Making a Daily Podcast

Making a Daily Podcast

Daily podcasts are a lot more common than they used to be. You might find the thought of running one appealing but also think to yourself "there's no way I'd have time to podcast every single day". Well, the good news is that you don't have to. 

You can actually create a short sharp 1-2min episode a day podcast in only a few hours a week. We've found that the scripting, recording, production, and publishing take us approximately 3 hours for a week of content (a week being Monday-Friday). As these tasks are "batched" we're not tending to this podcast every single day, even though new episodes are always dropping. 

There are a lot of benefits of doing short daily episodes. If you teach something then it'll give you the ability to deliver your lessons in bite-sized (or pocket-sized!) chunks. You can take a real deep dive over a period of time, rather than trying to pack together one huge lesson or talk. You might even turn your daily podcast into an Alexa Flash Brief. 

Short episodes are also great for repurposing. This works well if you're active on YouTube, social media, or taking a Content Stacking approach to your show. 

On this episode of Podcraft, we talk more about the benefits and workflows of running a daily podcast. We'll also help you answer the question of whether you should make one yourself. 

And as for our own case study, it's something you'll hopefully be interested in checking out, too...

Our Daily Podcast - Pocket-Sized Podcasting

Pocket-Sized Podcasting is the ‘how to podcast’ series for busy people. You’ll get one short sharp tip delivered to your feed Monday through Friday, all aimed toward helping you build and grow your own life-changing show.

Brought to you by Alitu, the Podcast Maker, it’s our aim to make the entire process of podcasting as simple and accessible as humanly possible. Find us anywhere you get your podcasts, and be sure to hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode! 

How to Write Great Podcast Shownotes

Podcast show notes serve three main purposes. The first two serve existing listeners:

1. To offer a summary of the show content – either to persuade someone to listen, or to remind a previous listener what was covered.

2. To offer links to resources, people or products that were mentioned. You can't link within the show itself, so you offer the links on the show notes.

The last serves you, and those who have yet to listen:

3. To attract new listeners through search traffic.

That last one is the one most podcasters neglect. You'll find a lot of podcasters throwing up show notes that are nothing more than a very quick introduction paragraph, and then a list of the resources that were mentioned. That's fine, as a minimum. It serves your listener, covering #1 and #2. But, if that's all you do, you're missing a trick in growing your audience.

How Show Notes Can Grow Your Audience

A good set of show notes can attract legions of potential new listeners by appearing in the search results.

How do you do that?

By writing a blog post that covers the same topic as the podcast.

That blog post acts as a written version of the show. Not a direct transcript, but something created to be read. It contains the same valuable information as the podcast, and encourages readers: “If you liked this, then listen to the podcast episode for even more.”

Often in the podcast you'll tell more stories about it, give more examples, and that might be the extra value that gains you a new listener. Even if you don't add anything extra, many people will appreciate being given an audio version to listen to at another time.

Example Show Notes: a Best Practice Format

Here's a best practice show notes format we often use, and which you can build from:

1. Episode Summary – paragraph or bullet points
2. Episode Player – embed from your host
3. Timecode guide – list highlights and timecodes to skip to
4. Full Topic guide – a blog post, essentially, covering the same topic
5. Resources mentioned – summary & links to all resources

Let's cover each element in a little more detail.

1. Episode Summary

Start with a brief summary of the episode – either a 1 or 2 paragraph introduction, or a set of bullet points. This gives the listener the lowdown on what you're covering, and can help casual visitors decide whether it's worth listening to. This is important – show the problem you're solving to really engage with the listener, and persuade them to listen!

2. Episode Player

Then below that, we'll have the audio player, generated in whatever podcast host you normally use. This allows easy listening for casual visitors, or a simple way to review the content for subscribers.

3. Timecode Guide

This takes a bit of effort, so it's more “icing on the cake” than essential, but it's hugely useful to listeners. And anything useful to listeners is a thing worth doing for audience growth!

A timecode summary simply picks out the highlights of the episode, and lists when they happen, in the audio. This allows casual visitors to pick out the parts most relevant to this and get value right away. If they can do that, they're far more likely to subscribe!

And for subscribers? It allows them to go back to the episode and re-listen to the parts they really engaged with. Again, most value for the listener, more success for the listener and so more loyalty to you!

