Starting a podcast can be a fun, creative, and profitable endeavor. But it can also be daunting if you don’t know how to get started. Here at Podcastle, we will teach you the most affordable way to start a podcast. So read on if you want to learn how to start a podcast from scratch, launch your show and make it the best it can be.
Planning
Creating your podcast isn't as complicated or difficult as it may seem. In fact, with the right planning and preparation, launching a successful podcast can be downright easy! Here's how to start a podcast:
1. Choose Your Topic
How to start a podcast? Well, first of all, you need to choose your podcast topic. Ask yourself some “ podcast questions.” What are you passionate about? What do you want to talk about? What do you think other people would like to hear about?
Your topic should be something that you're knowledgeable about and interested in, as this will make the podcasting process much more enjoyable for both you and your listeners. It's also important to choose a topic that has some demand or interest from others; otherwise, it'll be difficult to grow your podcast audience.
2. Choose Your Title and Format
Once you've chosen your topic, it's time for naming your podcast and thinking about its format. Your title should be something catchy and reflective of the content that will be covered in your podcast. As for format, there are a few different types of podcast formats to choose from:
- Solocast: A solo podcast is one that's hosted by a single person. This is the simplest type of podcast to produce, as you won't need to worry about coordinating schedules or finding guests.Here, you’ll be your only podcast host.
- Co-hosted: A co-hosted podcast is one that's hosted by two or more people. This can be a great option if you want to have someone to bounce ideas off of and help with the recording process.
- Interview: An interview format features podcast guest interviews on a specific topic. This type of podcast can be both informative and entertaining, and it's a great way to connect with other experts in your field.
3. Choose Your Equipment
Now it's time to start thinking about the equipment you'll need to produce your podcast. The good news is that you don't need a lot of expensive gear to get started; in fact, all you really need is a computer and a microphone.
If you want to get a little fancier, you can invest in some additional equipment, such as a pop filter, a windscreen, or a portable recorder. But for most people, the basic setup will be more than sufficient.
4. Choose Your Audience
Before you start recording, it's important to take some time to think about who you're trying to reach with your podcast. Who is your target audience? What are their interests? How can you appeal to them?
Answering these questions will help you fine-tune your content and ensure that your podcast is something that people will actually want to listen to.
5. Choose Your Launch Date
Once you've got all of the planning and preparation out of the way, it's time to set a launch date for your podcast. This is the date when you'll start recording and releasing episodes, so make sure you give yourself enough time to get everything ready
Recording
So you've planned it all out, and now it's time to get your hands on it. Where do you start? Of course, you start with recording! As mentioned, we are going to talk about the most affordable way to start the podcast, so forget about all of that expensive equipment and set-ups. To start recording your first episode, you only need a laptop with an Internet connection.
Once you grab your laptop and find the perfect recording spot, just head to podcastle.ai and start recording your show! Here is the step by step guide.
1) Sign up for Podcastle
First and foremost, create an account at Podcastle.ai and log into it.
2) Create a new project
If you're new to Podcastle, your dashboard will be empty at this point. Hit on the Create button, and you'll be forwarded to your first project!
3) Record your episode
From here, choose the Record Audio option to, well, you've guessed it —record audio! Your input will automatically be your laptop's built-in microphone. If you have another microphone you want to use, change the input and Start Recording.
4) Enhance your recording
Congratulations! You're done with the recording. Now all you need to do is make it sound just a little bit better. Wouldn't it be great if you had your personal audio assistant who could listen to the track and tell you exactly what could be improved? The good news is that you actually have one. Right-click on your audio track and choose the Audio Assistant feature.
Our audio assistant will analyze the track for you and suggest some improvements. You can see it in the pop-up menu and decide which ones you want to apply and which not.
That's pretty much all you need to do to get a studio-quality recording with nothing but your laptop! But, of course, this is just the start of your podcast production. Now it's time to put all your tracks together and make a masterpiece out of it. Yes, we're talking about editing!
Editing & Production
How to start a successful podcast? By successfully editing and post-producing your recording!
