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Hey, everybody. Welcome to podcast answers. That's right. We are kicking off episode three,

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and we're going to be talking a little bit about show, cover, art, how to make it, what

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the specs should be, why you even need it. But first, if you've never joined us before,

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we are a show that helps people grow and start their podcasts, answering podcast questions

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along the way. So we would love to answer any questions. You can contact us at podcastanswers.com

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slash contact if you have any podcast questions that you'd like answered. But in the meantime,

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you can go ahead and also go over to all of our socials. Subscribe to our YouTube channel

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at youtube.com slash at podcast answers. We would love to see you there. We post all of

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our episodes live. We do a live recording and also live, live YouTube, because a lot

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of the stuff we do is going to be hands on and your stuff you need to see. So today's

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episode, not so much, but other episodes are things that you need to be watching. So without

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further ado, show cover art. What is it? So essentially, it's the branding of your podcast.

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It's the way that people know your podcast from another podcast. I mean, obviously you

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have the name, the name of the podcast, but the show cover art is just kind of a think

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of it like an album art for your favorite, your favorite thing that you, your music artist

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that you listen into watch to like, how do you know which album you're listening to?

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Because it's got that cool graphic on it, right? So the same thing happens with podcasting.

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You need to have a cover art for your show. That way you can, people can know what your

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show is and what it's about. So there's some, some specifics for that. It needs to be a

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specific size and that size at minimum is 1400 pixels by 1400 pixels. It's going to

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be square, but at the maximum, it's going to be 3000 pixels by 3000 pixels. And the reason

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that that kind of varies is cause originally it was, you know, 1400 by 1400, but that's

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when people were just using their iPods and the screen displays weren't very big on it,

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but things are getting bigger and bigger. And now people are watching on their Apple TV on

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the Roku TV on YouTube. So it needs to be a lot bigger now because of that. So I would

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recommend using the 3000 by 3000 pixel size because that way it allows you to, it allows

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people to actually see it in very high resolution when they, when they come in and are looking

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at your show. Now the file format needs to be a PNG or a JPEG. I would recommend, especially

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if you're going to go ahead and use the 3000 by 3000, I would recommend using the JPEG

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format just because it's smaller than the PNG format. And so that way it loads quicker

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on the different apps and the different locations. So if you're using the very big file size,

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go ahead and make sure that you're using the, the JPEG format. Now, here are some design

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things you go, you can make it however you want to, but I would say keep it simple and

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make it legible. So if you're going to put any text on it, which I, I recommend that

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you do make it legible. Don't try to stuff it with lots of text and don't make that text

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small because your phone is going to describe, are going to show that at a very, very, very

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small, very small size. And so you don't want to have that being really super tiny because

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people won't be able to read it. So that being said, also, I wouldn't put anything on the

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bottom fifth of your image as it may become obscured by other elements of the, you know,

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the player, depending how, what player you're listening to it in and watching and some of

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your player elements may be on that lower fifth of the icon of this, the screen. And

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so you're going to end up having it obscured by that. So don't put anything in the lower,

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any text anyways, or anything important on the bottom fifth part of your image. It should

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also be visually appealing and give people a good idea what to expect. I mean, if your

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podcast is going to be about pizza, I would not put an icon of ice cream on your show

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because that's just not going to cut it. It's not going to make it, it's not going to work.

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It's not going to, it's, it's good. People are going to go, what is this show about?

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Is it about ice cream? Is it about pizza? Keep it relatively about what your show is

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about. That way people can look at it really quickly and say, you know, this is something

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that I want to listen to and I want to watch. You know, so for us podcast answers, ours

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is just a little round circle with a headphone on it and a little audio wave. And that way

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it kind of gives an idea of it's about podcasting and it says really big bold letters, podcast

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answers that way people can see it and they know what they're getting into when they actually

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do their show. So one of the other things that I would say too is when you're done designing

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your logo, shrink it down real small and see what it looks like. See if it's still legible.

