Podcasting Advice

In a nutshell: Podcast Transcription is essential to good PR. This article covers three means of getting it done.

• You can do it yourself, with some simple tools.
• You can hire a freelancer.
• You can try a service. This article will also discuss the pros and cons, whys and hows, of a few different transcription services.

We think of podcasting as a purely aural medium, but we ignore podcast transcription at our peril (not to sound like a character from I, Claudius). In all seriousness, if your podcast doesn't have transcripts, that's an awful lot of audience you're missing.

“Wait a minute!” you say. “Transcripts are more time and money. How much do you expect me to invest in this podcasting thing? What's in it for me?”

We've already talked about why you should use transcripts. It bears repeating, however:

• 11 million people in the UK and 10 million people in the US are d/Deaf or hard of hearing
• Many folks have auditory processing disorders
• Transcripts of your podcast episodes can boost your search engine optimization
• Transcripts are another avenue for more people to understand and engage with your content.

In this article, we're not going to talk about why you want to invest the additional work or money into podcast transcription. We're going to talk about different methods or companies that you can use to get your podcasts transcribed, and in front of your audience.

DIY Methods for Podcast Transcription

If your podcast is a scripted audio drama, you can certainly use that script. You can also sit down and type out your podcast's recording, word for word. If you're already a professional stenographer, this won't bother you too much. However, not many people have that skill set or patience.

Dictation Software Hack

Another option for podcast transcription (recommended in a livestream by our friends at Music Radio Creative) is to use Google Docs voice typing. Here's how it works:

• Open up Chrome (you have to use Google's Chrome browser, otherwise the tool isn't available)
• Go to Google Docs and open a fresh document
• Click on Tools and select Voice Typing from the drop-down menu. A nifty little icon of a microphone will appear. At the top of the microphone, select your language.
• Open up your DAW and start playing the sound file you want transcribed.
• Click the little microphone icon. It'll change colors. As the microphone picks up the dialogue, the text will appear on screen.

When you try this, make sure that the audio is cued up at the point where you want it transcribed. if you let it run through a minute of intro music or so, the voice typing tool won't recognize the music as anything useful, and will shut itself off.

Google's Voice Typing was pretty good at recognizing what I said when I tried it. To test its accuracy, I selected UK English, US English, and Nigerian English, to see if there would be differences in the resulting text. There wasn't.

You'll end up with pages and pages of unpunctuated text. It's very stream-of-consciousness. You will have to go through it and format it, put in punctuation and check for errors. However, it saves you a lot of time over typing the audio word for word.

There's a quality control issue here, as well. You may notice as you're making this podcast transcript, that you notice the dialogue as an outsider. Transcribing the podcast yourself will help you see the details of what you talk about, and how.
Video Captions

Another DIY method is to use your audio to make a video, upload it to YouTube, and use its closed captioning to provide a transcript. I can't vouch for the accuracy of YouTube's closed captioning. Joe Rogan uses this exclusively, and it works for him. Your mileage may vary.

Headliner is a free app which can be used to make audiograms (and it's fun to use). It's 100% worth your time to try it out, and see how its captioning system fits your podcast.

Think about your SEO for a second. Google's Product Manager for Google, Brad Ellis, spoke about automatic captioning and SEO at the Streaming Media Conference in 2016. He said that when a YouTube user uploads their own captions, Google does index them. But, because the automatic transcriptions are error-prone, they are not indexed. Granted, this ...

Read the article at ThePodcastHost.com

On the surface, the most important part of your episode is the main content; where you discuss or address what was promised in the title. The podcast intro, though, is what gets your listener to that content. And the outro helps keep them listening to more episodes.

With your podcast intro, you've got the very important task of setting the scene for your listeners. Some may have heard every episode you've ever released before, but for a few, this'll be their very first impression of your show.

These new listeners have absolutely no loyalty or obligation to you or your content in the opening minutes. They'll likely have a playlist of other shows already downloaded and ready to listen to.

They're giving you a chance – but you don't have long. In fact, a recent survey found that 27.5% of listeners will only give a new podcast 5 minutes to “hook” them.

Just like if they've picked up a book, or switched on a TV show, there's a few questions subconsciously running through their head. Does this seem interesting? Does it seem well-made? Do I know what's going on? What's in this for me?

