When I first started podcasting, I thought that I was going to hit the jackpot with one of these super popular shows and rake in thousands of dollars of sponsorship advertising.

Haha, it hasn’t happened (yet). But, I am 100% glad that I started podcasting.

I want to set some expectations if you’re a beginner and new to podcasting. I’ll be talking about downloads, progress, and monetization. This post won’t be too long.

Let’s get started!

1. How many downloads can you expect?

This is exactly what I was wondering seconds before I hit the launch button and published my podcast into the iTunes marketplace.

According to Rob Walch, VP of podcaster relations at Libsyn and the School of Podcasting blog,

“In September of 2013 a podcast episode that has been live approximately 30 days averages 141 downloads. If you have over 3400 downloads you are in the top 10%. If you have over 9000 downloads you are in the top 5%. Lastly, if you have over 50,000 downloads per episode (again after having it live for 30 days) you are in the top 1% (this would be the Marc Maron, Adam Corrola, Jay Mohr, etc).”

According to this quote and other research I’ve done online, the average podcaster is getting 150-200 downloads per episode in the span of 30 days.

I currently have 81 episodes of my show out.

I’m averaging between 300-400 downloads for my episodes, with my highest at 800 downloads.

2. How much income can you expect?

There are a lot of ways that you can make money from your podcast. Right now, I’m mainly doing sponsorships and driving traffic to my own products and services.

Based on sponsorships, you can charge $25-35/1,000 downloads for one spot on your podcast. You can include a spot at the beginning and middle. Some podcasters will also have sponsorships at the end.

Considering that the average podcaster is getting 150 downloads per episode, you could be making about $8 for each show. If you were to release 5 shows per week, that would be about $160/month. By the way, when I increased my podcasting to twice per week, I saw a huge jump in downloads.

If you’re doing 1,000 downloads per episode, making $50 per episode, and doing a 5 day a week podcast, you’d be seeing a grand total of $1,000 per month from sponsorship income.

As you can see, the sponsorship monetization route is tricky if you’re going with the standard figures. The gains, like with most marketplaces, go to the top 10% of the performers. If you’re going to be using the podcast to promote your own services and products, then it really comes down to conversions from the audio to a website or email list.

3. How much equipment do you really need?

Personally, I just use the blue yeti microphone, a box that I made with soundproof material, Skype, ecamm call recorder, and my laptop.

In total, that’s maybe $200 worth of equipment at the very most (not counting the laptop obviously).

You can get started for pretty cheap. In my experience, the real difference between podcasters actually comes with the strength of their voice, their interviewing skills, and the topics they choose to cover or talk about.

Feel free to ask any more questions by leaving a comment below!

I’ve been podcasting for a little over a year now and I’ve really come to value the service providers that help podcasters in this industry.

Whether it’s podcast hosters, plugins, transcription services, or voice over actors, I think it’s awesome that the podcasting industry is growing and becoming more mature.

Having gotten my podcast , I think I have a unique view on what the customer wants when it comes to podcast transcription.

I hope these tips help you set up your company!

1. Create a professional looking website

This point can’t be understated. When I was looking for a transcription service, I’d click off the page of any website that seemed sketchy or amateur. It’s just human nature. We crave professionalism.

I personally use Bluehost to host all of my blogs and websites (some with millions of visitors per year).

Here’s a link to a special intro offer of $3.95/month* + FREE Domain.

Almost all my sites run on WordPress, which makes it super easy to add functionality with plugins and purchase professional looking themes from a marketplace like ThemeForest or these.

The other great thing about wordpress is that you can add ecommerce functionality to your website and there is a thriving support community, should you have any questions.

However, you can also set up a website with other options like SquareSpace, Wix, or Weebly.

2. Decide on your per minute transcription rate

Even though you could likely charge cheaper rates than some of the mainstream players in the transcription business, I would NOT recommend competing on price.

As a customer, I can tell you that the most infuriating thing is to get back a document that has misspellings or is an inaccurate transcription. I might as well just do it myself.

Most customers that I’ve talked with seem to prize:

• Accuracy of the transcription
• Speed of the service or turn around
• Good customer service and rapid communication.

If you have cheaper rates than the mainstream players, you’re going to put more stress on yourself to find cheap labor and will have lower profit margins to re-invest back in the business.

