In this episode, we dive deep into the age-old debate: should you create a YouTube channel or start a podcast? Join us as we explore:
- The unique benefits of both platforms.
- How the younger generation consumes content across different mediums.
- Real-life scenarios on content consumption habits.
- The monetization possibilities and challenges for each platform.
- The potential for growth, audience engagement, and personal brand building.
Plus, get a glimpse of a surprise revelation about dual content creation. Whether you’re an established creator, a newbie, or just curious about where to channel your efforts, this episode will provide insights to help you make an informed decision!
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Transcript
Should I create a YouTube channel or a podcast?
Speaker:That's the topic of today's episode on the YouTube Success.
Speaker:On, on the, do you know what?
Speaker:I might just leave that bit in on the YouTube Success podcast.
Speaker:I ju do you know what?
Speaker:I think people like bloopers, right?
Speaker:Let me know in the comments or in the show notes, on my blog if you,
Speaker:if you like bloopers, right?
Speaker:Let's just move on.
Speaker:So should I create a YouTube channel or podcast?
Speaker:That's what we're talking about today on the YouTube Success podcast.
Speaker:Thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker:We don't have a jazzy intro.
Speaker:It is just me telling you that if you like this podcast, of course,
Speaker:subscribe to it, share it with your friends, all that kind of good stuff.
Speaker:If you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like the video as well.
Speaker:Now, I'm gonna talk about the benefits of both, and I want to really open
Speaker:up the discussion with you guys.
Speaker:I want you to tell me how you consume podcasts and how you can consume
Speaker:your YouTube videos, because I've got some stuff that I've done research
Speaker:wise here in order to look at the two things, but I just wanna hear from you.
Speaker:I wanna know what you do with in these things, and if you agree with what I'm
Speaker:talking about here, because when I spoke to my daughter about this, she's 16
Speaker:years old right now, and I talked about podcasts and I say I didn't expect my
Speaker:daughter to really listen to podcasts.
Speaker:And she said, dad, I listen to them all the time and she calls me Matt.
Speaker:She's 16 now.
Speaker:So she calls me like Matt.
Speaker:I listen to podcasts all the time.
Speaker:And I said, are you?
Speaker:And she said, yeah, and she said, are you gonna film your podcasts?
Speaker:And I said, yes.
Speaker:Yeah, of course.
Speaker:I'm like, it's for the YouTube channel.
Speaker:I'm gonna film it.
Speaker:Why would I not film it as well?
Speaker:And she said, good.
Speaker:She said, because when I'm on Spotify and I'm listening to these podcasts, sometimes
Speaker:if there's a video associated with it, I'll click the video and I'll watch it.
Speaker:Like if I'm moving between rooms, you know, how kids are, they kind
Speaker:of do multiple things at once.
Speaker:She said when, sometimes if I move from like I'm doing my hair or whatever, and
Speaker:then I go into my bedroom and I want to watch it, I'll go from listening
Speaker:to it to watching it on my phone, and then I'll send it to my screen or
Speaker:whatever, which is like a dream scenario.
Speaker:When I was 16 years old, I imagined that life could be like
Speaker:that at some point in the future.
Speaker:It was definitely not, 39 now.
Speaker:So the reason I'm telling you that story is because that's just one use case,
Speaker:that's one person, one scenario that she's created and described to me that I'd
Speaker:not considered when it came to podcasts.
Speaker:I was coming up with this research and it was like positives and
Speaker:negatives, but actually, you really need to understand your audience and
Speaker:how they're consuming your content.
Speaker:That's what's super important when you're making this decision.
Speaker:And of course, I'm just gonna put spoiler alert.
Speaker:The answer to "Should you create a YouTube channel or podcast?"
Speaker:the answer is both.
Speaker:If you wanna finish this episode up now, this will be bad for retention.
Speaker:Yes, you should do both, and that's it.
Speaker:But hopefully what I'm gonna do during this episode is just give
Speaker:you some of the positives of both.
Speaker:You can make the decision and then I'll just give you more
Speaker:information on how you can change from a podcast to a video podcast.
Speaker:There's a guy called I think his name's Seb and he's a podcast expert and he
Speaker:said, it's not a video podcast, Matt.
Speaker:That is not what it is.
