Pod School
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How To Start, Grow, and Monetise Your Podcast with James Burtt & Alex Chisnall Turn your podcast idea into an impactful brand and income stream! Join podcast experts James and Alex—who have launched 400+ top-charting podcasts—as they share practical and tactical steps to build, grow, and monetise your show. Each episode delivers actionable tips on podcast equipment, content strategy, audience growth, and brand monetisation to help you thrive in podcasting. Perfect for entrepreneurs, content creators, and anyone ready to amplify their voice, this is your weekly guide to profitable podcasting. Join the free Pod School community for exclusive resources, trainings, and...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
James Burtt and Alex Chisnall translate podcast growth, monetization and audience loyalty into testable decisions that creators can put to work.
James Burtt and Alex Chisnall treat podcasting as an operating business, moving from creative choices to the mechanics that give a show reach and revenue.
One Joe Wicks clip outpaced their usual reach; your thumbnails might need a meeting.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear case for using podcasts to drive retention, loyalty, and customer value.
This episode looks at podcasts as a business tool, with retention treated as the growth lever and podcasting framed for onboarding, upselling, loyalty, internal reuse, and measurement tied to retention, referrals, and lifetime value.
A practical guide to choosing a few podcast metrics and using them well.
This episode looks at which analytics actually matter for podcast growth and monetisation. James Burr and Alex Chisnell cut through the usual obsession with download totals and subscriber counts, then get specific about which numbers are worth checking and how to act on them.
Three Spotify levers and a concrete clip example keep the advice grounded.
It treats Spotify as a growth channel rather than a passive host, and the case for using newer platform tools is clear enough. James Burr and Alex Chisnell center the piece on three levers - video, thumbnails, and clips - and the strongest part is the clip example tied to at…
A practical look at Spotify, Apple, and YouTube as the main podcast distribution fight.
The episode keeps Spotify, Apple, and YouTube at the center of podcast distribution, with reach and user habit doing most of the work. YouTube's growing importance gets a clear look, and Spotify for Creators and Apple both come across as part of the same messy reality: creators…
Tiny artwork has one job, and this episode keeps that job in view.
This episode treats thumbnail art as a small object with an outsized job. James Burt and Alex Chisnell make the case that cover art, episode titles, and show names have to do the first real work, especially once they are shrunk down on a phone. The appeal is in the practicality.
Practical monetization ideas without the usual big-audience hype.
This episode keeps its feet on the ground. James Burr and Alex Chisnell make a plain argument: a show does not need a huge audience before it starts earning back some of the effort.
A grounded case for why video can help discovery, without writing off audio-only shows.
This episode treats YouTube and audio as a practical question about discoverability, not a culture war. The point is simple: audio can still work, but it is harder to market once the launch bump is gone and the early buzz settles.
A practical case for mixing solo and guest formats to see what listeners keep.
This episode treats solo versus guest shows as a plain tradeoff: trust, consistency, and whether the format actually fits the show. Alex Chisnell and James Burt keep it moving, and the story of a planned guest episode turning into a solo one makes the point without fuss.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
Naval Ravikant on epistemology, startups, and crypto, from David Deutsch to Vitalik Buterin.
Alex Theuma interviews SaaS founders and investors on scaling to $10M-plus ARR.
Guy Raz traces founders' origin stories and fields live advice-line calls from entrepreneurs.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
James Burt and Alex Chisnell dig into podcast cover art and thumbnails that push a call to action.
This episode discusses using podcasts as a lead generation tool for businesses, focusing on strategies like interviews to attract and convert potential clients.
Deep dive into streaming platform competition for podcast dominance—Spotify's strategic acquisitions and ecosystem expansion versus Apple's stagnation and YouTube's unexpected emergence as primary consumption channel.
James and Alex open in chaos, then land on the viral content problem: hooks, short-form clips, and collaborations that borrow attention from other audiences.
Alex Chisnell and James Burt open with teasing, then get straight into solo episodes versus guest episodes.
James Burt and Alex Chisell make the case that a podcast can start earning before it ever goes live.
James Burr and Alex Chisnell spend the episode on podcast analytics and the numbers that actually matter.
James Burt and Alex Chisnell open with their usual quick banter and get straight into customer engagement.
James Bird and Alexander Stanley George Chisnell III start with a joke about names, then move into the bigger question of YouTube versus audio and where a podcaster should put their attention.
James Burr and Alex Chisnell outline a three-part free growth strategy for Spotify podcasters: video integration, thumbnail optimization, and clip extraction.
Hosts James Burt and Alex Chisnell share their top five essential podcasting tools for 2025, focusing on AI-powered solutions for editing, recording, transcription, and content creation.
James and Alex discuss how podcasting builds personal brand credibility, sharing success stories like business acquisitions and speaking gigs.
Hosts James Burt and Alex Chisnell deliver contrarian advice for podcasters, arguing against starting with YouTube Shorts to promote a new show.
James Burr and Alex Chisnell spend the episode on one question: how to turn listeners into super fans.
James Burr and Alex Chisnell spend the episode on monetisation that works for podcasts before the audience gets enormous.
This episode explores podcast guesting as a strategy to organically grow your audience, with hosts James Burtt and Alex Chisnall sharing personal anecdotes and practical insights, including Alex's recent experience guesting to relaunch his own podcast.
James Burt and Alex Chisnell argue that podcast monetisation can come from services, courses, masterminds, live events, books, and digital products rather than sponsorships alone.
Launch week is the moment to stop winging it.
James Burton and Alex Chisnell from Poppreneur demonstrate podcast launching requires zero budget through smartphone recording with free apps, contrary to common belief.
Practical guide to podcast growth with emphasis on data-driven decision-making.