What is the Best Call to Action for Your Podcast?

Hours Categories Content, Growth

We’ve all experienced analysis paralysis. There are too many items on the menu at a restaurant and you’re not sure what to order. There are seemingly a million Apple Watch bands – which do you pick? What’s really the difference between the Toyota Sienna LE and XLE?!

What’s the balance between offering choice and getting people to take action? That really depends on the medium. For example, you may notice podcasts have a ton of calls to action (CTAs). Maybe you do. My podcast does at times. Is that really the right route?

I don’t think so. Here’s why.

Too Many Requests Result in Zero Action

My daughter is 6 years old and there are a few things we need to do for her to make her feel like she’s in some sort of control.

We need to tell her what’s happening next. This comes in the form of a daily schedule. She knows when she wakes up we get changed, brush teeth, eat breakfast, and clean the sun room. Then she can have iPad time.

I need to make sure I don’t tell her to do too many things at once because she’ll get overwhelmed and do none of them.

My son, who’s 3, needs the same treatment. Except when he’s overwhelmed, he gets upset because he doesn’t understand what’s going on. This is how toddlers act. They want to be in the know.

I also need to show them the positive results — the benefit — of them doing 3 things they’d rather not do. Experts call this a “preferred activity,” and it’s their reward for following the schedule.

Now, I’m not saying our podcast listeners are toddlers, but much like little kids, we don’t usually have their full attention. Podcasting, for many, is a multitasking activity. So we need to make our intentions and the benefits crystal clear.

You Should Have One Clear CTA

Because of that, you should have one clear CTA that you repeat throughout the show. You should mention it at the beginning, somewhere in the middle (related to the content) and you should mention it a few times at the end.

Remember: you have listeners who are half paying attention so repetition is important. You don’t want to overwhelm or confuse the listener as to what you want them to do most. So have one CTA.

Make Your CTA to Join Your Mailing List

You know what is a great place to promote multiple things? Your mailing list. You have a reader’s full attention there — especially if they open the email.

There you can promote your membership, products, or even ask for a review in Apple Podcasts.

Plus, while it might be easy to skip an episode, mailing list subscribers will at the very least see your name in their inbox weekly. They’re buying into more of your content!

So in your CTA, ask people to join your mailing list. Give them an incentive. Tell them all the great things they’ll get outside the podcast.

Highlight the benefits!

Podcaster and friend Matt Medieros recommends having a dedicated subscribe page with the email opt-in as well as podcast subscribe buttons, which I think is a great idea.

What About Show Notes?

Sometimes there’s a lot you want to mention. Maybe there are links you reference, a mailing list, rating and reviews, etc.

The way apps handle show notes/episode descriptions these days are pretty great. I recommend putting the crucial links there — anything referenced in the show, a link to your mailing list, etc.

But listeners will probably see those anyway. So you still need to ask them to do something — and I think “join my mailing list” should be that something.

Clarity and Repetition are Key

Clarity and repetition are key. You need to make sure your listener knows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, what you think their most important next step is.

This takes some practice and strategic placement. And as I discussed with Zach Swinehart on a recent episode, you might want to track certain placements differently.

But if you take one thing away from this article, it should be this:

Have one, clear call to action for your listeners.

Joe Casabona

Podcast Systems Coach

Joe Casabona is a podcast and automation coach who helps coaches, course creators, and authors grow their podcasts into authority-building lead generators. He does that through expert-tested systems that come with 10 years experience podcasting, 15 years teaching, and over 20 years working the web.

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  • In the Age of AI, Podcast Pitches are Getting Worse.

    Hours Categories AI, Growth

    A movie scene that has stuck with me for nearly 30 years is from Men in Black.

    Vincent D’Onofrio, playing an Upstate New York farmer named Edgar, gets killed by an alien who immediately puts his skin on and wears it like a suit.

    Then, walking into his kitchen, alien Edgar immediately demands of his wife, “Sugar…in water.”

    D’Onofrio perfectly plays this — moving and talking uncomfortably…as if he’s actually unfamiliar with how humans move.

    But it’s the request — “sugar in water” — that always gets me. It’s odd, because even though most beverages we consume have sugar (or some sugar substitute) in it, no one explicitly asks for sugar in water.

    And while it’s an odd request, Edgar’s wife obliges and watches in disbelief as he downs the entire glass.

    It was so close to being believable, but it was missing something innately human.

