I’ve covered a lot of information on how to start a podcast so you might have more than you need right now to get things off the ground. However, if you are after hearing about turning it into a video podcast as well as ways to develop a revenue stream from podcasting them read on.
# How to Start a Podcast

It’s been nearly two years since I launched my podcast and have just passed 50 episodes. During this time I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to create a successful podcast.

Recently I’ve been receiving a lot of messages about how to start a podcast so I’ve created this article & episode showing you step-by-step instructions.

### How to Start a Podcast in 5 Steps:

1. Coming up with a theme for your show

2. Get yourself a good quality microphone

3. Recording your first episode

4. Find a place to host your files

5. Promoting your podcast

I’ll expand on these steps below and will also share some added extra at the bottom include a few other things like how to develop an income from podcasting.

### Start a Podcast: 5 Detailed Steps

Here is my step-by-step guide on how I started this podcast in these five steps.

## Step 1: Come up with a theme for your show

So you’ve decided you want to start a podcast and join the million other creative souls who have launched a show. But you are wondering what you’d like to talk about, the idea for my show came to me while I was away on holiday, giving yourself some time away to reflect on your approach can be a great place to start. And you don’t need to go away you just need some time to yourself and a pen and paper to begin getting those ideas out of your head.

You may decide to do it as an extension of your career/business to help you reach more people. You could be a yoga instructor who wants to interview people in the health and wellbeing sector or you are obsessed with horror movies and want to delve deep into that field. Whatever you decide, make sure it’s something you are passionate about.

Now write down in a few paragraphs that sum up your show (including a name for your podcast). At some point, before you launch your podcast you’ll want to create a logo for it. There are relatively inexpensive ways of creating a logo and artwork for your show:

Fiverr connects you with freelancers offering logo designs. You could get one designed for as little as £10 and try it out. Remember to not be too precious when starting, just think you can always create another logo further down the line once your podcast is more established.

Canva allows you to create designs for free and is very popular with podcasters, bloggers and YouTubers to help them create bespoke graphics for yours. More on this below in ‘Step 5. Promoting your podcast.’

## Step 2: Get yourself a good quality microphone

A microphone will be one of the first things you think about when starting a podcast. It’s the gateway to creating crisp recordings of your show. When starting you don’t want to be breaking the bank when it comes to buying a microphone, but a good mic isn’t as expensive as you might think. Smartphones are getting better as time goes on so you could record it on there if you like, but I would recommend investing on a good mic.

The two I considered when starting where the Blue Yet USB Microphone and the RØDE Podcaster USB. These are both powerful microphones for podcasting and one you’ll generally see when seeing others record podcasts. Both microphones are USB so can plug directly into your computer with no extra hassle.

I decided to go with the Blue Yeti USB Microphone because not only was it cheaper than the RØDE Podcaster I liked the look of it.

Another thing to consider when recording is an adjustable stand with a mic pop filter. Two reasons for this is the stand will keep it off the surface so won’t pick up extra vibrations and the pop filter which will filter out any unwanted background noises.

## 3. Recording your first episode

This is where the fun begins. But before you press record you’ll want to choose the right editing program to record it in. This will allow you to edit your episode afterwards to remove out any unwanted mistakes or noises as well as tidying up the overall audio quality getting it ready for upload.

There are two excellent editing programs that you can use for free (I use Audacity as it looked so easy to use from the outset. However, I’m sure GarageBand does the trick just as well):

• Audacity  is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to record live audio and cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together; numerous effects including changing the speed or pitch of a recording, and more.

• GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio right inside your Mac—with a complete sound library that includes instruments, presets for guitar and voice. With Touch Bar features for MacBook Pro and intuitive, modern design, it’s easy to learn, play, record, create, and share your hits worldwide.

### Getting started

Now you’ve got everything in place to record your podcast. You’ve been dreaming of this day for some time and now is a great time to start your podcast, even though they have been going since the early 2000s, they have been growing year on year in popularity. Currently over a million podcasts, with about 30 millions episodes (that has doubled in the last few years).

You may think you’ve missed the boat, but when you think how long other media platforms are podcasting is still it’s infancy as there’s still a significant portion of the population who haven’t even listened to a podcast and yours could be just the ticket to introduce them to this amazing way of absorbing information.

One thing that might put you off is the number of podcasts that are out there but when you consider there are nearly eight billion people on the planet, one million podcasters is a very small percentage. Also, forgot about reaching a large audience when you start, just focus on producing good content, content that you would want to listen to. Supposedly the magic number to pass in terms of episodes is 13, this is the number a lot of people don’t reach as they’ve ever lost interest in it or I’ve been disappointed with them the number of people who have been listening.

