Podcasting tools from @filmlav

Thinking of starting a podcast? Perhaps you already have one but you want to take it to the next level. Regardless, you’re going to need a few helpful tools and services to get you there. The list below is comprised of tools that you’ll want to check out in order to set your podcast apart from the rest.

Audio File Hosting

Whether you’re storing your audio for later use, collaboration, or looking for a service to host and distribute your podcast, here are some of the most popular choices being used by podcasters.

Podcast discovery, listening, hosting, and distribution all in one place.

Upload your audio, music, sound effects, or any other assets you might have to Archive.org to allow others to use your files, and have a free space to store them!

A comprehensive, secure, and compliant data storage system run on the world’s largest global cloud infrastructure.

The web-based platform where talk shows, radio hosts, and podcasters can create live and on-demand shows for distribution on the web.

Blubrry is a subsidiary of RawVoice and has been around for 10 years. The podcasting community and directory has grown rapidly in the last few years. Free website included with hosting.

With a clean UX and helpful content for beginning podcasters, Buzzsprout has helped more than 100,000 people begin their own podcast. Try it free for 90 days of free hosting.

A one-stop podcasting service. It offers recording, editing, mixing, hosting, and publishing. Free one-month trial.

A podcast hosting platform equipped with playback analytics and WordPress integration via a popular plugin. Offers a free 14-day trial.

Dropbox and Dropbox Business are safe spaces to store your large or small digital files and share them. Allows for syncing across all platforms so your files are accessible at any time of the day, from anywhere.

Podcasters can broadcast their episodes live to their audience as they are recording it — even if they edit it later. New listeners can be gained via Facebook Live, streamed from a cell phone or webcam. Upload it to a Facebook page, group, or personal page.

Podcast hosting with a customizable website and your own chosen domain. Designed for podcasters by podcasters.

Save your files online using your own personal Google account, with the first 15GB free, and additional space available at a cost. Store, share, and access your files from any device. The business-leaning Google Drive Enterprise has Google Docs, Sheets, Slides — and works with Microsoft Office.

Instaudio allows users to share audio creations quickly and privately, if desired. Upload MP3, WAV, and OGG files up to 15MB.

Liberated Syndication (libsyn) is the industry standard for podcast hosting. They make distribution to multiple channels (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) very simple and automatic. They also have some sway in the determination of who gets on Spotify. Libsyn plans start at $5 per month.

Free and premium podcast-hosting platform on both web and mobile, offering unlimited bandwidth and storage. Podbean makes it easy to start podcasting with no difficult technology to learn.

A cloud-hosted podcast platform built by podcasters, for podcasters. Free 14-day trial for platform that makes it easy to connect with Twitter, Facebook, Disqus, auto-post to YouTube, and podcast straight from Dropbox.

A one-stop podcast hosting service from Germany. Publish a podcast in less than 5 minutes. Try a free 14-day trial.

Free hosting platform for creators looking to start a podcast. Offers PRO services for those wanting to take it to the next level. No downloads, no learning. Up to 500 MB of storage (up to 6 hours of recording) free. 15 GB bandwidth per month.

An easy one-click podcast publishing service for the independent creator. No upload cap, listener analytics, and a customizable website. SimpleCast is an easy way for podcasters to publish audio to with one click to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. The basic plan is $15 per month.

While not a podcast-specific platform, SoundCloud is used by many podcasters as their hosting service of choice. Share your work with millions, learn which of your tracks fans are listening to most, and interact with them directly. You can also take your studio mobile with the app made for creators.

A complete podcast solution with a wide range of tools. Start a podcast in less than 10 minutes with recording audio apps, analytics, and distribution.

Host, distribute, and get analytics. Transistor stores files, creates your RSS feeds, hosts your website, and distributes episodes. Plans begin at $19 monthly.

Vocaroo bills itself as a premier voice recording service with many common audio formats supported. Allowing a max size of 50MB, a newer and improved version of Vocaroo is being developed.

You’ll need to convert your audio files to a format that will work for YouTube. You can also add images to go along with your audio upload as YouTube is not meant to host audio files exclusively. This does allow for monetization options if you gain 1,000 subscribers and receive more than 4,000 watched hours in the previous 12 months as part of the YouTube Partner Program. Expands your podcast into a different market.

A YouTube channel can compliment your podcast, with live streaming on YouTube. Once you have 1,000 subscribers, podcasting live on YouTube can help grow your following.

