Audience

In this episode Matt and Craig look back at the first iteration of Castos' podcast.

Questions that we (and you if you've ever 'podfaded') are asking ourselves are: 

Once you have solid answers to these questions a few patterns typically start to emerge about why some podcasts are successful and we stick with them, and why others start, stop, and ultimately fail.  

Having the two podcasts that we've run here at Castos to compare and contrast is a good case study in what to do, and what not to do, for us all. 

This episode is about realigning your podcasting expectations. Why you need to serve your listeners, no matter how many there are, and get clarity on what you want to achieve.

In this episode Craig sits down for a chat with Steve Pratt from Pacific Content. 

“How do podcasts make money?” is a legitimate question to ask yourself as you pour time and resources into creating a show. If you want to do it seriously, finding a way earn money podcasting will help you produce it over the long term.

In this post, we’ll go over 20 different strategies to monetize a podcast to help you get started. Updated for 2020, we sourced advice from successful podcasters, industry veterans, and newbie hosts on how they monetized their podcast.

There are two main distinctions in how podcasts make money today. When combined together, they produce a steady revenue stream that can help you earn an income podcasting.

The strategies that are currently the most popular fall into the direct monetization category. Direct podcast monetization is when the show is the thing you’re selling. You can profit from creating original content, repurposing it, and granting exclusive access to paying members.

On the other side is indirect podcast monetization. This is when you use your podcast as a tool to sell other things. Your podcast becomes the vehicle to promote products and create demand among your listeners.

With the general definition down, now let’s dive into specific podcast monetization techniques for each category. Remember, finding a balance between many strategies is the best way to make money podcasting.

Here are our favorite direct podcast monetization strategies to explore. Choose the ones that fit best for your show.

The simplest way to monetize a podcast is to ask people for money. Plenty of fans are happy to throw a few dollars to their favorite podcasters to ensure they continue to get great content. When people ask us how to monetize a podcast, this is always the first solution we recommend because it’s easy to set up and promote.

You can add a PayPal button or open a Stripe account and add a donation form to your site. Or set up a GoFundMe campaign for a simple collection page.

To avoid feeling slimy about this kind of self-promotion, keep your calls-to-action authentic. Are you asking for donations so you can spend more time creating new episodes? Tell your audience that.

If people understand where the money is going, they’ll be more apt to donate.

The latest trend in podcasting is creating paid membership tiers. Listeners can pay to access exclusive content, private Facebook groups, or podcast swag.

The best way to get this started is to create a Patreon account. It’s well-respected and simple to use. You can use their default settings or create your own system of levels and rewards for donors.

If you go with Patreon, play around with the level options. You can reward fans for their contributions with swag, content, or other perks. You may find more listeners are willing to support the show because they’re receiving either a physical product or exclusive episodes for their contribution.

Other membership site options include Glow.fm and Supercast.

Sponsorship is the most common way to monetize a podcast. Aside from accepting donations it’s also the easiest because you don’t have to create or sell anything. You just have to set up a deal with a sponsor.

You’ve probably heard podcasters start their show or break in with something like “This episode is brought to you by [some company]. If you’re looking for a…” You get the idea. That’s a sponsorship.

Sponsorships pay more depending on how many people listen to your show. As the number of people who listen increases, so will your revenue. But that also means this is a tough way to make money if you don’t have many listeners.

Generally, you can charge for “pre-roll” and “mid-roll” mentions. Mid-row (during your episode) pay more. Promote the sponsor at both points if you’re comfortable.

Here are a few places to find sponsorship deals:

Learn more at How to Get Podcast Sponsors (That Your Audience Won’t Hate)

Advertising networks like AdvertiseCast, Midroll, Podcorn, and PodGrid act as middlemen between hosts and sponsors.

When you apply to each platform, they will take a cut from the ad placements included in your show so be sure to read the fine print. Typically, the revenue share follows a CPM model where you are paid for every 1,000 impressions served to the ad unit.

