What We Learned in Our First Year of Podcasting (Podcasting for Beginners)

We started The Ultimate Blog Podcast in January 2022 with the commitment that we would do the podcast for a solid year and see how it would benefit our business. Over a year later, the podcast is thriving and we can’t imagine not doing it!

The amount that we have learned in the last 16 months of podcasting has been incredible. I think we could write a book on all we’ve learned, but we are sharing some of our most important lessons on the blog.

two women sitting at a table with their microphones and smiling

1. Audio is one of the most important factors when starting a podcast.

We bought a complicated system that was recommended to us and guess what? We couldn’t ever figure out how to use it and it made everything really complicated.

A good microphone goes a long way. We each use the Samson Q2U microphone and have been very happy with it. We started with a different microphone and switched to this one and noticed a difference immediately.

We record all of our podcasts on Zoom, which some people will tell you not to do, but we have never had any trouble. The trick to good audio on Zoom is to make sure that each person is recording on their own track and that in the audio settings, you change it to “HIGH” background noise so it will literally block all background noise out.

You must record in a quiet space. If you have a pair of headphones that makes it even better. Be sure that the room you are in isn’t going to echo and that there is carpet or that you are recording up against a wall so the audio doesn’t bounce all over the room and make the audio sound far away.

Take the time to figure out your audio. This is worth it in our opinion because people need to be able to hear you and audio makes a world of difference.

2. Batch record your podcast episodes.

If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that batch recording is where time freedom is found. We typically pick 2 days out of every month and try to record 4-6 episodes on those days so we are always ahead of schedule.

We use ClickUp to keep track of all upcoming interviews and have our guests use Calendly to schedule. Staying ahead of schedule has meant that very rarely have we been scrambling to get an episode out. In fact, that’s only happened once and we vowed never to do it again!

Work smarter not harder, and batch recording is such an easy way to do this.

3. Have good communication with your guests.

Our podcast wouldn’t be what it is without our amazing guests. We are very thoughtful about who we bring on the podcast to make sure they align with what we are teaching and will be a great teacher for our audience as well.

In turn, we do our part to communicate well with them and ask for everything we need at the time of booking. We created a Google document that allows them to give us their bio, headshot, sample questions, etc at the time of booking so we have everything we need for the episode prior to recording the interview.

We always touch base a few days before to make sure that our guest doesn’t have any questions and remind them of the interview. Good communication has helped us not have any no-shows… also vetting the guests is important in this regard as well.

two women sitting in a car and listneing to a podcast episode

4. Pay attention to the stats.

We pay close attention to what is happening in Buzzsprout. We want to know how an episode is resonating and we can only know that for sure if we can see how many downloads it’s had. We keep a close eye each week on downloads and what is increasing.

If we see that a topic is popular, we’ll consider adding another episode on the topic to keep it relevant and give our listeners what they find beneficial as well.

5. Hire a podcast manager.

When we started The Ultimate Blog Podcast we did it under one condition… that we would hire an editor. When we first thought about podcasting we bought a course and tried to figure it out, and quickly realized that this was not our wheelhouse, and we didn’t want it to be either. We wanted to continue to focus on blogging and wanted to hire out the editing portion to a trained professional.

We get to do the fun part and connect with guests and record, and our podcast manager does all the backend work such as submitting to the audio platforms and writing the show notes for our blog.

Unless you have a significant amount of time to edit, we recommend hiring someone who can help if that is financially feasible for you.

6. Don’t give up… it takes time to grow.

Just like blogging, you don’t become an overnight sensation just because you start a podcast. Podcasting is a slow burn. Our numbers ticked up slowly, but after about 8 months in we really started gaining momentum and still are now.

People began to message us more, our course enrollments rose and we have felt like those who have joined our email list are our target audience because they are people who want to blog or grow the one they have. The podcast has helped us niche down even more, something that I don’t think either of us really considered happening when we started!

Be patient with the process of growing your show! It takes time, but stay consistent and it will happen!

7. Be Consistent!

Consistency is so important. We release weekly episodes on Tuesday, and it has worked really well for us. If you are sporadic with your schedule, your listeners won’t be looking for your content because they won’t have any idea when it’s coming.

Create a realistic schedule for yourself and do your very best to stick with it. We made a non-negotiable goal to do weekly episodes for one year, now that we are in the groove, batch recording, makes staying consistent almost effortless.

8. Promote your episodes and ask your guests to do the same.

Recording and releasing podcast episodes are only part of the process. You have to promote every single episode that goes live too.

Ways that we recommend promoting podcast episodes are:

Creating an audiogram that you and your guest can share on social media when the episode is released
Create a Pinterest pin and share the blog post with the audio player and show notes on Pinterest
Send an email out to your email list to tell them about the new episode
Share your new episode on social media and be sure to link it!
Tell people how to subscribe to your podcast so they will see when a new episode is live

9. Have a plan for your podcast

If you want to start a podcast, know WHY you want to do it. What is your ultimate goal? What do you hope to achieve? Do you want to funnel your listeners to a product or service? Do you want to have another avenue to find your ideal reader?

When you know what you want the podcast to serve, it’s much easier to stick with it on the hard days!

10. Don’t let perfection stop you from starting!

You will learn so much along the way, don’t tell yourself that you have to have it all figured out before you start. It can be really scary to take the leap of faith and put yourself out there, but trust us, only good things are ahead for you!

Tune into The Ultimate Blog Podcast!

You can listen to the Ultimate Blog Podcast on Apple, Spotify and wherever you stream your favorite podcasts! Don’t forget to subscribe when you find it so you never miss an episode!

Our Top Episodes:

Have you listened to our podcast? We’d love to hear which episode has been your favorite in the comments!