To be brutally honest, you do have time to podcast. You simply don’t have time for the frustration that can happen when obstacles get in the way of doing what you want to do. However, there are ways to eliminate obstacles that cause frustration.

How Much Time Do You Need? 

Let’s estimate the size of our problem. When we say, “time to podcast,” how much are we talking about?

Colin has written an excellent article about how much time it actually takes to run a podcast. It’s a multi-faceted issue, depending on what kind of podcast you produce and how frequently you want to release episodes.

Some podcasters estimate the time they’ll need by multiplying their episode length by four. This means a 15-minute episode would take roughly one hour to complete, a half-hour episode would take roughly two hours, and so on. Others say that for multi-layered sound design, you should estimate an hour of editing for each minute of audio per episode.  

The most important part to remember is that recording is not what takes the most time to work on your podcast. Other tasks can take longer. All together, you have to think about:

• Planning & Scheduling
• Setting up
• Recording
• Editing & Mixing
• Writing Shownotes
• Uploading & Publishing
• Promotion

The good news is that once you know how long it takes you to make an episode, you can plan accordingly. And, once you’re better acquainted with the tasks, you can complete them faster. 

Free Up Some Filled Time

A productivity meme that gets thrown around a bit is, “You have the same number of hours in the day as Lin-Manuel Miranda or Beyoncé.” Yes, it’s true that a day has 24 hours, no matter who you are. But Beyoncé and Lin-Manuel Miranda also have different support people and systems at their disposal. You might not have a staff, but you can make time-saving support systems. 

Queen Bey may have an army of personal assistants, but Trello can manage anything. Lin-Manuel Miranda may have someone to wait in line at the post office or the bank for him, but you can use that time to listen to raw audio before editing. A robot vacuum can’t clean your floors as well as you can, but it can clean a little bit every day, giving you more time to podcast more frequently. 

Thinking like people who record for a living can help you find ways to use technology, strategies, and support to make time for podcasting.

I’ll go into detail later about tools you can use to make your podcasting time more efficient. For now, think about your daily tasks and brainstorm some ways to subcontract tasks out and make time in the rest of your life.

Sacrifice The Habits You Want to Change Anyway

Let’s get the hard part out of the way. Everybody has at least one habit they don’t need. For anyone who makes digital content, these distractions tend to pop up in the digital realm. But, there are other ways to block the time bandits and open the door for podcast productivity. 

Screens Want Your Brain. 

Okay, that’s a vast oversimplification. But Nir Eyal, author of the book Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products, shares how tech companies create systems to grab and hold your attention as long as possible. He admits, “I could easily escape discomfort, temporarily,” via his phone use.  But he’s also found that roughly 85% of smartphone users never adjust their smartphone’s app settings to keep their phone from interrupting or distracting them.

If you want to spend less time looking at your phone, here’s how to do it: 

• Adjust iOS Screen Time Settings and notification settings. 
• Set up Digital Wellbeing on an Android phone. 

Another simple hack is to go into your phone’s accessibility settings and adjust the color filters. These are meant to improve accessibility for colorblind users. If you turn on the wrong filter, though, your phone’s screen will become really boring. You can always change it back later.

Smartphones aren’t necessarily the enemy. There are tons of podcasts in there, right? Instead of scrolling through social media, try these on for size: 

• Use a note-taking app to stash ideas for future episodes. 
• Bookmarking apps like Instapaper to save and read your research, or Feedly can help you keep up with news about your podcast topic.
• Read through your favorite media host’s knowledge base to learn how all of its features work. You may find features in there that save you hours.
• Subscribe to some podcasting newsletters to learn what’s happening in the podcast sphere.

If you use phone activity as a reward, do it intentionally. Use timers, use headphones, and enjoy that reward unapologetically, within limits. When I play an open sandbox game, and I give myself only 15 minutes, I play hard. I’m fast-traveling and scooping up resources like Scooby Doo in a haunted house in the last act of the episode. 

Think about it this way: is scrolling through feeds on your phone (or any other habit, really) helping you get your show planned, scripted, edited, uploaded, and so on?

If not, then cut down.

Waking Up and Sleeping Well

Productivity gurus claim that waking up early is the best way to gain time. But this isn’t true for everyone. 

On the one hand, many people derive peace and satisfaction from waking up while the house is quiet, and getting a bit of recording done before the neighbors can start mowing the lawn. On the other hand, sleep deprivation can lead to poor decisions and sloppy podcasting. 

From my own experience, early mornings are good for short work sessions, like writing episode ideas or season plans in a notebook. This way, you get a small win to fuel your motivation for later in the day.  Plus, you’ve got something in place to look forward to when you work on your podcast later. 

This works best when you turn the light off and close your eyes earlier. Don’t deprive yourself of sleep. You’ll miss details that pile up and make audio that you’re not proud of. It’s one thing to find time to podcast and another to poke holes in your mental and physical health. 

Being Proactive vs Reactive 

A lot of time is wasted when you go through life reacting to things instead of sticking with your original plan.

Tim Ferriss’s classic book The Four-Hour Work Week covers this in detail. Like Nir Eyal, Ferris recommends minimizing electronic notifications. Ferris schedules a block of time to respond to messages, like Cal Newport’s time-blocking strategy, which you can find in his books  Deep Work, and Digital Minimalism.  What Ferris and Newport recommend is: 

• plan out your day, 
• set time to work thoughtfully on the tasks you need to complete,
• don’t let anyone or anything get in your way. 

This is great advice, and I’m sure Messrs Ferris and Newport’s experiences prove that it works for them. It’s terrific advice, especially for men, who benefit from gender gaps in responsibility for household chores, the wage gap, and multigenerational caregiving. When you have less autonomy over your time and effort, engaging in productive thinking is harder. 

However, all podcasters can and should learn from their methods, which are:

• Use time blocking to plan your days and your week. 
• Schedule time to work on your podcast and nothing else. Don’t multitask. Relax and give your full attention to the task at hand. 
• During a work session, turn off, mute, or block anything else that gets between you and the task you’re doing.
• If you have the luxury of a separate room, use it. If you don’t, headphones are your friend. 

If you were at work and someone called your home phone, the phone would ring, and they would leave a message. You’d call them back later. The same goes for when you’re working on your podcast. 

Make Your Podcasting Work Sessions More Efficient

We’ve discussed ways to carve out time and build boundaries around it. Now, let’s look at ways to make your time in the workspace more effective. 

Batching 

When you make a dozen cookies, if you bake each one at a time, you’d drive yourself crazy. That’s why you mix up a batch of cookies and bake them all at once.

Batch processing is when you set out a block of time to perform the same step on multiple podcast episodes at once. Allegra Sinclair, creator of Your Confident Self, praises the method’s momentum:

“I produce in batches all the way down to creating my show notes, episode description, and the blog post that accompanies the podcast episode. Once I’m in the rhythm to do a particular task related to my podcast, I do as many as possible in the allotted time.”

Batch processing is how Rob Oliver broke the world record for the longest interview marathon in the spring of 2023.

Teaming Up Can Help You Find Time

The expression “Many hands make light work” is true more often than not. Find a podcaster friend to work with. Whether you schedule work sessions together, swap tasks, or any of the many other ways that podcasters collaborate, you’ll feel more energized and engaged if you’re not alone. 

True, not everyone is a great co-worker. But you’ll find that tasks like editing, promotion, or planning feel less like chores when someone else is working alongside you. And, when you feel better about work, you can get more done. 

Body doubling, or working alongside another person who’s also working, is a great way to boost your productivity and mood. A coffee shop or library can be a good place for knowledge workers to congregate. If that’s not possible for you, try a virtual co-working session. 

Productivity Tools Aid Efficacy

Earlier, I suggested deploying technology to handle your tasks outside of podcasting. Here’s a list of ways you can use technology to get more out of your podcasting time. 

• Trello is a great project management tool. We love it so much here at The Podcast Host that we even have a course about using it in our Academy. 
• Another powerful project management tool to help you organize your work is ClickUp. Check out Tae’s in-depth review of ClickUp and why she loves using it for her podcast.
• EditPoint is a phone app to listen to your audio and mark it for later editing. Walking the dog or waiting in line just turned into time to podcast. 
• AI tools like Buzzsprout’s Cohost AI, Capsho, and many others can write your podcast’s show notes and promotional materials while you tackle a different task. 
• Meet Edgar can post all of your social media updates for you.
• Scheduling recording sessions doesn’t have to mean playing phone tag. Doodle uses calendar-based polls to set up meeting times and adjusts itself for time zones, so there’s no confusion about when exactly to meet. Book Like a Boss is another scheduling tool, with customizable features that help you set up meetings with shared information. If you’re not playing email catch-up with people, or waiting for them to respond, you suddenly find time you didn’t know you had.
• Finally, Alitu can take some of the editing work off your to-do list. It does all the complicated and steep learning curve processes like Compression, EQ, and Noise Reduction for you, automatically. It’ll also remove long pauses and filler words in the click of a button, and you can delete text in its automatically generated transcripts, which will then chop out the corresponding audio, too. If you like the sound of Alitu, then there’s a free trial available to kick the tires on it.

Treat Yourself Like The Star You Are

I keep a dry-erase board on the door to my office, with a line drawn down the middle. On one side, I write what I’m doing (working, obviously) and what time I’ll be available. On the other side, it says, “leave a message,” with a blank space and a magnet. Anyone who needs to tell or show me something can put it on the board. Telling people what I’m doing respects their time. When they leave a message or follow up later, they respect mine. 

Then, when I’m in that room, I do what the board says I’m doing. Setting intentions and following them is powerful stuff. 

Schedule your work sessions on a calendar, and set boundaries around your workspace. If someone infringes on your time to podcast, say, “I have to work.” 

You Are Worth the Time It Takes to Make a Podcast

We all have busy lives with distractions, responsibilities, and interests. If you say, “I don’t have time to make a podcast,” make some. Use technology to eliminate what you can, and swap tasks with friends (like dog-walking or cooking) for what you can’t. Put barriers between yourself and habits that don’t help you. Use the time you have more effectively by using good procedures and tools. When you get stuff done, you feel good about yourself, which makes you more motivated.

Carve out that time with a chisel and hammer. Your audience might not be right in front of you, but they need you and your podcast.

Question: How much time does it take you to make a podcast episode, right through from planning to publishing? And what tools and tactics have you put in place to minimise its footprint on your schedule? Be sure to let us know in the IndiePod Community.

By the end, you’ll know exactly how to make a podcast and help it succeed in the quickest, most pain-free way possible.

Here’s the stages we’ll cover. How to start a podcast in 10 simple steps:

1. Develop a Growth-Ready Podcast Plan
2. Define your Show Structure & Format
3. Establish your Podcast’s Brand
4. Set up your Podcasting Equipment
5. Pick your Recording & Editing Tools
6. Present & Record your 1st Episode
7. Edit Your Podcast Episode (Learn how!)
8. Set up your Podcast Hosting
9. Submit to Key Podcast Directories
10. Create a Starter Launch Plan

Click a step to jump straight there. Otherwise… there are no shortcuts to success in life. Except here! Three extra tools to help:

• Want help planning it out? Try our AI-powered assistant
• Want a free email course to guide you through?
• Wondering why you should start a podcast for your business?

1. Your PATH: a Podcast Framework for Success

Right, let’s create this show! First is the idea behind it, and the strategy. What does it look (sound…?) like?

I’ve developed a framework for this: PATH.

This framework leads to a podcast plan that stands a great chance of producing compelling content and consistent growth:

Purpose: why am I doing it?
Audience: who am I talking to?
Topic: what am I talking about?
Hallmark: why should they listen?

So, let’s dig into how to set up a podcast and create a fully-fledged podcast strategy for your show.

Want some extra help with this? Here’s a tool which asks the right questions, and uses AI to help you formulate that plan: The Interactive Podcast Launch Planner.

Purpose: Why Are You Making a Podcast?

So, firstly, why do you want to make a podcast? This gives purpose to everything else, and keeps you motivated long term. Here are some of the most common.

• Marketing: Personal or Business Branding
  Grow authority and trust. Be more personal than blogging, more evergreen than social media. Offer great, valuable content to customers. Nurture brand superfans.
• Creative Outlet: Make something Cool!
  Make a show around your passion, from true crime, to vegan baking, to audio fiction. Create something you’re proud of!
• Build Community: Connect with Like-Minded People
  Podcasting is a great way to bring people together around a common passion. Build that audience and attract them into a space where you can turn it into a 2-way conversation.
• Education: Teach my expertise
  Teach what you know, or educate by example and help your audience to elevate their own skills.
• Entertainment: Help people have fun!
  Comedy shows, quizzes: some great podcasts have no other aim than to entertain their audience, and grow great fans as a result.

