- A Successful Podcaster Is A Content Consumer

One of the best ways to generate ideas for new podcast content is to be a content consumer. The more information you consume regarding your podcast topic the better prepared you will be to create new and exciting material for your podcast. I am going to give you 3 Ways guaranteed to help you generate new podcast content on a consistent basis.

Let’s assume that you have started a podcast about video games. Each week you talk about the latest developments in new games coming out for PCs and other gaming consoles. It may be easy to create 10 podcast episodes based on what you already know about new games coming out but at some point you will begin to exhaust your knowledge of the subject.

What do you do now?

1. Read Other Blogs

Find your niche’s community and dive in. There are other people out there who are interested in the same topics as you, find them. Many of them will have a blog or website dedicated to the topic that you are podcasting about. Make it a point to visit their site frequently and read on what others in the community are talking about. Don’t just stop with the blog posts themselves but read through the comments as well. Reading through the comments of a blog post is a great way to identify questions that the readers have about the topic that you can address in your podcast.

The important thing to remember when collecting podcast topics by reading other blog posts is that you never want to simply repeat what the blog author has already written. They put the time and effort into creating the content for their audience. You don’t want to plagiarize what they have done but use it as inspiration. Remember, you are now an expert in your field and you have a lot to add to this topic. Take their information and add to it, give your opinion or spin on it and do some research on your own to add to it. If there were questions unanswered in the comments for the post then answer those questions in your podcast. If you thought the article was really well written then mention the site in your podcast and link to it in your show notes. The blog author will greatly appreciate it.

I subscribe to over 100 blogs that I scan every day for new content ideas for my podcasts and for this site. Having over 100 bookmarks stacked up in my web-browser that I have to click on individually to visit all of those sites is completely un-manageable. One tool that makes this process much easier for all of you is using an RSS Reader. By subscribing to the RSS Feeds for the sites that relate to your podcast topic you can open your reader everyday and scan the headlines looking for something that peaks your interest and then develop your new content from there.

2. Listen To Other Podcasts

Listening to other podcasts offers to huge benefits. The first benefit falls right in line with reading other blogs. Listening to other podcasts is a great source for topic ideas but remember you always want to use another podcast as an inspiration for your own work, not simply to repeat what another podcast has already said.

The second benefit of listening to other podcasts is finding new segments for your own podcast. Each podcast host has different ideas on the structure and content elements of their podcast. You might pick up some great ideas for new podcast segments related to news, listener feedback, events, etc. Many of these might prove to be a great addition to the structure of your podcast episodes.

You don’t have to subscribe to all of these podcasts, just check in from time to time and catch an episode or two to see what you can gleam from them. After listening to a few episodes of the podcast, ask yourself, do I want to subscribe to this podcast? If you do, think about why. What was it about the podcast that appealed to you? What did you find unique or more interesting than the others. Was it the host? What was it about him/her that connected with you and how can you incorporate that into your podcast. Was it the structure? Use that too.

If you didn’t like the podcast, that can be equally as helpful. Think about what you didn’t like about the podcast and try to make sure that you don’t have those same problems with your content.

One last thing about listening to other podcasts, if you find a podcast in your niche that you really enjoyed, invite the host to come be a guest co-host on your podcast. Give them an opportunity to talk a little bit about their podcast and then the two of you can have a great discussion about whatever topic you choose. This will do a number of things.

· It will get you involved in the podcast community for your niche.

· The co-host will undoubtedly mention in their own podcast that they are going to be co-hosting with you for an episode and this gives you exposure to all of their audience; people who are already your target market.

· You might get an invitation to co-host on their podcast for an episode.

Once you have explored all of the podcasts that are in your niche, start listening to podcasts outside of your category and see what you can use to generate new content for yourself.

3. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a great tool to get daily updates on the news about your particular topic. Spend some time identifying the keywords related to your podcast topic and then create Google Alerts that will notify you of news and sites posting content related to those keywords. You can setup the notifications to come at whatever frequency you decide straight to your email inbox.

If there is a new video game in development then create a Google Alert for the name of that game and the company doing the development. Anytime something gets flagged with those keywords it will show up in your email inbox.

This is a great way to keep up to date on the latest news and trends in your topic and also find resources, either sites or blogs, that you might not have even known existed.

Utilizing the three methods I have outlined here you will find yourself with a constant stream of new information to consume and use to generate new content for your podcast as long as you are willing to invest the time and allow inspiration to find you.

Bryan Curry is the author of PodcastingTips.com, an online resource