Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mike Dell, VP
of customer relations here at Blueberry.
And I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist.
Today, we're talking about why niche podcasts are
dominating in 2025
and most likely will in 2026.
How independent creators can lean into what makes
their show unique?
Yeah. I always said that about podcasting
in general is
you could have a really small
niche
subject
that only a few people or, you know,
in the hundreds rather than the millions
listen to. And
and, you know, you can really get some
traction with that. You know, the famous story
we always talk about is the brain surgeon
we had that did shows for brain surgeons.
Okay. He might had a 100 people in
his audience,
but that was a powerful 100 people.
Yeah. People that are interested in this topic
for a reason and will actually tune in
every week or however often you're publishing new
episodes.
You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike
Dell, Dave Clements, and Mackenzie Bennett from the
Blueberry team,
bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips
and tricks to help you start, grow, and
thrive through podcasting
with all the support of your team here
at Blueberry Podcasting.
Welcome.
Let's dive in.
There's a lot that you can do,
you know, with a niche podcast.
But if if it's something that you're interested
in, you're probably already part of that community.
And if anything, you'd just be be growing
one.
Yeah. And, you know, and the other thing
is, you know, you get
listeners
that that can teach you. And I found
that in certain subjects that I've done shows
about. You know? Again, I remember I'm the
king of pod fade.
But, you know, I I do a show
about something I don't know that much about.
And over the course of doing the show,
my listeners teach me more about that subject,
but with their feedback, and you get more
feedback in a really niche space.
It's you know, it it is pretty incredible
at times.
Like, you know, I'm doing a a new
show.
Imagine that.
And I'm getting more feedback on that new
show than I ever got on my main
show,
and it's because it's a subject and you
know, or otherwise known as hyperlocal.
That's another buzzword
a lot of people are throwing around, but
I I think it applies to
small niches as well as, you know, something
that's really hyperlocal
where you live.
Yeah.
You know, or, you know, one of the
more famous
podcasts out there that I I would call
hyperlocal
except for
the people don't live where they're talking about.
It's a Las Vegas podcast.
They talk about, you know, being a tourist
in Las Vegas even though they live in
Minnesota.
But Right. Right. Well, I think the you
know,
everyone does kinda wanna be a tourist in
Vegas,
you know, once maybe in their life, and
then they're like, oh, I never need to
go back ever again.
I I lived there I lived there once,
so
I'm okay with not going there very often.
But,
overall,
the
the niche will
lead to what is also a buzzword is
more qualified listeners,
AKA someone who is,
you know, very interested in this, is potentially
already knowledgeable about this, or is just diving
in. And then they're like,
let me let me go all in on
this new thing
and learn all about it. So they're gonna
go find your show. Something like that. It
also means there's probably
less shows that are talking about the exact
same thing. So you are kinda beating out
the competition in that sense.
Yeah. But, also, you know, people that are
interested in a particular subject are gonna listen
to more than one podcast. So it may
not even be competition, but it'll throw you
in the ring in that niche,
Definitely. And you'll get, you know, you'll get
some definite user engagement
on a niche podcast. You know, if you're
trying to do a show for everybody,
you're probably not gonna get a lot of
of feedback.
But if you're doing a show you know,
like, we do a show about podcasting, and
we get some feedback
about podcasting. And we're a niche show here
if you think about it.
Yeah. We definitely are.
Yeah. You know, podcasting
about podcasting.
Something something's not quite right about that, is
there? It doesn't necessarily feel niche to us
probably because, you know, we work in podcasting,
so it's not exactly a niche. And it's
it's just because that world. Yeah. We yeah.
Exactly. We live in that world.
So it doesn't feel that way to us.
But if I told
my friends to listen to
this podcast about podcasting, they'd be like, that's
a little a little too much for me.
Thanks.
But they're like Yeah. If I wanna learn
about podcasting, I'll just ask you. It's definitely
not for everybody. You know, the the old
saying is a podcast for everybody is a
podcast for nobody.
Yes. Very true.
That has not changed. I don't see that
changing anytime soon.
No. No. For sure. And, you know, and
you can monetize
the little audience, a small audience. You know?
