Podcastas

After several million downloads, I started searching around for tips on podcasting equipment to upgrade from my ATR-2100 and GarageBand combination. I wanted podcasting equipment that would last a long time, make the boring tasks easier, and would improve the quality of my recordings. I also wanted to keep my beginner equipment as a backup.

Some of the most important tips on podcasting equipment are to invest in file backup and organization tools, to purchase what you will use often, and to try out different digital audio workstation software to find one that suits your needs.

My Best Tips on Podcasting Equipment

I started with an inexpensive microphone and an old laptop, but I have made some bad choices when it comes to podcasting gear in the beginning. These are the best tips on podcasting equipment I have learned and collected from the internet as a growing podcaster.

• Choose a dynamic microphone over a condenser microphone unless you are working in a professional studio with soundproofing.
  • Dynamic microphones pick up sounds that are close to it, while condenser microphones are extremely sensitive and you will be able to hear the ice cream truck on the next block. I still use the Shure SM58 Dynamic microphone to record. That is what the professionals use for speeches and is the most popular microphone for live performances. I still get excited when I see the same microphone on television.
• USB microphones are an excellent choice for those who are testing the waters in podcasting, but unreliable long-term –not because of the mic itself, but with the connection or computer.
  • To be honest, I still cannot hear the difference between a microphone plugged in with a USB connection versus one with an XLR cable (the standard microphone thick cables), but my USB-connected microphone warped my sound once and I made the switch. I used it all the way through hundreds of thousands of downloads.
• You can do a lot with a budget audio interface.
  • I recently ordered the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen to plug into my computer, but I used my Zoom H6 recorder for a really long time and it worked great. Of course, I have looked at the Rode audio interfaces, but I do not need them just yet.
• Invest in data back up hardware or cloud services as soon as you start treating your podcast as a business.
  • There is nothing worse than looking around for a file that you have to fix and not having it on your computer. I consider it as insurance for my data. I back up my files on an external hard drive and on cloud services. I use a Sandisk External SSD with 500GB of space, and Google Workspace drive space. I also use FreeFileSync software to mirror my podcast files over to my hard drive.
• Comfortable headphones are a must-have if you plan on working long hours on editing yourself.
  • I have a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M30x and those things press against my skull that its straight up painful after about half an hour. I started using the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80 Ohms) and I have to say, they made all the difference.
• Grab a microphone stand that you can use while standing up, or on a stool. You will breathe better and your speaking voice will improve.
  • I used to sit looking down at my script and notes on my computer until I started noticing the sounds of me moving around in my chair. In trying to fix that by standing up, I discovered how much better I sounded by standing up. Give it a try!
• A good shock mount is a worthwhile investment.
  • I use the Knox Gear Shock Mount for my specific microphone and it made my recordings much quieter without all the bumps I had to edit out. For mobile recording with my Shure SM58, I use the little rubber donut shock mount by Shure called the A55M.

Mixers vs No Mixers

For me, at this stage, I am more likely to mess up my sound if I mix it right from the input. I would rather have the option to record my audio as-is out of the microphone and then process it using several tools from my digital audio workstation (DAW).

I use compression, automatic volume leveling, background noise reduction, de-essers, and de-clickers. I hardly think about mastering audio, but that’s because I just cannot tell the difference in sound just yet, but I know I will look back someday and wonder why I did not work on it before. For me, it is just part of the game.

I have tried looking up YouTube videos about sound mixing and editing but I get lost whenever the trainer starts talking about how it sounds too boomy, or tinny, or too much mids and highs. I have no idea what they mean.

So what I did instead was to look up how a sound editor worked on a narration track similar to what I do and tweaked my own tools to match what he did. It surprisingly made a huge difference and it sounds like a professional setup that I hear on NPR (well, to me). Since, I just use the same template and apply the same settings to all my audio.

What to Buy If You’ve Made Your First $1,000 Podcasting

First, go for security. You want to secure your winnings and not mess with your honeypot just yet. Invest in backing up your data, securing your website, and getting budget back up devices in case your electronics fail and you need to meet a sponsor’s deadline.

