JUSTJESS
Ins and Outs of Podcasting
Starting a podcast can be super easy. The most difficult part is getting started!
With millions of podcasts on the market, it may seem daunting or not worth the work, but my advice, is: start a podcast anyway! Do it for yourself, do it for your resume, do it for your friends and family.
Here, is a guide for getting started.
Why Should You Start a Podcast?
In my own experience, I started a podcast to share with others and build a community of like-minded individuals. I had no expectations...
That being said, here are some reasons why you might be starting a podcast:
- Starting a new hobby
- To advertise or promote your business
- You have a passion for a specific topic or subject
- You want to connect with others and build a community
Choosing a Topic
As I was deciding on a topic for my podcast, I had two things in mind:
- What am I interested in? It's like deciding on what to write an english paper about. As someone with lot's of questions and things to learn, as well as sharing what I learn with others, I found choosing a topic simple.
- What can I talk about at length? When creating a podcast, it's a good idea to think long-term. A good rule of thumb is to try to make a list of 15-20 episode ideas. If not, you may run out of episodes and you may want to choose something else. This way, you'll have a plethora of ideas to choose from and many episodes to share with the world.
Determining Your Audience
It's like creating a character in a book or a video game. To help you learn your audience, you can create an archetype of who would listen to your podcast.
Here are some things to consider when building your 'audience persona'
- Traits and Characteristics of your audience
- Passions and Hobbies: What do they do in their free time? What kind of passions or hobbies do they have?
- Problems or questions your audience might have: By knowing their problems or questions, your podcast could help them, providing answers or solutions to your audience.
Choosing a Format
Deciding how you want to host your podcast is an integral part of the process. There are multiple styles you can choose from:
- Solo: You are the only host of your podcast.
- Duo: There are two hosts
- Interview: You sit down with a different guest each episode, and ask them questions.
- Roundtable: There are multiple co-hosts or speakers, like a panel.
- Narrative: Similar to a solo podcast, but storytelling is the focus, like true crime, horror, or history.
There's no wrong answer, but as someone who would not be able to talk at length (like at least an hour) about something, I chose the interview route. I liked this style the best because it provides an opportunity for a conversation to go in all kinds of directions. Once you ask your guest a question, you can answer it yourself, giving the listener a taste of who you are as the host.
Intro and Outro
The best way I can describe the structure of a podcast is how your middle school english teacher told you to write a five-paragraph paper. There's an intro paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph.
Intro: A standout podcast intro is your chance to make a great first impression and to hook your listeners.
For example: "Hi my name .... welcome back to .... today we are going to be talking about ...." And for a little pizazz, maybe add some music under your voice.
Outro: And the outro of your podcast is your chance to end your podcast on a high note, and keep listeners engaged and connected. Like if you have an instagram page, send you listeners to the page. Or you can tease to what your next episode will be about.
Pre-Production
Outlines: I'm going to mention your middle school english teacher again... Mine always told me that before writing a paper, to brainstorm first and then create an outline to organize that paper. An outline is a great tool to organize your podcast as well. It helps you keep on track if you lose your train of thought or go off on a tangent.
Lists: Another great tool for podcasting are lists! We already talked about coming up with a list of episode ideas, but there are others. If you are interviewing guests, make a list of questions to ask them, a good number to aim for is 5. You may not get to all of them. Also, creating a list of guests you'd like to host on your podcast.
Distribution and Social Media
Distribution: Once recording and editing are complete, it's time to share your creation with the world. There are many different platforms, it may be overwhelming. But there's one website that makes it easy, PodBean. PodBean is your one stop shop for uploading, distribution, and analytics. On their free version, you can share your podcast to Podbean's app, Apple Music, Youtube, and so many more. Another platform is of course Spotify. You can also upload and view your analytics there.
Social Media: A great way to build and interact with your audience is having a social page dedicated to your podcast. That could be Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, its totally up to you.
By having an Instagram page (for example) you can interact with your listeners, answer their questions, get ideas for future episodes, and keep your audience up to date on the latest about your podcast.
Consistency
The last little nugget of advice I will leave for you is the importance of consistency. When it comes to releasing episodes, make sure it's on a consistent schedule. Now, how often you post is TOTALLY up to you! You don't have to upload an episode every week, or every two weeks. It could be once a month, but as long as your listeners know that, they'll keep coming back.
Consistency also plays into the structure of your podcast. Having an intro, body, and outro of each episodes, allows your listener to be guided throughout the episode.
And of course, the colors, font, and cover art you use. This is important for your podcast's brand and identity. It will easily allow your listeners to pick you out from the crowd.
Send Off!
With all of that being said. You are ready to start a podcast! Good luck!