How to Start a Podcast in 2021: The Complete Podcasting Tutorial

Starting a podcast has been one of the best decisions I've ever made, but more on that later. In this complete tutorial, you're going to learn how to start a podcast, step-by-step. Podcasting can be totally confusing, but I'm going to make it easy and doable for you.

Note: Thank you to the tens of thousands of people who have emailed me (and also those who have let me know in person) that THIS TUTORIAL right here is the one that helped you start your own podcast. I worked hard on it (and always keep it updated), and hearing all of the thanks is exactly why I do what I do. Thank you! And if you're new here, I'm excited to help you get there, too.

Also, your timing is perfect. Podcasting is exploding right now, more and more of the world is listening in, and they're ready to listen to you. Giants like Google and Spotify are putting loads of money into new tools for us podcasters, and companies are spending lots of revenue advertising on shows and getting in front of these hungry audiences.

This is what I used to start my podcast. I followed Pat’s advice to the letter and it was so easy. Thanks Pat! https://t.co/SAegQgpqMA

— Mindy Joy+ (@FairyTaleMindy) February 15, 2020

First, let's cover the roadmap.

How to Start a Podcast (Table of Contents)

I highly recommend you read this guide all the way through. There are helpful tutorial videos at the end to show you the step-by-step process, but the written content here is just as important, especially the mindset part about what kind of success you can have from your show, to the potential blockers that you might face along the way.

Here's a quick overview of the podcasting tutorial:

The Mindset of a Successful Podcaster

1. How Starting a Podcast Changed My Life
2. The #1 Reason Why You Need to Start a Podcast
3. Podcasting Myths and Potential Blockers
4. How Podcasting Actually Works

How to Start a Podcast in 2021 (10 Steps):

1. Choose a topic you can commit to.
2. Pick your show title.
3. Write a compelling description.
4. Decide on your podcast format.
5. Get your podcast artwork created.
6. Purchase equipment and test your recording software.
7. Record your episodes.
8. Edit, export and publish your episodes.
9. Submit your podcast to directories (like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!)
10. Let the world know about your new show!
11. Make money with your podcast.

How Long Might It Take to Set Up a New Podcast?

Well, that depends.

Some of my students are able to get a show up and ready within a week, but that's not a good idea. Let me explain why…

Part of my specialty in the podcasting space is the marketing of your show—the way people find you and your podcast. I want to teach you how to make sure your brand new podcast also gets found. More on the marketing part later.

For now, just know that you're in good hands, and I can't wait to be a part of your podcast success story. YOU are the hero here, I'm just your guide.

Before we dive into the lessons, I want to get you excited! First, let me tell you a little bit about what podcasting has done for me, a shy guy who was once so afraid to get behind the microphone and press record, that he bought podcasting equipment, and then waited a year and a half to finally publish his first episode.

How Starting a Podcast Changed My Life

I started out as a blogger in 2008, mostly because I liked to hide behind my keyboard. The thought of actually recording my voice and sharing it with the world scared me A TON. You might feel similar to how I felt back then.

In 2010, after finally getting over my fears, I decided to push forward and publish the Smart Passive Income Podcast. After that, everything changed. My audience grew, my revenue went up, and more opportunities than I could have ever imagined opened up in my life.

Many of my students have seen life-changing opportunities come their way, too. Here's a snapshot of some of what my podcast has done for me:

• The podcast has surpassed 60,000,000 total downloads (as of December 2019).
• It's become the #1 way people find me and learn about who I am—that's above search, social media, and links from other websites (See survey results).
• The New York Times featured an article specifically about me because of my podcast.
• I was contacted by a Hollywood producer who listened to my show to consult as the social media director for a $10M independent film (See IMDb).
• Book publishers have reached out to me and asked if I was interested in working with them for upcoming publications.
• I was invited to be on the news because of podcasting.
• I've been able to connect with and become friends with incredible thought-leaders who I would have never had the opportunity to connect with without the podcast, including Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, Chalene Johnson, Donald Miller, and Michael Hyatt.
• I've become more confident as a person and better skilled as a speaker. It was the perfect stepping stone to conquering my fear of public speaking. Now, I do keynote speeches around the world.
• I won an award for Top Business Podcast 2015 at Podcast Movement.
• I was able to build two schools in Ghana, Africa as a result of the community I built through the podcast.

