A podcast is a digital audio file that can be downloaded and listened to. Podcasts are an excellent way to promote a brand, advertise a service, or simply find an audience for your interests.

If you start your podcast you can also make a ton of money. With new apps and technology, starting a show is easy.

Here’s a guide on how to properly start your own broadcasting business. Libsyn helps you get started with your podcast.

The Preliminaries 

In the beginning, there are questions you must ask yourself.

What is the subject of your show? Who is the target audience? What will you name it?

The purpose of these and other questions is to reveal the aim of your podcast.

Knowing the purpose of your program will keep you motivated and better able to tailor the content. Your podcast is unlikely to succeed if you don’t know the answer to these questions.

For example, your show is more likely to garner an audience if you have a clear picture of your audience persona, because you can gauge specific topic interests and keep people coming back for more.

Further, all this will inform the name of the podcast. The key to choosing a name is picking a descriptive searchable phrase. While clever phrases are fun and memorable, there’s no point to them if your audience can’t find them in a search. 

Also, unless you’re famous or have an existing audience base, avoid naming the podcast after yourself.

The Episode Plan

The next stage is mapping out your episodes.

Length

You’ll hear advice about timing your podcast at 28 minutes because it’s the average driving time or under one hour because people have short attention spans.

The truth is that deciding on the length of your episode should depend on your content.

 As long as the content is relevant, there’s nothing wrong with a 2 hour podcast. A 10 minute podcast is just as fine.

What’s bad for your podcast is cutting out valuable content or forcing conversation because you’re adhering to “rules” from “experts”.

Schedule

Deciding on a schedule is a personal decision. Stretching yourself thin just to fulfill the misguided notion that podcasts must be weekly will only result in rushed, inferior quality content.

Stick to what works for you. Pick a routine you can maintain that won’t compromise on quality. If it takes a month to put out excellent content, so be it. 

Furthermore, there’s a second option. Seasonal podcasts are a thing. The practice for a seasonal podcast is to pick a theme, create episodes around it, release, then repeat.

Format

 The standard episode format types are: 

• The monologue where it’s just you and the listener. This gives you total control, and you don’t need to depend on anyone. 
• The co- hosted show, in which you have a conversation with another podcaster. If you find someone you have great chemistry with, conversation is greatly improved by witty banter, debates, and teasing.
• Interview format, where you have guests over and ask them their opinions. The advantage of this is that if your guests have their own audience, they’ll also tune in and may end up subscribing.

Recording Your Podcast

The next step is actually recording. At the bare minimum, you require a computer with a USB microphone and internet access to record your podcast. Note that the cheaper your equipment, the lower your sound quality.

Again, before you record, it is advisable to write out a rough script. This means an outline of conversation topics and not a word-for-word script.

The nature of podcasting is conversational, so a scripted show that’ll sound like a sermon is a bad idea.

Production

Your podcast needs to be edited. Editing requires structuring the raw product into a polished audio recording.

How do you edit a podcast? There are several apps, some of them even free, that you can use to edit out mistakes, add music, and generally improve sound quality with EQ, leveling, compression and more.

If you have the budget for it, you can opt to hire a professional to edit and produce your podcast.

Publishing

The next major step is getting your show online and broadcasted to the world! To do this, you need to pick a host.

Podcast hosts are services that store your finished audio, allowing your audience to listen, download and subscribe.

After signing up with a host, you need to submit it to different directories, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean.

Congratulations! You’re done.

Podcasting is an excellent way to connect with people with whom you share similar interests.

Not only that, but starting a podcast is one step closer to making money through sponsorship deals and advertisements.