I mean a lot of podcasts. It’s become a go-to source of entertainment and information. It’s become a go-to source of entertainment and information while commuting, working out, and cooking dinner.

One popular option is Patreon – a site that allows podcasters to offer rewards to their patrons (such as exclusive content or shout-outs) in exchange for financial contributions.

But some people believe Patreon is a slap in the face to advertisers, who are the primary source of income for most podcasters.

While podcasters get most of their revenue from their advertisers, they seem willing to bypass those ads entirely if their listeners are willing to pay them directly through Patreon.

So which is it? An excellent way to generate revenue, or a bad look for podcasters?  Let’s explore both sides of the argument.

Is Patreon a Good Idea to Generate Revenue?

On the one hand, podcasters who use Patreon can generate a lot of revenue – especially if they have a large and engaged audience.

And it’s not just the big-name podcasters doing well on Patreon. Plenty of small-time podcasters are generating a healthy income from their patrons.

This steady revenue stream can be a lifesaver for podcasters trying to make a living from their show. It allows them to invest in better equipment, hire additional help, and even quit their day job to podcast full-time.

Plus, Patreon gives listeners a way to support the shows they love directly. And as we all know, people are more likely to pay for something they value than to sit through a bunch of ads.

So if you’re a podcaster looking for ways to generate revenue, Patreon is definitely worth considering.

Is Patreon a Bad Look for Podcasters?

On the other hand, some people believe that using Patreon is a bad look for podcasters.

Spoiler Alert:  I’m one of them.

The reason is simple: it’s essentially telling advertisers that the hosts want to help push their business unless the listener pays them directly.

This doesn’t sit well with me for a few reasons:

It’s unfair to listeners.

First, it’s unfair to listeners. Why should they have to pay extra to support a show they already enjoy? Especially when the podcaster is already making money from advertisers.

Kind of sucks when everything you wanna see is for patreon members only and you can’t do patreon because you have no money because it all goes yo your own bills, then you feel pathetic and selfish for not being able to donate, and left out because those who can keep talking

— AuntieWrites (@AuntieWrites) September 4, 2022

It’s a bad look for the industry.

Second, it sends the wrong message to advertisers – who are, let’s face it, the ones footing the bill for most podcasts. Asking listeners to pay directly makes it look like podcasters are less concerned with their advertisers’ well-being and more concerned with padding their pockets.

It makes a podcaster look like a money-hungry Jezebel.

While advertisers are investing in a podcaster’s show, the podcaster is essentially saying, “Screw you, I don’t need your money. My listeners will pay me directly.” This makes the host look greedy and ungrateful.

“Join our exclusive (insert witty club name here) on Patreon for only $5/month!”

You hear it all the time.

Honestly, though, I don’t know what is worse.  Being invited to some “exclusive” club on Patreon (there are so many tiers to choose from!), or getting the same level of content from the podcaster and just having to listen to them read a bunch of ads.

It’s pretty clear which one we prefer.

Podcasting is challenging enough without making things more complicated (and expensive) for listeners. So, in my opinion, Patreon is a bad idea for both podcasters and the industry as a whole.

Here’s a true story:

Recently a self-proclaimed duo of true crime experts decided to start a podcast.  They begged, groveled, and cold-emailed hundreds of people asking for sponsors.  And when they finally got a few takers, they rolled out some mediocre content.

Bear in mind that their listeners had to listen to an ad every five minutes, with no segway, no notice, just an advertisement slap dab in the middle of a sentence.

When listeners started complaining and requesting “more content, fewer commercials,” the hosts decided to start a Patreon.

For $5/month, listeners could get an “ad-free” experience.

Seriously? Are you kidding me?

So not only are they already making money from advertisers, but now they want their listeners to pay them directly too? And on top of that, they’re offering less content for more money.

That doesn’t sound like someone genuinely concerned about providing a quality product and experience for their listeners!

I call shenanigans.

Podcasters should focus on providing quality content and excellent value to their listeners. If they want to generate revenue, they should look for ways to do so that don’t involve asking their listeners for more money.

Especially when it involves saying “eff you” to their advertisers.

The Internet Has Spoken

We’re not alone in our opinion.  There are entire threads on Reddit and Quora discussing this very topic. 

Here are a few choice quotes:

It seems that the consensus is that Patreon is a bad idea, and podcasters should avoid it if they want to maintain a good relationship with their listeners.

So, There You Have It

Podcasting is a tricky business, and there are many ways to generate revenue. However, in my opinion, Patreon is not one of them. Asking your listeners to pay you directly sends the wrong message and ultimately reflects poorly on the podcaster and the industry as a whole.

What do you think? Is Patreon a good or bad idea for podcasters? Let me know in the comments!

But before you rush out and get some jackleg “expert” to help you create a website that looks like it was built in the 1990s, take a moment to learn about some simple ways to make your podcast website look more professional.

This article will explain what will happen if you hire some inexperienced web developer to put up your website. Also, we’ll give you some tips for podcast hosts on how to make sure your website looks polished and credible.

So, let’s dig in!

First Impressions are Everything!

Your website will be the first impression potential listeners have of your show, so you want to ensure it looks polished and credible.  After all, it’s one of the best marketing tools around!

Sure, they may stumble upon your show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and give it a listen, but after that first episode, they will want to know more about you. And where are they going to go? Your website!

Ugly websites with dated designs make shows look unprofessional and hobbyist. On the other hand, a well-designed website will make your show look credible and like a professional production.

Now, we’re not saying you have to spend a fortune on your website. But you can do some simple things to make sure it looks great.

Choose a Color Scheme and Theme That Reflects Your Branding

Your color scheme and theme should be an extension of your branding. Don’t let some guru hack out some images on Canva and call it a day.

Unless growing your audience isn’t important to you.

Your website should have the same overall feeling as your podcast artwork, social media posts, and any other marketing materials you use. This way, potential listeners will get a consistent message across all platforms and start to recognize your brand.

Need social media marketing for your podcast? Visit our services page to learn how we can help.

Make sure all of Your Content is Organized and Easy to Find

Your website should be easy to navigate, and all your content should be easy to find.

Some podcasters make the mistake of thinking their website is just a dumping ground for their episodes. But if listeners can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll quickly get frustrated and leave.

Instead, take the time to organize your content in a way that makes sense. Put your most recent episodes front and center, and ensure listeners can easily find your show notes, blog posts, and other relevant information.

You might even want to consider creating a separate page for each episode. This way, listeners can easily find everything they need in one place.

Use High-Quality Photos and Graphics

High-quality photos and graphics will make your website look more professional.

Again, this doesn’t mean you have to break the bank. But using low-quality images or generic stock photos will make your site look amateurish.

Take the time to find or create quality images that reflect your brand and show your personality. This will make your site more visually appealing and help you stand out from the crowd.

Avoid Using too Much Text.

Your website shouldn’t be one giant wall of text. Look at this example below. Now, bear in mind we’ve blurred out to protect the guilty, but you get the gist.

As you can see, it’s just a wall of text with no images. The least they could do is add some spacing between the lines to make it easier to read.

Listeners should be able to quickly scan your site and find the information they’re looking for. So, break up your text with headlines, bullet points, and images.

And don’t forget to use proper spacing and margins. This will make your site more readable and help visitors focus on the most critical information.

Speaking of text…

Please, For the Love of God, Proofread Your Text

We see it more often than we’d like… podcasters who don’t proofread their text.

Your website reflects your show, so typos and grammatical errors will make you look unprofessional. Not to mention, it’s just plain old sloppy.

So, take the time to proofread your text before you hit publish. This will help you avoid embarrassing mistakes and ensure your site looks professional.

You can also use a tool like Grammarly to proofread your text. Just copy and paste your text into the tool, and it will highlight any errors for you.

Spelling errors not only make you look bad, but they can hurt your ranking too! Read our recent blog post to learn how.

Make Sure Your Website is Responsive

Your website should look great on all devices, from desktop computers to mobile phones.

More and more people are using their phones to access the internet, so your site must be responsive. Otherwise, you risk losing potential listeners.

Not only will you lose listeners, but you’ll also lose favor with Google and other search engines.  Google now looks right over websites that aren’t responsive, so you could miss out on valuable traffic.

Luckily, making your website responsive is relatively easy. You can use a tool like Bootstrap to create a responsive website quickly and easily.

Or, if you’re using WordPress, you can install a responsive theme or plugin. Make sure you test your site on all devices before publishing it.

