How To Start A Podcast On YouTube

Podcasts are fun to listen to and easy to get information on topics you’re interested in. But, with so many content creators flocking to YouTube, video podcasts have slowly grown in popularity.

By adding a visual element to podcasts, users can now choose to watch their favorite creators speak about the topics they love and feel like they’re part of the conversation.

This is how to start a podcast on YouTube:

1. Find your podcast’s niche 
2. Define your podcast’s audience
3. Build a brand for your podcast
4. Set up your podcast space
5. Set up your podcast equipment
6. Research your podcast topics
7. Choose your podcast format 
8. Record and upload your podcast

8 Steps To Starting a Successful YouTube Podcast

1. Find Your YouTube Podcast’s Niche

When establishing yourself as a content creator, it’s important to find your niche before anything else. Whether you want to be a creator on YouTube, social media, or any other streaming or content-related platform, your niche is what draws your audience in. 

If you don’t already know the term, a niche refers to the type of content you create or specialize in.

Creators who have a well-defined niche usually do much better than those who try to stick their fingers in too many pies. In other words, if you’re trying to cover too many topics or don’t have a specialty, you will struggle to grow your audience.

Your niche can be anything that interests you or is currently popular. For example, indoor gardening and plant-keeping have become incredibly popular among millennials and Gen Z’s.

So, by curating your content to fit the subject of plant-keeping, you’re likely to have a bigger audience.

But when choosing a popular niche, you still need to ensure you have some expertise or interest in the topic.

Podcasts are more focused on what is being said rather than the aesthetic or production value of the video you’re recording. Many podcasts are only available in audio format.

Unlike videos structured around a viewer’s visual experience, podcasts are primarily for subscribers or users to listen to.

So, suppose your content is boring, uninformative, or you have no original content to discuss regarding a specific topic. In that case, listeners probably won’t be tuning in to listen to your podcast. 

Knowing your niche also helps to give your podcast some structure. While podcasts use different foundational structures (we’ll touch on this later), your content still needs direction.

You can think of this as telling a story. If you start at the beginning of a story, jump to the end, and then try to fill in the gaps afterward, it isn’t going to make much sense. 

Similarly, you want a logical flow to your content that can only be understood and utilized to your advantage when you have a good idea of your topic or niche.

2. Define Your YouTube Podcast’s Audience

Having engaging and informative content is only valuable to creators when it involves the audience. 

No matter how much you know about a subject or how charismatic you are, your audience is the ultimate decision-maker on whether your content will flop or launch you into cyber stardom.

Your niche and your audience often go hand-in-hand. After all, your audience will consist of viewers and listeners interested in your particular niche.

Even variety podcasts that have different guests or talk about different topics have a niche. However, depending on the topic, these podcasts will have different ratings for each episode.

For example, if the podcast has a popular guest, it’s more likely that fans of the guest will tune in to listen to or watch the podcast. But, if the topic being covered is very specific, only viewers who enjoy that topic will listen to that podcast episode.

So, when you choose your niche, it’s important to clearly define who your audience will be by looking at what topics you will cover. 

Niches like pop culture will bring in a larger crowd per podcast, but not every topic you cover will be a hit. Therefore, it’s important to be as specific about your niche as possible.

If you’re covering pop culture, try and stick to topics that adhere to a specific theme. You may lose potential listeners and viewers by throwing too wide of a net out into the vast ocean of online content.

A good example of a specific theme in this context would be social media creator news.

It’s also important to keep your podcast audience in mind when you’re planning topics. When you post a podcast on a subject that gets more viewers, you should double down on that content to ensure that your viewers keep coming back.

You can do this by carefully tracking your channel metrics. You can also involve and engage with your audience by asking them what they want you to cover on your podcast.

3. Build A Brand For Your YouTube Podcast 

Before you can start recording your podcast, there’s one final detail to iron out. To become a successful podcaster, you’ll need to build a brand or persona.

The brand you’re creating will build off the foundations of your niche and your audience, so ensure you have a clear outline beforehand.

