How to get started Podcasting...

Alright so I promised I would discuss this more... so here it goes. If you don't know what podcasting is, please see my blog post on the subject. Assuming at this point you know what podcasting is... I will go on.

Planning
Okay so let's start with the first part... planning! Planning is important. Make sure you can devote a schedule to producing and recording your podcast. Work out a schedule, and keep to it, even if it's only one time a month. Pick a predictable and consistant day that you will release your content and that your potential audience can keep to as well. If they're smart they'll have a podcast client check and attempt to download your content every day. However the more predictable your release schedule the more likely you will keep a regular audience.

Content
Second, let's talk about content. First off, make sure it's something you can discuss and/or produce enough entertainmnet for, and consider this based on your release schedule. Talking about how grass grows can only be so appealing for so long. Make sure it's a topic that has appeal on it's own.

Oh before I forget, be sensitive to copyrights. Once success comes, so does the legal problems. I recommend NOT playing copyrighted material. If you need or want music, find creative commnon contest and/or podsafe content. I recommend http://music.podshow.com

Distinctiveness
What makes you or your content unique? What makes it appealing? The topic alone shouldn't hold all the weight of interest. Include personalities and/or qualities that are appealing to the audience and relevance to the content you're producing. You want to keep your audience interested and coming back for more.

Some people put a cute face on the screen, some do this by a cute voice and are suggestive. Selling sexual suggestion is an easy way to gain attention, however it's very short lived if there's no depth or concept behind your product. I don't recommend taking this approach. People are much smarter than they act at times, and they will see through this and won't return But it's worth noting if you have attractive qualities, it will certainly get you some intial attention. The key is to keep your audience interested and wanting to return.

Okay now that I have possibly upset some people, suggesting that their idea for a podcast is only valid because it's sexually suggestive... I will move on. I don't really mean that, I just hope as a future fellow podcaster you will talk about something more then your body parts. A lot of podcasters do this and it fizzles for them... regardless, I mean no harm in the suggestion I just would hope you can positively contribute to the podcasting efforts, instead of misguiding them. Okay [jerk mode: off]. =)

Try not to re-invent the wheel, unless you've convinced you can create a better and more amazing wheel than the world has ever seen! You're content should be unique, you should be unique and it should be appealing. If that means it takes some extra time for you to figure all the details out (even if that means years) then by all means take you're time. Your audience will recognize your content is just right for them, when you do.

Community
As a fellow blogger I'm sure you understand this concept. Community with you're audience or at least building a sense of community I believe is vital. You have to encourage (not just beg, but encourage) interaction with you're audience. An honest audience will tell you when you're doing a good job and at times they'll be mean. However like any type of exposure you open yourself to, there's always a likely case of ego to surface. The point is be available to interact with your audience and a community will build. Startup a forum, run web-polls, have contests, ask questions that are beyond your knowledge.. and most importantly respond quickly to emails. Build that sense of connection.

Tools
There are several free products and applications to do this. In you're producing an audio podcast, there's a great tool called: Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) it's available in Linux, MacOS and Windows formats.

Try to know something about the media format you choose, whether that's audio, video or both. If you're going to produce a video podcast I recommend against the free applications like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. Find or "obtain" the proper application for your needs. As the free applications will most certainly get you started they will quickly starve your control and creativity. Final Cut and Adobe Premiere are great programs. In the Windows world you have serveral other alternatives.

For audio recording, I recommend Audacity (mentioned above) it's free and it's what I use. It has all the basic options and more to get you started. Please keep in mind, the audio application doesn't make you sound impressive or well produced. YOU DO! The applications just help you facilitate the goal.

There are several audio applications out there in the Windows, MacOS and even linux. Some free, a lot that are not. Find the application you are most comfortable with and start with that.

Recording
This is very important. You can't fix everything in "POST" or "EDITING". Try not to rely heavily on this. You will do well trying to record everything you do live. There are some podcast applications out there that will help you do this, like "Cast Blaster" (windows only, sorry folks). But try to do most of your podcasting magic real-time. It will save you quite a bit of effort.

Another thing to point out, record your audio well. Not too loud and not to low. If it's just in the middle, you can always gain it, and retain most of the audio quality. You cannot do this if your are levels too hot. I recommend if you're using a computer to do the recording, the mic level shouldn't be higher then 3 to 5. If you have to run it higher then 7, it will likely distort with sudden loud noises like sneezes and laughter.

For audio, I personally like to use a mixer and phantom power mics... but I will save the equipment discussion for another post.

Distribution
So there are several schools of thought on this. You can use free services like http://www.podshow.com/, you can get a blog with an RSS compatible podcast feed, you can pay for a podcast service provider like http://www.libsyn.com or use some other free service application i.e. YouTube. You can host everything yourself with a webhost or co-location server.

If you're intention is to make video blogs, then YouTube is free and is great for that. It helps you build that community and so on.

I personally use LibSyn because I want more control and ownership. They provide stats and a business model for podcasters. You pay for the storage you use within a months time. Not by transfer. When your content becomes a month old it rolls into the archive system automatically. It's still available for download and does not count against your current monthly storage allowance (based on the plan you pay for).

Utilites... (free stuff I can offer to help)
QuickPoll / LamePoll First off, if you want to put out polls along with your podcast, I built an "quick poll" web application many years ago. It's simply a website in which you can build / create a single poll question, and it will generate a link for you. From there, you distro the link and people vote on the poll.. and they see real-time results. If would like a account, just contact me via this site.

