Podcasting Tutorial - Video 2: My Top 10 Recording Tips Video Lecture | Become an Expert at Podcasting - Career Development

hey what's up with Pat again from smart
passive income this is the second video
in a series of videos I'm creating to
help you get your podcast up and running
in the first video we talked about
things like equipment and software in
this video we're going to be talking
about recording your podcast episodes
more specifically sort of what to put in
your episodes and also tips for
recording and the first tip I want to
give you which is really important while
I have you here in the intro is to
always be consistent with where your
mouth is relative to the mic I even have
this issue sometimes you know during the
recording I'll tend to drift away from
the mic or look away and that's going to
directly reflect in sound quality of
your episode you want to stay consistent
throughout the whole recording for me I
always know to have the tip of my nose
or the tip of my lips touching the pop
filter and that's how I know the sound
quality will be the same throughout the
entire episode it takes some practice
but you'll get used to it and here are
some other tips for you okay so we
already talked about the first tip for
your podcast which is to keep the
distance between your mic and your mouth
the same throughout your entire episode
now let's move on to tip number two tip
number two has to do with sound levels
and you kind of see your sound level
when you're recording you know it's the
green the yellow and the red light or
bars that light up to red depending on
how loud you are there's one basic rule
of thumb here do not go red you do not
want to record in the red because once
you go red you can't go back you're
better off recording in the green and
the yellows than it is to go on the res
because if you're in green and yellow
you know you can bump up the levels in
your software now the basic rule of that
you want to do is you want to try and
get as close to red as possible without
actually getting into it that's how you
get the best sound levels the best
volume and all those sorts of things if
you're using a portable sound recorder
this is a little bit easier to control
but if you're recording it to software
you know run some tests speak naturally
record a couple test run throughs and
see where your meter level runs and you
know adjust accordingly you know just
don't go in the red okay so let's move
on to tip number three which has to do
with the show length you know the length
of your podcast episodes and it's one of
the most common questions I get you know
how long should my podcast episode be
this is actually a pretty common
question for any sort of publishing
platform you know how long should my
book be how long should my videos be my
blog posts blah blah blah you know the
answer to all those questions is as long
as it needs to be that's the simple
answer you know how much time do you
need to get across your message that
you're trying to get across you know
there's no magic number really it all
depends on what kind of content you're
going to produce and your style to you
know there are podcasts out there that
are just three to five minutes long you
may be familiar with them you know the
the quick and dirty tips and those sorts
of series and there are some podcasts
that are longer you know twenty minutes
thirty minutes sometimes a whole hour
long but you know whatever show length
you feel is right for you that's the
right answer you know your audience and
the type of content that you're going to
produce you know whatever that show
length may be the number one tip though
is to stay pretty consistent you don't
want to hit 20 minutes in one episode
and then five minutes the next and then
one hour the next one you know you want
to have a nice rhythm going for you and
also for your listeners so that they
sort of know what to expect and know how
much time - a lot for listening to your
show in the future okay moving on to tip
number four this has to do with your
introduction you know I think intros to
shows are really important and I
definitely recommend including some type
of intro at the top of your show it's
great for branding purposes but you know
there are different ways to approach it
and again just to reiterate this is your
show you can do whatever it is that you
want to do with it you know you have
complete freedom here but here's some
different ways people go about starting
their show now as with any sort of
presentation type stuff whether it's a
blog post podcast video or even live
presentations the number one best thing
you could do at the top or you somewhere
in the beginning is to just tell them
you know simply just tell your listeners
your readers whoever tell them what
they're going to listen to tell them
what it's about
you know it helps them understand what
to expect and also you can
it has it gives them something to look
forward to you know some people actually
include a nice little teaser
specifically to keep people listening
all the way through you know they'll
talk about something at the beginning
that they're going to talk about at the
end it's a great way to keep people
listening throughout the entire
recording which is actually a really
smart thing to do so at the top of your
show somewhere go do a quick overview
and tell your audience what you're going
to tell them and then go ahead and tell
them you know for me I actually start
with this is a smart passive income
podcast with Pat Flynn session number
whatever and then a little bit of intro
music and then I go over maybe a minute
about what I'm going to talk about maybe
who I have on the show as a guest or
anything like that
now when it comes to music you know you
got to be very careful the last thing
you want to do is get in trouble for
using music that you probably shouldn't
have used because you can get a big
trouble if you use music that someone
else owns so you're going to want up
music that's what's called royalty free
you want royalty free music which means
you have the right to use it for
whatever and and there are different
types of it whenever you find
