There is a growing popularity of YouTube podcasts, especially now that YouTube has rolled out a podcast page on its platform. This is great for existing podcasters and for every creative to promote their audio content. The podcast market is not just lucrative but also in high demand right now.
According to statistics, in 2023, podcast listeners reached 464.7 million, projected to rise to 504.9 million by 2024. The market is valued at $23.56 billion, with room for all. Globally, 5 million podcasts are made daily, boasting 70 million episodes, and video podcasts surge. With YouTube's new podcast page feature, you can be part of this growing number, sharing audio/video content with millions of audiences globally and getting your coins too!
So, if you have always wanted to start a YouTube podcast, this guide is beneficial. We have put together detailed tips on how to have a successful YouTube podcast.
In this article
Part 1. Why You Need to Start a Podcast on YouTube
1. Massive Global Audience
There are over 2.6 billion YouTube users globally, which you can tap into and give your YouTube podcast the desired traffic. If you upload a podcast on YouTube, you will most likely double your show’s digital footprint, giving you exposure that is simply unmatched.
2. Opportunities
Besides collaboration and brand influencing opportunities, YouTube podcast is the perfect platform for a content creator to cross over and align with music listeners. Because YouTube attracts 47% of all music streaming listening time worldwide, recently beating out Spotify to become the largest podcast consumption platform in the US, it is a number to take advantage of.
3. No Charges + You Earn
The only money you will spend setting up your YouTube podcast is for getting the equipment you need, and you need standard ones too, but we will get to that later. Once you have quality content and a good structure, this will translate to solid page traffic and visibility, with people listening in, liking, and subscribing to your channel. It eventually translates to a sweet payday over time via sponsorship, brand collaboration, etc.
4. YouTube Analytics at Your Disposal
YouTube lets you view data on who watches your Podcasts, how long they stay, when they come, how they came across it, etc. Having this kind of data at your disposal is the ultimate digital cheat sheet. It will help you figure out where to improve, what your audience likes, and how to project your episodes better in the future to impress old listeners and attract new ones.
Part 2. How to Start a Podcast on YouTube [Full Guide]
Starting a podcast on YouTube is not as intimidating as you might think. In fact, with a helpful guide like ours, you will find it is an easy, fun labor of love.
So, here are 13 important tips on successfully making a podcast on YouTube.
1. Choose Your Niche
One of the first items to check off the podcast list is finding the best niche for you and sticking to it. Podcast listeners are very particular about where they get specific content. So, you may not get away with dabbling in politics in one episode and moving to romance and pop culture in another.
Not only will this hurt your content algorithmically, but you will also not have a strong following simply because your YouTube podcast content is all over the place.
So, find a niche (one that you are passionate about, not just the one you think is popular and will drive more traffic), focus on it, develop it with a good structure and quality materials, and build a unique fanbase who will love your content and always come back for more.
2. Plan Your Podcast
As with everything, failing to plan is planning to fail. Plan your YouTube podcast down to the last detail and leave nothing to serendipity. You must put thought and precision into every episode and create a good structure your listeners can get behind and stick to, like the days you want to upload your content, the length of each episode, etc.
Also, look out for people who have been in the YouTube podcast scene for a long with great success and pick their brains. Overall, dot your Is, cross your Ts, and do your homework on how to start a podcast on YouTube properly.
3. Set up Your YouTube Channel
This, of course, goes without saying. Setting up a YouTube channel is a major step to becoming a YouTube podcaster. If the goal is to build a brand, creating your profile and page on YouTube’s search engine for uploading your podcasts is the way to go.
This gives your dedicated listeners a place to go for your content, where they can subscribe to get notifications when there is new content, and where you can also engage with them via a comment section, an engagement that will give your page a huge boost.
4. Recording Equipment and Software
Now we are getting to the practical side of events, getting recording equipment kits and software. At this point, you ought to decide the kind of equipment and software to use for your YouTube podcast after thorough research on the subject. The basics you will need include headphones, a good-quality microphone, an HD camera, a webcam or even a phone camera, a laptop or PC, recording software, editing software which includes background noise removal software, and podcast hosting software.
You will also get good use out of a tripod, mic arm, audio mixer/interface, lighting kit, and an additional camera and microphone.
Remember that factors like your recording atmosphere will play a great role when deciding on the type of microphone you need, so keep that in mind.
5. Recording and Editing Your Podcast
Recording great content for your YouTube podcast is only one-half of the job; the next half is editing an episode before uploading it to your YouTube podcast.