For example, an excerpt here from This Week in Startups which does a great summary, every week:

• …
• 39:02 OurCrowd – Sign up for a free account at https://www.ourcrowd.com/twist
• 40:46 Dick Costolo’s responds to infamous & now-deleted tweet on Acquired’s recent Twitter episode – was taking the tweet down the right move?
• 45:57 Thoughts on the proper way to do civil discourse at work
• 54:23 Jason in hot water with Bernie Bros due to recent pro-gig economy tweet, thoughts on Prop 22 & more
• 1:07:07 DOJ antitrust lawsuit against Google, Apple ramps up development of their own search engine as Google partnership in hot water
• 1:10:40 Acquired’s Top 10 Acquisitions of all time
• 1:15:34 Deep dive on the Google/Apple partnership, how the Android acquisition saved Google billions of dollar per year
• …

3. Full Topic Coverage (Blog Post)

Next, below the player, you go into full detail, covering the main points of the episode and a little explanation around them. Within that extra detail, link to resources mentioned within the show. That means people can easily find anything you mention in the audio.

The purpose of this is two-fold.

First, it means the article is genuinely useful on its own, even without the audio. So, searchers are much more likely to find it via Google, skim the content, and perhaps end up subscribing to the show. This is one of your biggest growth opportunities, since text search reaches such a wider audience than podcast search.

Second, this makes your show notes so valuable to existing subscribers. They can, at any time, visit this page to review all the material, re-learn it, pick out elements to put into action right away. With all of this info, right on the page, easily skimmable, you help your listeners so much more. And that's what builds loyal fans!

4. Resource List

I mentioned resource links above, but it's great to include a list of the main resources, and links, right at the start or the end of the blog section so that links are all nicely collated and easily found. This is one of the biggest uses of shownotes for existing subscribers – to pop in and find out exactly what “That amazing app he mentioned…” was, and to nip over there.

Including great resources links, every time, will encourage repeat visits to your shownotes.

Other Elements, Like Video?

You can go further than this, turning your podcast show notes into a massive fan-building, conversion-creating multi-media experience. Read about that full content stacking approach here. If you can put the time into this, it can be a game-changer for your business.

Keeping Show Notes Short: Sacrifice Content for Sustainability?

Some people just can't find the time to do full blog-post style show notes every week. So, an alternative is to keep 'em shorter and forget about the search engine benefits. Just focus on giving value to your existing subscribers.

In this case, just do the 50-word intro paragraph or bullet points, and then some resource links and related description. You could even dispense with the descriptions altogether, and just list links. If you can, the timecode summary is super-useful, even if you just find 2 or 3 of the big highlights to allow your visitors to skip through.

Comparing the two, the long blog-post style format offers a lot more value in terms of content marketing. The show notes, acting like blog articles, start to gain traffic, since they're much more likely to be found and indexed well in the search results. On the other hand, there's no point getting that extra value if it's unsustainable.

If the effort of full-blog show notes stops you podcasting altogether, then you get absolutely no benefit at all. In that case, it's better to do less and get the show out regularly. This is a balance between time and total benefit.

I think it can depend a lot on the context, particularly whether the podcasting website is brand new, or whether the podcast is being added to an existing website. In the case of a brand new podcasting website, the show notes are even more worth investing time into as they'll start to build out the written content and give the site some meat. Adding very thin podcast show notes pages to an already thin website is unlikely to help the site gain any type of authority.

In contrast, a well-established site can stand to gain a few thin pages and you can spend time on your wider blogging instead for that content benefit. On the other hand, if you tie your blogging and podcasting efforts together through a content stacking approach, I'd argue that you can do both for more benefit and less effort in the long run!

Can you use a Transcription as your Podcast Shownotes?

Here's a third possibility. If you're really short of time, it might be worth considering transcriptions. You can pay around $1 per minute to have a full transcription done of any show. If you're doing quite short, focused episodes, these transcriptions can be very useful and readable for your listeners. As a bonus, they provide nice, long, meaty content for the site with little extra time effort. Just a bit of cost.

If you did that, you'd only have to write a 50-word intro para yourself, then add the transcription after the player. You can go through the transcription and add links where appropriate as well, to make sure the listener can find the relevant resources. Although, in this case, a collated resource link list may be useful so the reader doesn't have to trawl a long transcription.

On the downsid

How to Record a Podcast

This is it: time to record a podcast. Planning is great, publishing is a given, but recording, that's where the magic happens.

In this article I'm going to cover every step. Here's a quick summary on how to record a podcast:

1. Planning: what prep do you need to do so that the recording goes smoothly?
2. Equipment: what gear do you need to be able to record a great quality show?
3. Software: what tools do you need to be able to capture your audio?

