Starting your first podcast on Fortify Cast: a complete guide

By The Fortify Cast Team · 15 min read

This is the complete step-by-step for launching a podcast on Fortify Cast, from the day you decide to start to the day your first episode is live. If you follow it in order, you will have a published show inside a week without spending more than GH₵400 total.

Step 1: Decide what your show is actually about (Day 1)

The single most common reason new podcasts fail is that the show is about "whatever the host feels like that week". You need a topic tight enough to describe in one sentence but wide enough to fuel 50 episodes.

A working formula: "[Show name] is a [format] about [specific topic] for [specific audience]."

Examples:

Write your sentence down. If you can't finish it, you don't have a show yet — you have an interest. Narrow it until you can.

Step 2: Choose a name that survives Google (Day 1)

Your show's name should be searchable, pronounceable, and specific. Search the name on Google, YouTube, X, and inside Fortify Cast before committing. If a well-established show already uses it, pick something else — you'll spend the next two years fighting them for search rankings you'll never win.

Good name patterns:

Avoid: numbers ("Podcast 254"), overly clever puns nobody will understand, or names that are hard to spell after hearing them once.

Step 3: Cover art (Day 2, 30 minutes)

Cover art needs to be readable at the size of a thumbnail. That means: two-word title max, high contrast, one clear image or your face. Do not put your show's tagline on the cover — nobody can read it.

Tools that work with no design skill: Canva (free, has podcast templates), or your phone's camera with the show title added in the free Canva mobile app. Export at 1400×1400 pixels minimum. Upload it in Fortify Cast under Dashboard → Shows → New Show → Cover.

Step 4: Record your first three episodes (Days 3–5)

Do not publish episode 1 alone. Record three episodes before you launch. There are two reasons: it forces you to prove to yourself that you can make more than one, and it gives new listeners something to binge on day one.

For recording gear and technique, see our guide on audio quality on a budget. For what to actually say in the first episode, see what to say in your first episode.

Recording setup for zero-budget creators:

  1. Phone in a soft-walled room (bedroom with wardrobe open works)
  2. Free voice-recorder app on your phone
  3. Airplane mode ON while recording (kills interruptions)
  4. Speak at a normal conversational volume, mic about a fist away, angled slightly off to the side

Step 5: Edit lightly (Day 6)

Free editors that work: Audacity (desktop), WavePad (mobile). You need to do only three things:

  1. Trim the dead air at the beginning and end
  2. Cut anything that made you cringe or ramble
  3. Normalize the loudness (Audacity: Effect → Normalize → -1 dB)

Do not over-edit. If the whole file takes you more than 90 minutes of editing per episode, you're doing too much.

Step 6: Create the show on Fortify Cast (Day 7)

  1. Sign up at /signup and complete your profile (name, avatar, one-line bio, category).
  2. Go to Dashboard → Shows → New Show.
  3. Fill in title, description (at least 3 paragraphs — this is what listeners read on your show page), category, and cover art.
  4. Click Save. Your show now has a public URL at /show/<your-slug>.

Step 7: Upload episodes and publish (Day 7)

  1. Dashboard → Upload → select audio file.
  2. Title (avoid all caps), description (2–3 paragraphs about what's in the episode), episode number.
  3. Schedule or publish immediately.

Publish episode 1 today. Schedule episodes 2 and 3 for the next two release days. Congratulations — you now have a podcast.

Step 8: Get your first 10 listeners (Week 2)

Detailed playbook: growing an audience from zero. Short version:

  1. Send the show link to 20 people you actually know, individually, with one sentence about why they specifically will like it.
  2. Post the show link in every group chat you're part of.
  3. Share a 30-second clip on WhatsApp Status.
  4. Ask three people who listened to leave a comment or send you feedback.

Step 9: Ship episode 4 (Week 2)

This is the step most first-time podcasters fail on. The moment you publish, the "will anyone listen?" question takes over your brain and it feels safer not to publish again. Do not listen to that voice. Ship episode 4 on schedule. Then episode 5. The first ten episodes are your training wheels.

Step 10: Turn on monetization (once you're consistent)

After you've published six or more episodes and have at least a small returning audience, turn on coin gifts in your creator settings. Add a soft ask at the end of your episodes. See how podcast monetization actually works in Ghana for realistic expectations.

What success looks like at 90 days

If you publish twice a week for 90 days, you'll have about 26 episodes and — statistically — a real, small, returning audience. Not viral. Not full-time-income. But real: people who know your voice, listen every week, and would notice if you stopped. That's the foundation. Everything after month three is compounding.

Ready? Sign up, then come back and do Step 1.