The Best Podcast Tools To Edit, Produce & Promote Your Podcast
It’s obvious you need a microphone to record and launch a podcast BUT what you may not realize are all the OTHER tools that make a podcast a breeze to create and promote, so today I’m going to share all my secret weapons in my podcaster toolbox to help you record, produce, promote and automate your podcast.
Scheduling Interviews
If you host an interview-based show or are a guest on other people’s podcasts, then a scheduling tool will be your best friend.
In essence, it’s a resource that enables you and someone else to easily book an interview, a call or similar, without having to email back and forth trying to find a date and time that would suit you both.
I use Calendly especially because it lets me automate a lot of the process. When guests fill out the calendar invite, they’re asked to submit their bio, headshots, answer certain questions and share their main social media links.
After that, they automatically get reminders and instructions related to the interview – I don’t have to pay a VA to do all that by email!
TimeTrade, ScheduleOnce and Acuity are some other scheduling tool options you may want to look at beyond Calendly.
Recording Interviews
When it comes to recording interviews, there are plenty of platforms you can choose from.
I typically record using Zoom. Some people say that the quality isn’t great but, actually, there are some settings in the back-end that you can tweak to optimize both the audio and video output.
The other day, I was a guest on a show that was recorded using Zencastr, which allows you to record at HD and at a higher audio quality.
I haven’t used all of these but Riverside, SquadCast, Spreaker and Restream.io are some other options it’s worth looking into to record your show.
Music & Voice-Over
Once you’ve recorded your podcast, it’s about making it sound – and look – as good as possible.
If you’re a podcast listener then you’ve probably heard shows having music at the beginning, at the end, and sometimes even in the middle, of the show.
My go-to resource for finding royalty-free stock music and sound bites is called Melody Loops. For about $35, you can get access to a comprehensive library of music and sound effects you can use in your podcast, as well as in your other creative endeavors.
Want to hire a voice-over artist for your podcast intro and outro? A platform like Fiverr gives you access to thousands of service providers, voice-over artists included, who can offer you pretty much any type of service you can think of for $5-$10.
Editing Your Podcast
Just like for other parts of your podcasting workflow, editing your show is something that you can either take care of DIY-style or by outsourcing it to someone else.
If you’re leaning toward the former, then you should know that there are more editing and DAW software options I have room to cover in this episode and write in the show notes page!
Audacity, GarageBand and Descript are some of the popular solutions used by thousands of independent podcasters.
Would you rather have someone else take care of editing for you? Then, you can do a quick Google search or look at one of the many freelancing platforms available.
And if you’d like to get more help with editing – or pretty much any other piece of the podcasting puzzle – ASAP, remember that it’s something we can help you with as well!
Get in touch to let us know what you’d need help with by clicking here.
Hosting Your Podcast
You’ve recorded your podcast, you’ve edited it and have added additional creative touches to it… now it’s ready to be shared with the world.
The first step to make that happen is to sign up for a media hosting platform. Names like Podbean, Transistor, Buzzsprout, and Anchor should be familiar to you if you’ve been in the podcasting space for a while.
My recommended media host, which is the one I’ve been using myself for years, is Libsyn (you may remember Libsyn being mentioned in my interview with Rob Greenlee).
Want to take it for a spin? Simply head over to Libsyn.com and use the promo code SMOOTH at checkout to get 2 free months of hosting.
Marketing & Automation
Marketing means putting your content in front of people who are having a pain-point your content can help them address, and solve. This is why it’s key for you to spend a good part of your bandwidth on marketing your show (something that many podcasters don’t do, unfortunately…).
When it comes to the marketing and automation part of my toolkit, there are several resources I’d like to share with you.
The first one is Canva, which is something I use every day, multiple times a day. You can use it for almost anything you can think of, visual content related. In the context of your podcast, that’s creating the artwork, the episode-specific art, and other promotional pieces like quote graphics, and Instagram stories, for example.
Have you ever come across an image that included an audio snippet and a motion graphic – like a volume bar or similar? That’s called an audiogram and, even though it requires a little bit of work, it’s an excellent way to create and present snackable content that can pull new listeners in.
Headliner, Wavve.co, and GetAudiogram.com are the most popular solutions when it comes to creating audiograms, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself that much of a creative person.
Repurpose.io is another tool I can’t get enough of! You probably remember it from my interview with its founder, fellow Canadian Hani Mourra.
In case you missed that, Repurpose is a sort of Swiss army knife for repurposing your content across multiple platforms – and formats – automatically.
One of the things I like is how it can be integrated with the automated transcription generator Otter.
As far as promoting my content on social media goes, I rely on Buffer. The one feature that really is a difference-maker for me is the ability to post directly to Instagram without having to get a mobile push notification for that to happen.
Looking for alternatives to Buffer? Then, check out Hootsuite, SocialChamp.io or MeetEdgar, just to mention a few.
And if you’re looking for an easy way to create personalized links and gather all of the important ones on a specific webpage, LnkBio, Linktree or SocialTap are worth taking a look at.
Remember: there’s a tool for pretty much any piece of your podcast hosting puzzle. Before you dive into testing a bunch of them, it’s important that you sit down and think about what you’d like to achieve.
Think about what you’d like to do and how, then look for a tool that enables you to do that.
Resources mentioned:
Scheduling
Timetrade, Sched Once, Calendly, Accuity
Recording
Music
Melodyloops https://www.melodyloops.com/
istockmusic https://www.istockphoto.com/music-clips
Voice Over
Fiverr https://www.fiverr.com/
Editing
Descript https://www.descript.com/
Garageband https://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/
Adobe Audition https://www.adobe.com/sea/products/audition.html
Audacity https://www.audacityteam.org/
Hosting
Libsyn https://libsyn.com/
Promotion
Repurpose.io https://repurpose.io/
Otter https://otter.ai/
headlinerapp https://www.headliner.app/
wavve.co https://wavve.co/
getaudiogram.com https://getaudiogram.com/
Canva https://www.canva.com/
SM scheduling
Hootsuite https://www.hootsuite.com/
SocialChamp.io https://www.socialchamp.io/
Buffer https://buffer.com/
Meetedgar https://meetedgar.com/
Links for Instagram
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