The Real Ultimate Podcast Directories List and Service – links to over 70 sites
After millennia of using the spoken word to transmit information and understanding from one person to another, millions of enthusiastic talkers have started a podcast to move their message to the next level.
Podcasting has transformed time by creating endless spaces where a listener can hear conversations they never had access to, get training they could not otherwise afford, document advice that can change their lives, extend their entertainment options, and provide revenue opportunities by attracting a niche audience.
But finding podcasts – discovering the shows you want – is a challenge for even the most committed listener. The podcast directories are not robust search engines, and have unique approaches to organizing and delivering podcast information.
To get the most out of podcasting as a podcaster, listener or potential guest, you need to understand how to navigate the podcast directories.
What is a Podcast Directory?
A podcast directory is the list of all podcasts that are available through a podcast platform like a website or an app. Popular directories like Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Amazon Music are also the platforms where podcast listeners search for shows.
But no two directories are alike in their search capabilities, categories or listings, which means podcast discovery is a challenge. Once a podcast listener learns to navigate a specific directory, and is satisfied with the search results, they tend to stay with their selection.
Types of Podcast Directories
Podcast directories can be desktop-only, app-only or both. Some are designed simply to list all podcasts, others are aimed at specific listener groups or languages.
Podcast search capabilities typically allow searching by keyword that returns all podcasts using the keyword in the show or episode title. Some directories also incorporate tags into their search.
Directories have show pages for each podcast in their listing. Most also have links to listen to episodes. Show pages have the show description, sometimes links to the show website or RSS feed, and episode information.
How to Use a Podcast Directory
Podcasting has a few best practices, but no rules. Podcasters create show titles, episode descriptions and tags based on their own assessment of their content. Podcast directories take these terms verbatim, and return search results based on the podcast definitions. This means podcast discovery is a huge challenge.
Word-of-mouth, advertising, and popular blogs tend to drive podcast attention and listener growth. But to find the podcast in a directory, a listener has to know how the directory search works.
While initial search will be by the podcast name or a keyword, some directories also provide suggested search which displays similar programs or subjects. Suggested search recommendations also connects shows that are about similar topics, but are not using the same keywords in the title.
For Podcasters
Since listeners come from all directions, podcasters should make sure their podcast is in every directory they know. Many podcast hosting services will automatically distribute the podcast to the most popular directories, but no service distributes the program to every directory.
Podcasters should use the lists like the this website’s Real Ultimate Podcast Directory list to check for their podcast in every available directory. If the show is not listed, the podcaster should submit it for consideration.
If the show is listed, bookmark the show page for future reference.
For Guest Podcasting
Potential podcast guests use the podcast directories to find shows that are speaking about their specific subject or issue. Understanding how the directories display information and search results is critical to D-I-Y Guest Podcasting, where guests search for shows on their own, and do not pay an agency or service to find shows for them.
For potential guests, start by listing all the possible keywords that are associated with your subject. For example, if you speak about tulips, you will want to search for flowers, gardening, outdoor activity, fragrances, and other key terms.
As you understand the search results, you will be available to refine your keywords to identify the most relevant programs.
For Listeners
With the rise of podcasting, interested listeners are having to learn how to find shows that are of interest to them.
Listeners must also use keywords to find new podcasts. For example, if you are interested in entrepreneurship, you would search for words like ‘entrepreneur’ or ‘entrepreneurship,’ or phrases like ‘start an online business.’
The directory will return thousands of results, often in no particular order, and you will still have to sift through the results to find the types of shows that you are seeking.
Unfortunately for listeners, the lack of a robust search engine limits their potential to find the full scope of programming that may fit their search needs.
Dead Shows
In the list of nearly three million podcasts are every podcast that has ever been posted. But many, probably the majority are not active or have not done more than a handful of episodes. Because podcasters come and go as they please, directories do not know if a show is finished or on hiatus.
If you are just intending to listen to a podcast, you are simply checking for availability. But if you intend to do guest podcasting, you have to know if the show is active. In directories, look for the last updated episode date or timeframe, this will help you understand if the show still has new episodes.
The Best Directories for Search
The best podcast directories for search provide two levels of relevant information. On initial search by keyword, the directory returns the show name, at least part of the description, and last episode uploaded date (to confirm if still active).
On the specific show pages, you can see the full show description, episode title, episode description, and episode uploaded date, plus links to the show website, RSS feed or even email, and recommendations about similar shows.
Only a handful of directories provide this type of information, and none of them are the big platform names that most people search by default.
