Why Can't You Get Guests? I've Got The Answer

Dave Jackson
00:00:00.720 - 00:00:07.140
Are you having a hard time getting guests for your show? I think I just figured out why.

Announcer
00:00:09.040 - 00:00:33.640
Welcome to your podcast consultant. Small lessons with big value.

With more than a decade of experience and millions of downloads, this hall of fame podcaster is a featured speaker, author, and mentor to thousands. Now he wants to work with you. He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.

Dave Jackson
00:00:34.860 - 00:07:38.300
I was just going out to podmatch.com I used that service as a guest. So I'm looking for shows to be on. And it said, hey, we found six shows that seemed to be like a good match. And many of them were.

But when I went out and clicked on their podmatch profile, it showed me their artwork. And one artwork had no less than eight words on their artwork in cursive, and in a way that just made it almost impossible to read.

So first impression blown, Then the topic of their show. So they explained, we're looking for, you know, this is what we talk about, blah, blah, blah.

And then the bottom left hand corner, it says who they're looking for. And that did not line up at all. That was a pass.

The next one, again, I was looking at things like, I'd go to their website and this is why you may not be getting guests. Your website looks horrible. Now you might say, well, of course you're going to say that, Dave, you work for PodPage. No, these were just.

These were like MySpace bad. For those of you that remember MySpace, like the kind of brown background with blue text, like, just bad.

And I saw things where one person was using buzzsprout. That's not a bad choice for a media host. But they just put a wall of players. That's zero SEO for that. And it didn't look good.

It took a while to load. And if you scroll down the page too fast, it was just this weird, empty, blank picture of her pointing at nothing. Again, first impression blown.

I like to go and look at somebody's Apple listing just to see how many reviews they have. And I'm also looking for their first name in many cases. And that person did not have an easy way to follow the show.

You want to make it easy and at least have Apple and Spotify. One person was using SoundCloud. That just to me means you're not really in it to win it. I'm not sure what's going on now.

That might be my bias being a podcast consultant, but again, that guy had one player on the site. When you use those, set it and forget it. Like, here, I'm going to put this here. It's going to show the last seven episodes.

Yep, it's easy, but there's no SEO and I want somebody who's going to be found in the search engines if I'm going to appear on your show. Now, maybe my criteria is different than yours, but it did not look good. In many cases, they didn't sound good.

So when I go there and I hit play and it sounds like you're broadcasting from a cave, you know, do I want to attach my brand to this? And I was just amazed at just. I was like, wow. And now other nights I've had great.

Now I still in some cases applied to speak on their show because you can see their estimated downloads per episode, how many episodes they've had. And for me, I saw them as, okay, I could be an interview guest and I could also. These people need my services.

Holy cow, you need some help here, kids. And none of it was hard. It was all easy fix.

But I was just like, ooh, I don't know who's coaching them, but they're missing some really low hanging fruit. And so I say this, if you're using something like podmatch or podcast guests, you know, these are great. And it's a way to.

Every day I get here's six new people and there was only one. It was like a Bruce Springsteen podcast. I'm like, I'm not a good fit for that.

But it did a pretty good job of mixing me with people that are looking for entrepreneur and small business owners and podcasters. I'm like, yep, that's me. But I was just amazed when I go to their website to check them out, I was like, e.

And again, I don't think I'm being the persnickety head of PodPage podcasting. I was like, no. Even before I worked at PodPage, I'd be like, that's not a good looking site. And I understand why.

Because look, we got into this to talk into a microphone, not to become web developers. And that's where I do think PodPage is a great solution. And of course you're going to say because you work there.

To which I say, go back and listen to 2020, back when they launched. I was a big fan from the minute they launched and didn't start working there till 2024. So I was a big fan for four years.

But I just wanted to say that because there were a couple that had their website look better, had their artwork looked better, maybe had they sounded better, I would have said, yes, I would love to be a guest on your show, but it's just not a good first impression. You're like, look, if they made their artwork with crayon, what did they do to the rest of their show with? It's just something to think about.

And it doesn't have to be perfect, but these were all very easy fixes. I'll put a link in the show notes if you want to watch the video.

But just realize that might be the reason you're not getting any guests on your show, is they're coming to your website and going, yeah, I don't think so. Now, if you need help with that, if you need a review of your website, check out my service podcast hotseat.com.

that's where I listen to your episode, give you the pros and cons. Here's the stuff. You're doing great. There's a couple things over here you might want to polish.

And I also look at your website and every one of these people, I'm like, man, do you need podcast hot seat? Because there were just some. Again, I was like, wow, that is my. That is Geocities bad for those of you that remember that.

And they're all easy to fix. So thanks so much for checking out this episode. Go get somebody that's not you and not mom to look at your website and see if they can navigate it.

One was, they just had this. A whole bunch of Buzzsprout players.

Again, buzzsprout's not bad, but there was no way to to follow their show unless you clicked on the share button, which if you're just your average Joe podcast listener, you don't know to click on the share button, but you could do it there. But I was like, yep, you need to have your own follow page. It was. It was eye opening, to say the least.

And I was just like, you know what, I gotta tell you about this because if you're like, I can't get anybody to sign up for my show, maybe you need a little podcast hot seat. Maybe you need a little pod page. Maybe you just need a little Dave Jackson to come in and point you in the right direction. That's what I do.

And I would love to be your podcast consultant.