How to Leverage Podcasting in Your Marketing

Podcasting has been around for a while, but it hit its stride as a viable channel for brands within the past year or so. This has prompted many brands to wonder how to work podcasting into their marketing plan.

This episode’s guest is Andrew Allemann. Andrew is a podcasting expert and the founder of PodcastGuests.com, a service that both finds guests for podcasts and helps experts get booked on podcasts. We’ve used the service ourselves a few times for the Mighty Roar Marketing Podcast, and it’s great.

Additionally, Andrew is a niche media expert who has developed websites covering multiple industries. He is the founder and editor of Domain Name Wire, a trade publication for the domain name industry with citations in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and others.

Visit podcastguests.com/guide to download Andrew’s free PDF (no email required) where you’ll learn:

1. The value of being a guest expert on podcasts
2. How to put your best foot forward to get booked as a guest
3. How to find and pitch podcasters
4. What you need to do to prepare as a guest
5. How to leverage your podcast guest appearances for maximum impact

Listen and subscribe to The Mighty Roar Marketing Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts.

If you’d like to be a guest on a future show, contact us at podcast@mightyroar.com

Full Transcript

Kevin Smith: Hey everyone, I'm Kevin Smith and I want to thank you for listening to the Mighty Roar Marketing Podcast. We really appreciate it and I encourage you to subscribe and leave a review if you like what you hear. We started this podcast as a way to fully capture some of the great conversations with people in marketing that are doing some amazing things, and could provide some actionable insights and proven tactics to our listeners. And sure we have a blog at mightyroar.com as well as social channels and a YouTube channel.

Kevin Smith: But if you're in marketing, you can't just rely on one channel to reach your audience, and the different types of content work best with particular channels. In terms of podcasts, there are countless stats that you can easily go google and see why it's an increasingly important channel to consider or at least be aware of and potentially add to your marketing mix. But beyond the stats, I would encourage you to just think of your own media consumption to understand where a podcast might fit.

Kevin Smith: Like most people, you're probably overworked, over scheduled and overtired. You may not have time to read a long blog post about influencer marketing, or watch a video about keyword research and content planning, but you do have time in your commute to listen to a podcast, or maybe it's while you're at the gym or mowing the lawn. Podcasting has been around for a while, but it's really hit a stride as a viable marketing channel for brands within the past year, prompting a lot of brands to wonder how to work podcasting into their marketing plan.

Kevin Smith: Well, our guest today can help shed some light on that subject. Andrew Allemann is a podcasting expert and founder of PodcastGuests.com, a service that's used to both find guests for podcasts and for experts to get booked on podcasts. We've used that service ourselves a few times and it's great. Additionally, Andrew is a niche media expert that has developed websites covering multiple industries, as well as the founder and editor of Domain Name Wire, a trade publication for the domain name industry that has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and others. So without further delay, here's our conversation with Andrew Allemann. All right. Andrew, thanks for joining us on the podcast. Appreciate you spending the time with us.

Andrew Allemann: Hey. Thanks for having me, Kevin.

Kevin Smith: Yeah, no problem. How about we just get started telling us a little bit about your background and how you got involved in podcasting and PodcastGuests.com in the first place?

Andrew Allemann: Yeah, I think a good way to summarize it is, I've been in the niche media business for a long time, nearly 15 years. And so think of that as a trade press type things like my blog Domain Name Wire, which is a trade publication for lack of a better term for the Domain Name Industry. And over time I've done lots of different niche media products and services targeted to particular groups. And one of the things that I did with my Domain Name Wire blog was create a podcast that accompanies it.

Andrew Allemann: And that's what led me into PodcastGuests.com. Obviously I was podcasting for Domain Name Wire and realized I was saving a challenge most podcasts, like this one we're doing right now. Have a guest format where the host interviews someone else, and very much the same on my podcast. And the challenge I ran into was after doing about 50 interviews, I said, “Well, shoot man. I tapped out my Rolodex of people. So let me go find a service that exists already where I can find more guests.” And I didn't find anything that really met my needs, which is what led me to start Podcast Guests.

Kevin Smith: Got it. You mentioned that you started with a blog and then went to a podcast. What are some of the things that you either like or feel are lacking about podcasting and versus other ways of getting your message out there?