So, what’s the bottom line with all this? Unless you answer the question of “why?” then you won’t be best positioned to design podcast content that’ll match your ambitions and objectives. You are building the foundations of your metaphorical house, so it’s worth a little extra thought (and work) to get it right!

Your Tasks

Grab a pen and paper, and write this down:

Pick a purpose: why are you running this show?

(Optional) deeper dive into your podcast purpose and “WHY”

Alrighty, our WHY is in place! Let’s get into HOW we’ll do it.

Watch a Full Guide to the PATH Framework:

Audience: Who is your Podcast For?

Unless you know exactly who you’re making your show for, you’ve got no chance of growing an audience.

A lot of smart people talk about creating an “ideal listener” for your show, sometimes called a podcast listener persona or avatar. It’s a great idea. Who exactly is it that’ll love your content?

That persona is something to keep in mind every time you plan an episode: “Would John, our listener persona, like this? Is this focused on what he likes, what he’s interested in?”

This all helps to keep your show focused and on track, both of which make for more engaging episode content.

And for growth, that listener persona drives every decision. The name, the description, the messages you put out on social media, the trailers you create. They’re all designed to tickle the fancy of that specific listener.

Your Tasks

Describe your ideal listener in a sentence
(Optional) Create an in-depth listener avatar

Topic: What am I Talking About?

So, what’s the show about? This is usually the easy part. So, let’s get it noted down before we dig into parts that really make it zing! A lot of this comes down to who YOU are, and to your experiences.

Your Tasks

Who are you, on this show?
What do you want to talk about?

Get specific on the who. This won’t cover everything about who you are. We contain multitudes, after all! But, when it comes to this show, who are you?

Hallmark: Why Should They Listen to YOUR Show?

We now know who you want to reach, and what you’ll talk about. So, how do you stand out?

You need to find your hallmark. It’s what compels your ideal audience to listen to YOUR show, above all others. But how?

Find a UNIQUE angle – that’s your hallmark.

Here are some of the most common hallmarks:

• Tight Niche: Solve a specific problem for a specific person
• Personal Angle: Your unique take on an existing topic
• Podcast Format: Create a unique format for your niche
• Production Quality: Extra time & effort on audio polish
• Outcome: Create a unique outcome that’s appealing

This step is all about figuring out why your show is adding something new to the topic.

Then, any time you tell someone about it, it becomes really easy to tell anyone why they need to listen to your show.

And, not only have you given them a reason to listen, but you’ve also given them a reason to come back for more, and tell their friends about it!

Your Tasks

Write down your unique approach

Need more help on this, as well as a bunch more examples? Here’s an article: How to Make a Podcast More Unique

Some Podcast Plan Examples

Let’s lay out some examples a nicely defined PATH, so we can see how it works.

The health show:

• Purpose: Podcasting for my Business
• Audience: Interested in weight loss, getting fit and eating better
• Topic: Health and Fitness
• Hallmark: I’m a personal trainer. I used to be very overweight, but I found CrossFit and lost 50 pounds. I’ll use my experience to help you repeat my feat by sharing a short HIIT workout that I know overweight people can actually complete.

The pop culture podcast:

• Purpose: Podcasting about my Hobby
• Audience: The same as me! Watches the Walking Dead and the Last of Us. Plays Resident Evil. Loves Contagion and 28 days later.
• Topic: Post-apocalyptic books, movies, games, TV shows
• Hallmark: I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction. I’ll niche down on audience AND topic. I’ll choose Zombie films only, so this is the Zombie film show. And I’m 51, so I’ll target older fans of the genre, delving back into classic Zombie films and fiction as much as covering the new material.

The entertainment podcast:

• Why: To entertain & have fun
• Audience: Enjoys improvisation comedy, great storytelling & wacky humour
• Topic: Creating a new fiction story every week
• Hallmark: We are four friends who are into improvisation. We’re going to record our main story, but with a few alternative endings, every week. We’ll take suggestions from our listeners and record three of them, including them in the main episode. We’ll include chapters so listeners can skip to their favourite, or, listen to all three.

FAQ: Do I Need an Audience to Start a Podcast?

Absolutely not!

Everyone starts with zero at some point. So, if this is your first content rodeo, podcasting is a great place to start. It’s actually a great place to experiment, to try new things, to test out topics and find your voice.

Once you’ve found that groove, you can expand into other mediums, too.

If you DO already have an audience, even a small one, what then? This could be anything from a business or brand to a musician, former athlete, or author.

Whatever the medium (social media, YouTube, blog), it’s a great kernel for your show’s fanbase.

During the planning stages, you may opt to survey your audience. Here, you can ask them things like “What’s your biggest pain point?” and “What are you struggling with right now?”. This could help you shape your content, going forward.

You might even choose to find out a bit more about them. This could be anything from demographics and location, to what other podcasts (if any) they enjoy listening to.

FAQ: How Many People Consume Podcasts in 2025?

There’s no point doing all the hard work to create content in a medium nobody pays attention to. Fortunately, podcasting is not that medium.

To give you some perspective, 85% of people in the US are familiar with the concept of podcasting, with 55% consuming one each month, and 40% catching up with their favourite shows weekly. These are all stats from the Infinite Dial Report 2025.

So rest assured, your audience is out there. We just need to lay the groundwork to go out there and hook them with your brilliant content.

2. Define Your Show Structure & Format

Now that we know what kind of show we’re creating, it’s time to figure out how it looks! (or sounds…?). So, when looking at how to start a podcast, what are the most common questions about how it’s delivered?

What Podcast Format Should I Choose?

The format you choose is really personal and depends on who’s involved. It’s totally up to you!

So, what are the common types of podcast show formats?

The Solo Podcast

Also known as the monologue. You record (sing along!) “all-by-my-seeeeelfff!”

Pros

• Don’t rely on anyone else
• No scheduling conflicts
• Building a reputation individually as the authority
• You call the shots on sponsorship and monetization
• No need to split the profits with anyone.

Cons

• Intimidating to record alone for the beginner podcaster
• Takes practice to avoid a monotone sound
• Can be less engaging than a conversation

The Co-Hosted Podcast

Presenting alongside a friend or colleague.

Pros

• Avoids the ‘mic fright’ of recording alone
• Good co-hosts create great chemistry and engaging content
• Builds long-term loyalty with two or more hosts
• Can set up a regular recording time to reduce scheduling admin

Cons

• Needs careful agreement over ownership and responsibility
• Need to split earnings
• Have to manage two people’s schedules

The Interview Podcast

‘Borrowing’ the expertise or entertainment value of others.

Pros

• Talk to your heroes, or other really interesting people
• Bring in different points of view & varied expertise
• Grow your network
• Some growth benefits if they share the episode

Cons

• Interviewing is a real skill: it’s hard to do a great interview
• Need to constantly find and approach potential guests
• Booking logistics, and scheduling interviews
• Builds less loyalty since it’s a new person every week
• And less spotlight on building your brand

Other Formats

Finally, there are a bunch of other formats that aren’t so commonly used but might well suit you.

For example, you’ve got:

• Roundtable – One regular host and several guests discussing one specific topic (e.g. The Game Design Roundtable).
• Documentary – A narrator walks you through a range of interviews, conversations and on-location clips to paint a picture (e.g. Startup)
• Docu-Drama – A mix between drama and documentary. Offering learning and info, but in an entertaining way (e.g. Hostile Worlds).

How Long Should a Podcast Episode Be?

This always depends on your content, but here are some stats on average podcast episode length:

Don’t worry too much about these figures, though. Ultimately, your episode lengths should be decided by two things.

1. Your content
2. Your audience

If you have 50 minutes of valuable, relevant content, why chop it down to 20? Or likewise, if you’ve said everything you have to say in 10 minutes, why pad it out to 30? If you do go super-long on an interview, just cut it down into two episodes!

Finally, length can actually be a ‘unique’ factor, as I mentioned earlier. Short and snappy 4-minute episodes could suit a certain type of listener, or huge 3-hour in-depth interviews might suit another. Think about whether length might be a deliberate, unique choice for you.

How Often Should I Release New Episodes?

So, how often should you podcast? Here’s the answer:

So, if you can only manage once a month, that’s fine. If you can manage every two weeks, even better. If you can manage weekly, that’s great.

You can still have a big impact with a fortnightly or monthly show, but people often plan their lives around what day of the week their favourite shows drop.

That said, sticking to a deadline just for the sake of it is pointless. You’ll have a bigger impact if you put out one excellent episode a month instead of a very average episode every week.

Should I Make a Daily Podcast?

These are hard! They tend to be short-sharp, “one quick tip” style, running Monday through Friday.

Becoming part of your listener’s daily routine can be powerful, but it’s a huge amount of work to create.

With my daily show, Pocket-Sized Podcasting, I batch all of the work. Scripting, recording, editing, production, and publishing an entire week takes about 3 hours. That’s one way to make it sustainable!

Should I Podcast In Seasons?

A “season” is a series of episodes all around one topic or theme.

Our fitness podcaster, for example, might do an entire season on upper body strength, whilst our zombie podcaster could do one on post-apocalyptic video games.

There are a bunch of benefits:

• Addictive to listeners because episodes are related
• Your back catalogue is more organised
• Repurposing is really easy: turn one season into a course
• Work towards a goal (end of season), then take a break!
• Good excuse to text new formats & approaches each season

But do you lose listeners during the break? In my experience, no!

Just communicate well. Tell them when you’ll return.

And in any case, they’re subscribed, so next time you release an episode, it’ll just pop up in their app!

How to Create Great Episode Titles

This is the final thing around formatting, and a really important one to be found in search. Choosing good descriptive episode titles is vital!

Here are two mistakes I see all the time!

Episode numbers or unknown names just get in the way of the ‘hook’. Because the goal of your title is one thing, and one thing only: give them a reason to listen that they just can’t ignore!

• What’s the real meat of the episode?
• If there’s one key takeaway or solution here, what is it?

This is a big clue as to what your episode title should be.

Our WHISPER TITLES Framework won’t only help you come up with killer titles, it’ll give you infinite new content ideas too:

• W – “What” or “Why” Titles (e.g. “Why You’re Always Tired”)
• H – “How to” Titles (e.g. “How to Launch a Business with No Money”)
• I – “Insider” Titles (e.g. “Inside Apple’s Secret Process”)
• S – “Secrets” Titles (e.g. “The Secret to Lasting Happiness”)
• P – “Problem-Solution” Titles (e.g. “Feeling Stuck? Do This”)
• E – “Emotion-Driven” Titles (e.g. “The Truth About Burnout”)
• R – “Results-Oriented” Titles (e.g. “Get Fit in 30 Days”)
• T – Trending & Timely Titles (e.g. “AI Just Changed Everything”)
• I – Intrigue & Mystery Titles (e.g. “This One App Changes Everything”)
• T – “Top List” Titles (e.g. “7 Habits of Successful People”)
• L – “Life-Changing” Titles (e.g. “The Power of Saying No”)
• E – Expert or Contrarian Takes (e.g. “Everything You Know is Wrong About…”)

Video or Audio? Or Both?!

It’s funny; in the early days, it was solely about audio podcasts, but these days, it all kind of blends together.

It’s possible to record a video podcast in great quality, using a lot of the call recording platforms you’ll read about in Step 5. But it does introduce a whole lot of extra factors that can make things more difficult.

Here’s my take:

1. Don’t believe the hype; you don’t NEED to do a video podcast. Audio podcasts are still vastly more popular, and extremely powerful.
2. Video (good video, at least) is far harder to create and edit. It can also make people more self-conscious, reducing the quality of the content.

So, normally, I’d recommend starting with audio only and adding video podcasting at a later date if your audience shows a desire for it!

This post contains affiliate links to products and services that we recommend, at no extra cost to you.

3. Establish Your Podcast’s Brand

In the world of podcasting, our brand is in all three realms:

Let’s get that sorted before we get into making the thing!

How Do I Choose a Good Podcast Name?

No “how to start a podcast” guide is complete without answering this most common of questions: What the flip do I call the thing?

 Generate a Podcast Name With the Alitu Showplanner

There are three main camps for choosing a podcast title and naming your show.

Option 1: The Clever Name

You might think of a really clever name for your show. But remember that people need to be able to find it when they’re searching for information about your topic. If you have a clever/catchy name for your show, try incorporating a description into the title. There’s no point putting out great content if nobody can find it.

For example, one of my old shows was called Path of Most Resistance. It probably falls into the ‘clever name’ category, even though I’m not that clever… So, to give a bit of description, I also used the tagline: The Uncommon Leader’s Guide.

Here are a few shows that do this well. They’re creative, but are still reasonably clear. Note, though, you’re probably still not 100% sure what they’re about. That’s the downside of this approach!

Beyond the Bump
Behind the Bastards
Should you Really Eat That?