    That’s how I’ve felt about podcast pitches as of late.

    Bad Podcast Pitches Aren’t New

    Bad pitches aren’t new. I’ve written about them on my blog and on social media.

    But in the age of AI, bad pitches have become rampant and worse. More pitches are coming in where the sender, “hopes this email finds you well,” or they, “recently discovered your podcast and it has quickly become one of my favorites…”

    That last one has very strong sugar in water vibes.

    In fact, for the question on my form, “What episode made you want to reach out,” someone straight up sent a ChatGPT summary. How did I know? Here’s the entire answer:

    In the episode “Great Things Require Time,” Joe begins with an anecdote about impatient customers waiting in line at the “best” bagel shop in New York, stating that if all they wanted was a bagel, they could have gone to any grocery store. But the best bagels would be worth the wait. This sense of dedication was admirable–that something great will not be reached without patience and hard work.

    The 3 most important values to building a successful digital presence are professionalism, authenticity, and consistency. This framework encourages creators to ask themselves:

    -Do you have high-quality, professionally edited content on social media?
    – When you are sharing things online (to the public), is it truly what you value and believe in?
    – Are you showing up every day to be seen as a creator worth following?

    This ticks all the boxes for a terrible AI answer:

    • Clumsy intro
    • 3rd person about me
    • Unnecessary 10-point vocabulary word
    • Factually incorrect (I was talking about PA, not NY)
    • Doesn’t even remotely answer the question

    Bad. Bad. Bad.

    But they don’t have to be.

    What Makes a Good Pitch?

    Recently I had Jennie Wright on Streamlined Solopreneur, and her pitch was a breath of fresh air. She focused on the audience, sent the right sort of topics, and showed she at least looked at the episodes of my podcast before pitching.

    I’m under no delusion that everyone who pitches my show is an avid listener, but part of pitching is understanding the show, who the audience is, and how you can help.

    Jennie did that — and had a great guest page to boot. I knew having her on the show would add a TON of value.

    My Advice for Pitching Podcasts

    So what can you do if you’re pitching?

    1. Make it relevant to the show’s audience — not just an email about how amazing you are.
    2. Check out the show before pitching. Listen to an episode if you can, but at least scroll through the back catalog and see what kind of topics the show covers.
    3. Confirm they actually have guests. Seriously. Spray and pray is a bad look.
    4. Have a great ​guest page​. Make it easy for the host to understand who you are, and why you’re qualified to talk about what you’re pitching.

    It takes more time than blindly (and annoyingly) pitching random shows — but everything that will actually get you good results does.

    Steal this Podcast Pitch Template

    Want an actual good pitch? Here’s how I do it: 

    I came across your show and love its mission to help [TARGET AUDIENCE]. Here's how I think I can help you add value for your listeners:
​
[3 TOPICS THAT ALIGN WITH THE SHOW'S GOALS].
​
I'm happy to answer any questions you have. You can learn more about me here: [PAGE SPECIFICALLY BUILT FOR GUEST PODCASTING].
​
Thanks so much!

    Notice we:

    1. Make it clear we know who the show is for
    2. Pitch 3 relevant topics for the show and its goals
    3. Send them to a page to show them we know what we’re talking about

    This will achieve your goal: show the host you actually care about their audience.

    And for the love of all things righteous and good, don’t outsource this job to ChatGPT. It’s too important if you’re trying to forge genuine relationships and actually grow your audience.

  • Joe’s Audio Notes: My Free, Private Podcast Experiment

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    I don’t subscribe to the “Butterfly Effect” — the aspect of chaos theory that some event so small, like a butterfly flapping its wings, can have profound effects on the trajectory of our world.

    However, I do love it when a plan comes together as a series of events collides.

    Over the course of 6 days, several events happened that led me to a new experiment I’m trying.

    Read More “Joe’s Audio Notes: My Free, Private Podcast Experiment”

  • 7 Ways to Grow Your Podcast (Webinar Replay)

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    Over the summer, I gave my most popular webinar of the year: 7 Ways to Grow Your Podcast.

    And while the live webinar is free for everyone, after the first 48 hours, replays become members-only content.

    However, keeping with this year’s advent tradition of giving [something away every 5 days], I thought that this was a perfect candidate.

