166 I Answer Your Top Podcasting Questions: From Choosing the Right Gear to Growing Your Audience

[00:00:00] As podcasters, we're always wondering how do we make our show amazing? How do we make this thing better?

[00:00:06] So you've got questions and I've got answers.

[00:00:14] Sound matters. Be heard. Welcome to the podcast where you get exclusive behind-the-scenes tips

[00:00:21] to make your own show sound truly spectacular. This is Podtastic Audio.

[00:00:53] Today's episode is brought to you by Riverside and if you are tired of those remote recordings that

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[00:01:57] where every episode sounds top-notch. When I first got started in podcasting back in the summer

[00:02:06] of 2019, I was aware of what podcasts were. I listened to lots and lots of podcasts. In fact,

[00:02:15] my listening experience dated all the way back to 2009, 10 years prior to me even using a microphone

[00:02:23] for a podcast. I was well aware of what podcasting was although when you step into the creation

[00:02:29] side of podcasting it's a whole different world than just listening to podcasts. And I wish

[00:02:36] I knew something back then but I knew nothing. I didn't even know what an RSS feed was or a podcast

[00:02:43] host. I just created the MP3 file and I tried to drop it into Apple Podcasts on my Windows

[00:02:50] computer. I think it was called iTunes back then, still was, and it said you need an RSS

[00:02:56] feed and a media host and I'll scratch my head. What does any of that stuff mean?

[00:03:00] What are you talking about? And of course, don't get me started on figuring out how to use

[00:03:04] different types of gear. I had to get two microphones and a guest and all those different

[00:03:08] things all happening. I had to figure all that stuff out all myself through trial and error.

[00:03:14] And because I was determined to make sure I got things correct and I fixed all the problems

[00:03:19] and made sure I had the absolute best show I could possibly make with what I had,

[00:03:25] I researched how to do it, what to do, how to make sure it sounds great,

[00:03:29] what kind of tools should I use. And then other podcasters reached out to me asking me for advice

[00:03:35] and I'm like, well who am I? I just learned this stuff maybe a year ago but I was still

[00:03:41] willing to help other people out and share what I have done and share everything I know

[00:03:48] about podcasting up to this point. And that's what brings us here today to podcasting audio.

[00:03:54] So today's episode is all about you and your podcasting questions. So I have got lots and lots

[00:04:03] of emails and whether it's a social post or an instant message and things like that,

[00:04:08] people are asking me questions about their podcast, how to start a podcast,

[00:04:13] all kinds of good stuff. So today I'm going to read your questions and try my best to answer

[00:04:20] each and every single one of them. And if you want to send in your questions, you always can go to

[00:04:25] my website and fill out the contact form right there at podcastingaudio.com. Okay so kicking

[00:04:33] it off with our very first question, it says, hey Chris I've been thinking about inviting

[00:04:39] guests onto my podcast but I'm nervous about conducting interviews. Do you have any tips

[00:04:45] for making my guests feel comfortable and getting great content from Emma? Well thanks Emma for writing

[00:04:52] that in. When it comes to your guests, sometimes no matter how big they say they are we've had guests

[00:04:58] come on the Chris Crisheen show that claim they've been on all these shows, they have done a TED talk,

[00:05:04] they've done all these things and even without recording video talk and just an audio only

[00:05:09] recording via clean feed, you can still tell they're extremely nervous and we're trying to

[00:05:14] calm them down with maybe telling them some jokes or kind of like lightning the low to make sure

[00:05:19] it sounds like a conversation not like a scripted like I don't know maybe a job interview or something

[00:05:26] like that. Try to make sure that they are extremely comfortable, get them to relax and

[00:05:33] perhaps maybe just tell them that anything they say can be edited and if you have to make

[00:05:40] a change in anything you say or do tell your guests to pause for like 10 seconds then pick up with

[00:05:47] what they're going to say that way when you go edit it later you can see those pause breaks

[00:05:53] in the waveform and you know that is a spot where you need to focus on your editing. It makes

[00:05:58] editing so much easier and it helps them relax because they know they have that crutch the

[00:06:03] fall on if they screw up which makes them relax. So thanks again Emma for writing in.

[00:06:09] Next we have from Alina and she says I'm wondering how often I should release episodes.

[00:06:16] Is there an ideal frequency to keep listeners engaged without overwhelming myself?

