Did you know that you can increase your reach and create top of mind awareness for your book or blog by creating a podcast? More reach means the potential for more book sales, blog visits and exposure for your business (if you have one). Podcasting is an excellent platform you can use to get your stories in front of more people and gain even more credibility as a writer.
Once you’ve set up the structure or bones of your podcast, all you need to do is learn how to set up a recording studio, record your voice, edit the audio file and upload your podcast to iTunes. When you move past the initial learning curve, podcasting is a breeze. And while podcasting isn’t for everyone, those who are willing create quality content and commit to showing up at least once a week, can attract a responsive and supportive listenership.
The good news is that you can easily repurpose your posts, articles and book chapters for your podcast series. From my experience, it’s easier for a writer to repurpose their writing for a podcast than it is to start a new podcast without content.
You can generate interest for your book or blog by recording each post or portions of each chapter. You can reinforce interest with a call to action at the end of each podcast (a short audio bumper) giving thanks and inviting listeners to visit your website for a free gift. Every invitation is an opportunity to grow your list.
Podcasting allows you to serve up useful and supportive information with your unique voice. An added bonus is that you will remain in front of your listeners who are potential customers on a regular basis.
I began podcasting in 2008 by recording my blog posts. This was a great way for me to see if I enjoyed podcasting, plus I always had content to record. If I was committed to writing a blog post each week, then I could commit to recording a podcast each week. My freshman podcasting experience fostered the birth of Anxiety Slayer in late 2009. In less than five years the Anxiety Slayer podcast has several thousand downloads each week and a huge subscriber base.
Podcasting has helped me gain credibility as an author and transformational coach, grow my following and sell a lot more digital products. Plus, podcasting is a lot of fun!
More on repurposing your writing…
After I finished writing my first book, Life On Your Terms, I decided I wanted to create home study program called Life On Your Terms Accelerator series. Extrapolating the workbooks from the manuscript was simple because I had already written actionable exercises to promote interaction with my readers. Then I took things one step further and recorded all of the individual workbooks. When I was finished, my new offering included my book, 10 workbooks and 10 MP3 audios that could be edited and repurposed for podcasts. Can you see how you might be able to do something similar for your book, blog or business?
Creating a podcast can also bring new life to an older manuscript. If you’ve already written a book and you’ve moved on to new material, chances are your first book isn’t getting as much attention as it once was. What if you were to bring that book back to life by recording a podcast series? In the information age we all know that content is QUEEN and the more ways you can creatively repurpose your valuable content the better.
How does podcasting create more interest in your book or blog?
- You create an additional delivery platform
- You build a relationship with your listeners
- You regularly invite listeners to your blog or website for a free gift or special offer
- You gain credibility by having a podcast on iTunes
How to organize the content and structure of your podcast.
One way you can structure your first three podcasts is like this:
- Podcast Number One: An introduction or kick off interview to let listeners know who you are and why you created the podcast along with what they can expect when they listen in. This is the perfect time to introduce your book or blog.
- Podcast Number Two: A portion of the first chapter of you book or the blog post you want to begin the series with. You can use the material you’ve already written or you can summarize the subject of a chapter, article or blog post and share whatever it is that you want to teach that day.
- Podcast Number Three: Summarize the prior podcast and continue the story or this may be the perfect time to introduce the next chapter, blog post or interview.
Creating and maintaining a podcast is one of the most effective ways you can reach more people, grow your list and sell more books by simply repurposing content from your blog or manuscript.
Great info…great idea…I will do this right away.