9 Common Podcasting Mistakes (& How to Avoid Them)

Making a podcast is simple. Making a good podcast, however, requires more skill and preparation.

Here’s a map to the traps that many podcasters tend to fall into. You’ll learn how to avoid these common podcasting mistakes – plus what to do instead to improve your podcast. 

1. Recording Before You’re Ready to Be Heard

When you first start podcasting, it’s easy to get excited and jump in too quickly.

I’ve heard people say they want to make a podcast because they “enjoy talking”. Some people will spend a lot of money on podcasting gear before they’ve thought about why they want to make a podcast. Others will hit record and talk for twenty minutes before they know who they’re talking to. 

Before you jump in two feet first, try to plan out the why, what, and who of your show. When you know your podcast’s purpose and what its unique benefit is for the audience, the audience knows what to expect. When your show satisfies the audience’s expectations, they’re more likely to come back for more and share your show with friends. Excitement is hard to sustain, and podcasting without a plan to support your effort is tiring. 

Proverbial wisdom tells us that “when you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail”. However, with a bit of self-awareness and forward thinking, you can create a podcast that motivates your audience to come back for more. You’ll see how that works in the next few sections.

2. Not Listening to Your Own Podcast 

If you don’t regularly listen to recent episodes of your own podcast, you won’t know what your audience experiences when listening to your show. 

Sure, you will ‘hear’ the show during the editing phase, but you won’t hear the conversation, which is different than just mouth sounds or editing mishaps.   

I’d recommend setting a standing reminder on your calendar to download an episode from the previous month of your podcast and listen to it whilst out on a walk or on your commute. 

You’ll be amazed at the things you notice when you get this “fresh ears” perspective on your show. This can be anything from annoying crutch words you need to quash to the fact that you’re never really listening to a guest’s answer and always jump ahead to the next question without picking up on an opportunity for a good follow-up angle.

3. Expecting Perfection, Quickly

Another common podcasting mistake is expecting your podcast to be perfect from the start. Perfectionism can prevent you from ever hitting publish and moving on to the next episode.

Before you start recording your episodes, take the time to familiarize yourself with the software. Let yourself play with recording and editing. Experiment with your mic technique. Make an episode zero. Play is what helps us enjoy learning how to do something new, and is an important part of the creation process.

Once you’ve gained confidence, level up and start recording the audio you want to publish. Then, you won’t be dismayed if something happens, like a power outage or a mean review. You’ll shift gears and try something different, or keep pushing through.

Your podcast doesn’t have to be perfect. What’s “pretty good” to you could be “just right” to your audience.

4. Not Having A Specific Topic

It’s amazing how many podcasts launch without a clear topic. When your show name suggests it could be about absolutely anything, it makes it a lot harder to convince anyone to listen or to come back for more.

Katie asked podcasters what the biggest threat to podcasting is, and many mentioned “raw, unedited, rambling conversation,” or a lack of “passion for a topic to motivate you to do the work.”

But, when your show has a clear purpose, and when each episode has a clear hook or thesis, that gives the audience something to hold onto.  Katie also asked podcasters about the biggest opportunity in podcasting, and Jeremy Enns of Podcast Marketing Academy said, “more indie creators need to be thinking… about the show level, the concept, the premise.”

No matter how spontaneous a podcast episode sounds, the pros have a script. That “script” could be anything from a list of bullet points to a 10,000-word screed. When you plan out episode topics and talking points ahead of time, you can sound great even when you don’t feel inspired.

Nailing down a podcast topic is something you’d ideally do in the planning stages, but if you’ve launched and your “what’s it about?” still seems a little fluffy, it’s never too late to pivot and find your niche.

5. Not Knowing Your Audience

Many podcasters, especially when they’re first starting, don’t know who their ideal audience is. They want as many people as possible to listen, so they say their podcast is for “everyone.” But this approach can dilute your content and make it for “no one”.

When you make your podcast for a specific audience, they’re more likely to keep listening and share it with their friends. They know “this podcast is for people like me.” Knowing your audience’s demographics, values, and opinions can also help you build a meaningful relationship with them.

