Most podcast checklists tell you what to do and leave out what it costs and how long it takes. That is the information you need to decide whether to start, so it is in every step below.
Twenty two steps in six phases, from the decision through the first month after launch. Work down it in order. The phases matter more than the individual items, because the most common way a launch fails is doing phase three before phase one.
How this checklist was put together
The most thorough guide currently ranking runs to about 6,800 words across fifteen steps, and it is genuinely good. The gaps in it and in the others: none gives prices, none says which steps can be skipped, and none covers what happens in the month after launch, which is when most shows quietly stop. Every tool named below was loaded in a browser in August 2026 to confirm it still exists. Hardware prices are approximate and move around, so treat them as a budget guide rather than a quote.
Phase 1: Decide what the show is
1. Write down why you are doing this
One sentence. Audience building, lead generation, access to interesting people, or enjoyment. All four are legitimate and they lead to different shows, and a podcast without an answer here tends to stop around episode eight.
2. Pick the topic narrow enough to sustain 50 episodes
The test is simple: list twenty five episode titles right now. If you cannot get past ten, the topic is too narrow or too vague, and the fix is usually to make it more specific rather than broader.
3. Choose the format
Solo, interview, co-hosted or narrative. Interview shows are the easiest to sustain because guests bring the content, and the hardest to launch because you need bookings. Solo shows are the reverse. Narrative shows are ten times the editing work and should not be a first show.
4. Set the length and cadence
Twenty to forty minutes, weekly or fortnightly, is the sustainable default. Choose the cadence you can hold in a bad month rather than a good one. Fortnightly forever beats weekly for six weeks.
5. Name it
Something searchable, spellable and not already in use. Check the podcast directories and the trademark register, then buy the domain and claim the social handles the same day.
Phase 2: Brand and set up
6. Make the cover art
3000 by 3000 pixels, readable at the size of a thumbnail, which is how everyone will actually see it. Test it by shrinking it to 55 pixels square and checking whether the title is still legible.
Cost: free if you make it yourself in a design tool, roughly 50 to 300 if you commission it.
7. Write the show description
150 words that say who the show is for and what they get. This is indexed by the directories and it is the main thing a browsing listener reads, so write it for a stranger rather than for yourself.
8. Record the intro and outro
Fifteen seconds each, maximum. Long intros are the most common reason people abandon a first episode. Say what the show is and get on with it.
9. Set up a simple page for the show
One page on a site you control, with the episodes, the description and a way to subscribe. Directories can change their rules, and a page you own is the only durable home for the show.
Phase 3: Get the gear
10. Buy a microphone
The one purchase worth spending on, because audio quality is the single thing listeners will not forgive.
| Budget | Typical option | Roughly | Good enough for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | Dynamic USB mic such as the Samson Q2U or Audio-Technica ATR2100x | 70 to 110 | Everything, honestly |
| Middle | USB or XLR condenser or dynamic with an interface | 200 to 400 | Multi-person in-room recording |
| High | Broadcast dynamic such as the Shure SM7B plus interface | 600 to 900 | Studios and full-time shows |
The entry tier is not a compromise. A dynamic USB microphone in an untreated room sounds better than an expensive condenser in the same room, because condensers pick up everything else too.
11. Add headphones and quiet
Closed-back headphones from around 30, so you hear problems while recording rather than afterwards. Then treat the room, which costs nothing: record in the smallest carpeted room you have, with soft things around you, away from a window. This does more for your sound than any upgrade in the table.
Phase 4: Record and edit
12. Choose the recording setup
For solo recording, record locally into whatever editor you use. For remote interviews, use a tool that records each participant locally and uploads afterwards, because internet quality otherwise becomes audio quality.
Riverside is the common choice for remote recording. Others do the same job; the feature that matters is local recording per participant.
13. Choose an editor
Audacity is free, capable and ugly, and thousands of shows are edited in it. Descript edits audio by editing a transcript, which is much faster for cutting filler, and costs a monthly fee. Either is fine, and switching later is easy.
14. Record three episodes before you launch
Not one. Three, for two reasons: you need a buffer for the week something goes wrong, and your third episode will be noticeably better than your first, which tells you whether the format works before anyone hears it.
Budget two to four hours per episode all in, including prep, recording and editing, for the first ten. It drops to about half that once the workflow settles.
