[00:00:00] Shannon Hernandez: Welcome to a special edition of the podcast therapist. I am your host of the Shan man radio broadcast or podcast, or an podcast producer. And today's a special edition is a more like. A question and answer from a consultation call that I had back in December of 2020. In fact, I believe this call happened on December 24th on Christmas Eve.
[00:00:21] And we're speaking with Jon Verno. Jon is the host of the podcast metal mayhem. In fact, they've got a website called metalmayhemrock.com. It is a metal website run out of Rochester, New York. Now Jon reached out to me because. Obviously you've seen my videos on YouTube, but he wants to learn more about growing his podcast.
[00:00:43] And I know that this is what you are trying to do with your podcast. You're trying to grow the podcast and your rate. Maybe you're struggling with maybe getting more listeners to come in, but maybe you are plateauing at a certain. And I certainly can understand that there can be a plateau point at some point, but I want to give you an idea of what we're trying to do when it comes down to growing the podcast.
[00:01:08] So what you're going to hear today is going to be a clip from the interview that I'm sorry, it's not even the interview. It was a consultation call, but I actually recorded for him. Then I got us permission to say, Hey, can I use this for the podcast? And he said, yes. So what we're going to be listening to today is really just this consultation call.
[00:01:24] And we're going to be talking about specifically his podcast website, and I'm going to be sharing with Jon an example of a website that has a podcast. Optimizes their website to be found through Google searches, beyond popular or contrary to popular belief. Your podcast just isn't found wherever you are listening to podcasts.
[00:01:48] Your podcast can be found even more. If you're good making it available for. To find it. And when I say Google to find it, I'm talking about shownotes. So as we went into this interview and this isn't even the entire, I'm sorry, call this is probably about 10, 15 minutes of the call. And when Jon came to me, he had a specific idea that he wanted to put on his website.
[00:02:12] He wanted to create an electronic press kit that he would put on his website for publicist to check out, to see what his podcast is all about. And hopefully. Some of these publicists clients or these musicians to come onto his podcast. Now this isn't the wrong way to do it. It's certainly not a wrong way at all.
[00:02:28] I certainly think that Jon should have an electronic press kit, but I wanted to encourage Jon to create content that would be found inside of Google. That would be content that is more rich on your website. Whether someone goes through all that content or. It would be content, regardless that say a publicist would check out if they happen to go to an electronic press kit.
[00:02:55] Flip on over to your blog and then they might find on your blog, a podcast where you're conducted, where Jon is conducting an interview with another musician. The idea behind all of this is not only for the publicist, but it's also to grow the audience, to grow the audience and to get more people to come in onto your.
[00:03:15] Requires you to do a little bit of work. So that's why I'm explaining to Jon in this particular consultation call, why it's important to pay attention to the specific website that I'm using as an example, so that he could see how organized these shownotes are inside of this website. So I wanted to share this with you as well, because I know.
[00:03:41] I know that it can be somewhat of a burden in a sense, because you're like, oh, I don't want to have to transcribe the entire interview. Now there's ways around this in order to transcribe a podcast interviews. And I'll give you an example. After the call that I have today with. But I will share those examples with you.
[00:04:01] You're going to hear me talking about time codes. Jon's also going to talk about the time codes on this example website, but what I want to make sure of when you're listening to this call is that you're not mistaking a hosting provider's website for a real website. So for example, you could go into like Libsyn and you can create a podcast and they'll give you a, your own web.
[00:04:24] The website is very bare bones. And it doesn't allow you to incorporate more into it, such as email forms and widgets things that are very common when you're using WordPress. So these are things that we're talking about. I do mention something in this call called liners are what you typically hear me reading in my own podcast where I'm talking about either mud water, or I'm talking about strain yard.
[00:04:47] These are things that I'm actually reading while I'm doing the podcast. These aren't the prerecord. Spots that I have in place in my podcast where it's, you hear one from mud water. I believe there's one for Adobe creative cloud that sometimes rotates in. And then you hear one for a podcast launch checklist.
[00:05:03] Those are spots. Those are spots that I have in my podcast liners. Basically sponsorship rates. Okay. And we can get into that after a little while, but we're going to go ahead and jump into this interview. And I wanted to give you a tip you off really on where we are going to be starting.
