Podcast Websites That Convert, Plus SEO for the Web & Podcast Players with James Cridland of Podnews
Podcast Bestie, the Podcast
Episode 1 Show Notes
Guest: James Cridland, editor of Podnews
Host: Courtney Kocak, Podcast Bestie founder
Podcast Bestie, the Podcast has officially dropped its debut episode.
I’ve got James Cridland of Podnews on the show today talking all about SEO for websites and podcast apps, how he’s helping audit your podcast, press release tips, and more. First, we discuss James’s place in podcasting history, which I found very interesting, but if you’re just here for the tips and the fish ‘n’ chips references, jump ahead to the six-and-a-half-minute mark.
For more from James, check out his previous Podcast Bestie Q&A: Business & Tech 101 for Indie Podcasters.
A big thanks to our BFFs for sponsoring this episode:
What happens when the watchdog tasked with overseeing the largest law enforcement agency in the country looks the other way? In Bad Watchdog, host Maren Machles exposes a series of shocking cover-ups at the Department of Homeland Security. Listen now.
Hey Canadian Podcasters! Are you tired of feeling like the podcasting space is fractured between indies and networks? Pod the North is the Canadian podcasting newsletter that's changing all of that. Read the latest issue!
Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast - In March of 2019, host Amy Lewis lost her sister. She decided to use her grief for something productive and fun, so she started a podcast as a way to re-live and share memories from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.
Soothe your promotional aches and pains with a FREE subscription to the Podcast Clinic from Podspike. Get monthly tips, tricks & articles to help your podcast marketing become that little bit easier.
If you want to sponsor a future newsletter AND episode, you can purchase your ad spot here.
FREE promo opportunity for the Besties: Leave a five-star rating with a review on Apple Podcasts, email me a screenshot with your name and the name of your podcast, and you’ll get a free shout-out on the next episode.
💸 Wanna advertise on Podcast Bestie? Here’s info about offerings and rates.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:03] JAMES CRIDLAND: Hello, my name is James Cridland. I am the editor of Podnews, which is a daily podcast newsletter all about podcasting, and I'm the guest this week on the Podcast Besties. [00:00:13]
[00:00:15] COURTNEY KOCAK: Hello Podcast Besties. It is the debut episode and I have got James Cridland on the show today talking all about SEO for websites and podcast apps. Plus, he's helping you audit your podcast. We're going to tell you how and how to get that press release right. But first, we discuss James's place in podcasting history, which I personally found very interesting. But if you are just here for the tips and the fish and chips references, jump ahead to the six-and-a-half-minute mark. [00:00:45]
[00:00:45] COURTNEY KOCAK: All right, James, let's get started. First, just give the Besties like the CliffsNotes of your podcasting origin story because I think you're an OG, right? [00:00:45]
[00:00:58] JAMES CRIDLAND: Well, I'm kind of OG, but I feel bad claiming that I'm an O.G., so I'm not going to claim that I'm an OG. But yeah, I was working for a radio station in the UK called Virgin Radio in 2005 or late 2004. I saw this thing called podcasting, and I thought, Ooh, podcasting, that sounds interesting. And so we worked out a method of producing the first daily podcast from a radio station in the UK back in March of 2005 is when we launched with a press release that used the word "pod-vertising." Sorry about that. [00:01:32]
[00:01:33] COURTNEY KOCAK: Oh, so but you so you were a radio guy going into it? [00:01:38]
[00:01:38] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah, So I was a radio guy going into it. Thankfully not behind the microphone there, but I ended up writing all of the I wrote the RSS feed, but I also wrote the system that would actually turn a four-hour radio show into a half-hour podcast. And that seemed to work really well. And we were getting thousands of downloads per episode back then. So it was clearly a thing that people liked and things that people really, really wanted. But yeah, it was a long, long, long time ago. And in the same month, we ended up launching the first the world's first streaming radio app for a radio station. So you could have a listen to us. We didn't call it an app because we didn't know that that's what we were supposed to call it because that hadn't been coined. So we called it a 3G radio tuner, which is very old-fashioned. And yeah, and so this was the days when mobile phones didn't have Wi-Fi in them. So in order to listen to the radio station, you had to use your very expensive data streamed at a whole eight kilobits a second. So you can imagine how how good it sounded. And... [00:02:40]
[00:02:40] COURTNEY KOCAK: Oh my God, you can definitely claim the OG mantle. I think that's well-deserved. [00:02:45]
[00:02:47] JAMES CRIDLAND: It's a long, long time ago. [00:02:48]
[00:02:48] COURTNEY KOCAK: So were there other podcasts at the time, like I mean, early podcasts I remember listening to, especially the UK, was like Ricky Gervais. Like, was he even podcasting at the time? [00:02:59]
