How to Find Podcast Guest Opportunities with RSS Monitoring

Short answer: Every podcast publishes an RSS feed, and its episode titles and show notes reveal who the show interviews and about what. Collect the feeds of shows in your niche, merge them, and filter episodes for your topics and for the names of peers and competitors. Shows that recently interviewed someone like you are your warmest guest opportunities. Add feeds from pages where shows announce they are looking for guests, and pitch with a specific reference to a recent episode.

Why podcast guesting is worth monitoring

Appearing as a guest on podcasts is one of the most effective ways for founders, consultants, authors and experts to reach a focused audience. A good interview gives listeners an hour with you, which no advert can match, and episodes stay online for years. Many hosts need a steady supply of good guests, so a well-targeted pitch is often welcome.

The hard part is finding the right shows at the right time. Directories list thousands of podcasts, most of them irrelevant or inactive. Searching once gives you a stale list. Monitoring solves this: instead of searching repeatedly, you let feeds tell you which shows are active, what they talk about and who they invite.

This approach suits anyone who has expertise to share: founders explaining their market, consultants and agency owners, authors promoting a book, researchers, and marketing teams who book podcast appearances for their executives. PR agencies can run the same setup for several clients, with one filtered stream per client.

Why RSS is the natural tool for this

Podcasts are built on RSS. Every show that appears in podcast apps publishes a feed listing its episodes, with titles, descriptions, publication dates and audio files. The details are explained in how podcast RSS feeds work. For guest research, that means:

• You can follow any public show in an ordinary RSS reader, without listening to every episode.
• Show notes are searchable text. They usually name the guest, their company and the topics discussed.
• Dates show activity. A show whose last episode was eight months ago is not booking guests.
• Some feeds name guests explicitly. The Podcasting 2.0 namespace includes a podcast:person tag that can list guests by role, as covered in podcast RSS tags explained. Not every show uses it, but when present it is precise.

Step 1: build your watchlist of shows

Start with twenty to fifty shows that your target audience actually listens to:

1. Ask customers and peers which podcasts they follow.
2. Search podcast apps and directories for your topics and industry terms.
3. Check which shows your competitors, partners and respected peers have appeared on; guests often list their appearances on their websites.
4. Look for shows in adjacent niches whose audience overlaps with yours.

For each show, find its RSS feed. Most podcast websites and hosting pages link to it, and directories often show it too. Keep the list in an OPML file so you can move it between tools; OPML files explained shows how.

Before adding a show, qualify it quickly with a look at its feed:

• Is it active? New episodes in the last month or two.
• Does it have guests? Several of the recent episode titles name a person.
• Is the audience right? The topics match the people you want to reach, not just your own interests.
• Is it a fit for your level? Very large shows are hard to get onto; smaller, focused shows are often more valuable and more open to new guests.

Step 2: merge the feeds into one stream

Following fifty shows separately is hard work. Merging them into one feed gives you a single chronological list of new episodes across your whole niche. The method is described in merging multiple RSS feeds into one clean feed. You can keep separate merged feeds for different groups, for example industry shows, business shows and regional shows.

Where you read the stream matters less than reading it regularly. An RSS reader folder works well for one person; a team chat channel suits PR teams who share the work. Set aside a fixed half hour each week to go through new matches, note promising shows and decide whom to pitch. A weekly rhythm keeps pitches timely without turning monitoring into a daily distraction.

Step 3: filter for signals

With keyword filters, the merged stream turns into a list of opportunities. Keyword alerts using RSS feed filters explains the mechanics; these filter groups are useful for guest research:

The peer-name filter is often the most valuable. If a show interviewed a competitor last month, it has an audience interested in your field and a host who knows the topic.

Step 4: watch the pages without feeds

Not every useful signal is in an episode feed. Some shows and networks publish “be a guest” pages or guest request forms, and some newsletters and communities regularly list podcasts looking for guests. These pages often have no RSS. Creating a feed from them, as described in creating an RSS feed for a website without RSS, means you hear about new calls without checking manually. The same idea powers never missing a call for speakers for conferences, and the two streams fit well together.

Step 5: pitch with context

Monitoring gives you something most pitches lack: a specific, recent reason to write. A good guest pitch based on your feed alerts:

• References a recent episode by name, ideally with a point you found interesting or a question it left open.
• Proposes a specific topic that fits the show and has not been covered recently, which the episode list makes easy to check.
• Explains why you in two sentences, with a link to a previous interview or talk if you have one.
• Respects the show’s process. If the show has a guest form, use it instead of emailing the host directly.

Keep track of who you pitched and when, and do not pitch the same show again for a few months unless the host invites you.

A short example of the difference: “I’d love to be on your show” is easy to ignore. “Your episode with a logistics founder last week touched on returns fraud but did not get into how small shops can detect it; I have spent five years building exactly that, and could walk your listeners through three practical checks” gives the host a ready-made episode idea.

After the interview: keep the feeds working

Your monitoring does not stop when you land a spot. The same feeds tell you when your episode is published, so you can share it the same day. If you have your own show, automating that sharing is covered in promoting new podcast episodes automatically. Your name filter also catches later episodes that mention you, which is part of wider media monitoring with RSS.

Review the watchlist twice a year. Remove shows that stopped publishing, add new ones that appear in your alerts, and adjust peer names as your market changes.

How Feeds helps

Feeds brings podcast feeds and pages without feeds into one filtered stream. It uses a show’s existing RSS feed, turns guest call pages and listings into feeds, merges several sources into one feed, removes duplicates and keeps only episodes with (or without) your keywords, such as your topics or peer names. The result works in any RSS reader or chat tool and refreshes by itself. The number of sources you can merge depends on the plan; see the pricing page.

Related reading

• How to build a reputation early-warning feed for your brand
• How to choose an RSS reader: features that actually matter
• How to organize your RSS reader so it never overwhelms you

The bottom line

Podcast feeds are a public, structured record of who every show interviews and about what. Build a watchlist of relevant shows, merge their feeds, filter for your topics, peer names and guest calls, and add feeds for guest request pages without RSS. Use each alert as the starting point for a specific, well-researched pitch, and keep the same setup running to catch your episode and later mentions.

FAQ

How can I find podcasts that accept guests?

Follow the RSS feeds of shows in your niche and filter episodes for words such as interview, guest or featuring. Shows that regularly interview people, especially people similar to you, are the best candidates.

Where do I find a podcast’s RSS feed?

Most podcast websites and hosting pages link to the feed, and many directories display it. Once you have it, you can follow the show in any RSS reader.

Why track competitors’ podcast appearances?

A show that interviewed a competitor or peer has an audience interested in your field and a host familiar with the topic. That makes your pitch more relevant and more likely to be accepted.

Can RSS tell me who the guests on a podcast are?

Often, through episode titles and show notes. Some feeds also use the Podcasting 2.0 person tag to list guests explicitly, but not all shows include it.

How many podcasts should I monitor?

Twenty to fifty relevant, active shows is a good start. Merge them into one or a few filtered feeds so the stream stays manageable, and review the list twice a year.