The #1 Reason Why You Need to Start a Podcast

On the Internet today, it's all about earning trust, and there's no better way to earn trust from people than with your voice—the real you.

As a podcaster, you're going to broadcast your message to thousands, maybe even millions of people. But to the listener, it's just you and them. As I once heard:

Podcasting is the best way to scale intimacy.

And it's so true. When I meet my listeners in person, they say things like:

• “Thanks for keeping me company while I was . . .”
• “I was scrambling, taking notes while you were talking about . . .”
• “Pat, I feel like I know you.”

When I learned about the kind of connection you can make with your listeners, I became obsessed with podcasting. I created several more shows, including AskPat, FoodTruckr School, and The 1-Day Business Breakthrough Podcast, and even one with my ten-year-old son called All Of Your Beeswax.

Here's my second most popular show with over 1,000 episodes!

Podcasting Myths and Potential Blockers

Before you can begin recording, we first have to dispel a few myths. These are the most common blockers I find many of my podcasting students have when trying to get started:

Myth #1: You Have to Be a Natural-Born Communicator or Speaker

Back in 2008, I wrote a blog post announcing that I was going to start a brand new podcast. I even published a little audio file to make the announcement to test my new equipment. I cringe when I think about it. Personally, it's hard for me to listen to, but I'm going to let you listen to it now:

What's with that music? And did you hear how timid I sounded? I was NOT great behind the microphone, and every time I tried to record my first actual episode, I'd get scared and go back to blogging. I didn't think I was good enough.

It took me a year and a half to finally publish my first episode, and of course, I'm so glad I did. Over time, my communication skills improved, and as you already know, the results are more than I could have dreamed.

I hope sharing this with you helps you realize that you don't have to be great to get started. You have to get started to become great. As my friend John Lee Dumas once told me:

You have to be the disaster before you become the master.

John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneurs on Fire

Now you're not going to wait a year and a half, are you?

Good. On to the next myth.

Myth #2: You Have to Podcast in a Large Niche to Succeed

Let me introduce you to one of my students, Phil Lichtenberger, host of Scanner School.

Phil's podcast is in the scanner niche, the handheld kind that you can use to listen to police lines and emergency frequencies and nerdy things like that.

Yeah, not too large in terms of a listening audience compared to things like entrepreneurship, personal development, fitness, and other large niches. This was a hobby of his, and he wanted to use a podcast to just talk more about it and connect with others.

Well, within six months, he became a micro-celebrity in the space. Check out this Facebook Message he posted in our Podcast Student Center:

Phil's podcast, in the small niche of Scanners, was a hit. Now he has fans, repeat listeners, and even companies reaching out to him to work with him.

No matter the size of your niche, you can bring your tribe together. And, also know that many times, the riches are in the niches, and there's an advantage to narrowing down your focus and staying small.

Myth #3: You Have to Have a Following to Get Started

Nope. Not true.

In fact, a lot of people are starting their podcasts SO THAT they can finally start building their audience, even from scratch.

Take Sophie Walker, for example, another one of my students who literally started with zero. No email list. No audience. No following.

Here's what happened with her new podcast, Australian Birth Stories:

Yes, she did it. She became the #1 Kids & Family podcast on Apple Podcasts in Australia. Her podcast has recently been accredited by the Australian College of Midwives as Certified Professional Development to all Australian Midwives.

How amazing is that?! And all of it, from scratch.

If you're starting from the beginning with zero audience, then I think you've made a wise choice to start a podcast to get going.

Myth #4: Podcasting is Saturated. It'll Be Hard to Compete.

First of all, no one is like you. No one has the same experiences and stories to share. No one is going to podcast the way you do, and your vibe will attract your own tribe.

Second, let's look at the numbers:

• Active Blogs: ~500+ Million
• Active YouTube Channels: ~27 Million
• Active Podcasts: 700,000 (aka. NOT EVEN A MILLION)

Yes, that's right. There aren't even a million active podcasts yet. We're still in the early days of podcasting. So like I said, your timing is great.

