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In order to achieve the highly desired quick and high growth of a new podcasting show, it is important to know the mistakes to avoid when launching and growing a podcast. In this article, we are going through the biggest things that can sabotage your podcast, and give practical solutions on how to avoid them.
“Podcasts are easy. All you need to do is to record something that you want to talk about and upload it. Literally, anyone can launch his/her own podcast and be take it to heights.”
Well, these are the words I come across when I ask people about their opinions on podcasting.
Well, it’s true that podcasting has a low barrier for entry. This means that anybody can get out there and get their message out there with the help of podcasting.
But it’s so much more than that.
I’ve seen tons of new podcasters launch their own podcasts without even being completely dedicated.
Plus, in the end, they aren’t even able to succeed.
Lack of dedication is just one of the few mistakes to avoid when launching a podcast.
If you want your podcast to be a success, you need to avoid making these mistakes during your podcasting journey.
Not only will these mistakes slow down your progress, but they will decrease the quality of your show as well as the interest of your listeners. And that’s what we will take a look at here.
In this blog post, we will take a look at the top 10 mistakes to avoid when launching a podcast.
Well, then!
Let’s dive in straight away.
Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Launching A Podcast
Listed below are the points that we will be focusing on:
- Lack Of Long-Term Vision & Dedication
- Poor Time-Management
- Lack Of Consistency
- Boring Content Without Value
- Lack Of Patience
- Unrealistic Expectations
- No Full-Proof Plan
- Speaking Tone
- Lack of Persona Leading to Bad User Experience
- Poor Audio Quality
Those mistakes that you need to avoid will slow down your progress significantly. Absolutely avoid them as they will decrease the quality of your show.
Let’s focus on each one of them one at a time.
1. Lack of Long-Term Vision & Dedication
Congratulations!
You’ve successfully launched your own podcast.
You are in for a long ride.
But here’s the question for you?
“What’s your long-term vision?”
Don’t have an answer?
Well, that’s one of the biggest mistakes to avoid when starting a podcast.
It’s really important for you to set a long-term vision for your own podcast.
You need to set your goals, both short-term and long-term.
This provides you with something to focus on.
If you don’t have a long-term vision, then you will not have anything to focus on. You won’t be having a fixed-direction.
Plus, you need to be completely dedicated to your goals.
You need to create a plan to achieve each of your goals. I’d advise you to plan everything ahead of time.
Let’s do something.
If you haven’t already launched your own podcast, you should create a detailed plan in order to have a better understanding of what you expect during your entire podcasting journey.
And if you are simply looking forward to growing, you need to have a better understanding of where you currently stand. Create a plan accordingly with your long-term vision at the core of it.
That’s the only way you will be able to take your podcast to heights.
Pro-Tip to Implement
I’ve seen tons of podcasters struggle with coming up with an idea for their podcast. Well, here’s the thing:
You should avoid spending too much time on choosing an idea.
Instead, here’s what you can do: Take a deep breath and ask yourself about the topics that you love the most. What’s your passion? Once you have a better idea of what your passion is and what you’d love to speak about, you will definitely have an answer for what your podcast should revolve around.
If still in doubt, check this great guide we made on choosing an idea for a podcast.
If you are looking for inspiration, check those 40 ideas for a podcast that you can use for free!
2. Poor-Time Management results in Rushed editing and Bad audio quality
You should spend at least 10 hours producing and launching a killer 1-hour podcasting episode that adds value to the lives of your listeners.
Producing and launching even a single podcasting episode isn’t a piece of cake.
You need to be dedicated during the entire process and just love what you are doing. That’s the only way you will be able to create an outstanding podcast episode.
Poor-time management is one of the biggest mistakes to avoid when starting a podcast.
The chances are that you might have various other activities to perform during the entire day. And you might not even be able to take time out of your busy schedule to produce your podcast episodes.
That’s where your time-management skills come in.
You need to learn how to manage your time in order to create podcast episodes.
Pro-Tip to Implement
Well, in order to take time out of your busy schedule for your podcast, you should plan everything ahead of time. Plan your podcast content a week or maybe even a month in advance.
