Hey everyone, Ashley here with RSS Podcasting. In this master class, I'm going to walk you through everything you need to know about how to start a podcast. And be sure to stay tuned until the end where we're going to tell you how you can get a copy of the slides and everything that we're talking about today as well as videos that will walk you through some of the things that we address. Before we get started, you may be wondering, should you even start a podcast?
According to recent statistics, 52% of Americans are listening to podcasts, 22% listen to podcasts on a weekly basis, and the average listener is subscribed to seven shows. While the number of podcasts has nearly doubled in the past year, podcasting is currently not a crowded market. There's still plenty of opportunity to carve out a niche and grow an active listener base.
We're thrilled you're here and we look forward to guiding you through the entire process so that your podcast has what it takes to reach new audiences, build a fan base, and make money. You may be wondering where to begin, so we've broken down the entire process into manageable tasks. We cover a lot of useful information in this master class, so we'd recommend saving this video for future reference.
The first question you're going to want to ask yourself before you even begin podcasting is, why do you want to launch? Building a successful podcast takes passion and commitment. Having a strong motivation can propel you through the inevitable lulls and challenges. Here are a few reasons many people decide that they want to start their show. Perhaps you want a fun hobby, or maybe you're craving new and exciting projects. You might just want to make money off of it.
After all, it could become a very awesome business venture. You may also want to build a following and engage your community. Or if you already have a business, you may want to use it to build your current brand and set yourself up as an expert in your field. Perhaps you have a passion for a subject that you simply want to dive deeper into. Or it could just be that you have a story or message that's burning inside you that you want to share with the world.
In fact, the truth is, maybe none of these reasons describe your current brand. And the next reasons describe your motivation exactly. But it's important to identify what it is that's driving you and write that down to inspire you throughout the entire process. Before you commit to starting your own podcast, you might want to become a guest on one of your podcast shows, or you could apply to be an assistant on an established show.
By doing this, you can learn how seasoned podcasters are running their shows, and this can provide you with tips and ideas for your own podcast. And if you become a guest on other shows, this can help you to create a fan base before you record a single episode of your own. When you're first starting out, it's a good idea to come up with a few achievable goals for your show. This will provide you with milestones and something to work towards. So how do you choose a topic for your podcast?
Before you invest any money in your podcast project, you should invest time in planning and brainstorming. Ask yourself the following questions. What are you passionate about? What do you know about? What can you bring listeners that they can't get anywhere else? Who do you imagine your audience to be? The more specific you can be as you answer these types of questions, the better prepared you'll be to find your audience and connect with them.
And don't be afraid to be super specific with your topic. The more specific you can be, the less competition you'll have for listeners, and the better position you'll be to monetize your podcast if that's your goal. As they say in the world of marketing, the riches are in the niches. Here's one example of how to narrow down a topic to a niche that can attract the passionate audience that many podcasters hope for. Let's assume for a moment that you want to start a sporting podcast.
Let's explore just how specific you should be with your niche to take it from a broad topic to a very niche down one. So we're starting with the general topic of sports. This topic will have a large potential audience. The trouble is only the people who have any interest in this sport are going to be likely to listen to the episodes about that particular sport that they're interested in.
That's why a guy who loves golf, but hates baseball will avoid any episodes related to baseball, for instance. So to give you a better chance of success, let's get more specific. Knitching down one level further, how about we try contact sports? We've removed a lot of sports from the mix at this point. Baseball, golf, bowling, swimming, and pretty much any sport where players don't really touch each other won't be discussed.
So potential listeners who don't care for contact sports won't even bother showing up. It's good, but we can do even better. Let's get even more specific. So let's start with the most important topic. Let's get even more specific. How about mixed martial arts? This is a full contact sport and there's quite a lot that can be discussed on this topic. But believe it or not, we can niche down even further to get you to your ideal listeners. How about UFC fighting?
