Apple Podcast Chart Secrets: How to Rank, Grow Your Podcast, Gain Followers, and Get More Downloads

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: In this episode, I'm talking about the Apple Podcast Charts.

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And my aim is to share several different things with you.

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_00]: One is what are the Apple Podcast Charts?

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Two is how do you get on those charts?

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And three, what happens when you start ranking?

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Does your show blow up?

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Does it not really matter?

[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Does it do anything?

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you get all this growth and these opportunities?

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I recently made it on the Apple Podcast Charts

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_00]: and in my category, Education,

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I actually got up to number 29.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's fucking go.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: What up, potty people?

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And welcome back to Clipped.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_00]: As always, I'm Eric, your host,

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and Clipped brings you the tips, resources,

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_00]: and people to help you crush your online content goals.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: We talk about podcasting strategies, YouTube, SEO,

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: and more, and it's all aimed at helping you

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: become a better content creator on your journey

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and maybe make some money while you're at it.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: In this episode, I'm talking about

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: the Apple Podcast Charts.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And my aim is to share several different things with you.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: One is what are the Apple Podcast Charts?

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Two is how do you get on those charts?

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And three, what happens when you start ranking?

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Does your show blow up?

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Does it not really matter?

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Does it do anything?

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you get all this growth and these opportunities?

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I recently made it on the Apple Podcast Charts

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and in my category, Education,

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I actually got up to number 29.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_00]: There's 200 rankings for each category,

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_00]: business, art, society and culture, education.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And the Apple Podcast Charts will show you

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: the top 200 shows in those categories.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And then there's an overall chart across all niches,

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: which I didn't get into, but the same goes there.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll show you the top 200 shows

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: across all of Apple Podcasts.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But in any case, before I get into it,

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: gotta give a shout out to Riverside.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Riverside.fm sponsors this podcast.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It's my favorite place to record online video

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00]: and audio podcasts.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I also love their AI tools,

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: which will automatically clip my show

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: into shareable segments for social media.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you wanna try Riverside out,

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: if you like the idea of this, go to riverside.fm

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: and enter promo code clipped at checkout

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and you'll get 20% off.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Without further ado guys, let's give it a go.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay guys, so what are the Apple Podcast Charts?

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, they're the top ranking shows

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: across all the different podcast categories on Apple.

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And to find the Apple Podcast Charts,

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: you can do this from your phone or on a desktop.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna go to Apple Podcasts.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna click hop charts

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: and then you're gonna go to all categories.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna scroll down.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna pick a category.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's pick education,

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: cause that is the category that I ranked for

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: a couple of weeks ago.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm now out of the rankings,

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: but at one point we hit number 29

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: out of the top 200 in education.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And then for about two weeks,

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: we hovered into the thirties

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: or maybe it was like a week.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't fully remember.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And then slowly started to drop out,

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: got like 40, 50, 100, 150, 180.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: At one point we were 199

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: and then we got fully kicked off the charts.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so that's what the Apple Podcast Charts are.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Now how do you get on the Apple Podcast Charts?

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Apple hasn't released all that information

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and it's my understanding

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00]: that they do have an internal team

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: that also like reviews the charts constantly

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and are working in that department.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00]: But one thing that is known across the industry

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: is like the Apple Podcast Charts,

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_00]: how you climb those charts

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: is the rate at which your show is getting new followers.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And so if your show starts to go viral

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: or an episode starts to go viral,

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_00]: people looking at the charts are gonna see that.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: The more people see it,

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_00]: the more people are gonna click on it.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: The more people that click on it,

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: a handful of those are gonna follow your show

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and actually become fans and start listening.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And so the rate at which you get new followers

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_00]: determines partly how fast, or if at all,

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: that you're gonna start climbing the charts

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: for your specific category.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And then if it's like massive growth,

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe you'll end up on the top overall

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: of all categories combined.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But that's like the main thing that I know

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and that's like talked about in the industry

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: is like you can get on the charts

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: depending on how fast your show is gaining followers.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's interesting because I was on the charts

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: for like two weeks and then slowly started dropping.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And as the popularity of the episode that went viral

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: started to decline, was getting less followers,

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: less followers and eventually fell out of the charts.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And so why do you wanna be on the charts?

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm gonna show you right now

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: the opportunities I personally got.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And I imagine if you are on the charts at some point,

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: you've gotten similar kind of like growth for your show.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm gonna show that right now.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you wanna watch the show on video,

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: you can actually see like some screen sharing

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: and the exact numbers of different episodes

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: and how many downloads they got

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and how many new followers I got on Apple

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: where I screen share and I talk about specifics.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But for the sake of this,

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: the episode that went viral

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: that started this whole thing was released on July 24th

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: where I interviewed the CEO of Mopod.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: His name is Mike Whiston.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And I apologize if I sound really nasally,

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why that's happening.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: My allergies are bad, but that was July 24th.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And as of recording this, it's August 12th.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So a couple of weeks ago, that episode went viral

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: and that's what kicked everything off

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: as far as like the new growth from the charts.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But just for conversation sake, before that,

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: like May, April, March, even further back

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: as like a general overview,

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: my episodes were getting about, I don't know,

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_00]: 65 downloads to 75 downloads per episode

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: in the first week.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And then that would grow a little bit

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: so that in the first month, it would maybe go up,

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe each episode getting low 80s as far as downloads,

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: which isn't huge.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But then on July 24th,