Website Hosting

Having a domain and website for your podcast is a great way to turn your 5-minute “here’s where to find us” speech into a single website. When you’re looking for hosting, here’s a quick breakdown of the most popular options.

Incredibly stable and reliable uptimes at breakneck speed (up to 20x faster than the competition).

Offering a number of options and services, they even give discounts to nonprofits and charities! Only $8 monthly for a small shared plan.

The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) focus is clearly on developers. A cloud service that allows you to save a lot of time to boot up and obtain server instances to scale data capacity. You’re only ever charged for space used.

Has its own integrative WordPress plugin for podcasts; Powerpress. All plans include podcast analytics and allow you to go over your limit data cap with no-fault hosting.

Has a few tailored hosting plans for those in need of a WordPress or Woocommerce site. 24/7 support and security is also a great feature.

Award-winning hosting that compensates every hour that you experience downtime with an additional free day of service. Based on user experience, there might be more downtime than desired.

The largest domain registrar that controls 30% of the domain market. Able to register domain names and find affordable website hosting quickly and easily.

Great customer service and reliable, dedicated hosting with many features. A popular choice.

Decent year-long uptime, fast page loading, and plans that provide both a site and domain in one.

Great customer service support options and single login for both account and cPanel.

Extremely inexpensive pricing plans but subpar load times with expensive renewal fees.

No hidden fees and no pricing tricks. Has decent in-page load times and free site relocation but the costs per plan may outweigh the benefits offered.

Actual 30-day free trial for their standard services and test-drive the VPS for only $1. Has a below-average uptime and prices can be a bit misleading.

Fewer features at a more expensive price. What it lacks in features it makes up for in unmatched security, customer service, and user-friendly tutorials.

Easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder. Offers a few free customizable templates with more features available for a monthly premium account.

The go-to option for those who prefer a quick website-building solution without the need to code. Even offers to build the site for you based on specified criteria.

Most-used website builder on the market. Offers backend customization for experts and a multitude of free templates for beginners.

Audio Recording / Editing Programs

When choosing a program to use in order to record and/or edit your podcast, it can get overwhelming. There are free options, cheap options, and of course expensive options. The correct one for you is up to you to decide but, with this in mind, we’ve pulled together frequently-used software tools into a nice list, ready for you to explore these options.

Audio recording from @jonathanvez

Adobe Audition is suite of professional recording and editing tools. Create sound effects, mix sounds and more with exceptional digital audio editing software.

Alitu is a less-known online podcast editor that allows people to clean and combine audio recordings.

Use Ardour to record, edit, and mix on macOS, Windows. It is also arguably the only complete Open Source DAW solution for Linux users.

Free editing software. Available for both Mac or PC, arguably the most commonly used recording/editing software for podcasters.

Record audio from any Mac app. Some podcasters in our interviews said they use Audio Hijack.

The free Sony Audio Recorder app lets users easily record and play audio on a phone or tablet. Record, pause, edit, and avail yourself of the analytics software for statistics.

Clean up your audio without having to spend a fortune on mixing and mastering in post-production.

Designed for use while gaming so there’s minimal impact on your CPU.

Record video and audio calls with your Mac.

Attractive interface that supports 4K. Easily manipulated automation clips but forces instrument tracks to be assigned manually.

Free Mac-based editing software that comes with most Mac computers.

Clean modern interface without unnecessary baggage and clutter. Very focused on radio and podcast content editing.

A free alternative to Auphonic.

Comes with a wide array of instruments and sound effects built-in. Unlike competitors, doesn’t require copy protection.

High-end hardware and support policies are the best in the industry. Has the cleanest audio-editing workflow period, but at a significant cost to your wallet.

Incredibly useful and intuitive for beginner radio editors. Highly compatible with most audio files but lacks a built-in sound library.

Connect with your guest, record your interview, and have a file ready to download in minutes.

The free Internet-based calling program you’ve known and loved for years. Bundle with ECamm to record calls.

Contains powerful tools in its free version, including a drag-and-drop interface and swift workflow for music composition.

Superlative editing capabilities with a large assortment of audio effects and filters. Top-notch voice-recording software.

Decent audio option for those without the time or expertise for professional post production. Lacks built-in editing tools.

A video and audio conferencing tool that can be used to record podcast interviews.

Social Media Management & Marketing

Running a podcast is very time consuming, but keeping up with social media and marketing can be even more so! If you’re looking for someone to take the burden of pay-per-click advertising, SEO, and social media marketing off your shoulders, here are some options that may interest you.

