A production time primer for the podcasting beginner.
by Ryan Irelan
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?
Set Up Your Tools and Workflow
While recording your podcast you should be focused on the presenting the content clearly and with authority. In order to do this it is important that you set up and test all of your recording software and hardware beforehand. This may take some testing and even a few hours of tweaking to get it right, but most of this work is a one-time investment. It pays off to spend some time with your tools.
Pad, pad, pad
Whatever amount of time you think it will take to produce your podcast, you can just go ahead and triple it. And even then, it could take longer. Until you get more experienced with your tools and workflow it’ll be difficult to predict how long the process will take.
My recommendation is to take the length of the podcast you want to produce and multiply it by 3. So, for example, if you’re doing a 30 minute podcast, it would be prudent to budget 90 minutes for production. If you’re publishing a 60 minute podcast, plan on around 3 hours to do the production.
(This also includes any light editing or audio cleanup you decide to do. Heavily edited podcasts or those that consist of many different audio excerpts edited together could take much longer.)
The 90 minutes allows plenty of time for retakes, random software or hardware issues or interruptions (although you should be turning off email, phone and warning other members of your household that you’re in production mode).
Also, I’ll be the first to admit that three times your podcast length is probably on the high end, but find yourself surprised when it takes less time and with more experience, it certainly will.
More Experience, Less Time
Like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get. After publishing several episodes of your podcast, you decrease the amount of time it takes you to produce your podcast until it’s a well-oiled machine.
Pay attention to your mistakes and don’t repeat them in your next podcast. Learn your tools well and soon you’ll find that producing a podcast is not only easier but much more enjoyable.
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No experience or software required.
by Ryan Irelan
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 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.
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.
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.
Stay in touch
Stay up-to-date with all things podcasting with my monthly newsletter SYNC Monthly (first issue goes out this week!). Subscribe now.
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Interviews with podcasters and new media producers about the stuff they do to make their podcasts great.
by Ryan Irelan
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.
Podcast Free America: First, I want to ask you to briefly talk about what Croncast is, how long you’ve been doing it and why on earth you and your wife decided to expose your lives to the public?!
Kris Smith: Croncast is a podcast that I started on November 8th, 2004 as a daily show. I co-host the show with my wife. Since beginning of the show we have produced over 450 episodes that average 30 minutes in length. The show release dates changed after a few months but for the last 3 years we have mainained a show release schedule of 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
We didn’t really intend to expose our lives so much. The show originally started as a way for me to learn the technology and then apply it to my job. But it turned out to be too much fun to put down after a few months. It felt like a calling. Something great was happening and I could get in on the ground floor. Plus, I could get my very funny wife involved. The show content stems mostly from her humor and me setting her up for the punch-lines. Unfortunately, her humor and my setups rely heavily on our day to day lives.
PFA: When you started out was the technology of podcasting a major hurdle for you? Did you already have audio experience?
KS: On the audio production side the technology came very easy. It was how I made my living as a multimedia designer. The tech side was a little more difficult because I needed to learn about RSS. And at the time there were not tools available to assist in the process or even train you in how to create a feed for your show.
PFA: What did your first podcast rig look like?
KS: My first rig was ridiculous. Every podcaster should start with a rig like I had.
Two free labtech microphones with socks covering them working double duty as wind screens and pop filters going straight into a computer. Where I was lucky was that being an audio nerd I had two soundcards and could split the channels when recording. So I could sort of multitrack to clean up audio.
I recorded—and still do—with SoundForge. I do all my post work in it. Then I track and master each show in Vegas. That part of the rig has been consistent since I started. Even the same mastering plug-ins.
PFA: RSS seems to be a big stumbling block for a lot of people—when both learning and talking about podcasting. What was your first impression and how did you go about learning what it is, how to use it, etc?
KS: I think it is a stumbling block. Mainly because the acronym RSS, meaning Really Simple Syndication is a misnomer.
RSS is a hard technology to describe to people. It is based on other technologies that are even more difficult to explain. And podcasters early on and still today are generally pretty nerdy and when they try to describe on their own sites or for their employer sites it comes out all wrong. Simple will be when people say, “this is how you download my shows, press here.”
I learned about RSS by looking at the specifications for it and scouring the Internet for examples of RSS both good and bad. I ended up becoming an expert in RSS out of my own frustration with the way it was being used and the many ways in which it wasn’t being used.
PFA: Before we get into how you use RSS for Croncast, can you talk about the podcasting rig you have now? What’s your equipment setup? Where do you record? Maybe a little bit about your process.
KS: My current rig is a paired down setup that gives me the biggest bang with the least amount of gear. I’ll start with the input process from microphone all the way to finished product.
- 2 Marshall MXL 2003 microphones
- I own 6 of them. Long way from the Labtech mics! I recommend these mics to everyone that asks. And after recently cheating on them with a Neumann U87ai I like them even more. With a price tag of $149 at most dealers you can’t go wrong. We’ve used them now for two years. The sound is clear, they knock a lot of ambient noise down and their pick up pattern is second to none with a great low end and limited high end. The mic comes with a bass cut and a -10dB pad switch that can help when finding the right sound for your voice and recording space. These are phantom power microphones so I need a preamp.
- DBX1066 limiter/compressor
- This was a replacement for Universal Audio 6176’s that I loved but needed something I could travel with. The DBX does some upfront compression (makes volume louder) and limiting (stops ‘peaking’ or ‘clipping’ of audio samples). This is really nice to have so that you don’t have to do all those repairs in post.
- PreSonus Firepod
- FireWire recording interface with 8 preamplifiers (8 XLR/line inputs with phantom power). I originally bought this to replace an M-Audio MobilePre that was flaking out and causing intermittent popping in tracks. The reason that I chose the Firepod was primarily the 8 XLR inputs with phantom power to multitrack instead of force output to a single stereo track—a huge plus when recording more than 4 voices for a show. Also, if the DBX wasn’t part of the signal chain anymore I could live with the sound.
- Sony VGN-AR230g Laptop
- Sony Sound Forge 8 audio editor
- This is the software that I record the shows into. I have been using Sound Forge for the last 7 years. When I got my first computer in 1999 at age 25 I learned how to use it by working with Steinberg’s WaveLab (another great audio editor) but late in that year switched to Sound Forge. WaveLab had a lot of great features but they never compared the bundle of plug-ins that came with or for Sound Forge. WaveLab relied on the VST model and Sound Forge on Direct-X which meant that there were also more plug-ins to choose from. The killer plug-in was the Noise Reduction tool that prior to version 7 (maybe 6) wasn’t bundled with the license. It is the best noise reduction tool on the market. I’ve heard most of the rest first hand, even the ones used in million dollar studios and would still choose the one in Sound Forge. I don’t use Noise Reduction on our show but when doing post on audio recorded out of the studio I use it about 90% of the time.
- Waves L2 Ultramaximizer mastering compressor
- Yep, I already ran the audio signal through an amazing compressor in the DBX but the L2 puts the finishing touches on the wav file before I close out Sound Forge. This plug-in is the secret in my sauce. I have used it for about four years and find it’s sound brighter, more open and louder than any other including Ozone 2 or 3 (which is an attempt to recreate the sound at a lower cost).
- Sony Vegas 6 multitrack
- Vegas is a multitrack video editor. Video? Did Kris just say, video? I sure did. When this product was first developed by Sonic Foundry it started out as a multitrack audio mastering suite that was supposed to be an upgrade from their Acid line of software. That didn’t quite work out and they released a second version for video. With two competing versions on the market they made the wise decision to morph them together into Vegas Video. Sonic Foundry was bought by Sony and the rest is history. I use Vegas basically the same way that I use Dreamweaver for coding pages—as a template. All I have to do for Croncast is plug in each new recording on the timeline and poof there is a fully mastered show.
- Xing MP3 encoder (included in Vegas) encoded to Joint Stereo, 96 Kbps at 44.1 KHz
- All shows are encoded to Joint Stereo, 96 Kbps at 44.1. This is the lowest quality that I will encode my own work to or for that of a client. This range is somewhat higher than many podcasters will recommend for a speech driven show but I find that anything less sound hollow and purely focuses on midrange sounds. Blah. At a bit rate lower than 96 Kbps most audio encoders, like this one, won’t allow for a sample rate of 44.1 KHz. I used to encode the shows to a lower value two years ago when we first started but then iTunes came to town and studios started cranking out CD quality audio files. Once that bar was raised I figured it was okay for me to join that party.
- MP3 Tag Tools to edit ID3 tags
- It is open source and the best ID3 tag editor that I have found. It will allow you to make changes to version 1 and 2 tags that will cover most of the popular media players like WinAmp, Windows Media Player and iTunes. It’ll even let you add up to 18 images per file in the album art that can be displayed in iTunes.
PFA: Where do you record your podcast?
KS: Where I record is much less exciting than the gear. I have my corner of the lower level of the house that is a dedicated office. About 2 years ago I purchased an Aurelex sound dampening kit that consists of foam squares that can be grouped in areas on your walls and ceilings. It works wonders for knocking down room sounds and adding depth to your voice.
PFA: Before we wrap this up, I want to ask you about all of the various RSS offerings on your site. You mentioned earlier that you’ve become a self-taught RSS expert. One notices on your site that there are so many different options for subscribing to feeds.
You have feeds for the shows, the blog only, blog comments and then also for tags (categories), plus more.
KS: Yeah, there are a lot of offerings. And for good reason.
People need to think about RSS differently for it to become a great tool. I started that process on with our feeds but ran into some limitations that then led to greater breakthroughs.
RSS works like this: You can fill it with whatever blog posts or podcasts that you want in any order you see fit. Here’s what I mean. It’s like waffle cone. You can put any ice cream scoops in it that you want and in any order. Put chocolate on top or on the bottom, your choice.
But another thing that motivated me was how was I going to deal with an ever growing library of podcasts and make them easily downloadable? Easy, create some waffle cones and break up the shows into groups based on date.
I also started to work on other concepts when I had maxed out these types of feeds. These types of feeds are based around delivering shows to people from a large library episodically. They were designed to give a user an easy way to access a large library of content on their own time. Say, delivering previous shows from years ago only on week days and none on the weekend.
This, of course, grew into creating a new way to generate feeds that puts all the control in user hands. An ability that I am proud to say is finally making its way out into the public and should pick up some steam this year. We call them ‘moderated’ feeds. But through the use of a form on a website a reader or listener can pick keywords, day of week, time of day, amount of items and order of when they recieve content.
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Inexpensive gift ideas for your favorite podcast enthusiast.
by Ryan Irelan
With the holidays fast approaching, the season of gift giving is upon us. Maybe you’re looking for a gift for yourself or for your favorite podcaster, but no matter, the Podcasters Holiday Wishlist has plenty of ideas for any podcast enthusiast - creators and listeners alike.
While podcasting gear can get expensive quickly, not all podcasting holiday gifts have to lighten the wallet. In this list there are some for those that want to spend a bough full of money and a few ideas for those that just want to share their joy of podcasting. Let’s get started.
Studio Headphones
Every podcaster needs a good pair of headphones to wear while recording their podcast. It allows them to monitor the recording while minimizing outside noises. I would recommend a basic studio headphone, the Nady QH560 Deluxe Studio Headphones
iPod
For your favorite podcast listener, how about a brand new video iPod? This will allow them to not only listen to podcasts, but also watch video podcasts! The gold standard of portable music devices is the Apple iPod
Podcasting Software
Great podcasts are one part idea and one part tools. Every serious podcaster should have the best tools. Part of this is hardware, like microphones and mixers, but software to record, edit and compress the podcasts ar also necessity.
Here’s a list of audio or podcasting software tools:
Mac:
Übercaster
PodcastMaker
Audacity - Free Download
Fission
Audio Hijack Pro
Windows:
MixCast Live
Audacity
CastBlaster
PodProducer
Adobe Audition
Podcasting Books
A great way to get started podcasting is to read of the handful of recommended books.
The Business Podcasting Book
Podcast Solutions
Podcasting for Dummies
Podcasting Hacks
Tricks of the Podcasting Masters
The Business Podcasting Bible
A List of Your Favorite Podcasts for the New Podcast Listener
One of my original goals with this website was to educate new podcasters and podcast listeners on some of the best podcasts around. With The Monitor (see front page of site), I try to highlight some of the most interesting podcasts out there. Why not do the same for a friend?
A great gift for a friend who has initial interest in podcasting is to compile a list of your favorite podcasts and send them the links to the feeds or websites. It costs nothing, but still a great gift.
A Year of Podcast Hosting
Every podcaster needs a way to host and distribute their podcasts. Some podcasters do it with traditional web hosting, but I’d recommend gifting your favorite podcaster with a year of podcast hosting from Libsyn, a podcasting host with a track record and good monthly rates.
There are dozens of other podcasting hosts out there. Find one that fits and has solid reputation.
Support A Podcaster
If the person you need to buy for is already a podcaster listener, consider donating some money to their favorite podcast in their name. Many podcasts are delivering quality shows without ever charging a penny. Dozens of them also accept donations to help offset the costs of running the podcast.
Audio Imaging
Does your favorite friend or podcaster need a professional intro our outro for his podcast? You can order these custom-made online from a quality shop like Audiobag.
