7 Profitable Podcasting Strategies

These days, a lot of people listen to podcasts. Are you among them? When people find a podcast they enjoy, they will listen to it all the time and consume all the new podcasts that the creator releases. This is a fantastic opportunity to make money.

Podcasts are extremely convenient. They are available in MP3 format and can be listened to on smartphones or tablets. You can listen to a great podcast while driving, but you cannot watch videos. People listen to podcasts while working out, shopping, traveling on trains and buses - in fact, anywhere!

Many marketers attempt but fail to produce successful podcasts. They make numerous errors and lack the patience and determination to see the project through. This guide will teach you how to avoid these blunders and create successful podcasts that your listeners will enjoy.

This is the most important secret to podcasting success. If you choose the wrong niche, you will be doomed to failure from the start, and all of your efforts will be for naught.

You should pick a niche where there is a high demand for content and there are enough content opportunities to keep you busy for a long time. The commercial opportunities available in the niche are also significant.

You will read everywhere that you must choose a podcasting niche in which you are interested. While it is a clever idea in theory, you should test whether there is demand for the niche before proceeding.

The Google Keyword Planner is the simplest way to do this for free. All you need is a free Google Ads account to use the planner. You can use the Google Keyword Planner to see how many people are searching for information on your niche on the Google search engine.

When you use the Google Keyword Planner, you will also receive keyword suggestions. This will greatly assist you in determining the various topics for your podcasts. Begin by using a seed keyword, such as "dog training," and counting the number of searches per month. If there are thousands, you're on to a winner.

There are several ways to monetize your podcasts, which we will go over later. One effective method is to recommend products and services that are relevant to the topic of your podcast. As an example, if your podcast is about email marketing, you could recommend either your own course (if you have one) or someone else's as an affiliate.

It is worthwhile to investigate the commercial viability of your niche ideas. Check out Clickbank.com to see if there are any digital products available in your niche. You can also look for physical product opportunities on Amazon.com.

The ideal podcasting niche is one that you are passionate about and has high demand, a variety of topics for podcast creation, and good commercial opportunities. If you choose a niche in which you are not interested, you can learn everything you can about it and develop a passion for it.

With podcasting, having a passion for your niche is crucial. Listeners will detect the passion, or lack thereof, in your voice. Because this is difficult to fake, genuine interest is always required.

Take your time developing niche ideas and testing them all with Google Keyword Planner. You can begin by listing your interests and passions, followed by subjects in which you excel.

Have expertise in. For example, you may have mastered a specific skill through your work and can speak as an expert about it.

You can also get niche ideas from other websites. Here are some good ones to look into:

• Amazon.com

• Clickbank.com

• Dummies.com

• Magazines.com

When visiting these websites, look through the various categories and subcategories for ideas. If these websites sell products, this is a pretty good indicator that there is a demand for information in the niche. Always use the Google Keyword Planner to double-check this.

Using the microphone in your laptop, smartphone, or the one attached to those cheap headphones for podcast recordings is a terrible idea. They are typically of poor quality, and the sound quality of your recordings will suffer as a result. People who listen to your podcasts will quickly abandon them and leave negative reviews.

You must purchase a high-quality microphone for your recordings. Borrow one if necessary. When people listen to your podcasts, they will judge them based on the content and sound quality. Never make a podcast with poor audio quality. There are only so many things you can do with an audio editing program.

When considering the equipment required for podcasting, you should consider the long term. If you'll be doing mostly solo recordings, invest in a USB microphone, such as the Blue Yetti, that you can plug into your computer. If you intend to invite guests to your podcasting studio, you should purchase XLR dynamic microphones.

Whether you buy a set of high-quality microphones or just one, you should always include a pop filter and a stand or boom arm. A pop filter will improve the quality of your recordings, and the stand will assist you in properly positioning the microphone to record your voice.

A mixer and a digital recorder are essential for a small podcast studio. All of the microphones will also require boom arms. This is a significant investment, so you may want to consider it after your podcasts have proven to be successful.

We also recommend that you purchase some high-quality headphones. Yes, you can record a podcast without headphones, but you won't know how good or bad it sounds until you play it back. You can use headphones to monitor sound quality in real time.