Create content clusters of well-planned episodes.
Streamline the entire creation process.
That’s how you will be able to manage time in a better and more effective way.
3. Lack Of Consistency – without commitment you never will be successful
That’s one of the most important mistakes to avoid when launching a podcast.
While people tune in to your podcast, they’d love to know what to expect before they even subscribe.
They’d like to know more about the topics of discussion, episode length, schedule as well as the tone of your podcast episodes.
The chances are that you might face a hard time publishing regularly. This will even lead to a lack of progress. This might even lead to you matching the content-quality.
Well, in order to be consistent, you need to have rough drafts.
Plan out your entire schedule before you even begin recording.
Put in more thoughts about how you will responsibly put more episodes out.
The chances are that this isn’t your full-time job.
You might be working, taking care of your family, having a social life as well as running your own podcast, all at once.
Pro-Tip to Implement
Don’t rush episodes out.
You need to learn what your listeners expect from you.
You need to set standards that each of your episodes needs to meet.
Ask your listeners for feedback. Ask them what they love about your podcast. Be curious about what they absolutely hate.
Plus, keep monitoring the results in order to have a better understanding of where you currently stand and create a plan with respect to what you should do in order to improve.
4. Boring or not sharp enough Content
No matter the topic you are talking about, your readers will be bored if the content is simply boring and not crisp enough.
Carry out thorough research prior to even creating the outline of your podcast.
Without carrying out research, you won’t be able to create content that engages your listeners right from the start. Plus, it’s really important for you to frame content such that your listeners are glued up right until the end.
You need to add value to the lives of your listeners.
Once you have successfully prepared a plan, you should create a podcast script such that everything falls in place.
Come up with a structure for each of the episodes.
Pro-Tip to Implement
When it comes to adding value to the lives of your listeners, coming up with boring content is one of the biggest mistakes to avoid when starting a podcast.
Once you have successfully carried out thorough research, I’d advise you to prepare a podcast script or at least come up with an outline.
For each and every episode, you should establish a structure.
Plan each and every section and revise it thoroughly.
Develop your own style. Learn how you will be conveying your message with your audience.
That’s how you will be able to produce content that’s crisp and engaging right from the very start.
5. Lack Of Patience – success is hidden in the journey
“Why am I not witnessing results?
I’ve already uploaded two episodes. Why hasn’t my podcast already become a hit?”
Well, if you are already coming up with such questions, then you are not patient. And that’s the skill you need to master.
Lack of patience is another mistake to avoid when starting a podcast.
If you want your podcast to be a success, along with being consistent, you need to be entirely patient.
If you are impatient, you will be sabotaging your own efforts.
And if you are impatient, then it will definitely lead to production of low-quality episodes, lack of passion for your own work, and will ultimately make the episodes boring for your listeners.
From my personal experience, I believe that success is what you’ll be destined to when you are patient throughout your entire journey.
Pro-Tip to Implement
Here’s what you need to do:
You should plan out your podcast episodes at least 2-3 months in advance.
Set up interviews.
Each of the episodes that you produce should revolve around your brand. That’s how your listeners will be able to layout their faith in you.
And that’s exactly how you will be able to build a long-term healthy relationship with your listeners.
6. Unrealistic Expectations
Setting unrealistic expectations will harm your podcasting journey entirely.
Well, if you are just getting started, don’t expect the number of your listeners to be really high. Plus, the monetization process isn’t quite easy.
You’ll face a hard time earning money through your podcast.
Give it some time.
You’ll definitely be able to turn your podcast into a passive source of income in the near future. However, you need to set realistic expectations.
The real growth of a podcast requires time.
Pro-Tip to Implement
First of all, you need to add value to the lives of your customers.
As much as you need to focus on the quality of each of your podcast episodes, you should focus on producing at least 50+ episodes in a year.
Producing 50+ episodes each year is definitely a challenge. You’ll face a hard time going through the entire process.
Don’t worry! We’ve already published an article in the past that will help you learn how you can deliver 50+ high-quality podcast episodes in just a single year.
