How to Start a Podcast Network

For many podcasters, building a show successful enough to be acquired by a major podcast network is #goals...

But if you're someone who likes to create your own opportunities, there's nothing stopping you from building your own podcast network and connecting with other creators in your space.

So in this episode, we'll explain the decisions you'll need to think through to create a successful podcast network.

Record your podcasting question at Speakpipe.com/Buzzsprout to be featured on a future episode.

Keep podcasting!

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In today's episode, we are going to talk about the things you should know before starting a podcast network. For many people in the podcasting world, building a show successful enough to be invited to join or acquired by a major Podcast Network is goals. But many people are finding that they can create their own opportunities by starting a podcast network themselves. So if you're one of the people that like to create your own opportunities, we are going to talk about how you can do that by starting your own podcast network. Step number one, you're going to want to think about your Why. Why do you want to start a podcast network? And this is really important because it's going to guide everything else that you do. So what are you hoping to offer to people that are joining your network? What are you hoping to offer to your audience, when you pull together this network, ultimately, you want to put together a podcast network that you as a podcaster would really want to join. Consideration number two, you're going to want to define your niche. This is really important because most podcast networks work best when they have something in common. So this could be a common goal, a common topic or even a common demographic that they all are aiming towards. This is also very important because it helps define who fits best versus who may not be the best fit. For example, if you got a Dragonball Z Podcast Network, and someone with a different animal based podcast, like Hunter Hunter approaches, you wanting to join your podcast network, which is about Dragonball Z, they're automatically not a good fit for your podcast network, you have two different topics. So having that niche clearly defined helps you figure out very quickly who will be a good fit. Consideration number three, have a plan, creating a podcast network is very much like creating a business. And so you want to make sure that you have a plan where you get down to the nitty gritty details of how the logistics of this podcast network This can include things such as contracts, marketing, communication, who is going to be in charge of scheduling, who is going to be in charge of production, engineering, all of those parts and pieces of what needs to be done to keep the podcast up and running needs to be assigned to someone. And bear in mind, it can be a lot to tackle these things on the front end, but you don't want it to come back and bite you on the back end, when people are asking questions about how do we communicate? And where's the revenue going? And how do I get out of my contract, you really want to manage these details on the front end, so that you don't have to worry about them on the back end. The next thing you're going to want to think through is your contracts. What will the terms be? How will someone join? What are the expectations of them? How will someone leave? If they want to? What are the consequences for breaking the contract? Who's going to be reading over and making sure that the contract is solid? How much creative freedom will you be giving your podcasters. And one thing you absolutely want to make sure of with your contract is who owns the podcast, the network or the podcaster, you want to be absolutely clear about that with your contracts. Branding, we really want to strike the balance of a cohesive brand identity while still maintaining everybody's diverse voices. And this can be done in a lot of different ways, right, we can maintain brand identity with visual elements. So we can update all the artwork of the podcast to make sure that they share the same style. We can also create logos implement on our cover art, there could be a watermark that could be a sound that plays at the beginning or end of each podcast. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this. But you do want to make sure that you maintain a solid cohesive brand identity. The last consideration when starting a podcast network is monetization. So one of the great advantages of a podcast network is the opportunity to pull bigger sponsors and then generate more revenue. So you want to consider all the pieces of the puzzle when thinking about monetization. The first ads, how ads be chosen, what type of ads we run, are there going to be any non ad based revenue strategies in place? And then considering how will the revenue be handled? Is it going to be one giant pot and that's divvied out equally among all the podcasts? Or will each podcast take most of its revenue with a percentage taken out by the network? Lastly, who's going after the sponsors? So you can definitely assign that role to someone within your podcast network. Or you can hire an ad agency but just know they will be taking a percentage out of what they find for you. But the benefit is they do a lot of the legwork for you so you don't have to starting a podcast network is obviously no small undertaking. There are a lot of moving parts and pieces to be aware of. But there are some really rich rewards if you're willing to put in the work on the back end. Thanks for listening to Podcasting Q&A. If you have a question that you would like us to answer on a future episode of the show, just go to speakpipe.com/Buzzsprout four click the link in the show notes to leave us a brief audio message. Make sure you're subscribed to the Buzzsprout YouTube channel to watch future episodes of Podcasting Q&A are subscribed to the podcast in your favorite podcast listening app. That's it for today. Thanks for listening and as always keep podcasting