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If you're a website designer who's been thinking about starting a podcast

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as a way to advance your credibility and your

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marketing, then you have come to the right place. This is not

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enough just to think I'm going to do it as part of my

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marketing plan. I will just rattle off whatever occurs to me

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at the time. As a website designer who has done

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exactly that audio is not Created

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Equal and been podcasting for nearly two years

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now, I have everything in this episode that I am going to walk

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you through how to do it and what to expect from it.

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Don't just use zoom and think, oh, I'll crib from this.

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Hi, I'm Holly Christie. I'm from Websites Made Simple. I

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am a website designer and a website designer's mentor.

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I also mentor developers and I am here to help you

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have an absolute, absolutely amazing career in

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website design. So let's get started.

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The very first thing when setting up a podcast, actually, before you

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even set up, is thinking about the strategy.

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And trust me, it is not enough just to think

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I'm going to do it as part of my marketing plan. I will just

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rattle off whatever occurs to me at the time, put it out in the world

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and everyone's going to love it. Trust me, as someone who tried that, it

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doesn't work. So before you get started,

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before you think about it, get working with

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a podcast producer. Whether you decide to go for

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the whole shebang, or whether you decide just to get some strategy and

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advice, I really advise it as money well spent.

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And when looking at the strategy you want to look at, who is

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it for? What do your listeners want to

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hear, and what are the long or short term goals of your

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podcast. So starting with who it's

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for. If you're working in the web design space, it could be

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that you're looking to share website knowledge. It could be

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design knowledge, it could be technical knowledge, it could

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be that you want people to work on the strategy

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of their websites. I know a few website designers who have moved into that recently.

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Whatever it is, get really clear on what it is

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you're going to be putting out there because that's going to shape what you name

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the podcast and the episodes. It's going to shape the content that's there as well.

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And it's ultimately going to inform you of who your

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ideal listener is and how best you can work with them.

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And I think this stage, as I say, I would absolutely

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recommend you work with a podcast consultant producer on this

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because a lot of the time we are too close to our own

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businesses. And it can be really hard

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between knowing what we think our listeners

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want or our audience want and actually knowing

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what listeners do want. Because podcasting is a really

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different medium to chucking up a post on

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LinkedIn or Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or wherever you are. And

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it's very different to blogging on your own website as well. So really do

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get clear, make that the number one thing you do.

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And then the second thing you need to look at is production and who

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is going to produce it. And I think that we can

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often think, well, because we're techies who work in a techie space.

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We've got this, you know, we know how to use the software. We could be

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using the recording software anyway. And off we

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go with it. Record the podcast and off we go. Audio

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is not created equal. And something that you really need to bear

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in mind with this as well is that lots of your listeners are going to

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be listening with no visuals. You can do video podcasts as well. This one

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goes out as a video as well as audio, but we still focus

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wholly on the audio because a lot of listeners are listening

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when they don't have visuals, so they don't have a frame of

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reference. All they know is how good the

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quality of the recording sounds. So

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you really need to think what's going to make your audio stand out.

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And here is where I would really recommend that you get a

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podcast producer. And if you don't know any podcast

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producers, I am more than happy to introduce you to mine, who is Neil

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Valeo from Podnose Podcasting. He took my

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podcast from a homemade not doing very well affairs

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to something that I'm really proud to put out in the world and something that

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sounds great. And you're listening to this, so you probably think he's doing a great

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job as well. And I will ask him who writes my show notes

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to put his contact information in the show notes.

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So the next thing is tech. Just like with websites

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where we have our websites have to be hosted. The podcasts

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need to be hosted as well. And there are a few different podcast

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hosting platforms out there. I'm not going to tell

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you which ones to use and which ones I use.

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If you particularly want to know, you can get in touch@hello,

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websitesmadesimple.co.uk but I don't really want to influence you. Use the

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tech that works for you. But just bear in mind that you will have to

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have it hosted. There will be a hosting fee. Please do not just go

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with the Spotify creators hosting thing. I have heard all

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sorts of people have all sorts of issues with it. Do use a proper host

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and with recording as well, you'll also need the recording

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software. And again, I'm not going to tell you which ones to use, but what

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I will tell you is don't just use Zoom and think, oh, I'll

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crib from this, particularly if you are releasing it

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yourself. And you can go out there and find some

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podcasts where people have recorded over Zoom and you can really, really hear the

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difference. And it's not good, especially when it's an

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audio only one as well. So when it comes to

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recording the main thing, the main advice that Neil always gives me

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is get to the point. Your recording should

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have a beginning, a middle and an end. And you also

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want to encourage your listeners to engage with it in some

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way. And that could be asking them to write in and

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asking their opinion on something. It could be that you're looking

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at giving them a download and say you want to share the address through for

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the download. But make sure your podcast is concise.