This is where your podcast intro needs to do its job.

What Makes a Good Podcast Intro?

Put yourself in the shoes (or earbuds) of a brand new listener – someone that you'd consider to be in your target audience. They've downloaded your latest episode and hit play.

As I've said already, they've no loyalty to you. They've probably never heard of you, and – at this moment – aren't interested in you personally.

They've downloaded this episode for their own benefit. They want something from it. And whether that's to learn something, or to be entertained, they want to know as early as possible that you're going to deliver.

What Should I Include in my Podcast Intro?

I don't want you to think that there are extremely restrictive “rules” with podcast intros and outros, because there's still an immense amount of creative freedom. Podcasting wouldn't be very interesting if every single show sounded the same.

Nevertheless, there are some things I'd suggest you always include in your podcast intro.

• Your name. Doesn't need to be your full name, could even be a nickname. Just let your listener put a name to the voice as early as possible.
• What is the podcast called? You might assume they already know this, but they might be working through a huge playlist of new podcasts they're trying out.
• Who is the podcast for? If your show is aimed at people who want to learn how to speak Spanish, make that clear early on. If someone who is listening doesn't want to learn Spanish, there's no benefit to anyone for them to keep listening. On the other hand, the person who does thinks “this is exactly what I've been looking for”.
• What is the overall theme of the podcast? What's the show about?
  • What problem is the podcast series here to solve?
  • What problem does this particular episode solve?

Presenting a Problem – & Solution

Being clear on laying out your subject matter is great, but making your listener relate to it by mentioning something they're struggling with will really pull them in.

So, for example, on our show Podcraft, our target audience are people who want to learn how to podcast. Some of their big struggles are learning about microphones and audio equipment, learning about editing and mixing digital audio, growing their audience and monetising their show.

The overall struggle they have is that they want to learn how to podcast, and our major solution is that we can help them to do that.

Each episode deals with a specific subtopic of its own though, which provides a solution that helps them work towards their overall goal. We want to mention this in our podcast intro so the listener knows they've come to the right place.

So, on an episode about media hosting, we could present the problem “Have you ever wondered how you upload a podcast online, and make it available in iTunes?”

Then we offer the solution “Well, on this episode that's exactly what you'll find out. We're going to walk you step by step through the process, and by the end of it you'll be able to submit your show to iTunes quickly, and easily.”

Set your episode up by mentioning the overall problem your podcast is here to help them with (eg; learning how to podcast), and then the particular problem you'll be dealing with in this episode (eg; getting your podcast in iTunes).

“Hello and welcome to the ___ podcast...

At-a-Glance: Can I Use Copyrighted Music in a Podcast?

• Possibly. But it's complicated, and often, expensive.
• For starters – who actually owns the song? Ownership in music is complex.
• And even if you did spend time and money getting the rights to a song, your show may be removed from Spotify – the 2nd biggest podcast directory in the world.
• “Fair Use” is a defence you can try to use, if you get in trouble, whilst “only 7 seconds” is a bit of a myth.
• It also doesn't matter if you're not making money with your show.
• The good news is that there are plenty ways to get great music for your podcast – even for free
• Read on to find out more...

It's one of the most frequently asked questions in the medium; “Can I use copyrighted music in my podcast?”. The short answer is “No”. But, as is usually the case in podcasting, there's a little bit of “it depends”.

It's important to stress that we are not lawyers. I can advise here, based on experience and info I've learned over the years. But ultimately, you should work with a legal professional if you're looking to go down the route of using copyrighted music in your podcast.

We have an interview with Entertainment Lawyer Gordon Firemark on Podcraft titled Podcasting Law: Stay Legal, & Protect Your Brand. It's well worth a listen if you want a deep dive into the ins and outs of the legal process.

Can I Play Copyrighted Music in a Podcast?

Alright so the short answer isn't quite “No”. It's closer to “Don't”.

Sure, it's not impossible. But you'd need the permission of everyone who owns the music.

Music rights are complicated. There are things called “mechanical rights” and “performance rights”, for starters.

Let's say your pal writes a song, then her friend's band play and record the song. Then, they're signed by a record label, and the song features on their new album.

