How do I make a podcast?
Posted by admin on October 29, 2007 – 10:00 amSo you want to make your own podcast? Where do you start?
First of all you need an idea. What do you want to get across to your listeners? Do you want to express your opinions on a particular subject or do you want to interview someone interesting and make this available on the internet?
A podcast is basically an mp3 file that is posted on the internet for others to listen to, therefore you need to have a means to create that mp3 – this is not as hard, or technical, as you may think.
What do you need?
1. A computer, either a PC or Mac will do – if you’re reading this then I guess you probably have one of these already!
2. A way to record sound. This will need both software and hardware. You will need a microphone of some description, this could be your mobile phone or a headset you already use with your computer. You could also get a “proper” microphone, the choice is yours. You will also need software to record your voice. Personally I use Audacity although others are available. If you choose to use Audacity you will also need the LAME mp3 encoder which is available via their website in order to post your podcast.
Once you have recorded what you want to say you may want to edit it before you post it. Again this is not as hard as it sounds, it can be as simple as getting rid of the inevitable “ums” and “arrs”. If you have interviewed someone then you can also use the editing process to put together something that tells a story, rather than it being a direct reproduction of your conversation. Whilst it is not good to change the context of what an interviewee says, it is sometimes helpful to alter the order of their answers so that what they say makes more sense as sometimes when being interviewed people do not always say what they mean straight away.
Remember that what you record could be heard by anyone, therefore you need to make sure that what you want to get across is clear.
Please be aware that ELFM will not tolerate anything that could be considered as racist, homophobic or otherwise offensive to listeners – this includes swearing of any kind, no matter how harmless you might think it is.
Finally, including music may seem to be a good idea however it is essential that you do not. Most publicly available music is subject to copyright and using it online without permission is illegal.
Tags: help
One Response to “How do I make a podcast?”
Make sure you have a good listen to some of the podcasts on the elfm website (and elsewhere). What works and what doesn’t.
One of the things that we’ve found is that short is good. Listener feedback is that people really like something that is short and pithy - think 5-10 minutes.
By Adrian on Jun 23, 2008