In this episode we cover:
Download the “How to Start a Podcast Checklist”, a FREE, step-by-step guide designed to help you get your podcast off the ground without feeling overwhelmed.
Start your podcast for FREE with Buzzsprout
In this episode we cover:
Download the “How to Start a Podcast Checklist”, a FREE, step-by-step guide designed to help you get your podcast off the ground without feeling overwhelmed.
Start your podcast for FREE with Buzzsprout
Luckily the Internet is really forgiving when it comes to criticism, right?
Travis:Yes. Everyone is a perfect human being. Hello and welcome to episode seven of how to start a podcast where you learn everything you need to know to something else a podcast from scratch. And I am your host, Travis Albritton. Helping me again with the episode today is our perennial guests Alban Brooke.
Alban:Slash cohost, assistant to the host.
Travis:Assistant to the regional host.
Alban:What's up, Travis. Hows it going?
Travis:It is going great. I'm pretty pumped actually for this episode because if you've gotten this far, it means you're about to start your journey to podcast awesomeness.
Alban:Or you've been on a long road trip and just like crammed seven episodes.
Travis:You just binged two and a half hours of me and Alban chatting with each other.
Alban:Either way, we're excited.
Travis:The end is near and in this podcast we're going to teach you some best practices for how to effectively launch your new podcast and some of these tactics we're going to steal from another industry that you may be familiar with.
Alban:Is it the movie industry?
Travis:It is quite possibly the movie industry.
Alban:Okay, I was trying to get, I was like, this isn't in the, in our outline. Oh, it is in our outline.
Travis:We're leaving that in there. So there's a couple of different things that we're going to talk about that you'll need to decide for your podcast launch and the first one is you have to choose the date. When is your podcast going to be officially launched into the world?
Alban:Every movie has a release date and then it comes out like the night before somehow. I'm not really sure how they do like a Friday release on Thursday night. No complaints there though, but they all have a date and everything leads up to that moment and then they know how to promote it to get the most buzz right after the movie comes out.
Travis:Yep. So you want to pick a grand opening for your podcast and you want that date to be after you've gotten approved for all those directories that you submitted your podcast to in the last episode. So when you choose your grand opening day, you want it to be on the same day of the week that you're normally going to publish episodes. So if you're going to come out with a new episode every single Monday, you want your grand opening to be on a Monday. Okay. Right. So you're already getting people used to when they're going to listen to it, and then once you decide what day during the week you're going to do it, choose a day on the calendar that coincides with that and that is your grand opening. So if you're going to do a Monday podcast, two Mondays from now, once you've gotten submitted in the directories and you got approved it's time to launch.
Alban:Yeah. So when you pick the day of the week, make sure it's like we're gonna launch this within two weeks max. You don't want to be sitting there thinking about somebody that's going to happen for so long and start second guessing it and start tweaking with everything. You want to pick something and we're going to try to get this episode out asap.
Travis:Yeah. If thinking about actually launching your podcast gives you like a mild panic attack, that is totally normal and here's why, because up until now your podcast has existed in obscurity. No one has listened to it except for you and no one has given you any kind of criticism. And so at this moment your podcast is perfect.
Alban:So luckily the Internet is really forgiving when it comes to criticism, right?
Travis:Yes. Everyone is a perfect human being on the Internet.
Alban:I've been off the Internet for a few months, but I'm thinking it's pretty good. You're going to get a lot of nice compliments.
Travis:No but in all seriousness. So once it's out in the world, there's a chance people might not like it and it's really easy to take that feedback personally because again, you put your heart and your soul into this podcast. And so the last thing that you want is for someone to tell you that what you made isn't good or that they don't like it. But just so you know, this is how everyone feels. And ultimately this anxiety. There's the name for it. It's called imposter syndrome. Do you know what Imposter Syndrome is, Alban?
Alban:I imagine it's when you believe you are an imposter and you're afraid that you're not good enough or you aren't you know, ready to step into a specific role.
Travis:Yeah, it's the fear that all of the success that you have is the result of luck and that eventually people are going to discover that you're a fraud, right? That you're just a pretender, that you're not as good as you know, maybe you perceive yourself to be. That's a real fear. And so that anxiety of I don't want to be found out. I don't want people to think that I'm not serious or that I'm not any good at making this podcast that I've devoted all this time to. That's a real thing, but there's a couple things to keep in mind that can help you overcome this fear. And I know that these things have helped me whenever I launch podcasts because that fear is real. That anxiety, that I'm going to put this out there and no one's going to like it is a real thing.
