74: Podcast Quick-Start Guide
For a lot of people, now is the perfect time to start that podcast they’ve been thinking about for a while now because they’re finding themselves with more free time than ever. If that’s you, you need this episode!
The process of starting a podcast contains a lot of small steps that make up one often overwhelming project. Luckily, this episode will break down those steps and provide you with a ton of resources.
So, if you’ve been looking for a clear and simple guide to starting a podcast, this is it!
UPDATE 1: I mention using Cleanfeed for recording remote interviews. I did stop using that in early 2021 after I started experiencing significant glitches/technical issues with the platform. I have been using Riverside.fm (linked in the resources section) ever since. However, I have to be honest and say that I’m becoming increasingly more frustrated with the platform as I and a lot of others have been experiencing issues with this platform as well. When it works as it should, it’s the best. If you’re not comfortable rolling the dice, Zoom will be lower quality but does tend to be more reliable.
Update 2: When I discuss the pages you should have on your website for your podcast, I now recommend blending the landing page and directory into one. You can see an example of how I do this here.
Update 3: Regarding the platforms to submit your show to, as of January 2022, here’s what’s changed:
You can submit straight to Spotify, Amazon Music (and by default Audible), and Pandora from the “RSS Feed Settings” page inside your Libsyn account. There are also several other new platforms you can submit to directly from your Libsyn account.
You can now also directly submit your show to Google Podcasts. The link has been added to the show notes for episode 23.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | Audible | iHeartRADIO | Pandora | Android Devices | RSS
Episode 06: The Equipment You'll Need to Start a Podcast for Your Coaching or Consulting Business
Episode 07: Determining the Topic of Your Podcast
Episode 08: Should You Do Solo Episodes or Interviews?
Episode 09: What Should be Included in Your Podcast's Intro and Outro
Episode 11: Where to Find Music for Your Podcast
Episode 12: How Long Should Your Podcast Episodes Be?
Episode 13: What Day of the Week Should You Release Your Podcast Episodes?
Episode 14: How Often Should You Release Your Podcast Episodes?
Episode 15: Tips and Requirements for Creating Your Podcast's Artwork
Episode 16: Selecting Which Categories Your Podcast Will Be Listed Under
Episode 17: How to Record Your Podcast's Intro & Outro
Episode 18: How to Edit Your Podcast Using Audacity
Episode 19: Setting Up Your Recording Space
Episode 20: Why You Need an Episode 00
Episode 21: How to Set-Up Your RSS Feed in Libsyn
Episode 22: Publishing Your First Podcast Episode
Episode 23: How to Submit Your Podcast to the Main Listening Platforms
Episode 24: What are Show Notes and Why Do You Need Them?
Episode 26: Tips for Hiring a Podcast Editor
Episode 27: How to Find Guests for Your Podcast
Episode 28: Setting Up a Scheduling System to Streamline Your Podcast Interview Process
Episode 30: What Link Should You Use When Sharing Your Podcast?
Episode 31: Educating Your Audience About Podcasts
Episode 32: How to Promote Your Podcast Launch with Sophia Parra
Episode 35: Strategies for Promoting Your Podcast Episodes with Sophia Parra
Episode 53: Should Your Podcast Have Seasons?
