10 Free Tools to Start Your Podcast From Scratch

The podcasting world has recently exploded in America with the number of Americans tuning into podcasts doubling from 9% to 17% in January 2015 since 2008. This number definitely suggests that Podcasting is something you should look to bring your business into with a lot of people finding them great to listen to whilst in the car or whilst they do work at home or for whatever reason. But what’s the best way to start up a podcast and what are the best tools out there on the web for you to bring your A-game to the Podcasting world. We’ve decided to compile a list of 10 free tools to start your podcast from scratch. We hope these tools come in handy when jumping into this medium.

Gathering Ideas: Evernote

Evernote is simply the best note-taking platform on the market right now. Not only does it have an application for almost any device you can think of but it offers such a great selection of features that make it the one-stop place to put down your ideas. You can create separate Notebooks to discuss separate topic ideas or multiple Podcasts if that’s your idea. You can then share Notes and Notebooks with others and they can edit them, add to them and more. You can almost implement PDFs, images, draw directly on it with the supported pen and scan items too directly from your smart device’s camera. There’s simply no better service for gathering your ideas.

Coming Up With A Basic Script: WriterDuet

When it comes to writing the script for the show, or even a rough idea of what you want to talk about, it can often be a little difficult to get everyone in the same place to discuss ideas and potential topics. Therefore, something like WriterDuet would work perfectly. WriterDuet allows multiple people to write on the same document at the same time, allowing for formatting and more along the way. It’s a great collaboration tool for a team of writers to work on for the show.

Communicating About Ideas: Slack

Slack is the latest service phenomenon that has threatened a platform we’ve known to be king for years: email. Slack offers you up the ability to chat about as many different topics with as many different people as you’d like from your workplace. It also allows you to attach any sort of file and add in plugins too to support in-line Twitter previews or ToDoist tasks or anything like that. You can set up a workplace for each podcast or have each podcast as a channel or even just have private chats with individual members to discuss ideas. Slack is the place to communicate with your work colleagues these days.

To-Dos For The Podcast: ToDoist

When it comes to discussing a lot of things or getting a few things sorted out when it comes to a podcast, being able to keep a To-Do list that will be on every device you use can be very helpful indeed. It’s even better when you can separate your To-Dos into separate projects for maybe different podcasts or different interviews you may be conducting. It’s even better when you can then tag each To-Do too which tags to help you find out what you have To-Do for certain things. ToDoist can do all this and much more, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Interviewing/Communications: Skype

Despite hot competitions from the likes of Google and Facebook, Skype is still one of the number one leaders when it comes to conference calls, video calls and messaging across as many different available platforms as possible (even your Xbox if you want). Therefore, when it comes to interviews or communicating with a potential client or interviewee, there’s fewer better places to do it than face-to-face or via a voice call via Skype.

Video Calls/Live Conferences: Google Hangouts on Air

When it comes to starting a video conference that anyone can join, there’s no better way to do it than Google Hangouts on Air. It’s simply the best way to start a Video Call that anybody can watch and be a part of. It’s been a great tool for Sports Stars, Celebrities and even the President Of The United States. There’s no doubt that some of the best podcasts are when people involve their community and let them have their say whilst talking and recording a Hangout’s audio and involving community in this is one of the easiest ways to do it.

Basic Audio Post-Editing: Audacity, Garageband

Audio is one of the most important things about a podcast with it majoritively being an audio-only process (obviously these days you have video podcasts too but audio is still important in these.) When it comes to audio-editing Audacity is one of the oldest names in the book and still works brilliantly well to this day, offering up really great basic audio editing for free. It’s design is old but it’s ideas are still fairly fresh. Garageband on the other hand is an application from Apple that was initially intended as a little fun for the family but has soon turned into a major player in audio recording and music-making, perfect for a simple melody or tune or noises during your podcast.

Basic Video Post-Editing: Windows Movie Maker, Wondershare Video Editor

If you’ve created a video podcast which is what a lot of people do these days to allow people to interact with them whilst they record, giving it more a personal feel, then you’ll need a basic video editor to edit the recording down. Obviously during the podcast you can’t really cut out any awkward moments, pauses or such but in post-edit you can get it looking and sounding as professional as you’d like. Windows Movie Maker is still one of the best free options out there when it comes to basic video editing. If you’re on a Mac however then Wondershare Video Editor is cross-platform and works on both Windows AND Mac.