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A Quick Message on Podcasting

Thanks for stopping by Writing and Editing today fans. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, visit here (http://writingandeditingtoday.com/day12ianrobinson/) to hear our interview with Gina.

Podcasting is a great tool to simultaneously build an audience for your next project and build the research base you need to make a great product. Essentially you build the audience while building the product.

If somethings holding you back from doing this, here is a simple step by step description for how to make a podcast:

 

1. Buy Quality Equipment

Don’t skimp on sound quality. If you want to make things people want to buy, it’s always best to make good stuff.

You can find my podcast studio set up tutorial at the page called studio.

If you listened to our podcast, you may have noticed it sounded quite nice. Here is a simple list of equipment that doesn’t cost much but has a really professional sound:

  • Microphone – ATR 2100 – Sounds as good as many professional microphones, it comes with all cables, mic stands and everything you need.
  • Mixer – Scarlett 2i2 – This is a simple 2 channel mixer. It gives the recordings the depth that makes them stand out.
  • Pop Filter – We like the Multi Colored Ones. They cost almost nothing yet add a lot of quality to the source recording.

2. Get The Software

  • Audacity is Free – Use this to record supplemental segments in studio with or without a guest.
  • Levelator is Free – Run all your .AIFF (.WAV if you use a PC) recorded show elements through here.
  • Piezo is $15 – Use this program to create the recordings with Skype
  • ID3 Editor – This one is free for a long time. I think it’s like $5 and it’s soooo much faster than using iTunes to write id3 info

3. Record Interviews/Audible Essays and Export Audio to .aiff or .wav files

Use Audacity to record your in person interviews and Piezo to record Skype calls. When you’re done with these programs, export the files to a working folder for the next process. I like to title and name my files by episode number – show name – guest name/topic. For Example:

23 – Love Affair Travel – Barack Obama

4. Run Files through Levelator

Levelator is the simplest way to make sure your levels are solid when publishing. There are steps you can take to get a better sounding show, but as we’re doing the quick and effective tutorial here, running your files through Levelator is the best option at this time.

5. Open files in GarageBand and mix them together with music

Once you have your leveled podcast elements, use GarageBand or Audacity to mix them together. This may require a bit of a learning curve, but simplify the process and just organize your elements. When done, click export and export as a 128 kb/s .mp3 file. These are optimal for sharing on the podcast platforms.

6. Use ID3 Editor to Write Categorical Information and Show Art to your audio file

We tag our podcast episodes so that when people are listening on their devices, the branding and the link to your website are visible on the players. If you notice that there is a podcast that show the default image when you download it, that is because the producer is not properly tagging the file. Here is a screen shot of what it looks like when my podcast has been properly tagged in ID3 editor:

How to ID3 tag your podcast file

7.  Install Blubrry Podcasting Plugin on your WordPress website

The core of the podcast distribution system is your podcast RSS feed. This is the Blubrry Podcast Plugin and it works with WordPress.org websites in a way that makes it easier to produce a proper feed. Go ahead and upload it to your website and fill out the information in the menu tab.

8. Upload your audio files to Libsyn and copy the Media URL to the blog post

Now that Blubrry is installed on your computer you will see a podcasting box in each blog post draft. So create a new podcast post to go live on iTunes and import the media URL of your audio show and click “Verify.” Then click Update or Save Draft. Your podcast is loaded up and ready to go to iTunes.

Note: It’s important to publish and make live at least one podcast before moving onto the next step.

9. Submit your Feed to the Top Podcasting Podcast

Now that you’ve created a blog with an audio embed which is connect to your RSS feed, you’re ready to submit your podcast to iTunes and the other podcasting platforms. To do this, we suggest following these guidelines. We update these constantly as new platforms enter the market and old ones become obsolete. Please feel free to follow the submission instructions here.

 

That’s it. You’ve created your podcast.

 

Thanks so much for joining in on the conversation. If you’d like updates from Freedom Podcasting, you can join our mailing letter where we send out great tips for podcasting as the industry evolves.

 

Huzzah!

 

-The Freedom Podcasting Team