A Podcast Tutorial [Podcasting 101]

In this video, I do my best to provide a podcasting tutorial.  I’ve received a great deal of requests to do this.  I found it difficult to do a podcasting tutorial, without actually doing a podcast.  Rather than do that, I go into the basic principles to maintain a successful podcast.  This tutorial is broken out into 3 parts:  Motivation, Equipment, and Production.  In terms of motivation, make sure you choose a topic you are passionate about.  Ask yourself the following before choosing a topic:  “Am I able to talk about this topic for 15 minutes to someone who knows absolutely nothing about it”  If you can do this, then you have a decent candidate for a topic.  Choosing a topic is key to prevent podfading.  As for equipment, start with a cheap microphone (microphone/headsets are fine and fairly cheap at Best Buy), your computer, and cheap software.  The software I recommend you start with is Audacity (http://bit.ly/90H9M) which is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.  There’s a good chance you’re using one of these OS’s, so Audacity is a good choice.  As you get a few episodes under your belt, then it’s time to think about possibly upgrading your setup to a condenser mic/mixer setup.  Finally, there’s production.  Come up with a schedule that you’ll be able to keep.  Don’t commit to a daily podcast right from the start.  I recommend starting with a weekly or monthly schedule and see how it works out.  There’s also the option of live podcasting vs offline podcasting.  I recommend sticking with an offline production at first and as you get more shows done, think about doing a live show.  Live shows can be a bit more difficult to setup, so keep that in mind.  These are just a few pointers to the wide world of podcasting, but it should be enough to get you started and establish some goals.  Remember, motivation is the most important factor in podcasting, if you can’t get past this step, consider doing something else   Got a question, concern, or tip?  Email me at help@bwana.tv.  Enjoy!