In this episode, we will discuss some of the best podcasting tools for the job, that I use and recommend to all podcasters.
The wise men once said, “a man is only as good as his tools”.
This is true not just in the context of podcasting, but in pretty much everything that you do. If you don’t have the right tools for the job, doing it could be that much more difficult.
With podcasting too, the complexity of some of the jobs could easily overwhelm you if you do not pick the right and the best podcasting tools.
For the sake of clarity, the tools that I am mentioning here are the digital tools that can help you in the process of editing, post-production, and publishing.
Just as in the equipment, you have a variety of choices when it comes to digital tools as well.
But, here I will only discuss the ones that I have used and that I think is affordable and recommended.
So let us get straight onto this list of best podcasting tools.
The Best Podcasting Tools that I recommend
Editing is one of the most critical aspects of podcasting.
While you do not need to edit your audio to match the sound effects of a Hollywood movie, you still need to make it listenable and enjoyable.
And for that to happen you need to understand and learn a little bit of how the editing process works. This can at times be extremely overwhelming if you pick tools that are too advanced.
In fact, that is one of the criteria for picking my tools.
You will find that all of these tools that I have mentioned below are simple and easy to use.
So let us get straight into the list of my recommended best podcasting tools.
- Audacity
- Levelator
- iTunes
- Descript
- MS Word (Microsoft 365)
- Zencastr
- Headline Generator
- Headlinr
The first 4 tools in this list are tools that I use for editing purposes. If you are wondering as to why I use these 4 different tools, I will explain them in a little while.
Let us look at each of these tools in detail –
Audacity – Audio Editing Tool
Audacity is a free, open-source software project that allows you to record and edit sounds.
It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and other operating systems.
Audacity can be used for everything from a simple task like recording a lecture to more complex tasks, such as editing podcasts, converting audio files from one format to another, or as a mastering tool for preparing a song for CD or mp3 distribution.
It has a simple interface and is quite easy to learn. The wide array of features that this tool has makes it the ideal editing tool for Podcasting.
You do not need to master it to produce quality output. But you will need to learn some of the basic aspects of editing though.
The tool is available for download for FREE.
There are many other tools like Adobe Audition, Garageband, Logic Pro, and Hindenburg that are available in the market. But the reason why I recommend Audacity is because it is FREE and is as powerful as any of these tools. This is one of the best podcasting tools that you should use.
Levelator – Audio Leveller
Have you ever recorded an audio-only interview only to find out that the audio is too quiet or too loud?
You then proceed to spend a lot of time trying to fix it.
The problem is that your microphone has a fixed output level that doesn’t take into account the dynamics of the voice.
What you need is a way to level the audio in order to make it sound natural.
Levelator does exactly this. It is a free tool that you can use to level the audio of your interview.
All you need is the audio file that you want to process. You simply drag and drop the file in Levelator. The tool will now level the audio for you.
In fact, Audacity has its own audio leveler but Levelator does a much better job than Audacity when it comes to audio leveling.
You can download Levelator for FREE here.
iTunes (Apple Podcasts)
Another one in my list of the best podcasting tools is iTunes.
What I am referring to here is not the directory where you submit podcasts. In fact, this is the software, iTunes.
So the question is why do I even need iTunes for Podcast editing?
Okay! So I am kind of the old schooler who likes specialized tools for things. When I first started off with podcasting, the tools that were available weren’t really that powerful. So I had to pick specialized tools for specialized activities.
That’s how I started using iTunes.
But I recommend it even today because there is no other tool that does it so well.
I use iTunes to convert my audio files to MP3 format, add ID3 tags, and keep my files and folders organized.
Audacity has the capability to convert files to MP3 and tag them as well. MP3 conversion needs a plugin called “Lame for Audacity”, but I find that the files converted using iTunes are much better than the ones done by Audacity.
Also, iTunes helps me keep my files and folders much organized.
I consider it as one of the best podcasting tools but then it is entirely your choice to use it.
Descript – Audio Editing and Transcription tool
Descript is a tool that I have started using very recently. And I should say that I am super impressed with it.
But, if you are a beginner podcaster then I wouldn’t recommend this to you.
Descript is an audio transcription tool that does a lot more than just transcribing podcasts.
It is also an audio editor in which editing audio is similar to editing texts. All you need to do is edit out texts which in turn gets edited in the audio files as well.
But that isn’t what I primarily use it for. I use it for the “filler removal” feature and also for a feature called as “overdub”.
