Easy-Guide to Podcasting - Without a Big Investment

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Medley Andy Rose. I'm a content creator in Stylist based in New York. And I started my own podcast last September. I created this class because I wanted to show you how easy it is to start your own podcast . And I wanted to make sure to show you that you do not need a very big investment at all. So if you have, ah, set idea off podcast that you've been wanting to start but have no idea where to start this classes for you and even if you just kind of thought of starting a podcast but don't even know what is going to be about this class is also for you. If you don't want to make a big investment because you don't know if it's for you or not, this class is awful for you. I'm going to break it all down and super easy steps, starting with the base and the outline of your own podcast talk you through all the equipment and programs you're gonna need and share My favorite tips that I got before started my podcast and things that I've learned along the way, also giving you some ideas on how you can also make money with your podcast. So I'm super excited to have you here. The project is gonna be easy on the one hand, but on the other hand is going to give you the base. Just start your own podcast. It's only going to be a little bit more after that, and then you're gonna be there. So I really wanted to make sure to make it all super easy for you. And I can't wait to start this class with you. 2. Define the Base for Your Podcast: Okay, So obviously the most important thing that you're gonna need a topic and choose what category that goes in. So the topic can be basically anything that you feel like creating a podcast about on in the I phone podcast app. They'll have categories like comedy gives and family, society and culture, where my podcast is on a bunch of other ones. So choose your topic and your category. Andi, write those down on, and if you're not quite sure, just always think about what kind of podcasts you listen to. So are the educational. Are there just for entertainment? Are they funny? So that's always really helpful just to remember what kind of podcast you like, because that obviously will be the kind of one that you're probably going to be more likely to create Then. It is also really important to remember that unless you're doing a set series of episodes, you need to think about a topic that is inexhaustible. So will you be able to create content after content after content? If you are gonna have guests on your podcast, it is easier to create content after content up content because guests are going to be talking. The other way you could be doing it is a social can just be you talking about yourself or about the news. Or you could do it with the friends. Still, doing things with friends or your partner is always easier, so it can be the two of you, and you could discuss topics from a different point of views. So that's the second thing that you're gonna want to decide. What type of podcasts are you gonna have? I do suggest choosing no more than two types of podcasts. So you can do like every other episode is a solo show. And then every other episode is with a guest and so on. I wouldn't like completely mix it, go crazy just so your audience knows what to expect. And so you have kind of a consistency. So obviously, next you're gonna need a name. The name should be short and sweet and kind of given idea what the podcast is about, what you can also Joe's incorporate if you're going to do it with a friend or a partner or a different guest to incorporate that into the title you it can be like Madelaine with blah , blah, blah or, you know, just kind of that if you're like, completely lost with names, that's a good starting point. And then once you have one or you have, like, a couple, go ahead and Google the them because you would not want to start a podcast that already has a new INSTAGRAM account. Somewhat are elsewhere. We started under the same name and is about something completely different. So Google even named that you're thinking about and just make sure that it doesn't have a domain already. It doesn't have instagram account already and is easy to find. Andi will only be found for you, so they put in the podcast name. They'll only find your podcast. That's the goal. So with pretty much everything in business, it is really important. Also, when you're creating a podcast, too, remembers your audience group so or your your target audience. Who is it for a whole is your podcast four. And that is going to obviously also, um, influence the name maybe and also influenced your style of podcast. The way you talk, how it's edited, how long it is. So think about if your podcast is for stay at home dads, for example, and you're episode is two hours long. Maybe the stay at home Dad doesn't have two hours a day to listen to it or two hours a week , so keep it short and sweet. But if your podcast is for let's say, you know, business people on the way to work straight out of college or who knows what you know their their hustlers and they're getting their stuff done and your podcast is giving them the daily news. Keep it short, sweet 15 minutes. That's about all I would say. In general, a good range is between 30 and 60 minutes. So if you know you have no clue how long this is gonna be, between 30 and 60 