Option 2: The Descriptive Name

The searchable (but some might say boring) choice is to simply call your podcast what your target audience is searching for. If our personal trainer called her show The Fitness Podcast, then there’s absolutely no doubt as to what it’s about. Look at these great examples:

The Australian Finance Podcast (Topic & audience)
The Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast (Topic & format)

It works really well for search and for recognition, but some people feel it can be a little… well… boring!

But, consider this: is attracting a zillion new listeners boring?! It is NOT. Simplicity and clarity are the best ways to do that!

It’s totally fine to add a few words to the topic name to build some character, but make sure the main keyword is fully mentioned in the final podcast name. Look at these examples; all really clear but still a little bit of personality and wordplay:

Diary of a CEO
The Rest is Politics
How Other Dads Dad

Option 3: Using Your Own Name

This is pretty much a no-no unless you’ve already got an audience. If someone started The Mike Smith Show and it was about rock climbing, people would just think, “Who is Mike Smith?” and move on to the next podcast. Again, you can incorporate this into your show’s name along with something descriptive (‘Rock Climbing, with Mike Smith’). But avoid naming the show after you without any other details.

The Mel Robbins Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The Lise & Sarah Show
Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Parenting

Finding Music for Your Podcast

There’s no rule to say your show must have music, but many podcasters include a theme to add a bit of polish.

You might have seen TV shows with a minute or more of intro music, but don’t copy this in your podcast. I’d say keep it shorter than 10 seconds, and fade into your voice from there.

If you go beyond 10 to 15s you’re going to train your audience to hit the skip button.

Here are two great options for finding podcast-safe music:

• Subscription music sites: like Shutterstock or AudioHero
  Pay Monthly to use all of their music or FX
• Podcast Production Tools: like Alitu
  Music library included inside the recording & editing tool

If you want to see some more options (including some possible no-cost options if you’re wondering how to start a podcast for free) here’s all the music you can legally use on your podcast.

How to Create Your Podcast Cover Art

Sadly, first impressions are still everything! Attractive cover art is vital to stand out against thousands of others in apps like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Here’s some podcast artwork recommendations:

• 1400px x 1400px minimum size
• jpeg or png in format
• Keep text short & large, so it shows up on small thumbnails
• Keep the artwork simple and bold, to stand out

You can create decent cover art for free on Canva. They even have podcast logo templates on there. Or, you might want to hire a freelancer on a platform like Fiverr if you’d like someone to do it for you.

Cover art (sometimes called a podcast logo) is a bit like choosing a podcast name in many ways. You’re trying to find that balance between descriptiveness, cleverness, and quirkiness, all in one static image. And it all still needs to work well when viewed as a thumbnail on a phone screen.

4. Set Up Your Podcasting Equipment

Once you’ve done the groundwork and planned out your show, it’s time to get to work recording your first episode.

How to Choose Your Audio Equipment

This is where it’s really, really easy to overcomplicate things. Instead, let’s keep it simple. Because the bare minimum you need to podcast is a recording device and the internet!

Smartphone recordings can actually be just fine to start out (hold it to your face like you’re doing a call, and hit record!). But, using an external USB microphone is a wise, low-cost upgrade that won’t complicate things.

Top USB Microphones

• Samson Q2U / ATR2100: two near-identical podcast microphones, both sub-$100 and great quality.
• Rode Podcaster: great podcast mic, significant upgrade, around $150

Microphone Stands

The Samson comes with a small mic stand, but a nice upgrade is a boom arm mic stand, to give you a bit more flexibility.

• Rode PSA-1 Mic Stand: rock solid and decent value at $80.
• Neewer Boom Arm: Budget choice. Bit rickety, but does the job!

Portable Setup for In-Person Interviews

If you want to stick with smartphone recording, the kit has come on leaps and bounds these past few years.

The best option out there right now is the Rode Wireless Micro. This gives you two little mics that attach to your clothing, letting you record guests or co-hosts straight into your phone.

• Rode Wireless Micro Review
• BOYA Mini – a great alternative to the Wireless Micro

If you get serious about in-person recordings, consider the:

• Zoom PodTrak P4.

The P4 is a dedicated podcast recorder that lets you record four participants locally, as well as remote guests, both on the phone and online. It’s a fantastic all-rounder piece of podcast equipment.

Other Gear

• Good Headphones: Highly recommended for recording
• The Logitech C920 Webcam
• Podcast Mixers and Interfaces

For a full guide to all the gear options we recommend, go here:

Complete Guide to Podcast Equipment

5. Pick your Recording & Editing Tools

Nice work, you’ve plugged in your USB microphone or your audio interface! But how do you capture a podcast recording? How do you edit the audio file? Including audio recording, removing mistakes and background noise reduction, it’s time to pick your podcast software.

The good news is that there are plenty of great packages that do both recording AND editing. Let’s take a look.

Online Call Recording Software

Whether you have a co-host in another country or regular interviewees from all around the world, it isn’t difficult to create a podcast recording with them.

1. Alitu

Alitu includes both solo and call recording inside one recording studio. Reliable, includes audio cleanup (noise reduction, levelling, etc) and tied directly to Alitu’s editing tools, it’s a complete package.

2. Zoom

I mean, everyone knows Zoom now, right? So, super easy to share and use. Also free for up to 45 minutes. The quality is… fine… but isn’t A+.

3. Riverside

Riverside offers a range of features related to video recording and repurposing, including simple text-based editing, video clipping and its own streaming platform.

4. Squadcast

Another double-ender recorder, Squadcast captures great-quality audio and video.

For full details, read: Best Call Recording Platforms

Audio Editing Tools (+ Solo Recording!)

These are our picks for podcast editing software, but bear in mind they all offer solo recording, too, for those all-important podcast intros, adverts or solo episodes.

1. Audacity

Audacity is a good quality, free-of-charge audio editing package. It’s a bit old and clunky, but it’s free, and does a good job! It’s a fully featured digital audio workstation, so there’s a bit of a learning curve, but most of the features you need as a podcaster are quick to learn.

It includes everything you’d expect in a digital audio workstation (DAW), including multitrack editing and a range of manual audio cleanup tools, so you can get your audio quality up to par.

2. Alitu

Alitu: The Podcast Maker is designed to be the easiest audio editing experience on the market, tailored specifically for podcasters. It has everything else you need to run your show, too, like podcast hosting.

This web app records your audio (solo or remote call) and automates the audio cleanup, volume levelling, and EQ for optimum audio quality. Its editing tools are simple, and you can even chop out audio by deleting text in Alitu’s auto-generated transcripts!

The episode builder is a simple drag-and-drop interface for adding music, sponsor segments, etc. Then, you can directly publish via Alitu’s own hosting so your show is pushed out to places like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all other listening apps.

If you’ve never worked with audio before and find the very thought intimidating, then Alitu was made for you. If you want to see how it works, check out my guide on making a podcast with Alitu.

3. Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition is a great Pro-level production tool, ideally suited to full audio engineers. Great workflow and feature-rich, but a steep learning curve. It’s available through a paid subscription.

Here, you can compare Adobe Audition vs. Audacity.

4. Garageband

For what it’s worth, if you’re a Mac user, you will probably have Garageband installed by default on your machine. This is popular audio software with podcasters too, although recent versions have really cut down the features it offers. These days, I’d recommend that even Mac users get hold of Audacity as a free alternative.

What about the Computer?

The humble laptop fits nicely between the bulky desktop (don’t you ever try to move me, ever!) and the dainty mobile phone (take me everywhere you go, and please, doomscroll me to your heart’s content). So, if you’re looking for a new one:

What’s the best laptop for podcasting?

Or, even easier, you can Start a Podcast with a mobile phone.

6. Present & Record Your 1st Episode

Time to get this thing down on tape. Or… the 21st-century equivalent, anyway! Let’s cover presentation skills and recording that audio.

How to Script your Podcast

Finally, we’re ready to hit ‘Record’! But what will you say? That’s where podcast scripting comes in. Here’s two tips:

Word-for-word scripts give you confidence & cover the details, but they’re time-consuming to write & hard to read naturally.
Create a bullet-point outline to guide you, but one that keeps you flexible and conversational when recording.

The intimate nature of podcasting is far more suited to a conversation rather than a sermon. Feel free to use more detailed scripts in the early days, but try to work towards more flexible, natural outlines over time.

Read more on scripting, with examples

How to Talk Into a Mic

This is hard when you start out, no question. Especially if you’re doing a solo show! Here’s some advice:

• Put a photo or teddy (?!) on a chair behind the mic, to have a ‘person’ to talk to.
• Imagine your audience avatar in your head: speak to them.
• Take confidence in the fact that you have a message to share, and there are people who want to hear it!

Once you’ve got the confidence to begin, it’s time for technique! Our mic technique for podcasters guide covers everything you need.

7. Editing Your Podcast

Gear: check!

Software: check!

Irrational hatred of your own recorded voice: check!

But you’ve recorded it anyway. Strong move. Now, how do we polish it up nice, so it can be catapulted out into the world?

This is where you take your podcast recording, edit out mistakes, stitch together audio clips, add music or FX, and make sure it all sounds great with EQ, levelling, compression, and more. Let’s look at how it all works.

How Much Editing Do I Need to Do?

From awkward pauses to uhms and ahs, there are no shortage of things you could edit out in the post-production phase.

If you want a starter guide on what type of editing to do, check out my article on the MEE Podcast Production process. This keeps editing simple, sustainable, and consistent.

Here’s the rundown, though. For your first ten episodes, keep it really, really simple.

Here’s a minimum podcast editing plan:

• Trim the start & end
• Volume Levelling (video guide here)
• Publish!

Here’s a more polished podcast editing workflow:

• Trim the start & End
• Remove mistakes (with a click edit)
• Volume Levelling (video guide here)
• Noise reduction
• Add music
• Publish!

It’s possible to do a lot more, but honestly, the improvement to time ratio just doesn’t provide enough value in many cases.

You could learn EQ and Compression for example to really polish up your voice. But, this is well worth outsourcing, either to software, or to a freelancer (below).

Outsourcing: The Hands-Free Option

For some, if you have the budget, it’s better to hire in help for this!

You’ll find podcast editors for all budgets and requirements over at our Podcast Production Directory.

What File Type Should I Use for Podcasting?

The most common format for uploading a podcast episode is an MP3 file. That’s why so many people ask us how to convert from wav to mp3…!

Not all MP3 files are created equal, though. If you’re exporting yourself, here’s what to go for:

• Bitrate? Choose 96kbps for spoken-word audio
• Constant (CBR) Vs Variable (VBR) bitrate? Choose CBR
• Mono or stereo? Go mono, unless you’ve got loads of music and sound effects
• Sample rate? Opt for 44100Hz

If this seems like the sort of stuff that melts your brain, remember that podcast-maker tool Alitu does this all for you automatically!

8. Set up Your Podcast Hosting

When it comes to getting your podcast out there for everyone to hear, you’ll need a podcast hosting platform, sometimes called a media host.

A podcast host is where you store your audio files, set up your episodes, and publish them to the world. No need to upload anything to the directories, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. They read the episodes right from your podcast host through your RSS feed (more on submitting to directories in the next step!)

I use a few different podcast hosting providers, and you can read what I think of them in that dedicated roundup. But here’s the TLDR;

• Alitu: Hosting tied in with call recording, audio editing & audio cleanup, plus podcast analytics, transcriptions, podcast distribution and more.
• RSS.com: Superb value-for-money service, fully localized in three languages (English, Spanish, and Italian), which includes customer support. Use promo code THEPODCASTHOST to get free months.
• Captivate: Growth-focused podcast hosting, with tools like media kit generation, dynamic ad insertion, multiple podcasts, podcast distribution and excellent podcast analytics
• Castos: a host focused on private podcasting & linked with a strong production service

Your Podcast Website: Publish Your Shownotes & Player

What about a website for your pod? You’ll want one place for people to read more about your show, access the show notes, signup for your newsletter, and a lot more. There are a few options for this:

1. A Podcast Host Website: Most podcast hosts offer a free website to work as a home base. They’re free and easy, and perfect for hobby shows. But, they can be restrictive.
2. Your existing brand website: Add a ‘podcast section’ and start publishing a page for every episode there (Read: how to install podcasting tools on your website)
3. Podpage: This is a dedicated tool to set up a podcast site in minutes, and includes blogging, growth tools, newsletters and more. Great option for a flexible, powerful site.
4. WordPress: Set up a new WordPress site, dedicated to your podcast. Super flexible, as powerful as it gets, but a little more work to build and maintain (read: podcast websites guide)

For 2 to 4, you’ll add your audio content to your shownotes pages by embedding your podcast player in your blog posts, straight from your host. This is really easy, generally just a cut and paste!