Confused? Here’s what the math boils down to. AdvertiseCast has a 70/30 revenue share model where the podcast host takes 70% of the revenue earned and they take 30%. If a podcast has between 1,000-2,499 listeners per episode, the 30 second ad unit has a $23 CPM. After 2,000 listens, the sponsor pays $46. That’s $23 * 2 because the sponsor is charged per 1,000 listens. In the end, the podcast host will take home $32.20 and AdvertiseCast takes $13.80.

Depending on your reach, it’s important to estimate what you might earn from an advertising network. AdvertiseCast has a pricing calculator that estimates the total cost of ad units placed in your show. Just remember, you’ll only take home 70% of the total.

Since you know your audience likes to listen to your podcast, there’s a good chance some of them will pay for premium versions of your content. All you have to do is create some special recordings that are only available for purchase.

You might sell:

The Daily Wire takes a unique approach to premium content. For $10/month, subscribers can access video versions of their podcast episodes.

An easy way to create premium content is to record it while you record your free stuff. Let’s say you invite a guest on your show. Record a 30 minute discussion, then an additional 10 minutes to sell as a bonus. Make sure that extra 10 minutes includes something juicy people will want to buy.

A word of warning here: Make sure your free stuff still has plenty of value. You don’t want your listeners to assume you’re hiding all the good stuff in the paid content or they won’t bother.

If you started a podcast ages ago and have built up a back catalog of episodes, try this strategy.

Instead of creating new premium content, you can restrict access to your older episodes. This means you’ll add a paywall for users to listen to the older material.

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History is a great example. His recent episodes are free to download, but his older stuff costs $1.99 on his website.

A great way to create sellable content is to repurpose things you’ve already created. This reduces the time you would spend making something similar.

Take a few of your best podcast episodes that relate to similar topics. Transcribe them yourself or use Castos automatic transcription services right from your dashboard. Then edit the transcriptions, add more value and resources where you can, and package them together into a book.

If this strategy to monetize a podcast appeals to your listeners, invest a little money into a professional design from a service like 99Designs. Then you can put it in a format that’s suitable for Amazon. Selling books on Amazon is far more effective than trying to sell it through your own website.

Next, market your new book on your podcast. Point out that it’s a comprehensive way to learn everything you’ve taught.

An easy way to squeeze some cash out of what you’ve already created is to publish your podcasts to YouTube as videos.

This is a quick process. All you have to do is enable monetization in your account settings and Google will handle the ads and distributing your money.

You don’t have to do a lot of video editing. Just add a single image to your episode recording. Also think about YouTube SEO best practices to surface your videos in more search results.

How much can you make on YouTube? It depends on a number of factors, like video views, how long people watch, whether they skip your ads, and whether they click on your ads. Generally speaking, you can make between $0.50 and $2.00 per view.

Instead of simply uploading your entire recording, break it into consumable chunks that last three to five minutes. For instance, you might slice out a few buzz-worthy questions from your interview. Even though it all comes from the same recording, you’ll end up with more video content. Then give it a compelling headline that makes people want to click. “Mark Roberts Says Blockchain Will Take Over The Travel Industry in 2020” is a better title than “Episode 019 | Blockchain Technology with Guest Mark Roberts.”

Here are even more ways to make money from your podcast. Check out some of these techniques to monetize a podcast indirectly.

When an audience loves a podcast, they might be buying merchandise that shows off the show. You could sell T-shirts, mugs, stickers, or really anything that lets your audience connect with the show outside of listening to the latest episodes.

Showcase the podcast’s name, a repeated catch phrase, or an inside joke on the merch. Your calls-to-action can describe the moment a listener may pass a stranger on the street and realize they’re wearing a tee shirt from their favorite show. Instantly a bond is formed from their shared love of your show.

Joe Rogan, host of the popular Joe Rogan Experience, has its own store stocked with many of the products Joe wears.

And these days, you don’t need to actually handle any products in order to have your own E-commerce store.