minutes is pretty safe. 3. Define the Outlines for your Podcast: Okay, so now you have your base of your podcast, the real core of it. And now we're going to sit the outlines. So what, you're gonna want to also decide before if launching is, how often are you going to publish an episode and how frequently so you could do like once a week? I think that's a good place to start. But just if you're like, Oh, I can do more I can do to a week. Just remember all of the things that go into it. I'm saying how easy podcasts is, but still there's a lot of time and effort that goes into one episode. So it's like the research, the recording, the editing, the publishing, You know all of that. So just make sure that you don't like crazy at the beginning. Start with maybe one a week. Unless, of course, you have example of the daily news. Then it's daily news. Or maybe you think once a month is fine, especially for the beginning, you can always go more later, but it's so important to be consistent. So once you have an audience and they know that you publish a new episode every Monday be sure to publish one every Monday because if they're looking forward to your podcast every Monday on the way to work, you're not gonna wanna leave them hanging. So think about that. And that is part of your podcast outline as well. So basically, when you upload your podcast and wherever it goes, there's gonna be a short paragraph where you're describing your podcast so new listeners will know if they're gonna want to start listening to a podcast or not, Which is why it's so important to define your base in your outline before so and to know your target audience. So, um, write a paragraph because this is also part of your project, but you're going toe. If you start a podcast, do this anyway. Um, so write a paragraph about 200 words. I'll say, where you describe what listeners can expect from your podcast? Maybe why he started it and who? It's four. So those are super important things for any big launch and exactly the same for this podcast on. And if you then uploaded to the project section in this show, you'll also get feedback. You'll get feedback. You know, the name and all those things, but I'll get to the whole whole project for this class in the very end. So stay tuned, but you're gonna want to do this anyway, so it's going to be amazing. So every podcast has an artwork cover basically as the face of your podcast. And yes, you can do it. Have it done by, Ah, professional graphic designer. You can do it yourself. Obviously, you can maybe take some skill share classes on how to use illustrator and design your own local, which is what I did. Or if you, you know, thank you just want something super. Basically, um, you can use the can va AP. And that's a really great app that has, like, thousands of templates and also like the square format that your podcast app artwork is going to be. And you put your name in there. Andi, that's a really super cheap, quick and still very nice and professional looking way to create your podcast artwork. 4. Equipment You'll Need: So now things are getting a little bit more serious. We're gonna get to the part of this class that is the equipment and ingredients. So the most important equipment that you are gonna have toe probably gets if you don't already have one is a microphone. So again, I want to make sure that you don't. I think that you need to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars. So I just went on Amazon and checked out a couple. And I think this one was the best seller. It's five. Fine. Let me see. Do I have it anywhere? Okay, so this is Mom. Sorry, I'm not prepared. So this is my, um, microphone. I bought this one like I said on Amazon for $22 it comes with this cute Stan and USB plug in and this phone thing, me, which is not cute. I mean, like, this looks better, but the film thing is better for the sound. Anyway, this is a great one to start with. I actually bought two because my podcast always is with guests and I record my voice and my guests voice on separate tracks, which makes it easier for the editing, but another one that you might want to look into is the Blue Jet I, and it's about $100. It's supposed to be really good, too, But like I said, don't feel like you have to spend a lot on equipment. And if your content is good, I think your guests are going to come back and listen. Even if it's not like a super fully equipped audio studio. Because most podcasts out there are not shot and fully equipped audio studio, Just make sure that the set up where you record has somewhat covered wall. So if you would record in like a naked room, there would be a lot of echo and, you know, the typical like audio rooms that have those like foamy things on the wall. You can even build yourself literally like a little box padded with foam and put your microphone inside so that is going to take care of all of the outside noises. But just also make sure that your phone is off your guests. Phone is off. There's no kids yelling, dogs barking and all those things. Maybe you need to retreat into your car to record these air decisions that you're gonna have to then choose for your very own personal podcast, which is exciting because you can just, like, build it all and created all yourself anyway. So, microphone, that's the important equipment. 