    Here’s what we cover:

    • Making your podcast available in various directories
    • Enhancing podcast titles and descriptions for better search visibility
    • Using podcast swaps to grow your audience
    • Leveraging social media for effective podcast promotion
    • Tools and tactics for sustainable podcast growth

    So enjoy — the video is embedded below. No paywall or email opt-in required!

  • Why You Should Write a Book if You Have a Podcast

    Hours Categories Content, Storytelling

    This article is brought to you in partnership with Lulu.

    One of my favorite books from my college reading list is A Confederacy of Dunces. It’s a funny, tragic book that highlights the fact that someone will always think society is on a downward spiral…as well as hypocrisy.

    An interesting fact about the book is that it almost didn’t see the light of day. The author, John Kennedy Toole, died tragically in 1969. A Confederacy of Dunces wasn’t published until 1980, thanks to work from another writer — Walker Percy — and Toole’s mother, Thelma.

    A Confederacy of Dunces went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.

    I regularly think about all the incomplete and unpublished works out there — from authors and would be authors who didn’t, or couldn’t, get their books on the shelves.

    Then I think about how easy publishing and distributing a book is today. And while the writing is still the hard part, that can be easier too.

    Especially if you have a podcast.

    What Podcasting has to do with Writing a Book

    As someone who’s written 5 books over the last 12 years, I can tell you my process for each of them has looks more or less the same:

    1. Pick a topic I know very well — something I’m an expert in. Do some research to see what other books exist on that topic.
    2. Create a mind map or outline of everything I want to include in the book. Do some research to make sure I didn’t miss anything (or at least anything I feel should be included).
    3. Organize that mind map/outline into chapters in an order than makes sense for the reader. Do research on how these topics get presented from other experts in the field.
    4. Write each chapter, while (you guessed it), doing research to make sure I’m representing each topic accurately.
    5. Adjust each chapter once I get them back from edit, once again consulting my old friend research, as I make those changes to ensure accuracy and consistency.

    As you can see, there’s a lot of research involved. This is true whether you’re investigating a new topic, or you’re an expert on the topic. Good authors do research to make sure they’re presenting accurate, up-to-date information for their readers.

    This is also true if you have a podcast (at least a good one), right? You’re selecting topics and presenting them in a way that’s easy to consume for the listener.

    If you have guests, you’re researching those guests and asking them good questions as a proxy for your listeners, who may not have the same access to the guests that you do.

    If you have a solo show, then you’re creating outlines, and possibly scripts, on topics you know well, while doing a bit of research to ensure accuracy.

    And for many podcasters, once the episode is published, that’s the end.

    But it doesn’t have to be.

    A Quick Note on Using AI in Your Book Writing Process

    Before I get to the main event, I do want to touch on a topic that you may have already thought this article would be about: repurposing with AI.

    I am not talking about that.

    While repurposing is all the rage these days, I have strong feelings that you can’t just use AI to repurpose spoken words into a book. To put it as plainly as possible:

    Writing a book isn’t just organizing your thoughts.

    Full Stop.

    Writing a book is everything I mentioned above — creating a structure that lends itself to teaching. It’s not just rearranged word vomit.

    What you CAN use AI for is pulling out the interesting ideas from your podcast, surfacing things you may have forgotten about, and yes — even organizing episodes or concepts to better fit in with your outline.

    This is especially helpful if you have a deep catalog (my show, Streamlined Solopreneur, has over 400 episodes). But this makes AI your research assistant, not the author of the book.

    OK — with that out of the way, let’s get to it. How can you use your podcast to write a book?

    What Type of Podcasts are Perfect for Writing Books?

    One of the most important building blocks for a successful podcast is having a clear mission statement — understanding who you’re talking to, what problem they have, and how you help them solve that problem.

    If you have that, you can use your podcast to write a book because you should have a common theme throughout your show and episodes.

    In-fact, this, above all else, is the main driver for your book — the format largely doesn’t matter.

    If you have a solo show, wonderful. Your book can draw on the episodes you’ve crafted, covering your show’s topic (and mission) in-depth. You can likely derive both big ideas, and implementation details from your episodes.

    If you have an interview show, great! You have lots and lots of case studies and perspectives to pull from. Your job will be to weave them together into a cohesive journey for your reader, giving them stops along the way to learn from more experts than just you.

    And if your show is more news or current events based, that’s fine too! You can use all the time you’ve spent researching and opining to create an anthology of important history and facts for your readers.

    But the show isn’t necessarily providing the words. It provides something much more crucial.

