Streamlined Podcaster: Save Time Podcasting with Systems and Automation

I got to record on the floor of an actual chocolate factory this summer for Start Local, the show I produce with Liam and Eric — and the gear I brought fit in a messenger bag instead of the giant backpack I used to haul. I walk through exactly what I used, what went wrong (my camera overheated and quit ten minutes in), and why I no longer think you need XLR mics and a pile of cables to get a good field recording. If you're recording outside your studio, the setup is simpler than it's ever been.

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Day 30, on International Podcast Day. There was a stumble in the middle, but what's a podcast without a couple of stumbles? I cooked this series up seven days into September, and it made me think hard about my podcast journey. Here I run back through the lessons: start sloppy, know and serve your audience, learn from others the way I learned from ShopTalk Show, don't forget your mission statement, and remember that gear isn't the barrier anymore. I'm recording this in a Portsmouth hotel room with a Hollyland Lark L2. Above everything else, podcasting is about authenticity. From October 1 to 7 I'll do a behind-the-scenes series on how this went, including the final numbers.

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Most podcast ad money goes to the biggest shows, and the big companies that bought networks aren't seeing the returns they wanted. So I think podcasting goes the way blogs and YouTube did: go niche and serve a specific audience, because a thousand super fans beat a million followers. If you niche down, you'll have a smaller show, and that's okay. I'm not saying a small show is better than a big one, but it's better than the pursuit of a big one, which for most of us isn't worth the effort. Stay small, help the people you help best, and make money through dynamic ads, your own products and services, or a sponsor who fits your audience really well.

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YouTube is going to keep being a big part of podcasting, and a lot of what Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the hosts have changed recently is a response to it. The most interesting part for me is discoverability. Other platforms are only dabbling in algorithmic recommendations, while YouTube is very good at serving up something it thinks you'll like, and we've never had that in podcasting. With YouTube now letting channels classify content as a show, I think podcasting becomes its own pillar of their strategy, and a real boon for podcasters who are struggling to get found.

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Dynamic ads are going to be a bigger part of podcasting, the same way they were for YouTube. I explain what they are, how you can mix programmatic ads with your own recorded spots, and why the technology could also enable dynamic content, like platform-specific calls to action, an idea I first heard from Tom Webster of Sounds Profitable. Full disclosure: I'm the evangelist for RSS.com, which hosts this show and has dynamic ads on its paid plans. I share my real numbers too: 770 downloads in the last 30 days, about 4,059 all time, and $7.08 in ad revenue this month. Not a lot, but it's money I made on episodes I was going to make anyway.

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Yesterday was the rah-rah version; this is the practical side of what will always work in podcasting. Have a mission statement: I help these people with this problem by this solution, and every episode moves toward it. When I've forgotten my mission, that's when I've seen downloads dip. Sound decent, but you don't need to sound like you're in a recording booth, because people are going to want authentic as more and more feels inauthentic. And use your show not to get big and chase ad money, but to help people who have a problem. That can make a successful show, even if it isn't the biggest one.

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First, a confession: I miscounted which episode I left off on before a week of travel, so this one is late and recorded in a hotel room in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where I'm speaking at Creator Camp. It's okay to miss a day. That kicks off the last stretch of the series, on the future of podcasting, and my opening point is that it won't look that different from today or from podcasting's past. The important parts remain: serve an audience, and make it as easy as possible for them to listen wherever they want. I also get into whether a YouTube-only show counts as a podcast, and why I wouldn't tell someone they don't have one just because they lack an RSS feed.

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Every monetization path is hard, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something or got lucky. YouTube's threshold is a real climb. Memberships and affiliates both want an audience you probably don't have yet — and I've grown wary of affiliate links anyway, because in a trust economy the question "is he only recommending this because he gets paid" costs more than the commission is worth. Sponsorship is possible with a small, engaged audience, but it takes real cold outreach. The fastest path I've actually watched work is using the show to get clients: one of mine, a Florida law firm serving first responders, launched in December, published every other week, and was getting cases by August. Not a big show. A very clear one.

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I used to ask what value video adds for your audience. I was wrong about that one — YouTube settled it, and people are plainly willing to watch two heads talk. So the real question is what video is worth to you, and whether that beats the added cost. The strongest argument is that YouTube is the only algorithmic discovery podcasters have; Spotify says it recommends shows, but I don't see it surfacing small ones the way a video can suddenly find its audience. The money cost has collapsed, so what's left is your time. For me that trade is worth it because I expect clients to find me there. Yours might not be.

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Gear is the hardware; tools are the stack. You need a host, because a podcast is something people can get anywhere — that means an RSS feed that reaches Apple, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts and the rest, not just a YouTube upload. I recommend RSS.com, and the disclosure is that I'm their evangelist; the reason I'm comfortable doing that is the free plan, which has no cap on how much audio you upload. Record with QuickTime or Windows Recorder, edit in GarageBand or Audacity for nothing, or step up to transcript-based editing with Gling, Descript, or Riverside. All in, you can be publishing for under two hundred dollars a year.

Resources & Links

• Descript (affiliate link) — go.streamlined.fm/descript
• Riverside (affiliate link) — joec.pro/riverside
• My full tools list — streamlinedsolopreneur.com/tools
• Join my newsletter for solo business owners: streamlined.fm/join
• Podcast hosting by RSS.com (affiliate link): rss.com

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