If you are making recurring revenue, it might be time to start improving your content and quality. The quality of your recordings can be better improved with better software, unless you are recording from a digital recorder or a mobile device. If you are recording with one of those, I would recommend that you invest in a microphone.

Some items that I consider essential as a growing podcaster are:

• The Zoom H6 Recorder as a backup to your audio
• A good solid microphone stand or arm for your desk
• The Shure SM58 microphone, before making the jump to a Shure SM7B
• The Scarlett 2i2 by Focusrite to serve as a device to plug in your headphones and microphone
• A Mogami XLR cable to avoid interference while recording
• The Beyerdynamic 770 Pro (80 ohms) headphones. If you have a big head like me, you will thank me later

Whenever I see the video version of podcasts, like the Joe Rogan Experience, I started wondering why do podcasters use headphones. I got a pair but did not find out why I needed them, I was just following the crowd. I tried podcasting without headphones and I found out why.

Podcasters use headphones to monitor audio, to listen to their guests without causing microphone feedback, and to listen to the files while they are editing.

Wearing headphones while you are recording has been seen from radio to people on live television with those tiny in-ear monitors that let them listen to the sound that is coming through the microphone.

Do I need headphones for podcasting?

Headphones are needed for podcasting, but regular earphones can also be used. Being able to listen to the microphone while you are recording helps prevent major errors that may end up requiring a new recording.

Can you imagine realizing that your microphone has been off the whole time?

For podcasts that have guests, you will see them wearing headphones too and the reason is because when you are listening to your own voice, you are more careful about what the microphone is capturing. For example, some guests tend to distance themselves unintentionally from the microphone without realizing that their voice will not be heard.

If they wear headphones, they become more conscious of not coughing into the microphone, keeping appropriate distance, and not bumping the microphone accidentally. Still, guests are not required to use headphones if someone else is monitoring the audio for them. This person normally reminds the guest to speak into the microphone, or to step back or closer to it.

Another reason to use headphones is that they help reduce echo in recordings as well as in Zoom calls. However, software does have systems in place to reduce echo up to a certain level.

Can you use wireless headphones for podcasting?

You cannot use wireless headphones for podcasting because they cause a delay between the time when you speak versus the time where you hear yourself. Using wireless headphones would make your voice sound delayed to you and will affect your recordings.

What I would recommend you use are any pair of wired earphones or headphones to plug in directly to your interface or recording device. If you have over-the-ear headphones, those will work even better because they will block out some of the exterior sound and let you hear more of what the microphone is capturing.

If people can’t read or watch at the moment, they can listen to a podcast. That’s great for us, but who pays the podcaster? Do podcasts make money?

Podcasts make money through ads, affiliate sales, merchandise, donations, and paid content. Podcast revenue is decentralized, so podcasters manage their own monetization strategies. Ads typically pay between $18-25 USD per thousand downloads.

It’s not just songs, movies, and magazines that play significant parts in today’s entertainment industry anymore. With the advent of the Internet, radio stations and shows became what’s called podcasts.

According to recent statistics , there are over 43 million podcast episodes as of January 2021. Given the high number, it’s almost safe to assume that it’s a booming and profitable industry. However, that doesn’t conclude anything. If you’re interested, let’s take a look at the bigger picture.

How Does Podcast Monetization Work?

While podcast may seem a limited form of entertainment, it still manages to generate revenue. However, unlike videos where you can insert ads, songs where you can charge for royalties, you need to make use of everything to profit from podcasts. What does this mean?

Since a podcast is like a blank canvas, it’s up to you what style, topic, or genre to discuss in your episodes. Similarly, while there are many ways to monetize, deciding what income source to apply or include is up to you. Yes, it’s great that producers aren’t limited or forced to a specific revenue stream; however, this freedom can also become a challenge.