Use a Custom Domain

Nothing looks more like you had your cousin’s teenage son make your website than a URL that includes your name followed by “.wordpress.com” or “.wix.com”.

Investing in a custom domain (usually around $15/year) lends an immediate air of professionalism to your website and podcast. It also allows you to know exactly where your listeners are coming from – you can track how many people visit your site, what pages they visit most, and where they’re coming from (Facebook? Twitter? Google?).

There’s really no excuse not to have a custom domain for your podcast website. It’s easy and inexpensive, and it makes a world of difference.

Oh, and please, no matter what you do, stop using WWW when mentioning your site. Read our recent blog post to learn why it’s unnecessary and makes you sound like a n00b.

Use Affiliate Links Sparingly

We get it. Creating a podcast is time-consuming and expensive. You’re not making any money off of it (yet), so you might as well make a few bucks here and there, right?

Wrong.

Your website should be about your listeners, not about making money. So, only use affiliate links if they’re truly relevant to your audience.

For example, if you’re a travel podcast, it would make sense to include links to hotels and airlines. But if you’re a comedy podcast, it wouldn’t make sense to link to Amazon products.

Too many affiliate links will make your site look spammy and will turn listeners off. So, only use them sparingly.

Disclose Your Affiliate Relationships

If you do use affiliate links on your website, you need to disclose your relationships.

The FTC requires that you let your listeners know when you’re making money from a product or service. So, if you’re an affiliate for a company, you need to say so on your website. If you don’t, they will come after you.

The FTC filed a complaint against a merchant, a network, and an affiliate marketer. The #FTC alleged unfair or deceptive acts, negative opinion marketing, and violation of certain #advertising disclosure regulations by both the merchant and the affiliate. https://t.co/hlby9tILAr pic.twitter.com/RbSCBSYHTx

— Anthony Verna (@avernalaw) August 26, 2019

You can do this by including a statement in your disclaimer or by adding a note to each affiliate link. For example, you could say, “This is an affiliate link, which means I’ll make a commission if you purchase this product.”

This may seem like a lot of work, but it’s important to be transparent with your listeners. They’ll appreciate it, and you’ll stay on the right side of the law.

Include Important Elements

A podcast website is no different than any other website – it needs to include certain elements in order to be effective:

• Contact Forms
• Contact Information
• Social Media Icons
• RSS Feeds
• Email Subscription Forms

These elements are important because they allow listeners to connect with you and your show.

For example, a contact form allows listeners to easily get in touch with you with questions, comments, or suggestions.

Adding your contact information (phone number, email address, etc.) makes it easy for potential listeners to reach out to you.

And social media icons make it easy for them to follow you on social media and share your podcast episodes with their friends.

RSS feeds are important because they allow listeners to subscribe to your show in their favorite podcast player.

And email subscription forms are a great way to grow your audience by building a list of subscribers who will be notified whenever you release a new episode.

Make It Easy to Listen

Your podcast website should be designed with one goal in mind: to make it easy for listeners to find and listen to your show.

That means including prominently placed links to wherever your show is available (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.), as well as an embedded player so they can listen right on your site.

You should also make it easy for listeners to find your latest episodes. One way to do this is to include a “Latest Episodes” section on your home page, with links to each episode.

Another way to do this is to create a dedicated “Listen” page that includes an embedded player and links to all of your episodes.

Whichever method you choose, just make sure it’s easy for listeners to find and listen to your episodes.

Have a Clear Purpose

Your website should have a clear purpose. Are you trying to get listeners to subscribe to your podcast? Donate to your show? Share your episodes? Fill out a contact form? Make sure your site is designed with that goal in mind.

This process is known as conversion optimization, and it’s the process of designing your website to get visitors to take a specific action.

For example, if your goal is to get listeners to subscribe to your show, then you should include prominently placed links to your podcast in iTunes and other directories. You might also include an email subscription form so visitors can sign up to be notified whenever you release a new episode.

If your goal is to get listeners to share your episodes, then you should include social media icons on every page of your site. And if you want listeners to donate to your show, then you should include a “Donate” button in a prominent location.

The bottom line is that your website should have a clear purpose, and every element on the site should be designed to achieve that goal.

Update your Site Regularly

Your podcast website is a living, breathing thing that needs to be updated on a regular basis.

Every time you release a new episode, you should update your website. This can be as simple as adding the new episode to your “Latest Episodes” section or embedding the new episode in your “Listen” page.

Depending on which CMS you use, you might need to edit your RSS feed to include the new episode. If it’s a WordPress site, use a plugin like PowerPress to easily add new episodes to your RSS feed.

You should also update your website any time you make changes to your show, such as changing the name, description, or artwork. This will help ensure that your website is always accurate and up-to-date.

Offer a Written Transcript

A written transcript is a great way to make your podcast accessible to a wider audience.

Many people prefer to read rather than listen, so offering a written transcript of your episodes can be a great way to attract new listeners. It’s also a great way to make your show more searchable and improve your SEO.

If you don’t have the time or resources to transcribe your episodes yourself, there are a number of services that will do it for you. Just make sure to proofread the transcript before you publish it.

Now that you know how to create your website, let’s discuss how to know if it’s effective.

Monitor your Site’s Performance

Once you’ve launched your site, it’s important to monitor its performance to see how well it’s doing.

There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the easiest is to use Google Analytics. Just create a free account and add the tracking code to your website. Then you can track things like page views, unique visitors, and time on site.

You can also use Google Analytics to track conversions, such as how many people subscribe to your podcast after visiting your website. Just create a goal in Google Analytics and track its performance over time.

Monitoring your site’s performance will give you a good idea of how well it’s doing and whether or not it needs to be improved.

That’s it! These are just a few tips on how to make your podcast website more professional. Just remember to keep your site updated, offer transcripts of your episodes, and monitor your site’s performance. With a little effort, you can create a website that’s polished, credible, and effective.

Hire a Professional

Now we’re not talking about hiring someone who claims to be a web designer but actually knows nothing about User Interface or User Experience. No, we’re talking about hiring someone who’s an expert in web design and knows how to create a beautiful, responsive website that’s easy to navigate and full of high-quality content.

We’re talking about someone who knows how to take your vision and turn it into a reality.

If you’re not confident in your own web design skills, or if you just don’t have the time to create a professional website, hiring a pro is always an option.

Just make sure you do your research and find someone who’s reputable and has experience designing websites for podcasts.

Wrapping Up

Your podcast website is the first impression potential listeners will have of your show, so you want to ensure it looks polished and professional.

There are a few ways you can do this, including choosing a responsive theme, using high-quality photos and graphics, and avoiding too much text. You can also hire a professional to design your website for you.

No matter what route you decide to take, just make sure your website reflects the quality of your show. This will help you attract new listeners and keep them returning for more.

We at BlakSheep Creative are experts in web design and can help you create a beautiful, professional website for your podcast. We’ll take your vision and turn it into a reality, ensuring your site looks great on all devices. 

Contact us today if you’re not confident in your web design skills or don’t have time to create a professional website. You can also visit our podcast website services page to learn more.

But if you want to stand out in the crowded world of podcasting, you need to be ranking high in Google search results. And that means understanding how SEO works and how to optimize your website and podcast pages for Google ranking.

Fortunately, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. By following a few simple tips, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in Google search results and gaining more listeners.

1. Submit your podcast to popular directories

One of the best ways to get your podcast indexed by Google is to submit it to popular directories like Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Stitcher, and Spotify. This will not only make it easier for people to find your show, but it will also help Google index your episodes.

Make sure your podcast is listed on Google Play.

It goes without saying that you should also list your podcast on Google Play. After all, it is owned by Google, and the more Google platforms your brand is present on, the better.

Don’t forget about Youtube!

Again, another Google-owned platform. You can upload your podcast episodes to Youtube and then embed them onto your website or blog. This is a great way to increase your reach and get more people to listen to your show.

2. Create a catchy and interesting show description

Your podcast description is one of the first things potential listeners will see, so making a good impression is essential.

Your description should be concise, engaging, and accurate. It should also include relevant keywords that people might use to search for your show.

For example:

• If you have a podcast about marketing, some keywords you might use in your description are “marketing,” “SEO,” “social media,” and “content marketing.
• If you have a podcast about sports cars, some keywords you might use in your description are “sports cars,” “luxury cars,” “exotic cars,” and “car racing.”

By including keywords in your description, you’re more likely to show up in search results when people are looking for a podcast like yours.

