In this longer-than-usual episode, I go through a detailed step-by-step guide on how to start your own podcast from beginning to end.

We cover choosing your topic, coming up with episode ideas, naming your show, creating artwork, selecting a hosting platform, releasing your first episodes, promoting on social media, and more. There are so many podcasting tips crammed into this how-to, that even if you already have a podcast, you might pick up some new ideas as you continue to grow your show and podcast audience.

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Highlights:

• Define your podcast topic and target audience before starting.
• Come up with a list of at least 20 episode ideas to sustain your podcast.
• Research podcast names to ensure uniqueness and avoid duplicating existing shows.
• Check for available social media handles related to your chosen podcast name.
• Research potential podcast topics and check domain name availability.
• Record a trailer for your podcast before launching.
• Use tools like Canva, GarageBand, or QuickTime to create a professional trailer.
• Design podcast artwork on Canva for visual appeal and recognition.
• Select a podcast hosting platform like Captivate FM for storage, distribution, and RSS feed generation.
• Set up your podcast on Captivate FM with a descriptive name, keywords, artwork, and trailer.
• Submit your podcast to multiple directories to maximize reach.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:01:19 Getting Clear on Your Podcast Topic and Audience
• 00:02:29 Tips for Starting a Podcast Successfully
• 00:03:36 Generating Podcast Content Ideas
• 00:04:22 Choosing a Podcast Name and Checking for Copyright Infringement
• 00:05:36 Setting up a Podcast: Key Steps Before Recording
• 00:06:43 Creating a Trailer and Podcast Artwork
• 00:08:22 Choosing a Podcast Hosting Platform
• 00:09:31 Setting up a Podcast on Captivate FM
• 00:11:04 Maximizing Your Podcast Reach with Directories
• 00:12:15 Launching a Podcast Successfully
• 00:13:20 Tips for Building an Audience and Promoting Your Podcast

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[00:00:21] Verity: It's because I haven't really planned this in my head too much. I just had this idea a couple of hours ago where I was like I need to create an episode, a podcast episode, where I literally tell somebody how they could create their podcast from start to finish. Just no, like, tiny fragments because that's what this podcast is all about. We only do one thing about podcasting such as, like, creating an intro, creating an outro, looking at this tool, looking at that tool, and we only look at that for 1 episode. So what I thought we should do this episode is actually just say, sod it.

[00:01:47] Verity: Equally you might know exactly who your audience is and exactly what your niche is. So it doesn't really matter either way but you need to write down or get really clear in your mind just what your podcast is going to be about and who roughly or specifically your target audience is. Now I say roughly because I know a lot of podcasters, myself included, who have started out just creating the content, and then as they find their feet, then they have got more specific and clearer about who their audience is. But sometimes you just need to get a few episodes under your belt. You need to get used to things from the podcasting tech side of things before you can kind of concentrate on exactly who your audience is.

[00:03:07] Verity: And my personal opinion is that a lot of that is because people go in with great steam to start their podcast, and then they just run out of episode ideas. And they're like, what do I do next? It could be about not gaining traction as well, but I think as well a lot of people run out of ideas very, very quickly for their episodes. So I always suggest to people write out at least 20 episode ideas. If you cannot come up with at least 20 episode ideas, you've probably not got a podcast and you're probably going to run out of ideas for content very, very quickly.

[00:03:59] Verity: You've got a lot of potential for your show. So once you've listed out those ideas, I would suggest that you start looking at a name as to what you want to call your podcast. I would go to podcast directories, things like Spotify, Apple Podcasts. I'd go on Google as well, Google the search engine. I would go on YouTube, and I would type in what I'm thinking of calling my podcast to see if other podcasts are called the same thing.

[00:04:46] Verity: And this is purely my opinion, but what you don't wanna do is start getting your content confused with another creator's content because that's gonna be really confusing for your audience. And, yes, you could say that it's challenging to come up with a completely original name in 2024 or beyond, but that is my take on it. If however you found a podcast and maybe they haven't published episodes in, like, a few years, it might be safe to assume that that podcast is probably dormant. You might wanna use a similar name, but just check you're not infringing on anyone's copyright. The next thing I would say to do once you've settled on the name is to go to social media and see what handles are available that relates to your podcast name Because, again, what you don't want is to choose something and then find out all the logical social media handles are actually taken for that already.

[00:05:59] Verity: You also never know when you might want to use it further down the line and then somebody's already bought it and, damn, that's that's a lost opportunity. Once you have done all of that, the next thing I would do is record a trailer for your podcast. And the reason I say this is because when you are going to set up your podcast hosting platform and submit to different directories such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etcetera, you are going to need a piece of content to get that setup process going because Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etcetera, they won't let you create a podcast on their directory without a piece of content. So start off with a trailer. You don't have to start promoting this straight away, but the trailer is basically saying this is what my podcast is about.