Very doable. And and, you know, it doesn't
have to be the traditional
CPM advertising and all that stuff. There's lots
of other ways to do it. You know,
you could do affiliate marketing in your niche.
You know, you could sell memberships,
you know, or in our case,
premium
podcasting.
Or you could do Apple subscriptions,
you know, for, hey. You know, if you
want this show
ten days early, here you go. You know,
sign up for this or whatever the
the,
you know, or you do Patreon and or,
you know, there's a bunch of play things
you can do
in a small niche that you might not
necessarily be able to do in a large,
you know, a a more broad
show.
Especially with the courses. If you're doing something
super niche,
that you're you're trying to, you know, make
more people knowledgeable about, a course goes great
with that, where it's like, hey.
Buy this course,
that will lead you through it, but, also,
here's our podcast that is gonna give you
even more detail of something that you might
need. I I feel like it's something that,
you know, very similar to the brain surgeon.
I remember when my friends were in med
school,
their lessons were a podcast.
Yeah. So
very, very
much doable
in in a lot of different ways. An
affiliate, of course,
you can do that with Blueberry too. Whether
or not you are,
you know,
a podcaster or not, if you have a
niche that is
not even something that you wanna do a
podcast about, you can still
be an affiliate to
to your entire audience.
Yep. Yeah. And then, you know, that
that gives me an idea, the course thing.
You know, we should we should have a
course on how to podcast.
So ridiculous. No. We tried that.
Yeah. Just having high value conversations
and, you know, with
an audience that you know is going to
make you know, if you wanted to do
advertising
or or brand deals or anything like that
or partnerships
with
with other brands and, you know, I think,
was it Glenn has that show called Horses
in the Morning, and that, you know, horses
are kind of a small niche, maybe a
little bigger than what I would call a
small niche.
But he he has all kinds of,
sponsors. They're not even advertisers, and, you know,
they come on the show and, you know,
they pay for, you know, placement, basically, but
it's more of a conversation. So you could
probably pull that off in some niches,
you know, that would
make it,
you know, less like a commercial or an
ad and more like, hey. I use this,
and this is cool, and here's the people
that are behind it, and, you know, that
kind of thing. So Yeah. It's also really
good for people who are, you know, talking
about any type of specific product.
That
is absolutely something that companies will do is
send you a product that you've said before
many times that you use and really like.
They'll, you know,
send you that or send you some for,
like, a giveaway for your own listeners.
It's
it happens quite a lot.
Yep. That yeah. For sure. I used to
get stuff, you know, and I was doing
a a geek show.
I would get to like, I got the
first Chromebook from from Google. Mhmm. They just
literally sent it out of the blue. Here.
Try this thing out.
And,
you know,
you get those kinda opportunities. It might not
make you a whole lot of money, but,
hey. You may get to play with some
interesting products in your niche,
if companies find you and, you know, they
may not even advertise. Hey. Do a review
on this, and here here's the thing, and
you can keep it. Yeah. Exactly. And, you
know, it it doesn't have to be,
a sponsor. It really can just be that
thing. Yeah. You're saving money somehow. Yeah. In
Google, in their letter, when they sent me
that Chromebook, it was a long time ago.
But,
when in the letter, they said, yep. You
know, please, if you want to review it,
and, we don't even care if it's a
positive or a negative review. Just review it.
Talk about it. You know? And I did.
And, actually,
believe it or not, I think that thing
has gotta be 15 years old and it
still runs.
Now I But it still runs. Yeah. I
don't remember when those came out exactly, but,
A long time ago.
Yeah.
But Sometime in the realm of podcasting.
Yeah. Yeah. It was, you know, it was
it was back in a few days. Anyway,
yeah, not enough of that.
I'm stuck I'm stuck in the past sometimes,
so sorry about that.
Well,
if you think that your show
is, you know, too small and that you
don't have enough listeners or that it's just
a little too weird and no one's gonna
listen,
I would say just do it anyway. I
remember years ago at a conference, I was
speaking to someone
that had a podcast about PEZ dispensers.
Like, that was it. Yeah. Their show was
just
reviewing and talking about, like, you know,
new releases.
I like, old ones from, you know,
forty year forty, fifty years ago.