Podcast marketing from @campaign_creators

A full-service, results-driven SMM that provides helpful guidance on posting and analytics. Very proactive company with stellar customer service.

Highly collaborative and efficient. Expect quick turnaround, along with clear and concise communication.

Primarily focused on SEO, aiding online leverage, audience reach, and the bringing in of more qualified leads.

Social sharing on autopilot. Manage all your social media accounts from one dashboard.

Make it easy for guests to share their interview via Twitter.

Bloggers loves it, podcasters should too. Schedule social media posts and messages ahead of time.

Equal parts pay-per-click and social media marketing. Will shift strategies to ensure cost-efficient results. Amazing communication and follow-ups by the team.

Mobile friendly and well optimized. Uses the latest technology for innovation in the field.

Near instant resolution of a reported problem. Incredibly polite and approachable staff.

Recently integrated with Bynder. Decent sized management and analytical tools for free. Necessary extras could become a bit costly.

Consistent results at reasonable prices. Really good at doing exactly what you ask for in social media management from traffic conversion to advertising.

Build a massive content library that never goes away, ever.

Get immediate notifications when someone shares your content on Twitter.

Facebook messenger marketing platform. Allows you to build a messenger chatbot without writing code. It has a free plan to start with.

Automatically converts podcasts to videos and publishes to YouTube.

Marketed toward Instagram. If using this service, expect a large boost to Instagram followers in a short period of time.

Provides invaluable recommendations for clients’ campaigns while respecting what the client has envisioned. They’re both affordable and efficient, making them ideal for small business owners.

If Meet Edgar was an iPhone, Social Oomph would be an Android.

All around superb, low-error, high-quality service. Truly experts in their field.

Capable of increasing organic traffic almost immediately. Team is incredibly responsive, efficient, and competent.

See who follows your favorite influencer and hijack their audience. In a nice way, of course.

Based in Canada, Viral in Nature is one of the top social media agencies in the world. The team adheres to deadlines and will usually produce content early to allow for any needed edits.

Remote Interview Tools

We all know recording in person will give the best audio quality, but sometimes that’s just not possible for one or more members of the conversation. When you need to record remotely, here are some tools to help you get the job done right.

Remote interview tools from @kalvisuals

Decent audio and video quality. Best used for webinars but technical issues may cause disconnects and broken audio during conference calls.

Far superior to Google Talk and basic SMS with a lot of future potential, many people use Google Hangouts for their remote recordings.

Permanent number makes it easy to use from any phone. VoiP can be tricky for quality, so be aware.

Online meeting software with screen share and webcam capabilities. Offers a 14-day trial if interested in giving them a shot!

Is a really good app for interview recordings and archiving conversations.

The free Internet-based calling program you’ve known and loved for years. Bundle with ECamm to record calls.

Record remote interviews, alert guests during morning of your broadcast, and more for $20 monthly.

Lightning-fast video calls with incredibly basic features.

Great quality and a host of features like stickers, emoticons, and audio clips. Best for international calls or those wanting to avoid long-distance fees.

Simplistic VoIP app for Android and iOS devices. Easy to use UI and phone rates can oftentimes be cheaper than standard mobile phone rates.

Encrypted messaging and a large global user base make it so an instant messaging plan is not needed. Video and group call options also possible.

Image Editing/Art

Whether you’re posting to social media, your website, or anywhere else, you may need to edit those photos or create some artwork. Here are some of the best programs and web-based options for getting the job done.

Image editing from @mark_crz

Excellent touch tool makes for sharp and smooth designs. As an Adobe product, you can bet the quality in functionality is there.

The new subscription model can be seen as an inconvenience but this photo-manipulation tool is packed full of exemplary features.

iPhone users can simply click “edit” on a photo in their camera roll to crop, add text, and enhance photos without any additional software.

Ideal content-creation tool for those who may not be so graphically inclined. Has settings to place watermark or logo on your design.

A lot of relatively qualified experts at prices as low as $5 a gig. Stick to those gigs that offer unlimited revisions and edits to ensure you get what you pay for, and don’t forget to read and leave reviews so others can know who the best artists are.

Free, open source image-editing option with a nice assortment of basic and advanced tools. A more novice-friendly alternative to Photoshop.

Open source and still in the works, ImageMagick is not for those who aren’t looking to do some serious tech work to get this up and running.