From someone who has well passed that number in terms of episodes, I will tell you straight – forget about the numbers, you’ll get lost in them there are so many other reasons to be doing this that aren’t quantifiable. For instance, I get such a buzz from interviewing people, receiving nice comments about my show and I’ve made some wonderful new friendships along the way. Things I would never have imagined when I started.

### Format of your show

Give each episode some thought, do some research into the topics you’ll be talking about and write down some show notes keep you on point. Think about it in three sections:

- Introduce yourself and your show, share topic/guest and give a brief overview of what’s to come

- The body of the podcast covering the topic/interview

- Wrap up the episode, thank the guest, provide links to the show and sign-off etc.

### Recording space

You’ll want to find a nice quiet space with a comfortable chair to record your first podcast episode.

You can always hire a place to record your show and book out a recording studio for a few hours. This can be a good way to focus your mind and discipline you to turn up and record your podcast.

Pro tip: if sharing a space with someone let them know in advance that you’ll be recording and you’ll feel better knowing you’ve got the space to yourself for a couple of hours.

### Interviewing guests

Having guests on the show was something I always planned for as I love to have interesting conversations.

Inviting strangers on your show can be a little nerve-racking but I would encourage you to be brave and just go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? They say no, so what it wasn’t meant to be. I’ve found after having asked dozens of people on my show that the vast majority are more than happy to come on and talk about themselves.

Once you’ve got them on board and you have a time set to record your interview, do some research on them beforehand and make a list of questions you’d like to ask them. Even if it's just watching their TED Talk or read their bio you’ll find interest things to discuss with them.

As for questions to ask, to start with you might want some generic questions to ask all guests. E.g. Who’s had the greatest influence in your life? Here are two articles which may spark some ideas for you as you prepare, but remember to leave plenty of wiggle room in your interviews as you never know what wondering little directions you’ll go off on once you start chatting.

As time goes on you can simplify your approach - some of the best ones I’ve done recently have been when I’ve just made it up on the fly as I felt like I had a good understanding of them and their field of excellence.

Most importantly, have fun doing the interviews!

### Warming up

Just like anything else you might do in life, warming up and getting prepared for recording an episode is important. Here are a few things to consider before each show:

• Take a few minutes before your start to stretch out your body (including stitching out your mouth, lips and tongue)

• Focus on your breathing to bring you more in touch with your body (this 4-7-8 breathing exercise is worth checking out)

• Stay hydrated and have a bottle of water to hand throughout the show

• Have a pen and paper on hand in case you have some ideas during the interview

• If doing face-to-face interviews put some extra deodorant on (I find I sweat way more when interviewing people I’ve never met before!)

I’d also recommend keeping a sticky note close by with a few things you don’t want to forget. For instance, a mic check beforehand is important and also remember to press record. I did one interview with a prominent guest and was chatting for 90 mins before I realised I had forgotten to press the damn record button! Thankfully the guest was understanding and we recorded the podcast again, but heaven knows I don’t want to go through that ordeal again!

### Don’t sweat the small stuff

There will be distractions that you’ll just have to get over (dogs barking, workmen outside digging up the road, the internet going down, mic not working etc.). Just go with it and remember you can always edit it afterwards and each time something like this comes up you’ll learn from it and make adjustments as you go.

### Soundtracks

I’m fond of podcasts that have theme music, even if it’s just for 10 seconds it makes the show more memorable. For the first year or so I would have an intro and outro music but recently I would just have it at the end of each episode as a good way to sign-off each episode.

I picked up my soundtrack over at AudioJungle for about £15, there are thousands of tracks to choose from that can deliver the sound you are looking for. Further down the line, you could always commission someone to create a piece of music for you but when starting off picking up royalty-free music from the likes of AudioJungle will do the trick.

## 4. Find a place to host your files

So you’ve recorded your first episode and you are as proud as punch with yourself. Now what you ask, well you’ve got to find a place to hosting platform to which will then syndicate your podcast into an RSS feed and be distributed throughout the likes of Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and like automatically.

I’ve used SoundCloud since I launched my podcast and they are an online audio distribution platform that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. I have found SoundCloud to be an inexpensive way to host my show, it costs me £10 per month to have a SoundCloud Pro Unlimited subscription.

Libsyn is another popular hosting site for podcasts where they host over 60,000 shows and their plans start from as little as $5 per month but you’ll most likely need a $15 per month one if you are sharing podcast consistently.

Podbean is another easy and powerful way to start a podcast. You’re looking at around $9 per month to host through these guys.

### Back up your files

Even though you’ll host your show on one of these platforms your best making a copy of the original files. I use to keep them just on my laptop but then I started uploading them to the cloud through Dropbox and boy am I glad I did because a few weeks later we got broken into and my laptop was stolen!

You can get a free personal account on Dropbox with 2GB of storage to get you started.