Why?

Look at the image below:

Image Source: The Podcast Host

In a recent study, podcast listeners were asked, “When considering a new show, how important to you is…“

This was graded on a scale from 0-10, with 0 being not important at all and 10 very important. The answers?

1. The podcast’s description – 7.8
2. The podcast’s episode titles – 6.3
3. The frequency of new episode releases – 5.6
4. The podcast’s ratings and reviews – 5.3
5. The podcast’s artwork – 5.2
6. The name of the podcast – 5.1
7. That you have heard of the interview guest – 4.6
8. That you have heard of the presenter – 3.7

As you can see, the podcast’s description is the most important thing a would-be listener pays attention to.

Keywords make the search engine world go round. Google and other search engines use these to index and rank websites and content in search results.

3. Use the right keywords in your title and description

When it comes to ranking high in Google, using the right keywords is essential.

Your podcast and episode titles should include relevant keywords that people are likely to use when searching for a show like yours.

PRO TIP #17

Your title is your show pitch in a nutshell. Make sure it showcases something key about your podcast

Think
– Content
– Format
– Topic
– Host
– Tone

Equally, literal titles can make for better search results #PodcastMarketing #PodcastPromotion #PodcastTips pic.twitter.com/NtkBAwUrKB

— Podspike (@podspike) June 29, 2022

Avoid the urge to create flashy or clickbait-y titles that don’t accurately reflect the content of your show. Not only will this frustrate potential listeners, it will also hurt your ranking in Google search results.

For example:

If your podcast is about car racing, a title like “10 Tips for Winning the Daytona 500” would be more effective than “How to Race Cars Like a Pro.”

The former title includes relevant keywords and accurately reflects the episode’s content. The latter title is misleading and won’t do anything to help you rank higher in Google search results.

In addition to using keywords in your title, make sure to use them in your podcast description. As we mentioned earlier, your description is one of the first things potential listeners will see, so making a good impression is essential.

Your description should be concise, engaging, and accurate. It should also include relevant keywords that people might use to search for your show.

For example:

Take our previous example about car racing. Some keywords you might use in your description are “car racing,” “NASCAR,” “Daytona 500,” and “auto racing.”

By including these keywords in your description, you’re more likely to show up in search results when people are looking for a podcast about car racing.

Remember, keywords are important, but they’re not everything. Your titles should still be catchy and exciting enough to entice people to click.

4. Upload high-quality cover art

Remember all of those podcasts we mentioned earlier? I’d be willing to bet that most of them have artwork that looks like it was created in Microsoft Paint.

Don’t be that podcast.

Your cover art is one of the first things potential listeners will see, so it must make a good impression.

Your artwork should be high-quality and eye-catching. It should also accurately reflect the content of your show.

For example:

If your podcast is about fishing, your artwork might feature a photo of someone fishing on a lake.

If your podcast is about business, your artwork might feature a corporate headshot or an image of the skyline.

Some other things to pay special attention to with your artwork are:

• Your brand’s colors: Use colors that match your brand’s identity. This will help people recognize your podcast more easily.
• Your title: Make sure your title is easy to read and understand. No one wants to spend hours trying to figure out what your show is about
• The format: Most podcast directories require artwork of a specific size and format. Make sure your artwork meets these requirements before you upload it.
• Professionalism: Your artwork should look like it was created by a professional. This doesn’t mean you need to hire a designer (although it certainly couldn’t hurt). Just make sure your artwork looks polished and well put together.

But it’s more than just creating artwork. You also want to ensure that these images are optimized for SEO.

Google loves images, and they love it when those images are tagged with relevant keywords.

When you upload your artwork to your website or hosting platform, make sure to include keywords in the file name and fill out the alternate text field with a brief description of the image.

This will help Google index your image and could even help you rank higher in image search results.

I’ll repeat it for those in the back…

Use keywords in your image title, description, and alt-tags.

Your cover art is also an excellent place to include relevant keywords. This will help you show up in search results when people are looking for a podcast like yours.

When you include descriptive alt-text in your cover art, Google can index it and use it to determine what your show is about.

Plus, your cover art will appear in Google’s image index, which can help you attract even more listeners.

5. Have a website and RSS feed for your podcast

Here, I’ll tell you a story:

There were two podcasters – we’ll call them Jon and Ron.

Jon had a website for his podcast. He made sure to include relevant keywords in his website’s title and description, and he included high-quality cover art.

He also promoted his show on social media and submitted it to popular podcast directories.

Because of all this, Jon’s podcast was easily found by potential listeners. His show quickly gained popularity and soon had a large and engaged audience.

On the other hand, Ron didn’t have a website for his podcast. He didn’t think it was necessary, and he didn’t want to put in the extra work.

As a result, Ron’s podcast was much harder to find. Potential listeners had to search long and hard to find it, and most of them gave up before they ever found it.

Ron also boasted that posting links on Facebook to his shows on Youtube and Itunes was all the promotion he needed.

But because no one could easily find or subscribe to his podcast, Ron quickly lost listeners. His show faded into obscurity, and he wondered why he thought podcasting was a good idea.

Moral of the story: If you want people to listen to your podcast, you need to make it easy for them to find it. And the best way to do that is to have a website for your show.

Your website doesn’t need to be elaborate or fancy. A simple, clean design is all you need. Visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

Does your podcast have a website?

But there are a few things your website must have:

What every podcast website needs

To be competitive in the search engine results pages, there are a few things that every podcast website should have:

• Your podcast’s name and logo: Make sure these are prominently displayed on your website so people can quickly identify your show.
• Your podcast’s description: Give potential listeners a brief overview of your podcast. Include relevant keywords so people can find your show in search engines.
• Subscribe links: Include links to your podcast on popular podcast directories like iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play Music. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your show.
• Social media links: Include links to your podcast’s social media accounts so people can follow you and share your episodes with their friends.
• RSS feed: Include an RSS feed of your podcast so people can subscribe using their favorite podcast app.
• Episode transcripts: Include transcripts of your episodes so people can read along as they listen. This is also helpful for people who are hard of hearing or prefer to read instead of listen (more on that to come).
• Embeddable player: Include an embeddable player on your website so people can listen to your episodes right on your site.

Bonus tip: If you want to really optimize your website for SEO, you can also include a blog on your site. This gives you another opportunity to use relevant keywords and attract new listeners (again, more on that to come).

6. Optimize your website for SEO

If you want people to find your podcast on Google, you need to optimize your website for SEO.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s the process of making your website more visible on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are a few things you can do to optimize your website for SEO:

• Use relevant keywords: Include relevant keywords in your website’s title, description, and blog posts. This will help people find your site when searching for those keywords on Google.
• Submit your site to podcast directories: Submitting your podcast to popular directories like iTunes and Stitcher will help people find your show.
• Promote your podcast on social media: Posting links to your episodes on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will help people find your podcast.

When you take the time to optimize your website, you’ll increase the chances that your podcast shows up when people are searching for shows like yours.

Need help promoting your episodes? Visit our social media marketing for podcasters service page to learn how we can help.

Provide accurate transcriptions of your episodes

Remember how I said including transcripts of your episodes is good for SEO?

Well, that’s because transcripts give you another opportunity to use relevant keywords on your website.

Including transcripts also has other benefits. For example, it allows people to follow along with your episodes if they’re hard of hearing or prefer to read instead of listening.

Now, transcribing your show can be time-consuming. But there are a few ways you can make it easier on yourself:

• Hire someone to transcribe your episodes: You can use a transcription service like Rev.com or Fiverr.com to transcribe your episodes for you.
• Use speech-to-text technology: There are a few speech-to-text programs you can use to transcribe your own episodes like Dragon Naturally Speaking.
• Use a SaaS platform online: There are also a few SaaS platforms that offer transcription services like Otter.ai.

One more important note. Ensure your transcriptions accurately reflect what was said on your podcast episode. If not, you could end up with a lot of angry listeners!

Write blog posts about your show.

Another often-overlooked way to optimize your website for SEO is to write blog posts about your podcast.

This gives you another opportunity to use relevant keywords and attract new listeners.

I see it all the time; A podcaster who would rather people hear his voice or see his face instead of reading a blog post. But the fact is, not everyone wants to listen to or watch a podcast. Some people would rather read about it first.

And that’s perfectly fine!

If you can reach those people with a well-written blog post, you’ve increased your chances of getting new listeners.

So, how do you write a blog post about your podcast?

