Podcasting can be an incredibly fun and rewarding activity if you aren’t completely lost when you start the process.  Whether you’ve you’ve started a podcast or have dipped your toes into the podcast waters--but haven’t gone “all-in” on this journey--I want to share some of my top tips that can help you create a better podcast.

As a 19-year radio personality, I dove into podcasting nearly 10 years ago as a consumer--a highly-critical ONE who had an edge on most podcasters that were in the audio market.   

Radio awarded me the experience to create similar types of programs from a technical aspect without having to use a professional recording studio that costed thousands of dollars.  But it wasn’t the equipment that made me better. It was the delivery and presentation that I have been able to hone over the course of the years. This has given me a better edge in a market that is still new to a lot of people.   

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There seems to be a little bit of confusion when it comes to the difference between Google Podcasts and Google Play Music.

Where should you submit your RSS link to get listed on the brand new Google Podcasts app?

Google doesn't make this very easy for the podcaster who is trying to list their program across different syndication platforms. Where most syndication platforms make it easy with step-by-step instructions, Google really doesn't explain this a whole lot.

And you really have to go searching for the answer inside of a Google search in order to really find something substantial.

In today's post I want to breakdown a simple step-by-step process that will help you get your podcast listed in the Google Podcasts app as well as Google Assistant and Google Home.

ARE GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC AND GOOGLE PODCASTS THE SAME THING?

Google Play Music was a service that was dropped a few years back where people could listen to music like they listen to music on Apple.  It was Google's answer...

A common worry that most podcasters have are people who give negative feedback on your content.  I think I should be clear in this instance and tell you that there is a difference between constructive criticism and negative feedback.

In today's post I want to share with you  what you can do to deal with the negative feedback with your podcast.   Before I go any further I should probably share with you one of the many times I have gotten negative feedback from listeners.

18 YEARS OF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

Early in my full-time career on the radio, phone lines would always explode when I played a specific song or expressed my extreme  enthusiasm in a particular artist. 

As a radio personality, it's your job to encourage engagement by having the listeners call in and share their thoughts with you on your particular topic.  When I would do this, I would have a small percentage of individuals who were more than critics. They were just straight haters.

I've...

Podcasting can be one way to hone your speaking skills. And once you have honed you're speaking  skills, you might be thinking that you could get in front of a crowd and speak about your particular topic.

This question was asked to me recently on my YouTube channel about getting an opportunity to speak in front of people because of a podcast.

So, “Can a podcast lead to speaking engagements?”

The answer to this is, of course, “Yes!”

Back in 2015, I was asked--by the organizers of Podcast Movement--if I could speak at one of their conferences. You have to keep in mind, I was only helping clients to build podcast and  didn't have an active program.

Nevertheless, one of the organizers saw that I was making waves in the niche and asked me to speak to help build awareness around his growing conference.

I remember it like yesterday...   

I made the trip out to San Diego for the pre-conference speech as the only radio broadcaster. Everyone...

I recently had a interesting question that was asked to me on my YouTube channel. The person who commented asked, “Do podcast interviews only work if the guests are famous?”

I think there's a big misconception for the beginning podcaster when it comes to interviewing guests on their program. As a podcast listener looking to become a podcaster, it’s necessary to go beyond the idea that you need to have a big name on your program.

Sure anyone who is a big-name can definitely draw some traffic and get you some downloads to your podcast, but they don't necessarily work. Having someone who is “famous”  on your podcast doesn't mean that everyone will listen either. I know there are some programs where I may like the podcast, but I may not be too interested in the topic based on the type of guest that is in the studio.

This is something that is very common whenever you listen to radio programs across the globe.

Remember  as a podcaster, not everyone...

BRANDING YOUR PODCAST: WHAT SETS YOU APART FROM OTHER PODCASTS

As of 2018 there was a report that there is 525,000 podcast that are active. Each one has their own style and delivery.

Some podcasts are simple in nature while others sound a little more produced to make themselves stand out. And standing out is one of the  biggest things that podcasters want to do when they compare themselves to other podcast.

First of all, I will tell you this: you shouldn't compare yourself to other podcasts.

When you podcast, you're creating a program based on something that you want to see in the world. Focusing on other people's podcasts and comparing theirs does you the disservice of succeeding at your own podcast.  Focus on your own podcast first.

Let's focus on how we can make our podcast stand out from the rest. I don't think it's bad to say that you can observe what other podcasters are doing,  so let me try to explain to you how you can set yourself apart from other...

All I want for podcasters is the best. It's always frustrating for me when I jump into Facebook groups and see that podcasters complaining about the recording and editing process.

But it's just not the podcasters, it's a podcast editors that get too technical or too engrossed in the very fine details. Don't get me wrong, I do think that fine details are important,  but nitpicking about every little sound can just keep you from publishing anything at all.

I want to talk with you about the difference between a podcast recording versus and audiobook recording. There are definite differences in the style of recording so I think it's important that you understand those differences when you go into your  recording and editing process.

DIFFERENT MODES ORAL DELIVERY

As I always mention in my YouTube videos, podcasting can be just about anything that you want it to be. You can see one of my other blogs where I talked about the different styles of podcasting right here.

 But as...

This last week I was clearing out messages in my Twitter inbox and I came across a message from 2017 that I had never answered. I have to admit I feel a little bit ashamed that I didn't get back to that message, and I swear that Twitter never notifies me whenever I receive private DMs.

Nevertheless, I still needed to answer the question for the user because I know that it's a topic that trips people up when it comes to starting up their podcast. Getting the equipment is the easy part. Learning how to use that equipment is the intermediate part.

It's the actual content creation that can be a real difficult problem for podcasters who think their content isn't good enough. Let me help you brainstorm a couple of ideas when it comes to developing the perfect topic for your pilot podcast.

DETERMINE YOUR STYLE OF PODCASTING

Podcasting is more than just getting a microphone, mixing board, and all the fancy little tools to create your audio. Podcasting is more about knowing the style you're...

It's always hard to read in Facebook groups that a podcaster is ready to give up the game.  

Here are some of the reasons why a podcaster might want to quit:

• They are just getting tired of podcasting.
• Aren't seeing an ROI.
• Can't seem to get their social media following to listen.
• Aren't seeing any growth in podcast downloads each week. 

If you're feeling discouraged after podcasting, let me try and help you diagnose the problem and see if we can't get you off on the right foot.

WHAT IS YOUR PODCAST'S PURPOSE?

I know that it might seem like the obvious question but you wouldn't believe how many podcasters don't know what the main purpose is for their podcast.

There are a lot of podcasters out there who say they just want to start a podcast based around conversations they have with their friends. This is okay, but the nature of podcasting is all based around niches and specific topics.

Don't get me wrong I think it's cool that you want to have a conversation around...

As of this post, I just finished editing an in-studio performance by the band Thrice that will be featured on the radio station website (link to come when the video is edited).

Over the past weekend, we had the band come into the studio, sit down with their guitars and play two acoustic tracks for us.  I have to say, being able to be a part of these intimate performances happens to be a great perk of the job. 

But the setup of the performance was something that was on my digital content manager's mind the entire time.  His goal was to capture great audio with great video so that he would be able to share it with the radio station audience.  He recruited a few individuals from the station to film and set up the microphones. 

The setup was simple:

• Two vocal mics
• Two DIs (direct inputs) for guitars
• Record all of these tracks into Presonus to prepare for editing.

When the band came in, they informed us that their guitars didn't have any pickups and we would be...