Features a powerful photo editor and realistic media-painting tools. Resource heavy and can cause the processor to run at a snail’s pace.

Easy to use and learn but may lag a bit when uploading images of a larger size.

Add pictures directly from URLs as well as your desktop. Uses Flash which may make it obsolete once Flash is no longer supported, but the new PIXLR X photo editor provides faster and better editing.

Packed with plenty of color and filter options, Polarr available on all major OS.

Transcription Services

Getting your spoken words typed up may seem like a waste of time at first, but when it comes to SEO it is easily the best money you can spend. Every word you’ve ever spoken on your podcast will become searchable keywords if posted in your descriptions or on your website, and it will give those without the ability to listen to your podcast a chance to share in your amazing creations!

Podcast transcription from @edhoradic

Uses Google Speech to generate transcripts.

Fast and accurate at a good price, using real human transcriptionists.

Currently $1 per minute. Possibly the most accurate transcription service available. Will even refund the service if the transcription is of too poor quality to transcribe. Cost effective and quick.

A cheaper option for transcription if you don’t mind waiting a little longer for completion, starting at $0.10 per minute. More accurate transcription can be had at an additional cost per minute of audio.

Affordable and quick, they have a lot to offer at a very low rate using advanced speech recognition software.

Can translate content from one language to another. Keep content for free using cloud storage on their website. Rates as low as $0.79 per minute.

Has premium pricing for faster delivery, up to 1 day, or fair pricing per minute at 15 days.

Remarkable accuracy and turnaround time at a fair price. As low as $0.69 per minute.

Fairly well-rounded transcription service. Accuracy can be hit or miss but often worth the price of the service, which is as low as $0.80 per minute.

Completely U.S. based company that has done work for some big name companies. Transcriptions for $1.50 per minute.

Complex files tend to be less accurate, leaving it more suitable to simple transcription tasks.

Offering transcription, captions, and subtitles. 99% accuracy guarantee, 5-minute timestamps, speaker identification all included.

Pricing and delivery speed options available, options such as time-coding every 30 seconds, or every speaker change, are available. All first-language English experts.

Using YouTube for your podcast means you can make captions content available to viewers. YouTube has speech recognition technology — and it isn’t always accurate — especially with poor audio quality, but the automatically-created captions cost nothing. Captions for YouTube live-streams are available in English.

Email List-Building Tools

Building a “list” of emails is essential when creating an engaged and interested audience. Here are some helpful companies and tools to set you off on the right foot when it comes to finding that audience.

Easily implemented on any website. Offers email alerts for traffic spikes with valued features available behind a paywall.

A highly-popular plugin that allows you to place opt-in forms on your website.

Commenters who make their first comment can be redirected to any page you choose. On the new page, you could thank them for commenting and ask them to subscribe to your blog, like you on Facebook, whatever you want!

A one-time payment of $21 nets you a nice bargain for content promotion features and email list building. If you can’t find a template you like out of the 100s offered, you can create your own.

Gravity Forms is an easy tool that helps people make advanced forms and integrate with MailChimp and WordPress-powered websites.

Allows you to build a viral contest with a leaderboard and payouts/prizes for those who give referrals, create a product waitlist, and offers social media integration to generate tons of inbound emails and shares.

Only displays customer-volunteered data and relies on third-party plugins for call to action.

Chatbots are the wave of the future and you would do well to integrate them into your marketing plan by letting ManyChat handle messages.

With robust Mobit, the bulk of your text messaging as a marketing tool is handled. Interactive landing pages, InfusionSoft integration.

Offers a statistics page and a large number of integration options.

An all-in-one suite of apps for list building, on-site analytics, social sharing, traffic boosting, communication, and e-commerce.

Affordable solution capture information such as email addresses and names via text messages. Create compelling text marketing campaigns.LEARN MORE

All-in-one lead generation email plugin that fills the gap left by email-marketing services. Attracts subscribers with features such as: popup lightbox, two-step opt-ins, slide-in forms, and notification bars.

Email Marketing Options

Now that you have your “List” of followers, keep them up-to-date on announcements, get them excited about forthcoming guests and topics, and get real-time feedback from listeners. It all starts with these companies.

Email marketing from @neonbrand

This has long been a favorite of content creators who are short on time for a reason. Provides users with detailed marketing options, such as specific responses based on which link was clicked. Automated email sequence launching, segmentation based on their behavior, success tracking, and more.

