A Guide to Podcasting: Starting Out
Check out our Equipment Guide Part 1 & Part 2
We aren’t writers as you have probably noticed. So, this guide has been a long time coming. People continue to ask about how to get started and some guidance. The purpose of this guide is to do just that, share the knowledge we’ve learned along the way. Hopefully this helps get more people’s voices out there.
Starting a podcast isn’t as difficult as you might believe, if we could figure it out… can’t be that crazy. It does take some time, research, and planning.
Let’s get this started:
PLANNING
There should be plenty of planning, so that you start with a solid focused foundation. It definitely should help in the long term to get all this squared away from the very beginning. The following may and can change over time but they need a starting point.
• Purpose: Start by identifying your “why”, this will be important. Why do you want to create a podcast? This should be fairly simple, or not, but knowing the purpose will help keep you motivated.
• Subject: You might already know your “what” as you probably already have an idea what your podcast will be about. This is where you narrow it down and lock it in. A bunch of guides and how to’s will tell you the best course of action is to narrow it down to a niche you’re passionate about. That certainly works and is definitely a way to do it. If you’ve listen to our podcast, we shuffle… a lot. One might say we didn’t narrow it down, but in a way we did. We went with more of a point of view (3 chicanos’ pov to be exact) and left the topics more open. Don’t know if there is a wrong answer here as long as your passionate about it and keep it in mind. It might even be easier to pick a topic or topics to start and later expand on them.
• Audience: “Who” is the target audience for your podcast? You might already have in mind who it’s for. Here, it might be a good idea to really narrow it down to a niche, at least in the begin. It should help you build a base to build off. Down the line, you might be surprised by who listens and you can expand. It’s important to know your audience. This will help you focus what they might want and what will provide value to them. If your passionate about your subject/topic, it might be easy to narrow down.
• Title: Yes, a name for your podcast. Some are catchy, some are descriptive, and some just use their name. There are a bunch of ways one can go with this but remember that people have to remember it and spell it. It might help to make it easy for people to find it without much trouble. We recommend not getting to wordy… again, to make it as easy as possible for people to find it. Don’t forget to do your research… check availability for a domain, social media, and google it to see what comes up. If you are doing a tagline, this is the stage to come up with the too.
• Format: Let’s plan the length and style of your podcast. How long should the episodes be? You’ll read a ton of different opinions on how long it should be, do what you feel comfortable with. Keep in mind, you’ll have to fill the time with interesting content and plan for the long term. Are you doing a limited series? Then you need to figure how much time and how many episodes you need to tell the story or cover all the content. Plan accordingly, will the content dictate the length/episodes or do you want to give yourself some borders to contain everything by limiting the length/episodes. Also, what style of podcast are you doing? Interviews? Stories? Solo host? Co-hosts? A mix? Get this squared away and plan accordingly. While this might not be locked in forever, you need a starting point and then adjust accordingly as you learn what works and what doesn’t.
• Schedule: Yup, the “when”… you’re getting the hang of this. Decide on both when you’ll record and when you’ll publish. At this stage you should also be deciding how often you will be publishing. Is your podcast weekly, bi-monthly, monthly? Set up a schedule that you can commit to long term (unless it’s a limited series) and stick to it. Consistency is very important! People will come to expect your episodes and if not, there are plenty of podcast in the sea. So, stay consistent to keep listeners committed.
PREPPING
Now that you’ve planned out your podcast and have the what’s, who’s and when’s, it’s time to start doing some prep.
• Cover Art: Let’s be honest, aside from the title of your podcast, this will be one of two things someone sees first. First impressions and all that, apply here, bad cover art isn’t going to do you any favors and might hurt you starting out. If your not a graphic designer, find someone that is. Talk to a friend or a friend of a friend or use a service like Fiverr at the very least. You need good, or at least decent cover art.
• Equipment: Time to start researching and picking up the equipment you’ll be using to record your podcast. We have a guide for that here: Part 1 & Part 2
• Intro/Outro: Will you have an intro and an outro? Will it be a voice over, music, or both? Whatever it will be, time to get working on it… or maybe time to get someone working on that. Again, if you don’t know how to put something like this together, find someone to help. Is it a requirement, no but a nice intro can give your podcast that little bit of extra salsa. Plus, it may give a more professional vibe, if done right
• Interwebs: Start securing your social media accounts, it’s up to you what accounts to create/use. It might be best to lock down your username now even if you don’t plan to use it anytime soon, in case you ever do want to use that service or just to stop someone else from using it. If you plan to have a website, now is the time to start setting that up (we recommend even just a simple one). Purchase the domain name (your “.com”) and time to start building it. There are plenty of hosting services with easy builders like SquareSpace, Wix and WordPress.com (not endorsements) that make it easy to build websites. Again, you can always find someone to help or contract someone if you’re not comfortable with this. We do recommend a website since it gives you an online home that helps people searching for you, it provides a space to post full show notes with pictures (if any), and will help with your google search rank. In other words, lock down your online presence.
