10 things I learnt about podcasting

Back in 2016, I was tired of interviewing someone and then transcribing the interview. It was taking me too long to do this so I decided podcasting was the way to go. This was before podcasting had its current renaissance. Along the way, I have made mistakes here and there but I have also learnt a lot and I have published 327 podcasts for Irish Tech News.

During the current pandemic, podcasts have really come into their own. They have gained more listeners and more and more people are interested in creating their own podcasts. But it’s worth noting that Rome was not built in the day and the Irish Tech News podcast that I do did not happen overnight. It took time and planning to set it up. So with that in mind here are 10 things I learnt about podcasting.

1 – You don’t need a studio or a specific location to record your podcasts, they can be recorded anywhere. I have recorded my podcasts in various places from a coffee shop to a room in a pub. When I first started doing podcasts I thought that I would need to record them face to face in a specific venue, and I spent too much time looking for a place to record them in. I finally found a specific venue to start recording my podcasts in but I have since come to realise that can limit who have as guests on your podcasts. The beauty of podcasts is that as they are audio only your guests can be anywhere in the world. I have recorded guests from various countries including America and Vietnam.

2 – All you need to record a podcast is your smartphone, and you don’t need to use a mic plugged into your smartphone and I have never used an external mic on my phone They do help reduce external noise and Rode is the brand to go with. I also record podcasts on my MacBook Pro and I have recording software that records all audio emanating from my Mac, such as Skype, Zoom etc. When I go to record a podcast face to face I use my trusty Blue Ice microphone which is designed with portability in mind and it looks great, My Blue Ice is plugged into my MacBook Pro, GarageBand picks it up and I then start recording.

3 – Editing your podcast is not as hard as it sounds. I use GarageBand on my Mac but you can also use Audacity. Both are free but GarageBand is only available on Mac, iPad and iPhone. GarageBand is easier to use and it has an interface that is easy to warm to. A good friend of mine Damo had just finished a course on creating music for video games and using GarageBand was part of his course. He spent 20 minutes teaching me how to edit and record podcasts via GarageBand and that’s stood me in good stead over the past four or so years.

4 – Before you record your podcast, you must agree on the length of the podcast with the who you are going to interview. At a bare minimum go for 15 minutes but try for at least 30 minutes and if you think the podcast topic or who you are interviewing is interesting you can go up to an hour. Some podcasts such as Joe Rogan go for around 2 hours but that will involve a panel discussion and 5 to 8 minutes promoting sponsors.

5 – Sponsorship is something that you would like to have as it can help fund interviews at conferences abroad such as Web Summit. Conferences where our costs are not covered by the organisers. If you have a high profile sponsor, they will share your podcasts on their various social media accounts. Because of 3 years of health issues, sponsorship was not high on my agenda as I did not know how many podcasts I would be able to do. As my health is greatly improved I will start looking again soon for a sponsor but I fear the current pandemic may mean this will take longer.

6 – Plan your interviews in advance unless it is a last-minute interview at a conference. Give the person you are interviewing advanced questions or topics that will be covered. This is to ensure that you don’t ask questions or cover topics that might be out of bounds and doesn’t leave who you are interviewing struggling to answer or give long pauses. A good example is asking a tech security company to name some of their clients. They might not want to do this as this information is sensitive but to get around this you can ask are some of their clients blue chip/fortune 500 companies. When you and who you are interviewing are prepared for the interview there is a much less chance of mistakes being made.

7- Try and build a good and healthy relationship with various companies and PR companies. I have built an excellent relationship with a well-known company and whenever they announce some big news or survey results they come to me first asking if I would like to do an exclusive podcast interview. Working with various PR companies has resulted in not having to spend too much time looking for guests.

8 – When you publish your podcast they have to be stored somewhere online. I use Soundcloud as does the Irish Times and the Irish Examiner because you get unlimited bandwidth for €99 a year. From Soundcloud you push can your podcasts on to all the major podcast platforms. iTunes used to be the main podcast platform and now Spotify is the one to watch. Spotify bought Gimlet Media last year for $230 million and earlier this year they did an exclusive deal with Joe Rogan.

9 – When sourcing guests for your podcasts, you will obviously be thinking of high profile guests. While there is nothing wrong with aspiring to this, big-name guests will not appear on your podcast unless you are well known or your podcast is very successful. Don’t be afraid to turn down guests who are offered to you if you feel they are not a perfect fit or don’t offer anything new.

10 –  Stats on how your podcast is doing can tell you which episode had the most listeners and how well you are doing overall. Apple doesn’t tell you anything about the algorithms they use and I find it annoying when a ten-year-old podcast is appearing on the iTunes technology charts or when a non-tech podcast appears in the technology charts. The iTunes podcast charts can tell you how well your podcast and competing podcasts are doing but that’s all. Spotify analytics will tell you information such as listeners and streams. If you are looking for a sponsor any information that you can glean from Soundcloud, Spotify etc will help you.

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