It’s 2020, and a podcast is the new blog: everyone you know or follow seems to have one. It sounds easy enough to do. The category is growing. You’d like to get on board.
That’s great! We’re a believer in podcasts and think that anybody who applies themselves to the category can succeed. But jumping into it without a plan is like showing up at a potluck with no dish – it’s nice that you made it, but you’re going to raise some eyebrows fast.
Here are a few questions you want to answer to decide if this is the right path for you, and how to go about things:
What’s the goal of your podcast? Why do you want to produce a podcast?
Podcasting can do a number of things for hosts. They can be a way to network, or to meet people in a field of interest. They can be a way to practice public speaking and interviewing skills in a relatively safe environment. They can be an outlet for a passion or a creative project. They can tell a story. And podcasts can make money if they are successful enough to attract a sponsor or feed into a subscription model, though that takes a lot of work and dedication.
Your goals may change over time, but you want to have a sense from the beginning of why you’re getting into it. Only you can determine the right answer to this question, and it should be one that keeps you going in terms of recording and producing the podcast over time. This helps answer the next question as well.
What sort of investment do you want to make in this podcast (time & money)?
Our most precious resource is time, and money doesn’t come cheap either. When thinking through what you want out of your podcast, you should think about how much of these key resources you want to put into the podcast.
For example, it is possible to host a podcast for free. Buzzsprout offers a free plan with 2 hours of audio a month but the podcasts get erased after 90 days; Podbean offers a free plan with 5 total hours of audio. Soundcloud is also a free platform to start. All of these are acceptable if you want to experiment, but if you’re planning to produce an ongoing podcast, you’re probably going to have to upgrade (and many plans are around $15/month, so it’s not a huge expense).
The same goes for things like recording equipment and editing quality. The better your recording equipment – microphone, mic stand, pop filter, software for recording remote calls, etc. – is, the better your podcast will sound. And a good sounding podcast will matter to listeners. We’ll cover equipment more in detail below.
For editing too, you can just record and post with a very basic mix to sweeten and balance the sound and filter out noise. But if you want to structure a conversation or recording, to remove mistakes and repetitions, and to cut down on the podcast time – so as to respect your listeners’ time – you’ll need to spend more time or money on editing. A good rule of thumb is one hour of recorded audio takes two hours to edit fully. Another option is to go with a service like ours.
Again, only you can determine the right answer to this question (and the others on this list), but it’s worth keeping in mind the potential costs from the beginning, so you don’t spend time on a project you don’t want to pursue. You can’t get that time back.
What do you want the podcast to be about?
Once assessing your commitment, this is the most important question. What is the topic or theme that ties your podcast together? What will be the hook that gets listeners to subscribe and share the podcast with friends?
One doesn’t have to be too prescriptive or self-restricting in their selection of a theme, but the more focused you can make the podcast, the easier a time it will be finding an audience. Joe Rogan or Terry Gross might be able to run a general interview podcast that focuses on their personality or interviewing style, but they are special. You may be special too, but think about what your goal is and who you want to reach. The old elevator pitch model – the ability to explain why someone should listen to your podcast in the time it takes to go up in an elevator – is worth keeping in mind here.
What format do you want to have?
Once you have a topic, you want to think about your format. Podcasting is an open medium, and there are a number of different common formats you can apply, as well as new ones you might be able to discover. For example, the podcast could be conversational, where you and a co-host or two go back and forth, with guided topics but room to improvise and build chemistry with one another and with your listeners. Or the podcast could be an interview podcast, where you have a different guest each week and ask them questions, so the conversation is more focused on what they say rather than you. To the contrary, it could be an essay podcast, where you are sharing your own opinions on a given topic, whether already written out to the word or more improvised (you can even veer towards a ranting podcast). And of course, some of the most famous podcasts tell a story, whether a fictional one or a deeply reported non-fiction story. This is not an easy format to just wade into, but it may appeal to you nevertheless.