With Teespring, you can design and showcase products that are only printed/created when someone buys. This way you don’t have to put any money down.

With Oberlo, you can create a drop-shipping store that automatically purchases products from another source when your customers make an order.

We advise that you use a print-on-demand service for merchandise at first. This way you won’t have to buy a pallet of inventory. If you buy a bunch of inventory, there’s a chance you won’t be able to sell it.

Public speaking is actually a simple transition for a lot of podcast hosts. If you’re comfortable speaking on your show, you’ll probably do well in front of a crowd. Admittedly, standing in front of a bunch of people is a unique challenge, but it’s less of a problem if you already know how to craft a script.

How much you can make on speaking fees varies widely. Some speakers get a small stipend and travel expenses. Other speakers make six figures or more.

How do you get into public speaking?

You’ll have to start small in the beginning. Don’t expect to fill stadiums–or even auditoriums. Your first speaking gigs will have 5-8 people in attendance, but that’s okay. Use those gigs to hone your presentation skills and build relationships.

A mastermind group is a unique way to monetize a podcast because you get more value from it than just money.

A mastermind is a small group of people dedicated to supporting one another toward a common goal. They offer education, brainstorming, and accountability to help you stay on track with whatever you’re trying to learn or accomplish.

In a mastermind group, you’re a member too, which means you have to limit it to a small group of people who can add value to your business as well. You should not be a teacher, but you can still charge for slots because you’re the organizer.

The challenge with masterminds, however, is that members expect value. They put a lot of work in too, so they won’t be satisfied if you or anyone else who’s part of the mastermind disappears for a week or two. If you choose this avenue to promote your podcast, you need to commit to it.

You can meet in person if your members are close, but masterminds work well online too. We recommend using a private group, like a Facebook group or Slack work space.

If your podcast is educational or aims to teach listeners a new skill, creating a standalone e-course is the perfect way to earn some money.

To create a course, you can either do it on your own website (with a tool like MemberPress) or host it on a third-party platform like Udemy, Coursera, or Skillshare.

If you think courses are the right way for your to monetize a podcast, we recommend creating your first course on one of those third-party platforms. Yes, you’ll pay some fees for each person who takes the course, but you’ll skip having to build a functional system on your own website. If courses turn out to be your money-maker, then bring it all in-house.

A clever way to monetize a podcast is to include a downloadable resource with each podcast episode that relates to that episode. This is called a content upgrade because it upgrades or enhances the listener’s experience.

For instance, let’s say you host a fishing podcast. In one episode, you talk about fishing for trout. At the end of the episode, you tell your fans to go to your website and buy your 99¢ map of the best trout fishing spots in the U.S.

To sell a content upgrade, you’ll have to place a payment form on your site somewhere for listeners to pay and download the form. The best place for this is the page where you publish your podcast download links and/or audio player.

And if you’re selling content upgrades to monetize a podcast, you may as well add an ecommerce shopping cart to your site so you can list your content upgrades individually. This way people can browse your previous upgrades in one place, rather than sorting through every post.

An information product is a type of content people buy to learn new things. It could be anything: A template, a resource, a guide, an ebook, a worksheet, etc. Unlike content upgrades, a general information product doesn’t have to relate to a specific episode, but would solve a broader issue or problem your listeners face.

The biggest benefit of selling information products through your podcast is that you can plug them as often as you like in your podcast script to prevent sales from falling flat. You can also source questions or comments from your listeners and answer them on your show, which adds more value to their purchase.

If you’re acutely aware of your listeners’ challenges and problems, you can monetize a podcast by designing an app that suits their needs. If you host a parenting podcast, you might sell a calendar app designed specifically for parents. If you host an astronomy podcast, you might sell a star-finder app.

Elsie Escobar of Elsie’s Yoga Class Live and Unplugged is a great example of this. She sells a $3.99 app that gives users access to 70+ yoga classes with PDF explainers.

