Online Marketing Made Easy, Podcast Case Study

podcast like Amy Porterfield podcast? Or can you tell me how to get on Amy Porterfield podcast? Like no, like these are? You're probably smiling and nodding right now. Because you're like, Oh, I've said that to myself, or Krystals talking about me. I have messaged her and said that to her, you know who you are. I'm not naming names.

But you know who you are. And I've had this said to me so many times over the years that I thought, you know, what, why don't we do a case study on Amy Porterfield podcast for online marketing made easy. So that's where we're going into today. Like, I'm totally gonna nerd out to go on a deep dive behind the scenes of Amy's podcast and kind of analyze a little bit of what her journey has looked like from an outsider's perspective, right?

Like, I would love to have had Amy on the show today and really pour into all the questions that y'all asked me on a regular basis. So Amy, if you're listening, just know, I'm going to reach out to you and ask you that we would love to have you back on the show. So we could talk about your badass journey and just totally geek out about it. But today is just going to be on observation, and the things that I've learned from listening to her show for a long time. But also, I'm asking the

questions that I know you want the answers to. So buckle up, get ready because we are going to go on a deep dive on the online marketing Made Easy podcast. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the

time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?

that I wanted to really shed some light on. And so if you're brand new around here, or you have never heard of Amy Porterfield, she is one of my virtual mentors who I've been so fortunate to have on this podcast as well as meet in real life several times. And I just I love what she does. And I also used her show like all the things that she does on there, we're going to talk about this specific ways that I used her show, but it was kind of the template that I held up as the gold standard for

how I wanted my show to be. And it's why you see a lot of the similarities of there's a few similarities, right? I mean, obviously her shows very different than mine as far as context and speakers and reach and all those things. But I looked at so many things on her podcast, online marketing Made Easy. Whenever I was getting started on my journey, and it's just, it's been so fun to go on a deep dive to see well, how did she do things from the beginning? Yes, I went back to

Episode One. If you follow me on good pods. This is my favorite podcast listening app that I use almost every single day. It's kind of like a social media platform for for podcasting. And I listen on my podcast there and you can go and like and rate and review podcast. It's so fun. So if you're not following me on good pods, come Come hang out with me because that's where I listen all my podcasts you've ever wondered, what is Krystal

listen to? It's legitimately where I listened to it, but I wanted to I put a comment on the episode that I listened to it was Amy's very first episode and I was like, Hey, by the way, I'm doing this for research because I'm sure or some people were like, Why is she listening to this episode? Because it's almost 10 years old. So let's get into all the things. But I wanted to tell you, like I did my due diligence, did the research for today's episode for our case study.

She's been at this for 10 years. That's why she has the podcast that she does. It's why she has the reputation that she has, it's because she's been doing this for a very long time. And so I just wanted to throw that out there. It's like I've only been listening to her for about, we'll just call it four years, right? At this point, I've been listening to her for about four years, her podcast pretty consistently. And even in the last few years, I've noticed some changes that

we're going to talk about. But really, and I'm going to go through some very specific details that I found. And then I'm going to give you some takeaways that I've kind of come from this little deep dive that I did. But the biggest thing that I want you to concentrate on is the fact that what you see today, for her podcast is not how she started. And I wanted to make that very clear,

because there is an evolution of her show. And even though it's incredibly successful, and it's gone on to do some amazing things like she's even part of a network, we're going to talk about that, don't worry. But it's just been really cool to go back in time and see that there were some ups and downs, and there were some pivots and turns and the way that she started isn't what she has done

today. And I hope that you find that encouraging, no matter where you are in your podcast journey, because a lot of people get stuck in their head thinking, well, if I started this way, today, I can't change anything in the future. And that's just not true. If you've listened to this podcast for any amount of time, you'll notice that things are very different today than they were in Episode 20 or episode 47 like things are very, very

different. So just keep that in the back of your mind as you continue to grow and podcast and figure out your own style of how you want to run your show. Alright, so let's dive into some of the other stats and numbers that I have on Amy's podcast.

episode. And I point that out, because if you're listening to this right now, and you've been struggling with maybe not sounding like yourself, or you're a little nervous, or you can listen back and you're like, oh my gosh, like is that really? My voice? Is that my sound? Amy's voice sounds very different in 2021, than it did in 2013. And I think that that's just confidence I can imagine.

