How to start and run a successful podcast in 2024

Read this guide to find the starting point and learn what you need to create a functioning and growing podcast in 2024.  

Why it’s worth it

Millions of listeners worldwide, the ability to speak up about topics that concern you, revenue, potential fame, and other things draw creators to the idea of creating their podcasts.

Sharing your expertise

Apart from writing a book or filming a documentary, there’s no better chance to share your knowledge and passion about a particular subject with a global audience. Whether you’re an expert in a niche field, a hobbyist, or someone with a unique perspective, podcasting allows you to educate and inform others.

Building a personal brand

Podcasting is a great way to establish yourself as an authority or thought leader in your niche. Over time, a successful podcast can enhance your personal brand and open up opportunities for speaking engagements, consulting, or other forms of recognition. If you’re the owner or part of a marketing team in an organization, a podcast can be an effective inbound marketing tool. By creating valuable and relevant podcast episodes related to your organization’s industry, you can attract and engage its target audience.

Monetization

Not every podcast is made to generate revenue, but if you become a thought leader and earn recognition, you have all the chances to earn enough money for a living. Some podcasters generate income through advertising, sponsorships, donations, or premium content. You can already start earning while your audience grows, the more engaged viewers you have, the more monetization opportunities arise.

Creative expression

Being yourself and creating content you like is already a reward! Your podcast is yours completely - be creative and experiment with styles, formats, and content to find what works for you and your audience.

Why podcasts fail and how to avoid it

The matter of podcasts failing even has a specific term - podfading. It’s a phenomenon of podcasts gradually being abandoned by their creators due to the lack of interest from the audience, creator burnout, or other matters. According to AmplifiMedia, this sad fate befalls 75% of podcast shows.

Consistency

What is the critical factor for your podcast’s success? Consistency. If a podcast fails to upload new episodes regularly, once or even twice a week at best, listeners may lose interest and simply forget about your content. The truth is, it applies to any type and area of content creation, not just podcasting - consistently post episodes to avoid your podcast going extinct.

Expectations

Another problem met by many is expectations. Some podcast creators start with unrealistic expectations of immediate fame and fortune. When these expectations are unmet, they may become discouraged and give up on the podcast prematurely. While starting a podcast, be realistic - it usually takes a couple of years to grow your audience and build a brand, unless you’ve already been known on other platforms. You may achieve your plans faster if you spend most of your time on it, promote your videos on different platforms and once again, post consistently.

Burnouts

Podcasting can be time-consuming and mentally taxing. Creators often underestimate the effort required to produce quality content consistently. When burnout eventually sets in, podcasters begin to struggle to keep up with the demands of their podcast and, in most cases, shut it down.

Running a podcast is not easy at all - you’ll need everything it takes on stake and even more. But don’t fret, try to find time for yourself, recharge, and remember that you only started this podcast because you like doing what you’re doing.

Content Strategy

Without a strategy, you have all the chances to go down and abandon your podcast in months after beginning. Build a content strategy that reflects the type of content you’ll create, and decide on the format, style, and tone that best aligns with your podcast’s goals.

Create an episode outline for your first few episodes. Potential viewers are most likely to watch this trailer than start listening from scratch to find out whether your podcast suits them.

Decide on the episode length, structure, and key points you want to cover. Ensure each episode is dynamic and keeps retention, providing value to your audience.

And finally, establish a content calendar that schedules when episodes will be recorded, edited, and released.

Competition

There’s a lot of competition in the podcasting landscape, with millions of podcasts available on various platforms. How to fight it? The answer is - find your niche, be unique, give value, and be consistent! If a podcast cannot differentiate itself or find its niche, it may struggle to attract and retain listeners. 

Your perfect niche, expertise and listener

Define the purpose of your podcast: Who is my target audience? What’s the message behind my episodes? What value do I provide? By giving detailed answers to these questions, you’ll be able to shape the basics.

Select a niche or topic you love and have expertise in. Obviously, motion designers will speak up about design and invite designer guests, scientists will record episodes about science, and so on.

Make sure it’s something you can consistently create content about. Focusing on a specific niche is practical because it allows you to talk about something you know about, and build a strong community of like-minded listeners, who will listen to all episodes, not just specific ones. Come up with a catchy and memorable name for your podcast! It shouldn’t be generic or boring - the idea is to make up a name that will have a relation to your podcast, but will sound unique and easy to remember.

Write down several ideas and get rid of generic ones. Make sure that the name you’ve picked isn’t already taken by someone.

Now your chances of success are much higher!

Types of podcasts

Depending on your expertise, there’s a vast choice of topics you can cover. For example, you can record Interviews with guests, experts, or celebrities, and discuss their work, personal life, or specific topics.

You can also run Educational podcasts to teach your audience a skill, deep dive into complex topics, and share your bits of knowledge. Here are some great motion design podcasts to improve your animation skills!

Another area you can cover is News - your podcast can serve to comment on current events, news updates, politics, and more. You can invite journalists and experts to popularize important issues or give unheard comments on the agenda and create exclusive content.

And finally, you don’t have to pick any specific direction - make your podcast a Lifestyle thing. Speak up about what concerns you, make jokes, invite the guests and do anything you want. This can be more risky, especially for an unknown podcaster without specific expertise, but on the other hand, your personality may draw and win the audience for you!

