The 3 Stages of Launching a Successful Podcast

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This article was written by Daniel Kuney, a Broadway general manager, marathoner and tech enthusiast. He is also the founder of the QNY Tech podcast.

After years of saying I was going to do it, I launched the QNY Tech podcast in November, a weekly round table analysis on the latest tech news. I’d been listening to podcasts for nearly a decade and figured I knew the key components needed to make a great show.

What I didn’t anticipate was the vast chasm that stands between recognizing great content and actually producing great content. Put another way, it’s really easy to recognize a great football play; it’s far less easy, and requires years of practice and a lot of natural skill, to actually execute that play.

After recording ten episodes, I realized that I needed a better plan for creating a product I’m happy with. So, I broke down the areas that I want to focus on into three stages. This may all seem painfully obvious if you’ve been down this road, but it wasn’t obvious to me ten episodes ago when I first hit the record button.

Stage #1 – Content is King

When I first started, I spent a lot of time thinking about the technical components of the show and what pieces of equipment I needed to buy. But, I could have purchased the best mics on the market and it wouldn’t have made a difference; I wasn’t producing great content.

When I look back on the episodes I’m most happy with they all have the same element: guests that just click, have the right chemistry and offer compelling commentary. In other words, it’s the people not the technology that make podcasts great.

“It’s the people not the technology that make podcasts great.” – Daniel Kuney

However, it’s this very element that has proven to be the most difficult. I could go out and buy new mics tomorrow, but what I can’t do is buy guests. When asking people to appear on my show, I’m asking them to give up a portion of their day to satisfy my hobby. It’s a huge ask and it can take weeks of back and forth emails to land one guest.

So my focus over the next few months will be building up a core group of maybe seven to ten commentators who can rotate in and out of the show, so that I always have a panel of three or four guests. This is an enormous undertaking, one that I completely underestimated at the start. Another post on this site, 5 Tips for Getting a Guest on Your Podcast, has been an enormously helpful resource in this regard.

Over time, I plan to create an experience that my guests find valuable and worthy of their time. I’m hoping this will take another two or there months, but I’m going to give myself as long as a year. If, after a year, I haven’t gotten there, I’m not likely to proceed with Stages Two and Three.

Stage #2 – Easy on the Ears

At the moment, I’m recording via Skype and my guests are mostly using iPhone headphones as microphones. I’m also not asking them to record their own side of the conversation, which would allow me to mix together the cleanest possible audio. I just want to make the barrier to appearing on my show as minimal as possible.

I’m not totally ignoring audio quality and I am making tweaks each week to improve the recording. I bought a decent USB mic, some cheap studio headphones and threw a blanket over my desk to reduce audio bounce. But I’ve mostly stopped spending money on equipment for the moment.

Once Stage One is complete, however, I want to use Stage Two to make a bigger investment in the show and focus on the audio. This will involve purchasing microphones for my guests, a mixing board and also taking some Lynda.com classes to better understand Logic, compression and other software skills that I don’t yet have.

I also want to transition the show to recording in-person, rather than over Skype. The reason here is two-fold. One, given my skill set, and that of my guests, it will be easier to achieve the audio quality I’m looking for if I can mix the show live and record directly onto one computer.

In addition, I think there could be a worthwhile social component for everyone if we were in the same room together, drinking coffee and noshing on bagels before the recording. As a runner, I much prefer running with a group rather than by myself. Recording via Skype makes some things easier, but it’s not the most socially fulfilling way to engage with people.

Stage #3 – If a Podcast Falls in a Forest

I’m already doing the bare minimum to promote my podcast by having a Twitter and Facebook page for the show, but I’m not really going out of my way to drum up listeners. That’s partially because I’m not quite ready for the world at large to hear the show. But once Stage One and Two are complete I’m going to want to make sure people are listening.

I’ll continue with these free avenues, but I wouldn’t mind spending some money on advertising or working with a press or social media firm.

Ultimately though, it’s going be about word of mouth and that’s a long game. If I’ve done my job with Stage One and Two, Stage Three will be mostly about sticking to a weekly schedule, continuing to produce great content and trying to grow the audience one retweet at a time.

