Paroma Chakravarty - Supporting Your Podcast in the Growth Phase

02/02/2022

👉 Hint - It wasn't hiding in the microphone.

17/01/2022

08/12/2021

I love my but it's not magic.

Yet I find more and more buying microphones that are often out of their budget to fix audio issues that they blame on their microphones.

There's some chance that the mic is the problem. There's 100% guarantee that that's not the main reason their recording sounds awful.

I outline 3 causes of audio issues in this post:
* Recording environment
* Recording method
* Mic use technique.

Have you checked all these issues before adding that new to your cart?

06/12/2021

There's room here for creators who need time off, or who are juggling too many things to focus wholly on the podcast.

A platform shouldn't ask the creator to exclusively devote their energy to it. Instead, it should allow the creator to do everything they want and still keep creating at a schedule that works for them.

That's for you.

Generous and somewhat wild!

05/12/2021

I need a medal, please.

#

09/07/2021

Does your podcast sound high quality?

Now, sound is a very subjective matter. What sounds amazing to one person can be too high pitched, too low pitched, too full of breaths, too full of ambient sounds to another.

But we all have a good idea of what makes a podcast sound TERRIBLE.

Loud background noise, reverb (echoes), hosts talking over each other, very loud laughing, barely audible audio, muffled voices, sharp hissing S's...

The list really goes on.

But a good way to ensure that you podcast has none of these issues (or at least almost none) is to make an investment of TIME.

To learn audio editing, sound processing, recording techniques...

Some of your favourite podcasts were born as a hobby for the creators, and they were editing the shows themselves.

Eventually, they could afford to OUTSOURCE the investment of time to a producer-editor and focus on creation.

But until that time came, the show they built was high quality enough to get the attention of a LOT of people.

05/07/2021

Audacity now collects data from its users

The data ranges from your location to the CPU and OS you use, and will be used for development and improvement of the app (which is pretty standard) BUT it'll also be sent to governements in the U.S., Russia, and will be stored in the EEA zone.
MOST troubling thing is, that the data will be made available to third parties who are potential buyers. Which sounds a lot like the same kind of data mining that social media companies do to sell their users to advertisers.
Link to the article: https://fosspost.org/audacity-is-now-a-spyware/?fbclid=IwAR0L-Ms-2elt0M_c24jgVxXZs0n0EFveugTWz6Ivo7NbT7QSZ8EGzwt-ts8w

30/06/2021

We all want a super memorable 💗 theme song 🎧 for our podcast. But it doesn't have to be by Beyonce!
(Also, if you can afford usage rights for a song by her, um, why are you reading my post, Mr Bezos?! 😲)
There are so many AMAZING songs out there that are easy to license and AFFORDABLE! Shop around until you find a track that fits your budget and the tone of your show! You have thousands of choices in every music genre.
And after you've fixed on the perfect music and created your awesome intro and outro, you should go back to making the best show. Cause that's the real reason your listeners come back to you. 🙌

28/06/2021

Promoting your podcast is often the hardest part of the process. You don't want to spam anyone or self-promote where it's not welcome, but then it's also important to get the word about your show out there!
The best way to do this is also the hardest way.
You have to be PART of a community BEFORE you can build a community around yourself.
Don't drop pearls of wisdom from afar. Nobody will hear it fall.
Go into the groups, the feeds, the livestreams, and make your presence FELT.
And then slowly start talking about your podcast, until other members talk about it on their own and do your promotions for you.
Good luck! Happy Podcasting!

24/06/2021

Don't second guess yourself. If you've been creating content that you love, and which has been able to attract even a small, regular audience to it, you're on the right path. 💪

23/06/2021

Do you know who you should be creating your content for?
You spend hours thinking up topics for your episodes, more hours scheduling, recording, editing, publishing. And then, yet more hours promoting your .
Who are you doing this for?
If your answer is, "me!" you're already ahead in the game.
If your answer is, "me and my audience!" you'll be very hard to beat.
Some times, podcasters wonder if they should create a show that appeals to a large number of people, even if they themselves have no interest in the subject.
I don't have to tell you that this is unsustainable.
But even worse is when they self-censor their content or change their direction to appeal to brands.
Brands can drop you tomorrow if your listenership dips, or if you can't create content cause you're out sick for weeks.
Your core audience will still be around. They'll keep you afloat
Create content for your core audience, your true fans, your real supporters.

