Getting Started in Podcasting

This blog post was written by Jamie.

This page used to advertise a podcasting course.

That course is long gone, and the advice it promised is below, for free. Seventeen posts, published between 2020 and 2025, on getting started and on keeping a show going.

The trouble has always been finding them. Fourteen sit under one tag, three under another, and nothing anywhere told you which to read first. So here is the map.

Why Any of This Exists

We never set out to build a body of work here. People asked us questions, usually the same handful, usually in the order you would expect: how do I host it, do I need transcripts, why is nobody listening. Answering the same question privately for the fourth time is a waste of everyone’s afternoon, so we started answering in public instead.

That habit is part of the same strand as the college talks and the mentoring that runs alongside client engagements, which the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce recognised with an Education Award. The podcasting posts are the part of that work you can read without booking anything.

Nothing below is sequential. Find the group that matches whatever you are stuck on, and start there.

If You Have Not Recorded Anything Yet

Three posts at three different lengths, so pick by how much time you have.

Starting a Podcast: Lessons from an Award-Winning Show is the short version, drawn from The Modern .NET Show: don’t overthink the start, find the show hiding inside your raw material, and listen back with a critical ear.
Starting a Podcast: Our Advice is the long one. Fifteen numbered sections, from the initial idea through to your hundredth episode. It opens with a TL;DR, so use that as a menu; there is no need to read the better part of seven thousand words in one sitting.
10 Lessons Learnt From the Last 2 Years in Podcasting is hindsight rather than instruction. Read it if you have already started and it is proving harder than you expected.

The Decisions That Are Hard to Undo

Get these four wrong and you will be living with the consequences for years, which is why they are worth reading before you need them.

How should I host my podcast? covers the buy-versus-build question, and what you are actually paying a host for.
The case for creating a website for your podcast makes the argument for a central home for the show, and what one does for accessibility and for being found.
Do I need an episode release schedule? on cadence, and whether a best day to release actually exists.
What’s the best way to keep my podcast audio files safe and secure? is about backups: the 3-2-1 rule, and archiving your raw recordings before you lose them.

Making the Episodes

Editing, tooling and transcripts, plus the two posts on rights that nobody reads until the week they need to.

Five Reasons Why You Should Hire a Podcast Editor explains why editing swallows the schedule and what a good editor actually contributes. We no longer offer editing, so what is left is the argument itself.
Can AI-powered podcasting really boost productivity and innovation? looks at where automated tooling earns its place in the workflow, and where it gets in the way.
Should I transcribe my show? on whether to publish transcripts, and how to go about producing them.
Can I use copyrighted music in my show? walks through getting sign-off, and what tends to happen to people who skip that step.
Understanding Fair Use: A Guide for Podcasters covers the doctrine itself, including the section most people need most: when it does not apply.

Audience, and the Numbers That Mislead You

Five posts, four of which argue that the number you are watching is the wrong number.

How can I grow my audience? is the long answer to the question that comes up more than any other.
How do I grow audience engagement? takes on the gap between a healthy download count and anybody actually caring.
The podcasting paradox: why stats are just a sideshow argues that your analytics dashboard is measuring the wrong thing.
I can buy downloads?! explains how bought downloads work, and why they buy you nothing worth having.
Where do I post links to my podcast? on why flinging links over the wall at social media does not work.

Where the List Stops

That is all seventeen, and it is all there will be. RJJ Software no longer provides podcast production, audio services or podcasting training, so nothing new is coming to this list. What that work was, and how it came to an end, is set out in The Podcasting Years.

Which suits it, really. These were the questions podcasters actually asked us, and the answers have not gone stale just because we stopped taking the work.