Have you got ideas, topics, and themes? Then you just need to have an itch to talk smoothly about your love and starting a podcast is the best way to do just that. No matter if your show is just your hobby at firstly; the priority should be to produce the best chance of being successful.
But wait, you should not start your podcast without looking at a few significant things ahead of time. A little effort in planning before launch can make all the difference between the show who already has a large audience and the one that has no listeners. In this blog, you will come across the main seven things you need to know before you indulge in the process of starting a podcast.
1. Identify Your Audience, Describe Your Niche
What is your topic?
The initial thing every person is going to ask you at the time of the promotion of your podcast is “What is it concerning?” you are required to be transposed on the focus of your show if you want to grow a loyal fan base.
You may want to choose a subject that you already have some information and interest in. then ask yourself, what amazing insight do you have to offer? Before you dive into recording a single episode, have a clear understanding of your focus before Starting a Podcast.
The other important concern you should have when starting a podcast is if this is a topic that you can generate engaging and sufficient scans? Many topics may seem exciting at first glance but when you get into them with the perspective of creating many episodes you realize then you need to shift on to a different topic.
And then, it is important to narrow your topic down as it is significant to niche down to something particular instead of keeping it broad. For instance, discussing parenting is finding, you can consider it too wide to capture and keep your audience engaging when Starting a Podcast.
Niche down to something more focused to make the most loyal and long-term fan base.
When you are very clear about your listeners, then it will convey the idea to them that you are directly connected to them. Understand this in a way that the more specific your niche the easier for you to create different episodes on your subject.
For example, rather than opting for the wider topic of parenting, go for the different niches like parenting abroad, parenting children with specific needs, parenting without being harsh, and managing your passion during parenting. You get the idea of your way.
Take out a moment to consider your topic now. Is it wider, or is it particular? To facilitate finding out whether or not it’s too broad, frap a pad of paper or unlock a word processing document and begin jotting down a list of enhancing subtopics associated with your current subject.
Get Clear On Your Supreme Listener
Who are you communicating to? Why? Think like a business owner at this time to find out your ideal listeners. You are required to figure out who that one ideal person is that whom you want to share your thoughts with. It allows you to consider one perfect person rather than a group of people. It enables the process of creating content for them that would be relevant to the right listeners while starting a Podcast. Make sure to ask things to yourself like:
- What is the social life of your listeners>
- Is your listener is male or female?
- What age group do your listeners fall into?
- Are they self-employed, employed, or unemployed?
- What are their concerns and challenges?
- What would they want to know about their topics?
2. Make Episode Subjects
At this stage you have narrowed down your interest to the particular topic, can you come up with various subjects within your topic to make your episode a bit lengthy?
Invest your time in brainstorming a list of episodes to ensure you have much to say. If you do not have sufficient content to say, you may need to select a wider topic. To get the beneficial brainstorming, think about all the things your perfect listener may want to know about that.
For example, Niche- parenting abroad
Subtopic
- Spotlight on various countries can make a different episode interview series
- Schooling when staying abroad
- Twice citizenship for parents and children
- Health care abroad
- Passports and visas
An amazing place to begin when thinking regarding your episode subject is to get help from books and blogs on the topic while Starting a Podcast. Particularly, get help by looking at the table of content in books on your subject. They are amazing for inspiration.
3. Choose Your Format And Hosting Style
There are many formats a podcast can have. The format can be storytelling, interviews, conversational and educational. You can host your customized podcast yourself.
Podcasting with friends
A trend can be seen these days in recording podcasts with friends or even groups of people. What is amazing regarding starting a podcast with friends is not only cost-saving but it can add some spices to your show too. Having different personalities that are hosting can insert interest and pull in a broad range of listeners. That is why shows like The View are so famous. They have different hosts and each brings something different and once to the table.
Maybe you have a friend or family member or even a work colleague that you have a lot of resemblance with. Starting a podcast with him is a fabulous way to explore your interests, combine and potentially even make more money along the way when starting a Podcast.
Perhaps you have a friend, family member, or even a work colleague that you have a lot in common with. Starting a podcast could be a fabulous way to explore your interests together, and potentially even make some money along the way.
If you planning to start a podcast with your friends look at these few things to consider:
- Decide that that will be listed as the show host, multiple hosts can register.
- What happens if one of you loses interest? The show will be continued or paused or you will have another guest host.
- Make sure to have a plan in place for how you will manage the finances that includes everything from how you will contribute the cost to how you will split the profits when Starting a Podcast. If you start earning money then you will be glad that you have ahead of time.
- Who will be managing what? Like one person is responsible for edits, the other one is for promotion. For instance, think about all the included tasks with producing a podcast and other responsibilities.