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Getting started refining your process.
by Ryan Irelan
In the last article I talked about some examples of podcast workflow tools. If you already have your tools, podcasting hardware, software and other needed items, than it’s time to think about how to set up your podcast workflow environment.
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.
Eliminate Distractions
The best way to podcast workflow success is to eliminate distractions and unneeded tools or software. I have a separate user account on my computer that is used specifically for producing podcasts. I only open applications that are necessary for creating my podcast. I don’t turn on email, instant messaging or any other distractions, unless it is needed for the podcast.
Even better than a separate user account is to have an entire computer dedicated just to podcasting. This will allow you to fine tune it for podcasting and make the task of recording, editing and publishing your podcast go faster because everything will already be set up.
Pick a time and place to record your podcast when you won’t be interrupted by other people. Also, turn off the ringer on all phones. Let anyone else in your house or apartment know that you’ll be busy for the next hour or more recording your podcast and that you’re not to be bothered.
Learn Your Tools
Learning your audio or video software and hardware will take some work, but making that effort is important to setting up a reliable podcast workflow. You have to know your tools. What about a new piece of software I just purchased? you might ask. That’s true, there will always been some learning when you get something new. That’s to be expected. The point is that you should be the master of your tools. You will be the most effective at producing your podcast if you know your podcast tools inside and out.
Some of this learning will come from trial and error, some of it from reading the manuals, some from reading online tutorials and some from taking more structured classes. Many stores that sell quality audio and video recording gear will also offer classes on how to use it. These may be offered free or for a small fee.
Refine Your Process
In the first article in this series I talked about taking stock of your podcast production steps and looking for ways to automate or improve.
As you produce your podcasts, think about the steps you take, write them down and try to improve, streamline and, if possible, automate your workflow. Sometimes it just takes recognizing repeated tasks to make your podcast workflow go from difficult and time-consuming to more fun in less time.
Part of refining your process is automation. Make your computer do the repetitive work for you. But that’s not for this article. Stay tuned for more on podcast workflows.
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The tools you need to assemble your podcast workflow.
by Ryan Irelan
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.
Audio Recording & Editing Tools
There are dozens of recording software options out there for both Mac and PC computers. Some are better than others and the prices vary. When seeking out the best software tool to use in your podcast workflow you should keep in mind that the software should be something that you can understand and comfortably use in a moderate amount of time. You should also find the software easy to use and navigate. There is no worse podcast workflow than the one you hate using.
Here are some tools that I've either used and like or know people who recommend them for their reliability as part of podcast workflow.
- Marantz PMD 670 Hardware Recorder
- This isn't software, but instead a hardware digital recorder. The great thing about this device and others like it is that it doesn't require a computer. This allows you to focus on recording your podcast, not messing with software or computer settings. Quality hardware digital recorders are not inexpensive, but for the serious podcaster, probably well worth the investment.
- SoundStudio
- A software recording and editing tool that seems simple on the surface, but is actually a very powerful tool for not only recording and editing, but also automating your podcast worfklow. SoundStudio is only available for Macs and in conjunction with Applescript and Apple Automator, you can seamlessly export and upload podcasts to your server.
- Adobe Audition
- Adobe Audition is a popular Windows recording and editing tool. It does not take long to learn how to use the software and you can export to a variety of file types. There is no direct way to export a file from Audition directly to your server for distribution. You can ready more about Audition and podcasting on Adobe's own podcasting support PDF.
- BIAS Peak Pro
- A very popular and well-regarded audio editing tool, BIAS Peak Pro allows you to do batch processing of audio files and version 6 of Peak will let you publish your podcast from within the software. No FTP software needed.
There are plenty of other tools, including some free software like Audacity. I cannot recommend it here because of it's user interface issues and lack of MP3 support out-of-the-box (you can download and install the LAME library separately), but it is a good alternative for podcasters who are looking for a free tool that will get the job done.
Complete Production Tools
- Übercaster
- Simply put Übercaster is a all-in-one podcasting software tool. It handles everything from recording to editing to publishing the podcast file out to your server or webhost. The only thing Übercaster doesn't do is create a podcast feed.
Post-processing/File Preparation Tools
- The Levelator
- Oh, The Levelator. It's a deceptively simple application that processes and "masters" your podcast file. Using an algorithm, The Levelator adjusts the levels in your audio file and outputs a file that sounds better than the one you put in. It's a bit magical, but it really does work. My only wish is that there was way to use it in a automated workflow or batch process files. As of now that's not possible. The Levelator is a free download from GigaVox Media.
- Visual Hub
- Let's not leave out the video podcasters. One new application in my arsenal is Visual Hub, a video conversion tool for the Mac. It is a one-window application that coverts any video format to almost any other video format. You can batch process files and easily covert your video podcast to multiple formats. Read my blog post about it.
File Utilities
- AudioFinder
- A true media management tool. It is designed to be a "music production hub" but will work like a dream for the podcaster who is working with multiple audio files during production. It will even do simple editing tasks and everything it does can also be done in batch mode. Paul Figgiani at Podcast Academy recommends it and says it is worth every penny of the $69 price tag.
- FTP Programs
- Unless you're using a tool that uploads the podcast audio files for you, you'll need an FTP client. There are more than a handful of good ones to choose from. Choose one that you find easy to use and meets your needs for file tranfer. I prefer applications on the Mac OS that allow me to automate them using Applescript.
Automating Your Workflow
- Applescript
- Applescript is the official scripting language of Mac OS X (and previous systems). Using an English-like syntax you can manipulate, interact with software applications and automate tasks you do over and over again.
- Apple Automator
- If you're not into writing your own Applescripts from scratch, Automator will let you automate tasks on your Mac by just dragging and dropping different "actions" thus creating a workflow. Some software applications come with Automator actions which let you easily automate and interact with those applications. I use Automator with SoundStudio and PodcastMaker.
- Shell scripting
- Shell scripting lets you automate tasks that you would normally do manually at the command line. This is a more advanced (and not always the best) way of automating podcast tasks like compressing audio files to MP3 using the LAME library or knitting together files using a tool like the MPEG Toolbox.
Workflow Software
- PodcastMaker
- PodcastMaker doesn't let you record or edit audio. But that's OK. It is a tool that prepares your podcast file and feed for distribution. It also uploads the podcast file to your server and updates the feed for you. With a beautiful user interface, PodcastMaker (Mac only) is my personal favorite podcast workflow tool. I use it in conjuction with other applications to create a simple and smooth automated podcast workflow.
- GigaVox Audio Lite
- GigaVox Audio Lite is an online podcast publishing platform that is so powerful, you'll want to read more about their technology to get the whole list of features. Essentially, the platform allows you to assemble your podcast from different parts and have it published to your own server or host. It also does dynamic ad insertion, so you can change the ads on any podcast you've published - even if it's a year old! That's a very simple description of all of GigaVox Audio Lite's functionality, so I urge you to go sign up for a free account and try it for yourself. Be sure to watch the screencasts. They walk through every step of publishing a podcast using the platform.
Creating Podcast Feeds
- Feeder
- Feeder is a Mac OS X application that creates RSS and podcast feeds for you. You can just drag a audio file into the application and it will add the file as an enclosure to your feed. It uses the standard Mac interface, so it's just as easy to use as any other application.
- FeedForAll
- This is a Windows application that also creates feeds for your podcast (or other content). It supports iTunes tags and automatically validates your feed, so you can be sur eit works in all feedreaders and podcast receiving software.
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A beginner's guide to podcast workflows. What a workflow is, how to improve it and ideas for automation.
by Ryan Irelan
You’ve probably read many articles online that go on and on about setting up your podcast workflow. I know I’ve written about it before. It sounds complicated and full of flowcharts, diagrams and 3-hour meetings with upper management, but it’s actually very simple.
Let’s start with the basics.
What is a podcast workflow?
Simply put, 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. It really depends on how you work and which part of the podcast for which you’re responsible.
My workflow as an example.
Let’s unpack this a little more and use my podcast as an example. I consider my podcast workflow to be the production of my podcast: recording, editing, file preparation and publishing. That doesn’t mean I don’t do planning, brainstorming and writing. I do, but they’re not part of my production workflow.
- Record voice in SoundStudio
- Edit any mistakes or long pauses.
- Compress and gate for noise reduction and enhancement.
- Save as wav file.
- Run automation script that compresses the file to mp3, attaches intro and outro to main content mp3 file, adds ID3 tags, updates RSS feed and uploads to my server.
That is my podcast workflow. It’s nothing fancy, but it did take some trial and error to get the finer details hammered out and working flawlessly. A large part of that is the automated section (the last bullet point), which saves me a lot of time and manual work. In this case that’s my automated workflow, which a mini workflow inside of my larger podcast workflow. Got all that?
Automating your podcast workflow.
The technical aspects of automating your workflow are beyond the scope of this introductory article on podcasting workflows, but I do want to talk about how you can determine which parts of your podcast workflow you can automate. Here’s a simple that will help you comb through your workflow and make it more efficient:
- Identify areas where you repeat the same task every podcast episode
- What tasks do you perform that don’t require anything more than your hand to move the mouse or type the keyboard? Which tasks don’t require you to compute anything or make decisions?
- Are there any tasks that you just don’t like doing? Maybe they can be automated to make your podcast production experience better and more fun.
For my podcast workflow automation, I simply chose the tasks that I hated to do and that I knew could be automated. Those were: compressing the files to mp3, editing in the intro and outro audio, tagging the files and upload them to the server.
How much you can automate your podcast workflow will really depend on what kind of podcast you do, to what extent you have you to be involved manually and the tools you’re using. I’m fortunate that the tools I use can be automated easily through scripting.
The Take-Away
As you produce your podcasts, think about the steps you take, write them down and try to improve, streamline and, if possible, automate your workflow. Sometimes it just takes recognizing repeated tasks to make your podcast workflow go from difficult and time-consuming to more fun in less time.
For some more examples of podcaster workflows, check out the last section (titled “Your Workflow") of this wiki page or Podcast Academy’s series called Podcasting: Workflow Management (Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5)
I’ll be leading a session at the Podcast & New Media Expo at the end of September 2007. If you’re looking to learn more about podcasting, the expo is a great investment.
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A collection of some the best online articles on podcasting.
by Ryan Irelan
So, you’ve been hearing about podcasting - maybe even listening to some. You’re interesting, have something to say and want to reach out to an audience and start your own podcast. Where do you start?
This is the PFA How To Podcast Library, a collection of links to some of the best podcasting articles online. The How To Podcast Library is your one-stop resource center for getting started podcasting.
Broken down into four steps, this tutorial runs you through, planning your podcast, producing your podcast, publishing your podcast and finally, promoting your podcast.
From the main source of news on podcasting, this is a simple and brief overview of creating your audio content, creating an mp3 files and publishing your podcast using an RSS feed.
One way to track how many people are subscribed to your podcast is using the third party service Feedburner. This tutorial runs you through the ins and outs of setting up your feed with Feedburner.
Learn what ID3 tags are and how you can edit them for your podcast.
Essential information for how to create and maintain a podcast feed.
If you’re a Windows user and want the low-down on how to create a podcast on Windows, this is the article for you. It covers Windows audio setup and podcasting software.
Vox Media offers up some solid tips on what you need to podcast, how to create your podcast, uploading your podcast and promoting your podcast.
A 5-part article on the steps you need to take on how to create your first podcast.
Learn how to use Blogger and SmartCast in this step-by-step how to podcast tutorial.
The Vitamin article on podcasting with Skype, including hardware recommendations.
Podcasting with the FeedForAll RSS Creation Tool
A basic overview of what podcasting is and some excellent podcasting links to more articles.
8 steps to getting started podcasting.
A simple guide to getting started with podcasting, podcast recording, podcast export and podcast publishing.
A podcasting how-to tutorial for Windows users.
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A collection of articles on producing quality podcasts.
by Ryan Irelan
Using good podcast audio production techniques and the proper podcasting tools will go a long way to ensure that your podcast is of the best quality possible and is received well by your listeners. Whether your goal is to have a commercial podcast and earn an income or spread helpful information to an audience, creating a quality podcast is important. The articles below were written with that in mind and will get you started producing effective podcasts.
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Who's influencing podcasting and how are they doing it?
by Ryan Irelan
Podcasting just turned two years old and this weekend is the second annual Podcast and Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California. With that in mind, here are PFAs 10 Podcasting Movers and Shakers. This isn’t a Top 10 because there’s no ranking. These are people who are actively making the podcasting space more interesting, profitable and more accessible to a wider audience.