First, decide what angle you’re going to take. Are you going to write a review of a recent episode? Or, are you going to share some behind-the-scenes information about the show?

Once you’ve decided on an angle, start writing! And don’t forget to include relevant keywords throughout your post.

Not sure what to write about? Here are a few ideas:

• Episode summaries: Write a summary of each episode and include a link to the episode.
• Guest interviews: If you have interesting guests on your show, write a blog post about the interview. You can even include a transcript or audio clip from the episode.
• Show notes: Share some of the highlights from each episode in a blog post. This is especially helpful if you have a long-running podcast with hundreds of episodes.
• Podcast reviews: If you’re a new show, consider writing reviews of other podcasts in your niche. This will help you attract listeners interested in that type of content.

7. Promote your podcast on social media

Social media is a great way to promote your podcast and attract new listeners.

After all, that’s what social media is for – sharing content with your followers!

When promoting your podcast on social media, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Share each episode: Share every new episode on social media. You can post a link to the episode on your website or blog or share it directly from your podcast hosting platform.
• Use images and videos: People are more likely to pay attention to your posts if they contain pictures or videos. So, add an image or video to each social media post about your podcast.
• Include a call-to-action: Tell your followers what you want them to do after listening to your episode. Do you want them to subscribe to your podcast? Leave a review?  Share the episode with friends? Make sure your call to action is clear and concise.
• Use hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to reach new people interested in your content. When promoting your podcast on social media, use relevant hashtags so people can easily find your posts.

Here are a few ideas for promoting your podcast on social media:

• Facebook: Create a Facebook page for your podcast and share each new episode. You can also join relevant Facebook groups and share your episodes there (but please don’t abuse the @everyone tag!)
• Twitter: Tweet about each new episode and use hashtags to reach new listeners.
• Instagram: Share images and videos from your podcast episodes on Instagram. You can also use Instagram Stories to promote your show.
• Pinterest: Create pins for each podcast episode and share them on Pinterest.

Promoting your podcast on social media can reach a wider audience and attract new listeners.

8. Engage with your audience and encourage reviews

Dear Podcaster,

You’re not a freaking rockstar.

You’re not Joe Rogan.

You’re not Theo Von.

You’re not even Tim Ferriss.

You’re just a regular person who makes a podcast, so act like it.

Be engaged with your audience.

Reply to their tweets.

Answer their questions.

And for the love of God, encourage them to leave reviews!

The more reviews you have, the higher your podcast will rank on iTunes (which is still the number one way people discover new podcasts).

So, how do you encourage people to leave reviews?

It’s actually pretty simple:

Just ask!

At the end of each episode, tell your listeners that you would appreciate it if they left a review on iTunes (or whatever platform they’re listening on).

You can even give them a specific reason to leave a review, like “it helps us attract new sponsors” or “it helps us get featured in iTunes”.

Whatever your reason, make sure you let your listeners know why reviews are important to you.

9. Monitor your rankings and make necessary adjustments

Lastly (and here’s where most microphone jockeys fail), you need to monitor your rankings and adjust your strategy accordingly.

This means paying attention to where your podcast ranks in iTunes, Google, and other directories.

It also means keeping an eye on your listener numbers and social media engagement.

If you see a sudden drop in rankings or engagement, look at what you’ve been doing lately and see if there’s anything you can change.

Maybe you’ve been slacking off on social media promotion.

Or maybe you’ve been using the wrong keywords in your show notes.

Whatever the case may be, it’s essential to monitor your progress and make necessary adjustments along the way.

Use actual data, not a “gut feeling,” to guide your decisions.

By following these simple tips, you can rank higher in Google search results and attract more listeners to your podcast. Just remember to be patient, consistent, and engaged with your audience. With a bit of time and effort, you’ll be on your way to success!

Hire a professional digital marketing agency.

BlakSheep Creative can help you increase your podcast’s visibility online and attract more listeners. We offer various digital marketing services, including SEO, social media promotion, and website design.

We can help you create a website optimized for SEO and designed to promote your podcast. We can also help you create social media posts that will reach a wider audience.

If you’re ready to take your podcast to the next level, contact us today!

Is the podcast market oversaturated?

It’s a valid concern. After all, there are a lot of other people out there who are trying to do the same thing you are. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give it a shot. If you have something unique to say, then there is definitely an audience for you.

The key is to make sure that your show stands out from the rest. What are you offering that other shows aren’t? How can you make sure that people will download your show instead of somebody else’s?

Answering these questions is essential if you want to be successful in the world of podcasting. But don’t feel discouraged – if you have something valuable to say, there is definitely an audience for you.

What Makes Your Podcast Unique?

The first step is to figure out what makes your podcast unique. What are you offering that other shows aren’t? There are a few ways to do this:

• Talk about topics that you’re passionate about: People can tell when you’re not being sincere, so make sure that you’re only talking about things that you’re truly interested in. This will not only make your podcast more enjoyable for you to create, but it will also make it more enjoyable for people to listen to.
• Be yourself: There’s no point in trying to be someone you’re not. Be authentic and true to yourself, and people will respond to that.
• Find your niche: There are a lot of podcasts out there, but there’s always room for more. Figure out what you’re good at and focus on that. If you’re the only podcast about fashion for plus-size women, then you’ve already got a leg up on the competition.

Oversaturated markets are scary, but they’re also an opportunity. If you can find a way to make your podcast unique, then you’ll be able to find an audience no matter how many other shows there are.

Oversaturated Podcast Niches

There are some topics that are just plain oversaturated. If you’re thinking about starting a podcast about one of these topics, you’ll need to be extra careful about making your show unique.

Some examples of oversaturated podcast niches include:

• Parenting
• News
• Comedy
• Movie Reviews
• True Crime

So, we love Reddit. It’s a great way to find out about new things and it’s a great way to learn about what people are really saying without relying on research and white papers. Here’s what some Redditors had to say about the most oversaturated podcast topics:

As you can see, the last thing these Redditors want to see is another show by a host that offers zero unique perspective.

This is why standing out is vital!

Once you determine what makes your podcast unique, you can start to focus on how to make sure that people will download your show instead of somebody else’s.

Making Your Podcast Stand Out

Once you’ve figured out what makes your podcast unique, you need to make sure that your show stands out from the rest. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Have a professional-sounding intro and outro: This will make your podcast sound more polished and professional.
• Invest in good quality equipment: This doesn’t mean that you need to spend a fortune, but using high-quality equipment will make your podcast sound better.
• Edit your episodes: This is one of the most important things you can do. Editing out any dead air or fillers will make your podcast flow more smoothly and keep people engaged.
• Be consistent: releasing new episodes on a regular schedule will keep people coming back for more.

Now that you’ve got an idea of how to make your podcast stand out, you’re ready to start sharing your voice with the world.

You need to market your podcast or else no one will know it exists.

Marketing Your Podcast

Once you’ve got your podcast up and running, you need to start marketing it. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Create social media accounts: This is a great way to get the word out about your show. Share your episodes on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Reach out to other podcasters: See if you can be a guest on other people’s shows. This will help you reach a new audience and get your name out there.
• Submit your podcast to directories: iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher are all great places to start.
• Create a website for your show: If you’re a podcaster trying to grow your business, you need to have a website for your show. Else, what will you direct your listeners to? How will you convert listeners into customers?

Does your podcast need a website? Visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help. Need help promoting your episodes? Our social media marketing for podcasters service has got you covered.

By following these tips, you can make sure that your podcast stands out from the rest and reaches the people who will appreciate it the most. Podcasting is a great way to share your voice with the world, so don’t be discouraged – if you have something valuable to say, there is definitely an audience for you.

Hire a Professional Marketing Agency

While you could try to market your podcast yourself, it’s often best to hire a professional marketing agency. An agency will have the resources and expertise to really make your show shine.

When looking for an agency, be sure to find one that specializes in podcast marketing. They will know the ins and outs of the industry and can help you create a marketing strategy that gets results.

A professional agency will also be able to provide you with other services, such as website design, graphic design, and even recording and editing. If you want to focus on creating great content and leave the marketing to the experts, hiring an agency is the way to go.

Our team at BlakSheep Creative is experienced in podcast marketing and can help you take your show to the next level. Contact us today to learn more about our services.

This is good news! With such a saturated market, you need to make your podcast stand out in the SERPs.

