INTRODUCTION
A lot of people are listening to podcasts these days. Are you one of them? When people discover a
podcast that they really like they will tune in all of the time and consume all of the new podcasts
that the creator publishes. This is an excellent opportunity to make money.
Podcasts are very convenient. They are available in MP3 format and listeners can use their
smartphones or tablets to listen to them. You can listen to a great podcast in your car but you
cannot watch videos when you are driving. People also listen to podcasts when they are working
out, doing the shopping, travelling on trains and buses – in fact anywhere!
A lot of marketers try to create successful podcasts but fail to achieve this. They make a lot of
mistakes and don’t have the patience and determination to see the project through. In this guide we
will tell you how to avoid these mistakes and create successful podcasts that listeners will love.
Choose the Right Podcasting Niche
This is the most important secret to successful podcasting. If you choose the wrong niche then you
are doomed to failure right from the start and all of your efforts will have been for nothing.
You need to choose a niche where there is a good demand for content and there is enough
content opportunities for you to create a number of different podcasts for a long time. The
commercial opportunities that exist in the niche are also important.
You will read everywhere that you need to choose a niche for podcasting that you are
passionate about. While it is a good idea in principal you need to test whether there is demand
for the niche before you go ahead with it.
The easiest way to do this for free is to use the Google Keyword Planner. All you need is a free
Google Adwords account and you can access the planner. By using the Google Keyword Planner you
will be able to see how many people are searching for information on your niche using the Google
search engine.
When you use the Google Keyword Planner you will also receive suggestions for related
keywords. This will really help you to determine the different subjects for your podcasts. Start by
using a seed keyword e.g. “dog training” and see how many searches there are per month. If
there are many thousands then you are on to a winner.
There are a number of ways that you can monetize your podcasts which we will discuss later. A
good way is to recommend products and services that are a good fit for the subject of your
podcast. So if your podcast was about email marketing for example you could recommend your
own course (if you have one) or someone else’s as an affiliate.
It is worth checking to see the level of commercial opportunity for your niche ideas. Go over to
Clickbank.com and see if there are any digital products for your niche. You can also check for
physical product opportunities by searching on Amazon.com.
The ultimate niche for podcasting is one that you are passionate about and has great demand, a lot
of different subjects for podcast creation and good commercial opportunities. If you decide to go
with a niche that you are not passionate about then you can learn everything that you can about it
and develop a passion for it.
Having a passion for your niche is extremely important with podcasting. Listeners will be able to
detect the passion, or lack of it, in your voice. This is pretty difficult to fake so a genuine interest
is always required.
Take your time to come up with niche ideas and validate them all using the Google Keyword Planner.
You can start by listing your interests and passions and then adding subjects that you are good at or
have skills in. For instance you may have mastered a particular skill through your work that you
can speak about as an expert.
You can also visit other websites for niche ideas. Here are some good ones to take a look at:
• Clickbank.com
• Amazon.com
• Magazines.com
• Dummies.com
When you go to these websites take a look at the various categories and sub categories for inspiration. If
there are products being sold on these websites then this is a pretty strong indicator that there is demand
for information in the niche. Always check this using the Google Keyword Planner.