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How to Get Started With Podcasts

In a previous article, we talked about business-oriented podcasts and recommended several that may be worth your time. If you found the content worthwhile, why not take the next step? That’s right, start doing your own.

There are several great reasons for doing so. It’s a chance to give back to the business community by sharing your knowledge and expertise. In addition, it helps gets your name out there and can lead to networking opportunities and a chance to bring in new clients.    

The Right Equipment

Ready? For starters, you’ll need some equipment. You don’t need to go too fancy when you’re just getting started— just a microphone, some editing software and a place to host your files.

There are all sorts of microphones. Here are some that might work for you:

When it comes to editing software, you also have some choices:

Learning brand new software can be daunting, even with instructional videos or a tutor. If you find you don’t have the time, you can consider hiring freelancers at Fiverr or Upwork to do the editing for you.

Finally, you’ll need somewhere to host your files. You may already have a website, but it may or may not be a good idea to have your podcasts on the same server just because of the bandwidth a podcast takes up. If we host your website, talk to us about your streaming needs. If you want an external host, here are some dedicated media hosts:

  • LibSyn - starting at $5 a month for 50mb of space a month with unlimited bandwidth
  • Blubrry - starting at $12 a month for 100mb of space a month with unlimited bandwidth
  • Amazon S3 - get started for free. This might be overkill for you but you can’t beat the price.

Be Creative

Now that you have an idea of what equipment you’ll need and what type of investment you’ll want to make, it’s time to get started with the creative aspects. The first question to consider is how many episodes you’ll be publishing per month and how long they’ll be. This will not only affect your content, but also help you determine how much bandwidth you’ll be using.

What Should You Say?

The next step may be the hardest. What are you going to be talking about? It needs to be something you care about. If you want to build a group of passionate followers, they need to see that passion in you. Consider your customers. Who are they? What do you bring to the table that they would want to hear about? What are some other activities related to your product or service? You may want to start there. For example, if you’re in the landscaping business, you may want to start talking about the beautiful gardens of the world.

You’ll also want to consider your format. Will it be a single monologue? Will you have guests? Will your podcast have stories or just how-to segments?

Podcasting can be a wonderful experience. We all started our business because we were passionate about it. Now we can share that passion.

Happy Podcasting!

on Thursday, 22 June 2017. Posted in Business Strategy