[00:06:22] Well Alina this has been kind of one of those questions that I've even pondered with myself

[00:06:29] because I think personally now it's just my personal opinion that the weekly release of episodes is

[00:06:37] really kind of the sweet spot. I'll tell you why because if it goes super long like say you release

[00:06:43] an episode every month there are a lot of things that can kind of happen between that month

[00:06:48] not saying your listeners will probably forget about your show and do something else

[00:06:52] but they may push you down in their importance level so say your show comes out every month

[00:06:58] but they've got all these other shows that do weekly shows they may actually listen to those

[00:07:02] more frequently because they see them more frequently. Now on the downside if you release

[00:07:08] say three episodes a week or twice a week it may be too much for your listeners to keep up. They

[00:07:15] may skip episodes. I noticed that happened to me when I was doing my bonus episodes. The bonus

[00:07:20] episodes I would do a regular episode and a bonus episode within the same week

[00:07:26] and then I would notice that one or the other would get more plays than the other episode. I thought

[00:07:32] that was kind of odd because you would think in theory that all of them would get exactly the

[00:07:37] same amount or roughly the same amount of episodes being played each and every episode

[00:07:42] but what I noticed was happening was I think that when you're in your podcast app it's going

[00:07:47] to show you most recent episode that you did not listen to and if there's a few that have

[00:07:53] come in during the same week you just may not see it in your app. You may only see the most recent

[00:07:59] one so that's what I kind of noticed with my stuff. So I think the weekly release schedule

[00:08:04] is probably like the sweet spot maybe every other week is probably fine too but if you're

[00:08:10] going to do weekly I would stick with weekly and that's my opinion so thanks for writing in.

[00:08:14] Okay next we got one from Tom. Tom writes, hello Chris my podcast is starting to gain

[00:08:20] traction and I'm getting offers from sponsorships. How do I decide which sponsors are a good fit for

[00:08:27] my show and how do I handle the business side of things? Okay Tom well this can be a little tricky

[00:08:34] first off congratulations for having sponsors actually reach out to you that's quite amazing

[00:08:39] it means that you are doing something right because they see some kind of value in sponsoring

[00:08:44] your show that's awesome congratulations. So when it comes to deciding like which podcast sponsor

[00:08:52] is right for your particular show well you decide on who your audience is and what products

[00:09:01] or services would best serve them this is where knowing exactly who your audience is

[00:09:09] really comes in handy you got to know exactly who they are their pain points what they spend

[00:09:14] money on what they don't spend money on where they need help and if you can find a product or service

[00:09:20] that actually like serves them and serves your ideal listener that would be absolutely perfect

[00:09:26] because when you do get that sponsor and you do talk business with them you can say hey I've

[00:09:32] got X amount of listeners to my show that are interested in your exact product your product

[00:09:40] would be a perfect fit for them so let's do business and when it comes to actually doing the

[00:09:45] business side of things like you said this is where things can get a little tricky because now

[00:09:51] you don't have the flexibility to I'm taking this week off or I'm taking a break for the

[00:09:56] summer I'm taking this or I'm doing that because if you are under contract with a particular sponsor

[00:10:04] they may say we are here every single week you got to produce an episode every single week

[00:10:09] that's what the contract says whether you're sick or not you got to make a contract you got to do it

[00:10:15] so things can get a little murky if you do things like that some sponsors are probably

[00:10:19] pretty cool about let's say hey it's okay we're going to put you down for this contract

[00:10:24] for X amount of episodes up until say six months or five months or whatever it is

[00:10:30] you can do things like that some may say every week some may say every episode it all kind of

[00:10:36] depends but the goal really is to make sure that you can find a sponsor that matches up with what

[00:10:42] your listeners actually would use okay moving on to the next question I have here this one says

[00:10:49] hi Chris I've been podcasting for a while now but I'm still not sure how to effectively track

[00:10:55] my podcast's performance what metrics should I be focusing on and how can I use that data

[00:11:02] to improve my show from Dave well Dave that is a great question when it comes to actually like

[00:11:10] tracking the success of your podcast there's more than just downloads we can look at because

[00:11:16] everybody goes to the default which is downloads if it's a podcast or if you're on youtube it's the

[00:11:22] views per your channel or per your video things like that but there are more things to track other

[00:11:27] than that one thing you can track really is has anybody actually responded to you via a social

[00:11:34] media post or a dm or an email or somebody met in the street that you know listens to your

[00:11:41] show is anybody actually giving you any kind of feedback on your show feedback that you did not

[00:11:47] solicit first meaning that you didn't go up to them and say hey do you listen to my show what do

[00:11:52] you think not like that if that person engages with you and says hey I just checked out your

[00:11:58] show it was great or this or that that's kind of a good measurement of success because

[00:12:03] more than just looking at numbers on a screen you actually know that somebody physically

[00:12:09] listened to your show they're actually telling you they listen to the show and they're telling you

[00:12:14] you know things about a good side or bad side about your show actual real engagement with

[00:12:21] real people I think is the ultimate you know performance guideline when it comes to measuring

[00:12:28] your podcast success but you can also can focus on numbers like data and things like that now

[00:12:34] if you are going to focus on actual download data then the number you really need to worry about is

[00:12:40] not so much how many downloads did I get overall it's not how many downloads I got over the last

[00:12:47] month it's how many downloads does each episode get and how many downloads did that episode get