And finally, relative to the “competition” out there, here's another statistic:

The average podcast listener is subscribed to a total of seven different podcasts. That's right, seven! That means your show can be easily added to a person's playlist. You don't have to think you're competing with others.

The main person you're competing with is yourself. So, are you going to get this done? Yes you are. I know it!

If you've made it this far, congrats. That means you're committed this. To reward you, I've got something that'll make this process even easier.

Below, you'll find my Podcast Cheat Sheet, a special document and checklist I put together to walk you through all the steps from start to finish. It's been downloaded over 100,000 times, and you can use it along with the rest of this tutorial.

How Podcasting Actually Works

Before I get into the nitty gritty step-by-step, there are some basic technical things I need to share with you first, just to make sure you understand how this all works.

Setting up a podcast is not push-button easy, but it's not rocket science either, and once you set things up the first time you'll have done most of the work.

After the upfront work, all you have to worry about is producing more audio content. Everything else happens automatically.

Your Audio Files (i.e. What You Record and Edit)

Each particular episode of your podcast show is an individual MP3 audio file. There are many types of audio file formats (like .wav, for example), but MP3s work best because this format is the best balance between sound quality and file size. We'll talk more about recording equipment and which elements to include in your show later in this tutorial.

You might think that at this point, you upload this MP3 file directly to podcast directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, similar to how you'd upload a new video file to YouTube.

But nope, that's not how it works.

The process requires you to take that MP3 file and instead upload it to a podcast hosting platform, like Buzzsprout, (which is my favorite).

Note, the link to Buzzsprout is an affiliate link. I was able to get you a special deal for some extra upload time if you go through that link.

After you upload that file to your host, you title it, add a description, and then either schedule it or hit publish.

Soon after that episode is published, podcast directories (like Apple Podcasts) that you've previously connected your podcast to will display your new episode (along with your older ones), and anyone subscribed to you on those platforms are likely to get notified that you've come out with a new episode.

Most of the work is done up front, and that's why I'm here—to show you how to get it all setup.

Now, you might be thinking: How do those directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify “automatically” show my new episodes to my subscribers? How are they connected to my host?

That's where we get into “feeds.” Let me explain.

Understanding Podcast Feeds

A feed is a standardized way to syndicate content so that it is more easily displayed by other websites, applications, and directories.

Your podcast host creates a feed for you automatically, which adds all the necessary code around all of your episodes so that when a user on the other end downloads your podcast, they see all the proper titles and descriptions, and hear the right audio file to go along with them.

You'll never need to look at that complicated code your podcast host creates for your show. Phew! All you need to know is that they give you a special feed link for your show, and it's that feed link that you take and submit to all of the directories, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others.

Google Podcasts is a special case, because you actually don't need to submit your feed directly to them. Their search engines will eventually find them if you have your podcast properly created. That's Google for you.

Don't worry if all of this sounds a little too technical right now—trust me, I understand. The rest of this tutorial will make it much easier for you than it was for me when I first started.

What to Prepare Before You Start Recording

Before you start recording, and even before you dive into the tutorial videos below, there are five things you need to prepare. Have all of this stuff handy for later—you'll thank me for it.

1. Choose a Topic You Can Commit To

It's easy to get hyped up about an opportunity like podcasting, however I've seen it many times before: If you don't plan ahead, you're going to be doomed.

Podcasting takes some work, so you're going to want to make sure you spend adequate time upfront to make sure you choose a topic that excites you. Something that has more than three episodes worth in your head. Something that'll keep you going for the long run.

I can't tell you what topic to choose, but I can give you a couple exercises that I teach my students that will help you frame whether or not a topic you're thinking about is worth pursuing.

Exercise #1: Create a List of 25 Episodes

Write down a list of twenty-five potential episode ideas for the podcast topic(s) you have in mind. You can include potential guest names, too, like you were going to interview those people.

You don't need to worry about the exact title of the episodes – just come up with the ideas.

If you can't get past ten, then what happens when you record ten episodes and you're left scrambling to figure out what's next?

The Smart Passive Income Podcast has published over 400 episodes, and AskPat over 1000, because business topics are a passion of mine. I could write down 1000 more right now if I needed to.