Michael Geoghagen
With podcasting successes like wine enthusiast show Grape Radio, movie review podcast ReelReviews and most recently GigaVox Media, a company that is focused on recording and distributing conference presentations, Michael Geoghagen is one of the original podcasters, author of Podcast Solutions and one of the first to make podcasting profitable. Michael is on this list because of his ability to innovate and produce real world results with podcasting that extend past the trendy online circles. [MWG Blog]
Greg Cangialosi
Greg is someone that maybe doesn’t have the big name like Michael Geoghagen or Evan Williams, but his contributions to the current state of podcasting are undeniable. Among Greg’s accomplishments are securing, recording and producing podcasts for Disney, Verizon Wireless and GM, which moved podcasting out of the space of ‘geeks behind mics’ and into a real world marketing tool. With Greg’s savvy blend of marketing and vision, he has helped push podcasting into new areas of acceptance. Greg is the co-founder and President of Blue Sky Factory. [The Trend Junkie]
Evan Williams
After selling Blogger to Google and then leaving to do other things, Evan started up Odeo - one of the first well-funded podcasting companies. Recently Evan admitted that Odeo has made big mistakes in their business, but that doesn’t matter for this list. Evan and Odeo had the vision to do a podcasting site without ever calling it podcasting. He saw that podcasting was more than just a trendy word, but a technology that enabled other people to share audio with each other - whether it be for business, family or friends. In a time when everyone was rushing to jump on the podcasting bandwagon, Evan was building a new one. [Odeo]
David Warlick
This past January at PodcasterCon in Chapel Hill, NC, I saw David Warlick give a presentation on podcasts in education. If you ask anyone in attendance that day, you’d be challenged to find someone that didn’t agree that David’s talk was inspiring, well-done and effective. As a speaker, writer and consultant, David has been pushing the digital education agenda. It’s just now that some techies handed him yet another amazing tool to use. David also created the Education Podcast Network, which is “an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century.” [David Warlick]
Adam Curry
Probably the most well-known podcaster, Adam made his greatest contribution to podcasting by his dedication to a daily podcast during times when everyone else was just getting started. Adam’s show The Daily Source Code (which more than 400 episodes later is still being produced almost daily) was originally created to give podcast “catcher” tools a way to test their software. Since then Adam has a show on on satellite radio and started a podcasting network called PodShow. [Adam Curry]
LibSyn
One of the biggest challenges with producing podcasts is distributing them. Having potentially hundreds or thousands of people download mp3 files from your web hosting account could cost a lot of money in bandwidth bills. Enter LibSyn, short for Liberated Syndication. Their grassroots service offers anyone the ability to distribute their podcast with unmetered bandwidth and at a low cost. LibSyn’s contribution to podcasting has been as an enabler - taking the worry out of podcast distribution. [LibSyn]
Leo LaPorte
Orginally a radio talent and then television host for ZDTV (later TechTV), Leo is the perfect fit for podcasting. Starting with This Week in Tech (TWiT), a technology podcast with a panel of Leo’s friends and colleagues, Leo has steadily built up a network of podcasts under the umbrella of TWit.tv. Leo brings grassroots professionalism to podcasting and a role model for profitable podcasting. [Leo LaPorte]
Doug Kaye
In the Spring of 2003, Doug was ahead of the curve by launching IT Conversations, a service that records, edits and distributes audio conversation about technology. With a background in audio production and software development, Doug is a real technical leader in this field, having established not only IT Conversations but now GigaVox Media with Michael Geoghagen. [IT Conversations]
Tim Borquin
Tim is the founder and CEO of TNC New Media, Inc., a company that produces conferences and expos. Tim makes this list because of his work in creating the Podcast and Portable Media Expo which is taking place this week for the second year in a row. Offering podcasters, entrepreneurs and big business leaders a forum to come together and discuss the future of podcasting, there is no doubt that Tim is mover and shaker in podcasting. [TNC New Media]
Apple Computer
In June of 2005, Steve Jobs announced that Apple has built into their iTunes music software support for podcasting. Not only that, but Apple also built a a podcast directory right in their iTunes Store. This one announcement had probably the biggest impact on podcasting since it’s inception. Because of Apple’s reach and press coverage, podcasting was thrust onto the main stage and as a result many large media companies began embracing the medium. Since then Apple has built a Podcasting Suite into their GarageBand software. [Apple iTunes]
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If you want attentive listeners, you need to make your audio sound momentous. And by that I mean: clean, authoritative, and poli
by Diane Gilleland
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.
Why bother editing when podcasting is supposed to be all indie and “real?” To answer that question, let’s think about how the human brain listens.
The brain is a mighty multi-tasking machine. If you and I were in the same room, having a face-to-face conversation, our brains would be processing all kinds of information alongside our spoken words. We’d be monitoring the temperature, ambient sounds, and movement in the room. We’d be unconsciously reading each other’s facial expressions and body language. And we’d probably be running today’s grocery list and planning for the weekend in the back of our minds.
To get either of us to drop all those side-channels of information, and focus solely on our conversation, that conversation would have to be momentous.
Similar things are going on when someone listens to your podcast. Because it’s such a portable medium, podcast listeners are very often doing other things while they listen. So the question is: do you want your listeners to skim the surface of your podcast while they focus on lots of other tasks, or do you want them to drop everything else and really listen to you?
If you want attentive listeners, you need to make your audio sound momentous. And by that I mean: clean, authoritative, and polished.
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.
There are many great references on the subject of audio editing. This article assumes that you have a sound editing program of some kind, and know something about how to use it. If you don’t, I highly recommend Audacity, which is free and simple to use.)
Taking Out the Trash—Verbally Speaking
Every one of us has some kind of verbal idiosyncrasy. Some people say “ummmm” a lot when they speak. Some people insert “you know” into every sentence. Some employ the word “like” as every part of speech. We tend not to notice this stuff in face-to-face conversation, because, again, our brains are busy doing lots of other things at the same time.
But when we listen to recorded audio, all these verbal tics can become very distracting. And in many cases, they suck all the authority from what the speaker is trying to say.
Consider these two sentences:
“So like, you know, I think that, ummmmmm, Rushmore is like the greatest film, ummmmmm, ever.”
“Rushmore is the greatest film ever.”
Which version sounds more like the speaker knows what he (or she) is talking about?
Whether it’s just your voice on your podcast or you have many people speaking, it’s crucial when you edit the recording to cut out all that distracting verbal litter. It will make your content sing.
Oops, I Did It Again.
It’s interesting, how many podcasters flub words during their recordings, and then leave them there. Flubbed words and stumbled sentences have the very same effect as verbal litter: they take the authority out of what you’re saying.
It’s easy to remove flubs and stumbles from your recording if you just use one good recording habit. While you’re recording, any time you stumble over a word or phrase, just stop speaking for a few seconds. Then, say the sentence over again. Later when you edit the recording, you can easily delete the flubed sentence. No one will ever know.
Be Not Afraid of Silence.
When we’re nervous in front of the microphone, we have a certain fear of silences. And yet, short pauses are crucial to the pacing of a podcast. Pauses are powerful: they render whatever you said right before the pause, twice as important.
If you’ve recorded a podcast, and your nerves had you rattling on and on with barely a breath, then you can (and should) insert some pauses when you edit your audio. Here’s a trick: when you’re recording, just leave the recorder on for a minute at the end, and record some silence. (This will actually be a recording of the hushed ambient room noise, but it will sound like silence in your podcast.) Then, you can copy and paste bits of this “silence” into your podcast wherever it’s needed. The best places to do this: right after every key point in your show.
Level It All Out.
The last tip for editing is this: make sure every element of your show is at the same volume level. How many times have you listened to a podcast where the spoken parts were very quiet, so you cranked up the volume on your player, only to have a music bumper explode into your ears at deafening levels a few seconds later?
As you edit your show, pay close attention to volume changes. When you add music, you can amplify or de-amplify it as needed to make it match the volume of your voice track. If you’ve recorded an interview, make sure both you and your interviewee are at the same volume.
If you’re having trouble hearing volume changes, you might try this trick: Instead of staring at your computer screen while you listen to your audio, listen to it while you’re focusing on some simple task, like folding laundry. This occupies your mind slightly, so you’re listening to your show with more casual ears. You’ll be surprised at how those volume changes will jump out at you. And if they jump out at you, you can bet they’ll jump out at your listeners.
It takes so little effort to clean up your podcast, and it makes a huge difference in the quality of your show. Try it and see.
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Once you've recorded that interview, you suddenly carry an important responsibility.
by Diane Gilleland
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.
(I should add here: this article is more of an ideological how-to piece than a technical one. There are many great references on the subject of audio editing. This article assumes that you have a sound editing program of some kind, and know something about how to use it. If you don’t, I highly recommend Audacity, which is free and simple to use.)
First, deal with the nerves.
When the recorder switches on, most of us get a little nervous. And when we’re nervous,
we tend not to express ourselves as well as we do when we’re relaxed. So when
conducting an interview, your first task is to help your interviewee relax and be comfortable speaking to you.
One great way to do this is to send your interviewee a list of the questions you’ll be asking in advance, so they can prepare. Or if you’re not the plan-ahead type, then you can spend the first few minutes of your interview time in light conversation, without recording, to warm things up a bit. It’s also very courteous to let your interviewee know exactly when you’ve turned the recorder on, and when you’ve turned it off.
Peel away the layers, get to the good stuff.
Surprisingly few of us are really good at being interviewed. When you interview someone
who’s a seasoned pro, you’ll notice that they speak in concise, sound-bite language, and
they have ready answers to your questions.
Much of the rest of the time, however, you’ll find that your interviewee is a bit less polished, tending to ramble a little, and to repeat themselves. Like we all do when we’re nervous.
If your interviewee has done a bit of nervous rambling on your recording, then it’s a very kind thing to clean that up when you edit. Take out any “ummms†and “uhhhsâ€Â, remove any stutters. Editing your audio like this will make your interviewee sound calmer and more authoritative.
Make your points once, then move on.
When your interviewee repeats the same ideas over and over, your audience tends to get
bored. You can work a bit of editing magic to make your interview more engaging.
Listen carefully to your recorded interview. When you hear an idea being re-stated several times, pick out the one occurrence that’s the clearest and most interesting. Keep that one, and delete all the other repeats. It’s paradoxical, but the point you make one time carries much more weight than the point you make five times. By whittling out the redundacies, you’re doing your interviewee (and your audience) a huge favor.
Be a pace-setter.
When you listen to professional radio interviews from now on, I want you to notice
something: you’ll rarely encounter a very long answer to any interview question. This is
because the human brain generally cannot focus on a long, drawn out speech. To keep
your listeners engaged, you need to keep the pace of your interview brisk.
If your interviewee is prone to long, drawn-out answers, then you’ll need to use some
editing tricks to keep things moving.
First, remove all unnecessary repetition and rambling from your interviewee’s speech. Be
fairly ruthless; reduce each answer to its essence, and keep it under three minutes. If you find all that cutting too daunting, then alternatively you can come up with some extra clarifying questions. Record yourself asking these questions separately, and then insert these into the long, drawn-out answer at appropriate points. Voila! Better interview pacing!
Don’t be afraid to kill questions.
When you listen to your recorded interview, you may discover a Dud Question—an
unwelcome guest that shows up somewhere during many interviews.
No need to panic. In the course of any conversation, there’s bound to be one section that’s weaker than the rest—maybe your interviewee didn’t understand a question, or maybe their answer just didn’t come out right. It happens.
If your interview contains a Dud Question, don’t hesitate to edit it (and the resulting answer) out of the recording. The whole interview will be stronger for it.
By the time you’ve finished all this polishing, you will have created an audio interview that presents your interview subject in the best possible light. He or she will greatly appreciate your efforts, as will your audience.
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Tools you can use to podcast. Plain and simple.
by Ryan Irelan
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.
Not all of these tools are necessary to create a podcast. If you’re looking to start podcasting without a lot of technical expertise or money, take a look at The Real Beginners Guide to Podcasting.
Hardware
Microphones:
I recommend the following:
However, any microphone you can get your hands on will do in the beginning.
Mixers:
If you find yourself in need of a mixer, so you can combine several different audio signals (like 4 mics for a roundtable discussion, I’d recommend the following from Behringer (in order of size and cost). I recommend Behringer because of their low cost and good performance.
Software
Software that will help you podcast, whether it’s recording, editing or maintaing your podcast feed.
Books
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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Learning how to measure your podcast audience using off-the-shelf services.
by Ryan Irelan
A reader writes in:
How do I keep track of how many people are subscribed to and downloading my podcast?
This is the million dollar question of podcasting. While there are simple ways to fairly reliably track the traffic for your website (Google Analytics, MeasureMap, Mint), recording and analyzing statistics for podcasting (audio files downloaded) is another beast entirely.
Feedburner
One of Greg‘s recommendations in his article of promoting your podcast was to sign up for a Feedburner account. Feedburner creates RSS feeds for you and offers a nice suite of tools to manage and evaluate your traffic. Recently, they announced some new additions to their free Standard Stats service that includes tracking rich media enclosure (podcasts!) downloads.
With Feedburner you not only get to monitor how many unique subscribers you have to your podcast, but also how many are actually downloading the audio file. Now, the next logical step in this is to be able to track how many people are opening and listening to the file, but that brings up a) many privacy issues and b) a slew of technical issues. Audible.com is offering something similar to this but it is pay service. Look for more of these types of services in the future, but don’t expect them to be free.
Fruitcast
OK, so Fruitcast isn’t really a podcast stat service. Fruitcast allows you to have advertisements auto-inserted into the beginning or end of your podcasts. Since Fruitcast has to touch every podcast they deliver for you, as a side-effect you get some nice stats on how many files were downloaded for any given episode. Now, this is a simple stat tracking effort, but it may be just enough for most people. And, you can earn a little bit of cash on your podcast too.
Podtrac
Podtrac is another podcasting advertising service that offers some statistics, to help you and your potential advertisers gauge your listenership.
