Podcast Show Notes From Your Transcript

Use a transcript of the final edit, the exact file listeners will hear. Timestamps from the raw recording won't match, because an intro added later or a tangent cut in the edit shifts everything after it.

Read it once, start to finish, before you write anything, and mark four things as you go.

1. 1

   Find the hook

   The moment that would make a stranger press play: a surprising answer, a hard number, a decision with stakes.

2. 2

   Mark each turn

   Note the timestamp wherever the talk moves to a new topic. Those become your chapters.

3. 3

   Collect what was named

   Every person, book, product, organization and website mentioned, in the order it comes up.

4. 4

   Pick quotable lines

   Two or three lines that make sense without the conversation around them.

The title is the one line every listener sees, and search reads it too. Apple says its podcast search orders results partly by metadata that includes the episode title¹, and asks for titles that are specific and unique, with no emojis or repeats.

Leave out the episode number and your show's name. Apple's guide to podcast feeds says not to put episode or season numbers in an episode title, or repeat your show's title there². The feed has separate fields for numbers.

"Episode 112: Marcus Bell" tells a new listener nothing. "Why a Tulsa bakery stopped baking on Mondays" gives them a reason to tap.

YouTube suggests thinking of a description as two parts: what viewers see before they click "Show more", and what they see after³. Write podcast descriptions the same way. The first sentence should give a stranger the reason to listen, even if it's the only one they read.

Length is rarely the limit. Apple accepts up to 10,000 characters in an episode description² and YouTube allows 5,000³. After the hook, describe the guest in a line, in terms they would use, then give three to five takeaways in the order they come up. Sponsor mentions and subscribe reminders go last.

Keep each guest's claims theirs. Write "Marcus says Mondays lost money," not "Mondays lose money." If the notes will repeat a number as fact, check it first, the way you would fact-check an article before publishing.

Timestamps in the description become chapters listeners can tap on YouTube⁴, Spotify⁵ and Apple Podcasts⁶, as long as they follow each platform's rules.

The rules overlap: all three start the list at zero and need at least three chapters. Apple asks for a first chapter at 00:00:00 and Spotify accepts that format, so writing times as hours, minutes and seconds lets one list serve both apps. Keep chapters in time order, one per line, with titles of a few words, and give each one at least two minutes.

Skip chapters, and each platform may make its own: YouTube for eligible videos, and Apple⁶ and Spotify⁵ for English episodes. Chapters you write replace the automatic ones, so you decide what each part is called.

List every book, product, organization, website and person named, in the order they come up, with a working link for each. Ask guests before recording which links they want and how they spell their names. If you have a transcript, link it too, for listeners who are deaf or hard of hearing and for search engines.

In the US, label the links that pay you. The FTC's endorsement FAQ answers a YouTube reviewer who earns commissions on links in video descriptions. Its advice: disclose the affiliate relationship both in the videos and in the description near the links⁷.

The same FAQ says "paid link" right next to an affiliate link should be an adequate disclosure, while "affiliate link" by itself might not be understood. Treat an episode the same way: say it on air, and label each paid link where it appears.

Use the same order every episode, so it works as a template: title, hook, guest line, takeaways, chapters, then links. Here it is for one episode.

The same transcript can carry the episode further, into a newsletter edition for subscribers or a blog post written to rank for one search. For a first draft of the notes themselves, paste your transcript into the tool at the top of this page.