All the Tools You Need to Launch a Mini Podcast

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 podcast or 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 onset up 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 make money. pod.com/tips. For podcast tips. Uh, and of course you've probably heard the call to action at the beginning of the show, which was. Probably sending you to a better resource, to be honest. Um, but today, I want to talk about, I want to 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. Uh, 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 right now. My mini podcasting webinar was really popular. And so. If you want to start a mini podcast in 2023, I strongly recommend you do. I want to 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 though, without further ado, let's get into it. So, like I said, I'm going to 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 going to say. Descript like description. Description. I guess if you use a description, that's how you pronounce it. Anyway, I'm in the weeds now. I think to script 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, 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 going to. Click publish. I'm going to click publish, and it's going to get sent to my audio host. And the beautiful thing about this is that it'll upload, adjust the audio to my audio host because it's a good one that accounts for that. But then I can make some slight, some other slight modifications, like getting rid of the intro and bed music. Uh, and then send it right to YouTube if I want to. So if you've been over on 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 it, 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 could 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 a 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 going to go through this. This list pretty quickly, by the way. Uh, because you don't need a lot of tools for many podcasts, and this is a mini podcast. So why belabor the point? So that's number one, descript. Oh, by the way, all of these links will be in the show notes over at make money. pod.com/ 2 2, 3. That's make money. pod.com/ 2, 2, 3. 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 indescript, 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, uh, you can do custom domains over there, but the, oh, they have like magic editing. Now I'm just talking about stuff. They 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 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, uh, a, the podcast booster blueprint. It could be my. My sponsor pitch deck. Uh, so that's going to 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're doing, uh, some, uh, 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 recommended the show notes updates to. Excuse me the show notes update too. And I think that's really fantastic. So Buzzsprout is my favorite podcast hosts for many podcasting. There are other great ones. I've used a few of them. I used Castillo's for my other show, but that's mostly for private podcasting. Um, and, and my members only podcast, but I think Buzzsprout is an excellent. Uh, affordable service for people starting on any podcast. So let's see. Looking at my list. That's really it. That's all you need. For a mini podcast. I mean at a microphone, right. I'll link to my favorite starter microphone. I'll link to the podcast gift guide. Cause that has like all the starter stuff. But if you're thinking about that and you think, you know, you need a microphone, I recommend the Samsung. Uh, Q2 you, I think that's really good. If you want a. XLR or an interface. You get the focus, right? Scarlet solo. That's all over in the podcasters 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. Uh, if you want a better podcast website, you can use like pod page or card that's C a R D, or if you really want to go ham and, uh, 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. Um, you can write to me@joeatcasabona.org or on Twitter. Maybe I shouldn't mention Twitter, a Twitter at J Casabona. Um, 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. That you've probably heard them sponsor a bunch of podcasts. So you'll 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 because I have like 50 domains. Um, and they make it just really easy to register a domain and then point it somewhere. Um, And they allow for sub-domain. C1 and, and. The other thing. Um, so accustomed domain will be great, like make money. pod.com is a custom domain that's pointing to. Uh, Buzzsprout. The other thing I recommend is a link shortner right. And so you could buy a second domain for this, if you want. Like, it could be like the initials of your podcast, maybe. Um, But I recommend something to create easy redirects. For your podcast. So when I say like, make money, pod.com/ 2, 2, 3. That's a redirect to a longer Buzzsprout URL. Uh, and I used switchy for that. Um, that's, uh, S w I T C H Y, I think it's dot co again, it'll be linked in the show notes, but I'll link to the app Sumo 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. Shortner uh, they support like those, uh, custom like pages. Like link tree style pages and they support custom domains. So, um, my custom domains are Joe dot Cassa. Which I think is incredible. I'm so stoked. I got that one. Uh, and then go dot pod lifts.me for my podcast related shortlinks so those are really great. Those are two really great tools. As far as like online branding and domain names go, you don't need them, but they're helpful. Um, As far as social sharing, I mean, pick your favorite. There's a million there's buffer there's publisher there's type, fully publisher is I, I don't know if they still have an AppSumo domain. Um, Deal going on, but there's a bunch pick your favorite. Uh, I think that just makes sharing help. Um, easier. You probably want a writing app too. I'm not going to tell you the writing after I used Ulysses. But there's like Ulysses obsidian. There's craft. Someplace to organize your thoughts. Uh, as far as your outlining and episode ideas go. Uh, then there is the show planning aspect of it. And for that. I recommend. Air table now. I love air table. I use it for a bunch of things. Um, I think it's really great. I use it for like to manage my VA tasks. I use it. Uh, to manage. My shows and like keep track of what ideas I have and which ones have published and which ones haven't. I use it to keep track of social media sharing and a whole bunch of other stuff. Um, If you want an air table podcast planner. You can go to only get in the show notes, but make money. pod.com/planner. And then you could sign up. Uh, putting your email address and you will get a link to. Air table notion and Google sheets. The same planner in 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. Uh, the new format. Um, probably like 30 episodes into the whole show overall, but. Um, 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 followup show. Um, so I have a planner there. Uh, make money. pod.com/planner is going to be an air table notion. Shout out to Renee. Um, my friend Renee Morosa, which, uh, who, um, Morosa wits. Uh, who converted the planner to notion because I had no idea what I was doing. And then Google sheets, but this is going to be a place for you to create episode ideas and track sponsors. And if you're doing guests track guests, it's a very complicated, it's not complicated. It's a robust system. So that's over at make money, pod.com/planner. Uh, I recommend air table. And then the last two tools I'm going to 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 bucks a month. Um, 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 the how I built it thumbnails and they make money podcasting. Artwork and stuff like that all over on canvas. So it's going to be going to 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 a mailing list tool. If you don't have one. Or even if you do, and you're looking to switch. I strongly recommend convert kit. I am a huge, huge fan of convert kit. Um, I'm actually using convert kit and convert kit commerce. Two. Power my, how I built it. Pro membership. So people pay through convert kit, and then they, uh, I used Zapier to connect to that, to Castillo's for the private feed. But all of my landing pages with email signups, all of my email forum boxes on various websites. They all use convert kit. I absolutely love it. It allows me to set up, uh, 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. Uh, um, or a podcast app, or even if they do write, let them know in their inbox who maybe they are not, they're not checking their podcast app all the time, but. Convert kit 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 make money. pod.com/ 2, 2, 3. The ones you need. Descript for recording editing, and then uploading. Or exporting. And 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, a social media sharing app. I recommend air table for podcast planning, but you can use notion for that. Those planners are going to be over at make money. pod.com/planner. Canva for image editing and image creation and convert kit 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, 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 going to be over at make money. pod.com/ 2, 2, 3. And until next year, I can't wait to see what you make.