By the end of this article, you'll know everything you need to record a podcast. All that's left is to hit that big red button, and get your voice out into the world!

Planning to Record a Podcast

It's tempting to miss this bit out… You know the subject, after all, and you're raring to go! Why not just wing it?

Well, as much as I'm a fan of the seat-of-the-pants approach, an episode plan can make a huge difference to the quality of your show. Don't worry, this doesn't need to take up your whole day. A small plan can make a big difference.

Plan the Topic

First thing, what are you going to talk about? This is the gold. If you choose the wrong episode topic, then your $500 Heil mic and your pro-level Zoom H6 recorder don't matter a whit. Listeners won't care about the show, perfect audio quality or not.

So, do your research. Figure out your ideal listener, and particularly what they care about. Then, for each episode, think:

• What questions are your listeners asking?
• What problems are they experiencing?
• What are they struggling with, right now?

Every episode, you should tackle one of them.

How do you figure that out? Good old fashioned keyword research, tailored for podcasting. Check out that article for a full rundown of tools that can help you find a bunch of questions that you can answer.

Script the Episode

Scripting is an oft-debated topic. Should you go super-detailed, or might you go quite light and off-the-cuff? I answered that in a full article on how to script a podcast with a few examples. But, let's cover it in brief.

On the one hand, a detailed script can make for a really tight, value-packed episode. It cuts the rambling and ensures you cover every single thing you need to.

The only trouble is, a detailed script can cut the spontaneity and drain your personality from an episode. It does take quite a bit of skill to read a detailed script and still sound natural, conversational. But, it's possible.

Plus, of course, it takes quite a lot of time to put together something so detailed.

On the other hand, a light script – just a collection of bullet points really – can provide enough guidance, but not tie you down. You can be more engaging, more free-flowing, more personable, and it takes much less time to prepare.

But, again, the downsides… with a light-touch script, you can much more easily lose your way, forget things and repeat yourself. The waffle factor increases dramatically and your episodes will tend to be longer. That's not necessarily a good thing…

It often comes down to personality and practice. Start with a detailed script, until you get more comfortable on the mic. Then, reduce the detail, bit by bit, until you find that balance between time spent, benefits gained and recording style.

What Equipment Do I Need to Record a Podcast?

You Need a Microphone

First, let's capture that voice. That's what the humble microphone is designed to do. You can find a collection of the best microphones here, so have a browse through and pick something that fits your space and budget.

If you want to keep things simple, go for a USB microphone. You'll plug that right into your computer, and record there. No other equipment needed, just software. I'll cover the recording software below.

A USB mic is ideal for anyone that'll be recording a solo show, or if you'll be recording with others on the internet (more on software for this below, too). And, let's be honest, that's 90% of the podcasts out there!

Do You Need a Digital Recorder?

If you think you'll be recording a podcast with other people in-person though, that's when a digital recorder comes in handy. The reason being, it's hard to record with more than one USB mic into a single computer.

In this case, the idea setup is one digital recorder and two (or more!) XLR microphones. For example, I use a Zoom H5 and two SamsonQ2Us for this.

For another recorder option, the Zoom PodTrak P4 is a brand new piece of kit on the market. It's a dedicated podcast recorder that lets you record multiple mics, remote calls (online and phone), as well as play live music, clips, and effects in your episodes. Check out our full review of the Zoom PodTrak P4.

How About a USB Audio Interface?

Something of a middle ground between a USB mic and a digital recorder. A USB audio interface connects to your computer as if it were a USB mic, but you then plug in and run XLR mics into it. This is a great option for computer-based podcasters who want to improve their audio quality, whilst increasing their range of flexibility and control. Here are the Best USB Audio Interfaces for Podcasters.

Would You Like to Record into a Smartphone?

For solo recording or a two-person interview, an option I really like is the Rode Smartlav+. This is a lavalier mic (tie mic or lapel mic – those wee ones you see clipped to a shirt!) and it plugs right into your smartphone.

If you add a Rode SC6 adapter to this setup, then you can plug in two Smartlavs, and record an interview with someone right next to you! See the whole Smartlav interview setup here if you think this'll suit you.

Further Reading: Definitive Guide to Podcast Recording Equipment

What Software Do I Need to Record a Podcast?

The final ingredient, presuming you're not using a digital recorder, is software. In this case, we're talking about recording software, not editing. You can read our full guide to podcast software for the entire range, but we'll stick to podcast recording software here.