Sonr
Sonr is a free service that will help you track how people listen to your media files. They currently only support this tracking if listeners are using a player widget that you have embedded in your website page. So, unlike FeedBurner, Sonr isn’t tracking podcast file downloads. However, the statistics they are able to provide you are rather detailed, including pauses, rewinds and seconds listened. This is because they control the environment in which the listener interacts with your podcast. This isn’t really in keeping with the true spirit of podcasting, which is to provide people with portable media that can easily sync from their computer to a portable device. So, while this may prove useful to some, it certainly isn’t a total solution.
If anyone else has other podcast statistic services that are using, please leave a comment and share it with the rest of us.
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by Ryan Irelan
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.
Bob noted in his question that there will be 3-4 people in the discussion. I’ll use this as a starting point for this article, but you can easily expand by adding more hardware. So, let’s get to the hardware.
Hardware
- 1 microphone
for every 1-2 people - in order to keep costs at a minimum it is feasible to have two people share one microphone, but I wouldn’t do anymore than that. You don’t want to get into a situation where people are passing microphones around; it creates extra noise and a lot of dead air while the mic is being passed.
- 1 desktop mic stand
for every microphone - You may think that it is OK to just hold the mic in your hand. Don’t do it. Invest in enough desktop mic stands to hold each microphone.
- 1 microphone cable for each mic - obviously we need a way to connect the microphones to our mixing board.
- 1 small mixer - In order to bring all of the microphones together to be recorded together you’ll need a simple, small mixer. I’d recommend the Behringer Eurorack UB802 Mixer. It’s small, lightweight and less than $50. For a group of 3-4 people and a couple of microphones, this one will work perfectly.
- 1 pair of headphones for monitoring - Any headphones will do here. They will be plugged into your recording device - a laptop or desktop computer (or portable recorder).
How to set it up:
- Position the microphones so that they are evenly between two people. If you have 8 people, you’ll need four mics. 4 people, two mic. And so on.
- Run the cables from the microphones into the mixing board.
- Run the output from the mixing board to your recording device. I would suggest a laptop computer running Audacity or another recording tool.
- Plug your headphones into the recording device (from #3) so you can monitor exactly what is being recorded to disk. You could also monitor by plugging into the mixing board, but you won’t know what the actual recording will sound like. You always want to monitor at the point of recording.
- Give your speakers some instructions. Participants in the roundtable should be given some basic instructions on good microphone technique before you start recording. Tell them they should stay 6 inches away from the microphone when speaking and to speak in their normal conversation voice.
- Do a sound check. A sound check is a test run before you start the actual discussion. During this sound check, you want the participants to talk as if they would during the real thing. While they are talking, you should adjust microphone levels, so everyone is equal is volume. Additionally, you’ll want to record part of the sound check and go back and listen to be sure it is recording properly. This is important!
- When all is ready and tweaked, hit record and start your roundtable discussion.
Some extra tips
- You should have one person who isn’t a part of the discussion act as the sound monitor. It is his or her job to wear the headphones, monitoring the sound and making any necessary adjustments along the way.
- Microphone Windscreens
. One way to ensure that the discussion participants do not eat the micrphone (getting too close to it) is to put an inexpensive windscreen on each microphone. This will also server double duty of filtering out any pops and hisses from the audio.
Every situation will be unique, but this should get you started recording your next roundtable discussion. This type of setup is perfect for podcasting Board Meetings, Local Gov’t Hearings, Church Committee Hearings or any Special Discussions Groups/Panels, such as at a conference.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
Q is for QUALITY (of mp3s)
Most people distribute their podcast audio files in mp3 format. For more details on exactly what the mp3 format is, where it came from and other technical details, Wikipedia has a great entry for your perusal.
Depending on how you compress your audio file into an mp3 will make a big difference in how it sounds and the size of the file. If you are interested in this level of detail in creating your podcast, you’ll find the following information of interest. Below is the same recording (my GarageBand Podcast studio test file) compressed using different bitrates and the last one is in mono. With each file, I’ve noted the size of the file and the bitrate. Click on the player for each one and listen closely to see if you can tell the difference between them. This will be easier to distinguish using a decent pair of headphones.
Oh Yeah - 192 kbps - Stereo - 3:59 - 5.5 MB
[audio:http://www.podcastfreeamerica.com/audio/ohyeah_192_kbps.mp3]
Oh Yeah - 128 kbps - Stereo - 3:59 - 3.7 MB
[audio:http://www.podcastfreeamerica.com/audio/ohyeah_128_kbps.mp3]
Oh Yeah - 64 kbps - Stereo - 3:59 - 1.9 MB
[audio:http://www.podcastfreeamerica.com/audio/ohyeah_64_kbps.mp3]
Oh Yeah - 64 kbps - Mono - 3:59 - 937.5 KB
[audio:http://www.podcastfreeamerica.com/audio/ohyeah_64_kbps_mono.mp3]
Did you hear the difference? You’ll have to make the decision for your podcast which is the best bitrate to use and if you should compress to mono or stereo. Generally, a podcast with music should be compressed to stereo, but not necessarily. I’d suggest you refer to the File Size Chart from Libsyn to get recommendations for file size and bitrates.
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The essentials for promoting your podcasting and getting the word out.
by Greg Cangialosi
P is for Promotion
Thanks to Ryan Irelan for asking me to contribute to Podcast Free America. I look forward to sharing my knowledge of the podcasting space with you the reader, and welcome any questions or comments you may have. So, lets jump right to it, continuing on the “ABC of Podcasting” series, my first post is P is for Promotion:
Are you ready to roll your podcast out to the world? If so, then you’ve already starting thinking about ways to promote yourself and your show. There are many ways to quickly kick off a promotional strategy, so assuming that you want to get the word out about your podcast, lets start of with some of the essentials:
Feed Management:
Get a Feedburner account. Feedburner is one of the most user friendly tools around to manage your podcast feed, the file that tells the world who you are and what your podcast is all about. It handles all of the necessary coding to make sure your MP3 files go along with your feed (enclosures), and it formats your feed for every browser, directory and reader around. One of the key directories is iTunes, which Feedburner also handles with ease. Submit your feed link to iTunes and Feedburner takes care of the rest. You can customize your feed, add a photo, and insert other metadata that goes along with your feed as its syndicated throughout the web. This information serves as your “face†in the podosphere. Feedburner also includes a suite of tools that you can use to publicize your podcasts feed. For example it gives you a slice of HTML that you can put on other websites that will syndicate your latest posts/ episodes, a badge that rotates your latest headlines or show titles, etc and lots of other useful things. So, to make things easy on yourself, before you start spreading the word, link yourself up with a Feedburner account to make life simpler, the best part about it is that its free. Once you have your feed in place, make it as easy as possible to subscribe to. Keep track of your subscribers closely (Feedburner provides a simple way to do this), as long as your subscriptions are going up then you know your doing the right things.
Gain Exposure:
Submit your podcast to various directories. Directories are a great promotional tool, because a lot of people search through them looking for podcasts on various niche topics. People generally can search terms or tags (keywords) that will link directly to your show information. Submit your feed and show information to as many of these as you can. Directories are free, so take advantage of these podcast portals.
Here are a few of the essentials that you need to be in:
- iTunes
- Podcast Alley
- Odeo (create your own Odeo channel)
- Yahoo Podcasts
- Podcast Pickle
- Podcasting News
Write your posts with the search engines in mind. When I say that I mean to carefully consider your choice of words when you title your posts and write the copy that you describe your podcast with. Don’t over think it, but do give it some consideration. Google and the other search engines soak up website and blog posts relative results based on key word density and relevancy. Its amazing how many people find my blog and podcast via Google, simply based on the content I write to describe different things. Write well and write relevant and you will be surprised how many people find your blog/ podcast via the search engines.
Engage in the dialogue. Get the word out about your podcast by talking with other podcasters, comment on other podcaster sites, attend podcasting events, in short, get involved. This is one of the most effective ways to get your name out there. The more you dialogue with others, the more people get to know you. Word of mouth is absolutely the best form of promotion around, so talk to people about what your doing, ask them to tell a friend, exchange links, etc. If people dig what you’re doing podcast wise they will tell others, they will post and link to you, the more the merrier.
Become your own public relations machine. Depending on how much of a promotional push you want to give your podcast you may want to consider a true PR approach. If you’re a business, then you definitely want to get the word our from a public relations standpoint. The best way to do this is to craft a press release about your podcast. Explain your podcast, its subject matter, why it’s different, what its frequency will be and most importantly where it’s located. When you have completed the release and it is in its final format, then send it out via a news service, most notably PRNewsWire. This is a great tactic as the newswire feeds shoot directly into the major search engines, Yahoo, Google, etc. creating an almost instant set of inbound links to your blog / podcast and press release. Once again, keep in mind your writing and relevancy of keywords when writing your press release for the benefit of the search engines.
Measure:
Good analytics are key. This is an essential part of your promotional strategy for a few reasons. Most importantly to see how much traffic your generating and most importantly where its coming from. This allows you to further gage what’s working and what’s not. Google Analytics or SiteMeter are free services that are easy to implement. Some of the key metrics to be looking at are unique and aggregate hits to your podcasts blog / website, and the referring URL’s, in other words, where people are finding your site, ex. search engines, most importantly what search term was used to find your listing. Was it a link from another blog, a comment you left on someone else’s blog, etc.. These types of analytics are a very resourceful tool that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your promotional strategy.
I hope this information helps you get the word out about your podcast, feel free to comment or ask me any questions you may have via email, I am at gcangialosi at gmail dot com.
- Greg Cangialosi
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By podcasting to a niche you can provide valuable information to a relatively small, but loyal listening audience.
by Ryan Irelan
There are many, many music podcasts. There are probably even more podcasts about technology. These are hardly narrowly focused podcasts. Some of these podcasts have fairly large audiences and cover the topics without a lot of depth. If you’re thinking of starting a new podcast and don’t yet have a specific topic, you should consider narrowing your content into a niche.
By podcasting to a niche you can provide valuable information to a relatively small, but loyal listening audience because you’re able to cover topics with more depth. This can be just as valuable (and lucrative, if you’re interested in podcasting for money) as some of the more popular generally themed podcasts.
Example: Internet Business Mastery Podcast - This podcast is focused solely on how to make your internet business be successful. Using tips and tricks and other techniques the hosts are actually using in their businesses, Internet Business Mastery podcast is a prime example of a niche podcast. Business and entrepreneur podcasts are all over the place, but this one deals with only a specific angle of business and gives its niche listeners information about this niche topic.
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These podcasting tools require almost no technical knowledge and are (hopefully) aimed at making your experience creating a podcast as simple and quick as possible. All of the tools work inside of your web browser and require standard web browser plugins. You do not need to download or install any extra software.
- Audioblog.com
- Audioblog is a hosted podcasting tool that aims to make it easy for anyone to record and publish audio or video. It is a tiered subscription service, however they do have a free trial.
- PFA review of Audioblog.com
- ClickCaster
- Another browser podcast tool that makes it easy to create, publish and promote your podcast. Also has the best audio quality of all of the tools.
- PFAs review of ClickCaster
- Odeo
- Odeo, probably the most popular tool at the moment, has just opened up its podcast creation tool “Odeo Studio” to the public. While it is currently free for everyone, I suspect a subscription model will be in place soon. Odeo requires a highspeed internet connection to ensure good quality recordings.
- PFAs review of Odeo
- Podomatic
- Podomatic is definitely the most unique of the bunch, offering bumper music and a fun “Ask the President” feature, in which you ask President Bush some questions using their soundboard of answers. All in all, Podomatic is a solid podcasting tool that takes a light-hearted approach.
- PFAs review of Podomatic
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by Ryan Irelan
M is for MONETIZE
So, you have a podcast and a steady listenership and now you’re interested in seeing if you can monetize your podcast - if only to pay for the costs of producing it. There a few ways you can currently go about this - some easier than others, but all of them are viable if you’re willing to work at it.
Traditional sponsorships - these are basically the same kind of ads you would hear on the radio, whether they be pre-recorded or “endorsement” type ads where you read some ad copy. There are many podcasters who have successfully secured traditional sponsorships but they’re not easy to come by and require a proven large listenership. That being said, just because these advertisers are buying spots on podcasts today doesn’t mean they will be in a few months. Many are simply testing the waters and investing a small amount of ad dollars in podcasting. If it doesn’t pan out, expect them to pull back on what they’re spending. But that’s okay, this isn’t the only option.
Subscription Fee - There is not, to my knowledge, a commercial service in place that supports subscription fees for podcasts. The thought has always been that the iTunes Music Store, which is set to do so, will soon begin offering podcasts for sale. This has not yet happened and even if it does, there is no indication that Apple will allow just anyone to monetize a podcast through the store.
Donations - It works for National Public Radio, and if you have a podcast that people find relevant, informative or helpful, they just might be willing to donate some cash to keep you going. The simplest and quickest way to do this is to set up a PayPal account and use their Donations feature to add a button to your website. If you do this be sure to inform your listeners that there is a way for them to donate by announcing it on your podcast.
Fruitcast - At large cocktail parties and social gatherings I like to brag that I was the first official advertiser on FruitCast. OK, not really. But I was the first official advertiser, back when the service first started and the rates to get onto podcasts were very very low. I also signed up to accept ads on my podcasts through Fruitcast and earned enough to offset all of the money I spent advertising.
