8 Tools to Help You Generate Ideas For Your Podcast

How do I come up with an idea for episodes? This show just celebrated 14 years in podcasting, and I would be lying if I said it was easy to come up with ideas for an episode every week. I will say this. There are some episodes that I feel are great, and I get no feedback on, and others that I feel I took out of the oven a little early and maybe were not quite ready to go to the public, and I get tons of feedback. I've also had a few shows that finding new ideas for episodes took all the fun out of doing the podcast, and so I shut the showdown.

Think Twice When Setting Your Schedule

I always advise my clients to record a few episodes so they can make an educated decision. Once you see how long it takes to create an episode you can look at your current obligations and schedule and figure out where you are going to squeeze in your podcast. While you don't have to have a consistent schedule, I feel it really helps. Why? Because when you release on a predictable schedule, you become part of their routine.

How To Never Run Out of Ideas For Your Episode

You know I have to start with value. I can put out episodes every day and not have a problem if I don't care about delivering value. However, I deeply care about delivering value so it can be a struggle. Here are some ideas:

Facebook Groups

If there are Facebook groups around your genre, you can join these and just listen. By seeing what people are talking about you can create content that you know will resonate with your audience. How do you do this? Go to Facebook.com and in the search bar at the top of the Facebook screen type in whatever your show is about and see if there are any Facebook groups.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a tool where you put in a topic, it scours the web, and emails you links to stories with that word or phrase. It's not a bad idea to setup an alert for the name of your show so you can track if anyone is talking about you, or infringing on your trademark.

Subscribe to Blogs on Your Topic

You can use a tool like Feedly or InoReader so you can login to one place and see what is happening in your space.

Following Conversations on Twitter

Using Tweet Deck you can do a search for a topic and then take that search and add it as a column of information.

Consuming More Content

If you use Chrome there is an extension creatively named "Video Speed Controller" that allows you to watch videos faster.

New Releases on Amazon

You can go to Amazon and look at new releases in your category and then have that information sent to you in an RSS feed. (which you can use in Feedly or inoreader).

Search Engine Keyword/Idea Suggestion

Ubdersuggest is a free tool that has TONS of used, but it does have a Content Ideas tool where you enter a subject and it will spit out ideas, and show you how popular they are. Answer the Public is a very creative tool that you type in a subject and it gives you a list of questions that people may be searching for (that you can export as a CSV file). Both these tools are free.

What is Popular on YouTube?

YouTube is the second largest search engine. You may have heard of it. With this in mind, you can search for your topic at YouTube. Find a channel that primarily covers your topic and then click on videos, and on the right-hand side click on Sort by > Most Popular.

If you do this on my channel you will see my top videos are

How to record Skype the easy way

Anchor.fm Review Watch Before Using

Why you should NOT use Soundcloud as a media host

What is a podcast? Understanding the mechanics of podcasting.

The idea here is not to steal someone's content. The idea is to see what is popular and then see if you have an opinion, insight, or story about that topic. Maybe there are a couple of topics you could combine to create a new look on an old subject.

Resources For Interviews

Check out the Guest Booking resources at https://podcastingresources.com/listing-category/podcast-guest-booking/

What if Someone Else Has Already Talked About This Subject?

There are times when you may notice that your "competition" may have talked about a subject you want to talk about. Go ahead and talk about it here is why:

In the USA every night there are at a bare minimum of six different stations reporting on politics. People want to hear what YOU think about something.
You are assuming people listen to BOTH you and your "competition (and that may not be the case).