To find quality search results take a look at:
Listen Notes – initially free to use but after a number of searches you will be prompted to sign-up and pay
Player.fm – free to use, also has search by tags which returns all podcasts using a specific tag
Podknife – free to use, one of the only directories that flags ‘inactive’ or ‘archived’ shows on initial search
TuneIn – free to use, but accessing information requires an extra click to collapse/uncollapse each section
Know Your Directories
To successfully navigate the podcast directories, you want to first identify your goals – confirming your podcast listing, searching for listening, or guest podcasting – and then understand how the directory is going to return results.
As you use the different options, you will decide which one best suits your purposes and will become your go-to directory in the future.
Podcasters! Confirm Your Show is Available in all Directories…click here to Get the Real Ultimate Podcast Directory List and Service today!
Author’s note: This blog by the same author is also available on https://podcastgueststar.com/
Maximize Your Podcast Listening: Use Interviews to Learn from Virtual Mentors
The Podcast Discoveries Series
by Case Lane
Life in the Internet Age is really two lives.
One is online where you now engage with family, friends, colleagues, and strangers through screens providing a heightened literal face-to-face communication confrontation.
When that harrowing ordeal is over, you check your phone for texts, images, emojis and videos conveying accompanying messages – as vital as your grandmother’s health report, to as trivial as a bird on a giraffe’s back – with the same flat, rapid, flash of presentation.
Sliding over to your social feeds, you post a few images about your delicious meal, new shoes, or child’s messy face, and then stare jealously at your friends’ more delicious meal, hipper shoes and cuter child.
With heightened reluctance you switch off the screen to tend to your other life…the real one.
Your physical life is the one of private discussion, gentle cries, confusion, fear and misunderstanding.
And never more so has this mood stood out than now, when you face a world where you have to learn to operate in crisis and disruption.
Sadly you know no one who has ever faced this type of turmoil.
Neither does anyone you know.
The knowledge circle that used to come from experiences of extended family, teachers or community leaders is closed.
Your chance to extract information has disappeared, and perhaps your opportunity to be successful, and have the comfortable life you expect, has gone with them.
Where do you turn?
To the fastest rising information, education and communication platform in the world…podcasts.
The Surprise Behind the Mic
If you thought podcasts were only for big name stars, provocative politics or senseless comedy, you may have missed the extraordinary bucket of information burgeoning from the 99.99% of podcasts that create most of the content.
Across all categories from activists to educators to professionals, non-profits, entrepreneurs and health practionners, podcasters are having the conversations you used to hear in your living room.
The conversations once offered by mentors, community leaders, and instructors in limited circles, and behind closed doors, are now offered to everyone within earshot of a connected device.
If you are a professional seeking to hear detailed information about how to grow your career; or a college student wondering how life in the ‘real world’ really plays out; or a concerned citizen who is uncertain how best to contribute to building a better society; or an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to understand how to really get a business going…there is a podcast conversation waiting for you and your notepad.
But how do you find this treasure trove of knowledge and information in the massive sea of options presented on your smartphone?
You start here.
How to Find Your Relevant Podcasts
This post highlights what you should know about extracting valuable information from podcasts available right now for your listening pleasure.
But instead of passively absorbing the conversation, this post recommends you take the guidance you hear to the next level, and apply the knowledge to your career path, education or entrepreneurial decisions going forward.
The purpose of a podcast interview is to give the listener new insights to absorb and implement. The opportunity for you is to take the advice and run with it.
Present at the Beginning
Podcasting is a fairly new industry with no formal structures or established reference resources. Podcasts are hosted by dozens of platforms, and listed in dozens more directories.
But most directories limit search results to the most ‘relevant.’ This presents the top podcasts with unlimited search result real estate, and all the rest lost behind algorithms designed to ignore them.
A podcast capturing valuable specific interview content for a young professional, rising business owner or college student could be ranked from #101 to #1,000,000, and effectively be ‘undiscoverable.’
But if you are that person who wants that information, the question is: how can find the 99.99%?
And when you do…what should you do with the information?
The Value of Virtual Mentors
Most people do not have the information they need to be successful. The schools do not teach the personal development and self-help ideologies, that tens of millions of adults will go on to purchase in later life.
And the majority will fail to learn that some people are successful not because of demographics or wealth or education, but simply because they get great information they understand early enough to apply it to their life choices.
In a world built on democracy and free enterprise, there’s a belief that people operate on a leveling playing field – that the society by virtue of its success values will encourage anyone to be successful.
But in reality, success often comes to those who have the right information.
Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Information Privilege
In Robert Kiyosaki’s best selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad, he explained this reality. You get the right information by either having a ‘Rich Dad’ who will impart it to you, or by knowing you are missing out, and finding where you can learn what you need.