At this point, you may think Eureka, I've struck gold. After narrowing your topic down to a very specific niche, a good test for how viable it actually is as a niche is to make a list of possible episode topics. A list of episode ideas for a UFC fighting podcast could look something like this. You could do an entire series on the fighters of the UFC and each episode could feature a different UFC fighter in their backstory. Or maybe you want to discuss training for the UFC or the equipment.
Or the equipment that's needed for training, best tips for nutrition and exercise, or how to go pro. Or even the attire that UFC fighters need. Another idea is to do a full series on the best fights of the UFC. You could do a breakdown or a play by play, if you will, of the most popular UFC fight events. Who fought them? Who won? What could have been done differently?
There could even be an opportunity to chat with the winners and the losers or the promoters of the fights and even the event sponsors. Once you finally have your topic, it's time to start thinking about the equipment that you're going to need to get started. Two of the most frequently asked questions we get are, how much does it cost to start a podcast? And what equipment do I need? The truth is that the total cost is going to depend on a few factors.
You'll have to think about things like what service or company that you're going to choose as your podcast host, the types of equipment you'll use, your editing software, your custom show art and logos, and a lot more. The good news is you can start a podcast for less than $200. But if you have a larger budget, we can help you know where to save and where to spend.
For a basic bare bones setup, what you're going to need is a computer, a USB or XLR microphone, software to record and edit your podcast, a pair of headphones, artwork for your podcast, including logos, cover art, and things like that, and a podcast host for hosting your episode files. As we said, you can launch a show for less than $200, but it's important to note that your audio and quality could suffer in your initial setup.
To give you an idea of the breakdown in costs, here's a cost-effective setup based on an actual RSS.com user. The first thing you need to know is how much you can spend on a podcast. You can start a podcast with a podcast host, a podcast host, a podcast host, a podcast host, and a podcast host. You can start a podcast with a podcast host at your service. The second thing you need to know is the cost-effective setup based on an actual RSS.com user. For recording equipment, they spent $0.
They used the smartphone they already owned to record the audio with an app that came on their device. In terms of a website, they didn't launch one. Instead, they used free social media profiles like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote their show. And because they used RSS.com as their podcast host, they received a free public podcasting website. For podcasting art, again, they spent $0 because they used a free account on Canva and developed a simple graphic for their podcast art.
The only money they really spent was on podcast hosting, and it was $120 for one year. They considered free hosting, but they decided against it because of the size and storage limits. For just under $10 a month, they could upload as many episodes as they wanted to without worrying about these kinds of restrictions. So you can launch a show for less than $200, but the real question you have to ask yourself is, is it worth it? There are some important things to note with a cost-effective setup.
The most important being you may need to spend a lot of time editing your audio. The reason for this is that the sound quality using a cell phone and headset may not be the greatest. From background noise to echoes, dips in sound levels to stereo issues, there may be a lot of time needed to adjust the audio sound so that you can sound more professional and clean. The truth is a lot of people use headphones to listen to podcast episodes, which means it's just your voice in their ear.
As they're hearing audio issues, they may decide to check out. Also, if you decide not to spend the investment to get a website, you're missing out on some really great opportunities to build your audience and grow your following. For example, when you have a website, you can build an email list. With nowhere for fans to go except for your social media pages, all of your branding is being done on borrowed platforms, things you don't own.
We've seen social media accounts get hacked, Instagram pages deleted without warning, and Twitter accounts get shadowbanned. Since you don't own any of these platforms, at any point you could lose your audience. However, an email list is something you do own. And if your social media accounts were to get deleted or hacked for any reason, you can simply send out an email to your list and let them know what's going on. In other words, you can bring your friends with you wherever you go.
Another thing you're going to miss out without a website is SEO opportunities that could yield new listeners, sponsors, and advertisers. One of the smartest things a podcaster can do is create show notes and transcription posts on their website of each episode that you release. These posts are keyword rich and they can yield new visitors that can become listeners or potential brand partners every single day.
As a result, your website acts like a marketing tool for your business and your podcast 24-7, 365, never asking for a holiday or a day off. The good news is you don't have to shell out hundreds of dollars for transcriptions of your podcast either. You can transcribe your podcast episodes for free. You can learn more at this bit.ly link. Now that we've covered what a under $200 budget looks like, let's take a look at an upgrade of $250 to $500.