royalty-free music make sure you go over
the terms and conditions and you know
even ask you know support if you are
allowed to use it you know you just want
to be
there's better safe than sorry alright I
got my music actually from
istockphoto.com there's actually a music
section there there's also sound snap
comm and you could do a search on google
for other royalty free music websites
but again just be sure that if you're
using music or any sort of any audio
clips make sure that you have the right
to use it okay now we talked about the
introduction tip number five let's talk
about the outro and I'll keep this short
and sweet
your outro is very important I see a lot
of podcasters missing the ball on this
one you know it's the last thing it's
the last thing that people remember when
they're listening to you so what do you
do you provide a call to action it's a
simple is that don't forget to include a
call to action at the end of your show
keep the engagement going you know
they've listened to you for X number of
minutes and they made it to the end so
your listeners are prime for you to tome
to do something you know subscribe to
your list purchase something leave a
review or subscribe which is helpful for
your rankings and iTunes you'll go to
your website for something
call-to-action you know it's it's so
important in it you know you can keep it
the same for every episode if you want
to but I actually recommend changing it
up every time just so that it's
something different and people who
listen to other episodes you know maybe
they already subscribe to your email
list so you want to give them something
new so that's your outro that's tip
number five alright next let's move on
to tip number six and that is to direct
people from your podcast back to your
blog you want to get people from
listening to your show to physically on
your blog because people can't click on
what they listen to you know they click
on links that are on websites whether
that click is a link to something else
like a product some helpful resource I
don't know but you should do your best
to occasionally during your show remind
people to come back to your website you
should at least do this in your outro
like I just talked about in tip number
five but elsewhere in your show too it's
really smart to remind people to come
back to your website because that's
where all the action happens the best
way to do this is with your show notes
what our show notes that's a list of
links summaries other helpful resources
specifically for that particular episode
that's located on your blog and you know
you're doing your audience a favor when
you have good show notes so because they
don't have to memorize all that stuff
they can just come to your blog they're
good they're going to want to come back
to your blog again where all the action
happens and you're going to give them
all that helpful stuff the links that
you mentioned the resources everything
that you talked about you know your show
notes could also include summaries maybe
a transcript maybe something free that
you give away to your listeners to
entice them to come back to your blog
those are all great ways to get people
to come back again that's your show
notes to do this specifically I mean you
could tell people to come your website
you know hey come to
smartpassiveincome.com and visit the
podcast section in the navigation menu
to get the show notes for this episode
but you know if you wanted to be fancy
you know that that requires a few steps
you know if you wanted to be direct with
people you know you could do a redirect
if you have a wordpress blog this is
actually really easy I use a plug-in
called pretty oops
pretty I caught myself there pretty link
and it's one of my favorite plugins
because it allows me to take any link no
matter how long and ugly that link
and turn it into something pretty you
know much easier to remember so with my
show notes you know on my blog the euro
out the URL might be long and nasty like
you know smartpassiveincome.com slash
SPI 0 0 1 - introduction - podcast or
something like that well if I mention
that particular URL in the show it's
gonna be really hard for people to
remember but using pretty link I can set
it up so that when people go to
smartpassiveincome.com slash session 1 I
can have it so that pretty link makes it
so when people go to that they go they
get redirected to the long URL and my
show notes you know super easy and I've
sort of trained my listeners over time
to know that that's how they get the
show notes that's an easy way for them
to come to my site you know
smartpassiveincome.com slash session 46
right super easy and of course make sure
and this goes without saying you know
that when you direct people back to your
blog or your show notes that you have
you leave a good first impression you do
something to get them to come back for
more you collect their email addresses
and get get them to subscribe again the
blog is where all the clicking action
happens so you know really do your best
to direct people from your podcast back
to your blog as much as you can okay so
let's move on to tip number seven which
is breaking up your show into different
segments and this is especially for you
if you are going to produce a longer
show show that's you know more than 45
minutes you know 45 minutes to an hour
and a half long which is okay
but if you're gonna do that you know
think about reading a book and if a book
didn't have any chapters at all it's
just one huge chunk of text I mean that
would suck to read and you know the
reason there's chapters in you know
paragraphs and breaking points and
things like that is to give readers room
to breathe you know give some space to
just reset a little bit you know and and
you would need that in a longer type of
show one of my favorite shows internet
business mastery shout out to Jeremy and
Jason if you're listening to this they
currently have I think 169 episodes and
you know there are many reasons why I
was hooked on their show but one thing I
loved about it was they broke up their
relatively long show into different
segments so they first started with
their intro where they just introduced
