Panelists: Dave Jackson, Daniel J. Lewis, Dan Lyons, and Ray Ortega
4 Steps to podcast:
- prepare a topic
- Record yourself
- publish to the internet
- share and promote
How much time and money does it take to start a podcast? it depends. Easiest way to get started – a USB microphone. Plug and play = easy.
$100 in basic audio equipment, $100 per year for website. Free music, sound effects, and software. IT’s the price of a basic hobby.
4:1 ratio – 4 minutes of prep and production to every 1 minute of audio
Why are you podcasting?
- hobby – less budget, less time
- side business
- full-time job or part of your job
Determine your passion and podcast about that. Podcast what you know about. What’s in your RSS feed.
Start with a wide net. Look at iTunes top-level categories. If you see other similar topics, don’t be discouraged. It might be a dead show, or it might just mean lots of people want to listen.
Have a long-term plan. Use a whiteboard (me – or a mindmap, or a notebook, etc). Brainstorm and write down a subject. Then figure out your angles, figure out what your audience might want to know about it, etc. Write down future titles of posts…
How niche can you go?
Average podcast has about 40 listeners.
Improve or enhance a topic already covered.
Title: be descriptive! Bad – the John Smith podcast. Good – how to be awesome! So be descriptive and short. Easy to spell and understand. Avoid ambiguous words. Avoid accidental words. Always try to get the dot com version.
Choose a format:
solo or co-host? Figure it out.
Length and frequency… let the strength of your content determine the length of your show.
Audio or video? Both can work. Have fun and do what works for you. Video – more likely to be shared. iTunes is great, but Youtube is HUGE. People like to put a face to the voice. It’s also harder to edit, to set up, etc.
Ask this – does it need to be seen? Can you show it? If it’s audio-only, you need to remember that no one can see what you’re talking about. So you have to describe it.
Audio is easier to dump into your iPod.