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?