Recording Solo into your Computer

Let's take the simplest option first: recording a podcast on your own.

If you're flying solo, then the easiest choice is to record right into an editing package, like Audacity, or Audition. Audacity is the first choice for many, for one very good reason: it's free!

There are a few good reasons to pay for Audition, or one of the other paid editing packages, and you can find out more about that here: Audacity vs Audition.

But, if you're just starting, there's no risk in trying out Audacity first. It's really simple for recording, but if you want to learn Audacity inside out, check out our in-depth audacity course here.

One final choice here, if you're looking to tie recording into the wider process, is Alitu: the Podcast maker. Alitu is designed to take care of the tech in creating your podcast, and recording is one part of that. With Alitu, you can record solo segments, and a new feature lets you record remote calls, too!

As a bonus, it'll polish up your audio, add your music, p

Podcast Transcription: How to Get Your Show Transcribed

In a nutshell: Podcast Transcription is essential to good PR. This article covers three means of getting it done.

• You can do it yourself, with some simple tools.
• You can hire a freelancer.
• You can try a service. This article will also discuss the pros and cons, whys and hows, of a few different transcription services.

We think of podcasting as a purely aural medium, but we ignore podcast transcription at our peril (not to sound like a character from I, Claudius). In all seriousness, if your podcast doesn't have transcripts, that's an awful lot of audience you're missing.

“Wait a minute!” you say. “Transcripts are more time and money. How much do you expect me to invest in this podcasting thing? What's in it for me?”

We've already talked about why you should use transcripts. It bears repeating, however:

• 11 million people in the UK and 10 million people in the US are d/Deaf or hard of hearing
• Many folks have auditory processing disorders
• Transcripts of your podcast episodes can boost your search engine optimization
• Transcripts are another avenue for more people to understand and engage with your content.

In this article, we're not going to talk about why you want to invest the additional work or money into podcast transcription. We're going to talk about different methods or companies that you can use to get your podcasts transcribed, and in front of your audience.

DIY Methods for Podcast Transcription

If your podcast is a scripted audio drama, you can certainly use that script. You can also sit down and type out your podcast's recording, word for word. If you're already a professional stenographer, this won't bother you too much. However, not many people have that skill set or patience.

Dictation Software Hack

Another option for podcast transcription (recommended in a livestream by our friends at Music Radio Creative) is to use Google Docs voice typing. Here's how it works:

• Open up Chrome (you have to use Google's Chrome browser, otherwise the tool isn't available)
• Go to Google Docs and open a fresh document
• Click on Tools and select Voice Typing from the drop-down menu. A nifty little icon of a microphone will appear. At the top of the microphone, select your language.
• Open up your DAW and start playing the sound file you want transcribed.
• Click the little microphone icon. It'll change colors. As the microphone picks up the dialogue, the text will appear on screen.

When you try this, make sure that the audio is cued up at the point where you want it transcribed. if you let it run through a minute of intro music or so, the voice typing tool won't recognize the music as anything useful, and will shut itself off.

Google's Voice Typing was pretty good at recognizing what I said when I tried it. To test its accuracy, I selected UK English, US English, and Nigerian English, to see if there would be differences in the resulting text. There wasn't.

You'll end up with pages and pages of unpunctuated text. It's very stream-of-consciousness. You will have to go through it and format it, put in punctuation and check for errors. However, it saves you a lot of time over typing the audio word for word.

There's a quality control issue here, as well. You may notice as you're making this podcast transcript, that you notice the dialogue as an outsider. Transcribing the podcast yourself will help you see the details of what you talk about, and how.

Video Captions

Another DIY method is to use your audio to make a video, upload it to YouTube, and use its closed captioning to provide a transcript. I can't vouch for the accuracy of YouTube's closed captioning. Joe Rogan uses this exclusively, and it works for him. Your mileage may vary.

Headliner is a free app which can be used to make audiograms (and it's fun to use). It's 100% worth your time to try it out, and see how its captioning system fits your podcast.

Think about your SEO for a second. Google's Product Manager for Google, Brad Ellis, spoke about automatic captioning and SEO at the Streaming Media Conference in 2016. He said that when a YouTube user uploads their own captions, Google does index them. But, because the automatic transcriptions are error-prone, they are not indexed. Granted, this was four years ago, and the technology may have changed. For now, if your SEO is your most important reason for having transcripts, it's best not to rely on YouTube's automatic captioning only.