A decentralized or open industry like podcasting means there’s no established or standard rule for monetization. As a result, hosts will have a hard time figuring out the most appropriate, effective, and viable income source. Currently, various ad platforms help podcasts monetize, so it’s best to check them out.

Average Revenue

In ad revenue, podcasters can charge brands per 1,000 listeners, and ad rates average the lowest $18 for 15-second ads and $25 for 60-second ads. Using this estimate, suppose an episode reached 5,000 listeners or downloads, $18 x 5 = $90; you’ll earn a minimum of $90 per episode. Moreover, if you put two ads in an episode, you can double that calculation and gain $180 as a minimum.

Are Podcasts Profitable?

Podcasts are profitable. With only a little setup as a computer, headphones, and microphone, you can earn enough money; furthermore, countless platforms host podcasts like Anchor and many others if you worry about distribution.

As discussed above, you can profit significantly just by advertisements alone. Should you want to learn the other ways to monetize a podcast, please read through the end.

Required Listeners And Listening Time

As discussed above, you need to have at least 1,000 listens or downloads per episode to charge for advertisements. Contrarily, affiliate sales pay per purchase, visit, or sign up of sites, goods, or services. Regardless of the number of listeners, so long as people visit your affiliate links, there’s a chance for monetization. However, more listeners mean more link visitors, so it’s best to remember it.

How Do Podcasts Make Money?

If you’re interested in starting a podcast, it’s great to know that there are many ways to generate revenue. After searching information from the web, I discovered the following monetization methods.

Podcasts make money through:

• Advertisements
• Affiliate sales
• Merchandise
• Donations
• Paid content
• External distribution like through Youtube or Premium RSS feeds

Advertisements

Like other user-based entertainment, podcasters can also earn from advertisements. While you can’t display banner or pop-up ads on audio, producers became creative through the years.

First, hosts can insert a dedicated ad segment during an episode. Typically, it appears either at the start or the end. However, since it’s usually skipped, some put ads in the middle or throughout the show.

Ad segments come in the form of verbal promotions. It’s either announcing a product or by scripted conversations the likes you hear on radio stations. Currently, you can apply from companies’ ad programs or sign up for dedicated ad platforms. Also, there are times when the brand or company directly reaches out to a podcaster to agree to a promotional deal.

Affiliate Sales

Since producers can insert pretty much anything on their podcasts, the rise of affiliate sales as a revenue stream became more popular. Hosts can segway a product in the conversation as a joke or a recommendation. Usually, listeners don’t mind this method as it only takes a few seconds. If you can deliver it naturally, your audience likely wouldn’t care for it to be regular.

For an affiliate promotion to be successful, podcaster will embed the affiliate links in their show notes. If you’re unfamiliar, show notes are the details or descriptions of your podcasts. By doing so, it’s easier for your audience to view and hopefully purchase what you’re advertising.

Affiliate links can be from the likes of Amazon and other related platforms. Besides, many podcasters also give out promo codes during episodes, which links confirmation and benefits the audience.

Merch

Every podcast has a fanbase or avid listeners. What best to provide them than a set of merchandise? That’s right; you can earn from selling merch.

During episodes, you can frequently announce to remind your audience about your merch collection. When you have a social media account for your podcast, you can post it there, so your followers and many others can discover and hopefully turn into buyers.

When you don’t have a shop, you can sell on such platforms as Big Cartel, Bandcamp, and Everpress. Using these services, you can focus on creating items rather than figuring out how to sell them.

Donations

Donations are an excellent but unreliable way to fund your podcast. If you’re providing great content and don’t want to splurge your show with ads, you can be transparent and ask your listeners for donations. You can choose from several platforms such as Patreon, Ko-fi, or Buy Me a Coffee if you consider this option.

Aside from that, you can also run a campaign or crowdfunding where you set a milestone and convince potential backers. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great places to start.

Paid Content

Paid or premium podcasts are also a thing. If you want to produce one, you can upload it to podcast platforms and make money per listens. You can also use the same platforms like Patreon, Ko-fi, Buy Me A Coffee, and Gumroad to sell exclusive or supporter-only episodes while keeping the show entirely free.

