PodCraft by Alitu: Honing the Craft of Podcasting

If you run an interview podcast, it’s good practice to research your guests before you chat to them. Transcription Matthew: This was a question that came in from Peter, he was wondering how should he go about researching guests before they come on the show? Obviously if you get in touch with somebody you want […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

I’m subjected to Masterchef occasionally, usually if I pop round to see my mum and dad. They love it, me, not so much. I always think it’s particularly cruel of the judges to be so critical of the foods presentation before they’ve even tasted it. Presentation matters. And it’s the same for your podcast. You’ll […]Support the show

A blank page to a writer or an empty canvas to an artist can be daunting. Where do you begin? How do you start? The same questions probably strike you when you’re considering your next podcast episode. Producing an individual podcast or an entire series isn’t easy. But being a better podcast planner and […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

I’ve got a secret. But please keep it to yourself. Here goes – “I’m obsessed with taglines.” If a client or business chum asks me for my opinion on their tagline, it’s not uncommon for me to lose hours crafting dozens of alternatives for them. I realised I needed help when I started pulling […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

You’ve created your invisible script, and you’ve crafted a narrative structure that will skillfully lead your listener through your podcast. So is that it? Are you done? Or is something missing? The Missing Link? As a voracious listener of many podcasts, nothing will turn me off quicker than a dull, lifeless podcast host. I’ve […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

I’ve always enjoyed reading, and now I get the pleasure of reading to my daughter, Abigail. It’s a staple part of the Cudmore bedtime routine. I admit that some of the stories aimed at a very young audience can hardly be described as ‘page-turners.’ It’s fairly obvious what’s going to happen next, and character development […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

To script or not to script… that is the question. One of the things we’re often asked, especially by new podcasters, is “should I write a script for my podcast?” The answer is almost always ‘yes’. At least to some degree. In the real world, it’s unusual that complete scripts are written. More commonly […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

Thanks for listening to this series which was all about ways to potentially monetise your podcast. What would you like to hear in the next series of Podcraft? Have your say and get in touch at [email protected] Support the show (https://pod.academy)

In this episode, we’re covering crowdfunding. It’s the fashionable way, these days, to start selling a product, but can it also work for something like a podcast? Well, a number of shows have proven it can. Let’s find out how! A Question for You Are you crowdfunding your show, do you know someone who is, […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

In this episode, I’m looking at how to make money by selling the show itself. That means either selling episodes, selling upgrades, or re-purposing the show into a related product. For some, this is the most obvious (and easiest!) way to get started in Podcast monetization. For others, it can be a lot of […]Support the show

This week we have an interlude from Series 5 of Podcraft in the form of an interview with Andy White. Andy is a hugely experienced UK based Podcaster who runs The Internet Marketing Podcast, a hugely successful show on the ubiquitous subject of digital marketing. In this episode we learn a tonne from Andy’s experience […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

In the episode we’re looking at the slightly tricky world of donations. Can you make money through donations in Podcasting? Yes, you definitely can, and I’ll talk you through all of the different methods within this episode. New platforms such as Patreon which are starting to make this even easier, and there are approaches to […]Support the show

This is probably one of the most awaited episodes of the series, because sponsorship is seen as the ‘holy grail’ of podcasting for many. Think about it – you record a show on something you love, you enjoy the process and thousands of people listen. Then, somehow, some way, you talk for 30 seconds about […]Support the show

Last time around we covered affiliate marketing for podcasters. That basically means selling other people’s products and services through your show. This time we’re moving closer to home, and that means selling YOUR OWN products and services as part of a podcast. This is aimed at anything from startup businesses looking to promote and service, […]Support the show

Now we’re we’re into the detail of Series 5, exploring in-depth the range of monetisation methods for podcasting. Today, it’s affiliate marketing, and how you can use affiliate deals to monetize your show. Affiliate marketing is a great one to start with, I think, because it really is available to anyone, right away. Podcast affiliate marketing […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

Some people earn a living from their podcast. Others are happy enough just to bring in enough to cover their hosting costs, and perhaps pay for a takeaway every few weeks. Whatever your aims are when it comes to monetization, experienced podcaster, The Real Brian, explores all possible routes in his weekly show Profitcast. On […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

In this short tie-up episode I say farewell to Series 4 and look forward into 2015. It’s year change time and plans are always afoot after all! The End, But not the End, for Series 4 I hope you enjoyed Series 4 – I certainly had a blast talking to the excellent folks that we’ve […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

In this bonus episode you’ll hear an interview with PodCraft host Colin Gray, originally recorded for Harry Duran’s Podcast Junkies show. Here Colin talks about his background, his influences, and why he is so passionate about this medium.Support the show (https://pod.academy)

Your podcast can have the best audio content in the world, but that alone won’t be enough to grow your audience and reach new people. Listeners need to find your content online, and two of the most important things you can do to ensure you are heard are: 1. give your podcast an effective name, […]Support the show

Storytelling is right on trend, following the success of Serial and the Startup Podcast. We know stories engage, but how do we create one? We’ve written on digital storytelling before, but now it’s time to talk through our storytelling techniques. In this episode I’m talking to Dan Feld of Prologue Profiles about just that – how […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

This week I want to go back to basics and talk about presentation skills. It’s taken as read that in-person presenting, getting up in front of an audience, is something that takes practice and skill. But, many people underestimate presenting to the microphone and how much your style can change and improve with a […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

In a series all about presenting your Podcast content, we can hardly miss out one of the biggest trends in Podcasting of recent years: the humble interview. Interviewing is a real skill in itself, requiring preparation, practice and a whole lot of other little nuances. I thought it would be great to get a Radio […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