5. Programs You'll Need to Produce and Publish: So after you recorded, which is basically plucking and into your lap talk and hitting laptop and hitting record, it will go to the editing. Okay, so I record my podcast with garage band because I have a Mac and every map. Mac comes with a rash man, but there's other recording sites of recording programs that you can use that are also not too expensive and within those you can also edit. So I knew when I started my podcast that this was the part that I was gonna hate, and it was going to kill the fun for me. So I decided to up source the editing to a naugle specialist, and she's amazing. And she doesn't love that for me. And this is also again, not huge investment. I found her on up work, which is a site where you can post random little jobs or bigger jobs. Andan. There's also various Facebook podcasting groups where you can maybe then find someone for you. If you are also thinking that the editing part of it is going to be the worst, so producing and publishing it's not super hard, and I'm sure you can do it. I'm sure there might even be skill short classes on it, but and then what you're gonna need is a site like, ah, hosting site. So the hosting sites that I use is Lipson Lipson, I think is one of the biggest hosting sites for podcasts. And this is truly amazing because you're actually not gonna have to be doing anything at all because it does everything for you once you said it all up. So the hosting side Lipson is going to take care of everything and get your podcast into the world onto all the ab Spotify and even create a very own website for your podcast. It's gonna ask. You basically threw everything for everything in a super self explanatory. So again I could do it. And I'm so sure that you can too. It's going to ask you for your artwork. It's gonna ask you for the name, obviously, and for the little paragraph that you're orbiting world. So you see, if you did the first steps of this class, you're already super prepared to actually get your podcast out there. And the way it works is that it is actually not free. But you choose how much data you want and then your monthly fees adjusted to that so I can give you a range. I have four episodes and stay under 400 megabytes, I think, and that's about $20. So again, not like a huge investment. And even if you're not sure about if you want to continue this, it's a good you know, small amount of money that you can kind of test with. We put up your episode and you put in the name of the episode and the number on the description, and it automatically goes to all of that. Also your own website. If you don't want a separate podcast website because you already have your own like me, it will give you a link for each episode that you upload that you just plug into your homepage that you already have. And then people can listen to it from your home page. If they don't listen with APS and things like that, which is amazing. So then one more thing that might just get a little bit more complicated it is to get it on the iPhone podcast app, so it's not complicated at all. It just requires one extra step because Apple wants to make sure that your podcast basically is worthy or whatever. They just want to make sure that it's, you know, the right kind of content. So you're gonna submit one episode and they take about one or two days to review it. But again, Lipson will give you a detailed instruction for that. You just follow that. Submit it. And that's that. So you got that? You got your microphone than you record. Then you edit. Then you upload to Lipson and them. 6. My Tips & Tricks: So the first tip I want to share with you is before you launch. You want to record 4 to 5 episodes that you all launch at once? Just, you know, again. Think of your listener, Hill. He or she will listen to your podcasts and be like all this kind. Cool. But there's not a second episode. And then maybe by the time the 2nd 1 is out there like oh, already forgot about it or whatever, But if you have four or five, then they're going, then they have something to actually sink their teeth into. So that was a super helpful tip that I got and that I'm sharing with you guys when you're launching, go with 4 to 5 episodes. So you're also gonna want to think about how to promote your podcast before you launch it. So if you have an instagram following or an email list or some other way that you could reach out to your already existing customers, amazing. So you're just gonna want to think about how you can steer them from your existing business . Teoh your podcast. And that's also good to do before you launched because you know you can kind of make them eager like, Oh, what's going on? You can share like a photo microphone or whatever and be like, Hey, new project coming up things like that that helps it to manifested in the universe if that's your kind of thing. But it also just kind of gets them curious and kind of eager to see what you're going to come up with if you want to know more about how to them promoted once it's going. And if you want to know more about email lists or social media promoting, let me know in the comment section, because I would love to give you a skill short class on that as well. Um, if you already know how, go do it because you got it. So if you are thinking about making this podcast like an actual super lucrative site side hustle on dure gonna want to make money with it. The easiest