I got to sit down with Dave Jackson, Head of Podcasting at PodPage and a 2018 Podcasting Hall of Fame inductee, and honestly, this is one of those episodes I wish every single one of my clients could listen to before they hit record on episode one.
Dave has been podcasting since 2005. Back then he was recording in his brother’s basement next to a water heater, hoping nobody would flush a toilet mid take, after a year that included bankruptcy and divorce. Two weeks into his very first show, a listener in Nuremberg, Germany found him and sent a voicemail. That was it. That was the moment he decided podcasting was his thing.
The Real Secret to Getting Inducted Into the Podcasting Hall of Fame
When I asked Dave how he ended up in the Hall of Fame, his answer was refreshingly simple: he didn’t quit. That’s it. No secret formula, no viral moment. Just twenty years of showing up as himself.
He talked about the dinner party approach to knowing your audience. Before you plan the menu, you find out who’s vegan and who’s gluten free. Before you plan your content, you find out what your audience is actually confused about. Dave hangs out in Reddit threads and Facebook groups just to see what people are struggling with so he’s never guessing.
He also leaned into being exactly who he is, even when that meant being the goofy guy instead of the polished, serious podcaster. His favorite example is the time he turned years of frustration with Spotify’s treatment of podcasters into a children’s story parody, complete with AI generated kid voices asking “Mr. Dave” why the grown ups keep breaking their promises. It shouldn’t have worked. It’s exactly why it did.
Your Website Is Your Home Base
This is the part of the conversation I want every podcaster to hear twice. Dave does not mince words about this one: if you tell people to “find you wherever you get your podcasts,” you have already lost them.
He brought up MP3.com, a massive platform musicians used to build their entire audience on instead of getting their own domain. When MP3.com got sued and shut down, every artist who built there lost the ability to reach their own audience overnight. That’s the risk of building your home entirely on rented land.
A website fixes this. It gives you one place to send people, whether that’s a “follow the show” link, a voicemail box, a survey asking why your downloads have stalled, or your email list. And that email list matters more than almost anything else, because when a platform changes its rules or disappears, your list still works.
Stop Giving Eighteen Calls to Action
Dave’s other piece of advice stuck with me: the “website sandwich.” Instead of rattling off every single place someone can find you at the end of an episode, mention your website early, give your one ask, and mention your website again at the close. One clear destination beats eighteen scattered ones every time, because nobody is still listening by call to action number four.
If you’ve been putting off getting a real website for your podcast because it feels like one more technical hurdle, Dave’s advice is to stop overcomplicating it. You don’t need to learn to code. You need one home base, and everything else, your socials, your platforms, becomes a satellite that points back to it.
Podcasting isn’t a get rich quick scheme. You have to invest in it for the long haul, and that starts with owning the one piece of real estate nobody can take away from you.
If you’re interested in starting a podcast website with PodPage, check it out here!
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