[00:07:03] Verity: You can use GarageBand. You can use Riverside. You can use Descript. You can use Hindenburg. There's loads of places that you can record either for free or in paid software, edit it, and have it ready for publishing.

[00:07:45] Verity: If you want your face on the front of your podcast cover, make sure that the colours all align with your brand, make sure your title is on there, make it sure it's obvious what your podcast is called, Make sure that when you create your podcast artwork, it is 3,000 by 3,000 pixels. Platforms such as Apple Podcasts will not take your artwork if it is not 3,000 by 3,000 pixels. So make sure that your podcast artwork fits that specification before you download it. What you're now going to do is choose a podcast hosting platform. Your podcast hosting platform is where all of the information gets stored about your podcast.

[00:08:52] Verity: And depending on what you're looking for, for example, if you want it for free, if you want to pay, if you've got the budget to pay, different features, if you need a website, if you're gonna build your own website, if you want to embed YouTube videos with within your podcast data, just whatever you want. The features are going to dictate and the pricing is going to dictate which podcast hosting platform you go with. There are 2 which I tend to recommend the most, and those are Captivate FM and Buzzsprout. I started out on Buzzsprout. I was with Buzzsprout for probably the best part of a year before switching over to and then I actually tried out a few different ones.

[00:10:04] Verity: And then any good podcast hosting platform will walk you through the steps that you need to do to set up your podcast. So you're gonna enter the name that you've decided. You're gonna write out a podcast description as well and that's think of that like a little blurb of a movie almost. You know, what is it that somebody is getting out of what getting out of listening to your podcast? Make sure you include keywords in there as well.

[00:11:32] Verity: But my point is is that you never know where people are listening from and you always need to be able to give people alternatives Just because you might think, oh, that's a really really small podcast directory that no one's listening to, that could be your number one fan or listening on that podcast directory, and they tell other people who then might still listen on Apple Podcasts, but if that number one fan hadn't been listening on that really random podcast directory, they might never have known about you. So my point is is just get on as many podcast directories as possible. As I said, when you're on your podcast hosting platform, a lot of that will be done automatically. Some of it is done with one click import, and it will take literally 30 seconds. Other ones, it takes up to 24 hours to verify.

[00:12:53] Verity: So just go and check. What I would recommend you now doing is going and recording your first three episodes and releasing all three of those episodes on your launch day. Now the reason I say that is because people want content to listen to and to watch and to view. If you're just giving them the one episode they might be like oh yeah that was nice. Not subscribe or like oh yeah that was nice but then they kind of forget about it.

[00:13:39] Verity: There's a reason for them to subscribe and to give you their time really to say I'll come back next week and listen to the next episode or watch the next episode. So I would pick a day whichever day of the week it is. We know that statistically podcast episodes that are released on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday statistically tend to do better but I know plenty of podcasters who release on Mondays Fridays and get really really good download numbers. It's about what your audience come to expect from you. I could tell you the most ideal time is Tuesday in the morning but then you've got question more morning for who for example and I say that because something like nearly 60% of my audience for ladies girls guide to podcasting 60% of them are over in America so not the same time zone as me at all, and I think when we talk about time zones it's something like 90% of my audience are not in the same time zone as me at all.

[00:15:09] Verity: And I say that because if you hate creating TikToks, for example, don't stress about trying to promote on TikTok you know find somewhere else where you do prefer to hang out like Twitter or Instagram equally if you don't like Twitter don't go there it's going to show in your content basically if you don't like showing up to whichever platform you're promoting on. So just show up on and promote on whichever platform you're comfortable with. And on that note as well, don't get bogged down with trying to be like some of the big podcasters, which are on every single social media channel. What you need to remember is that some of the biggest podcasts globally have got whole teams dedicated to just social media. I read recently that, and I don't know if it's true, it's just something I read on the internet, that Stephen Bartlett's diary of the CEO employs somebody to just work on the thumbnails for the youtube videos.

[00:16:48] Verity: And keep that momentum going. You see a lot of people give up by episode 8 because they don't see this amazing growth which they've suddenly decided is gonna happen in their minds. What you need to remember is that podcasting numbers are very, very different to YouTube numbers. Podcast directories are not search engines in the way that YouTube is, for example. When I wanted to buy my new iPhone, I went to YouTube to type in iPhone 14 pro reviews.

[00:17:44] Verity: So the point is the numbers are very different for podcasting and for youtube. I would say that that is probably my nut shell deep dive onto how to start your podcast. I say from beginning to finish. It's really from beginning to continuum because I'm not expecting you to give up after those first few episodes and to keep going. I would love to know have you thought that I've missed anything out?

[00:18:45] Verity: It might just give them the encouragement they needed to just get going with their podcast. Otherwise, I'm Veracy. This is the lazy girl's guide to podcasting. Thank you so much for spending another episode with me, and I will see you next time.