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Episode 60

The Podcaster Toolkit Show

October 28, 2016 ·

Ep60: THE PODCASTER TOOLKIT SHOW Behind The Scenes of PodcasterToolkit.co Episode Summary: What is PodcasterToolkit.co? ** Why did I build it? What steps were required to go from bucket list to live on the web. Today is a little less of how to and more of an insider's look at my process.

Episode Summary: A behind-the-scenes look at building PodcasterToolkit.co — why it exists, the steps taken to go from idea to live site, and the monetization plan behind it.

What You’ll Learn

  • Why PodcasterToolkit.co exists and what it was originally meant to be
  • The full launch checklist: hosting, theme, domain, branding, and photo organization
  • The affiliate monetization plan behind the site
  • Why starting beats endless planning, every time

Got a favorite tool or resource? Send it to mike@mikemurphy.co to get added to the kit. Vendors and product creators are also welcome to reach out for testing consideration, as long as it’s genuinely useful to listeners.

This Week’s Podcaster’s Toolkit Pick

The Zoom H4n Pro — an audio classic. A handy portable recorder that accepts 4 XLR microphones, with a built-in stereo mic on top for when nothing else is plugged in. Records to a memory card, and doubles as an audio interface. A high-confidence recommendation.

Why PodcasterToolkit.co Exists

A quick history lesson: the whole reason for starting Mike Murphy Unplugged was to share knowledge of tools, gear, and resources, and help fellow one-man bands and creative entrepreneurs figure things out together. PodcasterToolkit.co was the site that existed in idea-form from the very beginning — a well-organized home for carefully curated tools and resources, built as a one-stop shop for creators to get things done. No fluff, just the good stuff.

The Big Picture Plan

The blog will be loaded with practical, instructional how-tos about podcasting and related topics — repurposing podcast scripts into blog entries along the way. The shop will feature podcasting and content-creation gear, linked directly to Amazon. The tools section will cover business and productivity software actually used and loved, like FreshBooks, Scrivener, Elegant Themes, and Lynda.com. Tutorials & videos will build out a YouTube library over time.

Steps to Launch

  • Planning: define the purpose of the site and what it should actually do.
  • Web hosting: Bluehost — an existing account allowed unlimited sites, making this easy.
  • Theme: the Extra theme, a magazine-style sibling to Divi by Elegant Themes, well-suited to content-heavy sites like this one.
  • Domain name: GoDaddy. Multiple spelling variations (podcastertoolkit.co and podcasterstoolkit.co) were secured in case of typos, and unused domains get forwarded to active sites so they still serve some purpose.
  • Folder structure: one central place created for theme files and assets, even before those assets existed.
  • Big tip: stop overthinking and start — take baby steps, get a simple plan moving, and don’t let endless planning replace actually beginning.
  • Branding & logos: kept simple and quick — a type-based logo is perfectly fine.
  • Photo management: Adobe Lightroom, with heavy use of Collections. Gear and tools get cataloged in the Home Inventory app from the App Store.

Money

Affiliate marketing (see Episode 44) is the main monetization plan, through partnerships with Amazon, FreshBooks, Elegant Themes, and Bluehost. On content: don’t wait for everything to be finished — hit publish and build it out as you go.

Takeaways

Do what makes you happy — this new site genuinely does. And when starting something new, the actual first step is simply to start.

Show Notes & Links