With consumers spending more time at home, and searching for more connection and choice, the popularity of podcasts is increasing. We live in an era of podcasts and there is no better time to start a podcast, which gives you the possibility to share knowledge with your target audience, and promote your products among members of your audience. This form of sharing content is popular because they are easy to access, you can choose what to listen to according to your interests, they`re multi-task friendly, they bring an intimate atmosphere and quickly build audience community. There are many things to know and prepare before you launch your first episode, so here is a step-by step guide on how you can make your own podcast.

Of course, don’t forget that we are here to assist you on every step of the way, but in case you decide to do it on your own – here’s what you need to know.

CREATE A PODCAST CONCEPT

At the beginning, ask yourself: Why am I starting a podcast? What is my goal or purpose for my podcast? and What is my podcast about? Choose a topic. Whatever your topic is, be passionate about it. Once you have a defined idea, do market research. Search if there are already podcasts in that genre. Then, listen to a number of episodes to see what they are doing well and think how they could be improved.

PICK A CO-HOST

Pick a colleague, business partner or a friend with whom you get along and who is as passionate as you about the topic.

CHOOSE A NAME

Pick catchy, memorable words, which will opt for the name of your podcast. Make your title specific, compelling, so you can attract more subscribers.

Be attentive to the title, author and title tags at the and the level of your podcast, because it will affect visibility of your podcast in search. Title tag should have brief description in it, to help search results.

Metadata are also important: name of the person that created the file, the length of the file, title of the file, description and so on. Providing metadata will affect visibility of your podcast in relevant searches and number of subscriptions.

USE KEYWORDS, BUT NOT TOO MANY

Choosing the right keywords will make it easy for people to find your podcast. When you have one or two word podcast name, attribute short description to the title tag to help search results. Short description can include well-known name of the podcast host, so people who search for that person, can find the podcast. Or, if you have a podcast about web development treats, you can add web development treats as title tag, so people who search for web development can be potential listeners.

WAIT UNTIL YOU CREATE YOUR PODCAST ARTWORK

Wait until you record few episodes before you create your podcast`s official artwork. You will save money and give yourself freedom to change the title of your podcast, once you realise you came up with better idea.

SHOW FORMAT

Length

There are many attitudes what is good podcast length, but have in mind that podcast length can vary 5 minutes – 6 hours. Find whatever is best for you, and try it out! The only important thing is that you don`t make it longer than it needs to be.

Style

There are various types: interview show, solo or co-hosted show or combined. Benefit of having an interview show is attracting new listeners. It is good if you make it easy for your guest to share in advance prepared templates and graphics.

Episode format

Some examples of formats for popular podcasts:

Teaser

Intro music

Welcome

Ad Spot

Interview

Call to Action

Outro music

These different segments give you chance to easily share small clips on social media, as well. Remember that for every episode you make, you will have both repeat listeners and new listeners, so try to address both of them.

CREATE COVER ART

Carefully choose your cover art – it is first thing most people will see when they search on their favourite podcast app or when they see your show on social media. Designer can make several drafts and you can choose most appealing.

GET A PROFESSIONAL INTRO (OPTIONAL)

Getting professional-quality voice-overs and intros are great way to stand out when starting a podcast. Having a third-party introduce you adds to perception of your value. Website  musicradiocreative.com gives you variety of options for making professional intro.

CHOOSE INTRO MUSIC

You can find variety of styles on royalty-free music websites, like PremiumBeat for example.

GET A MICROPHONE

Nowdays, it is easy to get a good and cheap audio quality microphone for podcasting. Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB is one of the most popular podcast microphones. This mic, and most of mics, have option for upgrading.

PODCAST GUESTS

Make a list of guests you want on your podcast. Once you reach them out, you can use www.acuityscheduling.com so people can book the time which suits you, on your calendar. When they schedule with you, you can ask them to provide their Skype username or an intro, which you can directly read from the calendar. To record your interviews when you are not present in person or if your co-host doesn`t record in the same space with you, https://iris.fm/ is recommended.

PREPARE QUESTIONS

Prepare your questions in advance. Save few questions, to put them on the table, if conversation goes in different direction. Send questions to the guest, in advance.

CONTROL CONVERSATION&APPEARANCE

Take care that conversation lasts approximately as long as an episode. Try to lead natural conversation, make some jokes and smile. Pay attention to hand gestures, or items which you hold in hands – nothing should distract viewer`s attention.

RECORDING & EDITING

Alitu is podcast making tool that works automatically and builds your episode for you. It is based inside your browser, so it is easy to use. It lets you add music, helps you put together audio segments and can directly publish your episodes. All you need to do is upload your recordings, and use podcast-specific editor to take out big mistakes.

CREATE A TEMPLATE

Creating a template will make everything easier for you. Template includes having intro&outro music prepared, space for ad spots, and tracks for your voice or interviewee. Keep in mind that choice of template depends on your episode format.

RECORD&EDIT&UPLOAD AN EPISODE

You can record solo episode, episode with multiple hosts or remote interview. Then, edit episode, get a podcast host – choose one of podcast platforms and upload your episode. Using Buzzsprout for uploading will make process easier. You can also use Buzzsprout`s social sharing feature to make teaser videos and share them.

CREATE A WEBSITE

Podcast promotion is important if you want to stand out. Making a podcast website is first step in podcast marketing. Podcast hosting companies give you a website, but if you want to be serious, get yourself WordPress host.

Podcastpage is a website builder and all-in-one hosting made for podcasts, specifically. Choose one theme, customize to your liking, and integrate email marketing or Google Analytics. Add pages or blog posts, customize your audio player and make it easy to subscribe.

GET TRANSCRIPTIONS

Transcriptions are best way for search engines, like Google, to „read“ your podcast episodes. Transcriptions give your audience a way to find something quickly.

CREATE SHOW NOTES

Show notes can include: transcriptions, simple summary of the episode or full blog post. You can combine all three of these.

EMBED YOUR EPISODE

Take embed code for your episode and put it on your show notes page, so people can listen directly from your website.