When I was researching, $1/minute was a pretty standard rate, with discounts for bulk orders. There are a few ways that you’ll be able to earn extra revenue including:

• Rush fees for customers that want a quick turn around.
• Verbatim transcription
• Time stamping
• Professional document formatting
• Premium rates for certain categories like medical or legal.
• Premium rates for multiple speakers and bad audio.

Remember, that you need to keep in mind problems that you might run into with each job and consider fees or how this might impact your rates. This could include:

• An accented speaker
• Dialogue in languages other than english
• Multiple speakers
• Turnaround time
• If a customer wants edits or revisions

In my opinion, there are a lot of ways also to expand beyond your initial offering to provide other services in addition to transcription like:

• Formatting documents into ebook or PDF form with nice design
• Translating languages
• Captions on videos
• Additional add on services that customers can purchase and that you’d earn money on via affiliate commission.

3. Figure out your business systems.

Although you personally could be doing the transcriptions, I’m going to assume that you have someone to fill customer orders and that you’re more of a manager.

There are a few different steps to a standard order process.

1. Education. The customer learns about your services, the price, and identifies answers to their questions.
2. Submission. The customer submits their order to you. I would make this as simple as possible. They shouldn’t have to log in or create some kind of account. They are submitting their audio or video file to get an official “quote” or “rate.”
3. Payment. After you send them the official invoice and they are okay with it and your next steps, you can charge their card. Many services out there simply use paypal for this, but you could also do it on your website.
4. Delivery. You deliver the order and either have a happy customer or a customer with questions or concerns.

The delivery is a great opportunity to encourage the customer to leave a review of your services or to commit to future orders. They could even share a message on social media in exchange for access to a digital product or discount code.

For example, they could get some kind of goodie if they leave a review or a discount that is valid for a certain number of days.

Before I say the next thing, just remember that I’m not a lawyer or an accountant, and that this blog post is simply my opinion.

That being said, if you’re new to business, it’s absolutely crucial that you are diligent with your accounting and setting up your business entity (I have an LLC). Make sure to track all expenses and revenue. If you’re paying consultants or contractors, you may need to issue them a 1099 or other documents at the end of the year.

4. Stand out from the crowd

There are so many transcription services out there, so the question is how are you different? Since it’s easy to set up a professional looking website, that can’t be your differentiator.

You have to be different in the eyes of the customer based on the value that you bring to their business. Here are a few ways to stand out:

• Your service is for a specific group of people, like podcasters.
• You offer free content to help the groups you serve. This is known as content marketing.
• If serving podcasters, you offer to review their podcast for free.
• Money back guarantees to assure visitors of the quality of your services
• Offer a program or discount for certain consistent customers who want transcription service regularly.
• Educate on the value of transcription with blog posts and youtube videos.
• Have a social mission where you’re also helping a cause.
• A surprise that’s delivered with the transcription, like a free guide or access to a certain portion of the website.
• Webinars for your target market.
• Writing LinkedIn or Medium posts.
• Other ways to market on a budget.

Really, you should be viewed as a partner in your customer’s business. You stand out with how you make them feel, the value you bring to their company, and the emotional connection that you form with them.

By the way, I’ve already written a very comprehensive article on how to improve your SEO.

5. Build relationships with key influencers

The name of the game is relationships. It’s a long term game, but it pays off big time.

Let’s say you’re going after a the podcasting niche. Rather than trying to force your service on podcasters or shout as loudly about it as you can, get to know the key players in the market.

Who teaches about podcasting?

What podcasts are popular in the industry?

How can you bring value to these people?

Why not invite them to try out your service for free and, if they like it, share it with their followers? You could even send them a free gift to entice them to write a review, like a new podcasting microphone.

The more people in an industry that you form a positive relationship with, the more likely they are to recommend you to a friend, which will lead to traffic, links, and revenue.

Remember, this won’t happen all at once. It takes time. But it’s a great competitive advantage over other service providers.

I use tools like Buzzsumo to identify influencers. You can also just see which individuals people are following on Twitter, Instagram, and other sites.

6. A final word on customer services

I’ve said this in the past, and often times entrepreneurs that I’ve mentored will come back and tell me they wish they listened to what I’m about to say.

Online, your reputation is your business.

