Define Your Show's Topic
There’s more to launching a successful podcast than simply hitting record. One of the most critical components of getting your show of the ground is defining your show’s topic and, if possible, niche.
Think of it like this; If you’re starting a business podcast, what are you going to do with your show that sets you apart from the thousands of other business podcasts already in the world? You could focus on start up entrepreneurs and their business founding stories. Or perhaps you want to interview up and coming trend setters who are launching new businesses in the eCommerce space.
The more specific you can be with your shows topic, the better.
Create a Production Timeline
If you’ve never edited audio or video, you may be surprised how much time it can consume.
Here are a few things to add to your production schedule:
- Day to Record
- Day(s) to Edit
- Create Show Notes and Cover Art
- Create Promotional Posts
When defining your overall schedule, let’s say you are going to record an episode on Monday of each week. We’ll assume in this scenario you don’t have an interview to schedule. You could schedule Tuesday for editing. Wednesday you can complete any editing that may remain, create show notes, and setup your cover art.
A good place to start when determining if you’ll need one or more days to edit a podcast episode is with the rule of 4. Your podcast will typically take 4 times its length to edit. This means a 20-minute episode will approximately 80-minutes to edit.
Setting and sticking to a schedule will ensure you are consistent with episode releases.
Release and Promote... Consistently
The Long Game
The most important thing when launching a new podcast is to know it’s going to take time. It takes time to script your shows, record, edit and promote. It will also take time to build your audience and gain traction.
If you can make yourself comfortable with the long game of building your podcast you’re on the path to success.