How to Start a Podcast in 2024 - Beginner’s Guide
You decided to start a podcast, how exciting!
With a podcast, you can share your organic and free conversations with an audience and connect at a deeper level, which is so needed right now!
You can entertain, educate, share stories, and give your audience access to information they never thought possible.
There’s never been a better time to start a podcast.
In this post, I'll show you how easy it is to produce and launch one.
No more hiding. No more excuses. We’re going to do it together.
Let’s tackle the five steps to launching your amazing new show.
Your Podcast Blueprint
Choosing Your Podcast Hosting Platform - Find the perfect home for your podcast.
Picking Your Podcast Name - Crafting an identity that stands out.
Writing Your Podcast Description - Summarizing your show's essence.
Designing Your Podcast Cover - Creating visual appeal for your audience.
Creating Your Episodes - Producing content that captivates.
Choosing Your Podcast Hosting Platform
What is that? And why do you need it?
You need a podcast hosting site to upload and distribute your podcast to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other podcast players.
There are many different options for hosting sites that offer unique features. They all essentially achieve the same thing, which is to hold the actual audio files, text information, and image files.
Hosting sites will then allow you to distribute your podcast using an RSS link to your website that you create with them.
This is how Apple, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Stitcher, Overcast, and now even YouTube can stream your show on their platforms.
Spotify for Podcasters (formerly known as Anchor) is the only podcast hosting site, at the time I’m writing this, that supports video. So you can have a video podcast on Spotify and then share your RSS link from Spotify for podcasters to the other podcast directories and players.
Many video podcasters choose this route and then as part of their workflow, they will also upload their video episodes every week to YouTube as well.
Our top pick for AUDIO ONLY is Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout wins the hosting showdown for us because of its unique features for independent podcasters. Most notable (for us) is the Dynamic Ads Feature. This feature allows you to dynamically insert and remove ads that you record at the beginning (pre-roll), middle (mid-roll), or end (post-roll). This is an incredible tool for monetizing. Buzzsprout also has a ton of other resources and great features to help independent podcasters grow their podcasts.
So step one is to sign up for a hosting site.
The process for signing up is very similar on all hosting sites. The sites will walk you through submitting all of your important information and assets. Which also happens to be the next four steps in launching a podcast.
2. Picking Your Podcast Name
I’ve seen people spending either way too much time finding the right name or no time at all. There’s no in-between!
But whether you’re on either end of the spectrum, choose a name that’s easy to pronounce, easy to spell, and unique.
You want to avoid encrypted names that only mean something to you or names with weird pronunciation or spelling.
Otherwise, you would make it hard for your listeners to remember and recommend your podcast to others. And word of mouth is still one of the best ways to grow your audience.
And bonus points: if your podcast name is a descriptive phrase or question people are searching for online, like “ How to Lose Weight,” “ How to Make Money Online,” Or “ How to Train a Puppy,” you get it!
Doing this will help your podcast come up in searches over time, meaning it will have more chances to be found by new listeners who are interested in your topic!
And finally, don’t use a name if another podcast is already using it. I know it’s a bummer to find a name you like and discover somebody else is using it, too.
But, using the same name will confuse your audience and could even lead to legal problems down the road.
So do a quick Google search with the name you choose and also run a search on the podcast players and Podchaser, which is a podcast platform slash database, to find out if there’s another podcast with the same name.
If you feel stuck creatively and need extra help, you can use AI tools like Chat GPT to get the ideas flowing.
3. Writing Your Podcast Description
The next thing you’ll need is a description for your podcast.
This is an important piece of writing because it will serve as an elevator pitch when people ask about your podcast.
You can add it to your email communications when reaching out to potential guests for your show.
It can be part of your first episode or trailer. It can go on your website, social media, or any other promotional piece.
So, I’m going to hook you up with a template you can use to write your own. You can take a screenshot or pause the video and write it down.
Welcome to [Name of the Podcast].
A podcast about [ Topic ].
Hosted by [ Host].
In each episode [format]
Engagement Sentence
First in the description is the name of your podcast. We already picked a name, so we can move on to the second line, which is the topic.
You may already have a topic in mind; if you don’t, it’s simple: you want to find a topic that you truly enjoy and provides value to your audience.
