Foreword xv 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 Part 1: Podcasting on a Worldwide Frequency 5 Part 2: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Podcasting 5 Part 3: So You''ve Got This Great Recording of Your Voice: Now What? 5 Part 4: Start Spreadin'' the News about Your Podcast 6 Part 5: Pod-sibilities to Consider for Your Show 6 Part 6: The Part of Tens 6 Icons Used in This Book 7 Beyond the Book 7 Where to Go from Here 8 Part 1: 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 media on a regular basis 13 You want to reach beyond the boundaries of broadcast media 14 You have something to say 14 You want to hear from your listeners 15 Creating a Podcast 15 Looking for the bare necessities 16 Recording your first podcast 17 Compressing your audio files 18 Uploading your audio to the web 18 Grabbing listeners 20 There''s an App for That 21 The old-timer: Apple Podcasts 22 Podcasting on the go: Stitcher 23 Welcome the game-changer: Overcast 25 Podcasting with the G-man: Google Play Music 27 A new 800-pound gorilla: Spotify 28 Other Podcast Resources 30 Chapter 2: Getting the Gadgets To Produce a Podcast 31 Finding the Right Mic 32 A Beginner''s Guide to Mics 33 Investing in a high-end mic 35 Podcasts Well with Others: The Mixing Board 40 The anatomy of a mixing board 41 Hooking up a mixer to your computer 43 Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessorize! 45 Chapter 3: Building Your Podcast''s Digital Workstation 51 Budget-Friendly (a.k.a Free) Software 52 Audacity: The risk-free option for all 52 Cakewalk by Bandlab for Windows: A complementary Step in Running with the Pros 53 GarageBand: Moby in your Mac! 54 The Sky''s the Limit: Big-Budget Software 57 Adobe Audition 57 Apple Logic Pro X 58 Gluing It Together with RSS 59 Keep it simple and get a blog! 61 Doing it by hand 63 Podcast Management 101 64 Size does matter 64 Bandwidth demystified 65 Chapter 4: Go, Go, Power Podcasters! 67 Podcasting with Your Laptop 68 Mackie Onyx Blackjack 68 Shure MVi 69 Podcasting with Your Mobile Devices 70 A Shure Thing: The MV5 and MV51 71 Two for the Røde: The VideoMic Me and smartLav+ 72 Podcasting with Portable Recorders 74 Zoom-Zoom-Zoom: The Handy Recorder line 74 From Cloud to Computer: Portable Audio Workflow 78 Getting audio from your portable recorder 78 Getting audio from your portable device 80 Part 2: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Podcasting 83 Chapter 5: Before You Hit the Record Button 85 Choosing a Unique Topic for Your Podcast 86 Finding Your Voice 87 What if I hear more than one voice? 89 Deciding Whether You Need an Outline or Script 92 Determining a Length for Your Show 94 The hidden value of the short podcast 94 A little length won''t kill you 95 Finding that happy medium 96 Mark Your Calendar: Posting Schedule 97 Posting daily 97 Posting weekly 98 Posting biweekly (or fortnightly for our friends in the Commonwealth) 98 Posting monthly 99 I Hear Music (and It Sounds Like Police Sirens!) 100 The powers that be 100 I can name that tune I wrote it! 105 I''ll take the First: Free speech versus slander 106 Chapter 6: Interview-Fu: Talk to Me, Grasshopper 107 I''ll Have My People Call Your People: Interview Requests 108 Preparing for Interviews 110 Asking really great questions 110 Avoiding really bad questions 113 Feelin'' the synergy 114 Recording Interviews 116 Recording using Skype 116 Recording using OBS 118 Recording using hardware 121 Prepping Your Green Room for Guests 122 Welcoming in-studio guests 123 Meeting guests on their own turf 123 Ensuring Trouble-Free Recordings 125 Chapter 7: So What Are You Waiting For? Record, Already! 127 Did Your Sound Check Clear the Bank? 128 Understanding dB levels 128 Setting your levels 130 Noises Off: Capturing Ambient Noise 133 Identifying ambient noise 133 Minimizing ambient noise 134 Now Take Your Time and Hurry Up: Pacing and Clock Management 136 Take the potato out of your mouth and enunciate 137 And now let''s take a break for station identification 138 Concerning Tangents and Their Val -- Oh, Look, a Butterfly! 