Alternatively, you might sell a simple branded app that helps people interact with you and your content better. It could have your podcast episodes, blog content, updates, your schedule, and maybe a way to talk with you directly.

App development can be expensive if you don’t know how to do it yourself. Make sure you get plenty of information from a developer before you get started so you don’t burn too much cash or wind up with a half-finished product you can’t afford.

If you have a local following or a devout audience who wouldn’t mind traveling to see you, sell tickets to a live event where your fans can meet you in person.

The type of event you host will depend on your audience and your podcast’s topic. You might give a lecture, run a workshop, teach a skill, or simply host a group discussion. Eventbrite is a great tool to sell your own tickets for a live event.

To be fair, this is a challenging way to monetize a podcast. We recommend holding onto this tactic until you have a loyal following. Events don’t need thousands of attendees to turn a profit but you do need some people to show up.

And if you’re considering traveling to new cities to host events, analyze where your listeners are first. Head to your podcast host’s analytics dashboard and go through the geographic reports. A no-brainer is hosting events in cities where you already have a following.

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The biggest benefit of hosting a podcast is that you establish yourself as an authority in a niche. Your audience comes to respect you as an informed expert. So a great way to monetize a podcast is to offer services that tie in with your topic.

For instance, a productivity and wellness podcast might offer personal life coaching. A marketing podcast might sell personalized marketing strategies.

Getting started here is quite easy. You just need a landing page on your website with a form or widget for people to sign up for a coaching session with you.

What’s a coaching session? It can be anything you like. It might as simple as a phone call or Skype chat, or as complex as an in person visit at the client’s location. Put together whichever type of service is right for your customer.

Some companies have open affiliate programs you can take advantage of. You don’t have to arrange a deal or get approved. You just sign up and tell them where to send your payments. You get paid whenever someone signs up with your link.

Instead of creating your own products to sell, you could sell other people’s products for a cut of their sales. There are two methods to do this.

The first method is to promote their products yourself. For example, Audible’s partner program is common among podcasters. They give you a free link to promote. You get $15 anytime someone signs up for a free trial using your link.

The second method is to have the product owner come on your show to push their own products. The benefit here is that the product owner knows how to sell his own product better than you, so he can say the right things to drive more sales.

You’ll still need a special URL to track sales. We recommend something like yourdomain.com/product-name. Set up the URL with a redirect so you can see exactly how many people followed it. Make sure to establish a reasonable commission beforehand.

Make sure to disclose any affiliate relationships. If you don’t, your listeners might feel deceived.

Many businesses start podcasts to support larger initiatives. Even back in 2018, Fast Company found “branded podcasts are the ads people actually want to listen to”.

If you host a podcast that complements your company, you’re in the perfect position to generate extremely qualified leads. For example, say you own an accounting company and recently started a podcast educating people on how to do their taxes. While you’re giving away free advice on the show, you’re also weaving in your company’s value in doing people’s taxes for them. When April comes around, who is the first company your listeners will think of to handle their complicated tax returns? Yours.

Some hosts love being part of a podcast network while others enjoy their independence. But one perk of a network is bargaining power.

Bargaining power is the relative influence someone has over someone else. When each party has relatively equal bargaining power, each has the same footing inside a negotiation. By building a podcast network, you’re positioning your podcast and others to have more equal power to the sponsors you want to attract.

Starting a podcast network can take many forms and be either a formal, contractual structure or something more DIY. Team up with complementary shows in your niche where you have some overlap or build a network full of unrelated shows to hit multiple niches.

In either circumstance, pooling the reach and influence of each podcast within a network allows you to pitch more lucrative sponsorship deals. You also have more of a chance to get on the radar of larger advertisers with bigger budgets because you’ve increased your bargaining power.

There are plenty of methods to monetize a podcast. There’s not one path or one right way to do it.

The trick, however, is to monetize your podcast in a way that doesn’t disappoint your listeners. This means finding the monetization technique they don’t find intrusive. In many cases, that means using a little bit of several techniques, rather than pushing one method too hard.

