Podcasting Made Easy

I have always been in favour of brevity. I guess it is due in

part to my training as a journalist to report news in as few words as

possible.

It was a hard lesson when I first started out as my editor would tell

me to cut my 1500 masterpeice to 450 words. Cut, cut, cut, cut!

There is no such demand from anyone when it comes to podcasting; people do ramble on and on for hours at a time in some cases. But frankly, I don’t have the time to listen to them all the way through and I wonder if you do too!

So when I am asked “how long should my podcast be?” my answer is that

there is no rule, how long is a piece of string? But ultimately; make

it as short as possible.

If you are blessed with two fully working ears then everything you hear is stereo. By default you will likely record stuff in stereo. In this episode of Podcasting Made Easy I explain why it's natural to want to produce podcasts in stereo. But there are some reasons why you shouldn't.

* Stereo MP3 files will be twice the size of a mono version. This is because only half the data is needed to reproduce a mono recording than a stereo one.* It's also worth noting that because each of us have only one mouth that when we speak it is in mono.* When you release a podcast you want the MP3 file to be as small as possible for lots of reasons.* You can (roughly) upload twice as many mono MP3s than corresponding stereo ones to your hosting plan (saving space may save you money).* Not everyone has fast and unlimited internet services; so small files mean less data use for your listeners and faster downloads.* Keeping your MP3 file sizes as small as possible is not just about them being mono. Look at the bit rate (KBPS) too. While 128kbps is the lowest bit rate you can use to keep music sounding anywhere near listenable; with a mono recording of a voice you can go down to 96kbps or even 80kbps.* Experiment: Create a new mono 44.1khz file in your recording app, record you voice and export at 80kbps and 96kbps. Play them back and listen for any quality issues.* Don't use music though, music played back at below 128k will sound rotten.* If you have already uploaded your podcasts in stereo at a higher bitrate then - so long as you keep the file names exactly the same - you can replace them with versions of a smaller file size.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to designing your podcast artwork.

In this episode of Podcasting Made Easy I say that restraint is a key requirement as it is ideal to keep the logo simple and restrict yourself to no more than 2 colours plus black or white. Ideally...use one colour.

If you already have a company logo then your job is basically done; you just need to use the existing colours, logo and fonts to create your podcast artwork.

If you don't have this then you have a free hand to do what you want. But keep it simple.

Remember also that colours do have meaning. Racing green or navy blue are used by banks and more conservative organizations. Light blue is fresh, water. Orange is used by PayPal because the colour is trusted.

Some fonts have curly ends (serif) and others are square or rounded (san serif). Choose a font that will remain clear to read at any size – from very teeny-weeny to as big as Ben-Hur.

Your artwork will need to work at different sizes and shapes for each of the podcast libraries (Apple, Stitcher, Spreaker...) And you may want to adopt it for clothing, car stickers, trade signage, or a business card.

And of course, your logo needs to be reflected in the colours used on your website to keep everything married together – coherent, consistent.

So check out the podcast libraries, take a gander at the artwork other people use and while you can't copy it wholesale you may get some good ideas. And do a search for the meaning of coloursso you choose the best ones that reflect the genre of your podcast.

No matter what you do, always ask why? Why these words, colours, fonts, shape.

When you see that something is being offered for free then you pretty well know there will be a catch somewhere. But not today.

If you have a way to record a podcast then you know that once that is done and ready to be released you will likely have to pay someone to host it so it can be heard around the world. But hold on, in this episode of Podcasting Made Easy I show that there are free ways to distribute your show.

If you are just dipping your toe in the water to see if podcasting is for you – because plenty of podcasts do not get past episode 7 – then you can get it out there for free.

And if you have a website then even better; you can embed an audio player of your podcast there too.

Companies such as:

* SoundCloud* Mixcloud* Spreaker* YouTube

give you ways to upload your shows for free. With YouTube of course you will need to upload a video, but there are ways to use a static image for this.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud will give you a podcast RSS feed that you can submit to Apple Podcasts (used to be known as iTunes) and other distributors. But the company does place limits on a free account.

And should you want to move your podcasts to dedicate podcast services then that will involve letting everyone know you have a new RSS podcast feed (that can sometimes lead to real tears). You'll need to set up a 301 redirect at SoundCloud or start over by uploading all your existing podcasts to the new hosting firm.

