Topic selection might very well be the most confusing problem for prospective podcasters. It happens to all of us. Whether to follow passion or money, how to determine if your passion is profitable, and so on…

In this post, I’d like to outline some important questions that I use to test a new niche topic. They actually are a summary of my niche selection method, but they still apply for podcasting — with a slight modification.

Perhaps before you get started, you should find out if podcasting is really for you.

The best way to dip your toe into podcasting is by browsing through blogs and podcast sites or directories to see what are already there. Although you can’t find exactly how much they make from podcasting, at the very least you can see what topics are popular and see if the podcasters have already applied monetization models.

Let’s get started, step-by-step, to determine your topic:

1. What is your passion?

Write down your passion. I would argue against anyone who say that you don’t need a passion for your business.

Wrongo.

Let me elaborate. Ensuring profitability from a business you are about to build is utmost important. In fact, when I am to create an information product for a niche topic, all I want to do is make sure that I could profit from that product and niche. I suggest that people don’t insist on their passion, because passion doesn’t guarantee regular check in your mail.

After all, we don’t want a business that follows our passion but won’t support us.

On the other hand, podcasting requires a lot of direct involvement with the topic. You will find, at one point in your journey, that it is very hard to move forward and you have to force yourself to get up and actually do the episode. This happens to all of us, even those who are very close to success.

If you don’t have the passion, then the effort could have just easily been doubled.

With that said, it is not compulsory or necessary to force to work on your passion though. Everyone of us should realize our passion, but if it won’t work for us, then we should be able to let it go. Afterall, business is business.

Just that passion, in my humble opinion, is a great factor when it comes to podcasting. It will always be.

The easiest way to find your passion is by asking yourself “can you imagine yourself still podcasting on this topic in the next few years?”

2. Is the topic popular?

The second question is to balance your passion with market demand. While podcaster’s passion is important — for the reason I’ve outlined above — it is not enough to ensure profitability.

You have to measure that the topic you chose is on demand. One way to determine this is to research availability of products in the market. Find sites and magazines people in your niche market read and frequent.

Also dig into keyword research tools. Really think about what people are searching with those keywords to see if you can monetize the traffic.

3. Who is your competition?

3a. How can you access potential listeners?

Entering the most popular niche with a lot of hungry buyers ready to spend their money for various products doesn’t always guarantee success.

The question is, “Can you access some of these potential listeners?”

No, you don’t have to beat the competitions out. They could be your potential partners in the future. Just that for the start, you should know where you can find those potential listeners. If they don’t read blogs, actively make use of information beyond text, then there is no point in starting a podcast around that topic.

Do you have something unique and valuable to say that could attract listeners? Can you find a way to tap into other people resources — through joint ventures or other tactics?

When starting out, chances are you won’t have much advantages to offer. You can’t afford to play with the big guy, unless you have things that you think will make you stand out in the crowd.

For the rest of us, it is better to target lower profile niche. Gardening is huge, for example, but if you have passion in growing red rose, it could possibly be a very good niche topic.

3. What is your unique podcasting proposition?

In marketing, we have Unique Selling Proposition (USP). It is the same beast, but this is for podcasting. What is your unique perspective in the niche? How could you fill in the gaps that other competitions can’t?

This point is somewhat related to the second point above. If you know you competitions and what they do, you can observe how you could fit your podcast into the market, something that readers would welcome.

Even if you will be podcasting to build buzz around your product, still you have to find a unique angle to enter the market. In copywriting, we know it as the hook.

4. Will you have enough to say?

Content is the lifeblood of every podcast. Do you have enough to say that could produce content on a consistent basis for months or years?

Sure, you can use many content generation techniques like interviewing other experts or rant about news but one thing for certain is that you still must have some original content.

Rather just be a good source of information, you want to be an expert and authority that people run to when they have problems.

This really comes back to the first question we asked above about passion and interests. This may sound obvious, but I often see podcasters who are running out of things to say in as much as 2 podcast episodes.

5. What are your monetization model?

Are there enough income streams to support your podcast? This is the question we all are excited about. When you have built your traffic and got listenership, it is time to monetize.

There are many ways to make money from a podcast. Not all of them are suitable for your niche and lifestyle.

For example, AdSense is a great way to sell ad space on your podcast site/blog without having to maintain inventory. But, it is not suitable in some niches where the ads are rare or low paying. You may not want to put ads on your site.

Many podcasters start a podcast as the front door for people to buy their product or service. If you are a consultant or coach, once people find you through your podcast, you can offer programs and coaching sessions.

After spending some time with those questions, now is the time to actually start podcasting. Remember, while it is nice to have passion around a topic which have huge demand and low to moderate competitions, in real life, seldom do we stumble upon such a topic. Especially in podcast world, be careful that most of the audience are not savvy enough yet to realize the benefits podcasts have to offer to them.

Don’t let this get you down though. Every niche will have its own weaknesses. As long as you are aware of them, you can work to overcome them. If a podcast is not suitable for the niche, find another one. If it is your business you are promoting through a podcast, find another marketing channel.

The key is to at least make it very possible to profit from the niche before you jump in. So, spend as much time as needed and don’t rush through the process.

See also: Podcast Business Case.

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