1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,200
Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow podcasts, your podcast

2
00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:19,720
by answering any questions that you have. So in that you can watch us live. We record

3
00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:25,240
this show live Tuesdays at noon Eastern. You can go to now streaming.live and see us do

4
00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:30,300
this. You can ask your questions right online, right when we're recording live. So you can

5
00:00:30,300 --> 00:00:36,160
actually be part of this show and we would love to have you be part of the show because

6
00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:37,160
it's a lot of fun.

7
00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:43,040
You get your podcast questions answered in the comments and I yeah, it's great. So that's

8
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:47,720
why I exist. I exist to help people. Well, I don't exist, but the show, the podcast answer

9
00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:54,520
show is here to help you start your podcast, grow your podcast and answer all sorts of

10
00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:59,800
podcasting questions. So again, that URL is now streaming.live Tuesdays at noon Eastern

11
00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:05,560
is when I record this podcast so you can be a part of it.

12
00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:11,080
Today we're going to be talking a little bit about show notes. What are show notes? So

13
00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:17,520
show notes are essentially your blog post to the episode. And what is great about that

14
00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:23,520
is it's your butt. It's it the way that you it's extra notes for your show. So I'm doing

15
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:30,600
this show in audio. You can hear me talk, but if I'm mentioning things, if I'm talking

16
00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:37,700
all about different topics and ideas and I have URLs to go to or pictures to show you

17
00:01:37,700 --> 00:01:42,200
and now pictures I could show you in the YouTube video because I am streaming this live on

18
00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:48,320
YouTube as we're recording, but it, but if you have something like a URL, that's really

19
00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:55,740
hard to say. So essentially the show notes are the blog post for your episode. And it,

20
00:01:55,740 --> 00:02:01,400
it is also when you create your, your episode in your podcast host, it's called the description

21
00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:04,340
of your episode and it shows up in all of the podcast apps.

22
00:02:04,340 --> 00:02:11,160
So if you're looking at Apple podcast right now or Casta Matic or Curio caster or any

23
00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:18,060
of the podcast apps, you're going to see the title and you're also going to see the description

24
00:02:18,060 --> 00:02:26,700
and the description is that it's the show notes for your episode. It is what your episode

25
00:02:26,700 --> 00:02:31,740
is about. And so what it does is it allows your listeners to know where the, what the

26
00:02:31,740 --> 00:02:32,740
episode is about.

27
00:02:32,740 --> 00:02:37,160
So if they're just looking at, at the title of it, they may know like in this case, this

28
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:43,160
title of this episode is show notes or something along those lines of how to create great show

29
00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:48,800
notes. And so you may know that that's about show notes, but what if it is something less,

30
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:54,960
less descriptive? Like what if it's just something like today I interviewed John Smith, are you

31
00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:56,600
actually going to know what that's about?

32
00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:00,560
Cause you don't even may not even know who John Smith is. So the show notes allow you

33
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:09,020
to say John Smith is the leading expert about how podcasting works technically in your brain.

34
00:03:09,020 --> 00:03:12,400
When you listen to a podcast, what happens in your brain? You can use those things in

35
00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:18,320
your show notes. And then people can, as they're looking at your titles can get a little bit

36
00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,880
more information about what they're going to be listening to.

37
00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:26,660
It also allows you to, again, if you're saying links in your episode, sometimes those are

38
00:03:26,660 --> 00:03:31,640
really hard to know, especially if you have something like, um, let's just say something

39
00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:35,920
really, really long. So if it's an episode or if you're trying to link to something that's

40
00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:43,400
like amazon.com/product slash, this is an awesome dash product.com. Like you're not

41
00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:46,680
going to remember that if you're just listening in the car, a lot of times I'm listening to

42
00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:48,480
podcasts in the car.

