I have said that one of the easiest ways to grow your audience is to do interviews. Why? Because the person being interviewed (in theory) has people who follow them. So if you interview someone who writes a book about getting more traffic to your website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and your website is about podcasting you may have found a great win-win situation. Why? Because people interested in more SEO (followers of the author) may have never thought of starting a podcast. Meanwhile, people who do have (or are starting) a podcast (my listeners) will want more traffic to promote their podcast. An author of a knitting book has readers who are interested in knitting. When they appear on the knitting podcast, it’s a win-win. The podcaster gets great content and exposure to fans of the author, and the author gains exposure to the fans of the podcast.
Two years ago I met Mark Levine at the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop. He is a book publisher, and I am a podcaster. We did some brainstorming, and Mark was smart enough to run with the ball. The result is published.com You think of it like a dating site, except instead of pairing up potential couples, it is pairing up podcasters/bloggers with authors. The part is it’s free.
Instead of trying to figure out who the publisher is, trying to get some contact information, published.com gets you the correct contact information. When you sign up (now as a blogger, but in the future there will be a “podcaster” option) you create a profile page, you put in what types of books you’re interested in and start searching their directory. I was amazed at the number of books available. When you find a book you think fits your podcast, you can request more information and you’re off in the right direction to get an evaluation copy of the book, interviews, etc.
There are tons of genres to pick from (you can have more than one genre that you’re interested in). When an author signs up, you will be notified via email that there is someone who matches your criteria.
Check it out at www.published.com