And I was just standing there, like, this
is
something,
I have
I don't think about on a day to
day basis. However, this is someone's podcast.
Yeah. And if you can think of a
subject, chances are there's at least one podcast
about it. Yeah. And if there's not, there
you go. There's where you you you make
your niche podcast.
If you're interested in that subject, of course.
But, you know, as dispenser, how much can
you say about that? I guess I don't
know. But I should listen.
I spoke to them for quite a while,
and they said
I I just remember coming away from that
conversation learning that there is a lot of
drama in the Pez dispenser community
of people collecting them and selling them on
eBay and all these things. And I was
like, this is something I never would have
known about.
This is fun. Yeah. There's a lot of
Disney
podcasts.
You notice that? A lot of them talk
you know, there's something they don't or they
talk about the Disney World or Disneyland or
both. They they, like, tell you how to
plan your trip, and they're like, here's the
Disney insider secrets and stuff like that. Yeah.
It's
And I think we have several of those
shows on our platform, I think.
You know, we got RV shows. You know?
There's only a subset of people that'd be
interested in living in an RV, and, you
know, there you go. There's another niche.
But Yeah. I mean, for the hyperlocal one,
I've listened to a podcast,
like a Columbus podcast
a handful of times here, and
I'm like, this is,
you know,
something that I didn't know about my own
city that is a mile away. Yep. I
do I do one now, you know, for
Traverse City.
And,
you know, it's pretty niche, obviously. You know?
I guess I I guess I could get
some tourist people that wanna listen to it
too, but,
you know, it
but, you know, we're a small town in
Michigan, whatever.
And, you know, the feedback I get on
that show
I mean, I've only been doing it a
couple weeks. And,
I mean, I I get more email
from episodes of that than I have, you
know, the whole time I've been doing my
other show.
It's
amazing.
Yes. Yeah. You,
you got someone's attention, and they're getting other
people's attention. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Something
like that's word-of-mouth.
It's funny. I had one listener
email me. He says, he says, you got
competition, and it's there's another daily
Traverse City show Yeah. Here, and it's 100%
AI.
He says he's like, yeah. You don't have
any real competition.
So So is is the voice AI with,
like, a script?
Everything's
AI. I mean, it I think the AI
even generates a script.
You know? I I so it's it's interesting.
I've listened to it. It's it it's got
good information in it. But
That would not be a show for me.
I I I, you know, I wanna listen
to people, not not the AI.
You know? Not that against AI. AI is
good at what it's good at. But it
yet, it's it's not good for content creation
completely.
And, also, AI is only as good as,
like, you make it be sometimes. Yeah. You
know, the first thing that AI spits out
is
not always
the smartest.
Yeah.
You you cannot solely rely on it. It
is a
it's a baby.
Yep. It's a giant foot baby right now,
but it's still
in its infancy.
Yep. So I got a question for you.
You're the marketing specialist. How would I get
the word out about my niche podcast?
That is where you,
you tap into the community that already exists.
You know, you can make sure that you're
participating
in those
platforms on social media already. You're not just
shoving a new show down their throat saying,
here, go listen to this.
You gotta you gotta prove yourself a little
bit before then, and that is just kind
of the world that we live in nowadays
because everything is an ad. Yeah. And, we're
all just overlooking it.
So
I would say definitely that,
you know, just just share the word on
whatever social platforms you're on, but make a
presence for yourself before that.
Yeah. What I've always said in the past
is, you know, if you're gonna get on
an online community about your niche
to promote the fact you have a podcast,
go in there and be useful first. Yes.
You let them know you and then say,
you know and and then, you know, someone
asked a question about a certain subject and
you had an episode about it, you say,
hey. You know,
I did an episode about this and check
it out. You know, something like that. Don't
just come into a group brand new and
say, hey. I got a podcast. Listen to
it. You know? That just doesn't work.
The useful. That's that's the important part. Yeah.
Yeah. Don't don't be a a spammer. Be
a use useful
participant in the community.
Yeah. I'd say do that.
If there are other shows that are somewhat
in your niche, you know, you can always
try the
the advert the
Promo swap. Advertisement at the beginning. Yeah. The
promo swap.
