How to Start a Podcast?
Do you wish to start a podcast like a pro? Are you on the lookout for a guide that walks you through all the steps of how to start a podcast? If you answered yes, then you are in the right place. What’s great for you is that there are very few barriers to start a podcast in this age of technology. Even with the lack of technical skills, you can easily start a podcast, host your shows, and even make good money. The giants like Google and Spotify are investing loads into new tools for podcasters, and in fact, companies also are spending huge on advertising with podcasters. However, there are certain steps that you should follow if you wish to start a podcast.
A guide to how to start a podcast
Step 1: Choose a nice for your podcast
You need to find a niche for your podcast. Two main factors can help you define the niche you should choose. The first is that you aim at bringing additional traffic and customers to your website. If that is the case, you should choose a very general category related to your business. The second is that you wish to convert your podcasts into a business. If that is the case, then your niche should be quite open-ended. So you must identify the niche of your podcast.
Step 2: Decide the format of your podcast.
This is the second most important step. When you define your podcast’s format, you are essentially determining how you differentiate yourself from the others. For example, if there are already podcasts around the topic of marketing, how do you differentiate yourself? There are again two ways to go about this. The first is that you can be more specific. For example, you can make a podcast about digital marketing or customer success marketing. So choose topics that you can define at least 30 ideas for. The second way to go about this is to pick different podcast formats. You can easily choose from solo podcasts, interviews, multiple hosts, case studies, storytelling, short or long, etc.
Step 3: Choose a name and theme music
Before you start recording and set your show, you need to decide on a name or title and your theme music. If your title is not attractive, you might not have any listeners. So think about how the niche of your podcast can also relate to your title. The next thing that your listeners will associate with your show is your theme music. Your theme music essentially is the intro and outro songs which they will hear in every episode. So make it catchy and peppy!
Step 4: Pick your podcast hosting provider.
If you don’t choose a reliable, good-quality host, your listeners might have trouble downloading or stream your podcast episodes. This is why we highly recommend using
Step 5: Setting up your show
The first thing that you must do as a podcaster is to set up your show. This is the most important step, and
Once done, you can then upload your episode. We will cover this in the steps below. And finally, you can then distribute your podcast on the best directories, which we will again cover in the steps.
If you already have a few recordings in place or have your existing podcasts, you can easily transfer them into Buzzsprout. All you have to do is enter your existing RSS feed into Buzzsprout. It then grabs everything from audio files to episode details, so it will be reflected exactly the way you want it to.
Step 6: Publishing an episode
Publishing an episode in Buzzsprout is very simple. When you log in to Buzzsprout, you can simply click on the ‘upload a New Episode’ tab to create your episode. When done, drag or upload your audio file to make it into a standard bitrate and format. This is highly beneficial because it gives you the freedom to upload anything you like, and then Buzzsprout automatically formats it.
On the page that opens, you will then be required to fill in the details of your episode. Doing this will double your id3 tags which Buzzsprout will automatically add to your mp3. You need to fill out information like –
- The title of the episode
- The description of the episode
- The summary of the episode
- The guests or the host of the episode
- The tags you wish to use
- The season number and the episode number
- The type of the episode – full, trailer, bonus
- The explicit rating of your episode
Date and time for it to be published – you can either save your episode as a draft to be published on a specific day or immediately.
Once you have completed filling these out, your episode is now ready to go live.
One trick that you can do is to create a separate template for all your episode descriptions. This will save you time and can be reused for every episode. It is recommended to launch a podcast with more than 1 episode so that your listeners don’t have to wait too long for the next release.
Step 7: Using automated conversions
Like we discussed above, Buzzsprout automatically changes your files into the standard format. It is important that you understand why and how this works. When you upload an audio file as a standard package, Buzzsprout automatically converts it into a mono mp3 at 96kbps. If you understand audio production, there is a high chance that you must have mastered your file in the settings and format that you think suits best. For someone who isn’t so tech-savvy, the balance of their file size and audio quality depends on the source material.
