Podcasting for Dummies

More people than ever are turning to podcasts for on-demand, mobile entertainment and information. Podcasting For Dummies offers a fast and easy way to get the know-how you need to produce and distribute one of your very own. Written by a pair of podcasting pioneers, this book shares insight on the technology behind recording, editing, and sharing podcasts, along with tips and tricks on how to produce a pro-level podcast.

Podcasting has enjoyed a recent boom thanks to a new crop of hit podcasts catching the ears of the public and media along with the continued growth of mobile and streaming devices as a source for entertainment. If you want to jump on the podcasting bandwagon, you've come to the right place! In this fully updated edition, would-be and experienced podcasters alike will get all the tech information, production insight, and promotional tips they need to either get a podcast off the ground or improve on an existing one.

• Get the gear you need
• Find your podcasting voice
• Find and build an audience
• Plan your podcast

New tools have made it easier than ever to create a podcast—and this book shows you how.

Tee Morris was an early podcaster whose first podcasts helped build audiences for his writing. Today he is a social media and communications professional who podcasts on topics ranging from original fiction to Internet security to video game reviews. Chuck Tomasi is an IT professional who began with one podcast in 2004 and quickly grew to several more. He has taken his podcast passion to his day-job to drive community and sales.

Foreword xiii

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

How to Use This Book 2

Conventions Used in This Book 3

Bold Assumptions 4

How This Book Is Organized 5

Part 1: Podcasting on a Worldwide Frequency 5

Part 2: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Podcasting 5

Part 3: So You’ve Got This Great Recording of Your Voice Now What? 5

Part 4: Start Spreadin’ the News about Your Podcast 6

Part 5: Pod-sibilities to Consider for Your Show 6

Part 6: The Part of Tens 6

Icons Used in This Book 7

Beyond the Book 7

Where to Go from Here 8

Part 1: Podcasting on a Worldwide Frequency 9

Chapter 1: Getting the Scoop on Podcasting 11

Deciding Whether Podcasting Is for You 12

You want to deliver media content on a regular basis 13

You want to reach beyond the boundaries of broadcast media 13

You have something to say 14

You want to hear from your listeners 14

Creating a Podcast 15

Looking for the bare necessities 15

Recording your first podcast 17

Compressing your audio files 18

Uploading your audio to the web 19

Grabbing listeners 20

Catching a Cast with Your Podcatching Client 22

The catcher that started it all: Juice 23

The turning of a corner: iTunes 24

Podcatching on the go: Stitcher 26

Podcasting with the G-man: Google Play 28

Quest for Podcasts 29

Other Podcast Resources 32

Chapter 2: Getting the Gadgets That Make a Podcast Go 33

Finding the Right Mic 34

Mics on the cheap 35

Investing in a high-end mic 38

Podcasts Well with Others: The Mixing Board 43

The anatomy of a mixing board 44

Hooking up a mixer to your computer 46

Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessorize! 49

Chapter 3: Building Your Podcast’s Digital Workstation 53

Budget-Friendly Software 54

Audacity: The risk-free option for all 54

Cakewalk’s SONAR Home Studio for Windows: A first step in running with the pros 55