Recently Matt Wolfe and Joe Fier surveyed 1,000 podcast hosts on how they earn money podcasting for Podcast Magazine. Most were using a combination of the techniques we outlined above. Here’s what they found:

No! While podcast revenue is on the rise, starting a podcast solely to earn money isn’t advisable.

The foundation of how to earn money while podcasting is having a loyal audience. Loyal audiences follow hosts who are passionate about their topic. If the sole objective of a podcast is to earn money, there will be an obvious lack of enthusiasm and in turn, no eager fans tuning in each week.

Start a podcast because you want to share your unique voice with the world, not because you want to make a quick buck.

We’re firm believers in starting to thinking about podcast monetization even before you publish your first episode. If you haven’t started a podcast yet, be sure to consider how the show’s topic, style, format, and content will lend itself to future monetization strategies.

If you plan to talk about sensitive subjects or hotly debated topics, know you may alienate a specific set of sponsors. But fear not, podcast ad revenue is expected to reach $863 million in 2020. There will be sponsors out there who want to speak to your niche audience, and that’s just one monetization avenue to consider!

Once you start publishing a podcast, we recommend putting out 10 to 12 episodes first to build an audience.

There’s no hard rule here. Generally gathering 400-500 downloads per episode is a great time to starting monetizing a podcast but this is a guideline.

If you’re considering joining a podcast advertising network, they may have minimum download requirements before you can apply.

After coming up with a name, designing the cover art, and finally sitting behind the mic, you're probably thinking about what the heck you're going to talk about. Filling out a week, month, or seasons worth of content is important. But what will make your life easier is planning, strategizing, and organizing everything ahead of time.

We talked about podcast content marketing in the last episode. How to repurpose an episode into multiple promotional pieces is a key to success. But figuring out what that episode is about is step one.

Whether you podcast as a hobby, to support a business, or it's your full-time gig, planning multiple episodes ahead of time isn't easy. But putting in the time upfront has a lot of upsides! Things like consistently publishing new episodes, saving time by batch recording, and better podcast episode promotion.

Listen to the full episode now to start thinking about your content differently.

This week on Audience, we're giving ourselves a hard look in the mirror after chatting with Jennifer Bourn. She's a business builder, helping clients grow their brands and attract new opportunities with concrete tools and tweaks.

She kicked off the interview asking an important question, "Let's face it, most of us know we need to be doing [content marketing]. And most of us know we need to be doing. But are we actually doing it?". When life gets in the way and the content marketing to-do list never gets checked off, it's helpful to have someone keep you on track. In this episode, we hope to do just that.

Instead of continuing to put it off, Jennifer is here to help plan out our content calendars and stick to it.

But we're not throwing you to the wolves with a laundry list of blog posts, social media posts, and audiograms to churn out each week. Jennifer's take on slowly ramping up a content calendar is a more surefire way to avoid burnout and actually enjoy creating new pieces of content from a single episode.

Listen to the full episode now to figure out how to reverse engineer how you want a listener to feel after consuming any of your content.

Creating a traditional podcast that's available to the public isn't what you need for your premium content. It's public for anyone to hear, both paying members and anyone else who stumbles across the show.

Instead, you need a private podcast where you can restrict who has access to the content. That's where Castos' latest integration with MemberSpace comes in. Check out this week's Audience episode where we sit down with Ward, the co-founder of MemberSpace.

He fills us in on why podcasters should care about member-only websites for their premium content. And how these paywalls can help you monetize on your own terms. 

There are one million good reasons to start a podcast. A love of storytelling, repurposing written articles to be more accessible, to find deep connections with strangers all over the world, or just because you like the sound of your own voice.

But with the many motivations to get started, there are thousands of inner monologues that make it difficult to take the leap. Voices that say your story isn't interesting enough, no one will listen, or that you don't quite have the voice for podcasting. It's Imposter Syndrome at its best.

