Consistency is the most important thing
You’ve heard it a million times I know, but consistency is important when it comes to podcasting. By staying consistent your audience can rely on and trust you.
So, before you commit to a schedule, work out what works best for you.
Start off slowly
If you’re not sure how much time you can commit to your podcast, but you really want to get it out there, then start by releasing episodes fortnightly. Then if you get in a rhythm and feel like you can handle weekly episodes, then you can bump things up and start releasing episodes weekly.
If you want, you could even release episodes monthly. Although the issue with releasing monthly is that you may fall off the radar with your listeners. Waiting a whole month for another episode is a long time to wait, and they may find other podcasts to listen to in the meantime. But hey, if it gets you started, then go for it! But I recommend that you bump up your episodes to at least fortnightly.
It’s better to add than take away
If you start by releasing two episodes a week and then decide it’s too much and drop down to weekly. Or, if you release episodes weekly and it’s too much and drop down to fortnightly, you might be letting your listeners down.
That’s why I always recommend starting slowly then add episodes if you have capacity. That way, you’re giving your listeners more, rather than taking something away from them.
Once a week is a good schedule
By having a weekly episode, it’s easy for your listeners to remember when they need to tune in to listen to your next episode. You’ll be in your listeners’ ears and thoughts every week.
You can always change
At the end of the day, it’s your show and you can release whenever works for you. But just make sure you let your listeners know what to expect. If you’re going to change the schedule, tell your listeners. You don’t want to become unreliable as your listeners may begin to lose trust in you.