How Often Should You Publish a Podcast?

A few years ago, my answer would almost certainly have been weekly. That was the norm. It was what everyone seemed to be doing, and what most new podcasters assumed they should do too.

These days, my answer is a little different.

You should publish at the frequency you have capacity for. Not what you think you should do or not what the "normal" publishing schedule is assumed to be. But what you actually have space for in your business and your life.

Because podcasting will consume your life if you let it.

Most people underestimate how much work there is to do in the background of a podcast. They think about recording the episode but they don't always think about planning topics, finding guests, co-ordinating schedules, writing episode descriptions, publishing episodes, promoting them and managing all the other wee tasks that crop up.

Then there's the mental load.

If you're a business owner, you're probably already thinking about your business while you're driving or standing in the shower. A podcast becomes another layer of that. You'll suddenly find yourself collecting episode ideas while making dinner or thinking of potential guests while scrolling LinkedIn. And then suddenly realising at 10pm that you haven't planned next month's content.

None of these things take huge amounts of time individually but together, they all add up.

That's why I think it's important to choose a publishing schedule that fits the reality of your business, not the version of your business you hope to have one day.

Not because monthly is somehow the ideal frequency, but because it gives people a chance to see how podcasting fits into their business before committing to a more demanding schedule.

The good news is that nothing is set in stone. If you start monthly and discover you have capacity for more, you can always move to fortnightly or weekly later.

If you already have support from a VA, copywriter, podcast manager or other team members, you might have the capacity to publish more frequently from the beginning.

The right answer depends far more on your circumstances than it does on the latest industry advice.

I've also worked with a client whose podcast started as a weekly show. Over time, that shifted to fortnightly and eventually monthly as her available time and energy changed.

The podcast didn't fail. It adapted to her available energy and I think that's a very important distinction.

The difference isn't that one publishing schedule was right and the other was wrong. Both podcasters found a rhythm that worked for them.

That's the lesson I keep coming back to again and again.

One of my newer editing clients publishes monthly guest interviews. That sounds quite manageable on paper until I tell you her episodes regularly run for around one hour and thirty minutes.

She warned me during our discovery call that her episodes were long and she wasn't exaggerating!

If you're recording, editing, publishing, promoting and managing everything yourself, that's a significant amount of work attached to every single episode.

What's interesting is that she already had years of audio and video editing experience so the challenge wasn't that she didn't know how to do it. It was finding enough time to keep doing it consistently.

As she told me,

Most of the podcasts I've seen sustain themselves long term tend to have focused conversations and a base structure with some allowance to be flexible. These types of episodes don't require hours and hours of editing.

I usually recommend aiming for around 20 to 30 minutes and using a simple list of questions or talking points for guest interviews. It keeps the conversation moving and reduces editing time. It also makes it much easier to batch record episodes.

Personally, I discover most podcasts through recommendations, newsletters, communities and other people I trust. Once a podcast is in my library, I'm usually choosing episodes based on the topic rather than how recently they were published.

If I've only got half an hour available, I'll scroll through the episode titles looking for something relevant or interesting. If the title clearly tells me what the episode is about, I'll probably listen. If it's vague, I'll often skip past it and choose something else.

Publishing consistently is still important, but people need a reason to click on an episode in the first place.

Before you worry about publishing schedules or microphones and recording software, spend some time getting clear on the foundations.

The Podcast Clarity Map will help you think through your audience, message, capacity and how a podcast fits into your business. If you decide podcasting IS the right fit, then the Pre-Launch Podcast Planner is the next step for turning those ideas into a practical launch plan.

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