All the Tools You Need to Launch a Mini Podcast

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It’s the final episode of Make Money Podcasting for this year, and with the name Make Money Podcasting, that’s right. In January 2023, I will be renaming this podcast to The Profitable Podcaster to better align with everything we’re talking about here on the show. And not just strictly about making money. Those things include making money but also growing your show. Also, super cool setups from people who are doing cool things with podcasting on Setup Saturdays. 

And we are, of course, we are of course introducing coaching calls – 20-minute coaching calls. So make sure you are on my mailing list because those people get first dibs at the coaching calls. You can sign up over at [makemoneypod.com/tips] for podcast tips.  

And, of course, you probably heard the call to action at the beginning of the show, which was probably sending you to a better resource, to be honest. But today, I want to talk about…I wanna close out the year by talking about tools you need to create a great mini-podcast. 

Mini-podcasting is something I’ve gone all in on this year. From the…that is the most popular episode of this show so far is the mini-podcasting one. I also have a mini-podcasting cohort going on right now. My mini-podcasting webinar was really popular. And so, if you wanna start a mini-podcast in 2023, I strongly recommend you do. I wanna give you all of the tools that you need and would also be super helpful. So I’ll break it into like, here’s what you need, and then we’ll get into things that I find really helpful in producing my mini-podcast, this very show. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Joe Casabona: Hello, and welcome to Make Money Podcasting where I teach you how to make your first $10,000 with your podcast. On this show, you’ll learn tried and true methods to increase your revenue and turn your podcast from a money pit into a moneymaker. 

Hi, I’m your host, Joe Casabona. And my podcasts have been making money from Day 1 without a lot of downloads. I’ll share everything I know with you here on Make Money Podcasting. 

So like I said, I’m gonna break this down into tools you need and tools that would be really nice to have. The tool that I think you need the most In producing a mini-podcast is Descript or Descript. I’ve heard it pronounced both ways and I’ve never gone to an official source to hear how it’s pronounced. So I’m gonna say Descript like description – description, I guess. If you say description, that’s how you pronounce it. 

Anyway, I’m in the weeds now. I think Descript is bar none the best tool for somebody to start a mini-podcast. I did a webinar on this earlier in December and I have a video on it in my podcast Liftoff Playbook. It’s an all-in-one tool. So that’s it.

I’m recording video and audio directly into Descript as we speak. I am watching a transcript get generated that works pretty darn well. And when I am done, I am going to make some minimal edits because I have a template with my music, my bed music, and the intro, and the ducking and the fade-outs and all that. So I have everything I need here in Descript. I will do some minimal edits, and then I’m gonna click publish, and it’s going to get sent to my audio host. 

And the beautiful thing about this is that it’ll upload just the audio to my audio host, because it’s a good one that accounts for that. But then I can make mo some slight, some other slight modifications. Getting rid of the intro and bed music, and then sending it right to YouTube if I want to. 

So, if you’ve been over to my YouTube channel, you’ll know that I’ve been sending video versions of this podcast over there. They don’t have a lot of traction. I don’t know how worth the effort is at this point. Though, I do think YouTube is going to be a major player in podcasting in 2023. So there needs to be some video component or your podcast needs to at least be on YouTube. But I don’t know if it makes a lot of sense for me to upload new edited videos or if I should just upload the audio like I do with How I built it.

So either way. 

Descript makes it super easy for me to do both. From recording directly in Descript, audio, and video to editing by deleting words, getting a transcript, and publishing to my audio host, Descript is the number one tool you need. It makes everything so much easier. So that’s number one. I’m gonna go through this, this list pretty quickly, by the way, because you don’t need a lot of tools for a mini-podcast. And this is a mini-podcast, so why belabor the point? So that’s number one, descript. 

by the way, all of these links will be in the show notes over at [makemoneypod.com.223]. That’s [makemoneypod.com/223

. 

Number two is an audio host. And the audio host I recommend is BuzzSprout. Here’s why I recommend BuzzSprout.

They have a generous free plan, first of all. They make it very easy. They integrate with descript and their interface includes a lot of tools that you would need third-party integrations for. So when you create in Descript, the transcript also gets uploaded. So like you don’t need to include that separately. The podcast website is pretty nice. It’s like, it’s not everything, but it’s pretty nice. The player is really nice and you can do custom domains over there. But the oh, they have like magic editing. Now, I’m just talking about stuff, “Hey, have ways to monetize”. 

