How to create and launch your podcast

What is the main features of the podcast promotion and creating? You can take a look at the top searches and start recording podcasts about popular topics. But this will not work if you are not well- versed in the topic, or you are simply not interested in it. Listeners quickly recognize falsehood. Therefore, first of all:

Find a topic that inspires you personally and may be of interest to the audience.

The second point - you need a topic on which you can record a lot of issues. Consistency is important in podcasts, and releases should be regular.

And third, the topic should reflect your occupation and interests. If you are a simple blogger and you need podcasts for self-promotion, then everything is simple - the choice of topics are almost unlimited. But if this is a podcast for business promotion, then we take the relevant topic. If you are building houses, record audio on the topic of construction, not salad recipes, as an example.

Purpose of creating and maintaining a podcast

Determine the purpose of your podcast launch. Why are you going to invest time / money in creating a podcast?

Basically, podcasts are made to:

• Increase audience reach and increase brand awareness. Business podcasts can be a great addition to your social media pages, blog, website. Plus, you can attract an audience of busy people who are more comfortable listening to podcasts than spending time reading articles or watching videos.
• Establish yourself as an opinion leader. If you are promoting a personal brand or just an expert in some field, record author's podcasts, and people will know about you. There is every chance to gain popularity and become a highly paid specialist.
• Establish communication with clients and potential clients. During podcasts, you can receive calls from listeners or reply to their messages. This will allow you to establish communication with people. Listeners can also suggest interesting topics for upcoming podcasts. The better the communication you build with the audience, the more confidence in you as a business, blogger or specialist.
• Increase sales. If you manage to hook listeners with the first podcasts, they will wait for new episodes. As a result, you will get a loyal audience that is interested in you as a person or in your business. Such listeners are more likely to become buyers of your goods and services.
• Earnings. Yes, podcasts can also be monetized, and according to the article https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/technology/for-a-startup-visions-of-profit-in-podcasting.html?searchResultPosition=3, many people think podcasts are a lucrative business. So far, the main methods are audio ads embedded in a podcast, or ads on a podcast page if you post them on your site.

Release plan

For podcasts, you need your own content plan - episode themes, format, their length, quantity, text, title for the audio file, music for the screensaver, background music (if necessary). You can make a general plan, for example, for a week and a separate mini-plan for each issue. It is advisable to have a plan at least three months in advance and make several entries at once before the official launch.

You will need to work on the text separately. It's not a good idea to just grab a blog post and record audio from it, although there are podcasts like this. It is better when the text of the podcast is specially prepared for voice acting. It can be divided into parts - introduction, main part, conclusion.

Podcasts must have a presenter. Who will voice the text? Are you a personal or third-party announcer? This point should be taken into account in the plan.

Important:

The background music should not contain vocals - this interferes with the perception of the announcer's voice.

It is better to choose unknown melodies for the background. Popular songs can be distracting and elicit a certain emotional response from listeners.

The splash screen should be different from the main recording. Ideally, not only the melody, but also the voice acting, although the latter is not critical. You can order a narration for the screensaver from a professional announcer.

After the splash screen, you can make a brief announcement of the topics covered - this tunes in for further listening and intrigues the listener. For example: today, I will tell you what my first income was (pause), what businesses I opened (pause) and what I earned the most in the end.

How to record a podcast

What do you need for this - what kind of microphone and software? Where to record - in the studio or can you record podcasts at home, in the office? How do I make podcasts on my smartphone? Everything in order.

You don't have to go to a professional studio to record podcasts. You can achieve high-quality studio recordings at home or in the office. You just need to purchase equipment and use programs for working with sound.

Equipment:

• Microphone,
• Headphones,
• Computer with internet access.

A few words about microphones

The quality of the recording directly depends on whether they will listen to you or not. You don't have to buy an expensive mic model right away, as there are excellent studio models. Before buying, look at the reviews. You can also type the query "microphone for podcasts" into the search. You can find ready-made studio kits, which also include headphones and a mixer.

Microphones can be dynamic and condenser. The latter are more sensitive and expensive. Dynamic ones are cheaper and do not pick up ambient sounds as much - this is good if you are not recording a podcast in a soundproof studio, for example, at home. Also, the microphone can be unidirectional or bi-directional. Use the second if you plan on inviting guests and interviewing them during a podcast.

How to put a podcast on the Internet

Podcast sites

iTunes is a music library for iOS devices. Here you can import your podcast from SoundCloud. If it gets moderated, it could be featured in Apple Podcasts, the most popular podcast app for iOS. They already have over 20 million podcasts in their library.

Google Podcasts is a similar app, but for Android devices. It hosts podcasts via an RSS feed created, for example, on SoundCloud or Podster.

Spotify is an online audio streaming service similar to SoundCloud. You can apply on Spotify for a Podcaster’s page.

Youtube - You can also use YouTube to distribute your podcasts. Considering that this is a video hosting service, they must be in a video file format. However, some podcasters do not bother with the video sequence, but simply post videos with a screensaver on the screen and a voiceover.

How to publish a podcast on your website or blog

How do I put a podcast on my site? It all depends on what platform or engine you are using. On most sites, podcasts can be displayed by pasting the html code or using an RSS feed created, for example, on SoundCloud.

To get an RSS feed, go to the "Permission" tab in the podcast settings, put a tick in front of the phrase, "Include in RSS feed" - "Save changes.". The RSS feed has been created. Now, to copy it, go to the account settings, open the "Settings" - "Connect" tab, and here is the feed code. Copy and paste wherever needed.

Let's consider separately a couple of methods for the popular WordPress engine, as well as the Wix builder since many people use them to create their sites.

WordPress

You can post podcasts via RSS feed, via html -code, via widgets and plugins. For example, there are several widgets for hosting audio from Soundcloud - HTML5 SoundCloud Player, SoundPress and others.

There are also standalone podcasting plugins - PowerPress Podcasting, Seriously Simple Podcasting, Podlove Podcast Publisher, Simple Podcast Press.

Wix

To host a podcast on a Wix website, use one of these apps in the Wix App Market - Wix Podcast Player, Wix Music, SoundCloud, Spotify.

How to attract your first listeners

There is always a chance that your podcasts will be noticed on the site where they are posted. But it is better not to wait for a miracle, but to promote them yourself. How exactly? Tell everyone, everyone, everyone about your podcast - on the website, in social networks and instant messengers, in mailings, in general, wherever your audience is.

Checklist for launching a podcast

Instead of a conclusion, we offer a mini checklist for launching a podcast:

1. Choose a topic that is interesting to you, is in demand among the audience, and on which you can record many episodes.
2. Create a clear content plan for several episodes ahead.
3. Buy equipment for recording sound, download programs or applications for processing it.
4. Prepare your podcast page layout files.
5. Submit your finished podcasts to one or more sites and promote them wherever you can.
6. Customize your feed and post the podcast to your blog or website.