[00:02:59] JAMES CRIDLAND: He wasn't podcasting by then. There's actually a whole page on the history of podcasting in the UK at the Podnews website. If you want to go and see all of the chronology there. He wasn't podcasting at the time, but the BBC was. There was a very—and it's still podcasting now—a very cerebral podcast called In Our Time with Lord Melvyn Bragg. And yes, and it's a very, you know, it's all about philosophy and ancient history and you know, what the Greeks did and all this kind of stuff. So they were doing that and they started in November of 2004, really one of the very first to be putting shows out as a podcast. But there were a few others. I ended up speaking at the first podcast conference, I think in Europe called Podcast Con in June of 2005, and there were lots of proper O.G. podcasters then. And I remember being shouted out by the audience because I was from mainstream media, Boo, you shouldn't be in our space. This is our space. And literally it literally it was, you know, I was supposed to be talking for 45 minutes, and it was basically 45 minutes of the crowd shouting at me, telling me that I shouldn't be in their space and leave them alone. So that was fun. [00:04:16]
[00:04:18] COURTNEY KOCAK: That's so funny because now I feel like you're so independent. It's like you can't accuse you of being so like Mr. Mainstream Media. [00:04:25]
[00:04:25] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah, Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, back then I was I was taking my paycheck from, you know, a large, a large commercial radio station and, you know, and, and absolutely fine. But I think what I was trying to do then, as I try to do now, is to share the experiences that we had had. We were working on the idea. We were recording an awful lot of bands in our studios. And one of the things I wanted to end up doing was to make that make those tracks available as Pod Safe music if you remember that. [00:04:53]
[00:04:55] COURTNEY KOCAK: No. [00:04:55]
[00:04:56] JAMES CRIDLAND: So, you know, so you could actually start playing if you wanted to play a Coldplay song. Absolutely fine. Play a Coldplay song, but the recording that that we had done because then the record companies don't have anything to say about it. It's just purely the, you know, the agreement that we had made with the band rather than with any record company. So I was really keen to explore that and, you know, and basically open up our library of about, you know, 2000 different tracks. So the podcast community, I thought that would be a really cool thing. [00:05:27]
[00:05:27] COURTNEY KOCAK: That's fascinating. [00:05:27]
[00:05:28] JAMES CRIDLAND: Things are never as easy as as they might be, right? [00:05:31]
[00:05:32] COURTNEY KOCAK: Right. So when did Podnews—when did that come into the picture, and how did that get started, and why? What was your motivation and why? [00:05:38]
[00:05:39] JAMES CRIDLAND: Why? Why did you do it, James? And so I was actually I was in I was in L.A., so I'm a radio consultant, so I consult with a ton of different radio companies across the world. And I was speaking at the Worldwide Radio Summit, which is, I think, one of these jokes that you Americans do, where you claim that something is worldwide because you invite one person from the rest of the world. [00:06:02]
[00:06:04] COURTNEY KOCAK: Okay, No need to roast. [00:06:04]
[00:06:07] JAMES CRIDLAND: And I was there, you know, much like you're worldwide. What is it, baseball thing, anyway? Let's not go there. So I was there, and I was chatting with a friend of mine in the bar, and he was saying, Where do you get your podcast news? And I said, Well, you know, there's Nick Quah, and that's kind of about it. And he said, Don't you think there might be something for for, you know, the whole industry? Because Nick is great. But Nick writes very much about craft and not not that much about business and, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And I thought, Well, yeah, that sounds interesting. So this was back in 2017, in May of 2017. And yeah, so by the end of June, the first edition of Podnews had gone out to about five people who had signed up. And yeah, and I've been doing it ever since—every single day, ever since then. [00:06:54]
[00:06:55] COURTNEY KOCAK: Well, it's an incredible resource. Most people listening probably already know. But if you're not, you should be subscribed and get the daily update. And you have—probably because you've been writing every day—your website is like so dominant on the web. When I search anything related to podcasting, you are like right up there, or any sometimes just adjacent things. I'll be like, Damn, James, good job. So... So give us a little tutorial, like, what's your website strategy? And kind of like, how do you maintain that? [00:07:30]
[00:07:30] JAMES CRIDLAND: Okay, well, I mean, I guess there's two things: There's the point of the website. Why is the website there? And then there's the whole SEO stuff. And I always think that's worthwhile starting at why, why the website is there. And a lot of people don't like the layout of the website because it is quite simple, and particularly on the front page. The front page is all about getting the newsletter. That's what the website is for. So if you visit the podnews.net website, the only thing that you will probably see is a big sign-up box to get the newsletter and lots of reasons why that might be. And there's been a lot of different just sort of playing around with with language and playing around with words and testimonials and graphics and things. Just to really focus on that one thing, which is I want you to sign up for my free newsletter. And I think we kind of forget that when we're making sites and we make the website look very, very beautiful and everything else. But actually, if you're making a website for a podcast, the most important thing is to A) make it really obvious it's a podcast. You'd be surprised. And then also B) just to highlight the official buttons—don't go redrawing anything—the official buttons for Apple, for Spotify, and probably Google Podcasts as your big three calls to action at the top of the page. Don't hide those at the bottom. Make those really, really obvious so that people know as soon as they get to the website: this is a website about a podcast. How do I sign up for it? Oh, there's the Apple button that I recognize. And so it's very much focused around just making sure that that call to action is as simple as possible. [00:09:07]
