AP 0705: How Can I Get More Questions for My Podcast?

AskPat 705 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here. Welcome to Episode 705 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions, five days a week.

Now, here's today's question from Paul.

Paul: Hi, Pat. This is Paul Johnson. I've recently launched a podcast called The God Zone Show. Like you, I use SpeakPipe to generate questions to be played and answered on the show. I'm looking to increase listener participation in using the SpeakPipe. I was wondering what volume of website traffic have you found needed to generate enough questions for a weekly show and how can I increase my listener participation in my SpeakPipe to achieve that? Thanks so much.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Paul. What's up? Thank you so much for the question. Congrats on the new podcast. I'm really excited to hear that you're using SpeakPipe to collect voicemail questions. We could hear voices, just like we just heard yours. I would recommend a lot of people try to do this because it's a really great way to engage your audience and get them to know that you're listening to them, but also hear from people just like them, too. That's why, I think a lot of people like AskPat. I'm very encouraged here.

In the very beginning, it's going to be hard to get people to ask questions. Especially in various issues. It might be a security barrier or people might just not feel comfortable sharing what they need to share on air. You can mention some things beforehand. That might make them feel more comfortable. For example, you can leave an anonymous voice mail. Don't leave your name. People might feel more comfortable with that. Or you can, if you wanted to start out, you can answer questions via email, but it would be your voice asking the questions on behalf of the person asking it via email. People are going to be a little bit more comfortable at first. Then, you can start getting into voicemails after that, once you have a bank of questions, the show becomes a little bit more popular.

If you only have, you know, 50 to 100 listeners, it's going to be hard to get even a couple people to leave voicemail questions. Once you get into the thousands, you're going to find yourself getting a couple voicemail questions here and there. It just grows exponentially.

For me, I do one thing in particular that helps people or, I think, incentivizes people. That's exactly what it is. I incentivize them to come on the show. I do that in a couple of ways. First of all, I allow people, if they choose to, some people choose to remain anonymous. Some people choose to mention their name and their website. That way they get a little bit of exposure here. You can mention that, too, if you'd like. If that's something that your followers might benefit from if they have websites. Again, it might not matter for some niches.

Then, I also incentivize by saying every person who gets featured here on the show gets an AskPat t-shirt. You don't have to use t-shirts. You could use something else, maybe a personal email from you, or x minutes of your time to run something by you or whatever. You can incentivize them with things other than t-shirts. The t-shirt, I just felt, was a cool idea. I'm getting sponsorship money. I wanted to use a little bit of that to give back to all of you. Of course, Paul, you're going to get a t-shirt after this show, as well.

Incentivize in some way. Make sure you continue to ask. Within every episode, make sure you ask. Just like I do at the end of AskPat. I always, you'll hear it in just a moment. I always ask people to come to AskPat.com and hit the red record button. It's very easy. I think you just have to get people to know that it's easy. It doesn't have to be the best sound quality in the world. I think once you help people overcome those barriers in their heads, they're going to be more likely to leave questions. Always mention how much you appreciate it, too.

You could start with the emails. It might be more simple. You could even get questions on social media. That might even be more simple. Then, you can upgrade to the voicemails from there. I think it's just going to take a little bit of time, Paul, especially now that you've just started out. That's what you can do. You can incentivize. You could even put together . . . I'm just thinking off the top of my head here. You could put together a PDF guide or something where everybody who submits a question gets the PDF guide.

What's cool about SpeakPipe is you also collect people's email addresses. You'd be able to potentially, you were honest about this, you could export those emails and they would be on your list at the same time. There isn't something that I believe at this current time, this current moment in time, automatically subscribes SpeakPipe voicemail questions to an email list, like on ConvertKit or AWeber or InfusionSoft. That could be a tool that could become handy in the future. For now, you can do that manually, again, if you're honest with that. That could be a cool way for you to follow up with all those people and also give them a gift at the same time and start to collect a pool of questions that you could use for the show.

Paul, thank you so much. I really appreciate the question. I want to send you, like I said earlier, an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. For everybody else listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com and you can ask right there on the page.

Thanks so much for listening. I appreciate you. Here's a quote to finish off the day, as always. This one is from Napoleon Hill. He says, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Are you creating your deadlines for your dreams? Do it.

All right, guys. Take care. I'll see you the next episode of AskPat. Bye.