For Example: Here is an example of the Joe Rogan Podcast showing up with a new knowledge panel on the right-hand side of the desktop Google search results page:

This feature isn’t showing up for all podcasts, but just most other Google updates, it’ll likely be rolled out a little at a time.

Also, as usual, Google has yet to announce this new feature officially, so it’s unclear if every one of the 2 million+ podcasts will see it.

While most podcasters haven’t noticed the new knowledge panels, you can bet that we in the SEO community have:

Here are some more examples the SEO community is talking about on Twitter:

Google podcast knowledge panels go live https://t.co/9p2YkU9R53 via @jasonmbarnard @AzeemDigital @MattArtzAnthro and more pic.twitter.com/CrC9DPdthr

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) October 14, 2021

Podcasts Google Knowledge Panels Go Live https://t.co/yb6kI888Ys #seo pic.twitter.com/KdoRUzlOB3

— CaptureHits (@capturehits) October 14, 2021

What does this mean for podcasters?

We’re excited to see this! If you are a podcaster, check to see if you’re noticing this new knowledge panel in Google’s search results. If not, it could be related to the RSS feed that your podcast is produced on.

Unfortunately, as we mentioned earlier, Google is tight-lipped on the subject.

So, in their silence, we tell our clients to stick to the basics:

Stick to the basics of podcasting SEO

Have a great podcast title and description, including the keywords that you know people are searching for in Google.

These knowledge panels seem to be showing up in search results with keywords and phrases like “podcast,” “how-to,” and even just plain ol’ generic terms like “podcasts.”

So by having these keywords in your title and description, it’ll likely help you appear higher in Google’s search results.

Do all of the things we tell every SEO client to do:

• Be active on social media
• Have links throughout your website (if you don’t have a website, you might want to get one ASAP if you want to compete in the podcasting market).
• Promote your podcast or episodes everywhere
• Have a link to your website from somewhere on every episode
• Have links to Amazon, iTunes, etc. in your website’s store section.
• Help us promote your podcast!
• Incorporate podcast schema into your website

Here’s a secret: even if you have a podcast, there’s a high chance that Google doesn’t know it.

SEO for Podcasters

Podcasting is a great way to connect with your audience, but Google doesn’t always show the best podcasts in their search results.

We can help you get more listeners by making sure that Google shows your podcast at the top of its search results.

Our SEO for podcasters services will make sure that your podcast gets found when people are searching for it online.

We’ll also optimize your website so that it’s easier to find on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This will boost both traffic and sales!

If you don’t have a website for your show, stop what you’re doing and contact us today. You can look at our pay-per-month website options or visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

Contact us to learn how we can help today!

Some Podcast Websites We’ve Created:

Related Articles:

We will go over the basics of how a podcast works, show you some quality equipment, give you tips in choosing a hosting service, optimizing your podcast for search engines, and more.

When you’re finished reading this tutorial, you’ll have all of the information you need to create your very own podcast and add it to your WordPress website. If you’d rather leave it up to a professional, visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

Ready, let’s go.

What is a podcast, and how do they work?

A podcast is an audio series that is typically broken down into episodes. The episodes can either be downloaded or streamed through different platforms and applications.

For your podcast to be available to the public, you’ll need to have an audio file and an RSS feed. Because WordPress has a built-in RSS feed for blogs, it is a natural choice for podcasters.

It’s easy to connect your podcast with several applications such as iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Anchor.FM, Audioboom, and more. The simple process makes it easy for you to increase exposure and grow your audience. We’ll explain in more detail later.

Now that you know the basic requirements for a podcast let’s go over setting one up.

How to set up your podcast.

For your fans to be able to listen to your podcast, you’ll need the following:

• A podcast website or blog where people can learn more about you and your podcast.
• Recording and editing equipment to produce the audio files.
• Publishing tools to get your podcast on to the internet.

We’ll guide you through the process of setting up a podcast below. If you get stuck or need help, please feel free to comment on this post or email us at web@blaksheepcreative.com. We’ll be happy to help.

Choose a domain name and web hosting for your site.

First, you have to choose a domain. Your domain is the name people type in to find your website.

Typically, you’ll want to use your podcast name if it’s available, but anything will work.

Simply go to GoDaddy, NameCheap, or any other domain registrar to find an available domain and register it.

We won’t go into much detail on choosing a domain because each has a different process, but all of them will help you.

Next, you need to have a place for your website to live on the web. This is what we refer to as hosting (this is different from where your audio files are hosted on a podcast network, we’ll explain later).

We highly recommend self-hosted WordPress due to its flexibility in terms of design and functionality.

You don’t even have to be an HTML genius or know how to code. Drag and drop builders like Divi and Elementor page builder make creating any WordPress website quick and easy.

When it comes to WordPress websites, WPEngine is, without a doubt, the best. They’re somewhat pricey compared to other hosting providers, but the security, daily backups, and speed are well worth it.

After you register your domain name and purchase hosting for your website, you can proceed with setting up your WordPress site.

Because this article is mainly written for people wanting to add a podcast to an existing website, we won’t go through setting up your WordPress site, but here’s an excellent tutorial:

Selecting a hosting platform for your media.

Because audio files are big, you should not host them on your web server. If you do host them on your web server, they’ll consume a lot of resources and slow your website down, completely ruining user experience and search engine rankings.

For best results, you should use a specialized media hosting service.

There are several podcast hosting services and podcasting apps to choose from, such as:

• Blubrry
• Libsyn
• Podbean
• Spreaker

For this tutorial, we’ll use Blubrry. It is one of the most popular podcasting hosting providers for many reasons:

• Blubrry is optimized for podcasting with WordPress. The Blubrry PowerPress plugin gives you complete control over your podcast from within your WordPress dashboard.
• They have a massive user community and forums to connect with other podcasters and get support if you need it.
• They feature several helpful features such as free listen and download statistics, website/podcast feed/SEO tools, audio and video players, iTunes and Google play optimization, and much more.
• Blubrry’s media hosting is top-notch, ensuring that your audio content loads quickly and plays clearly to your listeners.

At this point, go sign up for Blubrry and set up your account and podcast information there.

Essential equipment for podcasting

Microphone

Although there are several great tools that you can use to produce a high-quality podcast, a great microphone is a must-have item.

It’s critical to record using a quality microphone. It’s not required that you have a Shure SM7B microphone like Joe Rogan, although it’s well worth it if you can afford the $400.

Instead, choose something better than your computer’s built-in microphone so that you don’t sound like you’re talking into a pillow.

Audio recording software

In addition to a high-quality microphone, you’ll need software to record and edit your podcast’s audio. Many podcasters use Audacity because of its ease of use and price point (it’s free).

You’re not recording a multitrack symphonic concept album, so you’ll want to stick with simple recording software and leave ProTools to the professionals.

In this article, we’ll stick to Audacity and show you how to use it for your podcast.

After you’ve downloaded and installed Audacity, open up the software and go to the File menu to create a new project.

With your new project created, you’re all set to start recording. Click on the record button to start recording.

You’ll be able to edit your podcast when you’re done recording, so don’t worry about any unwanted noises or pauses. You can edit those out later.

After you’ve recorded and edited your podcast, it’s time to export it.

Most podcasters export their audio files as MP3s or MP4s because their file size is small, yet they have excellent audio quality.

When naming your podcast files, include the episode number in the file name to help you organize your recordings in your archive.

Also, for the sake of both organization and SEO, name your files something other than 01000043.mp3.

Instead, use descriptive text, no underscores, and try to slip keywords in the file name if at all possible. For example:

Fighting-baton-rouge-traffic-episode1.mp3

Keep all of your recordings in a single folder on your computer until you archive them on the cloud or USB (which you’ll want to do for safe-keeping and to keep your hard drive free of space).

For more information on all of Audacity’s features, be sure to browse their step-by-step tutorials.

Publishing your podcast on WordPress

Once you have your first podcast episode, it’s time to publish it on your website.

Login to your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New in the left sidebar. Search the repository for PowerPress and install the PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry.

There’s another podcasting plugin you might hear about called – Seriously Simple Podcasting.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll use PowerPress, because it’s just that good.

After the plugin is installed and you activate it, you’ll notice a new item on the left sidebar of your dashboard.

Click it to configure the plugin.

First, you’ll need to configure your hosting services from within the PowerPress plugin. Again, for this article, we will assume that you’ve chosen Blubrry for your hosting provider. 

If you’ve opted to use a different host for your media and need help, contact us, and we can help you.

Next, go to PowerPress in the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard, and click on Settings. 

