How to start a podcast on YouTube (free, for beginners)

Many people now find and listen to podcasts on YouTube, often with the screen off or on a TV in the background. Unlike most podcast apps, YouTube recommends shows to people who have never heard of them, which makes it one of the few places a new podcast can be discovered by strangers.

The trade-off is that YouTube rewards consistency and good titles and thumbnails, and it takes time to build up.

You have three ways to put a podcast on YouTube:

• Full video: film yourself and your guests. Most engaging, most work.
• Simple video: audio with a static image or waveform, plus video clips of the best moments. Much less work.
• Audio only from an RSS feed: in supported regions, YouTube Studio can import episodes from your podcast's RSS feed and publish them with your cover art.

Many shows start with simple video or RSS and add filming later. See how to start a video podcast if you want to film.

Creating a YouTube channel is free. Use a clear channel name, a profile image that matches your podcast cover art, and a banner that says what the show is and when new episodes come out.

In YouTube Studio, create a playlist for your episodes and mark it as a podcast. That tells YouTube to treat the episodes as a podcast and show them in podcast surfaces.

If you film, upload each episode as a video with a strong title, a custom thumbnail and chapters in the description. If you publish audio only, check whether YouTube Studio offers RSS feed import in your country, and if so add your feed so new episodes appear automatically.

Either way, you need a finished, well-edited episode first. Hilite records, cleans up and edits the audio, then publishes your RSS feed to podcast platforms. For a full video edit, export the clean audio and sync it in your video editor.

On YouTube, the title and thumbnail decide whether anyone clicks. Use titles that describe a specific outcome or question rather than "Episode 12". Show a face in the thumbnail if you film.

Post short vertical clips as Shorts for every episode. They are the most effective way for a new channel to reach people who do not subscribe yet. For inspiration, see the best podcasts on YouTube.