GarageBand: Moby in your Mac! 56

WireTap Studio: Recording and editing made easier 59

The Sky’s the Limit: Big-Budget Software 60

Adobe Audition 60

Apple Logic Pro X 62

Gluing It Together with RSS 63

Keep it simple and get a blog! 65

Doing it by hand 66

Podcast Management 101 67

Size does matter 68

Bandwidth demystified 68

Chapter 4: Go, Go, Power Podcasters! 71

Podcasting with Your Laptop 72

Mackie Onyx Blackjack 72

Shure MVi 73

Podcasting with Your Mobile Devices 74

A Shure Thing: The MV5 and MV51 75

Two for the Røde: The VideoMic Me and smartLav+ 77

Podcasting with Portable Recorders 79

Zoom-Zoom-Zoom: The Handy Recorder Line 79

From Cloud to Computer: Portable Audio Workflow 83

Getting audio from your portable recorder 83

Getting audio from your portable device 84

Part 2: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Podcasting 87

Chapter 5: Before You Hit the Record Button 89

Choosing a Unique Topic for Your Podcast 90

Finding Your Voice 92

What If I Hear More than One Voice? 94

Deciding Whether You Need an Outline or Script 96

Determining a Length for Your Show 98

The hidden value of the short podcast 99

A little length won’t kill you 100

Finding that happy medium 102

Mark Your Calendar: Posting Schedule 102

Posting daily 103

Posting weekly 103

Posting biweekly (or “fortnightly” for our friends in the Commonwealth) 104

Posting monthly 105

I Hear Music (And It Sounds like Police Sirens!) 105

The powers that be 106

I can name that tune I wrote it! 110

I’ll take the First: Free speech versus slander 111

Chapter 6: Interview-Fu: Talk to Me, Grasshopper 113

I’ll Have My People Call Your People: Interview Requests 114

Preparing for Interviews 115

Asking really great questions 116

Avoiding really bad questions 117

Feelin’ the synergy 119

Recording Interviews with Skype 120

Recording using software 120

Recording using hardware 124

Prepping Your Green Room for Guests 125

Welcoming in-studio guests 126

Meeting guests on their own turf 126

Ensuring Trouble-Free Recordings 127

Chapter 7: So What Are You Waiting For? Record, Already! 129

Did Your Sound Check Clear the Bank? 130

Understanding dB levels 130

Setting your levels 132

Noises Off: Capturing Ambient Noise 135

Identifying ambient noise 135

Minimizing ambient noise 136

Now Take Your Time and Hurry Up: Pacing and Clock Management 138

Take the potato out of your mouth and enunciate 139

And now let’s take a break for station identification 140

Concerning Tangents and Their Val — Oh, Look, a Butterfly! 141

“Say, that reminds me of something . . .” 142

“But getting back to what I was saying earlier . . .” 142

Recording! 144

Getting started with GarageBand 144

Getting started with Audacity 145

Chapter 8: Cleanup, Podcast Aisle 7! 147

A Few Reasons to Consider Editing 148

The Art of Editing 149

Editing with GarageBand 150

Editing with Audacity 152

Making Your Musical Bed and Lying in It: Background Music 154

Finding the right balance 154

Applying bed music the right way 156

Setting volume levels for bed music 156

Making an Entrance: Intros 161

Theme music 162

Intro greeting 162

Exit, Stage Left: Outros 163

Leave the audience wanting more 163

Catch phrase sign-off 164

Credits roll 164

Coming soon to a media player near you 165

Chapter 9: Roll Camera: Video Podcasting 167

When to Go Video 168

The Price of Pretty Pictures 170

That file is how big?! 170

Burn, bandwidth, burn! 171

Lock and Load (Your Camera): Planning Your Shooting Schedule 171

iTarantino: Creating with iMovie 173

Capturing video with iMovie 174

Creating your episode with iMovie 176

DV on the PC: Podcasting with Adobe Premiere 180

Capturing video with Adobe Premiere Elements 180

And We’re Live! — Video Podcasting in the Moment 182

Up Periscope! 183

YouTube Live 184

Facebook Live 186

Part 3: So You’ve Got This Great Recording of Your Voice: Now What? 191

Chapter 10: Shrink That Puppy and Slap a Label on It 193

A Kilobit of Me, and a Whole Lot of You: Understanding Kbps 194

Setting bitrates in Audacity 195

Changing bitrates in iTunes 197

Care for a Sample, Sir? (Audio Sample Rates) 198

Changing sample rates in Audacity 199

