The Podcaster’s Checklist

Are you considering audio podcasting? Here’s a quick list of all the things you need to think about and do.

Planning
•    What is the goal of your podcast? Why do you want to do one anyway?
•    Who is your intended audience?
•    Does your audience have broadband access?
•    How technically savvy is your audience?
•    What are your competitors doing?
•    Do you have the resources to produce your own podcast or do you need help?
•    How long will your podcast be?
•    How often will you produce your podcast?
•    Will you commit yourself to a regular schedule or do a limited series instead?
•    Have you researched and chosen a name and tagline? Is it easily repeatable by word of mouth?
•    Have you registered a domain name for your podcast?

Publishing
•    Will you integrate the podcast into your existing Web presence or build something new?
•    Do you have album art and a visual identity for your podcast?
•    Have you selected theme music as your auditory signature?
•    Do you want listeners to be able to subscribe via iTunes with one click?
•    Will you allow listener comments? Audio and/or text?
•    Will you set up a comment line so listeners can phone in?

Content
•    What kind of tone do you want to set?
•    Do you have any existing content that can be repackaged?
•    Will you record a standard into and outro with music?
•    Will you write shownotes for the sake of your listeners and to boost search-engine rankings?
•    Will you produce a transcript for each episode?
•    Will your podcast sound like a radio show, a tutorial, a conversation or something else?
•    Will you be recording conference presentations or seminars?
•    Who is the host?
•    How long will the show be?

Production
•    Where will your audio be recorded? Studio? Location?
•    Do you need to record over the phone or Skype?
•    Will you script any of your content in advance?
•    How much editing do you expect to do? Have you selected software for this task?
•    Do you need professional voiceover talent for your intro/outro?
•    Have you sourced royalty-free podsafe stingers and music for your musical signature?
•    Are you linking your podcast to a blog?
•    Have you thought about adding Technorati tags to your podcast?
•    How will you generate your feed?
•    Have you evened out the volume of speech and music in your file?
•    Have you added proper ID3 tags so that listeners can identify your show?
•    Where will your MP3 files be hosted?
•    Where will you store backup copies of your files?

On recording day
•    Do you have your notes?
•    Have you confirmed your guest, if you have one?
•    Do you have some room-temperature water to keep your throat hydrated?
•    Have you shut down non-essential gadgets that make noise (phone, computer fans, etc.)?
•    If you are in a remote location, do you have a portable recorder, batteries, microphone, etc.?
•    Is your microphone hooked up properly? Have you done a test recording? Checked your input levels?
•    Do you need a pop filter?
•    Are you using headphones to monitor your recording?
•    If you’re recording a Skype call, is your audio-capture software ready?
•    Have you remembered to record roomtone to enable noise removal later?
•    Have you backed up your uncompressed files and then your final mix?

Promotion and measurement
•    How will you promote your podcast using traditional and social media?
•    How will you track download statistics?
•    How will you measure the success of your podcast?