If you’re an independent podcaster and have been thinking about starting a show, podcast expert Paul Mikhaylenko has some important advice. Find a niche, and niche down as much as you can.

Paul is Director of product at Trend Capital and co-founder at Listen App.co and Bloom.io. He has been into podcasting for years and is sent to launch a new show soon.

Finding a podcast niche is the only way to be successful in podcasting these days, says Paul. This is especially true in the age of large media publishers with large budgets who are taking podcasting seriously.

Carve out an audience with the right podcast niche

Podcasting began growing around 10 years ago, and since then built-up momentum into a popular medium.

With so many topics and sub-topics to choose from, people who want to podcast often ask: “What should I even podcast about?” In this post, we’ll help you figure this out.

Ideally, your podcast should fill a void, a space where nothing similar exists. Or at least the way you intend to present it. Sure, you can talk about a wide variety of subjects within your show. But you need to be able to create something unique (or at least the presentation style or your treatment of the subject is unique).

There are many podcasters covering popular genres, such as true crime, gaming, self-help, therapy, sports, marketing, entrepreneurship, and more. You need to come up with a topic or angle that will set you apart.

Sure, you can podcast about one of these busy genres. But you need to focus in and find something that isn’t massively popular in a busy genre, or present it in a new way.

How to find a podcast show niche

Perhaps you went to school for business and would like to use your knowledge to create a podcast channel focusing on business tips. That happens to be a popular podcast topic, so you need to narrow it down even more.

If in school you took a marketing class that you had a huge interest in, you may be thinking marketing is a good topic. This subject area is pretty crowded, so you need to keep narrowing it down. How about marketing an e-store? Or, even narrower, marketing an e-store with content marketing.

Say for example in your marketing class there was one lesson that really resonated with you. Perhaps it was about the colour choices businesses select for their brands brand and logos. This could be a great niche, as long as you are prepared to research and come up with good episode ideas.  

This type of podcast will appeal to entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even media and marketing consultants alike. Better still, there is a variety of episodes that you can develop. Perhaps explore one or two colours per episode to start, before you branch out into other business topics that are just as funneled down.

Choosing a niche topic doesn’t always mean finding something that has never been touched on before. It means finding a new way to spin or present it

Use friends, colleagues, or Facebook groups to brainstorm ideas. Get feedback on an idea before you begin work on your episodes.

Be truly interested in what your podcast topic is

Look for something that is entertaining and informative. Ensure you have a strong interest in the subject, or even a passion.

Ideally, focus on a topic about which you have knowledge and see if you can create a show idea out of that. Then brainstorm episode ideas.

Find a topic that truly interests you, do your research on existing podcasts, and find something that works within your topic that hasn’t been the sole focus of a podcast before.