Click on the Let’s Connect button, which will take you to the Blubrry Services Integration window.

Then, enter your Blubrry username (email address) and password. Make sure to save your changes by clicking Save.

Now, you’ll need to complete all of the information on the PowerPress settings page.

PowerPress Settings

Feeds

Click on the feeds button, then click on the podcast feeds row on the left to set up your podcast further.  Make the settings look like this, replacing the placeholder text with information specific to your show.

Feed settings

Complete all of the input boxes with your podcast’s information.

Artwork and iTunes Image

Enter the image URL to an image hosted on your website that you want to use for your podcast. It needs to be a minimum of 1400 x 1400 pixels and should be in either JPEG or PNG format.

Again, name this image something descriptive like “The SEO Podcast by BlakSheep Creative.” 

Both search engine spiders and visually-impaired (and other users using screen readers) use your file name and alt text to determine/describe your image when necessary.

Upload your podcast’s artwork, paying attention to the plugin’s requirements.

Podcasting SEO

In this section, you can tweak the SEO settings for your podcast.  

Pay attention to the two following items, as they help you get a little SEO boost in the search engines.

• Schema.org audio objects
• Schema.org video objects

Selecting the applicable one will insert markup to help search engines better understand your podcast and help serve your website in search engines results pages.

We’ve written an excellent article about the importance of optimizing your podcasting for search engines and why you should do it for success.

Basic Show Information

Complete the fields on this section as applicable.  It’s pretty straightforward.

Rating Settings

Select the appropriate audience for your podcast and note if your show contains explicit content.

Apple Settings

• iTunes Program Subtitle – Intro subtitle for iTunes. Use your tagline if you have one.
• iTunes Program Summary – Summary of your program (up to 4,000 characters)
• iTunes Category – Select an appropriate category for your podcast.
• iTunes Explicit – Select whether your podcast contains explicit material or not.
• iTunes Type – If you want your most recent episode displayed first, choose episodic. If you want your newest episode listed last, choose serial. (episodic is the default setting).

Website Settings

Here is where you’ll configure the PowerPress plugin for your website (whereas we configured your plugin for your podcast in the step above).

Complete the website settings section like below.

Blog Posts and Pages

Display Media & Links

Choose the default location for your podcast player and media links. By default, they appear below the page’s content, but you can also choose to put them above the content.

If you want, you can disable this entirely and add the PowerPress shortcode [powerpress] manually. Using the shortcode tends to be the best option, as it gives you complete control over the player’s placement.

After you’ve configured the rest of the plugin’s settings, make sure to click the save changes button at the bottom of the page.

Pro tip: When working in WordPress, you can never press the save button too much. Save after you’ve made any significant changes to avoid losing your work.

Destinations

Go through and complete all the sections for each of the places where you want your podcast to go, i.e., Apple, Google, Pandora, etc.  Chances are, you’ll have to make an account at each of those locations.

Uploading your audio files to Blubrry

Before you publish your podcast on your site, you’ll need to upload the audio file to Blubrry.

First, log in to your Blubrry account. Then click the button in the upper right-hand corner to visit your Podcast dashboard.

In the Podcast Hosting section, click on Upload New Media Files.

In the Podcast Hosting section, click on Upload New Media Files.

In the next screen that appears, click the Upload New Media link near the bottom and upload your file.

Now that you’ve uploaded your audio file, you’ll be able to add it to your WordPress site.

Configuring your podcast player

Episode Titles – Use this section to adjust the title of your podcast feeds.

• Feed episode title replaces post title (default)
• Feed episode title prefixes post title
• Feed episode title appended to post title

AudioObjects – Adds Schema.org audio objects to your podcast (enable this). Schema markup is extra code that lets search engines your podcast’s content and will give you an SEO boost.

VideoObjects – Includes video objects in microdata format. If you use video in your podcast, you’ll want to enable this.

Podcast Directory SEO Guidance – Turning this on will give you more control over items relating to Podcast Directory SEO, including:

• Highlight fields for Podcasting SEO
• Enabling the iTunes Subtitle field
• Enabling the iTunes Author field
• Enabling the Enhanced iTunes Summary feature

After configuring your SEO settings, make sure to click the Save Changes button.

To learn more about Podcasting SEO, visit our recent post, “Podcast SEO 101: How to Optimize your Podcast for Search Engines.”

Audio Player

Although there are several plugins that you can use to add a podcast player to your WordPress pages and posts, we’ll stick to the one that comes with PowerPress.

Go to PowerPress in the left sidebar of your dashboard and click on audio player to choose the player you want to use.

Choose from the following players:

Blubrry Audio Player – This modern audio player is only available to customers using Blubrry’s media hosting service. It has both subscribe and share tools, show notes, and download options.

MediaElement.js Media Player – This is the default HTML5 audio and video player for Blubrry. It supports both audio (mp3, mp4, and oga) and video (mp4, m4v, webm, ogv, and flv) media files.

It also includes various playback features and has a play/pause button, scrollable position bar, total and elapsed time, mute button, and volume control.

Powerpress’s default player is HTML and CSS-based and meets accessibility standards, including WebVTT. It can be played in any browser using HTML5, Flash (although outdated), or Silverlight.

HTML5 Audio Player – This bare-bones player was created for HTML5 and plays audio-only.

After choosing the player you’d like to use, as always, be sure to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

Video Player

If your podcast includes video, you can include the Blubrry video player in your podcast also.

MediaElement.js Media Player – This player has the same features as the audio player but also plays video.

HTML5 Video Player – This video player uses the latest HTML5 specifications to play videos.

VideoJS – This is an HTML5, Javascript, and CSS video player that falls back to Flash for non-HTML5 browsers. You have to install and activate the VideoJS – HTML5 Video Player for WordPress plugin to use this player.

MP3 Tags

If you’re using Blubrry to host your media files (which we recommend), you can also configure your MP3 ID3 tags before publishing any episodes of your podcast.

While the default settings will work just fine for most podcasts, you can adjust the following items if you’d like:

• Title Tag
• Artist Tag
• Album Tag
• Genre Tag
• Year Tag
• Track Tag
• Composer Tag
• Copyright Tag
• URL Tag
• Coverart Tag

To add your cover art, enter a URL to an image hosted on your website (e.g., mysite.com/images/podast-art.jpg). It is a best practice to size your cover art at 600 x 600 pixels, saved as a GIF, JPEG, or PNG file.

Adding your podcast in WordPress

After uploading your media file and configuring your podcast player, it’s time to add your podcast in WordPress.

First, create a new post by going to Podcast > Add New in your dashboard’s left sidebar.

The good thing is that the plugin has created a custom post type to leave your posts free for typical blog posts.

This time, instead of showing you an image of how to do it, we’ll show you a completed one from one of our clients, Real Life Real Crime by Woody Overton, an award-winning true-crime podcast with nearly 2M downloads!

Notes: 

• We built the RLRC Website site uses the Divi page builder to give it a little extra pizazz.
• They use Audioboom instead of Blubrry, so the url may look different, but the idea is the same.

In the edit post area, scroll down to the Podcast Episode section. Here you will add a link to your media file.

If your file is hosted on Blubrry, you can click the folder icon to locate the file or enter the media URL manually. If you’re hosting your file elsewhere, you have to enter the URL.

Once you’ve added the media link, click the Verify URL button to double-check that you’ve added the correct link. Now, you can go back to the top of the edit post screen to add some details.

First, give your post a quality title. Then, you can add a nice description for your podcast episode, which will help optimize it for SEO. Next, add the [powerpress] shortcode to embed the Blubrry media player wherever you’d like within your post content.

You’re now ready to publish your first podcast episode and preview it to see what it looks like. Adjust whatever you need to, and start sharing it.

Submitting your podcast to iTunes

After you add your podcast to your WordPress website, it’s time to get more listens and subscribers by submitting it to iTunes.

Podbean has an excellent article on how to submit your podcast to iTunes.  Click the link to visit it, or watch the video below:

Next visit ITunesconnect and login.

To submit your podcast, you’ll need to have an Apple ID. If you don’t have one, sign up.

After logging in, click on the Podcasts Connect icon.

Next, you’ll be brought the Apple Podcasts Connect login screen.  Go ahead and login using your Apple ID.

Then, you’ll be taken to a page where you will enter your podcast feed URL (the same one that you used before).

Enter the URL and click on the Validate button to check your podcast and see if it is ready for 

iTunes. If there are errors, go back to your website and fix them within the PowerPress settings.