I run an online forum and I can’t tell you the number of angry emails I’ve gotten from business owners, demanding that I remove a negative review that a user wrote on one of my forums.

Always be as thorough and quick as you can when communicating with your customers. Often times, customers are simply wondering about the status of their order or have questions and rather than getting the answer from you, they begin to worry and form their own conclusions.

Usually, a customer will take to a message board, social media, or their own blog when they feel wronged. Be sure to shortcut those emotions before they form into a negative action or media hit that could hurt your business.

Good luck!

What’s up podcasters! My name’s Sal. Thanks for coming to this fast tutorial, where you’ll learn how to start your own podcast.

I have been podcasting for almost a year and have grown my podcast to over 2,000 monthly downloads with 3 repeat sponsors.

But, enough about me, let’s talk about you!

Before we get into the tutorial, I want you to leave a comment down below (yes I read them), letting me know a bit about the podcast that you’re thinking of starting.

This way, I can help you more effectively! Alright, let’s get started.

1. Choose the style of your show

There are a lot of different types of podcasts out there. Your podcast is either going to be:

• Entertaining
• Informational, educational, and helpful (the format of my podcast)
• Based around commentary

The goal of your podcast will inform how you go about getting listeners and market the podcast to a wider audience. It will also affect how you monetize it.

For example, if you are looking to create a podcast that brings on guests to teach a subject, like raising a child, then you could also pitch your consulting services, an ebook, online course, or cool game that all parents should try (for which you’ll get a commission).

However, if you’re doing a comedic podcast where the goal is to get your listeners to laugh, you might have a monetization strategy based around sponsors or funny swag that you sell on your website.

That brings me to the next point. Your podcast is either going go:

• Be focused on you. You’ll be the only one speaking.
• Be guest-centric. This is the format of my podcast. I bring on guests that share their marketing knowledge with my audience.
• Have multiple commentators. I have been invited on podcasts like this, where we’d discuss events in the news.
• Be story-led (like Serial or the StartUp podcast). This type requires a lot of editing and preparation for each episode.

Although these aren’t strict categories, as I’ve definitely noticed overlap in the podcast marketplace, they will give you an idea of the different types of shows that you can create.

2. Choose a hosting provider

You need to host your podcast files somewhere. I don’t recommend doing this on your own website. Not only is it difficult to figure out, but if you mess up or you start to see a lot of traffic, it’s going to slow down your website and comes with a whole host (no pun intended) of problems.

Instead, you should choose a hosting provider, like Libsyn, SoundCloud, or one of these.

Your hosting provider will deliver the RSS feed that iTunes will use to update your show and they will host your media files. They’ll also give you basic statistics on how your show is doing.

I personally use Libsyn to host my podcast. Haven’t had any issues. Although their user interface is a little outdated, it works fine.

You can always just host your podcast on YouTube, but if you want to get into the major marketplaces like iTunes or Stitcher, you’re going to need to go with a hosting provider that will generate an RSS feed for your show.

3. Buy your podcasting equipment

Heads up! I am by no means an expert in this area. I can just tell you what I use for my podcast and then link to what the experts recommend.

Equipment I use:

• Blue Yetti Microphone
• Dragon Pad Pop Filter
• Skype recorder
• Self-made soundproofing studio (sample acoustic foam)

You can listen to the audio quality of my podcast here.

I’m going to link to two articles below that have a great overview of podcasting equipment

• Entrepreneur On Fire: Podcasting equipment
• Podcast Answer Man: Podcasting equipment

I wouldn’t recommend going all out buying equipment if you’re new to podcasting. You don’t need a super expensive microphone. As you get better and more knowledgeable about the equipment, you can level up, like a video game character.

4. Get familiar with audio editing

This was probably one of the most intimidating parts of podcasting for me at first. I had NO IDEA where to begin. I was like:

Basically, it comes down to two pieces of software (unless you’re getting fancy).

• Garageband (mac)
• Audacity

I mainly use Garageband to edit my podcast flow and then if the audio needs to be cleaned up a bit, I’ll put it through audacity to remove background noise, compress the audio, and change the base to 6.0 (the video explaining this).

If you want to get REALLY serious about podcasting and care deeply about the audio quality, then I’d start learning as much as possible about how to manipulate sound with Audacity.

