How to Start a Podcast on YouTube 2025 (Step-by-Step Guide)

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How to Start a Podcast on YouTube 2025 (Step-by-Step Guide)

Key Points

More people watch podcasts on YouTube than any other platform
Younger generations find more podcasts on YouTube than anywhere else
YouTube is the best way to get your podcast in front of new viewers organically
You need to verify your identity in YouTube Studio to upload videos over 15 minutes
Profile picture should be 800x800 pixels and channel banner should be 2048x1152 pixels
Keep important text and imagery in the center of your channel banner for visibility across platforms
Record with high-quality video and audio using local recording on each person's device
Share your screen while recording to keep the podcast visually engaging
Create a custom thumbnail for every episode in 16:9 aspect ratio (3840x2160 pixels for 4K)
Mark one playlist as a podcast to tell YouTube it's a podcast and appear in YouTube Music
Upload square podcast artwork (up to 3000 pixels square) for the podcast playlist
Be careful not to include copyrighted material like extended media clips or music
You can download SRT transcripts and upload them to YouTube for better subtitles
Schedule episodes to publish in the morning for the best chance of being discovered
Create YouTube Shorts from your episodes to promote your show across platforms
Post Shorts consistently (daily if possible) when you don't have full episodes
Use vertical 9:16 format with animated captions for Shorts to maximize engagement
Add video and image overlays to Shorts to make them visually engaging

Full Transcript

Language: en
If you want your podcast to be
discovered and grow your audience, you
need to be on YouTube. More people watch
podcasts on YouTube than any other
platform. Younger generations find more
podcasts on YouTube than anywhere else.
And right now, it is still the best way
to get your podcast in front of new
viewers and listeners organically. So,
in this video, I'm going to give you the
entire process from creating your
YouTube channel, what to do about
artwork, then how to record and edit
that video podcast, and how to publish
on YouTube, both your long- form
episodes and shorts to find and grow
that audience. By the way, I'm Steven
Robles. I've been podcasting for 15
years. I've grown audio shows to
millions of downloads, and my latest
podcast, which is a tech show just over
a year old, is already over 2 and a half
thousand subscribers and has reached
almost 400,000 views. So, let's get
started. The first thing you need to do
is log in with your Google account. Just
go to youtube.com. If you don't already
have a Google account, you can create a
free one here. And if you've never
created a channel before, once you're
logged in, just click the profile icon
in the top right, and then go down to
YouTube Studio. It's okay if this is the
first time you've ever visited it.
You'll see this prompt where you can
actually create a new channel, set a
profile picture, and we'll talk more
about artwork both for your channel and
your episodes in just a moment. You can
set your name and handle. And keep in
mind, this is going to be the name for
your channel. So, whatever the podcast
name is, go ahead and put it here. And
for the handle, try to choose something
that doesn't need numbers or dashes.
Ideally, you'll be promoting it in the
podcast, saying subscribe to our channel
at youtube.com/.
And then whatever you say after that
slash, hopefully it's simple and easy to
remember. For our channel, we went with
primary tech show. Now, once you created
that channel, when you click your
profile icon in the future, you'll be
able to switch account and actually go
between multiple channels. And if you
have a personal account where you didn't
have a channel connected, that will be
there as well. Next, let's go back and
jump into the actual YouTube Studio.
YouTube Studio is where you're going to
manage, upload your future episodes, and
create a playlist that you specifically
mark as a podcast. I'll show you that in
a few minutes as well. Being that you
just created the channel, there's not
going to be a lot to do here, but you
might want to verify your identity,
which gives you the ability to upload
longer videos, which a podcast episode
fits in that category. You'll want to go
down to these settings here in the
bottom left. Go to channel. Here you can
put some basic info like keywords about
what this channel is about or what your
podcast is about. You can go over to
advanced settings and set some defaults
for every video that you upload. And
then go over to feature eligibility.