This marketing program that studies your listener’s habits and tailors to them. Send personalized messages that align perfectly with their interests — no matter if they’re on your website, browsing their inbox, or out-and-about on a mobile device.

Imports contacts from Gmail and Outlook, integrates Google Analytics. Relatively easy-to-use. Can get a little pricey and occasionally exhibits a slow-loading dashboard.

Offers plenty of personalization to your emails but lacks metrics.

If you send fewer than 2,000 emails a month, it’s free to use. Plus, great customer support helps you get everything up and running.

Easy to use, smooth workflow for campaigns. Great tool with third-party integration.

Simple plugin for WordPress that allows you to send beautiful email newsletters right from the dashboard.

Offers distinct customization, personalization, and data on the campaign’s effectiveness.

A lot of autoresponder email options included in the free version. Doesn’t allow contact uploads from third parties.

Pretty generic but offers an unlimited number of emails per month.

Guest Scheduling

We all have busy schedules, especially those running a podcast! Keeping everything in one place and organized is definitely key to making sure that your guest interviews go off without a hitch. There is nothing worse than forgetting you’re having a guest on until it’s too late.

Guest scheduling from @plushdesignstudio

Helpful that one can set up different appointment types, which all have different availabilities. As a busy entrepreneur, this helps one batch meetings more effectively so you have more free time.

Built for sales people to help them schedule and close demos. Integrates with Google Calendar and 365. Customizable and very user-friendly.

Free coaching and training with this appointment scheduling software that’s scalable.

Lets your customers book appointments online.

The all-in-one online scheduling software named Appointy partners with Google to help gain new customers in niches like fitness, education, medicine, and beauty salons.

Get a personalized link so you remain ready to book an appointment. Don’t struggle booking your guests. Analytics backend improves efficiency.

Works well for entrepreneurs with teams consisting of fewer than 10 people. Online scheduling is their core and Artichoke helps small business owners run things faster and easier.

Book meetings right inside of Gmail, without playing meeting tag — no double bookings.

Options for Web, iOS, and Android. BookedIN helps take the stress out of appointment scheduling, with the software geared toward the service industry.

The Sydney-based booking system has a focus on courses and classes, including touring firms and activities for schools and other service providers.

BookSteam is a software used by more than 10,000 business professionals. Easy way to also collect reviews, and immediately book follow-up appointments.

Gmail-focused meeting scheduler that highlights the times you are busy or free. Availability shared easily, group meetings scheduled right inside Gmail.

Schedule podcast interviews without back-and-forth emails with co-hosts and guests. Share calendar availability. Paid and free plans.

Built for salespeople, this appointment scheduler is built into a full product suite meant for closing more deals. Place your availability in your email and schedule meetings simply with one email.

Efficient pool feature lets people pick times for group meetings. Premium option features customized branding.

Save time with this cheaper alternative to Calendly.

Book a greater amount of appointments and keep them, with reminders that help lessen the chance of no-shows. Nice web interface helps batch your appointments.

Go beyond just booking with this software targeting salon owners, spas, barbers, massage therapists, and nail techs.

Plenty of third-party integrations. Starting at $12 per month for service to schedule clients,

receive payments and send reminders.

Google Calendar is highly-intuitive and was designed with beauty. Heavily integrated with many applications and easy to use.

The web-based appointment scheduling software is self-hosted and runs on your site. Service-industry based, HitAppoint means you can keep customer info on your server.

Adds your calendar to the sidebar of your Gmail inbox for quicker scheduling.

Appointment scheduling is their forte, with a focus on wellness. MINDBODY makes marketing and management easier with a leading business management software.

MyTime is like Schedulicity in that it gives service providers what their traveling consumers need: time to book your service. Smoother business automation without losing a human touch.

Supports 30 different dialects in languages. Backend support to schedule efficiently. Handles multiple payment processors for paid appointments.

Like the name implies, you can automate scheduling on auto-pilot. Created for consultants and coaches with booking pages that are highly customizable.

Allows your customers to find the service they desire, book it, and be done. If you are a service provider tied to a location, the tool will help you garner appointments and revenue.

Allows your clients to book themselves 24/7. Has SMS support and if you have a brick-and-mortar location it allows you to recoup costs for missed appointments.

Free appointment scheduler with paid upgrades for more features to automate administrative tasks. The payments platform lets users get paid with Setmore + Square.

Online scheduling software lets customers create appointments with your business for free.

Good API for partners to plug into, and is accompanied by standard features such as payment integration.

