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Ellen Ave
I started my first business on a street named Ellen Ave. Now I ask others how they started theirs.
Ellen Ave
WIP #001: My podcast growth strategies, growing on Threads, update on downloads, and next steps from here
WIP - meaning Work In Progress. That's what this podcast is. A common thing we do in business is WIP reporting to talk about what we've been doing, how it's going, and what we're going to do next.
As a bit of a special treat, I’m inviting you to become a part of that process - listening in to what I'm doing with Ellen Ave, how it's going, and share your thoughts, feedback, and help shape the future of this podcast. This isn't just my journey - we're in this together.
WIP #001. Enjoy!
Want more Ellen Ave? Head over ellenave.com now and subscribe to the newsletter. It's the best way to get everything.
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Website & Newsletter: ellenave.com
LinkedIn Profile: Finlay Barnett
Instagram: @ellenavepodcast
Youtube: Ellen Ave Media
TikTok: @ellenavepodcast
Yo, okay, we're back.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of Alan Aversme. Finn, the host. Thanks for listening today. Appreciate you taking the time. It's just going to be a quick one today.
Speaker 1:I don't want to make this podcast all about me, but I think there's some merit to showcasing kind of like the behind the scenes. Like the whole point of this is me learning from other people how their businesses work, like how do you work, how did it start? How do you make money, how do you make money, how can I do this, etc. And I thought it'd be kind of interesting, like if I'm showcasing that from other people, to kind of showcase that with a bit of relevance to myself. So I kind of want to start sharing a little bit more about, like, what I do with my business, businesses and, in particular, what I'm doing with the podcast.
Speaker 1:One thing I do for my job at work is we do monthly reporting and we do these things like whips and that sort of stuff in a whip. So I'm doing WIP, which is what I think I'm going to title this episode. All these episodes going forward stands for Work in Progress and that's what this podcast is. It's a bit of a work in progress. I've just updated the description and I've just put up a new post, I'm releasing new episodes and doing this, doing that. So I wanted to kind of introduce what we call it work and what quite a few people in that sort of industry, I guess, would call like a whip, like what's been happening, what have I been doing, how's it been going, what am I doing next? Simple as that. I think it's kind of a good reflection model.
Speaker 1:I've talked about before, like you know, what's happened, what does that mean? What am I doing about it? What am I doing next? So that's what I want to do today in the scope of Alan Av podcast. So I kind of want to talk about three things that will probably evolve depending on your feedback, depending on how I feel about it and going forward, but I want to talk about a couple of things, three key points. I want to talk about what growth strategies I'm doing right now, how I'm going with them. I want to talk about, like, the downloads and stats, like in terms of how actually, like everything is going. And then I want to talk about, like, my next steps. So what am I doing next? What's happening, what have I been doing, how's it been going. And then what am I doing about it and what am I doing next? So growth strategies I'm just going to roll through them like there's.
Speaker 1:When I talk about growth, it's not necessarily me like trying to, you know, growth hack my way to a million followers, like I'm not really about that, I'm not expecting that to happen, I'm just this is a side thing for me, something I do for fun. But when I say growth strategies, I'm talking about you know, like what am I doing to get myself out there, to get myself in front of people? So many people are like oh, you know, like they were these awesome things, but who knows about it unless you tell them? So what am I doing to tell people about the podcast? How am I getting the podcast in front of people's eyes New or existing people that know about the podcast? One of those things is threads.
Speaker 1:So Instagram threads came out, I don't know like in July, the month, oh, two months ago. Time flies. A couple months ago threads came out and in that time I've built up a mighty 200 followers, massive following on there, pretty much as famous as Logan Paul. Oh, yeah, I've got about 225 followers on there. But what is really cool about threads is it's text-based. It's like Twitter. If you haven't heard of it, search it up. I'm not doing a threads debrief here, but what it is, it's all text-based, and so I've been using it as a place to just kind of chuck down thoughts, chuck down things that I'm learning in a little bit less of a polished format as opposed to what I would put up on Instagram or Instagram story, and I've been really, really liking it. But I've sort of managed to build a following of a couple hundred people on there. There's probably about 20 people or less that have actually come from Instagram.
Speaker 1:So when you start threads, you can follow everyone. Blah, blah, blah. I didn't do that, I was just like, ah, nah, I'm keen to find my people on here and just literally have been posting like sort of daily, just this, and that Every now and again won't post for a while. That's all right. And engaging on threads and, yeah, like, the majority of those 200 people that have come across me are all new and they're all people that are doing marketing or podcasts or creators or the entrepreneurs, and I've been really liking the vibe. So threads has been something new that I've been really liking and I've been finding pretty good success with.
Speaker 1:There's nothing to see if that plateaus or not, but if you're not on threads, I'd 100% recommend trying it out, getting in there. You never know what might happen. The little tip from that is post your thoughts. Remember to keep giving value instead of just the unhinged thoughts, which is what I've been doing a little bit too much of. But an easy way to grow back on there is just by commenting on other people's posts and your niche. Eventually you sort of weave this web that wherever someone looks, they see you engaging and they see you and eventually they're going to check you out. Eventually they're going to see your stuff If you've got something set up for them to come to and they like they're going to follow you on there. And that goes for Instagram and everything else as well. But I'm lazy so I haven't been doing that everywhere, just on threads.