9. Submitting to Podcast Directories

Once you’ve created your show inside your podcast host of choice, you can then submit it to a podcast directory. These are the podcast platforms that handle your podcast distribution, and where listeners can discover, subscribe to, and download your show.

Any good host will have a decent set of auto-submit or guided-submission tools. So, they make it easy to get your show into Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other popular spots (although forget about Google Podcasts now!).

You need to have at least one published episode in order to submit your show to some key directories. It’s a good idea to create a short teaser, podcast trailer, or episode zero early on in your podcasting journey. This way, you can ensure you’re being listed on all popular platforms in time for you dropping your first “proper” episode.

Once your podcast is out there, the way podcast listings work varies from platform to platform. For example, Apple Podcast search will favour shows with high numbers of all-time followers, while Google Podcasts used to be mainly focused on search keywords. That means that established shows can have the upper hand when it comes to discovery, so take on board my podcast naming advice from earlier in this guide.

Next Step How to Submit to Podcast Directories

10. Set Your Launch & Growth Plan

Once you’ve set up your podcast launch, that’s when you’ll move on to thinking about podcast promotion, building your listener base, and maybe even earning a crust from your show.

Get Your First 100 Listeners (and Beyond)

When it comes to podcast promotion, growth and visibility, I work with the SCALE Framework:

• S – Syndication
• C – Communities & Collaboration
• A – Advertising (Paid Promotion)
• L – Live & In-Person
• E – Email & Engagement

I break the SCALE Framework down for you in our Ultimate Podcast Marketing & Promotion Guide. And here are a few more options for you to bookmark and check out.

• The Podcast Host Planner (Physical Notebook)
• Podcast Growth Mastery (Video Course)
• Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience (Book)

Try at least a few of these in the first few months, and you’ve every chance of reaching far more of your target audience.

A Caution on Podcast Download Numbers

Podcast hosting services give you download stats which help you gauge how your show is doing. You can also get some platform-specific data from the likes of Spotify, Apple Podcasts Connect, and YouTube.

Download stats can become an obsession, especially when comparing yourself to any popular podcast. But there are so many variables when it comes to what are “good” download numbers. You might be surprised to learn that many successful podcasters thrive with “only” a few hundred downloads per episode.

So don’t compare yourself with others. Just try to improve every week.

Podcast Monetization (Earning a shilling!)

If you put the work in, stick at it, and consistently deliver great content for your audience, then you’ll eventually be in a position to think about monetizing your podcast. Here are a couple of resources to get you up and running:

• Our Ultimate Guide on How to Monetize a Podcast
• Affiliate Marketing for New Podcasters

Want to Watch a Full Guide on Making a Pod?

Need More Personal Help in Starting?

The Podcraft Academy is our coaching, support & community space, designed to help you take action and grow this show of yours! Including:

• Live regular Q&As with our team
• Launch & Growth Frameworks to follow
• Time-saving checklists & templates
• In-depth courses on editing, presentation skills, workflow & more
• Community motivation, conversations & support

We’d love to see you there!

Sign up for the Academy here

About the Author

If you’re asking – “Who’s this guy? How does he know what he’s talking about?” – then that’s totally fair

I’m Colin Gray, and I started out in podcasting around 2008. I remember the day I walked into my boss’ office at a Uni in Edinburgh, Scotland, and she said: “What’s this Podcasting thing? Could we use that to teach our students?”

I had no idea! My job at the time was to teach lecturers how to teach better with technology, though, and I’m a bit (a lot…?) of a geek, so I jumped into the world of mics, audio cleanup & speaking… and I never looked back!

In the years following, I left the Uni to go full-time on this. I inhaled everything podcasting, learning anything I could, and turned that knowledge into this website you’re reading right now. In 2015, I started working with Matthew McLean, a veteran audio drama producer, after a chance meeting in Birmingham. Together, we built this site to 2 million+ views a year. We started Podcraft, and grew it to a top 1% podcast. We reach tens of thousands of podcasters through our newsletter every week. I’ve spoken on stages around the world, and we’ve helped start thousands of podcasts over the years.

All this to say: I really love this medium. It changed my life, and I’ve seen it change hundreds of others. We’ve been in this a long time, but we’re still learning. Every day. All of that learning goes into the writing we publish here on The Podcast Host, aimed at helping you do the same.

So, if you’re up for it, read on and let’s get that fantastic voice of yours out into the world

How to Start a Podcast: Raring to Go?

Phew. That’s it. We’re done!

Don’t forget to bookmark my post here, so you can pop back every time you move on a step.

Good luck with the show, and I can’t wait to see your voice out in the world

You can pour time and energy into creating the best content humanly possible. But if you don’t put a bit of thought into the naming of that content, you’re going to limit its overall reach and impact severely.

So, how do you come up with good titles for your episodes? What considerations are there? And are there any “rules” to be aware of?

It Starts With Your Episode Content

One way to prevent the name of your episode from becoming an afterthought is to have a clear plan and aim behind your content.

For example, some of the most effective types of episode titles are things like “how to…[do something]” or “7 tips for… [achieving something]”.

These kinds of episodes have their titles in place before they are recorded. It’s all part of the planning.

So, if you’re doing things like lists, comparisons, reviews, or case studies in your episodes, then the titles are basically going to write themselves.

If it’s an interview or a monologue, though, you might need to retrospectively decide what the most valuable part of the episode was, and create your title around that.

The WHISPER TITLES Framework

We created the WHISPER TITLES framework to help give examples of compelling episode titles, but it quickly became a source of infinite content ideas, too. How many of these could you rework for your own topic or niche?

W – “What” or “Why” Titles

Spark curiosity or offer clear explanations.

Why Some People Always Seem Lucky
What No One Tells You About Building Wealth

H – “How to” Titles

Provide actionable, step-by-step advice.

How to Launch a Business with No Money
How to Wake Up Early Without Feeling Tired

I – Insider Titles

Offer exclusive, behind-the-scenes insight.

Inside the Mind of a Billionaire
Inside Apple’s Product Design Process

S – Secrets Titles

Reveal hidden truths or little-known strategies.

The Secret to Lasting Happiness
The Hidden Truth About the Stock Market

P – Problem-Solution Titles

Tackle a pain point and offer a fix.

Struggling with Anxiety? Try This
Feeling Stuck? Do This One Thing

E – Emotion-Driven Titles

Tap into strong emotions or shared experiences.

The Heartbreaking Truth About Burnout
Why No One Talks About the Dark Side of Success

R – Results-Oriented Titles

Focus on transformation or measurable outcomes.

Get Fit in 30 Days Without a Gym
Master Any Skill in 10 Hours or Less

Subscribe or follow Podcraft on your listening app of choice!

T – Trending & Timely Titles

Leverage current events, pop culture, or timely insights.

Why AI Will Replace 80% of Jobs
The Biggest Fashion Comeback of the Decade

I – Intrigue & Mystery Titles

Create suspense and curiosity.

The One Thing That Will Make or Break Your Career
The Hidden Connection Between Wealth and Happiness

T – Top List Titles

Use numbers for easy-to-digest tips or rankings.

7 Habits of Highly Successful People
10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Memory

L – Life-Changing Titles

Suggest dramatic transformation or impactful advice.

Life-Changing Lessons from a Monk
The Power of Saying No

E – Expert or Contrarian Takes

Challenge the norm or present authority insights.

Everything You Know About Dieting Is Wrong
What If We’ve Been Wrong About Success All Along?

S – Storytelling Titles

Share relatable personal journeys or experiences.

How I Went From Broke to Millionaire
The Unexpected Journey That Changed My Life

Target Audience, SEO, & Keywords

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t simply about choosing a title for your episode. It’s about deciding what your episode will be about, and why.

When planning your next batch of episodes, think about your potential audience – the podcast listeners who haven’t discovered your show yet. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What sort of terms are they searching for?
2. What questions are they seeking answers to?
3. How are you positioned to help them?

Make it clear in your episode titles that this is precisely what they’re looking for. Remember, it’s not “clickbait” if you deliver on your promise in the episode.

Podcast directories are essentially just search engines, so make sure your titles are the sort of things that’ll appear in a search on that topic. It helps to add the odd relevant keyword or two, but don’t go overboard into the “keyword stuffing” realm.

Of course, your podcast episodes aren’t limited to being found in listening apps, either. If you run a website or publish your episodes on YouTube, then that’ll go a long way to helping your show’s discoverability, too.

Test Your Titles: What Do Listeners Love?

There’s no need to guess how effective your titles are in the long run. By looking at what existing listeners are already hitting play on, you’ll know how compelling they’ll be to potential listeners.

Looking over your stats will show you at a glance how many people are hitting play on or downloading each episode.

You can compare individual episodes with others released in the same period and look for patterns. Check to see if certain types of titles perform better than others.

For an even deeper dive, you can look at your Apple Podcast Connect data to get a sample of listener completion rates for your episodes.

If your compelling titles are doing a great job enticing people to hit play, but nobody is listening for very long, it’s possible you aren’t delivering on what listeners feel you’re promising them. If that’s the case, you might need to rethink how you introduce each episode and get to the main topic quicker.

Should I Put Guest Names in My Episode Titles?

Adding a descriptive title to any non-fiction podcast episode is good practice. But what about interview shows? Should you add the name of the guest to your title?

If your guest is “famous” (even within your niche), this is beneficial as folks might search their name for the content they’ve been involved in. You can still get a bit of description in there, too. For example:

Taking aaaaages to finish a book series, with George R. R. Martin

Or

Meghan Markle on how to monetise your podcast on Spotify

But, after publishing these two episodes, you’ll face a dilemma next time you have a guest nobody has ever heard of. John from next door might have an interesting topic, but will he get offended if his name doesn’t make it into the title? These are the tricky “no right answer” decisions you sometimes have to navigate in podcasting.

What About Non-Industry Podcasts?

This advice so far is definitely geared towards “industry” podcasts. But there are a lot of other types of shows out there, too.

If you run a fiction podcast or a more experimental type of human interest series, for example, then these literal titles won’t necessarily work for you.

With this branch of podcasting, most listeners discover their favourite shows through means other than search. Word of mouth, audience relationship, and community building will be more important than episode titles here.

Of course, it’s still a good idea to get certain keywords related to your content in there over time. For example, if your show has a Lovecraftian theme, then the odd nod to the Cthulhu Mythos in your titles won’t do you any harm at all.

Overall though, you have a lot more creative freedom here than someone who podcasts help and advice topics as an industry leader or content marketer.

How Long Should My Podcast Episode Titles Be?

Just like your episodes themselves, shoot for “as long as it needs to be, and no longer”.

Consumption takes place on a vast number of different podcast listening apps. These apps vary with how many characters in your title they’ll show before cutting it short.

If your title exceeds around 60 characters, then you’ll start to find it cut short on certain apps, so that’s a good ballpark length to shoot for.

3 Podcast Title Best Practices

• 60-70 characters (avoids cutting off in apps)
• 6-10 words (sweet spot)
• Front-load value (important words first)

Laying Out Your Podcast Episode Titles

Some things are worth avoiding when typing out your title in your podcast hosting account.

First up – leave your podcast’s name out of your episode titles. This is redundant and wastes valuable space.

Also, avoid pre-loading your episode titles with numbers or codes. If you want to put these in, put them at the end.

Here are some examples (good and bad) of how we could lay out the title of an episode of our own show, Podcraft.

Let’s say the episode topic is our top 10 USB mics for podcasting.

Good Examples of Podcast Episode Title Layouts

• Top 10 USB Mics for Podcasting
• What Are the 10 BEST USB Mics for Podcasts?
• 10 of the Best USB Mics for Podcasting
• Our Top 10 USB Mics for Podcasters in 2025

Not-So-Good Examples of Podcast Episode Title Layouts

• Episode 25
• Episode 25 | Top 10 USB Mics for Podcasting
• Podcraft Episode 25 | Top 10 USB Mics for Podcasting
• PC025 – Top 10 USB Mics for Podcasting

Case Study: Pocket-Sized Podcasting

Another show of ours, Pocket-Sized Podcasting, gives listeners one short sharp tip every single day of the week. The episode titles don’t leave anyone guessing what’s being covered.

AI-Generated Podcast Headlines

Unsurprisingly, many AI tools for podcasters can offer a helping hand when writing podcast episode titles or even when coming up with new content ideas.

You’ll find a deeper dive into this in our Best ChatGPT Prompts for Podcasters guide. But, Katie observed there, that:

What’s really interesting about ChatGPT’s response to this prompt is that it didn’t just produce title ideas, but also gave me some inspiration about the direction I’d want to take the episode in.

Summary: Podcast Episode Titles

So naming your episodes really shouldn’t be complicated. Here are the key takeaways to keep in mind:

• Create content your target audience will find valuable.
• Title it so it shows up clearly in search.
• Don’t waste space – be as succinct as possible.
• Avoid putting episode numbers, your podcast series name, or the word “Episode” in there. Unless it’s at the end.
• Monitor your stats over time to see how various titles are performing.
• And if you’re a non-industry podcast, you can be much more creative with your titles. If your show is good, people will discover it in other ways.

