Presented by Kevin Harvell & Gus Emery at the Nebraska Code Conference on March 20, 2015 This presentation is based on my experience with launching & producing four podcasts as of the creation of this presentation.

1. How to get involved with the rapidly
growing world of podcasting!
Presented by:
Kevin Harvell - @KevinHarvell
Gus Emery - @n_f_e

2. Disclaimer Time!
• This presentation is based on the services & equipment that I
personally have either used to setup & record shows that I am
involved with and/or know about from my research up to this
point.
• There is a lot of information available on the internet in regards
to podcasting that I may not know about or mention during this
presentation due to so many new things going on in the industry.
• If you have some other tips & things you can suggest that would
help others, please hold them for the Q&A session at the end.

3. A little info “About Me”
• I have lived in the St. Louis area my entire life. Married with four children.
• Growing up I was not one to be in front of groups of people talking. Now here I am
giving a presentation about talking.
• Spent over 14 years working in the auto industry for Chrysler before taking a
buyout in Nov 2008. Went back to school for computer technology since it was a
passion of mine growing up.

4. A little info “About Me”
• Founder of STL Tech Talk LLC & I launched my first website in
March 2012 which was www.STLTechTalk.com
• I have been co-hosting & producing podcasts since September 2013
with the launch of the STL Tech Talk Podcast and have been
involved in over 140 podcast episodes of our various shows.
• Our shows have been heard in nearly 100 countries around the
world

5. Podcasts in our network (currently)
TechInformist.com
@TechInformist
CodeCastSTL.com
@CodeCastSTL
STLTechTalk.com
@STLTechTalk
MSMobileShow.com
@MSMobileShow

6. What is a podcast?
• Podcast - A digital audio file made available
on the Internet for downloading to a
computer or portable media player, typically
available as a series. New installments of
which can be received by subscribers
automatically.
• Source – Google definition

7. Brief history of podcasting
• Can be compared to audiobooks or past radio shows due to often
being released in a serialized/episodic format
• First known as “audioblogging”
• August 2002 – Carl Franklin launches Dot Net Rocks! podcast
• February 2004 -Term “podcasting”, which is combined from ‘iPod’
& ‘broadcast’ first mentioned inThe Guardian newspaper by Ben
Hammersley
• June 2005 – Apple released iTunes 4.9 with native support for
podcasts

8. Brief history of podcasting
• January 2006 - Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated creating a
podcast during his keynote address to the Macworld Conference &
Expo using new "podcast studio" features in GarageBand 3.
• It is difficult to say just how many podcasts there are today as so
many shows have come and gone along with the fact of how easy
it is to launch a new show.
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting

9. Things to consider before starting a podcast
What will your show be about?

10. Things to consider before starting a podcast
How often will you record & release new episodes?

11. Things to consider before starting a podcast
Will this be more of a hobby or will you want to
make a living from it?

12. Things to consider before starting a podcast
Will you have a co-host or will you fly solo?

13. Things to consider before starting a podcast
Will you be doing an audio only version, or will you
be doing video also?

14. Things to consider before starting a podcast
Will you be doing guest interviews and if so, how
often?

15. Things to consider before starting a podcast
When you do interviews, will they be in person, or
over the internet?

16. Equipment you will need
• Microphone
• Audio recorder (whether using your computer or
stand alone audio recorder like a Zoom H4N)
• Webcam (if doing a video podcast or just for online
interviews)
• Headphones (to help eliminate possible echos)
• Mixer (not necessary, but will help give you best
audio quality)

17. Popular Microphones
Blue Yeti
$120
Heil PR 40
$327
AudioTechnica
ATR2100
$59
Rode
Podcaster
$229

18. Other Recommended Equipment
Zoom H4N
Audio Recorder
$199
Headphones
$5 & up
Boom arm to hold
microphone to
desk/table
$18 & up
Logitech C920
$68

19. Other Recommended Equipment
Behringer
XENYX502
$45 from Amazon
Behringer Q802USB
$80 from Amazon
Behringer XENYX
X1204USB
$180 from Amazon

20. Skype or Google+ Hangouts?
Each service has its own pros & cons
• Skype will give you overall better video & audio quality, BUT you will
need a third party software program to record your shows. Though I
believe when using this third party software, people can also call in via
phone whereas with Google+ they cannot.
• Google+ has done this right with their Hangouts on Air feature which ties
in wonderfully with YouTube allowing people to watch live if you would
like. You or guests can share your screen to show viewers what you are
talking about, like software code for example which we do on CodeCast.

21. Software
• Software to extract audio from video files such as Free Video to
MP3 Convertor from www.DVDVideoSoft.com
• An audio file editor or recorder such as Audacity (will need the
LAME encoder plugin to export files to .MP3)
• Something to tag your audio files (Tagger for Mac & ID3 Tag Editor
for PC from www.ID3tageditor.com)

22. Other Useful Software
• GarageBand on Mac is great for creating into & outro music files or
segment transitions
• Ecamm Call Recorder for Skype is available for recording Skype
calls on Mac (costs $30)
• Free Video Call Recorder for Skype is available from
www.DVDVideoSoft.com

23. Show is created, your first episode is
recorded, now what?
Your audio file is all recorded, edited
and ready to share with the world.
Now what do you do?

