This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey listeners, thanks for tuning in today. Excited to bring you a new episode of Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Now out there in our community of people all over the world doing lots of interesting things. We have lots of people with ideas and ideas, projects, little businesses, side hustles, sometimes not so little businesses, but all united with the goal of making extra money, creating something for themselves, hopefully something that also makes a difference for others, which is what we're all about here, okay?
So today, let's see, we're gonna go to Williamsburg, Virginia and hear from Nathan. Nathan is a history lover who's starting a podcast. He's all set to embark on an auditory journey through time with his upcoming podcast, "Time Travels." I love the name and here's where things get a tad more modern, okay? Because obviously podcasts have been around for 100 years. So Nathan's wondering about video.
He's noticed a trend of podcasts making their way onto YouTube, branching out into a wider audience. And he's just wondering, should he remain audio centric? Should he dip his toes in the world of video? Even if it's just audio with a static image, as indeed some podcasters have done. He's wondering what I think about this, is it worth it?
Should he just stay the current course? Let's see if we can help. Should I upload my podcast to YouTube? And of course, not just Nathan, but anybody else out there thinking about a podcast, let's talk about it. Detailed question, my answer in just 30 seconds.
[Music]
Hello, I'm Nathan, a history fan from the historic town of Williamsburg, Virginia. I'm planning to start a podcast called "Time Travelers," where I dive into various fascinating periods of history. Before I launch, I'm wondering something. I originally imagined it being audio only. You know, a normal podcast, but I've noticed that some podcasts are now on YouTube as well.
I don't have the ability to invest in video production at this point, but do you think I could just upload the audio files with a thumbnail? I'm curious to know if there's any downside to this or if it's just not worth the effort. [Music]
Nathan, first of all, I love the concept of time travels. There are a lot of podcasts about history. It's something that people who listen to a lot of long form podcasts, you know, ones that go on for a while, you know, that's a genre that's very popular.
And there's also some short form history podcasts as well. So I love time travels. Now about this question of YouTube, there's not a ton of downside to doing it. I was surprised a few years ago when people started putting their shows on YouTube without having any visual content at all, like they would just upload the audio, you know, but there is an audience for that. And then of course, if it improves over time and you start getting a lot of listeners or viewers, then you perhaps could add a video component.
So you don't have to. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. This is something to think about, you know, right after Google, which is its parent company. So, you know, that could help with SEO. It could help people just stumble upon it.
We don't actually have Side Hustle School on YouTube at the moment, but I have thought about doing something, you know, just like this. Like even if it's not gonna be super great video content, it might just be that thumbnail. There's not a ton of downside. I guess the only downside is you're adding one more thing to do. And that's what I tend to be cautious about myself just 'cause there are a lot of things that we're doing here at the podcast, and on my blog, for my books, for my events and such.
And I have a very small team. So I always wanna be careful and mindful of like adding new tasks and process to things, but nothing wrong with it, you know? And of course, you could always start uploading to YouTube. And if you don't like it at all, or if nobody's listening, you could just take it down. You know, that's the thing about this, especially with existing content.
So maybe just think about your effort versus your reward. What do you have time for? And mostly put your focus on making a great podcast. And then you can figure out, do I look for additional distribution channels or just stick with audio? We've been audio only for more than six years now.
So of course, that's an option as well. All right, Nathan, good luck. Let us know when the pod is live. Listeners, if you have a question, an idea, a project, something you're trying to work through, sidehustleschool.com/questions. New episode every day, even as I'm on the road.
And I'm really excited for all that we have coming up. Thanks for being out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From The Onward Project.
