When Sam suggested we start a podcast, I immediately pictured myself freezing on a mic, forgetting all my talking points, and generally embarrassing myself.
The idea was sparked by a chat he had with Jeremy Rivera of SEOArcade.
"But we don't need video," he pointed out. "And we already have all the content written. We just need to make it... talky."
He had a point.
Our audience (all 11 of my friends) kept asking for audio content. When your community is small enough to fit in an elevator, you listen extra carefully.
And with Sam handling the technical side, maybe I could just focus on the content.
So we went for it and launched 3:03. Our new podcast that repurposes our boring AF long form content into something I can force my friends to listen to.
The best part? It's ridiculously simple.
Why podcasting is worth your time
Podcasting lets you extend your newsletter's reach to audiences who prefer audio content. This helps to maintain their attention during commutes, workouts, and other moments text simply can't reach.
According to Riverside the numbers hold up:
- Over 450 million people listen to podcasts each year
- Projections reaching 619 million listeners by 2026
- 34% of Americans listen to an average of 8.3 podcast episodes weekly
- 23% spend over 10 hours listening to podcasts each week
These aren't casual browsers. They're dedicated content consumers who prefer this medium.
The growth potential is huge
Podcasting isn't just about audience. It's about money. Your newsletter and podcast can feed each other while opening new revenue streams.
These numbers from Backlinko tell the story:
- The podcast industry will hit $17.59 billion by 2030
- 55% of Americans over the age of 12 listen monthly
- This marks the highest podcast adoption in history
Start now and you'll stake your claim before the gold rush ends. Sponsors love podcast audiences because they're loyal, engaged, and trust the host's recommendations.
That's an asset worth building alongside your newsletter.
Why starting a podcast makes sense
Newsletter creators hear it all the time... "Love your content, wish I had more time to read it all."
A podcast solves this problem. Your subscribers can consume your ideas while doing other things. There's something about hearing concepts explained that text alone can't match. It creates a different connection with your audience.
The stats back this up:
- 49% of podcasts are listened to at home during household chores
- 42% are consumed during commutes
Both represent times when reading isn't practical but listening is perfect. Your ideas can now reach subscribers when their eyes are busy but their ears aren't.
That's audience expansion without creating entirely new content.
Our content repurposing workflow
We avoided podcasting for years because it seemed like so much work. Who has time to script, record, and edit audio when you're wrangling a bazillion client deliverables too?
Enter Google's Notebook LM.
"When you start a podcast on Spotify you need conversational content not just your newsletter text read aloud. This is where Notebook LM shines," Sam shared.
Here's our workflow:
- Take our handcrafted long form content and drop it into a Notebook
- Add "Customization" instructions for the Audio Overview
- Generate it and wait about five minutes
- Listen to it and adjust the sources or custom instructions as needed
You get three free Audio Overviews per day with a regular Google account. We burned through those in the first hour of experimenting, so we upgraded to Plus through Google Workspace.
Pro tip: Listen to the generated audio before exporting. We had a lot of fun trying to get them to pronounce 3:03 and my name right.
Quick production tools
Once we had our audio from Notebook LM, we needed to make it sound like professionals made it.
The goal isn't audio perfection, it's getting your ideas into people's ears without spending hours editing. Right before Sam spent all Sunday tweaking things.
We chose to pony up for a subscription of Descript because:
- It handles both audio editing and transcript editing simultaneously
- Their Underlord AI generates decent show notes we can modify
- It exports subtitles in .srt format for platforms that support them
- It generates cool highlights and clips we can use for distribution
We added some background music from AudioJungle, created a simple intro and outro, and decided it was good enough for v1.
One-click distribution magic
This is where the real magic happens.
We started a free trial for Transistor FM. After the trial, it's another paid service we'll need.
We set-up our show in a few minutes. They hooked us up with a dedicated podcast website for Reply Two on their domain.
Plus, they create a slick RSS Feed for the show. It took all of 15 minutes to get that going.
We used Canva and Doodad to spice up the graphics for the show. Then, we uploaded our first episode and published it.
Remember when you had to manually submit your podcast to each platform?
Yeah, me neither because I waited until it got this easy to start a podcast on Spotify.
And with that, I said hello to Transistor's distribution feature. With literally one click, we distributed to:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts
- YouTube
- Amazon Music & Audible
- Plus 18 other platforms I'd never even heard of
Sam handled the technical setup while I worked on the show description and branding. He immediately built the 3:03 Podcast page on our website that automatically updates when we publish new episodes (because of course he did).
Claiming your podcast show on Spotify
Once we clicked distribute, we had to verify ownership of the podcast on the major platforms:
For Spotify:
- Log into creators.spotify.com with your existing Spotify account
- Select Add an Existing Show and paste your RSS feed from Transistor
- Check your email for a verification code
- Enter the code and you're done
For Apple Podcasts:
- Head over to Apple Podcast Connect and create an account using your Apple ID
- Follow the same process as Spotify, add an existing show
- Apple sends a verification token
- Add that token to your Transistor dashboard
- Claim your show from Apple Podcast Connect
The platforms want your content, they've made verification stupidly simple once you know the steps. It took all of 3 minutes to get the podcast published and claimed on Spotify.
The monetization opportunity
Beyond growing your audience, podcasting opens up new ways to make money from your existing content.
The numbers make a compelling case:
- Podcast ad spending will reach $4.46 billion worldwide in 2025
- 20% of podcast listeners are early adopters with higher education
- These listeners have household incomes of at least $100K
Your newsletter already attracts smart, engaged readers. A podcast gives these same valuable audiences to advertisers in a different format. That means you can potentially double-dip on monetization without doubling your content creation workload.
The investment breakdown
Creating a podcast requires minimal investment compared to its potential returns:
- $14.67 per month for Google Workspace Plus per user
- $35 per month for Descript Creator plan
- $49 per month for Transistor Professional plan
- About 30 minutes of your time per long-form content piece
That's less than $100 per month in hard costs to transform content you've already created into an entirely new media asset.
For newsletter creators already spending hours crafting valuable content, this is the definition of working smarter, not harder.
What actually happened when we did this
To keep things in perspective, we just launched 3:03 a day ago.
Our listener count consists entirely of my mom. We've asked her to subscribe on Apple Podcasts too, just to diversify our metrics.
But even with our tiny audience (hi, Mom!), we're seeing interesting patterns.
Spotify listeners prefer our shorter episodes, while the brave souls on Apple Podcasts stick around for the longer ones.
The podcast has been a surprisingly efficient way to repurpose our existing long-form content. Content that took hours to write converted into engaging audio with minimal additional effort.
Your turn
Starting a podcast on Spotify takes minutes, not months. The hardest part isn't technology. It's deciding which piece of your existing content to start with.
Your most valuable asset is your content, not your technical skills. This process lets you amplify your ideas without doubling your workload.
And if you're worried about not having enough listeners, remember, my mom is very supportive and will probably listen to your podcast too if I ask her nicely.
Ready to join us in the podcast world? Listen to our 3:03 podcast where we break down this exact process in more detail.
Or if you'd rather focus on content while someone else handles your newsletter operations, that's literally what Reply Two does.