It’s one thing to make a podcast about pro ice hockey, and another to make a podcast like Ladies Talkin’ Leafs. Not only do the hosts enjoy discussing the Toronto Maple Leafs, but their show also challenges the stigma and “gives a voice to the growing number of female hockey fans.” 

You can get to know your listeners better by running an audience survey or asking questions they can answer with a voice memo. Pay attention to what they tell you, and how they say it.

Take the extra time and make the effort to get to know who’s listening and why. Then, tailor your content accordingly.

6. Poor Mic Technique

Take time to practice good mic technique. Record yourself at different distances and with different settings until you find your Goldilocks zone (not too far, not too close, but just right). I’ve seen many podcasters get so close to the mic that it looks like they’re about to announce their engagement. When the mic is that close to your mouth, it sounds like a threatening phone call. 

Know your microphone’s polar pattern. I talked into the wrong side of a Blue Yeti for a year until I figured it out. Mouth clicks and noises, too, are a repellent rookie mistake. 

At the opposite extreme, I’ve seen ads for microphones featuring photos of people sitting in rooms with high ceilings and hard surfaces. If you can’t take reverb seriously, the audience can’t take your podcast seriously. 

The saying “practice makes perfect” is overused; better to remember that practice prevents sounding awful.

7. Aggressive Sales Tactics

No matter how frugal you are, podcasting still requires electricity. Expenses have to be paid, and monetization allows podcasters to keep podcasting.

But a common mistake in podcasting is allowing monetization to have too much control over your podcast. 

A study by Ad Results Media examined how many ads are optimal, or make listeners stop paying attention. Two is the maximum number of ads in a row that most listeners will tolerate, the study reported. It also found that ads that don’t match the audience or the content are irritating. 

Host-read ads outperform dynamic ads because they build on trust. But some podcast hosts slip sales talk into conversation, whether it’s appropriate or not. Exploiting the trust your audience invests is a big turnoff. 

Allowing a monetization scheme to take too big a portion of your episodes is a common mistake in podcasting. When your monetization scheme prevents your audience from getting value from your show, it undermines trust and distracts the audience from your podcast’s message.

In contrast, when your monetization matches what your audience needs and wants, both you and your audience benefit.

8. Long-Winded, Rambling Intros 

When podcast hosts start the show talking about what they did last weekend or the latest episode of a favorite TV show, this puts an obstacle between me and what I came to hear.

Some podcast hosts believe this humanizes them and makes them more approachable. But it’s a common podcasting mistake to have too long a warm-up before getting into the topic at hand. In short, please get to the point. 

Katie compared the intros of the top 20 podcasts, and her findings favor brevity and clarity. If you must have an opening chitchat, use chapter markers in your show notes. That way, I know I can skip the deep dive into a 2015 episode of Downton Abbey.

9. Vague Episode Titles and Descriptions 

Often, when I read descriptions of newly-launched podcasts, I find myself like Brad Pitt in the climax of the movie Seven. I feel like I’m standing alone in a desert, screaming, “What’s in the box?”

Poetically vague episode titles and descriptions are common podcasting mistakes.  Another is to tell me who made the podcast and how successful they are, rather than focusing on the content of the episode.

When your title and episode description tell listeners what to expect in the episode, not only will the right audience for your podcast press play, but they can also share your podcast with their friends more easily.

Tell me what the episode is going to cover, who’s talking, why, and what the big questions are. These steps give me just enough specificity to pique my interest.

We All Make Mistakes. This Is How We Learn.

Whenever you try something new, it’s impossible to get it right on the first try. Hopefully, this guide can help you learn from others’ common podcasting mistakes so you can avoid making them yourself.

Even the best podcasters slip on the ice once in a while. What matters is that they get up and keep walking, watching for the safe places to step. 

On the odd occasion when you don’t quite get something right, see it as an opportunity for learning and growth. You’ll always come through stronger and wiser on the other side. 

Want to launch a podcast your audience will actually care about? The Podcraft Academy gives you the tools, lessons, and guidance to do it right from day one. Mistakes will happen, but we help you avoid the ones that waste money, time, and motivation.