Since 2020 I’ve produced and published over 400 episodes. During that time I’ve learned a thing or two about consistently creating content and the real struggle of creator’s block. 😵💫😵💫
This week I’m sharing my tested systems to make sure you never run out of episode ideas again. No matter your podcasting goals, consistency is the most important tool in any podcaster's tool belt.
In this episode: (2:04) The simple trick that's completely changed the way I create episode topics. (2:48) How to actually get episode ideas from your audience. (4:28) How to use keyword research (correctly) to find episode topics. (8:48) Using ChatGPT and AI for podcast topic ideas. (11:05) The most important metrics podcasters need to understand when creating new episodes.
Since 2020 I’ve produced and published over 400 episodes. During that time I’ve learned a thing or two about consistently creating content and the real struggle of creator’s block. 😵💫😵💫
This week I’m sharing my tested systems to make sure you never run out of episode ideas again. No matter your podcasting goals, consistency is the most important tool in any podcaster's tool belt.
In this episode: (2:04) The simple trick that's completely changed the way I create episode topics. (2:48) How to actually get episode ideas from your audience. (4:28) How to use keyword research (correctly) to find episode topics. (8:48) Using ChatGPT and AI for podcast topic ideas. (11:05) The most important metrics podcasters need to understand when creating new episodes.
Consistency is hard when you're focusing on the outcomes and not the process. You know what you want to get out of your podcast, whether it's authority in your industry, money in your bank account new opportunities, or simply serving the community around you, you know what you want your podcast to become. But you also know you have to take the baby steps every day to get it there. You have to be consistent in what your podcast is offering to listeners in order to get to those long term goals you're working towards. One of the most important tests of consistency in a podcast is episode topics, what we're talking about every week, how we're engaging with our listener and bringing them quality content. Sometimes it's easier said than done. In this episode, I'm teaching you the systems I developed in use them all with my podcast to always have fresh, relevant episode ideas, and never run out of things to say. As of this recording, I've produced and published over 400 episodes. And after this episode, I can personally promise you you will never run out of episode ideas again. Hello, and welcome to Podcasts for Profit. My name is Morgan Franklin. I'm a podcast producer, strategist, and educator. This podcast will help you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of social media and speaks directly to your target audience. If you're ready to create a podcast that will align you with the experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted leader and create another source of revenue for your business, you're in the right place. There is nothing more daunting than knowing you have to record a podcast episode or god forbid, batch a month's worth of episodes. And you have no idea what they're going to be about, right. We've all been there. I've been there much more recently than I'd like to admit, this happens to every podcaster. So don't take it personally, it's all part of the process. The first thing you're going to do is take out your phone, open your notes app, and right at the top of the note, podcast episode ideas, this is gonna change your life. It changed my life. I started doing this for a podcast I produced that has weekly guests. And every time someone would make a recommendation or asked me if I had hosted someone, I open this note and write it down. That way you won't forget because you will you don't. And you can actually look the person or the topic up that they recommended later. I have a different note for all my podcasts, blog post ideas and social media posts. You never know when inspiration for an episode will strike. So don't let it slip away. Another thing I want you to write down besides the ideas you come up with is questions people ask you and the information people want to know from you. So for example, if you have a podcast for aspiring jewelry designers, every time someone asks you about a process or sourcing or how you do something, why you do something, write it down. It can be in person on social media, wherever, whenever doesn't matter. And these questions are so powerful because they are for him are real people, and not just real people, your audience. It's easy to get so far ahead of ourselves, right? There's something that Donald Miller talks about a lot. He's a business coach and a business strategist. If you haven't heard of him, I truly recommend one of his books. It's called building a brand story. It's changed the way I look at branding. But anyways, he says, when you confuse you lose, when you confuse your audience, you lose them, when you aren't giving them the content they're looking for. You lose them. If you're talking about things that are way too advanced for them and going right over their head, you are losing them. When you're creating podcast episodes, think about where you were five or 10 years ago. What were your burning questions? What were the things you wish you'd known? And how can you go back to the beginning of your journey mentally and start to untangle those questions for your audience? This is so easy, but we make it hard. That's because it's hard to go back in our brains to the point where we didn't know anything. That's where my second tip comes in keyword research. As a former SEO digital marketing analyst, the word keyword research still put a shiver up my spine. For my first job after undergrad I got a job at a website development company and I worked in the content writing and SEO department. I did not enjoy that job but I did learn a lot about how to figure out what people want to see and what will bring your content up higher in searches. Both are equally important because you can have the juiciest best topics but if no one can Find it, who cares? The first thing I want you to do is open up a browser window, open a tab with Google, open a tab with YouTube and open a tab with Reddit. Next is think about your topic. I'm gonna go back to the jewelry designer podcast if I'm a jewelry maker, and I'm trying to build a community of listeners that are aspiring jewelry designers, I need to know what kind of content they're looking at. What's performing well, what's out there. If I was doing a podcast for aspiring jewelry makers, I'd go on YouTube, and I'd probably type in something like how to become a jewelry maker. It's that simple. Look at what comes up, what's ranking? What's getting a bunch of views, find something you connect with? And that you will like and read the comments, what are the questions that people are asking, and write down those questions. Those are great future episodes for you. And those are the things that future jewelry makers want to see. On Google do the exact same