Riverside.fm (Affiliate Link)
Podcasting for Coaches on Instagram
Podcasting for Coaches on Facebook
My Launch Consultation Packages
Online Course | How to Start a Podcast (For Your Coaching Business)
Transcript
Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to episode number 74, of podcasting for coaches, I know that a lot of you right now are finding yourselves with some extra time. And you're thinking that now may be the perfect time to start your podcast and you wouldn't be wrong. I can tell you that downloads at the moment are down. But I think that's going to change, we're seeing a lot of disruption in people's routines. But I think we're also going to see a lot of new people check out podcasts for the very first time. And we're also seeing that people are craving resources, both for news and for mindless entertainment. So let's talk about the process for how to start your podcast because I know that this process seems incredibly, incredibly overwhelming in the beginning, you have no idea what steps you even need to take or where you even need to start. So this episode will give you a very, very high level overview of that process. Now, I'm not going to go into the individual how tos for each step, because I have a ton of podcast episodes where I've already done that. So I'm going to go through every step of the process right now and let you know which episode you can refer back to on the show to take a deeper dive into that particular topic if you need more help with that. And I want to mention before we really dig into this, that this is just kind of the order that I think through things, this is actually what I do with my launch clients, when we first start, the very first thing we do is get on a phone call. And we spend an hour sometimes up to two hours really digging into this information and breaking down this process for their particular show. So this is the order that we run through this with them. But you can obviously change this order up if it makes sense. And especially if you're outsourcing a lot of these tasks, you maybe want to get started on those sooner rather than later so that you can get the people that you're outsourcing the work to time to actually complete that work. So you're not stuck at the end, having done everything you need to do and just waiting on other people because I know that that would be incredibly frustrating. I have no patience. I couldn't handle that. But I also want to make this even easier for you. Because I'm going to be throwing a ton of stuff at you in this episode, it's going to feel overwhelming. But I promise if you just take it one step at a time, you can do this. But to make it a little bit easier, I do have a PDF for you of everything I'm going to go through in this episode. So that PDF is going to have every step of the process and links to all of the episodes that I tell you to refer back to if you need additional help. If you want to download that PDF, just go to podcasting for coaches. com, click on the podcast tab in the main menu and go to episode number 74. You do not have to provide an email address. I don't do that I don't have a general mailing list. I hate them. So I will never ask you for your email address. I have a paid mailing list called the podcasting insiders club. That's only $5 a month where I provide updates for you about the industry and new tips and tricks but never a general one that you'll have to enter just to get a PDF from me. So go grab that PDF after you listen to this episode and then just take it one task at a time. All right, let's just jump straight in because we've got a lot to cover. The very first step of the process is to get your equipment and your software. So I want you to refer back to episode number six the equipment you'll need to start a podcast for your coaching or consulting business. Just as an update to that episode, I am actually now recommending the Samsung cue to you instead of the ATR 2100 there is nothing wrong with the ATR 2100 the Samsung q two U is just an equally good mic and it's quite a bit cheaper now. So that is what I recommend going with Samson sa MSONQ to you and there will be a link to it on Amazon in the show notes. And I did check yesterday right before recording this episode and as of right now they are still shipping those, the recording software that you'll need. One is Audacity. And as an update to episode six audacity does not work with Mac devices that have updated to Catalina so if that is you, you can use either GarageBand if you're familiar with it or QuickTime which will be much much simpler. And then as another update to episode number six, I do actually recommend and personally use at the moment clean feed for recording remote interviews and that's clean just like cleaning and feed just like feeding yourself food. So I will actually go more in depth into clean feed on next week's up sewed and explain exactly how to use it and some weird little quirks that you absolutely need to be aware of before you start using it. Okay, so the next step in the process is to determine the basics. So basically laying the foundation for your show and creating what the show is going to be. First, you need to come up with the title of the show. Now, if the name of your business works well for the podcast, and works well for the guidelines I'm getting ready to lay out, then definitely use that because that just helps with your brand recognition across all platforms. So the guidelines they recommend for the title is that it's no more than three or four words, that it is easy to spell. And remember, and it is more important to be clear with this title than it is to be clever. So you want