Fruitcast is a podcast advertising service that inserts advertising into your podcast “on the fly”, meaning you just go about your normal creating and posting of podcasts, while Fruitcast handles getting the ads in there. You can read all about how this process works on their About section for podcasters.
One of my favorite parts of Fruitcast (other than the delicious site design) are their advertising rules:
About 10-15 seconds in length
Long enough to get the message across, short enough to prevent rambling.
No music or sound effects
You’ve already got a captive audience—no need to beat them over the head to get their attention.
No “Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!” voices or silly accents
Keep it simple, and respect of the podcaster’s tone and content.
Sponsorship structure
Ads should follow the general structure of This podcast is brought to you by Similant, Inc.  “Really. Really. Different”  Visit us online at similant.com.
Kiptronic - Working on a similar model as Fruitcast, Kiptronic inserts ads into your podcast “on the fly.” This service is simple to set up if you use Libsyn as your podcasting host. Otherwise, you’ll need to install a webserver module that will allow them to connect to your server and grab the podcasts. This requires some knowledge of server administration and may not work for everyone.
One thing to remember about the last two methods of monetizing your podcast is that they do alter your mp3 file by inserting ads into it.
Additional Reading:
Money For Content and Your Clicks For Free : Turning Web Sites, Blogs, and Podcasts Into Cash
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
L is for LICENSING
If you’re interested in starting a music podcast, you should be aware of some important laws that if followed will keep you out of legal trouble. As you may know from past litigation against companies like mp3.com and Napster, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is very actively persuing cases of illegal distribution or other use of copyrighted music. This also includes using copyrighted music in your podcasts without proper compensation to the artists and their labels. Did I just bum you out completely? Well, there are ways to have a music podcast that won’t get you in trouble, but it does take a little work.
Music and other copyrighted works have three different licensing pieces to them:
- Sound Recording
- Mechanical Reproduction
- Musical works (or Performance)
The Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc. describes these rights thoroughly:
Musical works. Performance rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI and SESAC) handle copyright licenses for the performance of musical works, including their performance in a podcast. Separate licenses are necessary from each performance rights organization because each company represents different publishers of composers’ musical works.
Sound recordings. Copyright licenses for the playing (or “performance") of sound recordings historically have been handled directly with the owners of the works, usually record companies. (Over-the-air broadcasters are not required to obtain copyright licenses for playing sound recordings. They must, however, hold licenses for playing the underlying musical works.)
Under amendments to the Copyright Act in 1995 and 1999, a statutory license scheme was enacted for the digital transmission of musical works and sound recordings. However, the statutory licenses reflect the technology of the times. The 1995 legislation covered downloadable music files, such as the commercial sale from a web site of an MP3 file. The 1999 act reached webcasting and streaming, both noninteractive activities that involve the transmission of a sound recording, but not the distribution of a reproduction of it.
Reproduction. By contrast to webcasting, a podcast may include a reproduction of a sound recording. Podcasting is an interactive activity. It results in the transmission of a sound recording which is fixed and is accessible on demand by the user. The reproduction requires clearances or licenses - for the sound recording, and for the musical work. Although the performance rights societies offer licenses to cover the musical works in a podcast, no uniform or industry-wide licensing scheme has developed yet to cover the sound recording.
How’s that for a little primer on music copyright law? The thing is, understanding what you can and cannot do is extremely important. While the RIAA has not yet (as of this writing) sued a podcaster for illegal use of copyrighted music, I have it from good sources that they’ll wait until there’s enough to make a big case against a lot of people. Don’t be part it. Be sure you’re not violating copyright law.
What do you do now? Well, if you’re interested in playing music on your podcast that falls under these copyright licenses, then you’ll need to pay licensing for each song and each license type. Yes, it is a major headache and will cost you a lot of money. If you are still interested, you may want to read more about how to go about getting licensing or consult a lawyer.
Now, that being said, there are other ways to legally play music on your podcast.
The most popular means of playing music on podcasts is by using independant music that does not fall under the RIAA (the artist, the music and the recordings are not part of or owned by a record company belonging to the RIAA) and seeking permission directly from the artists.
IndieFeed, a service that provides the best indie music podcasts, offers up this advice to their podcasters:
ASK the ARTIST for PERMISSION for other uses, or you cannot use the content and you are putting yourself and your organization at legal risk. In many cases permission comes in exchange for verbal credit and a tie-back to their website. Be clear to explain to the artist the nature of the use, and the context of the broadcast, so that they understand what their music would be used to represent. Don’t be a weenie by cutting corners.
If you find an independant artist you want to play on your podcast, email the artist ahead of time and explain who you are, what your podcast and how you can promote their music. Explicitly ask for permission to play it on your podcast and agree to link to their website and announce their name and website on your podcast. For independant artists this is great (and free) publicity and I’m confident most will recognize that. Be nice and courteous and I’m sure you’ll get permission.
Magnatune, an online independant record label allows podcasters to play their music on podcasts in exchange for a verbal credit and a link back to the Magnatune website. They have a great roster of really talented artists, so you should definitely check out their catalog. You can learn more at Podcast our music!
Additional Reading:
Digital Millenium Copyright Act
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
K is for THOUSANDS. How do I get thousands of listeners?
Yeah, so I’m stretching this alphabet motif a bit on this one. Thinking of something helpful to write about that started with “k” was proving difficult, so I settled on this.
A lot of new podcasters enter the arena with high hopes and aspirations. Great! There is nothing better than enthusiasm to help drive you toward your goal. Whether that be the goal of having 50 listeners, 500 listeners, 5 listeners or just the ability to publish a podcast on a regular basis.
So, really, how do you get thousands of listeners to your podcast? Well, if that’s really your goal - and it doesn’t have to be - then you’ll want to be sure to follow these guidelines:
1. Be consistent. Publish reguarly - weekly, daily, monthly. Just like your favorite TV show, your listeners will expect a new podcast at a regular interval. Decide ahead of time how you want this to work and then stick to it. I would err on the side of caution and commit to fewer podcasts than you think you actually want to do. Life will intervene and before you know it you’ll be days or weeks behind.
2. Tie your podcast to an existing website. If you have a website that already has hundreds or thousands of readers, then you can expect that your podcast will immediately get a fraction of those. Brand your podcast to match your website and leverage the website traffic to your advantage. Post about your podcast on your website and make subscribing to it simple and clear.
If you don’t have a website, well there’s a lot of fun to be had making something of nothing.
3. Be unique. Original and one-of-a-kind podcasts have a greater potential to accumulate a large audience than do, say, the ten thousandth podcast about “podsafe” music. Go to the podcasting directories and search around. Is your idea there in large numbers? You might want to come up with something else.
4. Work hard. This one will contradict number three just slightly. If you don’t have an original idea, one that’s never been done before, then just work harder and do it better than anyone else. Podcasting takes a lot time and getting it to sound good and flow takes even longer. Expect to spend 4x you show’s length preparing, recording and completing each podcast.
5. Make your presence known. No one is going to know about your podcast if you don’t tell anyone. List yourself in all of the directories, write about it on your website or blog, selectively send people emails letting them know about it (be careful not to spam people, please). Get the word out!
So, those are some tips to getting thousands of listeners. You know, a lot of it is probably luck, but podcasting requires a good deal of hard work too. These are basic principles, just starting points. Leave any other feedback or suggestions you have in the comments area.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
J is for Journalism Podcasted
No, this isn’t going to be an essay about whether or not podcasting is journalism. I think the Blogging v. Journalism discussions of the last five years have more than worn out that argument. Instead I want to focus on the use of podcasting in journalism.
With the launch of the iTunes Music Store podcasting support in June 2005, Apple Computer gave mainstream media companies a solid and supported avenue for distributing their content. This also prompted some new companies and organizations to enter into the podcasting fold. Many of these companies were “traditional” media companies, like NPR, CNN and the BBC.
Here are some examples of Journalism Podcasted:
National Public Radio - NPR jumped on the podcasting scene shortly after Apple announced their iTunes podcasting support.
Will NPR’s podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?
BBC Podcasting Download Trial - The BBC is offering a trial run of podcasting that was supposed to end in 2005 but they decided to extend it into 2006.
KCRW Podcasts - Probably one the most popular places to get public radio podcasts, KCRW is leading the pack. They have excellent original content like Le Show, Bookworm and others.
On the Media - the NPR show about the media is podcasting.
CBC podcasting - The CBC is embracing podcasting, offering up three of its shows for download.
CNN - CNN is podcasting two regular news update shows and then some of their special reporting.
Know one that should be on the list? Leave a comment with the link.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
I is for INTROS and OUTROS
Intro
An “intro” or the music, voice, sound effects (or combination) is the sound clip that introduces your podcasts. You will use the same intro on each podcast, effectively created a brand and giving the listener something to immediately recognize your show.
You can use any music or sound effects that are legally distributable (see the Buyout Music Resource for more information on royalty-free music to use for your intro). A good intro should indentify your podcast by name and optionally the website that is affiliated with the podcast. The length of your intro is important. As a general rule of thumb, I would reccomend that you keep the intro less than 30 seconds in length (15 seconds is ideal). A lengthy intro that does not add anything of value to the podcast will only bore listeners and cause them to possibly skip your show and move on. And remember, your listeners will hear this intro every time they listen to your podcast.
Outro
An “outro” is similar to an “intro” except that it is the audio that signals the end of your show. I recommend this be similar to the intro, so there is some symmetry in your podcast. If you use music in your intro, use the same in your outro, but maybe shorter. You may also wish to include any credits or sponsors in your outro, but remember that it is recorded and you should only include things that won’t change in the near future (like the name of the website affiliated with the podcast, or the host). I would recommend that outros be limited to 15 seconds in length. If you have music in your outro, don’t let it trail on for minutes. This is not valuable to the listener and also unnecessarily increases the file size of your podcast.
You should also take care to produce your intro and outro, creating the highest quality audio possible. For some examples of intros and outros, check out AudioBag.com, a audio production service that does podcast intros and outros.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
Buyout music is the royalty free music that radio stations and media outlets use as background music and jingles for their productions. It is regularly used on radio, television and online, especially for Flash presentations. Much of this can be purchased online for relatively little money. This music is “buyout” music, meaning you’re purchasing the rights to play the tracks on your podcast (or other audio production) forever and as many times as you like. You’re not actually purchasing the music to own, just to use it as you please.
I’ve compiled a short list of links to buyout music websites where you can purchase some tracks for your podcast.
View Buyout Music Resources
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by Ryan Irelan
H is for HOW
How do you start podcasting?
So, you want to start podcasting. Where do you start? Well, you could do a Google search for `how to podcast` and before you sits page after page of confusing and technical explanations about what podcasting is and how to create one. Be sure you remember the part about the “bitrate” and how to EQ your vocals. OK, kidding. That’s not necessary at all.
This section of ABC of Podcasting isn’t something completely new to this site. But it’s an important topic, so I think it’s worth repeating.
Late last year I wrote The Real Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting, which includes a sample audio file and a video demonstrating how to create a podcast using Podomatic, an online podcast recording tool. When someone asks me how they should get started podcasting, I point them to the guide and then let them get started discovering podcasting for themselves, on their own terms and within their technical comfort zone.
As an example, I want to point out an email I received the other day from a person who attended my Podcasting for Everyone session at PodcasterCon. He wrote to let me know that he brought the information from the session back to the organization where he works and now  only days later  the kids he works with are already creating their own podcasts with one of the online podcasting tools. It’s all about getting access to the tools needed to create podcasts simply and quickly, without many technical boundaries. This is why in The Real Beginners Guide to Podcasting I recommend the in-browser podcasting tools for people who are looking for a way to get started without a lot of overhead. If you’re looking to start podcasting, I recommend reading the guide and using one of the in-browser podcasting tools.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
These are straight-forward step-by-step instructions based on Hugo Schotmann’s podcasting setup.
1. Open Audio Hijack Pro and create a new Session using the “+” button at the bottom left of the window. Name the session “Mic Input => SF2”.
Select “Audio Device” from the drop-down menu in the right pane.
For “Input Device” choose where you microphone is plugged into (on my Powerbook it’s “Built-in Audio: Line In). If you’re using the internal mic, choose that, if a iSight, choose that.
For “Output Device” choose “Soundflower (2ch)”.
2. Create a new Session using the “+” button at the bottom left of the window. Name the session “SF2 => SF16”.
Select “Audio Device” from the drop-down menu in the right pane.
For “Input Device” choose “Soundflower (2ch)”.
For the “Output Device” choose “Soundflower (16ch)”
3. Create a new Session using the “+” button at the bottom left of the window. Name the session “SF16 => Record”.
Select “Audio Device” from the drop-down menu in the right pane.
For “Input Device” choose “Soundflower (16ch)”.
For the “Output Device” choose “Built-in Audio: Headphones”
Choose the “Recording” tab at the bottom of the window. For “Format” choose MP3 (High). Set the location where you want to save your recordings, what to name them, etc.
4. Create a new Session using the “+” button at the bottom left of the window.
Select “Application” from the drop-down menu in the right pane. Then using the drop down menu on the far right, Select SKYPE from the list. If it’s not listed, choose “Select Application” and navigate to Skype.
WHEN YOU ARE READY TO RECORD YOUR PODCAST/SKYPE CALL
1. Open Skype and choose Skype > Preferences
Choose “Audio”. For the “Audio Output” choose “Soundflower (16ch)” For the “Audio Input” choose “Soundflower (2ch).”
