Create a Podcast

Are you interested in creating a Podcast? Hopefully this section will give you an insight into the steps required and the tools needed to get you started. Steps: Create > Convert > Cast

Step 1: Create

Creative content is where it all starts. It could be music, interviews, or a "radio" styled format. You simply need a format/topic and a way to record your audio. Most computers come with built in microphones, but for better quality you should pick up an inexpensive USB microphone. If you have more than one source you may need to have multiple microphones and possibly a mixer to channel all of these sources into your recording device.

It does not matter what computer platform you use to record the audio. Below are a few tools you could use:

Audacity - Open source, cross-platform, free tool that lets you mix together multiple audio files.
GarageBand - Powerful and free Apple software bundled with new macs

Note:
This page is talking only about Audio podcasts. You can in fact make "Video podcasts" or a Hybrid audio podcast called an "Enhanced Podcast". Future updates to this page will get into these two areas. As a teaser though... consider the ability to save your PowerPoint Presentation and audio lecture as an enhanced podcast. Check out ProfCast to read more about this.

Step 2: Convert

Now that you have your audio content you need to convert it into a universal format. To current "de facto" standard to is MP3. Select the best bit-rate for the level of quality you need.

48 - 56k Mono - voice, audio books, talk radio
64k+ Stereo - music, music & talk combinations
128k Stereo - good quality music

Step 3: Cast

Here is what makes simple audio content a true "Podcast"... you need to create an RSS Feed to push information out about your audio content. An RSS Feed is what users subscribe to, that lets them know when new content is available as well as provide a description of each episode you publish.

Resources

The above is a brief overview of what is needed to get started. There are great resources out there to get you step by step instructions. Below is a sampling of some tutorials you could use to get your podcast underway.