The borders between types of podcasts may fade, as you can freely interview your guest, then switch to discussing news & events; run the podcast in both formats - video, and audio. What you’ll do only depends on your audience’s interest.

The tools you need for podcasting

You may not own a studio and expensive setup, but it shouldn’t stop you. There are enough equipment options on the market that will ensure you can start as a price-conscious podcaster.

Mic

Start by getting a clear and dynamic microphone that can catch lower frequencies effectively, while being less sensitive to noise, hisses and other sounds. Here, you may pick between affordable ones with USB support, like Rode NT-USB or Audio-Technica 2020. Their quality is lower than such models as Shure SM7B, or SM58. These microphones support audio interfaces, which ensures better voice amplification, and improve the sound quality of your recordings compared to the computer's built-in audio interface. If the budget doesn’t stop you, you can opt for the best options on the market, like Rode Wireless Pro or The Electro-Voice RE20. They cost a bit more than the previous options, but you can be sure to use the same mics as your favorite podcasters do.

Camera

Choosing the right camera is equally important to maintain consistent content quality. Opt for the cameras that record at 4K and higher, have reliable autofocus, battery life and, of course, mind your budget.

You can choose between more expensive models, like Canon EOS R5(can film in up to 8K and provides great stabilization), Sony Alpha a7 IV(records in 4K at 60 fps and has an advanced real-time focus), or - more affordable ones, like Panasonic Lumix GH6(can record at up to 120 fps and reliable for filming under different weather conditions), or Sony Alpha ZV-E1(films in 4K and great for beginners).

Also, you can choose from other models, based on your specific needs - connectivity, image stabilization, weatherproofing(you make adventurous outdoor podcasts), and so on.

Lights

For a minimalistic setup, natural light from windows can do well, positioned strategically for even and flattering lighting. But if you want to be a pro in your job, consider setting the lights.

You can find dozens of guides on how to set the lights, but the main advice is to use the Key light(main source of light placed at a 45-degree angle above your face, usually LEDs with adjustable color temperature and brightness controls), Soft Light(softboxes that give diffusion and soften the light for cinematic and pro effect), Fill Lights(additional soft light sources to fill in the shadows and balance the environment), Backlight(the light source behind your back which separates you from the background and outlines you), and as an option an Accent Light(light source with your branding colors).

Background

Your podcast's background can be anything, but the key here is to match it with your podcast theme and expertise area. Use a wall covered with old movie posters if you’re talking about films, use bookshelves if you make podcasts about books and psychology and so on. Branded backdrop will also do well! The perfect background tells the viewers your story and allows them to examine the objects.

Recording & editing software

There are a lot of software options on the market and most of the free tools will fill all your needs!

We have an article with a detailed analysis of the best audio editing software options. In a few words, Audacity is your best option - it’s free, made specifically for podcasters, and has only the required features, so you won’t be confused by learning it. Your second option is Adobe Audition, but the price is subscription-based and starts from $20.99/month.

Editing software is our favorite topic! As a motion design studio, we mastered most of the tools and can be confident in advising DaVinci Resolve for editing your podcasts. Free to use unless you decide to buy the Studio version($295 single-time payment), DaVinci is an all-in-one tool with every possible feature you’ll ever need. Even the free version is completely enough for trimming, adding music and sound effects, narration, transitions, visual effects, and branding elements to your video podcasts.

Here’s a guide on why editors prefer DaVinci Resolve over Premiere Pro.

For video podcasts, you can also increase the dynamics of your content by adding transitions, sound effects, intro and subscribe templates for your episodes. Use easyedit.pro to discover the library of 50K+ video templates for content creators in any field.

Promotion

Without promotion, even the most engaging podcast can eventually podfade. If you don’t start promoting your content to a wider audience from the very launch of your podcast, it may take years to grow it.

Audio podcasts can be accessible through various platforms and apps, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. Getting your episodes to these platforms is critical to your success since most listeners will discover you there. As an audio podcaster, you can choose a hosting platform that will store and promote your episodes on streaming services. There are different options with their own set of features and pricing, for example, Anchor, LibSyn, Podbean and Buzzsprout. Pick an option with a friendly price and features that suit your podcast.

Video podcasts are the whole other thing - launching podcasts on YouTube and cutting short vertical episodes for Instagram and TikTok would be a perfect choice for your podcast!

Social media is known to be the best place for content promotion. You have unlimited opportunities to get discovered by millions of people if you are regularly sharing sneak peeks of your episodes.

Building engagement with your audience to boost your content's visibility through platform algorithms. Social media algorithms prioritize content based on user interest, so active engagement from your audience can increase your reach and attract new followers who share similar interests.

Instead of competing, focus on collaborating with emerging, like-minded podcasters. Seek out influencers or podcasters within your niche or related fields who share a similar audience profile and thematic interests.

To sum up

You have every chance to grow a successful podcast if you are ready to put consistent work into it. It can be a hobby, but don’t treat it as a side hustle you can contribute from time to time. This is a time-consuming full-time job, which rewards you if you put your heart into it. We believe in you!