Alban:Okay? So what are some of the things, because you know, I've got a little of this now because I have never launched a podcast, have never been in a podcast. I'm not even the cohost of my own podcast right now. So what are some of the things you could we could do to get over this feeling?
Travis:So the number one thing is just to remember that creativity or art is subjective, which means some people are going to like it and some people aren't gonna like it and they can do that for reasons that are entirely their own. Some people don't like French fries, I don't understand why, but there is a group of people that don't like French fries. So if you made the best French fries in the world, there are still gonna be people that are like, man, this food is awful. Why would you sell me this food? So art and podcasting is subjective. The quality of your podcast and how good it is is subjective.
Alban:Yeah, that kind of reminds me of like podcast. Your podcast can't be for everyone, and we've talked about this in earlier episodes. The best podcasts are ones that are talking about a specific thing. You're trying to make a podcast that's for a specific group of people and something that they will love.
Travis:And ultimately the only approval that you should be looking for is your own, right? So ask yourself, is this the best podcast I can make at this moment in time? If the answer is yes, you should feel great about publishing your podcast.
Alban:Alright, we got a little free life coach tip from Travis.
Travis:Yeah, podcast life coaching. The second thing that you want to keep in mind is that perfection is a myth.
Alban:Okay? What do you mean by that?
Travis:There is no such thing as a perfect podcast. You can tinker, make little adjustments in your master episode mix, change the volume from-16 decibels to-15.5 thinking. That's what I need to do is spend all my time working on that.
Alban:That's like the easiest thing to do is to sit there and play with different things and try to think of ways you could slightly make it a little different, a little bit better. Maybe I need a new mic. Maybe they need to re-record. If you're doing that, ask yourself is somebody like going to hear this in instantly, just shut the whole episode down. They probably the answer's no, and if the answer is no, get it out there and get some feedback, you know?
Travis:Yeah, you're never going to get a perfect podcast. Episode is just never going to happen, so don't allow the fear that it's not good enough until I've made it perfect to keep you from launching, right don't allow trying to make the perfect podcast to keep you from getting your podcast out there, and then again, remember your podcast is not for everyone. If someone doesn't like your podcast, that's totally fine. They're going to be plenty of other people that will like your podcasts and the listeners that stick around are not gonna think that you're an imposter. They're not going to think that you're going to, that you're a fraud. They'll start to think of you as a close friend and someone who helps make their life better. And those are the people that you're making this podcast for.
Alban:All right. So can we get into some of these launch strategies, things that we should be doing to be successful on launch day?
Travis:Yeah. Now that you're all pumped up and like, yeah, I can do it. Let's talk about some strategy tips.
Alban:All right, cool.
Travis:So one of the fastest ways to get found as a new podcast is in Apple's new and noteworthy section. So we're going to talk about some strategies for how to try and get into that section, but there's a disclaimer that we want to say at the beginning, which is that this is not a make or break thing. You can miss the new and noteworthy and have a very successful podcast. It's just like a nice extra thing. If you can make it happen, it's a good little bump at the beginning.
Alban:Even if you don't hit new and noteworthy, they're going to help your podcast rank a little bit better in their categories. So all this is going to be really helpful even if you don't make it to the top of the top.
Travis:And one thing that you can do to really help your ranking when you first start is to publish 3 episodes on your grand opening day.
Alban:Okay. So why are we publishing so many all at once?
Travis:Because you'll get three times as many downloads compared to if you only released one episode. And so it makes it look like you have a lot more listeners to these podcast directories and so that will artificially inflate your numbers so that more people will find it at the beginning.
Alban:Yeah, and you don't want people to have to stick around for two, three weeks before they even get to a real taste of the show. If you've got the content, drop it out. And so someone's like, this show is awesome. I want to listen to two, three episodes. Boom. It's right there.
Travis:Yep. And then another tip for Apple Podcasts that's specific for Apple Podcasts is to try and get some reviews early on. Cue up some family and friends, people that you know are going to support you with your podcast to leave positive reviews in Apple Podcasts, and that's important because Apple Podcasts is unique in that it's really the only major podcast directory that includes user reviews in their algorithms.