Focused on fitness-class scheduling. Comes with a 14-day free trial.

Make your own booking system, garner online reservation scheduling, and sign up for a free account without a credit card.

Benefits include the ability to sync with two-way calendars and export to Excel.

TimeTrade is software with an online appointment scheduling option that was built for marketing, sales, and customer support.

Reduce any time needed for administrative support. Timify has a scheduling widget that can be embedded right in your website. Good for people selling hour-long sessions that necessitate payments via desktop, mobile, or tablet apps.

Schedule appointments, send reminders. Comes with a mobile app to help manage appointments better.

Combined CRM and free appointment booking software that is easy to use. Fast website integration.

CRM solution that handles a full suite of scheduling and other core product offerings.

Group scheduling with a scheduling API and a clean design. All-in-one solution with great set of features, from group meetings to 1-on-1 options.

The HIPAA-compliant option focuses on keeping data secure. Reminders automatically increase the chance of customers showing up. Utilize their mobile app for scheduling on-the-run.

Similar to Acuity Scheduling, this online schedule tool is good for teams. It places customer bookings directly inside your email.

Finding Guests And Following Up

Sometimes it can be difficult to find qualified guests that want to be a part of the podcasting process. Fear not, there are many services out there for you to find exactly who you’re looking for!

Half the battle is finding the right time to record your podcasts with your guests. No more back-and-forth emails between you and your guests with these tools.

Focuses more on B2B brands and entrepreneurs, offering podcast tours to help sell your product or business.

A favorite podcast CRM tool designed for real estate brokers.

Free guest request booking service. Just submit your show and they will find guests for you.

Helps you set up automated email reminders so you never forget to follow up.

Find email addresses with any website URL.

A free customer relationship management tool that’s an alternative to Contactually. Robust and reliable.

Fairly priced packages make this guestbook option rather popular.

Free search directory broken down into categories. Makes finding the perfect podcast guest a breeze.

Offers a full-service podcast guest and promotion service that helps turn listeners into marketable leads.

With LeadFuze, you can enter your work email and get connected to relevant business contacts on LinkedIn without having to search for each person manually in specific roles and industries.

Using just a Google account and Mailshake, you can perfect your email outreach and follow up with these killer templates.

Matches up guests with podcasts that will work best for them and the audience they are looking to reach.

Provides unlimited searches of guests for your own podcasts as well as the option to premiere on other hosted podcasts.

Weekly emails for podcast guest opportunities makes exposure easier. Each email newsletter lists podcasts seeking guests and qualifications needed.

Automate outbound email and follow-ups.

Allows industry leaders and experts to advertise through their emails. Provide free how-to tips and paid media training courses.

The so-called front page of the internet, and always a great place to find guests. Check out the subreddits for podcasters, podcasting, podcasts, or any specific topic you may be interested in talking about.

Graphic Design

Having the perfect logo for your podcast can sometimes be a make-or-break decision. Before potential listeners ever even click on your podcast, they’re looking at that image. You get to decide what that image tells them, but needless to say, whichever artist makes that image a reality is a very important decision. Hopefully this list will make it a bit easier to find the right match for you.

Graphic design from @nordwood

Need to hire a designer? Why not have them compete to earn your business?

Create your own podcast episode art on the fly without hiring a designer.

Unlimited graphic design for a low monthly price. Jump right in a hire without interviewing, etc.

Pay just $5 for some freelance services, or pay a bit more for higher quality, faster turnaround, etc. Not all sellers are verified, so check reviews and don’t be afraid to ask for your money back if the deal falls through. Customer service is very helpful.

Done-for-you design at a fair price.

Get sweet and attractive podcast cover art designed for your show.

A bootstrappers dream. Get everything you need from design to copywriting. Make sure to check the reviews that the freelancer has amassed.

Link Sharing / Shortening

Those iTunes links are massive, especially in a time of character limitations. There are a lot of options on how to shorten those links, so we’ve gone ahead and lined them up with nice descriptions of what makes each one unique. See, shortening things is a GREAT thing!

Link sharing from @youxventures

Link shrinker with advertising revenue in mind. Get paid for every click your link receives.

Browser-based URL shortener that allows for customization of the shortened URL. Get real-time traffic stats absolutely free.

Create shortened URLs that fit Twitter’s 280 character limit.

With Dynamic Links, you can seamlessly transition users from your mobile website to the equivalent content within your app. And because the links survive the app install process, even new users can pick up where they left off on your mobile site without missing a beat.

