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Podcasting Blog
8 step guide to podcast marketing
6/28/2008
Podcasting leader Christopher Penn has published a short PDF guide, 8 step guide to podcast marketing, that seeks to help you jump start how you’re marketing your own podcast. This is a very short PDF and covers topics that include whether your podcast is worthy of buzz, is easily found and how you’re measuring your success. The … Continue reading »
Publishing a Podcast with ExpressionEngine
6/24/2008
If you’re a user of the wonderful ExpressionEngine CMS (this site has been running on it for more than 2 years) and want to easily and efficiently publish a podcast with it, I just released a new screencast you might be interested in.
The latest episode of the ExpressionEngine Screencasts covers … Continue reading »
Voice Over Training
5/10/2008
One of the obvious aspects of podcasting is using your voice. And using it properly. If you’re looking for some more information about how to improve your voice technique in your podcast, I’d suggest checking out the Voice Over Experts Podcast from Voices.com.
Hardware Recommendations
- Kustom KM4 Mic with Cable
- Behringer XM8500 Microphone
- Shure SM58 Mic
- MXL MXL V63MBP Computer Desktop Recording Kit
Masthead
Contact
Ryan Irelan, Editor - listen@podcastfreeamerica.com
The Real Beginners Guide to Podcasting
No experience or software required.
By the time you’ve reached this tutorial through a search, you probably saw a lot of links to tutorials on podcasting. You’ll notice that most are insanely complex and technical. I’ve read them and I know how painful it is to try to learn something from them. But this guide, The Real Beginners Guide to Podcasting, is different.
This is a
At the end of guide, I’ve put together some video tutorials that will walk you through podcasting with each individual online podcasting tool. The goal is to have you successfully podcasting using one of the online tools and sharing those podcasts with the world!
What does Podcast mean?
“Podcasting" is a portmanteau that combines the words “broadcasting” and “iPod.” The term can be misleading since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable player, and no broadcasting is involved.
From Wikipedia.org
That’s what the word means. But what is a podcast? A podcast is an audio program that is distributed over the internet.
Podcasts come in many flavors and varieties. Do you already have an idea for your podcast? It could be just you talking and/or playing some music. Maybe it’s an interview you recorded with your city councilmember or mayor and you want to share this with your community. It could even be a foreign language teacher demonstrating word pronunciation for students or a pastor’s sermons from a Sunday church service for the congregation.
Really, a podcast can be about anything. These are just some examples, but they show the variety of ideas and concepts.
Some Examples of Podcasts
Before we jump into learning how to podcast, you might want to briefly listen to some existing podcasts, so you can hear how different they all are and how they sound. Use the controller below to start listening to a short compilation of podcasts that I put together.
Podcast Free America Podcast Sampler
Featured in the sampler: Travel Commons, Coffee Geek, Elements and Audible Ajax.
Creating Your Own Pocast
Now that you’ve listened to a sampling of some podcasts, let’s get started with the basics about how to create a podcast. As I stated in the introduction, I won’t bore you with technical speak or try to teach you “how the pros” do podcasts. Instead we’ll start slowly and learn the basics and get a basic podcast recorded.
Did you know that you only need
- a computer with a built-in microphone
- an internet connection
- a cheap microphone or webcam (if you don’t have one built-in)
to create a podcast? Yep, it’s true! All of those other guides that you read talk about so many technical details that you have to wonder if they do it for your sake or for theirs. I’m guessing the latter.
Microphone Recommendations (in order of price):
Kustom KM4 Mic with Cable
Behringer XM8500 Microphone
Shure SM58 Mic
MXL MXL V63MBP Computer Desktop Recording Kit
Currently, you have a few choices of online tools for creating your podcast(listed in alphabetical order):
Choose a service. You can learn more about each service using the video tutorials below. You’ll need to sign up and create an account. Some of the websites are currently free (since they are still in the early stages) and others require a paid account.
Screencast Tutorials
These video/screencasts will guide you through the process of creating a podcast using the online tools listed above.
- How to podcast with Podomatic.com (video)
- More coming soon!
Stay in touch
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