140 "Say, that reminds me of something " 140 "But getting back to what I was saying earlier " 141 Time to Push the Big Red Button! 142 Getting started with GarageBand 143 Getting started with Audacity 144 Chapter 8: Cleanup, Podcast Aisle 8! 147 A Few Reasons to Consider Editing 148 The Art of Editing 149 Editing with GarageBand 150 Editing with Audacity 152 Making Your Musical Bed and Lying in It: Background Music 154 Finding the right balance 155 Applying bed music the right way 156 Setting volume levels for bed music 157 Making an Entrance: Intros 161 Theme music 162 Intro greeting 162 Exit, Stage Left: Outros 163 Leave the audience wanting more 164 Catch phrase sign off 164 Credits roll 165 Coming soon to a media player near you 165 Part 3: So You''ve Got This Great Recording of Your Voice: Now What? 167 Chapter 9: Shrink That Puppy and Slap a Label on It 169 A Kilobit of Me, and a Whole Lot of You: Understanding Kbps 170 Care for a Sample, Sir? (Audio Sample Rates) 173 ID3 Tags: The 411 of Podcasting 176 Tell me about yourself: All about ID3 tags 176 IDentity crisis: Making ID3 tags work for podcasting 177 Creating and editing ID3 tags 179 Chapter 10: Move It on Up (to Your Web Server) 183 Show Art: Getting Graphic with Your Podcast 184 Adopting an Effective File Naming Convention 186 Understanding How FTP Works 188 Making Your Connection with an FTP Application 189 Step by step (or quack by quack) setup for Cyberduck 190 Step by step setup for FileZilla 191 A place on your web server for your stuff 192 Uploading your files 193 Uploading to a Podcast-Specific Host 195 Chapter 11: Providing Show Notes 197 Show Note Etiquette 197 Planning the Post 199 It''s all in the details 200 A picture is worth a thousand words 201 Posting Your Show Notes 203 Posting in WordPress 203 Posting on LibSyn 207 Boosting Search Engine Rankings with Good Show Notes 209 Loading up your titles 210 Soliciting backlinks 211 Part 4: Start Spreadin'' the News about Your Podcast 213 Chapter 12: Speaking Directly to Your Peeps 215 Gathering Listener Feedback 216 Fostering Comments on Your Blog 217 Focusing on Online Forums 218 Social Media 221 Facebook 221 Twitter 222 Pinterest 222 YouTube? For audio?! 223 Instagram 224 Discord: The Lava Lamp of Online Communications 226 Using Voicemail 229 Seeking Out the Comments of Others 231 Trying a general search 232 Searching within a site, blog, or social media platform 232 When the Comments Are Less than Good 233 Chapter 13: Fishing for Listeners 237 Getting Your Podcast Ready for Promotion 237 Polishing your presentation 238 Checking your bandwidth 238 Figuring out your USP 239 Exploring Various Advertising Options 240 Give me a boost, Facebook 241 Insta-traffic with Instagram 244 Writing press releases 247 Promoting Your Podcast 250 Optimizing your site for search engines 250 Submitting promos to other podcasts 250 Recording your promo 251 Giving interviews 253 Generating buzz 254 Part 5: Pod-sibilities to Consider for Your Show 255 Chapter 14: Show Me the Money 257 How Much Money Can You Make? 258 Convincing Advertisers to Give You Money 261 Developing a media kit 262 Establishing a rate sheet 267 Getting a Sponsor 267 Asking Your Listeners for Money 270 Gathering listener donations with PayPal 270 Building patrons with Patreon 272 Selling stuff 275 Chapter 15: Podcasting for Publicity 277 Podcasting and Politics 278 Telling the World a Story, One Podcast at a Time 281 Keeping Good Company: Community Podcasts 285 Creating a podcast to encourage testimony 285 Podcasting for fun (while promoting in the process) 286 Chapter 16: Podcasting for Passion 291 The Philosophical Question for All Podcasters: Why Do We Do It? 292 Gaining perspective on passion 292 Podcasting passion with a purpose 294 Sharing your passion with friends 294 A passionate love for the podcast 296 Holding Interest: Keeping a Podcast''s Passion Alive 298 Podcasting.