In a busy world where everyone seems to be constantly on the go (especially given that we are now coming out of the pandemic), podcasts have become one of the most popular media formats available. With the ability to be streamed from a variety of platforms, and given the ease of being able to listen to these bitesize audios, it’s no surprise that podcasting has taken the world by storm. However, this increase doesn’t mean everything being put out there is good quality. Indeed, there are several bad podcasts that have been released over the past year or so.
As someone who has hosted and featured on many successful podcasts, here are my top five tips for getting started with your own.
Find your niche
As I’ve already mentioned, there are plenty of podcasts out there. So, if you want yours to stand out, you need to come up with something unique. Churning out the same old agony aunt content isn’t going to get you anywhere near the top of the charts. It’s important to find some sort of niche. This can either take the form of having a very specific topic that has never been done before, which can be quite difficult to achieve, or an easier route is to come at a more common concept but from a distinctive angle. So, for example, do the agony aunt thing but from a student perspective, as Jewel Leach and Michael Rodrigues De Jesus do on Burnz Agony Aunts.
Get a co-host
In theory, this tip is optional. However, I’ve personally made it into a compulsory one. I think all podcasts need at least two hosts or more to make them as entertaining as possible. Unless you are reading a novel aloud or reporting on news headlines, you need someone to bounce off or things get boring. Some of the best podcasts I’ve listened to – such as Hip Hop Saved My Life with Romesh Ranganathan – have different guests on each week, which make things even more interesting because no single episode can fall into the trap of repeating the same content.
Settle on a good format
Surprisingly, the way something is structured can really have an effect on whether a listener remains interested in a podcast or not. You want to split your episodes into different segments because this will prevent you from spending too long talking about one thing. It also gives you the chance to cover a range of different topics. Whatever the format ends up being, make sure you have a solid introduction and outro that is uniform across all episodes of the podcast to help construct a consistent brand.
Upload frequently
This one is pretty obvious, but you would be surprised by how many podcasts end up with only one or two episodes that are released months apart. Planning, recording and editing a podcast can take up quite a lot of time. However, it is important to build all of this into a regular schedule. You need to keep your listeners engaged and the best way to do that is to release an episode at least every month, if not every two weeks.
Market it well
Nobody is going to listen to your podcast if they don’t know about it. Design some funky cover art, write up an appealing bit of copy, and create some eye-catching social media posts for each episode. As soon as an episode is released, you should be sending it to all your friends and family, pasting the link into whatever group chats you have, thus allowing you to build up a firm listener base.
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