About the Author
George Colombo has a reputation for making technology topics accessible to general audiences. His book Sales Force Automation was published in 1993, and many industry observers consider it the starting point for today's multi-billion dollar Customer Relationship Management industry. George has written for a number of business and computer industry publications, including Computer Reseller News, VARBusiness, and Selling. George spent two years as the host of TEN-TV's Spotlight Microsoft, a weekly television show for Microsoft developers. George was also the Executive Producer for Conversations With Industry Innovators, an audio interview series.
Curtis Franklin, Jr. has been introducing new products and technologies to readers for nearly twenty years. He was the founder of the BYTE Testing Lab for BYTE magazine, and since then has written about leading-edge technologies and their impact on individuals and organizations for publications like Circuit Cellar INK, VARBusiness, Solutions Integrator, ITWorld.com, HowStuffWorks.com, InternetWeek, InfoWorld, Network World, Secure Enterprise, and Network Computing. As Director of Labs for Client/Server Labs, he directed testing and analysis of performance, capacity, and capabilities testing for a client list that included IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Intel, Shell Oil, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida. Today, Curtis directs security coverage as senior technology editor at Network Computing, edits the Security Channel of TechWeb.com, and contributes to industry-leading security coverage as senior technology editor at Secure Enterprise.
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IntroductionIntroduction
Welcome to Podcasting
Once in a while, something comes along that changes the way we think about communicating between people and groups. Desktop publishing did this in the 1980s, and the World Wide Web did it in the 1990s. Here in the first decade of the new millennium, podcasting—recorded programs distributed over the Internet and listened to on MP3 players such as the Apple iPod—may well be one of these important "somethings."
In this book, we're going to teach you how to make a successful podcast happen, from planning through syndication, packaging, and marketing. We'll be taking a hands-on approach, walking you through the process of recording and editing a program, bundling it up for others to see, and then doing the web-based work necessary to send it flying out to your waiting public.
Now, after that talk about being hands-on, you'll notice that we spend some time talking about planning before we have you sit down in front of the microphone. The big reason for this is that we've found planning to be the key to reaching the end of the process with a podcast you're happy with. For most of us, keeping track of recording issues and staring at a microphone will be enough of a challenge without having to simultaneously figure out what we're going to talk about. Even when spontaneity and fun are the goals (and why shouldn't they be?), having a rough game plan will make everything much easier.
The good news for all of us is that, with a few very basic tools and techniques in hand, creating a good podcast is pretty darned easy. The odds are pretty good that you already have most of the pieces you need to get started, and coming up with the pieces to fill in the blanks should be simple and inexpensive. In this book, we'll tell you where these very basic pieces will serve you throughout your podcasting career, and where it makes sense to spend a little more money to get a much greater impact.
We're also going to talk about some of the techniques that radio personalities and recording engineers have known about for years—the basic "tricks" that will let you control how your podcast sounds and eliminate most of the "amateur" mistakes that can distract listeners from the most important aspect of your podcast—the content.
MP3 players are ultraportable, and we'll teach you how to take your podcast into the field, so your listeners can follow along as you go to events, look for wildlife, or meet interesting folks on the street. After you've recorded your podcast and edited it into the form you're happy with, we'll teach you how to package it up with the various bits of text and other information listeners will need when they want to find the file. We'll talk about how to get files onto a server, what syndication is all about, and what you'll want the website on which your podcast lives to look like.
Once you start podcasting, you'll be creating intellectual property, so we'll talk about both sides of this issue—how to protect the rights to your intellectual property while respecting the rights of others. Now, we're not giving legal advice, but we will point you at key resources and share some of the generally accepted rules on using and protecting creative works.
Most people will see podcasting as an interesting hobby, but some folks are interested in going beyond a hobby and learning how to make money in podcasting, or use podcasting for their business. We'll look at the issues you'll face as you work with advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. Finally, we'll share a list of some popular and influential podcasts so you can go out and hear what other podcasters are doing in their recordings.
Whether you want to make a podcast that's funny or dramatic, serious or frivolous, profitable or just for fun, you're going to see that it's easy to build a podcast that introduces listeners you've never met to the sound of your voice and the force of your ideas. It's going to be fun—let's get started.
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