How to Start a Podcast (and Make it Successful) in 2024

Over the years, we’ve seen podcasts grow into one of the most popular media formats, attracting millions of listeners. Just last year, over 220,000 new podcasts were launched.

When we first started exploring podcasting, it was easy to feel overwhelmed by the technical aspects. From choosing reliable media hosting to selecting quality equipment and achieving clear audio, there’s a lot to juggle.

We get it—it can feel like a steep learning curve, especially if you’re not a tech expert.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through each step, breaking down the process to make it manageable. We’ll share tips on how to set up, promote, and monetize your podcast, helping you turn your passion into a successful venture.

Here is an outline of everything that we will cover in this guide:

Ready? Let’s get started.

What Is a Podcast? And How Do Podcasts Work?

A podcast is a series of audio episodes that listeners can subscribe to, download, and enjoy whenever they like. It’s an accessible way to connect with an audience over topics that interest them.

Some podcasters also create video podcasts, but these are less common and often require more resources to produce effectively.

To make a podcast work, you’ll need an audio file and an RSS Feed that listeners can subscribe to. This setup ensures they receive new episodes automatically, keeping them engaged with your latest content.

Since WordPress has a built-in RSS feed system, we’ve seen many podcasters choose it as their go-to platform for setting up a podcast website. It’s straightforward and integrates well with podcasting tools.

Connecting your podcast site with apps like iTunes expands your reach, allowing more users to find, listen, and subscribe easily. We’ll walk you through this process later in the article.

Now that you have a clear idea of what podcasts are and how they work, let’s explore how to brainstorm topics that can set your podcast up for success.

Finding Podcast Topics and Niche

Podcasting statistics show that around 111,000 new podcasts hit the airwaves every few days. That’s a lot of content, making it essential to carve out a unique angle for your podcast.

Choosing the right topics to cover will make it easier to stand out and attract loyal listeners.

Here are some insights we’ve gathered to help you define your niche and find topics that resonate with your audience.

• Follow your passion: We’ve learned that choosing topics you’re genuinely excited about leads to more engaging content for your target audience. Authenticity goes a long way in connecting with listeners.
• Pick a lane: Sticking to a focused subject area helps establish authority faster. We’ve seen that defining your niche not only attracts a specific audience but also opens up future monetization and sponsorship opportunities.
• Think like your audience: Crafting an audience persona can make a big difference. Reflecting on who your listeners are and what they care about allows you to tackle their interests and pain points effectively in each episode.
• Research your competition: Observing other podcasters in your niche offers valuable insights. Consider what unique perspective or voice you can bring that adds value and helps you stand out.
• Choose your podcast format: We’ve seen how choosing the right format—whether interviews, solo commentary, or something else—can amplify the strength of your topics. Go with a style that matches both your message and your strengths.

Now that you’ve chosen your topics and niche, let’s look at what you’ll need to make your podcast a reality.

Things You Need to Set Up Your Podcast

For a professional podcasting setup, there are a few things that you will need to get started.

The first thing is a website or a blog where people can learn more about you and your podcast.

The second thing is the equipment to record your podcast episodes.

Lastly, you need to have the right tools to publish your podcast on the internet so you can get maximum subscribers and reach.

We will walk you through the whole process step by step.

Step 1. Website Setup: WordPress Hosting and Domain Name

The most important step in building a website is to choose the right platform.

We recommend using WordPress.org, also known as self-hosted WordPress, for setting up your podcasting website.

WordPress is free to use. You can install plugins, customize your site design, and, most importantly, make money from your site without any restrictions (See the difference between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org).

Why We Recommend WordPress:

• WordPress is open source and gives you full control and ownership of your podcast content.
• WordPress has thousands of plugins, which are like apps for your website. These plugins help you connect your site to any third-party tool, service, or payment gateway you need.
• WordPress is beginner-friendly, and you can set up your podcast website without hiring a developer.

To learn more, see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.

Setting Up WordPress

You will need a domain name and a website hosting account to get started.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what people type to get to your website. For example, google.com or wpbeginner.com.

Web hosting is your website’s house on the internet. This is where all your files and images are stored. Every website needs web hosting.

The typical cost of web hosting is $7.99 per month, and a domain name usually costs around $14.99 per year.

This is a lot for someone just starting out. Thankfully, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and up to 61% off on web hosting.