thing. Look at the creators in your niche already. Where are they showing up? What are they doing? What programs do they have? What programs? Do they not have the you think they should? What does it seem like people want to see, this is not me giving you advice to copy another creator ever? This is advice to see what's working and and draw inspiration from the path that has already been laid, and build on top of that. Lastly, go on Reddit, type in your niche and take some time to read these forums about your topics. What are people asking? What are people talking about? How can you take the questions that are already being asked and answered possibly incorrectly, and give people the information that they're looking for the good information? This is so easy, right? I promise there are 100 Reddit threads with people asking how to become a jewelry designer right now. And literally any other subject that you can think of. So yours will be on there. After that, I want you to go to a website called Ask the public, it's asked the public.com I am not affiliated with this brand in any way. I just love the program. Basically all you have to do is type in one or two words. So make sure that these words are targeted. And it will pop up all these questions that people have been asking about your topic. It is insane. For example, I typed in jewelry designer to go along with our theme. The first questions that popped up were Can anyone become a jewelry designer? How much does a jewelry designer make? How to be a more successful jewelry designer? Where can a jewelry designer work? Wow, that's a whole month's worth of episodes right there. And those are great topics. Those are things I think people would actually want to hear about if they were an aspiring jewelry designer. And there are hundreds more questions on the page. The way this works is it takes search results from the source. In this case, I was just using Google but it also has YouTube Tik Tok and a few others, so you can find out what people are really looking for around this keyword. Isn't that amazing? The only downside to this program is you only get three free searches a day, so make sure that you use them wisely. I'm honestly not 100% sure what it costs. I've been strategically using my three searches a day. But this website is what helps me the most when I'm in a total wreck for topics and I don't know what to do or what to make my podcast episode about. It is amazing. And it always gives me questions I think are just so obvious that I've totally skipped over them. But clearly again, if people are searching for them, they want the answers. We have made it so complicated because we're so far beyond that point that we forget people want to know answers to the obvious questions. The last way that I look for topics when I'm feeling uninspired or I just have no idea what I'm going to make an episode about is our good friend, Chad GPT. Now before you get too excited, there is a way to do this correctly, and a way to do it incorrectly and I can almost guarantee you are doing it incorrectly. So I want to walk you through exactly what to say to get results that will actually work for your podcast. This is what you're going to type in. Hi chat GPT I like help thinking of 10 Episode topic ideas for a podcast about blank and in the blank. You will put what your podcast is about my target audience is people between the ages of blank and blank you'll put their ages they are blank. You will put their occupation or other relevant information. They are listening to this podcast for information about blank. This is where you will put why your podcast listeners are listening to this podcast. My top five performing episodes are currently list your top five performing episodes, then spaceways what are 10 suggestions you have for me based on my podcast summary to target audience what my audience is looking for and my best performing episodes question mark. Please give me 10 Topic titles and one sentence on why you think my audience would like these episodes. And yes, I will make this a download in the show notes. I know this was a lot, but I wanted to explain to you that it's more than typing in give me 10 podcast episode ideas about jewelry design that will not work that will give you 10 episode ideas, but it will probably be 10 episode ideas that are total crap, AI and chat GPT should be used as a tool, a tool to be used by a human mind with discernment and strategy, I'm going to guess out of every 10 that you ask for to will be decent ideas that you're actually going to want to use and change and make your own. But it will help you get there. And that's the whole point. If you use any of these methods, you are never going to run out of podcast episode ideas. I know only because these are the methods I've used across four different professional industries to make hundreds of podcast episodes. Before we go, I want to talk about the importance of looking at your own numbers and retention on episodes. I'm gonna make a whole episode about this. But in the meantime, make sure that you're logged into the information on your Spotify and Apple podcast. That's where you're going to go in and get the most information on the listeners and what they're listening to. I swear this is last time I'm using the jewelry designer example. But if you're doing a podcast on how to become a jewelry designer, and you have four main content pillars, so let's say how to make money as a jewelry designer, how to market a jewelry business, how to source material and how to create jewelry properly. And every time you make an episode that falls under the umbrella how to market your jewelry business and it blows up. But all the material that you make under the how to create jewelry properly just totally flops. use that information to guide you about what your episode topics should be about. If one thing is performing really well pay attention to that. Don't be afraid of the numbers, use the numbers. I challenge you after this episode to get into your podcast hosting sort from most to least downloaded and look at your most downloaded episodes. What do they all have in common? How can you create more of that content? Why do you think your audience likes these episodes? That information is so incredibly valuable to you. Like we always say if you aren't making your podcast for someone, you aren't making it for anyone and episode topics are the exact same. If the episode topic doesn't speak to your audience, don't record it. As always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast. Don't forget, make that note in your phone. And when people ask you a question, write it down. Hey, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If you enjoyed the podcast and you'd like to hear more episodes like this one, go ahead and subscribe to the show new episodes air every Monday morning and if you found this episode valuable and you want to help other business owners and podcasters will you leave me a five star review? It helps the show rank higher in the charts and brings more entrepreneurs the information they need to start making money on their podcast.
