How I Started a Podcast for Less Than $200

On January 18th, 2020, I launched a podcast called How We came — UVM Stories. Today, I even have 21 episodes and nearly 1,000 downloads. I had a little budget, no previous podcasting experience, and no pre-existing audience. Here’s what I did to supply and distribute the podcast.
Recording Equipment and Software

Once I had my idea for the podcast, my guests lined up, and inquiries to ask defined, I began to get a microphone.

The sheer number of microphones and conflicting messaging on the simplest one to use led me to get this: the Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone (price: $60).
This microphone is currently unavailable on Amazon as a stand-alone product, but you'll pip out for $120 bundled with headphones and a pop filter.
This is a USB microphone that produces great sound quality. I met with a knowledgeable podcast producer and he told me that unless I planned to spend significantly extra money, this model would do the trick.

Oh, and this is often the microphone Tim Ferris sometimes uses for his podcast. His show has over a million downloads.

Next up, I purchased a pop filter. A pop filter, seen within the above image, can help to enhance sound quality by eliminating popping sounds produced by words that typically start with “P” or “B.”
Pop filters aren’t very expensive, and that I wanted any edge I could get to enhance sound quality, so I purchased this one: the Aokeo Professional Microphone Pop Filter Mask Shield For Blue Yeti and the other Microphone, Dual-Layered Wind Pop Screen With a versatile 360° Gooseneck Clip Stabilizing Arm (price: $16).

Don’t be fooled by the long product description — this pop filter was extremely easy to connect to my Audio Technica microphone.

Now that I had my microphone and pop filter, I began to get some quality headphones. this is often a step you'll skip altogether, as you likely have a pair reception already, but I wanted studio monitoring headphones to assist me to catch more sound issues during my editing process. I purchased the Audio-Technica ATH-M20x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones(price: $49).
With all of my hardware equipment settled, my next move was to work out the way to record episodes with my guests.

I wanted something free, required no download, and recorded myself and guests on separate tracks. There are many options for you out there, but I started with this one and haven’t looked back since: Zencastr — hi-fi Podcasting.

Zencastr has only crashed on me just one occasion and they’ve since fixed the difficulty. It doesn't leave you to ascertain your guests on video and doesn’t work on a mobile device, but it's a very solid and effective option for those of you getting started.

Editing and Production
If you’ve made it this far within the article, you're in luck. the subsequent software I exploit to edit podcasts is comparatively unknown (for now) within the market and makes editing incredibly easy by transcribing your audio into the text: Descript (price: free for up to 3 hours of transcription, $14 per month then ).
Simply upload your audio file from Zencastr into Descript and it'll automatically level your sound and transcribe that audio into text. It’s easy to record intros and outros, insert music and take away “ums” and “uhs” by simply highlighting the text and deleting it.

To tally up the numbers thus far, I’ve spent $125 on equipment and leveraged the free versions of Zencastr and Descript.

Disclaimer — I did later upgrade to paid subscriptions from Zencastr and Descript to support the launch of a second podcast, but if you've got only one show, the free versions are enough!
With $75 left to play with, I made a decision to take a position in an intro and outro to form my podcast sound more professional: Fiverr (price starting at $5 for podcast intro and outro).
Fiverr is a tremendous platform crammed with talented people. you'll hire people to try to everything associated with a podcast — editing, show notes, cover art, episode summaries, and descriptions, etc.
While my first few episodes featured an intro I recorded myself on Descript, I used to be ready to connect with a talented producer on Fiverr to make a reusable intro and outro for around $30.

Distribution
This was the fun part on my behalf.
I recorded, edited, and produced my first real podcast episodes!
The question I then had was how the heck I used to be getting to catch on posted on all of the varied podcast listening platforms — Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher.
I found a solution: Anchor.FM (price: free).

There are many podcast distribution services, some free, some paid, but Anchor really caught my attention because tons of the podcasts I hear use it for his or her own distribution.
It’s simple to set-up, they distribute your podcasts to most listening platforms automatically, you get a public site link, you'll easily run ads in your podcast, you get detailed analytics, and more!
The only downside I’ve encountered with Anchor is that you simply can only manage one podcast per account, which isn't a problem if you've got one show you're managing.
The final touch on distribution required a way better cover photo than I created myself.
I spent my remaining $45 hiring a designer from Fiverr to style my cover art: Fiverr (price starting at $15 for canopy art).

Conclusion
Whether you're a private or business, creating a podcast is within your reach.
And it’s within your budget!
Podcasts are often great for several things — to succeed in an existing audience, to create a replacement one, to attach with guests, or maybe simply as a mechanism to urge your voice out there to ascertain what comes of it.
My experience starting this podcast has been very rewarding and has opened more doors than I ever thought it might. I’m sure it is often for you too.