Are you frustrated trying to choose the perfect podcast name for your show? In this episode, I talk about the important topic of naming your podcast and I provide strategies for selecting a name that resonates with listeners, emphasises the podcast’s content, and aids in discoverability. the various ways to name your podcast and some considerations around each of these. I also share how to check if the chosen name is available and not already in use. And I have created a special tool to help you which is a creative starting point for establishing a distinctive podcast identity.
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More about Podcasting Tips & Tricks
Podcasting Tips & Tricks is a show designed to share quick, actionable tips and tricks for launching and growing a successful podcast and is aimed at both new and seasoned podcasters. We’ll cover a range of topics from launching your podcast, editing, publishing, hosting, equipment, systems and processes, marketing, monetising, industry news and lots more.
Podcast awareness and listenership are growing year-on-year so it’s no surprise that it is still growing in 2024. And now is a great time for small business owners and entrepreneurs to launch a podcast to raise brand awareness and position their expertise whilst building authority and trust.
I’m Lyndal Harris, Podcast Consultant and founder of Podcast VA where my team and I simplify the podcasting journey. We offer a variety of done-for-support services, online and in-person training, as well as strategy sessions and health checks. At Podcast VA, we have launched hundreds of podcasts for both Australian and international clients, who collectively captivate millions of listeners worldwide. And quite a number of these shows have hit number 1 in the charts!
Transcript:
Choosing a Podcast Name that Resonates
[0:15] Hello and welcome back to another episode of Podcasting Tips and Tricks. I am your host, Lyndall Harris, and this episode is brought to you by Podcast VA, where we simplify the podcasting journey. Today’s episode is a repurposed episode that I put out in one of the first seasons a few years ago, and it’s all about naming your podcast. I still see this question and get asked it all the time and I hear this frustration quite often. And so I decided to record or republish an old episode because since then I have created a podcast name generator tool. It is an AI tool that will help you come up with ideas for your podcast name. It might not come up with the exact name that you want to use, but it will certainly come up with a list of ideas and it might be a good starting point for you to work on naming your show. Like any AI tool, you have to give it a little bit of information about your podcast and who your target audience is. And as I say, it might not give you the exact name, but it will certainly give you a list that you might be able to start playing with. You can find that generator tool on my website at podcastva.com, and I will put a link for that in the show notes.
[1:29] So into the episode that I did record a few years ago, which is still relevant today when it talks about ways to name your show, I think you really need to be mindful that there are now millions more podcasts in the podcasting index than there were when I recorded that episode. And that really does mean you want to come up with a good name that people will find.
[1:51] So onto this week’s topic, which is all about your podcast name. Now, Now, this actually came up after a chat with somebody at a networking event or a workshop last week. And this person I was chatting to was really stuck on what to name their podcast. And they really found this as a hurdle with even starting a podcast. So they knew they wanted to do one and they’re quite confident with the content that they would share, but they were really stuck on naming it. And there were a few things that we chatted about, which really helped her. And so it made me think it was a good episode to do. And it might help you if you’re a little stuck on how to name your podcast.
[2:34] Now, there’s a few different things that you can think about when you’re naming it. There’s a few different ways you can name it. Firstly, you could name it after your name, which there are plenty of podcasts out there that do that. So if your personal brand is your business, then perhaps you will call it the Your Name Show. So, for example, one of my clients is Lorraine Murphy and her brand, she is her brand, her personal brand. And so her show is called The Lorraine Murphy Show. So you’ll see a lot of people actually calling the show Your Name Podcast or the Your Name Show. Another way to name it is, you know, something obvious about the topic. So if we take my podcast as an example, mine is all about podcasting. And so podcasting tips and tricks is very obvious what it is about by the title. It pretty much is what it says on the can. So that’s another way that you can do it. You can think about your main topic or your main topics and you can name it after that. Now, you can also name it something quirky, which I really love some podcasts with quirky names. But I guess the one thing you just want to be mindful of here is that if you do use a quirky name, make sure you use a really good tagline so that explains what the podcast is about so that you can come up in searches as well so that you sort of fed through some keywords into that tagline so that you can still be found.
[4:02] So there are three ways that you can actually go about brainstorming the name of your podcast. I do actually get asked quite often is how to check if that’s already gone. So a couple of places that I think is a good way to check if that podcast name is gone is firstly to go into some of the bigger podcast directories like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and even just going into Google and typing in the name of the show that you want to use. So that will bring up any search results. So Google will usually bring up the search results for anything in Apple Podcasts and Spotify that’s named that, but it’s still worth going into the directories and having a look. Some people take it that step further as well and go and check business name directories and see if there is actually a business name with that because quite often a business name will be trademarked. So if you check that business name directory up front, if it’s something that is likely to be called a business name, then that may be worth doing because you don’t want to start your podcast necessarily just to find out in a few weeks after you launch that someone comes and says that you can’t use that name anymore.
[5:09] Now here’s something that you should know. If you’re finding that you get stuck on actually launching your podcast or starting your podcast because you can’t work out the podcast name, you can actually change it down the track. Now obviously I would say it would be great if you can work out that name up front but if you rebrand or something like that down the track then you can change the name of your podcast and it is actually quite an easy process. Some hosting providers actually ask you for a slug when you are setting up your show. So for example, Libsyn ask you to set up a slug, which is the word. So some people will use the name of their show. Others will think a little bit bigger than the name of their show, because if they want to change it down the track, they can’t change that word slug in Libsyn, for example. So just be mindful when you’re naming the slug of your show, if you have to do that in your hosting setup, up that if you are thinking you’re not 100% sure on the name, then maybe make it something that won’t matter down the track.
[6:13] Some hosts, on the other hand, provide like an ID number in the RSS feed as the slug. And therefore, you don’t need to even worry about that. Changing the name of your podcast when you’re hosting on a provider that doesn’t use the slug in the URL makes it very easy. It’s just a matter of going into the host, changing the name in the show settings, and changing your cover art. So that was really what I wanted to touch on today. This person that I was speaking to and a couple of other people that were in the conversation were quite surprised to know that it is easy to change the name down the track and that I was saying don’t let that be the thing that stops you from getting your message out to the world. So hopefully that has helped you if you’re stuck on your podcast name. Look I know when I was thinking about this show So I really sort of bandied around lots of different names and I really wasn’t sure what to go with. And so sometimes just making that decision, going ahead and starting, and then if it really doesn’t resonate with you down the track or you feel that you’ve pivoted your podcast, you can change it then.
[7:19] So I guess the key takeaways there are sit down and brainstorm. How do you want to name your show? Do you want to name it after your name if you’re a personal brand? Do you want to name it after the subject that you’ll be covering? Or do you want to name it something quirky and give it a really smart tagline to make it obvious what it’s about? Do the research and see if there is already a podcast with that name and you can check Google, the podcast directories, as well as business name directories to check that. But know that you can change it and don’t let the name be what stops you from starting your podcast because this is one of those things where you can just push through and just start getting your message out there. So that’s my take on naming your podcast. Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, I have created a podcast name generator tool, which might help you come up with a name for your show. It is an opt-in on my website. And so I will pop a link for that in the show notes and you can jump over there, have a play around with it and see if that helps you with naming your show.
