How To Start A Podcast

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As someone who works with growing businesses, a question I get asked almost every week is “Do you know how to start a Podcast?”. I am happy to announce that actually yes, yes I do. Below are the important steps you need to take to get started.

 

1. You will need some form of recording equipment.

This can be anything from the microphone on your iPhone, through to an expensive audio system. While I personally use a “Blue Yeti” plugged into an iMac Pro, you must start using something you are comfortable with and not stretching your budget where you can't afford it. I've seen so many posts on Facebook saying you need this brand of mic, but the truth is, you can just start with a mobile phone and a set of headphones. While it might not be the greatest audio in the world, you can always upgrade it at a later date. I'm linking in my own personal recording equipment at the bottom of this post.

 

2. Choose a theme.

As much as I would love to create a Podcast where I just discuss whatever is on my mind that week, it may not gain the most loyal audience as they won't be able to gather a theme from my ramblings. A theme will help you market and plan your Podcast, research topics, choreograph speakers, and market to your target audience.

 

3. Find a quiet place.

Close yourself in a small room away from any external noise (and make sure your cats are locked out – that's more a note for myself haha). As stupid as it may sound, you I've heard of people recording in their wardrobes as there is no echo, you are hidden from street noises, and most of the time it's a rather private space. Find the quietest place possible so you are not getting any disrupting background noise.

 

4. (Optional) Learn some editing software.

This step is completely optional. If you want to cut and edit your podcast, you will need some form of editing software. I personally use Garage Band on the iMac, it's free and I only use it to add in introductions and cut audio a little bit, nothing fancy. There are also many resources you can use to find royalty free jingles and sound effects which you can also edit in. My personal favourite is the YouTube Audio Library.

 

5. Create a beautiful cover.

Never judge a book by its cover – we all do it! – the same goes for a Podcast, the nicer the cover, the more likely we are to click on and listen in. Create yourself a great cover (dimensions 3000px-3000px are ideal for this). This can be done by either outsourcing to a designer, or putting something together on a platform like “Canva“.

 

6. Get an RSS feed host.

There are so many options to choose from here, and so many reasons as to why you might want to pick one over the other. I personally host on Podcasts.com as it's free to use and I'm not yet sure where I want to take Podcasting, so I didn't want to make a large investment. Typically a Podcast host will cost anything between $0-15 a month depending on how much content you are planning to upload each week.

 

7. Get recording

Once you have everything above all sorted out, you can get going! Whether you Podcast by yourself or call some great guests is completely up to you. Either way, click that record button and away you go.

 

8. Uploading and Submitting

You've got your first episode and your beautiful cover. Now what? Let's get it online! Sign into your Podcast RSS feed and in here you can upload your content. Most platforms will walk you through how to do this. Once you have one or two episodes uploaded, you can begin to submit your Podcast to platforms like Spotify and iTunes by using these links. They will ask you to submit your RSS link which can be found on your feed account, and they will check your Podcast content to make sure it is suitable for their platform. Once accepted you will only ever need to upload content to your RSS feed and it will automatically pull through and publish to other platforms like iTunes.

 

9. Shout out!

A Podcast is nothing without an audience! Let your friends and followers know all about your new project through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat… The more downloads and listens you get, the higher your podcast will rank, and the more natural traffic you'll get.

 

 

I hope this is a great stepping stone for those who are thinking about starting a Podcasting project. I'm linking in below my top tools I personally use (and yes I do really have 3 microphones – one for using with a mobile, one for my desktop, and one for if I want to record video with it also).

 

Please comment below if you have found this useful and if you have any questions at all.

 

 

 

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