In the next screenshot, we’ve added and submitted an episode, but created errors for you to see what they may look like.

Once your podcast is validated and you are satisfied with it, click on the Submit button.

Once you submit your podcast, it will be added to iTunes’ review list, and once approved, iTunes will include it in their directory, and you will receive an email notification.

Monetizing your podcast

Your podcast costs you money to create, right?

There are fees associated with your website, podcast hosting, recording hardware, and software, so why not make a little money on your podcast?

There are many ways to make money with your podcast, including those listed below.

Sponsorships – Often, businesses sponsor podcasts, either on an ongoing basis or supporting a particular episode. A common way is to mention the sponsor at the beginning of your podcast.

Advertising – You could offer 30-second advertising spots just like on the radio. These spots can be sold to businesses, or you can use them yourself to drive listeners to affiliate products that you recommend.

Donations – Your listeners can help support your podcast by donating. You can add a PayPal button to your website and make it easy for anyone to contribute.

eCommerce – You can add an online store to your website and use your podcast to promote and sell your products.

Affiliate Links – Use your podcast to drive subscribers to your affiliate links. Include them in the show notes in a special section called “recommended products” and add links to your affiliates.

Guest hosting and appearances – Once your podcast becomes successful, you can offer others the opportunity to be a guest host or appear on your show and charge them a fee.

Email list – Use your podcast to help build your email list. Email marketing is one of the tools you can use to sell products and services, so don’t overlook it. You can then sell products and services VIA your email list.

Conclusion

Well, there you go. Hopefully, this tutorial has given you enough information to start a podcast on a WordPress website. 

If there’s anything that we can do to help you create your own WordPress website for your podcast, or if you’d rather let a professional do it for you, contact us, or complete the form below for a free consultation.

You don’t need anything special to start a podcast; however, if you really want to grow your podcast, take it to the next level, and even make money from podcasting, it takes a little more time and energy.

The good news is that we’re about to show you some tips on how to level up your podcast and why it needs a website.

But first, let’s talk about your branding.

Your Podcast’s Brand

One of the biggest mistakes that we see podcasters make is leaving their brand to the podcast hosting platforms.

It’s common knowledge that most listeners come from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Anchor.fm, and the like. But, if you don’t control your brand from the onset, you could face difficulties with making your podcast sustainable in the long run.

You must think of your brand as more than just a sixty-minute audio or video clip broadcasted over the internet.

Instead, think of your podcast as a brand. And, you need to own that brand just like you would a new business.

Consider the below image from one of our recently launched podcast websites – Local Leaders: The Podcast.

You must own and have control over all aspects of your podcast, including:

• Website
• Domain
• Web hosting
• Social media profiles

By controlling these elements, you can ensure consistent branding for your podcast to increase brand awareness, i.e. (color scheme, logo, tagline, etc.)=

7 Reasons Your Podcast Needs A Website

A website for your podcast is essential, and in this article, we’ll explain why you’re missing out by not having one.

Your website gives listeners another way to listen to/watch your podcast.

Like we said earlier, it’s true that most of your listeners are probably doing so on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or other podcasting platforms. Some may even be watching episodes on YouTube.

However, you can still reach potential listeners (and watchers) through your own website that’s accessible to anyone at any time of the day.

Plus, it’s easier to share your website’s URL than just giving your podcast’s name. You could even have an audio player right there on your site for your listeners and keep them from having to browse through numerous apps and other websites.

Think of your website as your digital storefront, a place where you control the experience and make it easy for people to find and engage with your content. In fact, recent studies show that 97% of consumers search online for local businesses and 81% conduct online research before making a purchase. This means having a strong online presence is crucial for reaching your audience, and a website is a key part of that. To learn more about maximizing your digital footprint, check out this article: Is Your Business Lost in the Digital Crowd?

Does your podcast need a website? Visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

Your website offers increased engagement with existing listeners.

If you’re already an established podcaster, you may have several regular listeners, and they probably view the show notes on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Sure, they get those little extras that you tack on to the show’s content by way of textual content.

But that’s nothing in comparison to what you can offer through your website.

You can share text, images, videos, visual content, blog posts, links, and videos directly on the page to increase engagement on a website.

This is a game-changer, as you can provide your fans with more content and more ways for them to benefit from each episode and engage with your brand.

For example:

Having a website for your podcast gives your listeners and visitors a way to contact you directly (without memorizing an email address or hunting you down on Facebook).  

Instead, they simply visit your contact page and fire off an email – something that’s not so easy if your only online presence is podcasting platforms.

Your website can help you monetize your podcast.

That’s right! Your website can help you get paid!

Not all podcasts start off generating ad revenue. However, as your audience grows and you rack up listens and views, it could become an excellent time for you to consider making money from your podcast.

Think about it.

Podcasting takes a lot of time, money, effort, equipment, and other expenses, so it’s beneficial to think about recouping some of it back.

Monetizing your podcast is how you do just that.

When your podcast is only available on the usual platforms or social media networks, it is usually hard to control monetization. Your primary revenue source would come from ads inserted into the podcast itself by your hosting service or perhaps a Patreon campaign.

Need help promoting your episodes? Visit our social media marketing for podcasters service page to learn how we can help.

You see, having a website for your podcast can mean the difference between recouping none of your investment or making a living off of your show. Here’s how:

Ways to make money from your podcast

• Create an eCommerce store on your website and sell your own swag. You can easily create an online store and sell products, merchandise, and other physical goods. On top of that, you can also deliver digital products such as eBooks, audio, video, and images, you name it. You can sell your listeners anything that you want.
• Create a members-only premium section of your website. For example, if you’re offering a bi-weekly podcast, you can use the time between episodes to create premium content and sell access through your website. Don’t limit yourself to audio. You can create articles, courses, forums, or anything else behind a paywall (membership) and sell subscriptions. Create special offers on swag for members only.
• If your podcast is for a business, you could promote your own products and services throughout your episodes. If your podcast and business websites are connected, you have another way of funneling potential customers to your business.
• Sell sponsored posts, sections, and affiliate links. Sure, you probably don’t want to plaster each page with random ads, but selling prime real estate on your site is a great way to offset costs associated with your podcast. Trust me, once your site starts getting enough traffic, you’ll get offers for sponsored posts in your email from people wanting to get their brand in front of your visitors.
• Accept donations on your podcast website. Most WordPress sites (and other platforms) make it easy to set up a donation page to allow your visitors to support your show.

Your website can help you get more listeners.

After you’ve created your podcast’s website, populated it with content (text, audio, images, videos, and more), and regularly update it, search engines will index it and rank it online.

Organic traffic is an excellent way to bring visitors to your website, some of which will likely end up being regular listeners.

#2019PODCASTING
Infographic on 2019 Podcasting Statistics and Facts

Blog Article: How To Find Topics For Your Podcast https://t.co/04Vn2gJWWU

Blog Article: What Makes a Good Podcast: Tips and Tricks https://t.co/MUQC0P1eNL pic.twitter.com/057xURWEu2

— ColoradoMediaSchool (@CoMediaSchool) November 9, 2019

It’s also easier for them to share your website on social networks and newsletters. Plus, as we said earlier, people also will have the option to listen to your podcast right there on the website.

A Podcast website allows you to grow your audience exponentially, especially if you have well-written show notes on topics that people are likely to be searching online.

Your website gives you more control.

As we said at the beginning of the article, you have control over your data and brand with your podcast website.

(Well, not if you’re using Wix, because they’re proprietary, and they own your website’s content. If you ever decide to leave Wix, you’ll have a hard time taking your content with you, but that’s for another time.)

A website for your podcast gives you more control and flexibility. You’re free to do with it whatever you want without being limited to the podcast platforms’ guidelines, structures, and terms of service.

Plus, using content management software (CMS) such as WordPress allows you to scale your podcasting business as fast (or as slow) as you need to. There are countless WordPress Themes and WordPress Plugins that you can use to add just about any functionality you can imagine.

Your website gives you one place to store all of your content.

Some platforms may limit the number of podcast episodes that you release. If you record one more podcast show or series, you could encounter issues. If you run a podcast network or create multiple podcasts, a website is a great way to have all of your content in one place and control how it’s being displayed.

Your website helps your show’s visibility and exposure.

A website helps you promote your podcast in search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

By properly optimizing your podcast for search engines through the practice of, you guessed it, search engine optimization (SEO), you can increase your site’s visibility to generate free traffic.