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: when that episode with Mike Whiston came out,

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_00]: that's when the huge bump happened.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And that episode in the first seven days

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: got 2,490 downloads.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And to date it's at, as of recording this,

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_00]: August 12th, 7,606 downloads.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So going from like 75 downloads per episode,

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: let's say on average, to over 7,000,

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's a massive, massive increase.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: It's huge.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's from being on the podcast charts,

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: that's from people seeing the cover art

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and getting interested, clicking on it,

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_00]: clicking on the episodes,

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: and then downloading that episode

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: and stuff kind of taking off.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And then since then,

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_00]: the episode after that,

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I've had fallen off the charts

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_00]: and I got 572 downloads so far for that episode.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And that was released on July 31st.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And actually still might've been a little bit

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: on the charts for that,

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: because I want to say I was on the charts

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: for like 10 days, at least a week,

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: but had dropped significantly from like,

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, number 35 on the charts,

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: like way down to the bottom.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And then the episode that I released last week,

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: August 7th, I interviewed Colin Gray,

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: the founder of the podcast host.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: That episode is currently at 352 downloads.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So you can see that drop off there.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a week old as of recording this,

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: just about a week old, it's 352 downloads.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: So still a huge increase from, you know,

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: 65, 75 downloads, maybe 80 downloads per episode,

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_00]: which is what I was at before going on the charts.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: What I'm excited about is that,

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, the last episode with Colin Gray,

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: the founder of the podcast host,

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: 352 downloads,

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: which if I can like sit in that range moving forward,

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: like my episodes when this comes out,

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, if it gets 300 downloads or 288 downloads,

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: or even breaks like into 400 downloads in a 30 day period,

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm stoked because that means like,

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah, it dropped off from the peak,

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: but still hovering around like that many downloads.

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And that means I have a similar amount of followers.

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_00]: That's fucking awesome.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And to show you the follower growth,

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna go to my Apple Podcast Connect,

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: just to give you like,

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_00]: so what that means for like Apple

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: and how many people are now downloading

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and following the show on Apple.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Cause as you know, when you follow a show on Apple,

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_00]: it gets automatically downloaded to your phone.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_00]: So here's some numbers you could check out.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_00]: So let's start with May.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I had 85 followers on Apple Podcasts.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is before the hitting the charts

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_00]: is just, you know, business as usual,

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: podcasting moving along.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_00]: In June, I had 86 followers.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So an increase in one.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And then in July, when that virality happened,

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_00]: July 24th, the very end of July in that month,

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I had 328 followers,

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: which is showing an increase of 281%.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And thus far in August, I have 463 followers.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And so you could see massive increase

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and what like times maybe times five or times four.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, you do the math,

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_00]: but going from 85 in May to 463 in June,

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and those are followers.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And so when someone downloads an episode or sorry,

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_00]: when someone follows your show,

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_00]: those weekly episodes get automatically downloaded

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_00]: to their phone.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm hoping, you know, to stay around there.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_00]: This could come down a little bit.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_00]: It could go up a little bit in the next like couple months,

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_00]: but I'm just stoked cause you know,

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: it's not gonna probably drop down to where it was.

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And so regardless, it is an increase in followers,

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: which means more downloads.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's kind of my results from hitting the charts

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and I'm stoked about it.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_00]: If you discovered this show because of that,

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_00]: that's awesome.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for checking it out.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I hope I can deliver on all stuff,

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_00]: content creation related.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I've expanded a little bit.

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be doing more SEO stuff

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_00]: because I love SEO and I love writing.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think writing is an important component

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: to podcasting, although it's completely different.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not podcasting at all.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I try to promote that like the more written content

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_00]: that you can pump out related to an episode

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_00]: or related to your brand.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just gonna help people discover you

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: in a different way.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: It's gonna help your website rank.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And if your show has a page on your website,

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: gonna get more people to see your podcast.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_00]: But again, just wanna say thank you.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_00]: If you've got topics that you want me to cover

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_00]: or you just wanna give a shout out and chat,

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_00]: or if you just have questions about podcasting,

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_00]: go ahead and email me info at thepodcastheaven.com.

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: That's info at thepodcastheaven, all one word.com.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Would love to communicate with you guys,

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_00]: interact, answer questions, offer help.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I wanna help you strategize and grow with your content,

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: with your podcast, with your YouTube.

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_00]: That's my overall goal and point of this

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: is just to put out information myself

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_00]: and also talk to like rad people

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_00]: that have been crushing it in the podcast world

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_00]: that are service providers or podcasters of their own

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_00]: that share their own tips and strategies

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_00]: of how like they made it

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00]: or what's currently working for them or what to avoid.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_00]: So stoked that you guys are here

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and a stoked to keep creating content for you guys.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna be a podcast movement next week.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're gonna be there, if you like the show,

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_00]: if you know me from elsewhere, LinkedIn or the blog,

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_00]: say what up, down to connect, down to grab a drink,

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: down to hit the MGM National Harbor Casino one of the nights.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: The hotel is apparently a short

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_00]: like just a few miles away via Uber.

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm down to play some crap,

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_00]: so I'm down to drink, I'm down to help you,

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_00]: help yourself and talk about podcasting

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: and offer tips and support and just hang out.

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Fuck all the podcasting stuff,

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm down to just hang out and meet you.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's it guys, keep listening,

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_00]: keep creating, keep engaging, I'm out.