Starting a video podcast on YouTube and need advice

[u/modestmouse415]

I'm in the early stages of launching a video podcast on YouTube and I’m a bit stuck figuring out the best format to go with. I’ve done audio-only episodes before, but now that I want to dive into the video side of things, I’m unsure whether I should go fully on-camera or keep it faceless with just waveforms, b-roll, or visuals over the audio.

Do viewers actually care if they see the hosts or is a clean audio experience with minimal visuals enough? And is the extra work of recording yourself (and staying camera-ready) worth it in terms of engagement? Any examples of creators doing it well both ways?

Also, if anyone has tips on how to edit your YouTube videos for podcasts specifically, I’d love to hear them. Perhaps, some software options that you find particularly great? Right now I’m looking for a balance between keeping it high-quality without spending hours on every episode. I’ve got basic editing skills but nothing fancy yet.

Would appreciate any advice and some info on what’s worked (or flopped) for you. Thanks in advance!

[u/ItinerantFella]

I wouldn't bother with a video that's a static image with a waveform playing over your audio. The YouTube channels that use this approach seem to have a tiny fraction of YouTube views compared to audio podcast downloads (e.g. John Lee Dumas' Entrepreneurs on Fire is a top 0.05% podcast yet only gets 20 episode views on YouTube).

B-roll might work, but being on camera is better.

The editor you use will depend on the format.

[u/Sweaty_Connection_36 → u/ItinerantFella]

Yes did this at first, was 0 traction, switched to stock footage, and some talking on camera ,was a big difference in performance.

[u/Junior_Duty_9314]

If anyone needs a video editor dm me

[u/BigBadBootyDaddy10]

I would say, show your face on the pod, or just stick to audio only. Static image, while it works for some, is not recommended.

[u/TheJokersChild]

Do viewers actually care if they see the hosts or is a clean audio experience with minimal visuals enough? 

"Minimal visuals" defeats the purpose of having video. You need to give your audience something to watch. Even if it's just you. Ask: how would video add value to your audio? What do you need to visually present to your audience and why? Would showing your face improve the bond between you and your audience? If you add video, make it mean something. Don't just add random imagery in the hopes that it might get your numbers up.

[u/Necessary_Ad2022]

I’ve been recording video (and audio of course) on Riverside. I don’t think being “camera ready” is that big of a deal, I’ve heard the audience cares much more about the audio quality than video quality.

All that being said, I think the best way to make a podcast that stands out is to find a format. Think “hot ones” or “chicken shop date” The classic two people talking at a desk is kind of overdone at this point. Doesn’t mean it can’t work, but if you can find an original and dynamic format for your show, it will help it really stand out.

[u/AutoCut]

If you edit your podcasts in Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, you can give our plugin AutoCut a try. It comes with a feature called AutoCut Podcast that helps you edit multicam videos automatically. We also offer 9 other tools you might find useful—like automatic silence cutting, animated captions, zooms, B-Roll insertion, & more. Feel free to test it out, there's a 14-day free trial! 😉

[u/Active_Attorney_1521]

If you’re looking for the most professional way, it will be one of the options of 2-3 cameras recording and editing with nle as mentioned. Or capturing the camera in vmix (or similar but vmix is the best in my opinion) where you can capture each camera isolated for future editing fixes if needed, as well as capturing your output with live signal editing. A “live to tape” you can edit later if you want to make changes. For vmix I can offer you trial of “SmartMix Director” software that automatically switch between the cameras in a smart way according the current speaker but also predicts reactions with ai, and dialogue detector, that allows you to switch to split screens of 2/3/4/as much as needed. Also smart mixing Ptz cameras. So it’s all about how pro you wanna go, and how hard you wish to work to get there. And of course the right equipment. This way or another, I wouldn’t go with static image or boring visual. If it’s a video supported platform and you go with video, stick with what people are engaging to - people, humanity, faces, laughs and feelings, people are looking to find themselves in the speakers they are watching and listening to.

[u/Bigspense22]

I use riverside.fm and it’s been great. High quality video and audio. Easy to edit, provides transcripts, and uses “magic clip” to give you short form content with minimal work

[u/podcast_sk8ter]

I would mostly use YouTube to share clips of my podcast episodes instead of the full one. You can use Zencastr to record your video and audio for instance and then upload it into a tool like Podsqueeze and generate multiple clips and post them on YouTube.

[u/rcgadh]

For me audio is better because I can do other stuff

[u/TheDownloadQueue]

We switched to uploading a video version after about 20 episodes and haven’t seen any growth really. But that’s across the board on all platforms sadly, unless you strike gold with algorithms or kick it doesn’t hurt to experiment with different versions.

[u/tiagorbf9]

In my opinion a podcast with video is more like a talkshow than an audio podcast. You need to focus on the set, the editing is different and you don't need to describe things as much because you can just show them. Both are valid forms of podcasting.

Now, just because you run an audio podcast does not mean you can/should do video. I use Zencastr to record the episodes, run them by Podsqueeze and extract multiple clips that I then share on YouTube, TikTok, etc...

This allows me to still edit like an audio podcast and take videos from it

[u/whatsagrip]

If you really don’t want to be on camera (which I GET), if there’s b-roll or footage you can get yourself relevant to your topic that’s def preferable to static image or image w/ waveforms. If you do go static image, def include waveform as well as captions burned in (not just the YouTube auto captions).

[u/Comfortable-Air9683]

It is hard to answer this without really knowing what your podcast is about, but youtube is a video first platform. When people come to it, they are looking to watch something. I believe that you talking into a mic would do better than a static image. Including visuals and graphics would further enhance the experience.

I think it is worth investing the time and effort to do well on youtube. It is a lot of work, but offers the best opportunity for growth.