How to make podcast?

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Hoe maak je een podcast?

Want to share your ideas, experiences, or anything else you find interesting with the world? A simple and increasingly popular way to do this is by creating a podcast. Podcasts cover almost any topic you can think of, so if you want to attract listeners, you'll need to differentiate yourself somehow. To help you get started, this blog explains how to create your own podcast.

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#1 Determine your podcast topic

Before you start, it's good to know what a podcast is . Your first step after that is to determine what your podcast is about. What and who do you want to reach with your podcast? What value do you add for the listener? Do you want to inform or entertain? For an informative podcast, it's important and helpful to have a specific topic or common thread. It also helps if you're passionate about the topic yourself. When you genuinely enjoy a topic, you talk about it more enthusiastically, making it more engaging for listeners to keep listening. For a podcast primarily focused on entertaining the listener, the topic is less important. You can also share random fun stories and anecdotes about various topics.

Start by writing a short description of your podcast. Try to explain why listeners should listen to it. This will give you a clear picture of what you'll be doing. You can then add this description when you upload your podcast to various platforms.

Popular podcast categories include News, Politics, and Sports for men. For women, they include Health, Psychology, and True Crime. You can choose a topic within one of these categories, as many people search for them, but that also means there are many other podcasts with similar topics.

In addition, it is also important to determine with whom you are going to record the podcast and where you are going to record it. Are you going to do this alone, with two people or perhaps with a group? If you are going to record a podcast alone, you can simply do this at home. Suppose you want to record a podcast with several people, then it is possible that not everyone is in the same place. Maybe someone lives on the other side of the world.

#2 Make sure you have the right podcast gear

Your subject is one of the most important things about your podcast, because this attracts the listeners, but it is also very important to retain your listeners. You do this by, among other things, ensuring that the sound is pleasant to listen to. For this, you will need to purchase a good podcast microphone, for example. You do not want a lot of crackling, noise or unclear sound in your recording. That is of course very unpleasant to listen to.

Want more tips on podcast equipment? Read our blog about: “What do you need to record a podcast” .

Here we discuss all the equipment you may need to record a podcast.

Please note: Not all equipment is necessary. In principle, you can already record a podcast with a telephone and a simple lapel microphone.

#3 Decide how you want to record the podcast

You've come up with your podcast topic and gathered a microphone and all the other supplies. Now you need a way to record your podcast. You'll need to decide whether you want to do this on a smartphone, laptop, or PC. There are various options for these devices. If you're recording a podcast with several people, will you all do it in one location or remotely?
Also consider whether you want to record only audio or video as well. If you choose to record a video podcast, we recommend reading our blog about video podcasts .

3.1 Recording a podcast remotely

When you want to record a podcast remotely with different people, you always have the problem that in meeting software, such as Zoom, Skype, Discord or Teams, the sound is compressed. This causes the sound quality to decrease significantly. There are a number of options to maintain your sound quality remotely. The easiest option is to use podcast software. We recommend using Riverside or Detail .

Both apps have a free version, but of course there are some disadvantages. For example, on the free version of Detail you always have a watermark in your video. This does not give a professional look, so that is not desirable. If you only plan to record sound, that is of course not a problem. With the free version of Riverside you can only record 2 hours of podcasts before you have to take out a subscription.

Don’t want to use a podcast app? There are a few workarounds. You can choose to use meeting software like Zoom and accept the loss of sound quality. We don’t recommend this. Another option is to have all podcast members record their audio locally and sync it later via editing software.

3.2 Recording a podcast locally

Recording a podcast locally is a lot easier. You can record both the audio and video locally at the same time, so there is no loss of sound quality. However, you can still choose to use one of the apps described above to record your podcast. The features in these apps can be very useful, but are not necessary.

If you prefer not to use a podcast app, you can use recording software. Software that we recommend are Audacity and Adobe Audition . If you also want to add images to your podcast, you will have to synchronize this afterwards in editing software. You can also choose to record everything together at once, for example you can use OBS-studio . The disadvantage of OBS-Studio compared to Audacity and Audition, is that Audacity and Audition are specialized audio recording software programs and therefore have more options than OBS. In Audacity you can for example edit your audio immediately, that is not an option in OBS. Audacity is completely free, Audition is included in the Creative Cloud subscription of Adobe and OBS-studio is also completely free.

#4 Edit your podcast

Unfortunately, it is never possible to record your podcast in one go without errors. After recording, you will have to edit your podcast so that you can adjust or filter out slips of the tongue or silence. There are various programs for this. Audacity is one of the most obvious programs, because you can also record your podcast with it. In addition, the program is completely free and open-source.

The only downside to Audacity is that you can't edit video. If you want to upload your podcast to YouTube, TikTok or Instagram, for example, you'll want to add images. For this, we recommend Adobe Premiere Pro . This is also included in Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription. Premiere Pro is not cheap, but it is the best option.

Do you prefer not to spend money, for example because you do not yet know whether your podcast will be a success? Then CapCut is also a good option. Capcut is completely free and has all the features you need in principle. It does lack some functions compared to Premiere Pro, but it is a good option for the beginning podcaster.

#5 Publish your podcast

Your podcast is finally ready after recording and editing. The next step is publishing it so people can actually listen to it. Many podcast platforms don’t allow you to just upload an MP3 or MP4 file. You will need to host your podcast somewhere. The hosting platform will then create an RSS feed. You can connect this feed to the podcast platforms. There are several options. Most hosting platforms charge a monthly fee.

We recommend Spotify for Podcasters . This is a free podcast hosting feed. You have pretty much the same features as on the paid hosting services. Once you have uploaded the podcast to Spotify, you can then share it with the other podcast platforms.

Try to upload your podcast to as many platforms as possible. The more platforms your podcast is available on, the greater your reach. You can also upload your podcast to YouTube as an MP4.

    • Apple podcast
    • Spotify
    • Google podcast
    • Pocket Casts
    • Overcast
    • SoundCloud
    • Podcast Addict
    • Castbox
    • Podimo

#6 Promote your podcast

Your podcast is now online, but people still need to know it's online. As discussed in the introduction, there are so many podcasts online, so yours won't be easy to find. Therefore, it's crucial to bring your podcast to the attention of your target audience. This works best through various social media platforms, particularly short-form content. Create short clips of your podcast and distribute them on Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts, TikTok, Facebook, and so on. Initially, asking friends and family to listen to your podcast and share it within their circles and social media can be very impactful. The same goes for short clips on social media. The more people see, like, and share them, the faster the algorithm will pick it up and your podcast will spread to more people.

Hopefully, the steps above will help you create your podcast. Do you have any further questions about recording a podcast or purchasing the right gear ? Feel free to contact us. Good luck!