[00:09:08] COURTNEY KOCAK: And it converts, right? [00:09:09]
[00:09:10] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah. And it seems to convert really well. So I've got more than 26,000 people signed up as of today, which is nice. And, you know, I've built lots of stuff so that I can actually work out where people are coming from and why people are signing up and all of that. But actually, just on the very basic. Yeah, I mean, making it really clear. Don't point people towards and here's lots of articles and here's lots of you know other things, if the thing that you want them to end up doing is to subscribe to our newsletter or to get your, your podcast or whatever. [00:09:40]
[00:09:40] COURTNEY KOCAK: Totally. Okay, so then the rest of it, like me seeing you in the News results constantly. Like what's the kind of back-end SEO stuff that is also working on a monster level? [00:09:52]
[00:09:53] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah, So firstly, I write all of my own code because I do, because of course I do. [00:09:57]
[00:09:58] COURTNEY KOCAK: Right. [00:09:58]
[00:09:59] JAMES CRIDLAND: I think the most the most important thing for CEO is not necessarily to read too much of the stuff but to really focus on simple—well-designed, in terms of the HTML—well-designed web pages so that Google and, you know, Bing and I guess ChatGPT and everybody else actually know what that page is all about. There are a few additional features that you can do around. There's something around schema, which is putting a little bit of JSON code in your website, which again helps a a search engine understand what that page is all about. And you'll find if you've if you view the source of any of the, you know, the pages that I put up there, you'll find that there's a little bit of JSON in there as well. Just to just to sort of help with that. But really, you know, again, it's just making sure that the pages are simple and straightforward, which is why there aren't you know, there isn't a sidebar, and there aren't lots of ad banners, and there isn't you know, "if you like that, you'll like this" stuff. You know, it's very, very focused on what the content is. And that seems to work in terms of SEO. [00:11:08]
[00:11:09] COURTNEY KOCAK: So when you talk about, sorry, I don't know these words for sure, but Schema and JSON are those like metadata things that are behind the website that are like just telling them what's inside that's not necessarily on the page? [00:11:23]
[00:11:23] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah, exactly. So I've got an awful lot of podcast pages, for example, so that pages about a specific podcast. And the reason why I built those is because I didn't want— I use an Android phone. I didn't want to always link to Apple because an Apple phone link is pointless for me as an Android user. So therefore, I wanted to make a really simple page that was straightforward that basically allowed you to find out more about this particular podcast and subscribe to that podcast in your your podcast app of choice. So that's basically what I've ended up doing there. And so those podcast pages also have a little bit of code in them, of computer code in them, which tells Google, this is a podcast, this podcast is called this, it's related to this link on Apple and this link on in other places as well. It's got some audio on it, and here is the audio. And so all of that data is hidden away in the in the page to help Google understand, okay, this is so this is about a podcast. This is about its ratings. So I pull ratings in from Rephonic, which is a service that has ratings for your podcast all over the place. So I pull those in so that when I appear in a Google search result, it's got a little rating next to it, and it just looks a little bit more exciting than just a piece of text. And so, you know, quite a lot of that is just is just focused around on helping Google understand what all of this is about. So Google, I think, calls it, oh, what does Google call it? I've forgotten now, but there's a whole website about this called Schema.org, which has all kinds of information. It's really, really tacky. But the easier way to to work it out is Google offers this really good service, which is called the webmasters console, I think. Mm hmm. Maybe it's the website owner's console or anything else. But anyway, it should be the web mistress's console, frankly. In fact, I believe it's called the search console now because I think I think they might have actually listened. [00:13:25]
[00:13:25] COURTNEY KOCAK: Oh, yeah. I think you're right. I just signed up for that. Yes. [00:13:28]