Alban:And you want these to be real and honest reviews don't have people just go leave something. The show is great, like really reach out to people who you respect and say, can you leave me an honest review here? It helps people realize, oh, there's people who are listening to this show. There's people reviewing it and if you're able to get five, 10 reviews, it looks like, okay, there's stuff happening here. This is a podcast that soliciting feedback.
Travis:And it's kind of like the Trip Advisor effect. Whenever I go travel to a new city I've never been to before and trying to figure out which restaurants I should eat at, I look at which ones are the best reviewed. I look at, okay, what did people say about this restaurant? What dish should I order? When should I go? What are the things I should expect? Right, and so I'm deciding before I even show up to this restaurant based on other people's reviews, if it's worth going to. So the reviews also serve to, promote your podcast to people that are just looking at it and deciding if they want to listen to it because they can see what other people are saying about it as well. So if you want to try and hit the new and noteworthy in Apple Podcasts and if you have some episodes already queued up and ready to go, then you want to try and publish at least three full episodes on your launch day, on your grand opening day. You want to get some family and friends and you know, if you already have an online community, reach out to them and say, hey, here's the first episode I would love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It will help me out. So start reaching out to people to leave reviews for you and then you know, see if, see what happens. See if you can get into that new and noteworthy. It'd be a good bump. But regardless of if you get a new and noteworthy or if you launched three episodes on the same day or not, you want to get the word out now that your podcast alive and in the world and people can find it. You want to let people know.
Alban:Yeah. So if you have people who follow you on social media channels, you want to get the word out there, so queue up a bunch of tweets and things that you can do to send out on your launch day. Actually reach out to people that, you know, who might be interested and personally say, Hey, I'd love it if you'd listen to this. If you're a part of any forums that are interested, you want to, you know, tell people about your podcast in those areas. Do you have any other ideas Travis? Things that we should be doing?
Travis:Yeah. So similar to new and noteworthy, talking to friends and family about leaving reviews. Just letting people know that it's there. It exists. Yeah. Letting your friends know, hey, I made a podcast. You should go check it out. Telling your family, Hey, I spent a lot of time on this would really appreciate if you went and listened to it, you know, just letting people know about it because chances are they're gonna be more than happy to help support you.
Alban:And if, you know, if somebody listens to it, you can always ask a little more say, hey, if you like the show, would you maybe want to share it with some of your friends or help me get the word out? You know, you don't have to be pushy, but if it's something people like, it's okay to ask and say, Oh, if you like it, you know, would you share it and help spread the word. I put a lot of work into to this.
Travis:Yep. And a couple of other places where a, you'll start getting into some guerrilla tactics, some guerilla marketing tactics, is reaching out to administrators of Facebook groups that are related to your podcast topic, Alban, kind of break down the strategy and why it's helpful for launching your podcast.
Alban:Yeah, I mean Facebook groups are incredibly influential and there are groups where people kind of self sort themselves and so, you know, if you have a podcast that's really all about cats and maybe there's a cat group on Facebook, reach out to the moderators and saying, hey, here's a podcast that made, what do you think? Is this something that'd be good to be shared with the group? And they may share it for you. They already have a lot of clout inside of their Facebook group and if they recommend it and they like it, then you're going to probably get a lot of people listening to your show. So that's a nice way to reach out to somebody who's already influential. I'd say the same group. The same thing applies to like Reddit forums. So there's lots of subreddits on all sorts of different things. Try to find out where your audience is hanging out online.
Travis:And then another really cool way to get some exposure early on is to reach out to blogs, reach out to bloggers that are writing about similar things that your podcast is about. So what are some ways that as a new podcaster you can find and reach out to bloggers?
Alban:I mean, so just searching Google and try to find blogs that are talking about the same thing that you're talking about. I mean everyone wants to be the person who finds the next cool thing before everybody else knows about it and blogs are pretty typically searching for stuff. If you're reaching out to a blog and saying, hey, I really like your content, like what you've been doing, I've actually done a podcast that's similar. What do you think? You know, I'd love to get some feedback from you. They're gonna realize, oh they see me as an expert. I'd love to get some feedback. Maybe I'll publish a blog post about this podcast and you know, that's really helpful.