to make sure it's really obvious right from the start, what the show's even about someone who has no idea who you are, or what you talk about should know roughly the topic of the podcast just from the name of the show. Next, I want you to use real words. I know that seems silly that I have to say that. But with voice activated smart speakers becoming a lot more popular, it is more important now than ever, that you use words that are actually recognized by the artificial intelligence programs that run those foreign speakers. So you want to use words that are in the dictionary, or at least super popular in pop culture. And then lastly, no explicit language. Now I know I know, I can hear you already. But so and so has this word in their title in their fine, they've been going forever, they're super popular. And I'm going to refer you back to what your mother used to tell you when you were younger. If everybody else jumps off a bridge, are you going to do it too, just because they're getting away with it doesn't mean you will it is technically against Apple's policies. And they could decide at any time that they wanted to enforce that and then just outright remove those shows. So don't let that happen to you. To further expand on this, they also don't want you to self censor. So just replacing one letter and an explicit word with a character like an at symbol or an exclamation point, is still technically against their policy. Alright, so the next thing you want to determine is your topic. What do you actually want to talk about? I do go over this in episode number seven determining the topic of your podcast. Next is the format of your show. And I'm going to refer you to episode number eight. Should you do solo episodes or interviews? The answer might surprise you. So definitely take a listen to that even if you think you're already set on which one you're going to do. The next thing you want to determine is the length of your episode, go to episode number 12. How long should your podcast episodes be? Next is the release day. So what day of the week? Are you going to release new episodes? And I'm going to refer you to episode number 13. what day of the week, should you release your podcast episodes? Next is the frequency. And I'm going to refer you to episode number 14. How often should you release your podcast episodes. And next is determining whether or not you're going to be seasonal or just go straight through. And I'm going to refer you to episode number 53. Should your podcast have seasons. And next we need to determine your categories. So that is whether or not you're going to be true crime or business or marketing or comedy or how to any of those kinds of things. And I'm going to refer you to episode number 16, selecting which categories your podcast will be listed under. And then lastly, you need to come up with a description for your show. Now this should be pretty short, pretty concise, very clear. Try to keep it evergreen, but you want to cover who you are, why you're qualified to talk about this, what you're going to talk about and most importantly, who it's for and how it's going to help them. So by evergreen, I mean don't include what day of the week you release on or how often you release episodes or whether it's solo or interview. You want to allow yourself flexibility to be able to change anything about your show at any time without having to constantly update this description. Alright, so the next step of the process is to have your main artwork done. And I'm going to refer you to episode number 15 tips and requirements for creating your podcast artwork. Now with a quick update to that episode, I do break down all the requirements according to Apple because they are the most strict. But in that I mentioned that your artwork can be anywhere from 4200 by 4200 to 3000 by 3000 pixels. Pandora now requires 3000 by 3000. So just go with that. And then I also didn't include the requirement that your image needs to be 72 dpi. If you have no idea what I mean, just get with a graphic designer, or you can reach out to me, that has always been an apple guideline, but it's not been one that they've enforced until fairly recently. They are enforcing that now and I have had shows not get approved until that setting was corrected. So the next step is to pick out the music for your show. And I'm going to refer you to episode number 11. Where to find music for your podcast and update to that episode. One of the resources that I mentioned is one called Oh buzz and they are no longer in business. So just ignore that one. And I now actually recommend melody loops to all of my clients. That's the first place I send people there are other options, but that's the first one and there will be a link to that in the show notes as well. So the next step of the process is to record your intro and outro There are four of us. I'm going to refer you to for this, because it's a pretty big step and it tells you how to record audio for your entire podcast. So the first one is episode number 19. Setting up your recording space, we want to make sure we get you the best quality audio to start with because that audio is sometimes impossible for even skilled editors to correct let alone people who are pretty new at editing. Next is episode nine what should be included in your podcast intro and outro. Next is episode number 17. How to record your podcast intro and outro. And that is using audacity as a base. So just keep that in mind. And then the next one is Episode 18 how to edit your podcast using Audacity. Now I mentioned before that audacity isn't super compatible with Mac that are running Catalina. But that is just the