Mark Asquith – Podcastreporter.com

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we review a post by Mark Asquith of rebelbasemedia.io in which he reviews the five “must-have” items for creating a podcast website that will “stand out.”

As an experienced podcaster, I wanted to see what he would include in these necessary items for aspiring podcasters. The reason I did this is that I had seen his video titled “How to record a podcast episode: software and setups for all budgets” — and I was interested in what the absolute requirements were mentioned for a podcasting web site.

Well, I saw the main sections of this blog post about a podcasting web site, and he goes into detail about each one. They were:

Include a web magnet (and he refers you to a site that explains how to create a lead magnet;
Get involved with your podcast (and he gives several examples, such as contributions, questions or feedback — as well as a private podcast or bonus feed);
Have organized and optimized pages (and he includes a reference to Evo Terra of PodcastPontifications.com as an example: “Evo Terra’s revamped website places a lot of emphasis on his written content. Every episode has a transcription, full show notes and is tagged to make navigating his vast content library super easy.”);
Include a SPONSOR KIT, which should have the following:
- “What you’ll provide for them – what does a sponsorship include, and how much will it cost?
- Your previous ad-reads (if you have them)
- An overview of your stats, including downloads, unique listeners and listener behaviour
- Information on your demographic and audience
- A contact form to call to action to get in touch.
- A link to your PDF sponsor kit.”
A guesting page (with speaker and guest profiles and other needed promotional and preparation information pertaining to guests for your show).

And the main conclusion for this post is: YES, you DO need a podcast website, if you are serious about becoming a professional podcaster and stepping into the world of monetization.

For this podcaster, I have used in the past the models created and espoused and delivered by such pundits as Paul Colligan and others to fill these requirements — and deliver many more for me.

Of course, Mark is monetizing his call to action to have you, the podcaster, engage him to help you create these sites for your podcast show.

Now, you can ensure that you have included these (or something like these) items in your website, or you can farm it out to a third party (of which there are many). But the important things to get out of this post is for you to check against your own show and website to see if you are including — or missing — some of these items. And a good checklist is always a beneficial idea for you, as a podcaster, to review.

Thank you for your attention.

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver a perspective of “Five tips” written by other podcasters to deliver both how to make your podcast stand out, as well as recognizing environments that may derail your podcast show.

(1) The first article is one written by Mark Asquith that delivers five ways that can help your podcast to “stand out.” This is the article from the Podcast Business Journal titled “Five ways to make your podcast stand out.”

Mark recommends these tips:

Repurpose your podcast content;
Be a guest on other podcasts;
Feature guests on your podcasts;
Use paid advertising channels; and
Expand your online presence.

For Mark, putting this all together can be a great strategy to incorporate these tips and provide a written plan to make these suggestions into reality. For him, consistency and continuity are some of the most important factors that can lead to success. As he states in the close of his article: “By optimizing your content, building relationships with fellow podcasters and your audience, you can organically grow and distinguish your brand as well as attract new listeners and subscribers.”

(2) The other article takes an almost opposite theme. It was also delivered by the Podcast Business Journal, and it had the title of “Five things that derail podcast success.”

This article by Steve Goldstein begins with the serious attitude for the podcaster: “five things that will derail your success, including not having a plan, not respecting the listener and not having a fresh take.”

And then Steve describes the five elements that can create a dangerous signal for your podcast. They are:

Not having a fresh take, point of view or original topic;
Not clearly positioning the benefit of the podcast;
Not having a comprehensive promotional plan;
Not respecting the listener’s time;
Not having a “high definition” map and plan.

And Steve goes into more detail about what he means by these themes (which, for some podcasters, may seem “too simple” and thus, may be disregarded all too quickly).

With the growth of podcasting today, and with over a million “competitors” (that is, the total number of podcast shows) that are competing for the attention of audiences today, Steve summarizes the importance of taking these five elements into account: “these five factors are becoming more difficult to ignore as key success factors.”

As a podcaster, I would recommend that a few minutes should be given to see the five positive elements from Mark and the five caveats from Steve. They can serve as both suggestions for adding to your roadmap of success, as well as perhaps acting like a signpost that warns you of potential “land-mines” on your podcast journey. I think that the best value can come from possibly helping to “spawn” new ideas for you or build on prior ideas to solidify your own podcast journey to success.

We hope that these will help you to define your future steps in podcasting and avoid any problems in the the near future.

Thank you for your attention.