While sometimes it's hard to get out of your own way, we hope our latest Audience episode will help. Every podcaster has let fear cloud their judgement. A lot of us think we're the only ones who are struggling with something, when in reality, many have gone through the same thing. This interview will show you that you're not alone, and working through the fear of getting started is all part of the process.

Interview-style podcasts are among the most common formats in our medium. Listeners often find new shows to check out when people they admire give a unique interview. But getting the actual interview right is just one step of the process. There are a list of things before and after the recording that can help pump up an episode's performing.

Checklists exist to help you run through items that need to get done before you publish something new. But checklists miss the nuance and additional explanations that are helpful to improve a piece of creative work. So we wanted to take our interview checklist a step further by creating the ultimate blueprint.

Whether you host an interview podcast or not, the blueprints we're talking about in this episode will come in handy. They're a masterclass on how to help a guest get the most out of the interview and for you to reach new ears.

Start with our Podcast Grader as you listen to the episode to receive your access to our downloadable Interview Episode Blueprints.

Like stretching before you run, the pre-interview blueprint is easy to skip! But there's a reason doctors recommend touching your toes a few times before you hit the pavement. And there's also a few reasons why the pre-interview phase should be obligatory.

Things like reminding your guest to send you their branding materials, identifying the key takeaways you want to hit, and brainstorming new value-add items for your audience that are specific to this guest.

And don't forget Rachel Corbett's tip on the pre-interview call! Figure out if you have chemistry with your guest ahead of the actual interview to make sure the podcast appearance will be mutually beneficial.

The phase that's probably already front and center on your mind whenever you book a new guest. This section of the blueprint has a few reminders of tasks that might be second nature already. But missing a standard mic check could mean a distorted recording for an entire interview.

Once you get through the technical stuff, we have a few more tricks that you might not have seen before. You'll also find notes about prepping the interview's goals and a section detailing why and how to record private podcast material. We think any chance you have to give you audience a little something extra is worth the effort.

Have you ever finished a mesmerizing interview then accidentally forget to download the local recording file? Us too...

Along with a few technical items, we'll walk you a few extra key steps. Things like building hype on social media for the upcoming episode and finalizing a promotional plan for your guest to help shout their interview from the rooftops.

Are you looking for someone to take the production hassles off your hands? Check out Castos Productions. We have 3 unique packages to fit your needs and all are pay-as-you-go. Castos Productions lets you focus on the thing you actually love doing, creating an awesome podcast.

Ideally, Phase 4 starts a few weeks before you actually hit record. Pulling the imagery, writing a template of the description, and maybe even build up some anticipation with a post before the episodes goes out.

Most listeners aren't going to find a new podcast without the host on the other side putting in some effort. If you've already spent a few hours recording a ground breaking episode, take the time to make sure your audience is going to hear it. And having them wait with anticipation is even better.

Castos is integrated with Headliner to make creating audiograms even easier. Plus, all of your episode files will be in one place inside your Castos dashboard.

Like Phase 1, Phase 5 can sometimes be forgotten. But if you're after new subscribers, then the long-term promotional plans around your episodes is the key to growth.

Consider repurposing audio content into other mediums to squeeze more juice out of one episode. Evaluate feedback from your audience to see if there's an opportunity to revamp how you're telling your story. Or review your analytics for inspiration on which episode topics could use a more in-depth look.

Head to the Podcast Grader to find our how your podcast is performing compared to the pack!

Creating a private podcast is a popular way to distribute information to employees, members, or specific list of people. While traditional podcasts are available to the general public, a password protected RSS feed only grants access to those with the required credentials.

Recording a private podcast isn't much different than a publicly available one. The key change is in the distribution.

In order to start podcasting privately, your podcast hosting provider needs to have a special set of features. So today, we're excited to announce that a Private Podcasts are now available for all Castos users.

In this article, we'll explain who would benefit from creating a private podcast and how to use Castos or WordPress to set it up.

As the name suggests, a private podcast is a podcast that isn't readily available to the general public.

