As any podcaster knows, creating a great show requires a lot more than just showing up and recording. Between collaborating, planning and organizing your time, it helps to have access to great tools to help. Here are some favorites among podcasters we know:
Scheduling:
While Google Calendar is great for keeping track of your overall schedule, it can be great to give guests an easy way to sign up for an available recording time. Here are two options podcasters love:
- “I use SetMore for scheduling – It’s free and it integrates with google calendar! It’s awesome to just send guests a link for scheduling and have this tool take care of the rest. – Bryn from The Birth Hour podcast.
- “I use Calendly as my scheduler. It’s so easy to use, and I love the clean interface. I love not having to email back and forth, and being able to set automatic reminders is so helpful.” Heather from the Happiness Mama podcast.
Collaboration:
Even if you’re a one-person show, chances are good you’ll need to collaborate with others at some point, whether that be sponsors or special guests. These options are popular with podcasts we know:
- “I love DropBox for sharing files and making them accessible anywhere.” – Kelsey Wharton, the Girl Next Door Podcast.
- “Initially my co-host and I were were winging it with scheduling content from week to week, but now we look a month out on a shared Google calendar and can build episodes into each week and see what makes the most sense to come next. We also had a meeting to talk about our personal goals and visions for the show and how best to use each other’s strengths, whether that be editing, writing outlines, show notes promotion and social media. We feel this can be such a useful tool for shows with multiple hosts- otherwise you’ll end up tripping over each other trying to do everything at once which makes it more complicated, and less productive.” – Rachel Cassinatt, The Table Chat Show.
Communication:
- Here at Blubrry, we use Slack for almost all internal communications. With an interface that acts like a messaging platform plus the ability to upload files from documents to graphics and great searchability, it’s the best of all worlds for teams that like to communicate quickly on the fly and share short bursts of information throughout the day.
- If a separate messaging platform is overkill for your podcast, you might consider using Google Hangouts as a scaled-back way to communicate with guests and co-hosts without ever leaving your Gmail inbox.