If you showed me at least twenty-five right now, I'd feel comfortable about that topic for you.

Exercise #2: One Year from Now

It's one year from now, and you're going full-steam with your podcast. You're fifty-two episodes in, and you're even beginning to get a number of emails from companies and your fans about your podcast.

You wake up each morning, and connect with people on social media who had just recently listened to your show.

Are you bored? Are you stoked? Are you happy?

When I run this exercise with my students, some realize that a year from now, even if their podcast was successful, it's not a topic they'd really be happy about.

Instead of just choosing something that's obviously right in front of you, spend some time thinking about what would make you happy to wake up and podcast a year from now, and beyond.

2. Pick a Show Title

The title of your podcast is one of the first things people see, even before they listen to a single word of your show. So naturally, this is a really important decision.

All this info goes into your podcast host when you setup your show there, and you can always change anything related to your show (people change their title, description and artwork all of the time), but I understand if you're feeling a little hesitant about nailing down a show title and moving forward. It defines your branding, your artwork, what you say, how you share it, and many many more things.

For several podcasters who already have a brand elsewhere (where the podcast is an extension of that brand) then naming the show is usually relatively simple. It includes the brand name, and sometimes some version of the word “podcast,” “radio,” “show,” or other modifier to differentiate it a bit:

For personal brands, you'll almost always see the name of the person in the show itself, which makes sense because they are the brand:

Then you have the titles of podcasts where you know exactly what you're going to get when you listen to it. The title, itself, is descriptive of the content. And yes, this does help with search engine optimization:

And then of course, you have the podcast names that at first glance, don't make any sense at all. And these can be successful, too! The podcast name takes meaning based on what the host does with it. So even if you can't nail the perfect descriptive show title, know that whatever title you pick eventually becomes what you make of it:

Remember, Apple and other directories are also search engines—don't forget that.

However, I do have an important warning: Don't go crazy with the keywords in the title of your podcast. Don't keyword stuff by adding a billion keywords after the actual name of your show. Try to keep your title as natural as possible, so select your keywords carefully.

Apple has been known to remove accounts due to obvious keyword stuffing in titles.

Don't do that.

Oh, and for your host name, do not do this, either:

John Smith | Fitness Expert | Nutritionist | Weightlifting Coach | Likes Long Walks on the Beach

Spend some time coming up with ideas for your podcast title. Share it with people around you and get a gut reaction to see what they think. And if you have an audience, ask them. It's a great excuse to seed that you're coming out with a podcast soon (and it'll hold you accountable, too).

3. Write a Compelling Podcast Description

You'll need to write a description paragraph about your show to your audience. After they make their way to your show page, this will be the description they read to decide whether or not they want to stick around.

This is where you'll have a little more freedom to play with keywords. Whatever keywords and keyphrases your target audience may use to find content like yours, include those words in your description.

But, just simply listing them out isn't going to work because people will read these, and you want these people to feel compelled to click and listen to your podcast.

Best advice: write for the humans in your target audience.

Here is a list of tips I have for you related to your podcast description:

• Start with something that matters to them. There's a small part of the description they'll see first before they have to click to see the rest, so if the benefits or connection is buried, then they won't even know it's for them.
• It's okay to talk about yourself, you need to prove that you are someone worth listening to and spending time with. But similar to the above, don't start with you. Feel free to add any credentials and other proof that support this person's decision to listen to you.
• Imagine your listeners sharing your show with their friends. What would they say? When they say, “Oh you have to listen to this new podcast, it's great because it's the only one I've found that…”, how would you imagine they finish that sentence?

You have 4000 characters to work with, so you have a lot of room. Go crazy with it, but make sure it all makes sense, and if something is not important, leave it out.

Write your description down and save it for later so you can easily copy and paste it when you need to share a summary of your show.

