🥜Copy Joe Rogan's Podcasting Strategies to Grow Your Audience

Joe Rogan is one of, if not THE most illustrious names in the podcasting world. Through more than a decade of dedication to his show, The Joe Rogan Experience has managed to make it the number 1 podcast in the world for almost three years in a row. Today I’m going to break down his top 5 growth strategies that you should be using to help you rapidly grow your show.

Check out what we’ve got crackin’ for you today!

• Joe Rogan didn’t limit himself to a niche right away.

• Joe Rogan knew the importance of a good audience

• Consistency is key

• Always know what you’re talking about

• Create long-form content

When Joe Rogan started his podcast back in 2009, it didn't have a name. The comedian, along with his friend Brian Redban, decided to host a free weekly podcast where they would simply "sit in front of laptops and bullsh*t.”

It wasn't until six months after the show's launch that he officially named it "The Joe Rogan Experience". Rogan had no particular idea for the direction of the show. He just combined two things he loved to do: entertain an audience and interview people he found interesting.

This worked out for the JRE because it allowed him to build a broad audience a lot more quickly than catering to a specific niche would have. You can apply this to your podcast by simply being open-minded with your show even if it already falls under a specific genre.

For instance, say you host a podcast that’s totally different from the JRE, like one that covers Sports. Instead of simply covering your favorite team or even a specific sport, start peppering in a bit of conversation about other sports and teams that a broader audience might enjoy.

This will add a little bit of flavor to your show and allow it to reach a larger group of people that will hopefully become recurring listeners.

When Joe Rogan first started the JRE, he wasn’t thinking about the money because that’s not the important statistic for a new podcast. Instead, Joe’s main focus with his show was building an audience.

You might be wondering, “Why wouldn’t I worry about earning money from my podcast right away?” There are actually two parts to that answer:

1. Most companies won’t sponsor a podcast that doesn’t have an audience established for themselves.

2. Listeners don’t tend to like when a brand-new podcast is pushing products right away. It makes the listener think that the podcast is only going to be used to sell goods or services instead of providing high-quality content.

You simply can’t monetize your podcast without an audience. In the early days of the JRE, Joe was able to build an audience through his reputation. He made sure to put out quality content each week and constantly worked to make his show look and sound better with each episode.

This might not be the exact answer that you’re looking to hear when it comes to building an audience, but Joe Rogan didn’t have a secret silver bullet to get him there and neither do you.

Joe just continued to pump out great episodes that people enjoyed watching and then through word of mouth and reputation the Joe Rogan Experience began to spread.

A great way that Joe helped the JRE become the goliath of a podcast that it is now was through consistency. The old saying “consistency is key,” is overplayed for a reason.

When Joe first started the Joe Rogan Experience, he was uploading a single episode per week to Ustream. His audience knew that they could always expect an episode to drop on a specific day around a specific time and a lot of them grew accustomed to that.

So, for your podcast, you should always make sure to stick with a schedule for yourself that both you and more importantly your audience can get used to so that you can be sure they’ll come back for every episode.

On top of that, consistent uploads are a great way to find new audience members for your show, just like Rogan did with the JRE. With every episode that you release of your show, you are giving your podcast the opportunity to pull in and appeal to new listeners.

One of the biggest reasons that people consider Joe Rogan to be one of the most enjoyable podcast hosts of all time is because he does his research. Joe knows how to ask all of the right questions and then engage with his guest’s answers simply because he knows what he’s talking about.

This knowledge doesn’t just come out of nowhere though. Do you think that Rogan just somehow has infinite knowledge of the universe? No, of course not, but he’s a very smart man who’s always willing to learn.

Before having an illustrious guest onto the Joe Rogan Experience, Joe makes sure to do his research on the person that he’s going to be speaking to and the topic that they’ll be discussing.

This is a really simple practice that you can add to your show to make it much more engaging and enjoyable for your fans to listen to.

Just by taking a couple of hours before recording an episode to research the subject that you’ll be talking about and to prepare is what will separate your podcast from the rest of them.

One thing that’s always separated the JRE from the rest of the podcasting pack is the fact that Joe doesn’t stick to a specific episode format or length. Some episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience are just over an hour long while others have been known to run for up to 4 hours or more.

In fact, the longest episode of Joe’s podcast to date was episode #1530, and it ran for 5 hours and 19 minutes with Duncan Trussell as his guest.

You shouldn’t be worrying about the length of your episode either, and instead realize that depending on the content, some will naturally be longer or shorter than others.

Oddly enough, you might hear some people telling you that short-form content is currently more popular on the internet because most people’s attention spans are getting shorter, but I disagree.

While short-form content can be a great way for someone to get a taste of your podcast, you can’t really get in-depth with topics if you don’t have the time to do so.

With long-form content, you give yourself all of the time that you need to really discuss and make engaging points that provide your audience with something unique.

Joe Rogan has mastered this with the JRE and you can too. On top of that, long-form content can even be cut into shorter segments and clips that can potentially reach even more listeners. A lot of the time, these clips will actually lead a new listener to check out that specific episode, potentially bringing even more growth to your show.

Now, as a podcaster, you’ve no doubt set yourself up on a podcast hosting platform like Buzzsprout or Podbean, but how can you be sure that you’re using the one that’s right for your show? This week we posted a video breaking down the Top 5 Podcast Hosting Platforms on the market to help you make sure you are using the right tool.

In the video you you will find the pros and cons that each platform provides to help you determine which one is actually the best fit for you and your show! In the video, Ben discusses everything you need to know about:

• Buzzsprout

• Captivate

• Podbean

• Squarespace

• Kajabi

Make sure you check it out for anything and everything you need to know about why one of these five platforms is perfect for you.

According to a survey done by Critical Mass Media during the month of April, at least half of Americans are reducing their time streaming videos and music to make time for podcasts.

This means people are spending less time on YouTube and even social media sites like Facebook or TikTok so that they can listen to a podcast. In fact, according to the survey, while half of the people questioned claimed to be switching away from video and music streaming, over a third of those surveyed said they haven’t used TikTok or Instagram as much since they began enjoying podcasts.

On top of that, a study done by iHeartMedia showed that interest in podcasts has increased across all age groups and the medium itself is set to hit an all-time high in 2023. For more information on the subject, check out this amazing article on Insider Radio.

Alfie Southall understands the importance of endless learning and implementing that knowledge.

Jeremy offers an interesting comparison between Health and Marketing.

• Don’t pigeonhole your podcast in a niche at first.

• Audience Growth > Monetization

• Consistency is key.

• Always research and prepare before hosting a new episode.

• Long-Form content has a lot more to offer than short-form content.

That’s all for today! Keep being nuts and podcasting!

See you next week.

🥜Podcast Nut