Podcasting For Dummies

by Tee Morris, Chuck Tomasi, Evo Terra (Foreword by)

Overview

Step up to the mic and unleash your inner host with Podcasting For Dummies

Ever wonder what it takes to get your very own podcast up and running? How to get the gear you need, pick a great topic, secure fascinating guests, and assemble it all into a refined and irresistible product?

Well wonder no more! Because Podcasting For Dummies has the essential guidance you need to get your brand-new podcast up and running. From selecting the right recording equipment to identifying an audience and pro-level production tips, you'll find all the killer info to help you get started on your next big idea.

You'll also get:

• Software and hardware tips to create and produce a crystal-clear podcast
• Interview advice, whether you'll be seeing your guests in-person or over Zoom
• Strategies for choosing the perfect platform, finding sponsors, and advertising and marketing your new creation
• Pointers for setting up a streaming account and doing live podcasting like an expert

With everyone from A-list brands to world-famous celebrities getting in on the podcast craze, it's time you took your turn on the mic. Grab Podcasting For Dummies today and turn up the volume on the practice that's transformed countless amateurs into household names!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781394264520
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	07/23/2024
Edition description:	5th ed.
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	109,371
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tee Morris is an award-winning podcaster and the author of Twitch For Dummies and Discord For Dummies. Chuck Tomasi is a Developer Advocate who has created thousands of hours of content for work and fun.