Speaker 1:Second one is LinkedIn. Linkedin I need to do more of just in general for myself, like as an individual as well, but it's kind of been coming up and coming up and waves around like something that's been really useful and one of the few platforms we can get good organic growth on there too. So I've been kind of posting here and there with a new episode on LinkedIn, gets semi decent engagement. It's got like a longer content life. So, like you know, like I don't know the exact time frames and stuff, but Instagram's got a few days and then you know their posts won't pop up on people's feeds, whereas LinkedIn will be. You know you'll see that post and it'll just slowly grow and slowly get exposed to people over, you know, let's say, two weeks at a time or something like that. I feel like it's got a longer content sort of life cycle. So that's been going good on there.
Speaker 1:Tiktok I hate TikTok. God I hate, I hate TikTok. But I hate it because it's so good. I know how good it is and I get sucked into Instagram reels as well, but I've seen way too many people now pop off from TikTok. There's been a couple of case studies of brands and people that have literally changed their lives from popping off on TikTok. All it takes is a video or two and a well set up place for people to go to when you pop off, and so I've sort of had to admit to myself the necessity to use it. So I've been using it reluctantly.
Speaker 1:I am very much a V1 of how I can use it. I haven't developed a really great strategy, but I've started and everything starts somewhere, as we say around here. So nonetheless, I've started. I've checked up clips. Mostly, I'm honestly, get like nothing, like they get a few hundred views, but then every now and again something will get a few thousand. So that's going good as well. So it's Threads, linkedin, tiktok, shorts on YouTube same as TikTok. I post everything that I like. Make like a clip to TikTok, instagram reels and shorts, buzzy thing. Just as an interesting note from trying to do all this for myself, you'll get something on YouTube Shorts get like 2K views and then you'll get it. Have like 30 views on TikTok and I'll post them at the same time or post them at different times, and it's just pretty interesting to see the last three that we've got in terms of growth, strats or things that I've been doing to get my name out there or get the podcast out.
Speaker 1:There is Instagram, to be honest, like I'm not sure if the Insta is dead or what it's, alan have podcast and I have been posting, not regularly, but if we zoomed out in the scope of things, I've been posting more regularly. I wouldn't say consistently, but you've been posting more often over the last couple months, but I feel like I just lose followers and gains followers, so like I'll gain a few followers a week, but I feel like I'm dropping off followers as well at the same time. So it ends up just being like I'm just sitting at that 800. I'd love to get to above a thousand. I just feel like that just looks like a lot more credible. But, yeah, followers are sort of coming and going, so everything's staying the same.
Speaker 1:I need to get more clips on there, and I've sort of sat down with myself and said I need to get more value on there too. It's just real easy to just post stuff without being like why would someone like this and engage with it? How does this align with what I'm doing and why would this person make that connection and want to come back for that connection again? So that's something I'm working on and it's one of those things where you know it but doing it is a completely different thing, especially when it is just a side sort of thing for you. But being organized, batch, producing content and making sure that you're giving value is something that I need to work on and something that's sort of a good. Good note for others doing this with not a lot of time as well. Just make sure that when you're batching the content up, make sure that there's some value in there, make sure that it's stuff that people actually want to follow.
Speaker 1:For the last couple things is the newsletter and the website. So I started a newsletter. It's on alanavecom, you can sign up and it's just a way to get notified about when new episodes drop. And what I was thinking of doing with it was having, you know, like a key takeaways from the episode. I've been, to be honest, too lazy to do it, haven't prioritized the time, not that I haven't had the time, everyone has the time, it's just how they use it and I haven't prioritized that time to sit down and do an email. But I've got like actually no one on there. It's like I don't know like sub 20 people that are subscribed to it. There's basically no one on there at this point, but nonetheless it's good. It's an automation setup, at least fairly least for new episodes going out, which is cool.
Speaker 1:And website obviously I have a website, alanavecom. Not a lot of people go to it, like you know. If someone is coming across me, I think it's just through whatever podcast platform they listen to or seeing it on social media. But attribution is pretty hard, like you can't see that, so I don't actually know. But I can see how many people come to the website and it's not a lot, you know, like per month. It's very like very, very, very minimal. So at this stage it's kind of one of those things where you see the bill come out each month and it's, you know like it's it's 50 to 100 bucks for a website a month, something like that. I'm on Shopify and you sort of see the bill come out and when you're not making a lot of money on things, you're like why am I spending money on this? Do I need a website? Probably not, but long term, you know, would I have a website? Yes, so I may as well have one now, and that's going to allow me to build up things like my SEO rankings Not that I know a whole lot about that and it's a good hub to have everything. It's a good skill set to develop by playing around with the websites and stuff, and it's a good sort of storefront as well to have.