Overdub is an AI feature that imitates your voice. So if you want to record short audio and insert it into somewhere that you missed out in the initial recording, you can do that with the help of overdub without really recording the piece again.
But this tool is not a FREE tool. It is in fact a paid tool that costs around $24.00 per month.
It is hence that I do not recommend it for beginners.
But if you are looking at subscribing to this tool, you can do so here.
MS Word as part of Microsoft 365
Did you know that Microsoft Word has a handy “transcription” feature?
If you are using Microsoft 365, then the online option of Word gives you this nice and simple transcription feature which does a good job in transcribing the audio.
So if you are looking for software to transcribe your audio and if you already have MS Word, then this is the tool to go to.
You can see how to access the transcribe feature in the below picture.
Go ahead and use it and don’t forget to tell me your experience with it.
Zencastr – Recording interviews
Zencastr is the tool I use to record my interviews.
If your run an interview podcast, then Zencastr is the tool I would recommend for recording your interviews.
It is simple and easy to use and above all, it is free for basic usage.
The biggest problem that we face when recording interviews is disruptions due to the internet or, other IT issues. Zencastr is by far the best tool that handles these issues well and ensures that you do not lose your audio recordings.
They also have a simple post-processing option which is credit-based. So if you are interested in using their post-processing feature, then you could buy credits and use it.
You can check out Zencastr here.
Headline Generator – Peppertype Module
Peppertype is an AI content writing tool that I have started to use recently.
I used it for my social media posts and found it really helpful. The content that is generated is extremely good and useful.
One of the things that I use it for is to generate headlines for my episodes.
At times, you get stuck at writing a clickworthy SEO-optimized headline for your episodes. It is here that the headline generator comes in handy.
Peppertype can generate amazing headlines like the one that I have used for this particular episode.
You can check out Peppertype here.
Headliner – Audiogram Creator
Audiograms are an amazing way to generate buzz for your show on social media.
It basically involves creating a snippet of your audio in the form of a small teaser which you can then post to social media channels and generate interest.
Headliner is a simple tool that does this job pretty well and very easily.
It is just a few clicks and your audiogram is ready to be posted.
I use this a lot for all my podcasts and since it is free too for basic usage I recommend it to everyone.
You can check out Headliner here.
Thank you for Joining
That is all that I have for this episode.
I hope you enjoyed this episode on the best podcasting tools out there that are easy and simple to use. Go ahead and use them and do not forget to tell me about your thoughts about these tools and this episode as well.
Do sign up for my 4-day course on the “absolute basics of podcasting“, if you are new to the podcasting world.
You can listen to the show on any of the below platforms as well.
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Hello and welcome to the podcasting university.
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This is Dilip, your host and in this episode we're going to talk about 8 absolutely essential tools that I use and that I recommend.
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For podcast editing and post production.
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Now there is a saying that says a man is only as good as his tools. Just as in everything else
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podcasting also needs tools and resources in order to simplify the process.
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And just like a good microphone or microphone stand, a boom arm, a pop filter, you know these are
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some of these equipment that you would need in order to record your episodes or record your show.
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Just in the same way, in order to ensure that you are able to produce audio that is good, has listenable quality and sounds well.
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You will need some digital tools to ensure that you are able to process your audio and turn it into that listenable.
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quality audio. So in this episode
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the eight tools that I'm going to talk about, that we are going to discuss are the ones that I use in my podcasting process and which I think is extremely important from a podcast post-processing perspective.
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So we'll quickly jump into these eight tools.
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And I'll walk you through what these eight tools are and why is it that you need these tools. Now if you want a link to download these tools, you will have to visit the podcasting university.com, where you'll be able to see all of the resources that we mentioned in this episode.
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With clickable downloadable links and you will also be able to download a printable transcript for this episode along with the show notes.
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So without further ado, let's get straight into the eight tools that I think are absolutely essential for.
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podcast post processing. Number one - audacity.
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Now audacity is one of the best audio editing tools out there.
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There are a lot of other tools that a lot of other podcasters use and recommend like
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Adobe audition there is GarageBand for people who are using a Mac system.
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There is logic pro.
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And then there is Hindenburg that are available in the market and these are all amazing tools, very powerful tools, but these are all paid tools so keep in mind that if you want to use any of these.
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tools you will have to pay a monthly charge or a one time fee depending upon what tool you are
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using. The difference between these tools and audacity is that audacity is available absolutely free of cost.
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It is an open source software, so you can download it for free and it is equally powerful if not even more powerful than any of these tools.