Many people consume their podcasts via YouTube. It's not a bad idea to make them available there with captions. But it shouldn't be your only way of publishing those transcripts.

Outsourcing Podcast Transcription

If you don't want to do the transcription yourself, you have a few options. They are:

• Humans (having someone else do it for you)
• Artificial Intelligence (a software does it)
• A combination of both

Human Transcription

This is the most accurate version of podcast transcription that you can use. Humans can understand context and spoken sound in a way that machines can't. If your podcast uses the sentence, “Let's eat Grandma,” a human would know where to put the comma, while a machine might not. It's also not cheap. Some transcribers charge by how long it takes them to do the work, others by how much audio you supply. In most cases, it's between $1-$2 per minute of transcribed audio. If you look at a site like Upwork or fiverr.com, you can find a fair number of freelance transcribers.

GoTranscript offers “100% Human-Generated Transcription Services,” and offer a minimum of 6-hour turnaround time. Their prices vary by how soon you need your podcast transcript finished, and how long your audio files are. Expect to spend around 80 cents to $2 per minute.

If you have a loyal fan or close friend who loves your podcast, you may be able to get them to volunteer to transcribe your podcast in a skill swap. Ask them if they would transcribe an episode or two of your podcast in exchange for helping them move house.

Artificial Intelligence

If you've ever asked Siri to send a text message for you, or if you've asked Google to look something up, you've used something like one of these services.

Trint offers monthly or annual subscription packages ($60-$85), with a 7-day free trial. They range by the amount of files you can upload per month, and how many users you can have on the account. However, since a file can be any duration, the starter package would fit most indie podcasters, if you organize your audio files well. Trint also has an iPhone app.

Temi is very similar, with one price tier: 25 cents a minute. Their free trial provides one transcript, of a 45 minute audio file. Their free demo not only shows you how it transcribes a news piece with multiple speakers and accents, but also will let you practice editing the piece to test the interface. This free demo is 100% worth your time to look at, because it can show you good transcript layout.

Descript offers a free trial for the first 3 hours of speech uploaded. After that, the service is $14-18 a month. They say that they can turn around a 60-minute sound file in about three minutes.

Sonix is another quick and inexpensive podcast transcription service. The Standard package is $10 per hour of uploaded audio. The Premium tier is $5 per hour and $22 per user, per month. Sonix provides transcription in multiple languages, even at the Standard level. Their free trial includes 30 minutes of transcription service.

Artificial and Human Intelligence

These services use a combination of AI transcription, with a human checking for accuracy and consistency.

Scribie offers a pay-as-you-go system, either fully automated for ten cents a minute, or eighty cents a minute for automated transcription with a human editor. They add on an extra fifty cents if your audio is poor, noisy (speaker isn't distinct from the background), or for “accented speakers.” They say that it's fifty cents a minute for American speakers. This makes me want to send them a sound file in an accent so Philly, it sounds like I live underneath the Market Frankford El. An integrated editor lets you make changes if necessary.

Rev.com might be the most well-known podcast transcription service; it was included on Forbes' AI 50 list. Its automated transcription costs 25 cents a minute, with a 5 minute turnaround time. Their human tra

Podcast Tips: 7 Strategies to Build a Successful Show that Thrives

The question “How do I make a successful podcast?” differs from the question “How do I make a podcast?” in a whole bunch of ways. There's a difference between a show that merely exists, and one that thrives. Let's dive in to some podcast tips that'll help lead you to the latter.

After all, it's never been easier to actually launch a podcast. You don't need to spend a lot at all, and there are countless tools out there that can make things really easy for you.

Once you've recorded a piece of audio and uploaded it to your media host, you can find your very first episode proudly sitting in places like iTunes and Spotify before the week is out.

This simplicity and low barrier to entry is a good thing overall, because it enables almost anyone to get their message out there, regardless of their background or experience.

But a huge amount of podcasters give up after just a handful of episodes, and that's a by-product of how easy it is to launch. If something is created without much thought or genuine purpose, then it's also easy to quit.

So as we've already put together a really popular step by step guide on how to start a podcast, we thought we could maybe now take a deeper dive into how you can make a successful podcast.

What steps can you take to make sure your podcast will actually achieve the things you want it to?

How do you give it the best possible chance of getting through those tough early days and sticking around for the long haul?

1 – Define a Successful Podcast

First thing's first: success means many different things to many different people.

For some, it's about the big download numbers. Others dream of earning a full-time living from their shows. Many business podcasters see success as getting regular sales enquiries because of their content. And for others, it's simply a case of having a creative outlet and a platform to tell their stories.