43
00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:52,800
And so I don't actually hear, I don't actually know. I'm not going to sit down and go to

44
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:58,200
that website right away that I want to go to. So what, what show notes allow you to

45
00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:07,320
do is put that URL in your actual podcast app so that that way people can find it easier

46
00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:14,320
later. Now, I recommend using redirects anyways. So like for instance, for this podcast, it's

47
00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:22,360
podcast answers.com/buymeacoffee. We'll take you to our, our buy me a coffee, but I don't

48
00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:27,000
want to have to say buy me a coffee.com/podcast answers or something along those lines.

49
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:31,300
Cause you may not, you may not remember what all of those are. So I try to use branded

50
00:04:31,300 --> 00:04:35,680
links by using a redirect. So again, I can just tell you to go to podcast answers slash

51
00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:41,320
buy me a coffee or podcast answers slash support or whatever. That's going to be kind of branded

52
00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:48,840
as me because it's podcast answers.com/buymeacoffee. But I also have short links set up for lots

53
00:04:48,840 --> 00:04:53,480
of other things too. So just for instance, if you want to learn how to use Ecamm, you

54
00:04:53,480 --> 00:05:00,020
can go to podcast answers.com/ecamm, E C A M M, and that'll take you to Ecamm. Or if

55
00:05:00,020 --> 00:05:03,560
you want to learn of all about podcast hosting and you want to check out the podcast hosts

56
00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:12,040
I use, you can use podcast answers.com/captivate. And so I use all of these really short URLs,

57
00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:16,920
these these redirects. So I don't need to give you the separate different links that

58
00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:21,680
may be longer and harder to remember. I give you those, but I would also, even if I say

59
00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:26,760
that in the episode, so I may say like I just did their podcast answers.com/buymeacoffee.

60
00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:33,560
Now, I'm hopefully I said it a couple of times, so hopefully you actually remember it. But

61
00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:37,400
what if you don't like what if you're driving and you're like, Hey, I remember on the episode

62
00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:45,360
about about show notes, Andy talking something about about buy me a coffee or support or

63
00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:51,720
I don't remember what it is. You know, the episode you were listening to, you knew it

64
00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:58,040
was the episode about show notes. And so all you have to do is open up your podcast app

65
00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:02,760
and you can find all of the links in there that I'm talking about. So for instance, what

66
00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:08,760
I do is I usually put a paragraph about what the episode is like what I talked about in

67
00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:14,120
the episode. So in this in this podcast episode, I'm going to say something like we're talking

68
00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:20,480
all about show notes, show notes, give your listeners a way to know what the episode is

69
00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:25,000
about and also how to link to different things that they may be talking about or something

70
00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:26,000
along those lines.

71
00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:31,760
I may not use that exact verbiage in for this show note, but I'm going to put a paragraph

72
00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:37,520
about what the show notes or what the episode was. And so that gives me that gives me an

73
00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:41,720
eye. The very first thing is going to be what this episode is about. And then for me, what

74
00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:47,640
I do is I put links. So I have a like I start all of my show notes off with like just a

75
00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:48,980
regular text.

76
00:06:48,980 --> 00:06:54,880
But then after I put what the episode is about, I have like it in a heading format. So I use

77
00:06:54,880 --> 00:07:00,860
an H3 specifically. So not all podcast apps are going to display your show notes the same.

78
00:07:00,860 --> 00:07:05,500
And it's it's going to drive you nuts if you try to get all of the podcast apps to display

79
00:07:05,500 --> 00:07:08,520
your notes exactly the same or exactly how you want them, because they're not going to

80
00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:17,160
do that. But you're going to want to use something like for those that do use HTML tags. If you

81
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:23,000
put like I use a heading three, so it kind of stands out bolder and I say links.

82
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:28,280
And then the one thing that's important to know about links in your podcast notes is

83
00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:32,120
you can if you know what a hyperlink is, you can. So for instance, that would be something

84
00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:38,120
like the text on the page says support. And when you click that link, it takes you to

85
00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:42,160
podcastanswers.com/buymeacoffee. I'm going to keep saying that in this episode because

86
00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,040
it's important because that's how I get supported for this episode.