A ‘Rich Dad’ is any human who pro-actively teaches or demonstrates how to maximize your resources to grow for success; and ‘Poor Dad’ teaches nothing but following the status quo.
The most effective ‘Rich Dads’ provide not only the knowledge, but the life skills to understand how to apply what you have learned for the long-term. ‘Poor Dad’ is rarely economically poor, yet leads a life where decisions are driven by earning a salary to pay monthly bills, and scrimping and saving for retirement.
People who grow up with ‘Poor Dad’ often believe they are doing everything right, and to society, they are, until they hit financial concerns. ‘Poor Dad’ learners are the ones who are shocked by financial crises, rising mortgage rates, equity market swings, and the interest rates on their car loans, student loans and credit card debt.
Following ‘Poor Dad’s’ example means spending on the items you believe you should buy like a house and car, and being worried that you cannot afford those same items whenever there is a crisis.
Even the ‘Poor Dads’ who teach frugality, and end up with a couple million dollars in the bank at retirement, don’t seem to be having a good time. They have never learned how to spend money for enjoyment, and are constantly managing to the last penny in fear of ‘running out.’
For those who are interested in entrepreneurship and starting a business, ‘Poor Dads’ caution and insecurity is discouraging. Entrepreneurial ideas go untested because of fear, and the inability to break habits from the past.
But those same people, maybe even you, know about ‘Rich Dad,’ and maybe are watching, wondering and asking, how do you have a great life now?
Find a Virtual Mentor
If a potential ‘Rich Dad’ is not within your reach, you can find one as a virtual mentor who will give you the guidance and wisdom you need to ensure your life meets your expectations.
Since financial education is not taught in schools, you have to be exposed to ‘Rich Dad’ in some other form.
But if you don’t have a ‘Rich Dad,’ and you know you are missing out on the information you need, and you are ready, willing and able to implement good advice, you can discover these valuable mentors for yourself by absorbing and applying the lessons being taught…in podcasts.
You can make yourself information privileged by finding the podcasts that are having conversations with people who have the knowledge you need.
How to Find Your Podcast
Podcasts grow by word of mouth, which means the most successful podcasts are those that have been recommended. And the interview podcasts tend to be successful for the same reason. Interviewers speak to a finite rotating list of A-name stars who tell the same stories over and over again.
Even on podcasts that purport to offer a different perspective, or unique angle, the same story is being told by the same people.
To break away from these familiar conversations, and find podcasts you can use to advance your life, you have to become more creative in your podcast search.
If those in your circle are not interested in enhancing their lives, they will not be the ones to recommend the podcasts you should be listening to. You will have to find these shows on your own.
Search by Keyword
The podcast description is the main location where podcasters state the nature of their content. But a podcaster can state this information in a variety of different forms.
A keyword you are searching for may not appear in the podcast title or description, yet be valid for the type of content provided. You will have to assess each description as you see fit.
Some podcasters also have episode descriptions that state the episode features, and expert or specialist interview content. But this information varies by podcast.
When using keywords to search for podcasts:
- Search for your unique podcasts by using Google or another search engine for [your keyword] podcasts to see a list of possibilities.
- Read the descriptions to see if the information sounds valuable to you.
- Since your search topic may cover more than one area, try different categories and keywords around broad subjects. For example, entrepreneurs can look for: ‘entrepreneur,’ ‘entrepreneurship,’ ‘business,’ ‘success,’ ‘startup,’ ‘side hustle,’ ‘action,’ ‘boss,’ and all variations of ‘boss lady.’
- If you are aware of experts in your field such as professors, researchers, and organizers search [their name] podcast – the person’s name with the word ‘podcast’ written after it – to see if you can find their appearances on different shows. When you find the appearance of someone you admire, you may find others who have appeared on the same podcast, and discussed similar topics.
- You can stop when you have at least 100 podcasts to research. Avoid trying to find every possible category, every type of podcast may be lurking in. Once you begin by searching one or two categories the results will lead you on to more.
Social Media
Searching social media hashtags and keywords can also help discover previously unknown podcasts. However, social media generally takes more time, and does not often provide additional information about the show.
Social media may be more valuable AFTER you have listened to an interview, and want to learn more about your virtual mentor.
How to Listen to the Interview
When you discover a podcast with interviews with people whose advice you may wish to add to your ‘Rich Dad’ information library, listen to the conversation as if that person were providing the details directly to you.
If your hands are free, take notes on important points you may want to clarify or research later.
