8 Reasons Why I Moved My Podcast (BlogTalk vs. Anchor)
First, background:
I started my original podcast, in 2015, made it to 12 episodes of awesomeness and then got burnt out and needed to “sat” down. I appreciated my old platform, BlogTalkRadio, BUT it had its down sides that were somewhat annoying, like the 30-minute limit on the free version and the small learning curve. Note: I chose the free platform as I NEW I did not know how to monetize my show, so why create an expensive hobby, when you can learn and grow for free?
BlogTalkRadio did give me a great start and it allowed me to have the actual “radio-like” feature of having callers call in to the show and participate live… I miss that feature, in the new platform.
I revamped and reloaded my podcast, complete with rebranding and all, in 2020 and this time I ventured to a completely free platform, Anchor.fm, as I am still learning about monetizing my podcast and driving traffic. Anchor allows me to create with few restrictions and longer recording times. The 2 main draw backs with Anchor.fm are the fact that the show is not broadcast live, per se and there is no listener call-in feature (they do have a listener voice message feature – but once again it is not live).
Anchor does allow you to upload your recording, audio and video to their platform and edit the recordings as well. One thing, I have not figured out as yet, is if, once you upload your recording if they input the trailer to it. So that will be my next great, or not so great discovery.
What I like about anchor and the reasons I switched:
- Ease of use
- Mobile friendliness
- Editing capabilities inside the app
- Ability to add music and sound bites
- Clean user interface
- Ease of access to add guest speakers to the podcast show
- The sponsorship (ad monetization feature)
- Listener support (monthly monetization feature)
Now on to how I made this work for me for my first reloaded episode. So, realizing that I could not actually “Go Live”. I opted to record in zoom and go live on my Facebook page and then us the recording to upload the episode to Anchor.fm after. This way I can get the best of all worlds! Video, audio and live!
Always remember, where there is a will, there IS a way. Do I miss BlogTalkRadio, yes and no. Am I happy I switched, yes. Would I go back, probably not. Being with Anchor.fm has created more opportunity for my own ingenuity and they have provided more tools to help me monetize my podcast, so, that in and of itself is what helps build staying power for me!