Travis:Yeah. Bloggers love being the first to find things. It's like, yes, I'm the person that has all these connections that knows about things before everybody else does and because it gives people a reason to go to their blog versus someone else's blog. Right, right. And so you're, you're kind of counting on them, looking for new and emerging things that are going to be interesting to their audience, and so just make a list of 10 blogs that are related to your podcast and reach out to the people that run those blogs, whether it's contacting them on their social media handles, our your sending an email and saying, hey, I'm starting a publishing a podcast. Would you like to feature it in your blog? I would love to give you that ability to listen to the podcast before anyone else hears the podcast to give you the inside scoop and see if they'd be willing to promote it, so people that already follow them. That's a great way to get some new subscribers right off the bat.
Alban:And sometimes this can feel a little bit weird being of self promoting, but remember the way to remove that kind of scammy feeling is put a lot of effort into this podcast so it's something that's valuable. If your podcast is just buy from me, buy from me, buy from me, then it's just an advertisement. Then you do need to pay people to listen to advertisements, but if it's real high quality content that's helping somebody, then you shouldn't feel bad telling people, oh, I built this for free, would you like it? And so if you reach out to a blog, you reach out to a Facebook admin. Those people should be excited to get that. Someone reaching out, not bummed out with kind of a scammy offer. So if you feel kind of weird, remind yourself like, I'm putting a lot of work behind this thing to make something really good and that's valuable to the audience.
Travis:Yeah. It's not a normal thing to be like, hey, look at me. I'm awesome. Like most of the time people think, all right dude, you need to cut it out. Like you're not. You need to stop being such a narcissist. But with promoting yourself, it's again, just like Alban said, you're not doing this to be self seeking. If you genuinely know that your podcast is going to help people, you owe it to them to let them know about it. Right? If listening to your podcast is, going to make their life better or impact them in a positive way, you owe it to them to convince them to listen to your podcast and at the end of the day, if they don't like it, they don't have to keep listening so it's not like they've paid you for something and then you know they're out. 50 bucks or 100 bucks.
Alban:Every podcast comes with a 30 day money back guarantee because they don't cost anything.
Travis:100 percent. So don't be afraid of being proud of what you've done, of what you've accomplished. You know, if you've done your best, you are nothing to be ashamed of.
Alban:So are we done?
Travis:Yes. So just to recap this episode, you want to choose your date that you're going to have as your grand opening. Don't let imposter syndrome or anxiety keep you from following through and putting your podcast out into the world. If you are looking for some next level strategies to help come out the gate really quickly, try and get into Apple's new and noteworthy section with some of the strategies we laid out, but ultimately just spread the word, let people know about your podcast, how they can listen to it, and why they should be excited about it.
Alban:Travis, in our outline, you've got download the how to start a podcast checklist for me, I think at this point if they haven't downloaded the checklist it's probably not happening, but we still got a link in the show notes. This is the checklist we tell you about every single episode that just kind of walks through the process. But hopefully it's been helpful to everybody who's listening. What can people do after this Travis? What could they do with questions and comments? And we need some feedback too.
Travis:So once you have launched your podcast, there's a couple things that you should do. Number one, if you're not already a part of our Buzzsprout Podcast Community on Facebook, you should totally join our Facebook group in there. You're going to get all kinds of tips and tactics and strategies from other podcasters that are also producing shows on a weekly basis. You're going to learn some things from other people that maybe would have taken some time to discover on your own and you're gonna be able to interact with all the Buzzsprout people and so if you have questions about how to do something inside of Buzzsprout or questions about how to grow your audience or things like that, that's gonna be a great place to interact with other people and get those questions answered. We really appreciate you sticking with us all seven episodes of season one trying to get your podcast off the ground. Hopefully it's been super valuable for you. If you've gotten a lot out of listening to this podcast, it would really help us if you did leave a review in Apple Podcasts because just like we want to help you make your pocket successful, it would mean a lot to us if you helped make this podcast successful so that more people can figure out and learn how easy it is to make their own podcast. And that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure all this stuff out.
Alban:Yeah. If you have other people you know who are interested in launching a podcast of their own we'd love it if you'd share our podcast with them.
Travis:Yeah. Hopefully you had as much fun listening to this podcast as we had in making it, and we're looking forward to seeing you again in season two of how to start a podcast.