This is where you can actually confirm
your identity, give it a phone number.
so it can text you a code. And you'll at
least want to do the intermediate
features because that's where you get
videos over 15 minutes in length. Once
you verify with a phone number, now
you're good to upload your first episode
with a custom thumbnail. And another
tip, while you're here in the settings,
you can go to upload defaults and
actually set information here in the
description that will automatically be
populated when you start uploading a new
video. So if that's links to your social
media, maybe where audience can support
you on Patreon, you can fill out that
boilerplate text here in the
description, and then that will always
be there when you upload a new video.
Now, when it comes to artwork for your
YouTube channel, there's two pieces
you'll need. Your profile picture and
your channel banner. You can see here on
our YouTube page, this is the profile
picture right here. Looks like a circle.
And then the channel banner shows up
large here on top. I'll put a link to
this page in the video description
below, but this page from YouTube tells
you how large each piece of artwork
needs to be. The profile picture ideally
is 800 by 800 pixels wide, and the
channel banner can be 2048 x 1152 in a
16x9 aspect ratio. Now, just to give you
an idea, this is our channel banner. And
keep in mind, only this middle part is
actually going to show up on some
platforms like YouTube on the web and
the YouTube app on mobile devices. So,
as you're making that channel banner, if
you want to put any text or maybe
imagery, make sure it's in the center of
that image. And the rest of it just
needs to kind of be a background type
texture or image, which is normally seen
on TV platforms. Now, I use Pixelmator
to make my artwork for the podcast,
including thumbnails and episode
artwork, but you can use any application
like Photoshop. And if you're just
starting out, trying Canva, which has a
bunch of templates available, probably a
great place to start. Now, once you have
those pieces of artwork, back here in
the YouTube studio, go down to
customization, and this is where you can
upload that banner image and the profile
picture. You'll also see how it's
cropped when you upload it, and you can
adjust that if it's not the exact size.
Here you'll have the name and handle,
which you can change after you create
the channel, but you only get to do that
a certain amount of times. So, try to
set the right name and handle when you
create the channel. You can also add a
description for the channel and so this
would be about your podcast and you'll
have the direct URL to your channel
custom URL and you can add links so
again to your social media maybe a place
to support the podcast and these links
will appear on your YouTube channel
page. So your channel is set up. You
have your artwork and description set.
Let's record an episode in high quality
that'll look great on the channel. Now
I've recorded every episode of our video
podcast using Riverside. All past 86
episodes are right here a co-host.
Sometimes we have a third guest. And
when you record with Riverside, you get
highquality video and audio that's
recorded locally on each person's
device. And then I edit it here in
Riverside as well. When I'm ready to
record, it's as easy as jumping in,
hitting the record button, choosing my
camera, microphone, and speaker. And
then I'm here in the Riverside studio
ready to record. To invite a co-host or
interview guest, I can just click the
invite button here, send them an email
using this form, or just copy this link
and send it to them. They open this link
in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge web
browser or they can record from the app
on their mobile device or iPad. They'll
join me here in the studio and will be
recorded in high quality. Now, being a
video podcast, you want your video and
audio to be high quality and Riverside
will take care of that recording. But if
you need some help on gear, maybe
upgrading your USB mic or camera. We
have a ton of videos on the channel
about that. I'll link one of mine right
up here where I go through different
budget levels to help you get the best
video and audio with what you have. And
the next thing I do to actually keep my
podcast visually engaging is I share my
screen while we're recording. The reason
why is Riverside's editor will actually
put it together for me. So, as I'm
recording, I might choose a tab or a
window. You can even share your entire
screen. And this way, me and my co-host,
we're still recording. And now we have a
visual next to us. And doing this while
I record means less editing time later.
If you want to see my entire process for
recording and editing a video show, I'll
link that video above as well and put it
down in the description. And then once
we're done recording, Riverside has a
bunch of AI tools that helps me edit
super fast. For instance, I can go into
the Riverside editor and in here I can
apply my podcast brand with a single
click. I'll click apply. I can go up to
the AI producer and do things like
remove pauses, remove filler words, all
with a single click. And I also apply
smart mute, which will mute the other
person's track when they're not talking.
