Welcome to
Help Me podcast, a show designed to help you launch
and grow your podcast. I am your host Gino, and twice a week,
I will release a new episode with different tips and tricks for
launching and growing your podcast, from audio engineering, to planning
intentionally, to growth tactics, each episode will be a bite sized
tip to help you podcast.
Welcome back to help me podcast. I hope you are all doing
well. Today, I have a new idea about
growing your podcast. And it's called a podcast
swap. And, you know, in the past, I've talked about doing like
an interview swap where maybe you find a podcast that
is in a similar genre or the same genre or a complimentary
genre, and you kinda pitch the host like, hey, you know, let me
be on your podcast and you can be on my podcast. and, you know,
you kinda interview each other. Therefore, you know, utilizing both of
your networks. but today, I have a little bit of a tweak on that
idea. Instead of being interviewed on another podcast,
the idea of this podcast swap is actually
swapping episodes. So for example, you know,
this podcast, right, you know, what this podcast is. If I found another
podcast out there that is for podcasters, I would go and
pitch to them like, hey, here's an episode of my podcast.
You play this the next time you go to release an episode, and I'll play
one of your episodes next time I go to release an episode.
So what you're really doing is actually swapping
the episode, the whole episode itself, not just an interview.
And I know it sounds a little weird at first, but let's get into talking
about the specifics and the logistics of it. And and the more we talk about
it, I think the more it will make sense because that's how it was for
me when I heard about the idea. So one of the first things that, like,
really got me to think about this is sometimes people replay
episodes, right? Sometimes you're on vacation or maybe it's a holiday.
and you'll just replay, like, one of your most popular episodes. And, you
know, it's okay. Like, it it works fine. You know, there's nothing
technically wrong with doing that. But sometimes, you know, if people
listen to your show all the time and they've already heard it, it's not really
anything new for them. So you're not really offering anything new to
your loyal loyal listeners. You know, it may be helpful for a new
listener who hadn't heard that previous episode. But, you know, instead
of doing a replay of your own episode, what you could do
is play an episode from a podcast that isn't yours.
Right? So it's like a hand selected podcast that is
complimentary to your audience. You know, you're picking it out. You're deciding what
podcast and podcast episode it might be, and then you're playing
it on your podcast. And, you know, the the first
and obvious thing is like, well, it's not gonna be jarring for audience like
they're just gonna hear somebody else's podcast. They're gonna be confused. Right? Well,
yeah, if you if you just upload that episode, of course, it's gonna be confusing
for them. But you caveat it with creating a little bit of an
intro. So, you know, you hop on for a minute or 2 and say like,
hey, you know, we're doing something special this week. We're not gonna have an
episode for me, but what we are gonna have is I'm gonna show you
an episode from a podcast that I really like, and I think you
guys, you know, can get a benefit from it or learn something from
it, you know, kinda explain why you're showing them
this episode. And and really what it is is it's a curated, you know,
episode that you've picked and you are now sharing
with your audience. And of course, you wanna be, you know, kinda picky in in
who you're choosing to do this with. Right? You you don't wanna do it for
just anybody or anybody that approaches you, you wanna do your homework and and make
sure it's gonna be a podcast that is valuable to to your
audience. So you're gonna wanna spend some time to, you
know, do research and figure out who you really wanna be highlighting.
But like I said, after your little intro, you're you're gonna play their
entire episode and, you know, it's that easy. So so you really
only have to create that 1 or 2 minute intro saying what you're
doing, setting people up, telling them what to expect, and
then playing the show so they, you know, can enjoy it. So it's it's kind
of a win win for everybody because not only is somebody gonna be
doing this for you, and you and you can send them an episode that you
want their entire audience to hear and to listen to in its
entirety, you're also, you know, filling a
space at that that you may be needed. Right? Maybe you're taking a break or
you're on vacation and you needed to fill that space, and you don't have to
kinda just rehash your old episodes. You can give them a
new thing or a new idea. And you know, especially with
podcasting, this works so well because people really trust the host of a
podcast. Right? You're you're in their ear every week. You really build that
trust with your audience. And for being featured on
somebody else's podcast, they're really probably gonna take it seriously, and they're probably
going to listen to that episode, you know, unless terrible, you know, it doesn't make
any sense, or, you know, it's offensive or something like that,
then maybe they might not listen to it, but you know, if it if it
makes sense from a niche perspective,
chances are most of the people are gonna listen to it.
And now you have a bunch of people who are willing to
listen to who are podcast listeners and already in your niche or sub
niche, being opened to the idea of your podcast, you're sharing
them your favorite episode, and now, you know, there's probably gonna be
a high turnover of the people that actually then go to your
show and go find you. You know, it's it's really an
opportunity for two podcasts to grow
together and to leverage their own networks. And, you know, there's not
just one way to do this. I think the the great part about this is
you know, when you reach out to a host of a show that you maybe
wanna do a swap with, you know, it's kind of a negotiation, right? Like,
you can look at their show and you know, maybe they have
more downloads than you, and that's something that you guys can
leverage or negotiate, or maybe you have more than them. but I think it, you
know, approaching them in the way of like, hey, I think we
can do something beneficial for the both of us. instead of asking them for
like, hey, can you feature me? Right? Cause that that kinda comes off as like,
you know, you're only thinking about yourself and I think it's a
much better approach to be like, hey, the both of us have
something here that makes sense to go together. What can we
do to help both of our audiences. And if you're bringing that idea
to somebody and, you know, you're kinda laying it out for them, you know, it
takes all the work away for them. It it makes it easy for them to
be like, oh, yeah. I could totally see that win win. So, you
know, everybody's not gonna say yes and and maybe everybody that you approach
may not wanna do this, but I think it's worth curating a list
of shows that maybe you want to pitch this sort of
podcast swap. And remember, you know, you're sharing this with your audience. So
again, you wanna hand select it. You wanna make sure that it's
something that is offering value to your own audience.
And know, just making sure it's a win win for everybody and
kinda having the specifics of a negotiation laid
out, maybe in an email or something. So communication, super clear. And
another thing you might wanna talk about too within the negotiation is
like, how long are you gonna have this podcast episode up? Right?
Like, is gonna be a permanent thing that you leave, and it's
gonna be, you know, on on your feed forever
or another possibility is, like, well, maybe I only put it up for 30
days, and then I take it down. So, you know, maybe you wanna keep your
backlog clean or something like that. So that's the different take that I
have on a podcast swap for you today. It's swapping
an actual episode with another podcast that you support
and feel strongly about and feel that it could be a benefit to
your community. Let me know if any of you have ever done this before.
And, you know, if you've done it successfully or what your thoughts are about it,
you can always send me an email with the link in the show
notes and I will see you all in another episode. Thanks for listening.
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