[00:12:56] within the first seven days of its release now the reason why you say seven days is because

[00:13:02] that will give you a somewhat not always a somewhat accurate representation of your audience size

[00:13:10] so if you're getting 100 downloads within the first seven days of a single episodes release

[00:13:17] there's a good chance you have roughly 100 podcast listeners assuming that data trends from episode

[00:13:24] to episode week after week after week now I know they do fluctuate from time to time

[00:13:29] but you also can kind of take an average of that seven days and that should give you somewhat of a

[00:13:34] close idea of how big your audience size really is but I still think that actual engagement

[00:13:41] really is what matters most great question so moving on to the next one hey Chris I've noticed

[00:13:48] that my episodes are longer than most episodes in my genre is there an ideal episode length

[00:13:55] or should I just focus on the content regardless of the time from Melissa so Melissa when it comes

[00:14:03] to podcasting or YouTube videos or any this kind of stuff there's no real rule that says

[00:14:10] an episode has to be 20 minutes long or 45 minutes long or an hour long there's no written

[00:14:15] rule for any that stuff and there's some episodes that can go three hours or eight hours long

[00:14:19] and there's some podcasts can do things in one minute so yes you should focus on your content

[00:14:26] and making sure your content is absolutely on point it is amazing it drives your message home

[00:14:33] and no matter how long it is or how short it is there's no such thing as too long only too

[00:14:41] boring so make sure your show delivers amazing content no matter how long it is thanks for

[00:14:48] the question Melissa so moving on to the next one we have Ryan and Ryan writes in he says I'm struggling

[00:14:56] with consistency in my release schedule because of my day job how do you manage your time efficiency

[00:15:04] or I'm sorry time effectively to ensure your releasing content regularly without burning out

[00:15:13] well Ryan this has been a struggle of mine for the very beginning really when it comes to consistency

[00:15:20] with your release schedule and if you have a day job I get it I've got a day job and I've got

[00:15:24] lots of things going on so podcasting for me kind of comes in when I have time to physically do it

[00:15:31] so lately I've been doing my recordings on Friday evenings but right now I'm recording

[00:15:39] this on Wednesday evening because that is the only day this week only time slot this week I'm

[00:15:45] available to physically record now if you're doing a live show where you have a live stream that

[00:15:51] happens on Thursday night at this time or Friday at that time it's very hard and very difficult

[00:15:56] to lock those times in especially when you have guests coming in and different people things like

[00:15:59] that which makes regular podcasting I'm gonna call podcasting classic so important because

[00:16:06] you can record this on a Wednesday or a Friday or any day you want and it does not affect the listener

[00:16:12] on the other side because they can listen to it anytime they want so if you're having problems

[00:16:18] getting consistent with your release schedule here's what I would do try to record the week

[00:16:25] before your release not the week of the release I made the mistake on the christ christine show

[00:16:30] I would stay up all night thinking that the night we recorded the episode I had to edit it

[00:16:36] and release it the same night I don't know why I thought that maybe because the stupid media

[00:16:42] host we were using I couldn't figure out how to do the time release of the episode which is

[00:16:48] what I get to is that if you set a date in time release for the episode on whichever podcast

[00:16:55] media host you use I've been doing that it comes in so amazingly well because I can record

[00:17:02] edit and produce an episode on Wednesday and then have it set to go out on Monday morning

[00:17:08] and be done with it that way it's already ready to go on Monday and even if I don't edit it on

[00:17:15] Wednesday I've got Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday to put it together have it out by Monday

[00:17:19] so if you can figure out what works best for you and your schedule and give yourself a little bit

[00:17:26] of buffer before the actual release day and if you get to it early great you can set it to release

[00:17:32] on that Monday in advance and I also found this out at least with Libsyn which I host this podcast on

[00:17:38] is that I can set out multiple episodes to go out in advance so let's just say I can have

[00:17:43] this Monday is already ready to go set that out Monday and then I can have the next Monday's ready

[00:17:50] to go and the Monday after that set in there ready to go in fact when I went on that trip over the

[00:17:56] summer that's exactly what I did I had three episodes pre-recorded and had all of them set to go out

[00:18:03] Monday and then the Monday after that and the Monday after that so that when I did get back

[00:18:07] in a town I was ready to record the next one it's already ahead of the game so I suggest

[00:18:12] that you try to batch record at least maybe two episodes in advance that way gives you that buffer

[00:18:19] for figuring out when things can happen around your work schedule thanks Ryan thanks for writing

[00:18:26] in I really appreciate it so moving on to the next one it says here I'm considering rebranding

[00:18:33] my podcast to attract a broader audience what should I keep in mind when making a big change

[00:18:40] like this and how do I avoid losing my existing listeners from Alex well Alex when you mean

[00:18:49] broader audience what does that actually mean because if you have a podcast that falls into

[00:18:57] particular niche you shouldn't be thinking broad you should be thinking laser focused I'm going

