Another in the series where I offer up some practical advice about setting up, recording, and publishing podcasts. This time, it’s the planning process.

I get asked lots of questions about podcast recording. They’re usually technical and relate to the microphones, sound, platforms etc. I like asking people a few questions which you need to be able to answer if you want to create a successful podcast.

What’s your podcast about? I don’t mean the detail behind it but can you describe its purpose in 20 seconds or less? If you can’t you need to be more concise. There are millions of podcasts around now and yours will need to have something to get people to want to listen to you. Personality doesn’t sell podcasts like it used to and your content needs to be the driver of listeners.

What’s the schedule going to be? People can tell you what their first three episodes will be and then struggle. Have a clear idea of the narrative you’re working to and use that to design your release schedule which will need to be of these three:

• Regular– this might be anything on a regular basis – daily, weekly, fortnightly, 1st Tuesday in a month, monthly, etc. What matters is that it’s a regular release and hits people’s podcast players like clockwork.
• Seasonal – this means a group of podcasts, usually 6, 8 or 10, released together or regularly over a duration. These podcasts will have a specific narrative arc which will, in a season, take the listener from start to finish. There’s nothing to stop you doing a few seasons but be clear what you’re expecting your listeners to have to do to work through them.
• Episodic – more occasional and irregular. These will be based on your purpose and narrative but will have content which clearly links the narrative together. These will require the most promotion since their release will be, by its nature, surprising for listeners.

Who are your guests? It seems obvious but planning which people are speaking and when takes some thought. When, how and why are you briefing them beforehand? How soon after recording are you publishing? What do you expect them to do on the podcast? Knowing this beforehand will help. A lot.

What’s your timetable? You need to have your timings down for a few activities. These will include preparing the guests, scripting, capturing information for the show notes, editing, preparing your social marketing, etc.

What’s your episode zero? When you set a new podcast up you need to create a taster, trailer, episode zero which can be used to a) tell people about the podcast and, more importantly, b) test the RSS links to make sure your podcast gets onto the podcast platforms – Apple, Amazon, Spotify, etc. It’s great to have three episodes in the can before you publish – and you do need three – but what’s the feeder episode to start promotion.

Have you got your first three episodes? When you launch a podcast you have to release them as:

1. Episode Zero – to test the platforms and trail your podcast
2. Episode One and Two – released on the same day to give your audience enough content to decide whether they want to subscribe
3. Episode Three – the next scheduled release

The time and energy you put into these four episodes should help you dcide how you’re going to release them. Most podcasts don’t make it past three episodes. Why? Simply because the work to get to three is enough to put people off from doing any more.

The most important element of your plan should be its purpose. Women Talking About Learning can be described simply as:

a space to amplify women’s voices in learning and development

What’s your 10/12/15 word purpose? If it takes more than that it might be too complex for people to understand and hook them in.

Aside from the technical questions, what would you want to know before starting a podcast? Let me know in the comments.