You want to use this song on your podcast. Who do you approach? Who do you pay?

The first person you'd pay is a lawyer, to help you figure out who else needs to be paid.

Then, the owners of the song will want answers to questions like, “how many times will it be played?”, and “where will it be available?” As you can imagine, these questions are virtually impossible to answer in the case of podcasting.

I Only Want to Play Part of a Song

You'll often hear things like “it's alright, so long as you use 7 seconds or less”. This is a bit of a myth. If you play 5 or 6 seconds of a copyrighted song as your podcast theme song, you're in breach of copyright.

What About “Fair Use”?

Fair use is a defence you can use if you get in bother for playing copyrighted music in a podcast. It also seems to differ a little, depending on what country you're in.

Where a fair use defence might stand up, is if you play a segment of a song for educational, criticism, or commentary purposes. It's much less likely to be valid if you're pulled up for playing copyrighted music as your podcast theme tune.

I'm Not Making Any Money With My Podcast

Music copyright laws are no different for not-for-profit podcasts and shows that don't monetise. This one isn't a valid defence I'm afraid.

I've Already Bought the Music Commercially

Another defence that's been touted in the past is, “but I bought the CD!”.

When you buy copyrighted music commercially, you're paying for the right to play it for your own entertainment, at home, in the car, etc. If you still own a CD, take a look at the small print on the sleeve. I guarantee there'll be something around how you can't play it “in public”.

Bottom line is, without an additional license, you wouldn't be allowed to play it in a small shop, let alone stick it on a podcast episode.

What About Copyrighted Music Recorded in the Background?

There's an Incidental Inclusion defence for when you've accidentally recorded some music in the background of your podcast. Say you're recording an interview in a coffee shop or outside a music venue and you capture part of a song as actuality – you'll likely be excused as you aren't setting out to record it specifically for personal gain via your podcast.

That said, you can't use that as an excuse when you play the first 20 seconds of Yellow Submarine at the beginning and end of every episode.
Will Podcasts Playing Copyrighted Music Have Limited Audiences?<...

Summary: Podcast Download Numbers

• Podcasting is long form content. Don't compare podcast download numbers with things like YouTube plays, or social media follower counts.
• Potential audience sizes are totally dependant on show topics. There's no one single podcast download numbers gauge here.
• However, statistically, if you get over 136 downloads for a new episode in the first month of its release, you're doing pretty well.
• Read on to find out more...

Download numbers are one of the most obvious metrics for measuring the success of your podcast.

Download stats are immediately accessible to you, from the minute you launch your first episode. Watching the numbers climb can be rewarding. Some might even say addictive.

But after the initial novelty has worn off, it's natural for podcasters to begin asking the question, “are my download numbers good?”.

So, are your podcast download numbers “good”? Let's take a look.

How Many Podcast Downloads Should I Be Getting?

In a world of YouTube views and Twitter followers, we've become accustomed to figures in the hundreds of thousands, and even millions.

It's important to realise though, these numbers are completely irrelevant to podcasting. The time and effort it takes for someone to click ‘Follow' on Twitter, or watch a few seconds of a Youtube video, should never be compared to podcast listening.

Podcast listening is a commitment, and an investment. It's long form content that isn't immediately accessible via shiny sidebars and viral social media clickbait.

So comparing your downloads to someone else's Instagram followers is like comparing the number of rooms in your house, to the number of trees in the Amazon. It's completely irrelevant and utterly pointless.

Does it (as usual) Just Depend?

Of course it does.

Could a podcast about breeding Russian white dwarf hamsters realistically expect to see the same downloads as a podcast about Game of Thrones? Absolutely not.

Does this mean that the podcast with more downloads is the more successful one? Again, absolutely not.

If you ran a podcast about a topic that was only interesting to literally 10 people in the world, and you were getting 7 downloads an episode, statistically, you'd be running the most popular show in history.

It's the size of your potential audience that's the big factor. Here are a couple of things to consider.

Firstly, how many folks out there are interested enough in your topic to actually want to consume content about it?

Secondly, how many of those people are current podcast listeners?

Thinking along these lines will help bring you closer to seeing what those cold hard download stats tell you. They can help you set realistic goals, that don't involve drawing comparisons with viral videos and celebrity social media accounts.