When search engines crawl and index your website, they’ll see all of your content, such as show notes, and other textual and visual content, and rank you accordingly in organic search engine results pages (SERPS)

Just by having a website and doing a little SEO, you’ll gain traffic and podcast listeners.

And guess who loves traffic?

Advertisers.

Conclusion

Some key takeaways here:

A website is essential for any brand or business, but now you should see why it’s a powerful tool for podcasts and podcasters.

A website can help you take your podcast to the next level and provides countless opportunities for you to monetize it, grow your community, and offer more content to keep your listeners engaged.

Here at BlakSheep Creative, we specialize in helping podcasters expand their digital footprint and find success online.

Contact us to see how we can help you.

A recent webinar from Edison Research explained how podcast listening is on the rise, with a 150% increase since 2014.

Because of this increase, you can expect podcast SEO to be a growing term among digital marketing and SEO professionals and podcast hosts.

“Podcast SEO” is now a popular term, and there is an excellent opportunity for successful podcasts to build their audience through search traffic.

So what is Podcast SEO, and how can you optimize your podcast for search engines?

We’re glad you asked. Here’s everything that you need to know.

Podcasts are displayed in Google searches.

Potential listeners can search for a podcast and find episodes to listen to right there on the search results.

The podcast’s indexing will return audio content for listeners to listen to directly.

Google and other search engines’ can analyze your show’s audio and automatically transcribe it to highlight a specific podcast in relevant search results.

Google Podcasts already transcribes the podcast to use the content as metadata to help people find specific information that’s part of an episode without knowing about the podcast before.

This is huge because it shows Google’s hand. Although Google is super-secretive and never tells us exactly how their ranking algorithm works, sometimes they’ll give hints or suggestions (such as automatically transcribing podcasts or their helpful content update) that help us SEO professionals make changes to gain their favor.

Google is going to start indexing podcasts and return audio results in SERPs. That means voice answers are going to be direct clips from audio content at some point soon.

— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) May 7, 2019

How does this tie into podcast SEO?

Keep reading, you’ll see.

Think of SEO when structuring your episodes

So, how do these hints and changes from Google affect your podcast?

Let’s start by talking about the structure of your pieces of content.

Although a podcast can feel like a casual conversation between friends, it should have a structure and a theme.

Whether you’re producing formal or informal content, you must have a clear theme.

Think about what topics you want to talk about and how your questions can flow from one to another.

Keeping things flowing smoothly helps Google understand and index your show’s content.

Plus, having a clear theme will help your listeners to understand your primary focus and not get lost in the conversation.

Creating a website for your podcast

It’s not required for you to have a website to start your podcast; however, it’s beneficial.

Learn the benefits of having a website for your podcast and why it’s a must. If you’d rather have a professional create one for you, visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

All you need for your podcast is a hosting provider like Audioboom or Libsyn.

However, if you want to succeed, you’ll need to start thinking of SEO more seriously and make sure that you own your data and relationship with your subscribers.

Having a website for your podcast will help you build an email list to grow your fanbase. Plus, a website can help you improve your podcast’s SEO because it’s easier for search engines to discover and understand your episodes when you provide additional context to them.

The best way to give search engines more context is by publishing a new blog post for each audio or video episode.

Having posts for each episode is a great way to build your podcast’s content and makes it easier for search engines to understand your central theme and target keywords.

Treat these posts for your podcast just like you would any other blog post, and make sure to link from one episode to another. The goal is to keep your audience engaged.

Since we mentioned it, let’s dive deeper into how keywords and podcasting go hand-in-hand.

Add keywords to your podcast episodes.

First, your podcast’s title is your number-one keyword. But that’s not the only thing you want to rank for in the SERPS. If you only ranked for your podcast’s name, people would have to be already searching for it specifically to find it. That won’t help you grow your audience, now will it?

Instead, when creating content for your episodes, choose one primary keyword to describe it.

Consider the episode’s theme, structure, topics, guests, etc., and choose a keyword to describe it.

Don’t optimize every episode for the same keyword.

Using the same keyword on each episode increases your risk of what we SEO professionals call cannibalization. Cannibalization is essentially competing against yourself, having two separate pieces of content ranking for the same phrase, topic, or keyword.

Instead, perform keyword research and find keywords with a high search volume and (preferably).

Consider shooting for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are broader keywords that are easier to rank for.

We discuss long-tail keywords more in-depth in our super SEO post….

Choose episode titles carefully.

Your episode titles will determine whether potential listeners will actually listen to them.

Even when someone discovers your show, they aren’t guaranteed to listen to every episode if your titles aren’t appealing enough.

Keep your titles clear and descriptive, and keep character limitations in mind. 

 Podcastwebsites.com has an excellent article about titling your episodes that’s worth a read.

Adding your keyword in the title is a must, but make sure to add it in context with the rest of the content.

Should you include the episode’s transcript?

Yes!

Even though Google transcribes the podcasts, they aren’t perfect.

Providing written content of your episodes helps search engines understand them in more detail. Written content can drastically improve your episodes’ discoverability by focusing on keywords, content structure, and topics.

Plus, a transcription makes your podcast more accessible to people (especially your hearing-impaired fans). If you want to get fancy, you can split the topics that you’re discussing into time brackets to help all listeners find them easily in the audio or video content.

We realize that podcast transcriptions can be time-consuming and that not every host might be ready for this step. Still, if you’re serious about building your audience and improving your podcast’s SEO, we advise you to consider it.

You’ll benefit in the longer term, we promise.

Podcast Metadata

Just like any other content on the web, metadata can provide additional details about your content. For example, your episode description should explain what the episode is about and offer potential listeners more insight into the topics covered.

Plus, the meta description (metadata) is great SEO real estate to allow search engines to comprehend your episode’s topic.

Add your primary keyword, but don’t get carried away. Unnatural use of your keywords repeatedly is known as keyword stuffing, and Google hates keyword stuffing.

Another piece of metadata, tags, are also helpful for your SEO. Tags allow people to discover episodes by looking at specific genres or categories.

Feel free to add several tags, as long as they are relevant to your podcast.

Think of your potential audience and what terms they’ll likely type in search boxes to find your podcast.

Link to your podcast on all social media

Link building is at the crux of any SEO, be it a syndicated blog or a small local podcast.

Plus, sharing is caring.

An indication of any podcast’s success is the number of shares and comments it receives on social media.

You don’t have to be as big as Joe Rogan to benefit from positive comments or shares on social media.

By the way, search engines take note of people engaging with your podcast on social media; this is called social signals. Google loves user engagement.

Back to linking your podcast on social media.

Like any other content online, content marketing is a vital way to ensure your success.

Choose social media channels and other forms of promotion based on your topics and target audience.

For example, An auto mechanic podcast might not benefit as well from Pinterest as they may from Facebook.

Next, encourage people to share the link if they’ve enjoyed your show and create tracking links (GTM) to find the best performing channels.

Sales Pitch Alert!

Data and analytics are kind of our thing. We can help you track and analyze your podcast data and show you ways to expand your reach. Contact us if you’d like to learn how we can help you.

End sales pitch.

Need help promoting your episodes? Visit our social media marketing for podcasters service page to learn how we can help.

Reviews make for great social proof.

Reviews from listeners play a massive factor in your podcast’s success. It’s not just an indicator of your podcast’s quality but improves your social proof.

Encourage your listeners to leave you a review if they’ve enjoyed the podcast.

Start with your current subscribers, and make it as effortless as possible.

Social proof is beneficial for your podcast’s SEO because it informs search engines of the most successful and engaging content pieces.

Add your podcast to Google Podcasts.

This one’s kind of a given.

Google Podcasts is owned by… you guessed it…. Google.

So, uploading your podcasts to Google is another way to show up on their radar.

If you’re not uploading your podcasts to Google Podcasts yet, it’s fast and easy to do. Just add your podcast’s RSS feed.

By uploading your podcast to Google podcasts, you’re more likely to show up as an audio snippet in the coveted rich snippets.

Quality content first, SEO next.

Creating quality content should always be your focus.

Always.

Content and audio quality are the main factors in your podcast’s success. Promotion and search engine optimization will only work if you have a good starting point for your podcast.

Come up with a creative title, a unique topic, and pay attention to your sound quality. Focusing on these things will help your audience connect with you, and you can work with that to increase your success with SEO.

Let us know if you have any comments or questions about Podcasting SEO or anything we can help you with.