you know what the show was about the
episode number and things like that
then they did a little personal piece
where Jeremy and Jason would
chat for a little bit and then they
would go into the feature segment and
then at the end they would go into a tip
or a resource of the the day or the week
or something like that
and then between each of these
particular segments they'd have music to
kind of denote the new section which is
really smart and it really kept me
listening for more and it was something
that I could expect in the next episodes
as well so if you're going to be
producing a longer type of episode think
about breaking your episode into
different chunks to keep listeners
listening and to just give us room to
breathe a little bit okay so moving on
to tip number eight and that is minimize
the fluff and what is fluff exactly you
know that's it's the extra stuff that
people talk about that don't really have
anything to do with anything you know
that's not going to be very helpful
that's just a waste of time really and
fluff specifically is going to be
different for every specific audience
but you know you got to think about it
from your listeners point of view you
know what do they want to listen to yeah
they want to listen to stuff that's
going to help them of course so you want
to get to your content you know the the
feature and the meat of your content as
soon as possible you know what's going
to help them but I think personal stuff
is also you know pretty important you
know you want to include personal stuff
because that's what people can connect
to and that's why you know sterling in
Jay included at the beginning of their
show like I just talked about in tip
number seven that's why I include a lot
of personal stuff in my shows well I
talk about my kids my family some
hobbies and things like to do because
that's what's going to help me connect
on a deeper level with my audience than
just the content that I produce you know
a lot of people come up to me in
conferences and they meet me and they
talk about the different stories that I
tell and personal stuff before they talk
about any of the tips that I give you
know that the personal stuff and the
stories that's what people can remember
that's what people connect me with
sometimes and I think that's really
important but too much you don't want
too much of it you can easily do too
much of it but you don't you just want
just enough and and for me that's one or
two little personal things at the
beginning of a show or maybe during the
middle of it that doesn't necessarily
have to do with the content or business
or whatever your shows about but you
know it has to do with building
relationship with people so you know
just you don't use common sense don't
don't talk too much it I've listened to
shows before where the first 10 minutes
is
about something that I have absolutely
no care for and I stopped listening you
know maybe their content was awesome
later in the show but you know they just
talk too much and I just stopped
listening so just be aware ok next tip
number 9 second-to-last don't edit too
much you know when you're producing your
shows it can be really easy to edit too
much to hear all the different mistakes
that you make and you're gonna make
mistakes when you record but it's you
know it's really easy to notice them all
because you're the one recording them
and then all go in there and try to
correct everything you know try to slice
and dice and splice everything don't do
that you know it's a waste of time
and the more you rely on editing the
less you're going to actually improve as
a person behind the microphone and trust
me if you just force yourself to do it
without editing too much you know you're
going to edit your interviews in you're
gonna edit your intros and jingles and
things like that and yeah they're going
to be a couple clear mistakes that you
make in the middle of your recording
that you can edit and slice and dice but
you know don't get too crazy with it you
know I become such a better speaker
behind the microphone because I just
force myself to not edit my shows and
rely on just simply improving this craft
of speaking and it will happen over time
you know if you go back to my first
episode it sucks I don't like listening
to it
I mean even if you go back to my first
videos I I dare you to because they're
just terrible I cannot listen to them
without cringing but over time I've got
much better and it's because I don't
edit too much in my shows it's just it
just improved me so much so that's tip
number nine and tip number ten the last
tip here is just have fun you know
podcasting is super fun like I'm like
the no other time in history are we able
to produce a show from the comfort of
our own home or even on the road where
millions of people can listen to it and
listen to you and it's just so amazing
and it's such a wonderful time and you
can just you know the more you have fun
with it the more your audience is going
to have fun with it and be in tune with
you and enjoy your show and you know ye
you know once you start producing plenty
of shows you're gonna reach a point
where you're just not having fun anymore
I mean I've reached that point every
podcast where I've talked to you has
reached that point where they just say I
got a record another episode but just
you know when you get into that mood
just
about when you first started and think
about the possibilities because
podcasting opens up you know so many
doors it has for me and just remember
why you're doing it in the first place
and just have fun with it you know
seriously you know and if you find out
you're getting bored with it add
something new you know try something
different and that's really all I have
so that's tip number ten those are ten
tips for you today to help improve your
podcast while you record and so in the
next video video number three we're
going to talk about exporting your show
you know after you record your show
exporting it and then editing your tags
your id3 tags so that you know all the
audio players can read that information
correctly alright I'll see you the next
video thanks