Andrew Allemann: Sure, yeah. That's a great question. I had been blogging since 2005. Over 14 years now, I've had this blog. And I started the podcast about four or five years ago. And there are very different mediums and I think you have to have ... I think everyone knows you have to do everything these days, right? And so with blogging, the nice thing about it is discovery. Google can find your content if someone's searching for it. It's really easy for people to subscribe to your content. Podcasting, in my view of spoken word audio is really a long format.

Andrew Allemann: And so my blog posts are typically a couple hundred words. They aren't that long and it's quick bites. Whereas a podcast gives you an opportunity to sit down with someone for 30 minutes and really go in depth on a conversation and have that true back and forth, that if you get that in a written medium, it's usually very much edited. It's kind of, “Okay, as a writer, I'm going to pull this quote and that quote from what she said,” but it doesn't really give the full story. I think both are good. Podcasting does have its drawbacks. Discoverability being a big one. Apple podcast is how most people introduced to podcasts and their search functionality is just horrible. It's basically searching the title of the overarching podcast, not even the episode.

Andrew Allemann: And there's some other apps that are getting better at it to let you search within episodes, but until transcription gets better and such ... If you're looking for a podcast that talks about some little thing that we talk about in this podcast, somebody can't search for that and find that. They just have to be listening to your podcast to get that tidbit. I think they're both great, but they're also very different animals.

Kevin Smith: Yeah. And I know for our audience or for our daily businesses as an advertising agency, often when we're talking to clients they may bring up podcast advertising, they may bring up podcasting as a channel or it may get brought up by someone. Oftentimes, the conversation doesn't go much deeper than that because it's such a vague space so far. As a brand, what do you do with a podcast? Who's your audience? Do you have any experience or advice for how brands themselves or marketers could leverage podcasts for their marketing?

Andrew Allemann: Yeah, I think one of the big hurdles is at this point in time, it's not as easy to do a podcast as it is to write a blog post. Blogging has been around for a while, there are lots of easy to use, content management systems. You just have to write and edit. You don't have to find a good way to record and that sort of thing. I understand that's a hangup. But when I think about brands leveraging them, I've seen them do it in a couple of different ways. And so, one, when we're speaking of a brand, starting their own podcast, I like the model where the podcast is only tangentially related to what the company does, right?

Andrew Allemann: Let's say, you provide a CRM solution, your company has an online sales force or Zoho, that sort of thing, I think your podcasts then would be about the greatest sales tips and things like that. So you don't want to talk about CRM on that podcast. You want to interview people that are salespeople and call it something like crazy sales stories or my biggest sale, something along those lines. Yeah, it's related to CRM and the people that are going to listen to that are potentially customers for your product, but no one wants to listen to a podcast that's literally talking about CRM.

Kevin Smith: Right? [crosstalk 00:08:20]. It's not the most convenient way to get one single answer to a question that you may be looking for and you probably run out of things to say after a while.

Andrew Allemann: Yeah. I hope so. I have a podcast about domain names and people ask the same thing, they like, “What are you talking about?” We all have our niche, right? So-

Kevin Smith: Right.

Andrew Allemann: But yeah, I think that's one way to look at it. I think that's an ideal way. I think interviewing your customers is a smart thing to do because it makes your customers feel happy, and excited to be one of customers, not about how they're using your product or service, but just about their business. And that brings up a big benefit I think of doing podcasts. And nowadays, if I called someone up, the CEO of a public company and said, “Hey, I want to pick your brain for 30 minutes and find out more about how you view certain things.”

Andrew Allemann: They're probably going to be like, “Okay, I don't think so.” They might reject you. Whereas if you say, “Hey, I want to interview you for my podcast, you'll get to speak to my audience for 30 minutes, through this interview.” Then suddenly you're doing something for them. It's a great way to get someone on the phone or get the introduction that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get.

Kevin Smith: That's a really good point because just thinking for ourselves, again, as an advertising agency, we never come on onto the podcast and try and sell our services. It's really trying to understand from people who have lived it and been in a certain area, what advice they may have for the audience. We never kind of chime in and say, “And if you're looking for more, go to this link and download our blah, blah, blah.” We don't really do that. And one of the things, as you mentioned is, in reaching out to people from a new business standpoint.