Need More Help With Your Podcast?

If you’re looking for more direct support or guidance, remember to check out the Podcraft Academy, where you’ll find courses, podcast feedback tools, and a bunch of downloadable checklists and resources to keep you moving forward. We’d love to work with you in there!

But what about the hype-building “hit the ground running” advice we hear around launching a new podcast?

I’d argue that, at best, this is a distraction from what moves the needle when it comes to growing a show. At worst, it can actually cause new creators to quit before their content ever has a chance to make an impact. Let me explain…

Podcast Launch Misconceptions

It’s understandable why so much misleading advice exists around “the podcast launch”. After all, we’re used to the launch life cycles of products, films, albums, and books.

After a few days or weeks, it becomes pretty clear that a new game console or blockbuster movie has sunk or swam. But a podcast isn’t like that at all.

What Makes Podcasts Different?

Most successful podcasts didn’t explode overnight—they built audiences gradually over months or even years.

There are exceptions, of course—folks who started podcasting with a pre-existing audience can often skip the “crickets” stage. But if you look at anyone who built a huge fanbase through their podcast, they will usually tell you the same thing:

In those first few episodes, nobody was listening.

I remember talking to Kc Wayland, creator of post-apocalyptic audio drama We’re Alive, about the show’s first steps. He said they were seeing 50-60 downloads a day, which was nuts, given the effort and quality of those early episodes.

Today, We’re Alive has amassed over 250,000,000 (two hundred and fifty million!) downloads. And whilst this isn’t a number most of us will ever get close to with our own content, it shows that podcasting is a long game.

All the launch hype in the world wouldn’t have come close to the impact publishing 70+ hours of Gold Standard audio theatre over a period of 14 years has had.

3 Podcast Launch Advice Myths

So, speaking of launch hype, what are new creators typically advised to focus on before they’ve even hit publish on that first episode?

Get 3+ Episodes in the Can

This advice lingers from the days when much onus was put on a show’s appearance in the Apple Podcasts’ New & Noteworthy section (an overrated accolade, if ever there was one).

The idea is that more episodes mean more downloads—not untrue. However, this often leads to procrastination and perfectionism, which prevent new podcasters from ever releasing one, let alone three, episodes.

Sure, if you push three episodes out on day one, it’ll give new listeners a bit more time with you. It isn’t a bad strategy, so long as you hit publish. The problem is, many don’t!

Get Ratings & Reviews

Another misleading piece of podcast launch advice is to get as many ratings and reviews as possible within the first week.

Again, this is mainly centred around Apple Podcasts. Between its various charts, ‘featured’ sections, and the aforementioned New & Noteworthy, it can be seen as “make or break” for a podcast to appear in any of these places.

For starters, the volume of new podcast discovery in such categories is overblown. In our 2024 podcast discovery survey, only 2.5% of listeners reported browsing through charts or ‘featured’ sections when hunting for new content.

Then there’s the inner workings of how chart rankings actually work in Apple Podcasts, and it seems to have a lot more to do with your cumulative all-time number of followers than it does with ratings and reviews.

I’m not dismissing ratings and reviews altogether—they can be a great confidence booster and make brilliant “social proof” of your show’s quality. But they’re in no way some integral part of a podcast launch strategy, so don’t get distracted by chasing them.

Build Hype for “Launch Day”

Unless you have a preexisting audience, here’s a fact for you: Nobody cares about your new podcast.

Don’t see this as a negative. Instead, take it as a liberating truth. The pressure is off to learn the ropes, experiment, and develop your skills.

If you dedicate a lot of time to posting short-form, low-value “teaser” content on various platforms, you’re taking time away from learning your trade and creating the best possible first episode.

Of course, there’s no harm in promoting your first episode – but you need to publish it first. And once you do, the best place to focus the bulk of your effort is making a brilliant second or third episode.

As Lindsay wrote recently, your podcast won’t go viral – and that’s a good thing. A podcast is a metaphorical log fire compared to the torch paper of social media and short-form video. It takes time to get a good heat up, but once you do, it’ll keep on burning for ages.

Podcast Launch Strategies That ACTUALLY Work

Alright then, if it isn’t about hyping “the big day” or arbitrary episode numbers, what should a new podcaster focus on before, during, and after a podcast launch?

The L.A.U.N.C.H Framework

The L.A.U.N.C.H (we love an acronym) framework assumes you’ve…

• Laid the foundations of your topic, niche, or angle
• Identified your target audience
• Defined what “podcast success” looks like to you.

If you’ve yet to get to those, check out the links and come back once you have!

Okay, here’s what L.A.U.N.C.H stands for…

Learn the Ropes

From crutch words and structure to mic technique and production chops, are you focused on improving your skills as a podcaster with each episode you make? The early days are a time for learning and development, so lean into this opportunity.

Amplify Discoverability

Most podcast listeners search for a topic when looking for new content in their chosen app. Does your podcast name and episode titles give you a good chance of appearing in those search results?

Understand Your Audience

Some fledgeling podcasters see 30-40 downloads as a pittance. Others see a metaphorical room full of 30-40 like-minded people they can engage with, learn about, and get to know personally. That early core of listeners can become your biggest marketers, so look after them and give them your best.

Next Episode First

The number one thing you can do to give your podcast the best chance of success is prioritising a brilliant next episode. So, what do you have lined up for your listeners? And is it something they’ll want to talk about and share with others?

Catalogue Building

There’s nothing like a back catalogue of well-titled, quality episodes to set your podcast’s growth into autopilot. When new listeners find you and can spend 25-50 hours with you, they’ll become big fans of your show going forward. Consistency leads to podcasting success, so build and grow that body of work!

Harness Collaboration

It’s likely that others are starting podcasts and content channels on the same or similar topics as you. These folks aren’t your competition (nobody shares your unique angle or perspective); instead, see them as collaborators.

There are many tried-and-tested ways to collaborate with other creators to build your audiences. This is one of the most effective ways to grow a podcast!

“I Need Results NOW”

I get it; not every new podcast is a solopreneur or hobbyist who can build this gradually.

If you work for a big company and have been given the job of creating a podcast, you’re unlikely to get away with telling the boss that it could take a year or two to gain traction.

In this scenario, leveraging any existing audience or customer base is a no-brainer. Most businesses have an email list and some social media accounts. With a good enough “hook”, you can win many existing followers over to giving the podcast a chance.

Unsurprisingly, you can fast-track podcast growth if you have a marketing budget, too. Advertising on podcast listening apps is an effective way to gain a bunch of new listeners overnight.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that your podcast needs to be well-planned, well-executed, and consistent. If it’s absolutely vital that you nail this first time, then hire a pro to help you. There’s no substitute for experience.

In Summary

I’m not saying you shouldn’t care about your launch period; it’s more a matter of caution around where you focus your time and energy. Concentrate on creating the best content possible for that early core of listeners, and you won’t go far wrong.

A podcast launch process has no “boom or bust”; the only way a launch can “fail” is if you don’t publish any more episodes.

It’s what you do after the launch period that truly matters. So what’s your next episode about, and when can we hear it?

Whether you learned the hard way but learned some valuable lessons when launching your show, or, nailed everything first time without much trouble, be sure to share your stories and experiences in the IndiePod Community. It’s free!

Picture it: You’ve launched your podcast, published some episodes, and gotten good reviews or positive feedback from your audience. What could be better? When your audience wants to support you, reward them with some podcast bonus content. We’ll discuss what to make, how to deliver it, and how to make your podcast bonus content as effective as possible. 

The Medium and The Message 

Like ad fitness and brand suitability, the best bonus content complements the podcast it supports. When brainstorming, stay consistent while building on the podcast’s existing material. If you have a tennis podcast, don’t reward your supporters with a 45-minute lecture about coal mining. Not only do you want to keep your topic in mind, but you also need to consider your show’s:

• Value proposition
• Ideal audience
• Tone or mood

Once you have those nailed down, consider the medium you want to use for your bonus content. This will affect your podcast workflow in the future. In the meantime, let’s look at different podcast bonus content types. 

Audio Bonus Content

This differs from early access to episodes. Your bonus content audio won’t be available anywhere else; it’s only available to your show’s supporters. Some may be material you recorded for an episode but couldn’t use. Other options are material recorded specifically as bonus content. Let’s look at some options and how to make them most effective. 

Outtakes or “Bloopers”

This kind of bonus content audio is the easiest to come by. Every podcast recording has moments where someone stumbles over their speech or says something odd. But, if you’ve ever watched movie blooper reels, you know that a long string of mistakes followed by “sorry, let me try again” isn’t wildly interesting. 

But you may find some gems. Once, my husband walked in while I was recording an episode of ADWIT to tell me that dinner was ready. My co-host, Sarah, asked what’s on the menu. Instead of hitting “stop,” I handed over the mic and let him tell her what he’d cooked and how. She was so excited about my husband’s cooking that she proceeded to share every detail of her recipe for crispy jacket potatoes. Is this relevant to a podcast about writing techniques for audio drama podcasts? No. Is it valuable, funny, and rewarding? In hindsight, yes. So, I’ll save that audio for bonus content.

Don’t forget to maintain your audience’s expectations. Use the same standards and editing clean-up (such as noise reduction, volume leveling, etc.) that you would use for your podcast’s published audio. Yes, Hollywood movie blooper reels often have the bare minimum of clean-up. But you want your supporters to understand your podcast bonus content, so make sure it’s clear. 

If your show is “clean,” don’t use explicit material when you pick deleted audio. Though they happen frequently and may be funny at the moment, an expletive in the middle of a kids’ podcast isn’t funny enough to be worth using in bonus content for supporters. 

Extras

Whether this audio comes from your usual recording sessions or you write and record it separately, extras enhance the audience’s understanding of your podcast’s topic. Think about how a movie’s “DVD extras” or “Blu-ray extras” are material from the movie that’s been cut for time. They may shift focus from the main plot but also help the audience understand the story and characters. 

For example, the end-of-season episodes in David Tennant Does a Podcast With… are montage episodes. They include interview material outside the interview’s throughline. For example, in Tennant’s interview with James Corden, they talked about Corden’s past television shows. But, the Season 1 montage episode includes how James Corden feels about Oasis’ album “Be Here Now” and why. Corden’s feelings about a pop album from 1997 would be superfluous to the casual listener. But, to an audience emotionally invested in the podcast’s conversations, Corden’s capsule album review is a pleasant surprise.

Not only do montage episodes of guest extras make great bonus content, behind-the-scenes material showing how you make your podcast can be valuable to your audience. Does your podcast have terrific original music, or meditative sound beds? These can make good podcast bonus content, too. 

Printables

What aspect of your podcast’s topic benefits from written descriptions and pictures? Can you type it up, create some images in Canva, and save it as a PDF? Whether you call it a printable, a template, or a PDF, these resources are simple to make and share. 

Recipes, workout routines, coloring pages, knitting techniques, vintage maps, or articles you used for research make good podcast bonus content.

As printable bonus content, I created a written and illustrated guide to how I plan an audio drama story arc for a season. After saving this as a PDF, I gave it away as a reward to participants in our audience survey.

These PDFs are simple to share, so make sure your podcast’s name and URL are visible in the document. If someone gets supporter’s remorse and tries to repurpose your PDF, make sure the recipient knows who made it. Canva can help you watermark your images for no additional cost.

Whatever you do, make sure the information on that PDF is something you’ve created, bought the license to share, or is in the public domain. Don’t copy and paste other people’s material into your podcast bonus content. It’s one thing to share your grandmother’s recipe for fig bars and another to copy a Martha Stewart recipe. At worst, you’ll get a cease and desist order, and at best, you’ll ruin your reputation. 

Tangible Bonuses

Tactile objects can feel like special gifts. This podcast bonus content option doesn’t have to be complex. Never underestimate the good feeling of real mail from a real person. 

Now that we’re deep in the digital age, personal mail you can hold in your hand feels special. Handwritten thank-you notes, postcards, and letters are all simple ways to show gratitude for your audience’s support.  You can also send the same bonus content resources you’d use for the printable PDFs mentioned earlier. Print them on quality paper that feels good to touch, and include a personal note to say thanks. 

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When I started supporting Long Cat Media on Ko-Fi, I received a theatrical program for their podcast, The Ballad of Anne and Mary, and a copy of Chart Toppers magazine, a satire of British pop music fan magazines from the 1980s. The former enhanced my experience of listening to their musical, and the latter gave me a nostalgic twinge. These also showed the quality of their non-audio work, which made me more likely to buy their posters or tote bags.

