How to Start a Podcast - Speaker Deck

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How to Start a Podcast Joe Casabona // Host of How I Built It // casabona.org/podcasting/

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What is podcasting?

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Google’s Dictionary The practice of using the Internet to make digital recordings of broadcasts available for downloading to a computer or mobile device.

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No content

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Src: https://seths.blog/2018/10/podcasting-is-the-new-blogging-2/

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Podcasting is a way to get your messages to thousands of people.

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Why Should I Podcast?

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Why Podcast? ● Build your audience ● Establish your authority ● Gain a loyal following ○ Podcast listeners are very loyal folks ● Get your ideas out there

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Podcasting is a way to get your messages to thousands of people.

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Choosing Your Topic

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Start With Why Why do YOU want to start a podcast? ● Build an audience ● Increase revenue streams ● Try the tech ● Repurpose old content

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Be Passionate ● Pick a topic that you’re passionate about ● Podcasting is a grind. You need to love your topic to keep doing it ● It’s OK if someone else is talking about it ● Make sure you use your own voice and your content is good

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Show Formats

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Types of Podcasts ● Solo ● News / Headline ● Host / Cohost ● Interview Show ● Heavily Produced

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What to Know Solo ● Easiest to produce  ● Doing it by yourself can make it hard to get motivated  ● It’s all on you News / Headlines ● Great for a “quick” format show  ● You need to curate the right stories  ● Can get monotonous

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What to Know Host / Co Host ● Split the Work  ● Split the Spoils  ● Scheduling can get hard Interviews ● Fun to learn new things  ● A lot of work scheduling new guests  ● Need to do research  ● Audio quality may vary

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What to Know Heavily Produced ● Can be incredibly engaging  ● Fun to do fiction  ● Very expensive / time consuming

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Pick Your Name

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Pick Your Name ● Pick a name that communicates the show’s message ● Do a search on iTunes to make sure it’s unique enough ● You want it to stand out! ● Get the domain, social media

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Artwork

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Podcast Artwork For Apple Podcasts: Podcast feeds contain artwork that is a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and a maximum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels, 72 dpi, in JPEG or PNG format with appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .png), and in the RGB colorspace. For Google: Recommended: Between 1200 x 1200, and 7000 x 7000 pixels. Everything Else: Pulls from Apple Podcasts, pretty much

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Tools for Creating Artwork ● Photoshop  ● Illustrator  ● GIMP  ● Affinity Photo ● Adobe Spark  ● Canva

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The Right Gear

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What You Need ● A Decent Mic ● Pop Filter ● Boom Arm (optional) ● Headphones Links to everything: https://casabona.org/podcasting

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Mic: USB vs. XLR

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What you should get: Blue Yeti or ATR2011

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Recording / Saving

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Improving Your Recordings ● Good mic helps ● Deflect and dampen sound ● Wear headphones ● Pop filter / Boom arm

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Capture Audio Solo ● Audacity  ● Garage Band  ● Windows Recorder Co Host / Guest ● Both Record Locally  ● Skype with ○ eCamm Recorder for Mac ○ Amoloto for PC  ● Zoom   ● Zencaster

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Editing

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How Should You Edit? ● Do it yourself  ● Hire a Professional

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DIY vs. Hiring Out

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What you should do: It depends! ● On if you have the time  ● If you have the money  ● How much control you want over the show

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Tools of the Trade ● Audacity  ● Garage Band  ● Logic   ● Adobe Audition ● Fiverr  ● Upwork

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A Podcast Needs a Home

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A Podcast Needs a Home ● Podcasts should have a website ● They allow for a central place for content, RSS*, and Canonical Links** ● Setting Up a good website for your podcast can help it grow  *Really Simple Syndication - needed to get your podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more **The one true source for your content.

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The 4 Things You Absolutely Need. 1. A Good Domain  2. Good Hosting  3. WordPress  4. A Podcast Plugin

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1.A Good Domain

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Choosing the Right Domain ● .com or .fm (in this specific case) ● Make it short (11 characters or fewer) ● Make it speakable ● Make it memorable - try to match the show name ● Have alternates available

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2. Good Hosting

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Choosing Good Hosting ● Easy WordPress Setup ● Good Support ● Let’s Encrypt for SSL ● Backups ● Should be Different from Media/Audio Hosting

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Why Separate Audio Hosting? ● Specialization means faster downloads ● If your site goes down, your podcast won’t ● Advanced Analytics ● Custom (or customizable) audio players

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The Good Audio Hosts ● Libsyn ● Bluburry ● Castos (Killer WP integration) ● Simplecast (All-in-One solution)

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Relative Newcomer: Anchor.fm

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You should avoid: Soundcloud

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Recommendation: Libsyn or Castos

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3. WordPress

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Why WordPress? ● Streamlines entire website setup process ● Used by over 30% of web ● Strong community ● Great tools for podcasting ● Easily add blog, shop, or community as well

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4. A Podcast Plugin

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Evaluating Podcast Plugins ● Consider if your podcast host has a WordPress plugin ○ Also, have a separate audio host for your podcast ● Make sure it has Apple Podcast compliant RSS feeds ● Look at the features - how customizable is everything? ● Does it play nice with other themes and plugins?

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The Good Plugins ● Seriously Simple Podcasting ● Powerpress

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Recommendation: Seriously Simple Podcasting

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Submitting Your Podcast

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Submit your show to: ● Apple Podcasts / iTunes  ● Google Podcasts  ● Stitcher  ● TuneIn  ● Spotify

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Tips for Submitting ● Have an Episode 0 so your launch day isn’t at the mercy of Apple. ● Get onto Apple first - they are the biggest, and many smaller podcast apps just pull from their directory ● A good audio host should help you, but if you’re using your website as your feed, you might be on your own ● Each host’s submission process is slightly different

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Wrapping Up!

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Takeaways ● Pick a topic and format you’re passionate about  ● You don’t need the best setup starting out  ● Having a website / one source for your show is important ● Podcasting is a grind

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Thanks for Watching! I’m Joe Casabona, a Developer, Teacher, and Podcaster. Find me at https://casabona.org Any Questions?