09/06/2021

Video podcasts are not the death of Audio-only podcasts, and here's why.
They cater to different audiences, different attention spans, and one is more creator-friendly than the other.
Tell me which format you prefer below! I want to know.

08/06/2021

How does having a video podcast help you?
A question I'm seeing a lot on podcasting groups lately is whether there's any point in even having an audio-only podcast these days.
And I strongly feel like that question is misguided. Video podcasting is definitely getting very popular but that doesn't take away the audio podcast audience. Instead it caters to a larger market that wasn't aware of audio podcasts and have never used rss based podcast apps to listen to shows before.
Videos especially on YouTube makes these podcasts very accessible to these folks.
In the next post I'll explain why having an audio-only podcast is not disadvantageous at all.

Follow so you don't miss it. 👋

20/05/2021

Everyone experiences fatigue with their podcasts at some point.

Topic credit goes to , whom I had a very interesting chat with on this subject recently.

Most podcasters I have worked with have faced this at some point over years of creating their show.

The most common way to deal with this fatigue is to take a long break.

But some times that doesn't help. You come back to the same show, with the same issues, and you end up feeling the same grip of boredom.

So, this post is all about figuring out WHY the podcast no longer works for you.

My own podcast () has gone through quite a few avatars, especially in the first two years. And it's running for the 4th year now, because we sat down and spotted the problem.

Once you've isolated the reason, you can makes the changes necessary to make it a show you love again!
everyone!

19/05/2021

Does the success of your podcast get majorly hit if you miss your launch date?

Let's say you fell sick, or had a bad week, or something came up that pushed the pod to the backburner...

Does this mean your podcast is ruined?

Ha. No.

You'd be surprised at how often people look at that all mighty LAUNCH DATE on their calendar and collapse into a ball of anxiety.

What if they miss it? What if everything isn't done by then?

WHAT IF APPLE IS BEING IDIOTIC AND YOUR SHOW HASN'T APPEARED ON THEIR DIRECTORY YET?!

(That last one is happening a lot lately.)

Don't imbue that date with super powers.

If you've been telling everyone about the launch, there'll definitely be people who'll bookmark that date.

Make sure you keep them informed of any delay.

And then keep talking about your podcast so everyone knows it's ABOUT TO RELEASE!

The most important thing is to finally have it out in the world. ♥️

----
everyone! 🤗

06/03/2021

Having second thoughts about your topic? Here's a simple test to find out if you chose the right niche.

There are two components to this test - Your existing knowledge & your capacity to learn more on that topic.

You need 1️⃣ to be any good at talking about the subject right off the bat.

And you need 2️⃣ to keep your podcast content FRESH and your interest STRONG.

08/12/2020

I dearly adore Descript for making 2 hour long podcasts editable through search, but their filler removal drives me up the wall.

18/11/2020

I wanted to talk about the best settings you should use if you're recording your on a remote call - specifically, if you're using .

It took 4 failed attempts to get the live going, and when I did, I forgot to use a source that lets me share my screen.

So, here you get 10 mins of me explaining the two best ways of getting on zoom calls with lots of hand waving to get the points across.
Click these hashtags to find my posts:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULmOrfVtETY

How to record podcast interviews on zoom calls and still get good quality audio.

17/11/2020

I keep telling aspiring podcasters to just get started, so I followed my own advice and got started on my FIRST YouTube Live on
a) a crummy we**am,
b) without a script, and
c) with DOGS barking in the background.

And I loved the whole experience. There is definitely something to be said for diving into an unfamiliar, new thing head-first.

Just from this ONE livestream, I learnt two important things that I'll apply into my future lives:

a) to test my lighting setup before going live (it was depressingly dim) and
b) to buy a new cam (just ordered it on amazon)!