[00:19:03] to serve this one listener everybody should come in so I think what he's saying is that

[00:19:09] a broader audience he might mean changing his show into something completely different

[00:19:15] well that could be a problem and yes you could actually lose your listeners because they came

[00:19:22] here for one thing let's just say your show is about a particular breed of puppy dog right

[00:19:28] great and then you took that show instead of being about puppy dogs in this one particular

[00:19:34] breed of animal you decided to make a show like the nature show and be about all animals

[00:19:41] which could piss off your dedicated listeners that are there for that particular breed of puppy

[00:19:47] dogs they're not there for alligators and zebras and all kinds of other nonsense they came in

[00:19:52] there for that one particular thing so it could actually backfire on you so I would

[00:19:58] say don't do that I would focus on the one particular thing you are actually good at

[00:20:04] and stick with that so hope that helps Alex okay moving on to the next one we have

[00:20:09] Megan and Megan says hi Chris I've often get nervous before a recording and it affects my

[00:20:17] performance what are some techniques to calm my nerves and get in the right mindset before

[00:20:24] hitting a record well Megan that makes two of us actually it probably makes everybody I think

[00:20:30] everybody hits your chord especially for the very first time gets very very nervous I get nervous

[00:20:36] almost every single time I record but I have like multiple like takes that I do before I get

[00:20:42] the ball rolling to make sure that I'm not so nervous oh gosh what do I do I think

[00:20:48] for me it's probably just repetition I kind of get in here and do it but if you are actually

[00:20:54] doing like an interview style show I can see where that gets kind of nervous because here you are

[00:20:59] face to face you know via video chat of some sort and you're trying to make sure that you land their

[00:21:05] introduction of the guest you can get all that stuff smoothed out perfectly so when it comes to

[00:21:10] doing something like that I would recommend not doing this big fancy open for your guest

[00:21:16] because chances are we're gonna be kind of nervous and you're gonna fumble through it

[00:21:20] anyways I have noticed I've done that a few times or you keep it like very very short

[00:21:24] today we have Dr. So and so on the show talking about X hello Dr. So and so you keep it very

[00:21:30] quick like that some people get really lengthy and they like read their entire like bio word for

[00:21:36] word I wouldn't do that either but if you're gonna do something like that perhaps maybe do that

[00:21:40] you know off camera with your guest do it separately that way you're kind of like more relaxed

[00:21:47] there's no pressure you can do multiple takes take your time get it just right edit it just right

[00:21:53] and then kind of splice in your interview with your guest if you want to do things like that but

[00:22:00] all I can say is just trying to relax have fun and remember everything you do on a podcast

[00:22:06] can be edited out later and edit your show in a way that makes you sound the absolute best you

[00:22:14] can that way you don't have to worry about thinking all the pressures on

[00:22:18] or think of what I'm saying all that stuff just realize if you said something that

[00:22:23] doesn't sound right or if you said something that sounds really nervous cut it out and then

[00:22:29] retake that part over again it's very simple if it takes you 100 takes takes you 100 takes but

[00:22:35] eventually practice makes perfect and you'll get going so thanks again for the question

[00:22:40] Megan hope that answered your question there okay moving on to the next one it says here from Sam

[00:22:47] where you go I find there it is Sam says hey Chris I sometimes struggle with making complex

[00:22:53] topics accessible to my audience how can I break down complicated subjects without losing the

[00:23:00] essence of the content or overwhelming my listeners from Sam well Sam it really depends

[00:23:07] on what kind of show you have so what I have found is that for me you know talking you know

[00:23:12] specifically for myself here is that if you're going to have like multiple complex things on a

[00:23:19] single episode maybe break those up into multiple episodes so episode one is about one particular

[00:23:27] topic and episode two is about another topic rather than like combining all of them into

[00:23:33] one single show I for each show is that like that I get kind of lost because there's so many

[00:23:38] different things happening so if you are going to do things where you have so many topics and

[00:23:43] so many different things happening on a single episode then I would suggest breaking them up

[00:23:49] with some kind of segments an audio sound a music bed something that breaks up topic the

[00:23:57] topic and keep each topic like separated from the other ones like its own little chapter if your

[00:24:03] podcast would say a book chapter one chapter two chapter three and then you break them up

[00:24:08] with little audio segments and then you keep each chapter in its own contained space so

[00:24:15] that way it's not mixing things up you know and making things too complicated as you were

[00:24:20] and if you have to make multiple episodes say for example you have a 60 minute podcast with

[00:24:27] six different topics in there break them up into 10 minute episodes six different 10 minute

[00:24:34] episodes there's nothing wrong with that that way when an audience member comes and presses play

[00:24:41] they know exactly that this particular episode is about this one topic and if they want to

[00:24:45] listen to the other one they can it's all right there so thank you sam that's a great great question