This is where some software programs come in, and the one that comes most handy is the program for removing background noise from the audio.
While it is important to record in a coordinated atmosphere, there is no predicting how events can turn out, and if you are using a condensed mic that is bound to pick up even the smallest noises, then editing your podcast is a must.
Thankfully, you can use program to edit and remove unwanted background noises from an episode before sharing it with an audience.
6. Create Engaging Artwork and Thumbnails
In the digital and content-creating world, thumbnails and artwork are very important, like a podcast on YouTube. It is equivalent to clickbait employed by bloggers to drive traffic to their blog posts.
In the case of a YouTube Podcast, an engaging artwork and attention-grabbing thumbnail is your first line at introducing the content you just uploaded to listeners, especially the ones who haven’t discovered your channel yet. So it would be best to make it catchy, clear, attention-grabbing, and something that can send people to your page to see the rest of the episode.
7. Optimize Your YouTube Channel and Podcast Titles
While it is great that YouTube is a platform with millions of global users and listeners, it only works in your favor as a podcast creator on YouTube if your content and channel make it to the top of the fray. So, you must optimize your channel and podcast title for the YouTube search engine.
Here are some ways you can optimize your Podcast title and YouTube channel
- Use the same name of your podcast show as your podcast title so the audience can easily locate you.
- Don’t add extra words to your podcast title.
- Add a detailed description to your podcast title, including one keyword related to the episode to help new listeners discover you from their searches.
- Avoid mixing content like different shows, breaking up seasons into separate podcasts, etc.
8. Upload Podcast to YouTube
We already enumerated the many benefits of taking advantage of YouTube and its new podcast platform, so once your podcast episode is good and ready to go, go ahead and upload it. You can either upload whole episodes to your channel, which makes things easier but has its downsides as people may not want to sit through a long video, makes naming an entire video trickier regarding SEO, etc., or upload in bits.
You can also upgrade to live-streaming episodes once you have gotten the hang of things.
9. Promote Your Podcast on YouTube
Promoting your Podcast on YouTube helps you reach a bigger audience, and you can do this by promoting shorter clips and snippets of your podcast to grow your YouTube audience. You can also get on strategies like
- YouTube Shorts
- Sharing across socials
- Using a call of action asking viewers to subscribe or directing them to your podcast
- Working with brands and seasoned podcasters for more visibility, etc.
10. Engage Your Audience
The primary target for your YouTube podcast is your audience, so it is only right that you ensure they are engaged. You must know your audience (thanks to YouTube analytics), know what they respond to regarding delivery style, length of episodes, etc., and create compelling content to match their preferences.
You must also have a clear and stipulated structure that they can get on board with, use enticing methods that will keep them glued to your channel, be authentic, keep it fresh, and provide value for their time, and you will have listeners counting down to the next episode.
11. Monetization Strategies
The difference between promoting and monetizing your YouTube podcast is that your aim here is to receive income from your content. You can use tactics to earn money from a YouTube podcast, such as sponsorships, advertising and affiliate marketing, subscription, paid content, etc.
This is even easier on YouTube since they have dedicated tools for creators to make money, and you can take advantage of them, but all of this depends on your reach and the numerical strength of your listeners.
12. Track Analytics and Improve Performance
Earlier, we mentioned that one of the benefits of starting a podcast on YouTube is that your analytical data is open for you to see. With it, you can track your audience’s response to each episode, how long they stay, etc.
These data will help you know the areas to know places to improve on and know how to serve your audience better.
13. Collaborate With Other YouTubers and Podcasters
Working with others in your field will do your brand great, especially since you are new.
Networking is always a sure way to put your brand onto a wider range of listeners and also to be noticed by businesses (for sponsorships), so if you have the opportunity to work with/collaborate with other YouTubers and podcasters, grab it with both hands as it will introduce you to a whole new world. While at it, you might learn something or two that will benefit your brand.
Part 3. Extra Tips on Podcast Creation on YouTube
We may have given you an extensive list of how to start a podcast on YouTube successfully, but there is no such thing as too much improvement as a growing brand. So, here are a few more tips you can practice when starting a podcast on YouTube.
- Mark your content as a podcast.
- Establish a precise and consistent naming pattern for each episode
- Ensure your channel is public
- Organize your podcast
- Pay attention to details
- Add necessary tags
- Cross-promote on other platforms
- Never stop improving your craft
Conclusion
If starting a podcast on YouTube is your dream, you can start today. And although starting a podcast on YouTube is not rocket science, you must be very intentional about it if you want to become a household name in the podcast, and you will find our guide extremely helpful.