DIYs
Getting Started
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Launching a podcast can seem intimidating. Will people find your podcast in a sea of others? Will they want to listen to what you have to say? Will you be able to achieve success with your podcasting efforts?
With the right plan in place, though, launching a podcast can be fun, manageable, and even profitable. In this guide, we’ll cover the various elements necessary to take your podcast from an idea to a published show and beyond.
Understanding the Basics of Podcasting
Essentially, podcasting is about sharing knowledge, stories, ideas, or discussions with others. But beyond this simplified definition, there are a few important podcast creation fundamentals to consider:
- Define your podcast’s “why”: What is your reason for podcasting, and what are the goals you hope to achieve? Define the podcast’s objectives, both from your point of view and from the perspective of your future listeners. A clear goal will keep you on track and help maintain momentum in podcast production past the honeymoon phase.
- Lock in your identity: It’s difficult to make changes to your podcast’s name later, so choose the one you can be proud of both now and into the future. Next, lock in a website domain and social media handles—you may need them sooner than you think.
Identifying Your Podcast Niche and Content Strategy
If you start your podcast as a fun hobby, you may not want to think about planning, strategy, and other terms more suitable for a corporate marketing team meeting than your living room side gig. However, on-point execution and the right approach are key elements that can turn new podcasts into booming successes.
- Understand your niche: Maybe you want to talk sports, review books, or relay news. But, these are broad podcast categories—you need to get more specific. Drill down to a focused subcategory to stand out. For example, give your take on women’s sports with a focus on pop culture.
- Choose your podcast format: Most common types include the interview format, serialized podcasts (perfect for telling stories over time), and co-hosted shows. Mix and match or switch it up as you go along—experiment to find what works best.
- Identify the ideal listener persona: When you try to cater to everyone, you end up connecting with no one. Build a persona to identify the ideal listener—their interests, habits, and demographics—to guide your show’s content strategy and style.
- Ideate content for multiple episodes: The goal here is to ensure your podcast dream is sustainable. Make a list of 15-25 episode topic ideas to get a better sense of what lies ahead and know if you’ll have enough episode ideas to go the distance.
Choosing the Right Audio Format and Equipment
Microphone and Recording Equipment for Beginners
You don’t need to spend thousands on professional-grade audio equipment to get your podcast up and running. Budget-friendly options will usually suffice (just avoid your computer’s built-in microphone).
Invest in a beginner microphone and headphones, which can help you hear your podcast the way your audience will. You could also buy a pop filter, mixer, and recorder—but these things can come later, when you get more familiar with podcasting and your needs.
Editing and Producing High-Quality Audio
Your home computer is the main piece of equipment for podcasting these days. One of the most popular audio editing and recording apps is Audacity, with Apple’s own GarageBand (for Mac), and Mixcraft (for PC) being some other great options for beginners.
As you get started, play around with trimming out pauses or mistakes. Get comfortable with evening out volume inconsistencies, and learn how to work in sound effects or music clips to further enhance the listening experience.
Developing a Podcast Schedule and Workflow
Consistency is an important ingredient for podcasting success; listeners appreciate knowing when they can expect the next episode. Settle on a cadence that you can maintain with everything else going on in your life, whether it’s once weekly or once per month. It’s also a good idea to establish a workflow: set certain days for researching, recording, editing, and social media efforts.
Utilizing Templates for Episode Planning
Standardizing episode templates is a great hack to increase efficiency and remain consistent for your audience. It could be a general outline of discussion points with blocks for advertisements, an intro, and an outro. Or, you can get more granular and plan out each minute. Maybe there are specific questions you’d want to ask every guest on your show. As always, tweak and refine until you find what clicks for your audience and yourself.
Hosting and Distributing Your Podcast
After you’ve recorded your show and have it ready to share, it’s time for hosting and distribution. Podcast hosting platforms (such as Simplecast) typically include tools to manage episode URLs, track metrics on listens, and more. Podcast distribution is where your show and its episodes get discovered on platforms popular with listeners, such as Apple Podcasts and Pocket Casts. With the Simplecast platform, you can distribute your podcast across a variety of apps with the click of a button.
Using Simplecast for Seamless Distribution
Simplecast is the ideal end-to-end podcast management and monetization platform, allowing you to publish your podcast everywhere listeners tune in. Whether you’re just starting or moving your show over, Simplecast gives you advanced analytics, publishing, distribution to all top platforms, and monetization features, all under one roof. Wondering how to distribute a podcast using Simplecast? We’ve got guides to get you through it right this way.
Engaging and Growing Your Audience
Once your show is live (congrats, by the way!), you can sit back, but not for too long. Turn your audience from passive listeners into active engagers and keep the conversation going. Connect across social media and send out a regular newsletter, for starters. Over time, you’ll build a loyal base of fans who can spread the love, offer feedback, and more.
Leveraging Analytics for Audience Insights
Measurement is one of the most important activities to track how your podcasts are performing. You can see which topics resonate, the demographic makeup of your audience, and learn what changes could make it a more appealing episode. While you shouldn’t obsess over your numbers when starting out, you also shouldn’t neglect them entirely.
Monetization and Advertising Opportunities
As your podcast grows, you have the opportunity to make money from your show. At first, income can help offset some of your platform costs, but over time, it can turn into a sustainable business. Advertising and sponsorships are the most common ways to monetize content, with other avenues including donations, subscriptions, merch, events, and even affiliate marketing.
Effective Podcast Promotion Strategies
What are essential tips for podcast promotion? First, look into free options, like establishing your brand across social media. Consider starting a blog, weaving in clips and quotes from accompanying episodes. When you’re ready, you might give a digital advertising platform a try. There are other tactics, like cross-show promotion, as well as some that are more unconventional—experiment with different combinations until you’re happy with the result.
Building a Consistent Brand and Listener Engagement
Your podcast’s brand is more than just the show’s name, logo, and tagline. It’s an experience, an identity, with all the characteristics perceived and emotions evoked. Visuals take a back seat to sonic identity when it comes to podcasts, so the host, guests, sound effects, and other audio elements will play a big role in your branding. Be consistent, authentic, and engaging while also experimenting, measuring, and refining to evolve your show while building loyalty.
Tracking Trends and Achieving Long-Term Growth
Podcasting is a fast-moving space. Stay current on the latest trends in listener behavior, platform features, monetization strategies, and engagement lessons. Be adaptable, but don’t forget to have fun on the journey.
Ready to Get Started?
We can’t help you with your recording equipment, but the Simplecast platform can handle just about everything else. From publishing and distribution to analytics and monetization, we’ll help you take care of it so you can focus on making great content. Start your free trial today.