During Stage Three I’ll also consider trying to earn back some of the money I have invested in the show. Note that I didn’t say monetize. I started the show as a hobby and as a way to participate in the tech community. But, as far as hobbies go, it can be expensive. Just three months in, I’ve already spent about $300 on equipment, software, server space and graphics. After Stage Two I expect that number to be closer to $1,500.

So if people are listening, and finding value from the show, I will consider adding a Patreon link or soliciting advertising. But again, I want to make sure that I’m producing a show on a regular basis that I’m proud of, before I think about earning back some of my investment.

Final Thoughts

There’s been a giant learning curve for me in starting a podcast, much bigger than I ever anticipated. The real goal here is to connect, have fun, participate in the community and add value to the conversation.

Three months in, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not there yet. But I’m going to give myself about a year to get there. If I can, I’m going to just take some time to enjoy having this great hobby to look forward to every week. Could there be a Stage Four and Five? Maybe!

In the meantime, I hope you’ll consider checking out the show at www.qnynews.com/tech or reaching out to me on twitter @danielkuney.

Have a podcast? Share your journey below!

tips

How to Remove Background Noise in Audacity

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In an effort to up my podcasting game, I recently bought the Blue Yeti Microphone. I got to admit, there is a real difference in the sound quality, however, it’s so sensitive! I noticed this perpetual hum on every recording, that I think is coming from my laptop or the power cord.

It took me a little while to figure out how to eliminate that background noise, but I eventually figured out how to do it in Audacity! For those who don’t know, Audacity is one of the top free audio editing/recording tools out there.

I hope the steps below are helpful and easy to follow! Let me know via comment if you were able to remove the audio noise from your podcast or recording.

Step 1: Open Audacity and Import the Song File.

First, you need to open audacity, create a new project, and import the song file, as I’ve shown below.

I selected a recent podcast interview that I did with a someone who successfully raised over $16,000 on Kickstarter. Once the file imports, it will look like the screen below.

I always like to zoom in on the audio file, because it’s easier to see the nuisances in the sound. You can click the “+” icon in the upper right hand corner to zoom in on the sound. Make sure that after you zoom in, you return to the start of the track.

Step 2: Select An Instance of the Background Noise

Next, to remove the background noise, you’re going to need a highlight a section of the track where you can only hear the hum. This is likely going to be during a pause in speaking, or ideally, at the beginning or end of the track. In the example below, I highlighted the hum I was hearing before the beginning of the track.

You can highlight a section of a track in audacity by clicking where you want to start, holding down shift, and clicking where you want to end the highlight, as I’ve shown below.

Now that you have the annoying background noise highlighted, it’s time to remove it! Go to “effects” in the Audacity menu and select the option “Noise Removal.”

Once you click “noise removal” a screen will popup and you should click the button “Get Noise Profile.”

When you click this button, Audacity will get the noise profile of the sound so that it can detect and eliminate instances of that sound throughout the entire track.

Step 3: Remove The Background Noise!

Now, it’s time to highlight the entire track. I did this by pressing Command + A (Macintosh) or I believe it would be Control + A on a PC.

Awesome! The track is highlighted. You’re going to go back to the “effects” option again in your main menu and click “noise removal.”

But wait! Instead of clicking “Get Noise Profile,” you’re going to just click “OK,” because you’ve already gotten the noise profile of the sound. After you click that button, just let Audacity do it’s magic.

That’s it! As you can see below, the tool removed most of the annoying hum I was experiencing. There are still a few small larger sound instances (moving my chair) that will have to be cut out manually, but the persistent buzz was eliminated. How cool is that?

Questions?

If you found this tutorial to be helpful, show some love with a comment or share this article with a friend! Let me know if you have any questions!

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5 Tips for Getting a Guest on Your Podcast

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One thing that I’ve found from 2 years of blogging on CrowdCrux is that as much as you think you might know about a particular industry, there is always someone out there who has a deeper understanding of a particular segment, or an interesting alternative view.

Bringing guests on to your podcast is a great way to expose your budding audience to helpful tips or experiences that you might not otherwise be able to provide. In addition, it gives you the opportunity to network with some of the top experts in your industry!

Yes, it can be hard to get guests on to a new podcast, especially if you don’t have any kind of presence in the community at all. Below, I’ve compiled a few tips to that can help you when approaching experts in your field for a guest appearance.

Hope they are helpful! Let me know what type of podcast you have or are starting via comment.

