I launched PodChapters in late 2025 as a podcasting instrument for podcasters such as you and me. It does some issues nobody else is doing, and I believe a few of them are progressive, perhaps even revolutionary (I’ll allow you to resolve that). Sure, that is unapologetically self-promotional, as a result of I imagine in what it could actually do for you and your viewers.
PodChapters makes it simpler so that you can produce extra impactful and fascinating podcast episodes with chapters and transcripts. Right here’s how.
1. Drive motion with podcast chapters [01:44]
Even in the event you don’t have sponsors, you in all probability nonetheless have calls to motion. You may want listeners to share the episode, ship suggestions, go away a score and assessment, use an affiliate hyperlink, purchase one thing of your individual, or come to an occasion.
For instance, I’ll be attending (not educating at) PodINDY in Indianapolis, a small, in-person occasion you may as well watch on-line. Be a part of me at PodINDY on November 7 with promo code “AUDACITY” to avoid wasting $5 on both the digital or in-person move. I earn nothing from recommending it.
Some podcasters keep away from chapters as a result of they suppose chapters make advertisements simpler to skip. To channel a bit of Dave Ramsey (poorly): darling, in the event you’re apprehensive about individuals skipping your advertisements, they’re already skipping your advertisements. Skipping takes a faucet or two on earbuds, a telephone, CarPlay, or Android Auto. Chapters don’t create that habits. They make it simpler in your viewers to get the content material they got here for. I made the complete case in episode 408, “Why and Easy methods to Use Podcast Chapters,” so I received’t repeat it right here.
I believe the most important profit is {that a} chapter can present a title and a hyperlink on the precise second you’re speaking about one thing. You may hyperlink to your sponsor through the sponsor section, to an affiliate product when you suggest it (and disclose that it’s an affiliate hyperlink), or to an occasion’s registration web page. You may even use an electronic mail hyperlink that opens a brand new message along with your deal with, topic line, and a part of the physique already crammed in. In most apps, tapping a chapter hyperlink opens the web page whereas the episode retains taking part in, so listeners don’t have to recollect your URL. It’s nonetheless good to share a speakable, memorable URL, however you may as well say, “or faucet the chapter to leap straight to it.”
Make the chapter title the decision to motion, too. If I promoted Podgagement in an episode, “Podgagement” could be a nice title, nevertheless it doesn’t drive motion. “Attempt Podgagement to trace your world rankings throughout practically 34,000 charts” does. That title can present wherever chapters are supported: a telephone, a watch, a automobile dashboard, a pc, or a browser. PodChapters may even detect hyperlinks you point out in your episode and switch them into chapters for you. So take into consideration what you need your viewers to do in every section, and put that motion proper the place they’ll see it.
2. Enhance affect and engagement with chapters [08:03]
Chapters additionally flip your episode into a visual define. Take into consideration a sermon, a college lesson, or a convention speak. When you possibly can see the define, it’s simpler to comply with alongside and discover your home once more when your thoughts wanders (mine actually does). Chapters do the identical factor in a podcast app. Listeners can see what you’ve lined and what you’re overlaying now, with out scrubbing again by the audio, giving up, and shifting on.
This issues most while you need your viewers to find out about one thing or do one thing. One factor that actually frustrates me is a “instrument of the week” section that names the instrument as soon as firstly, describes it for a number of minutes, and ends with “undoubtedly go test it out.” By the point I’m satisfied, I’ve forgotten what it’s known as. Say the title a number of occasions (which additionally helps search engines like google and yahoo that learn your transcript), and put it within the chapter title so listeners can look at their app and see what you’re speaking about.
Every chapter may have a picture: a brand, a scripture verse, a citation, a chart, some code, or photographs of an individual or place. That provides an audio podcast a visible layer with out video modifying or large video information. The primary time I noticed this finished was again within the days of enhanced AAC podcasts in iTunes, which (at the least at first) you might solely make with GarageBand on a Mac. A fan podcast in regards to the TV present Chuck switched the chapter picture for every scene they mentioned, and even for every character. They didn’t want to clarify the scene as a result of I may see it, and I remembered it extra simply.
I want I had finished that with my outdated As soon as Upon a Time podcast, however chapters weren’t frequent again then, and instruments like PodChapters didn’t exist. As a substitute of sending listeners to an internet site to see a picture, I may have instructed them to have a look at the chapter. In case your content material is instructional or inspirational, displaying one thing as an alternative of solely describing it could actually make your message extra memorable. I’m biased, however I believe PodChapters makes this simpler than anything on the market.