[00:05:17] We're going to be right in the middle of the consultation call. We're going to be talking about those website example, and these are going to be my thoughts on what Jon needs to do for his website. So here you go.
[00:05:38] So there is a website, it's a nutrition website and she has a podcast. She did at least at one point in time. And she had, I know she still has it because I was just listening to it just recently. But basically what it is just a podcast on. Eating is all it is. So she has this particular way in which she creates the episodes of her podcast, where there's the show notes.
[00:06:01] And I'm going to send those to you via email. Let me find a specific episode. Her son I'm in front of my computers right now. You have a site? Yeah, just go. You can go to balanced bites.com/podcast. Oh, here we go.
[00:06:16] Jon Verno: Dinnertime simplified balanced bites.
[00:06:20] Shannon Hernandez: So that's just her website. Obviously this chick has been around for awhile.
[00:06:24] And she's built a business around her style or this, I don't know, it's not necessarily a fad diet. It's just, it's her way of eating, how she eats. And so if you're looking to take it to a level in which she is at, we have to start first with start building out these pieces to get people to come to the web.
[00:06:43] It's
[00:06:44] Jon Verno: different because this is a business it's if I did cause my business website, I don't do it. CGI communications in town does it. And they do a fantastic job. My business is through the roof. So if I had a podcast that specialized in hotdogs and what it's all about, I will. Let's see going through my website and out there, because that's where the money comes in.
[00:07:09] I would be able to do invest in the tools to get the podcast up and add it. And it looks like this is what this balanced bite. This is her business,
[00:07:20] Shannon Hernandez: or is this a, it's more about her objective than it is her business? What her objective is very specific. Her objective is to get people in on her to not only buy her books, but it's also to get her, get people in on her training programs on how to eat better.
[00:07:38] So her business is more specifically geared towards online business than anything else. So she is very specific about what she wants to do as far as like a hotdog business is concerned. Yeah. You're looking for people who are within probably the locality of where you are. You're trying to get listed onto Yelps and you're trying to get, you're trying to get reviews and you're a local business.
[00:07:59] And so there is a specific goal that is there, this website, she has a very specific goal for online business. So that's what we're talking about. So understanding your goal is going to be more important, I think, than. Just having the website. What is the goal? What is the overall goal that you need to have here?
[00:08:17] What are you going to be providing for your listeners? Or for your audience? So understanding the audience is more important because once you understand the audience, then you know how to gear the content, how, where to gear the content. So if I were to say, tell me the difference between.
[00:08:38] Selling hot dogs versus metal, a metal station, who is the content geared toward? You might have some people who are listening to metal that consume hot dogs, but they're not all going to be heavy metal fans or hardcore metal fans.
[00:08:52] Jon Verno: Okay. So I opened up that link. You sent me, and this looks like this is her episode blog.
[00:09:00] This is wow. This is nice. Episode 3 96 cook wants eat all day with Cassie Joe Garcia. So you're telling me that the Hawk, if you will, is this cook wants eat all day.
[00:09:16] Shannon Hernandez: Yeah. You see how she has it listed out there. Now she has the title of the blog post, which is 3 96 cook once eat all week with Cassie joy. All like cook once eat all week.
[00:09:29] That's a keyword. How people are searching for a way in which they can save time on their day. Okay. You see what I'm saying? All right.
[00:09:38] Jon Verno: I'm going to ask you to give me an example, if this was the spirit addressed and you could use fake info, but if this was the spirit address thing what would a key word tease?
[00:09:49] If you will be. I can't
[00:09:51] Shannon Hernandez: comprehend that it would be. So I'm going to give you a website to look at here's another website then you probably have heard of it. I don't know if you have you gone to aloud wired.com? Oh yeah. Yeah. All of their titles are like that. Every one of their titles are like that.
[00:10:03] Jon Verno: Okay. Now who would do this construction of this block? Okay. So number three, something that I'm digging lately through telling oh, that's just the time marker. So it's not a link. So it's just if you look at this if you go to the 25 50 mark meal prep for one that's when that starts that, but you can't click on that to get there.