There are great podcasts in each of those formats, and that list isn’t all-inclusive. Podcasts can also switch between styles – I’ve had success in the past running a conversational podcast but one where we interview guests on alternative episodes, to flesh out the conversations we had between the co-hosts. The Razor’s Edge is an example of this, while A Positive Jam is more of a cross between conversational and story telling.
A sub-question to this is do you want a co-host or two? Is there someone you have a good rapport with who wants to join you on this project? Are you close enough in common interests that you can work together on a regular basis, but apart enough that the collaboration will push you further than you would go on your own? Do you think it would be more fun to just have someone you can talk to each time? These are things you want to think about. Like with every collaboration, having a co-host involves some compromise, but it can also advance your efforts in a way that is tough to do alone.
What equipment and tools do you need?
We touched on this briefly, and the answer depends in part on earlier questions, especially your goals and how much time you want to spend. Built-in laptop or phone mics, for example, capture a decent enough sound quality if you just want to share your podcast with friends or colleagues. At the same time, a base level of investment can go a long way. Here are the items you want to consider:
- A high quality microphone. A Blue Yeti mic is around $120, for example, and captures a full and clean sound.
- Headphones – you don’t need to get fancy, but it’s a good idea to have a set of headphones on hand for recording and editing purposes.
- A mic stand – this allows you to avoid common recording mistakes because you can set your mic in front of you without risking touching it. A shock mount and a pop filter are two other items you can buy to protect the sonic fidelity.
- Recording software – if you are recording physically, Audacity is free software that captures audio well. GarageBand on Apple computers is also a good option.
If you are recording remotely with a guest or a co-host, options range from free ones like Zencaster to specialized paid options like Cleanfeed to recording Skype calls or recording via Zoom. - Editing software – If you plan to edit this on your own, you’ll need something that you can cut audio, splice in music if you want it, add intros/outros as relevant, and clean up the sound. Again, Audacity or GarageBand (for Apple) are free options that do just about everything you need. Adobe Audition is a paid software if you want to upgrade. And of course, there are companies out there that can edit for you.
- Hosting service – To get your podcast out to Spotify and Apple Podcasts, the two main platforms for listening to podcasts, you need to host the podcast with a company that will push out the podcast via an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The best platforms will automatically ‘apply’ to list your podcast on those two main channels, Apple and Spotify, though you will also want to set up accounts with each platform to monitor stats. That said, the hosting company – Podbean, Blubrry, Libsyn, AudioBoom, Megaphone, BuzzSprout are among the options – will also provide cohesive stats on your podcast.
These are the bare bones for recording and releasing your podcast. For added promotion or distribution, for example, you want to consider your social media options. But you should expect to at the least address each of these items if you want to succeed.
How do you get feedback and how do you measure success?
That last point feeds into this last question – you have a goal, you have a podcast set up, you’re putting time and money into it, so how do you determine if it’s worth it?
Podcasting offers raw stats like listeners, downloads, listen to end %, devices, and so forth. The Apple app includes reviews, which allow you to get more qualitative feedback. The best podcasts evolve with their listeners, so think about how you want to incorporate them – it could be a request for them to leave a review or to email you, it could be that you build a strong social media presence and get responses that way, it could be that you find a test audience to share episodes with.
The openness of podcasting is the source of its strength, in this case because you can solicit and gain feedback, and then iterate to improve what you’re doing and engage with more listeners. This can help you re-answer the questions above as far as your goals, your investment, and how you want to execute your podcast.
There are plenty of resources out there as far as a checklist of tips for getting started running a podcast. We will write one soon as well. But this post is aimed to help you think through the whole process and what you’re getting into. We believe in the power of podcasting, and believe it is a great format for tons of people. But it’s better to go into something like this with eyes wide open, and to learn from others’ experience rather than making all the same mistakes on your own. And if you need help, you can get in touch with us.