Inside Colossus - Ideal Episode Length, Monetization, and Production Process - [Making Media, EP.08]

We answer frequent questions sent to us over the past few weeks. Dom goes on the offensive over podcast show notes, Matt gets excited about episode artwork, and we debate the perfect length for an episode. Sprinkled between those topics, we discuss sponsorship and the end-to-end process for a show like Business Breakdowns.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.    -----   This episode is brought to you by Scribe. Scribe is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Making Media and the magic behind the Colossus transcripts. One of the best decisions we made at Colossus was transcribing all of our audio into a searchable transcript library. We had been using another provider up until the summer of 2022 but we were constantly having issues with accuracy if our audio was just the slightest bit impaired. Whether it's training sessions, internal Q&As, or for media purposes, the value of transcripts is huge. And we are not alone. Scribe is the transcription service that powers all of S&P Global - like CapIQ - and the client list includes our friends at Tegus. Go to joincolossus.com/scribe to unlock 150 minutes of free transcription and test their capabilities.   -----   Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @ReustleMatt | @domcooke | @MakingMediaPod | @JoinColossus    Show Notes (00:02:15) - [First question] - Thoughts on podcast episode length, the potential correlation between length and popularity, and our personal preferences  (00:10:34) - The problem with podcasts that don’t have show notes and fixing existing ones (00:11:34) - Monetization, sponsorships, and the podcasting business model (00:14:56) - Ways to identify and source potential podcast sponsors   (00:19:43) - The importance of having access to detailed data about your show (00:19:48) - Sean Griffey - Big Bucks in Narrow Niches (00:20:12) - Securing payment, setting up contracts, deposits, and accounts receivable  (00:22:20) - Whether or not show artwork helps with growth and thoughts on branding  (00:27:23) - Episode preparation, sourcing guests, and production turnaround time  (00:32:24) - Rerecording episodes and inserting secondary recordings (00:35:14) - Potential platform changes and ways to tell guests their episodes won’t be used