Daily(ish)

I reflect on a quote from Swyx about how podcast subscribers are often more engaged than newsletter subscribers, podcasting as a great excuse to connect regularly with friends or to reach people you might not otherwise get to talk to, and finally I emphasize digging into stats and making sure the numbers are saying what you think they're saying.

Links Mentioned in This Episode:
Topics:
00:00 Interrupted Recording
00:30 Dailyish Intro
00:54 Why Podcasts Feel Intimate
02:49 Newsletter and YouTube Notes
04:16 Podcasting as Connection Tool
05:46 Reading Your Download Stats
06:44 Patreon Thanks and Wrap Up

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Creators and Guests

Host
Chris
I edit podcasts so you don't have to. I live in Saskatchewan so you don't have to?

What is Daily(ish)?

Challenging myself to record a podcast episode a day for my 50th year on this planet.

Before I get into this episode,
I just want to ask you as you're

listening, if you notice any point
where it sounds like maybe I was

interrupted, because I was, but I'm
just curious if you'll be able to tell.

So reply or email me or whatever if
you figure out a point in the recording

where it sounds like maybe I was
interrupted by one of my children

with a question while I was recording.

Okay, on with the show

Hello, and welcome to Dailyish
for September 22nd, 2026.

I'm recording an episode every day
for this, my 50th year on the planet.

It's a Tuesday, if that helps.

I forgot if I said if I was gonna
do days as well as just the date.

For this episode, I just gathered a few
thoughts that I have sort of saved as

topic ideas that all kind of coalesced
around podcasting and thought I'd just

dump a few quick ideas into this episode
and see how they resonate with you.

For thought number one, I quote from…

that I had saved a long time
ago from Swyx, uh, developer,

writer, blogger, swyx.io.

" Not everyone will subscribe to your
personal podcast, but those who do are

far more likely to consume your content
than even newsletter subscribers, where

a 50% open rate is considered excellent."

And this is an interesting thought
as it also relates to thought number

three that I'll have in a minute.

But the idea that people who subscribe
to your podcast, there's a bit of

an ask there that's even a heavier
lift, a heavier ask than subscribing

to a newsletter, I feel like, because
subscribing to a podcast is still, while

it's easy, relatively easy these days,
it still is a few clicks and apps open

and things change, and you have to figure
out which app it's in if you can't find

the right button to click or wherever.

Which app you use isn't listed on
the apps that they're listing for

how to subscribe to their podcast, or
maybe they only share links to Apple

Podcasts and you use Spotify, et cetera.

it's not quite as universal as put
your email in this box and then

you'll send a newsletter to them.

And there is also the idea that
once you subscribe, doesn't

mean you're actually listening.

You could, your app could be set to
download the podcast every week, every

day, keep them forever, and relatively
speaking, there's still no way to

track or know for me as the podcaster
if someone's actually listening.

So I could have 3,000 downloads of
a podcast episode and maybe only

100 of them are actually listening
or a thousand even or whatever.

But that being said, once you are speaking
to someone in their ear directly, as I

am to you, it's a much more intimate,
much more, uh, impactful, I feel like,

way of conversing with someone versus
a newsletter that you are reading

in your own voice, uh, my words in
your own voice, and putting your own

thoughts and spins and emotions on that.

Whereas when I'm speaking, I'm
giving you all of those things,

either lack of or lots of emotion.

Which incidentally happens to be, I just,
it's Tuesday, I sent out my newsletter,

uh, buttondown.com/lemondcasting

Uh, links in the show notes, of
course, if you wanna subscribe to that.

Every Tuesday it goes out

But in newsletter land, a 50% open
rate would be considered excellent,

especially 'cause that's just a lot of
people who are actually clicking through

and, and actually reading it versus…

Or at least opening it up in their inbox.

You don't know if they're actually
reading it either, any more

than the downloads, I guess.

But whereas a podcast, it's
much of a higher percentage

rate as far as downloading it.

Again, whether people listen, which
goes back to the episode I talked about

YouTube and putting Daily-ish on there,
is there is a bit of like you can see

that people are watching all the way
through or stop at this per- certain

point in an episode or, or whatever.