Youtube Uploads

YouTube had been one of the popular podcast platforms long before new players in the industry even started. Currently, you can choose to be YouTube exclusive or upload as audio or video simultaneously. This way, you can benefit both from the standard podcast income and YouTube’s excellent monetization schemes.

Who Is The Highest-paid Podcaster?

If you want inspiration, take a look at these figures from the highest-paid podcaster.

The Joe Rogan Experience, an interview and conversation podcast hosted and owned by Joe Rogan, makes approximately $75,000 per episode, $900,000 per month, and $10.8 million annually. In 2020, Spotify signed Joe Rogan a multi-year contract as a Spotify Exclusive Podcaster for a staggering $100 million.

So if you are thinking about starting a podcast. Get started! The monetization options are open for business.

With all this talk about making money from podcasts, I wanted to clear something about the question “does Spotify pay you for podcasts?”

Spotify does not pay you for podcasts. For now, all podcast revenue is generated through the podcast itself by placing ads, sponsorships, merchandise, and selling other products directly to listeners.

Yet we have all heard those ads on there though. What’s up with that?

Well those work for their platform but are not pre-rolls or midrolls automatically inserted into the podcast. I have had my podcast on there for about a year and I have not gotten paid a single cent by them and do not expect to get paid by them.

Unfortunately for listeners, ads cannot be removed even with Spotify Premium because advertisements are baked into the podcast itself or attached right to the download file that Spotify reads and streams to you. It could maybe be removed with some super ad-blocker, but it sounds like a challenge.

Then How Do Podcasters Get Paid?

Podcasters get paid by promoting products and services and selling their own things. Every ad that you hear on a podcast episode was either placed programatically or actually read out loud by the podcaster. For every thousand downloads, the podcaster gets a certain rate. Usually around $18-25 dollars per thousand downloads but the cost depends on the niche, the advertiser, and the podcast itself.

Other ways to earn money as a podcaster are to sell merchandise, premium episodes, memberships, or special access to products and services.

Does iTunes Pay Podcasters?

No, iTunes does not pay podcasters. iTunes and Apple Podcasts only serves as a platform to get podcasts to you. Honestly, I have no idea how they make money on it. Unless they are selling editorial placements or ads somehow directly on their app, I don’t know how they could possibly be making money.

I know that their podcaster’s platform to see your stats and stuff is not the greatest. I don’t understand why they don’t show the amount of downloads like a normal service and instead go for hours listened, number of devices, and all of this other confusing lingo. But they are still the top app that gets you downloads, so I guess they can keep doing what they are doing.

Going through podcasting gear online is one of my guilty pleasures, but I still do podcasting on a budget. So when I get emails about podcasting kit advice, I go straight for the most cost-effective gear that works and will not break on me.

Podcasting on a budget involves choosing a reliable USB dynamic microphone, an affordable sound recorder or computer, and free editing software like Audacity or GarageBand.

I recorded for years with a $89 USB microphone and GarageBand even after cracking the million download mark and joining a podcast network. There is a ton of stuff to learn when you first get started and you will not even hear your own mistakes at first! This is a good thing.

Here’s the thing: you do not need much to get started. If you choose an expensive microphone in the beginning and you still are not familiar with proper microphone technique, your $400 mic is going to make your mouth noises sound even worse. And a “good” sound interface will have so many buttons that you may end up permanently messing up your audio with no way to walk it back and fix your sound in post-production.

A Great-Sounding Budget Podcasting Setup

To start a podcast, you need the following:

• A microphone + cable + mic stand + windscreen
• Computer (or tablet) + editing software
• Hosting service

My setup was made up of an ATR-2100 USB microphone ($89), a pop filter I bought at a swapmeet ($12), and the tiny mic stand and cable that came with the microphone.

For editing I used my 2012 Macbook Pro with GarageBand. The podcast was hosted on Libsyn for $7 per month.