24. Album Art
• Album art is the first thing someone will see when they find your
show so you need to make sure it not only looks great, but also
helps people understand what your show is about.
• This is something you should be willing to pay someone to help you
with if you are not handy with graphic design.
• iTunes wants images to be in .png, .jpg format with a minimum
resolution of 1400x1400 pixels and a maximum of 2048x2048
pixels.

25. Who will hold your audio files for you?
You now need to determine where you are
going to host your files so listeners can
access them from their computers or a
mobile device.

26. Options to host your audio files
Places you can host your audio files for distribution include:
• Libsyn – http://www.libsyn.com
• Blubrry – http://www.blubrry.com
• Soundcloud – http://www.soundcloud.com
• Your own webhost – You can actually upload your files to your own
webhost via FTP for distribution

27. Libsyn
• We currently use Libsyn to host the four shows I listed earlier
• Hosting plans start at $5 per month for 50MB of file uploads
• $20 per month gets you 400MB of file uploads along with nice
statistic reports
• We’ve never had any issues with our files being unable to be
accessed or played

28. Blubrry
• Going to use this for the first time with a show I am launching soon
• Hosting plans start at $12 per month for 100MB of file uploads, stat
analytics included
• Integrates well with the PowerPress plugin for Wordpress powered
websites

29. Soundcloud
• For $6 per month you can upload up to 6 hours of content
• Only available to listeners on your website, Soundcloud.com or via the
Soundcloud apps for Android & iOS. Windows Phone has an third party
app called Audiocloud.
• Limited statistic reports available with the premium plan which is $15
per month for unlimited uploads

30. Get your RSS feed verified
Next up you will want to get your feed verified using an RSS verifier.
Simply paste your RSS feed link in the website below, then fix any
errors that it reports back with.
http://castfeedvalidator.com/

31. How do people find my shows?
Now that your files are all safely hosted with your audio file host,
you have to share your RSS feed link to various websites & services
called podcast directories.
For a list of some that I have submitted our feeds to in the past,
visit www.podcast411.com/page2.html. Not all directories are still
active on this list, but it is a good starting point.
The main places to make sure to submit to are:

32. iTunes
The granddaddy of them all, iTunes is the FIRST place to submit
your feed to.
To read more about how to do this, this link will be able to walk you
through it: https://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html
If you get a “Byte-range request” error during iTunes submission,
make sure your first episode does not have clickable links in them.
More on this error at:
http://support.libsyn.com/faqs/byte-range-requests-and-itunes/

33. Stitcher Radio
Stitcher Radio is a service you will be seeing more frequently in the
future as the service gets integrated within car audio headsets.
There are also apps on multiple mobile platforms which to consume
the shows.
To submit your feed you first need to become a “Partner”, which to
do this, just follow the steps outlined here:
www.stitcher.com/content-providers

34. TuneIn Radio
Apps available on multiple platforms such Android, iOS along with
Windows & Windows Phone
To submit your feed here, you will need to email them with the
information they list here:
http://help.tunein.com/customer/portal/articles/1215148-how-do-
i-add-my-podcast-to-tunein-

35. Windows Phone & Bing
Windows Phone 8.1
• Windows Phone 8.1 uses a Bing-enabled search mechanism to locate podcasts. To improve the search results of
your podcast, add "feed:podcast" to your keywords tag within the RSS podcasts feed. Podcasts can also be located
by entering the RSS feed directly into the podcast app search window.
Improve Bing-Enabled Podcast Search Results
• By using Webmaster Tools, you can tell Bing about your site. In return, Bing Webmaster Tools tells you how well
your site is performing in Bing and Bing-powered search and keeps you up to date about issues we see on your site.
• To inform us about sitemaps or RSS feeds, including those containing podcasts, follow these steps:
• 1. If you haven’t done so already, sign up with Bing Webmaster Tools.
• 2. Add the site that hosts the Podcast RSS/feed and verify ownership of the site.
• 3. Use the Submit Sitemap tool and submit the full URL of the RSS feed containing the links to your podcasts.
• Within a few hours, you’ll see whether Bing successfully downloaded your sitemap or feed so that it can be
indexed.

36. Can I make money in podcasting?
Yes you can definitely make some money in podcasting.
Make sure to keep your expectations realistic, but if you have a good show
idea & can grow a solid following of regular listeners, you can get sponsors
that will pay to advertise & be mentioned on your show.

37. Ways to make money in podcasting
• Advertisers that pay you a set amount per month just to be
mentioned on your show
• Affiliate marketing – www.Lynda.com for example may accept you
into their affiliate program and send you a percentage of money
brought in from listeners who sign up for their services using your
links or a promo code

38. Ways to make money in podcasting
• Patreon or PayPal subscription service in which listeners can
choose to pay you on a monthly basis. If you can get 500 listeners
to pay just $1 per month, you have just made $500.
• Sell items such as shirts via www.TeeSpring.com or stickers.

39. Want to be a serious podcaster?
• Join podcasting meetup groups in your area, or start your own if
there is not already one. Check www.Meetup.com and do a search
in your area.
• Join podcasting focused groups on Facebook or Google+.
• Attend conferences such as New Media Expo in Las Vegas (April 13-
16, 2015) or Podcast Movement in Ft. Worth Texas (July 31 –
August 2, 2015)
• Find other shows that you like and study them for ways to make
your content better.

40. Q & A time
Any questions or things you would want
others to know about from your experience?

41. Link to this presentation
http://1drv.ms/1CvLwwh
@KevinHarvell