Podcasts are an integral part of the modern digital world. Ask Joe Rogan, Howard Stern, or the other famous hosts with a multi-million audience. These people are real opinion leaders and their content always attracts a huge number of people.
Agree, you always wanted to open your show, your podcast, so that people would watch and listen to how you reveal your opinion about the latest events, the world of politics and cinema, sports or something else. It is really fascinating when you know that people are listening to you and your opinion has weight.
However, launching your successful podcast is a lot harder than it sounds. The fact is that real success cannot be achieved if you approach the business through the sleeves. It’s not enough just to take a picture of yourself, a podcast is real science. And in our article, we will talk about what steps you need to take in order for you to be heard.
What will it look like?
Creating a successful podcast is a complex task, so we divided it into several main areas:
1) Who needs your podcast and why?
2) What will the format of your podcast be?
3) Equipment selection
4) Editing
Yes, and these are just the main parts. Again, a successful and high-quality podcast is a difficult task. It is not enough just to turn on the camera and some music in the background from the royalty-free music libraries like taketones.com. This will be enough for a regular promotional video but not for a podcast.
Who needs your podcast and why?
The first step is to decide on the positioning. Who will be your listeners, what will be interesting to them, and in what do you personally have enough experience for the podcast? The first question you must answer is why are you creating a podcast? Is this your hobby or job, how much time are you willing to devote to this process?
The next step is to identify the audience. It all depends on what your podcast will be about. If this is some kind of hobby that you are good at, then the target audience will consist of people who share your love for this subject. It’s a good idea to try to create a listener persona, a kind of neutral image of the average listener of your podcast. Keep this image in mind every time before starting a podcast.
What will be the format of your podcast?
After determining what and for whom your podcast will be, it's time to decide what its format will be.
First of all, one must clarify whether it will be an episodic series-type podcast or live broadcasts without clear restrictions and an episodes release plan. In the first case, you will have to create a framework for yourself that will need to be respected. Breaking the episode release plan will seriously damage your reputation.
In the second case, there will be no such framework, but your audience will not have the understanding that at a certain time of a certain day they will receive a new episode of your podcast. Because of this, you can lose part of your audience, as people are more well-disposed towards a well-defined plan.
The second big question is: what should be the length of the podcast? To search for answers, you should again look at what kind of content you will be podcasting. If this is a serious subject, then a 15-minute discussion is clearly not enough. Serious subjects require serious debate and polemics. Therefore, it is better to focus on the format of 1hour+.
Equipment selection
So, you have decided on the main points and finally, the time comes for technical issues related directly to the process of recording and creating a podcast.
Well, first of all, you need a computer, a separate microphone, Internet access, and a camera. The latter is optional since you can start without video and only work with voice. However, it is important to understand that a person is more inclined to trust what he sees and hears, and not just hears.
The selection of equipment depends entirely on your budget. The main rule here is: the price is justified. That is, the more expensive the microphone or camera, the better the quality of the video and sound will be. Cheap equipment will give an appropriate result.
It is hard to be objective and specific here, so we advise you to evaluate this article, which will help both beginners and experienced professionals.
Editing
The penultimate stage includes all the actions that you will perform with the podcast after the shooting. Without exaggeration, we can say that this is the most important stage since competent editing is of key importance.
Turn the recording on, talk both loudly and quietly, and stand at different distances from the microphone to see how it works and how it captures sound in different conditions. When you're done recording, it's best to export the file in .wav format.
A few tips: first, always turn off all notifications on the computer; second, rule out extraneous noises in the room (fridge, dog, wind from windows), third, take off your watches, bracelets and other jewelry that make noise when you move.
This basic set is enough for you to record at least a decent podcast. It's important to understand that this is a very basic level.
If you get carried away with this activity, you will add to your computer and monitor external sound cards which allow you to record sound from several microphones simultaneously, microphone holders, filters, wind protectors, and so on. The main recommendation here is to first decide whether you are interested in recording podcasts at all, and only then buy expensive equipment.
To begin with, it is important to understand that the editing of soundtracks can not be done anywhere, you need special software. PCmag has compiled a good list of the best audio editing software, which is relevant and gives the most extensive understanding of what you will encounter.
If you understand that your experience and skills are not enough and that even having figured out how this software works, you still cannot guarantee a high-quality result, there are more simplified options. Alitu is a special application, a podcast maker, which includes all the necessary software for creating a podcast. A good option for those who do not want to delve into a large number of programs.
In conclusion
In the end, we would like to say that there is another stage, which goes at number five. This is all about how you will promote your podcast.
It is difficult to come up with any effective strategies since there are a lot of methods of promotion, advertising, and PR in 2020. Rely on your experience and where your target audience is most represented, where it will be easier to reach them.
After that, having successfully promoted your podcast, you will enter the final phase, which starts the whole cycle again. And remember that the hardest thing is not to raise the bar. The hardest thing is to keep it at such a high level.