For example, if you want to be an entrepreneur, and listen to entrepreneur interviews on podcasts, you could be considering:
- How the entrepreneur got started
- Where their opportunities came from
- How they made money.
For example, on the Trailblazers Impact podcast, ‘Financial Diva’ Victoria Woods, the CEO of ChappelWoods Financial Services spoke about her rise.
An aspiring entrepreneur listening to this interview may realize:
- You have to keep your eyes open for opportunities to make money, like babysitting 6 kids at a time, instead of one
How can you enhance your existing work right now to earn more money?
- You maintain your opportunity by being responsible, organized and reliable
Do you need to improve in any of these areas?
- You should be productive with your free time, for example take an accounting class or other continuous learning. You may be surprised to discover a subject you love that is also a career opportunity
What subject could you be studying right now to add to your skills?
- Accept no limits – use your energy and effort
Are you feeling strong and capable, or do you need to improve your energy and motivation?
- Follow the trails of those who have done it before
Who are the successful people around you? Who should you be following online to better understand the road to success?
- Stay open for new opportunities
What have people told you lately or what have you seen that could lead to an opportunity for you?
- Find the right partner by making sure your goals and lifestyle are aligned
Are you aligned with your partner on your goals? If not, what can you do to fix the situation?
- Always ask why a customer decided to work with you, why were they motivated to call you. You can learn from what you’re doing right
If you have a business now, how often do you communicate with customers outside of transactions, and what do you say?
- Decide where you are and where you want to be, then fill in the blanks about how you want to get there
Write down your goals and your envisioned future. Document the blanks and what you need to do to fill them.
- Don’t take advice from broke people – physically, financially or spiritually
When somebody offers you advice, ask yourself if you would like to have that person’s life, if the answer is ‘no,’ you know what to do with the advice!
If you had this information imparted directly to you over coffee or dinner, what would you do with it?
Use the Knowledge to Build your Life Going Forward
Use the information you hear in podcast interviews to begin building a store of knowledge that can help you design your life to ensure you accomplish your goals, without waiting for circumstances to take you in another direction.
Unlike generations past when good advice was kept among families or scholars, the average person now has the information freely available, and ready for use.
If you are serious about having the life you really want, being proactive about your choices, and making your own success, use quality podcast interviews – beyond the top 100 – to get your share of the information privilege you are unlikely to receive anywhere else.
Let the podcast world provide you with an additional education, grounded in realities that you will not hear about from those around you.
This is an exciting time to be a participant in the new economy, now you can adapt the possibilities to your own ends.
Conclusion
Why should you be listening to podcasts?
For the information, knowledge, entertainment and news.
But why should you try and find the #101 to #1,000,000 ranked podcasts?
Because in the interviews and information of the 99.99% of podcasts lies a layer of wisdom that would otherwise be completely inaccessible to you.
The manor door has been left wide-open, you can slip in, and absorb the next level of higher living that comes not from money, but from information, heard, absorbed and used to repeat success, not let it fall away.
Take advantage of this moment while you can, by taking a step beyond the obvious, and making your podcast listening count for more.
More Information
The best part about researching 1,117 podcasts was being accepted as a guest on so many awesome shows! You can find links to all of those fabulous podcasts here.
The second best part was my new found insight into the podcast industry.
This research was so eye-opening that this post is one of five about what I learned about the podcast industry from researching 1,117 podcasts.
Here are the links to all of the posts in the Podcast Discoveries Series:
Introduction to the Podcast Discoveries Series
How to Become A Guest on a Podcast
How to be a Welcoming Podcast Interview Host: The Best and Worst Practices
How to be a Valued Podcast Interview Guest: The Best and Worst Practices
Maximize Your Podcast Listening: Use Interviews to learn from Virtual Mentors
Additional Resources
Research Checklist: Podcast Guests: If you would like a free checklist for how to research and find the right podcast for you. Click here to download.
Podcast Directories: If you would like to get your own copy of the podcast directory listing and instructions based on my research click here (coming soon)
Podcast Guest Interview Blueprint Package (the ultimate course for podcast guests): Podcast Guests: If you would like the comprehensive guide to finding and contacting podcasts that are right for you, including as bonuses the Interview Checklist and the Directories List. Click here for this special offer.
Podcast Discoveries Book: Readers: If you would like the entire story of this epic research journey to discover and contact podcasts for guest interviews. Click here to download at Amazon.com. NOTE: the book is also available at Apple Bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and other popular sites where ebooks are sold.
Research Report: To purchase, the entire research report click here (coming soon)
Podcast Discoveries on the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast: This information will be explained in upcoming episodes of The Ready Entrepreneur Podcast. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts to stay up to date.
