When creating a podcast there are numerous things you must consider. Its best to listen to several shows to determine what you want to do and ways to keep your podcasting interesting and listeners to follow in. Typically podcasts have been for radio shows but you can do much more then that. Things to consider in your show is entrance music, exit music, equipment, hardware, software, quick tips, listener email, wrap up and preview to next show. When you begin your podcast start strong and go software. You want to be enthusiastic! Its best to have a script or some notes of what you are going to review. Also, don't use other people's music unless you have written consent to do so by the artist and owner of the music. There is numerous places you can get royalty free music or just simply make your own to stay out of trouble. There is a website you can use called music.podshow.com that has a bunch of music you can use for your podcasts as long as you are not making money off of it. A program you can create your own music in, is something like garage band. Garage band uses loops you can mix together to create a song.
Chapter 3:
This chapter reviews the type of gear needed to get your podcast up and running. You need a computer that has sufficient ram and good mic and camera for video (if needed). There are different mic types:
- Dynamic: Wire & coil magnet
- Condenser: Two plates & capacitor
When purchasing a mic, best to get a dynamic mic for traveling and a condenser mic for higher quality home use. Condenser mics are expensive and are what radio dj's use. An example condenser mic given by the author is an Audio Technica AT4040 which comes with a shock mount. Also recommended is to by a pop filter to stop the sharpness of pronunciation. To further enhance the best sound of your mic, its recommended to buy a pre-amp to fix the weak signal of your mic. Headphones are good to buy to listen to your pod cast prior to uploading as most users will listen by headphones on their mp3 player.
When recording your home or office, best to sound proof your space with stuffing towels under the door and putting quilts or tapestries on your walls. You can purchase acoustical foam. Listen to your surroundings to find the best time to record. Next to consider which software you want to use. A good free recording software is Audacity. Garageband also has recording capabilities. A sample recording of a recording was provided and good key pronunciation. Although some mistakes were made,they can be edited.
Chapter 4:
Chapter 4 goes over enhanced podcasts and the features in itunes. Enhanced podcasts can only be created on a mac. What to use is a program called Chapter Tool which uses the language of UNIX or a non command program such as Cast Easy or Podcast Maker (potionfactory.com). With enhanced podcasts you can place images for chapters (jpegs or png web quality), chapter titles and links. Podcast Maker creates and audio file and xml file.
Chapter 5:
Now its time to publish your podcast. This chapter gives an overview of the elements needed to publish a podcast. Elements needed are:
- Your Media File (mp3, m4a, mov, PDF)
- Hosting Service: place to store files
- RSS Feed: this allows users to subscribe to websites that allows feeds to catch text files about your podcast
There are free hosting providers for your podcast. There are limits by these providers on bandwidth. The author doesn't suggest using a free hosting service. Two services recommended geared toward podcasters are: Blogmatrix.com and Libsyn.com. The author suggests using a dedicated ftp program such as Panic Transmit or a free program called CyberDuck.ch. This ftp program is used to connect to your web server and transfer your media files to your server. Next the author creates a blogger.com page for his podcast. He recommends a site called feedburner.com to create feeds for his blog.
Finally we learn about places to publicize you podcast such as Podcastalley.com or even the iTunes Music Store. All you need for this is your feed address and any info you want to publish with it. Its best to be detailed as you want people to find your show. There are other ways to promote your podcast off the internet as well by flyers, tshirts, etc.
Finally we learn about places to publicize you podcast such as Podcastalley.com or even the iTunes Music Store. All you need for this is your feed address and any info you want to publish with it. Its best to be detailed as you want people to find your show. There are other ways to promote your podcast off the internet as well by flyers, tshirts, etc.
Chapter 6 & 7:
Another way you can podcast is by Video podcasting. The process to get a video podcast is the same as an audio file, its just a matter of a different media file format. Similar equipment is needed as audio podcasts, the only new item needed will be a video camera. Options are a cheap web cam or a dv camera which allows better quality and flexibility. A tripod will also be needed for stability. If shooting indoors, pickup some extra lights and umbrellas to make light less harsh. You can also buy workshop lights that are inexpensive. Always best to to place the lights at a 45ยบ angle (hence 3-point lighting).As with audio, you should plan out your shots to create a good video cast along with a script. Always leave enough space before and after the shot to leave enough room for editing and transitions. Always nice to get extra shots of your background and surroundings. These shots can be helpful for when you mess up a line you in which you edit in a corrected line with this extra shot. Keep movement down to a minimum.
Software you can use is iMovie or Final Cut Express HD or even Adobe Premier. Next shown is how to use iMovie and ways to export. iMovie has a nice feature to save for an ipod.
There are ways you can make money with your podcasts. In order to make money you need listeners and a large audience which helps bring in sponsors. Best to get feedback from your listeners by a variety of ways, the best being comments.
Another way to make money with your podcast is to become and Amazon Associate. As an associate you can list products such as books on your site and you get a link with html you copy and paste onto your web page or blog page. You can mention these products on your show and make around 4-6% of the sales once someone has clicked on that link on your page. Google also has a similar program called google ad sense. These are all free.
Asking your listeners for donations is way to make money as well. To do this, you would put a donate now button to help create and improve your show. A popular way to receive money is by using paypal. You could also sell items from your show featuring your logo on tshirts, hats, pens, etc. Cafepress.com is a company you can put your logo onto tshirts. From there you would up the cost on your product so you can make some money. There are free accounts and premium accounts on this store.
With your podcast you can put ads on your show. This gives listeners the illusion of a quality show. Fruitcast.com is a site to add advertisments to your show at the beginning or end.
This covers the podcast tutorial. I learned more about making podcasts from this and can see the benefits of podcasting if you have a good show to put on.
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