But the killer feature, I think that sets BuzzSprout apart from a lot of audio hosts, not every audio host, but a lot of audio hosts is aside from the ease of use, they have dynamic content. So the call to action that you heard at the very top of this show is it. First of all, it could be different depending on when you listen, but it’s dynamically inserted. I don’t record that when I record the rest of the episode. I record that separately and then I tell BuzzSprout to use it. So most of the time, it’s probably going to be some tool that I’m offering, some timely tool for podcasters. It could be a Podcast Booster Blueprint. It could be my Sponsor Pitch Deck.  So. that’s gonna be most of the time. 

But, when I’m doing a live event, like a webinar, the call to action is going to be for that dynamically across all episodes automatically. I just need to tell BuzzSprout which audio to use for dynamic ad insertion or dynamic content in the pre-roll. I think that’s such a great feature, especially for people doing a mini-podcast because the mini-podcast is for you to establish your authority in a field and make money with that authority. And the best way to do that is by building your mailing list. And so if you’re doing a live event that builds your mailing list, promote that. If you are doing some 30-day challenge to build your mailing list, promote that. Or if you offer this timely tool that really makes sense for your audience, use that. Either way, that call to action is going to be timely and easy to update. And I strongly recommend that the show notes be updated too. The show notes update too. And I think that’s really fantastic. 

So BuzzSprout is my favorite podcast host for mini-podcasting. There are other great ones. I’ve used a few of them. I use Castos for my other show, but that’s mostly for private podcasting. And my members-only podcast. But I think Buzzsprout is an excellent, affordable service for people starting a mini-podcast. So, let’s see.

Looking at my list. That’s really it. That’s all you need for a mini-podcast. I mean, and a microphone, right? I’ll link to my favorite starter microphone. I’ll link to the podcast gift guide because that has like all the starter stuff. But, if you are thinking about that and you think, you know, you need a microphone, I recommend the Samson Q2U. I think that’s really good. If you want an XLR or an interface, you get the Focusrite Scarlett Solo. That’s all over in the Podcaster’s Gift Guide. I’ll link that in the show notes as well.

But as far as software and putting the show together, as far as that goes, Descript for recording, editing, and uploading, and BuzzSprout for a place to upload it. That’s it. The rest of the tools I’m going to talk about are things that are super helpful. 

So the first one right is with BuzzSprout. You’ll get a podcast website that I think is again, good for most people to start. If you want a better podcast website, you can use like Podpage or Carrd. That’s C-A-R-R-D. Or if you really wanna go ham and customize your own, you can use WordPress. I’ll probably do a whole separate show On WordPress in 2023. If you want to hear that, let me know. You can write to me at joecasabona.org or on Twitter. Maybe I shouldn’t mention Twitter. Twitter @jcasabona. But either way, right? If you’re just using the basic website, that BuzzSprout or whoever your host is provides, for now, that’s great. 

Most of them are going to allow for a custom domain. And so I recommend [hover.com] for a custom domain. hover…t you probably heard them sponsor a bunch of podcasts, so you could probably find a code somewhere. But I like hover. They have automatic domain privacy. They offer like bulk discounts, which I obviously take advantage of cause I have like 50 domains. And they make it just really easy to register a domain and then point it somewhere. And they allow for sub-domains too. And the other thing,  so a custom domain will be great. Like [makemoneypod.com] is a custom domain that’s pointing to BuzzSprout. 

The other thing I recommend is a link shortener, right? And so you could buy a second domain for this if you want. Like, it could be like the initials or your podcast maybe. But I recommend something to create easy redirects for your podcast. So when I say like, [makemoneypod.com/223], that’s a redirect to a longer Buzz sprout URL. And I use Switchy for that. That’s S-W-I-T-C-H-Y. I think it’s .co. Again, it’ll be linked in the show notes. But I’ll link to the AppSumo deal. This is one of the few AppSumo deals that I actually have bought and actually use regularly. And it’s because it’s really great. It’s a great link shortener. They support like those custom-like pages, like link tree style pages, and they support custom domains.

So my custom domains are joe.casa which I think isn’t incredible. I’m so stoked I got that one. And then go.podlifts.me for my podcast-related short links. 

So, those are really great. Those are 2 really great tools as far as like online branding and domain names go. You don’t need them, but they’re helpful. 

As far as social sharing, I mean, pick your favorite, there are a million. There’s Buffer. There’s Publer. There’s TypeFully. Publer is…I don’t know if they still have an AppSumo deal going on, but there’s a bunch. Pick your favorite.  I think that just makes sharing help easier. 

You probably want a writing app too. I’m not gonna tell you about the writing app too. I used Ulysses, but there’s like Obsidian. There’s craft someplace to organize your thoughts as far as your outlining and episode ideas go. 

