Welcome to Podcast Workflows, the show for people
who love their podcast, but spend too much time
on it. This show will give you short tips to
improve your process, grow your show and save
you up to 12 hours per week. You'll get deep
dives on how the best podcasters produce their
show and you'll learn a ton. So let's get into
it. When my show first took off in late 2016,
lots of people asked me how I grew this show
so much. And if I'm being honest with you, I
don't really know, or at least I didn't know
at the time. I didn't feel like I was doing anything
particularly special. But one thing that I was
doing that I ended up noticing a lot of podcasters
were not doing was I had a great website. I have
been a web developer for more than 20 years.
And while I don't do that professionally anymore
at the time, I still was. And I would say I still
got it, at least pretty good. So when I launched
my podcast, then called How I Built It, I was
very keen to make sure it had a great website.
A website with the episode embed, a good description,
artwork, subscribe buttons, an easy way for people
to support me or join my newsletter or just easily
search for episodes. And eventually a place for
the transcripts to live. And I still fully believe
today that you need a good website for your podcast.
Maybe more than ever. I often talk about why
podcasting is so hard to grow, and part of it
is a discoverability issue. There's no place
like YouTube for podcasts, and while YouTube
is getting in to podcasts, when you need to watch
a video, you know to go to YouTube. When you
need to or want to listen to a podcast, there's
no one place to go. If you have an iPhone, maybe
you go to Apple podcasts. If you have an Android
phone, maybe you go to Spotify. I have a local
podcast where most people listen in the browser,
on the website. There are third party apps like
Overcast. And so it makes finding podcasts harder.
But if you optimize your title and description
to be found by Google on a website you control,
then you can point people in the right direction
to listen to your show or any other show you
want or any other episode. I should say that
you want them to listen to in whatever app they
prefer to listen in. So today I want to talk
about the things that your podcast website should
have. And then I'm going to tell you about a
wonderful service for building websites called
PodcastPage .io. This episode is brought to you
by podcastpage .io, and I do have a video walkthrough
over on my YouTube channel that I will link in
the description for this episode. So first, let's
talk about the things that you need on your podcast's
website. I mean, first just shows artwork name
and description. You want to know what people,
you want people to know what they're going to
get when they get to your website. You also want
an easy way to subscribe, the subscribe buttons
across all the places where you can subscribe.
Now there is a service called episodes .fm that
will kind of curate these for you, but having
these buttons on your website more than once,
top of the page, bottom of the page, modal, something
in the top navigation, so that people know that
they don't need to be on this website to listen
to your show. So, subscribe buttons are a must.
I would say mailing list sign up form is really
important. You want to get your audience to join
your community and be in your orbit and a mailing
list is the best place to do that. A playlist
or easy way to listen to multiple episodes. your
headshot and bio, a contact information page,
and any other information that you think would
be helpful for your podcast. So those are, I
think, the things you absolutely need to have
for a podcast website. And I'll tell you, I will
link to the demo site I set up over on podcastpage
.io so that you can kind of see what it looks
like with real information, but in a very short
amount of time, I was able to put together a
nice looking website that had everything I talked
about. Now I didn't, I actually, as far as like
a mailing list, Sign up goes I don't have that
but they do have Integrations and forms and so
you can integrate with a number of services like
HubSpot if you have the higher plan you can integrate
with Zapier and Oh, and they have Wow and they
have direct integration with convert kit, so
that's the one I use they have convert kit MailChimp
and Zappier and HubSpot so Mailing list issue
solved So what are the things that I really like
about? Podcast page first of all I mean I want
to be like radically transparent here because
they are a sponsor and I am a web developer but
I have WordPress has been my weapon of choice
for a long time And I know that you need to have
some know -how to use a WordPress website. Especially
if you want to make it super easy and import
your episodes, right? And so there's also been
a little bit of WordPress drama that I'm not
going to get into because I don't care that much
about it, but... When you have a project that
big with that much of an audience and a bunch
of different Stakeholders will say that they're
trying to please it could be very hard to Get
something up and running easily and when I was
in the WordPress space, I would say the opposite
all the time would say oh no it's easy you can
get you know famous one -click install whatever
but the fact of the matter is that today in the
mid 2020s there are a lot of tools out there
that are I believe much better suited than WordPress
if you are looking to have just a good podcast
website If you have like a whole media experience
or you know how to program like I do, and you
don't mind putting some time into programming,
fine, right? WordPress or some other tool might
be good for you. But if you are looking for easy
and intuitive for your podcast specifically,
I don't believe WordPress is that. Case in point.