Shortner This utility is something a listener of my podcast and I put together. This is not a new idea there are other URL shrinkers out there like http://www.tinyurl.com and http://www.shrinkster.com. Essentially what these apps do, is take long URLs (web site addresses) and make them smaller. The only difference is http://www.shortner.com was built and intended to be used by podcasters. We keep adding features in mind for the podcaster.

Now you might still be confused... and asking what does this have to do with podcasting?

Well as an audio podcaster, we like to share websites and YouTube links and so on. So instead of posting something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxHkpyGs_g8 ...you can "short-ner" the link to something easier to read on the podcast like this: http://www.shortner.com/oh ...I have found once you set / build the expectation that's how you share links on the podcast , everything else is easy.

For my podcast, we made just a unique version called OG-Link. But the point is, it's much easier to say... "I found this awesome site the other day, called WOAH-YAN-OH.. and you can find it at: short-ner DOT com / OI"

In addition to the URL shrinking feature, you can see how many people found it interesting by looking at the tracking page. Each shortner URL has a tracking page (http://www.shortner.com/oi/track). On the tracking page, people can also comment on the link as well.

On link creation we allow you to tag the link so people can search on the keyword-tag. Plus we added a NSFW flag, for well that not safe for work content... just in case you want to give the listener a second chance to decide. We even have a bulk feature for those people who need to submit a lot of links to shorten at one time (you have to email us for that access; FYI).

This is even great for video podcasts, when screen real estate is at a premium.

Google Apps
I think this is category of it's own... if you're not a google hater... then I recommend signing up for google apps. They offer free email, calendar, web pages, and forum (well google group?) well I'm not sure if they have google groups for the hosted apps, but it's worth checking out... if you want to setup a forum for your podcast.

Use the email for communication with your audience... use the calendar to publically post your release schedule and etc.

Identity
Buy youself a DNS for your podcast, point it to your libsyn or your blog or whatever... if you sign up for Google's hosted apps, then tie it to your hosted gmail and so on. Making it easy to remember how to find your podcast will be blissful for you and your listeners.

How long should my podcast be?
I get asked this a lot... as long as you want. But be aware of the patience of your audience. Some people produce 5 minute podcasts, some people produce 3 hour podcasts. Mine does well.. we have a lot of listeners and we range from 90 minutes to 3 hours at times. People still avidly download the show when it's 3 hours long. Overtime you'll figure out what works best for you. It will be at long as you feel it should be. Don't be afriad to experiment a bit. If it's too long the audience will tell you, or stop downloading.

Quality
Always try your best, you audience will appreaciate it. But budget the size of the file you distro with the thought of your hosting, the frequency of release and so on. I record in stereo, I release in 128-bit MP3. The file sizes aren't small with 90 minutes of content. Few people have complained about it. Some people release in mono at 64-bit rates. Experiment until you find your balance.

Promos
Create some, make them available. Once you figure your show out, this process should be easy.

Sweepers / Openers
If you're doing a video podcast... make an eye catch... if you're doing an audio podcast make sweeper music. For those Mac users Garage Band apparently is great for this. If you want to go pro, have an "audio imager" make something for your show. Usually radio DJs or voice over talent have side "audio imaging" businesses. They can help you and a lot of them have podcaster specials. Keep in mind they cost something, nothing is free, unless you can produce it yourself. Keep in mind, creative commons, http://music.podshow.com

The Gauge...
For website traffic... http://www.google.com/analytics is great and free. But that will only help you with website hits, not your downloads. LibSyn provides stats and logs with their service. Feedburner is a website that lets you point your RSS feed to. However they publicize your stats, so if privacy is important, you might want to not use them.

When Adam Curry was asked, how many people should listen to a podcast before you deem it success? He copped out in my opinion and said he personally thought if he can impact just one person, that's all you should need. True, I agree with that, however I can't give you a straight answer either. For several reasons... For my podcast we do VERY well, and very well considering the topic interest, the fact I don't market it, and considering it's not very short digestable content. I also don't share these details because it's not about the numbers. It's about the fun and effort doing it and the connections we make with people. Cetainly emails and the community you cultivate will help you determine the gauge. Yes I am curious if I'm doing better then the other anime podcasters, and it would be nice to know where we (OG) ranks among them. I'm of the beliefe that the podcast I produce (OG) is probably in the top 3 as far as numbers go. But it's not about that for me. I have enough evidence that there's a weekly and monthly audience, and that there's enough activity there to prove we should keep doing it week-to-week. For me that's my gauge.

Now... I'm not done with this topic... I will give you some idea... if you put out a weekly podcast (one show a week), and you have listener size of 300, that's small, but good. If you have a listener size of 3,000 that's pretty good. If you have a listener size of 10,000 that's great! If you have over 250,000 downloads a month... that's stellar (*ahem*dawn&drew*ahem*). But don't do it for the numbers, but care about them, because they will keep you continually motivated if you know you're connecting with people and if you're audience is growing.

Last on the topic of "the gauge", OG (my podcast) has a lot of listeners... and maybe 5% to 10% actively write in, or particpate in the forums. A lot of listeners are passive, I know I am with a lot of the podcasts I listen to. So if you have the downloads and the interaction is low, don't  be rattled by this.

Next time...
I know I have probably missed something... so next time I will talk about equipment, where and what kind of equipment to buy and so on. I hope you like this blog on the subject of podcasting. I hope it's usefull. If you have questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me.

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