The current description for the Smart Passive Income podcast is:
Pat Flynn from The Smart Passive Income Blog reveals all of his online business and blogging strategies, income sources and killer marketing tips and tricks so you can be ahead of the curve with your online business or blog. Discover how you can create multiple passive income streams that work for you so that you can have the time and freedom to do what you love, whether it's traveling the world, or just living comfortably at home. Although Pat confesses he is not a millionaire, he's been supporting his family 100% with passive income generated online, easily earning a six-figure salary while working only a few hours a week. Automation, outsourcing, crowdsourcing, search engine optimization, building authority and trust, niche sites, social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Podcasting, eBooks, online courses, affiliate marketing, getting the smart things done and everything that works (and doesn't work) to help you better understand how to crush it with your online business. 🙂

And of course, feel free to explore existing podcasts and stay tuned to what you like and dislike about each of their descriptions.

4. Decide on Your Podcast Format

• Are you going to do interviews, or will it be just you?
• How long should my podcast episodes be?
• How often should I publish my podcast?

Let me answer these common questions for you:

Show Style: Interview Show, or Solo Show?

There's no wrong answer here, but it's good to think about, ahead of time, whether or not you'd like to invite guests onto your podcast.

Don't worry yet about how you're going to interview other people, or even how you're going to convince them to say yes (more on that later in the tutorial), but the earlier you decide, the earlier you can plan and begin reaching out to others.

Interviews are fantastic because you can get information and collect amazing stories that you yourself couldn't provide to your audience – at least not from the source. That being said, scheduling interviews and coordinating all of that can get difficult at times. I use a tool like Calendly to help me schedule my interviews.

The biggest benefit, however, is the relationship that you can build with your guest during the call. You're going to have a conversation for several minutes, sometimes even over an hour, and sometimes you can't help but get to know the person and become friends.

Many of my best friends in the online and business space have come as a result of the people who I've connected with on my podcast, or me on their podcast.

Solo shows (where it's just you recording) are awesome, too. They show-off authority, you can build trust with your audience (especially if you help them) more directly, but imagine sitting in a room talking, by yourself, to a microphone. It feels weird at first, but you get used to it. Like anything, it just takes some practice.

“How Long Should My Podcast Episodes Be?”

The most common question I get when it comes to how to start a podcast is about the length of episodes.

Number one, know that you don't have to have the same length episode every single time. In general, you want to stay within an expected range, but if you happen to journey outside of that time, it's not the end of the world.

The best answer to how long an episode should be is this:

However long the episodes needs to be to serve its purpose for your audience.

If an interview was going well but you haven't gotten to the main story yet, would you cut it off just because of time? On the other hand, if you said everything you needed to say, would you add 20 minutes of fluff just to hit a certain time?

Long episodes are okay, and short episodes are okay. Just try to remain within a range consistently over time, but the random outlier is okay, too.

“How Often Should I Publish My Podcast?”

You should publish your podcast consistently.

That's the answer.

It doesn't matter if your podcast comes out each week, every other week, or once a day. As long as you can get into a rhythm and groove so that your audience knows what to expect, then it's okay.

Obviously, the more frequent you publish, the more opportunities there are for your audience to downloads more episodes, share more episodes, and there would be more content for you to be found with via search.

But at the same time, the more episodes you publish, the more work there is for you to do.

You can change your frequency (you're not “locked in”) and publish whenever you want, but try your best to stick to a schedule for a while until making changes, or else you might confuse and frustrate your audience.

When I started the Smart Passive Income Podcast, I only had the capacity for once every other week. I was blogging and publishing 3 times a week. Then, once I saw how amazing the results were for my show, I switched it to weekly, and then got obsessed and created even more podcasts.

The most important advice related to all of this format stuff is, you have to pick something and go. Stop questioning what the right answer is, because really you won't know until you get started and publish your podcast. Stop holding yourself back, make decisions, and keep moving forward!

5. Get Your Podcast Artwork Created

Your podcast is going to need some artwork—a square image that represents your show. As much as podcasting is an auditory medium, the graphical, visual element that represents your podcast plays an extremely important role.

For one, it's what people will see in podcasting directories before listening to a single spoken word and before reading any written words about your show in the description or summary. Your artwork is your podcast's first impression, and it's also what competes for attention with every other podcast that's out there.

For Apple Podcasts specifically, a visually appealing podcast image gives your show a better chance of being featured in highly visible sections of iTunes, such as their “New & Noteworthy” and “What's Hot” sections for your show's category.

