AP 0280: What Does a Podcast-Only Website Look Like?

AskPat 280 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What is up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 280 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today.

And I have a quick announcement. If you're looking for the first thirty episodes of AskPat, unfortunately SoundCloud's feed—and so do many other hosting companies—they only show the first 250 episodes, and that's for reasons that are based off of file sizes and things like that, on fees, and it's a little technical, but it's okay. If you want to get the first thirty episodes, you can go to SoundCloud.com/askpat. Check that out. Especially if you want to go to Episode 1, which is by far the most popular with over 200,000 downloads. You can check it out. SoundCloud.com/askpat. And hopefully we'll get that fixed soon. Apparently it's their number one request over at SoundCloud to get that fixed, because a lot of people, like myself, have more than 250 episodes.

So, here we go, this is Episode 280, and before we get to today's question from Elaine, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is Lynda.com, an amazing site to go to to help you learn anything you want. It is seriously high-quality studio-style tutorials to help you with all different kinds of things. I mean, I'm browsing the library right now. There's everything from audio to music, business, and in the business section there's software like Excel, Google AdWords and Google Analytics. I know a lot of you could find that useful. And also course topics like productivity, leadership, and data analysis, and business skills. I've used the photography in the marketing sections before as well, to look at courses. Again, check it out, and they got a great deal for you today. For those of you listening to Ask Pat right now, you could sign up for your free ten-day trial, all access to thousands of courses that are available there, by going to Lynda.com/askpat. Again, Lynda.com/askpat.

Sweet! Now, let's get to today's question from Elaine, all the way in Toronto.

Elaine: Hey Pat! What's up? It's Elaine calling from Toronto. I hear a lot of people saying that when you're starting off, to build a name for yourself online, a platform in other words, that you should choose to make either a blog site or do a podcast, but not try to both at the same time. So, my question for you is, if I go the podcasting route, then what do I put on my website besides the Smart Podcast Player? What else would I want on my site that would contribute to building my platform if there's no blog there? Along with that, I was wondering as well, if I want to start a podcast do I need to pay for the premium courses out there that cost, like, two grand, or will I be able to have as much success just using, let's say, your free podcast tutorials? Because I did watch the webinars of some of the expensive courses, and they mention some strategies to get into the hot newsworthy, and all that, and I don't know if I need to take those courses because they cost a lot. So, maybe you can give me some advice on there, too. So, I guess those are my two questions. Thanks, Pat! Keep it up!

Pat Flynn: Hey, Elaine! Thank you so much for the question today. I really appreciate it, because I know a lot of people come across the same concern when they're first starting out too and they have to pick a platform to focus on. Now, that's different than separating the two. Focusing on a platform means you can have both, but one of them becomes your primary hub. The other way around, you do one and not the other, and if you're going to start a podcast, you're going to have to have a website or a blog in order to manage that feed.

Now, you had mentioned that you can create a website and just stick the Smart Podcast Player on there, which is great, and that works, and that gives your audience a great listening experience. However, it is recommended that when you're just starting out, and you don't even have anyone in your audience yet, if you're going to do a podcast you create a blog, and what you do is take advantage of SEO and also, just the fact that you can fill more of your site. Because you want people coming back to your site, and that's really the big thing. I mean, when people listen to your podcast you want to drive them somewhere where they can then take action. And it's really hard to have them take action while listening, which is why the website's important, because that's where people click around, that's where all the action happens. So, what you do is you fill out your site with blog posts related to the podcast episode you come out with, at a minimum, meaning you have your show notes available for each of those episodes.

Now, if you have a daily show, it can prove to be a little bit tougher, which is why I have a Smart Podcast Player, and why it was built in the first place, although a lot of people have been finding it useful to have, in addition to having show notes, and specific blog posts related to each particular podcast episode. So, what they do is, typically, on the top of their podcast page, or their landing page for their podcast, they have the Smart Podcast Player, that shows all the episodes. People can quickly browse through them, and click through them, and click around, and share, and read what they're all about. But then they have the list of episodes and each have their own particular blog post, each that can take advantage of search engine optimization, each that people can comment on, for example, and will have their own, sort of extended list of show notes if that's the case there.

So, if you're going to start a podcast, yes, you should start a blog as well. But, you don't have to have the blog be the primary focus. You have to choose one to be the primary focus at first. And then you can sort of branch out, like myself, where I'm at a point now where I have a blog post that comes out, Wednesday is a podcast episode, and actually Friday is an episode of SPI TV. But, that did not happen all at once. I started each of those a year after the other, and that was the smartest thing to do because if I divided all my focused attention into all of them, none of them would get to a point where they would be completely useful to everybody out there watching, listening, or reading. So, for me and the life of Smart Passive Income, it actually started out as a blog. And that was simply because I was most comfortable writing, I wasn't comfortable with my voice, and then I started branching out to YouTube, and then in 2010 I started the podcast.

Now, if your focus is going to be primarily the podcast, meaning that you consider your main content type to be audio, again, you can still have written content on your blog or related to the show but there are other things you can have to fill out on your blog as well. And it's very important to have some of these things, for example landing pages. When people come and listen to your podcast, whichever way, either on your website or in directories like iTunes or Stitcher, you want to drive that traffic, those listeners, to a particular page, to take a certain action. For example, to download a particular lead magnet that you create related to those episodes, or something you just give away on all of your pages so that people will sign up for your email list. It's very important. And one of the biggest mistakes that podcasters make, that bloggers have caught up with and understand, is that you need to start building that email list.

