Could Your Blog Benefit From A Podcast?

This is a contributor post.

A blog is a business like any other, so you’ll constantly want to find ways to diversify. This is why many blog owners are now writing books or launching merch lines. The more you do with your blogging brand, the more money you stand to make, and the better your blog can ultimately be. 

Luckily, you don’t need to embark on a mammoth mission like writing a book to grow your efforts here. However, you need to find ways to do things differently continually. For many bloggers, podcasts offer a great and fast option for expanding a blog’s appeal without having to step away from what it’s already doing. 

In this article, we’ll consider the ins and outs of podcasting and answer one pressing question – could your blog benefit from a podcast?

Blogging vs Podcasting: Does It Have To Be Either-Or? 

Blogging and podcasting are often cast as rivals. After all, these two focuses are incredibly different on the surface of things. And they can certainly stand apart as great business opportunities on their own.

However, at the heart of things, blogs and podcasts operate with the same overall goal–conveying information to your followers. Both can be useful for building online communities. Both are relatively easy to share in the modern world. 

So far, so good. But why bother with both outlets if you already do well with one? 

In reality, podcasting isn’t ideal for every blogger. There’s a lot of work involved, and podcasts tend to have pretty limited discoverability from an SEO standpoint. 

But podcasts can also be a great way to add value to your followers and community. Podcast episodes with recognizable industry names are also invaluable for promoting your blog to brand-new audiences. 

If you want to diversify your blog and spread its reach, you might find that blogging and podcasting make a better pair than most people would have you believe. 

What Can a Podcast Bring To Your Blog?

If you’re going to put extra hours into hosting a podcast, you’ll first want to make sure that it offers true value to what your blog is already doing. 

If you intend to simply record yourself reading a monologue (e.g., make an audio version of your blog posts), then you might want to skip the hassle and write it instead.

However, if your podcast offers something different from your blog itself, such as industry interviews or discussions with experts, then you could soon start to enjoy benefits that include – 

Brand Authority

It is possible to build authority through your blog posts alone, but it can be tricky to do so. After all, when you’re writing a post, readers only have your word to go by. By comparison, most podcasts include a conversation with another person, ideally someone who is respected in your field. A great podcast guest list alone can prove you are a worthwhile authority in your blogging niche. Make those podcasts the highest possible quality; you may even find that your audience shares and quotes those conversations. All of these can help you stand out as an authority above the blogging crowd. 

Ready-Made Blog Posts

There will always be days when you just can’t seem to construct a quality blog post. Fear not, because as well as giving you something to post on even those shaky upload days, you could transcribe your podcast into a written format to ensure ready-made blog posts when you need them most. 

Affiliate Attention

Affiliate sponsorships and deals are some of the most viable ways to finance your blog. By diversifying with a podcast, you can attract an entirely new kind of affiliate attention. This might result in new deals with familiar brands or new connections with brands that never would’ve found your blog otherwise. 

SEO Boosts

This may seem contradictory, given that we just said podcasts offer limited value regarding discoverability and SEO. Still, a podcast uploaded onto an existing SEO-optimized blog can be a different issue. After all, Google values the use of multimedia on its highest-performing sites. This is especially true if you professionally film and edit your podcast recordings to turn them into a form of video marketing. That way, your podcast will make you far more likely to appear in Google’s ‘featured snippets‘ or earn a high spot in relevant keyword rankings. 

Vital Connections

Connections are everything in the blogging world, and they can help you gain mentions, collaborate, and more. A podcast is a great starting place for connections with everyone, from industry experts to close blogging friends. When trying to get guests on your podcast, make sure to quote your follower numbers, average views, and topic ideas in advance. 

How Does a Podcast Vary From Your Blog?

We’ve already covered how your blog could benefit from a podcast. Unfortunately, those benefits may remain off the cards if you assume that you can easily create a winning podcast because you have a blog. 

It’s important to remember that these two mediums are fundamentally different. The skills you’ve developed on your blog won’t necessarily translate to the podcasting scene. 

Of course, there are a lot of blogging skills that you can use when creating your podcast. For instance, you already have a lot of the knowledge you’ll need to make your podcast a success, such as –

• What your audience likes
• Your best-performing posts and topics
• Top upload times
• Etc.

Outside of this, though, podcasting does vary in critical ways, which can include –

Narrower Niches

Niche matters whether you’re writing a blog post or uploading an hour-long chat. However, while a niche like ‘book reviews‘ might be enough to see you scraping a decent following in the blogging world, it’s rarely enough to attract a podcast audience. A podcast is a much longer form of content, after all, and ensuring people listen for the entire 30+ minutes of your recordings means finding a narrow niche that no one else has thought of, like ‘book reviews of award-winning reads,’ or even something genre-specific like ‘reviewing your top-rated sci-fi books.’ 

Different Upload Schedules

On average, bloggers should aim to upload a new post roughly two-six times a week. By comparison, it’s standard for podcast episodes to launch just once every two weeks or even once a month. This is because podcast production takes much longer, especially if you want to secure quality guests with busy schedules. By rushing that process, you’re less likely to produce quality episodes. Instead, you’ll want to slow things down and bridge those upload gaps with topical, teasing blog posts.

The Equipment Issue

The ability to start with little more than a laptop and your thoughts is one of the main selling points of blogging. Unfortunately, podcasting isn’t quite so simple. You’ll need the profits of a successful blog behind you to invest in equipment that, at a bare minimum, should include a decent microphone, headphones, and audio editing software. As your podcast grows, it could also benefit from investments like professional filming, as mentioned, and paid guests of a higher caliber. 

The Need for Guests

As mentioned previously, if your podcast only records you and your thoughts, you may as well stick with blogging. Instead, podcasts should center around conversations with your niche or area authorities. This is a major difference from your solo blogging life and requires you to consider guest lists, communications in advance, and the need to fit your schedule around other people. 

The Preference for Pre-Recording

As a blog owner, you know something about writing blog posts in advance. It’s how you manage uploads on busy weeks or when you want time away. However, while many blog owners will only pre-write their posts when there’s a pressing reason to do so, podcasts tend to be pre-recorded as standard. This ensures you can fit in with guests and make time for post-production priorities like editing. To manage this pre-recording schedule, you’ll need to develop skills like the ability to plan well in advance and the willingness to work long hours during limited periods when you intend to get everything done. 

Could Your Blog Benefit From a Podcast?

Would your blog benefit from a podcast? Quite possibly. You just need to realize the skills required and how those vary from what you’re doing on the blog right now. After all, a podcast isn’t any other blog post. It requires guests, equipment, and niche topics of its very own. 

Despite that, there’s a good reason why more and more bloggers are breaking into the podcasting sphere. If you can make this work, you could enhance audience value and open up brand-new revenue streams you’d never access otherwise. 

Simply ask yourself – are you able to make a blogging podcast worth your while? If yes, don’t hesitate to get started using the tips in this article.