One of the great things about podcasting is that, for a relatively small amount of money and a few hours reading and watching tutorials, even the most technically inept person can learn the basics and get a podcast off the ground. But is it really a good idea to edit your own podcast?
There’s a big difference between simply getting it done and getting it done right.
If you’re a hobbyist podcaster with time to spare and a shoestring budget, do-it-yourself editing is probably sufficient. If, however, you’re a business which requires the podcast reflect well on your brand, or a busy entrepreneur with a million other things to do, you may want to think twice about tackling this task on your own.
What Podcast Editing Actually Does
Without a proper understanding of what podcast editing is, it’s easy to decide to handle it on your own. Even worse, you might decide it’s not needed.
Typical podcast editing tasks include:
- Combining the recording with your intro, outro, ads, music, and/or other elements.
- Reducing noise and/or echo.
- Balancing levels so transitions between various elements and voices are consistent.
- Reducing mistakes, unwanted parts, stumbles, ums, and other filler words.
- Mastering the audio for optimal clarity and a strong, professional quality.
- Exporting the final MP3 version.
- Your editor may even offer additional services such as writing show notes, creating social media audiograms, and uploading the episode for you.
Why You Shouldn’t Edit Your Own Podcast
Unless you’re a hobbyist with no budget and are just podcasting for fun, there are plenty of good reasons why you shouldn’t edit your own podcast.
It’s a Waste of Time
Every good entrepreneur knows the importance of delegating work to qualified people. Podcast editing is a perfect opportunity to do just this. Editing your own podcast is not the best use of your time and keeps you from more important things. These could include creating more great content, growing your business, spending time with family, stopping to smell the roses, and other enjoyable aspects of life!
You Don’t Know What You’re Doing
As the famous saying goes, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” In other words, you may pat yourself on the back for figuring out how to attach your intro to your podcast episode after watching 10 hours of YouTube tutorials. But what about the things you didn’t even realize were important? The recording level which was set too high and caused nasty distortion, the uneven volume levels, the annoying echo. All of which reflect poorly on your brand and discourage listeners from ever coming back.
Just as you would not want medical treatment from a doctor who has not gone to medical school, you should not let your podcast be edited by somebody (in this case, you) who does not understand what they’re doing. A professional podcast editor is passionate about what they do, and will use their expertise to ensure your podcast sounds great.
It Actually Costs More to Edit Your Own Podcast
Many people are surprised to find that working with a professional podcast editor is actually within their budget. Keep in mind if you’re a business owner and podcasting is part of your marketing plan, hiring an editor can be a business expense.
As well, always be thinking about opportunity cost. If $100 to edit your podcast episode sounds expensive, but it took you 6 hours to do it on your own (and it’s not even done well), what else could you have accomplished in those 6 hours? Surely something productive and income-generating! The decision to edit your own podcast clearly becomes a poor one.
How to Start Working With a Podcast Editor
While businesses or outlets with a larger budget generally hire an editor from the get-go, the solopreneur type commonly starts out podcasting with the do-it-yourself strategy just to get off the ground. As the podcast grows and they become more familiar with the process, it becomes more apparent that their time may be better spent on other things. They come to realize how much easier life is when they can simply do the recording and send it to an editor! It’s common for us to hear “wow, I would spend hours trying to edit, become frustrated, and was never completely happy with the result.”
The process of handing-off your podcast to us for editing is fairly painless! We’ll start with a discussion to understand what you’ve been doing and see what type of service is right for you.
Hearing a sample episode will give us an idea of the arrangement, then when you send us the workparts (such as intro, outro, music) we’ll setup a template to use for all episodes going forward. The first edit may need a few tweaks to get things just right, but after that, it’s smooth sailing.
Ready to stop wasting valuable time? Contact East Coast Studio today for a custom quote!