The Pod
The Pod
Hi folks, my name is Tanner Campbell. I'm the owner of the Portland Pod, a commercial recording studio here in South Portland, Maine. And you're trying to find out how to start a podcast. Well, I'm here to tell you how to start a podcast.
Now you can get real tripped up here. Microphones can cost anywhere from 10 bucks to thousands of dollars. Neumann microphones cost a lot of money. Amazon Prime microphones can cost five bucks, but you don't want the $5 mic and you probably don't need a thousand dollar mic, right? You want something in between.
Another thing that can hang people up is do I get an XLR mic? Or do I get a USB mic? XLR mics, while they are more professional, require the additional purchase of much more gear and will be more expensive. So I'm going to recommend you get a USB microphone.
Here are three recommendations. The first by Blue Microphone, the Yeti. It's going to cost you around 130 bucks. It's a good mic. But if you are in a very barren hard room, like a bathroom or an empty room then this microphone is not a good pick for you.
Now if you're in a nice room that sounds pretty good doesn't have a lot of echo or reverb, then you might want to look at the RØDE Podcaster Mic. That's going to cost a little bit more money, around $300. You can also look at the RØDE NT USB Microphone, which will cost you around $130.
If you can't record into it, you're not going to be able to record anything, which means you'll need some software.
You want a free one? Use "Audacity".
So now you can speak into a mic and you can record it. Audacity also is the software that will allow you to edit your podcast when you're done recording it. In case your dog barked, the world ended or something happened.
Okay, here are some options:
Captivate.com
Simplecast.com
Transistor.fm
All of those places are podcast hosting platforms. You take your audio, you upload it there, and now it's stored there.
Maybe you need a blog or want to provide pictures of the people who are podcasting. Either way you're going to want a website.
You can use: podcastpages.io
This will set up a podcast website for you almost automatically. If you have no skills, it's going to do it for you. It's awesome!
Lucky for you, it's a pretty easy process. Although it takes some time.
From your podcast hosting provider, you will look up your RSS feed. It's right there in your account. It's simplecast or captivate or transistor.fm, whatever you chose.
You're going to take that little RSS feed and copy it. Then you're going to go create an Apple ID account, Google account and Spotify account. After that you're going to submit that RSS feed in each one of those places and a few more.
Your podcast hosting provider will have documentation on exactly how to do this. Then you're going to wait a couple days, and your podcast is everywhere.
In the case of Spotify, it's actually there in less than five hours. That's pretty impressive.
When you've got your first episode recorded on your suite microphone into your free "audacity" program, and it's all edited and sounding nice, you can upload it to your podcast hosting provider. Then it will be pushed down to all the places that you want it to go. That is how you do a podcast.
Buy a professional microphone. |
Get a computer with recording software. |
Find a podcast hosting provider. |
Create a website for your podcast. |
Distribute your podcast. |