Kevin Smith: Another thing that we wouldn't do as an agency just because it has gotten a very predictable response is, when you call up as a CMO and you say, “Well, I'd love to learn, tell me a little bit about your marketing plan and what you're doing.” That CMO has already triple booked for meetings. They are insanely busy. They're already probably working with an agency, whether they like them or not, they do not have time to tell you what their marketing plan is because you are one, a stranger into trying to sell them something. When we're looking at reaching out, it is helpful to reach out and say, “We're looking to do some research on this topic. We'd love to have you be a guest on the show, or we'd love to understand a little bit more about x, y, z.”

Kevin Smith: You're absolutely right, you do get a friendlier audience there because people want to be seen as experts. They also want to share information and stories that they've had. It's a human nature aspect, and I think podcasts really do that very well versus kind of asking them to write something or even appear on video because not everyone wants to see themselves, but they don't mind listening to themselves a little bit.

Andrew Allemann: Right, right.

Kevin Smith: Yeah. Well, so if people are looking to start a podcast, again, let's think in terms of marketing. If I'm a CMO or if I'm working on a brand and I say, “Listen, we should really leverage our community and start a podcast,” what are some the things you should expect when doing that? What are some of the check boxes that you should go through?

Andrew Allemann: For people setting up a podcast?

Kevin Smith: Yeah.

Andrew Allemann: I think that one of the mistakes a lot of people make is they really overthink it. And I know that your brain is important, you want your podcast to sound good because it's a reflection on your brand. But I think people can really overdo it and get into this almost paralysis and they never get it off the ground. I think that sound quality is important, but you can achieve good sound quality even with a basic minimal setup. And obviously you do need an external remote for your laptop or your computer. You don't want to just record it into it, but you can get something for like $50 that'll work great. Find yourself a quiet room, and then you're really good to go.

Andrew Allemann: I tell people, even if you don't have a quiet place in your office or your home, go into a clothing closet. It's one of the best places to record and get good sound because the clothes absorb all the echoes. The one thing I do recommend is people get started to spend time and their money on is making good cover art for their podcast. You wouldn't release a book with a bad cover but I'm amazed at how many podcasters have very bad covers.

Andrew Allemann: And this is what people see. No matter what app they use, they see the title of your podcast and they see the graphic, and if that cover art is bad, people will think this is not going to be a good podcast. I know plenty of bad podcasts out there. Those are some of the check boxes that we go through there. And I would also think about just getting a couple episodes out there at first. I know a lot of people are like, "Oh I need to have 10 recorded and get them out there. I read somewhere that this is critical to get my podcast off the ground." I think having two or three that you launched to start is plenty.

Andrew Allemann: And then at that point you can start getting feedback from people. You can understand what works and what doesn't. And at that point it's easier to get guests for your show because you can point them to a couple episodes that you have already launched so they can listen to those and make sure it's a fit for them.

Kevin Smith: When you're thinking of someone starting a podcast, what kind of advice do you give in terms of cadence? Because there's arguments about putting content out there and there used to be older arguments about, “Well, you should put a blog post every day because Google's going to reward that.” And then Google shifted and they're going to reward quality over the quantity. If you're putting out garbage, they're not going to just send people to your site.

Andrew Allemann: Right.

Kevin Smith: From a podcast standpoint because it's a little bit different where people have subscribed, you're starting to try and build an audience. Now you may, might not be trying to be the next great podcast or it may just be one of the many things you do in your content strategy. How do you look at cadence once you do have those first couple episodes ready to go? What do you think people should look at or anticipate in terms of how often they should do it in order to maintain it being a successful part of their marketing?

Andrew Allemann: I think the key here is consistency. I think for most people weekly is good. I've seen people start out on daily and then they're just like, “Whoa, this is a lot of work.” Even with blogging, people that are like, “Well, I'm going to blog three times a day or even daily.” And then before you know it, it's every other week and then people don't know what to expect. I think from both your listenership consideration and to some extent a technology perspective there because the podcasts apps know to look for your podcast at a certain time and date.

Andrew Allemann: Some of them even disclosed when you generally publish. I think that consistency there will help both your listeners and the apps to make sure that they quickly get your episodes up there as soon as they are published. Monthly seems like a little too long for me, but I think that depending on what you're doing, it could make sense. Right? But if you're doing a model like this podcast we have right now, I would say as long as you're consistent, whether it's once a week, every other week, twice a month, the second and fourth Thursday of the month, something like that. I think as long as you're consistent there, I think that's okay.