To start editing, you don’t need to open any new window. Once finished, your recording is already in the editing dashboard. We already did a little bit of post-production when we applied the Audio Assistant feature, but here, we’ll take a closer look at the different tools you have access to on the Podcastle’s editing dashboard.
1) Split your recording
Let's say you have a really long audio track. Maybe you recorded your entire episode in one shot, but of course, you made many mistakes and want to cut them out. How do you do that? In the menu below, choose the Split tool or simply use the shortcut by clicking 2 to select it. Zoom into your track and choose the part you want to cut out. Simply click on it, and that's it. Don't forget to select shortcut 1 to go to the default selection tool and move your track around. If you want to get rid of it, simply choose it and click Delete.
2) Fade-in/Fade- out
Fade-in and fade-out are essential tools for podcast editing. In Podcastle, you can apply them pretty quickly. Just hover on your audio track, and you'll see little dots on the left and right corners. By moving them, you can achieve the fade-in and fade-out effects. If you move the dot on the right corner to the left, for instance, you'll have the fade out, and if you move the left one, you'll get the fade in. Just play around with these effects to have your audio start or end a little smoother.
3) Add music and sound effects
If you want to add some spice to your show, you should check out Podcaslte's library of royalty-free music tracks and sound effects. It has pretty much any sound you could think of! You can also use one of our music tracks as your podcast's intro and outro music. You'll find the Music and SFX resources in the left corner of your editing dashboard.
SFX
4) Enhance with AI-powered features
Finally, it’s time to introduce you to the most fun part of our podcast creation platform : the AI-powered features. These features are the ones that will help you enhance your podcasting game and make it sound much more fun and professional. We will list a couple of the best AI-powered features of our podcast recording and editing software here:
– Magic Dust
The Magic Dust feature removes all the unnecessary background noise of your audio with just a click.
– Silence Remover
If you want to get rid of the awkward pauses in your podcast, just apply silence remover and we’ll do it for you!
– Auto-leveling
Auto-leveling feature will adjust your audio tracks to match the standard target loudness, so that you don’t need to change the volumes manually.
You can find all of these three features by right clicking on the audio track.
As you can see, starting a podcast is not that difficult. And the best part is that you don’t even need a lot of resources to record a podcast and edit it! But what do you do after it’s all edited and exported? It’s time to push it live!
Publish & Promote
Now that we’ve figured out how to start a podcast, let’s understand what you need for launching a podcast.
1) Publish your podcast
The first step in launching your podcast is to actually publish it. This means uploading your episodes to podcast hosting platforms like Libsyn, Podbean, or Buzzsprout.But before doing it, make sure you write a proper podcast description that will allure your listeners to his the play button!
Once your episodes are uploaded, they'll be available for people to listen to on popular podcast platforms like iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play Music.
2) Start promoting it
Once your podcast is published, it's time to start promoting it. There are a number of different ways to do this, but some of the most effective include:
- Creating a website for your podcast
- Starting a social media account for your podcast. (Don’t forget to have a really strong podcast cover art for this one!)
- Reaching out to bloggers and influencers in your niche
- Submitting your podcast to directories like iTunes
By promoting your podcast, you can help ensure that it reaches the widest possible audience.
3) Analyze and adjust
After you've launched your podcast, it's important to take some time to analyze how it's performing. Are people actually listening to your episodes? If not, why not?
Based on your analysis, you may need to make some adjustments to how you produce or promote your podcast. But as long as you're willing to experiment, you should be able to find a formula that works for you.
At the end of your day, your podcast content is really what matters when it comes to podcast promotion. If you don’t have unique and interesting podcast content, no matter how much you promote it, your listeners will not stay. It is the combination of good content and smart promotion techniques that will help your podcast grow.
Final Thoughts
It’s not that hard to understand how podcasting works. Once you’re in the industry, you’ll figure it all out pretty quickly. Essentially, no matter what your project is, you’ll have to go through these four stages of podcasting we mentioned in the blog post: planning, recording, editing and producing, and of course launching and promoting your podcast.
Now that you know how to start a podcast all you have to do is actually open your laptop and start it! So head to Podcastle.ai and start your podcast!