By the way, just to clarify on
the YouTube one, right now the…

As of this recording anyways, the
episodes are unlisted, so if you

subscribe to my Lemon Productions
YouTube channel, you won't get

notified about new videos on there.

The only way currently to watch
the Daily-ish as you're seeing

it right now, if you're watching
this, watch the episodes, is to

actually look at the episode page
on the website at daily.chrisens.com

and then whatever episode number

That's just mainly so that it doesn't
mess with the algorithm on my existing

YouTube channel that has a lot of
subscribers who are there for podcasting

tutorials, not necessarily a podcast.

So I may eventually just turn that into
its own feed on YouTube and hopefully just

see what happens as far as the algorithm.

But for right now, I'm just playing
it cautious and not publishing

it officially on YouTube.

But you're more than welcome
to watch on the episode pages.

Thought number two, podcasting enables
you to have an excuse to connect

with someone regularly or reach out
to people you might not otherwise

have a good excuse to talk to.

So whether this is someone you want to,
uh, an existing relationship with someone

that moved away nearby, whatever, you just
want an excuse to actually talk with each

other, podcasting offers a really fun,
sort of easy way to make that happen that

often we just don't take as a priority
or make as a priority in our lives.

Not to say that your estranged father
you should suddenly start a podcast with

or your, it's not therapy in that sense.

But it is a, a good excuse to say,
"Hey, every week or every month,

we're gonna put out a new episode, and
we're gonna talk about, you know, this

Warcraft, or we're gonna talk about
Lord of the Rings, or we're gonna talk

about U2," or whatever the thing is.

And that sort of gives a framework
and a reason and a calendar item to

get together and chat with someone.

And even if nobody actually
listens, it's not for marketing

or for thought leadership or
building an audience or whatever.

You're just kind of putting it out into
the world, much like I'm doing, and sort

of seeing who it might resonate with.

And even if it doesn't, it's just
something that's good and fun

for you and the other person or
people you're on the podcast with.

But it also allows you to use
it, like I said previously, as

a vehicle to reach people who
might not otherwise talk to you.

They'll be happy to appear on a
podcast, being interviewed about their

interest, their specialty, their focus,
whatever, professionally or hobby.

But, um, you might not actually get
to talk to them otherwise because the

podcast is the vehicle for doing that.

And thought number three, going back
to a bit of what I alluded to in the

first thought is it's really important
to dig a little deeper on your stats.

Just last week, for example, I
had a day that had 250 downloads

in one day on Daily-ish, which is
way more than the usual 60 to 80

downloads in a day that it gets.

And at first I was kind of excited because
I was like, wow, that might be like if

200 and some people downloaded the most
recent episode of the podcast, that's

maybe 200 new subscribers or whatever it
would be, 150 new subscribers, let's say.

And that'd be cool, interesting.

Not that I'm doing it for numbers,
but still it's interesting

if all of a sudden something
resonates with a bunch of people.

So it turns out it was likely one person
downloading all the podcast episodes and

maybe or whatever, and not two hundred
people downloading a single episode.

So the stats, and this is no shade to
Transistor and how they present the

stats 'cause it's just kind of like
that's the overview version, and you can

dig into the stats deeper, of course.

But at first glance, definitely looked
like it was one episode getting downloaded

two hundred times is what I would assume.

All right, since I forgot to yesterday
in Monday's episode where I did part two

of the mammoth, I just wanted to take
a second to thank Patreon supporters.

So thanks to John and Justin
over at transistor.fm,

Abby Fisher, Eileen Smee, Three Guys, Two
Questions podcast, and my mom, Lynn, for

their support over at patreon.com/icris.

And since it's still in the same month,
I think, I don't know, maybe it's…

Whatever.

Thanks to Void and Cozy
for their support as well.

I still wanna say Void and Crazy, but
that's 'cause my brain's dumb that way.

as always, feel free to reply to
this post on social media where I

told you about this episode, or you
can email me at chris.enns@gmail.com

with comments or questions
or concerns or topic ideas.

And if you're not already subscribed,
visit daily.chrisenns.com/subscribe

to see how you can subscribe to the show.

I've got most of the apps listed.

Or just look for Dailyish
wherever you get your podcasts.

And I hope you'll be back tomorrow.

Thanks for listening.

Have a great day.

Bye.