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There's a website that's actually really good called onlypod.com, O-N-L-Y, pod-p-o-d.com,

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slash podcast-cover-preview and I'll link to this in our show notes. But what you can

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do in there is load up your image and it'll scale it to different sizes and show you what

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it's going to look like in the different apps. And so that way you can take it and you can

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see, okay, this is going to work, you know, in this app, it's going to work in all of

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the apps that are pretty popular. So that's a good way to do that. Again, onlypod.com slash

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podcast-cover-preview will allow you to kind of see what your show art looks like at the

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different sizes. So that way when you design it, you're not going to have it where people

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can't read it. So the last thing that I would say too about the show cover art is unless

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you're famous, don't put your face on the cover art. I've seen lots of people do this

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and for the everyday podcaster who's not a big person like Joe Rogan or, you know, whoever

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else, people aren't going to know who you are when your face is on the cover art. They're

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going to say, okay, who is this Andy guy? Who's the picture of this person on the cover?

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Like it doesn't really tell me anything about your podcast because you're not famous. Your

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face isn't recognizable from thousands of people. And so you're, they're not going to

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be able to know that this is, I mean, they're not going to care who Andy layman is. They're

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going to care what your show is about. So you're going to want to put something that's

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more relatable to your show rather than your face unless you know you're famous, but that's

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a whole other story. Now there's another thing. So that was your show art, your show cover

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art. That's going to be what in all of your listings, your main, like when you search

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for your podcast, it's going to show up and it's going to be right there. And that's what

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you're going to see in that location. That's what you're going to see when you search for

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your show. You can also have episode cover art and that can be unique. Episode art is

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unique and it helps people know what each episode is about. So it's going to, you're

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going to want to make it unique for every episode. So for one of my podcasts, I ended

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up putting a picture of the guest. If we had a guest on there. So again, this is, they

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may not recognize that guest, but when they're listening, they can put a name to a face and

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go, Oh, this is that the guest. This is who I'm listening to. So I would put a guest picture

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on there. If it's something like this where I don't normally, you know, at this point,

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we don't have a lot of guests on podcast answers. I would say you can, you know, put it like

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if I'm talking about cover art, I may put like a art palette or, you know, something

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just a little bit different to designate what this episode is about.

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Episode art, usually if you do not have it, so if you decide not to choose it for any

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episodes or even, you know, you don't put it for a specific episode, the podcast player

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will default back to the cover art of the show. So it'll show your actual show logo.

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And if you have the cover art, then for the episode, it's going to show that episode.

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One of the ways that you can, you can design cover art, because, you know, not everyone

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has, has good design skills, but there are lots of different places out there that you

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can go to and, you know, hire somebody for fairly, you know, a reasonable price to create

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your, your art, but you just kind of want to make sure that they're going to give them

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the dimensions that you want and you're going to want to give them, you know, what file size

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type you need and things like that. But another thing you can do is use Canva. Canva is great.

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They have a free tier and I use this for a lot of the design work that I do for podcasts,

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but it's great because you can even type in podcast cover art and it's going to have

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the right dimensions and it's going to have some, you know, there are going to be templates

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that you can use, you can customize them, you can start your own type of thing, you can

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go fresh from, from everything else, but that's one of those things that I find as an inspiration.

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You can even use it as an inspiration, you know, from Canva. And so I would, that's one

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of the first places that I would go to look for podcast cover art because they do a great

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job and they have lots of templates that you can use that aren't going to, that aren't

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going to cost you anything if much. You know, sometimes Canva, if you're not paying for

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it has a, a, you know, you have to pay for certain elements in it unless you are a premium

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member, premium member, but that's a good place to go to start for this. If you need

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to need help with your podcast, I am available for custom consulting. Just go to podcast

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answers.com slash contact and I, we can set up an appointment and I can create cover art

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for you. You know, I'm a fairly reasonable price cover art designer, I think. And then

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I, you know, I can also help you start your podcast, help you grow your podcast. We, we

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really appreciate that. Again, I'm available for custom, custom podcast work as well. Guys,

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if you enjoyed this episode, I would just encourage you to head over to podcastanswers.com

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slash buy me a coffee. If you want to help support the show, help us to be able to buy

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and afford more equipment. Again, that's podcastanswers.com slash buy me a coffee. You can become

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a premium member there and support us either on a one-off, one-off thing or a monthly donation

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and help us achieve some of our podcast goals as far as some of our hardware and increasing

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some, you know, getting new, new hardware to test out new services that we can, we can

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test out for you. So guys, with that, this episode, that's going to be a wrap on this

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episode. Thanks again. Tune in next week. We are going to be actually having an episode

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with Sam Sethi. Sam Sethi is the creator of a new app, a new website actually for playing

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podcasts. So with that guys, have a great week and we'll see you on the next episode.