Podcasting for Dummies

Add your voice to the podcasting revolution! 

The world is tuning into podcasts in larger and larger numbers. When you’re ready to add your own voice to the mix, this book will help you find your niche. Featuring top tech information, production insight, and promotional tips, this best-selling podcasting reference shares the latest on podcasting trends and new audience demographics. 

Written by a pair of podcasting pioneers, Podcasting For Dummies will help you refine your podcast idea, identify your audience, and get the scoop on how to record, edit, and share your work. You’ll also learn how to apply the methods top podcasters monetize and market their work. 

• Record your voice and conduct high-quality interviews for your new or existing podcast 
• Edit, upload, and share podcast episodes online—and find people who will listen 
• Learn how to make money as a podcaster or live streamer 
• Discover interesting and original podcasts to inspire your own work 

Podcasting for Dummies is your friendly tutor in the art of audio content creation. So start talking! 

Tee Morris is an award-winning podcaster and the author of Twitch For Dummies and Discord For Dummies. Chuck Tomasi is a Developer Advocate who has created thousands of hours of content for work and fun.

Foreword xv

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 on a regular basis 13

You want to reach beyond the boundaries of broadcast media 14

You have something to say 14

You want to hear from your listeners 15

Creating a Podcast 15

Looking for the bare necessities 16

Recording your first podcast 17

Compressing your audio files 18

Uploading your audio to the web 18

Grabbing listeners 20

There’s an App for That 21

The old-timer: Apple Podcasts 22

Podcasting on the go: Stitcher 23

Welcome the game-changer: Overcast 25

Podcasting with the G-man: Google Play Music 27

A new 800-pound gorilla: Spotify 28

Other Podcast Resources 30

Chapter 2: Getting the Gadgets To Produce a Podcast 31

Finding the Right Mic 32

A Beginner’s Guide to Mics 33

Investing in a high-end mic 35

Podcasts Well with Others: The Mixing Board 40

The anatomy of a mixing board 41

Hooking up a mixer to your computer 43

Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessorize! 45

Chapter 3: Building Your Podcast’s Digital Workstation 51

Budget-Friendly (a.k.a Free) Software 52

Audacity: The risk-free option for all 52

Cakewalk by Bandlab for Windows: A complementary Step in Running with the Pros 53

GarageBand: Moby in your Mac! 54

The Sky’s the Limit: Big-Budget Software 57

Adobe Audition 57

Apple Logic Pro X 58

Gluing It Together with RSS 59

Keep it simple and get a blog! 61

Doing it by hand 63

Podcast Management 101 64

Size does matter 64

Bandwidth demystified 65

Chapter 4: Go, Go, Power Podcasters! 67

Podcasting with Your Laptop 68

Mackie Onyx Blackjack 68

Shure MVi 69

Podcasting with Your Mobile Devices 70

A Shure Thing: The MV5 and MV51 71

Two for the Røde: The VideoMic Me and smartLav+ 72

Podcasting with Portable Recorders 74

Zoom-Zoom-Zoom: The Handy Recorder line 74

From Cloud to Computer: Portable Audio Workflow 78

Getting audio from your portable recorder 78

Getting audio from your portable device 80

Part 2: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Podcasting 83

Chapter 5: Before You Hit the Record Button 85

Choosing a Unique Topic for Your Podcast 86

Finding Your Voice 87

What if I hear more than one voice? 89

Deciding Whether You Need an Outline or Script 92

Determining a Length for Your Show 94

The hidden value of the short podcast 94

A little length won’t kill you 95

Finding that happy medium 96

Mark Your Calendar: Posting Schedule 97

Posting daily 97

Posting weekly 98

Posting biweekly (or fortnightly for our friends in the Commonwealth) 98

Posting monthly 99

I Hear Music (and It Sounds Like Police Sirens!) 100

The powers that be 100

I can name that tune I wrote it! 105

I’ll take the First: Free speech versus slander 106

Chapter 6: Interview-Fu: Talk to Me, Grasshopper 107

I’ll Have My People Call Your People: Interview Requests 108

Preparing for Interviews 110

Asking really great questions 110

Avoiding really bad questions 113

Feelin’ the synergy 114

Recording Interviews 116

Recording using Skype 116

Recording using OBS 118

Recording using hardware 121

Prepping Your Green Room for Guests 122

Welcoming in-studio guests 123

Meeting guests on their own turf 123

Ensuring Trouble-Free Recordings 125

Chapter 7: So What Are You Waiting For? Record, Already! 127

Did Your Sound Check Clear the Bank? 128

Understanding dB levels 128

Setting your levels 130

Noises Off: Capturing Ambient Noise 133

Identifying ambient noise 133

Minimizing ambient noise 134

Now Take Your Time and Hurry Up: Pacing and Clock Management 136

Take the potato out of your mouth and enunciate 137

And now let’s take a break for station identification 138

Concerning Tangents and Their Val — Oh, Look, a Butterfly! 140

“Say, that reminds me of something ” 140

“But getting back to what I was saying earlier ” 141

Time to Push the Big Red Button! 142

Getting started with GarageBand 143

Getting started with Audacity 144

Chapter 8: Cleanup, Podcast Aisle 8! 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 155

