Mechanics
of Podcasting-Where Do I Begin?
So where do you begin, if you want to
start podcasting? It does not begin with the content, it begins with
the equipment, editing software, and a hosting service before you
utter your first word into a microphone. After the initial setup,
your cost will be minimal. So let's begin.
Recording Equipment-What You Need
After the initial setup for your podcast, the money you will need to outlay will be almost nothing. So what will you
need in your initial setup?
1. Microphone - You can record your podcast at your computer. Limitation-no outside mobility.
2. Digital recorder- This is a little more costly and the sound quality of the microphone on the digital recorder is not
the best audio. You work around this problem if you choose to
purchase a digital recorder that has
an access port for a microphone. If you're planning on buying a microphone for your digital recorder, be sure it is of
good quality-or you be doing a lot of editing to rid yourself of all the background noise.
3. Phone Recording- There are some services which allow you to record your voice over the phone. Once your recording is done, they
will email you the audio as an MP3. Quality is fair.
Editing Software
You can go from free to expensive when it comes to editing software. The free basic
editing software offered by Audacity will give you the basic editing needs for your podcast. If you feel you may need more-than you'll have a pay for it. If
you are just experimenting with podcasting, I would keep my expenses low and go with
Audacity.
Podcast Hosting
When looking for a web hosting service you will have to make sure that you have enough storage space for your MP3 files, your images and your regular text files.
You should have at least 1 gig to start-but make sure that the web hosting service can grow with you.
Liberation Syndication- Is a podcast hosting service. Their service includes a "no limit" on the amount of data that is downloaded or transferred to your site. So, you only pay according
to how much data you upload each month. The basic account allows you to upload 100
MB each month. (Not Free)
For a business, you will need a domain name. Which means you will
have to purchase a web hosting account to hold your blog or website.
A website is self-explanatory, but if you're looking at a blog you
have many choices.
Wordpress-which
is widely used, has many plug-ins, and can give your business more
flexibility and a professional look. You should have some HTML and CSS knowledge if
you want to use their advanced features.
Blogger - Blogger is free, and if you are just beginning-this
is a good beginner blogging tool. But eventually, like many other
bloggers, you may find that Blogger does not offer you the
flexibility that you need.
There are other blogging platforms that you can use, but your
pockets have to be a little deeper, or you need more technical
expertise to work with these other blogging platforms.
Bandwidth
If you're going with a web hosting service be aware of the bandwidth. If you are over your bandwidth limit for the month they can shut your site down until you come up with the additional money for the space your traffic consumed.
So if you think that bandwidth is not important, think again. Remember, audio and video files take up a lot of memory. With that being said...
If you are just starting out, you're going to have to do some estimation on bandwidth usage. First, you'll have to determine the average size of your podcast, and then
estimate the number of people that you believe will download your podcast.
For example: Let's say you figure 100 people are going to download your podcast, and your
audio podcast is 15MB. You would feature the amount of data transfer
as follows:
15*100=1500 MB of data transfer for each show.
With 4 shows a month-you would have approximately 6000 MG of data transfer a month.
RSS Feed
Feedburner - Feedburner is a free service that gives you a lot of additional features -such as subscriber stats.
You can also use FeedBurner with Wordpress, Movable Type, Blogger, etc.
If you use the SmartCast Podcasting Service from Feedburner
it will recognize the embedded digital media tag as podcast-ready content.
But how does Feedburner recognize your podcast?
How Feedburner recognizes your Podcast?
When you compose a new posting with SmartCast Podcasting Service you will only need to insert a link to your podcast content directly into the text. Feedburner will take the
first "<a>" tagged URL it finds into an RSS 2.0 <enclosure> element if it detects that the link
is an audio, video or streaming media format.
For example: If you put the following code into your content:
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.yourblog.com/archives/12323.mp3">Name of Podcast</a> I've recorded on Real Estate tips.
Feedburner will convert it to an RSS feed. This HTML will work with Blogger, Movable Type, WordPress, MSN Spaces,
etc. However, Feedburner emphasizes that you must not include any spaces in the original
filename. The space produces a "%20" combination that Feedburner
cannot use.
For complete details on all matters of developing a SmartCast Podcasting through Feedburner
click
here.
Podcasting Directories
To get your podcasts out to the masses you will need to register with podcasting directories. Here is just a short list
of the podcast directories available.
1. Podcast.net
2. Podcast Pickle
3. PodcastAlley.com
4. iTunes
6. Blog Explosion (podcast and video)
This is just a small list, you can Google "Podcasting Directories" to get a wide range of directories to get your podcast out to the masses.
Note: Be aware of the subject matter when placing your podcasts. Meaning, make sure the directory covers your type of podcast, or you will
have wasted your time and bandwidth on people who have not interest in your podcast.
Previous: Podcasting Overview
Free Tools for Podcasting
Audacity
-- free, recording and editing software. It is available for Mac
OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Audacity
allows you to record live audio, convert tapes and records into CD or
digital recordings. You can record from microphone, line input or other
sources, import and explore. Easy editing with cut, copy, paste and delete.
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