Enclose an introductory note with tangible materials. Particularly if you produce a true crime podcast, mailing printed research materials without an introductory note could scare your supporters. And, you don’t want to send anything much heavier than a standard letter, as it can get expensive. This brings us to the key challenge of podcast bonus content…

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Delivery Methods

Remember how I said earlier that the medium you choose for your bonus content will affect your production workflow? I wasn’t kidding. 

Let’s say you have a crowdfunding campaign for your podcast, in which everyone who pledges $20 gets bonus content. If that bonus content costs you more than $20 to make and deliver, you may as well not have bothered. Once you know how much it will cost (not just money, but also time) to make and deliver the bonus content, figure out how much your audience should pledge to get it. 

Make sure you can get the bonus content to them in a timely fashion. If enough time passes, not only will your supporters feel ignored, but by the time they receive it, your supporters might not care. 

Here are some strategies for delivering your podcast bonus content. 

Delivering Audio Privately

A simple method is to use a private RSS feed for your supporters. Publish the bonus content to the private RSS feed, and send them the RSS feed URL. You may want to include a brief explanation, so they know how to use that RSS feed with their favorite podcast listening app. 

Another delivery method favored by many podcasters is to embed a podcast player in a password-protected page of your podcast website. Check the knowledge base or support documents of your website platform to learn how to password-protect a page. Then, embed the episode’s player in the page, and set the password. Share the web page’s URL and password with your supporters, so they can listen to the bonus content. 

You could also upload bonus content to YouTube and set the video as unlisted. This way, only people with the video’s link can open it. Then, email the YouTube link to your bonus content to your supporters. This doesn’t prevent the supporter from sharing your link with non-supporters, but it’s a straightforward option for you and your audience. 

Delivering PDFs or Printables

While this may seem too obvious to include, my experience with podcasting has taught me that nothing is completely self-explanatory for everyone. 

Like the aforementioned password-protected page for audio bonus content, you can save a document as a PDF, make it a page on your podcast website, and set up password protection. You can also save the PDF document in Google Drive, and make it only shareable to certain email addresses. Or, you could simply email it.

Delivering Tangible Rewards

Again, don’t make physical rewards significantly heavier than typical mail unless you have to. Murphy’s Law dictates you’ll suddenly learn that you have fifty fans living in remote locations on the opposite side of the planet.  And, if you’re making bonus content for a true-crime, mystery, or horror podcast, don’t make the envelope or packaging too authentic. The last thing you need is for your audience to complain that they never received their podcast extras because you stamped it all over with “WARNING: CRIME SCENE EVIDENCE” or something along those lines.  Let your podcast bonus content travel incognito and surprise your supporters when they get it. 

Above all, don’t make podcast bonus content you can’t deliver! In the early days of crowdfunding, blue-sky thinking would take the reins and invent unrealistic stretch goals for high-dollar-value pledges. To make $100 pledges seem more realistic, some creators would promise exorbitant rewards for huge pledges. One creator offered, “Pledge $10,000, and I’ll have dinner with you and paint your portrait.” Rewards like this take time and effort that can take you away from your podcast workflow. Extraordinary rewards won’t help you make more episodes of your regular podcast, let alone bonus content.

Again, bonus content that complements your show, enhances the audience’s understanding of your topic, and isn’t expensive or difficult to deliver will make your podcast’s bonus content reward your audience. 

How to Make Your Bonus Content Go Further

Once you’ve produced your podcast’s bonus content and are ready to send it, ask the recipient to post on social media that they got it and tag your podcast. This confirms that they received it and makes your supporters’ social media followers and friends wonder what the mysterious reward is and how they got it. Turn that supporter reward into future promotion. 

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Bonus Content is a Return on Your Supporter’s Investment

Think of your audience as a fairy godparent, making it easier for you to make your show. They’re doing it because they want more of your ideas. So, share the concepts, methods, or stories that only the most devoted fans of your show will enjoy. 

When you plan to create your podcast bonus content, don’t start what you can’t finish.  Instead, keep delivery methods in mind as you plan your campaign. This way, you won’t have to change tactics after your campaign is underway. 

Have you ever created bonus content for your podcast? Have you ever signed up to recieve bonus content from another? We’d love to hear your stories, lessons, and opinions on bonus content in the IndiePod Community!

When you know how others perceive and understand your podcast, you know how to make more out of your show. Reviews can be a reality check, but they aren’t always easy to get. And, there are good ways and bad ways to ask for opinions. This article shows you when, where, and how to solicit honest, constructive responses to your podcast. We’ll also talk about how not to ask, and what to do with podcast feedback when you get it.

When to Ask for Feedback on Your Podcast

In the early stages of any creative project, you need encouragement and cheerleading. Once you’ve published a few episodes, you probably have questions. By then, you may have made mistakes and learned new ways to recover from them. A good point to start asking for feedback is after you’ve published at least five episodes. When you’re comfortable with your workflow, you need someone to point out the deficits you don’t notice so that you can improve them.

If you ask someone for feedback before they’ve listened, that colors their first impressions of your podcast. It’s as if you’re giving them homework and expecting praise. Wait until someone you know tells you they have listened to your podcast. Let them tell you about their experience with it, and then ask for more specific feedback.

As the cuckoo-clockmaker said, timing is everything.

Where to Find Responders to Your Podcast

Obviously, you wouldn’t buttonhole strangers in public and ask them what they think of your podcast, particularly if their clothing doesn’t have buttonholes. People who have heard your podcast and/or know a bit about podcasting are the right respondents. Notice I’m saying “respondents.” They’re not finding praise or fault, simply responding to your work.

So, where do you approach them?

Ask Your Audience to Respond to Your Content.

How is this different from asking your audience to write a review? In this case, you make it personal and specific. Email people that you know have listened. Explain that their honest response would help you improve your skills and the show.  

Running a survey is a great way to ask for specific feedback. To encourage participation, make it fun. For your audience, a voice feedback survey is as simple as leaving a message on voicemail.

Specific questions take the pressure off and guide the audience toward not what you want to hear, but what you need to know.

Ask in Podcasting Communities.

Podcasting communities are the right place to find people who know podcasting. Every podcaster wants feedback, no matter how seasoned. Since some podcasters don’t ask politely or constructively, some podcasting communities or networks have a recurring thread for podcast feedback requests. This way, your episode or sample gets undivided, unbiased attention from an expert. Read others’ posts in the community, find out the avenue to solicit feedback, and use it.

Some respondents might not be your ideal listener, so their responses are unlikely to be about your podcast’s topics. The good news is they’ll focus on craft or how you make the show.

Ask on Your Podcast’s Social Media or Website.

There’s no shame in asking a simple question about an element of your show on your social media account or your podcast’s website. If something doesn’t feel right, asking your followers about it can make them breathe a sigh of relief. They might not have known how to say that the reverb bothered them or wished the show notes were more consistent. Admitting vulnerability shows your audience that you care about quality and are willing to fix the issue.

And if trolls respond pejoratively, block them. You don’t need their opinion anyway.

How to Ask for Feedback

Ask yourself what you want to know about your podcast. What areas of the podcast process are challenging, and what do you take for granted? Once you know this, you know what kind of questions to ask.

The more specific and less personal you are about your questions, the less pressure you put on the respondent to avoid hurting your feelings.

For example, you can ask if any part of the episode was confusing or if the volume levels feel consistent. If all else fails, try this boiled-down version of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process:

• What was most memorable or meaningful for you?
• What was confusing, or where did you need more information?
• Do you have questions about the work?

This gives you a way to take action and move forward.

How NOT to Get Feedback on Your Podcast

Wherever there are best practices, there are common pitfalls to watch out for, too.

Avoid value statements or emotional responses, such as “Did you like it?” or “Was it good?” It blurs the line between responding to the piece of audio that they heard and their feelings about you.

An unpleasant practice in podcasting communities is called “post and ghost.” This is when people join a podcast community and immediately post a link, saying, “Here’s my show; listen to it and give me a five-star review,” and disappear. If you don’t care enough to get to know people in a podcasting community, why should anyone who sees this care about your podcast?

Instead, read others’ posts and get a sense of the community and what it’s like. Take time to figure out if these are the people who you want to respond to your work. What6 are their shows like? Can you respect their opinions? Then, ask for specific feedback. This helps you cultivate your podcast better than a rubber-stamp review.

Don’t ask anyone for feedback on their social media accounts. That’s like walking up to someone at a community potluck while they’re talking with their friends and bursting into the conversation to ask if they liked the hummus you brought.

When you respect the respondent’s time, expertise, and opinion, you’re more likely to improve as a podcaster.

How to Respond to Feedback

Thank the respondent for their input, whether positive or negative. If the information is something you can use to improve the show, then they deserve your thanks for taking the time to listen and answer honestly.

Don’t explain, excuse, or pass judgment. The person is telling you what they observed; that’s all. Don’t challenge their response, or they won’t be honest with you in the future. 

If their response is unrealistic, thank them anyway and store that information for later. It could be relevant. My mom listened to my first podcast and said, “They’re talking so fast, I can hardly understand a word they’re saying.” I examined her listening app and saw she’d accidentally cranked the playback speed up to 2x.

If the response is rude, ignorant, or unsubstantiated, let it slide. Mean-spirited responses say more about the person than it does about your show. For example, “Your accent doesn’t make any sense” shows how ignorant the person is. 

Besides, negative feedback can be a hilarious promotion tactic.

Feedback: It’s Not Always A Hideous Screeching Sound

The only realistic way to improve your show is to start by getting feedback on your podcast. Asking specific questions reduces pressure on the respondent and you. Be prepared to hear things that aren’t praise. Take the feedback at face value and use it to improve your podcast.

Our Indiepod Community is a great place to learn from other podcasters, share ideas, and discover how they solve problems. If you’ve gotten feedback on your podcast that you don’t know what to do with, stop by and share it. You may find a solution that you didn’t know existed.

Your audience can help you raise the bar for discourse about your podcast’s topic. That kind of audience engagement makes your show more popular and can help you make a positive change in the world. In this article, I’ll show you what audience engagement can mean, how to encourage it, and what you can do with your audience’s energy and enthusiasm.

What is Audience Engagement?

Google’s guide for digital content creators says, “Fans can engage with your content in three main ways: they can react, amplify, and/or respond.” This is true. But, likes, reviews, and shares are just a fraction of what audience engagement can be.

Audience engagement can:

• Show how the audience understands your content, and what it means to them.
• Highlight their knowledge gaps or specific needs.
• Inform you of your audience’s opinions.
• Make your podcast memorable and constructive.
• Empower your audience to feel part of a community.

When you ask your audience to share their ideas, opinions, and experiences, you can reward them for listening to your show. When they make and share content inspired by your show, it raises awareness of your podcast and your shared interests.

3 Ways to Encourage Audience Engagement

If you want someone to do something for you, serve dessert first. Find out what the audience needs from your podcast. Make audience engagement simple and rewarding. Then, ask them to do something they want to do anyway. In time, their actions will help your show grow.

Make Keeping In Touch Easy and Pleasant

Make audience engagement easy for the audience. Your podcast website, social media, and show notes can all have links to get in touch with you. When they email you or contact you on social media, thank them. Saying “thanks for reaching out” costs you nothing and validates them for their interest in your show. Take time to answer their questions.

That said, if you sense they’re having an unhealthy parasocial relationship with you, maintain boundaries. Make it clear that you’re glad they enjoy the show and that you value having an audience of people like them. This rewards them for following your podcast without being too personal.

Find Out What Your Audience Wants From Your Podcast

Run an audience survey. Ask them about their experience with your podcast’s topic and what they want to know more about. For example, your fly fishing podcast could ask your audience how long they’ve been fly fishing, where they fish, and their dream fishing trip. When you know more about your audience and their experience with your podcast’s topic, your audience engagement can help you build your next episodes or season.

When you run an audience survey, offer a tangible reward (like a gift card or some of your podcast’s merchandise). Again, serve dessert first.

Ask Your Audience To Share Their Experience

Use your podcast’s Call to Action to ask the audience to share their experiences with your podcast’s topic. As an example, let’s go back to our fictional fly-fishing podcast. Let’s say you asked them to tell you about the first time they went fly fishing. They can:

• Share the story on social media, tagging your podcast in the post. Pictures or a video help show their enthusiasm for your topic.
• Send you the fishing story via email or a voice messaging tool. Then, you can read their story in your podcast, or edit their recording into your episode.
• If the audience mentions specifics, like gear or a location, you can explore those nuggets of info in future episodes.

When your audience shares their experience with your podcast’s topic, you can validate their involvement and get ideas from their experience. Plus, their content can attract the attention of new audiences.

