Q&A: Podcast Launch Edition [Ep. 170]

 
 

Click play to hear your podcast launch questions answered:

 
 

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Here’s what to expect from this episode:

If you've been thinking about launching a podcast but have questions about the tech, time commitment, planning, or monetizing your show, this episode is for you.

Last episode, 169, I simplified and broke down the entire launch process to hopefully show you how doable it really is to launch a podcast. So, if you haven't listened to that one and you are in the brainstorming or consideration phase of launching your show, go back and take a listen to that one, either before or after listening to this episode.

Today, we are doing a Q&A episode where I answer your podcast launch questions. I posted on my Instagram and asked for questions from those of you who are thinking about launching a podcast. I'm answering questions about what tech you need, how to plan out episodes, when to monetize, mentioning episodes on Instagram, and more!

And whether or not you submitted a question, hopefully, this episode answers some questions you might have about launching your podcast. If you are getting ready to launch your show, just know that I am cheering you on! I'm so excited for you, and my DMs are always open if you have any questions or want to chat through anything.

And don't forget to enter my podcast mic giveaway! You can enter by leaving me a review on Apple Podcasts (including your name or Instagram handle) or by screenshotting any episode that goes live in October (and tagging me in your Instagram stories @podcastingforeducators). Choose one or both (and get two entries), and I will announce the winner in the first week of November!

YOUR PODCAST LAUNCH QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

  • 1. What tech do I need?

  • 2. Is it hard to consistently come up with topic ideas?

  • 3. How do I plan out episodes?

  • 4. How much time should I set aside?

  • 5. When is the best time of year to launch?

  • 6. How do I know when I'm ready to monetize my podcast? (And how do I get started?)

  • 7. How do I make IG posts that mention my episodes?

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

favorite podcasting resources:

  • Sara Whittaker 0:01

    Sarah, your podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business, but how do you manage it all bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers. That's what the show is all about. Welcome to podcasting for educators. I'm Sara Whittaker, classroom teacher turned podcast manager, and I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators. Hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of podcasting for educators. If you're listening to this in real time, we are in October, and this month, we are doing some episodes geared towards those of you who have not yet launched your podcast last week in episode 169 I did an episode that kind of simplified and broke down the entire launch process to hopefully show you how doable it really is to launch a podcast. So if you haven't listened to that one, and you are kind of in the brainstorming phase or in the consideration phase maybe of launching your show, go back and take a listen to that one, either before or after listening to today's episode. Today we are going to be doing a Q and A episode. I posted a few times on my Instagram and asked for questions from those of you who are thinking about launching a podcast. So today I'm going to answer some of those questions I have. Let's see, I have seven questions to go through, and whether you submitted a question or you didn't. Hopefully this will answer some of those questions for you that you might have around launching before we get into that. I just want to remind you that this month, I am doing a giveaway. I'm giving away my favorite microphone, the ATR, 20, 100x and it's really easy to enter this giveaway. You have two options of ways to enter. Number one, you can leave me a review on Apple podcasts. And when you do that, if you've never left a review before, it's really easy. You're just gonna click on my show, scroll down, you'll see the stars that you can click on to give a five star review. And then you can write your written review. If you're going to do this, I just ask that you include your either your name or your Instagram handle, just so I know who you are and who wrote the review, so I can reach out to you if you're the winner. Okay, so that's one point of entry is leaving a review on Apple podcasts. A second point of entry is to just screenshot any episode that goes live in October. So that is episodes 169 through episodes 173 you can, while you're listening to any of those, just quick, do a screenshot on your phone and then put it onto your Instagram stories and tag me at podcasting for educators. You can do one of those, or both of those. If you choose to do both, write a review and screenshot an episode and tag me, then you will get two entries for the giveaway. I'm going to announce the first winner the first week of November. So again, this giveaway closes on October 31 Okay, let's get into these questions that you all submitted through Instagram. I did get some questions about tech that you need to launch your podcast. And I'm not going to go too in depth with that here, because I did run through that in last week's episode, episode 169 so if you have questions about like, what tech you need in terms of equipment, as well as platforms that you might be using to launch a podcast and to have a podcast ongoing, go back to that episode. I have all of those listed out for you, but just to do a quick review, you do not need much equipment at all. You really only need a microphone, headphones and a computer. It could be a laptop, it could be a desktop computer. And then you need something to record your podcasts. On my recommendation is Audacity. It is a free program on your computer. And then you're going to need a host to host your podcast. This is where you're going to upload your episodes and submit your show when it's time for you to launch. And my recommendation for hosting is Captivate. So I'll list those out again in the show notes here, but definitely head back to last week too if you want to hear a little bit more about that. Okay, we're going to keep this going. I'm going to try to keep this episode fairly short, so I'm going to just run on through these questions. Second question was, Is it hard to consistently come up with topic ideas? This is what is holding me back. This is a question that I get from so many people all the time, including clients that I work with, and it's a valid fear. It's very common to think about launching a podcast and immediately go to a place of, okay, this is something that I'm going to have to keep up with. I'm going to have to be recording an episode or airing an episode every single week. That's a lot of content. How am I going to keep up with topic ideas? And you're going to have to trust me on this one. Put a little bit of faith in me. You are not going to run out of episode ideas. I. Never, ever, ever had any podcaster tell me, I just don't even know what to talk about anymore. It always ends up being the opposite, that once you get started, you're going to have so many ideas that you are not even going to know what to do with all of your ideas, because they're just going to keep on coming to you. It is this phenomenon that happens that when you start recording episodes, all these other like, subtopic ideas are going to come to you, and they're going to be coming to you constantly. And I know that's a little bit vague, so let's talk about some concrete things that you can do to get you started and to get, like, your first 1050, 100 episode topics planned out, and let's not even, let's not even think about 100 let's back up and even think about 52 there's 52 weeks in a year, you can come up with 52 episode topics. The first piece of advice I have for you is, I always teach to set some content pillars or content buckets so that you can keep your episodes focused on some main ideas. And you probably already have content pillars in your business, I've done an episode specifically on content pillars for your podcast that I will link in the show notes. But an example of this is for me, some of my content pillars are starting a podcast, growing your podcast listenership, using your podcast as a tool for your business, time management. When it comes to podcasting, those are some of my content pillars, and a lot of my episodes fall into those content pillars. So if you can kind of think of these pillars as your main ideas, and then you can come up with some sub topics that filter out from those main ideas. If you're just getting started, you can think about previous content that you have created. Think about Instagram posts that have done really well in the past. Think about blog posts that you've written that have been very popular. Those are probably big topics that your audience is really engaged with and they want to hear more about. So those are good places to kind of look to get you started with your first few episode topics, questions that you get consistently from your audience. Those are also great episode topic ideas. But my suggestion to you is to literally do a sit down and do a brain dump and think about those content pillars, and think about some previous content that you've created that could fall under those content pillars or questions that you've gotten from your audience, and use that as a jumping off point, I promise you, you will not have issues coming up with topic Ideas. Okay. Next question was, how do you plan for your podcast? So I'm going to answer this from like a perspective of, how do I plan out my episodes for my podcast? And this is for sure going to vary based on your preferences, based on the structure of your show based on what you want out of your show, but I can give you some pointers of things that I've used that have worked, of things that I've seen clients use that have worked. So number one, from kind of like a per episode planning perspective, this is going to depend on the style of your episodes. So I work with people who have a more relaxed style of their podcast, and then I have others who have a much more structured style for their episodes, and that's really going to affect the type of planning that you're going to do for your episodes. And what I mean by that is, if you're if you're gonna have a really more kind of, like relaxed conversational style episode, then you are probably going to have a much more relaxed planning style when it comes to prepping your episodes. So you might have kind of just, like a very brief outline, or even in some cases, you might just have, like, an episode topic, and you're just going to get behind the mic and you're just going to kind of wing it and go from there. Others might want a more like clean, structured approach to episodes. And I do have people that script all of their episodes out, and there's not one right or wrong way to do it. It's really just kind of based on what you want your episodes to sound like and how you want them to flow, and also what you're comfortable with. For some people, it's