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This is not a place where you just want to have a long

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ramble of thoughts or tell stories that are happening to

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you. By all means, tell the story, but make sure that they have a real

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relevance to what it is you're putting out there because

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listeners will drop off as well. So you can have the

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this many listeners downloaded the episode, but what you're really looking

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for is for people to spend stay all the way through the episode

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in the same way that with websites, we're looking to have a really

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low bounce rate on a website and we put a lot of work into making

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sure that that's the case. Well, you need to do that with your

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podcast as well. You need to make sure that listeners are not bouncing.

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So make it really easy for them to stay engaged and

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do that by being concise.

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Advertising. Now this isn't strictly

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in the production side of it, but I think it's a really important part because

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as a web designer I often get people saying to me, I'm going to

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start a podcast. I'd like you to do the podcast page or a podcast website

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or something like that. And then they will say that essentially

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they want the podcast to be a medium

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where they can get a lot of downloads and they can then advertise

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and make money off the back of the podcast. That

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strategy, it kind of feels old fashioned these days.

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I mean, people still do it, but when I first started listening

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to podcasts, I don't know, 10, 12 years ago, something like that,

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there were a lot of big names who went out and did their

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podcasts. And the main kind of strategy around it was to get,

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you know, in the same way we have advertising blocks on websites to have these

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blocks of advertisers on their podcasts. And it worked for a while.

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And I've checked out some of those podcasts these days, and they are getting really

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low ratings now because people are saying there's just too much advertising in them and

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the adverts aren't necessarily always relevant. And again, listeners

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drop off. If you've got a really loyal listener, they will just forward the

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adverts, but don't put them in that situation

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in the first place. It is your podcast. It is your

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opportunity to share what you are doing and your

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work. And you don't want to dilute that by having, like,

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random adverts that you have absolutely no control over

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advertised on your podcast, saying that

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you can advertise your own stuff on your podcast. And I believe that you

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absolutely should as well. If you listen to my episodes, you will

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hear ad rolls within the episodes for what I'm launching or

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what I'm doing, or sign up to my newsletter or whatever else. And

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again, it's looking at having that engaged listener who wants

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to work with me, who wants to become part of this plan where I'm using

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podcast marketing as well. So when you are doing

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your podcast, do bear in mind what would you like people to

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engage with? And it's not really like a like and follow, leave

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a review sort of thing. And then once your podcast

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has built up, you can look at getting sponsorship for it. And

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that's where you'll be talking to people who pay you this amount of money.

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And the sponsorship will be much more relevant to your

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audience and it'll be much more effective. But let's get your podcast off the

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ground first.

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I want to talk to you about the marketing and timescales and

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what looks realistic with this as well. Because as

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web designers, we are used to things usually taking

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a little while to get traction. For example, when you submit a

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website to Google Search Control and you need to

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wait for it to index everything, and then it's got to make sure that

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everything's doing what it's meant to, that the images are the right sizes, that

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your clickable elements aren't too close together, that every. That your page is loading

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quickly, that everything's doing what it's meant to do.

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And this is the same with a podcast. And don't be surprised

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if in the early days you don't get a huge amount of

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downloads. That's just normal. You might not know this. I certainly didn't know

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this, but podcast SEO is a thing. And in the

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same way that you would take professional SEO advice for your

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website, again I really recommend that you have SEO

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advice for your podcast as well. Because there is nothing

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more soul destroying than putting all the work into the

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podcast and then looking at your 29 downloads a week

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stats as well. It is possible to get your podcast some really,

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really, really good results. But in the same way that homemade

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websites don't make money, homemade podcasts don't get your clients

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either. So really do get advice. And if you've already got a

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podcast up and running, maybe look at having a podcast audit. And if you

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haven't, that is the absolute best time to do it because you get to

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start off on the right foot with it as well and

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finally just get started. I know it seems

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a lot, but then so is building websites when you think about it.

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We send people off daily and we say to them, you just need to

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send me your images, your branding, your website copy,

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your keyword data, your info, whatever it is you ask

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for with the website build. And you know, sometimes clients stall

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and they're like I can't get all that. And they just need

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that hand holding with it. But ultimately they

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do get started and it's for you to get started with this as

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well because podcasting is just getting bigger and bigger. It's not going

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away anytime soon. And the sooner you get started,

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the sooner you can have it as a really reliable part of your

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marketing kit as well. So that's all for me this week.

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If you are thinking of starting a podcast for your web design business,

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I would love to hear it. So, so do get in touch. You can

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find me at hello@websitesmadesimple.co.uk

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you can find me on LinkedIn @hollycchristie.

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And yeah, let me know how you're doing until next time. Happy web

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designing.