What Your Podcast Can Do With Audience Engagement

Whether Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world,” or someone else did, the substance of the quote is true. Your podcast can educate the audience and enable them to come together to take action. For example:

• A history podcast could work with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to save an endangered historic place.
• A food or restaurant podcast could host a charity stream with a food bank.
• A true-crime podcast could work with a domestic violence charity to raise awareness and funds or host a letter-writing campaign to policymakers about a relevant issue.
• Any podcast can invigorate its audience and raise money for charity with Podcasthon‘s annual initiative.

An audience engagement strategy like this is great material for your podcast episodes, your media kit, and your social media posts.

We’re always going to have to promote our podcasts. When you promote your podcasts’ action toward a goal, you give yourself and your audience a purpose and the opportunity to be something bigger than you were before.

Audience Engagement: A More Meaningful Podcasting Success Metric

It feels good when someone says, “I like your podcast.”

If someone says, “Your podcast helped me,” that feels better.

What if someone told you, “Your podcast helped me help someone else?” I know I would plotz.

We often get so caught up in the digital production cycle that we forget the non-digital impact our podcast can have. We can empower our audiences to come together and work toward a mutually beneficial goal. Solid audience engagement strategies can help you make a difference with your audience.

Have you tried any audience engagement methods that filled your inbox full of feedback? Or, filled your ears with the sound of crickets? Tell us more in our IndiePod Community.

PS. Really looking for info on podcast file formats? That’s a different topic entirely, so here are our posts on sample rate and bit rate ranges!

What Are the Best Podcast Formats?

1. Solo: flying on your own
2. Co-hosting: working with a partner
3. Interview Podcast: new guest every week
4. Roundtable: wider panel of guests
5. Documentary: highly produced content mix
6. Fiction: telling a story

How Do I Choose a Podcast Format?

Like many other decisions you make when starting a podcast, this can cause some decision paralysis. After all, what if you mess up and choose the wrong podcast format!?

But any podcast format is like a good coat. Over your podcasting life, you’ll try on every type. You’ll find one that fits like a glove, that just seems right, and you’ll wear it for a while. But then, as the seasons turn, you’ll find yourself hankering for another.

Your podcast format changes over time, and it should, depending on the feedback of your listeners.

So, the secret is to experiment in the early days. Try a few different methods over your first 20 episodes. See which ones incite a lot of feedback and which ones best fit your personality, as well as your schedule.

Even later in your show, mix it up a little from time to time. Experiment and ask your podcast listeners what they think. That’s the driver for change and innovation in your show, and that’s what keeps people interested. Alongside amazing content, of course!

Types of Podcasts by Format

So, what are our options here? Let’s run through the most popular types of podcast formats you’ll encounter, along with some real-world examples.

1. The Solo Podcast Format

Just a podcaster and a microphone. With the solo format, you talk directly to your audience. This format means you only ever need to rely on yourself – but it can also be quite intimidating for the podcasting beginner.

That said, it’s the most popular podcast format amongst aspiring creators, according to data from our free Podcast Planner Tool. 43% of over 1500 new podcasters told us they plan to do it alone and take a single-host approach.

Dan Carlin – Hardcore History

Dan’s Hardcore History podcast is loooooooong (3hrs+ per episode), in-depth and just him. No FX, no fanciness, just one bit of intro music and his voice. But somehow, he makes it really, really engaging. It’s the perfect example of amazing scripting.

2. The Co-Hosted Podcast Format

Enlisting a pal to be your ongoing co-host can really breathe life into your episodes. There are potential downsides, though, as always. You’ll now be reliant on someone else, which means scheduling recording times that suit both. With a co-hosted format, there also needs to be a conversation about the ownership of the podcast. How will any income be split if you’re fortunate enough to start making money, for example?

Boagworld

Boagworld is a web design show hosted by the two co-founders of an agency – Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington.

It shows the way co-hosting can work really well to showcase personality and produce an engaging experience. The banter and back and forth between Paul and Marcus is hilarious to listen to, and the question-and-answer format adds to the show’s depth.

3. The Interview Podcast Format

If you’re passionate about a topic, and have a thirst and curiosity to always learn more about it, then why not interview folks in that space?

Interview podcasts are ultra-popular, and it has never been easier to record remotely. Conversational podcast interviews can create consistently fresh content and offer a diverse range of perspectives.

Again, though, this podcast format isn’t without its challenges. The interviewer might not be seen as “the expert” (if that’s your goal), and constant scheduling and finding guests become the order of the day. Interviewing is also a skill that you’ll have to hone and prep. And, no matter how good you get, you’re still heavily reliant on how your interviewee comes across.

Board Game Design Lab

The Board Game Design Lab does exactly what it says on the tin. Host Gabe Barrett speaks to game designers and industry folks of all backgrounds and levels, and expertly draws out the value from these conversations in a natural and chatty way. We were so impressed by Gabe’s podcast that we invited him to be part of our IndiePod Legends season on Podcraft.

4. The Roundtable Podcast Format

A roundtable refers to the idea of getting a handful of folks together to discuss a set topic. Usually, there would be at least one regular host, if not two or three. Then the rest of the ‘table’ is made up of guests who are experts in the topic at hand.

The host or hosts will direct the roundtable, asking questions and steering the discussion so that everyone gets a turn and contributes to a great conversation.

Roundtables can be a great way to build authority in your niche, allowing you to invite prominent guests to the show and produce great content from their experience. Most of the logistics are very simple – editing, content planning, etc – but organising guests in the early days can be hard.

The Podcasters’ Roundtable

The Podcasters’ Roundtable has been inactive for a few years now, but the show, led up by the legendary podcaster Ray Ortega, was a real masterclass in this podcast format. In a typical episode, Ray would be joined by 3-5 ongoing co-hosts and first-time guests, and they would dive deep into the chosen topic of the day.

5. The Documentary Podcast Format

Often referred to as “BBC-style” or “NPR-style”, – the documentary brings in multiple voices, musical elements, and actuality to add an extra layer of production and storytelling. The end product can sound great, but the time and work needed to put them together will increase drastically. Here are some tips on how to create a documentary-style podcast.

The Startup Podcast

One of my favourite shows, the Startup Podcast, is a really transparent look behind the scenes of starting up a business. Season 1 followed the founding of Gimlet Media, the show’s producers, and they’ve moved on to other companies since.

This podcast format takes a lot more time to create and edit but produces a much more engaging, high-quality product. Again, not for everyone, though.

6. The Fiction Podcast Format

They say everyone has at least one good book in them, but fiction podcasting is the new novel writing. Fiction podcasts come in many forms, from “audiobook style” to fully soundscaped audio drama where every footstep is accounted for. Here’s our best fiction podcasts roundup if this is a world you’d like to dive into. And if you fancy making one – here’s our ultimate guide to launching your own fiction podcast.

Campfire Radio Theater

Campfire Radio Theater is an immersive audio drama horror podcast. It’s an anthology series mixing dark myths and legends with original stories. The recurring theme is the outstanding production level, with music and sound effects that build an entire movie in your ears!

Podcast Formats: FAQ

Okay, now that we’ve covered the six common podcast format options, you’ll hopefully have a clearer picture of which direction you’d like to take. But, there’s every chance you still have a few burning questions before you head off to plan that first episode. Here are a few of the most frequent podcast format questions we get asked.

Which Podcast Format Will Get Me the Biggest Audience?

There is no silver bullet podcast format for growth. If you took a bunch of successful podcasts, you’d find that they came in various formats, shapes, and sizes. Just like podcast topics and subject matter (where we’re often told that true crime podcasts have the best chance of success), this misses the point of what makes a show prosperous. A big part of that is your passion, enthusiasm, and reason for showing up consistently behind the mic.

And, speaking of consistency, we need to keep things as sustainable as possible, so…

Which Podcast Format Has the Least Editing & Production Time?

The more time you can spend on your content, the better. But that doesn’t necessarily mean hours in front of your podcast editing software. Bite off more than you can chew, and you’ll soon burn out and give up.

Unsurprisingly, solo podcasts are the most efficient when it comes to editing and production. On the flip side, fictional podcasts, documentaries, and roundtable or panel podcast formats can really start to eat up the hours.

With the right tools and planning, though, you can make any podcast format sustainable. Pair up the Podcast Planner Journal with podcast-maker tool Alitu to give you productivity superpowers.

Alitu has everything you need to record, edit, and publish your podcast, from call and solo recording and automatic production to slick, intuitive editing tools, and built-in hosting. That’s all under one login and subscription, too, so you save money as well as time!

Should Every Podcast Episode Follow the Same Format?

It’s your podcast, and you’re the boss. If you’ve been doing interviews but fancy testing out the solo podcast format, go for it. Whilst it’s arguably better that your listeners know what to expect, the most important thing is that you have the time and enthusiasm to keep publishing new episodes. So, if you take one thing away from this post, it’s don’t be afraid to mix things up!  

Summary: Choosing a Podcast Format

Aspiring podcasters can suffer from decision paralysis when choosing their podcast format. But this isn’t something you need to nail perfectly the first time.

Perhaps you’ll launch with a solo show, test out some interviews, and find that you really enjoy them. Maybe you’ll start with the interviews but relish the freedom of flying solo.

Your podcast can change and adapt over time. Or, you might learn the ropes with your first show, then launch an entire podcast series on a new topic with the format you know works best for you.

Remember to use our ultimate guide to starting a podcast for a walk through everything else you’ll need. Our free Podcast Planner tool will help you a lot, here, too. It just takes a few minutes to fill out, and it’ll get you set up with your own personalised program.

Finally, for more tailored help, you can join us in the Podcraft Academy, where you’ll find courses, feedback tools, and a whole bunch of enthusiastic, passionate, and curious creators just like yourself.

Sound Is Your Medium

Sound waves are like brushstrokes on a blank canvas of silence. But how can you make those brushstrokes inviting for your audience? Here are the two most direct ways to improve your podcast’s sound: clean audio and your choice of microphone.

Silence Is Your Canvas

Your clean canvas is a quiet recording environment. That can mean shielding your recording space from distracting sounds. It can also mean making sure intentional sound in your space goes where you want it. 

The primary goal for most podcasters is that their message is audible. What you, your guest, or your co-host are saying should be clear and free from any competing distracting sounds. Starting from a point of silence is a great way to achieve that.

Of course, not all artists paint on a blank canvas, and you might use your environment’s natural background ambience to enhance the soundscape of your audio. If done well, creating a “theater of the mind” effect can help the listener feel like they are right there with you.

Microphones Are Your Brushes

I didn’t know the difference between brushes for watercolor, acrylic, or oil paint until 2020. When I started using a brush with bristles meant to absorb and disperse water, suddenly, my watercolor paintings went from muddy to distinct.

Like choosing a brush, different microphones capture sound differently, and some are suited to specific use cases. Need to record someone in a busy and loud environment? Try a shotgun mic. Want to do hands-free interviews on location? A wireless lavalier might be the best choice. Or, seeking something that works in almost any situation? A USB-XLR combo mic could work well for you, there.

Tonal Quality as “Color”

If you’ve ever played with color filters in your phone’s photo app, you know how “warm” or “cool” colors can make an image seem cheerful or grim. Just like colors create mood, tone sets emotional impact. For example: 

• Warm tones are welcoming. These tones have low, rounded frequencies and create a sense of peace and contentment. 
• Bright tones make your audio feel zippy. Emphasizing higher frequencies adds clarity and energy.

The process of Equalization (EQ) helps you mix these “colors” effectively, but if we’re focusing on voice and message, much of it will stem from your delivery. Just getting up closer to the mic creates an intimate sense of proximity, as if the host is right in your ear.

Sound Effects and Music as Texture

Ask anyone if they know what the painting “The Starry Night” looks like. Nearly all will say “yes.” Vincent van Gogh’s interpretation of the night sky over Saint Rémy has been printed on anything one can buy in a museum gift shop. But not everyone has seen the original painting.

The layers in the textured brushstrokes include multiple colors in each line and shape. This texture makes the colors and objects appear to vibrate with clarity. Similarly, sound effects, music beds, and transitions are like layers of paint on a canvas that add richness.

Here are some ways to add layers of interest when painting with sound for your podcast.

Sound Effects

What if you could make it sound like your interview guest knocks at your door before you welcome them? Real-world sound effects, such as footsteps or door creaks, can root your podcast in reality and conjure images in your audience’s minds.

Ambience

Put a lot of sound effects together naturally (or field record an environment), and you have a sound bed. Background sound can transport listeners into a scene, evoking mental images.

For example, the podcast Marooned Tunes is a panel discussion of little-known concept albums. Yes, it’s another pop culture discussion podcast. But, this discussion happens over a sound bed of tropical beach sound. The ocean waves, seaside breezes, and rare birds make the podcast feel like a vacation.

Music

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any piece of video automatically becomes funny when underscored with “Yakety Sax.” Is it because of Benny Hill? Or is it because of the musical slides that anticipate the downbeat? Maybe Boots Randolph’s classic 1960s tune is an inexplicable human trigger.

