TLDR: 2022 was a very good year for Everything Everywhere Daily.
Downloads and Audience Growth
In December 2021, I set a goal of getting 1,000,000 downloads in a single month.
I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to do it, let alone if such as thing was possible. In December 2021, the show had 189,603 downloads. Getting to a million would require growing the show by 427%.
Not doubling. Not tripling. Not quadrupling. I’d have to grow the show over fivefold!
Thankfully, I got off to a really good start in Q1. Despite some small setbacks, the growth was mostly steady throughout the year, with a really big gain in December.
Here is the monthly breakdown for 2022:
| January 2022 | 255,160 |
| February 2022 | 468,474 |
| March 2022 | 608,685 |
| April 2022 | 544,093 |
| May 2022 | 679,462 |
| June 2022 | 668,865 |
| July 2022 | 702,871 |
| August 2022 | 802,246 |
| September 2022 | 848,841 |
| October 2022 | 770,798 |
| November 2022 | 831,418 |
| December 2022 | 1,068,896 |
I normally post a line graph that shows downloads on a monthly basis since I launched the show. Given that the show has been around for exactly 30 months, and given that I launched the show on July 1, 2020, the first day of the third quarter, it might be more useful to visualize downloads per quarter since the show was launched.
Even though there have been some months with negative growth, the overall trend has been upward every quarter. Also, this chart really shows how dramatic the growth in the show was in 2022.
2023 Goals
As a podcast gets larger, it becomes more and more difficult to achieve similar percentage increases in growth.
I don’t think a 5.2x increase in audience size is reasonable, but you never know. If I get some major media mention or something, it could be possible.
My goal for 2023 is to regularly get 100,000 downloads per day.
My biggest download day as of writing this was 44,403, which I got on Christmas Eve.
So, to even hit that point for a single day, I’d need to more than double my audience.
To achieve this on a regular basis, I’d need to almost triple my audience.
*UPDATE* I had over 50,000 downloads on January 3, 2023. This was a huge one-day spike which I attribute to people catching up on downloads after the holiday.
Monetization
I entered 2022 with one podcast network, and I entered 2023 with another.
In December, after having talked to over a dozen podcast networks over the last four months, I decided to sign with Glassbox Media.
The decision to move networks was an easy one as I was getting far below the industry average in terms of an advertising split, and I also didn’t have anyone actively selling ads on my behalf.
Assuming the podcast has zero growth in 2023, I should at least see a doubling or tripling of my advertising income.
Until now, I haven’t really pursued any other monetization other than my Patreon account.
In addition to advertising, here is how I will be expanding my monetization in 2023.
- Tours. I should be running my first listener tour to Rome sometime in 2023. I’m working with a company to help set up the itinerary. I first mentioned the tour a while back when my audience was much smaller and had over 100 people show interest. I should be able to sell it out quickly.
If this goes over well and sells out, and I have every reason to believe it will, I might expand the tour offerings to other major cities.
The idea for the tour is that it will be a super in-depth tour of one historic city. We’ll spend time doing the things that most tourists never get to see. - Ad-Free Podcast Subscriptions. Both Apple and Spotify offer this, and I can also run it on Patreon. I don’t expect this to be a huge money maker, but it will probably bring in some income, and help with Apple and Spotify podcast promotion.
- Merchandise. Many podcasters try to sell merchandise the moment they launch their show. I’ve waited until I had listeners actually asking me about merchandise. I have no clue what I’ll sell yet, but it is on this agenda.
- Books. As I have written the script for every single episode, I can easily compile them into a Kindle book. In fact, I could mix and match episodes by topic or by release date.
- YouTube. This will be a huge undertaking but potentially lucrative in the long run. I can’t write, research, and record a daily podcast and then create a video for each one on top of that. I’ll need to hire someone to spearhead the YouTube campaign. This might have to slip to 2024, depending on how much it would cost.
- Live Events. I’m not sure how this would manifest or if my show is big enough yet to pull off a live event. There is a good chance if I were to do this, this would have to wait until 2024.
Plans for 2023
My plan is to continue to be very aggressive in marking the show in 2023. With a team behind me working to do swaps and land guest appearances, I should be able to do considerably more.
As revenue will allow, I will probably hire my first person this year. The first position will probably be a marketing assistant. I really don’t need help with the production of the show. That is pretty easy.
I need someone to do a host of small things, which includes social media, managing an email newsletter, and a host of other tasks.
After that, I’ll probably start hiring writers to help me create new episodes. Even if a few episodes a week can be written by someone else, that will free up a lot of time.
If, and that is a big if, I can double or triple the audience and I can hire some writers, I might consider starting a second podcast. I have a list of possible ideas for a second show, but I’m nowhere near a point where I could do this right now.
2022 was a very good year for the podcast. 2023 should be even better.
When I launched the show I had a list of things I could do “someday”.
Someday is getting closer and closer as the podcast keeps growing.