In real numbers, this means you can start your podcasting website for only $2.75 per month.

We recommend using Bluehost because they are one of the official WordPress-recommended hosting providers and one of the most extensive web hosting services in the world. (See our Bluehost review for more details)

Other hosting companies we recommend: Hostinger ($2.69 /month, free domain included) and SiteGround ($2.99/month, free domain included).

For more hosting recommendations, see our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

After signing up for WordPress hosting, you can follow the instructions in our complete step-by-step WordPress installation tutorial to get started.

Choose a Podcast WordPress Theme

Once you have installed WordPress, your website will use a default WordPress theme. It is quite basic, and you may want to change it.

Themes control how the front end of your website looks to the visitors.

Luckily, there are thousands of WordPress themes from which to choose. However, not all of them are made specifically for a podcast website.

Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered there as well. Our expert team has curated a hand-picked list of WordPress themes for podcasters.

All themes in this list are explicitly made for podcasting websites or are well-suited for podcasting.

Need help setting up your theme? See our tutorial on how to install a WordPress theme.

Step 2. Setting Up a Media Hosting Service

The next thing you will need is a good media hosting service.

Podcast episodes are large audio files. Serving them from your web host will consume a lot of server resources, making your website slow and often unresponsive.

For the best user experience, we recommend using a podcast-specific media hosting platform like Blubrry.

Most smart podcasters use a separate podcast hosting service to serve their podcast files. It is the smartest and most efficient way to run a podcast.

Why we recommend Blubrry:

• Blubrry is optimized for podcasting using WordPress. They offer a powerful plugin called Blubrry PowerPress, which makes it easy to manage your podcast from the WordPress site.
• It comes with a large user community made up of many successful podcasters. If you need help, join the forums to learn from others who have been podcasting for a long time.
• Blubrry has great tools like ID3 tagging, iTunes optimization, automatic media artwork management, etc.
• They have a top-tier content delivery network (CDN), which makes your content delivery faster and more reliable.

Step 3. Choosing Proper Podcasting Equipment

As your podcast grows, you will need to invest in new tools to produce higher-quality podcasts.

As a beginner, the most important tool you need is a good microphone.

Please do not use your computer’s built-in microphone to record your podcast. Your users will instantly notice the terrible sound quality.

There are two main types: XLR and USB microphones.

XLR microphones are like professional cameras. They give high-quality audio but need an audio interface or mixer to connect them to your computer. This can be a bit complex for beginners.

USB microphones are like point-and-shoot cameras. They are easy to use, and you can just plug them into your computer and start recording. They are great for beginners. However, the sound quality might not be as good as XLR microphones.

We recommend choosing a USB microphone. They are beginner-friendly and require less technical knowledge to operate.

However, if you are willing to spend extra time and money for better sound quality, then choose an XLR microphone. This is what most professional podcasters use.

There are three popular mic choices among podcasters.

• Samson C01U (USB) – Entry-level Microphone
• Røde Podmic (USB) – Best USB mic
• Heil PR-40 (XLR connection, not USB) – This is what the pros use. You will need to buy an audio mixer as well.

Here is some other equipment that you probably want to purchase: a mic arm, shock mount, and a pop filter.

For WPBeginner’s audio/video setup, we use the Rode Podcaster kit with a mic arm and shock mount.

You will also need a decent headphone. We are using Sony MDR7506.

Once you have the right podcasting equipment, you will be ready for the next step: planning and recording your first podcast episode.

Step 4. Planning Your First Few Podcast Episodes

You need to plan your podcast episodes before you sit down to record them. There are several important decisions that you need to make.

1. Episode content

What will be the topics for your first few episodes? You can plan your content in an orderly fashion, work on the content by creating an outline, and then digging into the details.

2. Length of Episodes

Podcasts can be from 20 minutes to over an hour long. The duration of your episodes depends on your content and audience.

There are no strict rules about the ideal length for a good podcast episode. However, episodes between 20-40 minutes tend to do better.

If you have good content, then don’t cut it down just so it can fit the specific length. Similarly, don’t drag content too much so that you can fill the desired episode length.

3. Supporting Media

You will also want to work on intro music, background music, or other sounds you may want to add to your podcast for a dramatic effect.