Changing sample rates in iTunes 200

ID3 Tags: The 411 of Podcasting 201

Tell me about yourself: All about ID3 tags 202

IDentity crisis: Making ID3 tags work for podcasting 203

Creating and editing ID3 tags in Audacity 205

Creating and editing ID3 tags in iTunes 206

Album Art: Getting Graphic with Your Podcast 207

Chapter 11: Move It on Up (To Your Web Server) 211

Adopting an Effective Filenaming Convention 212

Understanding How FTP Works 213

Making Your Connection with an FTP Application 215

Step by step (or quack by quack) setup for Cyberduck 216

Step by step setup for FileZilla 217

A place on your web server for your stuff 218

Uploading your files 219

Uploading to a Podcast-Specific Host 220

Chapter 12: Providing Show Notes 223

Show Note Etiquette 223

Planning the Post 225

It’s all in the details 226

A picture is worth a thousand words 227

Posting Your Show Notes 228

Posting in WordPress 228

Posting on LibSyn 231

Using a wiki for your show notes 233

Boosting Search Engine Rankings with Good Show Notes 236

Loading up your titles 237

Soliciting backlinks 238

Part 4: Start Spreadin’ the News about Your Podcast 241

Chapter 13: Speaking Directly to Your Peeps 243

Gathering Listener Feedback 244

Fostering Comments on Your Blog 245

Focusing on Online Forums 247

Finding free, hosted forums 247

Gaining more control of your forum 249

Social Media 251

Facebook 252

Twitter 252

Pinterest 253

YouTube? For audio?! 254

Instagram 255

Using Voicemail 258

Seeking Out the Comments of Others 261

Trying a general search 261

Searching within a site, blog, or social media platform 262

When the Comments Are Less than Good 263

Chapter 14: Fishing for Listeners 267

Getting Your Podcast Ready for Promotion 267

Polishing your presentation 268

Checking your bandwidth 268

Figuring out your USP 269

Exploring Various Advertising Options 270

Give me a boost, Facebook 270

Insta-traffic with Instagram 274

Writing press releases 277

Promoting Your Podcast 279

Optimizing your site for search engines 280

Submitting promos to other podcasts 280

Recording your promo 281

Giving interviews 282

Generating buzz 283

Part 5: Pod-Sibilities to Consider for Your Show 285

Chapter 15: Show Me the Money 287

How Much Money Can You Make? 288

Convincing Advertisers to Give You Money 290

Developing a media kit 291

Establishing a rate sheet 294

Getting a Sponsor 295

Asking Your Listeners for Money 297

Gathering listener donations with PayPal 298

Building patrons with Patreon 301

Selling stuff 304

Handling Fee-Based Subscriptions 305

Securing your feed 305

The path less traveled 307

Chapter 16: Podcasting for Publicity 309

Podcasting and Politics 310

Telling the World a Story, One Podcast at a Time 312

Keeping Good Company: Community Podcasts 316

Creating a podcast to encourage testimony 316

Podcasting for fun while promoting in the process 317

Chapter 17: Podcasting for Passion 321

The Philosophical Question for All Podcasters: Why Do We Do It? 322

Gaining perspective on passion 322

Podcasting passion with a purpose 324

Sharing your passion with friends 325

A passionate love for the podcast 327

Holding Interest: Keeping a Podcast’s Passion Alive 329

Podcasting on puree: Mixing it up 329

Starting a second (or third) podcast 331

Moving forward with a plan 334

When Podcasting, Be like Bruce Lee 336

Part 6: The Part of Tens 339

Chapter 18: Ten Types of Podcasts to Check Out 341

Tech Podcasts 342

Independent Media Podcasts 344

Science Podcasts 346

Self-Development Podcasts 347

Comedy Podcasts 349

Slice-of-Life Podcasts 351

Gaming Podcasts 352

Podcasts of the Pen 353

Geek Podcasts 355

Podcasts about Podcasting 357

Chapter 19: Top Ten Reasons Why to Podcast 359

You Are Considered a Subject Matter Expert 360

You Are Passionate about the Subject 361

You’ve Got a Creative Itch to Scratch 362

You Like Playing with Tech Toys 364

Bring Your Friends Together 365

All the Cool Kids Are Doing It 366

I Can Do More 366

Bring Out the Best in You 367

Talk to Interesting People 368

The Ultimate Thrill Ride 369

Index 371

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