I’m excited today to launch The Podcast Guests show, a podcast about publishing your own podcast or being a guest on one. You can listen here:
You can also listen or follow the show on Apple Podcasts here. It’s being added to more podcast apps as we speak.
You may be wondering, why start a podcast now? There are a lot of podcasts already out there. There are even a lot of podcasts about podcasting. So why create another one?
Well, why should anyone start a podcast? On the first show, we dive in and answer that question.
Let’s take a step back and look at the podcast market from the 10,000-foot view. Some people think that the market is too crowded with millions of podcasts. I fundamentally disagree. Compare the number of podcasts to YouTube channels or the number of blogs out there. When you look at those numbers, the podcast world is relatively unsaturated. But the news gets even better—there really aren’t millions of podcasts. If you look at the number of podcasts being actively produced, the number is estimated to be between 300,000-700,000, depending on how you measure it. So it’s not a very crowded space!
Add to that the fact that, as we move out of the pandemic, new podcasts are popping up at a slower rate than a couple of years ago while consumption is going up, and now is a perfect time to start a podcast.
So back to the reasons to start a podcast. First, let’s talk about a bad reason to start a podcast: build a huge audience and sell ads. The median downloads per episode (DPE) for podcasts is below 200. Ads are usually sold on a CPM basis, which means cost per thousand. And when you have fewer than 200 DPE, you don’t even have one CPM to sell! That’s not to say you can’t get sponsors, but the reality is that the odds of growing large enough to sell ads are slim compared to other ways you can benefit from your show.
Now, let’s change your frame of reference on those numbers a little bit. Say that you have a podcast that is doing 200 DPE. That doesn’t sound like great numbers, right? But now, picture that audience in an auditorium. Picture 200 people sitting there with you, and perhaps a guest on stage. That shifts your mindset, doesn’t it? Would you like to talk to an auditorium of this size every week? And if you could, what benefits would you get?
Grow your Audience by Educating
Educate people about the topic you know, and bring in guests related to it. You’re not necessarily selling anything, but you’re growing your authority and getting more people to know about you, join your email list, follow your website, etc., which pays dividends when they need your product or service.
Talk to Interesting People
If you reached out to someone and said, hey, I would like to learn about your story…you probably wouldn’t hear back. But tell them you’d like to introduce them to your audience and have them speak about a topic, then they are more likely to respond. That’s because you are offering them something in return for the privilege of getting to talk to them and learn from them. Many people tell me about the great people they got on their show who they didn’t think would take the time to respond. Now you’re making connections and growing your personal network. And you get to entertain your audience!
Grow Your Network
Another take on this is to invite guests on your show that might be a client or customer someday. You don’t want to do this too aggressively, but many people tell me how they interviewed someone and ended up doing business with them!
Let me give you an example of the connections you can make as a podcast host. I recently chatted with Allegra Sinclair, host of the podcast Your Confident Self. She told me about three guests she found through PodcastGuests.com that she would have never found otherwise. For one guest, she ended up writing the foreword for that guest’s book. For another, it was her most downloaded episode ever. (A good guest will not only draw a crowd because of their expertise but will also help promote the show!) And she has become good personal friends with the third guest.
Let’s put these ideas into action with a hypothetical example. Let’s say you’re a corporate attorney in Chicago. You work with clients that are starting up companies, going through a merger or acquisition, or writing business contracts. You want to grow awareness of who you are through a podcast.
You could do a podcast about legal issues, but who would listen? Other lawyers? Your target audience doesn’t want to hear about law all the time, just when they need help. What if you create a podcast about local startups? Each week you featured a startup and interviewed its founder. You don’t talk about law other than saying you’re a corporate lawyer with XYZ firm. You ask each founder about their story, what they do, who they serve etc.
You aren’t selling your legal services, but what happens when someone you’ve interviewed needs a corporate attorney? They reach out to you. What happens when someone in the startup community who listens to your podcast starts a business and needs a corporate attorney? They might give you a call.
OK, so let’s bring this back to PodcastGuests.com. Given all of what I’ve discussed above and other information I’m eager to share, I’m starting a bi-weekly podcast about podcasting called The Podcast Guests Show.
For PodcastGuests.com, I send out emails twice a week with podcasts looking for guests and some of the guests from our directory. Sometimes in these emails, I share what I’ve learned about podcasting or podcast-related news. But it’s in a short format. Podcasts are a long format, an opportunity to have a discussion with someone and dig deep or to provide in-depth analysis. I’m going to take this opportunity to do that, to provide a longer format, more in-depth approach to giving ideas to podcasters and guests alike.
Check out the first episode of the podcast above. You can expect new episodes every other Wednesday. If you have any ideas or feedback to share, send me an email at andrew @ podcastguests.com.