87
00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,320
So this show, that's how I continue to be able to continue doing it. So I'm going to

88
00:07:50,320 --> 00:08:01,040
keep saying it. But but not all podcast apps allow you to click the link if it's just a

89
00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:07,180
hypertext. And so what I do, a lot of them are they some of them require what they're

90
00:08:07,180 --> 00:08:15,280
calling naked links and naked links are just that they're, let's say in this case, podcastanswers.com/buymeacoffee

91
00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:18,900
is written out in my show notes text.

92
00:08:18,900 --> 00:08:24,440
And so I need to have that as a naked link. So usually for me, what I actually do is I

93
00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:32,500
actually will write out something like support the show. And then I put https colon slash

94
00:08:32,500 --> 00:08:39,720
slash podcastanswers.com slash buy me a coffee. But then I hyperlink that whole thing. So

95
00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:47,280
if the if the podcast app that you use allows you to do hyperlink text, now you can click

96
00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:53,440
on it. If it doesn't, it still has the link there so people can see it. And if it takes

97
00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:56,800
the naked link and makes it a link, then great.

98
00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:02,080
So that's, that's, that's what I do for my show notes. So I again, I start with the topic

99
00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:06,680
of what the show is going to be about. And so I talk a little bit about, you know, what

100
00:09:06,680 --> 00:09:13,540
the episode is about. And then I talk about the links that I have. And so I am able to

101
00:09:13,540 --> 00:09:18,480
easily go in and say, Hey, go to the links link section of the show notes. So look in

102
00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:21,820
the show notes, you'll find the links for this episode. And that may be lots of different

103
00:09:21,820 --> 00:09:23,920
things that may be the link to the YouTube episode.

104
00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:27,420
Because if you're in a podcast app, you may not even know that I have a YouTube video

105
00:09:27,420 --> 00:09:33,780
that for this specific episode, and it may be, you know, let's say I'm talking about

106
00:09:33,780 --> 00:09:38,980
support. So buy me a coffee is going to be there. And you know, all of those things like

107
00:09:38,980 --> 00:09:43,240
that. Or if I have a guest on what I do is I have the gut, all of the guests contact

108
00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:44,240
information.

109
00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:49,460
So for instance, a few weeks ago, when I had Todd from Blubrry on, I put, you know, Blubrry.com

110
00:09:49,460 --> 00:09:56,440
in there, I put their, their link to podcast AI or pie, their Blubrry pie. And also it's

111
00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:00,480
a different thing. I put the links to, so those are the things that we're talking about,

112
00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:04,240
but then you can also go and actually link to them. It's going to have a better click

113
00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:05,240
through it.

114
00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:08,740
Because again, if people want to get to the website, most people aren't going to type

115
00:10:08,740 --> 00:10:12,340
that in their browser. They're going to want to go and click in and find something really

116
00:10:12,340 --> 00:10:17,760
easy. And so if you provide that for them in the show notes, then they can get to what

117
00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:23,480
they're looking for. Super, super easy. Now, if you have chapters in your podcast, which

118
00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:29,320
I highly recommend. So if you're, if you're listening in a lot of podcasts apps, if you

119
00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:33,960
look down right now, somewhere on the interface on your podcast interface, there's going to

120
00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:34,960
be a chapter.

121
00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:41,160
So I usually for my show, I have a intro, I have a topic, you know, I call it whatever,

122
00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:44,960
like this time I'll talk about chapters. Sometimes if I'm talking about lots of different things

123
00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:50,620
or lots of different parts of the show. So like if I was talking about what to put in

124
00:10:50,620 --> 00:10:55,260
your show notes, how to do links, I may actually break those out into separate chapters and

125
00:10:55,260 --> 00:10:57,220
chapters are cool because you can skip around.

126
00:10:57,220 --> 00:11:02,080
And again, I know a lot of people say, I don't want people to skip around in my show, but

127
00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:06,640
a lot of times if you're going to, like, that's the way for it to make it memorable too, because

128
00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:10,660
yes, they may just want to get to the meat and of the show. And that's okay. But if you're

129
00:11:10,660 --> 00:11:16,180
talking about lots of different topics and you have them linked lots of different places,

130
00:11:16,180 --> 00:11:17,180
you can skip around.

