“Dreams like podcast. Downloading truth in my ears. They tell me cool stuff.” – Rick Riordan
It’s been over a year, so here is another weekly edition of Blogger Wisdom. As we have done in previous years we asked an esteemed group of finance bloggers a series of (hopefully) provocative questions. Their answers are unedited and the author’s name, blog name and Twitter handles follow. We hope you find something of interest below.
Question: Hey, how’s your podcast doing? It seems that most bloggers if they don’t already have a podcast, have toyed with the idea. As a blogger how do you view podcasting? Does it supplant blogging, support it, or is it something different altogether? (Answers are in alphabetical order.)
Douglas A. Boneparth, Bone Fide Wealth, @dougboneparth:
I think podcasts are a great way to tie in multiple aspects of one’s marketing strategy. It also leverages audio, which should only continue to grow in popularity as a way of disseminating information. However, the podcast space is becoming more crowded by the day which means differentiation will be critical to finding success on this platform.
Michael Batnick, The Irrelevant Investor, @michaelbatnick:
I love making my podcast and I love listening to them. I don’t think it replaces blogging, I view them as separate forms of communication.
Tom Brakke, the research puzzle, @researchpuzzler:
I don’t have a podcast. (I know, I’m a slacker.) While I listen to individual episodes from many different financial podcasts, it’s too much of an echo chamber to keep adding to it. Many of my favorite podcasts come from outside of the world of investing.
Tobias Carlisle, The Acquirer’s Multiple, @greenbackd:
Ha! Guilty. I love podcasting. It’s a great excuse to speak to a value investor I admire about the minutiae of her or his strategy for an hour. I’ve never done anything on the blog that generated anywhere remotely near the quantity and positivity of responses. I’ve wholly transitioned to podcasting over blogging. The blog now serves to support the podcast.
Jeff Carter, Points and Figures, @pointsnfigures, podcast:
Thought about doing it but it was too time prohibitive. Ironically, TopStepTrader.com contacted me about doing the LimitUp! podcast and we start this week. If you’d like to be a guest, contact Griffin Caprio at griffin@dante32.com or through this link. https://www.dante32.com/ Podcasts are just another way to interact and connect. I love Russ Roberts EconTalk. Like the new one from Paul Martino, No Bull. Capitalisnt is a good one. Some are just bullshit though and a waste of time.
Justin Castelli, All About Your Benjamins, @jus10castelli:
I view my podcasts as supplements to my blogging. They support the overall message of my blogging and allow for different stories to be told thanks to the guests. Hosting a podcast has also allowed me to learn more than I would have by only blogging. I don’t subscribe to the belief that there can be too many podcasts. And while we’re talking sharing content…don’t sleep on video!
Drew Dickson, Drew’s Views, @AlbertBridgeCap:
Even though I have a face for radio, I haven’t gone down the podcast route. Interviewee, yes; but interviewer, I’m just not efficient enough to be able to do that well. And I know what I’m not good at; I’m not even going to try to compete with baritone voice of Patrick O’Shaughnessy or the rolodex of Ted Seides. Or the Kardashianesque following of Josh Brown. Or Meb Faber. Or Barry Ritholz. Or Ben Carlson. Or Michael Batnick. Or Daniel Crosby. Or Tim Mullooly. Or Justin Castelli. Or even you, Tadas, and any of you other guys and gals and your fancy-pants podcasts.
Blair duQuensnay, The Belle Curve, @blairhduquesnay:
I love listening to podcasts, especially intriguing conversations between two intelligent people. And I’ve enjoyed recording a few mini-podcasts for our firm’s The Compound Show. Even though I don’t have time to listen to them all, I want all my favorite bloggers to offer podcasts. Voice is a richer version of content and a great way to build a deeper connection with the audience. Then again, I still listen to NPR on FM radio in the car, so maybe I’m out of touch.