Podcasting Alone – Just You And The Mic
You do not need anyone else to make your podcast successful as it can be just you sitting in front of a mic telling a story or teaching your audience something new.
When you start a podcast by yourself, be ready for the workload as it will fall all on your shoulders in the beginning. Unless you have an organization backing your show from the outside. You will be supposed to bring some ideas, organize the content and market them.
4. Get The Correct Equipment
Having a good quality sound is important in a good podcast. If people hear too many voices in your background then your voice is not crystal clear, they will steer away.
Indeed, there are different podcast fish in the seas. You are required to ensure you make it simple for people to hear. While you are technically able to record a podcast with the device’s built-in microphone, you will have better sound quality by using the best quality microphone and headphone set at the time of Starting a Podcast.
Moreover podcast equipment you should consider but is not limited to:
- Pop filter
- A computer
- Microphone or boom stand
Additionally, you will be required to search for a podcast host that appropriately fulfills your need, believe it or not, to make your podcast available on Google podcast, iTunes, and other outlets, you will require a host for your episodes.
5. Get Recording Software
There are loads of free and paid options out there for recording and editing software. Your computer may already have recorded it but if you have a Mac you can have some features along with it. Choose the right software that takes care of the processing, branding, publishing, and editing of your podcast episode for you.
Ways For Recording And Editing Your Episodes:
Practice Makes Your Perfect
It is the rule for everything in this world, practicing too much makes you perfect. When you are going to record for the first interview sessions you will want to practice with your chosen recording and editing software. Search for the tutorials online and learn everything that can be about how it works. Then, practice recording episodes both alone and with friends or family.
Do not forget, that these practice sessions do not have to see the light of the day, but it is possible to make some fun bloopers if you ever want to create a fun bloopers episode for your fans. The objective is to get comfortable with speaking, recording, and editing as well. That way when you plan for the real thing, it won’t be a scary experience for you.
Decide A Sound-Friendly Recording Location
Well, it is possible to clean up your sound during the editing phase, but having a sound-friendly location for recording is better for good audio quality. Let’s face it though because unless you have a huge budget or a company sponsoring your show, you cannot have a soundproof podcasting studio for recording your starting episodes.
Ensure to select the quietest place in your home or office to record your episode before Starting a Podcast. Some podcasters go to record under blinkers, in their closets and others just try to use the calm place with fewer background echoes and noise.
Take Your Time
Indeed, becoming a good podcast is an achievement in its own right; if you become a good podcast host then you are a marathon, not a sprint. Firstly, recording and editing can take a lot of your time but that is okay. You can worry about speed later. At the initial stage, you should concentrate more on getting it right; prefer quality over quaintness as they say.
With time, you and your mates get familiar with your tools and the act of recording and editing. It will help you to get easy and fast to generate episodes. In fact, at some moment, you may even be able to recruit people to scale your podcast. But do not be rushed to get to the big leagues.
Be Open That There Will Be Hiccups
Do not expect much in the beginning; if you start a podcast with the mindset that it won’t be smooth at the initial time, you will be less likely to be disappointed and frustrated when things get wrong. It is significant to know that even the most seasoned podcasters have problems from time to time.
6. How To Revolve Your Recording Into A Podcast
Once you are done with the recording of the show, get a host that can store your audio and let it accessible to your listeners. The podcast hosting services will walk you through the process and allow you to position your audio files on their website. Once you’ve recorded your show, find a host that can store your audio and make it available to your listeners. Your podcast hosting service will walk you through the process, and you can then place your audio files on their website and/or on your website.
Submit Your Podcast To Directories
Find the list of most popular directories and get your show available for potential listeners and fans.
7. Manage Your Transcripts
At this stage, you would be done with the recording and editing of your podcast episodes. By now you may have uploaded a few episodes to your media host. After that, it is essential to make your podcast more available and interactive, insert your transcripts and show highlights to a determined website or page on your current website for your podcast.
Sharing the transcripts or enabling notes to the audience helps with SEO tactics, gives your audience to share their feedback, encourages people to share, and is also a better place to offer any links to anything you talked about in the show after Starting a Podcast. It is also the brilliance space to share any affiliate or partner links to products you may have written in your episodes so that your show can start earning money even with a little audience.
Remember, you need to keep your audience in mind and consider how you can make an amazing experience for listeners with interactive sessions and make valuable content for them. Show transcripts and notes are an amazing way to give more value to your listeners and get feedback from them as well.
From this phase, your next steps are to keep learning and working on growing and developing your podcast. Record and load more episodes, market them, and schedule more interviews as much as you can.
Don’t forget that the more effort you make into your show, the more you can get from it. Your show has the potential to be a ragging success and shopifyNinja is here to help you along the way.
Read more: How Beardbrand Transformed His Community into an E-Commerce Store
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