Top Mistakes
 

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The Basics​

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Most podcasters are still making basic mistakes.

Even podcasters who have been going for hundreds of episodes are still falling into common pitfalls and their podcast growth is being severely stunted as a result.

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Tiny mistakes can make a huge difference.​

 

Most mistakes are seemingly insignificant parts of the recording process however if they are missed they can be incredibly detrimental to your audio quality or, in some cases, completely write off an entire recording.​

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These mistakes are completely avoidable.​

 

I give all of my podcasters tools such as checklists and guides to make sure common errors are avoided. We will go into these in more detail here.

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What are the common mistakes?​

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Audio Inputs

By far the most common reason that a recording may end up being unusable is that the audio inputs are incorrect. The audio input is your way of telling the computer which device to record from.

 

You can have the fanciest microphone in the world, but if your audio input is set incorrectly then the computer won't use it. Instead you will be recording using the built-in microphone on your computer and your proper microphone will sit there doing absolutely nothing.

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Headphones

 

During remote interviews (recordings over the internet), headphones are absolutely essential for everyone involved in the recording. If the guest doesn't have a pair of headphones then don't simply soldier on - postpone the recording until they do.​

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Without headphones all audio will instead come out of your computer speakers. This audio will in turn be picked up by your microphone and create an echo. At best, this means that your recording software will turn on echo cancelling which wrecks your audio quality. At worst, the recording will be completely unusable due to the echo.

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Rushing Ahead

 

In the heat of the moment it is very tempting to get carried away and dive right into recording the episode. But rushing to start before doing your pre-recording checks is very likely to result in discrepancies in your processes.

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How Can I Improve?

 

Step 1​

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Make sure you know how to change your audio inputs in your recording software and check these before every single recording you do. If in doubt on how to do this, ask me.

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Step 2​

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Make sure you always have headphones ready for your remote interviews. Ensure that any audio from the guest is only ever coming through your headphones and not through your computer speakers.

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Step 3​

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Print out my recording checklist and go through this before every single recording. Also send out my guest checklist to your guests before the interview.​

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Don't Forget...​

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• Even veterans make mistakes!;​

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• Go through my checklists before every recording;

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• Seemingly small mistakes impact the listenability of your podcast massively.