School of Podcasting - Plan, Launch, Grow and Monetize Your Podcast
Book Guest Spots On Other Podcasts: Are You Making These Mistakes?
With so many people focusing on New and Noteworthy, I wanted to see how many people use New and Noteworthy. So I asked people how they found new podcasts and here is what they said.
The number one way was hearing the podcaster being interviewed on another podcast. This data is from 100 respondents from my email list, and from social media. So it order with the number one answer first it was
I heard them interviewed on another podcast
I searched the app for my topic
I heard about it from a friend (word of mouth)
Other
The Internet (Google, Bing) Search
The "other" responses were (and I'm summarizing) more or less "Word of mouth." Meaning the podcast host they were listening to mentioned them, or they heard about it on Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
So if one of the top ways to grow your audience is to appear on other podcasts, how do you get booked on other shows? Well, we are going to dig into a smart way of setting yourself up to be booked on other podcasts.
How To Get Booked as A Guest On a Podcast?
OK, there must be some new course, or guru telling people how to contact people to be potential guests. Here is the format
Tell people how much you love the show
Tell them your story
Tell them what topic you can talk about and how much my audience is going to benefit.
Kiss the butt of the host and tell them what an honor it would be on the show.
Drop a hint about the book or course you have, and how my audience would benefit.
Promise to promote.
They are missing one key ingredient
GO AND LISTEN TO THE SHOW
When you start off the email with “I have heard some fantastic things about your radio show, congratulations on your success!”
Again, do some homework, or better yet, go by the book Stop Chasing Influencers: The True Path To Building Your Business and Living Your Dream
Strategies For Securing a Guest Spot on Other Podcasts
Search for your topic in iTunes, Google, etc. the idea is to see who is in the space. Who is the leader in your space? Search for their name in iTunes and see what podcasts they have appeared. You could search for New and Noteworthy as these people are probably more New than Noteworthy (and hungry for guests) Realize your interview will be evergreen. So if someone goes back to get the back catalog, you will be included.
Find influencers in your niche: Look for books on your topic in Amazon, and in Amazon there is a "Customers also bought these items" area. You should probably see other authors names who are also involved with your topic.
Make a list and check it twice
When you find a podcast, look and see the date of their last episode. If they have podfaded, you might consider contacting them to see if you could take over the show. In general, people who haven't put out a show in months, are more than likely not coming back.
Start a spreadsheet with the following information
Website Address
Twitter Handle
e-mail address
The average Twitter followers per user is 208. According to an article on Sumome you can look at Twitter followers using the following scale:
H = Huge = 100k+ Followers
L = Large = 10K+ Followers
M = Medium = 1k+ Followers
S = Getting Started = less than 1k followers
Add these people to your list and make how you found them (they will want to know). Obviously, put if they have a podcast or not. If they don't, you may still want to develop a relationship with them so they can appear on YOUR podcast.
Getting Ready For the Initial Contact
So to determine if you are a good fit for their show, you need to listen to it. There is no way around this if you want to do it right. Does this podcast focus on people who would enjoy your topic? If yes, then we need to get ready to contact them. If not, then we won't focus on them now.
Don't Try to Close the Deal
Instead of sending an email, and asking to come on the show. Why not follow them on Twitter and retweet one of their tweets? Why not leave a comment on the blog. The beginning of every relationship begins with a conversation. This way