This post is part of a series.
Adding an intro, outtro, and having a ‘sting’ ready will make your podcast much more professional.
1. Understand intro, outtro, and sting
Your intro is a combination of music and talk that introduces your show in general (used at the start of every show) and the specifics of the current show (e.g. “In this episode…”).
A common way to do this is to start with your generic intro (talk over theme music), followed by a fadeout, then talk covering your specific podcast, followed by your stinger.
A stinger is just a short bit of your theme music that you can insert between sections, before or after a commercial or other break.
Finally, you will need some theme music at the end, with some general information about how to find you on the web – facebook page, url, etc.
2. Understand the structure of a podcast
Generally, it looks like this:
a. Intro – general
b. Intro – specific (optional)
c. Stinger (optional)
d. Main audio content
e. Stinger for break (optional)
f. Outtro – specific (optional)
g. Outtro – general
3. Get your theme music
There are plenty of places to get royalty free music online, but for podcasts, I have a couple recommendations.
a. PremiumBeat.com
I got my theme music at PremiumBeat, and you can at least browse their various genres to dream about what you want your music to sound like. Then, you can pony up the $40 or so and voila, you’ve got pro music.
b. Fiverr.com
Fiverr is one of the biggest freelancer sites, and for 5 bucks, you can probably get some killer music and voice-over for your podcast intro and outtro. Fiverr is a great place to get your web site logo too.
4. Write and record your copy for intro and outtro voiceover
For the intro, you need a memorable, one line statement of what your podcast is about – a sort of tagline or vision statement, like:
Welcome to [Site Name]…
- Your source for mobile phone news …
- Informing the atheist community …
- Where faith meets reason …
- Conservative opinions with depth …
For the outtro, you should say something like
Thank you for listening to our podcast. To find out more, visit our web site at [url], or visit our facebook page at facebook.com/[pagename]. And remember, [insert witty reminder of something important related to your subject].
It’ s kinda tacky to use your own voice for intro and outtro, but you could (for now, I do, embarrassingly). Once you’ve gotten your copy written, have a friend record it (preferably with an foreign accent, it somehow gives you respectability), or pay someone at Fiverr.com.
CONCLUSION
Next, we move on to the biggest chunk of work, editing your audio file.