And again, this is just my assumption into what was going on in her mind in 2013 Is she was getting started, she was doing something new, something she'd never done before. And to be really frank, something that was probably like, I don't even know how this is gonna pay out, right? Is this really gonna work out for me in the long run, there wasn't a Joe Rogan example of somebody making millions of dollars off their podcast there, whereas it was still a pretty small market

there. Whenever I got started in 2018 2018. Just a few years ago, there were only 500,000 podcast. I don't even know how many there were five years before that there could have only been maybe 10,000 podcast, I'm not sure. But I think that it's really interesting to hear audibly hear the difference in her voice in 2013 versus today. So that was something that I noted. Another thing. The actual length of her episode hasn't changed

too much over time. And I say that because her very first episode was a solo, and then her next one was an interview. And then it kind of went a little better back and forth over the next several 100 episodes of having a solo episode versus having an interview. And I just want to reiterate, I've said this before, but I think that having a mixture show where you have solo and interview is a really good call for those of you that don't want to worry about other people's schedules all

the time, right? If you're like, I just have an interview only podcast and it stresses me out when someone cancels, we'll maybe consider throwing in a few solo episodes. And for you solo episode podcast, I encourage you to try out an interview every once in a while you can do it as a bonus episode to see how that's gonna work for you. But I think that it was, it's been pretty cool to see how things haven't shifted dramatically for her

show. It's not like she was posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Monday through Friday, and then she decided to switch things up. That's not really what I have found. But that was just pretty much a quick skim over the episodes, like I was scrolling through good pods and looking at all her previous episodes. So I think that first one was around 35 to 40 minutes in length. She had okay, this this was interesting. And I noticed, I think that she changed this around 2018 2019. But she

used to have a voiceover. So this is really interesting. So she had a voiceover introduction. That was somebody else. It was a man's voice. And it was like Welcome to the online marketing Made Easy podcast, a podcast, you know, and then like it went into her whole spiel of what her podcast is all about. And I remember thinking, Oh, that's interesting whenever I first started listening to her podcast, but I didn't really I didn't really think anything of it because I was new to her

show. So I thought, Okay, this is probably how she does it. But then when she changed it, and now she hasn't had that for a few years now. going back and listening to that podcast, I was like, Oh my gosh, I totally forgot that she had a voiceover introduction at the very beginning. And at the very end. So this goes back to even if you start your show one way, you don't have to stick with it forever. And I don't know, Amy's personal choices

for taking this away. But as a longtime listener of her show, I'm glad that she made the changes because it feels more like Amy, what she does for her podcast today it feels more authentic to her brand and who she is, because it's a little jarring. And this goes for all podcast. Like especially if you're listening to a podcast, and there's an ad that's inserted, and it's not read by the host, right? It's someone else's. It's like a GEICO ad or something else that's, you're like,

Wait, did you look down at your phone? And you're like, did something just skip? Did I move to a different podcast? Because it's jarring. It's almost like you're being you're on the phone with someone and somebody is talking. And then there's another voice that comes on, you're like, wait, oh my gosh, ah, I totally just flashback, you are gonna laugh at me. You remember those days,

though? When you're at your house, and you have multiple cord phones in your house, and you're talking to someone and then all of a sudden, your dad gets on the phone and starts dialing and starts to talk is like, Wait, hang on, is someone on the phone is somebody there? And then if you're like me, and you weren't supposed to be on the phone, it's probably like, and then you hang up real fast if you're like, Was somebody No, that wasn't me. That wasn't me, dad. I promise I was

asleep. I shouldn't have been on the phone. Was that just me? No, I know, it wasn't. There's somebody laughing right now. It's like, I know exactly what you're talking about. But it's kind of what it is. It's jarring when you're listening to something. And then it's someone else's voice. So I like the fact that she doesn't have that anymore. And it's but it was just funny to go back and listen to it. Because I had this memory that

came up like oh my gosh, yeah, she did. She used to have a voiceover in her podcast.

it comes to their show notes. Because what you see on your phone or whatever device you're actually listening, that is the episode description. That is not what I consider shownotes okay, this is a very clear distinction that I have made. From the beginning of my podcast coaching journey is that is your episode description. What someone sees on whatever device they're playing your podcast from, what I consider to be Show Notes Our lives

independently on a website. And I really do get that from following Amy's podcast for a long time and having these additional resources or different things that she's driving traffic to, right. She's like, hey, go to the show notes. Amy Porterfield comm forward slash, whatever. And that's where you'll find a link to this thing, or go learn more

about my guest. Like I learned that from her. But I'm also so appreciative because that simple tool has allowed me to grow my email list, promote products have specific calls to action, that really move the needle for my show. So I knew I was like, Oh, I gotta go back to her very first episode to see has there been an evolution from her very first show note that she were put out to what she does today. And yes, there has been a

very, very big evolution. So what I learned and I'm gonna link to all this in the show notes of this podcast, which is KrystalProffitt.com/episode317. That's where you're gonna have some screenshots that you're going to find there, from Amy's Instagram, and some other things that I think links that I think you're going to find helpful, including the link to her very first podcast episode. And the reason why I bring this up is because the actual URL for

her very first podcast episode is important. And I'm going to geek out on you for a second. Boy, I'm already geeking out on you, I'm going to go a little bit even geekier and a little bit deeper for you. And that is because the URL, I'm going to read it to you, so bear with me for a second, it's Amy porterfield.com, forward slash one. That's what you could put, that's what I put, because that's how she numbers her episodes today. So I was like, I wonder if that's how she does it. That

will take you to this URL. But what the actual permalink URL is, is Amy Porterfield comm forward slash 2013, slash Oh, one slash list building with social media. And the reason why I bring this up as interesting is because I can tell that her show notes for her podcast, were very heavily reliant on keywords SEO, and treating the shownotes. Like they were a blog. And I say that because I can, I can just tell the difference. Y'all know this, y'all know that I took a blogging course, in like

