If your podcast audience would appreciate it and the guest is happy to talk about that (do check with them first) then expand on your initial topic area.

Guests can often give real insight into a wider topic. So, if you are interviewing a music band, what are the venues they recommend?

Where is the sound best? What is the next up and coming trend?

Widen the podcast interview.

Don't bore your podcast guests and audience

People who appear regularly on podcasts get bored of the same old questions. They'll start delivering a stock answer. Even if they deliver it well, it will still lack that engaging question that a thoughtful answer would give. Your audience will feel this too and if they have heard the same old answer on another podcast then they have no reason to be interested again. So, don't get star struck. It's your show.

How do you come up with boredom free questions? Look at something they said that everyone else "hasn't" been talking about. For example, skim through their blog and pick up on a point buried in one of the posts which you find interesting and ask them why they said that.

Ask questions which "genuinely" interest you.

This might sound obvious but I want to emphasis the words "genuinely interests" you.

Again, let's forget those "cliched questions" and think what would I really like to know? Ask yourself this. If I could ask anything, literally anything, what would I ask and why?

Really feel why you want to know this too. The more you ask questions which come from your heart, the more the tone of your voice will engage your audience and the guest.

The problem with just telling facts in interviews is that people don't remember them well. People like stories. There is a place for facts in short form podcasts but if you have time, tell a story.

Do you tell stories in your podcast or give facts and why?

People love stories whatever your podcast is about, whether it is business or flower arranging.

Remember stories have a similar format. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning and middle is the bit you focus on the most.

So, ask them the problem they faced. Get them to define it. Talk about what it was like and the struggle they had.

Then ask them what started to change things? What influenced their decision? What was the key moment when they realised what they had to do.

Then conclude with what happened and reinforce the learning they had because that is what your audience are probably going to remember the most.

Let me come back to this point from earlier. For every interview there seems to be a sort of cliched set of questions people instantly think to ask. However, if you want your interview to be remembered (which should be the aim), you need to stand out by asking new and different questions. How do you do this? There are lots of ways but here is a very simple trick you can use now.

Simply reverse the question you would normally ask. So for example, instead of "what are the best....", it becomes "what are the worst....". Instead of "why did you decide to do....." it becomes "why did you decide not to do.....". Some of your questions reversed might sound crazy but you'll be surprised how many new angles come out of this and it'll get you thinking about questions differently.

How should you start when trying to write podcast interview questions. Start with your audience. When you start to think about the questions (or themes) to discuss with your guest, start with why your audience follows you. What value have they come to get from your podcast? What questions can you in turn ask that will deliver that value? For example, If you are interviewing a business person then what tips can they pass on to your audience, if your audience are after tips. If you are interviewing an author for a podcast, which your audience enjoy because of the in depth stories your guests tell then ask them about that inspiration that drove them. In short, what did the audience come for. Make sure you give it to them.

What questions should you ask a guest in your podcast? Start with your audience. Write down what you would need to ask in order to deliver the value your podcast audience came for.

How to avoid losing a lot of money targeting your audience

In order to avoid losing a lot of money targeting the wrong audience you need to do what I didn't do! We're all told to identify our target market first when setting up a podcast, vlog or blog. I couldn't agree more BUT while I agree that is the right advice, if you identify the wrong market, you may get a big audience but you could end up losing a lot of money, not gaining it. That's exactly what I did. So how do you avoid doing what I did? How do you target your audience correctly for a podcast, vlog or blog?

Another rant today. Similar to my recent one.

If your podcast is about news or frankly any topic then you really need to avoid asking the "expected" questions.

A podcast question like "Why did you do that?" is pretty obvious but what about asking "Why didn't you do that?". Simply turning a point to the reverse can open up new thought processes and get your podcast guest more engaged.

So many interviews these days just use the expected questions. You can think of anyone and write down a list of what you think you should ask but I urge you to think of new interview questions.

Bit of a rant today.

Just been listening to a well-known guest on a podcast who has been asked almost exactly the same questions as they were asked on another podcast.

I switched off, I think the guest did too. If I had been interviewing them, I would have been thinking what "new" could I be asking?

One of the key things I learnt as an interviewer, especially when you are trying to get noticed is you need to come up with new questions, questions which stand out.

So listen to their last appearance, write down the questions they were asked and then ask different questions or the opposite to what they asked.