Ship Your Pod

Guide

You need someone to cut your podcast into clips. Where do you look?

Hosts find clip editors in six places: freelance marketplaces, job boards and their own listings, creator communities, referrals from other shows, agencies on retainer, and services that work one episode at a time. Each place trades price against speed, control against effort, and a long relationship against a quick start. Pick the place first, then write the listing or book the service, because the place sets what you can reasonably expect.

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Freelance marketplaces

Marketplaces are where most hosts start, because the listings already exist and you can read reviews before you message anyone. You post a short brief or browse editors who list podcast clips as a specialty, compare a few, and pay through the platform, which protects both sides if the job goes sideways. The range is wide: some editors on these sites have cut many shows, some opened their account last week, and the profile page does not always tell you which.

Screening is the cost. You read portfolios, run a paid test on one episode, and expect to repeat the search when a good editor fills up or raises their rate. Once you find a fit, the arrangement often moves off the platform, which is fine as long as you keep a written note of turnaround, revisions and what a finished clip includes.

Job boards and your own listing

Posting a listing on a job board or a creator hiring board flips the search, because editors come to you. Write what the episode looks like (two cameras or one, remote or in a room, how long), how many clips you want per episode, the turnaround you need, and what a clip must include, such as captions and a title. A clear listing filters out people who only cut wedding films or corporate explainers. Expect a pile of replies, many of them generic, and plan to spend an afternoon reading them.

Boards work best when you want one person for a long run and can wait a couple of weeks to fill the seat. They work badly when you have an episode sitting on your drive right now and a publish date on Friday.

Creator communities and social feeds

Editors who cut podcast clips post their work where hosts hang out: forums for podcasters, communities for short video, and the comment sections of shows they admire. Watching a few of their clips with the sound off tells you more than a resume, since captions, framing and pacing are right there on screen. Reach out by message with a link to your episode and ask for a quote on one clip.

The risk is that nothing is formal. There is no escrow or rating system, and if an editor vanishes halfway through a batch you have no record to point to, so start small and pay per delivered clip until you trust them.

Referrals: the editor on another show

Ask the host of a show whose clips you like who cuts them. Most hosts will tell you, and some editors keep a few open slots for referred clients. A referral skips the screening step because you have already seen the work on a show that looks like yours.

The catch is capacity. An editor who is good and known fills up, and you may join a waitlist or pay a higher rate than a newcomer would charge. You also inherit their habits, so if the other show's clips run long or lean on one caption style, say up front what you want done differently.

Agencies and retainer studios

Agencies take the whole workflow: a producer takes your brief, a few people cut and review, and clips arrive on a schedule. You get a contact who answers email, a contract, and backup when one person is sick. The fit is a show that publishes every week, wants a consistent look across months, and has someone on your side with time to approve drafts.

Retainers cost more than any other option and usually ask for a minimum commitment of several months. Expect a kickoff call, a style document and a round or two of approvals before the first clip goes out, which is good if you want control and slow if you want clips this week.

Per-episode clip services

The newest place is a service that works one episode at a time: you upload a file or paste a link, add a note about the episode if you have one, and a set of clips comes back with captions, titles, thumbnails, a description and chapters. Ship Your Pod is one of these. There is no listing to write and no interview, and the clips arrive within a day, or the same day on the faster plan, as a private page on your phone plus an email.

What you give up is the standing relationship. A per-episode service keeps your logo, your caption style, your end card and a spelling list you fill in once, but it does not hold a style guide, carry rules from one episode to the next, or send you a draft to approve before delivery. Each episode's note is read for that episode only, so if you want a guest's name spelled right, a moment kept or a topic left out, you say so every time, or add the names to the spelling list. Changes after delivery happen clip by clip, in plain words, and nothing goes out until you post it yourself.

Which place fits your situation

Match the place to your timeline and budget before you write anything, because the listing you post or the service you book should follow from that choice.

Where Ship Your Pod fits

If the editing is the part that keeps you from posting, send the episode instead. 8 to 15 Shorts come back within a day (same day on Pro), captioned, scored and ranked best first, with teasers, thumbnails from real frames, and the title, description and chapters. You post them yourself, full quality, no watermark. Pro is $149 a month for 12 episodes, 15 Shorts each, plus the Facebook cuts, the newsletter and the article. Starter is $59 a month for 4 episodes. The price goes down every month you stay. Month to month, cancel any time. Pro has a 14-day free trial for your first episode.

Pro: up to 180 Shorts, 36 teasers, 60 thumbnails and 24 Facebook cuts a month (12 episodes, 15 Shorts from each). Starter: up to 32 Shorts, 8 teasers and 12 thumbnails a month (4 episodes, 8 Shorts from each).

Pick the place that matches your timeline, then send one episode as a paid test before you commit to anything longer.

Questions

Is it better to hire a freelance editor or use a clipping service?

A freelancer learns your show over time and can follow standing rules; a service is faster to start and asks less of you per episode. If your episodes vary a lot and you want someone who remembers last month's notes, the freelancer helps. If you record in bursts and want clips back the next day, the service fits.

What should a listing for a podcast clip editor say?

Episode length and camera setup, the number of clips per episode, turnaround, revision count, and what a finished clip includes: captions, a title, a thumbnail. Link one episode so applicants can send you a sample cut from your own show.

How do I test an editor before committing?

Pay for one episode. Ask for the clips, the titles and the reason they picked each moment, then compare that against what you would have picked. One paid test tells you more than any portfolio.

Can I find a video editor for podcast clips locally?

Yes, through film programs, local creator meetups and other hosts in your city. A local editor can sit in on a recording and fix framing at the source, which no remote option can do. The pool is smaller, so expect longer waits and fewer specialists in short clips.

What does Ship Your Pod cost?

Pro is $149 a month for 12 episodes, 15 Shorts each, plus the Facebook cuts, the newsletter and the article. Starter is $59 a month for 4 episodes. The price goes down every month you stay. Month to month, cancel any time. Pro has a 14-day free trial for your first episode. Pro: up to 180 Shorts, 36 teasers, 60 thumbnails and 24 Facebook cuts a month (12 episodes, 15 Shorts from each). Starter: up to 32 Shorts, 8 teasers and 12 thumbnails a month (4 episodes, 8 Shorts from each).

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Last updated 2026-10-19.