The not so subtle Art of Podcasting.
Podcasts are fun. 2019–20 saw a rise in podcasts in India after Spotify officially launched in India. Listeners and also creators jumped on this opportunity to be in the early league of launching a podcast while it was still fresh.
So, in 2020, I decided to launch my podcast too. The podcast was called “Pixelated Thoughts.” In this podcast, I spoke about my journey as a student entrepreneur. Starting the podcast was one part, but getting the podcast going was the part that required a lot of dedication.
My podcast started with a bang. It garnered loads of views and amazing reviews from our listeners. I used to post one podcast episode a week. It would take me a minimum of 2–3 hours to write, record and produce the episode. Yes, write. I know a podcast is just talking about a particular topic. But if your conversation doesn’t have a structure or a smooth flow, it won’t reflect well with your listeners. Always remember your podcast is a source for your listeners to learn something new. So, try your best to have a solid structure for your conversation.
Here are few tips for someone who wants to start a podcast on their own :
- Pick a niche topic: Pick something you like, and figure out who else is speaking about it. If there are too many podcasts in the same niche, then try to innovate.
- Learn from competitors: Use your competitors as research material, don’t copy but understand how they produce their episode. Get to know their style, their flow, their execution. Learn and implement your learning in your podcasts.
- Longer, the better: Instinctively, you might feel short episodes are the way forward. You may or may not be correct. I analysed my nine episodes and realized that the longer episodes got more views and repeat listeners.
- Magical Thumbnails: Get your thumbnails right. Designing eye-catchy thumbnails that can be shared across the web will help you get more attention to your podcast links.
- Upload the show notes: Don’t forget to upload show notes to your podcast. Show notes are nothing but your script to the podcast. It will help the listeners read the script and visit the reference links you spoke about in the podcast.
My podcast didn’t fail. I failed at uploading episodes weekly. Due to which my podcast has just nine episodes. However, my co-founder and I are planning something new to get back in the podcasting groove. So, stay tuned as it will be amazing.
For those who want to get started with podcasts, here’s a quick reference guide to get started: https://castos.com/how-to-submit-a-podcast-to-spotify/
Listen to Pixelated Thoughts : https://open.spotify.com/show/6wjMu9GeKLDLTON6NuXyjC
Ashley Alexsius D’souza Founder — Hexcoderz