My main show, or I guess my bigger show, I'll
say, The Streamline Solopreneur has a fantastic
experience. It's a WordPress site, but it has
custom code and my VA goes in every week or,
you know, every episode. She schedules multiple
episodes at once, but she'll go in for each episode
and create a new post with a template that I
created. for that. If you're not familiar with
WordPress or you're not a programmer or you don't
have a VA, that is a ton of work. And if we look
at this podcast, Podcast Workflows, I no longer
have the time or the bandwidth or the wherewithal
to custom code something for this podcast. So
if you go to podcast workflows, I'm using an
import tool, but I kind of super hate it. You
know, it creates, it does create a post for every
episode, but I, you know, I will often create
podcast episodes based on blog posts or articles
I write for podcastworkflows .com. So then we
run into an issue of nearly duplicate content.
And so I either need to go in and just add, like
embed my player on the article page. Or I should
have an entirely different website for the podcast
that is maybe a sub domain so that it contributes
to the SEO, where when someone searches on podcast
workflows, it's not ramming into multiple types
of content. that's really a less than desirable
experience. And if you're starting from scratch
and you're thinking, well, now I need to buy
hosting and find the right plugin and the theme.
I really think that podcast page, after using
it, you know, I got a free account and a shout
out to the podcast page team, right? I was able
to get up and running quickly. and I'm really
impressed with what I saw. So I think I spent
too much time explaining, like pleading my case
for this, but I want to make it clear that as
someone who has over two decades of web development
experience in 2024, making a great podcast website
no longer requires development know -how or it
no longer requires hiring a developer. So, what
are some of the features of podcastpage .io that
I really like? Number one is easy import. I mean,
this is like, this has been the bane of my existence
for this show, is how do I want to handle importing
episodes to a website that has similar articles?
How do I create a good experience when the main
goal of this site is really for written content
and Again, I haven't been happy with any of the
solutions. I have found I have a solution that
works Okay But with podcast page is easy import
it will import your episodes But if you have
reviews It'll also import those and it will import
the subscribe icons. So again, something that
I've had to do in the past is I use, this is
a legitimately good plugin called podcast subscribe
buttons, but I have to set those up, right? I
have to paste the links in and if I want different
types of buttons, I need to create another set
of buttons. It's really nice that they automatically
import subscribe icons. It's super, super cool.
Then they present you with a theme so like you
don't need to go hunting for a theme that looks
good They put a bunch in front of you. There's
also an intuitive customizer Where you can choose
color schemes fonts padding if you want And you
can really apply your branding and logos and
imagery to the pre -made theme or template They
also have a really nice page builder. So Something
that I know a lot of people struggle with in
other. I'm not just going to pick on WordPress
here and other website tools is and this was
something that really impressed me about podcast
page is that a page builder is you're creating
layouts and you're adding features and different
types of content. And a blog is some place where
you just want to write and you might want access
to those layouts or features, but you're primarily
writing. And it feels like if one is built primarily
for building pages, you're fighting the interface
to write. And if it's built primarily for writing,
then you're fighting the interface to build layouts.
On podcastpage .io, the Solution is two different
experiences. And so you have these things called
custom widgets across the entire site. So for
latest episode or playlist or they also do. I
haven't mentioned this yet. I was going to mention
it later, but you can sync YouTube channels.
So if you have a YouTube channel, you can add
it and it'll pull in your YouTube videos so that
each of those has an individual page on your
website, which is also extremely cool. Because
I mean first of all the line between podcast
and YouTube is blurring, but also if you're creating
content This could be a one -stop shop for all
of it because they also have a blog, right? So
you have these custom widgets So if you want
a video playlist or something like that you can
add them on the page layouts or you can add them
in the blog and It's a pretty intuitive interface
either way One is focused on writing one is focused
on layouts. I love that it's crazy that I haven't
seen that in other places like The last time
I used Squarespace's blog. I hated it, right?
So it's I mean I was it was like refreshing maybe
other tools do that But not tools I've used right
I'll write on medium or sub stack and they are
focused fully on the writing process, which is
what they're there for, right? With WordPress,
it's like the block editor is trying to have
it both ways, and I have frustrations with that
too. So, really cool. Didn't expect to talk this
much about that experience, but you know, as
someone who's been around the block, no pun intended,
pretty impressive stuff I'm seeing here. So...
