Where Are The Podcast Listeners?

Here are the results of an experiment on how people consume a podcast.

I made the podcast (Episode 24 of the Viloria.com Pinoy Podcast) available in three formats:

1. Via an RSS Feed (traditional podcast)
2. Direct link in the blog to an mp3 file (not found in RSS Feed)
3. Streaming audio flash player (in the blog)

Here are the results for the six days following the upload of a podcast episode:

Via an RSS feed - 257 downloads
Via direct mp3 link - 9 clicks
Via streaming audio flash player - 26 clicks

No, the clicks or downloads were not full downloads:

Via the RSS feed - 71% of the file, on average, was downloaded
Via direct mp3 link - 45%
Via streaming audio flash player - 8%

In other words, given the 8 minutes and 28 seconds show, the people listened to or downloaded an average of:

Via the RSS feed - 6 minutes and 3 seconds
Via direct mp3 link - 3 minutes and 47 seconds
Via streaming audio flash player - 39 seconds

We cannot see from the data how long people who downloaded the mp3 files via the RSS feed actually spent listening to the show.

We can see from the above data, though, that people who download podcasts do not hop from site to site; they subscribe to the various podcasts. In the end, it helps to make your podcast available in various formats, so that you can capture more listeners.

[ First posted on 04/17/2006 by Manuel Viloria ]