Carolyn Gowen, The Financial Bodyguard, @carolyngowen:
I feel as though I SHOULD be doing a podcast and maybe I will at some point, but I don’t see blogging going away any time soon. When I look at the number of podcast episodes waiting in my queue I know I’ll never manage to listen to them all – even 30 minutes is quite a time commitment compared to the average blog post which takes about 4 minutes to read. I love podcasts and see them as being one more tool in the social media kit. I think we should be providing a wide range of ways in which we can engage with our audience and podcasts definitely fit into that.
Lawrence Hamtil, Fortune Financial, @lhamtil:
Not being a podcaster, I view them as kind of like “blogs on tape.” The content overlaps, and the main utility is the ability to multi-task while taking in the information.
Corey Hoffstein, Flirting with Models, @choffstein:
After a 1-year hiatus, we just released Season 2 of our podcast, Flirting with Models, on June 24th. We were waffling on a second season for quite some time; the first was well received, but it was an incredible amount of effort to produce.
There are some really, really great investing podcasts out there so it feels hard to justify the existence of yet another one. A few months ago, however, I was at a small conference in Canada when I was approached by someone who said, “are you Corey Hoffstein? I thought it was you: I listen to your podcast and recognized you by your voice.” That was the moment I decided to do a second season.
I think of podcasting as a way to interact with an audience who may not be partial to our long-form weekly written commentary. People learn in all different ways: some prefer to read, some prefer to listen, and some prefer to watch. There may be people who read our research that never listen to a minute of our podcast and folks that listen to every episode that never read a word.
Selfishly, the podcast is also a great way for me to learn from the experts I interview as well. I cannot overstate how wonderful an opportunity that has been.
Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund, @morganhousel:
It’s easy to get distracted when reading a blog because you can skim. Podcasts focus your attention better than any other media medium. It’s also a completely different skill, so a lot of good bloggers aren’t good at podcasting and vice versa. So there’s always going to be both. But I can see podcasts growing in size so that you spend and equal amount of time listening and reading, if you don’t already.
Phil Huber, bps and pieces, @bpsandpieces:
It’s funny, if you would have asked me two years ago I would have told you there were too many finance and investing podcasts. Fast forward to today, and there have been some fantastic new additions that are now a part of my regular rotation from the likes of Corey Hoffstein, Tobias Carlisle, AQR, Christine Benz/Jeff Ptak, and Daniel Crosby.
I don’t have a podcast of my own – at least not yet – but I view it as a different medium altogether. Every form of content is competing for our ears and eyeballs, but I do feel that blogging and podcasts can co-exist and that certain topics and ideas thrive better in one versus the other.
Jake, EconomPic, @econompic:
I’ve never considered having a podcast because they usually involve interviewing people.
Peter Lazaroff, Peter Lazaroff, @peterlazaroff:
People fall all over themselves trying to get speaking engagements, but I view podcasts as more valuable. It’s hard to get more intimate than speaking directly into someone’s ears. Even podcasts with a few dozen downloads per episode are uniquely capturing a listener’s attention. Plus podcast episodes are permanent, which allows for binge listening.
The future of podcasting is bright. I’m completely jealous of everyone that has one. I’d like to launch my own podcast as a compliment to blogging, but I need to finish up another project first. In the meantime, I’m focusing my efforts on being a podcast guest.
Brian Lund, The Lund Loop, @bclund:
I love podcasts. I don’t know what I’d do without them. I’m going to start one myself as soon as they perfect voice transplants.
Podcasts and blog posts are complimentary formats but very different in how they’re consumed. Podcasts can go deep on a subject but are a passive experience. You listen to them in the car, at the gym, working in the yard, etc., so your attention fades in and out. But a blog post is an active experience that requires focus to get through. Podcasts will continue to grow as a format, but there will always be an audience for blogs.
Nick Maggiulli, Of Dollars and Data, @ofdollarsanddata:
I don’t listen to podcasts often, but I understand that lots of people do. My whole theory on content creation is that quality is generally correlated with the amount of time put into the work. Since podcasts take less time, I find the content to be less useful than an article/book I could be reading in less time. Not everyone likes to read though, so podcasting can fill that niche well.