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There are a lot of features
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on audacity, and if you are able to master these features, then you can do a ton of things to your audio that can simply enhance the quality of your audio.
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But do you really need to master everything? You don't.
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There are some of these basic editing features that are available. Editing techniques that are available for audacity, and there are a lot of videos on YouTube that are available that you can watch and learn how to use audacity.
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If you are able to learn these basic
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techniques for audacity.
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You should be able to churn out amazing sounding quality audio and that can do a lot of good to your podcast episodes.
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So my simple recommendation is spend some time to learn some of these basic features.
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And start using audacity because it's a very powerful tool and it can do a wonder to your recordings. Number 2 levellator -
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Now Levelator is a tool that is used to level the audio.
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Audacity has a feature of leveling the audio, but I don't use it and I don't recommend it.
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Because it is not that great in comparison to the leveling feature that is available with levelator
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So you can download levelator, which is a very lightweight software, very simple software and once you've downloaded all that you need to do is just drag and drop your wave files
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onto the tool and it will level the audio and it'll give you a very polished audio back in a matter of few minutes. Levelator is actually a specialized tool when it comes to leveling audio, and that is one of the reasons why I recommend using Levelator and why is it that you need to use.
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Levelator. Because a lot of times if you are recording an interview with a guest, there is a possibility that your audio levels are a little higher and your guests audio levels are a little lower.
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So when you listen to the audio without leveling the audio, you will find a lot of Crest and troughs.
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There will be loud sounding audio and then there will be a slightly lesser.
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sounding audio. So that levels will be a little too much
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mismatched and it wouldn't sound good on your ears.
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That is primarily the reason why we level the audio.
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So download levelator and use it level your audios because it is one amazing and simple to use tool in order to level your audios.
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The third tool that I use is iTunes.
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Now the obvious question is that
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If you're not on an Apple computer, why would you need iTunes?
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And this is not the iTunes meaning Apple Podcast directory that I'm talking about.
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This is the iTunes software that I'm talking about now.
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The iTunes software
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has a lot of features that can help edit your podcasts, but I don't use all of those things, but I use iTunes for primarily three things, and I've been using it since 2015 and I continue to use it.
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You can call me an old schooler, but I continue to use it because it gives me the flexibility.
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And the much needed simplicity that I'm looking for when it comes to doing these three things.
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So the first thing that I use iTunes for is to organize my files and folders.
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iTunes has a very nice file organization feature, so that way when I organize my podcast it is easier for me to go and find my files to play the shows.
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And you know it is.
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a lot easier for me to do whatever I want.
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With my podcast files, that is one of the primary reasons why I use iTunes.
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The second reason why I use iTunes is in order to tag my audio with the ID3 tags.
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So while this feature is available on Audacity itself, I prefer using iTunes because it gives me a lot more flexibility and it is simple to use and the features are a little better than that of audacity and the third and the most important reason why I use iTunes is to convert my audio into MP3.
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So my process flow is pretty simple.
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What I do is I edit my audio on audacity, export it in a wave file.
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I level it using levelator. Then I import that wave file into iTunes and convert it using MP3 converter that is available on iTunes.
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Now if I have to convert it into MP3 on audacity, I'll have to use a plugin called as Lame Plugin for Audacity.
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But even if I am to use it, I didn't find the quality of that conversion equivalent to that of the quality of conversion I was getting on iTunes.
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That is one of the reasons.
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Why I use iTunes to convert my audio into MP3
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and I would recommend using iTunes because it's an amazing software again, and there are a ton of features that you can use if you are a podcast buff.
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Now coming to the 4th tool, this is Descript.
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Now Descript is a tool that I've started using recently, but if you are a beginner or if you're just starting off with your podcast, I wouldn't recommend this.
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Tool primarily because there is a cost involved in this tool, but this tool does a lot of things that you wouldn't otherwise.
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Find in any other tools around. Now editing is easy and in Descript how you edit an audio is just like you would edit a text file or in a text editor.
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So if you are to delete a specific section of your audio, all that you need to do is just believe that text from the text editor and the audio is.
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Automatically delete it.
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In addition to that, what Descript also does is that Descript helps you remove all of those filler words like the ahs and the uhms and the you knows. It's pretty easy it does with one click, so there is a lot of time that you can save in your editing process, and in addition to that, I also love the.
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Overdub feature in this script, which basically.
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is AI generated voice
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That sounds exactly like your voice, and if there is maybe a small piece that you've forgotten to mention in your podcast, you can use your overdub feature and create that section without actually recording that audio.