1. Pinpoint what the guest will get out of the appearance.

Time is money. The best way to incentivize a guest to come on your show is to determine what he or she will get out of taking 30 minutes – 1 hour out of their day to do an interview with you.

Have you ever noticed that celebrities will come on shows like The Tonight Show or Conan O’Brien’s show when they are starring in an up-and-coming movie, or are going to be releasing an album? They are there to move product!

What products, services, or ventures is the potential guest involved in that you can help promote in exchange for their valuable expertise and thoughts? Why is the topic/niche of your show a perfect audience for them to sell more product?

If you’re just starting out, you could offer to mention their services/products for free, or ask if they have some kind of affiliate commission program.

2. Pitch appropriately.

Don’t write a 1,000 word email! I can’t say this enough. Get straight to the point.

Make the subject line of your email as clear as possible about what you want from them. For example “Interview inquiry for business podcast” or “Invitation to appear on business podcast.” The reader will know what to expect when they open this email.

Keep the body of the email no more than 2 paragraphs, ideally with bullet points to highlight the key points, like sample questions you will ask, an anticipated time frame, and where they can find more information about you.

If you previously reached out to them on twitter or some other medium, remind them of that fact. I’d also recommend highlighting an article, book, or other piece of content they have composed and suggesting that it could be good piece to draw from for the interview. This way, they aren’t going to need to spend lots of time preparing for it.

Finally, being up-beat, polite, and showing that you’ve read their work will go a long way! For further reading, I recommend Tim Ferriss’ blog post on tips for emailing busy people. Tim Ferriss wrote the Bestselling Book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

3. Sell the guest on what you will do for them.

If you haven’t gotten a response to your first email, or want to make sure that you stay on the priority list of your potential guest once you do get them to show some interest, I would highlight how you are going to promote the podcast or how you’d like to help their business in other ways.

For example: “Look forward to the upcoming interview on ____! I’ll be going all out promoting it on ___, ___, ____. Maybe after we can talk about other new products you are working on that might be a good fit for my audience.”

I don’t want this to come across as not sounding genuine. This should be 100% genuine on your part. I promise, by helping other businesses, you will eventually benefit.

The message above reminds the guest that the interview will be worth their time and that this could be a longer-lasting business relationship for them.

4. Make it as easy as possible for the guest to provide content.

We touched on this a bit in point 2. You don’t want your guest to think they need to prepare hours ahead of time just for an interview. Suggest pieces of content that they can recycle, whether that’s a video they’ve done in the past or articles they’ve published.

For example, you could say, “P.S. Really love the piece you wrote on social media promotion. Think these could be some good tips for my audience.”

By providing them with the questions ahead of time, you’ll make it easy for them to know what to expect going in, and make the process as painless as possible. When you’re doing the podcast, if you sense that the guest wants to go off in an interesting direction, you can always take that detour, but make sure to have a blueprint you can come back to.

When crafting these questions, I’d recommend checking out this blog post and some of the tips Grant gives from his experience of growing a podcast to 100,000 Podcast Downloads in 62 Days. I’ve provided a sample quote below!

Every time we recorded an interview with a guest, I would ask questions from the mind of that avatar [the audience]. What would they want to ask this guest? If I’m in their shoes, what questions would I have?

It’s your job to do the research long before you launch your podcast to figure what your avatar’s pain points would be and how your podcast will help solve those problems.

Finally, I would keep them updated as to the format of the podcast and whether or not the transcript or relevant links will be available on your website, or added in before or after the interview. This way, they don’t need to worry about plugging their product/website and can focus on the questions you are asking.

5. Build a relationship. Don’t expect anything in return.

Of all the points mentioned, I found this one to be the most true. You can’t go into a podcasting expecting to get something monetary from it. You can only be genuine.

Be curious about what makes them tick, and how they approach your industry. Always be thinking about what you can do for them, and how you can encourage them to share interesting content for your audience.

Personally, I’ve found that when guests know you are genuine, they can relax a bit, will take the time to get to know you more, and be more willing to share your episode once it’s finalized.

Podcasting is a great medium to build relationships with listeners and guests. Make it a positive experience for them and focus on building a relationship that could expand into a future collaboration. Your reputation is EVERYTHING in business. Having a good one will go a long way :).

What type of podcast do you have? Show some love with a comment!

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Category : tips