If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ll know all about The Simply Smart Business Show, the weekly podcast where I explore the ins and outs of starting, growing and scaling a business, success, mindset and a wee bit of digital marketing every now and again.
One of the topics I get asked about most frequently is on podcasting…
- How do you start and launch a podcast?
- What tools and tech do you use for your podcast?
- How do you go about creating weekly podcast content?
So, because I love to give you what you ask for, I thought I’d write a quick blog post addressing all of these questions.
How do you start and launch a podcast?
There are many podcasters out there who start out with a 50 point launch plan… that was not me. Starting a podcast had been a big visibility goal for me, so I took the JFDI approach. I didn’t want to put too many hurdles in my way.
The technical side of starting a podcast is surprisingly simply:
- Set up an account on a podcast hosting platform (I use Podbean).
- Pick a name and design your podcast artwork (2000 x 2000 being the optimum size for iTunes)
- Publish your first episode (even if it’s just an intro) so that you can generate an RSS feed. This is the link you’ll submit to iTunes (here) so that your show can be syndicated by the good folks at Apple. Approval times vary – it can take anything from 2 to 14 days.
Get recording!
A note on intros and outros – you can easily create one of your own or commission one on Fiverr. Don’t let this become another source of procrastination. I did mine on Garage Band with a piece of music I really liked and bought. It was very easy.
What tools and tech do you use for your podcast?
When I first started out, I recorded with a Blue Yeti. I’ve since upgraded to an Audio Technica ATR2100, which offers a much superior sound quality. I’d definitely recommend starting with whatever you’ve got to hand until you know podcasting is going to be your “thing”.
I use Zoom to record my interview episodes – it’s free and it works whether you’re creating solo episodes or interviews. I then edit (minimally) with Garage Band (which comes with my Mac).
How do you go about creating weekly podcast content?
For each episode I create (and when I say “I” I mean my content manager and me):
- A short episode description in Podbean
- More in-depth show notes here on the blog
- A post on Google+ (which we schedule via Buffer)
- Evergreen posts on Twitter and Linkedin (scheduled via Smarterqueue)
- 2x Instagram posts
- An Instagram Story
- A post on my Facebook page
- A post in the Simply Smart Business community
- An email in ActiveCampaign
- A post on Medium
- A video on YouTube (automated via repurpose.io)
- The YouTube Video is then shared to LinkedIn and Twitter via Zapier.
The workflow starts with me recording the episode and uploading it to a shared Dropbox folder.
Daire then takes that episode and sends it off to Rev.com for transcription. She uses the transcript to create all of the written content, which she drafts and pings over to me for approval. She also creates the episode artwork for me using our super simple Canva template.
Once I give the green light, she schedules everything out and we’re good to go!
But, don’t be put off if you’re flying solo and don’t have a Daire. You can easily do all of this yourself.
My advice, start where you are. Start small. Don’t try to be perfect. Just get it out there and perfect as you go.
Happy podding!
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