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So I love some of these features on Descript.
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And that is why I used Descript. But if you are a beginner, I wouldn't really recommend using Descript, because it will set you back by almost about $24.00 per month. Coming to the fifth tool, which is Ms Word, Microsoft Word as part of the Microsoft 365 plan.
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Now, why exactly am I recommending Microsoft Word? I'm sure a lot of you would not be aware that Microsoft Word has a transcription feature and this transcription feature is available in the online Word that comes with as part of the Office 365 plan and that.
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Transcription feature is amazing.
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It's very accurate.
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All that you need to do is just upload your audio and it automatically transcribes.
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Once it's transcribed, you can go there and just edit anything that you find is not in line or In Sync with the audio.
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And then publish it.
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Download it and you can publish it to your WordPress blog or wherever it is that you are uploading your transcript.
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Microsoft Word is extremely powerful when it comes to transcribing, so I would recommend it to any other transcribing service, because all of the other transcribing service will charge you basis the number of.
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Words or, the minutes that they transcribe, but.
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If you are using Microsoft 365, then word is available as part of Office 365 and it has this amazing transcribing feature that you can use. The six tool that I use is Zencastr, which I recommend if you are somebody who records interviews and Zencastr
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Again, is a very powerful interview recording tool and it has a lot of flexibility
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to record remote interviews and you know, even if there is a possibility that you get disconnected or your guest gets disconnected because of an Internet disruption or anything.
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Zencastr has some of these powerful back end processes which actually upload this audio and you don't end up losing the audio.
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So Zencastr is very powerful, and if you can maybe pay them a few.
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Dollars there is a very powerful post processing option also available in Zencastr
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So if you're somebody who is doing interview based podcasting then I would recommend zencastr because it's one amazing tool to record interviews and produce it.
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The 7th tool that I use is headline generator.
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Which is part of Peppertype.
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Now Peppertype is again a tool that I've been using very recently.
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I've started using very recently rather and it's basically an AI based content generator and.
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Peppertype has a lot of modules.
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One of the modules is a headline generator.
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Now, why is it that I use it?
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Because a lot of times you are stuck with not knowing what to write in your headline or how to generate a headline that can get clicks or that can improve your click through rates.
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Peppertype headline generator does an
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Amazing job, the AI is extremely good.
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It is trained well so it can generate some amazing click worthy headline.
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Which has a lot of meat into it, so I would recommend using Peppertype headline generator. Again
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Peppertype is a paid tool, so that is if you're OK to shell out a few dollars to buy this tool, then absolutely go for this tool.
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Otherwise there are a lot of other headline generators that are available.
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free of cost you can use them, but use a good headline generator to generate headlines that are click worthy.
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The final, which is the 8th tool, is headliner.
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Now I use headliner to create audiograms and we all know how much powerful audiograms can be because it helps you post those small snippets onto your social media channels and you know that generates a lot of buzz and clicks to your shows.
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It generates a lot of.
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Listens for your episodes so it is important that you do these small tricks.
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On social media, in order to generate that required buzz around your show so it is a very easy tool and it is pretty simple to use to create the audio.
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That is one of the reasons why I use headliner. Headliner is free to create.
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I think about 7 or 8 audiograms in.
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month, which would be good enough for anybody who's producing at least one episode a week.
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So go ahead and create an account on headliner and start using headliner.
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It's an amazing tool. So those were the 8 tools that I use and I recommend for podcast post processing.
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I hope you enjoyed.
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This eight tools and I'm sure some of these tools are something that you would already be using if you're into podcasting.
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If you are not then start using these tools.
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It will make your job a lot more easier, so that is all that I have for this episode.
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I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Podcasting University. If you have any questions or comments, head over to thepodcastinguniversity.com and post them there in the comment section and I will respond to them.
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If you haven't booked your free podcast discovery call with me, then go to thepodcastinguniversity.com and book a free 30 minute discovery call with me.
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Where we can talk about your podcasting idea if it is viable and how to get started? If you're new to podcasts, then you might want to join my four day podcasting basic scores. Head over to thepodcastinguniversity.com/guide and sign up for the free course there.
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The Podcasting university is available on pretty much all podcasting platforms.
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Pick your favorite platform of choice and listen to the show in there.
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That is all that I have for episode 33. I'll be back again in the next episode. Until then. Subscribe to the podcasting university and keep listening to the show you all have.
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Have a wonderful rest of the week.
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