Hope this livestream helps you get started on that podcast you'd been thinking about, but don't feel quite ready to get started on yet:

https://youtu.be/OarOBYXlDxQ

How to Start Podcasting When You're Not Feeling Like it - Paroma discusses the best way to get off your butt and start that podcast. The number one tip all l...

17/10/2020

08/10/2020

PROUD PODCAST PRODUCER MOMENT! 🎉

'Abruptly with Preeti', a podcast created and voiced by and produced/edited by me started charting in the TOP 10 Indian Drama Podcasts on Apple earlier in the week, and is now holding the 2nd spot!

Only TWO WEEKS in! 😮😁

Every episode of this short series of stories about people stuck at home during lockdown has been fun to edit and very entertaining to listen to!

I'm so happy to work with Preeti on this series! 😍

We may have had to discard a few hundred scores to find the right music for each episode, but I think we're both quite proud of the end result.

Congrats, Preeti! You deserve the spot!

05/10/2020

Do you need to buy a mic to ?

You can start with bad audio and then slowly get better, right?

Sure. That's what I did. But I did it 3 years ago when competition was a lot less, and it took two years of podcasting to start getting a loyal, consistent listener base.

Do you want to take the chance that your ideal listeners will find your podcast and then instantly leave cause they can't bear to listen to you?

Get a decent mic and read up on how to get good sound on a low budget on my site 👉 podcastwithparoma.com

30/09/2020

Did a live panel with my co-hosts for .

(I've done a ton of live events in the last six months, but this was the first public one I did as a podcaster. )

✨My co-hosts and I discussed our journey from fans to podcast creators in the .✨

Dave, who hosts made us feel incredibly welcome and comfortable. 🤗

Which I appreciate so much because my co-hosts are very new to this!

Even I felt like it was something completely new cause I'd never spoken about my experience as a before.

is tough cause you question your own voice a lot. So, that's what the panel covered.

🌸 Our decision to create our own space where we didn't have to ask for permission to make people uncomfortable by talking about our experiences. 🌸

So if you're new to the , just keep creating, and if possible, do it with friends who share your vision and respect your perspective even if they don't agree with it.

/End of the longest post ever. ♥️

28/08/2020

can be an awesome space to meet people but occasionally it connects you with some truly strange minds.

19/08/2020

That's my client, friend, and fav podcaster, y'all!

She manages to take care of two dogs, run a business, record her podcast, AND travel across the States while living in that van.

Basically, what you call .

13/08/2020

I spoke in yesterday about the simple changes in recording techniques that can improve audio quality for most podcasts. Here's a link to the entire slide deck for anyone who wants to learn how to start right and avoid issues at source:
https://podcastwithparoma.com/start-right-a-recording-checklist-from-your-podcast-editor/

31/07/2020

28/07/2020

editors, rejoice!

finally has a decent subscription plan breakdown!

Explanation - Anyone who's been trying to use descript on a regular basis to edit their/their client's podcast can tell you how infuriatingly hard it has been to add more transcription hours to your plan when you need to transcribe more audio than your monthly limit allows.

So, I consider this a fantastic move by the company and totally worth celebrating for .

https://www.descript.com/pricing-new

20/07/2020

What's the ONE thing you can do to cut HOURS from your editing workflow every month?

Podcast editors will universally give you one answer:

Set Hotkeys!

This is a quick snapshot of some of my favourite Hotkeys on Audacity - the editing software I use for a majority of my content edits for podcasts!

My Audition Hotkeys look a bit different but they're also ranged to the left of the keyboard.

See how I use all the WASD keys? There's a reason gamers love those keys (when you're right handed). You can go hours without moving your hand and it reduces strain as well as makes you 10x more efficient!

So cut down those extra seconds of reaching for effects to apply by setting Hotkeys!

You're welcome. 🤗

18/07/2020

Ten years back, I started listening to this one where they reviewed romance novels, talked about the tropes, the good, the bad, the things that need to change in the genre...

It was my first experience of podcasts.

Four years ago, I started my own podcast, and a year later, I began editing professionally.

This week that journey came full circle...