Browser-based URL compressor that’s as simple as copying and pasting your URL and clicking ‘shorten!’

Hootsuite’s own version of TinyURL is free and measures traffic through counting clicks.

Shortlinks by Pretty Link makes it easy to mask episode URLs, like yourpodcastwebsite.com/episode001.

Brand your URLs with a custom domain name via Chrome extension or direct sign-up.

Create social share links to send in your follow-up emails to guests.

Incredibly useful tool to reduce the clutter that a full URL would create.

Pairs together services such as Wordpress and Facebook, to shorten links and automatically share them.

Audio Clip Creators

Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok… you have a very short amount of time to catch people’s attention. Once you do, they’re bound to stick around for your awesome content, but to really draw them in, try cutting some clips of your best moments using these audio clip creators.

Audio clip from @umadrummer

Create shareable, bite-sized versions of audio.

Audiogram is now Headliner, so see the next section.

Headliner is akin to Wavve, which lets onlines users use the video tool to convert audio files into videos to share on social media. Also has a graphic design feature.

A great way to share your audio and podcast clips and promote them through social media or a website embed.

Get questions from your listeners via voice messages recorded directly to your website, which you can then make a part of your show.

Create social media videos for your audio.

Podcast Project Management Tools

Some podcasts are completely ad-libbed, but oftentimes they have show notes, guests, and even entire storylines! For those looking to keep organized when managing their podcast episodes, or the podcast as a whole, check out these tools.

Podcast project management from @joszczepanska

Available on all devices and offering a plethora of project management features. The free trial makes it easy to give it a test run.

A similar alternative to Basecamp and Trello, Asana is a great way to track, prioritize, and organize tasks. Most features are available in the free version. Also has a 1:1 mobile application.

A great project management tool for organizing your podcast. Also has amazing artwork on their site, showing a woman with her hair on fire, running to solve a problem.

Easy to navigate and comes with a chat-app. Runs rather slow most of the time.

Send screenshots on-the-fly to your team.

Record instructional videos for anything you need to outsource.

UI can be a little crowded and navigation a bit tricky. Still a highly flexible tool and great for team planning and tracking progress.

Ditch email between your editing and content teams. Ain’t nobody got time for that! Chat application with a phone app.

The free Trello helps people collaborate and get a lot done efficiently. Trello has boards, lists, and cards to prioritize projects.

One of the easiest project management platforms to set up. Lacks a few features that other competitors offer.

Web Design

You’ve bought your domain, you’ve chosen your hosting service, but now you don’t know where to go to make your website the most sleek, cutting edge, accessible site around. Well we have some suggestions of popular web design heroes for you to pick from!

Web design from @halgatewood

ClickFunnels serves as both a way to create a website and a sales funnel for entrepreneurs to channel sales through.

Chicago-based website design company, they offer SEO and have a deep archive of past work for you to view. You may just like what you see.

A lot of relatively qualified experts at prices as low as $5 a gig. Stick to those gigs that offer unlimited revisions and edits to ensure you get what you pay for.

Small to medium-sized businesses looking to revamp or build their website could do worse than Junction Creative. They offer content creation, SEO consulting, and social media strategy to drive traffic to your site.

A fast way to get more leads, grab more email addresses from your customers by garnering professional lead magnets without needing design skills.

Leadpages help you gain leads and makes sales with easy-to-build websites, landing pages, and more.

Create the kind of awesome landing pages that are optimized to turn browsers into buyers, along with membership sites.

All you need from start to finish to create your podcast, gain followers, and make money.

All themes are affordable, impressively designed, and integrate with PowerPress.

Build a beautiful website and handle all online needs with this all-in-one solution.

Delivers high-quality results and attentive service at reasonable pricing.

Results far outweigh the cost. The team will listen to feedback and do their best to adjust to meet your needs. More focused on B2C than B2B.

Sound Design / Theme Music

What’s a great podcast without a killer opening theme? Find your way to some new theme music made by professionals. Looking for something simpler, like a toaster popping sound effect? We have those listed here too!

Sound design from @tompottiger

Find stuff like theme music, corporate indents, bumpers and more.

Download and utilize free music; from music to sound effects and everything in between! Pro Tip: Check for the Creative Commons license before using any audio to insure you’re complying with artist intent.

Find voice-over artists as well as those who can fill your music and audio needs.

Those who use iMovie for Mac can avail themselves of a library of sound effects, or use audio from your GarageBand and iTunes libraries.

