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Do you want to give your audience something special?

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Here are 8 bonus content ideas for your podcast.

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Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast!

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I'm Daniel J. Lewis.

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Bonus content can be a really fun way to engage and reward your loyal podcast audience, either

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publicly through an opt-in or exclusively in a premium subscription.

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So here are 8 things you could try making for your audience, both to promote your show

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as well as reward the audience that you already have.

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Follow along in the notes, a simple tap or swipe away inside of your app, or go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/bonusideas.

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Number 1. Bloopers.

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We all mess up.

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Sometimes our mess ups can be hilarious.

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Instead of only cutting out your mistakes and putting forth your most perfect self,

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consider setting them aside for a blooper reel.

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With some good editing and even a little fun music to give it some extra flavor, simple

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mistakes can become hilarious outtakes that your audience will want to hear, even if you

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host a serious kind of podcast.

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Now how you edit these bloopers can make them funny or boring.

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And I won't get into detail about exactly how to edit bloopers in this episode, but

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I generally suggest tighter edits. And you can look at blooper reels from movies and

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shows for some ideas on how they edit their bloopers together. Like how tight do they

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make it? How much of the mistake do they include? How much laughter do they include? These are

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the kinds of things that you need to think about in order to edit your bloopers effectively

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so they're actually funny and keep being funny without people getting bored listening

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to your bloopers.

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Number two, behind the scenes.

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When you've developed a good relationship with your audience, they sometimes want to

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see how you make the magic.

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Your behind the scenes content could be an unedited video version of your podcast recording

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session, live streamed or recorded.

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Or you could show your audience your process as if they were in the room asking you, "Hey,

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How do you make that podcast?

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Could you show that to me?

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Like with bloopers, good editing can make this kind of content far more engaging.

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For example, if you have to go to a store to buy something for your podcast, record

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that whole trip and some commentary along the way while you're doing your shopping

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and getting that thing.

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But don't publish that unedited full recording.

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Edit it down to only the interesting bits.

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And that can be really engaging for your audience.

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Number three, sneak peeks.

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Sneak peeks come before the content you'll be publishing. In a way, kind of like a trailer

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and currently with our episode formats that we have, you could consider marking it as

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a trailer format, but it's not really a trailer, but right now that's all that we

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have if something is leading into an upcoming episode. Even though it's not a trailer,

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it is a way to build anticipation for what's coming or leading into what's coming. You

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You could make behind the scenes sneak peeks or simply tell your audience a little of what's coming.

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For example, a podcast about personal finances might offer a sneak peek like this.

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The next episode might change your life.

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I talked to Jane Smith and she told me about a free money saving app she uses and when

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I tried it myself, I was blown away by how easy it was and how effectively it helps me

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save money.

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Just in the few days I've been trying it, I've already saved $100!

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I would have never thought of this before.

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So make sure you listen to the next episode and tell me what kinds of results you get

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from trying Jane's Method.

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Now see, I'm not actually sharing the episode, if this was my podcast, from this example,

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but I'm telling you what's coming.

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And not just telling you what's coming as in "this is a feature" but telling you the

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benefit telling you the transformation it made for me and that I think it might make

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for you. That's a little sneak peek of what's coming. And yes, you could say that same kind

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of thing inside of the episode, but people are right about to get that inside of the

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episode anyway. What if you said that before the episode is published? This might work

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only when you have longer lead times before your episode publishes, whether that's a

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few days or weeks or months even before that episode comes out.

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But even without lead time, you can give your audience a peek at what you're planning

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to do or something you just discovered that you'll talk about in a future episode.

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Like you might say, "Hey, I just stumbled across this technique and wow, this is so cool.

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I can't do an episode about this yet, but I'm definitely going to do an episode about

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this in the future because this is so radical.

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It's changed my workflow completely.

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You are going to love this so give me some time to work out how to try this, how to tell

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you about it, and some different things that I can do, and I think you're going to love it.

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See, that is a sneak peek of what's to come, even though you haven't actually prepared

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any of that content yet.

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You just know you want to, or you're planning to.

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Number four, extended editions.

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Remember the Lord of the Rings and its extended edition, and then its director's cut, and

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And then it's extended director's cut, and then the extended extended extended uncut

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director's extended cut.

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Fans bought these.

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And there are plenty of advocates who will insist with their dying breath that everyone

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should watch only the extended editions.