Whatever the reason, music sets tone, pace, and emotion, like brushstrokes that guide the eye. You can use music as a theme, as transitions between segments, or as underscoring to make a moment in your podcast more meaningful.

Using music in your podcast is a way to paint with a sound that provides structure and sets expectations for your audience.

Mixing as “Blending the Colors”

Do you ever have to adjust the volume multiple times when listening to a podcast? Have you noticed when an episode is recorded remotely, and the speakers sound discordant? Audio mixing adjusts all of the elements in an episode so that they complement each other, like how artists blend paint to make the image cohere.

Without proper mixing, the topic gets lost in how the show is made, and the audience gets distracted.

Manual mixing requires practice and skill, like working with paint. These days, many podcast software programs can level your podcast audio for you.

No matter which route you take to get there, levels and compression structure your audio in the same way that composition or a frame makes a painting mean something to the viewer.

As audio pioneer Frank Zappa once said, “The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively– because, without this humble appliance, you can’t know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a box around it because, otherwise, what is that on the wall?”

Storytelling as the Artistic Vision

Despite the enduring power of action painting, if your podcast production consists of “let’s throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks,” you’ll have trouble maintaining your audience, let alone growing it.

Fortunately, there’s a communication system that naturally attracts humans. It’s called storytelling. When you use storytelling tools to structure your podcast, your audience is more likely to listen all the way to the end of each episode, care about your content, and recommend it to others.

How? Here are some strategies you can use.

• Storytelling structure. Story shows change over time. When you put your ideas in a certain order, your audience will want to come along for the ride. Our guide to Storytelling for Podcasters: The Nuance of Narrative can show you different ways to lay out a trail of breadcrumbs for your audience.
• Characters, Desires, Obstacles and Strategies. Forget about pain points. Instead, show us how a unique character achieved their goals even when circumstances stacked up to prevent them. This is a constellation of techniques: blast off for the stars with our guide to Why Characters & Story Aren’t Just for Fiction Podcasts.

Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper, is a classic example of how to use light, color, and composition to evoke a feeling. But most people don’t think about how the diagonal and vertical lines make the off-center composition feel vibrant. They wonder about the people in the image and why they’re in this lonely diner late at night. When you have a lot of information to share, story crafting tools can help you paint with sound in a way that makes your audience empathize.

Painting with Sound Elevates Your Podcast

When we think of our podcasts as “content,” we diminish the work that goes into it. Likewise, we diminish the effect it can have on the audience. Nobody should consider their podcast episodes as inventory for ad revenue. Instead, think of your podcast episodes as experiences that your audience will seek out and share.

26 Fascinating Facts About Sound: It’s Not Audio “Only”

Read article called: 26 Fascinating Facts About Sound: It’s Not Audio “Only”

When you learn to paint with sound, you’ll create experiences for your audience to escape mundane existence. True, these techniques take practice. But, taking time to learn these strategies will reward you with audiences excited to immerse themselves in your podcast.

• Podcasting is long-form content. Don’t compare podcast download numbers with YouTube plays, social media “likes”, or follower counts.
• Potential audience sizes are totally dependent on show topics. There’s no single podcast download numbers gauge here.
• However, statistically, if you get over 28 downloads for a new episode in the first week of its release, you’re in the top 50% of all podcasters.
• Read on to find out more…

Download numbers are one of the most obvious metrics for measuring the success of your podcast.

Download stats are immediately accessible from the minute you launch your first episode. Watching the numbers climb can be rewarding—some might even say addictive.

But after the initial novelty has worn off, it’s natural for podcasters to begin asking the question, “Are my average podcast downloads good?”.

So, are your podcast download numbers “good”? Let’s take a look.

How Many Podcast Downloads Should I Be Getting?

In a world of YouTube views and Twitter/X followers, we’ve become accustomed to figures in the hundreds of thousands (and even millions!).

It’s important to realise, though, that these numbers are completely irrelevant to podcasting. The time and effort it takes to click ‘Follow’ on social or watch a few seconds of a YouTube video should never be compared to listening to podcast episodes.

Podcast listening is a commitment and an investment. It’s long-form content that isn’t immediately accessible via shiny sidebars and viral social media clickbait.

So, comparing your average podcast downloads to someone else’s Instagram followers is like comparing the number of rooms in your house to the number of trees in the Amazon. It’s completely irrelevant and utterly pointless.

Does it (as Usual) Depend on Your Content?

Of course it does.

Could a show about breeding Russian white dwarf hamsters realistically expect to see the same average podcast downloads as a show about Game of Thrones? Absolutely not.

Does this mean that the podcast with more downloads is the more successful one? Again, absolutely not.

If you run a podcast about a topic that was only interesting to literally ten people in the world, and you were getting seven downloads an episode, statistically, you’d be running the most popular show in history.

The big factor is the size of your potential audience. Here are a couple of things to consider.

Firstly, how many folks out there are interested enough in your topic to actually want to consume content about it?

Secondly, how many of those people are current podcast listeners?

Case Study – Board Game Design Lab

Gabe, who runs the Board Game Design Lab Podcast, shared some great words of wisdom on a recent episode of Podcraft.

“The ceiling for board game design is pretty low. It’s not like Joe Rogan; it’s not like Tim Ferriss, where the whole world is kind of potential, right? And so, you have to be more intentional about not overspending. It’s like, how many people are there? How many people are in your industry and listen to podcasts and care about what you’re doing?”

Thinking along these lines will help bring you closer to seeing what those cold hard download stats tell you. They can help you set realistic goals that don’t involve drawing comparisons with viral videos, celebrity social media accounts, and behemoth podcasts like the JRE.

Audience Quality & Engagement

An audience might seem “small” in a numerical sense. But with long-form content like podcasting, shows with smaller but more niche hyper-targeted audiences are often considered the more successful.

I’ve given this example before. If you ran a podcast about the technology needed to fly people to Mars, and your only listener was Elon Musk, would you consider this a successful show?

Granted, it’s a far-fetched example. But it’s always more about exactly who is listening rather than how many of them there are.

And, it’s about the engagement. This isn’t something that can be achieved overnight. But, if you’re creating good content, over time, you’ll begin to hear from your listeners.

This could be because you’ve asked them a question or recommended they check something out. Or it could be because you’ve talked about a subject that resonated with them so much that they felt compelled to reach out.

Measuring engagement requires a little more digging than simply staring at your download stats dashboard. But often, they can tell you a lot more about the impact your show is having.

If your podcast host provides this data, take a look at the geography of your podcast downloads. Are you suddenly getting a burst of downloads in a particular region or country? If so, you might want to check the news and find out what’s happening there. It’s all about measuring podcast engagement.

I Still Want a Gauge on Average Podcast Downloads per Episode

Buzzsprout is one of the biggest podcast-hosting platforms in the world, with well over 120,000 active shows publishing content there.

Hosting this many podcasts means Buzzsprout has plenty of useful data to analyse. This gives them an accurate picture of podcast downloads on an industry-wide level. The good news is that Buzzsprout makes their global data available to everyone on their Platform Stats page.

Here’s one of the key sections that’ll interest any podcaster.

How Many Podcast Downloads Is Good?

If your new episode gets, within seven days of its release:

• more than 28 downloads, you’re in the top 50% of podcasts.
• more than 109 downloads, you’re in the top 25% of podcasts.
• more than 462 downloads, you’re in the top 10% of podcasts.
• more than 1,101 downloads, you’re in the top 5% of podcasts.
• more than 4,707 downloads, you’re in the top 1% of podcasts.

[Updated Jan, 2025]

And here are some other interesting stats from this page, at the time of writing.

Podcast Downloads on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, & Google Podcasts

37.2% of listening takes place on Spotify, with 33.2% on Apple Podcasts.

Buzzsprout

Podcast Download Locations

42.5% of downloads come from the USA, with 6.1% from the UK, and 4.6% from Canada, and 4.4% from Australia. The Netherlands are in fifth place with 3.9% of the share.

Buzzsprout

Podcast Download Devices

Mobile accounts for 88% of all podcast downloads, with 62.5% of those coming via the Apple iPhone.

Buzzsprout

Want More Podcast Statistics?

If you’re a fan of podcast stats, then be sure to check out our podcast industry trends post. We regularly update this article with all the latest data to help you keep your finger on the pulse. You’ll find everything, from podcast listenership stats (like the most popular podcast genre) to the latest Edison research.

What About Monthly Podcast Listeners & Downloads?

Some creators might say, “Oh, I get 10,000 downloads a month, ” but that doesn’t tell you anything about their average podcast download numbers. Instead, it suggests that they’ve published a lot of episodes to date.

For example, we run a daily show called Pocket-Sized Podcasting, which has hundreds of published episodes. Subscribers get one quick ‘how-to podcast’ tip each day, from Monday through to Friday. When new listeners find the show, they tend to binge through the back catalogue. This means our total monthly downloads can get pretty high, even if the new episode downloads are in the “modest” range.

Podcasting Numbers: Downloads & Listens FAQ

We are often asked about podcast download numbers in our IndiePod Community. Here are a few of the most frequent questions.

Do I Need to Share My Download Numbers With Anyone?

Nope, not at all. Though you might be asked for them if you’re talking to potential sponsors about podcast ads, or, if you’re in discussions with any podcast networks. Some potential guests might even want a gauge of your numbers before agreeing to come on. If this is the case, it’s best to create a media kit where you can optimally present this data. Also, be sure to explain that audience engagement is just as (if not more) important than hard numbers. As we’ve said so many times in this guide, download numbers never tell the whole story.

Can I See How Many Downloads Other Podcasts Are Getting?

Not unless the podcast host makes their stats publically available.

That said, it might be possible to find an approximate guide using a third-party analytics tool like Podtrac. You can search for the podcast in question and see if it’s listed in their directory. If it is, you may see some basic metrics, such as the number of downloads, subscribers, and podcast audience demographics. It’s worth taking any numbers you find with a pinch of salt, though, as they may not be wholly accurate.

Do More Podcast Reviews Equate to More Downloads?

Having lots of ratings and reviews on podcast apps can make a show seem like it has a big audience. Often, this is the case, and the show has reached a critical mass of listeners leaving reviews. It isn’t a rule without exception, though. Some shows have numerically small but super engaged audiences, whilst other podcasters may actively seek out reviews using various methods. Again, this approach can give you a hint, but it’ll never tell the whole story.

Do All Successful Podcasts Have “Big” Download Numbers?

Definitely not. Some of the most successful podcasts out there have numerically small audiences because the topic is extremely niche. Niche audiences are some of the most engaged and fanatical, though. There’s nothing to say that a podcaster in a certain niche might not work full-time on their show with an audience of “only” 100 people.

Can My Hosting Provider Get Me More Downloads?

Podcast hosting platforms are not responsible for your show’s growth or download numbers. In our article on changing podcast host, we talk about how these services set you up with podcast feeds, give you the tools and report the facts, but the rest is up to you.

Podcast Downloads vs Listens: What’s the Difference?

The end result is typically the same: the audience hears your content. However, there are some subtle differences between podcast listens and podcast downloads.

A download is when the episode is—funnily enough—downloaded onto a device such as a computer, tablet, or smartphone. From a listener’s point of view, this makes it more flexible to consume because you’re no longer reliant on an internet connection.

But from a podcaster, network, or advertiser’s point of view, it makes it harder to “prove” that a listen has happened. After all, someone might download an episode but never actually hear it.

A “listen” can be playing a previously downloaded episode, or it can be someone streaming an episode via the web or a podcast listening app. This can make it easier to see that listening has actually happened. That said, it’s a mistake to try and force your audience to stream rather than download. Let folks make up their own minds about how they prefer to consume your content.

If you need to demonstrate to sponsors, advertisers, etc, that your download numbers accurately reflect your listener numbers, you can show engagement via factors and strategies such as audience surveys, and your Calls to Action.  

Summary: Average Podcast Downloads Guide

Ultimately, asking, “What’s a good number of downloads for a podcast?” is similar to asking, “How long is a piece of string?” Every case is unique, and no two podcasts are the same.

By all means, keep track of your download stats. But this isn’t going to help grow your show.

Instead, spend your time on the things that do move the needle. Here’s our pillar guide to growing an audience, which can help form the basis of a solid and effective podcast promotion plan:

Podcast Promotion: From Your First 100 Listeners to Your Next 100K!

Read article called: Podcast Promotion: From Your First 100 Listeners to Your Next 100K!

And finally, a few questions for you:

Based on your topic, what do you feel your podcast’s potential audience is, and how does that stack up against your existing audience numbers? How much growth do you have left on the table? And what are your next steps for reaching those new listeners?

Hop into the IndiePod Community and let us know!