You can either learn directly from the Audacity website, find a tutorial on youtube, like this one, or learn from a website, like this one.

5. Get ready for your iTunes launch

The iTunes “new and noteworthy” section is the holy grail of a successful iTunes launch in your podcast category.

If you do well, you could attract listeners and subscribers from the iTunes marketplace and set the groundwork for a successful podcast.

For a great launch you’re going to need:

• Attractive cover art
• A consistent podcast schedule and backlog of episodes
• A high quality intro

Here is a good outline of what you’re going to need to do to get in the new and noteworthy section. I’ll also include a slideshare on the topic below.

I personally designed my podcast’s cover art. I used Fiverr to create my podcast intro. Finally, I try to schedule at least a month’s worth of podcasts ahead of time. Right now, I have two new podcasts posted per week.

6. Plan for longterm momentum

Your podcast might get a boost from your initial prelaunch activities, but then you’re going to have to figure out how to actively market and grow your podcast.

I put together a free marketing plan that you can use to promote your podcast. It goes through everything from social media marketing to optimizing your keywords.

If you’ve never done any internet marketing in the past, you’re going to get a crash course into how to capture leads, drive traffic, and build an audience.

Other than the advice that I mention in the marketing plan, I’ll list a few tools that I use to coordinate the marketing efforts for my podcast:

• Buffer to automate and schedule social media.
• Mailchimp to manage my email list of 10,000+ subscribers.
• WordPress + BlueHost to make my blog/website and schedule podcast blog posts to go out throughout the month.
• For WordPress, I use optinskin and optin monster to capture email addresses.

Finally, since my show is guest-driven, I willingly put my email address out there a lot so that guests can contact me if they hear my show or come across my website and want to come on an episode.

7. Improving your voice.

We live in a world of infotainment. You can’t just deliver great content any more. It also has to be engaging, even if you’re not doing an entertainment-related podcast.

When I first started doing podcast episodes, I came across as monotone, hesitant, rambling, unenthusiastic, and low volume.

Since then, I’ve done a few things that have dramatically improved my voice quality and energy levels. Here’s what I’ve done:

• Come up with a list of 10 go-to responses and 5 go-to stories or remarks that you can make if you need to buy some time to think of your next point.
• Start speaking constantly 15-30 minutes before doing the podcast. It will get you in a talkative mood and your brain will start getting used to translating your thoughts into words.
• Slow down. SLOW DOWN. The more time that you take to get your message across, the better the quality of those words. You’ll be able to stress certain portions of the sentence and emphasize key points. It’s harder to do if you’re speaking a mile a minute. Also, if you’re speaking a mile a minute, you have to come up with original thoughts at a mile per minute, and you can run into an awkward pause.
• Speak louder than you think you should. It should feel a little awkward. You shouldn’t feel like you’re shouting, but definitely that you’re speaking louder than normal.
• Pay attention to your breathing. I had the problem of trying to fit too many words into not enough breath.
• Use pregnant pauses. Pregnant pauses are an awesome way to emphasize points. Being comfortable with three seconds of silence is also a good way to weed out verbal crutches, like “um” “you know” and “erm.” I’m still working on this.
• Pay attention to your tone. Does the pitch of your voice decline towards the end of the sentence? Do you trail off? You want to develop a consistent volume and tone that you can emphasize or detract from to make key points. You don’t want to change your volume or tone due to uncertainty or nervousness.
• Be 2-3x more enthusiastic than normal.
• Laugh. It’s okay to show your emotions. It makes you come off as more human.
• Make a conscious choice to develop a wider vocabulary. A lot of podcasting comes down to storytelling and you need rich language to do that.

8. Monetizing and the role of podcasting

If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll already know that I’ve put together a monetization guide here.

I personally monetize at the time of writing with sponsors, affiliate links, and my products/services. I use podcasting as way to develop a relationship with my target audience by bringing them amazing and useful content.

At the end of the day, podcasting is a tool to develop a relationship with a certain group of people. That could be influencers that you interview or your listeners.

As we all know, it takes time to develop a genuine relationship, but once you do, it’s golden. Especially in such a cluttered world of brands vying for attention.

I think that the future of podcasting is bright. We’re going to look back on this time in history as the golden age of podcasting.

Hope this guide has been helpful! If you have questions, just leave a comment down below and I’ll do my best to answer.