[00:13:28] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah. And so that is really helpful because that tells you all kinds of useful information about how people are finding your your web pages, what you could be doing better to make your web pages appear higher and all of that around, you know, additional information and structured data and everything else. So that's a super useful thing. The other thing that I try and do very, very, very carefully is to make sure that the web page loads as fast as possible, which means no massive, large graphics, or if you do do massive, large graphics, make sure they're really optimized. So they load very, very fast. There are a couple of little tricks that I've done in the web pages themselves so that, you know, images only load if you are actually going to look at them. So there are lots of lots of images at the bottom of the page. It's called lazy loading so that they only start loading if you scroll down and if you don't scroll down, they don't start loading. And so of course, Google sees that and goes, Oh, great, you know, this is a really nice fast-loading page because Google uses the speed of your web page as one of the reasons to put you higher in that list. And so I focus very, very much on yeah, really making sure that the pages load as fast as possible, which is why there's not too much, you know, clever fonts or lots of images or anything else. It's as simple as possible so that your web browser can load it as fast as possible. And then hopefully Google thinks that this is a good page to show other people. [00:15:00]
[00:15:01] COURTNEY KOCAK: Hey, besties. Just a quick shout out to the BFFs who make all of this possible. [00:15:06]
[00:15:07] COURTNEY KOCAK: Hey, Canadian podcasters, Are you tired of feeling like the podcasting space is fractured between indies and networks? Well, Pod the North is the Canadian podcasting newsletter that's changing all of that. Read the latest issue at podthenorth.substack.com. [00:15:21]
[00:15:25] COURTNEY KOCAK: In March of 2019, host Amy Lewis lost her sister, but she decided to use her grief for something productive and fun. So she started a podcast as a way to relive and share memories from the eighties, nineties, and early 2000s in her sister's memory. I think this is such a cool way to honor a loved one. So check out the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast. [00:15:48]
[00:15:50] COURTNEY KOCAK: Sooth your promotional aches and pains with a free subscription to the podcast clinic from Podspike. Get monthly tips, tricks, and articles to help your podcast marketing become that little bit easier. Go to podspike.com. P.S. Pod Swag offers all ala carte podcast promotional services, and it's a really great way to get started. If you are on a budget, as I usually am. [00:16:13]
[00:16:15] COURTNEY KOCAK: What happens when the watchdog tasked with overseeing the largest law enforcement agency in the country looks the other way? In Bad Watchdog, host Maren Machles exposes a series of shocking cover-ups at the Department of Homeland Security. Oh, my God, none of us are safe. The first season of Bad Watchdog is out now, and if you stick around to the end of the episode, you get a listen to the trailer. [00:16:41]
[00:16:42] COURTNEY KOCAK: And guess what? You can be a podcast bestie sponsor too. All levels of podcast bestie advertisers will now receive a baked-in ad on the show in addition to their advertisement in the newsletter. So check out podcastbestie.com/advertise for more information and to book your ad. [00:17:00]
[00:17:01] COURTNEY KOCAK: So that you know that page that you have for each podcast that you just mentioned a minute ago, I've been looking at mine, and you can sort of use that to optimize because it'll tell you if you're not showing up on certain players, can you kind of walk people through the other ways that they can use that page? [00:17:20]
[00:17:21] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah. So I mean, so what I did notice when I started these pages is that there were lots of podcast owners who had not necessarily set their podcast up to succeed. So, you know, maybe we'll go on to SEO within podcast apps, which is a whole different kettle of fish. But I did notice that you know, for example, there are some podcasts that haven't put a website address in their RSS feed, so there's no way for you to link back to the website of the podcast because they haven't put that in the RSS feed. You need that if you're going to appear in Google Podcasts for a start. But also, it's really handy because you obviously want people to go and have a look at your website and to find out how to donate to you or find out how to learn more information about the hosts or whatever it is. So I thought, Oh, right, okay, well, I can catch that, and I can put something on the bottom. This little thing that says information for podcasters, and I can put something at the bottom that says, Oh, by the way, there's no link to a website here. You might want to think about that. And then I thought, Oh, well, actually there are quite a lot of other things that I've noticed that some podcasters are getting wrong. So, you know, a space after the title, it's really easy to do that in your podcast hosting company to leave a space after the title, but actually that breaks a few things. So I highlight that, and I highlight when you haven't written enough for your show description, and I highlight you know all all kinds of things and podcast trailers which are really, really important. Every podcast should have a trailer. So all of this stuff is all is all just sort of, you know, there are very little checks that happen in that page. So, yes, if you were to search for your own podcast, the podnews.net website, then you may find some stuff. Sometimes I get it wrong, but you may find some some stuff in there that might that might help. [00:19:14]