Assuming you already own a Mac or a PC, here's what this budget could look like. First, you'll start with an upgraded external microphone, which could cost you in the neighborhood of about $8,200. In terms of headphones, you're looking at about the same cost of $8,200 for a good quality set. For software, you can look out here and still pay $0 because of awesome programs like Audacity and GarageBand. These are great options even if you have a larger budget.
For a website, you can purchase a domain and website hosting for a year for around $50. You'll have to DIY it, and you should be aware that hosting in domains can sometimes be as cheap as $50 in the first year, but can as much as double in the following years. In terms of podcast art, you could be looking at about $0 if you go the Canva route, or you can pay up to $99 if you choose to pay an independent contractor on a website like Fiverr or Upwork to create custom artwork for you.
Just make sure you check your reviews of everybody before you buy any art, logos, or anything. And again, for podcast hosting, you're still only looking for $120 for one year. The best part is if you sign up for an annual plan, you can save money. Or if you're a teacher or student with a.edu email address, you can save even more. Make sure you check with us about our special pricing for education purposes. When you're ready to go pro, you may be ready to spend $500 and up.
If you have the funds for it, you can purchase more expensive microphones for somewhere around $500 to $1,000. The same can be true for headphones. And some podcasters have been known to spend thousands of dollars on full studio setups, including boom mics, soundboards, logos, custom websites, and more. The reality is it's very easy to spend a lot of money on your podcasting studio. But trying to keep it under a budget of $1,000, let's take a look at what that might look like.
For an upgraded external microphone, you could spend in the neighborhood of $129 to $150. After that, for headphones, you're looking at about $150 to $500. For software, you can look at around $300. And for a one-year subscription to Adobe Audition, it's going to be about that much. And you might wonder why anyone would ever want to pay for editing software when there are so many free options out there.
And here's the thing, free software really is wonderful, and it's still used by many podcasters, even ones that are making six and seven figures a year. But what makes people look for things like Adobe Audition is the desire for a crisper sound and the ability to eliminate unwanted audio a lot more easily. In other words, paying for software gives you access to more controls that allow you to manipulate your audio in more ways.
At this higher tiered budget, you're looking at about $100 for your website. Of course, until you're in a position to pay for a website designer to develop a website from scratch, we're still going to assume that you're DIYing most of this on your own. When you purchase a theme and paid plug-ins, instead of paying the $50 from the lower end of the previous budget, you're now looking at anywhere from $100 to $350 in website costs.
One option you may consider is Wix because it's a cost-effective option that offers easy-to-use website builders and customizable templates. However, some podcasters decide that they want to go with managed WordPress hosting because of all of the different availability they have in terms of templates, plug-ins, and different things they can do with their site. When you're in this higher tiered budget, for your podcast art, you may want to consider paying upwards of $300.
If you use a service like 99designs or hire an independent contractor, you can expect to pay $300 to $1300 for a logo or more. You'll really have to check around and shop around before you commit to any price, but no matter what you choose, your logo must be 1400 by 1400 pixels and a square shape in JPEG or PNG format so you can use it as your podcast art on directories like iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
And finally, for podcast hosting, you guessed it, you're still looking at about $120 for one year. Hobby podcasters may opt to go as cheap as possible, whereas brands and businesses may choose a much larger budget. While buying more expensive equipment and accessories can improve your sound quality, you may still need to spend a fair amount of time in the beginning on editing and working on the various moving parts of your show.
Keep in mind that whatever budget you choose, you can always upgrade as you go along. So if you decide to start for under $200 and then you start building a following, you can always upgrade from there. Moving right along, it's time to start thinking about your audience. Once you have a solid list of episode possibilities, you need to spend some time thinking about who's going to be listening to your show.