The third element or line in the description is the host.
And here, you want to introduce yourself and share your authority.
And I’m not talking only about professional credentials. If your podcast is about, let’s say, for example, dating in the online world, you don’t need to be a dating expert If you’ll be sharing your own stories.
Just tell your audience why you’re qualified to talk about the topic.
In your description, you also want to talk about the format of your podcast, whether it will be interviewing experts, telling stories, or providing coaching and education about the topic.
And finally, you want to get into the habit of asking your audience to do something to support the podcast.
It can be to follow the podcast, follow you on social media, or share the podcast with a friend.
Get in the habit of asking your audience to take action.
4. Designing Your Podcast Cover
Now it’s time to go to Canva and get designing.
Buzzsprout also makes this step super easy with an integration with Canva.
All I have to do is click on the “design with Canva” button, and I’m taken instantly to the perfect dimensions I need to design my cover.
Look at all of these ready-to-use templates that we have to choose from.
Once you select a template you like, you can swap out the placeholder pictures with your photos, easily change the colors of words and elements within the design, move things around, and resize them to your liking.
You can also simply go to Canva and select “Create Design” and type in “Podcast Cover”.
Here’s an example of how I took a template from Canva and made it my own:
5. Creating Your Episodes
There’s a lot that goes into creating episodes that captivate your audience. I’m going to give you a quick rundown here.
But in our free Mini Course: Idea to Podcast Simplified for Business Owners, we go into detail with strategies and development.
Your podcast will be divided into episodes you can choose to post weekly or bi-weekly.
We recommend launching your podcast with at least three episodes, and one of those episodes is your trailer.
A podcast trailer’s purpose is to get your audience excited about your podcast.
The good news is that your podcast trailer includes pretty much everything we already created for the podcast description.
You just have to elaborate more on each point and add your personality to it.
You can script your trailer word for word or put together an outline and keep it natural.
After you have your trailer written and ready to go, it’s time to record, so you’re going to need recording equipment and recording software.
This is the fun part of starting a podcast: choosing your gear and recording your first episodes!
This is where things start to get real.
So let’s talk about equipment!
There are different options to choose from depending on your budget and production goals.
A podcast setup we use here in the studio to record our own podcasts and we also recommend to our clients is the Shure SM7b, which is an XLR microphone plugged into the SSL2 + audio interface to get amazing, professional, tasty audio.
You’ve probably seen podcasters using this setup, and looks super cool and professional.
But you can also achieve good results using USB microphone plugged directly into your computer.
Our top picks are the Samson Q2U, which is budget-friendly, and the Shure MV7 for looks and classic Shure sound.
Don’t worry I created a list with the Pod Sound School’s favorite podcasting gear, including equipment for all budgets you can find it here:
Let’s Get Recording
After we have our gear selected, it is time to record our podcast.
There are different recording solutions for podcasts, the one we recommend if you don’t have experience recording audio is Descript because it’s very easy to use.
You can record your podcast into Descript and edit it like a Word document.
With Descript, you can also record your interviews remotely with guests if you want to interview guests on your podcast.
Now, if you want to be the talent behind the microphone and don’t want to bother with editing, you can hire an editor for your podcast.
Editing is time-consuming so if you can outsource this part of your production, even better.
We train the best editors in the industry so we can connect you with the right one for your podcast. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE.
It’s Time to Publish and Distribute
Now that you have uploaded an episode to your podcast host. You have filled in all the important details and added a sweet podcast cover art.
It’s time to publish your first episode and distribute your podcast to the podcast players.
Every podcast hosting site has a similar process of doing this. There is a “Distribution” TAB where you will be guided through the steps of sharing your RSS Link with all of the popular podcast players.
Like in this example inside Buzzsprout below:
And that’s it. You’re officially a podcaster. Great work!
Now it’s time to stay consistent and be open to adapt along the way.
Podcasting is a long term game, that with commitment, pays off big time in the long run.
There truly is no better way to build trust with an audience and network with industry professionals than with podcasting.
I hope you found this post helpful. Keep creating and don’t be a stranger.
Come say hi on my DMs over on IG
♥♥Veronica
