Podcasts Arts 88: How to Start a Podcast (2021)

88: How to Start a Podcast (2021)

Published: Dec. 19, 2020, 9:40 p.m.

My goal for this episode is to give you a big picture roadmap for how to start a podcast. You give me 30 minutes of your time, I'll tell you everything I know about starting a podcast.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive guide that covers everything you’ll need to know (that would take awhile longer and I'd like to keep this pretty short), but my hope is that it gives you enough information to help you start making progress on starting your own podcast.

If you’re listening to this in a podcast app, I’d recommend pausing it and switching over to my YouTube video. I’ll be showing some screenshots and other visual aids that I think you’ll find helpful. Here's the link: https://youtu.be/4zfglqqHHtA

I also plan to publish a more detailed version of this episode as an affordable downloadable PDF and video and checklist, so I’ll include a link to that in the episode notes as well whenever it’s ready.

A Few Pieces of Advice Before We Get Started:

Anyone Can Start a Podcast

Anyone can start a podcast! Yes, even you!

To do it well does cost some money and a fair amount of time and effort, but it’s not extremely expensive, and you don't need anyone's permission to do it.

The hardest part (from what I've seen) is growing an audience and getting people to listen to your podcast and share it with other people.

People probably aren't going to care about your opinion

A common mistake I see a lot of people make is starting a show where they just talk about whatever random subject they feel like talking about.

It can be fun to do that for awhile, but it’ll be hard to convince strangers to listen to you unless you're already known for something else.

Everyone has an opinion, and most strangers probably aren't going to be interested in hearing yours. To stand out, you’ll need to figure out how to provide something valuable, useful, or interesting to them.

Aim to make your show entertaining, educational, or inspirational. If you can make it be all three, even better.

If you don’t feel like you have anything important or interesting to say, it’s ok to put off podcasting for awhile. Focus instead of becoming an interesting, experienced person who can talk about a topic or tell stories in a way that makes people notice and pay attention.

Don't give up when the going gets tough.

You’re going to encounter road blocks and get stuck sometimes.

There are answers to every question out there on the internet in blog posts, YouTube videos, books, podcasts, etc.

Be patient and learn to enjoy the process of learning. Don’t get frustrated if you can’t accomplish a task right away.

Podcasting is a marathon, not a sprint.

Success comes to those who stick with it for a long time, so don’t give up if you don’t achieve all your goals right away. Stay focused, keep working, keep iterating and getting better.

If you have questions, please feel free to send them to me, or you can find more information out there on the internet if you search.

The Ultimate Goal: End up with an awesome podcast you love

My goal with this episode and show is to help you end up with a podcast you’re proud of and that other people love, listen to, and share with their friends.

One of the best ways to do this is to learn from other people who have already created podcasts that people love. This is why I recommend checking out the top shows in Apple Podcasts and Spotify for inspiration. Pay close attention to their podcast cover artwork and their show descriptions. Look for shows that are similar to the show you want to make. Learn from them, get inspired by them.

4 Key Parts to Podcasting

There are four main parts of making a great podcast. They are:

 1. Planning & Pre-Production 

2. Recording & Production 

3. Editing & Post-Production 

4. Launching & Promoting

Let's go through each of these steps in more detail.

1: Pre-Production / Planning the Show

The Goal: Come up a title, theme, short description, branding/visual style, and format for your show, and choose a time in your schedule to work on it.

The first step is to decide:

  1. What your show is going to be called (the title)
  2. What it's going to be about (the theme)
  3. What your branding or visual style is going to be (the look of your artwork)
  4. What the format is going to be (Interviews? Fiction / Story telling?)
  5. When you're going to work on it (In the mornings before work? In the evenings after work? Weekends?)

The Title: Check Apple Podcasts and social media to make sure the title you want isn’t already taken.

The Theme/Format: Will you do interviews? Chat with a friend about a new topic every week? Tell a story in a narrative style? Do something weird and bizarre? There’s no rules here, so you have freedom to create the kind of show that you want. I’m guessing you have a few ideas based on shows you already listen to and enjoy. Make a show you’d love to listen to, and have fun!

