Prologue
Volodymyr Zelenskyy's "Podcast Secret"
Before Volodymyr Zelenskyy got into politics, he was a comedian, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director. Check out his IMDB page.
Just a few weeks ago, he was still considered an unproven leader and Ukrainians had mixed feelings about him.
Not anymore.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the trenches with his people when it counts. And it's beyond risky – in the last week, assassins have tried to kill him at least three times.
That's the kind of thing that gets you respect and gets people to follow you. Or listen to you, in the case of podcasters.
I know a lot of people are frustrated by what's happening in Ukraine now. I certainly am.
What can we do? I don't have the perfect answer for that. But I know we can improve on how people get along with each other by telling their stories – it's hard to hate people when you know their stories.
In this issue of Big Podcast Insider, I've got some info on how you can develop (and spread) your personal brand, get more episode downloads by using better episode titles, and make your podcast interactive with listeners by allowing them to leave "call-in" messages for you.
The audio version of this newsletter is coming shortly ... Subscribe to Build a Big Podcast to make sure you don't miss it.
Podcaster Opportunities
How to Build a Personal Brand (and Grow Your Podcast Audience)
So much about podcasting is the "non-podcasting" stuff that we do. Think about it – most top "podcasters" actually come from other types of media.
And all have a very strong personal brand.
Bill Rice runs a digital agency and shows you how you can organize and launch your personal brand in a matter of hours. You're already doing some of these things via your podcast.
This is a quick thread he posted on Twitter that's worth a few minutes of your time to look at. And putting this information in action is definitely worth your time. You could be up and going by tomorrow.
Podcast Marketing
Want More Listeners? Use These "Episode Title" Templates
This is a list of seven high-converting "headline formulas" that can easily be used to create podcast episode titles that will increase downloads (and listeners).
For example ... How To Get [Result] [Quickly] [Without Risk]
And ... How To [Eliminate Specific Pain] [Without More Pain]
I'm not exaggerating when I say that a good episode title can get you 10x the downloads. I'll be talking more about how this works on the audio episode of this newsletter on Build a Big Podcast. If you're not already subscribed, this page gets you hooked up.
Podcasting Tools
Receive Audio Messages (and Donations) from Listeners
One of the things I miss about live radio is the ability to take calls from people in the audience and bring them into the episode.
The good news is that PodInbox is close. With it, listeners can leave an audio message for you to play on episodes (or just respond to).
And the even better news is they've just launched a free plan.
Want to see what you get and how it works? Here's the Big Podcast page. If you have a question about how to grow your podcast audience, feel free to leave it for me there.
One of the best things you can do to make your podcast more interesting to listeners is have a variety of voices within your episode. PodInbox makes this easy, so definitely give it a shot.
Podcast Production
How to Make Slow Podcast Production Go Faster
This is an article for writers, but as a podcaster, you're going to relate to it.
When it comes to your podcast production, do these things sound familiar?
- You believe the first draft has to be perfect
- You have an inner critic that is out of control
- Don’t have a great environment in which to create your podcast
I love his simple process (which I've reworked for podcasters) to fix these things and ultimately create something great:
- Identify your topic. Make it small and easy to handle.
- Put all of your ideas down on paper, no matter how dumb they may seem.
- Do a crappy first outline. It should be terrible with nothing you would show to another person.
- Edit and rework the outline. This is where you start creating excellence.
- And edit and rework some more.
- And edit and rework some more.
- And edit and rework some more.
Not you're ready to record something. It will be somewhat organized and make your recording and post-production so much easier (and faster).
Try it on your next episode.
Podcast Monetization
If you're thinking of doing an online course, this guide will help you.
Services like Thrivecart have made it easier (and cheaper) than ever to sell and host online, member-based communities and training courses. And many podcasts are seeing great levels of success with this level of monetization.
But running an online community takes a lot of work. And sometimes that "big idea" we think will be helpful to our listeners isn't what they're looking for.
If you've been thinking about creating an online course or paid community around your podcast, you want to check out this guide that shows you how to test your idea before you launch as well as how to make sure your podcast listeners know about the launch without annoying them.
By the way, if you've got an online community or training that would be helpful for podcasters, reach out to me via Twitter. I'm always looking for good things to recommend to the podcasters I work with.
The Wrap Up
The Wrap Up
My goal is to better empower podcasters to be more successful spreading their messages and make more money with their podcasts.
I'd love it if you'll help me spread the word about this newsletter by sending your podcasting friends to bigpodcast.com/newsletter.