## 5. Promoting your podcast

Right then, the day has come when you want to share your podcast with the world. You’ve uploaded it and now is the time to use all your means to get the word out.

For the first six months, I focused on using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn to share my show. I did this through my account as I didn’t want to go and set up separate accounts giving myself extra work. I’ve since set up a dedicated Facebook page but with the way its algorithms work it doesn’t reach as many people as I would like.

After I got my feet under the table and was sure I was enjoying doing it (six months in) I decided to set up a website through SquareSpace which is now the go-to place to find all my episodes. A website gives you several ways to let your audience know about your podcast and you can publish other content on there like blog posts announcing new releases.

I have since set up an email list where send out my latest episodes into my subscriber's inbox. This is something I would highly recommend as it’s probably the one place you can guarantee to capture your audience's attention.

### Be consistent

It’s good to be consistent when putting out episodes, I aim to share mine on a Tuesday which can allow people time to catch it during the week. Some people will share them on a Friday as well as people tend to have more spare time at the weekend to listen to shows. Either way be consistent, I put at two episodes each month (sometimes more but never less than two).

### Release a bunch of episodes at once

One approach that I have seen is successful is to record half a dozen upfront and release them all at once. If listeners like one of them it gives them a chance to delve into a few at once which can give you more traction in keeping them along for the ride later on. Personally, I didn’t do this when I started but would most likely take go down this route if I was starting over.

### Create short soundbites

Headliner app is a good way to create short soundbites of your podcast to share across social media - you upload a short track, add artwork, can have subtitles, waveforms etc. and hey presto you’ve got a great little promo piece to share.

## Added extra

I’ve covered a lot of information on how to start a podcast so you might have more than you need right now to get things off the ground. However, if you are after hearing about turning it into a video podcast as well as ways to develop a revenue stream from podcasting them read on.

### Video podcasts

As well as hosting your podcast on a platform like SoundCloud or Libsyn you want to consider sharing them on YouTube. You can do this for free but you’ll need to upload it separately to here as well. It’s not like with SoundCloud where is shares you podcast automatically to Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and like. This adds extra work but it’s a free platform and I have found this to be a great way to expand your audience, plus you can upload video files to it.

Zoom is a great place to record your interviews for free even if you don’t plan to share the videos footage. If you do plan to share the video footage then Zoom makes it super say as it will save out MP4 & MP3 files for you once you’ve finished recording.

You can then use a program like iMovie to edit it before exporting it out ready to be uploaded to YouTube.

If you give someone the option between video and audio there’ll most likely choose the video your audience likes to see what going on as well. Sure, if they are out running or commuting they’ll just be listening to it but they can still play to through YouTube. It’s something to consider at some point, it is extra work but can be worth it for sure.

### Develop an income from podcasting

If you are getting into podcasting to make money then stop reading this now and go find something else to do. If you start with that mentality your pretty much certain to fail as the vast majority of podcast do not directly make their creators any money.

It’s best to start this as a passion project thinking about all the amazing things you can get out of it like learning a great new skill. Plus, I get a real kick out of interviewing people and sharing their stories and then hearing how it’s helped others. It’s a great feeling and I can’t put a price on that.

That all being said there are ways to develop an income through podcasting, whether that be through a site like Patreon where your audience can become members and support your show, or through having adverts in each episode.

It’s worth noting that to get sponsors on board they’ll want to see you have a decent following and are getting a few thousand listeners per episode. Sponsors will pay approx. £25 per 1k downloads so if you have 10k downloads per episode and have 3 sponsors you promote in each episode you could be looking at £750 per episode and if you did four episodes a month that would be a nice revenue stream.

Personally, I don’t want to go selling my soul to the devil to make a quick buck so would rather keep it advertisement free then sell a product or service that I don’t believe in. But there is plenty of conscious companies out there that you can align yourself with who are doing good in the world.

## Wrap up

The best thing you can do is just start and make it up as you go along as twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the things you did.

Be starting a podcast you’ll learn a ton of things along the way and you never know where it may lead you one day. You may even chart a new career path for yourself. The world is your oyster.

One final piece of advice, there will be plenty of times doing this when you’ll feel like jacking it all in and throning the microphone out of the window. Naturally, the initial enthusiasm will fade and it will become just another thing in your life. But remember podcasting is not just another thing, it’s an amazing l tool for expressing your creativity and giving a voice to your ideas.

Pro tip: along the way keep a ‘Hype file’ on your computer. In this keep a record of certain achievements along the way, it could be your first positive review, an episode broke through the 100, 1000, 10,000 listens, a nice email you got about the show. Anything that made you smile keep it in this hype file and when you are feeling down and out you can go back in here giving you that little boost you need to keep ongoing.

If you found this article useful and enjoy my podcast please consider supporting my podcast for as little as the price of a cup of coffee each month.

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