Take a look at it, and you’ll have a better understanding.
Plus, I’d advise you to create a launch strategy as well.
Create a podcast monetization strategy layout so that you can begin earning money through your podcast effectively.
7. No Full-Proof Plan
Not having a full-proof plan is one of the biggest mistakes to avoid when launching a podcast.
Let’s just assume that you don’t have a plan.
Well, in that case, you’ll wake up one day, and you won’t even know what to record.
You won’t have even a tiny bit of idea about the topic that you’ll be covering. This means that you won’t have an outline prepared.
Plus, you will spend your entire day struggling to come up with ideas.
This will kill the quality of the podcast episodes that you produce, as well as have a negative impact on your motivation.
Pro-Tip to Implement
Prior to beginning your journey, come up with a list of ideas.
Organize brainstorming sessions.
Develop projects on top of your regular episodes.
In short, you need to come up with a plan that helps you stay consistent and achieve the level of perfection that your listeners deserve.
8. Speaking Tone ruins the Experience
Well, it’s no secret that you aren’t much experienced right now.
This doesn’t mean that you should speak too fast and take too many pauses.
Inaudible material will lead to your podcast episodes sounding boring to your listeners, thereby leading to them losing interest ultimately.
Hence, you need to prepare yourself prior to recording your podcast episodes.
Not preparing yourself prior to recording your podcast episodes is one of the biggest mistakes to avoid when starting a podcast.
If you are not prepared, you will be talking fast with many pauses.
And that’s not something that your audience will love.
Pro-Tip to Implement
Here’s what you should do: If you want to become an excellent speaker, I’d advise you to practice enunciation. Take care of yourself.
Take care of your voice. Review those practical vocal tips for podcasters.
Equip yourself with the right set of tools.
Record your podcast episodes in a quiet location.
Keep practicing, and soon, you will have master speaking at the right pace using an optimal number of words per minute.
9. Lack of Persona Leading To Bad User Experience
What if you don’t connect to your audience?
What if you don’t know why your audience tune in to listen to you?
Are you familiar with their problems and needs?
What if you don’t know who your target audience is?
If you are speaking to people who will never be your clients, then you are doing it wrong.
You need to learn who your target audience is.
It is crucial to have a better understanding of their problems as well as their needs.
You need to focus on their pain points.
That’s the only way you will be able to build your persona.
Pro-Tip to Implement
You need to have a marketing persona for your podcast.
Develop your own profile. Make sure that your audience looks up to you.
Your audience would love nothing more than learning how you will be helping them out.
Let them know about the topics that you will be covering and the pain points that you will be focusing on.
That’s the only way to succeed.
10. Bad equipment and poor recording conditions
Unfortunately, many sites promote and encourage people to record podcasts with a smartphone. We strongly advise against it. You will end up with poor quality and discourage your listeners.
Getting a cheap $30 mic also probably won’t solve your audio issues, and won’t provide the cool radio sound. You need to get something like Shure SM7B to sound the best.
The same goes for a random audio interface. An audio interface is (to simplify) an external sound card translating your audio from an analog signal to digital. Get a good audio interface and forget about this problem.
Pro-Tip to Implement
To have a good sounding podcast, you need a combination of great podcasting gear and a soundproofed, quiet recording location.
Check our recommendations when it comes to the best podcasting gear.
If you want to record in a quiet location. There are few scheduling solutions you can do, like recording when people are at work and children in school.
Finally, it is very easy to soundproof your home studio within a couple of hours on a really small budget.
Conclusion
And that’s the list of the mistakes to avoid when starting a podcast.
Well, you are just getting started.
You will definitely face problems.
And you will be stuck at just a single place for a really long time.
You might ultimately think of ending your podcasting journey.
But what if I told you that it would be the biggest mistake that you will be making?
You can’t totally avoid making mistakes when launching a podcast.
But you can at least avoid the most common ones so that you can keep going and be consistent.
And that’s what you should focus on right now.
Well, then! It’s time we parted ways, and we wish you luck for your podcasting journey.
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