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You could do the same thing with your bonus content for your podcast.

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While you might edit something down to make your podcast episodes flow better, some of

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what you edited out might still be valuable content, just maybe not a good fit for the

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published episode. And I do recommend that you take that approach to your episodes when

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you're having an interview or a conversation as you think about, "Does this content that

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we just got into really belong in this episode?" Maybe it doesn't, you could cut that out

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of the episode that you publish, but then save that for some bonus content. Or you could

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save specific parts of the content for the extended editions or bonus content, like something

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you know you want to cover, questions you want to ask, stories you want to tell, and

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you can tease that in your regular episode and then you release it as a bonus at some

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point. That story show and the Babylon Bee podcast do this really well, saving some bonus

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stories or bonus conversations for the extended editions that are available only to premium

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subscribers and sometimes they say or give you a little preview of you're

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going to hear the answers to this or this is what we talked about in the

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extended version of this podcast. That is really compelling and it can entice

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people to subscribe, to become a paying subscriber that is, to get those extended

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editions, that kind of bonus content. Number five, audience engagement.

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Interacting with your audience can be one of the most fun parts of podcasting.

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I don't suggest locking all your interactions behind a paywall where only people who join

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ever get to talk to you or hear from you except what you say in the podcast, but you could

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consider producing some of it into something your broader audience could enjoy.

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That kind of recorded interaction of some sort.

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For example, you could do question and answer or some kind of ask me anything where they

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are asking you a question that you answer.

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bonus content that could be for the public or behind a paywall of some sort. It could

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be chats with your audience members, very casual, on the phone, on any kind of online

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platform. It could be reading and responding to feedback. Like for my Once Upon a Time

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podcast, we would get all of these theories and ideas and observations and we couldn't

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fit them all in a single episode. And sometimes they just weren't relevant to what we were

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discussing inside of that specific episode, but we could have, and we did sometimes do

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this, make a feedback episode that was a sort of bonus for the show and that's where we

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shared some of this feedback and discussed it and responded to it. Not just answering

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questions but really inviting their ideas into the podcast and sharing those with our

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audience and then adding to them. You could also try suggestions from your audience. Depending

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Depending on the format of your show, these different ideas could work for you or could

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be something that you could try.

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Similar to how reading reviews of your podcast helps you get more reviews, and I hope you're

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using mypodcastreviews.com to collect all of those reviews automatically to make it

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easy for you to read those in your podcast, and similar to that, sharing audience engagement

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with your audience will further engage your audience.

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Plus, this helps turn those featured audience members whose interactions you're featuring

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inside of your podcast or content that they've offered or suggested or questions they've

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asked, it turns those audience members into super fans.

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More loyal, more engaged, and also more likely to help you grow the podcast because if you

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were mentioned on the podcast you absolutely love and something you sent in was featured,

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wouldn't you want to tell other people about it?

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"Hey mom, you gotta listen to this podcast, I was featured on it!"

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Or your co-workers or your friends, and then you, as an audience member, become an evangelist

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for that podcast.

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You can do that same kind of thing by turning your audience into superfans who will evangelize

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for your podcast for you.

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Number six, quick content.

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Even if your podcast episodes are hours long, there are probably countless bits you could

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share in quick formats and not simply excerpts of what you already recorded, but communicating

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the same information. This could be a selfie style video, a short email, or other messages

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in other formats. For example, I have a weekly email newsletter that shares multiple podcasting

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tips and you can get the link to sign up for that in the notes for this episode at

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theaudacitytopodcast.com/bonusideas. Much of the content in this newsletter I've already

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shared elsewhere. But I keep my emails very short, so it's one tip generally per email

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instead of 20 tips. And the emails are short, very readable, they come out on a different

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schedule. And plus, even if it's the exact same content that I've shared in a podcast

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episode or an article somewhere, people might read my emails months or years separated from

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when I talked about that same content, but in a different way in my podcast. Your quick

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content can stand alone behind your premium subscription or it could help you promote

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your existing episodes to the public by sharing those excerpts and then pointing back to those

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episodes for more information.

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Number seven, downloadable resources.

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With some brainstorming, you can probably think of several things you could offer as

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bonus downloads for your podcast, maybe even for every episode you publish.

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These can be handy for your premium subscribers, but they can also work really well as gifts

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for people to join your email list.

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These are often called opt-in incentives or lead magnets.

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For example, here are some past episode specific downloadable resources I've offered for joining

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my email list.