[00:24:53] so moving on to the next one we have bella and bella says I've noticed that some episodes get

[00:25:01] more engagement than others and I'm not sure why how can I analyze my content to understand

[00:25:09] what resonates most with my audience and create more of it well bella that's great that's a great

[00:25:16] question because when you look at your actual downloads you look at all the different numbers

[00:25:21] some episodes go up then episodes go down sometimes you get more feedback on one episode

[00:25:27] than on another episode and I'll try to figure out this data can drive you nuts actually

[00:25:32] but what it does do is you will notice a trend because some episodes you think oh this

[00:25:37] episode is going to be amazing it's going to be off the hook it's great you throw it out there

[00:25:41] and then you get little response you get very little downloads you're like what happened why is

[00:25:47] this episode falling flat and then you'll put another episode out that you just pulled out

[00:25:52] of your butt out of nowhere it's like a throwaway episode it's like well this episode is going

[00:25:56] to be like whatever and then everybody loves it I think it's the greatest episode you've

[00:25:59] ever done you're trying to scratch your head like well should I focus more on like

[00:26:02] the slack and off and doing like half ass episodes or should I actually do

[00:26:06] something that's actually like legit and serious but if one of your episodes does see a lot more

[00:26:13] engagement people writing you or texting you or messaging you on that particular one episode

[00:26:20] ask them why ask them why did you like this episode so much what was great about this episode

[00:26:26] take notes take the feedback and then that way you can understand maybe this type of content

[00:26:32] on this episode is what's resonating best with listeners then you can take that information

[00:26:39] and use it to craft the next episode and maybe instead of talking about subject a but your

[00:26:46] you know your listeners want you to talk about subject D then talk about that instead

[00:26:51] your podcast is never set in stone it's not a foundation that's rock solid it can never be

[00:26:58] changed once you have it all set and done is good to go you can never ever change it and that is not

[00:27:02] true you can change your podcast any way you want at any time you want you can talk about one thing

[00:27:08] you can talk about another thing you can do interviews and then you can do solo episodes

[00:27:12] you can do co-hosted show then switch flop the flop back and forth any which way you want to do

[00:27:16] it's your show so have fun enjoy what you do and keep on keep it on so moving on to the next

[00:27:25] question I have here this one comes in from Carla and Carla says hey Chris I've been using the basic

[00:27:31] usb microphone but I'm thinking of upgrading what should I look for in a new microphone to get a

[00:27:39] richer more professional sound without breaking the bank from Carla now Carla this is a

[00:27:47] fantastic question this is probably the question that launched this podcast in the first place

[00:27:53] because when we were using basic usb microphones on the chris christine show it was fun and all

[00:27:59] but for some reason I wanted to take our podcast to not to say the next level I just want to make

[00:28:06] things a little easier and a little more comfortable now if you are doing a solo show or even just

[00:28:14] an interview style show where it's just you and you're doing a zoom interview of some kind

[00:28:20] hopefully you're using riverside.fm shout out and you are doing things just remotely over a screen

[00:28:26] you on one end your guest on the other end and it's just you a simple usb microphone will

[00:28:32] probably work just fine but if you have multiple people in the same room with you you want to

[00:28:39] co-host you want to co-host another guest or something like that all in the same location

[00:28:44] you're going to need some kind of audio interface to make that happen whether it's a

[00:28:49] roadcaster pro or any kind of audio interface that can take in xlr inputs now you'll need

[00:28:58] xlr microphones the microphone I always recommend is the samsung q2u because you can hook it up

[00:29:05] usb like you're doing right now into your computer or you can hook up via xlr to any

[00:29:12] kind of console interface that is out there roadcaster pro or the zoom pod track p4 in fact

[00:29:18] actually if you're thinking about upgrading from a basic usb I would suggest getting the zoom

[00:29:25] pod track p4 because that will allow you to plug in up to four microphones and have everybody

[00:29:33] talking into them right there in the same location you can record directly onto the

[00:29:38] via a small memory card you can add sound effects you can plug in your phone I believe into it

[00:29:44] you can plug in a computer to it so you can have like that zoom call or whatever you're doing

[00:29:48] coming in there so for example you could have you and a co-host and a person coming in via zoom

[00:29:56] into the zoom pod track p4 and record everybody individually right there separate audio tracks

[00:30:02] for everybody plus if you want to do that plus you can add in sound effects or music jingles right

[00:30:10] there on the zoom pod track p4 it's a fantastic device the only downside to what I noticed is that

[00:30:16] the sound quality is not as good as something like a roadcaster pro or something like that it

[00:30:22] doesn't have any effects really onto the audio it's pretty much pretty raw audio that goes into

[00:30:27] it some people like that it looks great but you need to make sure your room sounds great and it's not

[00:30:33] a lot of echo cross talk and things like that now as far as microphones go you really want to make

[00:30:38] sure that you stay clear of condenser microphones don't get those you want to find dynamic

