Podcast #7: Distribution and Closing The Series
Name the podcast, the episode, create your thumbnail, put in intro and outro music if you wish, + platforms for publication and distribution
Name your podcast!
Decide on a simple, easy-to-pronounce and catchy name. You may gain inspiration from the niche. If it’s un-niched, maybe take inspiration from some of the existing podcasts out there and give these names a twist.
Or take inspiration from your brand or personality. Brainstorm a few names, and decide later. If you need a subtitle or tagline to make it clearer, do so! Come up with as many options as you can and eliminate them later.
When I searched for inspiration, I read in the description that someone used their own catchphrase as the name of the podcast and I thought it was really cool of them to do so.
Some suggestions to take note of when choosing a name:
Choose something that’s not already taken or trademarked. It also makes it easier for your audience to look for it in search results. We searched Spotify, Apple Podcast, hashtags on Twitter/Instagram, and Google.
Choose one without double meaning that could get a little ambiguous. Unless you want to!
Choose one that is easy to pronounce and spell, not one that could confuse the readers upon hearing. For example, you wouldn’t want them to get confused if the spelling was it’s or its if your phrase gets confusing. Not the best example, but you get the point!
Choosing an easy-to-pronounce name is doing yourself a favour, so you wouldn’t have to constantly hit re-record.
Choose one without symbols or unique spelling unless it’s really obvious. Again, make it easy to find for your listeners.
You can name your podcast before producing your first episode or after all these stages. It’s up to you.
It’s nice to name it after having a few ideas of what to do instead, so the direction and overall niche (if any) would be better reflected in your podcast. But it’s your call!
Other things:
Find out the audio, thumbnail and meta description requirements for each platform that you’re uploading to
To adjust and track audio loudness (how loud it is on each platform), the YouLean loudness meter (free) is a great resource.
Platforms to use
Anchor is a podcast distribution platform.
Common platforms to upload your podcast include Apple Podcast and Spotify.
Anchor is owned by Spotify, so once you create an Anchor account to distribute Spotify it’ll be quite straightforward in terms of uploading each.
Apple Music takes about 45 minutes for each episode change (upload, delete) to be reflected.
The process is pretty straightforward in general, so just copy the RSS feed into Spotify and Apple Music and you’ll be good to go!
Closing this series.
I hope this has helped or wow-ed you in any way!
It’s been an adventure to produce and write about the whole process. It can be messy, and it sure is tedious and stressful (deadlines, plus I’m doing every single step on my own!), I won’t lie. But when I listen to the completed product, I do feel a great sense of achievement.
With the production, I also got to network and connect with others that I otherwise wouldn’t have, which I think it’s really cool!
It helps to learn how to produce a podcast since it’s on the rise now. Learning the skills for the various stages of the podcast would be helpful to you as a creator, nonetheless.
Let me know if any part has been too technical, too confusing, or anything. I know it’s A LOT of work. I’ll be happy to help fill in the gaps! But again, I’m not an expert, and I’m only following what the job requires of me, and the procedure that is preferred at work, so it’s not the only way. This is just my experience. I’m still a new podcast producer and only 2 episodes in.
It’s also not a complete, comprehensive guide, though I did try to include as many tips and details as possible as if I was guiding someone to do it. I mean, you could try :)
Maybe, just think of me as the person who took down the notes in class and shared it with the other classmates ;)
I just thought it’ll be cool to document my process to both keep it as a memory and to provide insights for someone else (whether you’re interested in podcast production or not) since I thought the role was cool when I applied for it.