With conventional podcasts, you want your episodes available online and in directories like Apple Podcast or Spotify. Whereas with a private podcast, you want to limit who has access to your content.

This also means your RSS feed isn't listed anywhere online, across podcast directories. Only you know the URL and personally distribute it to a specified group of people.

From a technical perspective in Castos, this also means your podcast episodes are not available on your show's podcast page (i.e. the myshow.castos.com site).

If you want to limit access to content, you should consider creating a private podcast. There are a lot of common uses for password protected podcasts, here are the most popular scenarios:

• Corporate training courses: used within employee onboarding sessions, company-wide continuing education courses, or complement text or video trainings.
• Company-wide communications: used to distribute C-suite messages or regular company updates that are more personal than company-wide emails.
• Connect remote employees: used to communicate key information with distributed teams.
• E-learning courses: used to let only current members access a course's podcast material.
• Premium content subscriptions: used to create special podcast content for select subset of listeners.
• Podcast content for Membership sites: Connect your existing membership site to your Castos account to automatically provide members with exclusive podcast content.

Anytime you have episodes that are only meant for a certain subset of your audience, private podcasting will allow you to restrict access and distribute the content as you see fit.

If your company wants to create an corporate podcast that is only for internal use then restricting access to that content is vitally important. With this restriction in place your podcast team can feel more comfortable with sharing sensitive company information, knowing that only authorized individuals have access.

Let's walk through the steps necessary to create your company's internal private podcast:

Any type of podcasting requires some good forethought before turning the mic on for the first time. It's always best to outline two areas of your show before getting started:

• What is the goal of your podcast and who is it for?
• What will the first 10 episodes be about?

Answering these two questions in detail and agreeing on these points with your internal podcasting team will ensure that your show gets off to a good start in terms of alignment with corporate objectives.

First things first when it comes to recording: a good podcasting microphone. Getting a high-quality USB microphone is a great option for almost all situations and doesn't involve any additional gear that you might need to set up in your office.

Next comes selecting the right recording software for your podcast. Whether you're recording in-person in the office or remotely amongst distributed team members picking the right software solution is key in capturing great sounding audio for your show.

For in-person recordings, we like using Quicktime if you're on a Mac, and if you're recording remote interviews our tool of choice is Squadcast.

Editing those initial episodes may seem like a daunting prospect (and it can be for many...if that's you check out Castos Productions where take care of all of the back-end production work for you). If you're more the Do If Yourself type, we've got you covered in this video where we walk through audio editing using Audacity:

Once you've mixed in the intro/outro, music, and main episode segments it's time to look at publishing your first podcast and setting up the distribution of your show.

A private podcast isn't for everyone...literally. And with a private podcast for your company, it may even be more important to limit who can access this content.

Whether your host your podcast through Castos or another platform the most important thing is to determine how you will give access to just certain individuals. We walk through this setup process on the Castos platform below.

If all this seems overwhelming we'd love to help. Our Castos Productions team has helped build internal company podcast for many of the brands you know and love. Check out more here.

To create a private podcast you typically want to do two things:

• Make all of your episodes hidden from the general public
• Restrict access to your show's RSS feed to only your intended listeners

With Castos, you can configure these settings two different ways. The first is the set a password and require users to enter the right credentials to access your latest episodes. The second is subscribing individual listeners with their email address.

Setting up each option starts with logging into your Castos dashboard. On the "Podcasts" page, click "Settings" for the show you want to make private. There we can change the RSS feed to include private podcast settings.

All private podcasts within Castos have the same analytics data as any public podcast. Inside your dashboard, you can view total listens by episode or date, geographic breakdowns, and by listening platform and device. Now you can analyze your private podcast's performance like the rest of your content.

A password-protected private podcast means a host provides a password to the podcast's intended listeners. When someone wants to access the show, they go to your website, enter the credentials, and start listening.

Here's how to set it up using Castos (see our full Support documentation here):

Scroll down to the "Web Page Settings" tab, and inside you'll see an option to "Show Podcast Pages".