Speaker 1:The other day, you know, like I have these posters which I'll do an episode about soon. I dropped another one recently. You can have a look at it. It's the Collector Wisdom Print. Pretty sick, if I say so myself, but I did this poster Everything starts somewhere at the start of the year and made like a few hundred bucks off it, which was pretty cool, but haven't mentioned anything about it since. But the other day this dude I know I'm from school and he's been following me for a while he just shouted me out and I was like, oh, he didn't shout me out, sorry. He got a post out and I was like, oh, so it was super cool and it just shows, you know, when you have something set up, someone follows you and it's in a position where someone can go and buy something. They just go and do it. So that was pretty cool. So those are the growth strats.
Speaker 1:So Threads is probably my favorite thing at the moment and it allows me to repurpose stuff. There's LinkedIn, there's TikTok, there's Shorts, there's Insta Newsletter and the website. That's the update on all of those In terms of how those are all sort of translating to downloads and stats. It's kind of like a mixed bag at the moment, to be honest, Cuz you can't really attribute stuff, but is what it is. I think I'm still kind of undersided on talking about specific numbers, but basically when I did nothing for ages, massive drop off, obviously in terms of how many downloads you're getting per month, that rate of people listening and stuff.
Speaker 1:But the last two months where we've been back I think the first one I did back was in July maybe, and I've put out three or four episodes since then and a couple of the bite sized ones but numbers have been picking back up and numbers have been picking back pretty strong and they're sort of where they were when I was at a pace Last time. So it's pretty cool and I've been doing that with a lot less effort, a lot less pressure on myself, better system set up, just to be consistent, and I've found that episodes whether it's been better descriptions, better titles, better guests, better whatever have had a better slow growth rate, which is super interesting. So they might start real slow but they'll be a slow and consistent burner and they'll just chip away. Download, download, download just sort of pick up over a couple of weeks as opposed to when I was making myself do one a week just to get the same results. So that's been pretty interesting. I found also that the guest pushing it can affect the downloads by 30% plus. Like, if I've got a guest and they push it, that really helps and I've been testing out this thing around my bite sized episodes. So just the key takeaway is, almost from each episode checking out is another bite sized clip for people to listen to, and those have been performing really really well as well Still early days but good sort of like the thread I wrote on it on threads, it's just, it's more. It's another opportunity for someone to come across me, someone like short form content versus long form. You know that's something that they will listen to versus a 40, 50, 60 minute episode, and it's more time for someone to listen to me, fall in love with me in the podcast and learn what we do, which is a good thing. So, yeah, that's how everything's been going, sort of short and sharp.
Speaker 1:My next steps from here that I'm looking to do is obviously get more guests on. So I've got a couple cool guests lined up. I've got someone from an agency not my one that I work at, but I've got someone from an agency lined up. I've got Cooper ready to come back on 3PL sort of stuff and whatever he's been up to since I've got Jay's from certified I'm actually wearing the hoodie right now. Grateful, no stalls from chosen another clothing brand. That'll be sick. I want to get Sarah back on from OneUp project. I want to get Carlos back on from 138. I want to get Jess on from the mount and I want to get some more business ideas going with Jay's as well.
Speaker 1:So from here I want to keep doing what I'm doing, which is not rushing, but as it comes along, as opportunity comes up, I want to get some good quality guests on. I'll sort of refine that list of questions that I ask because I want it to be something that people can come back to and know that. That's kind of what the episode is going to sound like, still going with the flow of the conversation. But I want to have a couple of common questions that people are like I can't wait to hear this person answer that and I have been improving the website. So if you want to check out alanavecom, give me any feedback. That's what I'm doing from here. Same thing if it's a hub that people come to, I want to have it set up well to convert people to listeners, convert people to email subscribers, to convert people to purchases, whatever. I want it to look good versus trash.
Speaker 1:I've been working on it in general and have just recently updated the podcast description. So have a look at that, send me some thoughts. I don't know up to you, I kind of like it. And then I've been exploring products just released another poster looking at pens and notebooks, tees, hats, hoodies, down the line. It'd be cool to do something like a course or like an event, but there's no real value prop for me to produce that right now, but sort of just looking at keeping doing what I'm doing with the growth strats, keeping doing what I'm doing with getting guests on, just touching up the site, touching up the descriptions, touching up everything.
Speaker 1:And the last thing is probably I'm having a look at ads as well. So if anyone's ran ads for a podcast or like their brand before, be keen as to have a yarn about it and see how it's been for you. I obviously run ads for a few businesses for what I do for work, but it's different when it's your baby and it's different when it's your side projects. So I'm looking at that just to try and get more eyes on the brand, more people in the funnel, more people having a look at what we do and more people potentially listening and falling in love with the podcast. So yeah, so that's a little whip, little whip for you what I've been doing, how it's been going, what I'm doing next.
Speaker 1:If you like it, let me know. If you don't, and you never wanna hear them again, obviously, just don't listen to them again if they come out. But let me know if you sort of think it's too much about myself. But hopefully this is cool and useful for you or someone else listening, because this podcast is sort of trying to get behind the curtain of businesses and I feel like it's just sort of a cool thing to track along and do that with myself in this podcast as well. So let me know if you enjoyed it. Anyways, that's the pod. Have a good day, thank you.
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