Hello friends! I need to republish an episode for work stuff, so I thought I'd share this one from 2021 again and say hello! Also I'd love to hear any questions you have about podcasts or podcasting, please visit this Google Form I set up and fill it out if you'd like to share your question(s)! Hope you've been well! Aaron Dowd, Fort Worth Texas November 16, 2023 --- My goal for this episode is to give you a big picture roadmap for how to start a podcast. You give me 30 minutes of your time, I'll tell you everything I know about starting a podcast. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive guide th ..read more

Hello friends! I need to republish an episode for work stuff, so I thought I'd share this one from 2021 again and say hello! Also I'd love to hear any questions you have about podcasts or podcasting, please visit this Google Form I set up and fill it out if you'd like to share your question(s)! Hope you've been well! Aaron Dowd, Fort Worth Texas November 16, 2023 --- My goal for this episode is to give you a big picture roadmap for how to start a podcast. You give me 30 minutes of your time, I'll tell you everything I know about starting a podcast. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive guide th ..read more

94: How to Get Good Sound for Your Podcast, Part 6: Talk Through Audio Gear with Your Guests and Co-Hosts Before You Start Recording It only takes a few minutes to talk to your guest or co-hosts about their recording setup, but it can help you identify potential audio issues and prevent them.  Good sound quality isn't the only thing you need to be successful in podcasting, but bad audio quality will cost you listeners! One of the most common avoidable mistakes podcasters make is publishing audio that doesn't sound good. The good news is that you don't have to spend a lot of money or have ..read more

If you only need to record your own voice, or maybe a couple people in the same room, you won't have a hard time ending up with a podcast that sounds good. However, if you want to record interviews or episodes with guests or co-hosts that are in different locations, getting good sound becomes harder. You won't have any control over which microphones the other people are using, if they use good mic technique, if they know how to set input gain levels correctly, what kind of room or location they're recording in, and so on. It's always a good idea to have a conversation about someone's recording ..read more

In this episode, Sean and I discuss his new mobile recording setup, the challenges of the paid membership model for podcasts, Spotify's recent moves in podcasting (Joe Rogan, etc), how to grow an audience for a podcast, the best ways to make money with a podcast, what most podcasters get wrong about podcast promotion on social media and what they should do instead, and so much more. If you'd like to support this show, please share it with a friend, leave a review in Apple Podcasts or your podcast app of choice, or become a paying member of The Podcast News. Show Links: Sean's website: seanwes ..read more

Last episode I talked about mic technique and how to set gain levels. This week I'm going to talk about how the room you're recording in might affect the quality of your sound. The most important thing is to pay attention to how you sound in your room. The room you're recording in is probably only going to cause problems if there are a lot of hard surfaces that reflect your voice back enough to make it hard to understand what you're saying. If you hear an echo in your recording that bothers you, figure out how to address it. Example: When I started recording podcasts back in 2013, I was record ..read more

Last week I talked about how to connect your microphone and headphones and make sure you're ready to start recording. This week I'm going to walk you through the basics of microphone technique and how to set the input gain levels (or recording levels) so you can sound good anytime you want to record some audio. Just a heads up: If you're listening to this episode in a podcast app, I'd recommend switching over to the YouTube video, as I believe it's easier to understand mic technique and input gain levels if you can see what I'm doing and talking about. Watch the video version of this episode h ..read more

Have you ever wondered what it takes to make a podcast? What the steps are? This week, I’m going to walk you through my process, step by step. I'm going to give you a better understanding of what it takes to make a podcast, take some of the mystery and scariness out of podcasting, and give you actionable steps to follow to make your own podcast. Couple quick updates to this episode: I now use MP3 chapters instead of writing time stamps for each paragraph. My show is also now hosted on Simplecast, so my workflow has gotten a lot faster/easier. Want the cheat sheet? Here's an updated PDF of my p ..read more

Key Takeaways: Eliminate background noises before you hit record. Turn off fans, AC, or heaters, and set your phone to airplane mode. Listeners notice sound quality. Background noise and room echo is distracting and degrades the listening experience. If you have a noisy room or a room with a lot of echo and you can’t treat it, record with a dynamic mic instead of a condenser and grab blankets or couch cushions and make a blanket tent or pillow fort. Some materials (sound panels) are more sound absorbent than others. Look up Noise Reduction Coefficients (NRC) numbers before buying materials to ..read more

Today I’m sharing my process for writing outlines. If you've never written an outline for your podcast before, I'm going to teach you how today. What does a podcast outline do for you? It helps you stay focused. It helps you make sure you cover all the topics you want to cover, or ask or answer the right questions. It helps you keep the episode on track. Listeners want to know what they’re going to get from a show. You may have recorded an epic episode with tons of great advice and takeaways, but if you don’t tell the listeners in advance what they can expect, they won't know what's coming. Pe ..read more