If you've opted to use Castos' podcast webpage as your podcast's website, first you need to remove the private podcast from appearing on the page.

This default setting is toggled to "Yes" meaning the podcast's episodes will be publicly available. Turn the setting to "No" to hide episodes from your public webpage.

The next step is to make the RSS feed inaccessible to anyone that does not have the password.

Move to the "Distribution" tab and you'll notice you have the option to distribute your podcast publicly or privately. Toggle the setting to "Podcast is Private" so your podcast can only be access by those with the right RSS feed link.

Once your podcast is set to private, Castos creates a Global Private Podcast RSS Feed. Since your podcast is no longer available publicly, those who should receive access to your show need this URL.

To share access with your now-private podcast simply copy the feed URL you see in the "Distribution" tab and share it with your intended audience.

Remember, if you have a scenario where you want to discontinue someone's access to your private podcast, you need to change the entire private feed URL so they can no longer access your private content. If this is a concern, try our Private Subscriber feature below.

Setting up individual subscribes to your private podcast follows the first two steps above. After switching the RSS feed's settings to private, you can start adding new subscribers using their email address.

Under the "Individual Private Subscribers" section, click "+Add Subscribers". This will trigger a form where you can add each person's name and email address.

Behind the scenes, we'll send an email to the address you provided with a unique RSS feed link and buttons to subscribe to the private podcast on all listening platforms that support this feature. Your audience can simply click the on the platform they use to consume podcasts and they'll automatically be subscribed to your private content.

There are multiple ways to create a private podcast with WordPress. For membership sites and premium content offers, creating a password-protected podcast is the best way to distribute exclusive episodes.

In combination with Seriously Simple Podcasting, there are a few options get everything set up. To get started, log into your Castos dashboard and find the podcast you want to make private. If you're creating a new private podcast, add the new show's details from your WordPress site using Seriously Simple Podcasting.

Click the "Settings" link then follow the two steps above (turning off the public podcast webpage and updating the RSS feed's settings) to transform the podcast from public to private.

To help make WordPress user's lives a bit easier, Castos is working on integrations with some of the most popular plugins.

Creating a private podcast for your premium membership tiers has never been easier now that MemberSpace is integrated with Castos. Here's exactly how you can get started.

Follow the same two steps above to update the podcast's RSS feed settings from public to private.

Hover over your name in the top right corner of your Castos dashboard to find the integrations page. Click the "Rest API" button to find your Castos API token. Copy the string letters and numbers to your clipboard.

Back inside your MemberSpace dashboard, click on the MemberSpace plugin. Find "Customize" in the top navigation and find "Integrations" > "Castos". Paste your API token into the empty field and click "Integrate with Castos".

After you integrate Castos and MemberSpace, you can then choose which of your Member Plans should receive access to your private podcast.

Whenever a member joins any of the plans you selected, they'll automatically receive an email invite from Castos with information on how to subscribe to the private podcast.

Read MemberSpace's Support documentation to help set up your private podcast on your membership site.

Now that you've created a private podcast with Castos, it's time to start distributing the episodes to your users. This might be their first time subscribing to a private show, so it's important to give them instructions on how to set it up.

If you decided to subscribe listeners individually using their email address, remember they'll receive an automated email from Castos upon sign up. The user can click the subscription link for their preferred listening app and it will automatically subscribe them to your private feed.

If your private podcast is password protected, these instructions explain how to listen to a private podcast on the most popular listening platforms.

At this time Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and iHeartRadio do not support password protected shows. If your listeners normally consume their podcasts on those apps, they'll need to choose a different one to listen to your private podcast.

An important thing to remember is that while the feed is password protected most listeners will download episodes to their phones. Once an episode has been downloaded from your feed onto a phone there is no way to retrieve or delete it.

So bear in mind that while your show is private and the feed is password protected, once someone has access to that feed they can download the episodes, which takes that content out of the realm of your control.