Let's see. What are we talking about? Easy import,
customization, and the page builder. I already
mentioned that it will import reviews, which
is great because I mean, first of all, in Apple,
reviews are regional. So like if someone from
Australia leaves a review on my podcast, I'm
not going to see that in my version of Apple
podcasts. So it's nice to have a social proof
page. They also have a forum just to leave like
feedback or reviews and make it really easy to
leave reviews No matter where someone listens,
which is nice because that's another like killer
Call to action. That's like hey leave us a review
on Apple podcasts or Wherever you listen to podcasts,
right? Now you just say hey go to you know, my
podcast page website Whatever the URL is gonna
be slash feedback fill out the form or click
the button, right? But it's a single place and
I've talked about this a lot in previous episodes
that you want to make getting feedback and reviews
as easy as possible. I mentioned the YouTube
sync or the sync YouTube channels. They have
a blog. You can add participants, which is really
nice and they have an intake form. So that's
really cool. And then the other thing that they
do that is just like. It's a lot of work if you're
going to do it on your own. I think that It's
memberships. I'll just say that explicitly I
think there are people who are like, oh, yeah
You just click a few buttons and set up the membership
site and you're good to go You're not good to
go setting up a membership site is hard It's
hard You need to test everything You need to
make sure your payment gateway is working. You
need to connect a payment gateway. You need to
make sure that your member stuff isn't publicly
accessible. You need to think through the user
experience a lot. It's not just putting a page
on your website. It's when they sign up, how
are they going to get access to their benefits?
When they churn, how are they going to lose access,
right, to those benefits? What if there are different
membership levels? How do we make sure that people
paying the lower price can't access the higher
level benefits? There's a lot of testing that
goes on. It's not just like turn on a thing and
now you have memberships. But podcastpage .io
does have memberships built in. You have the
ability to create multiple tiers. And then you
have the ability to associate multiple podcasts
with a podcast website and associate one of those
podcasts as a members only podcast. So you can
manually add a podcast or just by RSS feed. So
like the way I would do this if I were to roll
out like a member's version of this show is spin
it up on transistor. add the, like, create myself
as a member so I get my own private URL from
Transistor and then add that as a podcast on
podcast page and then it'll import the episodes
and they'll only be available for members only.
So I think that's really neat, right? Not to
mention, like, it, you know, would save me some
money because then I wouldn't need to, like,
pay for the members only part of Transistor,
but... So that you can do the same thing with
blog posts, but again, this is this is a premium
feature inside podcast page That makes setting
up a membership easier. I'm not gonna say easy
Because it's not no matter what taking money
from other people online and giving them something
Has gotten a lot easier over the last few years,
but it's still especially with a membership site
or premium content It still takes work, but I
am impressed with just the overall experience
of PodcastPage .io. Something I haven't mentioned
yet, which I freaking love, is if you use their
service, people can record a message to send
to you. So like I talked about this a few weeks
ago, right? Getting feedback. On a podcast is
hard and I want to do voice notes Or like, you
know voice memos or audio like people quote -unquote
call in and You know, there are other tools that
will Kind of let you do that fan list is one
of them Another one is is speak pipe but with
podcast page comes with it and you could submit
a voice note and Then it will show up For the
podcaster or maybe the podcast she'll get an
email. I'm testing this. Yeah, so I got an email
I can then download it and Listen to it and add
it right so it's cool. It's just like Directly
email It's it's as the podcaster you get like
you just get emails from people with voice notes
that you can include in your podcast So I love
that so I know I've talked a lot about this this
this is an episode presented to you by podcast
page if you Want to try it out Go to podcast
page .io or click the link in the description
You can use the code Joe Casabona, all one word,
all caps, Joe Casabona for 10 % off and their
prices start at like $12 a month, which is going
to be less than hosting, like then hosting your
own website or maybe around that. Right. I mean,
there's like cheap hosting, but it's, you know,
it's for good hosting. That's comparable. Right.
Um, and it goes up from there. So if you want
some premium features or memberships or multiple
websites. It's going to go up from there, but
you can get 10 % off with the code at Joe Casabona.
I want to thank podcastpage .io for sponsoring
this episode. Definitely check out the video.
I'm very clearly really passionate about this
and I don't just pick sponsors. Like I don't
just take any sponsor and I certainly don't offer
a dedicated episode to every sponsor, but I knew
I'd be able to get like 20 minutes more if I
look at this. I know I'd be able to get 20 minutes
talking about this and the and the importance
of a good website for your podcast. I truly believe
it's a great way to grow. I mean, one thing I
forgot to mention is that they do import transcripts
as well if you include them. Right. That's a
podcasting 2 .0 feature. And if there's timestamps,
you can click in a transcript to jump to the
to the timestamp in the audio, which is I'd have
to code that custom on my website. on my Streamline
celebrity website. So really impressive stuff.
If you're looking for a good solution, like you
have grown beyond what your podcast host offers
you, then I think podcastpage .io is a really
excellent solution because it just it works with
any RSS feed. And so you can have your podcast
host website as, you know, as a place where it's
a list of your episodes. And then you can have
more of a home base with all of your content
over a podcast page or memberships. Really great.
That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for
listening. Thanks to podcast page again for sponsoring.
If you have any questions or you want to leave
me feedback, you can go to podcast workflows
dot com slash feedback. and you can leave a message
there. I'm using fan lists for that right now
at least. You can go to podcastworkflows .com
slash feedback and thanks so much for listening
and until next time I'll see you out there.