The following are a few places where you can find license-free music and soundtracks to use in your podcast episodes or as your theme music. Carefully review the licensing terms before using any track in your podcast:

• Free Music Archive
• YouTube Audio Library
• Free Stock Music

4. Storyboarding and Scripting

You can sit down and record by just looking at a simple outline of your ideas. However, this might give your users the impression that you didn’t do your homework.

You need to actually sit down and write down the script. This helps you stay focused and makes you sound more professional and prepared.

You can still go on and speak off the script during the recording, but having an actual script keeps you on track and results in better-quality content.

After spending some time planning your episodes and giving more thought to your content, it is time to record your first podcast.

Step 5. Recording Your First Podcast

To record your podcast, you will need audio recording software. This software will help you record and edit your audio files.

The best podcast recording software used by most podcasters is Audacity. It is a free, cross-platform, and open-source software capable of recording studio-quality professional podcasts.

After installing Audacity, you need to open it up and create a new project from the File menu.

To record your voice, simply click on the record button.

Now, feel free to record your podcast. Don’t worry about awkward pauses, breaks, coughing, or any glitches you might make while narrating.

You can edit the recording as many times as you want.

You can also import music files from File » Import and set them as background music.

Audacity is a very powerful tool, and it is not possible for us to even cover its basic features in this article. However, TeamAudacity has an extensive Wiki with detailed tutorials.

We recommend that you go through these tutorials. Becoming familiar with the software will take some time, but it’s worth your time and effort.

Once you have recorded your podcast, you need to export it.

Most podcasters export their audio files in the MP3 format because it creates smaller file sizes with good quality.

You also need to be smart about naming your podcast files. Remember, podcasts are episodic series, so it would be best to use a naming practice that uses an episode or serial number in the file name.

Some suggestions would be WPB001.mp3 or WPBep001.mp3.

Then, you need to save the final version of your podcast file to a separate folder on your computer.

Step 6. Publishing Your Podcast With WordPress

After you have created a few episodes and you are satisfied with their quality, it’s time to learn how to publish your podcast with WordPress.

You will need to log in to the admin area of your WordPress site.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Blubrry PowerPress Podcasting plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will see a PowerPress menu item in the WordPress admin menu. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page.

If you are using Blubrry to host your podcasting files, you need to click on the ‘Let’s Connect’ button to configure the Blubrry statistics and hosting services.

This will bring up a popup where you will be asked to log in to your Blubrry account and give the plugin permission to access your account.

Next, you will need to fill out the rest of the information on the settings page.

Start by providing a title for your feed in the ‘Feeds’ tab.

After that, you can upload the artwork by switching to the ‘Podcast Artwork’ tab.

This will be the square thumbnail displayed next to your podcast in podcast listening apps. Make sure that it represents your podcast branding.

The rest of the plugin settings are quite self-explanatory, and the default options will work for most users.

We will come back to the Apple iTunes settings later in this article.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings. Your WordPress website is now ready to publish your podcast.

Step 7. Upload Media Files to Blubrry

Before you can publish a podcast episode with WordPress, you first need to upload the podcast file to your media hosting service, Blubrry.

Log in to your Blubrry hosting account and then click on the ‘Set Website’ option in the dashboard.

On the next screen, choose ‘I already have a website’.

Below that, you must provide the URL of your WordPress website.

Click the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

Next, go to the Episodes » Publish New page. Here, simply provide a title and description for your podcast episode.

After that, click on the ‘Upload Episode File’ button to upload the podcast episode you recorded earlier.

Below that, you can schedule the release date and time. This allows you to schedule episodes to be released at a preferred time. Not choosing a date and time will make your episode available immediately.

Optionally, you can provide a transcript for your episode if you have one.

Once you are finished, go ahead and click on the ‘Publish’ button to save your changes.

Step 8. Adding Your First Podcast in WordPress

Everything is now in order, and you are ready to add your first podcast in WordPress.

To publish your first podcast, you need to go to the Posts » Add New page.

It is highly recommended that you create a separate category for your podcast episodes.

This will allow you to keep your podcast episodes separate from the rest of your content. You will also be able to publicize your podcast feed more easily later on.

After that, you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page, and there you will see the ‘Podcast Episode’ box.

From here, click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select the file you uploaded to Blubrry.

If your podcast media file is not hosted on Blubrry, then you can just paste the media file URL here. Then, you need to click the ‘Verify’ button to ensure you have put the correct URL.