For your recordings, you'll need a good audio editing program. It is unavoidable that you will make mistakes, especially during your first few recordings. Fortunately, there are two excellent free audio editing suites for both Windows and Mac computers:

1. Windows users can make use of Audacity.

2. Garage band is available to Mac users.

These applications will meet all of your audio editing requirements. Others are more expensive, but they are not required to get started. With these two audio editing suites, you can easily add intro and outro music, sound effects, and more. When you're finished recording, you can mix everything together and save it as an MP3 file.

Podcasts can also be recorded on a smartphone or tablet device. You'll need a high-quality microphone that clips onto your lapel or tie to do this. These are available for around $50 on Amazon. You'll also need a recording app, which is readily available for both Android and iOS devices.

Although you can edit podcasts on your smartphone, the small screen makes it difficult. We recommend that you record an audio file on your mobile device and then edit it on your computer.

You will also require some good cover art for your podcasts. This will be used to identify your brand on your podcast page, podcast directories, and other pages. If you are not skilled in graphic design, hire someone on Fiverr.com for a few dollars to do an excellent job for you.

Finally, we recommend that you host your podcast files with a podcast hosting service. You may have a web hosting account with unlimited disk space, but this only applies to web files, not audio files. For a small monthly fee, a good podcast hosting service will store your files and provide you with an RSS link for your podcasts. More to come on this later.

It can be tempting to "wing it" and record podcasts on the fly if you are an expert in your chosen podcasting niche. These are rarely successful. Because there is always pressure when recording, you may miss a few important points and mumble a lot. It's not a good experience for your listeners!

When you first start out, we recommend writing a full script for each podcast. When recording, you can then read from this. You will not forget anything and will be less likely to mumble if you do this. After a while, you can progress to "prompt" scripts, in which you simply work from a list of prompts to remind you of what you need to discuss.

It's a novel idea to conduct interviews with experts in your field and turn them into podcasts. You can use Skype to make a call and then record the conversation. Skype now has its own recorder, which produces a mono recording in MP4 format. You'll need to convert this to MP3 (which isn't difficult), but a mono recording can be tricky.

When using Skype, one of the participants may be recorded much louder than the other. If only one channel is used for recording (mono), the volume imbalance cannot be corrected. Other Skype call recording apps will record on two channels, allowing you to make the necessary adjustments.

Zoom is another option for interview recording. This is more like video conferencing, and you set up a room and invite your interviewee to join. Zoom calls are always recorded, and you will receive a copy after the call has concluded. Zoom offers both free and paid plans, and the recording quality is usually excellent.

If you intend to conduct an online interview with an expert, plan ahead of time for the best results. Before conducting the interview, agree on a list of questions with the interviewee. This allows the interviewee to prepare, and you will receive a higher-quality interview overall.

You must be dedicated to podcasting and be ready to release new podcast episodes on a regular basis. Some podcasters release content every day. We recommend once a week or once every two weeks. Whatever frequency you choose, make sure to stick to it.

To organize everything, use a calendar tool. The free Google Calendar does an excellent job and is all you need. You can plan days for research, preparation, and podcast recording. You can add descriptions and notes to Google Calendar, as well as attach files.

Podcasting requires a lot of consistency.

We've already discussed the importance of high-quality equipment. What we want to talk about here is how to get everything set up correctly so that you can record professionally. If you make a lot of mistakes with your recordings, you'll have to spend a lot of time editing.

If you do not properly record your podcasts, you may make so many mistakes that it is easier to record the entire thing again rather than trying to edit out all of the problems. Follow these steps to reduce your editing time:

Record in a Quiet Area

This is a simple decision. You don't want a lot of unwanted background noise in your podcast recordings, so choose a quiet location. Make sure your phone is turned off or set to silent mode. If you have other people in your house, ask them not to disturb you unless there is an emergency.

Make certain that your speech is clear

We've already mentioned how important good headphones are when recording podcasts. You will be aware of how your voice sounds and whether you are speaking too loudly or too softly.

Speak directly into your microphone at all times. Position your script so that you can read it without looking away from the microphone. You can make any necessary adjustments to your recording software by monitoring with headphones.

