10 steps to start podcasting
Step 1: A dynamic cardioid microphone
- Audio-technica ATR-2100 $99 delivered
- Dynamic because they are more rugged, need no external power and less sensitive to subtle background noises.
- Cardioid because it will allows you to record in any room without the need for sound treatment due to its pickup pattern being specifically in front and close to the mic
- It’s USB and XLR so it will grow with you
- Lots of podcasters use the so there’s a lot of help videos out there for you to learn from
Step 2: Show titles and artwork
- Titles/descriptions
- Podcast title, Host/talent name, podcast subtitle, podcast summary / description (under 4000 characters)
- Artwork
- 3000px by 3000px max ,I prefer 1400 x 1400px to keep the file size down, Under 500k or will be rejected by itunes
- canva.com is a free option to create these with
- namecheckr.com to check domain, fb, twitter, instagram, youtube etc for availability
Step 3: Editing / recording your audio
Recording
- Audacity – recording and editing
- – free open source software, powerful, quick once you know a few of the main features
- can be pimped up to very professional setup with 3rd party plugins
- Zoom.us – guest recordings via the internet or even phone ins
- free for 1 guest recordings
- can split tracks for easier editing later
- can also capture video of all parties
Editing
- create standard intro and outro mentioning subscribing to get latest episodes
- Export completed episode as .wav file
- put .wav file through free Levelator or paid Auphonic software to balance all levels for consistent sound
- add .wav file to itunes and convert to 128kbps mp3 file
- with itunes add meta data and artwork via file info
- click and drag mp3 file to your podcast folder ( you will upload this mp3 later )
Step 4: Audio hosting
- Audio hosting is to audio is a bit like what youtube or vimeo are to video.
- itunes, stitcher and all of those podcast networks just point to where you host your audio files
- libsyn.com is reliable, cost effective and scalable. Classic 250mb plan $15USD/month gets you about 5 hours per month of new audio. Every month you get another 250MB and all of the previous uploads stay online at no extra cost.
Audio upload process
- Depending on which plugin (next step) you use you these are the options
- A: upload them directly to you audio host ( libsyn) and get a link to the mp3 file to copy and paste into a special field at the bottom of your blog post
- B: Upload the mp3 file within the blog post for that episode directly to the audio host (libsyn)
- don’t worry the next slides cover the plugins for both options
Step 5: WordPress Plugins to use
Step 6: Blog post
- use a blog post which has
- show notes with profile of guest and links to websites mentioned in the episode
- has a podcast player automatically provided by the previous plugins mentioned
- depending on which plugin you decided on you now either:
- upload the mp3 file from the blog post
- upload the mp3 file to libsyn and then copy and past the link to the file into the bottom of the blog post
Step 7: Make 3 Episodes
- gives new listeners something to get their teeth into
- a thin intro episode is not enough
- you get better with each episode so by number 3 its already a lot better
Step 8: Submit to podcast directories
Step 9: Promote on social media
- tell people when you latest podcast is out
- make a little video with a sample of the audio from the show with maybe a photo of the guest.
The website headliner.app can do this for you for free (at the time of this podcast/presentation anyway) - promote the blog post on instagram, twitter, facebook etc
Step 10: Workflow
- Schedule guest / decide on topic
- Plan show, storyline, questions for guest etc (send to guest)
- Record audio
- Edit audio / create show notes
- Upload audio
- Schedule or publish post
- Promote on social media
