How to start a podcast
1.) Choose your podcast niche
In his book Zero to 1 Peter Thiel teaches us to find a small niche in which we can grow and eventually become a monopoly. Your choice of theme needs to be something you're interested in because in order to maintain an engaged following, you need to be able to produce a consistent stream of episodes even after the novelty wears off.
2.) Choose a podcast name and create an eye-catching thumbnail
When you're thinking about a name for your podcast try to think of something unique which will stand out. Check out the major platforms and search for your ideas. Ideally you should have no competition here. Head to Canva to create a cool thumbnail in minutes to give your podcast that professional look (I’ll plug mine here and you can check it out below).
3.) Podcast Equipment
If you're thinking you need a studio or you've heard of podcasters creating episodes in their wardrobe, fear not. This very affordable microphone from Amazon will make your podcast sound professional from the get-go. If for whatever reason you don't want to purchase a microphone, the one in your smart phone produces pretty good sound quality so that could be a good way to start practising.
4.) The Podcast Platform
There is no competition when it comes to the choice of which podcast platform to choose. Anchor is easy to use and lets you host podcasts with your team remotely. You can even add in cool interludes and trailers so it will fit right in on Spotify Podcasts. You may have even listened to an anchor podcast without knowing. Oh and best of all, it’s free!
5.) Finding podcast guests
Once you narrow down your theme, create a list of guests within your field who you’d like to hop on the pod. Before you start engaging with them, you may want to leverage that network you've built. If you’ve been living under a rock somewhere and not built up your network, Tribes is a great networking app launching soon which will help you do this. Once you've ticked that box its time to contact your dream guest list through Linkedin and Instagram etc. tell them why this podcast would be valuable for them, don't just ask for their time with nothing in exchange. Try to produce great content on Linkedin and invite them to like your page or do the same on Insta and tag them in a post.
6.) Distributing and marketing your podcast
You guessed it, the answer is Anchor once again. Would you believe it if I told you once your podcast is recorded Anchor can automatically distribute it onto Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Sticher and many more? Well it's as simple as that, record the podcast within the app and distribute as soon as you’re finished to these popular platforms. You’re going to want to continually add content to your website and social media to generate a following ripe to be targeted when your next episode drops.
7.) How to make money from a podcast? And how much can you make?
On average, with 1000 downloads in 30 days you can expect to earn around £20 per 30 secs sponsor segment (30 secs of you reading from a script provided by your sponsor). Of course rates can vary hugely based on your industry. If you're in the US you can monetise your podcast directly through Anchor. If not, you can reach out directly to businesses who would want to communicate directly to your audience. The bigger and more targeted your audience the stronger your leverage to negotiate. Once you build an audience, this is an excellent platform to sell your product, service or direct traffic to your website.