Phase 5: Host and distribute
15. Pick a hosting platform
Podcast hosting stores the audio and generates the feed that every directory reads. This is not optional and it is not the same as your website.
Buzzsprout has a free tier with limits and is the usual starting point. Transistor suits people planning more than one show. Spotify for Creators is free and pushes you toward one platform's ecosystem, which is a trade worth understanding before you take it.
Cost: free to around 20 a month for most new shows.
16. Submit to the directories
Apple Podcasts and Spotify first, because between them they account for most listening. Then the rest: YouTube, Amazon, Pocket Casts, Overcast and the aggregators.
Submission is a form and a wait, usually a few days for approval. Do it two weeks before your launch date, because approval delays are the classic reason a launch date slips.
17. Check the feed before you announce anything
Play the episode in the actual apps, not in your hosting dashboard. Check the artwork appears, the description is intact, and the audio plays to the end. Feed problems are invisible until someone hits play.
Phase 6: Launch and the month after
18. Launch with three episodes at once
A single episode gives a new listener nothing to binge and no signal that the show is real. Three published on day one is the standard advice because it works.
19. Tell people individually
The launch tactic with the highest return is the least scalable one: message the fifty people who would genuinely want this, individually, and ask them to listen to one episode. That beats any broadcast announcement for a show with no audience.
20. Ask for ratings in the episode
Once, briefly, near the start rather than the end, because most listeners do not reach the end. Early ratings matter disproportionately for directory visibility.
21. Turn each episode into a written page
The step almost every checklist omits, and the one that compounds. Audio does not appear in search results. A page per episode with the questions as headings and the transcript below does, and it picks up long tail searches the audio never could.
This is the only part of a podcast that Distribb touches: it researches, writes and publishes written pages on your site, so if you want each episode to exist as something searchable, that is the job it does. It has nothing to do with recording, editing or hosting, and it will not turn your audio into an article by itself. Our guides on how to host a podcast and the steps to make a podcast cover the production side properly.
22. Decide your review point now
Pick a number of episodes, usually ten or twelve, and decide in advance what you will look at: downloads per episode, whether you enjoyed making it, and whether it produced anything the show was meant to produce. Deciding this before you start prevents both quitting in week three and continuing out of guilt for two years.
What you can skip
Four things new podcasters spend money and weeks on that do not affect whether the show works.
A studio. A quiet small room with soft furnishings is enough. Rooms are treated for free.
Custom music. Royalty free is fine. Nobody has ever subscribed because of the theme music.
A mixer. A USB microphone removes the need for one until you are recording three people in a room.
A launch trailer. They were briefly fashionable and they are usually a week spent on something almost nobody plays. Publish a real episode instead.
What it actually costs to start
| Item | Minimum | Comfortable |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | 70 | 350 |
| Headphones | 30 | 120 |
| Recording and editing software | 0 | 15 a month |
| Hosting | 0 | 20 a month |
| Cover art | 0 | 150 |
| Total to launch | Around 100 | Around 650 |
The gap between those two columns changes the audio quality far less than people expect. The gap between recording in a quiet room and a live one changes it a great deal.
Frequently asked questions
How long before a podcast gets an audience? Most shows are small for the first year, and growth comes from being findable and consistent rather than from a launch spike. If your goal needs an audience within three months, a podcast is the wrong instrument.
Do I need video? Not to start. Video roughly doubles the production work and opens a real distribution channel on YouTube, so it is worth adding once the audio show is stable rather than at launch.
How many episodes before I know if it is working? Ten to twelve. Fewer than that and you are still measuring your own learning curve rather than the show.
Is a transcript worth the time? Yes, and mostly not for accessibility reasons, though those matter. It is the only version of your episode that search engines and AI assistants can read.
What is the most common mistake? Buying gear before deciding on the show. Every step in phase one costs nothing and determines whether the rest is worth doing.
Start with phase one this week
The first five steps take an evening and no money, and they decide whether the other seventeen are worth the effort. Write the sentence, list twenty five episode titles, pick the format and the cadence, and name the thing.
Then, when episodes start going out, give each one a written home on a site you own. That is the part that keeps working long after an episode drops out of the new releases list, and it is where Distribb can take the writing and publishing off your hands. If lead generation is the reason you are starting a show, our breakdown of what lead generation actually costs is a useful comparison before you commit the hours.