way is to get sponsors Teoh sponsor your podcast that you will endorse their product or service on your podcast with so once your numbers are a little bit higher and you feel confident with your content and your statistics, reach out to brands and companies that again are relative to relevant. Sorry that are relevant to your target audience. The unfortunate thing about the podcast at the Apple iPhone podcast app is that it's obviously super important because there's ratings and things like that and a comments section. But you will only get notified about the comments that are made from people in the same country that you are in. So I only see the comments of people who are in the US But I do also get a lot of comments from people in Europe and in Asia. So that's what I use Chargeable for Chargeable is a site that basically only gives you all of the super detailed statistics off your podcast. So it will give you all of the reviews that people give you on the iPhone and also the countries and like percentages and all those things. So that's also really, really good tip that I can give you for your podcast and which is also then important for sponsors and things like that. Like is there is the sponsor's product relevant to the country off where most of your listeners are and all those things but you get the drift of things were pretty much got it all covered. And I just want to tell you that it is completely normal to be a little bit nervous about actually launching and hitting the publish button. Hitting the record button is little easier, but then, actually, publishing it and putting it out in the world for everyone is a little scary. But I know you can do it and just think about what's the worst thing that can happen. So nothing, basically nothing bad can actually happen. Unless, of course, your podcasts have lots of negative things. Maybe don't do. I guess all that's completely up to you anyway. And, um, everyone hates the sound of their own voice. Trust me, I'm gonna have to edit this video. My voice you were listening to between my everyone hates the sound of their own boys. So just get over it. Get your podcast out there. Don't be scared. Just do it. And I just so excited about all these podcasts at this skill share classes going to create . And that's another tip that I wanted to give to you is to find a podcast in community. So obviously This is a great place to do it in the comments section once you shared all of your, uh, projects and things like that, where you can skid each other's feedback, and this will actually be a great place to find other podcasters. Another great place where you can find it is on Facebook, where I'm part of podcasting females group. But there's also other ones where there is, You know, you can ask each other questions. You know, Does this happen to you to our bubble? So finding community is super important is part of one of the topics of my podcast, and I also wanna just emphasize that here that finding a podcasting community is important for your podcasts as well. Also may be pitching yourself to other podcasts because that's how your audience will grow . Another way to grow your audience is obviously, if you have guests on, just make sure that they somehow always have to share it when they're on your podcast. So those are also just kind of really small mobile marketing tools that I did want to Sprinkle into this class 7. Class Project and Pep-talk: Okay, So now, in full detail the project that I would love you to, um, complete for this class. And so, like I mentioned before, I would All I want is the name of your podcast and the paragraph off your podcast, which is about 200 words, but also a short description of your audience, maybe their age, maybe their location, maybe what they do, what kind of person they are. Are they vegan? Are you know what religion are who All of those things put them in there, you know? So you haven't written down, and you can. That's a place that you can always go back to. Then, if you want, you can share your artwork. But since I didn't teach it in this class and is not mandatory, But I would also love you to describe your 1st 4 episodes for your podcast. So, like I said, they would be the first for episodes that you launch your podcast with. And I think it's really just important for this class because that will be your base bounce . You have this project completed. Your action really good to go toe. Actually do your podcast, so it will take out the fear off. You know, doing it because it's here. It's a safe space. You can share it. You'll get feedback from me from your other from your peers. And so your project is, on the one hand, super easy. But on the other hand, a super big chunk of starting your own podcast. So then there's gonna be nothing else in your way. So we went over everything. Debase the outline, the project, the equipment, the ingredients, little tips and tricks. And that was that. That was it. That was my, um my very for a skill share class, but I really hope you enjoyed it. And I'm so super excited to hear about all of the podcast ideas that you guys were going to come up with and seal your project again, please. If you have any wishes, concerns or questions, please write them in the comments section. I will 100% answer them. I'm so excited to hear from all of you guys and see your podcasts in my podcast app like, yeah,