109. Are 5 to 10 Minute Episodes Too Short? | Podcasting Tips and Strategies

FAQ Friday answering the podcasting question of "Are 5 to 10 Minute Episodes Too Short?"

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Transcript

Welcome to Podcasting for Solopreneurs and FAQ Friday, where I answer a podcasting question in five minutes or less. Today's question is, are five to ten minute episodes too short? This question comes from Chrissy, an aspiring podcaster. Hey, Chrissy. Thank you for listening. And since you are listening to a five minute episode right now, I'm gonna go with no. That is not too short. There's this common misconception that podcasts need to be thirty, forty five, sixty minutes long in order to be considered quote, unquote real episodes. But honestly, that's just not true.

I think a lot of aspiring podcasters look at the big name podcasts, and they see them doing these really long episodes and think that they have to do the same thing. These big name folks have teams of people supporting their podcasts, and they can do so many things that are not practical, feasible, or even a good idea for the rest of us to do. We are in a different place and our podcasts should be different from theirs. Okay. I'm stepping off my soapbox now, but the truth is that people are busy, and short five to ten minute episodes are perfect for that listener who wants to get in, get the value, and get on with their day. So if you can deliver meaningful nuggets of information in that time, then go for it. I keep my episodes short and I get really positive feedback from listeners who love that the content is quote unquote bite sized. They love that they can binge a bunch of episodes and learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Shorter episodes are also easier to batch record and edit and can help you keep your schedule consistent. They also tend to have higher consumption rates, meaning that the audience is usually listening to the whole thing rather than dropping off partway through. This is great for your listeners as well as your relationship building. They know that you're not going to give them fluff and that they're going to get what they need quickly. It's also great for the algorithm because the algorithm sees content that gets fully consumed as more valuable than content that people leave partway through, which I think is accurate, and then they push that content out to more people. Now while I'm a fan of short episodes in general, they're not universally the right choice for every show. This is not a one size fits all scenario. So if you are doing interviews, if you like to deep dive on topics, if you are providing entertainment, lots of different scenarios where longer episodes might be a better fit.

So remember that it is your podcast. And if you want to do five to ten minute episodes, then go for it. If you have a podcasting question, click the send me your question link in the episode description, and I'll answer