July 18, 2024 |
Podcasting 101 â Part 4 |
Last time, we discussed acoustics, sound quality and podcast hosting. Today, let’s look at how to get guests for your podcasts. This all depends on what type of podcast you have. If your podcast is performer-centric, agents, managers, and PR people can be a big help. If youâre interviewing executives like I often do, be ready to make a lot of direct contacts. Since weâve already done well over 200 episodes of Adult Site Broker Talk, we get a lot of referrals to be on our podcast. Our guests enjoy the experience, get benefit from the exposure, and tell their friends. Weâre also very proactive about requesting referrals from past guests. This has gotten us some of our best people to interview. We watch adult news sites for stories about new sites and platforms and announcements from other companies. This gives us interesting subject matter and guests who are motivated to come on and talk about what theyâre promoting. And anything new is interesting for the audience. So, itâs a win-win. But your podcast is only as good as the guests you have. We podcast weekly, which is the best way to go. We attempt to always be three months ahead with guest interviews in the can. That way, weâll never come up to a podcast and wonder who weâll be interviewing. I strongly suggest that all new podcasters think ahead and bank many interviews in advance. It avoids a lot of stress. Our M.O. is to ask the guests what they want to talk about. That way, theyâre comfortable with the subject matter, and their agenda gets addressed. You certainly donât have to do that, but if you arenât ready, take the time to do some major homework to ensure youâre asking your guests relevant questions. And they may not be the topics your guests want to discuss. Another trick Iâve learned is to interview other podcasters. They tend to be the best guests and have a loyal following to which they will promote your podcast. There are many reciprocal interviews between podcasters, and I always enjoy and benefit from being interviewed, too. Along with that, have a script of some kind for the interview. I ask my guests ahead of scheduling the interview for a headshot for the hosting page, a bio on them and a company if thereâs one involved and a list of questions. Then, I put this into a nice script so I have a format to follow during the interview. Thatâs not to say you canât veer away from the script during the interview. I suggest you do. The best interviewers are great listeners. After years of interviewing professional athletes as a sports reporter, I found that out. Always listen to what your guest says and be ready for a follow-up question. Donât just ignore the guest and stay with the script. Have the ability to ad-lib. Youâll get better and better with this as time goes on. Summing everything up, a podcast is like any business. You need to have a business plan and you need to invest both time and money into it. Otherwise, it wonât succeed. And there is a lot of work, as hopefully, this series of articles pointed out. If you donât want to put in the work or donât have the time, then podcasting probably isnât for you. But the rewards are great. A successful podcast can do a lot for anyoneâs profile, and Iâm not only glad I did it, but I may replicate it with another podcast sometime soon. If anyone whoâs been reading these articles has any questions about podcasting, Iâd be more than happy to help. Contact Us on our website. |