Next, you've got to decide what is the format going to be of your podcasts. There's a lot of different ways of structuring a podcast. There are some people who just do a model the whole time. They're giving their insights, their riffs, a little poetry, riff here, and it can be interesting. Other people do that, oh my gosh, I can't stand to listen to this person. There's no one right or wrong format.

You got to figure out what works for you what you like doing what's interesting to you. And at some point, figure out if it resonates with any sort of an audience. So for starters, you've got to figure out are you going to have guests? Are you going to call people have them in studio? Or are you going to have a regular cast of panelists? I mean, it's quite common for, for example, a magazine to simply round up through for their top writers and hash out the events of the current magazine that's that's about to come out.

That's perfectly good format. You can also have guests since he has audio you can call someone anywhere and record it. By the way, there's so many good sources on the technology aspect of podcasts. This course is not going into the technology aspects it's going to go into how do you actually present? Because I do believe that for most people, that's a tougher issue. The commodity is, or excuse me, the technology is a commodity, the ability, the willingness, and the attitude of Yes, I can speak and be interesting and reach people.

That's something a little harder for many people. And that's what this particular course is about. So you've got to make fundamental decisions. Are you going to have new guests every week? Are you going to have regular panelist every week? Is it just going to be you.

Also if you have guests, is the focus going to be on them or on you? So for example, Larry King For as many years as a talk show host, kept the focus on the guest. You really didn't hear larry king's opinions very often. His show was known as a guest focused show. On the other hand, there are some shows that have guests like for example, Bill O'Reilly of the fox news channel, which is the number one rated show on cable news and sometimes all of cable. His show is more of a host focus show.

Yes, there are guests, but people are tuning in, because they want to hear his opinions. And he starts off every show with a lengthy Talking Points Memo. You could have a show like that. And by the way, I'm giving examples from news but you could have a heated heated, controversial commentary on news regarding stamp collecting doesn't have to be about general news. It could be news that affects your hobby or your interest or your sport, whatever it is, you want to talk about. These are all basic forms.

Issues. There's no one perfect format, as I mentioned, but you do need to pick a format I believe, and stick with it. Now you may have different segments within each show. But as long as it's consistent every week or every day, however often you do release your podcast your audience can get comfortable with that they can get used to that. Now, another format is without interviews, and it's just a look at the world through a particular slant. For example, rush limbaugh rush limbaugh rarely has guests, it's just him giving his opinions with occasional halls, you can be a successful podcaster doing that, as well.

So you need to give some thought about it. There are a lot of people in the world who are inquisitive, interesting, well informed, but they would view it as presumptuous to just give their opinions in their own analysis in their own commentary. For more than two minutes, they want and need guests. That's great. Other people are just so interesting in of themselves. They could talk for an hour or certainly a half an hour, once a week, and people would find it riveting.

Now, you could certainly experiment. I mean, that's the beauty of podcasting, you're not hiring a big fancy studio, you don't have to go out and raise $2 million for a TV pilot. You can experiment with different formats. But you got to decide what it is at some point. And then stick to it. So that's your homework right now decide what's the format?

You're gonna have guests. Yes or no? If you are going to have guests, is the focus going to be on the guest or is it going to be on you? Are you gonna have regular panelist or not? Are you going to have co host revolving panel of host? These are all issues you need to decide on.

And once you decide this, it'll help you gain Your voice and figure out what you're going to do. As a part of this, you've also got to decide basic fundamental questions like How long is the podcast going to be? And how frequently the most successful podcasters that I'm aware of typically do a daily show. Because you build that relationship with the audience. You have more air time to promote things sell ads, sponsorships, marketing, you're giving people more content, but it's a huge, huge, huge commitment to do a daily podcast. Don't start it daily as your first podcast I would recommend, at the most starting weekly, get your bearings get a sense that this is right that it's working.

You can always add more. The other thing you need to figure out is roughly what length Do you want the podcast to be? Now the beauty of broadcasting in this medium On the internet on iPhones, audio files anywhere is you're not trying to fit yourself into this narrow little 62nd window or 120 second window, the way you might have had to if you're trying to get a commentary in on am talk radio show. It's not the 60 minute clock where you get two minutes of news, weather and sports and two minutes of traffic. That's the beauty of it. However, I do think you need to have some goal in mind if your podcast is three minutes, one week, and two hours and 27 minutes another week, and then 14 minutes the week after.

I just I think it's hard to get people to take you seriously and to get comfortable with it. And to know how much time they should even allocate to hitting that button to listen to your podcast. So I think you should have something and go now if you decide I want to do a 10 minute podcast That's fine. And if one minute or one week it's nine minutes and two weeks later, it's 14 minutes. That's okay. It's roughly the same length, but this helps you plan.

If you're going to have guests tell them to have them on how many guests you need. If you're doing opening monologue, it gives you a sense of how much material you need to provide. So these are decisions I want you to make right now on your format, the length and the style of your show. give that some thought and write it down on paper or your computer screen. It will bring clarity to this project once you start presenting on your own podcast.