And lastly, your artwork is what people will see on their media players—on their computers and mobile devices—when they listen to your show. It's an important element for reinforcing your brand identity to your followers.

The Apple Podcast image specifications change periodically. This is from the most recent update:

Your cover art should be 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. To optimize images for mobile devices, Apple recommends compressing your image files.

Here are some more tips related to your artwork to help you even further:

• Head to Apple Podcasts (or any other directory) and find podcasts in categories that you might potentially place your podcast in . What kinds of artwork do you see there? What stands out to you? What inspires you?
• Although you're designing for a big size (3000 x 3000px), most people find podcasts on their smaller devices. Make sure you design for the small size, too. Export your artwork at 55 x 55px and make sure all the things that you want to see are still there.
• Again, if you have an audience, design a few different versions and get their opinion. This will seed your podcast once again, get them involved, and make them more interested in this project of yours, and ultimately, more likely to support you when it goes live!

Where might you get great artwork created? Out of everything else here, this is definitely worth investing in because it's literally the first thing people see related to your podcast. If you don't have a designer of your own, try 99designs.com, Fiverr.com (this is really hit or miss), or potentially try designing one on your own using a tool like Canva.com.

6. Purchase Equipment and Test Your Recording Software

There's a lot of equipment you could purchase to start your show, and the prices range from cheap $5 microphones (that sound really bad) to entire broadcasting studio setups (that sound like you're about to drop an album) that get into the five and six-figure ranges.

I promise you, you do not need to spend as much money as you might think to get your show up and running.

The most important piece of equipment is a microphone that makes you sound good. There's a certain standard of audio quality now in the podcasting space, and if you're not up to that standard, you could have the best content in the world, you could still have people leave and find something that sounds better.

So what should you get? Something easy to use. Something that won't require a lot of additional extras (like mixers, amplifiers, etc.), and something that's not going to break the bank.

The answer: The Samson Q2U USB/XLR Dynamic Microphone. Here's what I love about it:

• Great value ($70-$90 on Amazon with accessories)
• It plugs in to your computer via USB (no extras needed)
• It sounds just like my pro $400 microphone

I recommend getting the KIT here, which includes the microphone, the boom arm, a foam ball, and the shock mount to properly hold the mic in place for you. Also, in case you're interested, here's a review video where you can see it in action below, along with the Audio-Technica ATR-2100, which was previously my favorite podcasting mic but has since been discontinued:

As far as software to record into, I recommend going simple, and with what you might already have access to. Again, we don't need to spend money on anything fancy right now. I'd rather you save that for marketing your show.

I recommend Garageband if you're on a MAC computer, or if you're not a fan of Garageband and/or you're a Windows person, then I'd recommend Audacity, instead. Both are free.

For interviews, I recommend Zoom.us, or Skype on the low-end, but if you want the best quality, I highly recommend going with SquadCast, an amazing web-based interview platform that makes it SUPER simple to record the highest quality audio over the Internet.

To help you even further, I've filmed a video that actually walks you through how to put everything together with this setup, and how to begin recording. It's been watched nearly 1,000,000 times, so you can be sure it'll help you!

The links to the equipment are available above the microphone video. Here are the expanding editing tutorials that I reference in this video:

• How to Record & Edit a Podcast in Garageband (Complete Tutorial)
• How to Record and Edit a Podcast in Audacity (Complete Tutorial)

If you need help with reducing echo in your recordings (which can happen with hardwood floors and rooms with lots of windows), here are some easy (and cheap) ways to use things around the house to reduce the echo in your recordings:

7. Recording Your Episodes (Tips After 10 Years)

So you're finally ready to record. Great! If you're like me when I first started, then it's very likely that you're going to open up your recording software, stare at the screen, and hesitate to hit record. Or, you're going to hit record, struggle like crazy, and doubt this entire process.

Please don't wait a year and a half like I did. You can do this.

I know it's scary, but here are some tips I have for you to help you get started:

1. Editing is How the Magic Happens.

Don't think you have to hit record and get it all done in one seamless take. We call that a one-take Jake, and he does not exist.