Then there is the show planning aspect of it. And for that, I recommend Airtable. Now, I love Airtable.  I use it for a bunch of things. I think it’s really great. I use it for like, to manage my VA tasks. I use it to manage my shows and like keep track of what ideas I have and which ones have been published, and which ones haven’t. I use it to keep track of social media sharing and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you want an Airtable Podcast Planner, you can go to…I’ll link it in the show notes. But [makemoneypod.com/planner]. And then you could sign up,  put in your email address and you will get a link to Airtable, Notion, and Google Sheets, the same planner, and all of those things. I think, having a planner to organize your thoughts and your ideas is a good thing to have. Because as you go on, I’m 23 episodes into this, the new format. I’m probably like 30 episodes into the whole show overall.  I’m having trouble like, well, I sometimes have trouble keeping track of what did I talk about? So then I go to my handy dandy planner and I’m like, “Oh, I already talked about CPM or CPA. I already talked about mini-podcasting. Oh, that happens to be the most popular episode. So now I’ll do a follow-up show.”  

So, I have a planner there, [makemoneypod.com/planner], It’s gonna be an Airtable Notion. Shout out to Renee,  my friend Renee [Inaudible 15:38.09] who converted the planner to Notion because I had no idea what I was doing.  And then Google Sheets. But this is gonna be a place for you to create episode ideas and track sponsors. And if you’re doing guests, track guests, it’s very complicated. It’s not complicated. It’s robust. So that’s over at [makemoneypodd.com/planner].  I recommend Airtable too.

And then the last two tools I’m gonna recommend here: one is for creating artwork, that’s Canva. Naturally, you’ve probably heard of Canva, but if you’re creating custom artwork for each episode, Canva’s the easiest thing to use. It’s really nice. I use it for everything. I pay for it, actually. I got rid of,…I had like the educational plan for Adobe Suite, which was just, which was like $10 a month until it went up to like 20 bucks a month. But, I started paying for Canva instead which was more expensive at 12 bucks a month. So, I love Canva. I use it. My VA uses it, and we create all of our artwork there. I create the YouTube thumbnails, and How I Built It Thumbnails and they make money, podcasting, artwork, and stuff like that all over on Canva. So, gonna make your job a lot easier. You can create templates so then you can just change the episode title and things like that.

And then finally, you’ve heard me. Promote my mailing list multiple times. At this point, I think you need a mailing list tool. if you don’t have one, or even if you do and you’re looking to switch, I strongly recommend ConvertKit. I am a huge, huge fan of ConvertKit. I’m actually using ConvertKit and Convert Kit Commerce to Power my How I Built It Pro membership. So people pay through ConvertKit and then they use Zappier to connect that to Costos for the private feed. But all of my landing pages with email signups, and all of my email form boxes on various websites, they all use ConvertKit. I absolutely love it. It allows me to set up sequences to onboard people and to figure out like where in your podcast journey you are so I can provide the right resources for you.

But even if you’re not doing all that, it’s free for the first thousand subscribers. It’s a way to collect email addresses and then promote your show. You can connect your podcast RSS feed up to it and so people will automatically get emails when your new show is out if they don’t want to use an RSS, or a podcast app.

Or even if they do, right, let them know in their inbox too. Maybe they don’t, they’re not checking their podcast app all the time. But ConvertKit for building your mailing list.

So that’s it. That is everything. That’s all the tools.

Let’s go through them again really quickly. You can find all of them over at [makemoneypod.com/223].

The ones you need:

Descript for recording, editing, and then uploading or exporting 

Buzzsprout for publishing your show. 

Those are the two that you need.

The nice to haves:

A custom domain through Hover. A short link creator, so you can have like speakable URLs through SwitchY, a writing app, and a social media sharing app.

I recommend Airtable for podcast planning, but you can use Notion for that. 

Those planners are gonna be over at [makemoneypod.com/planner.

Canva for image editing and image creation

Converkit for your email list. 

Use those tools and you will have a successful mini-podcast in 2023. 

Thanks so much for listening to this and every episode of Make Money Podcasting in 2022. It was the first year. I’m really happy with the way it’s gone. I’m really excited with what’s coming down the pike in 2023. As a reminder, this show will be called The Profitable Podcaster in 2023 to better reflect The mission of the show, which is not just about making money. It’s about growing your audience and your business and creating a profitable podcast.

So, thank you so much again for listening. All the show notes are gonna be over at [makemoneypod.com/223].

And until next year. I can’t wait to see what you make.