There are many places to get inspiration for your podcasts. In the same way that you will often find inspiration for your blog posts, so too can you find inspiration for your podcasts.
1. Brainstorm
When you are first starting your podcasting, it is probably because you feel inspired to do so and have at least a couple of topics on your mind that you would like to speak about. Don’t lose those ideas and that momentum. Do a brain dump in which you write down every idea you have. Then start tackling them one by one.
2. Look at discussion boards and forums
See what the people in your niche are talking about.
3. Check out social media
What are people talking about on the networks you use? Or in the groups, such as Facebook Groups?
4. The news
What’s going on in the world that you can connect to in your podcast?
5. Ask your audience
Get them to email you or tweet you what they want to hear.
6. Bring on guests
Bring on guests who have certain niche-related things they want to talk about. You can get audience members and experts to all join in.
7. Read frequently asked questions about your niche
FAQs can offer a wealth of content to help your audience get the most out of your niche and solve their problems.
8. Pay attention to your competition
What kinds of things are they talking about on their podcasts? Subscribe to at least two or three, or search their teaser copy to get ideas.
9. Go head to head with your competition
If you subscribe to different podcasts and hear something you disagree with, or want to cover in more detail, go for it. Don’t be harsh or adversarial, though. In fact, you might even suggest that you do a podcast together so that both your audiences can benefit from it.
10. Use customer support issues
If you get the same questions coming up over and over again in your customer support email, chances are it is something worth discussing in detail.
11. Check trends online
Most of the social sites, and the search engines, show what is trending. You can join in on the conversation.
12. Follow thought leaders
Follow thought leaders on Twitter, Facebook and so on. See what kinds of things they are talking about that inspire you.
13. Your own blog posts
You don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel all the time. Leverage the content you already have to create your podcasts by using your blog posts.
13. Private Label Rights (PLR) niche content
Private Label Rights content is pre-written content that you can buy a license to. Massage it into your own blog content and also use it for your podcasts. It is usually pretty cheap, about $1 per article, which is less expensive than hiring an article writer to do work for you from scratch. Search for NICHE PLR, with NICHE the topic you are working on, and see what comes up. Edit it for grammar as needed, and to give it your own voice and style. Then use as needed.
14. Top Ten Listicles
Listicles are articles in a list format, with Top 10 tips, Top 10 items and so on all listed, and then discussed briefly. We could title this article «Top 15 ways to get ideas for your podcasts», for example. People love lists, hints and tips.
15. Article directories
Article directories were really popular a couple of years ago when Google gave higher rank to pages that had a lot of back links. This is no longer quite true, but there is still a lot of interesting content that was created by pretty talented business owners and writers to try to drive traffic back to their own sites. Search for your niche and see what inspires you.
Now that you know the best places to find inspiration for your podcasts, you should be ready to start your own, or perk up your existing podcast to give it a whole new energy.