Quit Skype.
2. Open System Preferences. Choose Sound. Select the Output tab and choose “Soundflower (2ch)” Under the “Input” tab it should be set to the input device you use to record (Line In, iSight, iMic, etc).
3. Open Audio Hijack Pro.
4. Select session “Mic Input => SF2” and press “Hijack”.
Select session “SF2 => SF16” and press “Hijack”
Select session “SF16 => Record” and press “Hijack”
Select the Skype session and press “Hijack”
5. Select session “SF16 => Record” and press the Record Button. That’s it!
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by Ryan Irelan
G is for GUESTS
So, for the last six months you’ve been doing a podcast about your favorite topic and want to invite others to be on your show. It’ll help mix things up, you think, it’ll score you some new listeners. Well, both could be true. However, you shouldn’t just blindly jump into inviting guests onto your podcast. This article presents you with some food for thought about guests, interviewing and credibility.
Are guests necessary for your podcast?
Not every podcast should have guests. But almost every podcast could have guests. That’s a good starting point.
Why so confusing? Well, because there’s no forumla for what podcast would be good for guests, it really depends on a lot of things. Unless your podcast is a reading of your writing or a format that doesn’t include talking (yes, there are some out there), you can probably fit guests into your format. But that doesn’t mean you should. Read the rest of this essay to determine if you’re ready to add guests and interview them. Having a successful interview with a quality guest (i.e. not your cat meowing randomly into the microphone) isn’t simple, but it ain’t rocket science either.
How to recruit guests. Finding the right guest.
Plan ahead. My first bit of advice would be to plan ahead. If you are planning to have a guest that isn’t a close friend (or relative), you should be scheduling guests at least two weeks ahead. This may seem like a long time, but people are busy and if someone is going to take time to be on your podcast, you’ll want to be courteous and accomodating.
You should know the topic of the show and have a rough outline of what you want to cover before contacting your potential guests. Having an outline will also help you better gauage which guest will be the best fit. Don’t have a guest on that is only marginally important to the topic you’re covering. Find the most qualified guests you can. This doesn’t mean you try to score an interview with Steve Jobs on your Apple/Mac-themed podcast. Know your limitations and where you fit into the podcasting/media space. The more interviews you do and the larger audience you have are things that will determine whether or not you get the big interviews. Interviewing relatively unknown guests whoe are experts in the topic at hand can be a real rewarding experience for your listeners. Go for quality not celebrity.
Have a backup plan. Guests can and will back out or refuse to be on your podcast. Have a backup plan and keep one or two people in mind who can fill in, if needed. That being said, I’d also advise strongly against double booking guests. While you may be covering your butt in the event that one guest backs out, you won’t be making any friends if have to tell someone they can’t be on your show, after already confirming them.
And you are?? If you’re contacting potential guests that are outside your personal network, expect a little hesitancy from them about appearing on your podcast. Don’t blame them. It is your job to prove to them that you and your show are worth their time and that you are reputable and providing a quality product to listeners. The onus is on you, the podcaster, to make sure potential guests are confident in your podcast and your ability to conduct a conherent, useful interview.
Create a page on your website for potential guests. Include on this page: a concise description of the podcast, a short bio of you, samples of past podcasts and a list of previous guests. When you send inquiries to potential guests, be sure to include a link to this guest information page.
Planning for your interview. Steps to take to be sure your interview goes well.
Be Prepared. If this is your first interview, listen to some radio or watch some television interviews (not the junk on cable news, but something good like Charlie Rose) and observe techniques and tactics. A good interviewer is always in control while appearing to allow the conversation to flow naturally. Do you think Charlie Rose just lets his guests blab on and on and hopes that it ends up to be an interesting interview? Heck no. Charlie has probably done his research (or had others do it for him) and knows exactly what he wants to ask and where he wants to end. He makes it look effortless because he’s a superior interviewer.
Remember that rough outline I talked about? Revise it and make a solid show plan with key topics you’ll want to cover and questions for each topic. As the host, it is your job to make sure that all of the topics are covered. You do this by delicately directing the guest  through interjections and new questions  to the next topic. This will keep the show interesting and, most importantly, on topic.
Following up after the interview
After your interview, you should send the guest a thank you email and a copy of the podcast (or a link to download). If you previously agreed to let them preview the podcast first, be sure to do that before you post it to your website (or elsewhere) for the public to download. Stay in contact with the guest and perhaps even ask if they’d be willing to be a reference for any future guests (and listed on your guest information page).
This isn’t an exact science, but with these tips, you should be well on your way to securing quality guests and creating interesting and thought-provoking interviews. Good luck!
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
F is for FIND
Where can I find podcasts that I want to listen to?
iTunes Music Store
Apple took the podcasting world by storm last June when they announced their support for podcasts in iTunes and their podcast directory in the iTunes Music Store. This is by far the easiest and probably best way to find and subscribe to podcasts. If you’re an iPod user, it’s also the easiest way to get podcasts onto your iPod.
Podcast Alley
This was one of the first podcast directories that was created and includes a voting system and busy forum where you can talk with others about podcasting. I would generally recommend that you ignore the voting system there and use the site purely for its listings. The forums are also helpful, if you’re looking for some help or specific information about podcasting.
AmigoFish
A new kid on the block, AmigoFish recommends new podcasts based on how you’ve rated other podcasts you know about. This may be a little confusing for people new to podcasting, but it certainly a nice way to find new podcasts.
Odeo
Odeo is a lot of things. It’s a place to create podcasts, listen to podcasts and of course find podcasts. Odeo has a great community and you can get recommendations from people on a good podcast to listen to by viewing their subscription list. If you’d like, Odeo can also act as your subscription tool, just use it to find, subscribe and download your favorite podcasts.
Yahoo! Podcasts
Yahoo! Podcasts is a classic podcast directory and it doesn’t require you to create an account to browse the podcast listings. On the front page you can choose a category or genre you’re interested in or you can search all of the podcasts and find some matches. Yahoo! Podcasts also lets you use their website to subscribe to and download podcasts.
Podcast Pickle
Another site that offers listings of podcasts, but this one gives you a nice breakdown on the sidebar of the new podcasts, favorite podcasts and podcasts by genre, those that want sponsors, etc. This is probably the least usable of all of the sites (the fonts are just too small), but it may be worth looking into if you can’t find what you need anywhere else.
Podfeed
Podfeed is a nice directory that puts the genre listings right in front of you on the main page.
Podcast Bunker
Podcast Bunker claims to only list the highest quality podcasts and are not just about quantity. I’m not sure how they know what’s what, and I don’t know if quantity isn’t such a bad thing at this point in podcasting. Anyway, it seems like a site that has some useful stuff on it, but it is so unusable and difficult to read that I would recommend you use one of the other sites instead.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
E if for EDUCATION
Education and podcasting?
At PodcasterCon 2006, David Warlick (speaker, author, educator) ran a great session on Podcasting as a Teaching/Learning Strategy. The room was full of educators, who expressed their concern, interest and enthusiasm for podcasting as an educational tool.
As with any new technology or teaching tool (weblogs are a good example), their has to be a solid case made to the administrators about what kind of academic benefit this new technology would have. Unlike the geeks, teachers can’t just use new technology in the classroom simply because it’s cool and neat. This is probably the most important lesson of the session, I think. However, David also demonstrated some current uses of podcasts, which include Room 208 by Bob Sprankle and by The Beacon School, which did a media assignment. Both of these are linked in the session notes (see below).
Please read the session notes here and some commentary and notes by Steve Dembro here. All of this together, including the links below, should give you an excellent feel for where podcasting currently stand in education and how you, the educator, can integrate it into your classroom.
For more information about the use of podcasting in education, here are some helpful links:
Education Podcast Network
David Warlick
E-learning Centre (UK)
Stanford on iTunes - faculty lectures and more
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
I can be a total marble mouth. If I’m not cautious, I can slip back into old speaking habits, which included talking too fast, poor diction and a very lazy mouth. In highschool I was referred to a speech therapist by the drama coach (I fumbled by way into a leading role in a theater production) because my bad speaking habits. I’m better now than I used to be - most of this has to do with now being fluent in German - but I can still slip back into garble mode.
When behind the microphone recording your podcast, your listeners don’t have the benefit of seeing your expressions, mouth and gestures. So, if you mumble your way through a podcast, it can be very difficult to comprehend what is being said. Good dicition is key.
- Enunciate your words and hit the consonsants crisply.
- Overcompensate. You’ll probably think you sound weird, but that’s when you’re doing it correctly.
- Open your mouth. Don’t talk with just your tongue, your mouth is there for a reason.
- Slow down!
Run a test. Record yourself as you would “normally” speak and then using your new diction skills. Compare the two and make any necessary adjustments. The key to being a good recorded speaker is to listen to yourself.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
C is for COMPRESSOR
What the heck is a compressor? In audio recording, a compressor is a piece of hardware or software that makes a given audio signal more even, so that the loudest parts of the signal are lowered and quietest parts raised, giving a uniform and predicitable dynamic range. What this does is allow the person speaking into the microphone to not have to worry about controlling the different levels of their voice and allow full expression and speaking volume without altering the overal audio level (or cause distortion).
In podcasting you’ll want to use compression mainly on your vocal recording. You can either purchase an outboard compressor like this one from dbx or get a software plugin that works with your recording software. There are many available for free, like the Blockfish plugin. You can also spend some money on a professional software compressor like the iZotope Ozone.
OK, once you get your compressor set up, here are some ballpark compressor settings for the ideal voice over:
Threshold: The threshold will depend on the vocalist and the room you’re working in. There’s no set threshold. It’s something you’ll have to tinker with to get the best setting for your environment.
Ratio: Generally speaking (and you’ll read this almost everywhere), vocals should be compressed at a ratio of 2:1.
Attack: You want to set a fast attack time. Attack is the speed at which the compressor kicks in and does its work. Too slow of an attack time will cause the vocal to be mushy and lack punch. I know this from experience.
Release: This is how long until the compressor stops doing its work. I would set a medium-slow release time as a starting point. You’ll have to adjust it for your own voice and get the best setting. Use your ears as a guide.
Output: The output is the signal level that the compressor returns. If you need to add a little gain to your signal post compression, turn up the output a bit. Be careful that you do not distort your compressed signal by turning up the output too high.
Here are some sources that helped inspire this entry and will provide you more details:
How to Record Vocals
How to achieve a great v/o without a great studio setup
Recording the Voice-Over
Home Recording - Compression
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
B is for BUSINESS PODCASTING
Business? Yes, business. But not in the sense of how you can make money at podcasting. I’m talking about businesses that use podcasts as a tool to communicate with their customers or market to new ones and relay information to investors an business partners.
“Gosh, Ryan, that’s not very purist of you. Businesses are just coming in and ruining it for everyone just like they did with blogs.”
Well, I’m not here to judge what’s good and bad about business podcasting. No, instead I want to highlight some businesses that are doing particularly interesting things with podcasts. So there you go. Business Podcasting.
AccuWeather - You’d think that the only thing Accuweather would podcast are local weather reports. Well, they do that too. But most interesting is their Weather Audio podcast, which features weather-related topics and interviews such as Red Cross preparation for the Hurricane Season, interviews and stories about historical weather events and traditions. A really interesting mix of content that goes beyond just 30 seconds of today’s weather. Unfortunately, a new podcast hasn’t been published since July, but I’m hopeful that Accuweather will continue to see the value in offering alternative programming in podcast form.
Disney - Disney recruited podcasters to record and document their 50th anniversary celebration of Disneyland, including press events, VIP interviews and other exclusive access.
IBM - Investor Relations is an important aspect of running a public company. IBM decided to leverage the distribution model of podcasts as yet another way to diseminate information to its investors through their “IBM and the future of...” series.
Lawyers podcasting - Lawyers are slowly recognizing the benefit of podcasting as an education and marketing tool. While there are more than a few lawyer podcasts currently, I think it will only increase in the next 24 months. (Podcasting for New Business)
Motel 6 (Accor Hotels) - This podcast made quite a splash online when it was first announced and rightly so. Accor is a huge multinational corporation and while this foray into podcasting is most likely a testing of the waters, it is still a significant move.
Penguin Books - Started in October, The Penguin Podcast is listed as a podcast with “book extracts, author interviews and features�? from Penguin Books and is a way for Penguin to market their authors and audiobooks. But they’re not featuring just any authors  the first episode had a reading from Freakanomics and Jamie Oliver, the (not) naked chef. A really well-produced podcast, it is sure to please any Penguin fans.
Pontiac - GM has been doing podcasts through their FastLane blog and Greg Cangialosi had the unique opportunity to produce their Summer Solstice podcast. He writes: “This is a continuation of Pontiac’s new concept of showing up at unexpected locations and events, and tying themselves to the entertainment industry. A very cool branding concept. I have to say it was a unique and exciting experience covering all of the events. The podcast was done from a “man on the street�? perspective (literally), I was walking all over Times Square doing alot of soundseeing, chatting with people, interviewing bands and some celebrities. A truly great time and experience.”
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
A is for ACCESS
Podcasting isn’t just for geeks. Podcasting did start among geeks like me, but is going far beyond that very quickly. This presents us with a problem. Is learning how to create and listen to podcasts easy enough? I’d say it’s not. People promoting podcasting should work diligently to open up avenues of access, so everyone  the technical and the non-technical alike  can learn how to create or listen to podcasts. One way to do that is through tutorials.
