Bonus Podcast Episodes, What You Need to Know

I get asked all the time about bonus podcast episodes. 
"What are they? When do you use them? Do they follow the same rules as your regular episodes? How do you do show notes for them?"

If you've been wondering about bonus podcast episodes too, then you're in luck! Today, I'm breaking down my definition of a bonus podcast episode, explaining exactly when they'd be a good fit for your podcast, and how to utilize them successfully.

Hopefully, you'll walk away from this episode excited to try out your own bonus content. You'll also start to pay more attention to how podcasters - the ones you already know and love - use bonus content to boost download numbers, handle weird publishing dates, and bridge the gap between regular episodes.

So buckle up, podcasters. You're in for a real ride in this episode!

Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)

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Transcript

Intro: 0:01

Okay, so I know that you are always asking me and when I say you, I'm talking about you that listen to this podcast you are interested in, what bonus episodes are, how to use them, when to use them, how to make them work in your schedule in all the other things that you need to know. So that is exactly what we are going to talk about here today. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Proffitt Podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?

Bonus Podcast Episodes: 0:54

So like I said, in the beginning, we are talking today about bonus podcast episodes. So to make sure that we're all on the same page, I first wanted to just kind of define what is a bonus podcast episode? Maybe you've listened to podcasts that have bonus episodes, and you're kind of confused on like, well, when should I use these? And why did they do it that way. So I can't speak for all podcasters. I can speak for the way that I do bonus episodes and how I define them. So what I would designate as a bonus episode is a podcast episode that you put out that doesn't follow your regular rules. And there's a few ways to define this. But first and foremost, it just, it doesn't fall in line with what you do on a regular basis. So we're gonna play a little bit of like, theory here, we're gonna say that there's a podcaster, who publishes their podcast every Tuesday, every single Tuesday, they come out with a brand new show, it's exactly 30 minutes long, every single week. And that's just how their show is. And they have sometimes solo interview or solo interviews, they have solo episodes. And sometimes they do interviews. But they really wanted to do some bonus material because they had a fun event coming up, or they had a program that they want to promote. There's lots of reasons and we'll get into those in a second of when you would actually do these, but they want to do something that is outside of the norm of what they normally do with their podcast. And the holidays are actually a great example of how you could use a bonus episode. I had someone recently in my community, so shout out Brittany. She's actually a student of mine, Brittany Binion. She has the post for success podcast. And she was saying, Okay, guys, my podcast is landing like the air date that she normally publishes episodes is going to be, I believe it was Christmas and New Years. And so she said, you know, what, what should I do? Should I just put out regular content? Should I put out a bonus episode. So if your show tends to fall on a holiday, this is a great opportunity to kind of spice things up a little bit. This is actually one of the reasons why doing a bonus episode can kind of get you out of a rut, too. If you're like me, and I just want to do something different than a bonus episode is exactly what you need. So I advise Brittany and a few other people in the community like hey, you could always do something that's a bonus episode, something that is just for fun. Maybe you educate you teach you motivate? Or maybe you have inspiring stories that you always share on your show, well, why don't you do something different? Why don't you instead offer a behind the scenes story that you haven't shared somewhere else? Or you could have a tutorial of some kind or just whatever? Opposite means for your show something out of the ordinary? That is what I consider a bonus episode.

When Do You Use Bonus Podcast Episodes?: 4:06

So when do you actually do a bonus episode? So like we just said, it's something that doesn't have to follow the normal rules. And I'm saying rules and air quotes. Because there are a few different parameters. That could be the rules. This could be the day of the week that you wanted to put it out. So if you publish, let's say every day on a Tuesday or every day, every week on a Tuesday, what if you wanted to put something out on a Thursday, that would be considered a bonus episode because you're like, I don't want to all of a sudden commit to putting out a show every Tuesday and Thursday. I just know that I want to have a special episode to talk about whatever it is the bonus material that you want to share. So that can be a reason to have a bonus episode because you want to put out another one on a regular or a day that you don't normally Put out episodes. Another reason. So we talked about the day. What about the format? What if you most of the time do just solo episodes and for a lot of my podcasters, especially those in the potty people, which is shout outs, my potty people, my membership community, or you're in Proffitt Podcasting, a lot of people want to start out with solo episodes because they're a little nervous to start interviewing people when they don't have all the kinks worked out, or they want to feel more comfortable behind the microphone. So if you've done, let's say, four months worth of solo episodes, and then all of a sudden you want to start doing interviews, you just want to test it out, you want to try it out and say, Hey, guys, I'm going to do this interview, we're going to see how it goes, I don't want to fully commit to doing just interviews from now on, I just kind of want to test this out, that would be a great reason to have a bonus episode. And you could put that bonus episode out the next week in place of your regular episode, right? So if you publish on a Tuesday, you could just say the next week on that same on the next Tuesday, you would put out a bonus interview episode because it's different. And we'll get into the naming system of like, Well, how do you name that how you deal with that? Don't worry, we're gonna talk about that too.

