Resources
Guides for both sides of the mic
Practical, no-fluff playbooks for getting booked as a guest and booking great guests - from the team building Let's Make A Podcast.
What it costs
Fees, rates and who pays whom, with our own measured figures where we have them.
For hosts · 9 min read
Podcast Sponsorship Rates
Current CPM benchmarks, worked campaign costs, and a practical rate-card formula for hosts and advertisers.
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For hosts & guests · 7 min read
Do Podcast Guests Get Paid?
Why the norm is $0 in both directions, the few cases where money does change hands, and what a guest spot is actually worth.
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For guests · 8 min read
How Much Does It Cost to Be a Podcast Guest?
Getting booked can cost nothing but time. The honest price of every path, from free DIY outreach to paid databases and agency retainers, and the research cost almost nobody counts.
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For guests · 7 min read
How Much Does a Podcast Booking Agency Cost?
Nobody in the done-for-you category publishes one: 6 of 8 named services publish a price and the 2 booking agencies publish none. So we priced the work instead, down to the 76 shows worth pitching.
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For hosts · 8 min read
How Much Does It Cost to Find Podcast Guests?
The host's side of the money question, priced per booking rather than per month. 2357 guest chairs a year across 278 live shows, and a median of 26 for the shows that fill any.
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For hosts · 8 min read
How Much Do Podcasts Make?
The third number in the earnings equation, and the only public one: 278 live shows publish a median of 52 episodes a year, which is how many ad slots exist to sell.
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For hosts · 8 min read
How Much Does Podcast Hosting Cost?
Six hosts, read off their own pricing pages on one day. Two of them will host a show for nothing, the free tiers have conditions worth reading, and every paid plan costs less than one sponsored slot.
Read the guidePlatforms, agencies and tools
How the booking platforms, matchmaking services and agencies in this market compare.
For guests · 9 min read
Podcast Booking Agencies: Costs & When They're Worth It
What booking agencies actually do, the retainers they really charge, the pay-to-play red flags, and how to decide between an agency, DIY, and the tools in between.
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For hosts & guests · 9 min read
Best Podcast Guest Booking Platforms
An honest map of every way to book guests: matching marketplaces, databases, agencies, and direct outreach, with the real pros, cons, and costs.
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For guests · 8 min read
Best Podcast Pitch Tools
Compare finders, research databases, generators, graders, and outreach trackers by the bottleneck each one actually solves.
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For hosts & guests · 8 min read
Best Podcast Matchmaking Services
Compare marketplaces, directories, communities, and done-for-you booking services by fit, effort, control, and cost.
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For hosts & guests · 8 min read
PodMatch Alternatives
Marketplaces, databases, agencies, or your own outreach: compare the alternatives by the trade-off each one asks you to make, not by the logo.
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For hosts & guests · 7 min read
PodMatch vs MatchMaker.fm
One pushes matches at you, the other hands you a pool to search, and they are priced accordingly. Both on their own published terms, plus the 242 podcasts we measured that you can reach without either subscription.
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For hosts & guests · 7 min read
Podchaser vs Listen Notes
One indexes who has guested where, the other indexes what was said in every episode. Both on their own published terms, plus the 84 shows in our feed read that a database would still hand you after they went quiet.
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For hosts & guests · 7 min read
Do Podcast Matching Services Actually Work?
They sell searching, ranking and booking admin, not access: 242 of the podcast feeds we read publish a contact route anyone can use free. What a subscription can and cannot buy, and the 5 platforms you can look inside before paying.
Read the guideChoosing which shows to pitch
Which podcasts are worth a pitch, cut from our own directory of real shows.
For guests · 7 min read
Podcasts Looking for Guests
Nobody can tell you which shows want a guest today. We can tell you which ones publish proof they book them, named show by named show, from 362 feeds we read.
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For guests · 6 min read
How Many Podcasts Should You Pitch?
Nobody can honestly quote you a reply rate. We qualified 384 real shows check by check: 76 survived all four, which is what should size your list.
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For guests · 6 min read
Should You Pitch Small Podcasts?
Everyone says start small. We split 362 real feeds by size: only 38% of the smallest had published within six months, against 96% of the biggest.
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For guests · 6 min read
Should You Pitch Podcasts on a Network?
A network means a booking desk in the way. Across 362 feeds, 22% of network shows and 21% of independents passed the same three checks, for opposite reasons.
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For guests · 6 min read
Should You Pitch Weekly Podcasts?
A weekly show fills a slot every week, so surely it wants guests more. Across 361 feeds the guest-evidence rate barely moved with pace: 19% at the fastest, 31% at the slowest.
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For guests · 6 min read
Should You Pitch Short Podcasts?
Nobody screens a show list on episode length. Across 335 feeds it separated them better than size or schedule: 11% of shows under 20 minutes publish guest evidence, against 37% above it.
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For guests · 6 min read
Which Podcast Niches Actually Book Guests?
Pick a guest-friendly topic and the rest gets easier. Across 16 topics, the one whose shows advertise guests most (58%) is also one of the likeliest to have stopped publishing.
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For hosts & guests · 8 min read
Podcast Niches
Every list of podcast niches is a brainstorm. We read 362 feeds across 16 of them and measured how many shows had quit and how many book guests.
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For guests · 6 min read
Should You Pitch Podcasts That Link to Their Guests?
The shortlist you built is still publishing, reachable and visibly booking guests. We checked whether it also links: 78% of its guest episodes link out, against 79% of everyone else's. The checks predict nothing here.
