The Art of Charm).

As much as I loved Podcast Master Class, I realized it wouldn't scale well and the high admission price made it inaccessible for most podcasters. I stopped promoting it and started developing a similar idea.

I knew that to truly help podcasters improve, they would need ongoing support, not merely one month of training and then pushed on their way.

In June, 2015, I started hosting some live webinars for podcast SEO, and I absolutely loved the webinar format. The approachable style, the ability to show things, the engagement with the viewers, and the ability to provide valuable content that could promote something of even more value (my complete SEO for Podcasters course).

Also this year, I tried to focus more on participating in podcasting communities. But because these communities were free to join and members didn't have any vested interests, the conversations often repeated themselves while quality conversations would get lost among other questions.

I offer one-on-one consulting, but that was often unaffordable for people who needed only a few answers, but more detail than I had the time to answer via email.

Considering all of these things, I started planning Podcasters' Society. Despite having two S's in the middle, I fell in love with the word “society” when I was researching different names, such as “club,” “community,” “class,” “association,” and more.

A “society” is essentially an organized group of people focused on the same thing.

But would the idea work? I shared the idea in my mastermind groups and everyone was overwhelmingly positive and said it sounded perfect for me and highly needed in the industry. Then, I teased the idea to some people at Podcast Movement 2015 and received plenty of validation and eager anticipation.

On August 20, 2015, I opened the doors to Podcasters' Society and I've been thrilled with the response!

The 4 cornerstones and a bonus

Everything about Podcasters' Society revolves around improving the four cornerstones of a great podcast:

1. Content
2. Presentation
3. Production
4. Promotion

Additionally, we discuss monetization for those desiring to make money from podcasting. But these four cornerstones apply to every podcast—hobby or business!

Live, weekly, interactive webinars

Each Thursday at 3:00 pm (US Eastern Time), we'll meet in a live and interactive webinar focused on helping podcasters improve. These webinars will follow a rotating pattern:

1. Training: I'll teach something conceptual or practical, but always actionable.
2. Q&A: open discussion time for asking and answering podcasting questions.
3. Community podcast evaluation: we pick a podcast and review it for constructive criticism together.
4. Guest conversation: another podcaster (not only “A-list podcasters”) will join us for discussing something amazing they're doing in podcasting.

Each webinar will be live and interactive. These structured sessions will be flexible enough to also offer Q&A and opportunities to dig deeper based on the community's needs.

This means four hours of premium, live training every month! That, alone, is worth more than the membership fee!

Of the four webinar formats, the guest conversations will be open to the public with a 24-hour replay option. But only Podcasters' Society members have full access to all webinar replays and continuing conversations.

Our first guest conversation will be with Mignon Fogarty, better known as “Grammar Girl.” Register to attend this free webinar!

Private community and chat

This society is more than presentations. We have our own private and active forum for in-depth conversations, questions, answers, and more. This is hosted on our own website for higher security, accessibility, and easy searching.

Additionally, we have a private Slack team for real-time communication and sharing.

Here are some of the great conversations we've already been having in the forums and chat.

• Getting your spouse's support for your podcasting
• Using Periscope to promote your podcast
• Leveraging offsite trackbacks and pingbacks
• Optimal mic placement
• Speeding up show notes creation
• Cross-promotion techniques
• Bumpers and intros

And that's only within the first few days!

Experienced and personalized answers and advice

Podcasters' Society is exclusive to podcasters—you can't join unless you already have a podcast in iTunes. Because of this requirement, the community answers and advice come from more experience.

Plus, you'll have more access to me for podcasting answers. Already, I've recorded a couple casual videos to demonstrate techniques or show tools and members have loved the visual help!

This can't entirely replace one-on-one consulting and coaching sessions, but by posting questions in the community, everyone benefits from the answers!

Exclusive savings

Every member of Podcasters' Society will have access to exclusive savings for podcasting tools and resources! This could be discounts on podcasting equipment, free trials, premium training and courses, WordPress themes and plugins, one-on-one consulting, technical support, design services, and more.

Such discounts will be available only to Podcasters' Society members.

More to come!

This is only the beginning! The value of Podcasters' Society will continue to grow, and so will the admission fee. But when you sign up, you lock in on that admission price, which will never increase for as long as you maintain your membership.

Charter membership registration is open only through September 10, 2015. After that, registration will be closed. The next time I open registration, the cost will be higher to account for the increased value.

Join Podcasters' Society today and grow your podcast from average to amazing!™

Need personalized podcasting help?

I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the shownotes
• Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
• Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)

Connect with me

• Subscribe to The Audacity to Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Android.
• Join the Facebook Page and watch live podcasting Q&A on Mondays at 2pm (ET)
• Subscribe on YouTube for video reviews, Q&A, and more
• Follow @theDanielJLewis

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

Related Content

Podcasters, Podcasting Equipment, and Podcasting Software that I’m Thankful For

Soundboard 2.0, Podcaster's Theme for WordPress, and Pasting in Audacity

How Proxies and iOS 14.5 Affect Your Podcast