1. Doesn't Follow Normal "Show Rules": 6:21

But we're just talking about we're getting outside of your regular rules of your show. So publishing on a different day, having a different type of format. Another one is the length. Now I've had several people that say My show is normally 30 minutes. But I think I want to do some really short quick like Tuesday tips or Monday motivation or something extra from time to time to share with my audience, then I would recommend that be a bonus episode. Because it's different. It's short, it's five minutes, it's 10 minutes, or it could be the opposite. It could be you want to put out an extra hour episode, like whatever this looks like for you. Right? Like, it's funny because we're sitting here talking about rules and different ways to approach this. But there really are no rules. You make up the rules for your own show. I know I have for my podcast, I say, Okay, I'm going to publish every Tuesday and Thursday for the Proffitt Podcast. And from time to time, I'll throw in bonus episodes. If the day of the week that I'm supposed to air an episode lands on a holiday. Sometimes I'll do a bonus episode, perfect example. for Thanksgiving, I put out a bonus episode all about gratitude, instead of kind of being tone deaf to what was going on. And this was just my personal choice. It was my personal choice. I love Thanksgiving. It's one of those really fun holidays where everyone has the opportunity to reflect on their blessings and say how grateful they are. So I kind of jumped on it because I'm just on the great the gratitude bandwagon. I was gonna say train wagon. That's not the right term. It's been lacking. But, but that's what I did for my podcast. But you approach bonus episodes, however they work for you. So again, we talked about the day of the week, the format the length, and now I want to kind of transition into so that was like if it follows the rules, right? When do you want to use bonus episodes, if it doesn't follow the rules.

2. Special Event/Program/Opportunity for Your Audience: 8:24

The second reason why you would want to use bonus episodes is you have a special event program, or opportunity for your audience, and you want to promote it. Now in Episode 210. We talked a little bit about, you know, creating your promotional calendar and a few ways to be prepared, like, I'm recording this episode in December of 2020. So naturally, a lot of us are thinking about 2021, and what our calendars will look like going into the new year. And I like to have a little bit of room for magic. I've heard other people say that before. And it sounds kind of silly, but I like to have, you know, okay, this is serious. We're teaching and then we're doing this, like this is how I think about my podcast. And then I also want to leave room for a little bit of fun from time to time. And that's not to say that it's a silly podcast, or it's something that's not related, because I think that you can kind of lose your listeners if you'd like if I just threw in an episode in here that was just about underwater basket weaving, then you would say Krystal, what are you doing? What are you even doing like this makes no sense. What are you talking about? So I'm not saying a bonus episode is your opportunity just to kind of go off the rails. But I do think that if you have something special going on and you're like Ah, I really want to talk about this program or I really want to talk about this event but it doesn't 100% fit into The rules again, I'm using rules with air quotes of what my podcast is all about, then that is an opportunity for a bonus episode. I'll give you another example of this specifically with a program, or an event, a product, a service, something that you want to advertise on your show. But you're just like, I just want it to be like one episode. It's a very timely thing. I could have done this for my book launch. So if you don't know this, I recently wrote a book started binge worthy podcast, and you can find more about it at the best podcast book.com, or in the show notes of this episode. But I read the oh my gosh, was it the introduction or chapter one? Now I can't even remember, it was one of the episodes of this podcast. And this is really sad, I should know this, right. But um, I read an episode or I read an episode, I read a chapter of the book, I could have had that be a standalone bonus episode. But I just went ahead and decided I'm just gonna make that a regular episode of the podcast. That way people could see, if they wanted to promote something like that, they can go back to this particular episode and read all about it, like see how I did it. And I did include shownotes. For that episode, and this is a, this is an important point that we'll come back to, we're going to circle back around to that in a second. Because, um, I don't think that you have to do show notes, and all the things for bonus episodes. So that's a little teaser, that's a little teaser for what's to come. So if you have something special going on, you want to promote it, you want to give your audience all the details, then a fun bonus episode could be a way for you to do that. Another reason. So we have three total for when you would do bonus, like I said, the first one was when something doesn't follow the rules. The second one is you have a special event program or opportunity for your audience.

