Forget apps, these days “there’s a podcast for that!” In 2020, there were about 1.5 million podcasts. In fact, podcasting seems to be a truly democratic medium. From true crime juggernauts like My Favorite Murder to tiny indies from your local library, darn near everyone has a podcast — including us. Yes, Rebecca and I just released a podcast called Mid Lit — an ode to our literary roots that celebrates popular books by giving them the in-depth discussion we think they so richly deserve. 

But our podcasting journey goes back further than this. We originally met as guests on The Colin McEnroe Show, which isn’t exactly a podcast, though you can listen to it that way. Eventually, we teamed up with another frequent guest to talk about “Big Little Lies” and built a significant following for ourselves through trial and error. We changed hosting platforms, learned how to edit on the fly, and realized it’s kind of bad form to hem yourself in with such a specific name. We’ve applied that hard-earned wisdom to our new podcast, and now we’re here to share some of it with you. 

Here are the simple tools we used to get started:

• Blue Yeti Microphone — There are less expensive USB microphones that will get the job done, but the Yeti has several settings that allow you to record in different modes. You can put it on a table and record multiple people at a time (though that’s an editing nightmare), record a song, or just record yourself. Whatever you need, this little mic can do it. 

• Audacity — This fully-featured editing software makes it easy for beginners to get started. It’s free, so there’s no big commitment, and a ton of tutorials on YouTube to help you get started. 

• Anchor — When you start a podcast you need a hosting platform. There are plenty of options but we’ve hitched our wagon to Anchor, a Spotify platform. It’s free, offers its own editing tools, matches you with ads (if that’s what you want), and pushes your podcast out to all the major distribution feeds (though Apple seems to take its time accepting new podcasts).

• Zoom — The tool none of us can live without these days, Zoom, allows you to record different participants on different tracks, and this comes in handy when you have guests who aren’t adept at recording themselves locally. So whenever we record over a call (which is always during the pandemic) we record the Zoom call in addition to each individual track on Audacity (or, in the case of our guests, whatever tool they happen to have). 

The power of podcasting for business

It’s not surprising that podcasts are booming while we’re all stuck at home. What else are you going to do, right? But the truth is, companies have known that podcasts are powerful content marketing tools for quite some time. Back in 2015, GE created a science fiction podcast called The Message which won the company a ton of attention. 

But other companies and thought-leaders have embraced the trend since then, using the medium as a way to boost their profiles. Podcasts are a relatively easy way to create great content that draws your users in, showcases your knowledge, and brings your company to a wider audience. But there’s a lot of noise out there, so if you’re going to jump into the podcast pool you have to do your homework. 

Before we launched Mid Lit, we spent weeks talking about the format, recruiting guests, and even putting together a social media rollout. And let’s be real, it’s a lot of work. Booking guests, recording, editing, uploading, and promotion takes time — and you have to be willing to put it in (or find someone to do the work for you). 

Here are a few more tips we picked up along the way:

Publishing schedules

We’re here to tell you that it can be more than a little exhausting trying to keep up with a weekly podcast publishing schedule, especially when 1) you’re not a pro 2) you have another job. But such is the life of a podcast that recaps and discusses episodes of a current show. That’s why when we decided to launch Mid Lit, we also decided to record and produce an entire season before dropping all the episodes at once.

This serves two purposes. It means we can set a more humane schedule for ourselves — especially when it comes to reading all those books — but because this isn’t a serialized story or even a recap podcast where people are watching a show along with you (and have a reason to come back every week), we thought it was important to let people binge the episodes all at once.

Getting super social

The need for social media marketing of any new product is a given but that’s especially true in the podcast world. Not only is social media where you build an audience, but it’s where you make connections with other podcasters, bloggers, and influencers who you can then ask to be on your podcast!

And since we had the luxury of creating our social media content well in advance of publishing the trailer, we really went to town. We designed weeks’ worth of promotional content — including blog posts — that do everything from tease the books we’re talking about to the guests we booked to speak with us. Then, even though we dropped the whole season at once, we designed week-long social campaigns for each episode, to make sure we’re pushing traffic to the season, long after it debuts. 

(Connect with Mid Lit on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.)

Be realistic

If podcasting isn’t your main source of income, you have to be honest about how much time you can really devote to creating episodes. And because we decided to undertake the task of talking about books we actually have to read, we also need to be realistic about how long it’s going to take us to read these books. 

It can be easy to get over-excited and just want to fill that feed with more content — especially once you see that people are listening — but we think it’s important to go with quality over quantity. We got creative with “mini-episodes” and even “mini-seasons” to make sure we aren’t overburdening ourselves and falling behind. 

And as an avid podcast listener, I can tell you, my feed often gets clogged by the shows that put out “too many” episodes. So while it’s important to keep listeners engaged, don’t get fooled into thinking you need to put out multiple episodes per week to make that happen. 

There are lots of great resources out there to help you get started — including Kristen Meinzer’s “So You Want to Start a Podcast?” — but if you need a little help getting started, shoot us a message.