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.
The Monitor
A list of the better podcasts and why.
Stephen Fry’s Podgrams
A new podcast by British actor and comedian Stephen Fry has so far covered everything from banter about his broken arm to in-depth quotes and analysis from Oscar Wilde about wallpaper and the American psyche. It’s a truly brilliant podcast and I hope he continues the series.
The Bugle
The Bugle is published by The Times Online and features funny men John Oliver (from The Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman. I listened to it for the first time today during a Mother’s Day roadtrip. It was so funny, it almost became dangerous for driving. If you generally like British humor (who doesn’t?!) and you enjoy John Oliver on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, give this podcast a listen. Note that the topics covered and language used isn’t necessarily safe for work or young children.
Sesame Street Podcast
A new video podcast from Sesame Street brought to you by the letter “P” and “sunny days.”
The Itinerant Angler Podcast
Part of writer/photographer Zach Matthews’ website, each podcast offers a interview with well-known or expert fisherman from across the US and around the world.
Business English Podcast
This podcast is aimed at the business traveler looking for some extra help in English language skills. Published weekly, the Business English Podcast teaches idioms, useful phrases and other vocabulary that will help non-native speakers better communicate in an English-speaking business environment.
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Features filed under Make
Helping you produce better podcasts
So, you’ve decided to start a podcast. Good for you! For some people, recording and publishing their voice and thoughts is a huge deal. It is for me. You have a great idea, the energy to do it and the hardware you need. All set, right? So, what kind of time commitment should you be prepared for when embarking on producing your podcast?
The bad news is that I don’t have the perfect answer. The good news is that I can give you some rough estimates of the time it would take and then from there you can plan accordingly. Let’s figure it out, shall we?
This is a real guide for real beginners and it will guide you through the basics of podcasting. The Real Beginners Guide to Podcasting only teaches you how to podcast using online podcasting tools. Everything takes place inside of the web browser, so there’s no software to download or complicated audio lingo to understand.
I’m introducing a new feature article here at Podcast Free America. It’s titled Inside Look, a ongoing series of interviews with podcasters and new media producers about the stuff they do to make their podcasts great.
The first installment of this series is an interview with Kris Smith of the Croncast podcast. Kris is a new media entrepreneur and specializes in implementing RSS technology in interesting and useful ways for clients. He has spoken at events like Podcast Academy and the Podcast Expo. Kris does the Croncast podcast with his wife Betsy. Together, they’ve created hundreds of very funny and entertaining podcast espiodes.
The highest goal to keep in mind when thinking about and setting up a podcast workflow is that you want to make podcasting as easy as possible. You want to remove unnecessary steps, repetitions and, for the more advanced, automate anything that can be done by a computer. These steps are what I used to streamline my podcast workflow and still use to keep it a refined and tight process.
The first article on podcast workflows was purposefully basic and broad. I wanted to clear up any misconceptions and reset expectations for what a podcast workflow is and how you can analyze, create and refine your own. This second article is intended to give you a raw list of tools that you can use to enhance, automate or plan your podcast workflow.
I and many others go on and on about setting up your podcast workflow. It sounds complicated and full of flowcharts, diagrams and 3-hour meetings with upper management, but it’s actually very simple. A podcast workflow is the process you go through to produce an episode of your podcast. This can be everything from conceiving the idea to finalizing the mp3 file and uploading it to your web host or it can be a small part of that entire process.
Why does your podcast sound very different from ‘This American Life?’ Well, aside from the expensive studio equipment and Ira Glass, the reason a professional radio show sounds so polished is that it employs all kinds of sound-editing tricks.
The good news is, you don’t need expensive equipment—or Ira Glass—to create well-edited sound. All you need are a little time, and these simple tricks. (I should add here: this article is more of an ideological how-to piece than a technical one.
One of the great joys of the podcast revolution is that it gives each of us a real opportunity to make contact with people we admire. Whereas we used to merely write fan letters to our heroes, now we can record podcast interviews with them, and share these with the world.
But here’s something to consider: once you’ve recorded that interview, you suddenly carry an important responsibility. Your interviewee is placing a great trust in you: to present that interview in a thoughtful, listenable way. Here are some tips on how to do that.
This is a good list of tools you can use to help you podcast. I don’t claim that this is definitive, so if you notice a tool that you use is missing, email me or leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list.
This article was inspired by a reader email.
Bob Irving wrote:
What kind of recording equipment would you need to do a round-table discussion (3 or 4 people)? And what would be the best placement of mikes?
Excellent question and it has an answer that will hopefully help a lot of people who are not yet into podcasting. Of course, the techniques I describe here are not particular to podcasting, but can be used to record a roundtable discussion, even if you don’t wish to podcast it.
By giving your podcast a name-tag you make it easier for listeners to find you and learn more.