Podroll

Jordan Blair: 00:00:06

And it's where podcasters can recommend other podcasts and it shows up as a list on their website or also in the RSS feed or on Podcasting 2.0 supporting apps. I have a podroll and it is all carefully curated other sleep podcasts that I think my listeners will like.

If you go to Buzzcast, we have a carefully list of like, other podcasts about podcasting we think you'll like. But we also have our own podcasts in there.

So, you know, if you're in a network or something like a collective, you can actually promote other podcasts that are in your network.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:00:49

Welcome back to Podcasting 2.0 in Practice. I'm here today with Jordan Blair. Hi, Jordan. How are you?

Jordan Blair: 00:00:58

I am so good. I'm excited to be here.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:01:01

Thank you. Tell me, please. Well, give me your introduction and tell us a bit about who you are and your. Your podcast credentials.

Jordan Blair: 00:01:12

Yes, okay. I have a few of those.

So I am the podcast producer at Buzzsprout and I get to work a lot with like, the communities and helping podcasters get started podcasting and just kind of supporting them in their journey. And I also host Buzzcast, which is the podcast about all things podcasting.

And I also host Dreamful Bedtime Stories, which was my little baby project podcast that got me started in podcasting. That's how I learned to podcast. And then I also produced some other shows for Buzzsprout. So those are my credentials. Quick and dirty there.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:01:50

Brilliant. Thank you.

This time we're going to talk about one of my favorite features because it's just so lovely and kind and I feel the effectiveness of it for discoverability is just so wide. So, Jordan, do tell us, what is podroll?

Jordan Blair: 00:02:13

Yeah, I think that is exactly it. You kind of hit the nail on the head there with discoverability.

blog role from like the early: 2000

And so bloggers had on their websites, usually on like the side of the blog, there was like a list of hyperlinks to other websites, other reading, other things that they recommended. And it just kind of like enhanced the experience of the viewer of the blog.

You know, they were able to be recommended things by the blogger or the blogger could say, like, hey, for more information, go to this. And so this is the podcast equivalent of a blog roll. It's called podroll.

And it's where podcasters can recommend other podcasts, and it shows up as a list on their website or also in the RSS feed or on Podcasting 2.0 supporting apps. So it's very fun.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:03:21

Yeah. And it's based on the trust of you. Like, so, for example, somebody's listening to Creativity Found.

Jordan Blair: 00:03:30

Yes.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:03:31

And I will put in my podroll other shows that I think they would like because they like my show or because they like me, you know, that kind of thing. And it's actually coming from that real person. And I think that's why it's so lovely and useful and trusted.

Jordan Blair: 00:03:48

Yeah. And there's so many different uses for the podroll. I mean, it's really easy. You know, you just let me backtrack for just like a second here.

It's. It's very easy to add a podcast to your podroll.

You just go to your podroll page on your podcast hosting site and you type in the podcast to add it. You just click add. It's. It's very simple. It's not like a complicated thing.

You can just search the podcast in the database and add them to your podroll. That being said, there's more uses for it than just like, creating, like, a curated playlist.

So, for example, like my bedtime story podcast, I have a podroll, and it is all carefully curated other sleep podcasts that I think my listeners will like. If you go to Buzzcast, we have a carefully curated list of, like, other podcasts about podcasting we think you'll like.

But we also have our own podcasts in there.

So, you know, if you're in a network or something, like a collective, something like that, you can actually promote other podcasts that are in your network. There's so many different things you could do. You could use podroll for promo swaps.

So if you tell like, one podcaster, hey, I'll put you on, and, you know, you put me on your podroll and we'll do it for, like, this year or, you know, something like that. If you have guests on that have other podcasts, you can tell your listeners, hey, I've actually linked to their podcast in my podroll.

You can have, like, fan spotlights and self promotion and all sorts of different things. You know, you could even do, like, monthly, I think, of book reading lists, you know, like the book club sort of thing.

You could totally have themed monthly playlists on your podroll. And that's just, like, some ideas I have for it. But I'm. I'm sure other people are like, oh, I could use it for something way better than that.

But yeah, there's just so many things you can do with it.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:05:38

Yeah, that's really creative. I love the look on your face. You get all excited about all the possible things.

Jordan Blair: 00:05:43

I do get excited. It's very fun.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:05:46

It is very fun.

Jordan Blair: 00:05:47

Yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:05:47

I hadn't thought about that variety of it.

Obviously, I've got particular shows on the podrolls for this show and for Creativity Found, but I love that idea of like a reading list or a book list type thing or. Yeah, all sorts of things. Christmas!

Jordan Blair: 00:06:02

Oh, yeah. Best Christmas podcast. Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of people that are turning their audiobooks into podcasts, which is kind of interesting.

And so you actually kind of could do a reading, a sort of like audiobook reading list on your podcast too. Yeah.

Or if you have an education podcast and you say, like, hey, you know, if you want to, like, dive further into this topic, I recommend this other podcast and I have that linked in my podroll. So, yeah, there's just. Oh, man, so many cool uses for it.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:06:36

We'll just leave that open for everybody to have their own inventive ideas about how they're going to use your. Their podroll. So how can people connect with you, Jordan?

Jordan Blair: 00:06:45

Yeah. So I am on Twitter at JordanPods. I guess it's X now. Whatever. Who cares? And it's at JordanPods. I can also be found on. I'm not on a lot of things.

I can also be found on Instagram at Dreamful Podcast, but that's really just my personal Instagram account. And I can also be found quite often in the Buzzsprout Facebook community group. We have like 45,000 members in there. And that's.

Honestly, I recommend joining that group and hanging out with all of us. But I'm constantly in there, so you can find me in there for sure.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:07:22

Yeah, I recommend joining that group as well.

Jordan Blair: 00:07:24

It's very good.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:07:26

Thank you so much.

Jordan Blair: 00:07:28

You're welcome.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:07:30

Visit creativityfound.co.uk/podcasting to find out more about my guests and access lots of useful podcast resources. If you'd like to get in touch, you can send a boost.

But if you haven't got to that lesson yet, feel free to reach out to me on my Instagram account, podcasting2.0Inpractice.