[00:10:27] That's just a
[00:10:28] Shannon Hernandez: reference time. These are reference points for Google. She's giving you time codes. She's going to give you the time code. And the time codes are there for people to go, oh, I want to learn. Or maybe I want to skip to 7 22 because they're more about the grab and go content. So
[00:10:45] Jon Verno: this player underneath that is so what happens is you direct the people to your website and then direct them to the show notes in the blog here.
[00:10:56] Here's the player. So conceivably they could listen or they could download right
[00:11:01] Shannon Hernandez: from here. Again,
[00:11:04] Jon Verno: you want to get them to the website. That's where all the activities should be. I've been neglecting the website because the pod bean has been a little easier. It's a little flashier. I liked that whole page, but.
[00:11:18] Good should be duplicating and replicating that on my metal mayhem.com
[00:11:27] Shannon Hernandez: site. That's what I should be doing. Yeah. Your site is going to be the thing that is going to allow people to learn more about you. So think of it this way, cause you've been in radio and you understand this concept. Think of it.
[00:11:40] That. When we develop a program on the radio, it's about the content. It's about the music, right? We're, that's the thing people are tuning into. So then when we have spots in the programming itself, we have to have the spots in order to have the signal or in order to have the frequency keep going, because we need to have those pieces.
[00:12:01] But what we're doing also, Is that we give these opportunities through liner hits through promotions by saying, visit the website to learn more about this. That's all a strategic play to get people to go back to the website so that we can strategically have them clicking on buttons. On, whether it'd be about trying to win something for free, whether that'd be about trying to get a free t-shirt or buy a t-shirt buy a hat learn about a sponsor that you have partnered with that.
[00:12:30] Hey, if I'm going to partner with a sponsor, they're going to come to the metal mayhem rock website. There's going to be a banner ad, or there's going to be a sidebar widget image. That they can click on not necessarily something that is all about, metal, but maybe you're selling are maybe they're selling, I don't know, lower back pain, whatever, maybe.
[00:12:53] Yeah. That's why you're driving them to this website. So you're trying to get them there. You can do this stuff on pod bean, but it's not as no, I get it.
[00:13:01] Jon Verno: Shannon then that's what you did. That's what you, I listened to the episode the other night, twice. And that's what you're discussing the linear, get them to the website, get them because our next phone call, we'll talk about the email, get the email list going.
[00:13:18] This is a perfect example. We have a signed copy of the Rob Helford book confess, and we have a signed copy of the new Brian weed book, son of the milkman. Now we're interviewing Brian wheat in two weeks. So in my eyes, when I'm listening to what you're saying the other night, that's a perfect way to get them to the website, to, cross promote while you're talking about this is what I got out of it within your show, within the show, promote the website, send them to the website.
[00:13:51] You have them in the show. They're listening to the show right now, they're in the middle of it. And before you go into the interview and maybe you're wrapping up your first intro this is what I got out of it yet. Yeah. Invite them to the website, go to the website, click I, fill out the email list and here's a chance to win an autograph copy of the Rob hell for confess.
[00:14:22] Shannon Hernandez: So I hope you enjoyed part of this consultation call that I had with Jon and his his podcast and his website as you'll know, or as you'll learn from me is that podcasting just isn't about hitting record and then publishing. It's not about hitting record editing and publishing. There's a lot more that goes on.
[00:14:41] Behind the scenes of your podcast than just what's happening with the editing and the recording. Yeah. That stuff is cool. Don't get me wrong. The recording, the editing, the mixing, all that stuff is really cool. But you will not grow an audience if you are not stepping out of your comfort zone of this editing record publishing process, there's gotta be more that goes into.
[00:15:06] The podcast administrative side than just the audio podcast itself. So one thing that you're going to noticed on my website, my main website is theshanman.com. That's the website that I started with when I started my YouTube channel. And what I was doing in the beginning is I was transcribing a lot of those videos and in the.
[00:15:28] The transcriptions took me forever. All right. Now I understand that this might be a little bit of a challenge for you, but let's just look at it this way. I want to give you a couple of different thoughts that are coming off the top of my head right now, your podcast should have show notes released the day of your release.
[00:15:45] However, I would tend to argue that they don't have to always be on the day in which you drop a podcast. In fact, you can go ahead and drop a podcast, share it with everyone, tell them to go listen on whatever podcast platform that is out there. And then of course tip them off by saying, you can find this podcast on my website, the Shan man.com or the podcast therapist.com, and you could use whatever short link you want there.