• Media Hosting: Where will your podcast files live? Now is a good time to start researching podcast media host. This is where you will upload your episodes to and where they will be served/pulled from for people to listen. While if you are very tech savvy, you might be able to put something together with AWS (Amazon Web Services), we recommend taking the easy way and just getting podcast hosting. We won’t recommend a specific one because everyone’s needs are different but two of the oldest and more reliable are LibSyn and Blubrry. There others we have heard good things about that might work better for some, such as, BuzzSprout, PodBean, and Anchor (recently acquired by Spotify). Do your research as to what works best for your podcast.
• Guests: If you will have guests on your podcast, now is a good time to start building a list of potentials. Once you have a solid list, start making contact and scheduling, then start prepping for those interviews.
• Episodes: If you are doing a scripted or specific topics podcast, start planning out your first few episode.
RECORDING
Now that we have all our ducks in a row… time to get recording. Now, there are quite a few ways to go about this part depending on what set up you go with therefore we won’t go over every way possible (again, our Equipment Guide is here: Part 1 & Part 2 ). You’ll have to do some research and learn about using your equipment and setting it up… YouTube is your friend here. So, instead we will give you a few tips or suggestions.
- To start, we recommend recording 3-5 episodes to get the ball rolling. It’s best to have more than a single episode when you launch. If someone listens to your podcast and likes it, you want to give them more to listen to while the iron is hot. Or do an accelerated release schedule by releasing a few of them over a week or 2 weeks before getting to your regular schedule.
- Learn microphone etiquette or how to use your microphone properly. Depending on your choice, different microphones have general, and sometimes distinct, methods to best use them for the best clearest sound. Learning these methods for your microphone will help keep you voice sounding clear and professional. Plus it will also help save you time later in editing.
- Doing a test run might be a great idea. You can make sure everything is set up correctly, get a feel for talking into the mic, and see what everything sounds like once recorded.
- We’ll touch on editing in a bit but when recording keep in mind that editing is an option. If you mess up, you can edit around it (cut it)… no worries. Just plan accordingly. If it’s a segment you can just cut out, cool. If it’s a segment you need, either cut or verbally mark it and re-record it. The point is: don’t stress over a mistake because it isn’t live and you can edit.
- If you are recording a solo host podcast, instead of talking to the mic or yourself, talk to a listener. Don’t mean to have an actual listener sit in but think of your ideal listener and talk to them when recording.
EDITING
While on our podcast we say “we don’t edit”, what we mean is we don’t cut but we do edit the audio in general. We do add things like EQ and compression to make the audio sound as best as possible on most devices. While not completely necessary, it will make your podcast sound better and professional if done correctly. There are various ways to do this and while we won’t go over all the options, we will do a quick overview of the more popular software options. If you’re not comfortable doing the editing yourself and have the budget, this can also be outsourced. Again, maybe you know someone, someone does, or go to a site like Fiverr. If you do it yourself and have no experience, again YouTube is your friend.
- Adobe Audition: This is the most expensive option as it requires you to purchase an Adobe subscription. It is a modern interface and is user friendly plus it even has good stock presets including a decent podcast preset. This is what we use but we already had the subscription so that made the decision easy.
- Audacity: This a free open source option… keyword being free. The interface looks like it’s still running on Windows XP but it can still do almost all that Audition can do. It is more than enough for editing (and recording) a podcast. It just has a steeper learn curve. This is a solid option if you have the time to learn it or don’t want an Adobe subscription.
- Garageband: If you have a Mac, this is probably already on there and it’s free. For just a podcast, this is more than capable and tons of people use this for that purpose. If your on a Mac this might be your best option. This one isn’t as advanced but you might not need more. If for whatever reason you want more, check out the others.
***Side note here: After you finish editing, don’t forget to tag your mp3 episode file with your info such as podcast title, episode number/title, and maybe cover art. This can usually be done in your editing software but can just as easily be done when uploaded to your media host or with other software. Google is your friend.
PUBLISHING
So, your episodes are recorded and edited, it’s time to get them out in the world and launch your podcast. Again, there quite a few ways to go about doing this including with or without a website. Hopefully in your planning phrase you already made these decisions. Once everything is uploaded, squared away, and you have your RSS feed, then it’s time to submit to directories such as iTunes. Let’s get publishing.