That one's easy enough to do.
Or even a feed drop. I've I've done
that before where you put one of your
episodes in somebody else's feed, and you put
one of theirs in yours.
Yeah. Not done a lot lately, but you
know? It it definitely still happens with the
bigger networks. Like, NPR will do it. Wondery
will do it.
I would assume Barstool does it. Like, it's
they're gonna do it for their own shows.
Absolutely.
So that one's easy.
And,
you're never gonna beat word-of-mouth.
You're really not. Word-of-mouth, you know, especially with
the hyperlocal. It's, it's so this showed to,
you know, they talked about the weather today.
Mhmm. You know, whatever.
Reach out to the existing platforms, like, in
that niche as well.
You know, like, I think one of the
Columbus podcasts that I found was because
they were tagged
in a Columbus account that I already follow
on Instagram.
And they were like, hey. There's this new
podcast. Give it a listen. You know? Otherwise,
I I don't know
if I would've found it.
Right.
Yeah. It's,
like I said, it you know,
just be creative.
Again, you know, be useful, be in the
community,
of your niche.
You know, don't don't do,
what do they call it? Clickbait
eat topics, you know, or clickbaity
titles
in your show. Yeah. Yeah. You see that
on YouTube a lot more than you do
in podcasting. You know? But,
you know, it can happen in podcasting as
well. And and, you know, if if if
it's in your title, talk about that thing.
Don't talk about
10 other things.
I think that's totally a side thing from
marketing. But
No. But that is part of what I
was saying before. Like, everything is an ad
nowadays, so
don't
don't rub people the wrong
way. Because if you are and you're trying
to,
you know, kinda rage bait them a little
bit Mhmm. There that's gonna backfire on you.
We're just kind of in that age right
now where that's not really gonna work.
Yep. And, you know, the ads. Oh my
gosh.
I get so frustrated with Cannot escape them.
Yeah. Ill ill placed ads too. You know?
It's like, you know, you're you're listening to
a show about
whatever, fishing,
and you get an ad for
something financial.
Well, okay. I don't need to switch banks.
I'm listening about fishing. I'm kinda trying to
forget my financial woes if I'm, you know,
like podcast. I don't wanna worry about bills.
Come on. Yeah. Leave me alone.
But, you know, there's ads everywhere, and they're
incessant.
You know, I I don't know what it's
like in Ohio, but in Michigan,
every ad break on our traditional TV station
is or a radio station is some casino
app.
They are just in you know, just
you know? And and
Yeah. Sports Kings is Yeah. Living large here.
Yeah. Draft Kings. Yeah. We get MGM,
BetMGM.
That's ad is just all the time.
And, you know, even our programmatic
ads from Blueberry sometimes get some of those
casino ads in there,
just just happens. You know? They they they're
the high bidder.
You know as a podcaster
how a listener feels
with with just consuming any type of content
nowadays. So the stuff that annoys you
is probably going to annoy other people as
well. So try to avoid
those things.
I I think that's what it comes down
to. Right. And
this is this is off topic, and we've
mentioned it before. But,
if I land on your podcast website,
if you use a website, you don't always
have to. But if I land on your
podcast website and immediately a big pop up
comes up in my face, sign up for
our newsletter.
I'm leaving.
I'm sorry. I, you know, I don't know
you yet. I'm not gonna put my email
address in there. But, anyway, that's off topic.
That's that's your little pet peeve for websites,
and mine is just poor information on there.
Yeah. Get to the point and make make
it right.
Yeah. Get to the point. You know, an
itch doesn't really limit you. It it just
keeps you focused in,
what you have to say, make it meaningful.
And
I think there's a a quote you put
in the, show notes here.
Small ponds equals easier to become the big
fish.
It really, really is.
We love working with podcasters
of any size here at Blueberry, but especially,
I think the, the niche podcasts live in
our heart. So,
if you are looking to start a show,
we're here to help.
Yep. And, of course, for show notes and
all the other informations about information about Blueberry
and the podcasting world, you can take a
look at podcastinsider.com.
We'll always have everything there. Thanks, everyone.
Thanks for joining us. Come back next week.
And in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com
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