recording feature. As far as I know, you should still be able to edit with Audacity. So even if you record your intro and outro and your podcast audio and QuickTime, you should still be able to utilize Episode Number 18 and actually edit your show with Audacity. So after you've got the intro and outro recorded, I then want you to record your episode zero. And Episode Number 20 of my show why you need an episode zero, we'll explain exactly what that should include and what purpose it serves. So the next step in the process, this is where a lot of people get hung up is they need to actually set up their RSS feed. And the RSS feed is just a bunch of code. Honestly, literally, it's a URL that when you put it into a web browser just returns a ton of code. And that code tells all of the individual platforms as long as they have it anytime there are any changes. So if you release a new episode, it detects a change in that code and then displays that change aka displays your new episode. So setting up this RSS feed may sound really intimidating right now. But if you use a good hosting service, it doesn't have to be, I recommend using one called Lipson. This will actually give you your RSS feed and it allows you to store your audio files there instead of on your website. So your website doesn't get bogged down. There will be a link to Lipson in the show notes for this episode. And I'm going to refer you to episode number 21. For how to set up that RSS feed in Lipson. Now as an update to that episode, they have kind of changed some things around. So they're going to be two sections on Lipton's website. And this has always been the case. But they're going to be two sections in Lipson website where you input these different settings for your RSS feed. And they've changed where some of those settings are located. So as you're listening to that episode, because I even do a screen share walkthrough so that you can see exactly what it looks like. If there is something that you're not seeing where I'm telling you you should see it, it's just been moved to the other location. So you have a main show settings and the tab and your your Lipson account. And there's also a directory tab. And in there, there are settings for your lips, and classic feed. All of that sounds like gibberish to you right now, I'm sure. But if you listen to Episode 21, it will make sense. So if you're not seeing something where you think you should be seeing it, just check the other placements probably there. Alright, so the next step of the process to actually publish your episode zero, because in order to submit your RSS feed to these various platforms, you have to have at least one episode live in your feed already published. And we don't want this to be a first official episode of your show. Because for one, as soon as you get approved by these platforms that's been live for the world to listen to whether or not you're ready to actually continuously put out content. So I'm going to refer you to episode number 22. publishing your first podcast episode this will walk you through the whole process inside Lipson now to update to this episode, in that I mentioned and again, this will sound like gibberish now, but once you listen to the episode, it will make sense. In the episode I mentioned that I hadn't heard of anyone getting punished for putting episode numbers, specifically in the title that goes to Apple podcast, not all the other platforms, but just Apple podcast. And that is no longer true. Apple does not want episode numbers in your titles. And they have removed a ton of shows because they're not following the guideline. And they also reject shows if they have episode numbers in the title. So you can ignore the comment about me not knowing of anyone who gets punished because I know a lot of people now. So just don't do this. As you listen to the episode, follow the guidelines because I do tell you not to put the episode number in there. So just stick with the advice I provide and you'll be fine. And then the advice I want you to ignore is that right after I talk about those episode numbers in the apple podcast title, I talked about a summary specific for Apple podcasts that you should fill out and you can just ignore that they're doing away with that completely so you do not need to fill out that summary box anymore. Okay, next up are the elements for the podcast that are going to go on your website. There are three things here that I want you to include. One is the landing slash subscribe page, you can call it whatever you want serves the same purpose. And I'm going to refer you to episode number 30. What link should you use when sharing your podcast to explain what that page is and what it should include. Next, I want you to have a directory page. So for the time tab in your main menu that says podcasts because you should absolutely have one of those don't make people hunt for your podcast. But when they click on that, it should go to a page that has all of your episodes listed. So depending on what website platform you use, or what theme you use, you can set this up. So it does it automatically, because show notes are basically just blog posts. And so you can set it up. So like it automatically updates every time a new blog in quotes is published. Next, obviously, you should have the show notes, and episode number 24. What are show notes and why do you need them? We'll explain exactly what those should include. Okay, so the last official step in the process to starting your podcast is to submit it to all the various platforms. Episode Number 23. How does it get your podcast to the main listening platforms, we'll break down a lot of these processes