Start a podcast: the honest first 90 days

By James Jones, founder of Granary Digital · Updated 5 November 2026

Starting a podcast takes about 90 days if you want to do it properly, and the first audience is likely to be small. Plan for that from the start: a show you can keep making, recorded ahead of launch, with time set aside to tell people about it. This plan follows the order that tends to work, with figures from surveys of working podcasters so you can set your expectations before you start.

What surveys of podcasters say

Two sets of figures shape the plan below. Both come from podcast companies surveying their own audiences, so treat them as a guide to what people like you report, not as a measure of the whole market.

The Independent Podcaster Report 2025, published by Alitu, surveyed 558 independent podcasters. Its cost figures are in dollars, so read them as a rough guide for the UK.

• 72% of active podcasters named growing an audience as their biggest challenge. Making money came next at 39%, then audience engagement at 32% and time and burnout at 30%.
• Half had fewer than 50 downloads per episode in the first week. A further 18% had 50 to 99.
• 52% did everything themselves, with no help.
• On time, 28% spent four to five hours per episode and 27% spent one to three. 13% spent more than ten.
• 46% published weekly and 23% every two weeks.
• 41% had never considered quitting. Among the reasons for considering it, struggling to grow an audience came first (30%), then lack of time (25%) and burnout (22%).

The Podcast Host asked 266 podcasters where they get stuck. Promotion came first at 47%, ahead of ideas and planning (17.9%), editing (13.4%) and recording (8.4%). Its separate survey of aspiring podcasters found that nearly 60% named promotion and audience growth as their main barrier to launching.

The pattern is the same in both: making the show is manageable, and getting it heard is the hard part. The plan puts that in from the first week.

Days 1 to 14: decide

Do these before you buy anything.

1. Write one sentence on who the show is for and what they get. "Practical advice for first-time landlords in 20 minutes" beats "a podcast about property".
2. Choose a format. Interview, panel, solo or narrative each demand different things from you. The format chooser helps you choose.
3. Test the idea with titles. Write 15 to 20 episode titles and ask whether a new listener would find them compelling. If you run out at eight, the idea may be too narrow, or you may need a different angle.
4. Pick a rhythm you can keep. Weekly is the most common in the survey, followed by every two weeks. A fortnightly show you finish beats a weekly one you drop in month two. Our piece on why business podcasts stop at episode seven is worth reading before you decide.
5. Fix a length. Choose the length your subject needs, then keep close to it from episode to episode.

Days 15 to 45: record a first batch

Record several episodes before you publish any. A batch gives you a buffer for the weeks when life gets in the way, and it shows you early whether the format holds up.

• Keep the kit simple. A decent microphone, headphones and a quiet room are enough. Room sound matters more than the price of the microphone.
• Book guests early. Guests cancel and reschedule, and a diary full of promises is not a recording. The guest booking email and prep sheet saves you writing the same email repeatedly.
• Record, listen, adjust. Your first two episodes are practice. Listen back for room echo, levels and your own filler words, and fix what you can.
• Keep a log of time. Note how many hours each episode takes from planning to published. If it is more than you can sustain, change the process now.

Days 46 to 75: edit, package, prepare

• Edit to a routine. Clean, tighten, mix, master, in that order, every time.
• Choose a podcast host and set up the feed. Your host gives you the feed address. Check which directories it submits to for you and submit to the rest yourself.
• Write the title, description and artwork. Use searchable words in the show name and episode titles, because that is how strangers find you.
• Make a short trailer and a set of social posts for each episode.
• List the first 20 people who might listen or share: colleagues, clients, past guests, people in your field. Your first audience will largely come from people you already know.

Days 76 to 90: launch and review

• Publish with several episodes live so a new listener has something to binge.
• Tell your 20 people personally. A direct message beats a general post.
• Ask for a share in every episode. Make the request specific, as in "send this to one person who would use it".
• Split your effort. The Podcast Host suggests roughly 80% of your time on making consistent, good episodes and 20% on promotion. That is a starting point rather than a rule, but most new shows spend nearly nothing on the second part.
• Review at day 90. Check how long you actually spent per episode, which episodes people finished and where listeners came from. Decide what to keep, change or drop.

What it costs

In the Alitu survey, 40% of podcasters paid $10 to $49 a month for software and hosting, 16% paid $50 to $99 and 20% paid $100 or more. Video podcasters were more likely to be paying $50 or more. Those are the running costs for people who mostly record at home.

If you would rather not buy and learn the kit, or you want video and a finished edit, a studio is the other route. At our Podcast Studio a solo session is from £108 an hour and a recorded episode with three-camera video, edit and short cuts is £395, both plus VAT. Our video podcast cost breakdown compares the options.

Check-points along the way

Set three dates in your diary now so the plan does not drift.

Each check takes ten minutes. Their value is that you decide on purpose, rather than discovering at week eight that you have stopped.

Common mistakes

• Launching with one episode. Give new listeners several to try.
• Choosing a rhythm you cannot hold. Time and burnout are among the main reasons podcasters think of stopping.
• Judging the show by its first week. Half of the podcasters surveyed had fewer than 50 downloads per episode in week one.
• Leaving promotion to the end. It is the thing most people say they get stuck on.
• Buying kit before you have a subject. A phone and a quiet cupboard will show you whether you like doing it.
• Changing the format every few episodes. Listeners need to know what they are getting.

Sources

• Alitu, The Independent Podcaster Report 2025, read 5 November 2026
• The Podcast Host, What Problems Do Podcasters Struggle With?, read 5 November 2026
• The Podcast Host, Biggest Barrier for Aspiring Podcasters? 60% Say Marketing, read 5 November 2026

Related guides

• Podcast format chooser: interview, panel, solo or narrative
• Name, artwork and trailer checklist for a new podcast
• Episode planner and run sheet
• Guest booking email and prep sheet
• All guides and tools

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.