Rocket Bomber - article - commentary - 7 Tips for Podcasting.

1. Select a topic carefully. You need something that you know about, and can talk about, but it should also be of interest to somebody else.

2. Frequency. Weekly posts are best. Regularly scheduled weekly posts that go live on time, at the same time and on the same day of the week each week are best. But find a schedule (however infrequent or erratic) and keep to it.

3. Solo or Group? Doesn’t matter so much, but Group podcasts are probably easier. (if you have friends) (you’ll note I record solo)

4. Format. I have a strong opinion: I feel podcasts should be in an accessible format & easily downloaded, not locked into a particular website or podcast host. In fact, I really like MP3.

5. Hardware. You don’t need a fancy mic. Here are some sample clips recorded with stuff I have around the house:

OK, so I do own a fancy mic (a shockmounted Blue Snowball atop a boom mic stand)

But I get about the same audio quality using the voice recording function on my Sansa Clip MP3 player. (The Sansa Clip comes highly recommended, particularly as a mobile solution or for journalists who need an easy way to record interviews.)

And I have the headset (mic and headphone combo) that came with my Rosetta Stone software. This piece of hardware doesn’t play well with my laptop, which I reference in the sound clip below; your mileage may vary.

6. Even an novice can snip long pauses and “ums” out in post-production. It doesn’t have to sound perfect right off the bat.

Tip Seven I snuck in at the end of the Summary: I use a free program called Audacity to record and edit, and also to encode the MP3s.

Summing Up:

Roll Credits:

Please note, future [official] podcasts will not be broken up into clips like this — it’ll be a single long file with appropriate download links and the like alongside the in-browser player. (It’ll look like a normal podcast in other words.) Before I start recording, though, I need to take my own advice: Pick a topic, decide on how frequently to post, and buckle down and do it.