• Uploading: You’ll be uploading your episodes to your media host. To clarify, your files/episodes don’t get upload to iTunes. Your media host stores and delivers your files while iTunes is just a directory that points to your files. You can publish with just a media host as they usually provide a very basic website (if you want it) but more importantly, they can provide you with an RSS feed. This feed is what you submit to iTunes and other directories. They then check this feed to list and provide your podcast information. We won’t cover all options but just some to give you an idea.
- With a website, Option A: If your using a WordPress site you can use the PowerPress plugin (works with any host). This will provide you with more control over your RSS feed and podcast info right from your site interface. Plus if your host is also Blubrry (creator of plugin), you can upload your file from the same interface as your post. Otherwise, you upload it to your media host and insert the link.
- With a website, Option B: If your using SquareSpace, they can also host your files and provide an RSS feed without a media host. While this is a simple and easy option, it is much more limiting as you have less control over your RSS feed. This option might not be the best for when your podcast grows but might be the easiest to get get started. Just keep in mind when you out grow it, there will be headaches.
- With a website, Option C: Most media hosts usually provide a basic web page of some kind with their service. It will be basic and very limiting but for those that either don’t mind the limited styling or are looking to save money or didn’t really want a website… this might work. So, you work upload to the media host and post using their services also.
- Without a website: As mentioned above, you can just publish using your media host and the RSS feed they provide. In this case, you skip even their basic website, upload, and use the RSS feed they provided. Just be sure to either tag your episode files with all the necessary info in some software or most media host offer some kind of interface for this.
• Submitting: Once everything is uploaded it’s time to submit your podcast to the directories. Most pull their info from iTunes so, submitting there is key as other directories will pick it up from there without you needing to submit. To submit to any directory, you will need to find or know your RSS feed. So, first things, get that ready. Now let’s go over the big ones.
- iTunes/Apple Podcasts: By far the largest and most important… this should be the first. Just submitting here one can probably do okay, it’s that big. You’ll need your RSS feed and an AppleID (so go create one if you don’t have one). Then go here, log in, and start the process: https://itunesconnect.apple.com/login?module=PodcastsConnect
- Google Podcasts: They were late to the game but it’s Google. Since it’s Google, things are also a bit weird as they have Google Podcasts and Google Play. Both have podcast and both work differently for adding yours. Google Podcast should automatically add your podcast feed when it’s bot crawls your website and finds the feed. So, if they have indexed your site for search, it will probably be added. Google Play on the other hand, you have to manually submit here: https://play.google.com/music/podcasts/publish (Submitting here will also index your feed in case it’s not automatically added to Google Podcasts or if you don’t have a website.)
- Spotify: This is probably now the second most important directory. They have gotten very serious about podcasts including purchasing a media host and working on original podcasts. It used to be difficult to get into Spotify but it’s now easier to submit although it’s slower to add you. They recommend you submit via their recommended hosts which includes most the big ones. This is the easiest way to submit, find the button in your media host and wait. They also now have this portal to submit: https://podcasters.spotify.com/
- Stitcher: It’s a smaller source of listeners but doesn’t hurt. Start the process here: https://www.stitcher.com/content-providers.php
- TuneIn: Another of the smaller source but again, doesn’t hurt. Submit here: https://help.tunein.com/contact/add-podcast-S19TR3Sdf **Small bias note on this one: We were/are on here but after a couple issues where our podcast didn’t update anymore over some nonsense… we gave up on this one.
Once your podcast is submitted, you wait a few days to get approved (Spotify might be longer) and your podcast should be live and official! Don’t forget it’s best to have 3-5 episodes ready or at least recorded and ready to upload.
WHAT’S NEXT
Now it’s time to get out there an spread the word. What might be one of the hardest part of this endeavor. Promoting your podcast and growing your audience is the long game. Blast those social media accounts and stay consist. Marketing is a whole other guide that we wouldn’t be the best candidates to write. Google and YouTube might be your best friend for that. Podcasts are growing like weeds and simply thinking people will find your’s isn’t enough. You need to get marketing and put in work to hopefully find your audience. Down the line, if you have great content and a large enough audience, you can probably look into monetizing your podcast and live the dream.
GO FOR IT
We truly hope this guide helps get some people pointed in the right direction. Podcasting is great platform to get your voices out there to spread whatever message or information or stories you’d like to tell. It can also be a cathartic release for some as you can get things out just speaking into a mic or possibly having an amazing discussion with a guest. Of course not everyone will blow up into a Joe Rogan but you don’t have to. You might not need that. If you’re passionate about your subject, a small audience of dedicated listeners might be enough. If you’ve thought about starting a podcast, go for it! Simply, start planning it out and see how far you get. If you’ve got the will, it really isn’t as hard as it might seem. Dive in head first and just go for it!