So offers an upload of 192k stereo files. This is highly beneficial because a majority of podcasters aren’t tech-savvy. You can even upload files from your Zoom recording, Skype recording, and phone recording without editing it. Buzzsprout will automatically change the format that makes it studio-quality audio.
Step 8: Using Video Soundbites
Buzzsprout includes a few great tools that can help you with promotion and listener engagement. First on the list is the soundbite feature. This feature allows you to pick a short but of your episode and create a video trailer based on that short bit. You must’ve seen many of these on social media, especially when podcasters wish to announce their upcoming episodes.
Even though there are many tools that help you do this, having it within your podcast host makes it highly feasible. The tool is easy to use. All you need is to define the start time for your clip. Play the preview and if you are happy with that, let Buzzsprout do the rest.
Step 9: Using chapter markers
Chapter markers are quite common with podcasting, and listeners love to use them. So if your podcast comes with chapter markers implemented, you make it easy for your listeners. Chapter markers essentially help your listeners run thorough longer episodes and then pick the parts that they want to listen to. What’s interesting is that chapter markers encourage your audience to listen to your podcasts because they would know what is coming up and when. So instead of keeping your listeners waiting for a certain topic, chapter markers will let your listeners know when you will discuss that.
You can add page markers while you are editing the recording in Buzzsprout. This is a good step because since you already are listening to the podcast, you can easily pop the chapter markers.
Step 10: Get Transcriptions for your podcast.
Buzzsprout has recently added the feature to transcribe your episode. When you transcribe your episode, you make it easy for Google to find it. And so Google recommends your podcast for your listeners. Buzzsprout is partnered with Temi, which is an online transcription service.
To transcribe your podcast, all you have to do is upload your audio file and click on the ‘transcribe this episode’ button. You can then review your episode and make the changes you desire. Once done, you can even copy and paste the transcription to your personal website.
Step 11: Share your podcast
Now that your podcast is ready and you have uploaded the first episode, you need to start promoting it so you can drive maximum traffic. You can do this by promoting your podcasts through emails and social media. Your Buzzsprout account, by default, includes a simple broadcast website. This is where all your episodes would be listed automatically once published. Buzzsprout lets you easily share a link to this site. You can find that URK on your website page in your account under podcast settings.
You can also share specific links to each episode—this way, your listeners do not need to scroll through all the episodes to find what they need. You can find this link on the episodes page. Here click on the episode that you wish to share. Then on the right side of the page, click on the ‘email link to episode’ option.
Another great channel to promote your podcasts is social media. Social media has now become a part of our lives. To share your episodes on social media, go the page of the episode that you wish to share. Here, you will find three options that let you share that episode on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Step 12: Submit your podcast to Spotify
Studies have shown that there are more than 250 million podcasts listeners on Spotify. In fact, Spotify is the second most popular platform to listen to podcasts in the world. With such numbers in place, there is no denying that you must have your podcasts available on Spotify to increase your audience base. The best part is that Buzzsprout offers you a Spotify listing! It just cannot get any better than this.
To submit your Buzzsprout podcasts to Spotify, click on ‘Directories’ and then from the Spotify box, click on the ‘Get listed’ button. Once your podcasts have been submitted to Spotify successfully, you will then see a button that says ‘view your podcast in Spotify.’ When you click on it, the button will direct you to your listing in Spotify. It is important to note that it might take a few days to have your podcasts accepted by Spotify. So there is a high chance that you might not see your entire listing right away.
Conclusion
The success of your podcast truly depends on how great your hosting is. That is why we recommend Buzzsprout. It is simple and quick; it does the job with minimum thought and allows you to get the best content from the depths of your creativity. Another great benefit of Buzzsprout is its pricing. You can buy plans depending on the duration of your podcasts. So you are paying for value – nothing more and nothing less.
As exciting as it sounds, podcasting is not that easy, but it is highly rewarding. If you set foot into it, you need to be in it for the long run. There could be times when you might feel stagnant growth, but when it does work, it works for the best. So be patient and keep working on creating high-quality content. Remember that the possibilities are endless!
Want to learn more about how to start a podcast and take it growth? We will help you get there! Let us know in the comments below.