Podcast Discoveries on YouTube: To watch videos explaining the Podcast Discoveries process for finding your new favorite podcasts, click here (coming soon)
Disclosure: Links to Amazon.com and related companies are affiliate links that earn for eligible purchases at no additional cost to you.
Podcast Discoveries: Introduction to The Podcast Research Series from Ready Entrepreneur
Want the Information Now? Link to a Specific Post
How to Become a Guest on a Podcast
More for Hosts: How to be a Welcoming Podcast Interview Host: The Best and Worst Practices
More for Guests: How to be a Valued Podcast Interview Guest: The Best and Worst Practices
For Listeners: Maximizing the Real Value in Listening to Podcast Interviews by learning from Virtual Mentors
The Introduction to the Series: How I Launched This Inadvertent Podcast Research Project
Into a time when the trust in the viability of our systems, communication, media, governance and civil society is teetering, come a wave of talkers commandeering the airwaves on their own terms…podcasters.
Tens of thousands of vocal on-air talents who have turned on microphones, and launched discussions, commentaries, dramatizations, recreations and jokes, on every subject imaginable, in an effort to deliver more knowledge, and entertainment, to more people than ever before.
And a significant part of their effort includes engaging with guest speakers who can illuminate issues, clarify points, and heighten the conversation.
But after the ‘big’ names and their marquee guests rotate amongst themselves in a Top 100 popularity bubble, an estimated 1,000,000 or so lesser known names seek to be recognized in the conversation with the insights and ideas they have to offer.
Given the wide-open field, and domination of the .01% at the top of the charts, how does a host looking for content; a potential guest with something to say, and a potential listener desperate for diverse voices, find the ‘rest’ of the podcasts within the podcast world?
From occupying all sides of the microphone – as a host, guest and listener – I began an effort to find among the 99.9% of podcasters those who are speaking about entrepreneurship, online business, and success.
The plan was to find podcasters who were interested in the message of my latest book Recast: The Aspiring Entrepreneur’s Practical Guide to Getting Started with an Online Business. To find these hosts, I researched deep into the public podcast directories, Google search, and recommendations to learn who was out there, how they could be contacted, and whether they were willing to have a conversation about my message..
The result exceeded my expectations.
Not only did I earn the opportunity to guest on dozens of awesome podcasts, but also I learned more than I could have known about the current state of the podcast industry.
I have attended podcast conferences, and spoken to many podcasters, but I have never heard the facts I learned when I ended up researching 1,117 podcasts in search of an interview.
And given the details collected in my inadvertent research project, I decided to tell the entire story in this multi-part series.
If you are interested in the entire industry, I recommend reading all the blogs which provide the information from different angles. But you can begin wherever you want to learn more about this fast-rising and ever-changing medium.
Comment or reach out with your questions and let me know where you stand, and how you feel, about the real story behind podcasting today.
The Blog Posts
The details of the research findings can be found in this series of blog posts
How to Become a Guest on a Podcast
More for Hosts: How to be a Welcoming Podcast Interview Host: The Best and Worst Practices
More for Guests: How to be a Valued Podcast Interview Guest: The Best and Worst Practices
For Listeners: Maximize Your Podcast Listening: Learn from Virtual Mentors
The Videos
You can watch the accompanying videos for the blogs on the Case Lane Channel on You Tube (coming soon)
How to Become a Guest on a Podcast
The Report
Podcast Discoveries: The Report: A Guide for Hosts, Guests and Listeners (coming soon)
The Book
Podcast Discoveries: For Hosts, Guests and Listeners: How to Sift Through One Million Podcasts to Find the One That’s Right For You
Readers: If you would like the entire story of this epic research journey to discover and contact podcasts for guest interviews. Click here to download at Amazon.com. NOTE: the book is also available at Apple Bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and other popular sites where ebooks are sold.
Additional Resources
Research Checklist: Podcast Guests: If you would like a free checklist for how to research and find the right podcast for you. Click here to download.
Podcast Directories: If you would like to get your own copy of the podcast directory listing and instructions based on my research click here (coming soon)
Podcast Guest Interview Blueprint Package (the ultimate course for podcast guests): Podcast Guests: If you would like the comprehensive guide to finding and contacting podcasts that are right for you, including as bonuses the Interview Checklist and the Directories List. Click here for this special offer.
Podcast Discoveries on the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast: This information will be explained in upcoming episodes of The Ready Entrepreneur Podcast. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts to stay up to date.
Disclosure: Links to Amazon.com are affiliate links that earn for eligible purchases at no additional cost to you.