I subscribe to several customized RSS feeds that deliver to me the latest writing on all things “podcasting.” Time and time again I see podcasting tutorials come through that are just plain complicated and completely unhelpful to anyone except those that already know how to podcast.
Surely this is frustrating for the learners and it all boils down to ineffective communication (willingly or unwillingly) and laziness (not thinking through the process you’re trying to explain). Teaching people something they know nothing about is difficult, exhausting and challenging. Many of the tutorials out there are only making it that much harder.
If we want to effectively spread information about how to podcast and how to listen to podcasts, we need to really think about what we’re doing and create clear avenues of access to podcasting for people of all technical levels. We can’t continue to slap together tutorials in a haphazard fashion. We can’t call a document “How to Podcast�? and then spend the next four paragraphs talking about what bitrate to use when compressing your audio file to mp3. We can’t sell people “Podcasting in a Box,�? promote it as simple and then require they download an open source audio recording tool that has a nightmarish interface. That’s insane. We need to think about what we’re doing.
Here are some tips on tutorial writing:
- Who’s your audience? Before you start writing, decide who you’re writing for. If you decide to write a Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting, your audience is beginners. Assume these people have no experience at all. While drafting your tutorial, you should keep your audience in mind. Explaining compression of audio files is not a beginners topic.
- Start with an outline: Organization is your friend. A well thought-out and structured podcasting tutorial will make it easier for your readers to follow along and learn. Write a simple outline and gradually fill in the details. Use the outline as a guide while you’re writing.
- Teach by showing: Use of visuals such as screenshots, screencasts and diagrams will help make your tutorial easier to understand. Be precise with any screenshots by including only the pertinent information. All important information in a screenshot should be legible and clear.
By creating clear, targeted tutorials, we open up avenues of access and make it easier for people of all technical levels to create and listen to podcasts.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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by Ryan Irelan
ABC of Podcasting - 26 short essays on podcasting.
Starting this week, I’m introducing a new series of short essays called ABC of Podcasting.* Each essay on podcasting will be one letter of the alphabet and if all goes well, by the end of the series, I’ll have a nice set of essays on podcasting. The series will cover all aspects of podcasting  from beginner to expert and more!
The series begins tomorrow and continues until I reach the letter “Z.” Enjoy!
* The title of this series is inspired by the title of Ezra Pound’s 1934 literary theory book ABC of Reading. Of course I am not even attempting to write anything even close to as brilliant as Pound’s analysis.
Read ABC of Podcasting
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by Ryan Irelan
I love me some Odeo. It’s a beautiful website with lots of bling and now that their podcast creation tools are open to the public, Odeo is ready for prime time. As part of their public release of the podcast creation tools (I’ve been a tester for several months, see my review for more information), Odeo also made significant updates to their design and user interface.
One of the main goals of the design was to meet their goal of Podcasting for Regular People. As you can imagine, this makes me very happy. That is exactly why I started Podcast Free America and represents the most frustrating issue in podcasting at this moment: Ease of access to podcasting for non-technical people.
However, being the tweaker that I am, I decided to alter the Odeo front page a bit to mold it more in my vision of Podcasting for Regular People. What’s that vision, you ask? Well, simply put, creating podcasts should be as simple as doing a Google search.
Steps to create a Google search
- Go to http://www.google.com.
- Type in your search term(s).
- Click the Google Search button.
Simple, right? Let’s see how close I can get to making the Odeo front page function the same way.
PFA’s steps to create a podcast on Odeo.com
- Go to http://www.odeo.com.
- Click the Record button.
- Talk.
What about an account? How can someone create a podcast without creating an account?
Of course users have to create an account in order to save and share their podcasts. But what I’m saying is that the account creation step should come AFTER the recording of the first podcast.
I think of it this way: Amazon.com doesn’t make me create an account before I can browse around and add things to a cart, does it? No. If they did they would probably have a lot fewer sales. There’s nothing I dislike more than having to fill out yet another form before I know if I really care enough about the website to offer up my personal information. So, why should podcasting tools (this goes for all tools, not just Odeo) be any different ?
I don’t think they should be. So, after some thinking and photoshoping, I’ve come up with this example of what I think is a way to make creating podcasts almost as simple as doing a Google search:
The flow would be something like this: Record Audio → Create Account → Publish Saved Audio. That’s it.
I’m interested to hear what you think about my makeover. As always, comments are welcome.
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by Ryan Irelan
As the number of podcasts increase (and not just those looking to make a buck), the noise level rises even higher and more and more people are using RSS news readers and portals like Yahoo! and the iTunes Music Store to find new podcasts, it becomes much more important to identify your website (or where people can find more about you) during your podcast.
If I come across your podcast outside the context of your website, I like to know who you are, where you “live” online and how I can find out more, if I so choose. Podcasts don’t always travel within the context of your website, so it’s important to add a line or two at the beginning and end of your podcast, identifying who you are and where you’re located online.
But don’t be mistaken and think this is just about pimping your site during your podcast (and there are some that are into that). This is about making it easier for your listener to jump from listening to reading and hopefully marking your website for a return visit.
By giving your podcast a name-tag you make it easier for listeners to find you and learn more.
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by Ryan Irelan
Matt Foster of CitizenSpin has the best round-up of the Podcast Expo in Ontario, CA this past Friday and Saturday. Earlier I asked if the the expo would touch on any of the issues regarding making podcasting more accessible by the non-geeks and those with less technical savvy. I saw very little reporting of that, but Matt wrote on a talk by Don Katz, CEO if Audible, Inc. The common thread in Katz’ keynote was that podcasting needs to be simple and we need to be cognizant of that.
1) Don’t underestimate how easy podcasting needs to become. It has to be easy to fit into the non-early adopters’ lifestyle – people are intolerant of technological complexity. Future optimisation will come forward and make it simpler – the experience and content needs to become more important than the technology.
Of everything I read, this is probably the most important statement and how surprising that it came from the CEO of Audible! Hopefully, this wasn’t lost on the attendees of the conference. Geeks (like me) prefer to live in our world, on our terms, wondering why everyone else isn’t “up-to-speed.” We have little patience or desire to really think hard about the processes we’re creating and the messages we’re sending about what podcasting is, how to create one or even how to find one and listen to it. There’s so much work to be done in this area.
I subscribe to several customized RSS feeds that deliver to me the latest writing on all things “podcasting.” Time and time again I see podcast tutorials come through that are just plain complicated and completely unhelpful to anyone except those that already know how to podcast.
This is very frustrating because it all boils down to ineffective communication (willingly or unwillingly) and laziness (not thinking through the process you’re trying to explain). Teaching people something they know nothing about is difficult, exhausting and challenging. All of the tutorials out there are only making it that much harder.
In foreign language education there is a method called “Total Immersion.” This is a way to teach a foreign language by communicating in that language from Day One. Yes, at first no one will understand what the instructor is saying. But the students learn quicker and become less dependent on their dictionaries and learning translations. Without detailed planning of everything the instructor says and does this method is a complete failure. It isn’t a whimsical approach to teaching. It’s very structured and takes many hours to prepare each lesson.
Imagine that the foreign language instructor came into the class each day just started talking aimlessly, without any plan or goal. Maybe the instructor feels like he or she is being helpful to the students by keeping the class immersed in the language, but in reality the students just tune out the instructor because they get no points of access and have no realizations at the end of the class that they’re learned something. This makes Total Immersion a complete failure, but it’s only because the instructor didn’t think through the process of teaching the students and didn’t think about what it would be like to sit there and hear someone talk at you in a foreign language.
My point is this: If we want to spread information about how to podcast and how to listen to podcasts, we need to really think about what we’re doing. We can’t continue to slap together tutorials in a haphazard fashion. We can’t call a document “How to Podcast” and then spend the next four paragraphs talking about what bitrate to use when compressing your audio file to mp3. We can’t sell people “Podcasting in a Box,” promote it as simple and then require they download an open source audio recording tool that has a nightmarish interface. That’s insane. We need to think about what we’re doing.
I’m glad that Katz made this a point of his keynote and I hope that the mad rush to make money from podcasting (The Next Big Thing) and to build yet another tool that is unusable to anyone without technical expertise won’t obscure the really important issue of creating avenues of access to podcasting and making them as wide as possible.
This is my motto here and I take it seriously: Promoting Podcasting for Everyone.
Thanks again to Matt Foster for his excellent updates from the expo.
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by Ryan Irelan
After I did my first look at Odeo, ClickCaster and Podomatic, Eric Rice brought to my attention that I had left out his service, Audioblog.com, from the review. It certainly wasn’t on purpose. I must say that once I signed up for an account and dug in a little, I was quite impressed with that they had to offer.
Audioblog.com offers the following services:
- Podcast creation and publishing
- Video creation and publishing
That’s makes it sound so simple. Deceptively simple, because Audioblog is a robust, mature media service, unlike the services in my previous entry, Audioblog.com has had these features for a year and it shows.
I’m going to focus mainly on their podcasting support here, for obvious reasons, but certainly encourage anyone interested to go and check out their video services.
One of my first impressions of the service - and it was an important one- was that I didn’t have to look around and “mis-click” my way through their interface. All of my options were conveniently laid out as tabs and I was able to quickly set up my new podcast, including an auto-generated podcast feed. This is where I got a little stuck, but only for a moment. You see, at Audioblog.com you manage your Podcast and the audio content you publish under that Podcast as two different entities. It does make complete sense, but is just different than the other tools and made me step back for a moment to understand how it works.
I like how this separation of audio content from the actual podcast, though, because I can accumluate dozens of audio files and, using a drop-down menu, assign and publish them to any one of my podcasts(or weblogs). Their process is different, but in the end it’s the most powerful, especially when you start dealing with multiple audio files and multiple podcasts. It’s more like a content management system than any of the other three I’ve looked at.
After that little bump in the road, I moved along smoothly, having successfully created some audio and assigned it to a podcast and published it. I then activated iTunes tags for my podcast. This adds special tags to my podcast feed, which allows me to submit my podcast to the iTunes Music Store podcast section. This is an optional setting, but one most podcaster probably want to enable.
To get a run through on the exact process of creating and publishing your podcast with Audioblog.com (including how to submit it to the iTunes Music Store), Eric Rice has a thorough tutorial at their blog.
Unlike the other services, Audioblog is established and mature. Their audio services are not in beta - they are complete and fully functional. That also means that their services don’t come for free. There are significant costs in running a service like this, so in order to use it, you’ll be required to create an account. Accounts start at $4.95/month or $49.97/year and include minimal bandwidth, which is enough for most podcasters with moderately-sized audiences. 7-day free trials are also available.
I definitely encourage you to check out Audioblog.com and support their service which is helping to bring podcasting to everyone.
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by Ryan Irelan
Despite the fact that podcasting is still young, there are already a small handful of podcasting books available. Most of these books deal in the technical areas of audio production. If you’re not comfortable with that that level of technology, you’ll probably want to avoid these books. More helpful would definitely be the in-browser podcasting tools listed here.
Podcast Solutions
Are you the kind of person who’s got a lot to say? Have you ever wanted to share your talents, thoughts, and opinions with others, but have lacked the broadcasting knowledge and contacts to achieve such a goal?
Well, today it’s well within your grasp, thanks to Podcasting &emdash; using only some simple recording equipment, a computer, and the Internet, you can record and distribute your own audio shows, including anything you want - comedy, debate, news, reviews, interviews, music - the only limit is your imagination. [Excerpted from Amazon.com book description]
Podcasting
Listen up! Podcasting, which has taken the online world by storm, involves recording a broadcast and embedding it in an RSS feed so listeners can download it to their PCs, iPods, MP3 players, or even their cell phones
Written by one of the first and most popular podcasters, this cutting-edge book will have readers not only finding, downloading, and listening to podcasts, but creating and broadcasting their own
Shows how to find podcasts to subscribe to; use podcasting software including ipodder, doppler, and more; create a podcast with just a PC or Mac; or build a professional studio for recording podcasts
Addresses copyright issues and music ownership and offers helpful advice on understanding the “geeky stuff”: RSS, XML, and Enclosures
Mainstream media, including MSNBC and Time magazine, have recently started advertising on podcasts [Excerpted from Amazon.com book description]
Secrets of Podcasting
Whether you want to create your own podcasts or just would like to locate and then listen to audio programs on your portable player, this is the book for you. In the Secrets of Podcasting, author Bart G. Farkas provides real-world guidance and advice on how to…
In addition, Bart includes tutorials on creating podcasts on Windows machines and on Macs. He also offers dozens of recommendations for software to use for finding and subscribing to podcasts. [Excerpted from Amazon.com book description]
Podcasting Hacks
Podcasting Hacks offers expert tips and tools for blogging out loud--for transmitting (and receiving) audio content worldwide with ease. This groundbreaking volume covers both entry-level and advanced topics perfect for aspiring and experienced podcasters. Herrington shows you how to get started, create quality sound, use the right software, develop a great show, distribute a podcast, and build an audience. More advanced topics include audio editing, podcasting on the go, and even videocasting. [Excerpted from Amazon.com book description]
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by Ryan Irelan
These podcasting tools require almost no technical knowledge and are (hopefully) aimed at making your experience creating a podcast as simple and quick as possible. All of the tools work inside of your web browser and require standard web browser plugins. You do not need to download or install any extra software.
