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
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.