Much like you want a very specific niche to speak about, you want a very specific listener in mind to speak to. At this point, it's a good idea to try creating a persona of your ideal listener and define things like their age, their interests, where they are most likely to live, their gender, socioeconomic status, and more. You can even give your ideal listener a name to help you remember who you're speaking to.
As you get a better understanding of who your audience will be, coming up with ideas for new episodes simply gets much easier. Now let's discuss how to brand your podcast. If your show is being created for your business, it will simply be an extension of your current brand. You'll likely want to use the same fonts, colors, and perhaps even similar logo designs for the sake of continuity.
If you're starting from scratch, you'll want to be thinking about things like your podcast name, the logo, colors you'll use, images, shapes, graphics and typography that will tell potential listeners just enough about you at a glance to pique their interest. Think of your favorite brands. What comes to mind when you think of them? Odds are you can picture their logo, you can repeat their slogan, and you can even tell when something is on-brand or off-brand for them.
These are the types of things you should be thinking about as you brand your own podcast. What does your show look and feel like? Is your show friendly? Is it informative? Is it aggressive? Maybe it's calming. Or is it entertaining? Maybe mysterious or conversational? Answers to these types of questions will help you as you develop your brand. It's also worth noting that you don't have to use your brand's name to have a branded show.
Here are just a few examples of branded podcasts that have completely different names. If you choose not to use your first name or your business name, you can start with a blank piece of paper or open a new document on your computer. Write down all the keywords that are related to your topic and consider what your show is about and what would make sense to refer to it as. Some podcasters choose to use their name as their company name and their subsequent podcast name.
For example, multi-passionate entrepreneur Marie Forleo is known on her YouTube channel as MarieTV. When she launched her podcast, she simply called it the Marie Forleo podcast. It was an extension of an already known brand. Then there's fitness and health guru Shalene Johnson. Calling her show the Shalene Show made perfect sense because it fit with her brand that was already established. Whatever you choose as your name, just make sure that it's short, relevant, descriptive, and unique.
And if you're still not sure what to call it, there is a really cool tool online known as the Instant Podcast Name Generator. You can simply enter your topic, your name, your city, and some other details and it'll give you an instant idea of what you could use for your name. Now we're going to go back to a question that we actually addressed a little bit earlier. Do you need a podcast website?
The truth is yes and no. It's really up to you whether or not you're going to pony up the cash to purchase a website. We do recommend it though for quite a few reasons. First, you can use a website to reach new potential listeners. Second, it's great for branding. Third, if you mention any products that you could sell, either they're your own products or affiliate offers, your website is the perfect place to share the links to your listeners who can click and buy.
Finally, and most importantly, by having a website, you can collect email addresses for a newsletter. Should you secure social media handles for your podcast? Yes. In the event you already have branded handles and will be using a branded podcast name, of course you can feel free to use your current social media profiles to promote your show.
On the other hand, if you're creating a brand new name from scratch, securing your handles as soon as possible is a really good idea to ensure that they're ready when you are. Try to grab a handle that is the same on every platform as well. If you can use the same handle across the board, it helps your audience to be sure that it's you who is sharing updates.
If for some reason you can't get the same handle on every platform, at least make sure that in your name or your bio, you state your show name. A word of caution about social media handles. You want to use it or lose it. Once you secure your chosen handles, you'll want to use them because Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have all been known to delete stagnant accounts.
Therefore, even if it's just a quick status update sharing a new episode or saying hi to your fans and followers, it's a good idea to log in every single week to just post something. At the very minimum, post every other week to ensure that you can keep your handles. At this point, you're ready to choose a format for your podcast. As you are developing your show, one of the first things to think about is the format for your show.
Some ideas include solo shows where it's just you and the microphone, interview series where you interview others, co-hosted shows where you have two or more people working on the show together, fiction and nonfiction, and education series. The format you choose could depend on a lot of things, your personality, your time constraints, your interests, how scripted or spontaneous you want your show to be, and more.
If you're not sure which format is best for you, you can always try things out until you find what works best. You might even want to record a few solo episodes and at some point decide you want to do interviews instead. Or maybe you're tired of doing it alone and you want some co-hosts to share the workload and airtime with. While it's best to have these kinds of decisions made before you launch, there's no rule that says you can't pivot after your podcast goes live.
