Preparation

• Come up with a topic
• Find guest(s) to interview
• Write a script
  • A detailed script leaves less room for error and nervousness, but the conversation will be less organic and spontaneous
  • Use an outline for more improvised discussions
  • Don’t forget that mistakes can be edited out
• Remember to:
  • Tell a story
  • Keep it informative
  • Stay consistent with your style

Tools

• Get a good microphone
  • Headset or USB microphone
• Download Audacity
• Pick an online voice provider
  • Zoom
  • Google
  • Slack
  • Skype

Record

• Find a good time and place to record
  • Make sure there are no background noises (machines are off, window is shut, etc.)
• Perform a test recording and play it back for quality control
• Double ender
  • Host and guest record audio separately
  • Expect latency on the web
  • Clap at the beginning to sync the audio

Editing

• Audio cleaning
  • Trim unnecessary pauses
  • Cut out fillers like “uhs” and “ums”
  • Remove background noise
  • Delete clicks with iZotope RX De-click
  • Normalize audio
• Review audio
  • Make sure flow and delivery is good
  • Listen on multiple devices to verify quality (cheap/expensive headphones and speakers)
  • Playback at low audio as a litmus test

Publish

• See post “How to publish a podcast for free”
• For podcast discoverability:
  • Use social media
  • Publish a written article (there are free and paid transcription tools that can convert your audio into text)
  • Upload videos