Speaker:It's a video of a podcast episode, and I was like, I'm just
Speaker:gonna call it a video podcast.
Speaker:So you are now famous on my podcast because we had that conversation, even
Speaker:though I've probably got your name wrong.
Speaker:so let's start with podcasts then.
Speaker:Why am I doing a podcast?
Speaker:What are the benefits to me for a podcast?
Speaker:Of course, I think when it comes to podcasts, you have a dedicated audience.
Speaker:And I think for a lot of the big YouTubers, they would say the same.
Speaker:They have a dedicated audience.
Speaker:But I think with podcasts, there seems to be a very loyal fan base of podcasts.
Speaker:If you find a podcast that you love, that you want to listen to,
Speaker:you are dedicated to that podcast.
Speaker:And I think what happens for me specifically, I don't read books,
Speaker:for example, I prefer audibles.
Speaker:If you are a dedicated follower of that podcast, you'll listen to
Speaker:it when you're out and about and doing stuff, and of course there's
Speaker:a growing audience for podcasts.
Speaker:I think Stephen Bartlett with Diary of a CEO, some of the other big ones.
Speaker:The guy who's the guy, not Seth Rogan.
Speaker:There's a guy, the other guy.
Speaker:Joe Rogan.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Joe Rogan.
Speaker:I dunno, don't listen to it, obviously.
Speaker:But the people like that who have had these big stories of selling
Speaker:podcasts to Spotify and doing a lot of this stuff It's meant that there's
Speaker:a growing audience for podcasts.
Speaker:And I think the way people consume content in that way means there's
Speaker:a bigger, growing audience.
Speaker:So podcasts used to be quite niche.
Speaker:It used to be for a certain group of people, and I think they've
Speaker:opened it up now to the world.
Speaker:I think the pandemic has also helped that.
Speaker:So a lot of comedians creating podcasts.
Speaker:More and more people are consuming them, and more and more creators are
Speaker:creating them, which is great for both those creators and the consumers.
Speaker:People do consume podcasts in a different way.
Speaker:So what I mean by that is when it comes to YouTube videos, you watch them on
Speaker:a device like a laptop, TV, a phone, something like that; whereas when it
Speaker:comes to a YouTube channel and the way of consuming video like that, you can't
Speaker:do that when you're driving or you shouldn't do that when you're driving.
Speaker:If you are someone that watches YouTube videos when you're driving
Speaker:and you're a bad, bad person.
Speaker:And you're living life dangerously, by the way.
Speaker:and you can listen to YouTube videos whilst you're driving, I suppose.
Speaker:But I think that then therefore makes it more of a video podcast
Speaker:'cause you're listening to something rather than viewing it, but people
Speaker:consuming in different ways.
Speaker:When I listen to podcasts, I do it when I'm walking.
Speaker:People do it when they're running.
Speaker:I'm not one of those guys.
Speaker:what about podcasts where you download all the episodes and you listen to them
Speaker:on a plane when you are traveling, right?
Speaker:It's hard to watch YouTube videos on a plane.
Speaker:Even with the wifi that's available right now.
Speaker:it's still very difficult to do that.
Speaker:The streaming is not great.
Speaker:So you can download those podcast episodes and you can listen to 'em when you travel.
Speaker:So there's a whole bunch of ways you consume that content in a different way.
Speaker:Podcast lends itself really, really well to do in that.
Speaker:I'd also say podcasts are cheaper.
Speaker:You can film, or record a podcast on your mobile phone or on a audio
Speaker:recorder, something like a Zoom H1.
Speaker:I used to love those Zoom H1s.
Speaker:In fact, I saw a guy who taught people to do podcasts and they often talked about
Speaker:the Zoom's as a great device to do that.
Speaker:You can record those on a simple little device like that.
Speaker:So if I was traveling out and about and I found somebody, let's say I
Speaker:found my favorite YouTuber and I was like, oh, can we do a podcast?
Speaker:I could just get a Zoom H1 out and then we could do, it.
Speaker:Wouldn't have to set up any other equipment.
Speaker:We could just do that podcast.
Speaker:Or I could give them a microphone.
Speaker:I've got a microphone, even talk it into a mobile phone
Speaker:and see people do that as well.
Speaker:And they're bad ways to do it.
