Ready to start a podcast in 2026? Well, buckle up, because we’re tackling the next lot of the top ten burning questions about starting your own show.

In this episode, we will answer the following questions:

1. How Do You Pick a Podcast Niche?
2. Should You Script Your Podcast or Wing It?
3. How Do You Get Listeners for a Podcast?
4. What’s the Best podcast Hosting Platform?
5. Do You Need a Launch Strategy for Starting a Podcast in 2026?

We kick this episode off with the all-important question of how to pick a niche. I’ll share some tips on how to find a topic you’re passionate about without overthinking it; because who needs that kind of stress before hitting record?

We also chat about whether you should script your episodes or just wing.

Plus, I spill the beans on the best ways to snag listeners, the ins and outs of hosting platforms, and if you really need a launch strategy.

Read the Blog Post: Your 10 Questions About Starting a Podcast in 2026 Answered (No Fluff, Just Honest Answers) >> https://veritysangan.com/starting-a-podcast-in-2026/

Episodes Mentioned:

1. Ep 104: Why SEO is So Important in Podcasting | How to Implement Your Own SEO Strategy >> https://lazygirlpod.captivate.fm/episode/ep104
2. Ep 116: Top 10 Questions About Starting a Podcast in 2026 (Part 1) — Questions 1-5

Takeaways:

1. When starting your podcast, don't stress too much over your niche; just pick something you enjoy!
2. Scripting your podcast can bring clarity, but winging it adds that spontaneous spark we all love.
3. To get listeners, optimize your episode titles and don't hesitate to ask folks to share!
4. Choosing a hosting platform is crucial; consider your needs before diving in headfirst into the options.
5. A launch strategy is helpful, but don't let it paralyze you; sometimes messy beginnings are the best!
6. Remember, most people discover new podcasts through recommendations, so spread the word, friends!

Tools Mentioned:

1. Captivate >> https://veritysangan.com/captivate
2. Riverside >> https://veritysangan.com/riverside

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast with myself, Verity.

In this episode, we are continuing with our previous episode.

In our last episode, we looked at questions one through five and we looked at a variety of questions such as, do you need to have expensive equipment?

Do you need to promote on social media?

So if you didn't catch the episode, I'd recommend going back and listening to that either before you listen to the rest of this episode or after you finish listening to this episode.

Let's kick off.

Question six of our ten is how do you pick a niche?

A niche is essentially just a topic that you are going to be talking about.

You can have very broad niches, such as gardening, or you could have a more specific niche such as grass care in gardens which are only five foot square wide.

That was a bit random, but I'm looking at my lawn as I am recording this episode.

But you get my point.

You can have a very broad niche or you can have a very narrow niche as well.

And I would say, particularly when you're starting out in your podcast, is don't overthink what your niche is.

I think there's a lot of topic and there's a lot of talk out there on the Internet about picking a niche, getting super specific, and yes, that can be helpful, but getting too specific too early on and really overthinking it can actually stop you from starting your podcast in the first place.

And sometimes you need to go quite broad in order to narrow down and in order to figure out which topics it is that you actually like to talk about, what you care about and what do you have experience in, what you enjoy talking about, etc.

And what are you going to be able to talk about for episode after episode as well?

So whilst my niche on this podcast may appear quite broad, such as podcasting for beginners or how to start a podcast, actually if you get more specific, then I primarily target this podcast at women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and even that might seem a bit broad for some people.

And I'm also not saying to get out to any of my male audience.

I know that there's a male audience of this podcast and I love everybody who listens to this podcast.

So thank you very much to every single one of my listeners.

And this podcast is also for people who just want quick tips, which is why the episodes are 10 minutes and under.

So that's how my niche kind of narrows down.

But fundamentally, when picking your niche.

Pick something you care about and can consistently talk about as well.

Question 7 Should you script your podcast or should you just wing your episodes?

And I would say this is completely up to you.

Both works.

If you want structure, clarity and fewer ums and figuring out what you want to say, then scripting may be for you.

However winging it gives you real spontaneity and realness.

Sometimes you might want to go with just a few bullet points, which is what I often do.

I will have maybe three, four bullet points on a post it note or I might have more bullet points depending on the type of show.

So at the moment for this particular episode I have each question written out and about three four bullet points under each question to make sure that I vaguely stay on topic.

Otherwise I'd just completely go out on it.

So scripting or winging it?

Whatever works for you and maybe try both.

Maybe try a script that you read word for word and then maybe try completely winging it and then maybe have a more detailed outline.

Or maybe just go with a few bullet points and try different things and figure out what works for you.