Now, you need to scroll back up to the post editor section. Give your blog post a suitable title and add a description for this podcast episode.

After that, you need to add the PowerPress Player block to the content area where you want to display the podcast player.

That’s all. You can now publish and preview your blog post, and you will see your podcast episode live with a beautiful player.

Congratulations, your WordPress podcasting site is ready to go live.

Step 9. Previewing Your Podcast With iTunes

Now that you have set up your podcast website with WordPress, it is time to submit your podcast to iTunes and get more subscribers.

Before submitting it to iTunes, you might want to check to see how your podcast will look on iTunes. To do this, launch iTunes, go to File » Subscribe to Podcast and enter your feed URL. Your feed URL will look like this:

http://www.example.com/feed/podcast

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Once you enter the URL in iTunes, it will fetch the feed and display it. As you can see in the screenshot below, it fetched the artwork, description, subtitle, and more.

If everything looks good, then this means you are ready to submit your podcast to iTunes.

Step 10. Submitting Your Podcast to iTunes

To submit your podcast to iTunes, you need to download and install the latest version of iTunes on your computer. Next, launch iTunes and click on the iTunes Store button in the top right corner of the screen.

iTunes will now access the iTunes Store. Click on the ‘Podcasts’ menu, and then scroll a little to find the Podcasts Quick Links section. There, you will see a link to ‘Submit a podcast’.

This will open the podcast submission process. You will need an Apple ID to submit your podcast to the iTunes directory. If you are not already signed in, then iTunes will prompt you to log in.

The first thing you will need is your podcast feed URL. Your podcast feed URL will be like this:

http://example.com/feed/podcast

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Since you are using PowerPress, your feed will already include the tags required by the iTunes Store for podcasts.

Upon submission, your podcast feed will be submitted to the iTunes review queue. After approval by the iTunes review staff, it will be added to the iTunes directory, and you will be notified via email.

Podcasting Resources to Help You Grow

Congratulations on starting your podcast with WordPress! If you want to make your podcast successful, then we recommend you join:

Podcasters’ Paradise by John Lee Dumas

John is a good friend of ours, and he is an inspiration for most new podcasters. In just a few years, he has taken his podcast from $0 to 7 figure annual income. If you are thinking of starting a podcast, then you want to learn from him.

Plus, here are some actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.

Plugin Recommendations to Grow Your Podcast

We recommend installing some must-have plugins on your WordPress website to extend its functionality and grow your podcast. Here are the most often recommended top plugins you can install right away:

• All in One SEO for WordPress – The best WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It enables you to optimize your podcast website SEO to get more free traffic from search engines.
• RafflePress – The best WordPress giveaway plugin that allows you to run viral giveaways in exchange for a podcast subscription, joining your email newsletter, or following you on social media.
• MonsterInsights – Once you start getting listeners to your website, you will want to know which episodes they are listening to or downloading and where they are coming from. MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin that allows you to track all this data.

Making Money From Your Podcast

To make your podcast successful, you will need to invest a lot of time and make a solid commitment. To make it sustainable in the long run, you will need to find ways to monetize your podcast.

We have a detailed guide on how to make money online using your WordPress blog. All the items listed there can also be used on your podcasting website.

The following are some of the top ways to make money from a podcast.

• If you think a business would benefit from sponsoring your podcast, feel free to reach out to them to be a sponsor. You’d be surprised how often this would work out for you.
• Use affiliate marketing to recommend third-party products and services to your audience.
• Sell your own products and services by adding an online store to your website.
• Ask subscribers to support your podcast with donations. You can simply add a payment form on your website where subscribers can make a small donation.
• Make older episodes available only for members. See our guide on how to make a membership website with WordPress.

Exploring Other Profitable Online Businesses

While podcasting can provide multiple ways to generate revenue if you are interested in more online business ideas, then you may find these resources helpful:

• How to Start a WordPress Blog (Beginner’s Guide)
• How to Start a Food Blog (and Make Extra Income on the Side)
• How to Start a Fashion Blog (and Make Money) – Step by Step
• How to Easily Create a Job Board in WordPress

We hope this article helped you start a podcast with WordPress. You may also want to see our list of must-have WordPress plugins for business websites and our expert picks of the best WordPress themes for podcasters.

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