The Branding/Visual Style: Eventually you’ll need to create or hire someone to create cover art for your show. Your podcast cover art needs to be a square image, 3000x3000 pixels, a JPG or PNG file format.

The Schedule: Decide what your recording and publishing schedule will be. Can you produce and publish new episodes every week? Every two weeks? Want to record a season of 12 episodes all at once and then release them? You’ll want to block off some time on your calendar to work on producing new episodes, but also time to promote your show and episodes and invest in your existing listeners and also on getting new listeners. (Podcasting can take a lot of time, so give yourself more time than you expect when you're just starting out.)

Don’t worry about getting it perfect right away!

Don’t worry about getting everything perfect, just make a plan and keep making progress. You can always change things later if you decide you really need to.

For more information about planning a show, check out:

2: Recording & Production

The goal: Get some recording gear and plan and record some episodes.

Recording Gear

There are ways to make a podcast using only your smartphone, or you could spend thousands of dollars on professional microphones, cameras, and accessories. There are good options for pretty much every budget.

I recommend starting off with gear on the cheaper or affordable side, and then upgrading later if you decide the extra sound quality or utility is worth it to you. You want to avoid spending $2000 on gear only to decide a few months later that podcasting isn’t for you.

Questions to consider:

  • What is your budget?
  • What gear do you need for the format you’ve chosen?
  • How serious are you about podcasting?

I keep a list of my favorite gear at kit.co/podcastingwithaaron. (Those are affiliate links, so I get a small cut of the sale if you buy something using the link on that site).

Recording and Editing Software/Apps

There’s software and apps for recording and editing audio (Garageband, Audacity, Reaper, Logic Pro, Audition), and also software and apps for recording interviews (Squadcast, Zoom, Zencastr, Descript, Cleanfeed, etc).

I prefer the paid software, but there are plenty of people who record and publish using free software.

For best results, you’ll want to get an individual audio track for each person that’s on the podcast. This is why I like and use Squadcast.

You don’t want to start off with one single audio track that has everyone’s voice on it, it makes editing and balancing the volume levels of each voice much harder.

Practice recording to get comfortable with your gear and software before you start trying to record episodes that you plan to publish.

I recommend doing at least couple of test/practice episodes that you don’t plan to publish, just so you can learn how to use your gear and the software without pressure to get everything right. This is especially important if you plan to do interviews.

Creating Episodes

For each episode, you'll need:

  1. An episode title/theme
  2. A short description of the episode (What is the episode about? Why should someone listen to it?)
  3. An outline for the episode (What are you going to talk about in the episode?)
  4. Episode notes or a script (You can write this before, or after. It can be as short or long as you like)
  5. Episode artwork (optional, but can be a nice touch)

At the very least, you’ll need to have a title for the episode, how you’re going to start the episode, what you’re going to talk about, and then how you’re going to end the episode.

Create / gather all this information, and then start recording! Be sure to save your recording when you're done.

3: Editing & Post-Production

The goal: Edit your episodes and get them ready for publishing, and choose a hosting platform for your show.

Editing a Podcast Episode

Editing a podcast episode is definitely a topic that deserves it’s own episode or video, but the goal is to get all the audio files for the episode together, and then cut out anything you don’t want in the episode. Add music, sound effects, whatever else you want.

I definitely encourage creativity with editing, but be aware that many new podcasters I’ve talked to find editing to be the hardest and most time consuming part of podcasting.

If you’re just starting out, you might want to keep it simple. Only edit out really noticeable/terrible mistakes, and try to get the volume levels of the audio tracks roughly the same (this is known as mixing).

Editing and mixing can take years to master or get good at, so be patient with yourself while you learn! Watching YouTube videos of other people editing will help.

Once you’re done editing your episode, export an MP3 audio file. This is what you’ll upload to your podcast hosting platform.

Choose a Podcasting Hosting Platform for Your Show

You don’t actually upload episodes to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or the other podcast apps people use to listen to podcasts. Instead, you’ll sign up for an account on a podcast hosting platform that will provide you with an easy interface for adding information about your show and episode to an RSS feed.