for you. But because it's technology and as podcasting, and this changes constantly, I have several updates for you on this one actually still listen to the episode because the process for Apple podcasts is the same. And the process for Google podcasts is the same. But I've got a couple updates for the others. One, the Spotify submission process has changed, you can submit directly via Lipson and it's much easier than I mentioned in this episode, you can access it the same way. But it's just a lot less that you have to actually fill out now and it's much easier. Now you can also submit directly to Pandora. And I will have a link to do that in the show notes for this episode. And I did speak with a couple actually probably like the top guys in charge of podcasting at Pandora when I was at pod fest a few weeks ago. And they said that right now is taking about four to six weeks to get the show's approved. So just keep that in mind. Next, I talk about submitting your show to stitcher and the process for that has changed. But the good news is it's changed for the better. So you can still use the same link that I have in the show notes for Episode 23. And now just follow the prompts on the screen to get your show submitted instead of listening to what I say in the episode. And then next I also talked about submitting your show to Google Play Music and you do not need to worry about that anymore at all. It is basically dead, it has been completely replaced by Google podcast. So don't worry about submitting your show to Google Play Music is a headache, it's a pain in the butt and you just don't need to. Next there are more destinations available in Lipson than there have ever been before. So just go to that destination tab in Lipson that you will at this point in the process already be familiar with from when you set up your RSS feed. And then you'll see a button that says Add destination and then a list of options will come up, you can click which one you want to add and then just fill out the fields on the screen. It's pretty self explanatory. And then next I talked about tune in, which is the default podcast app for all Alexa devices. I specifically talked about some image requirements for tune in and you can completely ignore all of that that has completely changed. The image requirements I mentioned in Episode 15 above will work here they're going to be just fine. So follow everything else for tune in but ignore anything I talked about as far as the image of the artwork goes. Okay, so at this point in the process, you will have every element of your show done, you're submitted to the platform, and you just have to wait for the approvals. And then your show is live and you technically have a podcast. So congratulations. But I do have some other resources for you. To help you with the episodes beyond just launching. So episode one and on. I'm gonna refer you to episode number 26 tips for hiring a podcast editor in case you need one of those. And then episode number 27. How to find guests for your podcast, Episode Number 28. Setting up a scheduling system to streamline your podcast interview process. Episode 31. educating your audience about podcast This one is super, super, super crucial. So absolutely. Make sure that you listen to this episode pretty much no matter what. And then Episode 32 how to promote your podcast launch with Sophia Parra. This was the first guest I had on my show and I actually brought her back in Episode Number 35 to talk about strategies for promoting your podcast episodes. I am sure that you now feel more overwhelmed than you did. When you first press play. It seems like a lot when I condense this down into such a quick episode. Again, this is what I go through in like an hour or two with my launch clients. But you have that PDF in the show notes podcasting for coaches.com. Click on the podcast tab in the main menu, go to episode number 74. And then just work your way one item at a time through that checklist. And you'll get there. If you're going to go through this process yourself, but you would like an expert's eyes on it right before you submit just to make sure you set everything up. Make sure you didn't miss a step in the process. All your RSS feed settings are the way that they should be. All of those things I can help you with, I actually have a podcast audit that I can perform on your show just to make sure all your ducks are in a row. If you want to learn more about that there will be a link in the show notes. And then of course if now more than ever you feel like you need more assistance and some one on one help. I can definitely help you with that as well. Again, link in the show notes to my podcast launch packages. Alright, so that's going to wrap up this episode. If you have any follow up questions, please feel free to reach out I'm very active on Instagram. You can of course, reach out to me through the contact form on my website as well. And then you can come back next week to check out the episode where I'm going to talk about updates to a lot of the equipment and technology and things that I mentioned from previous episodes and where I'm going to break down clean feed specifically. So if you are going to be doing remote recordings for your podcast, definitely check out Episode Number 75 next week, thanks so much. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, you can do so on Instagram at podcasting for coaches. If you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast, go to podcasting for coaches calm and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course. And I look forward to seeing the podcasts that you create and put out into the world.