PodSchool Podcast | The hidden costs of podcasting

Hello. Welcome to the show.

Today I'm answering a question from Adam, which is, what are the hidden costs of podcasting and how much should you budget to have a real crack?

That's a tough question to answer specifically in terms of how much to budget. I would encourage you to go to the description of the episode, click the link to my free podcast guide, and download that, because I've got a lot of different recommendations for different microphones and tools and tech that are suited to different budgets. That can help you get set up.

But I've been having a think about some of the things you maybe don't consider when you first get started. There are definitely some things that can creep in because there's quite a lot, if you're going to do this properly, that you can build out both inside and around your show.

So I would say that the initial cost, you can definitely get up and running for pretty cheap. But if you're getting into the stage where you want to upgrade, sometimes you'll buy a microphone, you'll have decided that you want to record in some spot in your house, and then you're like, “Actually, this is really annoying. It's taking up a lot of space.”

Maybe I want to buy a boom arm, which is one of those arms that attaches to a desk. You can pull your microphone down, and you can fold it away. Then all of a sudden you're like, “Hang on a second, that's going to cost me another $200 to get one of those.” And it's that sort of incremental creep, where as you start to get more familiar with this stuff, you can start to go, “Okay, now I know what I'm doing and how this actually works in my life, and here are the things I might want to try and get to improve this experience for me.”

Because the interesting thing about podcasting is it does have to fit into your life in some way.

I wish I had space in my house where I could have a dedicated setup, because one of the most frustrating things for me when I'm recording my podcast is I have to pull everything out and set it up on my dining room table. I don't have anywhere else to put it. And I don't want to have a ring light and all of this crap constantly set up.

So the ring light is up on four books. It's not a pretty setup, but I don't want it out all the time, so I have to pack it down. The pack up and pack down takes a really long time. Ideally, I’d love to have a space. And I've been thinking, “Is there somewhere I can put a tiny house version of a podcasting desk?” That stuff costs money. So those are the kinds of things you start to think about once you're up and running.

But you can get set up very cheaply and just get going. Sometimes that's the best thing to do.

I would flag, however, that the thing you do want to spend money on, ideally, is a podcast host. I know there are a lot of podcast hosts out there that are free. I get it — if you're starting and you just want to go down a free path, that is totally fine. The decision is always up to you.

I would just say that with any free product, you are the product — because you are not paying, they have to be getting value in some way.

There have been situations in the past where free podcast hosts were putting a little link to their stuff in your show notes, even though you didn’t know about it. Or there was one podcaster I spoke to who couldn’t get their audio out of a podcast host to move to another podcast host. And that is a problem.

So you want to make sure that you have read the T’s and C’s. If you’ve been thinking, “Okay, I know I want to go with this podcast host and they’re free, so that’s not going to cost me anything,” just make sure you’ve read the fine print. That might be a small cost you haven’t factored in.

Same thing with editing programs and software. Audacity is a great program. It’s free. A lot of podcasters use it. If that works for you — fantastic. I find it very clunky to use, so I prefer Adobe Audition. That’s what I use and what all the producers in my teams have used.

It's really easy to use, but it does come with a cost. Now, it’s not a massive cost — something like 20 bucks a month — but that can be a cost you didn’t factor in if you jump into something like Audacity and find you don’t like how it works.

So it’s those creepy costs that come in only when you start doing the day-to-day that can trip you up.

Marketing and promotion — you can do a lot of that for free in Canva, but you’re probably going to need a social media scheduling tool. Unless you want to be on all of the platforms doing it live — who has time for that?

And those things cost money.

If you want to run ads, that’s maybe something for down the track. The jury's still out on whether it's super great for podcasting, but it can be good for brand awareness.

But I’d say definitely scheduling your social media is something you want to do if you’re promoting your show regularly. That can really be expensive.

Some of the other things you might not factor in — music and sound effects. You need music for the top and tail of your show. Ideally, you want intro and outro music to make your show feel polished and finished.

That costs money. You can’t just grab any file off the internet. There are some free music sites, but often you can’t find the one you like, so you end up going to a paid site.

Make sure on those free sites you read the T’s and C’s. Are you allowed to use this music ongoing for your podcast? Are you going to have to take it off later?

Same thing with transcription. That will cost you. It’s really good to do, but even if your podcast host offers transcription, often it comes at a higher subscription cost. It might not be a huge amount of money, but it’s something to think about.

The last thing I’ll say is the main hidden cost — time. It takes a lot of time to get a podcast episode out and promoted correctly every single week. And I think this is the thing most people severely underestimate.

It’s the reason a lot of podcasts don’t last — people go, “I can’t keep this up.” It takes a lot of time, and everybody has a different idea of what their time is worth.

For me, the biggest hidden cost is time, because most people don’t realise how much of it podcasting takes. That’s why I always encourage people to practise before they start.

Even if you’re just recording on your phone and editing with free software — do it for timing, not sound quality. How long does it take you to prep, record, edit, and promote an episode?

Actually see how much time it takes so you’re not finding that out after you’ve told everyone your show is coming next week — then you realise, this is way too much.

You don’t want to go dark and have to relaunch. You want to put as much oomph into your launch as possible.

So make sure you know what you're getting into before you get into it.

If you want to get a sense of how to set up a home studio and what you’d need, head to the description of the episode. There’s a link to my free podcasting guide — with different mics for different budgets, podcast hosts, editing software. It’s a great starting point to get set up cheaply.

You can probably get started for under $200, but then there’s all the additional stuff I haven’t even mentioned — like a website. Do you want someone to build it? Or will you use a service like Wix and make it yourself?

All of that adds up. But to get started? You can do it affordably.

Just make sure you factor in your time — because that’s where people trip up.

Thanks so much, Adam. I appreciate your question.

If you have a question, just head to the episode description — there's a link there, as well as info on my online podcasting course, PodSchool, that can help you start your show and give you all the knowledge you need so you’re not jumping in blind.

My goal with the course is to give you best-practice tools so you know exactly what you’re getting into — and whether now is the right time.

Check it out. There’s a waitlist if the course isn’t open. I’ll send you an email when it is.

Thanks for listening. I’ll see you next week.