Spreaker

Spreaker offers a free account of 5 hours' storage. Do a 15 minute podcast once a week and that's 20 weeks covered – by which time you will know if podcasting is for you. It also offers ways to share your shows across major platforms such as iHeart, Spotify, and Stitcher etc.

Mixcloud

Mixcloud is free, has no limits and covers your royalties if you want to play commercial music. You can send shows there via an RSS feed or upload direct.

YouTube

YouTube is also used by podcasters. Search for "convert MP3 to video YouTube" and you'll find firms offering to convert your audio file to a video with a static image. Or you could talk to camera and podcast that way – video to YouTube, audio to everywhere else.

All of the above won't cost you a cent and you can share your show links across social media to boost listener numbers.

Hello and welcome to this episode of Podcasting Made Easy.

I have always been in favour of brevity. I guess it is due in part to my training as a journalist to report news in as few words as possible.

It was a hard lesson when I first started out as my editor would tell me to cut my 1500 masterpeice to 450 words. Cut, cut, cut, cut!

There is no such demand from anyone when it comes to podcasting; people do ramble on and on for hours at a time in some cases. But frankly, I don't have the time to listen to them all the way through and I wonder if you do too.

So when I am asked "how long should my podcast be?" my answer is that there is no rule, how long is a piece of string? But ultimately; make it as short as possible.

Share your information in as few words as possible; while also keeping in engaging and entertaining and understandable.

According to a report out this week by Megaphone, the trend – based on a review of top podcasts listed by Apple – shows that the duration of podcasts on average is getting shorter. The report shows there has been an increase in podcasts running for between 2 and 5 minutes (and this could be down to show promos – but not always).

According to Luke Riley's report the most successful podcasts run for between 30 and 70 minutes. The most popular serialized podcasts have a duration of 15 to 50 minutes, he also says the vast majority of podcasts over 60 minutes are episodic talk shows.

"Despite this difference, both the most successful serialized and the most successful episodic shows are still in the same 30–70 minute range," he writes.

According to data featured in his report, in 2014 there were zero podcasts that were shorter than 15 minutes. The majority were between 30 and 90 minutes. In 2019, 16% of podcasts are under the 15 minute mark, 18% are between 15 and 30 minutes, and 39% are between 30 and 45 minutes.

Shorter podcasts are growing in popularity. The trend is your friend.

If you are blessed with two fully working ears then everything you hear is stereo. By default you will likely record stuff in stereo. In this episode of Podcasting Made Easy I explain why it's natural to want to produce podcasts in stereo. But there are some reasons why you shouldn't.

Size does matter

* Stereo MP3 files will be twice the size of a mono version. This is because only half the data is needed to reproduce a mono recording than a stereo one.* It's also worth noting that because each of us have only one mouth that when we speak it is in mono. * When you release a podcast you want the MP3 file to be as small as possible for lots of reasons. * You can (roughly) upload twice as many mono MP3s than corresponding stereo ones to your hosting plan (saving space may save you money).* Not everyone has fast and unlimited internet services; so small files mean less data use for your listeners and faster downloads.* Keeping your MP3 file sizes as small as possible is not just about them being mono. Look at the bit rate (KBPS) too. While 128kbps is the lowest bit rate you can use to keep music sounding anywhere near listenable; with a mono recording of a voice you can go down to 96kbps or even 80kbps. * Experiment: Create a new mono 44.1khz file in your recording app, record you voice and export at 80kbps and 96kbps. Play them back and listen for any quality issues.* Don't use music though, music played back at below 128k will sound rotten.* If you have already uploaded your podcasts in stereo at a higher bitrate then - so long as you keep the file names exactly the same - you can replace them with versions of a smaller file size.

Just by the by...I used to record all my podcast as WAV files and then export to MP3. I had gigabytes of raw podcasts and thought this was crazy. So now I record my podcasts at 128k mono and export to 96k for distribution.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to designing your podcast artwork.

In this episode of Podcasting Made Easy I say that restraint is a key requirement as it is ideal to keep the logo simple and restrict yourself to no more than 2 colours plus black or white. Ideally...use one colour.

If you already have a company logo then your job is basically done; you just need to use the existing colours, logo and fonts to create your podcast artwork.