You're going to mess up. You're going to have to re-say lots of things. You're going to have awkward pauses.

And no one has to know. That's the power of editing! You have two options here:

1. Hit record, let it run, even through all of your mistakes, and then go back and edit those mistakes, long pauses and awkward moments out after.
2. Hit record and go until you mess up. Stop, cut out the mistake, and then hit record and pick up where you left off.

You do not…I REPEAT…you do not need to start over from the beginning if you mess up in the middle. You'd be crazy if you did that. And yes, I've driven myself crazy before thinking that's how it had to be done.

2. The Secret: Reverse Engineer the Episode Outline

When writing a book, the worst thing in the world is staring at a blank page and asking yourself “What am I going to write about?”

The same goes for your podcast. Do not go into your recording software without a plan, at least a high-level one, of the talking points of the episode you're creating.

Here's my process for “reverse engineering” an episode structure:

1. Start with the end in mind. What's the purpose of this episode? What's the take away I want people to have?
2. What stories, points, case studies, bodies of work do I need to reference in order to support #1. I just do a braindump of these. No particular order.
3. What order should all of #2 be in.

I often use post-it notes (my favorite thing in the world) to outline my show so I can more easily more bits and pieces around. Watch this video if you'd like to see that post-it note process in full effect.

If you're doing an interview episode, then it's a little different, but not by much. I want to know what I want the audience to take away from my time with my guest, and I also want to have an idea of what questions I MIGHT ask to help the audience get there.

I rarely stick to the entire list of questions when I conduct an interview. It takes practice, but eventually you'll get to the point where you can follow-up with great questions and dig even deeper to get better information from your guest for your audience.

3. It's Going to be Bad at the Start

You have to get through a good number of episodes first before you start to get into a rhythm and feel the groove. If you wait until you feel good about your show before you hit publish on episode one, I guarantee, you will never have a podcast.

Just get it out there, let the world find it, and use that experience to continually improve your podcast over time.

Here's a follow-up video to help you even further:

8. Edit, Export and Publish Your Episodes

If you haven't signed up with a host yet, now would be the time to do it. After you edit your episodes, you're going to upload them to Buzzsprout (or your host of choice), fill out all the details about your podcast, and then all the episodes you publish, and get your podcast ready for the world! Woohoo!

I'll show you how to edit and export in just a moment, but first I wanted to address another common question I've been getting from a lot of soon-to-be podcasters:

Is Anchor.fm a Good Host for Podcasting?

Anchor was originally a “twitter, but audio” platform, but they've since pivoted to become a popular podcasting hosting platform. And the big draw is, it's free.

Now I know I said you don't need to spend more money to get your show up and running, so why pay for a podcast host when you could get Anchor.fm for free? Well, I have a number of reasons:

First, free platforms scare me. They have to make money somehow, and they either go bankrupt (SoundCloud was hosting podcasts too, and they nearly went bankrupt, twice), or they have to start making money with ads that you can't control, or algorithms that require you to “pay to play”, like we've seen on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Second, although it's a reliable platform and easy to use, it doesn't give you ultimate and total control over your feed.

Third (and this is a big one), when you get something for free, you're not compelled to use it. An insider gave me some data about Anchor not too long ago and told me a majority of their podcasts that are listened to are from a very small percentage of their overall user base. I don't remember exact numbers, but it was less than 10% of podcasts registered for Anchor are actually active.

This doesn't mean you can't become successful and make it work with a platform like Anchor, this is just one man's opinion, but from my perspective, if you want to go pro with your show, sign up for a hosting platform. It's very inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. A couple coffees

Here's that link for Buzzsprout one more time. You get 33% more time if you sign up through my affiliate link.

Here is that video explaining more about editing and exporting your audio and setting everything up with your host:

Before We Keep Going…

I just wanted to check in with you really quick. As you can tell, there's a lot to think about, and if you're like many of my students, you're probably starting have a mixture of both excitement and overwhelm all at once.

If you've gotten value from this post, a simple click on the link below to Tweet and share this would be incredibly valuable. Thank you!