    easier for them to script out an episode because the idea of just getting behind a mic and winging it is intimidating, and it doesn't feel right for them. So think about what might be best for you, and it might take you getting behind the mic and trying it out before you really have an answer for that. If you are creating a podcast that is an educational podcast, I do recommend that you do some sort of planning for your episodes, because you don't just want to, you know, be going off on random. Item tangents and not delivering on what you said the episode was going to be about. So I do think there should be some sort of planning, but I you can do it just in a Google Doc. I now I use clickup for project management, and they have docs in clickup. So I just have each episode as a different task, and I just do my episode planning my outline right there on my clickup Doc. When it comes to planning your episodes, I do recommend that you use two things a project management tool. Like I just said, I use clickup, there's Trello, there's Asana, there's Monday. There are so many project management tools, but I do think it's important to use something, even if it's just a Google spreadsheet. For some people, that's what works for them, and that's fine, but figure out what works for you, but you need somewhere that you're going to be able to keep yourself organized, keep your ideas organized and keep yourself on track. Set due dates for yourself, make sure that you're doing all of the little things that you need to get done for your episodes. So a project management tool and a content calendar. I like to use these two things, kind of side by side. I have a content calendar on a Google sheet, and then I what I do, kind of my process is I use my content calendar as a place to map things out so I can put all the dates, you know, for the next six months of when my episodes are going live. And then I can kind of think about, I can kind of zoom out and think big picture, okay, if I have certain things planned in my business, this is when I'm going to run a sale. This is when I'm going to launch something. This is when I'm a part of a summit. All of those things that you might have dates for in your business, as well as, like, seasonal topics. I can look at big picture on my content calendar. Plug in those dates, plug in those topic ideas. But it's also kind of fluid in there where I can switch things around as needed. Because that is going to happen, you're going to maybe map out your topics, and then you're going to realize, oh, I actually want to, like, switch this around, or I have this new idea, so I need to swap this for that. So I kind of use my content calendar as my big picture place. And then once I know for sure, okay, I'm going to do this episode on this date, that's when I move it into my project management tool and make it a task on clickup, where I can have all of my little subtasks, and I can outline my episode and get it ready to be recorded and produced. I could go on and on about planning. There's just so many different ways to kind of go about it. Another kind of thought that I just wanted to mention is some people find that planning is easier if they have different types of episodes that they kind of rinse and repeat. So what I mean by that is maybe they do one guest episode a month. So when they're planning, they know, okay, I need to fill this guest spot for the last week of every month. Maybe they have, like, a live coaching type of episode and then a Q and A type of episode. And so they have these different types of episodes that they again, rinse and repeat. And that might make planning easier if you ever need to like think through your planning, or you have questions about planning, you can always send me a message on Instagram, and I'm happy to like kind of workshop that with you. Okay, next question, how much time to set aside for podcasting again? Of course, I know this isn't like the best answer, but it is going to depend on. It's going to be very individualized in terms of how much time you need to set aside, but I can give you kind of a broad idea. So number one, I'd say a big factor that plays into this is whether or not you are going to do all of your episode production or if you're going to outsource any of it. So are you going to be the one editing, writing, show notes, scheduling, or are you going to have somebody doing that for you? Are you even going to have show notes? Sometimes, you know, yes, I do recommend that you have show notes, but on your website. But some people, they just don't have the capacity for that at the beginning, and they don't have the budget to outsource, and so they're just going to start with episodes and like a really brief description in the Listening apps and not have anything on their website yet. So kind of think about like what you have the capacity for. But I would say that kind of like a very normal production task list, let's say would be, you're going to plan your episode. You're going to record it, edit it, write show notes, get it scheduled. I would say that all of that probably will take you like, anywhere from three to five times the amount of the length of your episode. So yes, if you have shorter episodes, everything else is going to take you less time as well. Not the scheduling. The scheduling is always going to be about the same, but if you are editing a 10 minute episode, it's going to take a lot less time than editing a 60 minute