Produce Test Recordings

Before you record your entire podcast, make a test recording to ensure that everything is in order and that your speech is clear. Things like having your microphone on mute or not being plugged in at all can go wrong!

A test recording allows you to ensure that everything is working properly and that you are not picking up any unwanted background noise.

Creating a Podcast

Make sure you understand how the audio editing software you choose works. There are several good YouTube videos that will show you how to use the basic and advanced features of Audacity or Garage Band, for example.

Remove anything that will distract your listeners, such as background noise or heavy breathing. If you don't take care of these details, you risk losing your listeners and receiving negative feedback.

After you've finished recording your podcast, listen to it from beginning to end. When you come across a mistake or distraction, edit it right away. After you've finished your edits, go over everything again in case you missed anything.

Make an MP3 podcast file.

Finally, add your intro and outro music and mix everything together to create your MP3 file for publishing. It is critical to include metadata in all of your podcasts, which you do with ID3 tags.

You can enter information such as the title of your podcast, a summary of your podcast, the podcast number, and more here. On a Mac, you can easily add ID3 tags with Audacity, Garage Band, and iTunes.

We recommend that you record a few podcasts before distributing them to podcast directories. This is due to the fact that having only one podcast available does not look good to potential listeners. They want to know that you are serious about producing podcasts on a regular basis.

When you use podcast hosting to store your podcasts, you can use the RSS feed to submit them to podcast directories once. There are numerous podcasting directories available, and you should submit to each of them. You must submit your work to the following major directories: 

• iTunes

• Google Play

• Spotify

• Stitcher

• TuneIn

• SoundCloud

Distributing your podcasts on YouTube is also a novel idea. You can easily convert MP3 podcasts to MP4 files and include a static image. Because YouTube will not accept your RSS podcast feed, you must upload each podcast separately. More people are listening to podcasts on YouTube these days, so take advantage of this.

Don't rely solely on podcast directory submissions to spread the word about your podcasts. Make use of your personal network of family, friends, and colleagues. Request that they share your post on social media with their friends. Also, request that they leave a review on the podcast directory.

If you have a website or blog, use it to promote your podcasts. If you have an email list, send out a broadcast email informing them when new podcasts are available. Request that they listen and leave you a positive review.

Promote your podcasts through your social media channels as well. Create a Facebook page dedicated to your podcast and fill it with all of the necessary information. Facebook Ads are an excellent way to reach your target audience. This is a low-cost method of promoting your podcasts to your target audience.

To make a profit from your podcasts, you must have a large audience. If you want to increase your listener base, you must be consistent with your podcast publishing. If you're going to publish once a week, make it the same day every week. Your listeners will develop the habit of looking for new podcasts on the same day every week.

You need as many positive reviews and ratings as possible for your podcasts. If a potential listener visits your podcast page and finds no reviews, they will leave. People in this day and age will not take action if there are no reviews.

A string of positive reviews is the best proof a new listener has that it is worthwhile for them to spend their time listening to your podcasts. In all of your podcasts, always ask your listeners to leave a review.

Once you have a sufficient number of listeners, you can run a contest through your podcasts. Give away a prize for the best podcast review or social media post about your podcasts. Always include a valuable prize in your contests.

Do you want to make money from your podcasting efforts? Here are a few ideas:

Promote relevant offers in your podcasts - You can promote relevant offers in your podcasts. These can be your own products or services, or those of others for which you earn an affiliate commission.

Set up a Patreon page and ask your listeners to donate to you using Patreon.com.

Find sponsors - There are several websites that can assist you in finding sponsors for your podcast.

Sell premium podcasts - You can create special podcasts that your listeners must pay to access.

Earn ad commissions from YouTube - When you upload your podcasts to YouTube, you can use the Google AdSense program to display advertisements and earn a commission for each click.

Offer consultancy or coaching services - Your listeners will regard you as an authority in your field, which you can capitalize on by offering high-priced consulting or coaching services via Skype.

You know the 7 secrets to profitable podcasting. Now it is your turn to act. Use the methods described in this special report and you will be creating top quality podcasts in no time. Spend most of your time promoting your podcasts and building your listener base so that you can make the most money from your podcasting efforts.