It's your show after all. You make the rules. Just do yourself and your audience a favor and refrain from altering your format completely, frequently. Audiences like consistency and they want to know what they're showing up for. If you keep making changes, you might lose listeners. A common thing we're asked is how to start a podcast with your friends. Many podcasters develop co-hosted shows with their friends or colleagues.
What makes this such a popular choice is that not only does it give you something fun to do with like-minded people, it also allows you to split things like the costs and your workload. But there are some things you should discuss with your potential co-hosts before you start, such as who will be in charge of every task? Who's going to be responsible for the equipment?
Will each of you buy your own microphone and headphones or will one person own everything and everyone who's involved borrows it? Speaking of, where will the recording studio be set up? Will you record online via something like Zoom? Or will everyone need to come to one person's house or office to record? You'll also want to think about whether or not everybody who's on it will be listed as a host of the show. Or will there be one host and a rotating guest host?
And you also want to think about the plan for the costs that are associated with the show. Things like equipment, web hosting, advertising, and more. And if the show starts making money, who's going to get paid and what's the split? Also, what happens if you do have co-hosts and one of you moves or loses interest in it? You need to be as clear as possible about things like these at the outset so that there are fewer bases for potential disagreements in the future.
After all, if your show becomes a huge success, you don't want it to end abruptly, ruining both your show and your potential friendships, because important things like the ones that we just mentioned weren't discussed ahead of time. The more you plan ahead, the better. Suppose you want to interview guests for your show. Where can you find the guests to talk to?
There are great matchmaking websites that pair guests and hosts, but most people who are just starting out are looking to do so on a shoestring budget. With that in mind, here are some great ways to find potential podcast guests for your show. You could look to your own network of friends, such as friends, family, coworkers.
Or you could look to YouTube, other podcasts, blogs, social media platforms, podcasting groups, LinkedIn, your past guests if you've already had guests before, conferences, or one of our favorite sites is Help a Reporter Out. You may know it as HARO. We've reached the point in our How to Start a Podcast Masterclass where you need to start planning your individual episodes. Now you might be thinking, can't I just start recording already?
There's already been so many decisions that you've had to make and you probably just want to launch. It's a lot, we know. But the more you can prepare and plan ahead of time, the more smoothly things will run when you actually begin recording. That's why one of the first steps we suggest is making a podcast calendar. This ensures that you have things to talk about each and every week or even multiple times a week, depending on how many episodes you plan on releasing in a given time period.
A podcasting editorial calendar is similar to one for blogging, only instead of blog post titles, your titles will be your podcast episodes. Other than that, they're pretty much the same. When creating your calendar, you'll need to know ahead of time what your publishing schedule will look like. And remember, audiences like consistency. So if you promise them new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday, it's best to deliver.
So how do you choose your episode subjects for each time you're ready to release a new episode? To start filling out your editorial calendar, you're going to want to start with a brainstorming session. Start thinking about all of the subtopics that are related to your chosen niche. If you will be doing an interview series, write down a full list of everyone you want to interview.
And remember, you need to start scheduling interviews and adding the dates to your calendar, so you have plenty of time to record and edit before your shows are supposed to go live. On the RSS.com blog, we have a lot of posts about batching and scheduling and managing your podcast workflow for maximizing efficiency.
Remember that the point of having an editorial calendar is to have an overview three to six months ahead of time so you can get a bird's eye view of what the coming days will look like content wise. And if your show is fiction, you'll know exactly how much time you have to write new content for your upcoming episodes. Nonfiction shows, on the other hand, will need significant research and planning time.
One thing that might help is to consider what will be happening at the time that you release an episode. For example, for the month of Thanksgiving, you could implement Thanksgiving related content into your shows that will drop during that time. Or you could consider holidays, national events and anniversaries that might make sense for you to mention. Of course, if you decide to go with an evergreen content style show, you won't have to worry about any holidays at all.
