Losing Momentum: Rebuilding Your Podcast After a Long Hiatus

One of the reasons I always talk about having a lot of passion for your subject is along the way you will do something or things may change in life that have you losing some of your audience.

So I saw this on Reddit and it says we launched our podcast in 2023 and built it up to around 500 downloads per episode with really good completion rates. We were doing weekly episodes, documentary style deep dives targeting British women that were over the age of 40. Myself and my co host, we don't do guests, just heavily researched cultural analysis. Then life happened. We ended up taking a year off. By the point we had done 40 plus episodes. We said to our listeners we were taking a break and coming back. Now they don't say what year this was, but if they were doing weekly, they hadn't even done a year.

So they took a year off. That is a long time. And it says, when we came back season five, we lost easily half our audience. We're now doing bi weekly episodes because that's what we can manage with the amount of research we do. And here's what's really bizarre. The quality is actually better now. I think I'm editing it myself, putting more time into production. The episodes are more polished and professional, but our completion rate has gone down too.

No, not just the overall numbers. It feels like that year off completely killed our momentum. Even our loyal base seems less engaged. I know consistency is everything with podcasts, but it's dispiriting when you're doing objectively better work and getting worse results. I'm planning to try podcast to podcast advertising in the new year since the social media reach has been dismal. But I'm wondering, has anyone taken a long break and successfully rebuilt what worked Is biweekly, just not frequent enough to maintain momentum, or did that gap basically reset everything and we're starting from scratch? Okay, so first things first. You said you did 40 plus episodes and you were doing them weekly, so you hadn't even gone a year and then you took a year off. And I'm here to tell you that's really bad.

And so one thing I would say, instead of saying I lost 50% of my audience, flip that I'm lucky that I saved 50% of my audience. And then you say, has anyone taken a Long break and successfully rebuilt. Well, don't look at from as if you made it to the 50 yard line and you're starting from the 50 yard line. The bad news is the ringing of an audience in your ears is still there and they are gone. And so you're not starting from the 50, you're starting from like the 10. You've, you've gone back considerably. And then the other thing you say you feel the content is better and you even say, I think but you went in and looked and said, hey, our completion rate is not as good. So let's just take that out of podcasting.

I used to give people a 16 ounce bottle of, let's say Coke, okay, here you go. And they would drink the whole thing, like not a drop left. Now I hand them a bottle of the same, you know, soda, and they're only drinking half of it or whatever. Well, logic says it's not as good. There's something not as good with your content. Or maybe the people that stuck around weren't the super fans, but on the other hand, they were super fans. They would have stuck around. But the other thing you're taking seasons.

I am not a fan of seasons. Seasons are made for people with teams of, you know, 18 that fly around the world to get their stories. I do very much like the fact that you've gone to a bi weekly schedule. Why? Because that's all you can do and you can stay consistent there. But when you take a season and then you take a month or two off again, time off is just so bad. Think of it like putting your finger in a bucket that has a hole. The minute you take your hand away, that bucket is going to start to drain. And so when you come back and you go, hey, where'd all the water go? Well, your finger was, you know, plug in the hole and when you moved it, all the water ran away.

The longer you are away, the more water goes out the bottom of that bucket. So for me, I think seasons, I just plan accordingly. When I have to, you know, go out on the road or something, I just record more episodes. Is it hard? Yeah. What's your point? You gotta plan accordingly. And I realize you said life happens and it does, but the thing you've learned here, and that's really the big takeaway, is not what you lost, but what you've learned. And you've learned many things. Number one, don't take time off unless you have to find a schedule that works for you.

So you went from weekly to bi weekly. That's good. Now, is that going to grow slower? Yeah, of course it is. But also you've learned that the completion rate is going down. That's not good either, because you're trying to grow an audience that maybe isn't that crazy about your work. So look at the old episodes before you were the editor and look at them now. And maybe because you're the editor, you've lost some of your objectivity. So you want to find somebody who's not listening to your show but should and ask them if they would be kind enough and listen to an episode and give you honest feedback.

Because there is something wrong with the content and that's hard to hear. But data often doesn't lie. You know, the numbers don't lie. So that would be my advice, is get some people to listen to it, get some feedback. Because it may be, and this is often the case, even with myself, that we are too close to our own content and we ignore the data that says, hey, we're not listening as far. So there's something that's making people tune out. And if they're tuning out early, they're much, much, much less likely to share this with a friend. Now, if you need help with this, I've been podcasting for 20 years.

I help podcasters. It's what I do. And I'll be the first to say I've seen things in my own content. I'm like, oh, wow, I missed that. You need an outside point of view. And if you need help starting your podcast, growing your podcast, monetizing your podcast, I do all of this in one location. That's@schoolofpodcasting.com Use the coupon code listener. I would love to see what you and I can do together.

If you already have a podcast, check out Podcast Hot Seat. I've got a Black Friday deal going on over there that does include a free month of the School of Podcasting. I'm Dave Jackson. I help podcasters. It's what I do. And I can't wait to see what we're going to do together because I want to be your podcast consultant.