How to Start a Podcast for a Blog
Starting to create and publish a podcast on your blog can be a great way to acquire more exposure for your brand and generate traffic from iTunes and other platforms. However although podcasts are relatively easy to record, there are steps that you need to take before you get to that.
If you want a quick rundown of what needs to be done to start a podcast, there are several steps that you need to cover:
Come up with a concept for your podcast
The concept should include its name, tagline, and artwork, as well as the episode style, structure, average duration, and the types of topics that you want it to cover. Presumably it will be in the same niche as your blog, but you’ll want to make it as unique as possible.
Get the equipment that you need
Recording a podcast doesn’t take much in terms of equipment. All you really need is a decent microphone, and software to record the audio.
Choose a media hosting service
It is best not to host podcasts on your blog’s webhost as you could run into bandwidth issues if there are too many downloads. Instead you can look into specific media hosting services such as Blubrry – though be prepared to pay for them. Some even include their own WordPress plugins that will make it easier to manage on your blog.
Plan a podcast episode
The planning for podcasts can vary in style. Some podcasters script the entire podcast, while others prefer to just list a series of talking points and talk off the cuff. Having some sort of plan is important however, so that your podcast has a coherent structure to it.
Record the podcast
Overall recording the podcast should be easy enough. Before you start recording however you may want to record a minute of test audio to check that the quality is good and there isn’t too much background noise. After that you can start recording, and then export the audio in MP3 when you’re done.
Edit the podcast
Some editing may be required before your podcast is ready to be published. In some cases all you’ll want to do is trim out certain parts, while in others you may want to add in music or even sound effects.
Upload and publish the podcast
After you’re done you can upload the podcast to your media hosting service, publish it on your blog, and submit it to iTunes and other podcast directories. The exact steps that need to be done to perform all that will vary, but if you’re using a WordPress plugin or good media hosting service it should be relatively straightforward.
Continue to create more and more episodes
The key to a successful podcast is to publish episodes frequently and on a fixed schedule. It can help to plan and record several episodes beforehand, and then publish them as a drip feed based on your schedule.
Keep in mind that the steps listed above are really just a quick rundown, and you may require more detail for one or more of them. It shouldn’t be too hard to find the information that you need however, as podcasts are becoming more and more popular.
If you want a software to record podcasts you can try Movavi Screen Recorder. It can be used as a streaming audio recorder as well as a screen recorder, and will let you capture the audio that you need, trim out the parts you don’t want, then export it as an MP3.
After you set up and publish your first podcast, it will get much easier to create the rest. In fact you will probably find that creating podcast content for your blog takes less time than most longform posts – and definitely far less than what it takes to record videos.