And it's really hard to do it, like I said before, through audio, because people aren't necessarily taking action while on the go. But that's why one particular landing page, at least to start out with, whether you create that on your site yourself using a page, or using a tool like Leadpages.net to hook that up: Again, having your listening audience come back to your site to subscribe is of utmost importance. And that's something you want to set up from the very beginning so you don't lose any potential subscribers. And at the beginning, when you're just starting out, that's your opportunity to treat those particular subscribers, those people brand new to your show and site, like gold. Because you have that time, you can reach out to them and talk to them, and have them truly understand where you're coming from, and that time and attention you have that somebody bigger might not necessarily give to them can have them become a better—and bigger—raving fan of you than of somebody else. So that's really important.

But there are some other things you can do as well. There perhaps might be something that you like to teach on the podcast, but it doesn't necessarily lend itself to an audio format. For example, if you have—I'm just going to make this up: “Three Easy Steps to Tie a Fly-Fishing Fly.” Now, to explain that on a podcast if you have, for example, a fly-fishing podcast, it might be very difficult. You can tell stories about fly-fishing, and you can do interviews with people who maybe have a fly-fishing or fly business, but for those of you who are trying to teach something like that to your audience, yeah: A podcast might not be the best thing. So, you can supplement what you're talking about on your podcast with a blog post, with images and screenshots. And you might perhaps be able to make some video in there as well. Again, your primary focus is the podcast, but you can use these other types of platforms, video and blogging, as a supplement, or a way to teach things that you just can't do over audio. So, that's how I would think about that.

So, the show notes, yes. That's really important, too. And . . . Yeah, so again, start with the focus and then you can branch out after that. But you can use those other platforms to supplement what you have to share. And what I'd recommend for anybody out there is when you're getting started, write out the next three months in terms of the type of content that you want to create and the topics for each of those episodes, or blog posts, so you can kind of get a timeline of what it looks like. And you might be able to discover where you might be able to supplement some of those things with other platforms. Again, not taking your attention away from the podcast, or whatever your primary content delivery platform is, but sort of enhancing it in that way. And I think if you think of that, if you think of enhancing your content with other media platforms, that's going to stop you from losing your focus, which a lot of people do when they try to get involved with all of these different platforms. So, you don't have to worry about scheduling blog posts regularly, or scheduling YouTube videos regularly, if your podcast is regular. But there might be a video or blog post that comes out, which you can then mention whenever they do, on the podcast. So, that's how I would approach it.

And then finally, your question, Elaine, about premium podcast courses. There are a number of them out there, and I've gotten familiar with a few of them. Podcasting A to Z by Cliff Ravenscraft is a great one, and I know a lot of people who have graduated from the course and have done really well. What's cool about Cliff's course, and the reason why it costs so much, is because he—not literally, because it's virtual—he pretty much holds your hand all the way across until you have your show up and running. And the success rate of this course is about 100 percent, which is unheard of. But he takes everybody who goes into that course from start to finish to get their podcast up and running, and that's fantastic. Now, a lot of people who take that course have seen these free podcasting tutorials I have on of them myself at PodcastingTutorial.com. Cliff has his own and there's a lot of other free podcasting tutorials as well. But even though the information is there to get your podcast up, they still feel like they want more; they just want to make sure they get it right. Or they don't necessarily trust themselves to do it on their own so they are willing to pay that much money

And if that's somebody like you, Elaine, somebody who feels like you just can't get it through on your own, or you just want it all kind of done for you, (although you do still have to put in the work yourself on those courses) but done for you meaning you don't really have to think because you have this access to this amazing coursework, and access to Cliff or whoever else is offering these premium podcast courses, you can do that. But I know thousands of people have gone through my particular course at PodcastingTutorial.com, and I still get emails every single week from people saying, “Pat, thanks for your podcasting tutorial, it walked me through exactly how to do it.” But, you still have to do that on your own, and you don't necessarily have access to me to ask questions every single step of the way. But like I said, I put a lot of work into those videos, and those can be found at PodcastingTutorial.com. And those people who have taken my free course have gone into New and Noteworthy and have done really well.

We're going to have a question later in the week about competing—actually tomorrow—with popular podcasts, so look out for that if your listening to this the day it comes out. We're going to continue the conversation about podcasts tomorrow. But Elaine, I hope that answers your question, I really appreciate it. An AskPat t-shirt is going to be headed over the border, into Canada, headed your way. My assistant will contact you shortly to collect your information. And, I'd like to thank everybody out there who listened to this. If you have a question you'd like to ask me, head on over to AskPat.com, and you can ask right there on that page. And again, Elaine, like you heard in the beginning, he uses a mobile device, and you don't need a smart lab like he does, you can just use your speaker or phone receiver . . . Does anyone say that anymore? Receiver? I don't even think that makes sense. But, you can just use your phone if you'd like to ask a question, too. So, if you have a question, go to AskPat.com.

I also want to thank, again, Lynda.com for sponsoring this particular episode, if you go to Lynda.com/askpat, that's Lynda.com/askpat, you can sign up to get their ten-day free trial, there's a lot of courses and videos I recommend, like the ones on getting things done, and business-writing fundamentals, and breaking out of a rut—that was a good one that I checked out myself. And the one that I've… I mean, I'm actually in a particular course section there on photography that's been really helpful as well. Not necessarily related to business, but a lot of other things that I do, sort of at home, which is really cool. So, again, Lynda.com/askpat. Full access for ten days. Check it out.

And, finally, as always, I like to end with a quote. And today's quote is from Daniel Gilbert. He says, “Thinking about the future can be so pleasurable that sometimes we'd rather think about it than get there.” Cheers, and I'll see you guys in the next episode of AskPat.