[00:19:15] COURTNEY KOCAK: I have one question about mine that I will email you about. Because there's only one thing I can't fix. But I think that's so handy. I think everyone should check out their page because you probably will find a couple of things you weren't expecting. So, okay, you are obviously very tech-savvy. You code your own site. Do you have any tips, dummy-proof tips for podcasters and SEO? Is there anything else that you think people should be incorporating? [00:19:44]
[00:19:45] JAMES CRIDLAND: I mean, just on a really basic level, and this is a really basic level, make sure that your podcast is called something which makes it obvious what the podcast is about. It's really easy for you to go, Oh, I'm writing a podcast about. Fish and chips or something. So I'll call it, you know, a salt and battery, you know what I mean? And won't that be funny? And that'll be really, really hilarious. And then you wonder why no one finds your podcast. Nobody's found your podcast because it doesn't say a fish and Chips podcast. Exactly. It's a very British reference. [00:20:19]
[00:20:20] Speaker 3: You know. [00:20:20]
[00:20:21] JAMES CRIDLAND: You know what I mean? So, you know, so making it really, really obvious. And that's one of the reasons why Parcast is as big as Parcast is, is because they started by doing all of their podcasts were all called really obvious names. They have a podcast about serial killers, and it's called Serial Killers. They have a podcast about daily horoscopes, which is called Daily Horoscopes. And so whenever you go into the into a podcast app and you're searching for, you know, a podcast about serial killers, I'll just type in serial killers. Then podcast Serial Killers appears at the top of the list. Brilliant. And it surprises me that there are so many podcasts out there that have basically gone, Oh, let's think of the most obscure pun we can possibly call our podcast. Nobody will understand it. So that's the first thing. The second thing is not to use, sorry, but not to use the word podcast in your podcast title. [00:21:13]
[00:21:14] COURTNEY KOCAK: Unless you're Podcast Bestie, if because I'm a podcast about podcasts. [00:21:17]
[00:21:18] JAMES CRIDLAND: Well, so there are 1.7 million podcasts out there with the word podcast in the title. Now, I don't know about you, but I would rather be easier to find for any search engine algorithm than, oh, there's another 1.7 million out there with this word in the title. So people know that it's a podcast because they're searching for it on a podcast app. If you're advertising it on an ad banner in the street. Absolutely, write the word podcast on there because otherwise, no one will know what it is. But on the podcast itself, you don't have to worry about that on your website. Yes, not on the podcast. So please don't add the word podcast onto the end. It's not the Fish and Chips podcast; it's Fish and Chips or something else, you know what I mean? So, you know, so just being really obvious about that, but also using your show notes or rather, let's be more clear about this, your episode notes, the description of your podcast that you have probably gone into or your podcast host and you've gone, Oh, they want something else from me. Oh, I'll just quickly and rattle off a sentence and blah, blah, blah. Joe Rogan says something like "Thoughts from a guy and mind.". [00:22:29]
[00:22:30] COURTNEY KOCAK: Yeah. [00:22:30]
[00:22:30] JAMES CRIDLAND: That's all that Joe Rogan's description is. So from that point of view, again, those are things that both Google uses to search for you, but also all of the big podcast apps will search through your show name and through the description for your show as well. So, you know, a really good example that I saw the other week. There's someone who has just put up a podcast about Major League Soccer, and they called it the MLS, you know, MLS Weekly or something like that. And the description said it's, you know, all the goings on in all of the MLS leagues. And I said to them, You might want to use the word soccer in there somewhere so that people might be able to find, you know, explain what MLS means so that if somebody is searching for Major League Soccer, then they will find it. And also, by the way, there are another 179 countries out there who call it football. So you might want to put football somewhere in the description so that people will find it if they're doing a web search for football. So it's again, it's coming back to just keeping it as easy as possible for the algorithms to understand what your podcast is all about. And then that will help people search for your particular show and find your particular show. [00:23:49]
[00:23:50] COURTNEY KOCAK: And then you mentioned the apps and especially with the episode descriptions, have they gotten better at combing through that stuff? [00:23:55]
