Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular in recent years. According to recent reports, there are more than two million active podcasts and over 464 million listeners in the world. This number is even expected to rise to a whopping 505 million by the year 2024. As the interest in audio-only digital content grows, there is no wonder why more and more people are jumping into the podcasting industry.

 

However, podcast creation is not an easy process. Much like any other type of media, quality, podcasts require extensive planning in order to produce good content. It demands time, effort, and resources to create a podcast channel that is able to draw an audience and establish a loyal listener base. 

 

Doing this all on your own can be challenging and time-consuming. In situations like this, it might be best to consider hiring a virtual assistant for your podcast creation process. To give you a better idea, here is a quick guide and overview of what it is like to hire a podcast VA. 

 

Signs You Need To Hire A VA For Your Podcast

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A podcast virtual assistant (VA) is someone who specializes in the podcast creation process and industry. They are well-versed, skilled, and knowledgeable about different aspects and elements involved in creating quality podcast content. 

 

While it is possible to run a podcast show on your own, creating content is, most often than not, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Keeping up with the demands of running a podcast without any help can lead to creative block, fatigue, and even burnout. 

 

To help you with this, here are some tell-tale signs that you need to hire a virtual assistant to assist in creating podcast content.

 

  • You take too long to complete an episode from start to finish.
  • You are behind your content schedule.
  • You have little to no time to work on anything else.
  • You spend too much time working on mundane tasks.
  • You are not as skilled in a particular aspect of the creation process.

 

Benefits of Hiring A Podcast Virtual Assistant

While signs that you’re struggling to maintain a good workflow and process may not be convincing for some, maybe these advantages can bring you to consider hiring a virtual assistant for your podcast. 

 

Less work, more time

One of the primary reasons why you should consider hiring a podcast VA is that you are doing too much work. If you’re doing it on your own, you would be doing all the research, writing, recording, editing, publishing, and even marketing. 

 

Having all these on your plate can be overwhelming and trying to balance your focus and attention on each one can affect the quality of your work. Hiring a podcast virtual assistant to help with a couple of these tasks can significantly lighten your workload and provide you with more time to work on other things for your podcast. 

 

Affordable rates and flexible contracts

Since virtual assistants are remote employees who, most often than not, work from home, it is easy for you to find someone at a cheaper or more affordable rate. The remote work industry opens the talent pool to people from all over the world. So if you’re on a budget, you can find a podcast VA whose rate is appropriate to what you can provide.

 

Aside from that, you can also find and hire virtual assistants under different contracts. You can hire someone full-time or part-time depending on your needs. If you’re looking for someone to work for you only for a specific project, you can also hire someone on a per-project or hourly basis. 

 

More skilled and talented

A podcast VA is someone who is particularly interested, skilled, and knowledgeable about this niche. Taking this into consideration, podcast VAs are well-equipped to provide you with amazing services to improve your podcast. From script writing and audio editing, even to podcast marketing. 

 

Tasks You Can Delegate To A Podcast VA

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Unlike the common misconception, virtual assistants can do more than just answer phone calls, perform data entry, and other mundane administrative tasks. Podcast VAs are particularly skilled and trained to provide services related to the podcast creation process. 

 

Depending on the task and your needs, you can hire podcast VAs full-time, part-time, or at an hourly rate. To give you a better idea of what podcast virtual assistants can do, here are some of the tasks that you can outsource or delegate to a pod VA.

 

Sound Editing or Audio Engineering

While it’s likely that you want to do the podcast hosting on your own, you can delegate what is considered the most time-consuming part of podcast production. ‘

 

Editing is a crucial part of the podcast creation process. This is where you trim your recording, cut unnecessary conversations, reduce noise, and even add effects for better ambiance and mastery. While recording the raw audio for your podcast can take a couple of hours, the editing part would take a couple more hours or even days. 

 

Not only is editing time-consuming, but good sound engineering requires skills and training that most people do not have. Hiring a podcast VA proficient in sound engineering and editing can elevate your podcast’s quality more than doing it on your own. 

 

Guest Sourcing

Interview-style podcasts are the most listened to in the world. Taking this into consideration, the demand for this style of podcasting is growing by the minute. But unbeknownst to most people, planning and processing these collaborations take a lot of time.

 

Not only is it difficult to find someone who is willing to work with you, but there is also the challenge of finding a common time and schedule, processing booking fees and other expenses, and so on. 

 

Guest sourcing requires talent in convincing people to come to your show. You might find more success in collaborations when you have a talented podcast virtual assistant doing this for you. 

 

Script Writing

There are different types of podcasts that would require the host to have a script. There are storytelling and documentary podcasts that have the host narrate. However, even monologues and interview-style podcasts could use some sort of script to keep conversations revolving around just one topic and not elsewhere.

 

While some podcasters are skilled enough to either simply wing it or write their own scripts, having a virtual assistant to write them for you can be a game changer, especially for narrative and documentary pods. Podcast VAs who are talented writers can bring your stories to life and take storytelling skills to the next level.

 

Marketing

Podcast marketing is an essential part of growing an audience. Without this, it can be extremely difficult to reach your target audience and expand your podcast channel. However, some podcasters have marketing as an afterthought as their focus is on creating content and publishing as many episodes as they can.

 

However, this practice can be counterproductive. There is no point in uploading tens of podcast episodes if you are not promoting and advertising your channel effectively for people to listen. 

 

There are virtual assistant jobs that specialize in podcast marketing. This includes optimizing your podcast channel for search engines, promoting your content on different platforms such as social media, boosting your online visibility and presence, and so much more.

 

You can righteously focus on producing content and elevating your work when you outsource these tasks to a podcast VA.

 

Bottomline

When you hire virtual assistants for your podcasts, it is important that you have an idea of what they can do and should do for you. Podcast virtual assistants can offer a wide range of support and services. 

 

Whether you need help in editing your raw recordings, marketing your podcast online, and the like. Podcast VAs can significantly lighten your workload, streamline your podcast creation process, as well as boost your podcast performance.

 

Interested in hiring virtual assistants for your online business? Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company, and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Get a free ebook and learn more about how we can help you by signing up for our newsletter. We also offer a free 30-minute consultation if you prefer something more personal.