3. Use transcripts to make your podcast accessible for individuals and AI brokers [13:46]
Transcripts aren’t new, and so they aren’t the web optimization magic some individuals declare. I lined what they’re really good for (and never good for) in episode 385, Easy methods to Use Podcast Transcripts. However while you present a transcript by the Podcasting 2.0 transcript tag, you make your podcast extra accessible. That helps people who find themselves deaf or exhausting of listening to. It additionally helps anybody in a loud place, anybody coping with noise in your recording, or anybody who simply desires to see what you stated.
The newer cause is AI brokers. I take advantage of Hermes Agent, and there are a lot of others, like GrokBot, OpenClaw, and Muse, with extra coming as a result of all people’s constructing brokers proper now. Each week when a brand new episode of The Audacity to Podcast publishes, my agent checks the RSS feed, downloads the transcript, and analyzes it. It suggests factors I may promote on social networks and updates my tone-of-voice information. That works as a result of my transcripts replicate what I really stated, not AI-generated slop. The agent may flag filler phrases and overused phrases, counsel product concepts, electronic mail opt-in incentives, and future subjects, and suggest previous episodes to hyperlink to. All of that begins with the transcript.
PodChapters provides you two methods to get one. You may BYOT (deliver your individual transcript) from no matter instrument you already use, or let PodChapters transcribe your episode shortly and affordably. You may information the transcription with correct nouns, like names and made-up phrases equivalent to PodChapters (podcast + chapters) or Podgagement (podcast + engagement), which I can’t belief a dictionary or an AI to spell. You too can add primary find-and-replace guidelines, establish audio system, and take away filler phrases like “uh.” Transcription makes use of probably the most AI credit, which is why BYOT exists, however PodChapters transcripts are greater constancy as a result of each phrase will get its personal timestamp. Most different instruments timestamp entire traces, and that makes chapter placement much less exact. You may obtain a PodChapters transcript as a VTT file with correct line lengths, or let PodChapters host your Podcasting 2.0 transcript and chapters for you.
That transcript powers chapter strategies. Different instruments counsel chapters too, however PodChapters provides you extra management: you select fewer or extra chapters, and titles that vary from strict (near what you stated) to inventive (extra thematic). As a result of I converse my define in my episodes, the strict setting has nailed my define each time, so I hardly ever want the outline-to-chapters function anymore. That function continues to be there if you wish to paste in a top level view you didn’t converse phrase for phrase.
The most recent piece is a transcript editor. It has discover and exchange with common expressions (the geeks are excited). For instance, regardless of how I information it, the transcription engine typically writes “the audacity to podcast.com” with areas. If I add s? wherever an area may sneak in (s matches an area, and ? makes it elective), one rule fixes each variation. The editor additionally exhibits your chapters contained in the transcript, with a top level view beside it, and you may drag a chapter and drop it between phrases, sentences, or audio system. Many instruments place chapters solely to the closest second, which may clip phrases. PodChapters already used millisecond precision, and now you possibly can test placement at a look as an alternative of listening and skipping round. I don’t know of anybody else doing it this fashion, and I adore it. Attempt the brand new transcript editor in PodChapters and see how a lot quicker your chapter placement will get.
4. Drastically pace up your manufacturing workflow [25:58]
I constructed PodChapters for myself first. I used to be utilizing as much as 5 apps and spending about half-hour per episode simply so as to add chapters and a transcript. I understand how to code, and I hated how gradual and handbook that was. Now PodChapters processes one in all my episodes in about 30 seconds, and I’m often finished with the transcript, chapters, and tags in a minute or two.
That issues much more in the event you produce a number of exhibits, whether or not you’re a service supplier, an company, a community, or somebody who found that after you pod, you possibly can’t cease. Presets can prefill your ID3 tags, transcription directions, notes construction, and extra. Mine at all times units The Audacity to Podcast because the album tag. Presets may apply routinely primarily based on the filename. My episodes begin with “faucet” and a three-digit quantity, like tap452.mp3, so importing one applies my preset. Even with one present, that saves me a number of clicks each time.
The picture library shops pictures you reuse, like merchandise, individuals, locations, or previous episodes. I like to recommend saving each new episode’s picture there so it’s prepared while you point out that episode later. The chapter library goes additional: it saves an entire chapter (title, URL, and picture) so you possibly can drop it into any future episode as an alternative of copying, pasting, and re-uploading. Dave Jackson from College of Podcasting and Ask the Podcast Coach says it’s his favourite PodChapters function as a result of he has sure segments in each episode. When you repeat segments, sponsors, or calls to motion, these libraries can prevent actual time.
5. Guarantee compatibility for automations with correct metadata [32:24]
I’m an enormous proponent of Podcasting 2.0, however many podcast apps nonetheless learn chapters solely from the MP3 file. Different instruments use the file’s ID3 tags for automations and integrations, and even some embedded net gamers show these tags as an alternative of pulling data out of your RSS feed.
