Podcasting

Whether you’re trying to run your own blog podcast or trying to get your preacher’s sermons online, podcasting is a great and relatively easy way to take that step into sharing your audio and video with the world. While it may seem like a mysterious and complicated endeavor, it’s actually probably not that far off from what you’re already doing.

Step 1: Recording

A Roosterteeth Podcast

Your first step in setting up a podcast is to actually record what you want to submit. This can be either audio or video and will require a certain amount of equipment to get started.

For audio, naturally you’ll want to have a microphone so you can record the audio for the podcast as well as potentially a set of headphones for any live guests so that they and you aren’t distracted by the delay echo of pushing what you say back through a speaker. While it’s not necessary to buy the most expensive professional edition equipment you can find, it’s a good idea to get something that will give you a higher quality of material to work with. Next you’ll need some sort of recording software and what you choose will depend largely upon what kind of podcast you’re doing. For an over the internet podcast with guests calling in you may wish to consider Skype with an add-on called Pamela which will allow you to get a large group of guests to all call in at once and record the whole conversation. If on the other hand you’re just recording yourself or one person in a more live context you might want to go with something like Audacity which is a free to use audio recording and editing program.

For video, you’ll want all the above equipment as well as a video camera and some sort of video recording and editing software. Naturally as your audience will be seeing everything that’s going on, video podcasting is going to require an additional level of preparation to make sure everything in the studio is visually appealing.

Step 2: Editing

Once you have your recording complete it’s time to edit the raw material into a final product. This will make use of the editing software you obtained for step one and the kind of editing software you have will largely depend upon your needs. For some editing may not take too long as they may be happy with the original product while for others they may wish to add in extra things or remove bloopers. Either way when you’re finished editing you can move on to the final step.

Step 3: Submit

Once you have your finished product you just need to submit it to a podcasting service that will get it online for you. If you’re doing an independent podcast (perhaps as part of a blog) you can submit through one of many services such as PodBean.com (a pay to use service with a free trial) or if you’re podcasting as part of an established website you can submit the podcast through your web site provider such as Go Daddy. These services will take the podcast and make it available online as well as push it to (or submit it for you) iTunes so that people can get it either through your site or the iTunes podcast section allowing them multiple options for receiving your product.

Conclusion

Podcasting is a great way to get your recurring audio and visual materials out to the public through the internet without going too far out of the way from what you’re likely already doing (for instance you likely already record the sermons at your church). If you’re trying to reach a larger audience, podcasting might just be something to include in your N3rd C0rn3r.