Applying bed music the right way 156

Setting volume levels for bed music 157

Making an Entrance: Intros 161

Theme music 162

Intro greeting 162

Exit, Stage Left: Outros 163

Leave the audience wanting more 164

Catch phrase sign off 164

Credits roll 165

Coming soon to a media player near you 165

Part 3: So You’ve Got This Great Recording of Your Voice: Now What? 167

Chapter 9: Shrink That Puppy and Slap a Label on It 169

A Kilobit of Me, and a Whole Lot of You: Understanding Kbps 170

Care for a Sample, Sir? (Audio Sample Rates) 173

ID3 Tags: The 411 of Podcasting 176

Tell me about yourself: All about ID3 tags 176

IDentity crisis: Making ID3 tags work for podcasting 177

Creating and editing ID3 tags 179

Chapter 10: Move It on Up (to Your Web Server) 183

Show Art: Getting Graphic with Your Podcast 184

Adopting an Effective File Naming Convention 186

Understanding How FTP Works 188

Making Your Connection with an FTP Application 189

Step by step (or quack by quack) setup for Cyberduck 190

Step by step setup for FileZilla 191

A place on your web server for your stuff 192

Uploading your files 193

Uploading to a Podcast-Specific Host 195

Chapter 11: Providing Show Notes 197

Show Note Etiquette 197

Planning the Post 199

It’s all in the details 200

A picture is worth a thousand words 201

Posting Your Show Notes 203

Posting in WordPress 203

Posting on LibSyn 207

Boosting Search Engine Rankings with Good Show Notes 209

Loading up your titles 210

Soliciting backlinks 211

Part 4: Start Spreadin’ the News about Your Podcast 213

Chapter 12: Speaking Directly to Your Peeps 215

Gathering Listener Feedback 216

Fostering Comments on Your Blog 217

Focusing on Online Forums 218

Social Media 221

Facebook 221

Twitter 222

Pinterest 222

YouTube? For audio?! 223

Instagram 224

Discord: The Lava Lamp of Online Communications 226

Using Voicemail 229

Seeking Out the Comments of Others 231

Trying a general search 232

Searching within a site, blog, or social media platform 232

When the Comments Are Less than Good 233

Chapter 13: Fishing for Listeners 237

Getting Your Podcast Ready for Promotion 237

Polishing your presentation 238

Checking your bandwidth 238

Figuring out your USP 239

Exploring Various Advertising Options 240

Give me a boost, Facebook 241

Insta-traffic with Instagram 244

Writing press releases 247

Promoting Your Podcast 250

Optimizing your site for search engines 250

Submitting promos to other podcasts 250

Recording your promo 251

Giving interviews 253

Generating buzz 254

Part 5: Pod-sibilities to Consider for Your Show 255

Chapter 14: Show Me the Money 257

How Much Money Can You Make? 258

Convincing Advertisers to Give You Money 261

Developing a media kit 262

Establishing a rate sheet 267

Getting a Sponsor 267

Asking Your Listeners for Money 270

Gathering listener donations with PayPal 270

Building patrons with Patreon 272

Selling stuff 275

Chapter 15: Podcasting for Publicity 277

Podcasting and Politics 278

Telling the World a Story, One Podcast at a Time 281

Keeping Good Company: Community Podcasts 285

Creating a podcast to encourage testimony 285

Podcasting for fun (while promoting in the process) 286

Chapter 16: Podcasting for Passion 291

The Philosophical Question for All Podcasters: Why Do We Do It? 292

Gaining perspective on passion 292

Podcasting passion with a purpose 294

Sharing your passion with friends 294

A passionate love for the podcast 296

Holding Interest: Keeping a Podcast’s Passion Alive 298

Podcasting on puree: Mixing it up 299

Starting a second (or third) podcast 300

Moving forward with a plan 304

When Podcasting, Be Like Bruce Lee 306

Chapter 17: One Giant Leap for Podcasting: Streaming Content 309

In the Beginning: The Early Days of Video Podcasting and Live Broadcasts 310

Light, cameras, and say what: The unexpected demands of video podcasting 310

Going live (if you’re lucky): Early attempts at live podcasting 313

Streaming Media: Podcasting Evolved 313

Going Live for Realz This Time: Streaming Your Podcast 316

The first step: Setting up a streaming account 316

Setting the stage: Working with Streamlabs OBS 318

And we’re live! Podcasting in the moment 322

It’s a stream, it’s a podcast It’s a stream and a podcast! 323

Part 6: The Part of Tens 327

Chapter 18: Ten Types of Podcasts to Check Out 329

Tech Podcasts 330

Independent Media Podcasts 331

Science Podcasts 333

Self-Development Podcasts 335

Comedy Podcasts 338

Slice-of-Life Podcasts 339

Gaming Podcasts 340

Podcasts of the Pen 342

Geek Podcasts 343

Podcasts about Podcasting 345

Chapter 19: Top Ten Reasons to Podcast 347

You Are Considered a Subject Matter Expert 348

You Are Passionate about the Subject 349

You’ve Got a Creative Itch to Scratch 350

You Like Playing with Tech Toys 352

Bring Your Friends Together 353

All the Cool Kids Are Doing It 354

I Can Do More 354

Bring Out the Best in You 356

Talk to Interesting People 357

The Ultimate Thrill Ride 358

Chapter 20: Ten Original Podcasters 361

Mignon Fogarty 362

Adam Curry 363

Mur Lafferty 363

Steve Boyett 364

Adam Christianson 365

Dave Slusher 366

Scott Sigler 367

Michael Butler 368

Dr Pamela Gay 369

Brian Ibbott 370

Authors’ Footnote 371

Index 373

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