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Table of Contents

	Foreword	xix
	Introduction	1
	About This Book	1
	How to Use This Book	2
	Conventions Used in This Book	3
	Bold Assumptions	4
	How This Book Is Organized	5
	About the Companion Podcast	7
	Icons Used in This Book	7
	Where to Go from Here	8
Part I	Podcasting on a Worldwide Frequency	9
Chapter 1	Getting the Scoop on Podcasting	11
	Deciding Whether Podcasting Is for You	12
	You want to deliver audio content on a regular basis	12
	You want to reach beyond the boundaries of radio	12
	You have something to say	13
	You want to hear from your listeners	14
	Creating a Podcast	14
	Looking for the bare necessities	15
	Recording your first podcast	16
	Compressing your audio files	17
	Transferring your audio to the Web	18
	Grabbing listeners	19
	Catching a Cast with Your Podcatching Client	21
	The catcher that started it all: iPodder	22
	Stepping up your game with iPodderX	23
	The 800-pound gorilla called iTunes	25
	Options, options, and more options	26
	Quest for Podcasts	28
	iPodder.org	28
	Podcast Alley	28
	Podcast Pickle	29
	Yahoo.com Audio search	29
Chapter 2	Getting the Gadgets That Make a Podcast Go	31
	Finding the Right Mic	32
	Mics on the cheap	32
	Investing in a high-end mic	34
	Expanding Your Studio	37
	Podcasts well with others: Mixing boards	37
	Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessorize!	38
	It's in the cards: Purchasing and installing an audio card	40
	The Audacity of That GarageBand and Its Audio Hijack Pro: Audio-Editing Software	45
	Audacity: Who says you can't get something for nothing?	46
	Cakewalk for the PC: This podcasting stuff is easy!	47
	GarageBand: Moby in your Mac!	49
	Audio Hijack Pro: Good software with a bad-boy attitude	51
	The Sky's the Limit: Big-Budget Software	52
	Gluing It Together with XML and RSS	54
	Simplify the process and get a blog!	56
	Fine, Do it without a blog.	58
	Doing it by hand	58
	Finding a Host for Your Podcast	59
	Size does matter	60
	Bandwidth demystified	60
Part II	The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Podcasting	63
Chapter 3	Before You Hit the Record Button	65
	Choosing a Unique Topic for Your Podcast	66
	Finding Your Voice	67
	Deciding Whether You Need an Outline or Script	69
	Choosing a Method for Recording Interviews	71
	Taping phone calls	72
	Recording conversations with Skype	72
	Ensuring trouble-free recordings	78
	Prepping Your Green Room for Guests	79
	Welcoming in-studio guests	79
	Meeting guests on their own turf	80
	Preparing for Interviews	81
	Surefire routes to happy, conversational guests	81
	Surefire routes to outraged, uncooperative guests	83
	Determining a Length for Your Show	84
	The hidden value of the short podcast	85
	A little length won't kill you	85
	Finding that happy medium	86
	I Hear Music (And It Sounds like Police Sirens!)	88
	The powers that be	89
	I can name that tune...I wrote it!	93
	I'll take the First: Free speech versus slander	94
Chapter 4	So What Are You Waiting For? Record, Already!	95
	Did Your Sound Check Clear the Bank?	95
	Understanding dB levels	96
	Setting your levels	98
	Fire Sign Podcasting: Volume and Projection	99
	Noises Off: Capturing Ambient Noise	101
	Identifying ambient noise you want to edit out	102
	Minimizing ambient noise	102
	Now Take Your Time and Hurry Up: Pacing and Clock Management	103
	Take the potato out of your mouth and enunciate	104
	And now let's take a break for station identification	105
	Concerning Tangents, and Their Val - Oh, Look, a Butterfly!	107
	"Say, that reminds me of something..."	107
	"But getting back to what I was saying earlier..."	108
Chapter 5	Cleanup, Podcast Aisle 7!	109
	A Few Reasons to Consider Editing	109
	The Art of Editing	111
	Editing voice with GarageBand	111
	Editing voice with Audacity	113
	Making Your Musical Bed (And Lying in It): Background Music	115
	Finding the right balance	116
	Applying bed music the right way	117
	Setting volume levels for bed music	118
	Making an Entrance: Intros	122
	Theme music	122
	Intro greeting	122
	Exit, Stage Left	123
	Leave the audience wanting more	124
	Catch phrase sign off	124
	Credits roll	125
	Coming soon to an MP3 player near you	125
Part III	So You've Got This Great Recording of Your Voice. Now What?	127
Chapter 6	Shrink That Puppy and Slap a Label on It	129
	A Kilobit of Me, and a Whole Lot of You: Understanding Kbps	129
	Changing bit rates in Audacity	131
	Changing bit rates in iTunes	132
	Care for a Sample, Sir? (Audio Sample Rates)	133
	Changing sample rates in Audacity	134
	Changing sample rates in iTunes	135
	ID3 Tags: They're Not Just for Music Anymore	137
	Tell me about yourself: All about ID3 tags	137
	IDentity crisis: Making ID3 tags work for podcasting	138
	Creating and editing ID3 tags in Audacity	140
	Creating and editing ID3 tags in iTunes	141
Chapter 7	Move It on Up (To Your Web Server)	143
	Uploading Your Files with FTP	144
	Understanding the parts that make FTP work	144
	Making your connection	145
