Because Sally and I are totally new to making podcasts, you might be wise to ignore anything we have to say about the process.
On the other hand... for anyone else who wants to start a podcast without a lot of technical expertise, we hope you'll find some help in this guide to how we created I Couldn't Throw It Out...
COMMUNITY
When you start a podcast, it makes a huge difference if you have a community of people to advise you. There are many ways to find a community online. But we settled on a Facebook group called Buzzsprout Podcast Community. When you post a question within that group -- and watch for answers to the questions that other people post -- you can get extremely valuable advice. We solved many problems with their help.
(FYI: Though Buzzsprout is a podcast hosting company, you don't have to host your podcast on Buzzsprout to join the Facebook group.)
EQUIPMENT
If you have a laptop, you need very little other equipment to launch a podcast. But here are a few important and relatively inexpensive items that we purchased...
Microphones
Like many podcasters, we wanted microphones with a USB plug that can be attached right to our laptops. Initially, we purchased Blue Yeti microphones, which were recommended as a low-cost option.
Blue Yetis can sound fine, especially if you're recording several people at the same time with one microphone. However... if we could do it over again, we'd make a different choice.
The Blue Yeti is so sensitive that it picks up noise from around the room. Because Sally records in an echoing office with no rug or curtains, she gave up her Blue Yeti and switched to a low-cost alternative that is highly recommended by several podcasters in the Buzzsprout Podcast Community. This mic focuses more on her voice, and less on the room:
- AudioTechnica ATR2100X-USB Cardioid Microphone
Meanwhile, the key detail with any microphone is the placement. You need to keep it close to your mouth, preferably off to the side so you're not spitting into it.
I couldn't get the placement right until.... I bought a boom arm to hold the mic, allowing me to move it just where I want it. This was one of the best investments we made for the podcast. I highly recommend this boom arm, which attaches easily to your desk:
- Rode PSA1
Headphones
There are many good reasonably priced headphones. Because of our limited budget, we were advised to buy AKG K72 headphones, which are made in Austria.
The key detail: Get headphones that fit your head comfortably and snugly -- so they leak as little sound as possible. If you're interviewing guests who are in another location and speaking to you via Zoom or some other Internet service, you should be recording their voice through their microphone. You do not want to record their voice from sound that is leaking out of your headphones.
One way to avoid this problem: Don't crank up the volume in hour headphones. You want it loud enough to hear your guest but not so loud that your microphone hears it too.
Soundproofing
Many rooms generate an echo when you record. Getting closer to your mic can improve the sound. But it also reduces the echo if you soften some of the hard surfaces around you.
Sally made a large improvement just by putting a throw rug on the floor, a towel on her desk and another one bunched up on the wall in front of her. It would make the sound even better to have a soft surface behind her -- a curtain or a towel hanging on a rack. But because she records in a rented office space, we couldn't figure out a way to do that.
I moved my own recording setup into a closet. Then I got a couple of boxes of inexpensive egg crate foam and taped it to the wall in front of me and behind me with double-stick removable tape. That was easy and made the sound a lot better.
RECORDING
For our first episodes, we each recorded our own tracks into our computers. Then we shared the files on Dropbox and put them together in an audio editor. This led to a variety of problems. Definitely not recommended.
Some podcasters use Zoom to record. But we have been using Riverside.fm, a paid service that is like a Zoom, but with much better sound quality meant for podcasts. As with Zoom, I send a link to participants. We meet and record online at that link.
If you're planning to post podcast videos on Youtube, Riverside.fm captures video of each session , then makes it really easy to select, edit and upload video clips -- even if you've never done video editing previously.
Riverside.fm also automatically provides an AI-generated transcript of every session. The accuracy is extraordinary and it saves a lot of time.
A few tips when using Riverside.fm:
- Make sure your guests use some type of headphones. Even $10 headphones from the drug store will help. Otherwise, there will be audio problems.
- The audio is recorded on each computer. So even if a bad internet connection makes the audio sound choppy during the interview, the final audio -- recorded locally on each computer -- may sound perfect. But there's one key detail: Don't let guests leave Riverside.fm until the audio has uploaded completely. You don't get any of their audio till the upload is complete.
AUDIO EDITING
I never thought I'd like audio editing. It seemed so complicated. But, actually, I really enjoy editing with an audio editing tool (which has an annual fee) called Hindenburg. They have really helpful training videos that I had to watch a few times. But they also have great customer service. There are cheaper options, but for me, it's definitely worth the fee to use a tool that I find intuitive and fun to use.
Meanwhile, our podcast often includes snippets of audio from my old low-quality recording tapes. Sometimes I struggle to make them audible. So I turned for help from audio expert Jesse McCune. He advised me to purchase some easy-to-use add-ons that greatly improve the sound. Then he patiently helped me get set up and showed me how to use them. If you have problems with audio quality, I'd recommend hiring Jesse and investing in an hour of his time. You can reach Jesse via his website.
PODCAST AUDIO FILE HOSTING
There are many podcast hosting services out there. After hours of comparing them, I made the wrong choice. Twice. But the third time's a charm. We're now using Buzzsprout -- and I can't say enough good things about them. Excellent customer service. Easy tools that anyone can understand. And one important key point: Like several other podcast hosting companies, Buzzsprout generates a free website. That's fine if you want something bare bones. But, if you want to build a custom site elsewhere, Buzzsprout will hide their free site. This is a really important detail. Other podcast hosts can't do this, so you end up with two sites -- and it splits your traffic. But Buzzsprout solves the problem by hiding the automated site.
PODCAST WEBSITE
We wanted a custom website where we could build out interaction with our listeners, a blog, and other special features. So it's as if Brenden Mulligan, the creator of Podpage, read our minds. He makes it so easy to set up a site, provides excellent customer service, and basically anticipated everything we could ever want. Again, we pay an extra fee for this, but the ease of use and extra features that we get in return are totally worth it.
WEBSITE URL REGISTRATION
There are lots of convenient registries out there. We had a good experience registering our web address with Namecheap
NEWSLETTER MAILING SERVICE
If you have a podcast, you probably need a newsletter to tell followers about new episodes. I learned the hard way that you can't do this with Gmail -- because a lot of what you send will end up in spam folders and people won't see it. So I looked at all the email services and chose MailerLite for sending my podcast newsletter. MailerLite has a free option for when you're getting started. You have to pay more only when you get larger numbers of subscribers.
MailerLite has a lot of fancy design options that I don't need. But their rich text editor is easy to use and very convenient.
One warning: You need to create a custom email address in order to use MailerLite. You can't use a Gmail address. You can create a custom email address with the same company where you register the URL for your website. It's a bit of a hassle. But you can't even test MailerLite till you have a custom email address. So that's step one.
SUMMARY
Ultimately, everything I listed above added up to more money than I initially intended to spend. But during our first year and a half, I decided to stretch the budget a little as we kept discovering new ways to improve. Several of the necessary podcast services (for hosting, recording, editing) involve recurring monthly or annual costs. I don't see how I could do the project without them. So if you're starting a podcast, it might make sense to plan from the beginning for those recurring costs.
Many thanks to all of the people who helped us create I Couldn't Throw It Out!