Here is a five step process to find your show name:
- Write a list of at least five choices
- Ask friends and family to describe the show from the names. Do any of them make sense from the name?
- If the above responses don’t make sense go back to #1
- Check the “working title” in iTunes and on Google
- I would recommend, at the very least, purchasing the URL, if not hosting, immediately.
- Start recording
Let’s take these one at a time.
- Write a list of at least five choices.
This process is important. It’s part of defining the niche you’re aiming at. Look at the options you’ve come up with, they will show you subconsciously, maybe, where you’re heading. Now all this is a bit like a birth plan for your first child or even a battle plan for an army. That is, nothing survives first contact. This can be a revelation to many. In all likelihood, you’re probably so focused on the tech, the content will take a back seat for the first few episodes anyway. This usually doesn’t matter as most early episodes aren’t that heavily listened to. Apart from your mum but not necessarily your partner. Let that sink in. So come up with your choices, they are unlikely to survive the process but we have to start somewhere.
2. Ask friends and family to rate them
Can they tell what the show is about? Simplicity and directness is the prefered approach.Why? Well when people are scrolling through the lists of shows on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts or even Spotify the name really needs to make sense. I heard of a case where the working title was “After the Darkness.” Now that’s a title with a few interpretations. From depression to the religious “dark night of the soul” you can’t really tell. This might encourage you to have a listen but it might not. People search for content that solves a problem. Either to dive into a topic, say independent digital nomad lifestyles or for entertainment purposes: “Will this comedian actually make me laugh?” The individual who was using “After the Darkness” had as his theme the story of his life after going blind with all its challenges and benefits. A more direct title: After Blindness, may well have been a better option. So if your friends and family can’t immediately tell what your show’s about, maybe a rethink is in order.
3. If the above responses don’t make sense go back to #1
That one’s fairly self evident. Keep going until others can tell what you think the show’s about and you’re happy or at least can live with the title.
4. Check the “working title” in iTunes and on Google
This is important, don’t use someone else’s title. Now it is possible to do so. There’s a show called The Feed from Lybsyn, a podcast hosting service. The hosts are regularly bemoaning the fact that a search for The Feed throws up many podcasts with theirs some way down the list. A quick check on that search has The Feed from Libsyn at number 31 on the list and they were the first podcast in the wild with that name. The message is to pick a unique name. If your name is taken return to step #1, again.
5. I would recommend, at the very least, purchasing the URL, if not hosting, immediately.
Eventually your show will need its own home. Your host may provide a page but that’s still on other people’s real estate. If your service has the space, use that as a tab on your home page or as a subdomain. Still, though, I would recommend purchasing the URL with the same name and whatever extensions you think reasonable. You will then have another web presence you can point towards your service. If you just hold the URL it stops others from wandering onto your space.
6. Start recording
This is the important part! Having picked your name, grabbed the URL and maybe started a website, get the first episode recorded. That should probably be a trailer episode explaining why you’re podcasting, what you’re planning to do and how often. Then make sure you ask listeners to follow your podcast and to tell their friends. Once that’s recorded, edited and published to your host, you can start registering your show with Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon amongst many other places. That’ll be the subject of an upcoming episode so don’t panic.
Congratulations, you’re on your way into the world of podcasting.
Contact Jon:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjonmoore/
or email at: jon@mrjonmoore.com