Podcasts have been increasingly growing in popularity over the past few years. Currently, there is over 900,000 estimated podcasts being created worldwide. We here at Thermaltake Australia, have recently started our own Podcast called Thermal Talk where we discuss all things PC Gaming, Tech and more! So, we thought we’d give you guys 5 tips for starting a podcast of your own, all in one handy to read post!
Pick a Topic or Niche
Having an established audience basically means you can talk about whatever you want. However, if you don’t have that, it’s a great idea to pick a topic to focus your podcast on. This can be like gardening, gaming, books, or anything else that you are interested in. Just make sure that the topic is rich enough to talk about across a wide number of episodes. This way, people who are also interested in this topic, will be more likely to stumble upon your podcast.
Talk for a significant amount of time
Podcast are very different from other popular media like YouTube videos. It’s more common for most podcasts to run for anything from half an hour, to an hour or more! People tend to listen to podcasts in chunks, such as when commuting to work or cleaning the house. So you want to aim for a length of time where people can get invested in your conversation. This means five minutes isn’t really going to cut it. Pick a certain length to aim for, and aim to hit around that for each episode. We here at Thermaltake aim for around 45-60 minutes, which is a very common podcast length. However, it’s always important to pick a length that works best for your podcast of course.
Audio Quality
I have definitely listened to some bad quality audio in my time, and we have even had a few audio errors ourselves! However, it’s a good idea not to make a habit of it. So, ensure you can provide your listeners with optimal audio quality as often as possible. If you haven’t already, it’s worth investing in some good microphones. You can very easily pick up a decent USB microphone for less than $100, and there is free audio editing software (such as Audacity), to record through. It’s also pretty easy to play with settings, dampen the sound of a room, and find all sorts of easy techniques to improve sound quality even further. The few steps you take here to prepare your sound will do wonders for your overall production quality. That being said, I have heard of people recording successful podcasts in their wardrobe with an iPhone. So, in theory it’s not impossible to do it on the cheap either!
Be on Multiple Platforms
Thermal Talk is currently available on 4 platforms: SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and in Video form on YouTube. This is so we can reach as large of an audience as possible. While a video option isn’t for everyone, it’s quite simple to set up multiple Audio options with an RSS feed, which updates automatically. This ensures you can cover a wide variety of platforms, and means all members of your audience can listen to your content.
Have fun and don’t give up!
From my research, many professional podcast consultants wouldn’t recommend giving up on your podcast until around 50 episodes. This is because it takes a longer time to build a podcasting community than it does other platforms. Many people on average, give up around 20 episodes in, which is still far too early to throw in the towel! As long as you’re still having fun (which is always the main rule), just keep on going! Remember to tell your friends, your family, and anyone else who will support you, to go give your podcast a listen. All it takes is a slow building of a community to make something grow. The only sure-fire way to ensure your podcast never succeeds is by giving up!
So, there were some tips for starting a podcast!
We hope these tips help you in starting your podcast journey!
If you haven’t already, remember to check out OUR comedy/tech/gaming podcast, Thermal Talk! Links will be below!
