From blogging to podcasting
If you’re a blogger, remember what it was like when it came to selecting your blogging niche? Some of you may have known exactly what you wanted to blog about, and others, well you, just agonized until you found your comfort niche. Deciding on a podcast theme is no different, but podcasting itself is not as hard as it seems.
Blogging
As a blogger, there’s the advantage of taking your blog posts and immediately turning them into podcasts. It also means you are sitting on a wealth of programming in your library of old posts that can be used as is or freshly updated.
You might be wondering, if you did an audio version of your blog post, there wouldn’t be much content for a program. When in actuality, there’s no set time frame for podcasting. – it can be a short 2- 3 minute tip or 10 – 20 – or 30 minutes of content.
Podcasting gives you the opportunity to repurpose your blog posts. Older posts can be updated with new information or combined around a certain topic or theme to give you more content.
Content Provider
You can also focus on creating all new content. Let’s say that through your blogging you’ve discovered an area that really interests you and it generated a lot of blog comments. This could be an expanded content source for your podcast.
It also means that you can quickly respond to your audience’s areas of interest by adjusting your content to their needs.
In addition, podcasting gives you the opportunity to expand your expertise in a content area. And, it means that you’ll still be able to promote your products and services at the same time to an entirely new audience.
The Interviewer
Not sure you want to use your blog posts or not ready to become a content provider? You can still podcast by becoming an interviewer.
I’m sure at some time you’ve watched Oprah or Larry King interviewing a guest. And, like most of the audience you were focused on what the guest had to say. And, the reason you were focused on the guest is because of the questions being asked.
The secret to a good interview is in the asking of the questions. It makes the audience want to stay and learn more. And, regardless of the guest, the audience comes back to Oprah and Larry again and again because there is always something new to learn from their guests.
You don’t have to be an Oprah or a Larry King to be a podcaster. You just need to be the source of learning and answers for your niche audience.
Being a podcast interviewer comes with benefits –
- Guests are a source of free content
- Guests bring their own followers which benefits your listenership
- Guests with a high profile are going to increases your standing by association
- Guests are potential reciprocal partners leading to you being interviewed
- Guests are possible joint venture partners for promotion and sales
- The knowledge you gain from your guests can be repurpose – think e-books
- Listenership increases because you have interesting guests
- Your experience, credibility and expertise rises proportionally to the quality of your guests
- And, don’t forget you can always turn your interview into a blog post series!
Podcasting lets you leverage your blogging experience, opens a new source for being a content provider and increases your experience, credibility and expertise by interviewing others.
I’m going to be focusing on how to become a good podcast interviewer right from the start, because I think that’s where you can get the biggest return for your investment of time and energy.