[00:23:56] JAMES CRIDLAND: Well, so the one thing that we know about apps and I did some work a couple of years ago now around what apps actually look out and what they don't. So I worked with Mark Stedman, who does podcasting in the UK, and we both came up with words that don't exist in Google, which was quite difficult. And once we came up with those words that don't exist in Google, we put them into some of our podcasts and we waited two or three weeks and then we went back and we started searching for those imaginary words in all of these podcast apps so that we could find out what different podcast apps were indexing and what they weren't. So we ended up learning very, very clearly that, for example, Apple Podcasts will search through your podcast title, will search through your description for the podcast, and will search through the episode title. And that's it. They don't search through your episode show notes. So if you put lots of information in your episode, show notes about, you know, in this in this episode. We're interviewing so-and-so and he'll tell us the best way to batter a fish. It won't have any of that of that information in Apple Podcasts, or at least wouldn't at the time, because Apple Podcast wasn't looking at that at that thing. Now, I think Spotify does, but Apple doesn't. So really, you know, again, that focus is on making sure that your episode titles are as clear as possible. So they need to be short because otherwise, you know, you'll be penalized, you know, normally. But they also need to say what is in that particular show. So don't call it episode 25, you know, call it who the guest is and maybe what you might learn in that particular show. I think we go slightly overboard on the pop news weekly review, which is an hour-long show that we do every single week. We normally squeeze a bit too much into the into the title, but that it really helps the search engines find what that show is about. [00:25:59]
[00:26:00] COURTNEY KOCAK: Yeah, I used to be like super artsy or try to be like clever in my titles and sometimes not even put the guest's name in the episode description. And then I realized how stupid that was, because when people are searching for this exact guest, sometimes they can't find them. [00:26:17]
[00:26:17] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah. [00:26:17]
[00:26:20] COURTNEY KOCAK: Hey Besties. You know how it goes; I gotta interrupt because I need those ratings and reviews. Help, help, help! My goal is just to get on the scoreboard with this episode. I want five ratings on Spotify and five ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts. And because we all know Apple Podcasts reviews are such great social proof. I have got a deal for you. If you leave a five-star rating with a review on Apple Podcasts and you email me a screenshot with your name and the name of your podcast, you are going to get a free shout-out on the next episode. Okay. It's like a free ad. I'm like Oprah over here. You get a shout-out, you get a shout-out, you get a shout-out. But seriously, it's that easy. Thank you for your help. Okay, now back to James. [00:27:03]
[00:27:04] COURTNEY KOCAK: Okay, so more broadly, for independent podcasters, podcasters in general, but especially the indie folks, you see a lot of press releases, you see a lot of news every day, so you're on the pulse. What's your audit? Like what are missed opportunities that you see not just with websites but anything production or marketing or monetization? Like, whatever. [00:27:29]
[00:27:30] JAMES CRIDLAND: Hmm. Wow. Missed opportunities. I mean, I think number one is the power of the transcripts. Transcripts are really, really helpful and useful. They're obviously good for people who can't hear very well. [00:27:42]
[00:27:42] COURTNEY KOCAK: Mm hmm. [00:27:42]
[00:27:42] JAMES CRIDLAND: And so, frankly, you should be doing them anyway. But they also help with SEO. And, you know, Google can actually read through. There's a fair amount of evidence that Apple Podcasts is actually producing transcripts and things of your show under the hood anyway, to help with that with their search now. But putting a transcript onto a web page is not going to harm anything and and would be a good a good plan. There are plenty of automated ways that you can do that. Hindenburg has just released a brand new version of their audio editor, which automatically does transcripts, you know, Descript does them, you know, etc., etc. So those those are really important. But I think also just on a really basic level, making sure that, you know, your you know, how to explain what your podcast is about. Eric Nuzum has written a really good book called Make Noise. He used to make loads of podcasts at NPR. He now runs his own podcast company called Magnificent Noise. And Make Noise is a really good— is a really good book that I would recommend to anybody that is making a podcast. And one of the things that it says in there is the magical— I think he says either 12 words or ten words, which is the explanation of what your podcast is. If you can't explain what your podcast is in ten or 12 words, then you should probably stop making a podcast and work out what your podcast is about. Because because if you don't know what your podcast is about, that's probably not a great thing. So really focusing on, you know, what is the 12 words of that particular show? What is it there to do? And then make sure, you know, obviously, that would be a great description or great start to one. But it also really helps you understand what the press release should be about and what you should be focusing on. Quite a lot of the time, I will get a press release and they will use all of the words like, you know, uncensored talk and, you know, and real saying things unfiltered, you know, and all this kind of stuff. [00:29:44]
[00:29:44] COURTNEY KOCAK: Taboo topics. [00:29:44]
