7 Great Tips for Starting a Podcast
Whether you are a blogger or a freelance writer looking to connect with others in your field and wanting to showcase what you do, you might be interested in creating a podcast at one point or another.
Podcasts can reach an audience that wouldn’t otherwise come across your site or what you do. It is estimated that just under 40% of Americans listen to podcasts, and if you consider that it could bring in some traffic to your website, that’s definitely not something to ignore.
In this post, we’ll look at some tips for starting a podcast, whether that be podcast SEO tips or the type of equipment that you should invest in.
Starting a Podcast – Tips
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Create a strategy
Getting amazing guests on your podcast can undoubtedly influence how successful it is. There is always some amount of value in what somebody else has to say about a topic, even if you are an expert in it.
It’s far easier to have an entire plan put in place so that you can decide on the number of episodes that you will publish in a month, what topics are supposed to be covered, and what guests you want to invite, too.
If you don’t have a set plan, you aren’t going to be able to maintain your schedule, and your listeners are going to stop being interested in your podcast. Create an outreach strategy for people you want to invite and even pitch them interesting topics if you do not know them that well.
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Invest in quality recording equipment
You don’t have to spend several thousand dollars on your microphone or recording software, but you should be able to invest in a decent microphone. If your podcast has poor audio quality, it has little to no chance of being successful.
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Think of it this way — if you were to start listening to a podcast yourself, would you continue if you’d have to strain to hear whatever the guests might be talking about? The answer to this question is most likely to be no.
You can get a good microphone for anything around a couple of hundred dollars, or you could invest in a quality headset. Plus, don’t forget about the audio editing software, either, since you might have to cut some parts of the podcast, increase the volume, eliminate background noise, and anything else.
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Have a basic outline
No matter the area of your expertise, you should know that Google Podcasts or iTunes are search engines, after all, so you shouldn’t avoid using keywords if you’re looking to rank on a particular one.
Naturally, these pieces of software aren’t yet capable of telling exactly what you’re talking about with your guests. Still, you should definitely not avoid using your main keyword in your title or description.
Having an outline allows you to better focus on your topic, and you’ll be able to share it with your guests, too, so that they know what they can tackle. Some podcasts tend to get overly personal. If you don’t stick to the topic of discussion, you might end up boring your listeners, so they might not have the patience to listen until the end.
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Promote your site in your podcast
While there are many podcast interview tips that we might still be able to give you, the fact is that all of this effort isn’t going to get you anywhere if you don’t promote your blog in your podcast, too.
You can also provide either your contact information or your blog link in the podcast description, but you can also mention it right at the beginning and the end of the recording. Do the same for your guests — invite them to tell listeners where they can be found.
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All of the links that you should use in your podcast description should be customized and easy to remember.
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Customize your design
Every podcast needs a podcast cover image and a small icon, which will be displayed on any podcast hosting service of your choice. If you don’t want to pay too much for this work to be done, you can always use People Per Hour or Fiverr for a custom graphic that costs anywhere from $10 to $30.
The important thing to keep in mind here is that your podcast design should be unique and easy to remember. Ask the designer to use clear lines and colors that stand out and not overdo it with any complicated details that might not integrate as well into the way the hosting platform looks.
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Decide on a podcast hosting service
When your podcast goes live, everyone can listen to it, but the file host might not be able to handle the bandwidth if more and more people want to listen to it at the same time.
Instead of using your own server for your audio files, you could use a different service, one that offers safe podcast hosting. In terms of such services, there are lots of things you can do — you can upload it on Blubrry, LibSyn, or BuzzSprout, for example, or you could go down the classic road and just put it on YouTube.
If you have some time on your hands, it wouldn’t hurt if you were to do some research on some WordPress plugins for podcasts.
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Ask your listeners to review your podcast
Whether you want to use Google Podcasts or iTunes, you’ll have a better chance of getting your podcast discovered by potential listeners if you ask the ones that are already fans of it to leave you a review.
Ask your listeners to subscribe to your podcast right at the end of each episode, and also tell them that it would be helpful for you if they wrote a review.
Conclusion
We hope that our podcast recording tips have helped you in some way or another and that you’re now ready to launch your podcast! Just remember — be yourself and invite guests you feel comfortable with, especially at the beginning of your journey.
Craig Campbell
I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years.
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