Podcasts are the newest and most underutilized form of content being shared online. There is a significant potential for growth in the podcasting industry that has already been shown in recent years. According to podcastinsights.com, there are over 43 million podcast episodes as of January 2021.
Podcasting – the pros
- Podcasts can be created with simple tools – any microphone will do, even the one on your smartphone. With the spread of smartphone usage, most people have access to relatively high-quality recording devices with which they can record podcasts.
- Rent a studio or do the entire podcast within the comfort of your own home – as long as you keep your content interesting, it doesn’t matter. After all, you are not seen but only heard on a podcast.
- Podcasts are easily monetized using ads. In fact, as your podcast account grows, more and more companies will contact you offering to pay for a few lines of advertisement to be read during your podcast. Most listeners say they do not mind it, as it is less disruptive as ads watched in the middle of a video.
- There is no need for a large staff to produce a podcast. In fact, some of the most successful podcasters operate entirely on their own. The skills needed to script, edit and publish are not so complicated to require more than one person usually.
- Podcasts can be as elaborate or uncomplicated as you prefer to make them. You can choose not to edit them at all, keeping your content unfiltered and raw. On the other hand, a highly edited, curated and professionally produced podcast is another viable option.
- Frequency of production is not entirely necessary to be successful. Some podcasters produce as many as two short podcasts per day, whilst others prefer to follow a more lenient schedule of once every two weeks.
How to start
The first thing to keep in mind is that in order to achieve success you must first be interested in the topic you wish to base your podcast on. If you are not interested then it will surely show and listeners will quickly get bored of the topic, as you yourself are bored. The next thing to decide would be whether you will be alone or have guests on your podcast. Of course when you are alone you have more control over what goes into your podcast. However, it is worth noting that single person podcasts are not easy to create as it can tend towards a monotone. Nonetheless, every podcast has its own style.
Next is to publish your podcast. At first you will need a website to host your podcast, and then they will publish the podcast on various different sites/apps that listeners can tune into your station on. The most prominent platform for publishing podcasts at the moment is spotify. Indeed, since comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan signed an exclusive deal with the site, there has been an even larger portion of podcast creators and listeners using Spotify. Joe Rogan is a comedian, mixed martial arts commentator and podcast host of The Joe Rogan Experience – a podcast with over 190 million monthly downloads. Spotify is mainly a music streaming service, but has now grown to be a market leader in providing access to numerous podcasts. Mainly due to the fact that it is not dependent on a specific Operating System or smartphone type – hence enabling a greater number of users to access their service. Also many users like that they are able to use one app for both their music and podcast feeds, so they are able to switch between the two according to their need.
In order to gain any financial compensation for your podcasting hobby (called monetizing your podcasts) it is necessary to read ads before, during, or after your podcast. Usually this comes in the form of a few scripted lines of text provided by the company that wishes to advertise, and requires little to no input on your part. Of course, as is the case with any form of media, companies looking to advertise will place greater value (and pay more) for podcasts with a larger number of listeners. A great way to increase the number subscribers – and even podcast downloads on Spotify – are websites such as Spotifystorm, which help get your podcast under the radar of companies looking to advertise on Spotify. One of the major advantages of this website is that it also sells podcast plays that allow such companies to notice your podcast as having a greater potential as a medium to market their product.
Companies which advertise on social media will always strive to achieve the highest amount of marketing possible. Hence they tend to branch into all new types of content provided online; such as podcasts, and will definitely prefer those accounts with a higher traffic to enable them to reach a larger audience. Podcasts are a simple, easy to use platform to share your ideas and be creative – either in your spare time or as a career choice.