Everything You Need To Know Before Starting A Podcast

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Creating podcasts is a great way to grow your brand and engage with your target audience. If you haven’t tried recording a podcast on your own, here are some tips to get you started.

Virtually everyone who's anyone has a podcast! According to podcastinsights.com, there are about 550,000 podcasts on iTunes as of October 2020. That translates to about 34 million episodes. These numbers prove that podcasts are very popular, and listeners often subscribe and listen to their favourite podcasts to an average of 7 shows a week.

If you're a content creator or an aspiring influencer then now's the best time to start your podcast too! The great thing about creating a podcast is that the recordings could be done at your most convenient time. You can do it anywhere and at any time of the day. Even if you are a busy mom juggling a million things at once, you can create your podcast. 

But! Don’t dive into podcasting without knowing the basics. Before recording your first podcast, you need to figure out:

• Why you are starting a podcast in the first place
• What your expertise is/are
• Who is your target audience
• When will you start the uploads (daily, weekly, monthly?)

Also, you need to figure out if you’d like to upload in seasons – if you’d like to record solo or do interviews. How long will each episode be and what platforms will you use to publish the recordings? 

 

Essential Things to Consider Before Creating a Podcast

Platforms and Publishing

Recording a podcast is easy, but you’d have to clean up the recording so that it’ll sound polished and attractive once it’s published. First, you need to figure out if you’ll use short intro music or dive right into the discussion. You also need to think about the platforms to post your podcasts to. Will you publish the podcasts on your website only or will you submit these to popular podcast platforms like:

• iTunes
• GooglePlay
• Spotify
• Stitcher
• iHeartRadio
• SoundCloud

When it comes to promotions, you can do this on your website and popular social media channels. You can also team up with other personalities by creating a collaborative podcast and then promote them on all known platforms.

 

Polishing Each Episode

Can you edit audio recordings on your own? If you can edit the podcast before publishing it, do it. You can also add your brand name, logo, etc., so that your podcast design is in line with your branding. There are tons of free tools you can use for editing audio recordings. But if this is something that you can’t do, hire someone to do this for you. 

Sound quality, editing, and polishing are essential if creating podcasts is something that you see yourself doing for a long time. If you hire someone, he or she could take care of technical issues during the recording and after. 

 

Get the Right Gears

There’s no need to buy the fanciest audio recording equipment out there, but you have to invest in a decent microphone. The microphone that’s built-into your laptop or headphones just won’t cut it. It would be best if you had a high-quality microphone for better voice and sound quality. 

You'll also need good audio recording software to make the recordings. Some of the free applications to make recordings are:

• Skype
• Zoom
• Loom
• Zencastr
• Ringr 

Do your recordings in a quiet spot, so the audio comes out clean and clear. Avoid recording the podcast in a large, empty space because you don’t want your voice to produce an echo. 

 

Brainstorm for Ideas

You need to brainstorm for episode ideas or guests, create a list of at least 10 possible ideas to get started. Get to know your target audience, find out what topics resonate with a specific age group. Figure out what trends appeal to your target audience and what topics provide real value to listeners. 

If your brand is all about selling Latin dance shoes, for example, the topics should be related to Latin music, Latin dance, and dance footwear. If the topics are not in line with your business, you might end up alienating your listeners. 

 

Scheduling the Podcasts

If you have co-hosts, use a team management platform like Asana, Basecamp, Freedcamp, or Trello to keep all podcasting tasks organised. These team management platforms let you organise the recordings, assign certain tasks in a team, or give due dates on specific assignments. You don’t have to use one when you’re on your own, but there’s no shame to set up one so that you have an idea what sort of tasks are needed to be done at specific times of the month for the podcasts. 

 

Creating a podcast is a labour of love. You will learn as you go along. But by keeping these tips in mind, recording your first podcast should be a cinch! Remember, quality is everything. Apart from focusing on relevant topics, be sure that the recording itself is clean and clear to attract more listeners. 

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