Kevin Smith: Yeah. When you look at the amount of podcasts and podcasters, I don't know if it technically would be considered a renaissance because it ... But it's definitely hit a little bit of a peak in terms of the amount of people. I think part of that is the platforms, the technology, just the ease of doing it has been a little bit-

Andrew Allemann: It's gotten easier.

Kevin Smith: ... a little bit better or easier to do. Things like anchor where people can just do it straight from their phone and test to see if it's right for them. And then also I think celebrities and comedians and people getting involved in podcasting have expanded the reach of it as a channel and an entertainment platform. That's also come with the common joke that's out there that you hear people making of, “Everyone has got a podcast now.” And even though that may be true, I wanted to see if you thought that that was a good or a bad thing. Do you feel like this is a great moment to jump in? Because everyone's doing it and it's drawn attention to it or is it getting a little too crowded where people have to think twice and make sure they really have something to offer?

Andrew Allemann: Yeah, I don't buy the argument that is too crowded. And I would say look at blogs, right? A company would never say, “Oh, we shouldn't have our own blog because everyone else has it.” Right?

Kevin Smith: Right, right.

Andrew Allemann: I think it's becoming a necessary part of a media strategy. And although there are podcasts now than there were two or three years ago, there are a lot more written content sites than any others. And everyone who gets into podcasting and hears about it goes and listens to some. There's a bigger podcast audience now than there's ever been before, even though there are more producers of content in that space. I really don't think people should shy away from podcasts just because there's more competition. Now much like with blogs, the way you get attention now is a little bit different back then because you are competing with lots of other outlets. It's not as easy, but in some ways, I think it will get easier over time to get the word out about your podcast because there will be better search and discoverability than there is now.

Kevin Smith: Right. So thinking of the site that we talked about before that you founded, podcastguests.com. I want to get into that a little bit. Because starting a podcast may not be everyone and it may be people in their marketing departments may be thinking, “Well, we can barely blog every day, how are we supposed to podcast?” Let's talk about the role of a guest a little bit. And I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about what you offer on podcastguests.com. But then also, let's assume if you're a CMO, what are the benefits of being a guest on a podcast and how would you actually go about trying to do that?

Andrew Allemann: Right? And so before anyone starts a podcast, they should be a guest on some podcasts first. It'll help them get a feel for it, understand the preparation that goes into it. To some degree obviously it's more work being the host at the end of the day. But I think it's a great way to get your feet wet, make sure you feel comfortable with it before getting into it. So being a guest on a podcast is extremely valuable I think to just about everyone.

Andrew Allemann: It's a great way to get your name out there. There is also some traditional search engine optimization benefit to it. When someone posts a podcast in which are guests, they will undoubtedly link back to your site. And so there's some benefit there as well. But I would look at it is even if that podcast doesn't have a big audience, I think there are a couple of benefits to it.

Andrew Allemann: One is you have a very captive audience. Let's say they have 500 listeners to each episode, which on a blog post that wouldn't be much, but for a podcast, that's actually much higher than the medium out there, which is about 200 per episode. Picture yourself speaking for 30 minutes in front of an auditorium of that many people. I think few people would turn down that opportunity. And so I would look at it-

Kevin Smith: Great point.

Andrew Allemann: ... from that perspective. The other thing is it's a great way to get your feet wet with spoken word media. And so, I think a lot of people at first aren't very comfortable with hearing their own voice, or they aren't comfortable with live interviews.

Kevin Smith: Right.

Andrew Allemann: And podcasts are rarely live, right? If you really mess up, they can be edited. And since the audiences are generally smaller than some other things such as TV and well radio, I guess it depends on the podcast, but it's a low-risk way to get your feet wet. In fact, I would encourage anyone who is in media training, some of their employees to try to get those employees booked on two or three podcasts as part of that practice and training. It's a great way to get started. The stakes are fairly low, at least at first and on most podcasts, and it's a good way to scale up and do bigger and better media over time.

Kevin Smith: Got it. If someone were to join or register with podcastguests.com too to try and offer their expertise, how would that work and what is that process like?

