Do you have specialized knowledge you want to share?
Do you want to influence people?
Do you want to expand your audience?

Don’t dream it, do it!

By producing a podcast you can establish a position of authority in your industry and build a deeper connection with your audience. The marketing opportunities for multiple platform content is endless just by adding video recording to the table you are expanding your potential reach.

In this guide we will walk you through the podcasting process:

1. Getting Started

The best way to start a podcast is to just jump in. A good podcast means providing quality content via your topics and through the equipment you use.
What are you passionate about? What specialized knowledge can you bring to the table those others can’t?

If you are producing an interview-style talk show, you’ll be able to expand your industry authority by having other experts on. This will also, help to bring in new viewers and increase the exposure your podcast gets if shared by your guest.

Naming your podcast:

A lot of podcasts use the hostname as the podcast show name. It’s also a good idea to add your brand name or some keywords to better optimize your podcast for platforms like iTunes.
Your podcast name should be easy to understand and to the point.

Writing a description:

You should write about the benefits your listeners will get after listening to your podcast. Include keywords and phrases to SEO optimize your podcast and rank well.

While most of your descriptions will be short, be mindful of the platforms you’re uploading to. A video podcast on YouTube, for instance, will allow you to have longer descriptions and the ability to link out to specific landing pages.

2. Design your podcast cover art.

Your podcast cover art is the first impression your potential listeners will see as they browse through their favorite podcast streaming app. You should have your branding on each episode cover with the name of the show and the guest or content you will be sharing.

Here are some tips for creating the best podcast cover art.

Be mindful of your audience and look to other podcasts within the same genre for inspiration.

3. Preparing a script for your podcast

Storytelling makes the content interesting. Write out your questions in advance if you’re hosting the show with guests.

Whatever you choose, prep is key. Research your guest or topic.

Pro tip:

Come up with a few questions that you will ask every guest. This will help you get more out of the content, whether you want to build a montage of everyone’s answers to the same question, share on social media or just tweet out everyone’s quote-worthy comments.

Here’s a sample outline to consider, via Voices.com:

4. Podcast Video recording

While audio podcasts are great, many people resonate with your emotions and expressions while speaking, which is best showcased through video.

You can also expand your audience and please the Google search engines by cross-posting your podcast on YouTube and beyond.

Don’t feel limited by your equipment. “Talking head” videos are the most popular. Even one-shots with a smartphone can achieve this style; it doesn’t have to have multiple cameras set up with a lot of editing.

And don’t ignore your background! The quality is not just in the equipment you use but also what your background looks like. You’ll want proper lighting, your branded colors, and proper positioning of the set.

The Film Hub has created a beautiful space for podcasters to produce their show. Here is what’s included in this turn-key, high-quality facility so you’re ready to go.

5. Video Editing for Podcast

Hopefully, you’re doing a video podcast at this point and all you need is a few editing tips to elevate your show.

Tip 1:

Always record separate sound through professional microphones to get the best audio quality. You can use your camera audio as a backup channel.

Tip 2:

If you decide to use multiple cameras your opening shot should be an establishing wide shot. As people speak you can cut to a close-up shot of their faces. Cutting to reaction shots keeps it interesting.

Tip 3:

Want to add some royalty-free music to your podcast episode? Free Music Archive and Musopen are two great websites where you can get royalty-free music for free.

Tip 4:

Don’t forget to color grade with some premade filters on your editing program, fix the the vibrancy of your footage, or adjust the brightness if your footage came out a little dark.

If you’re not that great at the video side yet, you will improve over time. Until then you will become a good editor by learning to fix your mistakes while editing.

5. How to distribute a podcast for free?

You might be familiar with a blog RSS feed, which allows readers to subscribe to a blog and automatically receive new posts in anchor RSS readers (like Digg or Feedly).

A podcast uses an RSS feed as well. But with a podcast RSS feed, instead of readers subscribing to receive new blog posts, listeners subscribe to receive new podcast episodes.

Creating Your Feed

You need a podcast RSS feed for your podcast to submit your show to a podcast directory so new fans can easily find you when they’re looking for podcasts like yours. There are plenty of services that can do this for you automatically. All you need to do is upload your audio files, and those services will provide you with a feed that you can submit to a podcast directory. A podcast directory is one way to discover and consume podcast episodes. Two of the most popular are Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Anchor is one app that will help you distribute your podcast to the following platforms:

Video content platforms:

YouTube (full episodes)

Vimeo

You can also share small snippets and highlights of your podcast on YouTube, which you can link to on your website or social media accounts.

7. Record your first podcast episode.

You can start recording your first podcast episode on Audacity, or you can directly record your podcast on Anchor, a free podcast hosting service.

To export an mp3 file from Audacity, you’ll need to download and install the Lame MP3 encoder for Windows or Mac.
If you recorded your podcast on Anchor and didn’t want to edit your podcast there, you can easily export and download your recorded audio file from the web version of Anchor to edit it in Audacity.