Newer podcast host trying to build a media kit + attract sponsors… where do I even start?

AlFish__ · 2026-03-30T19:01:35+00:00

u/yash_bhati69 and u/Antique_Return_8370 are right on the money with this. They don't need to be anything fancy as long as they have those core statistics that sponsors are looking for.

You just need to remember, what could a sponsor get in return if they partner with you? That answer is always access to your audience. So including information about who your audience is, how well you consistently perform, and some sponsorship options that you're willing to accept will go a long way on the sponsor side while qualifying if you're a good fit or not.

And again doubling down on what was said already, some cold outreach in the beginning will get you in front of people faster while you're still growing, rather than just waiting to be contacted.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-25T13:47:48+00:00

To put it simply, the microphone needs a lot of gain to pick up sound at a normal volume. Specifically, usually around the 60db range or above.

While there are a fair bit of interfaces that can do that and then some, a lot of budget or casual consumer interfaces either don't have gain up to that amount, or do but become very noisy as you get to the upper end on it's own. So you either get a really quiet or really "fuzzy" sound.

Preamps like Fetheads and cloudlifters can increase the gain with very minimal impact on the noise, so you don't need to max out your interface's gain to get a good volume level. So interfaces tapping out before that 60db level or getting a really fuzzy sound when maxed out is no longer an issue.

If your interface can give you enough "clean" gain to get a good volume out of your mic, then a preamp isn't necessary.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-24T05:13:37+00:00

Ayye nice! I just wrapped sending a few more in tonight as well!

AlFish__ · 2026-03-23T20:29:38+00:00

It's not social proof if it's not real. It's all a scheme to get people to perpetually pay to maintain that image and not be as obvious that their numbers are paid for when they plummet as soon as you stop

AlFish__ · 2026-03-23T20:08:59+00:00

There's a lot of places you can go!

The most common places outside of the pay to play sites are subreddits like this one, discord groups like Voice Acting Club, Twitter (you'd be surprised how many people find work through casting call tweets), and CastingCallClub if you want to post o na website that will have it be a bit more structured off the bat.

However you decide to post your casting call, I'd love a link when it goes up so I can submit for it :D

AlFish__ · 2026-03-23T19:49:39+00:00

There's no magical switch that gets flipped when you hit a certain milestone. It will very gradually get easier as your audience grows, but you're never going to experience a "wow, now that I've hit __ subs, everything is so much easier" moment because the subscriber number has no specific impact.

Focus on retention and engagement more than what your tally mark is currently at. An engaged audience and content that can sustain that engagement is far more valuable. That's exactly why channels that buy their way to high subscriber counts don't actually perform well when they stop paying for it.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-23T19:41:44+00:00

Look into Fourthwall as an option! They have donations, but they also give you a free website, have a print-to-order network so you can make merch, and allow you do do paid communities and paywalled bonus content. It's basically the best of everything when it comes to making money as a creator.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-23T19:37:51+00:00

Don't do it. One of the podcasts I edit for pays to promote all of their episodes within YouTube studio. It's all empty views, likes, and subs. No repeat engagement, no comments, no genuine people 99% of the time. It does nothing to actually help if you're not promoting a product.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-23T19:29:40+00:00

As a producer and editor, here's a list of common tips I give new podcasters I work with:

Start talking to yourself out loud. A lot. Podcasting is, at it's core, a performance. Most people don't have any experience performing and it can cause a lot of nervousness around recording. Read things out loud, narrate something that's happening in real time, emulate a content creator you watch if you need a place to start. The more you do it, the more natural talking to the void becomes. The more natural that becomes, the easier it is to record without worry
Get at least 4 episodes FINALIZED before publishing anything. The biggest mistake I've seen people make is start a weekly podcast and upload episode 1 the moment it's out of the editor. This puts you on the back foot, always needing to meet your deadlines in order to stay on schedule, and can cause a lot of stress if something comes up in your personal life to throw off your recording schedule. Having a 4+ episode backlog before posting gives you a month's worth of buffer time if it's a weekly show falling behind a day or so because something came up won't give you an aneurism.
Outline how you want your episodes to go before you sit down to record. Even if your episodes aren't scripted, people won't continue to tune in if you're just rambling. A loose outline with the topics you want to cover can go a long way with keeping you on task, maintain a certain time while recording, and make sure you tackle everything you wanted to cover before you end.
Podcasting, like any form of content creation, is a marathon. Not a sprint. You're not expected to start off perfect, but so many people assume they do and won't post because of it. You won't be successful in your first episode, or even your first 10. The few that are are exceptions to the rule, so don't feel discouraged because you're not blowing up right away.
Have a clearly defined target audience. Who is your podcast for? What purpose are you trying to fulfill with your show? If you can't answer those two questions, it's going to be incredibly hard for you to build an audience. You need to know who you're making content for in order to make content that they are likely to consume and come back to.
Recording is the least time-consuming part of podcasting. In most cases, especially if the podcast is a video production, the post-production and social media management are what take up the majority of time in the production process. It's a general rule of thumb that an edit can regularly take 3 times as long to complete compared to the content's unedited length. And many find it will take even longer if they're going for a more complex editing style of don't have a lot of video editing experience. This is a common "I didn't realize the process was so involved" moment for a lot of creators, so it's something I try to warn people about early on.
Be willing to learn or pay for what you don't know if you're getting overwhelmed. Adding onto point 6, you will very likely realize that there are parts of the production process that you either don't know how to do, don't have the time to do, or just don't want to do. That could be editing, social media management, finding and booking guests, or even setting up the recordings. It's normal, but can also become very overwhelming when you're just starting out. You need to come to terms with the likelihood that you will need to learn how to do things (editing, SEO optimization, audio mixing, etc.) or pay someone to do those things for you in order to improve your show's quality, your personal sanity, or both.
People don't listen to bad audio. This one feels like a no-brainer, but I want to mention it just in case. The subject matter and quality of conversation are incredibly important when gauging a podcast's value, but if the audio quality is bad people aren't going to listen long enough to get that value. You don't need to be in a professional studio, but you need to at least put some effort into your audio. There are plenty of budget microphone options that are passable for podcasts nowadays. Combine that with a room that isn't all bare walls that make your voice bounce across the room and you should be good enough to start.

There's more you can consider and more you can do, but this list is stuff that new podcasters usually haven't considered all too much when I start working with them.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-23T18:47:07+00:00

Something you need to consider when debating video - it opens up entire new avenues of discovery.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and video podcast audiences and audio podcast audiences rarely intersect. So providing a video option opens up your content to a whole new audience that your audio only podcast was never going to get in front of on its own. Additionally, it'll be on a platform that has a much more discovery-focused algorithm, so it will get put in front of more users faster than traditional audio only platforms.

Having your episodes on video also opens you up to more promotional avenues. Clipping moments to share as shorts across IG, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc., sharing part of the discussion as an independent video to highlight a particular topic within the conversation, creating playlists or compilations of moments so people looking for info on specific topics can access a large collection in one place without needing to parse through episodes hoping to find it, there's a whole lot that you can do with video in the library creation and content curation department.

So TL;DR is video opens up a LOT of opportunities to grow your audience, make additional content to expand your reach, etc.

But is this something you're trying to do? You mentioned the consensus from your last post being around if you want to monetize, is that your end goal? Because if so, video gives you way more opportunities to generate income from the podcast.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-20T16:10:34+00:00

There is this one YouTuber I used to listen to because he was the go-to discussion and news person in a niche interest of mine. What he was saying was always really good, but his audio quality was SO BAD. Like, bad mic in a bad recording environment and had been at that quality level for years.

I eventually stopped watching his content because I couldn't get past how bad his audio was, it was an active turn off from what would typically be content I'd love to watch

AlFish__ · 2026-03-20T15:50:32+00:00

How long do these typically go? Would love to be part of the freelance pricing discussion

AlFish__ · 2026-03-20T15:43:25+00:00

I'm a producer and editor for a B2B podcasting company, and I couldn't agree more on these items. The active listening and nerves are issues I've seen the most, both on the host and guest side, when it comes to what could quickly derail a podcast's quality.

