Check out the top rated podcasts in each podcast directory. They are all very careful about the production of each episode. For example, it took a research team over a year to put all of the content together and organize it to produce just 12 episodes.
How do you prepare yours? View notes for your epic podcast episodes?
The three areas that you should focus on are collection, organization and production.
To create great content for any podcast episode, you need a system for collecting and storing information. Then you need to organize this information into groups that reflect each podcast episode topic you are working on. This will make it easier to keep an overview of your show with sources and references when you are recording your great episode.
Finding content is easy. You just need to know where to look.
collection::
Developing episode ideas is easy when you have systems in place that allow you to capture ideas and information as soon as you find them. The main content gathering tools I use are Zite, Feed.ly, and Flipboard.
Zite
The main source of content for me is Zite. I love this app – it’s well designed and easy to use. It learns what you like over time and soon all you get is top notch content that is tailored just for you. Unfortunately, Zite is no longer updated or supported as it was bought by Flipboard, but it still works and I will keep using it until it breaks.
Feed.ly
My second source of content is Feed.ly. Add all the highest authority blogs in your niche to your Feed.ly account and scan the incoming headlines. You will get great content ideas for your show.
As mentioned earlier, Flipboard acquired my favorite content aggregator app, Zite, about a year ago. Since then, Flipboard has incorporated and improved Zite’s content discovery technology into its app.
I also use Twitter hashtags, Google Alerts, Google+ Communities, Facebook Groups, Linked Groups, and Stumble Upon to come up with ideas for content. There’s no shortage of apps and tools to help you find great content. Just use what works best for you.
organization::
How do we organize all of these ideas and decide which ones to use?
Since you’ll find blog posts and articles throughout the week, you need an easy way to capture them for later. There are many tools you can use to do this. OneNote, Evernote, and Trello are great tools for gathering information. Any of these tools allow you to collaborate with co-hosts and / or production assistants. My preferred tool is OneNote.
Whenever I see a great article on a topic, I cut it with the Chrome extension on OneNote. When I use a mobile app, I send it from the sharing bar. You can also email content to OneNote if you find something, for example, through a newsletter.
In a short amount of time, I can collect a lot of content in my OneNote Undelivered Notes section. The app is organized like a physical notebook. Every notebook you create in OneNote has sections (tabs), and each section has pages. I use my “Missed Notes” section as a content bin.
production::
When I start writing my podcast show notes (or blog post), I create a new page in OneNote. Then I’ll move the content I’ve gathered for this post under this new page as subpages. This helps me keep everything in one place while I work. In OneNote, a page can consist of many fields of content. I can click anywhere on the page and create a new field, then drag it across the page and drop it where I want. I can drag and drop emails, voicemail feedback, and pictures onto the page. I can add tweets, Facebook comments, and screenshots to my show notes. As I write my show notes, I add any feedback I received for the show that I plan to include on this episode.
Once you have your show notes organized the way you like them. Read it through briefly and make sure you have enough material for the length of your show.
Add pictures to view notes::
I like to include everything in my show notes, including the featured image for the podcast blog post and the episode-specific album cover. My favorite tool for creating podcast episode art is Share As Picture. It makes it super easy to create a great looking picture. Simply highlight some text on the website and click on the icon for the image browser extension and the BAM. So you have an image with a text overlay. You can easily customize the text and add a background image or pattern in seconds.
Canva and Pic Monkey are other great tools that you can use to create your album art and your chosen image.
Creating great podcast episode content isn’t always easy, but helpful technologies and tools will save you time and effort in your podcast production workflow!
Andrew McGivern is the voice (and the text) behind it Podcast hero.
As a podcaster, blogger, and social media marketer, Andrew has a strong belief and passion for social media, podcasting, the natural health industry, green energy, and technology.
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