Your brand is about who you are, your personality, and how you present yourself to viewers. It’s the purpose of your podcast and how you let viewers know what to expect.

Do you say it like it is, or are you fairer with your opinions? Similarly, do you host your podcast on your own, host guests, or have a co-host?

These are important questions to take stock of before starting to market your podcast and your YouTube channel.

So, when you’re building a brand, you need to answer the three W’s:

• What is your niche?
• Who is your audience?
• What is your purpose?

Once you can answer these questions, you need to market your brand to your potential viewers. Set up social media accounts to post snippets of your podcast to reel people in.

And don’t forget to include links on your social media platforms to let viewers know where to find you.

Additionally, posting your podcast on YouTube gives you a much wider audience reach.

But for listeners who prefer to stream an audio-only version of your content, you’ll need to ensure to upload your podcast to other platforms like Spotify and iTunes as well.

Building a brand is about connecting with your audience and relating to them. Your unique tone of voice and take on the subjects you cover are vital in helping you to do this.

Therefore, you can’t skip this step if you’re hoping to make your podcast a success.

4. Set Up Your YouTube Podcast Space

Podcasts generally don’t require any special type of set to record. But, when you want to stream your podcast in both audio and video form on YouTube, you will need more than just a decent microphone.

Firstly, you’ll need to craft a set to decorate a space where you can set your equipment up.

While it’s not always necessary to have tons of décor, placing posters or decorations that line up with your podcast’s niche or theme is a nice touch for viewers who want more entertaining and engaging content.

For example, suppose your podcast is all about the gaming world. In that case, it may be a good idea to have posters for the latest games or game character figurines in your background. To create posters that perfectly fit your theme, you can use customizable poster templates that allow you to add your own text, images, and branding elements.

By sprucing up your podcast space, you can give viewers something to look at while they watch your content. They may become bored watching you sit around and talk if you don’t.

If your podcast doesn’t have a clearly defined niche or you’re a variety show, you can use a green screen as your background and project different imagery onto your screen, depending on the topic you cover in each episode.

You can use your content creator knowledge and imagination to really bring your set to life.

5. Set Up Your YouTube Podcast Equipment

To make a YouTube podcast work, you’ll primarily need audio equipment. This equipment will include microphones, stands (if necessary), and soundproofing equipment if you need to reduce echo and background noise. 

While you can record your podcast using a good camera, the audio quality may not be as good.

And, because podcast viewers primarily focus on what is being said and the sound, investing in high-quality audio equipment is a must.

If you’re starting, the Blue Yeti and Shure SM7B are both excellent mics that produce great sound at an affordable price.

You should also have good audio software for post-processing. This can help to improve your audio and reduce noise, reverb, and anything else that may distract your viewers or warp your sound.

Generally, recording your audio using independent software and equipment is best.

Doing this allows you to lay the audio over your video in editing or upload the audio-only file to other platforms such as Spotify or iTunes.

Because you want to upload your podcasts to YouTube, you’ll also need video recording equipment. A good camera and lighting setup are extremely important for good video quality, so ensure you have the budget and the space for your equipment.

If you don’t have the budget to record videos of your podcasts (yet), you can also use some clever workarounds. 

You can upload the audio track over a picture to YouTube by creating cover art for your podcasts. But be careful.

While some bigger creators can get away with uploading their podcasts this way, smaller channels may lose their viewer’s interest if their content isn’t up to scratch.

The best way to create a successful YouTube podcast is to combine compelling information and fun or exciting visuals for viewers to enjoy.

After all, YouTube is a platform for videos. If your podcast is only available in mp3 format, it may be best to host it on an mp3 streaming or podcast platform instead.

6. Research Your YouTube Podcast Topics

An important aspect of creating any podcast is knowing how to engage your viewers or listeners.

Engagement is the lifeblood of any creator, so if you’re ignoring your audience, you will likely be unable to grow your podcasting channel. 

Podcasts usually fall into three main categories: entertaining, informational, or commentating.

No matter which one your niche falls into, you need to have a good understanding of the subject you’re talking about.

Or, if you don’t need expertise on the subject, you’ll still need to have an interest or passion for your niche. 