Audience Quality & Engagement

An audience might seem “small” in a numerical sense. But with long-form content like podcasting, it's often shows with smaller, but more niche hyper-targeted shows that are considered the more successful.

I've given this example before. If you ran a podcast about the technology needed to fly people to Mars, and your only listener was Elon Musk, would you consider this a successful show?

Granted, it's a far-fetched example. But it's always more about exactly who is listening, than how many of them there are.

And, it's about the engagement. This isn't something that can be achieved overnight. But, if you're creating good content, over time, you'll begin to hear from your listeners.

This could be because you've asked them a question, or recommended they check something out. It could be purely because you've talked about a subject that resonated with them so much, that they felt compelled to reach out.

Measuring engagement requires a little more digging than simply staring at your download stats dashboard. But often, they can tell you a lot more about the impact your show is having.

If your podcast host provides this data, take a look at the geography of your podcast downloads. Are you suddenly getting a burst of downloads in a particular region or country? Check the news and find out what's happening there.

For more on this, check out our guide to encouraging audience engagement, and 8 ways to measure your podcast engagement.

I Still Want a Gauge

One of the easiest ways to get a snapshot of podcast download ...

The question “How do I make a successful podcast?” differs from the question “How do I make a podcast?” in a whole bunch of ways. There's a difference between a show that merely exists, and one that thrives. Let's dive in to some podcast tips that'll help lead you to the latter.

After all, it's never been easier to actually launch a podcast. You don't need to spend a lot at all, and there are countless tools out there that can make things really easy for you.

Once you've recorded a piece of audio and uploaded it to your media host, you can find your very first episode proudly sitting in places like iTunes and Spotify before the week is out.

This simplicity and low barrier to entry is a good thing overall, because it enables almost anyone to get their message out there, regardless of their background or experience.

But a huge amount of podcasters give up after just a handful of episodes, and that's a by-product of how easy it is to launch. If something is created without much thought or genuine purpose, then it's also easy to quit.

So as we've already put together a really popular step by step guide on how to start a podcast, we thought we could maybe now take a deeper dive into how you can make a successful podcast.

What steps can you take to make sure your podcast will actually achieve the things you want it to?

How do you give it the best possible chance of getting through those tough early days and sticking around for the long haul?
1 – Define a Successful Podcast

First thing's first: success means many different things to many different people.

For some, it's about the big download numbers. Others dream of earning a full-time living from their shows. Many business podcasters see success as getting regular sales enquiries because of their content. And for others, it's simply a case of having a creative outlet and a platform to tell their stories.

So in order to work towards your own version of a successful podcast, you need to first ask yourself, “What does success look like to me?”

2 – Have a “Why”

When you run a podcast, things don't always go to plan.

Life can get in the way, hardware and software can break, files can vanish, and there's really no shortage of things that'll test your patience in the long run.

When things go wrong, you really need to have a solid core reason for wanting to podcast. One that's big enough that it'll never be overshadowed by any of the above.

That ties in to how you define success. But with the question “Why am I doing this?”, it's more about the journey than the destination, as cliched as that might sound.

3 – Play The Long Game

One podcast tip that many aspiring podcasters don't like to hear is that it can take years to build an audience.

And in order to make a successful podcast you need to be prepared to turn up consistently and regularly over the next few years.

That doesn't mean that you can't have short-term goals though. It's definitely a good idea to break down your main ambitions into smaller achievable aims. This can help give you a sense of progression.

But hopefully you just enjoy the process of running a podcast. If you do, then you'll stand the best chance of sticking at it and growing an audience.

If you don't enjoy it, then certainly nobody is going to enjoy listening to you. And it won't be long before you start missing episodes, before giving up altogether.

If you've recently launched your podcast and it's already making you miserable, then it's time to go back to the drawing board. Check out why it might be time to quit your podcast for more help with this.

4 – Make It Sustainable

A big part of enjoying the process of podcasting, is that it isn't a complete battle to get new episodes done and out.

In the planning stages it's easy to have big plans about the time you can dedicate to your show each week. It's also easy to create an episode template in your head that's going to take a lot of work to produce on a regular basis.

The key to making sure working on your podcast isn't something you dread, is to build a workflow of sust...