- Audioblog.com
- Audioblog is a hosted podcasting tool that aims to make it easy for anyone to record and publish audio or video. It is a tiered subscription service, however they do have a free trial.
- PFA review of Audioblog.com
- ClickCaster
- Another browser podcast tool that makes it easy to create, publish and promote your podcast. Also has the best audio quality of all of the tools.
- PFAs review of ClickCaster
- Odeo
- Odeo, probably the most popular tool at the moment, has just opened up its podcast creation tool “Odeo Studio” to the public. While it is currently free for everyone, I suspect a subscription model will be in place soon. Odeo requires a highspeed internet connection to ensure good quality recordings.
- PFAs review of Odeo
- Podomatic
- Podomatic is definitely the most unique of the bunch, offering bumper music and a fun “Ask the President” feature, in which you ask President Bush some questions using their soundboard of answers. All in all, Podomatic is a solid podcasting tool that takes a light-hearted approach.
- PFAs review of Podomatic
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by Ryan Irelan
A handful of companies are hard at work developing podcast (define) creation tools that require only a web-browser and an internet connection (assuming you have built-in microphone). In-browser tools finally offer non-technical people the ability to record podcasts with ease and, ideally, simplicity.
In this article, I will be looking at three browser-based podcast creation tools, ClickCaster, Odeo and Podomatic. It should be noted that all three are still in beta, and therefore not full-featured. As new features are added and any issues fixed, I will update this article accordingly.
Features |
Odeo |
ClickCaster |
PodOmatic |
In-Browser Recording |
♦ |
♦ |
♦ |
Effects Processor |
|
|
Bumper music (intro/outro) |
|
|
♦ |
Play uploaded audio clips/songs |
♦ |
|
|
Preview podcast before saving |
♦ |
♦ |
♦ |
Auto post to podcast feed |
♦ |
♦ |
♦ |
Upload existing audio |
♦ |
♦ |
♦ |
Create podcast from phone |
♦ |
|
|
Unlimited recording |
* |
♦ |
♦ |
Cross platform/cross browser |
♦ |
†|
♦ |
Community/podcast directory |
♦ |
♦ |
♦ |
Record to server |
♦ |
|
♦ |
Public betas available |
♦ |
♦ |
♦ |
* Odeo allows up to one hour of recording time.
†ClickCaster warns that Safari should be considered unsupported. I used it successfully, however.
ClickCaster
I first heard about ClickCaster after receiving an email from them to check it out. At first, I was a little skeptical when I made my first pass on the site. It didn’t have the whiz-bang WOW! grade A design that I was familiar with on Odeo. It wasn’t until I dug in that I started to see just how nice ClickCaster is.
Unlike the other two tools I’ll be writing about here, ClickCaster’s podcast “studio” - where you record your podcast - is a Java applet, not Flash. For the casual user this should present no problem, unless your browser complains about not having the proper plugin. However, and additionally, for the non-technical user, your podcast recording experience should be very smooth with ClickCaster.
From the chart above, you’ll see that ClickCaster records your podcast locally (in a temporary file, I assume) and then encodes it into a standard mp3 and uploads it to ClickCast. All automated and very nice. After you’re finished recording, sit back and watch the work be done for you. With ClickCast it was a pleasure to record the podcast and I wasn’t constrained by bandwidth problems, like I am with other tools.
(With ClickCaster you could record with a dial-up connection. This is not true of Odeo or Podomatic because they record over the internet and onto their remote server.)
All in all, ClickCaster is a solid in-browser podcasting tool. It doesn’t have a high profile flashy design, but it does what it is supposed to and doesn’t get in the way.
Check out my ClickCast podcast Click it Good.
Odeo
Definitely the most well-known, Odeo is the cool kid on the block. With it’s appealing design and slick interface, Odeo is fun to use and look at. It is definitely the best designed of the three.
My favorite thing about Odeo is how easy it is to be part of the community. Podcasters can see who is subscribing to their podcasts, click on the names and then in turn see who their subscribers are listening to. It is the nicely woven web that really makes it feel small and personal. So, while they do have a podcasting directory, it is much more interactive and community driven and a fresh take on the dozens of podcast directories that are already out there.
As I mentioned earlier, Odeo records over the internet and directly onto their remote server. This requires a lot of bandwidth (a “fast” internet connection). During my initial testing of Odeo Studio, I encountered a lot of problems with recording quality and found that it was due to the fact that I was using my wireless network. Once I hooked into the internet with a cable, the recording was much more stable and the quality a lot higher. One helpful thing with Odeo is that they warn you if your bandwidth is dipping below the minimum required. This warning should be a signal to you that your recording may not turn out perfectly.
The best feature of Odeo Studio is the Clip Library. You can upload your own mp3s and play them in your podcast. Each mp3 has its own player widget, where you can play, pause, rewind and control the volume. Also, your mp3s are there when you log in to record your podcast, so you can keep you r standard podcast music all there, at your fingertips. Very handy!
Phonecasting - Previously, I wrote that the phone-in podcast feature of Odeo is going to be its killer feature.
The way the feature works is that Odeo provides the user with a phone number to call. Using your phone number and PIN that you set up on the Odeo website, you log in and begin phonecasting, i.e. talking into the phone the same way you’d leave a voicemail. After you’re done, hang up and the phonecast will be automatically added to the podcast feed you’ve set up on Odeo.
Even if you don’t choose Odeo to create podcasts, you should definitely sign up and join the community. It’s a great way to discover new podcasts and expose yours to a larger group of listeners.
(Odeo Studio - the podcast creation tool - is still in private beta. Hopefully, they’ll be opening it up to the public soon.)
Podomatic
I didn’t learn about Podomatic until recently but when I got into their “Mix0matic” section, where you create podcasts, I was surprised by the fun stuff they had there to play with. I had a great time creating my podcast.
Podomatic is the only tool that offers you prepared intro/outro music to spice up your podcast. And it automatically adds the music to the beginning and end of your recording. With six different music “scenes” to choose from, it’s fun to record a short podcast and hear it with the music.
Podomatic also records directly to their remote server and unfortunately in my testing of the tool, the audio quality of the recording was less than good. Since they are still actively developing Podomatic, I do plan to go back and test again. Hopefully, the recording quality will increase significantly. [Later: Brian Woods of Podomatic was nice enough to write in and point out that the poor audio quality was most likely due to clipping. I will go back and try it again. Thanks for the info, Brian.]
Podomatic lets you send podcasts via email (!) and also gives you a nice URL to send people to, so they can access your podcast homepage. For example, mine is http://ryanirelan.podomatic.com/. It’s set up similar to popular blogging tools, like Blogger.com.
Update: Thanks to the folks from Podomatic and ClickCaster for stopping by and commenting on this entry. They’ve raised some important points and made corrections/clarifications.
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How to the answer the question and encourage others to listen to podcasts.
by Ryan Irelan
Maybe a question you’ve been asked before. I know I have been. If podcasting is going to really take off, not just in the geekdom but mainstream, people need to have reasons. Why should I listen to podcasts?
In my last entry on podcasting, I talked about what I call the “push and pull” of podcasting, the idea that there’s more ease of use in the receiving and listening end of podcasting than there is in the production. The real problem is still in the “push,” as I wrote, but let’s not forget that we need to evangelize the “pull,” too.
The first problem with answering the question in the title is that trying to convince someone to listen to podcasts is like trying to convince them to watch television. It’s really just pointless, unless you give it context.
The problem with geeks (myself included) is that the first reasons we grab for are the technical or the coolness factor. Bzzzz. Wrong answer. The best way to explain why someone should listen to podcasts is to give them examples of podcasts that fit their interests. You should use 90% content and 10% concept when selling the idea of podcasts. The 10% will be the idea that you can listen at your leisure (on a run, at the gym, in the car) and the other automation capabilities of some podcatchers; in other words how easy it is. The 90% percent, of course, will be the actual podcasts. But take care to pick podcasts that fit the person.
For example, my wife is a non-technical person, who only uses the computer to visit websites and check email. She gazes at me in bewilderment as I spend hours and hours hovered behind the computer. She’s the perfect example for my attempt to answer the question.
She’s employed in the airline industry, enjoys traveling and is European. Let’s see what I can find in the podcasting directories for her. I’ll come up with a short list of quality podcasts that she will enjoy, and hopefully convince her that podcasts are useful and worth the little effort it takes to download and move to her iPod.
Travel Commons
Travel talk with a road warrior business man from the hotel bathroom. Interesting insight into the life of a traveler.
Travel with Rick Steves
One hour podcast of PBS travel guru Rick Steve’s call-in radio show.
Fly with me
An inside look into the airline industry from a pilot of a major US carrier.
Freitag Nacht News
Short comedy news podcast from RTL, a German television channel (in German).
This looks like a good start. Four podcasts is a nice starting point; it’s enough to listen to but not overwhelm. My next step is to subscribe to these in iTunes and set it up to automatically sync new, unplayed podcasts.
If all goes well, she’ll enjoy the podcasts and the medium will be useful to her. We’ll see!
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The technology and knowledge behind creating and listening is unevenly weighted.
by Ryan Irelan
Over the last 10 months, I’ve been doing a lot of offline evangelizing of podcasting as a viable medium and important outlet for independent creativity and professional communication and marketing. One of the initial benefits of podcasting is how it gave a voice to independent content producers  anyone who wanted to create a “radio show” could. Any topic, any length, any idea. Of course, success isn’t guaranteed, but access is half the battle.
So, here we are, one year into this podcasting phenomenon and already people are calling it dead in the water, washed up, or like Macworld’s editors, “in its last minute.”
The other day, a colleague of mine shouted over the cubicle wall, “I think podcasting is at its 14th minute.” Of course, he was referring to the proverbial 15 minutes of fame. And of course, I broke into laughter. But his comment got me thinking: where is podcasting going?
Excerpt from MacWorld Editor’s Notes  Is the clock ticking on podcasting?
So, really, where is this podcasting thing going? Short answer: Nowhere. As in, it’s not going away. Long answer: Keep reading.
The explosive growth and popularity of podcasting both inside the tech savvy online communities and (thanks to Apple) in more mainstream circles, has been a time machine to the future  zipping us 5 years forward in 12 months time. That is exactly what happened when you compare the evolution and popularity of podcasting to the growth of weblogs. And because of this, people are impatient and spoiled, wondering and waiting for podcasting to turn the next corner of its existence.
It’s obvious to many what is holding podcasting back and what could be its ultimate downfall: ease of creation and distribution. Up until now creating and distributing a podcast involved several steps and required some basic knowledge of how to set up and use audio hardware and software. Not exactly something for everyone. Unlike weblogs, which require the ability to type and and click a “Post” button (talent and ideas aside, of course), podcasting presents significant challenges to non-technical people.
Apple’s embrace of podcasting in June at WWDC was a major step for the medium, however it also caused it all sorts of problems. Essentially, what Apple did was push podcasting on the receiving and listening end, before it was really mature on the creation and distribution end. What this resulted in was a corporate-heavy offering of content and even higher expectations of the future of podcasting.
Now people are wondering if this podcasting thing was just a bunch of hype. It was a slow summer for podcasting, after Apple’s announcement. But in the last week I’m finally seeing some progress. I’ve been playing with both ClickCaster and Odeo’s online podcast creation tools. Both still in private beta, they are offering another stepping stone to making podcasting easier to do.
These online tools are a significant move, with Odeo offering an impressive in-browser tool, and should help bring more people  especially professionals like psychologists, doctors, lawyers, priests and others  to podcasting as a way to spread their knowledge and have a conversation with their markets and constituents.
There is so much more room for growth, that it’s just plain short-sighted to label podcasting, a medium still in its infancy, in its 14th minute of fame. That’s just skewed perception due to the hyper-growth of podcasting in its first 12 months.
Once the push on the creation and distribution end catches up with the pull on the receiving end, we’ll definitely see podcasting gain speed and become a very mature medium of online content distribution. Not just for web geeks like me, but for everyone.
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by Ryan Irelan
There’s one thing I know well: recording a great sounding voice over is difficult.
Some tips that I found useful:
La Voz… (How To Achieve a Great V/O Without a Great Studio Setup)
Getting a good voiceover seems to be a mystery for some digital storytellers. This spawns from a wide variety of reasons that can usually be narrowed down to three basic issues;
- Poor monitoring or recording environments
- Lack of knowledge
- Lack of understanding existing tools.
A good voiceover recording doesn’t require that you have expensive gear or a super-well designed recording room, nor does it require a tremendous amount of schooling to achieve. Common sense, a little effort, and a trained ear are necessary, and everything else is gravy.
Recording the voice-over
To the uninitiated,recording an announcer or “voice-over” artist would seem to be relatively simple compared to other things audio. But for those who have done it, it’s a creative/technical task not to be taken lightly. Speech sounds are harmonically and dynamically complicated because of the way vocals are produced-by the chest; lungs; diaphragm; larynx; the oral cavity, including the tongue, hard and soft palates, the teeth and lips, the nasal cavities; and by the dynamic interaction of all those elements through time. Explosions of air bursting from the mouth, the lips and tongue can sound wet, and “sss” sounds can overmodulate a track.
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