2017. And then that was like my first introduction to online business. So I learned a lot of these things back in the day, but I just found it interesting, because that's not what she does

today. And I think that simply because she has the domain authority, like Google recognizes her as someone like she talks about this, she's gonna rank higher, because she's had her who knows how long she's had her website, I don't even know how long she's had her own domain, I'm guessing at least 10 to 12 years, because she's been in business for a long time. So she has the domain authority. So maybe she doesn't have to put all this extra stuff at the URL. But I found it

interesting. And I thought maybe you would as well if you've been struggling like, oh, you know, I want to do shownotes for my podcast, but I don't know what to name it. Should it be the title of each episode? Should it be this should it be that I'm going to do like this is a little aside, what I would recommend is creating shownotes your show note URL, making it something that you can say easily and that your listeners will actually be able to go to. So that's why I believe Amy does.

Amy Porterfield comm forward slash whatever number, and that's why I do KrystalProffitt.com/episode317. Because it's easy for me to say, and it's not that hard for someone if they're listening, and they're like, wait, what episode was that? Oh, I want to go and you just know now, whatever episode number that you're trying to find for this podcast, you can literally put in Krystal proffitt.com forward slash episode,

whatever number it is that you're looking for. So I wanted to point that out, because it was it was really just kind of interesting to me. Maybe it was a little too dorky for you. Maybe you skipped the last few minutes of this. That's okay. It's not gonna hurt my feelings. Either way, because I told you, I warned you from the very beginning. I

was gonna geek out on the things. But okay, the last thing I want to tell you about her shownotes is how detailed they were in 2013 versus what they are today and I'm gonna link to her very first episode. And I'm also going to link to her latest episode as of me recording this podcast today. All right, because her very first One has pictures and videos and multiple links. And it was a very long

looking blog post. Whereas today, if you go to the show notes, they're still pretty detailed, but it's like probably a 500 word, blog post, I'll post. And her original one was probably 1500 words, I'm exaggerating, I don't know exact, I didn't count the words, I didn't do like a tool like Oh, word count. I didn't do any of that. But just looking at it, it took me about three seconds to scroll her her latest episode. And it took me a while to get to the bottom of her very first one.

So that has been something that the style of her show notes has evolved over time. And so I just want to let y'all know, like whatever you're doing for your show notes, whether you're doing them or you're not doing them, just know that changing things in the future isn't a bad thing. It's not a deal breaker. If you don't have any right now, you can always make some in the future. But you also don't have to create these super, super long ones, you can make something that's shorter, and it

still be just as effective. So those are my notes on her very first episode. Now, like I said, I'm I have a link to all of these in the show notes. But as of today, as of me recording this podcast, she has published 416 episodes. Whoa, right. That's a lot. That is a lot of podcast episodes. But it's also really interesting, because she let me go back because I took a few of these screenshots,

and I forgot to bring them up here. And one of the things I wanted to tell you about is when it comes to I went back to, like I said, the very bottom of her Instagram account. And I looked at, you know, where does she talk about her podcast on Instagram, there wasn't a picture. There wasn't a single picture on her Instagram feed until November 2013. November. That's crazy, right? Because she launched in January 2013. But it wasn't until November, that she started talking

about her podcast on her Instagram. And I bring this up because I think one it's really interesting that she didn't have a launch plan. She didn't have this, she didn't have that, probably because it was 2013. And no one even thought to do a lot of these things that we do today. But also, I wanted to give you some hope. If you're like I don't have a big following. I don't know how to do social media with my podcast. I don't know this. I think that she wasn't as

worried about that. I think that she was worried about delivering value. She was worried about maybe growing her podcast and other ways. Maybe she was doing a lot more list building, maybe she was focused on something else. But I think that social media can often be a shiny object for podcasters, like, Oh, I'll do this when my Instagram reaches 20,000 or 100,000, or whatever that looks like. But she went 11 months of podcasting, without once talking about it on her