We've already briefly touched on how to name your podcast, but how do you name the podcast episodes? Many episodes will inevitably name themselves. If your show is an interview series and you'll be chatting with Dr. Smith about the health implications of smoking, for example, your title could be something like Dr. Smith Explores Why Smoking is Bad for Your Health, or you could call it Smoking in Your Health with Dr.
Smith. Remember that the goal of each podcast episode name is to focus on what the episode is about. For best results, you'll want to stick to 60 characters or less and 12 words or less, just like a blog post title. That way you can fit as much as possible into the iTunes or whatever directory you're on's description. You want your episode titles to be eye-catching, just like a blog title, and bonus points if you can include a keyword or keyword phrase in there somewhere.
OK, we're finally here. It's time to record your first episode. Open up a recording application and just start talking, right? Well, you could do that, but we wouldn't recommend it. To get the best quality and to deliver optimal content, there are a few things you should know before you just jump in and hit record.
You can record your podcast with an application such as Zoom or a video camera and extract the audio, and you can also use a smart phone application or the one on your computer to record as you talk. For best sound quality when you first get started, we recommend using GarageBand or Audacity to record your audio into directly. However, if you choose to use an application in lieu of recording software, you might just have to spend a little bit longer importing and editing your show.
Once you start recording, how do you get the best sound quality? First, you want to record your show in a quiet room. And believe it or not, some podcasters actually record their episodes in their closets when they're first starting out to mute outside noises. It's also a good idea to use headphones to monitor your recording to make sure everything sounds okay. You can test audio by recording and then playing back your sound just to see if you need to make any adjustments.
It's also a good idea to use a pop filter so you don't have to worry so much about the letter P and B. You can get one for as little as $10 on Amazon most times. While you're recording, you also don't want the microphone to be too close to your mouth. Many podcasters say that the sweet spot is to keep your microphone three to five inches away from your mouth. While you're recording, stand up to record your audio and practice with test recordings before you record an entire show.
Finally, slow down. Some podcasters get so nervous that they speed through their shows and it's hard to understand them as a result. For more audio tips, we highly recommend reading our rss.com guide to how to start a podcast. By the way, don't fret if you have long pauses or excessive use of the words like um and ah. You can edit those out. However, it is best to try to practice and avoid those as much as you can to save on editing time.
The most important thing to know is that you should never sit down and start recording without a plan. It's best to have an outline to work from so you can stay on track with your episode's focus. If more than one person will be on your show, you might want to have a separate microphone for each of them as well. Once you're ready to start releasing episodes, you might be wondering about intro and outro music. This can make your podcast feel a lot more professional.
And if you use custom music, it can help you brand your show as well. So where can you get this music? You could look for royalty-free music or you could pay a contractor on something like Upwork or Fiverr. Just again, make sure you're always reading reviews before you choose anybody. The last thing you want is to hire someone who does shoddy work using copyrighted music that could result in you getting sued. So make sure you do your homework.
If you opt to go the royalty-free music route, there are some creative common music resources that you can use for free. Remember that in this case, it's better safe than sorry. Unfortunately, saying things like I didn't know it was copyrighted won't work as a defense if you end up in court for using licensed music. Once you have some episodes recorded, it's time to start editing them so you can load them to your podcast host and finally launch your show.
The two best free options for editing are GarageBand and Audacity. At this point, now that you have recorded and edited your audio, you're just minutes away from launching your first podcast episode. In order to get to that step, you need a hosting account and of course we recommend RSS.com podcasting. We have a video on our YouTube channel that walks you through exactly how to start a RSS account and how to find your podcast RSS feed.
However, if you already have an account with us, the way that you find your RSS feed is on your RSS dashboard. You'll see a button that says RSS feed. If you click it, it will copy your RSS feed so that you can immediately paste it into any directory that you're trying to submit your podcast to. It's worth noting that you need at least one episode loaded before you can add your RSS feed to most podcasting platforms. That's why a lot of people choose to use trailers to announce their show.