The RSS feed is essentially a text document that is hosted and updated by your podcast hosting platform. It will contain all of the information about your show, as well as links to where your episode audio files are hosted.

You’ll give the URL or link for your show’s RSS feed to Apple, Spotify, and the other podcast apps and directories. That’s how you get your show listed there.

Once those apps/directories have the link to your show’s RSS feed, they’ll get any updates or new episodes you publish in your podcast hosting platform automatically.

Which hosting platform should I use for my podcast?

There’s more than a few options for podcast hosting platforms.

I really like Simplecast, Buzzsprout, Transistor, Captivate, and Fireside.

There’s a popular free option called Anchor, but I don’t recommend using that unless you’re only planning on podcasting for fun or as a hobby.

If you’re serious about podcasting and growing an audience, sign up for and use one of the hosting platforms I recommended. If you’re just having fun or can’t afford to spend money on podcasting at the moment, give Anchor a try.

The podcast hosting platforms also provide you with a website for your show (important) and analytics so you can see things like how many downloads and plays your episodes get, where your listeners are, and which devices they’re listening on.

Remember: You can always move your show to a different hosting platform any time you want.

4: Launching & Promoting

The goal: Launch your podcast and start promoting it.

Getting Ready to Launch Your Show

At this point, you should have your show title, show description, and artwork, and at least one episode ready to be published (I'd recommend having 2-3 full episodes ready to publish before you officially launch).

Create a Short Teaser Trailer Episode for Your Show

I also recommend writing and recording a teaser trailer episode. This is where you introduce yourself and the show, talk a little bit about it and who it’s for, why you’re making it, etc.

I recommend making this trailer shorter than 2 minutes (but you can make it longer if you want).

Getting Your Show into Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Other Podcast Apps

Once you've added the information about your show into your podcast hosting platform, and added your trailer or first episode, they’ll provide you with the link/URL to your show’s RSS feed.

You’ll submit the URL/link to your show’s RSS feed to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and the other podcast apps.

Some will take a few days to review and approve your show, some will approve and publish it pretty much right away or within a few hours.

There’s a great help article from Simplecast that has links and instructions about how to submit a show’s RSS feed to every major podcast app or directory.

Visit How to Publish Your Podcast on the Popular Podcast Apps.

Publish Your Trailer Episode First, Then Your Full Episodes Later

I recommend publishing your trailer episode first, then submitting your RSS feed to Apple and the other places, then publishing your first few real episodes a week or two later.

This gives you time to make sure your show is everywhere you want it to be before you publish full episodes, and having a trailer out allows you to begin promoting your show and getting people to subscribe to it before you publish the full episodes.

Start Promoting Your Show

At this point, you’ll want to create social media accounts for your show if you don’t already have some you plan to use.

You don’t have to be on every social media platform: Focus on the ones where your target audience are the most active.

Tell your friends, family, social media followers, etc.

If you know of any magazines or blogs or publications that might be interested in featuring your show, reach out to them as well.

Basically, you gotta get the word out and convince people to listen to your show.

For more information about promoting a new podcast, check out:

There's tons of other articles online about promoting and marketing a podcast, so plan to spend a few hours reading tips. Mostly it comes down to creating something people will want to listen to, and then convincing them to give you a chance. Easier said than done!

What's Next?

By now you should know just about everything you need to know to get started, but I have a few more tips to share before you go.

  • Keep creating and publishing new episodes. Keep improving.
  • Experiment. Have fun.
  • There are hundreds of helpful articles, tutorials, videos, books, and online courses about everything related to podcasting and growing an audience. Google search is your friend here!
  • If there’s something you’d like to learn more about, put your question in a search box and start reading or watching.
  • Ask questions if you need help or if you get stuck.

Connect with Me

I’m going to keep making episodes about podcasting, and I’m happy to answer questions. Leave them in the comment section on my YouTube videos , or email me at aaron@thepodcastdude.com. You can also find me on Twitter, i'm @thepodcastdude.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck with your show, and happy podcasting!

Aaron Dowd

Granbury, Texas

December 20, 2020