On this episode of PodCraft I’m delighted to welcome Mr John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire. John has been delivering amazing, high value content on entrepreneurship, business and life in general for 2+ years now. And amazingly, it’s always been on a daily schedule – that’s right, 7 podcast episodes a week. So, who […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

This is Series 4 of PodCraft, where I’m exploring planning and presenting your Podcasting content. It’s time to concentrate on the message! In this episode we’re starting the content planning process with first principles: what does your podcast do? This is going right back to basics and defining our Podcast, including our who we’re speaking to (our […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 20 In the final episode of the series, I’m talking monetisation. Now, before you start telling me off for using a dirty word, I think it’s pretty reasonable to think about getting something back from the effort you put into Podcasting. This is all dependent on giving huge value to […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 19 In this, the penultimate episode of PodCraft, we’re talking communities. The creation of a community has to be one of the main goals of any podcast, and to give it a real home on your website adds so much more value to that community. Today I’ll talk about the […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 18 In this episode we’re exploring the concept of 404 error pages. A 404 error occurs when someone tries to visit a page on your site that doesn’t exist. This might be because they’ve used the wrong address, or because they’re trying to find an old page which has since […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 17 Today we’re looking at security – not the most sexy of subjects, but vital if you want to run a good Podcasting website long term, and particularly if you want to make a living from it. WordPress itself is not an insecure platform, but it’s massive popularity makes it […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 16 Today on PodCraft we’re exploring the brilliant SpeakPipe. SpeakPipe is a tool which allows you to set up a voicemail system for your listeners, allowing them to leave audio messages directly on your website. As I’ll discuss on the episode, this can lead to huge engagement with your listeners, turning […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 15 In this episode we’re finally tackling the elephant in the room – social networking. It’s a rare person indeed who’s not involved, at all, in social media, and used well, it can be a huge driver of listeners for your podcast. In this episode I’m looking at one of […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 14 In this episode we’re delving deep into the idea of monetisation for the first time, and that’s in the form of affiliate marketing. During the episode I talk a little about starting out in affiliate marketing and how it can be used well to monetise a podcast. I’ll also […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 13 In this episode, we’re expanding on the email list work we’ve done over the past few days. We’ve already looked at the basics, now lets see how we can get our optin rates skyrocketing with an attention grabbing optin box. I’ve got a tool for you today which will […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 12 In this episode we’re talking mailing lists. If you’ve investigated online marketing at all in the past, then no doubt you’ve come across the concept of mailing lists. If not, then you’re about to discover one of the most important aspects of growing a great audience on the web, […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 11 In the 11th episode of series 3 we’re talking calls to action. A call to action is an element of any page on the web that tries to convince a user to do a certain thing. This might be to buy a product, or to sign up to a […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 10 In this episode we’re finishing up the week with a quick and easy one; a plugin called List Category Posts. This plugin allows us to create lists of our podcast episodes really easily by category or tag. This means you can guide the user around your podcasting content really […]Support the show

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 9 In this episode we’re starting to build out the ways we enable listeners to get in touch with us. The first and most obvious is the humble contact form. We’ll have a look at two of the best contact form plugins out there, one free and one paid, […]Support the show

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 8 Our topic for this episode is Analytics and SEO. I’ll have a look at optimising your show notes pages to help them, and your site in general, appear more prominently in the search results. We’ll look at an SEO plugin that really helps with this in mind, and an […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 7 In this episode I’m looking at the all-important subscribe links. These are aimed at converting passing visitors into long term subscribers, and are often forgotten about in the blind rush to concentrate on iTunes traffic. Well, I can tell you it’s just as important to look after your […]Support the show

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 6 This week, we’re on to enhancements. We’ll talk about the extra tools that you can add to your Podcasting website that will really help to entrance your audience, and keep them coming back for more. The first of these is a vital tool called Pretty Link: it allows you […]Support the show

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 5 Navigation is, I think, one of the most underthought aspects of many people’s WordPress Podcasting websites. It’s understandable – WordPress does a lot of it for you, automatically adding pages to the menu bar, and allowing a generic category box down the side. In this episode I talk about […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 4 WordPress is one of the best bits of web software out there, but out of the box it doesn’t look good… The default themes are clean, but plain, and if you want to stand out AND offer a good user experience, then you need a theme. In this episode […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 3 WordPress is a great system for getting your content out into the world, and, even in it’s basic form, it can do many of the things we need as podcasters. One place in where it’s lacking, however, is RSS feeds – that’s the specially coded page which allows people […]Support the show

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 2 In this episode we’re looking at installing WordPress. WordPress is the software that we’ll be using to run our podcasting website and, luckily for us, our hosting package makes it really easy to get it up and running. Listen to the episode to find out how to use cPanel […]Support the show

The PodCraft Podcast: Series 3, Episode 1 In the first episode of Series 3 we’re looking at the reasons for owning your own Podcasting space. This means having your very own domain and hosting account on which you can run a website of your own. The big thing here is that aforementioned Ownership, and the control […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

Welcome to the start of Series 3! In this episode I give an introduction to the series, and talk about what we’re going to cover over the coming 20 episodes. The series will be delivered every weekday of November, covering 20 Steps to creating a Peerless Podcasting Website. By the end of this month you’ll […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

In this episode I’m introducing the topic and format of the next series of PodCraft, and it’s something a little different. Next, I’m including an interview I did with the Boagworld guys a few months ago talking about the Podcast Host. If you’re interested in a little more detail on the business, then this is […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)

It’s time for an in-between-isode, otherwise known as an interruption to normal programming! If you’ve been listening long, you’ll know Series 2 is all about Podcasting equipment, taking you through the audio chain from start to finish. Well, this is a little break from the techie chat, and instead a conversation with the founder of […]Support the show (https://pod.academy)