Making A Podcast

On this page, you’ll find our guide on how to make a podcast, including links as we go along, on where to find more detailed information

 

Step 1 – Planning your Podcast

This is where you need to think about the content of the podcast. We can’t help with telling you what content is right for you, but here are some pointers:

• At the start of each show, outline what’s going to be covered in the show
• Try to involve the listener – get them to interact with you by email, Twitter, Phone, or even post
• At the end of the show, thank the listener for their time, tell them how to find out more, and let them know when the next show is available

 

Step 2 – Podcasting Equipment

To record a podcast, you’ll need the following:

• A microphone – See our page of info on Podcast Microphones
• Something to record onto. Most commonly, this will be a computer, but it could also be a portable recorder, such as the Olympus LS range of digital recorders

 

Step 3 – Recording and Editing

It’s now a case of recording your first show. Assuming you are using a computer, it’ll be a case of connecting the microphone, then using a software package for recording.

For details on how to record and edit, see the Recording Your Voice guide.

 

Step 4 – Packaging your podcast

once you have recorded and edited the recording of your voice, you may want to add music. Be aware that use of music in a podcast may make you viable for paying copyright to the music artist, composer and record company.If you’re after music that safe for use on podcasts, take a look at the Podsafe Music Network

When you have finished production on your show, you need to mix down the audio to an MP3 file. For plain speech, a bitrate of 64kbps is the minimum. For speech with some music, consider 128kbps, and for a mainly music show, consider a bitrate of 256kbps.

 

Step 5 – Tagging Your Podcast

Now you have your podcast recorded, edited and mixed down as an MP3 file, you need to add some tags to the file, so that podcast catchers can know what content is on them, and so that the listener can see the title and an image for the podcast. More: Tagging Your Podcast

 

Step 6 – Publishing Your Podcast

You now need to get your podcast up on the Internet, so that people can start to download it. You need an Internet Hosting Service for this. More: Hosting Your Podcast

 

Step 7 – The Podcast Feed

With your podcast recorded and on the Internet, you need to make a podcast feed file. This tells podcast services such as Apple iTunes and Juice that your podcast is ready. More: Creating a podcast feed

If you’re interested to know how many people are subscribing to your show, you might want to use Google’s Feedburner service

Once you have a feed, submit that feed to iTunes, and make it available via your website.

 

Next: Promoting Your Show

That’s the basics of how to get a podcast recorded and published. Once the show is out there, you need to get people to listen to it, and become loyal listeners. More: Promoting Your Podcast