Helps clean up that audio even more. I
can even apply smart layouts and
Riverside will give me a multic-cam look
switching between the active speaker
automatically. And that quickly I have a
professionally edited podcast episode
that's switching camera angles, no
silences, no filler words, and I'm
almost done editing. If I want to make
even more granular edits, I have the
transcript right here on the left and I
can just select text, click the trash
can to delete it, and I've edited my
video and audio just by deleting text
like it's a Word document. And then
typically at the beginning of our
episodes, I like to add some image and
video overlays, which you can do all
right here in the Riverside editor.
Search for royalty-free media or upload
your own. You can also add animated
captions here. And then when you're
ready to export, you can just export
here and up to 4K quality. That's what I
do for all of our episodes. Then back
here on the Riverside dashboard, all
your exports live here under exports. I
have the full episode right here. And
I'll download that to show you how we
then upload it to YouTube and create a
playlist. Now that we've recorded,
edited, and downloaded our full video
episode, here we are back on YouTube,
and let's upload it. I'll click create
here in the top right corner. Upload
videos, and then select that video file
you downloaded from Riverside. Now,
every time you upload a video, you'll
see this video details page. This is
where you put the title for the episode,
the description, upload a custom
thumbnail, and more. Now, as you can
see, there was a bunch of text I have in
the upload defaults, like our social
media handles, and so that's already
there. I don't have to fill it out every
time. I'll paste the title for this
episode. I'll scroll down and you'll see
a place for a thumbnail. You do want to
create a custom thumbnail for every
episode. I have a Pixelmator document
where I keep some elements and just kind
of remake it every week. Again, you can
do this in Canva or Photoshop. I like
putting the episode number on top of it.
But when it's a new episode, I actually
like doing this little new tag. This
way, when someone sees these thumbnails
at a glance, they know which episode is
the new one and which is a past episode.
And then I actually change this
thumbnail once we publish our next
episode. Thumbnail should be 16x9 aspect
ratio and I do mine in 4K resolution. So
that's 3840x 2160 pixels. So I'll upload
our thumbnail. See it has that little
new tag. And then here under playlist,
you'll see I have a specific playlist
marked as a podcast. I'll show you how
to do this in a moment. But new episodes
of your show you want to add to that
single playlist. Then you can add other
videos like shorter clips or maybe just
other videos on the channel that aren't
part of the podcast. And then you
wouldn't check that box. Underneath that
there's a show more. And I like telling
YouTube that there's no AI generated
content in this. And I put some tags
here that have to do with the episode.
If you have a monetized channel, you can
turn that on here. Adability. This is
you agreeing that there's no copyrighted
material in your episode. So, be careful
if you're sharing your screen or playing
video clips during your podcast that
you're not playing extended portions of
media from other channels, something you
got off YouTube or copyrighted music.
Then, under video elements, you can add
subtitles or YouTube will generate those
for you. Pro tip, you can download the
SRT transcript from Riverside once
you're done editing and then upload that
to YouTube for better subtitles. You can
add an end screen here, which will plug
multiple videos at the very end. And
cards are actually links to other videos
you can place throughout this episode.
So, I can go 12 minutes in and then link
one of my other playlists or videos. And
that's why sometimes you'll hear people
on YouTube say, "Check the video out up
here." That's because there's a little
eye icon that you can click and actually
watch that video. Next, this will be
checks that YouTube is doing for
copyrighted material. And you're ready
to publish it. Now, you can publish it
publicly. You can schedule to publish at
a later time, which if you're doing this
in the middle of the night, maybe
schedule it to publish the next morning
for the best chance of being discovered.
and you get the link to this episode
right here. And that's it. You've
uploaded an episode and it's live for
the world to see. Now, let's create that
playlist that we can mark as a podcast
that tells YouTube this is a podcast.
