Your podcast shownotes are an invaluable way to get yourself 'seen'. Although I consider myself primarily a podcaster, I've had to meet my audience where they are, which means that some may never go to iTunes to subscribe, but they might come to my site to check out what I have to say about what I'm passionate about. Whenever I post an episode I make sure that I write a little paragraph regarding what my episode is about. When I do a video, I tend to transcribe what I say in the video as a blog post.

I've learned to not assume anything from my audience. I ask for what I want "check this out here" "subscribe to my newsletter" "download the episode here or subscribe in iTunes." According to stats, only about 1% of those that subscribe to my podcast EVER go to my website! My guestimate is that 50% of those visiting my website at some point listen to my podcast. Those are two different beasts to be courted differently 😉

What's been interesting is that when I've had time (which is not very often) I've put up information pages for each title I review. These include trailer, HD screencaps and a transcript of my podcast review as well as in-page MP3 player of the podcast episode that included a review. And of course I mention the web site on every podcast.

But the interesting point (and surprise) to me is that Google Analytics shows me that the source of the visits don't seem to be the result of the podcast, but people searching on the titles I'm reviewing. What was a minor "if I have time" task of compiling information pages for the web site has now become a much higher priority because the web site seems to be the best way of attracting new listeners if the stats I'm seeing are accurate. I'm now going through each web site page adding appropriate metadata to try and improve search rankings in the hope that some visitors will convert to podcast listeners.