[00:29:44] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah, exactly. And I'm there going, Yeah, but what's it about? What is actually in this podcast, there are 1700 podcasts out there, which are called Real Talk, you know, So making it really obvious what your podcast is about. I'm really surprised that there are so many people who will send a press release and not have that. So that's one thing. The other thing I would say is if you're going to send a press release out to websites, I don't know if you've ever seen a website before, but they've all got pictures on them. They've all got pictures on them. So please don't just send out a press release, which is a piece of text, and assume that that is going to be enough for most people. You stand a much better chance of that being published in a newspaper, in a website. If there's a great photograph that goes alongside it. And you're very good at this, every press release that I've received from you has at least two photographs of you, and I can I can at least and I can at least use one of them. So. So from that point of view, that's super good. But you would be so surprised at how many people don't send any photographs of people like pictures of other human beings much more than a, you know, a podcast thumbnail or that sort of thing. So a picture of a human being, probably recording a podcast maybe, or just posed in a nice way. So that that's a really obvious thing. And it's I'm so surprised at how few podcasts even now will send a nice photograph alongside. [00:31:13]
[00:31:14] COURTNEY KOCAK: Yeah. Any other big press release bloopers that you see on a regular basis? [00:31:19]
[00:31:21] JAMES CRIDLAND: Some people send me press releases, and they forget to mention what the title of the podcast is, which is that which is always a winner. And some people send me press releases without actually checking that their podcast is findable in Apple Podcasts. I'm not the world's biggest fan of Apple Podcasts, but kind of if you're not in Apple Podcasts, you're not a real podcast, basically. [00:31:43]
[00:31:44] COURTNEY KOCAK: No. [00:31:44]
[00:31:44] JAMES CRIDLAND: And obviously, there are some shows which are exclusive to certain platforms and everything else, and that's all fine... Kind of. But if you are a standard show which is available on lots of different platforms, just make sure that you're on Apple. Because if you're not in Apple, you are missing so much. You know, it's 40% of the world's podcast plays, but the Apple directory also serves probably another 50% or 40% of other apps as well. So make sure that you're in there. That's one of the most important things. [00:32:12]
[00:32:13] COURTNEY KOCAK: Totally. Okay. So last big question. You have a monster email list. Do you have any advice on how to grow that? Obviously huge tip: just make it front and center on your website. Any other little tidbits? [00:32:29]
[00:32:30] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah, I mean, make it make it front and center. Also, buddy up with other people who are doing similar things. I think that there's a there's a thought that, you know, other newsletters or other podcasts that are in a similar field are your competition and they're really not. They're people who are in the same sort of sort of space as you are and actually, you know, if you're a fan of, he says coming back to fish and chips again. But if you're a fan of fish and chips, I'm clearly, clearly hungry this morning. If you're a fan of fish and chips, then yes, there will be people listening to your fish and chip show. But there are also going to be people listening to other shows all about how to make a great place for fish and chips. So working together with those people is a good thing to grow the entire industry and grow your you're a niche or your niche if you prefer it better that way. So yes, I think that that's, you know, an important thing. But yeah, I mean make it just make it really obvious in terms of your newsletter, how to sign up, what you'll get. There are quite a lot of newsletters where you don't know what you're going to get, and I would much rather read one prior to signing up. And also don't abuse that. There are some people who I've signed up for newsletters from and I get all kinds of stuff and they've discovered an affiliate deal with I don't know some some car insurance company and they and they and so one you know update is you know by the way you know if you want to help the show, then buy this car insurance from this guy. No, really. Please don't please don't do that. [00:34:03]
[00:34:03] JAMES CRIDLAND: You know, so treating people kindly, treating people well, you know, is probably a good a good plan. And yeah, hopefully there won't be any affiliate deals for car insurance in Podnews anytime soon. [00:34:15][11.5]
[00:34:16] COURTNEY KOCAK: Well, no, things have really got off the rails when we see that. [00:34:18][2.7]
[00:34:19] JAMES CRIDLAND: Exactly. [00:34:19][0.0]
[00:34:20] COURTNEY KOCAK: Yeah. You know what? One of the biggest lessons that I've gotten doing this and that I've taken to more of my other podcasts, which aren't quite so service related, but just like the value in serving your audience and like showing up and trying to like make good on that doesn't involve a lot of affiliate links necessarily, but you know, you get people coming back. [00:34:42]