Back here in your YouTube studio, go to
content. And here, this is where you'll
see all your past videos, episodes, and
other things you've uploaded. You'll
also see shorts, which we're going to
talk about in a moment to help promote
your show. But let's go over to
playlists. This is where if you create a
playlist, which you can do here on the
create button and do new playlist or new
podcast, you can then mark one of those
playlists as a podcast. So, I would roll
over, click the three dots, and then
choose set as podcast. This gives you a
couple more options. When you set a
playlist as a podcast, you can title the
playlist the name of the podcast. So,
technically, you could have a different
channel name than the actual podcast
name, and this will show up in the
YouTube Music app specifically. You can
have a different description for the
podcast. And you would also want to
upload a square piece of artwork as the
podcast art. This could be up to 3,000
pixels square. And I use the same
artwork that I have on Apple Podcast and
Spotify, the one you would give to your
podcast host. Obviously, you want the
visibility public. And then future
episodes, you'll check that box that
adds those episodes to this playlist.
So, it's marked as a podcast. You can
also have quick access if you have
multiple podcasts and you want to see
them at a glance right here. So marking
that playlist as a podcast does a couple
things. One, on your main channel, when
someone's visiting, they'll actually see
a podcast tab. And then that podcast
will be here, which is actually that
playlist. And if they click in, they
actually get the playlist of all the
past episodes. They can also click into
view full podcast, and they'll see your
podcast laid out like this. That also
tells YouTube maybe this should be
featured in the dedicated podcast page.
Under the explore section here in the
lefth hand sidebar, there is a dedicated
podcast page. Your chances vary whether
or not you'll be featured here, what
category you're in, but different people
see different shows featured based on
their interest. So, if you have a tech
podcast, you're likely to at least be
seen at times if someone's browsing this
podcast page. Podcast is also seen in
the YouTube app. So, your episode is
live. You've set your playlist as a
podcast. You have your artwork. Now, how
can you get the word out even faster
about your show? For that, you're going
to want to create shorts and publish
them here on YouTube and also use them
as reals on Instagram, Tik Toks, and
even on platforms like LinkedIn. You'll
see here on our channel, if you go under
shorts, we post a lot of shorts.
Basically, we post shorts every day.
We're not posting a full episode. How do
you generate this much content if you're
just a solo creator? Well, that's where
Riverside comes to the rescue. Once
again, on that same episode page where
we edited our podcast and exported it, I
can create something called Magic Clips.
and Magic Clips. I can format as
vertical videos, automatically add
animated captions. And when I click
generate clips, it's going to make six
to eight vertical videos about a minute
long that are perfect for YouTube
shorts. You'll see here I've exported a
bunch of them for this episode already.
And you'll see Riverside automatically
formatted this as a vertical 9x6 clip,
automatically put animated captions on
it. And then being short form video, you
want to make it as visually engaging as
possible. So I can go over to the video
overlay tool here in Riverside. I can
upload video clips from my computer.
I'll make those full screen, maybe crop
it a little differently. And now I have
video overlays. I can add image overlays
with the animated captions all right
here in Riverside. I can also search for
royalty-free images or B-roll, upload my
own, and then export this to quickly
create multiple vertical clips per
episode. And then you can upload them
all at once and schedule them to publish
every morning where you don't have a
full episode. And that's what we've been
doing for the last year and a half. and
our dedicated podcast channel, that's
all this channel is, already has over 2
and a half thousand subscribers and a
growing audience that keeps coming back
for more. So, that's how to start,
launch, and grow your podcast on
YouTube. If you have any questions,
leave comments below this video. I'll
answer you personally. And subscribe to
the Riverside channel right here and hit
that like button. Lots of videos on
helping you with lighting, your setup,
editing your podcast with Riverside, and
even five ways to monetize your podcast,
even with a small audience. If you want
to learn more about that, I'll link the
video right here. And if you want to see
my entire behind-the-scenes process of
how I record a podcast, I did a video on
that right up here. Thanks for watching.

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