Have you ever wanted to start a podcast of your very own?
You wouldn’t be alone in that if you did, according to statistics there are over 2 million podcasts out there. It is a popular medium of communication and that only seems to be going from strength to strength every year.
Podcasts are great in a range of ways. They are an enjoyable creative outlet for you, they are something relaxing and/or informative that audiences like to listen to, and they can also be a profitable source of income. Some people have a podcast as a side hustle, making a little extra money per month from the activity, and some people’s podcasts are, in fact, their main source of income.
So, for whatever reason you want to start your own podcast, you can be sure that there is at least one benefit in it for you and others.
If this has made up your mind once and for all about starting your own little corner of the Internet for others to enjoy, what great news! You are about to embark on an interesting and exciting journey, one from which you and your listeners can learn a lot.
To help you out a little on this journey, we have a simple guide for you on how to get started. We won’t talk about the actual content itself and how to voice it, that is totally up to you and it will be very different for each person and each podcast. We will leave that side up to you.
Our guide focuses on getting set up and ready to go in the aspects outside of the content with the podcast itself, mostly.
Sound good?
Ok, then let’s get started.
How to start a podcast…
1. Pick Your Niche
If you want to know how to start a podcast, you need to know how to pick what kind of podcast to host.
Before you get started with any content at all, before you pick up the mic to record, and before you tell all you friends on social media to watch out for the next big thing… You need to know what you are going to talk about in the first place, and you need to think about it wisely.
There are many, many genres of podcasts available on the market and you can really choose to talk about anything you want.
But there is a sweet spot that you need to focus on. This sweet spot will be a podcast that is:
- Popular in theme/genre so that people want to listen to it
- Not so popular that you aren’t able to rise in the ranks in the genre and gain followers
- Something you are knowledgeable about
- Something unique enough so it is interesting
- Something not so unique so that it is inaccessible or uninteresting to the masses
Know what I mean?
What kind of podcast you pick is important and it is a decision you should spend some time on. Whether you have the best voice in the world or not, your podcast will never be popular enough to be profitable if it doesn’t hit these criteria appropriately.
2. Get Your Visuals Right
Even though a podcast is in the audio form, it is important that you nail your podcast visuals. That means your cover art, your social media visuals, and any posts related to your podcast.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be a graphic designer in order for this to look good. There are lots of free tools and resources online that will help you make attractive and modern visuals for your podcast project. For a start, you can try Canva for free.
One of the most important things is to make your visuals consistent across all platforms you use to host and advertise your podcast. You want your visuals to become unofficial branding for your podcast, so that it is easily recognisable to a large audience. Your goal is for people to see a post from you and know that it is you right away. This secures you and your podcast as a figure of authority and knowledge in the genre, and that is a great thing for keeping current listeners and attracting new ones.
Canva will even help you create a branding packet of visuals, so that is a great place to start.
3. Market, Market, Market
Knowing how to start a podcast is important, knowing how to get word out there about your podcast might be even more important. There is no point having a great podcast if no one listens to it, right?
The good thing is, you don’t need to pour lots of money into advertising and marketing in order to do this. You can use free social media platforms to your utmost benefit and milk social media marketing for all it’s got (we have another blog all about this, here).
One of the most effective ways to get your name out there quickly is to use multiple social media platforms at once, keeping your branding and messaging consistent. You are more likely to capture a wider audience if you are available and seen on multiple platforms.
Some other great things you can do to market your podcast online are:
- Have a blog to go with it
- Team up with other creators and try and feature on their pages
- Run paid ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram
- Start a Twitter hashtag
- Respond to all comments and questions you get
- Take part in trends, on TikTok for example
- Start an email campaign with sign ups from listeners
There is really no end to what you can with social media to get the word about your podcast out there, all of it tends to be beneficial.
Once that is done, you can get going with writing and voicing that great content you have stored up and ready to go. Once you know how to start a podcast all you have to do is, well, start a podcast!
Good luck everyone, and do let us know what you think of this blog in the comments below, we love to hear your thoughts on how blogs, how-to guides, and think pieces.