    Why You Should Write a Book Based on Your Podcast

    As I mentioned earlier, when writing a book, you must do research at every step of the process, from ideation, to final draft.

    But when you have a podcast, it’s like you’ve given yourself a head start of months, or even years. And while it doesn’t feel like wasted work — after all, you did get great content out of the episode — I’m all about working smart, and reusing valuable content, information, and knowledge is perhaps the smartest one can work.

    As you consider great non-fiction books, you may notice a pattern. The author is drawing from their expert experience to craft a narrative.

    Kindra Hall doesn’t just tell you to write good stories. She demonstrates, through her research and experiences with her clients, why good stories are important.

    James Clear doesn’t just tell you habits are essential. He leverages the years of research he’s done on the topic and shows how It’s helped him, and how it can help you too.

    Tiago Forte, Georgiana Laudi &Claire Suellentrop, Walter Isaacson, and Robbie Kellman Baxter have all done the same thing. Research, experience, narrative.

    Your podcast shortcuts this process. Through your content, you’ve been doing the research, talking to experts, leveraging experience, and maybe even experimenting.

    Now it’s time to take all of that, and turn it into a book worth reading.

    How to Approach Writing a Book Based on Your Podcast (the Short Version)

    “Worth reading” is the operative descriptor in that sentence. You can, as many these days do, throw all of your transcripts into a custom GPT, tell it to write a book, and then “iterate” the prompts until you get something you’ve deemed good enough to slap a cover on.

    But that’s not the right approach.

    Instead, you should start your book without combing through your episodes catalog. Start with a topic that stands alone, that you happen to be an expert in. Of-course, you know what your podcast is about, and therefore will pick something that’s in line with your topic.

    But there’s a difference between starting with the topic vs. combing through your episodes to see what’s there.

    It’s like creating the prefect menu for Thanksgiving dinner, then buying ingredients, vs. looking in your fridge to see what you can throw together.

    Once you have your topic, you can create the outline — again, I would encourage you to do this with little to no influence from your podcast. You want to create an organically good book, not some ham-fisted amalgamation of things you happened to talk about over the last 3 (or in my case, 8) years.

    It’s after you have your outline that you can really start to leverage your show’s episode catalog. Feed everything into AI if you’d like, or do a good old-fashioned site search and look for episodes to support your outline. You’ll want to look for:

    1. Times you or your guest explicitly talk about the points in the outline
    2. Supplemental stories to drive your points home
    3. Actionable advice based on the points in the outline

    You can use whatever tool you’d like for this (I’ve switched over the years, but Ulysses, Notion, and Obsidian are great research tools), but grab excepts, links and summaries from your episode catalog.

    These pieces can serve as your primary research while you write a brand-new book, supplemented by your podcast.

    Your Book is the Dividends on Your Podcast’s Time Investment

    If I haven’t made it explicitly clear at this point, let me state it more plainly:

    You’ve invested a ton of time into your podcast’s content. Your book can leverage that time investment but using your podcast as the primary research for it.

    Because, let’s face it: making money with a podcast can be really hard — and I’m saying this as someone who’s successfully made money with multiple podcasts. Writing a book is also really hard — you need a good, validated idea and enough time to do the research and actually write the dang thing.

    If you write a book based on your podcast, all of those things get easier:

    1. You’ve validated your idea already, assuming your podcast has listeners.
    2. You’ve put in a ton of time over months and years, which you can use as research.
    3. You can sell the book based on your podcast, which generates income;

    I would never say writing a book worth reading is easy (it’s not), but your podcast gives you a considerable advantage in the writing and research process.

    With it, you should be able to write a complete and published work that sees the light of day!

    Brought to You by Lulu

    Now, writing the book is one thing. But distributing it — that’s a whole-other complicated story. As someone who’s self-published, and been traditionally published, I can tell you that it adds an entirely different level of complexity to the process.

    I know authors who’ve written the entire book, then faltered once they go to this part.

    That’s why I’ve partnered with Lulu.

    With Lulu, you can sell books directly to your audience without any trips to the post office. Their e-commerce integrations combine the ease of print-on-demand with the benefits of direct sales. I wish I had this when I wrote my last self-published book.

    Oh, and the best part — you know WHO is buying your book. I wish I had this with my current, traditionally published book.

    You really do get the best of both worlds with Lulu.

    Learn how you can publish your book — you know, the one based on your podcast — for free today.