So in order to work towards your own version of a successful podcast, you need to first ask yourself, “What does success look like to me?”

2 – Have a “Why”

When you run a podcast, things don't always go to plan.

Life can get in the way, hardware and software can break, files can vanish, and there's really no shortage of things that'll test your patience in the long run.

When things go wrong, you really need to have a solid core reason for wanting to podcast. One that's big enough that it'll never be overshadowed by any of the above.

That ties in to how you define success. But with the question “Why am I doing this?”, it's more about the journey than the destination, as cliched as that might sound.

3 – Play The Long Game

One podcast tip that many aspiring podcasters don't like to hear is that it can take years to build an audience.

And in order to make a successful podcast you need to be prepared to turn up consistently and regularly over the next few years.

That doesn't mean that you can't have short-term goals though. It's definitely a good idea to break down your main ambitions into smaller achievable aims. This can help give you a sense of progression.

But hopefully you just enjoy the process of running a podcast. If you do, then you'll stand the best chance of sticking at it and growing an audience.

If you don't enjoy it, then certainly nobody is going to enjoy listening to you. And it won't be long before you start missing episodes, before giving up altogether.

If you've recently launched your podcast and it's already making you miserable, then it's time to go back to the drawing board. Check out why it might be time to quit your podcast for more help with this.

4 – Make It Sustainable

A big part of enjoying the process of podcasting, is that it isn't a complete battle to get new episodes done and out.

In the planning stages it's easy to have big plans about the time you can dedicate to your show each week. It's also easy to create an episode template in your head that's going to take a lot of work to produce on a regular basis.

The key to making sure working on your podcast isn't something you dread, is to build a workflow of sustainability. For more, take a look at this article which includes plenty of podcast tips on how much time it takes to run a show.

There are many tools out there that can improve your workflow and save you time. Our own ‘Podcast Maker' app Alitu is one of them. Check it out if you're looking for a way to simplify your editing and production process.

5 – Don't Get Stuck On “The Launch”

I've already said quite a bit on the long-term nature of making a successful podcast. Unfortunately however, it's the concept of a big explosive “Launch” that many aspiring podcasters choose to focus on instead.

Another uncomfortable truth about your podcast before and during its launch, is that – unless you're famous before your podcast goes live – nobody really cares about it.

It shouldn't be treated like a film premier or launch of the new iPhone. It's more the case of laying the foundations for building something that's going to get bigger and better with every passing month that you work on it.

In those early days, there's every chance you're finding your feet with things like presentation skills, recording, and editing too. If this is the case, you should embrace the fact that hardly anyone is listening. Start small, learn the ropes, and let your audience grow naturally along with your podcast.

There's not a lot about a podcast that can't be changed over time. So don't get paralysed by the thought that certain things aren't perfect before publishing that first episode.

6 – Take Control

Long term, you'll want to check in regularly with your audience and seek feedback from them. This is the difference between a podcast surviving and thriving.

In the very early episodes though, you won't have an established audience at all. These early listeners haven't fully bought into your podcast yet, and with each episode, they're weighing up whether or not to stick with you.

So, one podcast tip that works is this: in the early days, be decisive and tell the listeners exactly what the show is about, how it works, and what they'll get from listening.

If you come out the gate asking for feedback and direction, it can make you and the show seem poorly planned and lacking in purpose.

If you've done your research in the planning stages, you know what your target audience want. So design a show that's going to serve them.

Nail down an agenda in the early days. Those who buy into it will appreciate your decisiveness and stick around. They'll become your core audience, and further down the line, you can begin to consult them on shaping the future of the show.

7 – Don't Rely On Audience Participation

A common mistake many new podcasters make is to build their shows around an audience that doesn't yet exist.

If your episodes are built around answering listener questions, or doing live shows, then I'd recommend going back to the planning stages.

In the early days it falls on you and you alone to create your content. Anything else is only going to lead to disillusionment and disappointment.

Looking for More Podcast Tips?

Hopefully you've taken a lot from these podcast tips, all aimed at helping you create a successful podcast. These are beyond the usual “What mic should I get?” and “What media host should I use?” questions, and show that you're constantly looking to improve and take things to the next level.

That's not to say those mic and hosting questions aren't valid or important, though. I've linked to our main guides on those, and you can find everything else you need in our ultimate step by step guide on how to start a podcast.

If you're looking for more tailored help too, then check out The Podcast Hos