[00:16:17] The point being here is that you could technically later down the line transcribed that podcast. Put it up on your website, just as I had, would love to see Jon do on his podcast, the same way that balanced bites does their show notes and then repurpose and share that show out again. There might be a chance that someone did not hear that podcast interview with Rob Salford or whoever he has on his podcast at that time.
[00:16:52] So you can definitely. Drop a podcast and have it lead to wherever you want people to listen to. However you can transcribe your podcast, put it on your blog at a later date. I wouldn't say too far in advance in the future, but at a later day, get it transcribed. Put some time codes there. Follow that balance bites.com.
[00:17:13] Formula of shownotes. The density of the shownotes is what helps Google Fox. Your website, when someone is searching for your website, searching for that information. So that's why we're doing this where it's really a search engine. Optimization technique is all it is. All right. So you can certainly do this at a later date and then reshare the podcast out again, as I have told Jon, and as I've told many other.
[00:17:40] Is that podcasting doesn't have to be a one and done thing podcasting can be, to be done and then repurposed over and over again. If the information is evergreen, so don't stress over this. I got to get it all done at once because you know what I've been doing. I've been in your shoes and I know exactly what you're talking about.
[00:17:59] I certainly do. You don't have to have show notes right away. But here's the other key thing that I think is very important to ha why it's very important to have shownotes all right. If you are not working towards growing an audience without an audience, you're going to have a bigger challenge to create the authority that you would want for you and your podcast.
[00:18:28] For example, if Jon wants to become. The top metal website on the internet, I would hope that he would try to grow the podcast by putting these show notes, not only on his website, but finding opportunities to grow the website and give people an opportunity to come back into his website, to build a relationship with him by either getting on an email list, somehow he's nurturing them in some form or another using email mark.
[00:18:57] And next week, I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to share a part of that conversation that I had with Jon about email marketing. But it's going to be a little bit more motivational inspirational because Jon saw the light after we had this conversation and he started to say to himself, yeah, I just got to start doing this stuff.
[00:19:19] If it's, if that's what it's going to take to grow my podcast. Now don't think that this technique that I'm sharing with you about doing shownotes is the only technique. This is just one of the techniques that we are using. I want to bring on SEO experts to share with us what I don't even know about SEO, because I know there's a lot more that goes into SEO than just shownotes.
[00:19:49] I know there's keywords. There's tagging. The title is important. There's so much that goes into SEO. We, when you talk about images, there's SEO that goes into your images, your show art. I want to bring an SEO person in and talk to them about that. But next week, I'm going to finish off this part of this consultation call with Jon, because I think it's very important for you to hear.
[00:20:12] And feel inspired by his message next week. So I hope you enjoyed this special episode of the podcast therapist. You as well can leave me a voicemail or possibly even schedule a consultation call with me by heading over to either the podcast, therapist.com or the Shan man.com. And up on the top navigation menu, you should see an area where it says work with me.
[00:20:37] And if you're really trying to get this podcast, These answers for your podcast. I'm more than happy to help you out. Of course, we'll do our best to answer those questions for you, but just know that I am available for you. If you cannot do a consultation, I highly encourage you to leave me a voicemail, either on the Shan man.com.
[00:20:57] You'll scroll down and see the contact me section or just on the podcast. therapist.com. That's a small part of the same website. There's a contact me section, just leave a voicemail. You can leave a voicemail up to five. And I'll hopefully answer on the. Again, thank you so much for tuning into this special edition.
[00:21:13] I certainly hope that you guys have a very great weekend. Whatever you're doing for this weekend do find some time to relax and not overwhelm yourself with all of this podcast stuff. Sometimes you need to take a break away from a lot of the stuff that you're doing with your podcast in order to gain a brand new perspective, but then come back to it with a fresh set of eyes and.
[00:21:34] So that you can create a better podcast. So in the meantime, thank you so much for listening to the podcast this week. Not only did this episode, but the previous episode that I had with Mac Watson, I would highly recommend that you go back and listen to that episode. If you're trying to figure out how to become a better presenter, that's a really good episode to go ahead and check out.
[00:21:51] So have a great weekend. I'll talk to you next week.
