Blogging is a great way to quickly deliver content to an audience but it’s so 2006. If you want to expand your reach beyond the computer-tethered audience of today, podcasting is the way to go.

Podcasting is a method of publishing and distributing audio files throughout the Internet using RSS. It gives publishers the ability to reach a large audience with very little cost or effort. For users, it’s an easy way to keep up with a favorite commentator, teacher or preacher. While a lot of users will listen to a podcast on an iPod, any personal computer with the appropriate software, like iTunes, can play podcasts as well as most standard digital audio players.

To get started podcasting, you will need a recording device, a place to store your audio files and a method of making those files available to users across the Internet.

1. Record Your Content
   The first step is to plan and record your content. You should set a regular schedule and plan out what type of content you will provide. To record your content, the easiest is to utilize your personal computer with a recording software package like Audacity and a quality microphone.
2. Hosting Your Podcast
   If you have a website with plenty of storage space, this is the cheapest option. However, there are many online services that are inexpensive and will do the job better since hosting your audio files will also eat up your monthly bandwidth quota. In addition, there are hosting solutions created specifically for podcasts so they are set up with the tools to publish your podcasts as well.
3. Publishing Your Podcast
   There are many methods of publishing your podcast. Publishing simply means making your audio file available through any of various types of “Feed” services. If you are hosting your own files, Feed Burner is a simple and free method as you only need to set up and account and provide the URL (web address) of your audio files.

There are many customization options depending on how you plan to use your podcasting feed including providing those files for users to listen to directly from your website. Heck, if you get a big enough audience you might just be able monetize your podcast and make a little something from your efforts!

Additional Resources:
CNET: Creating your own podcast
FeedForAll: Podcasting Tutorial
Podcasting Equipment: M-Audio
Podcasting: Wikipedia

Filed under: Staff Blogs

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