[00:34:43] JAMES CRIDLAND: Yeah. Oh yeah. And just, you know, treating your audience well. Being consistent is the is the other thing. And that goes for newsletters, but it goes for podcasts as well. If people understand—you know, you don't go into a McDonald's one day and all of a sudden you get a pizza, you know, apart from that place in Orlando where you do actually get McDonald's pizzas. [00:35:03]
[00:35:04] COURTNEY KOCAK: Oh, my God. [00:35:04]
[00:35:05] JAMES CRIDLAND: Which is the weirdest thing. But yeah, you know, the reason why McDonald's is a really successful hamburger place isn't because it serves the best hamburgers. It does a really consistent job. And, you know, wherever you are in the world, if you just want a bit of comfort food, you know that you can go into a McDonald's. You'll know the sort of things that are in there that don't serve you beef. In India, for example, they serve you this weird Queensland burger here which has beetroot, hobbit or beat, I guess you would call it. Which is a very strange, strange experience, but it's still a consistent experience. So making sure that you do that, you know, every week if you're a weekly show on the same day, if you can, you know, all of that kind of kind of stuff is really important because people begin to build their lives around your podcast. And if you miss a week or you miss a day or however it works, then you're actually genuinely messing people's lives up. So you should kind of be a little bit more careful on that. [00:36:08]
[00:36:08] COURTNEY KOCAK: You're reading me for filth right now, James. [00:36:10]
[00:36:11] JAMES CRIDLAND: Am I? Uh oh. [00:36:11]
[00:36:13] COURTNEY KOCAK: No, I'm. I'm consistently inconsistent. That's how it is. Is there anything else you would like to share with the Besties before we close today? [00:36:24]
[00:36:24] JAMES CRIDLAND: Well, gosh, no. I mean, I think. I think I think I've said way too much already. But I guess the other thing I would just say is get get the most out of the content that you make. And that means not just putting out a podcast, but, you know, whether it's making a transcript of that and putting it on your website or making an article of what you've made and putting it on your website, cutting it into bits to make it available on other platforms as well so that people find it. And then perhaps going back, if you can't do a show one one week, then going back and saying, okay, can't do a show this week because of, you know, X and Y, but here's a bit of a show that I did a couple of months ago about such and such. You know, it's a really good and quick way to keep that consistency going. And you would be surprised how many people have just found your podcast and have never heard that particular episode. So don't be afraid to rerun stuff on occasion where it makes sense. [00:37:25]
[00:37:25] COURTNEY KOCAK: I love that tip. I've been trying to do that more and it's a lifesaver sometimes. Thank you so much, James. This has been great. [00:37:32]
[00:37:32] JAMES CRIDLAND: Well, thank you so much. It's been it's been fantastic to be a Podcast Bestie. [00:37:36]
[00:37:39] COURTNEY KOCAK: Hell, yes. James was the perfect first guest. The only downside is you're going to be thinking about fish and chips for the rest of the day. Maybe that's an upside. I don't know. Anyway, thanks so much for tuning in to the very first episode of Podcast Bestie. For more of my audio creations, check out my other podcasts: I have Private Parts Unknown, which is about love and sexuality around the world, and The Bleeders, about book writing and publishing. And you can follow me between episodes at Courtney Kocak—that's K-O-C-A-K—on Instagram and Twitter. And, of course, I send out a lot of newsletter exclusives to my Besties. So you're going to want to make sure you are on that email list. So go to podcastbestie.substack.com slash/welcome. And now for the Bad Watchdog trailer. Okay, this shit is wild. Here we go. [00:38:33]
[00:38:35] BAD WATCHDOG TRAILER: The Department of Homeland Security is a federal agency that you may not be paying attention to. But over the last several years, it's been at the center of a lot of controversy. From Secret Service agents roughly clearing BLM protesters in D.C. to the crisis at our southern border. One agent was caught on camera swinging his horse strap at one of the migrants. To January 6th. We just had protestors incircle breach the line. We need backup. It's a powerful agency. But what happens when the people inside it abuse their power? And what happens when the watchdog tasked with exposing those abuses chooses to look the other way? This is the guy running the watchdog shop. But he doesn't want to raise red flags when clearly they're warranted. President Trump was firing inspectors general left and right if they displeased him. There's enough smoke here to know that there's a fire burning somewhere. How the hell am I going to be a Border Patrol agent if I can't protect myself? And I can't do this anymore. I don't even believe in what we do anymore. The people I arrest are less criminals than the guys I'm sitting next to. Joseph Cuffari is giving cover to abusive agents within the ranks. All these people said that when they reported things, it was detrimental to their career. I mean, this is the story of an agency. This is a podcast about finding the truth and holding people accountable, which is essentially, and not coincidentally, the work of an inspector general. I married Marquis and from the Project on Government Oversight. This is Bad Watchdog. A new six-part investigative series launching Thursday, January 26th. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. [00:38:35]