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Again, if you're interested in joining my email list, I've got the link in the notes

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for this episode as well as the links to all of these following examples that I'll mention.

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In my episode using text expansion for podcasting, I offered a bunch of TextExpander snippets

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to download that you could use.

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In my episode about everything to do before you record each episode, I offered a printable

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pre-flight checklist and that actually was so popular that I turned that into the main

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thing that I offer.

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When people visit my site and they've never been on my site before, they consume a couple

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pieces of content, then they might move somewhere and it triggers this little thing that pops

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up and says "Hey before you go, would you like this free checklist?"

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And that's been huge for growing my list.

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In my episode about how to make podcast cover art, I offered a resource toolbox in a PDF.

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And in my episode about speeding up your website, I offered bonus tips and tools in a PDF.

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These free downloads have been huge for building my email list.

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So much so, that after I'd made a few of these, I stopped making more because my email

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list was growing so fast that I didn't want to have to pay more in my email service provider.

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Look at your own podcast and try brainstorming some ideas that you could try. And it could

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be anything. It could be a PDF, it could be a bonus episode, it could be some bonus content

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that I've shared here, some of these other things that people could download and take

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with them. It could be an app, it could even be an AI generated wallpaper or some other

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kind of image that somehow represents your whole podcast or even represents the content

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of an individual episode.

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And that image could be enticing enough to attract your audience to download it and take

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whatever steps are necessary to get that download.

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And that can be a fun bonus.

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And if you do something that's episode specific, maybe you do some kind of timed thing where

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it's a limited edition.

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I'm not saying go the NFT route, although you could if you wanted to, but you could

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make it where, okay you can only get this wallpaper if you sign up or if you join by

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such and such date.

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Or you can only get these downloadable resources through this particular link or by this deadline

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or anything like that.

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And number eight, community.

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Never forget the value of relationships.

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The bonus "content" that you offer could simply be connecting with you and other audience

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members in real time through some kind of online community. You could create that on

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Facebook, Slack, Discord, or anything else that you and your audience would use. For

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example, I recently purchased and completed several programming courses to help me as

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I build My Podcast Reviews version 2 coming in summer 2023. Check it out. Previews of

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it are in a little community that I made for the group, but you can join My Podcast Reviews

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over at mypodcastreviews.com. It's going to do a whole lot more than it currently does.

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But I've been going through these courses to learn better coding techniques as I make

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version 2. All of these courses also included access to private discord servers, often with

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some course specific access. So when I have questions about something related to one of

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those courses, I can ask in the community and I might get the answer I need from the

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teacher himself or even from fellow members. And in fact, and this was really awesome,

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in one community a fellow member made a browser extension that fixed two frustrations many

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of us were experiencing with the particular learning management system that was hosting

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the course. And I would have never seen and benefited from that extension without being

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part of that community. And that's been a wonderful bonus for me to experience. And

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You might have that same kind of thing where your audience can experience a bonus from

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other audience members either in the relationships or in something that they make.

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And that's all part of the community that you can offer as a bonus.

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So these eight ideas that I've shared with you are number one, bloopers.

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Number two, behind the scenes.

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Number three, sneak peeks.

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Number four, extended editions.

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Number five, audience engagement.

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Number six, quick content.

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Number seven, downloadable resources.

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number eight, community. All of these bonuses could be things that you sell in some way,

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they're included with something else, they're exclusive to your premium subscribers or membership

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that you run or to anyone who donates a certain amount, gets some of these or you could have

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different tiers or anything like that. Or these could simply be bonuses that you put

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in your podcast feed. Maybe it's during a hiatus, maybe it's to help you promote an

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upcoming episode, maybe it's between your regularly scheduled episodes that you just

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want to put something else out there as a special bonus or special content. I'd love

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for you to try something that I suggested here or maybe you've tried something else.

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Please comment on the notes for this episode at theaudacitytopodcast.com/bonusideas or

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message me on Twitter @theDanielJLewis and let me know what are some of the bonuses you've

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tried or if you try these or you've tried anything else, what has been your experience.

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I'd love to hear from you how your audience responded to that.

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And if this episode has been helpful to you, please share it.

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Go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/bonusideas to share it with any other podcasters that

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would benefit from this.

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Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the bonus tools, it's

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time for you to go start and grow your own podcast for passion and PROFIT.

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I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.

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Thanks for listening!

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