    Check out Lulu.com

  • Restricting Your Podcast Launch to Apple and Spotify is a Empty Strategy

    Hours Categories Growth, News

    Imagine you walk into a new UPS store that opened up in your town, and you need to ship a gift to your best friend, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

    You walk up to the desk with a fully boxed and addressed package, but the UPS clerk looks at the destination and says, “Oh I’m sorry. We’re only shipping to New York City and London for the first month.”

    You might be wondering why that could possibly be. UPS has the ability to ship anywhere in the world. Why just those two destinations?

    “We want to show UPS HQ that we’re really good at shipping to those places. Would you like to send your package to NYC instead?”

    “No,” you might say. Your friend doesn’t live in NYC. It would make no sense to ship it there. It seems to you that the UPS store is acting a bit rash in their decision to only service two locations, but it’s their business. So you end up going to FedEx instead.

    That sounds like a pretty absurd scenario, right? UPS has the means to ship anywhere, so it wouldn’t necessarily cost them anything to expand to more locations.

    And there’s no known KPI about the efficacy of shipping to NYC and London. In-fact, shipping to NYC would guarantee that they could get the package basically anywhere else.

    It doesn’t make sense. Yet, I’ve been hearing more about a similar “strategy” for podcast launches: only launching on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, presumably in an attempt to game the system and hopefully rank on their charts.

    Let me be blunt: anyone recommending that strategy doesn’t understand the medium.

    That doesn’t work, because you’re not bringing people to those platforms if they don’t already use them — at least not en masse. Here’s why.

    There’s No Benefit to Switching Apps for One Podcast

    As a Pocket Casts user, if I can’t find a podcast in that app, there’s a high likelihood I’m not going to listen to it…not because I’m stubborn. Because if every podcast I listen to except one is in Pocket Casts, I’m just not going to think to check the other app for that one podcast.

    It’s like asking someone to move to receive mail from you.

    Instead, I’m guessing most people will subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and then promptly forget about it.

    And since rankings are usually based on new listeners, episode consumption, and ratings (at least according to the Apple Podcasts team), your rank will remain unaffected.

    You’re just alienating listeners.

    Unless, of-course, they use an app that pulls from Apple Podcasts.

    Many Podcast Apps Source from Apple Podcasts Anyway

    Some very popular 3rd party apps, like Overcast, Castbox, Castro, and Downcast source their podcasts from the Apple Podcasts directory anyway. Those users won’t ever need to use Apple Podcasts because there is parity.

    That also pokes a hole in the strategy that you want to push people towards 1-2 apps.

    The Biggest Podcast Fans Don’t Use the Stock Apps

    According to a 2021 study by Edison Research, less than 40% of podcast super listeners (those who listen to at least 5 hours of podcasts per week) use Spotify or Apple Podcasts:

    And while 87% said they move if their favorite podcast became exclusive to a platform, that’s very different from moving to an app for a new podcast.

    Why does that matter? Because the super listeners are the ones who are going to share your podcast, rate it wherever you ask, and engage with you — and that’s a much better KPI than ephemerally ranking on the bottom half of a podcast chart for a week.

    What You Should Do Instead

    The name of the podcast game is convenience. People like that they can listen to podcasts while doing other stuff…driving, working out, doing chores.

    Restricting your podcast to select platforms breaks that convenience. You need to remember that having your podcast on Apple Podcasts is not like having your video on YouTube.

    There is no discovery algorithm, and there are zero benefits to platform exclusivity.

    Instead, make sure your podcast is everywhere on day one. Submit to all the directories you can think of. Make sure you’re sending it to YouTube.

    Ensuring maximum reach is how you get your podcast to grow. It also shows that you have your audience in mind.

    And that’s what matters most in podcasting.

  • The Ghost of Podcast Future (2024 Edition)

    Hours Categories Content, Tips

    The Ghost of Christmas Future, or Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, exists in A Christmas Carol to serve as a grim warning of what will happen to Scrooge if he doesn’t change his ways.

    But as Scrooge points out, the spirits wouldn’t be visiting him if he were, “…past all hope!”

    Last year, I simply made predictions. I don’t want to do that again this year.

    But I also don’t want to end Podcast Advent on doom and gloom. After all, Scrooge did change. It’s a story about heeding warnings and changing for the better.

    In Podcast Past, we explored what podcasting was — how it came to be, what was expected then, and how it affects our view of what a podcast is.

