Every day is a school day: what I learned about podcasting
I have some clients who are always pushing me to learn new things. I don’t think it’s deliberate on their part, but they trust me to figure stuff out and give them the best advice and implement new features to a high standard.
That trust is very empowering and it makes me want to learn and expand the services I can then offer to others.
This week I have had a very steep learning curve helping one of my clients sort out their podcast.
It was previously hosted on some rather strange US-based website that I won’t name but is an example of one of the worst websites I’ve ever seen, yes EVER! And I’ve seen some pretty awful websites! Not only did it look absolutely shocking, the user experience was dreadful and it wasn’t even performing well on search and traffic. So basically had nothing going for it.
Worst of all, my client was paying $150 A MONTH for it.
They really needed this fixing fast and, hands up, I have literally no experience of setting up a podcast whatsoever. None. (I’m an avid Spotify user but that doesn’t actually help at all.)
Where did I start? Google obvs…
I read tech magazines, user reviews, ‘best of’ lists and browsed through tons (well a few) of the market leading podcast hosts. Let’s be totally honest here, I didn’t even know that was a thing.
I spoke to a trusted friend who has recently launched a podcast as well.
There’s plenty of good ones out there - here’s a quick list:
Captivate.fm - UK market leader, from £17 a month.
Anchor.fm - Spotify’s own, free but takes commission from sponsors.
Blubrrry.fm - the one my friend used, from £8 a month
And lots more.
And what I discovered, thanks to the amazing help provided by the people at Blubrrry, is that my client’s podcast ‘host’ wasn’t even a host. They are a sort of ‘reseller’ of podcasts in a particular niche. So they pay for a hosting service which happens to be talkshoe.com (even though the user interface stated Blubrry) and then they just charge an extortionate fee to the client for ‘hosting’ it on their site. I was shocked.
Through the research I did, and a discussion with my client, we decided to go for Captivate. And I am sooo glad we did. It has been like playing with a new toy on Christmas morning most days this week!
These were the steps to get my client up and running in just three days:
Start a free trial with Captivate - no credit card needed but I wish the trial had been a little longer than 7 days because I did feel a bit of pressure to learn very very fast!
Import the old podcast - this was tricky because the old ‘host’ did not want to play ball. They are supposed to provide the url for the RSS feed but wouldn’t. They are also supposed to put a 301 redirect onto the networks so that Apple, Spotify and the rest know where to find the show at its new home. They refused. But plucky me did not give up and again, thank you so so much to Blubrry, they located the RSS feed so that I could then import it. And once I had that it was so so easy!
Set up new cover art and show description - though if my client had wanted to, they could have used what they already had.
Add pre- and post-roll segments - my client had these recorded from someone on fiverr.com - and bingo, all ready to rock n roll with the first episode in the new home! (These segments will automatically be added to all new episodes, saving my client tons of time and effort.)
Set up the media player so I could embed it in their website - looks great, works perfectly.
Added the client’s social links.
Created default show notes.
Added a call to action to promote their book that accompanies the show.
And finally, submitted the show to a load of new networks across the world - increasing my client’s global reach into Asia in particular.
It really has been a great experience learning how to do this.
I bet you’re wondering what the show is though aren’t you? And it would hardly be fair if I didn’t give my client a shout-out after their huge contribution to my learning.