	A place on your Web server for your stuff	148
	Adopting an effective filenaming convention	149
	Uploading your files	151
	Uploading to a Podcast-Specific Host	151
	Using Your Blogging Software to Upload	153
	Uploading with Command-Line FTP (Speaking of Old School...)	153
	Setting up a folder for your podcast media file	154
	Accessing Terminal on a Mac	154
	Accessing the command prompt on a PC	155
	Uploading your files	155
	Advanced Hosting Options	156
	BitTorrent	157
	CoralCDN	158
	Archiving Aging Media Files	160
	Set up a rotating archive feed	161
	Use the Internet Archive	161
	Rent a new server and charge for access	161
Chapter 8	Posting Show Notes	163
	Show Note Etiquette	164
	Planning the Post	165
	It's all in the details	165
	A picture is worth a thousand words	166
	Posting Your Show Notes	167
	Posting in Movable Type	168
	Posting on Libsyn	171
	Boosting Search Engine Rankings with Good Show Notes	173
	Loading up your titles	173
	Soliciting backlinks	175
	A Word on OPML Show Notes	175
Chapter 9	Geeking Out on XML and RSS	177
	Elements That Make the RSS Go 'Round	178
	Do you have anything to declare?	181
	What's on this ?	181
	Loading up on s	188
	Wrapping things up	193
	Tweaking the Contents	194
	Making sure your episodes don't get skipped	194
	Adding descriptive keywords	194
	Making Newcomers Feel Welcome	195
	Creating an introductory podcast	196
	Understanding how it works	197
	Multiple-Show File Strategies	197
Part IV	Start Spreadin' the News about Your Podcast	199
Chapter 10	Of Pings and Directories	201
	Publicizing Your Podcast	201
	Directories and listing sites explained	202
	Pinging for publicity	202
	Sending Pings to Directories and Listing Sites	203
	Choosing which sites to ping	203
	Totally automatic pings	204
	Pinging manually (if you must)	206
	Drawing In Listeners from Directories	208
	Targeting your audience: Large or small?	209
	Finding the latest and greatest directories	209
	Listing your podcast with directories	210
	Keeping your listing relevant	213
Chapter 11	Speaking Directly to Your Peeps	215
	Gathering Listener Feedback	216
	Comments on Your Blog	216
	Online Discussion Groups	218
	Yahoo! Groups	218
	Google Groups	220
	Publicizing your group	221
	Focusing on Online Forums	222
	Finding free, hosted forums	222
	Purchasing software to take more control of your forum	223
	Seeking Out the Comments of Others	224
	Trying a general search	225
	Using specialty search engines	225
	Searching within a site or message board	228
	Checking your server logs	228
	Now that you've found the comments	231
	When the comments are less than good	231
Chapter 12	Fishing for Listeners	233
	Getting Your Podcast Ready for Advertising	233
	Polishing your presentation	234
	Checking on your bandwidth	234
	Figuring out your USP	236
	Exploring Various Advertising Options	236
	Google AdWords	237
	Blogads	239
	Writing press releases	239
	Advertising without Spending Money	241
	Optimizing your site for search engines	241
	Submitting promos to other podcasts	241
	Recording your promo	242
	Giving interviews	243
	Generating buzz	244
Part V	Pod-sibilities to Consider for Your Show	245
Chapter 13	Show Me the Money	247
	How Much Money Can You Make?	247
	Convincing Advertisers to Give You Money	249
	Getting advertising money	250
	Developing a media kit	250
	Establishing a rate sheet	253
	Setting advertising limits	253
	Getting a sponsor	253
	Asking Your Listeners for Money	254
	Gathering listener donations with PayPal	255
	Selling stuff	257
	Fee-based subscriptions	258
Chapter 14	Podcasting for Publicity	261
	Podcasting and Politics	262
	Telling the World a Story, One Podcast at a Time	264
	Keeping Good Company: Community and Soundseeing-Tour Podcasts	267
	Putting together a soundseeing tour of your favorite destination	267
	Creating a podcast to bring together a community	268
Chapter 15	Podcasting for Passion	271
	The Philosophical Question for All Podcasters: Why Do We Do It?	272
	Gaining perspective on passion	272
	Podcasting passion with a purpose	274
	Practice makes perfect passion	275
	Passion comes in all shapes and sizes	276
	Universal love for the podcast	277
	Holding Interest: Keeping a Podcast's Passion Alive	277
	Podcasting on puree: Mixing it up	278
	Starting from scratch	279
	Reinventing yourself	281
	Truth and Honesty in Podcasting	283
Part VI	The Part of Tens	285
Chapter 16	Top Ten Types of Podcasts to Check Out	287
	Tech Podcasts	288
	Independent Music Podcasts	289
	Science Podcasts	290
	Educational Podcasts	291
	Comedy Podcasts	292
	Husband and Wife Podcasts	293
	Soundseeing Tour Podcasts	293
	Serialized Novel/Short-Story Podcasts	294
	Passionate Podcasts	296
	Podcasts about...Podcasting	297
Chapter 17	Top Ten Most Influential People in Podcasting	299
	Dave Winer	300
	Adam Curry	300
	Steve Jobs and Bill Gates	301

Editorial Reviews

"Aimed at everyone from first-time podcasters to experienced producers with a thorough update on the software". (The Bookseller, Friday 14th March 2008)

From the Publisher