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CasterKit 2.0 - A (better) resource for podcasters

I'm a week late on this post, but today I wanted to share that CasterKit, my little resource list for podcasters has received a very big facelift! It's been almost two months since I initially released the MVP markdown version, and thanks in part to all the support I've received from people in this community and my Caster Community, I decided to put a little more effort into the content as well. But first, let me explain how we got to this point...

Two weeks ago, @ccummings reached out to me via email after discovering my CasterKit Github repo here on Indie Hackers and pitched me the new Liist.io product he was working on. He talks about his cold email briefly in this post, but let me tell you, he is definitely being modest. His email very clearly outlined the benefits my project would gain by utilizing his service (compared to a basic markdown file on Github), he provided 3 examples of sites using his product already, and then more impressively, he threw together a quick mockup of how he envisioned the result looking based on the colors and content in my existing list. I also really appreciated (as a fellow Indie Hacker) that he was very open about the current state of his project and admitted that some of the steps were still manual, but it was a work in progress. What's funny about that is I'm sure many people would be hesitant to even send an email to a potential customer when they know in the back of their heads that their product isn't 100% production-ready.

This story is fitting too because that initial version of CasterKit was my first real attempt of releasing a "work in progress" to the public without spending weeks perfecting it, and then taking feedback from the users and iterating on that.

That's where the next improvement comes in! I heard from a number of people that it would be nice to be able to see an image of the products listed, and maybe a brief description. I was originally hesitant to do the description piece because I was trying to make this an unbiased resource and I knew the information I pulled from each website was going to embellish on the quality of the product listed. In the end, I decided that it didn't make a difference if I shared the description or they did, the potential customer would need to make the final buying decision. That's also why I decided to go one step further and display the cheapest available price for some of the SaaS services listed, and also indicate if a free trial/plan was available.

Example Items

As @ccummings and I worked on putting together the finishing touches, I was getting really excited to announce all of our updates. I woke up on a Saturday morning to start working on gathering product descriptions, and much to my surprise, CasterKit was already listed on ProductHunt! 😂 ... Talk about a wild twist to my plan haha. I spent the next hour or so trying to piece together what was happening because I was incredibly grateful that someone took the time to list it!

On the other hand, I always imagined my first "real" ProductHunt listing would be proceeded by days of preparation. Here I was scrambling to figure out if I should share the listing, or see if I could get it postponed a few days so I had time to add the new product descriptions/images. Maybe if I share the Twitter DM convo, with the awesome guy who listed it, will better explain how unnecessarily hectic I was making things haha...

Twitter DM convo

Long story, short, I ended up just embracing the moment and shift my effort towards just being appreciative that someone would take time out of their busy day to share something that I had built. When it all comes down to it, this was the whole reason I started this list of resources in the first place!

All just a wonderful side effect of being a side hustlin' indie hacker.


If you're a podcaster, or interested in starting a new podcast, I really hope that CasterKit provides you value. If you're an Indie Hacker building in the podcasting space, please do not hesitate to submit your product and I'll get it added as soon as I can.

We would also love to have you join us in the Caster Community, a new Slack group of podcast enthusiasts working together to innovate in the podcasting space.

  1. 5

    This is awesome @schoon. A great story and just shows how there is often someone looking out who appreciates the content you are creating and curating. Love to see it!

    1. 5

      So true @gordon! People are typically rooting for you to succeed much more than you realize. On top of that, if we all support one another like this, the community as a whole benefits from the growth.

      1. 1

        Could't have said it better my man ;)

  2. 4

    Thanks for sharing Dan. I too, typically wait until something is 100% polished but I had been hanging around IH a lot and decided to just go for it. I'm happy it worked out in the end.

    1. 3

      Building in the open is a much better approach because honestly, SaaS software isn't supposed to ever be "100% done"!

  3. 3

    whoa! what a great resource!

    1. 3

      Thanks @8bit! I think I speak for all of us here when I say we're waiting for the day your Community Building podcast drops haha 👀

  4. 2

    Just added it in my newsletter indieletters.com and a love tweet is on the schedule.

    I had also compiled about 50 tools for podcasters.

    1. 2

      Thanks @FalakSher! I saw your Tweet too I really appreciate that.

      Does your list of tools have any that I am missing? I would love to continue to add more.

  5. 1

    For all the hardware stuff you basically list the things you could find in an amazon search for the term. You post like a hundered items and don't have any rating whatsoever.

    Great, another Amazon affiliate site....

    1. 3

      You are very correct (for now). Although I tried my best to scan through a ton of podcasting guides, YouTuber recommendations, and "top podcasting gear" posts to compile all this data. I really just needed a starting point to get my v1 out there, and now I allow others to recommend products through a Google form.

      Now that I've got things up and going, I agree that reviews/ratings are the most obvious next step. Two months ago I was so new to podcasting that I didn't even own a podcasting mic, and now I own two, so maybe I'll compare those in my first review.

      To be honest, I don't think the money I (might) make off affiliate earnings from this would ever make enough money to even reimburse me for the time I've already put in haha. The real value I've earned here is the ~40 members in my podcasting Slack who have taught me 1000x more about podcasting than I knew a couple of months ago.

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