episode. So if you're somebody who is like, time is really a big fear for you, and being able to have the time to do all of this, and you're doing it all on your own, I'm. One of my biggest pieces of advice is to keep your episodes concise and short, and that will save you a lot of time. All right. Next question is, is there a best time of year to launch my podcast? So I don't think that there's necessarily one month out of the year that's the best to launch? I have two kind of thoughts on this question. The first one is to consider your audience. If your ideal listener is a mom who works in the corporate world, then summer is probably not the best time to launch your podcast, because that's probably going to be a very stressful, busy time for that specific type of person. Their kids are probably out of school. They're probably still working. They might be going on some vacations with their family. Their typical listening habits might be down during that season. However, I've mentioned this many times on the podcast. If you are somebody whose ideal listener is a teacher, usually summer is a great time, or, like, right before summer, I would even say is a great time to launch your podcast, because teachers are off for the summer, and maybe they do have a little bit more time to catch up on their favorite podcasts. So consider who your ideal listener is, and have that be a factor when you're making this decision. Now I said that there's not necessarily like one best month out of the year to launch, but I will say that if I had to pick a month to avoid launching in, I would definitely say December. December, across the board, is usually a very low time when it comes to listenership, because people are just kind of unplugged. They are so busy with holiday stuff, their kids are off school, if they're parents and like, I know, for me, we take the last two weeks of December off. I know a lot of business owners who do that, a lot of parents who do that, a lot of just people in general who do that. So I would say I would probably avoid launching in December, because you do, when you first put out those first few episodes, you want it to start off with a bang. You want people engaged. January, however, is a very great time to launch a podcast. It's just got that fresh new feeling. Kicking off a new year. People are excited. They're ready to go. So take those things into consideration. Don't stress too much about this. This is not going to be a make or break for your podcast. All right. Next question is, how do you know when you're ready to monetize the podcast? And how do you get started You are ready to monetize your podcast from the very beginning. I will tell you that you don't have to wait a certain amount of time before you monetize your show, and you can monetize in more than one way. If you are hoping to monetize your podcast, then I would argue that it's best to have that in mind from the beginning, because you know you're putting time into this, and oftentimes money into this, and you want to reap the benefits of that, and you also want to prime your audience for that. If you're going to be selling things on your podcast, you want them to be used to that from the beginning, and you want to do it in a good way. Now, there's a few main ways that people monetize their podcasts. The first is through your own products or services. And this is definitely the way that I talk about the most, just because most of you listening are business owners, not all of you, but a lot of you are business owners who have your own either services or digital products and resources. And so you can use your podcast to talk about these things and to drive listeners there and monetize that way. So if you are somebody who offers services, then you can encourage listeners to book a discovery call with you, book a sales call with you. And when you do that, I would have some sort of intake form that they fill out, asking them where they heard about your services. Or you can ask them, Are you a podcast listener? And that will kind of allow you to track the ROI that way. If you are somebody who creates digital resources or products, then there's so many ways that you can kind of funnel listeners into these resources and products. You can create ads for your podcast. So you're kind of your own sponsor for your show, you are promoting these resources and products in your episodes and encouraging people to buy them. You can also create content. So create episode content that organically leads people into seeing your resources or your services as a solution to their problem. So you're kind of taking the problem that your services or your resources solve, and you are showing your listeners that what you have is the solution to their problem. Talk about these things often. Talk about your products, your resources often, and be consistent with your CTAs, your calls. Action in the other platforms that you use, like Instagram and email. So if you are telling people about a membership that you have and you're talking about it in your podcast, make sure that you're also talking about that on your Instagram and your email, and they can all work really well together. Another way to monetize your podcast is through sponsorships. There is no magic time frame on when you can get sponsors, and it's even possible to get sponsors before you even launch your show. I talked about that specifically with my guest Tracy a couple of episodes back in episode 168