[00:30:45] microphones because they actually will pick up your voice better if it's directly in front of it

[00:30:52] and kind of like shade out and block out all the room noise and noise around now they're not perfect

[00:30:59] but all the noise around the backside of the microphone or other areas of the microphone

[00:31:03] it's really not going to pick up they pick up pattern is like a right in front of the microphone

[00:31:08] that's the kind of microphone you want to have now the blue yeti microphone which you might be

[00:31:13] having right now which most people have it's a condenser microphone it's actually horrible

[00:31:18] because what happens is it picks up like every single thing very very well yeah it picks up audio

[00:31:23] very very well from your neighbors you know better we'll pick that up no problem but you don't want

[00:31:28] that you want your vocals on the audio track not the you know kid bicycling down the street

[00:31:33] you don't want that on your audio you only want you on the audio so that's what suggests getting

[00:31:39] a standard uh dynamic microphone there's a look them up there's a bunch of them to use the one

[00:31:44] I'm using right now is the road pod mic I love the road pod mic they're only a hundred bucks us

[00:31:50] if you want to go the xlr version you got double the price it's 200 bucks it does the usb version

[00:31:57] which is great and it does the xlr version does both which is fantastic I have both microphones

[00:32:03] they both sound pretty much the same but if you're looking to get great sound with that

[00:32:08] having to spend a lot of money then I would start with the zoom pod track p4 okay I hope

[00:32:13] that answered your question moving on to the next one we got nick and nick says hi chris I've been

[00:32:19] considering collaborating with other podcasters to cross promote our shows what's the best way

[00:32:26] to approach potential collaborators and how can we make a sure it's a win win and that comes in from

[00:32:34] nick so nick what I'm trying to understand here is that when you mean by cross promote are you

[00:32:42] talking about being a guest or maybe even a co-host on their show and then they would be a guest or a

[00:32:50] co-host on your show so that maybe you would kind of like talk about each other's podcasts on

[00:32:58] each other's shows and help kind of boost each other up how would you make that happen well

[00:33:04] what I would suggest doing is try to figure out another show that is very similar to your show

[00:33:12] and before you get all upset thinking I'm not going to talk to the competition and they're

[00:33:16] all competition don't worry about that there's really actual no real competition and podcasting

[00:33:23] at least in podcast listening the only competition would be is if each of us were selling the

[00:33:29] exact same services to our listeners that's kind of really it but there are plenty of hours in the day

[00:33:36] for people to listen to more than one podcast there's plenty of hours to listen to 10 podcasts so

[00:33:42] I wouldn't worry about that so much so here's what you do you figure out your podcast niche

[00:33:47] and exactly what kind of genre it's in search other shows that are in that exact same niche

[00:33:55] that are very similar to yours and then you reach out to them and that's when you do your

[00:34:00] collaborating with other podcasters and say hey we share the same audience what if we do like a

[00:34:06] group show thing where I'm on your show you're on my show maybe we can do a joint venture

[00:34:12] where we do one giant show together where we're all talking together and that same audio that

[00:34:18] same podcast gets played on both of our shows because it's both of us that's another way to

[00:34:23] do it now that could potentially get the audiences of each show to listen to both shows that would

[00:34:32] be the goal and that would be your win-win you're talking about here is if both audiences listen

[00:34:37] to both shows that would be amazing now the truth is you really don't have any idea how big

[00:34:43] another show is because you can't have access to their direct downloads the way you can kind

[00:34:49] tell is if you find a show find their social media stuff if they're on youtube obviously you can see

[00:34:57] their subscriber count and their views on there but if you don't have access to that or you don't

[00:35:00] have that you could just look at their social media see how big that is see if they have a lot

[00:35:06] of likes on their posts see if they have a lot of comments on their posts things like that you

[00:35:10] kind of gauge how big or how small the show is but there's no real guarantee with that either

[00:35:15] but it just gives you an idea but I would suggest finding other podcasts in your exact space

[00:35:22] reaching out to them and try to work out something that will benefit both you guys

[00:35:27] thanks so much for the question Nick I appreciate you writing in so moving on to the next one we

[00:35:33] have Rachel and Rachel says I want to add music and sound effects to my podcast but I'm not

[00:35:41] sure how to do it without overpowering my content do you have any tips on how to effectively integrate

[00:35:48] audio elements into my episodes from Rachel okay Rachel this has been something that I learned to

[00:35:56] do before I even recorded my very first episode you see when I was learning how to do podcasting

[00:36:02] in the very beginning I knew that I needed some kind of audio editing software and I went on the

[00:36:10] old google machine and I typed it up free audio editing software and of course garage man came up

[00:36:16] and this thing called audacity came up and it said it was free and then I kept seeing it pop up in

[00:36:22] different forums and different things audacity for podcasting and all this different stuff

[00:36:26] and I even typed up like what are the best audio editor softwares out there and audacity