Speaker:But if use what you've got at the time, I suppose.
Speaker:So they're cheaper to do it.
Speaker:But of course if you listen to the last episode, I talked about
Speaker:using your mobile phone to record your YouTube videos as well.
Speaker:So I'd argue that if you've got a mobile phone, the cheapness
Speaker:of doing it could be changed.
Speaker:I'd also say the editing is cheaper for a podcast compared to a video
Speaker:podcast or a YouTube channel video.
Speaker:and I would say they're harder to monetise as well.
Speaker:Podcasts, generally speaking, you could get a sponsor for your podcast that
Speaker:is definitely some way to monetise it.
Speaker:Some people, if they've got a good enough reputation already will get
Speaker:a podcast sponsor straight away.
Speaker:Likely on mine.
Speaker:I'm not ever gonna say I won't have a sponsor.
Speaker:Someone offers me some money to sponsor my podcast, as long
Speaker:as it aligns with my values.
Speaker:Of course I would take the money.
Speaker:Why would I not?
Speaker:I'm making it anyway.
Speaker:But I would say they're harder to monetise.
Speaker:People, sponsors generally want some kind of big audience that you've got
Speaker:already, whereas I think with YouTube, you've got a clearer way to monetisation.
Speaker:I'm gonna talk about the benefits now as well for that.
Speaker:Hey, sorry for the interruption.
Speaker:Whilst you're listening to the YouTube success podcast, don't
Speaker:forget that we have a free community over at youtubecommunity.co.Uk.
Speaker:I'd love to see you there.
Speaker:You can talk about the podcast or you can talk about anything related to YouTube.
Speaker:So head over to youtubecommunity.co.uk and I'll see you there.
Speaker:Back to the episode.
Speaker:So let's talk about benefits then of YouTube.
Speaker:The first one I wanted to point out is that people get to see a version of you.
Speaker:It's not a 3D version, it's a 2D version.
Speaker:You can imagine me being 3D, but if you're watching me on our YouTube channel.
Speaker:I'm still a 2D version.
Speaker:But the great thing is from a personal brand perspective, people get to see you.
Speaker:And actually, I mentioned Stephen Bartlett of the Diary of the CEO.
Speaker:If you look at his podcast, I dunno if the early ones were filmed, I've certainly
Speaker:listened to 'em on audio, but when you look at them now, it is two people in
Speaker:a studio with a mic in front of them.
Speaker:So you can see that he's embraced the video nature of that.
Speaker:Again, we're looking at someone's year 3, year 5, year 10, whatever.
Speaker:And I don't want you to always think about that.
Speaker:I think when we're starting, when I'm talking about YouTube and getting started,
Speaker:I want you to think about your Day 1.
Speaker:What does that look like for you?
Speaker:So it's easy to look at those and think, ah, I'd love to have a setup
Speaker:like that, but I'm not gonna get there.
Speaker:But I want you to focus on you.
Speaker:People get to see a version of you and it's great for your personal brand.
Speaker:So when you see Steven Bartlett and he's got the two people,
Speaker:you get to see yourself.
Speaker:And then if you are interviewing someone that's a good person
Speaker:to have on your podcast.
Speaker:Maybe they've got a bigger audience than you.
Speaker:Maybe they've got a bigger reach than you.
Speaker:It's good to align yourself with these people.
Speaker:So this is like borrowing other people's audiences.
Speaker:If I interview Steven Bartlett, not the other way around, if I interviewed him,
Speaker:I would imagine if people are searching for him, they might find my stuff as well.
Speaker:And I've seen plenty of people, who have created huge YouTube channels
Speaker:by interviewing or creating videos about other creators and leveraging
Speaker:and borrowing their audience.
Speaker:It's a great strategy actually for growing a YouTube channel.
Speaker:Of course, another benefit of YouTube is it has a huge audience.
Speaker:Compared to podcasts, they're not even comparable, I don't think.
Speaker:The opportunity that's available on YouTube and the amount of people on
Speaker:YouTube that are watching YouTube every single day, compared to
Speaker:podcast, is stratospheric, stratos...
Speaker:It's big.
Speaker:It's big.
Speaker:It's very, very big.
Speaker:So there's a huge gap in between the two.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:I think podcasts, there is quite a loyal audience in there.