Entertaining podcasts may seem like the easiest type to research for. But that assumption is wrong.

Although entertainment covers a wide variety of subjects, there is still much to be learned about how to approach a subject. 

For example, if you cover celebrity gossip or news, you must know how to convey your information respectfully. You can do extra research into the celebrity you’re talking about or link it up to similar stories to keep your content fresh and exciting.

Informational content is a little trickier to research for. Typically, hosts pride themselves on providing their audience with factual information when a podcast is informational. 

But you can’t let your information slip through the cracks. Having good authority on a subject and using accurate and factual information will bring in even more viewers, which will help to grow your channel. 

An example of an informational niche may require expert knowledge or understanding, such as economics or politics.

These niches typically bring in smaller audiences, but if you can prove your authority on a subject, chances are your viewers will subscribe and keep coming back to you as their primary source of information. 

Lastly, commentating content is based on commentary. These podcasts are generally based on opinion rather than fact.

However, your audience will trust your opinion on a subject more if you can prove your expertise, interest, or passion for a subject. 

For example, many podcasters have commentary content expressing their opinions on trending topics. But your audience won’t take you very seriously if you’re trying to explain the latest social media trend when you have no experience with social media.

7. Choose Your YouTube Podcast Format

Research solidifies the base of your content and is extremely important to keep viewers coming back. However, you’ll also need to focus on your structure.

Each type of podcast requires a script to keep it flowing. Otherwise, you’ll be talking in circles without realizing it.

There are two main types of podcast structures, namely scripted and free-form. Scripted podcasts are entirely scripted and lay out everything a host talks about and the order in which they’ll speak about each topic.

Adversely, free-form podcasts allow the host or hosts to talk freely without a set structure. 

But even free-form structured podcasts need direction. Therefore, hosts may not have all of their information laid out in front of them. Instead, they’ll have a bulleted list or ordered points to help them direct the flow of the conversation.

Your format is also influenced by what you want your podcast to be.

Are you a host that interviews guests? In that case, you’ll want to have a question-and-answer format.

Alternatively, you can have an open discussion format with your co-host in which you can share your opinions freely on a specific topic.

Either way, knowing the format of your podcast will help to give it a good structure and make your content seem more professional.

Plus, the more professional your content is, the more your viewers will want to keep listening to it.

8. Record And Upload Your YouTube Podcast 

After you’ve spent time setting up your equipment and fine-tuning the details of your podcast, it’s time for the fun part. 

Recording your YouTube podcast is exciting and can be a good way to connect with a wider audience than if you used an audio-only platform.

But remember, unless you’re using mp3 audio over static cover art, you need to make your video more engaging. And, if you’re uploading your podcast to YouTube, it’s a good idea to include a visual element in your content.

Although it’s fun to talk about the niche or topic that you love, there’s also an entertainment and engagement aspect to a video podcast. You must always keep your audience engaged, even if the topic is super serious.

You can keep your audience engaged by having a visually-appealing background. Still, this alone won’t make them flock to your videos. You may also need to address your audience by looking at the camera and talking to your viewers as if you were having a one-on-one conversation with them (or a group conversation if you have co-hosts or guests).

Your viewers will identify and relate with you more than your content. Even if they’re interested in the topic, you have to sell your brand to them. 

No matter what, you must ensure that you stay true to yourself while recording.

When you’re done, it’s time to upload your YouTube podcast and wait for viewers to enjoy your content. 

After a while, you’ll notice your channel begin to grow as you find and grow your loyal fanbase.

Optimizing your YouTube channel has many different tactics you can follow, but the most important of which is to make your thumbnails standout and to have enticing titles.

For titles and optimization, I recommend TubeBuddy; it’ll help you find the right words that people are looking for.

Final Thoughts On Starting a Podcast On YouTube

There are many moving parts when you’re starting a podcast, but if you take things one step at a time—and use our tips as a guide—you’ll be on your way to being a youtube sensation in no time.

And once you get started, don’t forget to check out our guides for growing your channel and subscriber base so you can achieve even more success with your podcast.