3. Spice Things Up a Bit: 11:54

And the third is you're just trying to spice things up a little bit. Maybe you have been podcasting for a while. And things have gone kind of stale, maybe you haven't been getting the best response from your audience, or you're not getting feedback anymore, like you used to in the beginning. And you're just like, I want to try something out new, but I'm a little nervous to just switch things up. And the difference between this and like, like, I'm looking at this in my mind as like two opposite ends of the spectrum. So on one end, right, if you're a frustrated podcaster, who's thinking about changing things up, like the extreme end is you just creating a brand new podcast or rebranding everything like a complete overhaul. And as someone who has done this, I'm going to tell you, that is a lot of work. And it may or may not be the right decision for your podcast. And it's a commitment to really do that. So instead of going all the way to the extreme, I would recommend instead that you test out content. So if you're trying to spice things up, you can use your bonus episodes, to test out these new things that we've kind of already talked about. If you want to try out a different type of format. If you wanted to start putting ads in your show, you could do this in your bonus episodes. If you wanted to start doing interviews where you've only done solo podcast, or vice versa. If you've only done interviews and you want to start trying solo episodes, then you could do that with bonus content. But again, it's just about spicing things up and trying something new. So don't be afraid or like if you're thinking I just really I'm not happy with my podcast if you're not enjoying it anymore. I really really want to stress this point. Please do not quit. Please do not just ghost your audience walk away from it and just say podcasting is not for me. Because this is like a passion of mine. Like Not only do I want people to have podcasts and start podcasts, but I want people to love their podcast. I don't want it to be something that you look at every week and you're just like, oh, crap. I've got to record another podcast episode. I got to talk about my podcast again. I'm so just over my podcast, I'm so sick. No, no, no, I don't want that for anybody. I want people to be as excited about podcasting as I am. And I know that's a little much. I know, I understand. I'm a little bit like extra Nick comes to talking about podcasting, but I want people to feel excited about it. So if your podcast has gone a little bit stale for you or for your audience, then I want you to consider trying out and testing new types of content with your bonus episodes.

How Do We Label Bonus Podcast Episodes?: 14:40

Okay, so we've covered what bonus podcast episodes are when you use them, and how do you label your bonus episodes. These are the questions that I get asked most often. So I'm I'm going to go ahead and tell you the two main points that you need to know When you're creating your bonus content, right, because you'll get to a point, it doesn't necessarily fit into the same workflow. For me again, this is how I do things and my bonus material. It doesn't fit into the same type of compartment as a regular episode. And the first thing is, I don't do show notes for my bonus episodes. And my show notes. I mean, there is not something that lives on my website at like, like the show notes for this episode is KrystalProffitt.com/Episode 211. That's where you're going to find the show notes for this episode. But if I was doing my gratitude episode that I did for Thanksgiving, you won't find anything on my website about that episode, because it was a bonus episode, I don't go above and beyond for all of my bonus content, because I'm either testing something out, I'm doing it to fit into my content calendar the way I want things to go.

Don't Do Extended Show Notes: 15:57

But I don't do I don't do extended show notes. It just doesn't happen. And so that's one thing to consider. The second thing is how you actually name your episodes, these bonus pieces of content. So if you're a buzzsprout user, if you're not, you can go to KrystalProffitt.com/Buzzsprout to test them out. And this is the hosting provider that I've used since day one, I love them so much, I shout them out all the time. So shout out all my other buzzsprout users, you know, like if you use them, you know, because it is so incredible. They're always testing new things out coming up with new stats, new tools, and all kinds of fun things, you can go to my YouTube channel and see all the videos that I have about how to use buzzsprout. And everything. I'm an affiliate for them. And I have been endorsing them for a really long time. So other podcast hosting providers, I don't know how to tell you how to do this on the back end. If that makes sense. I only know the way that buzzsprout does it. But I can tell you that if you are doing a bonus episode. And you can do this in two ways, in order to label it correctly for your audience to know oh, this is a little bit different than what a normal piece of content would be.

Put "Bonus" in the Title: 17:14

The first one is you can put it in the title. As a consumer of a lot of podcasts. I have seen this done several different ways. So I'm going to pretend like you can see me like whenever I'm talking about this, but I'm at the very beginning of your title, you could put in all caps, the word bonus, followed by a colon, and then whatever the actual title of the episode is. So you could say bonus, I'm trying to think of what the one is for the Thanksgiving one. I think it was bonus gratitude practices to try or gratitude something Thanksgiving special. I don't remember exactly what it was. But I know that I put the word bonus in there. Because I wanted my listeners to know that got a notification on Thanksgiving Day, like oh, this is this is an episode that if I have time to listen to today, awesome. But it's not something that I need to listen to immediately, like, stop everything and get caught up because this is a bonus episode. And I wanted my listeners to know that I've seen other podcasters that will have the main title of their episode. And then they'll put the word bonus at the end in parentheses. So this is totally up to you. But I recommend I feel like it's a nice courtesy to your audience. To put the word bonus in the title of the episode. Again, this is just my preference. You can do this however you want to if you don't want people to know, it's a bonus episode or a different type of content. If you're just testing things out, then you don't have to change anything. You can just keep going right along with how you