Speaker:But if you find a YouTuber that you really like, you can become really
Speaker:loyal and can be a fan of that person.
Speaker:And Mr.
Speaker:Beast is a great example of that, or the best example of that, I would say.
Speaker:But there's others.
Speaker:I mean, you only have to look at Prime, the drink, Prime, as a
Speaker:good example of what can happen if you've got a loyal fan base.
Speaker:You can release something, you can give a lot of hype around it, and
Speaker:people will go and grab that stuff.
Speaker:And Steven Bartlett with the Diary of a CEO podcast as well.
Speaker:Of course has had the same impact with what he's doing.
Speaker:There's a clear route to monetisation.
Speaker:I believe it's changed.
Speaker:I need to double check this, but I believe it changed to a thousand subscribers,
Speaker:3000 watch hours now, from 4,000.
Speaker:It dropped down to 3000.
Speaker:But there's a clear route to monetisation when you've hit those numbers and
Speaker:you satisfy the requirements, you can become monetised, which means for every
Speaker:thousand views that you get, there's an amount of money that you can earn.
Speaker:And it depends on country, it depends on the niche that you're in, all
Speaker:that kind of stuff depends on how much you'll get per thousand views.
Speaker:But for argument's sake, let's say it was five pounds per thousand views.
Speaker:You're monetised the more you do, the better you do with your videos, the
Speaker:more reach they get, the more views they get, the more money you will
Speaker:make on that channel, which is great.
Speaker:Now, what I talk about often, and I'll talk about on this podcast is, look,
Speaker:you've gotta be strategic, so you don't need necessarily monetisation
Speaker:to be the thing that pays you.
Speaker:If you're strategic and you've got programs, in my last episode, I talked
Speaker:about my getting started on YouTube course, I've got a course over there;
Speaker:I've got my YouTube bootcamp, which is my higher ticket course.
Speaker:It's like an 8-week program.
Speaker:If you've got things like that off platform, you can monetise
Speaker:really quickly and get more than the five pounds per episode.
Speaker:You can have a bigger impact on your monetisation anyway.
Speaker:And that can happen with a podcast or a YouTube channel.
Speaker:Although there's the clearer route to monetisation, I don't want
Speaker:you to think that monetise it.
Speaker:I don't think that's a huge thing, but at least compared to a podcast,
Speaker:unless there's a platform that pays you for listeners and I've not
Speaker:seen it, any podcasters, experts can tell me if that's the case.
Speaker:I haven't seen any monetisation in that way.
Speaker:Both of them can get brand deals.
Speaker:YouTube, again, you get a better chance for brand deals, I think
Speaker:on YouTube compared to podcasts.
Speaker:Another benefit of YouTube that has quite recently happened.
Speaker:I dunno the exact date when it happened is, it used to be that you would
Speaker:have a podcast if you filmed it and created a video podcast, then you put
Speaker:it in a playlist and it said podcast.
Speaker:Mine would say YouTube Success podcast, and that would be it.
Speaker:Now, YouTube has a dedicated area for podcasts.
Speaker:So when you upload the video, you mark it as a podcast and it appears in that.
Speaker:Now, I don't know exactly how that works right now because I'm creating this
Speaker:podcast and it'll be the first time that I've published videos in that way.
Speaker:And so you will be able to go to the channel, the King of Video channel
Speaker:and see this, and hopefully if you're watching this on YouTube right now, you
Speaker:are watching it in that podcast area.
Speaker:What I think that means is, YouTube understands that podcasts
Speaker:are getting a lot of reach.
Speaker:And so YouTube is taking that audience just like they did with Shorts and TikTok,
Speaker:and they're putting the podcast in its own arena, and then giving that more promotion
Speaker:to the people that watch more podcasts.
Speaker:If you think about YouTube's purpose, it is to show the right thing to
Speaker:the right person at the right time.
Speaker:That's the thing that everybody talks about.
Speaker:Show the right content to the right person at the right time.
Speaker:Google, as an ecosystem, understands who you are and what
Speaker:content you like to consume.
Speaker:So if it knows you are more likely to watch podcasts or listen to podcasts.
Speaker:It is more likely to show you more podcasts on the YouTube feed compared
Speaker:to other content, so don't discount that or play that down when it comes to
Speaker:getting more viewers on your podcast.