131
00:11:17,180 --> 00:11:20,440
So again, if I'm talking just about redirects, then I can skip them to the part about redirects

132
00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:25,420
that they want. A lot of times for me, I'm listening to the whole show, but I may be

133
00:11:25,420 --> 00:11:29,200
riding in the car and I want to hear something again because I missed it, but it was really

134
00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:34,040
a good idea. So for me, I go back and use the chapters and skip to that part that the

135
00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:36,820
hosts were talking about the thing that I actually wanted to listen to and take notes

136
00:11:36,820 --> 00:11:39,260
on later when I can.

137
00:11:39,260 --> 00:11:43,960
So if you're using chapters in your podcast, which again, I recommend you do write a full

138
00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:49,820
paragraph about each chapter. I've heard it said, Todd from Blubrry says, create your

139
00:11:49,820 --> 00:11:54,960
audio for your listeners and your show notes for Google. And so that's a good thing to

140
00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:59,720
remember because it allows you to say, okay, I'm doing this audio for you as the listeners

141
00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:01,320
and the show notes are there for you too.

142
00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:04,740
I mean, if you want to go back and read them. Yeah, that's great. But you really want to

143
00:12:04,740 --> 00:12:11,360
invest and put your descriptions in and put some time into that for Google. Don't just

144
00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:15,280
do a transcript dump of the podcast. Yes, transcripts are great in podcasts, but don't

145
00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:20,240
just do a transcript dump and put that on your, on your show notes because it's not

146
00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,920
going to make sense because Google is looking for things like articles and web pages that

147
00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:26,520
are written like the written word.

148
00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:31,680
And you don't speak like you, like you write when you write, you write in a different tone

149
00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:36,160
and a different style. But when you, when you're, you're talking, you say words that

150
00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:40,560
you wouldn't say when you're writing, you get to the point your sentence structure is

151
00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:41,980
different.

152
00:12:41,980 --> 00:12:45,460
So write your show notes for Google because Google is going to index that. And that's

153
00:12:45,460 --> 00:12:48,500
how people are actually going to find your episode. They're going to find it because

154
00:12:48,500 --> 00:12:54,160
they're listening to you talk about whatever you're talking about. And so in order to find

155
00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:59,820
that, Google needs to know where it's at because a lot of times I'm going to be searching for

156
00:12:59,820 --> 00:13:01,600
a topic on the internet.

157
00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:06,120
I may be talking, I may be looking for show notes, how to write show notes for your podcast.

158
00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:12,400
And if, if my podcast episode has great show notes and Google has indexed that they're

159
00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:18,700
going to be able to find my show, you're going to be able to find my show. And so do that.

160
00:13:18,700 --> 00:13:22,120
I kind of like to think of show notes, like the liner notes on CDs. Now, if you're old

161
00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:29,360
enough to remember CDs or cassettes or records or whatever, I would find myself going in

162
00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:31,400
to find out more about the song I was listening to.

163
00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:35,380
I'd find out who wrote it. I'd find out the lyrics because a lot of times lyrics aren't

164
00:13:35,380 --> 00:13:42,240
easy to hear or understand when you're listening to them. Same thing with audio podcasts. Your

165
00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:48,520
show notes are kind of like the liner notes for, for a cassette or a CD, because you can

166
00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:50,420
go back in and you can see the art on them.

167
00:13:50,420 --> 00:13:54,480
You can see what the person was talking about. You can link to more details. You get more

168
00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:59,720
details. Think of your show. It's as a way to enhance your audio episode. Your audio

169
00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:07,000
episode is great and has great content, but your show notes enhance that and make that

170
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:11,740
better. So because people are going to be looking for that, it gives more information

171
00:14:11,740 --> 00:14:15,400
about the episode that you were talking about.

