How to choose a podcast show notes service - actionable tips

Let’s be honest… producing a podcast is no easy task. Just to publish one episode of 30-40 minutes you can spend from 2 days to a week producing it. You have to research topics that people are interested in to come up with ideas for your next episode, write and structure what you want to say in a way that hooks the users, record the audio multiple times until you get it right, and edit it to the last minute, before you hit publish.

Each of these tasks can take hours of time and effort…

At the end of the day, none of these efforts will matter if you don’t get listeners and/or sales from your podcast. Therefore, if you want to get visibility, marketing plays a pivotal role.

Some of the best ways to promote your podcast include:

• Writing podcast show notes adapted for (Search Engine Optimization) SEO to get a good ranking on google search
• Writing transcripts of your podcast for better accessibility
• Sending an email to your subscribers with a description about your podcast episode
• Creating social media posts around your podcast

All these things will take again a huge amount of time which many can’t afford.

A great solution to solve this is to outsource your podcast show notes & promotional content.

That way you can focus on what you do best: Creating and publishing great episodes while offloading the task of promoting your podcast to get new listeners.

If you want to know how to outsource your podcast show notes and how much it costs go ahead to our next section.

How to Outsource Podcast Show Notes

There are 3 main ways you can outsource your podcast show notes & other promotional content.

• Availing podcasting agencies
• Hiring a freelancer
• Leveraging AI tools

Let’s evaluate each one of them, including the financial costs, and find out which one is best for you:

So let’s dive in 👇

1. Use podcasting agencies services

Podcasting agencies are companies that are dedicated to offering a wide range of services related to podcast production, including editing the podcast audio, writing show notes and transcriptions and creating marketing content.

Typically podcasting agencies bundle all of these services together into monthly packages for you.

Here’s an example:

The price range for podcasting agency services typically starts at around $100 to $300 per episode, but we've also encountered agencies charging $4,000 or more for full episode production.

For more budget-friendly, mainstream agencies, monthly fees for audio production services typically start around $200-400. If you require additional services like content writing (show notes/transcripts) in addition to audio editing, the cost may go up to $400-600.

Sometimes, podcasting agencies do offer an option to pick only the service you want (for example just show notes or transcripts) and avail them separately without getting the bundle. In this case you can expect to pay between $70-$150 per episode to write the podcast show notes.

Obtaining show notes services from agencies can be quite costly, as their personalized services often come at a premium. If you're just starting out, it may be worth considering a more cost-effective option.

Pros of hiring a podcasting agency:

• Everything is taken care of: They can handle the end-to-end editing of your podcast from audio editing to writing show notes
• Scaling is easy: Since agencies would have a big team, they can scale to meet your increasing needs

Cons of hiring a podcasting agency:

• Can be expensive: Podcasting services offered by agencies are generally the most expensive & not an option for budding podcasters
• Long-Term Commitment: Agencies may require long-term contracts or monthly commitments. If you're unsure about your podcasting needs, they can burn a hole in your wallet.
• One-Size-Fits-All Pricing: Podcasting agencies usually have a standardized approach of offering their services (for ex: Bundled Services) which may not cater to your specific needs.

2. Hire a freelancer to write your show notes

Another option to obtain podcast show notes, transcriptions and other promotional content for your podcast is by hiring a freelancer.

The main advantages of hiring freelancers over podcasting agencies is that you can request a specific service for a certain episode, without any long term commitments, and expect to pay lower price.

Two of the most popular platforms to find freelancers for writing your podcast show notes & promotional content are:

• Fiverr
• Upwork

How to find a freelancer on Fiverr to write show notes & promotional content for your podcast:

1. Go to Fiverr
2. Type in “podcast show notes” in the search bar & click search
3. Filter service options & choose which services you want.

Example: How to select for “Episode Summary”, “Segment timestamps” & “Transcriptions”

1. Click on the budget filter & choose how much you’re ready to spend. You can choose between value, midrange & high-end or you can also type another price range by selecting the custom option.

1. Use the delivery filter if you want your show notes to be delivered within a specific timeline (24 hours / 3 days / 7 days)
2. Go through each of the listing pages of freelancers, check out their reviews and find which freelancer suits you best.
3. Once you have decided which freelancer works best for you, you can make the payment and go ahead to avail of their services.

The prices of writing show notes/transcriptions range between $10/podcast to $60/podcast based on delivery speed, length of your podcast & the freelancer’s experience.

You can repeat this process for other services including, converting your podcast into a blog for SEO and creating social media posts.

How to find a freelancer on Upwork to write show notes & promotional content for your podcast:

Unlike Fiverr where you can only reach out to freelancers, on Upwork you can also post a job listing with your requirements. Check below how you can do it:

1. Sign up for Upwork as a client

1. Go to Jobs -> Post a Job & enter what are the tasks you need to get done from the freelancer. Here’s an example:

1. Add the skills you are looking for from the freelancer, for example: “podcast”, “blog writing” and “search engine optimization”.