Trusted by many top podcasters in the industry, Mike and the Music Radio Creative team create great work.

Consists of a team that will help you get a podcast setup without the headache. Allows for focus on creating great content while a team of experts handles the technical stuff.

YouTube offers an array of free music to use for your project, from dramatic themes to ambient.

Podcast Players / WordPress Podcast Plugins

If your podcast isn’t actually ON your website, you’re creating an additional step between a potential listener and your sweet pod. No need to worry though, there are lots of options and plugins to get your hard work in front of your entire audience.

Simple plugin installation and configuration. Podcast player is up and running quickly.

The #1 podcast plugin for WordPress, which helps podcasters take advantage of simple to advanced modes, podcast players, tools to help their listeners subscribe, and more!

Warning: WordPress has a note that the widget hasn’t been tested in the last 3 major WordPress releases. However, it uses the Blubrry PowerPress plugin player, which means it relies on you to have already installed the PowerPress plugin on your WordPress site. Remains one of the best podcast plugins to date.

Responsive support staff handles any issues that pop up relatively quickly. Integrates your Libsyn account inside WordPress almost seamlessly.

Open source plugin that provides a cutting-edge listening experience for your audience.

There’s a 14-day free trial for this tool that helps you broadcast more than one show from the same WordPress website. Build. Monetize. Grow.

A great player that helps you build an audience that can find you and listen in.

Designed as a podcast player for serious podcasters, it was designed by Pat Flynn and his team.

Add icons from social networking sites to your WordPress blog so your readers can easily share your info and podcast and subscribe.

Review Tracking

There are so many different places people can leave reviews. Hundreds of pod-catchers, social media, and potentially some from different countries too! Let’s get them all put into one place with the handy tools listed below.

Review tracking from @isaacmsmith

Boosting positive reviews and filtering out the negative ones has never been easier. Third party restrictions can sometimes make it difficult to answer customers on different platforms.

Fast customer feedback based on user suggestions. Easy access with a simple interface.

Integration with almost every major listing, directory, and social media platform out there. Provides a free training ebook to boost online presence.

Easily send and share your podcast reviews internationally from over 150 countries.

Great for users of iTunes and Stitcher podcast app. Sends listener’s reviews to you, regardless of what country they left them in.

Tracks all reviews related to your podcast on the web and sends them to you for viewing and response.

Allows review tracking on all major platforms in real-time. Provides instant replies to reviews and offers up a 14-day free trial.

Dashboard is easily navigated. Limited historical view options.

Connects business apps and services through automated actions without the need for coding.

Extra Podcasting Tools

Create beautifully stunning emails with design elements that catch more eyeballs in your email campaigns. Campaign Monitor equips users with easy drag-and-drop tools without the need to code.

Do what you love: Talk to your podcast listeners and turn them into lifelong fans. Customized email campaigns, signup forms, A/B split testing and more.

All that podcast creating requires note taking and collaboration. Use Notion to keep all your episode notes online and share them with your entire team in one place.

If something goes wrong with your RSS feed of your podcast, you need to know ASAP. Podbase helps you troubleshoot problems.

Food & Drinks

It’s practical to think of food and drinks as important podcasting tools, because they can be. Although your listeners may not want to hear you gulping a cup of joe or munching on snacks (unless it’s one of those channels focused on eating sounds) it can be important to keep the following refreshments at the ready for the following reasons.

Food & Drink from @heftiba

Water

Keep water for yourself and your in-person guests ready, because all that talking can cause a dry mouth.

Coffee

Some podcasts are known to last for several hours. Keep yourself alert and eschew some yawning by keeping a steady supply of caffeine on hand.

Wine

While alcohol is certainly not necessary to conduct a podcast, plenty of podcast hosts will admit to having an adult beverage — especially during informal talks. A drink or two may help loosen up tongues and make for a more interesting podcast — helping hosts or guests delve deeper into the topics that they wouldn’t normally touch.

Snacks

Rumbling stomachs might not be an attractive sound to come across your audio — and munching on potato chips might not be either. However, if you are conducting a live podcast recording that lasts for hours, it may help you and your guests to have quiet snacks on hand, in order to eliminate the need for dead airtime whilst riffling around for something to eat.

That’s it! All your podcast needs in one handy list!

There may be other options to choose from but we feel that these are the best. Most of the tools and services listed are either free or offer a free trial period and will definitely aid in making your podcast stand out.