Can I Launch a Podcast in January 2023?
New Year, New Show? It's Absolutely Doable.
The barriers to entry in podcasting are among the lowest of any mass media, even before we have to pay to make Twitter barely useable. The time and money required to get a podcast out there aren’t trivial, but they’re manageable for lots of people. If someone kidnapped your dog, and forced you to launch a brand new podcast as ransom, odds are you could make that happen before he missed two consecutive walks. (With a lot less pain than going John Wick on them.)
However, if you want to do it well, it’s worth investing more time than elapses between morning nap and afternoon walkies. I usually recommend a six-to-eight-week development schedule to my clients. If launching a podcast in January is on your list of resolutions, now is the time to start making moves.
Setting up the technical infrastructure to publish a podcast requires a lot of fiddly steps, but none of them individually are that complicated or expensive. Lots of podcast hosts have free or low-cost starter accounts. Their help docs will give you about 90% of the information you need to create artwork, write a description, upload an episode, and submit your RSS feed to the big podcast directories; the remaining 10% is easily googleable.
Once you have all that in place, the directories will take some time to check out your show before they start sharing it, but it’s usually negligible. Apple and Spotify tend to approve new shows almost instantly if they have the right specs. Google and Stitcher can take a few days, and times can vary among other directories.
Figuring out your process for recording is both the most important and the most time-consuming. I don’t mean the tech specs; a decent USB mic will sound fine. If you have the resources, hiring an editor will help you sound better. But if all you have is a great idea and a phone with voice memo recording, don’t despair. The range of “acceptable” sound quality has broadened dramatically since COVID lockdowns forced public radio hosts into recording under their dining room tables. There’s also nothing wrong with starting scrappy and letting your show improve as you go. Hone your technique, and by the time you can upgrade your equipment, you’ll be better positioned to take advantage of it.
Your time is much better-spent testing and developing the how and when of recording. If you’re someone who loves a rigid schedule, who’s motivated by having an appointment to record every week at the same time, that’s great! If not, you need to figure out an approach that fits with your life and style. Maybe you can record a batch of episodes over a single weekend and release them over the month. Or maybe you have to wait for inspiration to strike, and you’ll have to wait on publishing until you have a buffer of recordings saved up.
Finding the method that works best for you is crucial. Whether you’re podcasting for fun or profit, building an audience takes time. Developing a process you enjoy increases the chances you’ll stick with it long enough for them to find you.
If you have the resources, hiring an experienced producer can make all of the above more manageable. They can handle the fiddly bits so you can concentrate on the fun parts, help you get the most out of your recording setup, and work with the raw recording to make your edited episodes sound as professional as possible. Most importantly, they can help you figure out how best to sustain your excitement through the recording process.
If hiring help isn’t attainable at the start, don’t let that stop you. Figuring things out on the DIY is a time-honored tradition, and the relatively low cost of podcasting makes it a great medium in which to try, fail, and try something different. Just like a fancy microphone, an experienced producer can help you sound better, but their input will be more effective if you’ve spent some time figuring out how to best deploy them.
If launching a podcast is on your to-do list for the New Year, I’d love to help you check it off. Click here to book a call, and let’s see how I can help.