This way they have at least something that's on their profile before they begin and they won't get an error when they try to submit to directories like iTunes and Stitcher. We highly recommend that you visit our YouTube channel for free tutorials on how to submit your podcast to the most popular directories. We have walkthroughs for quite a few of them.
And if you see one that you want to submit your podcast to that's not listed on our YouTube channel, be sure to tweet us at RSS and let us know about it so we can update our directories tutorials for you. At a minimum, we highly recommend you get your podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, also known as Google Podcast, Stitcher, TuneIn, Deezer, iHeartRadio, and YouTube.
Wait, what? Did I just say YouTube? Yes, I did. A lot of people out there think that they should put their podcast on YouTube. There is a lot of debate about it, but the simple fact is if you load your show to YouTube, you have a chance to reach more new potential listeners. Some people are even opting to film themselves while they record their show so that they can provide their listeners with audio and visual entertainment.
What you do is going to be up to you. Remember, it's your show, your rules. Once your show finally goes live, it's time to start sharing your podcast on your website. We touched on this briefly, but we highly recommend that you create a website for your podcast. If not a full website, at least add a dedicated podcast page to your current website. Another thing we also recommend for every podcast episode that you release is to create transcripts or show notes for your show.
Some SEO tips for your episode titles and show notes include using relevant keywords that people are already going to be looking for. But there's more to SEO than a good title. You want to make sure that you're mentioning your relevant keywords a few times throughout your show so that they're present in your transcripts and your highlights.
At some point you may decide that you want to turn your podcast into a money-making machine, and it's understandable because there's a lot of work that goes into podcasting. And you may be thinking that it's going to be a while before you can actually make money. However, the truth is, it's a lot more complicated than that. We have seen people make money from their very first episode, and we've seen podcasters who've been in the game for years and still aren't making money.
If you create a monetization plan from the outset, you could be earning money as soon as you want to. Then as your listeners grow, you can tweak your plan to increase your income accordingly. Ways to monetize your show include, but aren't limited to, selling products and services, advertising, sponsorships, crowdfunding, having a membership, and charging guest fees.
The best way to get more listeners is to market your podcast before you even launch. You can create graphics announcing the release date and the name of your show and share them on your website and social media. If you already have a fan base, hopefully this will yield your first listeners. If not, we recommend trying to get on as many podcasts as possible as a guest before your first show goes live.
This way you can direct your listeners to a website and an email sign-up page to get notified when the first episode launches. It may also be beneficial to start blogging and vlogging about your experience preparing for launch. Start a narrative with your audience detailing who you're interviewing, equipment you're buying, and even your recording setup.
We've even seen some podcasters create countdown posts on their pages and social media profiles as well. Countdowns generate buzz and they build excitement. Once your first episode is live, it's time to share it everywhere. Post it to social media, your website, your email list, heck, even put it in your email signature. You can also write a press release and send it to your local media outlets in your area. Who knows, it could get you on radio station and local news.
It's also important to ask people to share that first episode and subscribe. If you haven't already made it onto the various podcasting directories, start applying and registering your show everywhere. After a few episodes drop, continue trying to become a guest on other people's shows to keep growing your audience. And start writing guest posts for blogs, medium.com, and news outlets to promote your brand and show.
Continue working on growing your email list and sharing on social media. As you hit milestones, announce it to everyone. For example, we just hit 10 episodes or we're celebrating 1000 downloads. And then when reviews come in, share them everywhere, your website, social media, everywhere.
The next step is to keep releasing episodes. The more quality content you release, the more opportunities you have to get found. Basically, you're never going to want to stop promoting. Get on shows, invite guests, and keep telling the world about what you're up to. And believe it or not, that's a wrap. At this point, you're probably wondering how to get a copy of the slides and all of the notes from this masterclass.
We have them in the description if you're watching this on YouTube, or if you're watching it on our website, just click the link below and you can download our PDFs right away. Thank you so much for tuning in, and we hope you'll launch your podcast with us today. You can actually launch your show completely for free without a credit card. Get your first episode on us at rss.com.