Drop Down "Bonus" Option: 18:50

But the second thing I'll say and buzzsprout is when you're in your portal, right, so I'm just going to assume everybody is a buzzsprout user, you're in your best bread account. You are you've already uploaded your normally do things. audio file you're going through the naming system of putting the title you're doing your episode description and then you drop down and there is a place for you to put your season number and we've talked about seasons before if you want to know more about seasons, go to the show notes of this episode KrystalProffitt.com/Episode211. I'm gonna link to a previous video and podcast episode I did about should you have seasons for your podcast if you want to know more about that I'm gonna link to it. But then the episode number is in the next box. But then underneath that there is a drop down menu. And this drop down menu has three different options. It is full episode, bonus or trailer episode. So if you're putting out your initial content, then this is where you would select that this is your trailer episode. But for the purposes of this podcast, obviously we're talking about it being bonus content. So you can select that there. And you don't even have to I don't put numbers in my bonus episodes, I guess I could if I wanted to name it like, Oh, this is bonus number one, bonus number two. But I don't do that I just I simply don't put a number. I don't put a season, I don't put any information there, I just dropped down the menu and click bonus. That's what I've done from the beginning ever since I started doing bonus episodes, if you find another way that works for you and your podcast. And that's awesome. But again, I just wanted to tell you the way that I do this for my show. So but that's really all I had to share with you. If you have any questions, I would love to carry on this conversation more in our Facebook group for the profit podcast. So it's going to be linked in the show notes. I would love for you to join in over there. If you have any questions about bonus episodes, how to use them how to plan for certain things in your promotional calendar, we've been talking about our promotional calendars and what we have going on going into 2021. And I want you to think about how can I strategically use bonus episodes, if I don't want to commit to publishing more than once a week. Like if you're saying, Crystal, I can only publish my podcast once a week. That's it, I don't have any more time to do two episodes. But I do see how that could help me strategically promote my program or be able to talk about my membership, or talk about my book that's coming out or my live event, whatever the case may be, then I highly recommend you looking into creating some bonus content for your podcast, I really think that it can help you out so much in being able to have that really strategic episode that you know is going to reach your listeners exactly how you want to reach them and when you want to reach them.

Can I Delete a Bonus Podcast Episode Later?: 21:48

So one last thought is I've actually had people tell me or asked me, if I put out a bonus episode about something that's time sensitive. Can I delete it later? And I told them, yes, you can absolutely delete it if you don't want to have it up anymore. But on word of caution, if you delete a podcast episode, let's say you had one and it got like 100 downloads or something and you don't want to lose those downloads, they will go away if you delete that podcast episode. So that's the only like, caveat, if you're thinking I'm going to add this bonus content, then delete it later, then those downloads will disappear. So that's the only thing about it. But as you go into planning your new year or your new month of your podcast, I really encourage you to think about how you can use bonus episodes strategically. I want more people to do bonus episodes, I think that it's a great way to get that boost in your numbers. And we didn't really even talk about this. Let's talk about this for a second. Because people are always asking me how can I get more downloads? How can I get more listens on my podcast, simply put out more content. That's really what it comes down to either getting in front of more people, or like a new audience members, people you've never talked to before, get them listening to your show, or put out more content. Those are the two options that you have. And bonus episodes are a great way to kind of give a little like punch to your numbers and get more downloads.

Quick Recap & Outro: 23:16

So let's do a quick recap. So we talked about my definition of bonus podcast episodes, we talked about when to use them right when when something doesn't follow the normal rules of what your podcast is about, or you have a special event program opportunity. Or you just want to spice things up a bit. That's when you want to use your bonus episodes. And then we talked about how do you label them. I don't do extended shownotes for my podcast or for my bonus content. And then in buzzsprout, you can label things in the title if you want to. But I really recommend using the drop down menu and selecting bonus episode in your Buzzsprout user interface. But that's all I have for you today. So again, you can go to KrystalProffitt.com/Episode211 to check out the show notes for this episode. And if you have not already, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast I would love for you to leave us a review wherever you're listening to the show. And even better if you can take a screenshot and share it on social media. Tell me what your number one takeaway was from this podcast or tell me what you want to hear me talk about more in the future. I have plans to talk like I've heard you loud and clear. I've had people say we want to know more about podcast monetization. I want to know more about marketing. So I've heard you loud and clear but if you have another topic that you want me to cover on the show, please tag me in social media. Let me know what that is. And I just look forward to hearing more from you because connecting with the audience is one of my favorite things on this planet. It's just so much fun for me. So again, KrystalProffitt.com/Episode211 for the show notes and as always remember, keep it up. We All have to start somewhere.