1. Share the budget you’re ready to spend. On Upwork you can choose between hourly rate or a project budget.

1. Share a detailed description of what are your requirements from the freelancer and your expectations

1. Finally you can review your job listing & post it.

Once you have posted your job, freelancers who are interested can reach out to you. You can then conduct interviews to see if they are fit for you & choose the best among the offers you got!

Pros of hiring a freelancer for writing your podcast show notes

• Wide range of options: With freelancing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, you can choose who you want to work with from hundreds of freelancers.
• No commitments: Unlike freelancing agencies, there is no long-term commitment or contracts when you work with freelancers. You can avail of their gig only when you’re in need of it.

Cons of hiring a freelancer for writing your podcast show notes

• Inconsistent quality: Freelancers highly vary in skill and experience. When you hire a freelancer, you may encounter inconsistency in the quality of work, especially if you work with a freelancer and require various tasks like podcast show notes, social media content, and blog posts.
• Communication challenges: Effective communication with freelancers can be challenging if they are in different time zones or have multiple clients (which is often the case when you hire on Fiverr or Upwork). These often lead to misunderstandings that cause problems in the workflow.
• Lengthy selection & onboarding process: Every new freelancer you hire will require a lengthy selection process either through interviews or a trial hire, training and onboarding, which can all be very time-consuming by the end of it.

3. Use an AI podcast writer

In 2023 AI completely disrupted the content creation space in many different areas including the podcasting world. For growing podcasters like you, AI tools can bring you great advantages.

While it used to take hundreds of dollars a month in case you hired podcasting agencies or freelancers to write show notes & podcast content, now, with the help of AI, it can be done at the press of a button.

You can let AI write show notes & promotional content for all your podcast episodes, at 1/5th to 1/10th of the hiring cost of a freelancer or at less than 1/25th of the hiring cost of a podcasting agency.

Pros of using AI to generate show notes & content to promote your podcast

• Instant generations: Unlike freelancers & agencies which can take up to a week to deliver, AI can deliver show notes, transcripts & content for your podcast in a few minutes at the click of a button.
• Super affordable: While hiring an agency to write your show notes can cost you as much as $75- $200/per episode. Using AI tools only costs $15-$25 a month for 3-5 hours of podcast time, which corresponds to $4-$8/per episode, considering you have 30 min long episodes.
• Consistency: Show notes that are written by AI are consistent in their content structure and quality unlike the content outsourced from freelance writers. It makes it easier for you to review and publish the show notes, transcripts & other content generated by AI without multiple feedbacks, typo corrections and review processes.

Cons of using AI to generate show notes & content to promote your podcast

• May not suit every podcast style: AI writers tend to excel in podcasts with a more technical, instructional, or linear storytelling format. For comedy or poetry podcasts, for instance, AI may not be the ideal choice.

How to generate content for your podcast with AI

Here is how you can generate show notes, transcripts and other promotional content for your podcast with just a click of a button.

1. Sign up for a free Podsqueeze account
2. Click the "Generate Content" button in your Dashboard
3. Select your podcast name from the “search bar” or use the upload option (only available for paid tiers) to upload an audio file from your computer

1. Select the episode or file from which you want to get content

1. Click ”Generate Content” & sit back

That’s it! In just 1 click, Podsqueeze AI will automatically generate all the content you need to publish and promote your podcast episode.

Here are all the content pieces Podsqueeze AI will generate from your podcast:

• The complete written transcript and SRT file for subtitles
• Podcast description
• Chapters with timestamps
• Blog posts
• Title suggestions for your podcast episode
• Newsletter content to share by email with your subscribers
• A list of keywords mentioned on your podcast
• A list of brands mentioned in your podcast which you can tag on social media & get more - shares for your episode
• LinkedIn posts, facebook posts & tweets to promote on social media
• Quotes mentioned on your podcast by you and your guests to use on intagram/pinterest
• Bullet points of key takeaways from the podcast
• Clips with engaging segments from your podcast to share on social media

To sum it up, you get all the content & marketing material you need to promote your podcast generated for you in one go with Podsqueeze AI.

Podsqueeze offers a free plan with 50 minutes of podcast time per month, allowing you to test it with your podcast before deciding to subscribe to any paid tiers.

The paid tiers start at $12 per month for 160 minutes of podcast time. This means that the cost of converting an episode with an average duration of 30 minutes can be as low as $2.30.

Conclusion

We hope this blog post helped you learn about the different ways you can outsource your podcast show notes, how much each method costs & their pros and cons.

To sum it up, if you are a budding podcaster who’s looking to grow fast, using an AI service will likely be the most cost-effective service.

The AI generated content that you can get for Podsqueeze it is not only affordable, but also consistent, high quality and scalable.