Before you can launch a podcast you need a name. But what is in a name? Everything.

So you have all the gear, you have the great idea, your topic, your niche. But you still need to consider a good name, a good brand, logo and style. If you can invest a little money at this point, find a good designer (I recommend Wet Frog Studios) and get yourself a good look and feel.

This is important. You need to look as professional as you can to prospective listeners if you want to try and build a fan-base. You could have the greatest content in the world, but you need to be attractive to people and recognisable. 

This is speaking from hindsight. When me and Terry started The Bro Show we never really considered that we’d have a listenership. We came up with a name that sounded good and I got to work on designing a logo. What we didn’t do was a Google search.. This is such a simple thing to do, but we overlooked it. There were already three online entertainment shows carrying the name and we only own the .co.uk not the .com.

Domains are very important, people will instinctively try to find you by a .com domain first, so try to be there. And if you really want to go with something other than a .com make sure you’re Google-able. Ensure you will be in the top few results and definitely the top result if someone appends the word ‘Podcast’ to your show title.

When you’re starting out you cant really comprehend if you’re going to have an audience and how large it could be. Put some time and thought in to your name and the brand you’re trying to create. I love the Bro Show, but maybe if I had the chance we would’ve picked something a little better; something that is easier found when searching.  Maybe one day we will re-brand The Bro Show due to this, who knows?!

When me and Pat sat down to create Enough, he came up with the name very quickly. We knew also that people would search for ‘Minimal Mac Podcast’ to find us, so we included that in the show’s full name too. Pat already had a brand over at Minimal Mac so we were coming from a different perspective. The brand and logo already existed (created by the great company mentioned earlier) and we only needed to make some slight tweaks. However we ensured we were discoverable.

Additionally, have a quick search in iTunes, if somebody already has a name to similar to you in the Podcast Directory then you seriously need to go back to the drawing board. You’d be making things far too difficult for yourself!

Whenever I start thinking about a podcast now I consider these points. It could make or break you.

As always, feedback is welcome. Find me on Twitter.