Instagram. So that was just super interesting. Um, I put a picture of this up in the show notes, but I just thought I thought that was so interesting. And then another thing when I was scrolling was in 2015. This is really cool. Her podcast was featured on the inspiring women's voices of Apple podcast. So that's super cool. Right. So I guess this was like, the new and noteworthy subcategory. So it wasn't just like, oh, you should check out all of these podcasts. It's like they were sorted

by other different genres. Or like, you know, this is this is for women or this is a woman that you need to listen to. So I thought that was really cool. So she had that to kind of helped boost her podcast in 2015. And again, I have no idea what kind of bump that she got from this, but I thought that that was really cool to see that her show was featured in 2015.

can't say 10 years. That's nine years officially, you know, we'll be there in just a few months. But that's, that's so inspiring. That's so So, so inspiring. I haven't hit a million downloads, like just just to be clear, in case you didn't know that. I have not hit a million downloads. And so that's just super aspirational to see that in it, just all the work that she's done. It's so I know,

I don't share that number. Other than I am just applauding her from afar, and thinking, wow, that would be so incredible to say that my show has had 33 million downloads. So Amy, if you're listening, I applaud you, I'm congratulating you that it's super freakin awesome. And I hope you have a plaque hanging up somewhere in your office. It's I've hit 33 million downloads because that's a really cool.

And then she recently announced that online marketing Made Easy has joined the HubSpot network. Now, I'll do a whole other episode around podcast networks and how they work. But basically in a nutshell, this means that her show will be bundled with several other podcasts that are really big. I know Jenna catchers gold digger podcast recently joined as far as my first million and entrepreneurs on fire, like there's a lot of big name podcasts that are already a part of the

HubSpot network. But what they'll do is they'll take all of these shows that already get tons and tons of downloads, and they'll package them all together and present those to sponsors. Right. So when you say that you're a part of a network, you kind of batched like all of your numbers together, you put them in a collective like metaphorical

pot. And then you can present that to brands and sponsors and say, Hey, we can offer up these podcasts that are you know, in front of you, every single month, they get collectively however many downloads they get like, and then they can price price them out. And then I'm not sure how monetarily the relationship that Amy or these other podcasters have with HubSpot. I just know that that is, in a nutshell what like how a network works. I don't know if she's paid directly

by them. I don't know if she gets a cut of ads that are on the HubSpot network. But I think that it's interesting, and it's something that I'm going to pay attention to over the coming months to see, well, does that mean that she has to have a little bit less creative control over her

content? Or does she still just get to create whatever she wants to create because prior to joining this HubSpot network, she's done whatever she's wanted to do, I'm assuming right this again, this is all my pre assumption on what Amy has created in the past. And I think it's really interesting. And I'm curious to see if other podcasters go this way in the future. Because networks are starting to pop up all over the

place. I'm starting to see more and more podcast artwork logos that have the studio num like not number but studio name in the corner, or the network in the corner. You may have seen this on Stitcher podcast, or Earwolf is another one for the office ladies like these. These are just interesting podcast network choices that I've seen in the last few years. And I'll just keep again, keep nerding out on it and learn all the things that I want to learn about them and come back and

bring them to you. But I just wanted to point that out as something interesting, that I've seen recently on her podcast.

have 33 million downloads. All right. I wanted to make that really, really clear because I feel like this is people come to me and they say I want to have a podcast just like Amy Porterfield. And I'm like, That's great. That's aspirational, don't we all but she's done the work. She's been doing this since 2013. tiene 2013 way longer than I've been doing this. And I just think that it's really important to point that out is yes, I think that it's great to have that as a goal. I think that

that's super aspirational. And I think that it can be done. But it's not going to happen overnight. And I've been getting a lot of questions lately about people saying, well, somebody told me that podcasting isn't like a quick thing, you have to be in it for the long haul. And I'm like, Yeah, that was a smart person. Listen to them. They're absolutely right. And they kind of looked at me like, you mean that it's a fast start this tomorrow, it's not gonna make a lot of money?

Probably not. Unless you already have hundreds of 1000s of followers, your podcast probably won't be successful for maybe six months to a year. And they look at me like, Well, why would anybody do that? Why would anyone do that? And I have to imagine if I were to ask Amy, why do you do your

podcast? It's probably a multitude of things. But I would imagine having learned from her and listen to her content and consumed so many of the things that she's done, since she's been in my world, how would imagine it's something to do with value, and connection and contributing something to the world that's bigger than yourself? Because that's what I see in what she does. I see how much she serves

her audience. And she shows up consistently. And I can bet you there's been some ups and downs and things that we'll probably never see that have happened behind the scenes. But at the end of the day, I think that one of my biggest takeaways is consistency. The girl has showed up consistently, right, like, oh my gosh, since 2013, but it just blows my mind that she's been podcasting that long. That was back when, like I said, I was still on my corporate days when she first started this podcast.

done it you can do it too. I've done it if you want to rebrand which Amy has never done that I have but um yeah, go check out the show notes. KrystalProffitt.com/episode317, but that's all I have for you today. So if you're brand new around here, make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button wherever you're listening to this podcast and as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.