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Podcasters Need a Better Way to Share URLs: The growing call-to-action problem.

Podcasters of Indie Hackers,

I have been podcasting with a buddy of mine since 2019 as well as producing half a dozen podcasts for clients of mine. I think there is a huge problem inherent to podcasts that doesn’t get any attention: sharing external links.

These external links come up on our show a lot. Any time we wanted to discuss something we read in article, an image we saw, or a video you need to watch in order to get the context of the conversation, we didn’t have an easy way to tell people how to see it. Maybe we would say “google X” to see what we’re talking about. But it always felt like a very lazy way of dealing with the fact that podcasts are not visual by their nature. This happens on Joe Rogan a LOT! Jamie is constantly pulling up videos and articles. If you are watching the video you might be able to see a small screen but if you just listen to the audio, you are in the dark.

I don't often hear of podcaster's discuss this problem. But it's a major one that is only getting bigger as publishing reaches across multiple mediums to video on YouTube and to live events on Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, etc. Being able to give a single call-to-action while recording on any platform will be a huge advantage to efficiently guiding people to the resource you want them to see.

How people do it now?
The main way people share links is in the show notes of an episode. It’s a decent solution to this problem. But podcasters don’t usually go much further than a description and maybe some stock links to social media. In a quick reddit poll I did of 127 podcasters, 60% of podcasters only give a brief description in their show notes.

Show notes also exclude Dynamic Ad Insertions (DAIs) links as they are most likely different each time. So the only call to action in DAIs can be a spoken URL, Promo code, or a URL - something the listener must remember.

They also say, "Google X". "Go Google this to see what I'm talking about..." In my opinion this is just giving your influence directly to Google. As well as sending your listener on a research mission that could get sidetracked or distracted.

My Solution - JumpLink
I built a tool called JumpLink - https://jump.link/.

The idea is that a podcaster can share say “Jumplink + keyword”. The keyword just needs to be unique to the podcast. Listeners join JumpLink, an app or web app, and they follow the podcasts they listen to. So when they hear a JumpLink that interests them, they can open up the app and quickly find the link. I’ve heard from people that it’s interesting to just look through the links that podcasters share.

Why Join?
Creating JumpLinks allow you to start controlling your influence as a podcaster.

  • You can track how many times a JumpLink was clicked.
  • Use UTM codes so websites can see the source of the traffic. Advertisers can see the traffic you’re adding at the top of the funnel.
  • Add promo codes automatically to URLs so listeners don’t have to remember them.
  • Sell Cost-per-Click ads for stubborn advertisers unsure of the return on investment.
  • Find new listeners when people browse recently made JumpLinks.

What’s Next?
I want to get some feedback from more podcasters! I am currently only publishing the Web App but will release an iOS and Android version soon. I also plan on supporting several languages.

I want to help podcasters make more money by harnessing their influence. A first step is to give them a tool that they can use to integrate link sharing into their podcasts. Next is to sell advertisers on running Cost Per Click campaigns that can help even small podcasts with a niche audience.

Get started

Visit https://jump.link and click "launch app".

  • Create an account - via email or twitter.
  • Search for your podcast and then: "Claim it".
  • We’ll email a code to the email listed in the RSS feed with a code to enter to claim it.
  • Sync all the links you’ve already shared in your show notes! We’ll scrape all the links and put them in your feed automatically. Just click “Sync Links“

Look forward to your feedback!

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