In their school days, almost everyone had at least one teacher that, for the life of them, could never hang on to the class’ attention.

You and your friends might have nicknamed this unfortunate educator “the human sleeping pill,” or something equally derisive. It seemed like just walking into the classroom made your eyelids heavy. And forget about actually learning anything from them.

The sad truth is, there are podcasts that are like this too. Listeners come in with good intentions, but quickly find themselves disinterested after one episode, or even worse, a handful of minutes.

Why is this the case? There’s a number of reasons that podcasts have trouble holding the attention of listeners, but one of the biggest is failure to properly edit. Editing can be the difference between a tight, hard-hitting show, and a sloppy disaster that is difficult to hear or comprehend.

Here are the top tips for making sure that your podcast falls into the former category.

[content_upgrade id=”644″]Some of the most successful podcasters around have even more great tips for editing. Learn about this process from the masters.[content_upgrade_button]Click Here[/content_upgrade_button][/content_upgrade]

Remove Dead Space

Like a vegetarian in a butcher shop, dead space just shouldn’t be there. It’s not necessary. Normal gaps in your conversation are fine, and even expected: they help your show retain a natural feeling that makes it easier to listen to. But if you stop to look something up while you are recording your show or you get interrupted for a long period of time, you need to take that space out.

There’s no hard-and-fast rule for how much dead space is too much, but if you have a pause that is more than 10 or 15 seconds long, people will take notice. Use your best judgement (and your ears) to decide if a gap in the show needs to be taken out or not.

Pay attention to your waveform, but let your ears be the final judge

Use the waveform, but don’t be a slave to it

Your waveform is very valuable during the podcast editing process. It allows you to quickly find the sections that you need to change and zoom in very closely so that you can edit at a granular level.

However, don’t make the mistake of making your waveform the end-all be-all of podcast editing. It’s a helpful tool, but remember that the final decision about what you keep in, what you take out, and what you merge or split up should be made based on what you hear. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many podcasters, even experienced ones, have a tendency to focus on the visual waveform instead of what the final product sounds like.

John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneur on Fire, grossed over $2.75 million in 2014 from podcasting

Set markers during the editing process

Markers are great for editing your podcast because they can be used in so many different ways. John Lee Dumas, host of the highly successful Entrepreneur on Fire, says that he creates a hotkey for markers in his editing program (Adobe Audition) and then uses the hotkey to quickly insert a marker when he says something in an interview that he wants to take out. Even if you aren’t using Audition, most popular audio editing programs allow you to assign hotkeys and create some type of marker at various points throughout the recording.

Other reasons that you might include markers are to denote the end of the intro or the beginning and end of a specific segment or idea. Once you have the markers added, you can quickly jump back and forth to edit the parts you need to fix, instead of having to waste time listening through to the entire podcast to figure out where you are in the recording.

Don’t spend too much time on it

At first, this point may seem a little counterintuitive. After all, won’t spending more time editing a podcast make it even sharper and help really capture the attention of your audience?

To a point, yes. The problem is, however, that some podcasters end up spending far too much time and energy editing their podcast, going far past the point where additional time will help make things better. This is an especially difficult concept to grasp for new podcasters, who often have the belief that they need to make everything perfect before release. This attitude, combined with inexperience at podcast editing, leads to many hours spent editing a single episode.

Over the long run, if you are spending way more time editing your podcast than you anticipated, it will start taking time away from what will really help hold your audience’s attention: creating great podcast content. Your quality will start to slip too, even if you don’t realize it.

So what’s the solution? Outsource! Do as much as your time allows, and if you can’t finish the editing process yourself in that allotted time frame, outsource the rest. This is particularly vital if you’re trying to start a podcast and you already have a lot on your plate.

Get someone else’s opinion

This step is especially important for new podcasters, but it’s a good idea for everyone in general. As is the case with anything, sometimes when we put an endless amount of time and lots of blood, sweat and tears into a project, we tend to have trouble separating ourselves from it to evaluate it objectively.

Asking someone who is further away from the process is an excellent way to overcome this challenge. If you are podcasting for an organization, talk to someone who isn’t directly involved in the production of the podcast and ask them what they think. If you’re on your own, you might ask for feedback from a friend or family member whose opinion you trust.

These outsiders will often be able to help you identify problems that seem obvious in hindsight, but that you totally missed because you were too close to the editing process. Don’t forget to thank your reviewer and do something nice for them to return the favor!

Editing is the victory lap, not the race’s beginning

Above all, remember that editing should be the icing on the cake. In its raw form, your podcast should already have a solid base of content that will keep people interested, whether it’s an interview with an authority in your industry or a unique take on a news story or report.

If you are finding that editing your podcast on a consistent basis is taking more time than you budgeted for, it’s a good sign that it’s time to look for a podcast editing service that can help. With some practice, you’ll have a much better idea of what you can do to edit your podcast into a polished, valuable piece of content that resonates with your target audience and keeps them enthralled from start to finish.

[content_upgrade id=”644″]Want even more tips on podcast editing?See what the cream of the crop has to say.[content_upgrade_button]Click Here[/content_upgrade_button][/content_upgrade]