David Merkel, The Aleph Blog, @alephblog:
I try to do unto others as they would do unto me. I don’t listen to podcasts or watch much video. It’s an inefficient way of learning. I do read a lot, and thus I blog and tweet. I’m a decent public speaker. I love doing that. I don’t like podcasts.
Andrew Miller, Miller Financial, @millerak42:
I don’t have a podcast but it seems to be a great format for getting into the weeds on various topics. Sometimes it’s tough to read a long blog post but spending an hour or two listening to a podcast on the same topic is much more enjoyable. I wish there were a way to vote for blog posts where the author then gets a two hour podcast on the topic so you can learn even more.
Jeffrey Miller, A Dash of Insight, @dashofinsight:
This development has been disappointing for me. I can read faster than I can listen, so it takes longer to get the same information. The podcasts with timelines are a little better. We have also lost a lot of the intellectual exchange from blogging ten years ago. Writers do not allow comments and don’t really respond to challenges. Much is reduced to a tweet war. Even my efforts to get a clear-cut, obvious correction have been ignored by top sources. The result is that the information available from the blogosphere has gotten worse. Without Abnormal Returns, we would be completely lost. Perhaps Tadas would consider a “corrections” section where people might really need to respond to challenges.
Doing a podcast is a natural step. It provides different products, meeting the varying needs of your audience. I am considering doing a regular, very brief podcast analyzing a misleading chart. This is difficult to do in a regular blog post, so it fills a need.
Brendan Mullooly, Your Brain on Stocks, @brendanmullooly:
As a blogger, I love podcasts, even though I personally prefer writing. I don’t think either needs to replace the other. The proliferation of alternative mediums, like podcasts and videos, supports the overall content ecosystem. Some of my best blog ideas come from watching video or listening to audio on various topics. I’d imagine prepping to do a podcast or video relies upon a lot of reading, as well. I see all of these mediums existing symbiotically to our collective benefit.
Brian Portnoy, Shaping Wealth, @brianportnoy:
I wonder what podcasting will do to the demand for books. Right now, the pod is kind of like a book tour for authors. But if the message can be delivered in that hour, maybe the book isn’t worth it?
Robin Powell, The Evidence-Based Investor and Adviser 2.0, @robinjpowell:
I actually have two podcasts — The TEBI Podcast for investors and The Intelligent Adviser for financial advisers. They’re going OK, but I must say I prefer the written word — from a consumer’s point of view as well a producer’s. Almost everyone who’s anyone seems to have a podcast nowadays. I may be wrong, but I suspect we’ll be reaching Peak Podcast pretty soon.
Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism, @cullenroche:
I think I am the only financial blogger who isn’t currently podcasting. I am waiting to jump into the market when no one is expecting it. Just kidding. There are so many good ones out there and no one wants to hear me ramble for an hour.
Robert Seawright, Above the Market, @rpseawright:
It’s mostly something different but it can support blogging too. I like the discussion aspect of a good podcast but generally prefer the precision of a well written article.
Charles Sizemore, Charles Sizemore, @charlessizemore:
It’s really hard to keep people focused these days with all of the competing media noise out there. Tom Brady of all people made a really good point about a year ago when he blamed declining NFL ratings on the abundance of competing media rather than on the kneeling controversy. He was on to something.
In my experience, you will have a few die-hard listeners that really like your material well enough to listen to a lengthy podcast. But most are busy, distracted, and likely multitasking. So a short, punchy, written post is still going to be the better medium most of the time. If you do a podcast, you might want to post the transcript too so that harried readers can scan.
Andrew Thrasher, Thrasher Analytics, @andrewthrasher:
I’m a big fan of podcasts and listen to them during my drive to and from the office. However, I think the low moat for entry into the podcasting community has brought with it a chase to launch many uninspired shows. While there’s some truly rock star podcasts out there, I’d hate to see them get lost in the sea of an over-saturated medium.
Thanks to all the bloggers for their time and effort. Stay tuned for a new Blogger Wisdom question tomorrow.
