Last week I talked about adding the date to your podcast post. With WordPress, you can easily toggle it on and off, so you want to make sure you are doing it for your listeners, and not yourself

Keeping with dates, although not WordPress specific, is the fact of avoiding outdated dates on your show.

So what am I talking about here? Always make sure that the content in your podcast isn’t dated with an event or special that will be over by the time you make your show live.

There are very few audio podcasts that I know of that are live. Almost all of them are pre-recorded, and for good reasons. The most obvious being the ability to edit, post-process and add content. No matter what your show is, likely you will be doing some editing, whether doing it yourself or sending it out to a third-party. There is post-processing that you may engage in to tweak the sound. And lastly, if you have an intro and an outro, or ad rolls, you need to insert them as well.

Now there are a lot of video podcasts that are recorded live or streamed, but that’s not what I’m talking about today.

Scheduling Your Podcast Recording Sessions

You will have your own process worked out and the time you schedule them will depend on what works for you. In my own podcasts, I have specific days and times of a week up to 3 months out that guests can book. And I may give them a shorter block to choose from if I need them for a specific date.

But there is that lapse time between recording and publishing.

That’s what I want to talk about today. Some podcasters have a set time to record an entire season. They may record all sessions within one month, say June, if the season starts in September. Others may do it sooner or even later.

Myself, I typically try to keep it within a month, even less sometimes. Because, stuff happens. Also, I have been known to put one out from recording to live within a day or two if needed.

But, whatever the case, there is one big precaution, you the podcaster need to take— and to share with your guests.

Dated Content

How many times has a guest said, “I have this upcoming webinar next week….” only to realize that you are publishing this in 30 days and that specific content will be outdated. Or maybe you even slip up.

I’m not talking about if you record in February and publish in April, and you or your guest talks about the three feet of snow outside your window. Your post is in the archives no matter when you publish. But it’s the events, workshops, and other dated stuff that can throw your listeners for a loop.

What is the Solution?

The easiest thing is to avoid this. Let your guests know before you start to try to avoid any mentions of upcoming events. I include this in my show notes that I send to the guests. However, sometimes you can give your guests the chance to share this info if you do it right.

If someone wants to share an upcoming event…

If it is a conference or workshop, you need to make sure that it’s only shared if you are publishing in time for people to sign up. The same goes for single online events.

If it’s an online event that will be recorded for continued access, make sure you mention that if the podcast goes live post-event. For example you might say:

Kim, you have this great webinar coming up next week, tell us about that. Then make sure you tell your listeners that since the podcast is published afterwards, you will be sure they can get the link to listen to the recording.

My main point is that you as the podcaster need to keep this in mind. Not every guest will remember this, and things often just crop up in the conversation. If appropriate, make a note about it to your listeners in the actual podcast, so that there is no confusion on their part.

One last thought…

This really goes beyond just dated information. If you are recording podcasts up to 1-2 months ahead of time, think this through… there is a lot of content that is not verbally dated, but can also become outdated as well.