Andrew Allemann: Sure. Yeah. So podcastguests.com at its most level is, you sign up for the service for free. And each week I send a list of podcasts that are looking for guests and you scroll through that list and if you meet their qualifications, you click a link and then fill out what's essentially an application form. Let's say you are a ... Let's go back to our CRM, a salesforce person, and there's one that's asking for ... They need guests that are in the sales field or in the software service field or something like that you'd say, “Oh, I meet those qualifications.”

Andrew Allemann: Fill out the form and apply. It's kind of a freemium model. Almost everyone is on that free model. And I would encourage everyone to start there to get a feel for it. But next what you can do is you can create a profile, what we call a one-sheet in our online directory. A one-sheet is effectively a sales pitch for you. It's a resume that's geared toward media. And so it'll have your headshot on there. It'll talk about what your expertise is and what your qualifications are. And then people can look at that and say, "Yes, I want this person to be on my podcast." And they'll invite you as a guest.

Andrew Allemann: Or, you can go through the list each week, find ones that work for you and apply to them. But this way you also have podcasters coming to you and there's a monthly or annual fee to do that option. That's it in a nutshell. It's a very simple service, the newsletter goes out every Monday morning unless it's a holiday. And immediately people start to get connected to these podcasts, depending on the topic, they can get as many, occasionally over a hundred applications. But usually, it's more five to 50 or so applications. And again, that depends on the topic. I try each week to have some that are fairly general, such as people that have started a business and then some that are more specific.

Andrew Allemann: I had one a couple of weeks ago that was looking for people that were experts in the Dallas Sports Scene. Obviously that's quite a bit more narrow. That's it in a nutshell and I would encourage people just to try it out. Again, you can sign up for free and see if it's a fit for you before committing and getting very involved in it.

Kevin Smith: Well, and the good thing from the podcaster's perspective is, this is obviously all people who have raised their hand and said, “Yes, I'm willing to be a guest. Yes, I'm willing to be interviewed.” it takes a little bit of that dance away of, “Would you mind being on my podcast? This is what it's about. Here's an episode.” It is pretty efficient and a great resource for a podcast.

Andrew Allemann: And these people should have some experience at podcasting too, right?

Kevin Smith: Right.

Andrew Allemann: One of the challenges reaching out to somebody who's never done a podcast before is they might not have a decent setup. I think we've all had those experiences where someone, it's time for the podcast, they call in and they're at an airport or something like that with a lot of noise in the background. I actually put together a quick guide that I gave away to people that they can download it. It's free. You don't even have to put your email address in for how to be a guest on podcasts.

Andrew Allemann: That walks you through, “Here's what you're going to need to do.” And if you don't mind, I'll just give the URL to that. It's podcastguests.com/guide. It's like six or seven pages, but it just gives some tips and tricks that I think it's good to peruse that quickly before you start applying to be on podcasts or setting up a profile or creating one sheet so that you know what to expect and how to get accepted onto more podcasts as a guest.

Kevin Smith: Great. Yeah, and we'll link to the guide in the show notes as well if someone wants to download that.

Andrew Allemann: Okay, great.

Kevin Smith: Besides, if they haven't signed up, which they should, but if they haven't signed up for podcastguests.com if we reach out to someone ... We've reached out to some guests where they have replied either earnestly or politely saying, “Oh, I would love to, I've forwarded this to our marketing agency or I've forwarded this to our internal PR group and we'll let you know what they say.”

Kevin Smith: And more often than not, that just goes in a black hole because either they don't know what to do with it, how to evaluate it or it's not the Joe Rogan Podcast calling. And so that isn't on the top of their list. If someone does reach out or you are considering being a guest, how do you go about, or how should people go about evaluating whether or not that is the right podcast for them or if the opportunity to speak is right for them?

Andrew Allemann: I think it'd be good to go check out that person's podcast and make sure it's professional. Right. Because again, anyone can start a podcast now, but make sure it will work with your brand. And then, you can ask questions and in some cases, you might say, can you give me a description of your audience? And you can ask for size there as well. Now there's no real independent analytics around that, though it's challenging, people could tell you whatever they want.

Andrew Allemann: But then I would also say that as a podcaster when you reach out to people, I think you should be clear about what benefits they'll get from it. And so saying, "You can reach my audience of CMOs, plus I will tweet out a link to the episode and include it on our Facebook page that has X followers," that sort of thing, to really get that person on the other end in the marketing department of that company to understand that there's some value here.