What to Focus On

The workflow that comes with starting a podcast is pretty intense at first. Recording, editing, and looking around for your perfect branding materials makes you really feel the squeeze in the beginning.

Focus on getting your branding right from the start. You will hear that your first episode should be an introduction or an unofficial start to the podcast, but I suggest against this. Many people will keep listening to your first episode even after you have completely forgotten about it. I have done this myself: I listen to an episode that I like, and if I want to listen to all the episodes, I go back to episode one and go from there, so I think it is a good idea to simply dive into normal “episode” content right from the start.

Podcasting with as Little Money as Possible

I downloaded an app called Anchor that is owned by Spotify to host my podcast on and it was free! If I had known about this application when I was starting out, I would have used it. But since I started in 2016, I was a little too early to the party. I hosted my podcast on Libsyn and after I had transferred over my entire podcast over to Anchor, I noticed that it was streamlined to get you to podcast right there through your browser.

It had nice features like being able to add material unavailable to others (things like copyrighted stuff) probably with a deal that Spotify has with other artists. The app took some control of my description settings and I wasn’t able to link to my episode page on my website, so I went back to Libsyn two days after that.

Things to Avoid

When you are first starting out in anything, you want tools that will take you 80% of the way to your goal. When looking for a musical instrument, for example, you want something that won’t go out of tune all the time, easy to play, and to last you a good few years while you get the hang of it. The same goes with everything else, including podcasting.

Many microphones out there are branding themselves as beginner podcaster friendly and those might be a good idea. You will hear about the difference between an XLR and a USB microphone for podcasting, sound quality tests, and fancy audio machines that promise to make you a podcast star, but I think it is a better idea to focus on your show’s material and avoid going after fancy gear.

If you are trying to stay on a budget, choose either between a USB microphone or an XLR microphone/audio interface combination so that you can connect the microphone to your computer or recorder. I use the Zoom H6 Recorder, but I will be getting a Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen by Focusrite as a standalone interface. Going with a USB microphone will knock your initial costs by half since you will not need an audio interface.

Avoid condenser microphones! In podcasting, there are condenser mics and dynamic mics. Choose dynamic microphones when you’re starting out!

Condenser microphones are super sensitive and the conversation your neighbors are having about what to have for dinner will show up on your recordings if you use one. If you choose a dynamic microphone, it will only pick up audio that is nearby or right in front of it.

Lastly, avoid using copyrighted material on your podcast! No copyrighted music, no copyrighted fonts, no copyrighted images. Use material that is your own, even the stuff that you say. Some people think that it is okay to read from a book without noticing the fine print that says that you are not allowed to reproduce the material in the book.

In summary, avoid the following: condenser microphones, flashy gear, and copyrighted material. Those are the big money wasters here.

When to Upgrade Your Podcasting Gear

Once you have found your footing in podcasting, it might be time to start upgrading your material. When you play back your own episodes and your mouth does not make annoying clicking sounds, your volume levels appear under control, and you can see yourself podcasting for a while, it might be time to start upgrading your gear.

My upgrades were subtle, but they made my workflow more reliable and a little faster. Here is what I did:

• From an Audio Technica 2100 microphone to a Shure SM58 microphone
• From a generic XLR cable to a cable with Mogami materials to reduce sound interference
• From plugging the microphone directly to the computer to plugging into a Zoom H6 recorder
• From GarageBand to Hindenburg Journalist software (and learning Adobe Audition)
• From an 8 year-old Macbook Pro 2012 to a Lenovo ThinkPad Extreme laptop

Just like with anything else, gear is getting more affordable! Some people like to go from beginner to beginner/intermediate gear, then to intermediate gear, then to intermediate/professional gear, and then professional gear. But that is not how it should work!

Start with beginner gear and stretch it until you are advanced enough to know what your show is lacking and then you will be able to tell if it is worth the upgrade. In the beginning, we do not even know what we need to improve. Some people out there are doing a lot more with a lot less than you. Get started!