Podcast Tips To Start a Successful Show

Podcasts have exploded in popularity over the last decade and for good reason. This powerful medium is a unique way to share ideas, stories, and information to literally a global audience. If you’re looking for the best podcast tips to help you get started with your own successful show, we’re here to help.

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Starting a Successful Podcast

1. Define the concept and target audience

This step might seem like one that you can just glaze over, but it’s actually critical in ensuring your podcast is unique and your efforts are directed and targeted. Clarify the purpose of your podcast and determine the theme. 

What sort of topics are you planning on covering? Who is the target audience you’re trying to reach? Identifying your target audience will help you further tailor your content and inform your marketing strategies for maximum effectiveness and success.

 

2. Plan your content

Once you have the high-level planning done, you need to consider your episodes, format and structure. Think about this on the micro level (i.e., each episode) and the macro level (i.e., each season or the entire series). What sort of format best suits your subject matter, style, and audience? Do you want to do solo episodes, one on one interviews, panel discussions or a mix and match of all of these? 

As you can tell, the best podcast tips all start with forward-thinking and intentional planning. 

 

Step 3: Choose the Right Equipment

The right podcast equipment doesn’t have to break the bank, but it is a necessity. At a minimum, you should be investing in a good microphone, decent headphones and a pop filter.

You may want to consider a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), such as Audacity or Adobe Audition, to get you started. We’ll go through some podcast editing tips later on, but for now, suffice it to say that a lot of the success of a podcast comes down to the edit. 

Step 4: Record and Edit Your Episodes

Podcast Recording Tips

Recording your episodes requires a little more thought than just hitting the record button. Here are our top podcast recording tips to get you started:

1.  • Warm up your mouth and vocal cords with a few tongue twisters and practice sessions.
2.  • Record in a quiet, soft, and small room.
3.  • Leave a few seconds in the beginning to create a noise profile. This profile allows your DAW to identify and then eliminate background noise.
4.  • Keep the microphone at the same height as your mouth with a few inches of space in between your lips and the microphone. Use a pop filter between you to soften the audio. 
5.  • Keep an eye on your volume levels during recording.
6.  • Control your inhales and exhales to ensure you don’t let large gusts or gasps infiltrate the recording. 
7.  • Try to limit your body movement.
8.  • Record with headphones on so you can track the sound quality and audio.
9.  • Leave audio cues when a mistake is made to help you edit it later.
10.  • Mute yourself when you’re not speaking for prolonged periods of time to ensure less noise sneaks into the recording. 
11.  • Record each participant on a separate channel. This makes for easier editing. 

 

Podcast Editing Tips

Editing a podcast can take time in the beginning, but you’ll gain skills and experience over time and get better and better. Follow these podcast editing tips to help improve your productivity in the editing suite:

1.  • Keep your audio files organised and use consistent naming conventions to keep track of different elements of your recordings.
2.  • Use noise reduction and audio repair tools to improve the sound quality.
3.  • Remove unnecessary pauses and filler words to sound more polished and engaging.
4.  • Try using equalization (EQ) to balance the frequencies and enhance vocal clarity.
5.  • Use the compression effects to even out the volume and keep the sound consistent.
6.  • Experiment with fades and crossfades when transitioning between segments.
7.  • Edit out mistakes, technical glitches and errors.
8.  • Use music and sound effects sparingly and strategically when it enhances the listeners’ experience.
9.  • Adjust the volume so that it is not too soft or too loud.
10.  • Take a break once you’re done and then listen to the edited version with fresh ears to catch any more errors.

 

Step 5: Find a Podcast Hosting Platform

Podcast hosting platforms are easy to find nowadays. Platforms, like Podbean or Libsyn, allow you to easily store and distribute your podcasts to different distributors and networks.

 

Step 6: Artwork and Descriptions

It’s worth investing in professional podcast artwork that’s eye-catching and unique and spending time on your show descriptions to make sure they are compelling yet concise and accurate yet informative.

 

Step 7: Submit to Directories

Now your podcast is ready to go and ready to be listened to. Submitting podcasts to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google isn’t difficult but it can take time. Once you’re up and running, use your social media and other marketing channels to promote your show.  

 

Step 8: Track Your Podcast and Improve

There are many ways to measure success in podcasts and it will depend on your objectives and audience. Some of the more key and common metrics to consider include:

•  • Number of downloads.
•  • Number of streams. 
•  • Level of listener engagement.
•  • Social media engagement, comments, trends, shares and reviews.
•  • Subscriber numbers and growth.
•  • Amount of monetisation opportunity. 

 

Final Podcast Tips

Here are some final podcast tips to consider in order to help you achieve the success you deserve.

1.  • Research, research, research!
2.  • Listen to other shows to learn more and get inspiration.
3.  • Be creative, unique and authentic!
4.  • Create and stick to a consistent schedule for recording, editing and releasing.
5.  • Enjoy yourself and the process and your audience will too!

 

Find your podcast gear right here at DJ City

If you need a hand with getting started with our podcast tips or you’d like to peruse our range of high-quality and affordable podcast equipment, check out DJ City. We’re one of Australia’s leading online providers of all things music, recording and sound equipment and we’d love to help set you and your podcast up for success today!