The Podcast Reach Around Effect

A show of hands of how many of you regularly podcast as part of your blog empire…

My hand is raised, and has been since April 2005. Though recently, given my hectic workload, the success of the blog and the sick amount of time it takes to put together audio programming, I’ve been slacking in the podcast department. Not only have I been unable to produce a show in several months, I haven’t even looked into traffic.

At the request of a potential advertiser, I took a peak at recent traffic. Much to my surprise, shows that are YEARS OLD still receive thousands of downloads. Huh!?

I understand that many episodes of the Working Podcast have been picked up by search engines, etc. – but I didn’t expect to see this type of growth from a ‘dormant’ product.

Particularly shocking was the volume of downloads Show #1 still receives. Ironically, it’s probably the worst of the 80 programs I have done. At least I like to think the show has evolved. But here’s my question for you audiofiles…

How do I better leverage these old shows; particularly #1?

I’m toying with the idea of adding a quick bumper to the beginning stating that the direction of the show has changed, our new URL, contact info and so on.

What do you think? Any examples of this you have come across?
Is it taboo to change archived shows from their original content?

P.S. – I will be relaunching the Working Podcast later this year. So if you’re interested in career advice you can actually use, please subscribe.