Click here to share this post on Twitter

Thank you for that! Now, we're on the home stretch. Let's keep this train going…

9. Submit Your Podcast to Directories (like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more)

If your podcast is hosted through Buzzsprout, then you can submit your podcast to all of the major directories directly from your dashboard. It's that simple.

Otherwise, here's what you need to do. From your hosting platform, find your RSS FEED LINK for your podcast. It'll look something like this:

This link is then what you submit to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and others. Then, after an approval period, your show will be up and running! So where are all the submission locations? I've got you covered below:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Stitcher
• iHeartRadio
• Pandora
• CastBox

Google Podcasts is a little different. Your show will be picked up in the search engines later after it's up and running for a while. Having a website to house your podcast and support your show helps, too.

Note: If you need help building a website, I have course on that you can grab for free called Build Your Own Brand. Check it out here!

A lot of the directories take time to get approved. The most important one is Apple Podcasts, and I'd recommend submitting early (like a week before your official launch date) to make sure everything is good and ready to go. You'll have time to fix any issues should they arise with a week long window.

10. Let the World Know About Your New Show!

Getting your podcast up and running is just half the battle. Once it's up, how do we get people to find it?

Well, that's my specialty. There's a lot involved with podcast marketing and findability (too much to share here in this single post), and of course I offer a ton of detailed tips and strategies in my premium course for my students directly over at Power-Up Podcasting, but from a high-level, here's what you could focus on:

1. Launch like it's an event. You want to make a big deal out of your new podcast to get as many eyeballs (and ears) on your show as soon as it launches.
2. Utilize your network. Now is the time to ask your friends, family, community, audience, colleagues – anyone in your network – to help support you and your show. Don't be afraid to ask, this is a big deal, and hopefully you'll get lots of support.
3. Anywhere you might have access to larger groups of people, for example your social channels, your email list, any groups you're involved with, let them know ahead of time that something is coming, and when your podcast goes live, you'll be able to announce it without feeling like it came out of nowhere.
4. On social media, you could utilize tools such as repurpose.io and wavve.co to create little snippets of your audio in video format so it's more viewable and more interesting on your channels. SplashEO is another favorite which adds words and captions into your snippets, too.
5. During launch week, thank every single person who comments on your podcast. Ask them to leave a review and share it with anyone who they know who might find it valuable. Interact. Even if your audience is small to start, the direct interaction can feed your energy level and offer valuable feedback for your future podcast episodes.

And of course, I have a video with some more helpful info that you may find useful:

11. Make Money With Your Podcast

Whether you want to become a full-time podcaster and have your show replace your income, or you just want to do it on the side, I think it's really important to consider how to make money with your podcast, even if the goal is to simply cover your time and costs.

You should be rewarded for your hard work, for sure!

The most common way podcasts make money is through advertising or sponsorships. Companies may pay you money to have you read off a script or talk about their company in different parts of your podcast episodes.

This can be very rewarding, but at the same time, it's hard to find sponsors when your show is just starting out. They want to know people are going to listen before they pay you.

I'd recommend starting with affiliate marketing. That means you can generate an income by talking about and recommending various products that you use, similar to how I've provided helpful content here, but also mention various microphones and podcast hosting platforms. You can start with this kind of income generation from day 1, and even if you don't have many listeners, a year from now when you do, you can see the clicks coming in.

You could potentially promote software you use, programs you've joined, services you use, or even physical products by joining Amazon's associates program.

For more info about generating income from your podcast, check out this popular video below:

What's Next?

Download the free Podcast Cheat Sheet

Sign up for my free Podcast Cheat Sheet! This checklist will help you stay on track as you go through the steps I've outlined above so you can learn how to start a podcast, the smart way. All the steps (and more) to help you launch and grow your podcast.

Thank You!

I Appreciate You!

I truly hope you enjoyed this tutorial about how to start a podcast. I spent over 50 hours putting this tutorial together, and several more keeping it updated for you over time.

Feel free to share this (click here for an easy Twitter share), and please share it with your friends and colleagues who you think could benefit from this, too.

Cheers, and I'll see you and your podcast on Apple (and other directories) very soon!

Lastly, if you still feel like you need more help and guidance to help you launch and market your podcast, check out my course, Power-Up Podcasting, for more help!