    In Podcast Present, we explored some bigger questions surrounding podcasting today. What’s going on with analytics? Is RSS at risk? Do we need video?

    Where is Podcasting Going?

    All of this has culminated in podcasting being at an interesting crossroads. It’s not new that celebrities have embraced it, and pundits have been podcasting forever. But this year, it had a noticeable effect on the 2024 US Election. Both presidential candidates did podcast interviews instead of traditional (or “legacy”) media. President-elect Trump is even considering adding podcasters to the White House Briefing Room.

    This is a massive development in the space.

    On the other side of the coin, businesses are seeing more value in having a podcast — especially as video rises to prominence in the space. I’ve long advised my coaching clients that podcasting can be a great starting point for a larger content strategy.

    I’ll be implementing this myself more fully in 2025.

    Between falling prices in gear and AI tools maturing, podcasting is easier than ever. Granted, I mean this in the same way Apple says every year’s iPhone is the “best iPhone ever.” From a technological standpoint, producing a podcast is unlikely to ever get harder than it is today.

    But from a content standpoint, it feels a lot harder. The biggest podcasts are making all the money, and growing has been challenging. My show’s downloads are down, and I’m not the only one.

    Given all of this, what does the future hold for podcasting?

    Podcasting’s Growing Influence

    When I first made my note for topics to cover for Podcast Future, here’s what I wrote:

    Will we see a degradation of the Fourth Estate?

    If politicians can start their own shows, or have way more friendly shows to go on, will they face fewer direct challenges and consequences? Or will it even the playing field?

    If you don’t know the term, the Forth Estate refers to the press and news media, and are tasked with informing the public and holding those in power accountable.

    I wish I could tell you why this was so top of mind for me when I opened Apple Notes.

    It could be that the news about Trump inviting podcasters to the briefing room broke. Or that I started thinking about how both major US election candidates went on podcasts instead of traditional media outlets.

    It’s no secret that podcasting is having a moment similar to blogs 20 years ago, regarding ubiquity, opportunity, and influence. And truth be told, I could focus the rest of this piece entirely on politics.

    I nearly did. But podcasting isn’t just about politics — especially not just American politics. And podcasting’s growing influence transcends any one niche.

    Instead of picturing a world where we’re all stuck in information silos on a steady diet of groupthink, we could picture one with a diverse set of easily findable worldviews from thought leaders, experts, and aspiring pundits of all kinds.

    Giving people a voice also gives listeners options — and having options is crucial to getting a more balanced perspective.

    We’re seeing it happen now, just like we did then with blogs; except that was done in a world where the only algorithmic discovery was Google, in a revolution driven by RSS readers.

    Can the Future of Podcasting be much different?

    Distributing Podcasts

    As a 12-year-old boy when Titanic came out, I hated Leonardo DiCaprio. The reason was simple. Every girl my age, including the one I liked (like, like liked) loved him.

    In other words, my resistance to Leo was unfounded, and kind of silly. When I finally ended up watching another movie starring him, it was The Departed, nearly 10 years later. In that time, I missed out on some great movies (that I later rectified):

    • The Man in the Iron Mask
    • Gangs of New York
    • Catch Me if You Can
    • The Aviator

    Why tell you this? Because, due to my stubbornness, I missed out.

    In the article about Podcast Present, I warn about the voices so who vehemently argue that RSS is a required component of a podcast. Or that video disqualifies content from being considered a podcast.

    The future I described above — where anyone has a voice to influence — has to be driven and sustained by something. Here’s what it could look like.

    A friend of yours discovers a new podcast she thinks you’ll enjoy. So she sends you the YouTube link — after all, that’s how she found it. You have a listen, and leave a like and a comment. The host will eventually respond.

    And as you’re listening, the host encourages you to subscribe — except it sounds like this:

    “Since you’re listening on YouTube, you can subscribe right here. Or if you want even more content, you can subscribe via our RSS feed, in your favorite podcast app.”

    Dynamic ads not only know your location, but the platform where you’re listening, and the call-to-action is customized based on that.

    In other words, podcasting can be driven by the platforms that are investing in the podcasting space now: YouTube and Spotify.

    But it will still be sustained by open RSS, just like blogging.

    As a podcaster, you’ll need to leverage both to be heard. Don’t let your stubbornness get the best of you, like it did for me with Leo DiCaprio. Because by the time you come around, it may be too late.

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