    so definitely check that one out if you're interested in sponsorships. That was a great episode, and if you're in the prep school, my online course, there is an incredible bonus training with Jeremy ends in there. And in that training, he even gives you his sponsorship toolkit for free. And that toolkit will walk you through how to find sponsors, how to put together media kit, all of that great stuff. So for sure, check that out. If you're in the prep school. If you're not in the prep school, come join us, because there's so many great bonuses and resources in there. But kind of like a condensed version of what you would do if you're interested in sponsors, you're going to brainstorm some good fit companies for your listeners, and you're going to pitch them. You're going to pitch them and ask them, Hey, do you want to be a sponsor for my show? You're going to come up with your own package rates. So you can have a few different packages that you offer. You can combine your podcast ads with other things like email and Instagram reels or Instagram stories, and you can create these custom packages. So an example, just a quick example, package that is a very realistic package would be a 32nd host read ad that would be placed in four episodes, plus one mention in your email newsletter for $500 so I personally would think that that would very much be worth your time. You record 1/32 ad, you place that same ad in four episodes, and then you also mention whatever you are promoting in your email newsletter. Another way to monetize your podcast is through affiliate marketing. So you can on your podcast, you can include promotions for specific platforms that you're an affiliate for Amazon products, digital courses or memberships that you might be affiliates for the best way to go about affiliate marketing for your podcast is to share about things that you actually love because you're going to be able to talk about them more frequently, and you're going to be able to talk about them authentically because you actually love them. You're not just picking something random to share on your podcast that you've never even used before. An example of this, for me would be Captivate, which is the podcast host that I use and recommend. I use them. I absolutely love them. I recommend them. And when people use my affiliate link, I get a kickback, at no additional cost to the person who's using that link. It's a way to support this show. They are definitely my like, biggest affiliate money maker, because I love them so much that it's really easy to talk about them and I want to share about them. I want you to use them because I know that you're going to love them. Okay, so those are some different ways you can monetize your own products or services, sponsorships or affiliate marketing. All right. Last question I'm going to run through is, how do you make Instagram posts that mention your podcast episodes? Okay, that's a great question, and maybe is even one of the reasons that you're so interested in podcasting is because podcasting can make your other content creation that much easier. So you can take what you're sharing about in your weekly podcast episode and you can repurpose that and use that for your Instagram content. So when you create Instagram posts that are centered around your podcast episodes and created for the purpose of promoting your podcast episodes and wanting to gain new listeners or retain listeners and encourage people to listen, if that's the goal of your Instagram post, here are the things that I see working really well right now. I see carousels still working really well if they are created in a way that educates about something or entertains about something, not just a carousel that says new podcast episode. Here's what we talk about in the episode. That is not necessarily something that's going to be engaging and kind of draw people into wanting to listen. Other things that are working are like really short, engaging video clips, if you're a video podcaster picking just like even if it's like a 10 second, engaging clip from the episode that focuses on again, something that educates or entertains and then Instagram reels or tiktoks also, of course, work if you are doing them right again, not just like an audiogram from the episode, but something that I see work really well. Is when you focus on one specific point from the episode. For example, I talked about using a content calendar earlier in this episode, so I could create a reel showing you how I set up my content calendar, and then in the caption, I can share that you can hear more about the content calendar and other pieces of advice like this inside of this episode. So all of these things, whether it's a real or a carousel, you want to lead with the value, lead with the education or the entertainment, and then share that it is a podcast episode. That's just what works. People don't want to just see, hey, new podcast episode out. They want to know, why should I even listen? So as they're kind of watching your reel or reading your carousel, they shouldn't even know that this relates to a podcast episode until the