Customer Reviews

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting

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4 star:		(3)
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This is an eminently readable, straightforward and, dare I say it? entertaining book. Colombo and Franklin cover the territory of what podcasting is, how you (should) get started, pitfalls to avoid, directories that are a must if you ever want anyone to actually listen to what you put out there, and much much more. There are practical suggestions such as "become a voracious consumer of podcasts" at least for a little while before you launch your own podcast into the ether. There are clear instructions, loads of screen shots and--to my great pleasure--a total absence of the analogy laden attempts at "cleverness" that so often accompany technical how-to texts for beginners. I bought it, I'm giving another copy to my tech-savvy son-in-law and I recommend it to you.

The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting is a foolproof guide to making and producing your own podcast. From beginning to end the book spells out everything. From technical jargon to the pace of your podcast this book is there to help. It is easy to follow and has great page layouts that your eyes can easily focus on. In each chapter they also include small insets that give you a tidbit of history about podcasting. While podcasting's history isn't long they give great insight into subjects like the "Podfather", Adam Curry, who is seen as, the name implies, the forerunner for podcasting. This book is a beginning podcasters bible. That is the very best thing about it and possibly its only downside. It sets out to teach a novice the ways of the podcasting world and achieves that goal. If you have already tried your hand at casting and have a good idea of how it works this book wouldn't be the best choice for more advanced casting techniques. All in all the Absolute Beginners Guide to Podcasting achieves exactly what it is setting out to accomplish, giving beginners a guide to the growing world of podcasting.

Even if you know nothing about podcasting, you can produce your own cast within hours of getting your hands on this book. But what surprised me is that even if you're a seasoned podcaster you'll likely learn some good stuff from this book. It's definitely staying on my resource shelf, especially for the great detailed sections on sound production (both the physical gear like mics and the digital processing stuff).

What sets this book apart, though, is the in-depth discussion these authors deliver about show content. I've listened to the first 5 minutes of so many podcasts where the personality behind the mic was clearly interesting, but I didn't have the patience to sit through the loose drivel between entertaining or useful nuggets. This book does a great job guiding the podcaster to devote a little more directed energy to preparing a tight high-quality show. As an avid listener I can tell you this is almost required to get me on to minute 6, and a must to get me to subscribe to your cast.

The book has a nice conversational tone, making it a quick read. It's also laid out so that you can easily jump between sections if you're looking for something in particular, or want to save the detailed tech stuff for later.

My only negative comment about the book is that a few of the screenshots didn't print with enough contrast to make them easily readable. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing. Great book, and a real bargain at less than $20.

I bought this book for a class I'm taking to obtain my degree and had no idea what podcasting was. This book is fantastic in the aspect of helping create a podcast for any size audience. It's easy to follow, easy to understand. The only fallback is that it does not offer software but it does reference a website or two where there are free downloads available. Happy Podcasting!

This book was so informative because it told me things that I didn't even know I had to know before producing a podcast. The authors made the book not only easy to follow but included some humor along the way. They included free websites and the best info on hardware that is needed too. At the end of every chapter is a section called "The Absolute Minimum" which gives a synopsis of the best and most necessary info of the chapter. I found that extremely helpful. This is the best book for the beginner because it explains everthing in easy to understand terms without being dry and totally technical.

This book is great for anyopne with no knowledge of podcasting. Written well. Takes you from A-Z and more.

This book covers all the Podcasting bases, and IMHO is a bit better than "Podcasting for dummies". However, the author does newbies a disservice by posting screenshots from a $50 commercial sound editing product in addition to the popular and free "Audacity" software.

Podcasting beginners would do well to spend their money on a good USB microphone before plunking down cash for software they can get for free.
If they decide to pursue podcasting further, they can always upgrade the software later when they have a better idea of what they want to do...

Similarly, newbies should not think too much about mixing boards, XLR mics, etc. when just starting out. Let's keep it simple!

Just my $0.02 ...

"Podcasting," a term once reserved for the pathetically boring, lame, self-infatuated, or those who love gibberish buzzwords, has become all the rage of late. Columbo and Franklin have produced an impressive compilaton by compressing two or three years' worth of idiocy into a single book and then selling it by marketing it on web sites frequented by opinionated morons, all before the end of 2005. No longer is the incredible accomplishment of recording digital audio limited to the elite few with superior technical skills; now even garden-variety idiots can ride this exciting bandwagon all the way to the start of the next interweb trend.