If you currently have a profile as an expert in the Podcast Guest’s Directory, or you are considering one, please consider these 6 factors to maximize invites to podcasts. Unless you are a famous entrepreneur, music celebrity with a top rap/pop song (Whoomp There It Is), overcame unusual adversity (https://podcastguests.com/expert/larajones/ or lost $2.5 Billion), or have authored a book on a widely intriguing topic (Sleep), then you must make your profile as compelling as possible to get invites from podcasts. Remember, you can make edits to your profile at any time, and should change things up every 6 months or so.
1) Profile Summary. The summary is the most important part of your profile BY FAR. It is what displays (along with your photo) for profiles in each category and in all search results in the directory. And for Premium members, the summary is what is included alongside your name in our powerful newsletter. Not your whole profile, just your photo and the summary. This means your summary must quickly grab a podcaster’s interest in the 145 characters allotted. So what should be in your summary? Make sure your summary either is a) a compelling topic or life story that is going to be very interesting to the podcast’s listeners or b) specific impressive experience that immediately establishes you as incredible subject matter expert.
Please, please, please do not use the summary to only write general info (Examples of uninteresting summaries: “20 years sales executive and business expert”, or “John Smith, MBA, PHD, MD, etc etc” or “CEO of ABC company”, “Author, speaker, mental health expert, historian”. As impressive as these experts may be in their field, this summary just isn’t going to get many invites.
Think about what aspect of your unique story or expertise is going to be interesting to podcast listeners, and be sure you get that into your profile summary. The rest of your profile won’t matter if you don’t have a compelling enough summary for a podcaster to click to it. Try re-framing your expertise with the prompt “Let’s talk about [interesting topic you can discuss]”.
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3) “How I’ll Promote Podcasts I’m On”: Beyond your topic area, this is of great importance to many podcasters and a great way to earn you invites. Remember, the podcaster not only wants to hear your story, but also wants to expand the reach of their podcast to new listeners. If you have 3,000 Linkedin followers you will post your episode to, mention that. If you have 10,000 YouTube Subscribers, mention it. If you have 100,000 Tiktok/Instagram/Facebook/Twitter followers you will post to, mention it! Let the podcaster know you are going to share your episode with your network of followers.
4) Strongly consider the Premium directory listing. The benefits are worth it. Premium members are included in the newsletter as a guest expert approximately every 6-8 months (including in your first month), show above the Basic members in the directory categories, and get MOST of the invites because of this. If budget is an issue, do a few months of Premium rather than a year of Basic. It is MUCH better value. You may never know if podcasts are interested in you if you are at the bottom of your category and not in the newsletter.
5) Pick your category(ies) carefully. Some of the categories (ex Business, Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement) are quite crowded. Is there another less crowded category where you could better stand out (maybe AI, DEI, Men’s Issues, Sports, etc?).
6) Please do not come off as selling or corporate in your profile. Podcasters can quickly tell if your main goal is to try to sell their listeners something. Be a subject matter expert or tell your story but do not come off as about to deliver a sales pitch. And if your expertise is being the manager or ceo of a company, focus on an interesting topic you can discuss and not a talking brochure about your company.
We want you to get as many quality invites as you can and these 6 tips can really help!