PodChapters writes your ID3 tags, MP3 chapters, and paintings into the episode file. You obtain the chaptered MP3 and add that to your podcast-hosting supplier. Since most of that metadata can dwell in a preset, you solely replace what’s distinctive to every episode. If you need your episode to work accurately all over the place it goes, be certain that the file itself carries the proper data.
6. Leverage a number of fashionable and legacy requirements higher than your opponents [33:59]
Some podcasters make Podcasting 2.0 chapters (and I really like that), however they don’t put chapters within the MP3, so listeners utilizing legacy apps get nothing. PodChapters handles each. You may embed chapters within the MP3, copy or obtain the Podcasting 2.0 JSON file, or let PodChapters host these chapters for you. That internet hosting will do some actually cool issues sooner or later. Simply saying. When you can change the chapters URL out of your present supplier, you may need to use the PodChapters one as an alternative.
PodChapters additionally creates Podlove Easy Chapters, which Spotify wants, in case your publishing instrument doesn’t already make them. When you cross-post to YouTube (no matter your opinion or mine on that), you possibly can copy your chapters as YouTube timestamps. There’s additionally a Markdown export that features timestamps and the hyperlinks out of your chapters.
You don’t even need to create your chapters in PodChapters to learn. If one other system generates your Podcasting 2.0 chapters, add your MP3 and people chapters. PodChapters can embed them within the file and convert them to Podlove Easy Chapters and YouTube timestamps. Supporting each format your viewers may use is a straightforward method to serve them higher than exhibits that assist just one.
7. Share a number of issues in every chapter with Chapter Useful resource Pages [36:25]
This function is model new, and so far as I do know, nobody else has finished it. It’s additionally a step towards what I name tremendous chapters. Right here’s the issue. Say you could have a “instruments of the week” section. Discover I stated instruments, plural. Legacy MP3 chapters and the trendy Podcasting 2.0 chapters commonplace each enable just one title, one elective picture, and one elective hyperlink per chapter. So how do you hyperlink one chapter to a number of issues?
You employ a chapter useful resource web page. I don’t like evaluating to different manufacturers, however it will in all probability take advantage of sense: think about a Linktree web page for every chapter. The useful resource web page turns into that chapter’s hyperlink. When listeners faucet it, they get a easy, mobile-friendly web page with buttons that you simply label and level wherever you need. You too can add and rearrange textual content blocks for a citation, code to repeat, a scripture verse, an outline, or your affiliate disclaimer.
Useful resource pages may maintain picture galleries. Think about you’re speaking about your journey to the Grand Canyon and need to share 20 photographs. Earlier than, you’d ship listeners to an internet site or create 20 chapters, which forces them to see every picture at your tempo. They’d need to pause to linger on one or wait so that you can transfer to the subsequent. With a gallery, they will swipe (or click on and use the arrow keys on a pc) at their very own tempo. Because the pictures aren’t embedded within the MP3, they are often larger, greater decision, and any side ratio.
Useful resource pages are reusable, too. If I make one for my favourite podcast-hosting suppliers, I can import it every time I point out them once more. You may reuse the identical web page so edits apply all over the place, or copy it so modifications apply solely to the brand new model. Each button hyperlink additionally exhibits up within the Markdown define with its button textual content, so you possibly can publish brief, actionable notes in your RSS feed (in case your publishing instrument lets the feed differ out of your web site) as an alternative of lengthy weblog posts that don’t belong in a podcast app. Attempt PodChapters to make your individual chapter useful resource pages!
Each one in all these options, from presets and libraries to transcription, chapter strategies, define placement, and useful resource pages, began as one thing I wished for myself. Then I checked out what pissed off different podcasters about current chapter and transcript instruments and constructed PodChapters to repair these issues. It’d even prevent cash by changing a few of the instruments you’re paying for now.
PodChapters has a free trial, so you possibly can chapter your subsequent episode in much less time than it takes your espresso (or tea, in the event you’re like me) to chill down. The Primary plan covers handbook chapter placement and format conversions, however not chapter useful resource pages. The Good plan prices beneath $10 per thirty days and covers about 4 or 5 episodes, relying on episode size and whether or not you deliver your individual transcript. I constructed PodChapters to make podcasting simpler and higher for you, and most of all, higher in your viewers.
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Disclosure
This put up might comprise hyperlinks to services or products with which I’ve an affiliate relationship. I’ll obtain compensation out of your actions by such hyperlinks. Nevertheless, I don’t let that corrupt my perspective and I don’t suggest solely associates.