172
00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:20,520
So and some people like to learn better by listening and some learn by reading, provide

173
00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:25,700
both provide both allow people to go back and remember what you talked about in this

174
00:14:25,700 --> 00:14:35,600
episode. I know Daniel, Daniel, Daniel from the audacity podcast does a great job at making

175
00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,360
his show notes full, full books.

176
00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:42,160
He does a great job at this. If you've never heard his podcast, go check it out. The audacity

177
00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:47,240
to podcast.com. He does a great job at covering a lot of podcasting topics too. And yes, we're

178
00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:50,760
in the same space and I don't consider him a competitor of mine at all.

179
00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:55,860
Like we're in the same space and we're trying to just make the podcasting podcasting space

180
00:14:55,860 --> 00:15:03,940
better. So go check out, go check out Daniel's podcast, the audacity to podcast. And, and

181
00:15:03,940 --> 00:15:09,900
you'll see like he does a great job at writing his show notes like a book. He talks all about

182
00:15:09,900 --> 00:15:13,980
everything. He puts everything step by step that he's explaining in there in his show

183
00:15:13,980 --> 00:15:14,980
notes.

184
00:15:14,980 --> 00:15:18,700
He talks a lot about it and it's great because you can go back and see what he's talking

185
00:15:18,700 --> 00:15:24,800
about, especially if he's talking about code or things that you can do on your website,

186
00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:32,600
you may need to see that because it's a, it's a visual thing. And so it's best to go back

187
00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:34,860
and put all of that information in your show notes.

188
00:15:34,860 --> 00:15:40,220
So that way people can go back and get that information and see it and remember it. So

189
00:15:40,220 --> 00:15:47,120
guys, I hope this, I hope this episode was, was super helpful for you. I hope that you

190
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:51,500
enjoyed listening to it about show notes. I hope you do a great job at show notes. I

191
00:15:51,500 --> 00:15:54,580
hope you put the time into, into there.

192
00:15:54,580 --> 00:15:58,220
And so that people can not just listen to your episode, but go back and get all the

193
00:15:58,220 --> 00:16:03,520
information that they may have missed when you were talking about whatever topic it was

194
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:08,040
that you were talking about. Now I've mentioned it several times in this show, and this show

195
00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:13,900
is value for value. And essentially what that means is if you've gotten value from this

196
00:16:13,900 --> 00:16:17,300
show, please consider giving value back to me.

197
00:16:17,300 --> 00:16:21,940
I don't, I don't have any sponsors in this show. I don't have anyone that's paying my

198
00:16:21,940 --> 00:16:27,100
way, my hosting bills, anything like that. And so if you could have got any value about

199
00:16:27,100 --> 00:16:32,580
out of this show, you know, you may pay somebody to talk about podcasting and teach you how

200
00:16:32,580 --> 00:16:36,340
to podcast. I'm talking about podcasting here. So if you've got any value about out of this

201
00:16:36,340 --> 00:16:42,700
show, please consider heading over to podcast answers.com/support or buy me a coffee, either

202
00:16:42,700 --> 00:16:47,400
one works and consider giving back what you feel this episode was worth to you.

203
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:53,500
If that was $5, give me $5 back. If it was $10, $10, if it was $500, $500, whatever it

204
00:16:53,500 --> 00:16:58,200
is, it's up to you, but just consider it. If I've given you any value, please consider

205
00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:05,540
giving value back to me at podcastanswers.com/support. And again, I do this show live every Tuesday

206
00:17:05,540 --> 00:17:10,120
and come join me live. I would love to have you watch or listen live.

207
00:17:10,120 --> 00:17:14,840
We do it in the audio and the new podcast apps, which you can find at newpodcastapps.com.

208
00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:20,580
Or you can go to nowstreaming.com again. I'm sorry. nowstreaming.live. And we're live every

209
00:17:20,580 --> 00:17:23,900
Tuesday at noon. Come join us. Have a great week, guys.

210
00:17:23,900 --> 00:17:31,900
[music]

211
00:17:31,900 --> 00:17:34,480
(upbeat music)

212
00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:41,140
Thanks.