[Updated] Niche content is where it’s at!
Last week we spoke with Kate Erickson who is the engine at Entrepreneurs On Fire (EOF) and co-author of The Podcast Journal: Idea to Launch in 50 Days. We talked with her about the importance of establishing content systems to prepare your podcast for monetization.
This week, Kate gives us her take on the importance of niche content to draw in those monetization opportunities and provide direct income paths. She used her own podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire, and Katie Krimitsos’s Women’s Meditation Network as an example.
And boy, does she have some great insight!
Niche Podcasting
“When John launched Entrepreneurs on Fire,” Kate begins, “it was not focused on entrepreneurship as a niche.
“It was focused on the fact that he was doing the only daily podcast that there was — THAT was the niche.
“So we were filling a void. There were no other podcasts like that. It was the timing, and of a lot of other things that worked for us, that might not work today.”
Niche does not equal one thing. We often think that a niche has to do with serving a specific audience, like iguana dealers, ER nurses, or stay-at-home moms. But sometimes niche involves audience and something else, like in the EOF example, a daily podcast.
EOF focused on serving entrepreneurs DAILY. They did their best to get into their audiences’ minds to discern what they thought they needed and took a chance on a daily podcast.
Kate also shared some thoughts about The Woman’s Meditation Network.
“Take Katie Krimitsos, for instance. Just look at the network of podcasts that this woman has created — yoga, meditation. Not health, not fitness, but meditation, sleep for mom … and, she’s doing amazing.
Going Deeper
Going deeper can mean a lot of things; looking for the opening, the thing that is not being done, a better way of doing it. Maybe it’s even something that you’ve always wanted to do but everyone has told you that it’s not gonna work. (The next time you see John Lee Dumas, ask him how many times he was told not to do a daily podcast.)
“When you start to get that momentum — listening to your audience, what their biggest struggles are — you start to think about how you might be able to create a product or a service to solve that,” says Kate.
She gives us this example: “At first, there were so many podcasts about podcasting with lots of guys behind the mic talking all about gear and tech. Now there’s a slew of women hosts, and they’re all so nice — and very niche. They’re providing information about podcast coaching, podcast workflows — very specific podcasting topics. They are also breaking gender norms along the way.”
Out-of-the-Box Thinking
So, you have your niche content and now you want to use that content to begin to monetize. I asked Kate what her experience was with EOF.
“It was towards the end of our first year of podcasting that people started reaching out and asking if John did coaching. But, our first sponsorship opportunities came from John looking for recently published business books,” Kate recalls.
“He did outreach to the authors he found on Amazon, asking them if they wanted to advertise their new newly released book on a business podcast with a business-based listenership. A lot of them said yes, and those were our first sponsors.”
Brilliant!
She continues, “That means thinking creatively and outside of the box.”
For instance, Kate knew that at that point she couldn’t go to Zip Recruiter and ask them if they wanted to sponsor. On the other hand, the business book authors who were looking for a business audience were the perfect fit.
Use your niche.
Find a fit.
Think creatively and out of the box.
Another part of the EOF niche is offering a free, opt-in course for podcasting. I asked her to tell us a little bit about it..
“Yes, so we have what’s called the Free Podcast Course. It’s an eight-video series designed to help you create and launch your podcast, starting with all of those foundational things that we’ve been chatting about. Finding your niche, knowing your avatar, even coming up with your topic, finding what that topic is.”
Interested? Click the link above and check it out! Clearly, Kate is both an inspiration and a guide to help you as a podcaster not just find your niche, but find ways to earn a living from exploring and excelling in that niche!