very end or in the caption, because they're already hooked, they're thinking, Oh, cool. Like, I want to learn more from this person, or I want to hear more from this person. Oh, great. This is a podcast episode. So that's kind of what I see working. Okay, I hope that those questions were some questions that you had, and helps you kind of think through some of the things to consider when you're launching a podcast. Again, I want to remind you to enter that giveaway to win a microphone. It's one less thing that you'll have to purchase when you start your podcast. If you win again, you can leave a review or screenshot this episode and add it to your Instagram Stories. Tag me at podcasting for educators, or you can do both and get two entries. All right, let's end the episode with something that I'm loving and something that I'm listening to something that I'm loving right now is easy, repeatable dinners. And I'm kind of a big fan of like, easy, repeatable meals in general. I eat the same thing for breakfast. I've eaten the same thing for breakfast for the past few years now. I just love not even having to think about it. I always have the ingredients for it. It's a protein shake, and it makes me feel good in the morning, I know I'm getting something healthy. I know that I have what I need because I have it on auto ship, and it's just easy and it's good, and I love it. And the same thing goes for dinners right now. If you don't already know, I have a baby who's at the time of this recording five and a half months old, and I have a seven year old, and we're just busy. Our seven year old is is at that age where she's now involved in all these activities and school and dinner hour is the witching hour for our baby. And it's just, you know that, like five to 7pm time period is rough, so we love to just have a list of meals that we just repeat each week. And it makes grocery shopping so much easier, and it makes the actual like prep and cooking easier, one of our favorites, and this is just so basic and easy, but I love a good crock pot meal. Every week we do spaghetti and meatballs in the crock pot, so I'll just at 9am I put in our meatballs, and my husband likes me to also add Italian sausage, put the sauce in there with the meat, put it on slow cook for eight hours, and it's going to be ready by 5pm and it's the easiest meal ever. So if you are stressed out about dinners, don't feel like you have to recreate the wheel every single week. And then something that I am listening to is a podcast called the Business edit. It's hosted by Jade Boyd. Jade is just so easy to listen to. She's super down to earth, and she knows her stuff. So this podcast is it's for service providers and online business owners. So even if you're not a service provider for somebody who has, you know, digital products or resources, this would be a great show for you to listen to. She talks a lot about how to scale your business and double your profits without working more, but in, like, a very practical way, not a, like, overnight success way. And specifically a episode, a recent episode that she did, that I really loved, was episode 102 it's called opting out of default living, the ultimate form of self care. And she talks about, like, all these things in business and in our personal life that we feel like we have to do without even thinking about it, and how we can instead think about the season of life that we're in and start opting out of some of these things. And it just resonated with me so much, especially with the season that I'm in right now. I definitely recommend checking out this episode if that sounds interesting to you, and I will link that in the show notes for you. All right, you guys. I hope that this Q and A was helpful for you, and if you are getting ready to launch your podcast, I am cheering you on. I'm so excited for you, and my DMs are always open. If you have any questions or you want to chat through anything, thanks for being here, and I'll catch you here next week. Thanks so much for listening to today. Episode to keep this conversation going, connect with me on Instagram. At podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support in launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my online course, the podcasting for educators prep school. At podcasting for educators.com/prep, school. I'll see you here next time bye.

More about Podcasting for Educators:

Podcasting for Educators is the podcast for TpT authors and other online educators. It's a show that will help you get your podcast in front of those who need it most - teachers, counselors, literacy specialists, SLPs, parents, and more! Each week, Sara Whittaker and her guests will share top tips and actionable strategies that you will need in order to launch, manage, and grow your podcast. You’ll learn how to leverage your show to build long-lasting relationships with your audience and promote your TpT resources, courses, and memberships, all while providing valuable and accessible content!

Some links on this page are affiliate links. This helps to support this podcast at no additional cost to you.

 
Sara Whittaker