Andrew Allemann: And so, if I'm a PR person at a company, look, I get it. Some of them are just hungry for any media they can get, but in other cases, they have to screen, especially if you're asking for their CEO and that sort of thing. And they go through this on blogs too, is Jim's blog one I want to be on as opposed to Tech Crotch, something like that. And obviously everyone wants to be in the Wall Street Journal, not everyone wants to be on a small blog. I think there's that.

Andrew Allemann: But I would strongly encourage PR people and media people inside of companies or outside agencies to really give a second look at these and think about, "Okay, well maybe I don't want to put the person on they requested, but I have another person that this would be great experience for them that can get a little bit of media exposure, it'll also be good for our company," and work with them on that.

Andrew Allemann: And don't be afraid too just because it's new and different. I think people are afraid of social media when it came out. But if you didn't jump on that bandwagon, you're lost. And so, the same thing with all these new media that come out. And so, I think every media person needs to think of this as, "Hey, this needs to be part of our mix." And then set up some metrics or a mind map on what are we going to accept, what opportunities are we going to pass?

Kevin Smith: And then there's obviously... There are three things you can do with a podcast. You can start a podcast, you can be a guest on a podcast, and I would say the third thing, especially from a marketing or a brand perspective is you could be a sponsor or an advertiser on a podcast. In your expertise for evaluating those sponsorships, how does someone determine if that's right for them? Without those established third party sites that say, "Well, this is a podcast that gets this many people listening," how does that end up working?

Andrew Allemann: I think that that's why we see a lot of direct response advertisers right now on a podcast because they can give a coupon code, and then they know exactly how many people signed up from listening to the podcast. I would say advertising on podcasts, there are a couple of things to consider. One, people sometimes need to hear your ad many times over and over before they really click through them, and so just running one ad for one episode is not going to tell you much. Maybe four in a row or eight in a row, do a couple of months before you really judge how it's working.

Andrew Allemann: The other thing is a lot of the values being associated with the host and so, there's added credibility to that host. Usually, it's not like an ad, like you'd hear on the radio where you record it. It's more like those ads that you hear on the radio where one of the DJs is talking about their personal experience with your product or service.

Kevin Smith: It dives a little bit more into more of an influencer campaign as much as a standard ad.

Andrew Allemann: Exactly. That's how I would look at it. It's still very nascent, it's difficult. You can't just buy through an ad exchange through something like DoubleClick, there's still a lot of one-off work. There are some agencies that do it, which takes a lot of the work out of the equation, but of course, they're taking a cut. But I would say, just dabble in it to start small and then you can scale from there, just like any advertising really.

Kevin Smith: Right. I think one of the things, it's that lack of control that whether it's being a gas, being on social media, live streaming, these are all things that are fairly new in terms of marketing and they give people the night sweats because they don't know, “Well, what if I sound like an idiot, then all of a sudden that's out there?” And I think one of the things that is always interesting at least from a marketing perspective is when I listen to podcasts and one of two things happens.

Kevin Smith: Either the host as you mentioned, injects their personality into the ad copy and either goes a little bit off-script or starts making fun of part of the ad copy, and oftentimes that ends up working because it humanizes the product or it shows that they have a sense of humor at least if they adapt the copy to playback. But then the other thing is what if it's a controversial guest, or what if something happens where someone says something that might not necessarily be the best lead into what your ad is? Is there any advice or you'd use just roll with the punches or what's the give and take when it comes to advertising on a podcast that is involved there?

Andrew Allemann: That's not unique to podcasts, you have that on YouTube, there's a lot of backlash now, and then you have it on a terrorist attack on cnn.com and then you're running your ads for-

Kevin Smith: Right, and you immediately go into a Triscuit ad.

Andrew Allemann: ... Yeah. I don't think that's unique. I think one of the nice things here is you already know if the podcast covers controversial topics and if the host is controversial because you're not buying in bulk like you are on YouTube and these other things. You're buying a specific podcast, a specific spot in that podcast. And so I think in a lot of ways, it's easier to control your message and where it appears, than some other type of media.

Kevin Smith: Right. And I'd guess you could make the argument that some of the usual suspects, like a mailchimp@stamps.com, their businesses had been defined and they pretty much advertise on every podcast that's out there.