[00:36:31] popped up on the list there too I'm like well for free let me check this thing out and give

[00:36:36] it a try so I download audacity to my computer and at that point I don't think I even had a microphone

[00:36:43] I had like some stupid headset I was just borrowing so I had a computer with no microphone and I get

[00:36:48] audacity and then what I was doing was finding sound clips and different things online that I

[00:36:55] could download little mp3 tracks and I would throw them into audacity and I was like tweaking

[00:37:00] them and playing with them and I figured out oh I can move audio around oh look at this I can

[00:37:05] actually move this around here cut this here oh I can make it fade in I can make it fade out I can

[00:37:10] move the audio to this timeline to that timeline and when I actually recorded some kind of vocal

[00:37:16] audio and got vocals of my own in there like a practice run I actually said maybe a couple

[00:37:23] sentences or whatever and I realized oh there's my audio there's my spoken word if I just make

[00:37:29] this little movement with this little sound effect or this little song or this little thing

[00:37:33] here I can fade it out there I was really just hinkering with this thing and that got me the idea

[00:37:40] of like figuring out well maybe I can really play around with moving the audio around and make it sound

[00:37:46] as if we're using an entire like radio station console just by moving audio around in audacity

[00:37:52] that was the birth of the entire first podcast episode and then I also figured out how to

[00:37:58] copy and paste and cut things out and move things around I'm like wait a second I can cut out this

[00:38:04] sentence here and then I can move it to the very front of the timeline like copy and paste like a

[00:38:10] word document and that way something we said in the very beginning of the episode can start the

[00:38:15] episode oh and then I can move over this cool little intro I put together which I totally

[00:38:20] made myself and I can move it right after the intro and I can do it just like that I was

[00:38:25] playing around with it and that's when I kind of got the bug for figuring how to tinker with this stuff

[00:38:29] I love tinkering I love creation stuff and when it came to creating audio and then I realized that

[00:38:36] this could be a podcast I was in love and I absolutely loved it so when it comes to adding

[00:38:41] music or sound effects to your show one thing I tell you is that first off play around with

[00:38:47] things but at the same time a little can go a long long way there are some shows that will

[00:38:54] flood their podcast episodes with like a thousand different sound effects and like a thousand different

[00:39:00] elements and all kinds of stuff like every like every sentence like after one point is made

[00:39:06] they'll have like this crazy sound effect or between each question they ask their guest

[00:39:12] they'll have like some music swoops in and swoops out things like that is it necessary

[00:39:17] no not really people like to do it because they like to do it it's the same reason why

[00:39:22] artists will paint with a thousand different colors versus three it's really up to you however

[00:39:27] you want to do it but will the listeners be turned off by it well you have to wait and see

[00:39:33] just throw it out there and see what happens but like I said a little can go a long way

[00:39:38] so thanks for the question Rachel I appreciate you writing in so we are down to our very last

[00:39:44] question coming in from Aaron and Aaron says hey Chris I've been thinking about creating

[00:39:50] custom artwork for each episode to make them more visually appealing when shared on social media

[00:39:58] how important is it to have unique episode artwork versus just showing my shows main artwork

[00:40:05] from Aaron well Aaron this is a fantastic question so first off do you have to have

[00:40:12] individual episode artwork for each episode no but you do have to have actual show artwork

[00:40:20] the artwork that is for the podcast itself that has to be 3000 by 3000 pixels maximum by

[00:40:27] or 1400 by 1400 pixels minimum and I believe it has to be 500 megabytes but it has to be a square

[00:40:34] design exact square dimensions that is one thing we screwed up with on the Chris and Christine

[00:40:40] show I think when we created our very first artwork it was not entirely a square it was slightly off

[00:40:47] so we did upload it to all the podcast hosting stuff it did kind of like adjust and kind of

[00:40:52] I think what happened is it kind of like changed the image a little bit stretched it out or

[00:40:57] whatever it did to make sure it was the square shape so that's one thing to consider when you

[00:41:02] do that and also the same thing goes for if you're going to make individual artwork

[00:41:07] for each episode now why would you do that if you go and do your apple podcast or wherever

[00:41:13] podcast place you go to and you see the different shows and you see the artwork for the main show

[00:41:20] like I said there's a lot of shows that just have the regular artwork

[00:41:23] for the main show and that's all they have for every single episode

[00:41:27] and that is entirely fine you can totally do that but if you were to look at a youtube channel

[00:41:34] any youtube channel that's out there what is the most important thing other than the video itself

[00:41:42] it's got to be the thumbnail for that video because when you are looking at a computer page of all

[00:41:49] these different thumbnails of all these different videos to watch the thumbnail that looks the

[00:41:55] most enticing is probably the one you're going to click on and watch I look at podcasting

[00:42:01] kind of the same way because if your list of all your episodes are broken down on your actual