Speaker:More listeners to your podcast.
Speaker:And I was interviewed on a podcast quite recently, and I asked them at the
Speaker:time, I said, oh, do you create a video?
Speaker:Because we were filming it.
Speaker:We was actually filming it.
Speaker:We were both on camera.
Speaker:And she said, no, no, we don't publish this.
Speaker:And I was like, oh, my, my heart died a little bit inside because I was like,
Speaker:you know, it's just a missed opportunity.
Speaker:It's a missed opportunity.
Speaker:And you must grab that opportunity with both hands.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And the last thing that I'll say about YouTube is you have doubled the chance
Speaker:and it's going on from what I just said.
Speaker:You've doubled the chance to get your audience.
Speaker:I remember that story I told about Poppy and how she consumed content.
Speaker:She said, when I listen to the video,
Speaker:sometimes I move from listening to watching.
Speaker:And so by having that video podcast, I didn't even know you could publish a
Speaker:podcast to Spotify and include a video.
Speaker:I still don't know how that works just yet, but she showed me on
Speaker:Spotify, on her mobile phone.
Speaker:She was listening to her podcast.
Speaker:She clicked the button, it had the two arrows to expand it, and when
Speaker:she expanded it, it was a video.
Speaker:Oh my God, why would you not do that?
Speaker:So you are telling me someone can listen in Spotify and watch your video content.
Speaker:That blows my mind.
Speaker:So there's double the chance for you to get those viewers and again, from
Speaker:a personal branding point of view, if you're not doing that is madness that you
Speaker:wouldn't take that opportunity to do that.
Speaker:I know that it takes more effort.
Speaker:If you're trying to do a podcast and I want to film this podcast, but you
Speaker:know, I'm out and about, I'm traveling, I haven't got all my equipment.
Speaker:Look, go back to my last episode and listen to what the minimum equipment was.
Speaker:If I was doing a podcast and I was on the road, I would take my mobile
Speaker:phone and I would get the person to come into that podcast, and I would
Speaker:interview them via my mobile phone or my laptop, even with my webcam.
Speaker:You know, I talked about webcams not being the thing that I'd use, like I
Speaker:would do anything to get it on video because as long as the audio is good.
Speaker:If the video's a little bit ropey here and there with two of you on the screen
Speaker:and with a little bit of editing, you can make that podcast look amazing.
Speaker:So just do as much as you can to make sure that you can get it on both.
Speaker:Alright, so the question of the day was, should I create a
Speaker:YouTube channel or a podcast?
Speaker:And I hope by going through those benefits that you can see the answer is both.
Speaker:I'm not talking about this from the type of content that you create.
Speaker:I'm talking this specifically on should I have a YouTube channel
Speaker:with my podcast on it or a podcast?
Speaker:Look, and the other thing that I'll say just to wrap this up is, by having
Speaker:your podcast on YouTube and creating a channel to host this stuff, if
Speaker:you were just a podcaster and you're not considering creating YouTube
Speaker:content just yet, then start with
Speaker:a video podcast that you post to YouTube as a starting point.
Speaker:You'll gain subscribers, you'll gain viewers without doing much
Speaker:more than you are already doing.
Speaker:And then when you want to start creating authority-based, education,
Speaker:entertainment, whatever it needs to be on YouTube, you've got an audience
Speaker:that is following you for your podcast that's already following you anyway.
Speaker:And if you create the podcast and you're on episode a hundred and you've
Speaker:just started creating videos, then you can just turn around and say, Hey,
Speaker:if you're watching this, if you're listening to this in your ears, why not
Speaker:head off over to our YouTube channel and consume this on YouTube as well?
Speaker:And you'll get to see my beautiful face, right?
Speaker:You can say something like that.
Speaker:It works as well.
Speaker:It gives you a chance to reach those people in that way.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's it for this episode.
Speaker:Don't forget, if you find this useful, subscribe to the podcast, subscribe
Speaker:to the channel, share it, like it, and tell your friends about it.
Speaker:Oh, and if you're on the podcast listening to this, can you gimme a review as well?
Speaker:I think in these early days, I probably need reviews, so review my podcast.
Speaker:A 5 star would be wonderful.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:See you next time.
Speaker:Bye-bye.