Andrew Allemann: Oh sure, yeah.

Kevin Smith: I want it to go back a little bit. You talked about your first blog and podcast that you're still involved with, Domain Name Wire. You mentioned that that's a pretty specific niche and it absolutely is. How did that come about?

Andrew Allemann: I started that in 2005 because I've been in a domain name business for a long time. I've bought and sold domain names as a domain name investor and monetized them. And at the time there was no daily new source for domain names. And so, that was why I started that. And then it took on a life of its own. It became very popular within our niche, where the domain name registrars and investors and registries and that sort of thing. Frankly, that's the back story on how I got into that once.

Kevin Smith: Well, I'll take the opportunity. I guess my last question will be to clarify either an urban legend or a rumor that I heard years and years ago and it's always stuck with me. And either I just believed it, and it was warranted or not. I guess my question is, given the expertise through Domain Name Wire, the blog and the podcast, someone at one point in my career told me that when you go on a site like a GoDaddy or Namecheap or whatever it is to buy your own domain and you search the domain, if you don't buy it right away, someone might go in and grab it who has seen that search history? Is that potentially true?

Andrew Allemann: That is false. Today it's false. On any reputable site like Namecheap or GoDaddy, you do not need to worry about that. There was an instance many years ago where there was this off-brand service that was capturing those and then would use that information. But yeah, that just doesn't happen today. But I'll tell you millions of domain names, .com domains are registered every month. And so if you have an idea and you like it, there's a good chance someone else is also going to come up with that at about the same time if it's available. I always encourage people just to pay the 10 bucks and lock it down. If you're deciding between three names, register all three and then make your decision later.

Kevin Smith: Well, and that's one of the things. In our business, I'm always amazed when we start working with a client or when there's a competitor and they come out with a campaign and they don't buy the domain. I think one of the most famous ones that people know is when Netflix started to break off into two separate companies before they decided to not do that. What was in the news was that they didn't have the social media handle for one of them. I think that ends up being the same thing. The second you don't buy a domain even if you're not going to use it, you're giving the opportunity to your competitor to buy that and redirect it somewhere else.

Andrew Allemann: One of the more interesting podcast interviews I did was where the guy who back in the 90s, was working at a big ad agency and Seven-up was one of their clients, and they were creating this big thing around the march madness where they were going to send people to sevenup.com and they designed everything, they printed it on soda cans and on the court and all that stuff. And then when he came to them saying, “Okay, now, I need you to point the domain name to these name servers,” they were like, “Domain name?” They didn't note it. They had to hire a fixer to go fly down and find the owner and try to buy it from them. Now obviously, we're in a different state of the world now.

Kevin Smith: Still [crosstalk 00:38:10]-

Andrew Allemann: Twenty years later-

Kevin Smith: You'd be surprised still. Actually, probably you may be one of the few people that wouldn't be surprised how many people actually still don't do that. They may not go through the printing it on the court and everything. But multiple times, someone will come up with a name of a product or tell us what the name of a product is and I'll immediately do a search and go, “We should probably by this name.” No matter how digital the world gets, it still seems to be certain fundamentals end up lacking.

Kevin Smith: Hey, I've really enjoyed this conversation, I learned a lot. I think it validated thankfully some of the things we're doing in terms of starting our podcasts and booking guests. I appreciate it. And why don't you tell us again just how people can either get in touch with you or where they should go to get that guide again?

Andrew Allemann: Sure. You can go to podcastguests.com and all you have to do is enter your email and name there and you can sign up for the free service. And if you want to learn what it's like being a guest on podcast, that guide was podcastguests.com/guide and you don't have to provide any information to download it, it's just a PDF that'll walk you through some tips and tricks and the process for being a guest on shows.

Kevin Smith: Awesome. And again, we'll have those links in the show notes for anyone who just wants to click through. And Andrew, again, thank you very much for your time, I really appreciate it.

Andrew Allemann: Oh, my pleasure Kevin.

Kevin Smith: All right. We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Andrew Allemann and it inspired you to take action in your marketing. If you have any questions for Andrew or want to check out podcastguests.com, we'll put the link in the show notes. Before we go, please subscribe and review the podcast, as it not only helps us spread the word about it, but it lets us know that what we're doing is valuable to you. Until next time, thank you for listening and we'll talk again soon.

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