[00:42:08] website whichever website you have for your podcast it could be the actual you know media page

[00:42:13] you know website you can use that or a pod page or a podcast page whatever you want to use

[00:42:18] or you actually have all of your episodes in a row you know listed out on your website

[00:42:25] when a listener or potentially a new listener goes to that website and they look at all your stuff

[00:42:32] remember I know all the titles are going to be there but a lot of people are just going to

[00:42:37] judge what they're going to look at or listen to based solely on what they see so if they see

[00:42:44] an image that looks enticing that says basically what that episode is about within the graphic

[00:42:50] artwork that you created there's a good chance they're going to click on that and that's

[00:42:54] what it's all about it's actually getting people to want to click on a particular episode

[00:42:58] now how do you do that is make sure that the episode artwork think of it like youtube thumbnails

[00:43:05] because if they see it they're going to say that looks enticing I want to listen to that

[00:43:11] episode because it's about this so if you have a guest interviews and easy way to do that is

[00:43:15] take an image of them you can put them on your episode artwork and then maybe have

[00:43:22] the episode number or the name of the episode or whatever on that same thing you can do that

[00:43:27] but I also like to do is somehow infuse my actual artwork within the actual episode artwork so that

[00:43:35] if somebody stumbled upon just my episode artwork alone they would still know what show

[00:43:42] that belonged to because it's in the artwork still that's just my personal advice I know

[00:43:49] some shows will throw that away and just put a headshot of the guest and maybe their name and maybe

[00:43:55] that's it really but that's cool at all but it still doesn't tell you which episode or which

[00:44:01] podcast this is from and things like that so the cool thing is is that when you do create

[00:44:07] episode artwork is that not only will it show up in all the podcast apps or at least most

[00:44:13] of them like Spotify, Apple I think a lot of them do show episode artwork on the screen of your phone

[00:44:19] or your Apple CarPlay which is very very cool because here you are driving down the road got

[00:44:24] your phone plugged into Apple CarPlay you're listening to your favorite podcast and not only

[00:44:30] does the podcast name and episode show on the screen but also it's a big old logo that you

[00:44:36] created for that individual artwork which could have that guest or that topic or that whatever

[00:44:41] on there and that way they know this is this episode it just looks clean it's like a clean look I think

[00:44:48] and I absolutely love creating episode artwork for all my episodes on the Kristen Christine show

[00:44:55] I think I figured this out probably around episode three or four you actually could do this and

[00:45:00] I'm like that's amazing I absolutely love it and it wasn't until I started using Spotify

[00:45:05] to listen to episodes that I actually noticed it was showing up in the Apple CarPlay in my truck I was

[00:45:12] like that is so cool because that's something I created graphically is showing up on the screen

[00:45:19] for that particular episode and it's about that episode right then and there I just had a really

[00:45:23] clean nice look and that's what I like to use it for but you also can use it for social

[00:45:28] media posting that's another thing I use it for so not only does it show up in all the apps

[00:45:33] in all the podcast apps as that particular episode and your website you can still use that same graphic

[00:45:39] for social media promotion for that particular episode it looks great it's easy to do you already

[00:45:45] have the graphic it's already done all you got to do is use it for social media by the boom by

[00:45:49] the bing it makes things amazing now I know some people aren't very you know they can't do

[00:45:55] graphics very well and it's very difficult to do that kind of stuff you can use Canva

[00:46:00] I used Canva to create the original artwork but I don't use Canva to create the episode artwork

[00:46:05] there's a couple apps I have on my iPhone that I use to overlay different images and change things

[00:46:13] and do things like that and do from backgrounds and it's really kind of a cool app I have I think

[00:46:18] I paid for it and there was another app I use that actually I used to create the different

[00:46:23] text font that goes on top of it so I actually used two different apps one app to kind of build

[00:46:28] the actual individual artwork for that episode and then another app I use to write the text on

[00:46:36] top of that app on top of that image and then I save it to my phone and then I air drop it

[00:46:42] to my computer and then I send it out to my podcast media host and that way it gets embedded

[00:46:47] into the podcast episode itself so when it goes playing on Apple or Spotify or any of those

[00:46:55] kind of apps it shows up and it's good to go that's what I do so that was quite fun and thank you for

[00:47:02] writing in with your questions I really really appreciate you taking your time to write me

[00:47:06] and to ask these questions and if you have a question about your podcast and you want to

[00:47:11] write me you can get ahold of me through my website at podcasticaudio.com and I will be

[00:47:17] happy to do this episode just like this in the future send your questions in I am more than

[00:47:23] happy to answer every single question that comes my way and if you would like me to be a guest on

[00:47:30] your podcast just ask that too I am willing to go on anybody's show and I love podcasting I love

[00:47:38] all things podcasting I love sharing everything I have done with you so you can make an amazing

[00:47:43] show for your audience and with that note until next time happy podcasting