You’ve just decided to start a podcast! Congratulations. Now for the fun part.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Do I have a show name?
- Is that name already in use?
- Does the name make sense?
- What about artwork?
- Hosting?
- Show type?
- Gear????
- Recording Space?
- Editing Software?
- WTF is an RSS feed?
- Schedule?
- Apple Podcasts?
- Google Podcasts?
That’s probably enough to keep you going.
The list is not a frightening as you’d first think. The first three points can be checked by Google and iTunes searches and checking with friends and family.
Artwork is a little more problematic but doable. Hipster Logo Generator is a fun place to start. Apple has standards, of course which include things like dimensions from 1400 x 1400 to 3000 x 3000 pixels. There’s also an absolute ban on any apple products in the artwork and a few other things. See here.
It is worth remembering that 60-75% of all podcast downloads come through Apple Podcasts directly or is scraped from there by other app providers. The figure may even be higher but there’s enough juice there for you to be on Apple Podcasts. Google podcasts is a newish app that seems to be growing. To be “on” the app you new a page with your RSS feed in the meta data. A good host provides one of these anyway so it is one less thing to think about. Android covers a huge number of phone users across the planet and Google Podcasts should allow them to listen. If Google starts, as they have promised, to place podcasts at the top of search results as they do with videos then there’s a huge opportunity for the growth in the sector. We will see.
Eventually, probably sooner, pick a start date! Record, produce and publish. Repeat. Simples.
Takeaways
- Take time to get your show name right.
- Catchy Artwork helps.
- Pick a start date!!!
- Record, produce, publish and REPEAT!