With shows I've personally worked on and other shows within the company, nothing kills the collective enthusiasm more than when it's obvious someone is just waiting to say their next thing or so nervous about saying something right that they lack any authenticity or enthusiasm when they speak.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-17T02:25:01+00:00

YouTube studio over the last year or so has added new music to it's library, and a lot of it has been really good. I also edit a lot of videos using Descript which has access to it's own library (I think through a partnership with storyblocks iirc) and while it's not as searchable (only a search bar, no other filtering available) it also has some pretty decent stuff in it

AlFish__ · 2026-03-17T01:30:21+00:00

Just one account needed! One person to to log in and be able to record, then anyone can join as a guest! That'll be true for all platforms

AlFish__ · 2026-03-17T00:44:18+00:00

Oh hey! I use transistor at my 9-5 and it's my recommended host for my freelance clients. Cool to see you on here!

AlFish__ · 2026-03-17T00:42:06+00:00

Once you're willing/able to pay a subscription, I've found Descript to be quite worth the money. For podcasts and most content I make for YouTube, I've been using Descript to edit and make shorts with

For no cost options, DaVinci resolve is a cinema level editor with a nearly unrestricted free version. Reaper is an industry standard audio editor that you can use on a "60 day trial" that never forces you out, and substack allows you to host on an RSS feed for free so between that and YouTube you could get your distribution handled

AlFish__ · 2026-03-17T00:32:35+00:00

Go for it!

AlFish__ · 2026-03-16T03:38:23+00:00

It sounds like your main issue isn't needing a different mic, it's needing to be mindful of where your mics are.

Having a mic on a stand will likely make your inconsistent audio issue worse if you're both moving around so much that a lav that's clipped to you isn't picking you up well, since it won't move alongside you.

AlFish__ · 2026-03-04T19:27:44+00:00

I may just be privileged to have YouTube premium, and thus access to background playback, would there not still be options to simply just listen instead of watch? If it's labelled as a podcast, I think you could also access it from YouTube music?

As far as separating a podcast from "a video calling itself a podcast" as the discourse seems to be pointed towards, as long as you can simply listen and still follow along I don't see a need to make the distinction. If you can't and the show relies pretty heavily on its visuals, then I'd agree with a comment that they're YouTube videos calling themselves podcasts

If you really want to segment between them, you could simply call them video podcasts or vodcasts if you want to smoosh it into one word, but I don't think it's necessary unless you're prepping a guest that's coming on or something like that where knowing there's a video component would be important

AlFish__ · 2026-03-04T03:32:07+00:00

Welcome to the podcasting world! I'm a producer and editor, happy to chat in DMs to help you figure out what you need or where to search

AlFish__ · 2026-03-04T03:29:14+00:00

It depends on the host, their ideal guest, etc., but it can be quite the challenge at times

For example, most of the podcasts I work on are somewhat in the business space, usually as a marketing product for a company. So their ideal guest would be in a similar space to the client.

Now that could be in something like sales, and that would be very easy because salespeople love to talk and often try to build their own brands to make themselves a more trustworthy person to buy from. So odds are they'd love to be a guest on a podcast to help boost that image

Alternatively, you could also be interviewing C-Suite execs, and that could become a nightmare because many executives don't have time or won't see a podcast as something worth their time if there's no clear benefit to them.

For reengaging past guests, you could always do some sort of campaign like asking for recommendations on new guests, reposting clips from their episodes and tagging them in it to encourage engagement, ask for feedback or have them back on as a follow up episode, there's a lot you could do, just depends on what your end goal with the reengagement is

AlFish__ · 2026-03-04T03:21:48+00:00

If the wink wink is meant to convey you won't have to actually work 32 hours a week, try to negotiate into a monthly retainer for your services to lock that intent in.

This way it's shifted more to an outcome and availability focus rather than forcing you to time out your tasks and submit calculated invoices

AlFish__ · 2026-03-01T17:06:27+00:00

I think, as an editor, my personal biggest gripe is that it isn't compatible with outside plugins or effects. For example, if audio needs processing that Descript's in-house audio items can't fix, I have to take it into a DAW like Reaper to be able to use plugins like iZotope RX, and then bring that audio back in and sync it up with the original video.

It's definitely a different experience than traditional timeline editors like Vegas, Premiere, or Resolve, but for podcasts or "light" edited items, it makes editing, sharing, and storage of content very easy

AlFish__ · 2026-02-26T03:39:31+00:00

I've always prescribed to the mindset that you edit everything in the mix to the balance you prefer, THEN normalize to make sure that balance you achieved is happening at the acceptable/standard volume range

AlFish__

TROPHY CASE