Question 8 How do I get listeners?

Oh this is such a good one.

And it kind of relates back to the question that I answered in the previous episode about whether or not you should use social media to promote your episode.

But but to answer this question more specifically of how do I get listeners, what I would say is really optimize your episode titles so make sure that they are bringing people in.

Is that an episode title that's going to make you want to listen or is it just so wishy washy that you're thinking actually I'm going to go find something that is going to answer my problem is going to entertain me or whatever.

In your show notes make sure that you are using keywords for search engine optimization as well.

And if you are brand new to SEO or you just want a bit of help with an SEO strategy, I'd really recommend you going back to Episode Episode 104 Where I Talk about SEO strategy in terms of podcasting and I take you through my own SEO strategy so you can nick some tips and tricks from there as well.

Also for guessing listeners, reach out to communities who might find your content valuable and ask listeners to share as well.

Ask them to share the episode.

So I will ask you to do this right now listeners, if you are listening to this podcast episode and you know somebody who might think about starting their own podcast or maybe has just started a podcast, share this episode with them.

I would love if you could do that.

See, how easy was that?

But how do you get listeners?

I can't remember the exact stat, but I remember finding it and talking about it on an earlier episode of the podcast.

But the vast majority of people find and listen to new podcasts through referrals that friends have said, oh, I think you'd like this episode.

Or I've listened to this new podcast, I think you should try it out.

So that's really useful to know.

But it also remember to give your audience permission to share your episodes because we're lazy as people if we don't physically get told to do something, a lot of the time we won't do it.

So tell people to share your episodes.

Question 9 what's the best hosting platform?

So your hosting platform is where your podcast sits and then gets pushed out to all of the players such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.

There is in my opinion no one best hosting platform.

If you want to know where I host my podcast, it is with Captivate fn.

There are so many different hosting platforms, some from free, some over a thousand pounds a month.

It's completely up to you where you go.

What I would say when it comes to hosting platform is there is no one size fits all.

If you want to try out Captivate, I will have a link down in the show notes.

You can check it out and see whether or not you think those features are useful for you.

But that's exactly the thing when it comes to a hosting platform.

What features come with it?

Is it easy to use?

Can you read your analytics easily?

Is there a good distribution reach?

So is it putting your podcast on all of these different podcast players or is it only putting them a very limited number?

If you know is cost effective, do you want to use something free?

Are you happy paying 20 pounds or 20amonth?

Are you happy paying $1,000 a month?

All of these things come into play.

I like Captivate FM because I find it really, really easy to use.

It distributes to a wide range of players, which is great.

It's got a website functionality in it.

So I get a website for my podcast, but it also links through to my WordPress website for the podcast as well.

So there's a lot of features, but equally somebody might not want that.

Somebody might prefer to go with Riverside, which now does hosting because you can record, edit and host all in one with some of the Riverside plans.

So it's just about figuring out what you want to do and which hosting platform works best for you, the final question number 10 of do I need a launch strategy?

Okay, this is a big one to break down in about 30 to 60 seconds.

But a launch strategy is helpful but not completely necessary in my opinion.

I think that at a bare minimum, when you launch your podcast for the first time, you do need to have a couple of episodes published or to publish at launch because it tells people, hey, I'm not just putting out one episode and then quitting and never coming back.

It gets people into your show and it gives people enough to want to subscribe or follow your show, depending on which platform they are listening on.

However, what I would say for a launch strategy is don't get so bogged down with a posting criteria or posting schedule to social media.

Say, like, you know, 20 days before I launch, I'm going to do this 19 days before to 18 days before, et cetera, et cetera.

Because then what you can end up doing is getting so invested in your launch that then when your podcast finally goes live, you're suddenly like, well, what do I do next?

Because you have planned so much for the launch and you haven't planned for anything beyond that.

Personally, what I have done for both of my podcasts is quite a soft launch, so I've kind of told people that it's.

But then kind of, I've not gone like hard and fast with, with launching either of my podcasts.

And that's worked absolutely fine for me because what it's allowed me to do is be messy and grow organically and change things and I haven't put expectations out there and I can just be really, really flexible with the show, which works for me.

If you're somebody who wants a really, really planned out launch, that's great, but you don't need to have something on like this major countdown and have like, you know, X amount of email subscribers collected before your launch date and all this kind of thing.

I think sometimes it's fine to just start messy and start from zero listeners and slowly build up.

I hope that this has really simplified things and if you've got more questions, then send them in and I will potentially look at answering those in future episodes.

Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already and otherwise I will see you in the next episode.

Happy podcasting.