Although creating a podcast seems like something that initially doesn’t cost a lot of work, it will take you many hours. Once you record until you get the final mp3 version to upload to your server where the episodes are hosted, it will take a while. In order to make good content and satisfy the needs of your future listeners, there should be a great plan though. If you are going to create a project like this, it’s crucial to invest the effort and time in doing well if you want to achieve a faithful audience.
Now I will guide you step by step to start with the creation of your own podcast – from planning until the final result.
Contents
First of all – choose the theme
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This is the first thing to encounter when thinking about creating our first project. It’s something that also causes a bit of insecurity as the major thing we want to achieve is to succeed with our project and we certainly don’t want to fail.
The essential thing is to choose a topic that you are passionate about. Thing like this takes a lot of time and dedication. You’ll have good and not so good moments, but if what you do is passionate – you’ll persist.
Or, you already have a web page or blog and want to include your own podcast as a content marketing strategy. When choosing a topic that a project will deal with, it’s quite similar to the scenario in which you open a blog for a specific niche market. Focus on a small niche and don’t think that everyone will want to listen to you – that’s simply impossible. You also have to keep in mind that the less public your theme has for the project, the less you will be heard but, in return, you’ll also get more loyal followers – just like when you write a blog.
Define the type of listener
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To achieve optimal results it’s very important to define the profile of the person who’s going to listen to you in order to offer them content that would be really interesting for them. The answers to their questions, stories that will solve their doubts, problems, fears… You need to talk to your ideal client and keep it in mind when you’re creating the content.
It’s a truly interesting part of the job – you investigate where your ideal client searches for information, what other programs he listens to, what blogs he usually reads, what things concern him, what income he has. The clearer you have the profile of your listener, the better your content will be focused and the better you’ll connect with them.
Choose or design your own cover image
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Once you have chosen the theme, you also need to create a cover image for your project. It’s a key point to pay special attention to it as this is the image that the listeners will see on the mobile, tablet or computer where they’re hearing your words. Make sure it looks nice and professional, not like you’ve done it in Paint.
The image must be 1400 x 1400 in .jpg or .png format. Even if you see it perfectly clear and fine, when it gets reduced you can lose a lot and you can hardly see what it says. Pay attention to this detail, otherwise, it will look bad in podcast directories, and will not stand out from the competition.
Think about the appropriate equipment
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To start a podcast you don’t need great recording equipment or some special rooms. Simply with a computer with storage capacity, headphones with smartphone type microphones and free recording software, you can start recording. In case you’re able to get a headset and a quality microphone, much better – make sure you check Saramonic UK for some truly good pieces.
As for the software, there are so many free applications to record and edit your episode. Audacity is one of the programs often used by podcasters. It eliminates noise, normalizes, equalizes and so much more – so, it won’t disappoint you. But of course, feel free to try other software as well, like GarageBand or Adobe Audition.
Plan the format of your episodes
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Good planning of your first podcast episodes is of great significance. They need to have a format, duration and periodicity that we must be clear before we start recording. First, you need to decide if you’re going to speak alone or are going to do interviews, although you can also have a mixed format.
The podcast can last between 10-20 minutes if only you speak, or 30-60 minutes if you conduct interviews. Take this as something important as many things might also depend on the theme.
Periodicity is very important so that your audience knows when they’ll be able to hear new episodes. If, for example, you want to do interviews on the podcast, start with a weekly or biweekly interview. And in case you later see that you have time and desire to expand it – simply to it. No vice versa.
Record your first episode
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Once you have all the above, you have to jump to record your first episode. Seeing you alone before a microphone and not knowing what your listeners are going to look like gives a little bit of fear. It’s normal, you just need to get used to it. But when you get positive feedback from your listeners, you start to believe it. Prepare a script of what you’re going to talk about. When you start recording in the beginning, you’ll realize that you make mistakes, but that’s what the edition is for. Then you edit and cut repetitive pieces, silences, etc.
These are the parts that each episode of the podcast should take: intro (where you introduce yourself and the content of the episode in 2 or 3 minutes), body (development of the topic to be treated) and outro.
Edit the content
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The edition is fundamental and, in addition, it gives you peace of mind to know that if any mistake is made, you can correct it in the editing process. When you start recording it’s like when you start writing: if you want to let your creativity flow you must speak naturally, without fear of making mistakes.
Then in the process of editing is when you will eliminate background noises, irrelevant, repetitive pieces, annoying crutches, the bark of the neighbor’s dog, loud breathing or any similar thing.
And – it’s over. Once you do all these steps, your podcast is ready to go places. The only thing left is to publish it on a hosting platform like www.libsyn.com and make your results visible and achieve your goal.
At the beginning, it might seem too complicated, but if you find an appropriate inspiration and put all your heart in doing it, the outcome must be splendid and bring you many good opportunities to progress.