If you don't have this then you have a free hand to do what you want. But keep it simple.

Remember also that colours do have meaning. Racing green or navy blue are used by banks and more conservative organizations. Light blue is fresh, water. Orange is used by PayPal because the colour is trusted.

Some fonts have curly ends (serif) and others are square or rounded (san serif). Choose a font that will remain clear to read at any size – from very teeny-weeny to as big as Ben-Hur.

Your artwork will need to work at different sizes and shapes for each of the podcast libraries (Apple, Stitcher, Spreaker...) And you may want to adopt it for clothing, car stickers, trade signage, or a business card.

And of course, your logo needs to be reflected in the colours used on your website to keep everything married together – coherent, consistent.

So check out the podcast libraries, take a gander at the artwork other people use and while you can't copy it wholesale you may get some good ideas. And do a search for the meaning of colours so you choose the best ones that reflect the genre of your podcast.

No matter what you do, always ask why? Why these words, colours, fonts, shape.

When you see that something is being offered for free then you pretty well know there will be a catch somewhere. But not today.

If you have a way to record a podcast then you know that once that is done and ready to be released you will likely have to pay someone to host it so it can be heard around the world. But hold on, In this episode of Podcasting Made Easy I show that there are free ways to do this.

If you are just dipping your toe in the water to see if podcasting is for you – because plenty of podcasts do not get past episode 7 – then you can get it out there for free.

And if you have a website then even better; you can embed an audio player of your podcast there too.

Companies such as:SoundCloudMixcloudSpreakerYouTube give you ways to upload your shows for free. With YouTube of course you will need to upload a video, but there are ways to use a static image for this.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud will give you a podcast RSS feed that you can submit to Apple Podcasts (used to be known as iTunes) and other distributors. But the company does place limits on a free account.

And should you want to move your podcasts to dedicate podcast services then that will involve letting everyone know you have a new RSS podcast feed (that can sometimes lead to real tears). You'll need to set up a 301 redirect at SoundCloud or start over by uploading all your existing podcasts to the new hosting firm.

Spreaker

Spreaker offers a free account of 5 hours' storage. Do a 15 minute podcast once a week and that's 20 weeks covered – by which time you will know if podcasting is for you. It also offers ways to share your shows across major platforms such as iHeart, Spotify, and Stitcher etc.

Mixcloud

Mixcloud is free, has no limits and covers your royalties if you want to play commercial music (it's the home of thousands of music radio shows hosted by some very talented people :-) and dance mixes. You can send shows there via an RSS feed or upload direct.

YouTube

YouTube is also used by podcasters. Search for "convert MP3 to video YouTube" and you'll find firms offering to convert your audio file to a video with a static image. Or you could talk to camera and podcast that way – video to YouTube, audio to everywhere else.

All of the above won't cost you a dime and you can share your show links across social media to boost listener numbers.

Hi and welcome to the Podcasting Made Easy podcast with me Steve Hart. It's been a long time coming and follows on the heels of the second edition of my book; Podcasting Made Easy.

I have been podcasting since 2009; but have previously worked in radio. Before that I was a nightclub DJ – I was touring the clubs in Essex and Kent at a time when music sampling was invented.

I trained to become a newspaper journalist and from the early 1990s I concentrated on my journalistic career.

But by 2008 I was starting to get the radio itch again and I figured the easiest way to scratch it was by starting a podcast – which I did a year later.

Initially I didn't even consider myself able of hosting a podcast; and it all seemed such a huge hill to climb. But the excitement got the better of me and decided there was everything to gain and nothing to loose.

Sharemarket

I was editing a business magazine at the time and so recorded a show about the sharemarket; a round up of news from listed companies; designed some artwork for the podcast, and set about getting my show listed on all the podcatcher sites.

Since 2009 I have launched quite a few podcasts and edited other people's shows too. By 2017 I had lots of first-hand knowledge to share about making podcasts and so wrote my book – the second edition (revised and updated) – was released in July 2019.

And with that 2nd edition in the shops it was suggested I do a much overdue podcast about podcasting. So here we are.

Your questions

If you have any questions about podcasting or podcast production then please do let me know. There is a contact form at the bottom of this website and an option to send a voice message to (which may be used in one of my podcasts unless you ask me not to).

All the best, and good luck.

Steve