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For hosts & guests · 9 min read
Podcast Guest Statistics
Every figure we have measured about podcast guest booking in one place: 362 feeds read, 31% publishing visible guest evidence, and the denominator and read date under each one.
Read the guideSizing up one show
The checks worth running on a single named show before you spend a pitch on it.
For guests · 6 min read
How Often Do Podcasts Actually Have Guests?
A list of thirty shows reads as thirty chances. Across 278 feeds we read that were still publishing, we can see about 2357 guest seats a year, and ten shows hold 47% of them.
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For guests · 6 min read
Does This Podcast Interview Guests?
The blurb and the episode titles are the two ways to check, and they barely agree. 70 shows say they interview guests, 54 credit one in a recent title, 11 do both.
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For guests · 6 min read
Is This Podcast Still Active?
A quarter of the shows worth pitching have quietly stopped publishing, and your research will hand you those first. 84 of 362 feeds we read had gone six months silent.
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For guests · 7 min read
Should You Accept a Podcast Invitation?
An invitation is the one booking you did no research for. 23% of the feeds we read had gone quiet and 69% publish nothing a guest can check. Five checks, four minutes.
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For guests · 6 min read
How Many Episodes Should You Check Before Pitching?
Everyone opens the feed, reads the first screen and decides. We read 358 feeds twice on one day: a 5-episode scan misses 54.8% of the shows that visibly book guests.
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For hosts · 8 min read
How to Vet a Podcast Guest
Every guide says check their past appearances. We measured it: a glance at a show's recent episodes surfaces its guest bookings 46.2% of the time.
Read the guideWriting and sending the pitch
The outreach itself: who to send it to, what goes in it, and how to send it.
For guests · 8 min read
How to Get Booked as a Podcast Guest
Build a one-sheet hosts say yes to, find the right shows, write pitches that land, and become the guest hosts refer.
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For guests · 7 min read
How to Contact a Podcast Host
Every other guide lists the routes you could try, in an order somebody guessed. We read 362 feeds and measured which one shows actually publish.
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For guests · 7 min read
Podcast Guest Pitch Template
Copy-paste pitch templates that get you booked: a cold pitch, a warm intro, and a follow-up, plus subject lines that get opened.
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For guests · 6 min read
Why You Can't Find a Podcast Host's Email
A missing address is usually a fact about the show's publishing software, not about the host. Across 361 feeds matched to the platform that built them, the no-door rate runs 0% to 70%.
Read the guideThe interview itself
Preparing for the conversation, running it well, and the one-sheet hosts ask for.
For guests · 8 min read
How to Prepare for a Podcast Interview
The complete guest checklist: research the show, shape your stories, set up clean audio, and turn the episode into real results.
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For guests · 8 min read
The Podcast Guest One-Sheet
What to put on your guest media kit, a copy-paste template to fill in, and the details that get you invited instead of skipped.
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For hosts · 9 min read
Questions to Ask a Podcast Guest
A copy-paste bank of 50+ interview questions, how to structure the conversation, and the questions that quietly kill an episode.
Read the guideAfter the episode
Getting the episode, and the show it ran on, heard once it is published.
For guests · 8 min read
How to Promote Your Podcast Guest Appearance
The post-interview playbook: grab your assets, work launch day, repurpose one episode into weeks of content, capture the backlink, and earn your next booking.
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For hosts · 9 min read
How to Promote a Podcast
A practical growth system for hosts: sharpen the promise, package each episode, borrow guest reach, build search demand, and measure what actually grows the show.
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For guests · 7 min read
Do Podcasts Link to Their Guests?
The show-notes backlink is the second prize every guesting page sells. We read the notes of 13504 episodes across 361 shows: a guest episode carries 0.78 more outbound links than the same show's own, and for the median show it is 0.1.
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For guests · 6 min read
Do Podcasts Publish Transcripts?
A transcript is the one part of a guest appearance a search engine can read. 64 of 361 feeds publish one a machine can find, and the rate runs 64.5 points from the top publishing platform to zero. It is barely a property of the show.
Read the guideFor hosts: booking guests
The host's side of the same table: sourcing, inviting and booking the guests you want.
For hosts · 7 min read
How to Get Guests to Pitch Your Podcast
Guests screen shows before they write, using only what your feed publishes. We ran that screen across 384 shows: 76 survive it, and the last check removes 166 on its own.
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For hosts · 9 min read
How to Find Great Guests for Your Podcast
Source relevant guests, vet for audience fit, invite and schedule without the back-and-forth, and keep your pipeline full.
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For hosts · 9 min read
How to Book Podcast Guests
The booking loop that keeps a recording calendar full: build a target list, vet for audience fit, invite well, and schedule in one reply.
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For hosts · 9 min read
The Podcast Guest Outreach Email
Copy-paste invitation, warm intro, and follow-up emails, plus the subject lines and the six lines that get invitations ignored.
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For hosts · 9 min read
How to Get Better Podcast Guests
Define the conversation your audience needs, find people with first-hand stories, vet how they communicate, and make stronger guests want to say yes.
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For hosts · 7 min read
Is Your Podcast Too Small to Book Guests?
Every new host assumes the answer is yes. We split real podcast feeds by how much each has published: the share showing they book guests moves 4 points end to end.
Read the guideStarting a show
Making a podcast in the first place, for anyone not on either side of the mic yet.
For hosts · 9 min read
How to Start an Interview Podcast
From a focused concept to your first published episode: format, gear, recording, and lining up your first guests before you hit record.
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For hosts · 11 min read
How to Make a Podcast
Idea to published episode: concept, format, the smallest setup that sounds good, recording, a light edit, the feed, and the guest pipeline that decides whether the show survives.
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