Podcasting has become one of the most cost-effective ways to extend your reach. In this session, you'll learn how to create an audio podcast to match any budget, using proven techniques that get listeners and results.

6. Podcasting 101:
Creating & Editing a podcast with Just a
Mic and a Computer
facebook.com/
RichHarringtonStuff
linkedin.com/in/
richardharrington
twitter.com/
rhedpixel

7. Podcasting 101:
Creating & Editing a podcast with Just a Mic and a Computer
Podcasting has become one of the most cost-effective ways
to extend your reach. In this session, you'll learn how to
create an audio podcast to match any budget, using proven
techniques that get listeners and results.
You'll learn how to set up a small studio; record audio, and
even interviews; edit your podcast; and create a podcast
feed (aka an RSS feed). This class is taught by Rich
Harrington, who's produced, hosted, or consulted on several
podcasts that have been routinely featured as the best of
iTunes.

8. Podcasting 101:
Creating & Editing a podcast with Just a Mic and a Computer
• Topics include:
• Setting up a studio
• Recording interviews and screencasts
• Editing podcasts with audio editing software
• Optimizing audio and video for podcast delivery
• Setting up an RSS feed
• Hosting podcast files
• Branding and promoting your podcast feed

9. Richard
Harrington
I'm a visual storyteller exploring
the fusion of photography and video.
I'm also a husband & father

10. Vital Statistics
• Author 40+ Books
• Author 150+ Video Courses
• Publisher of Photofocus
• Conference Speaker
• Business Owner
• Photographer

12. Past Projects
• America Online
• American Diabetes
Association
• American Israel Public
Affairs Committee
• American Red Cross
• Apple
• Children's National
Medical Center
• Department of Veterans
Administration
• Drobo
• Federal
Communications
Commission
• Google
• lynda.com
• Microsoft
• Skylum
• Smithsonian Institute
• Under Armour
• US Air Force

13. Advisory and Consultant Projects
• Television Networks
• ABC News
• CNN
• Discovery Channel
• Major League Baseball Network
• NASCAR
• Turner Networks
• Technology
• Adobe Creative Cloud
Advisory Board
• Apple
• Athentech
• Pearson Education
• Skylum Software

15. linkedin.com/in/richardharrington

16. What is Podcasting?
My company makes specific content for targeted audiences

17. In Order to Be a Podcast...
• Multiple Occurrences/Serialized
• Ability to Subscribe
• Uses RSS Feed
• Can be Joined or Left at End User’s Discretion

18. Benefits of Podcasting
• Opt-in audience
• Emerging technology with little competition
• Can target and track niche markets
• Provides “walk away” brand extension
• Viral communications medium
• Good content is shared freely

20. Preproduction Strategies
for Podcasting
Plan ahead and benefit later

21. Mapping Your Production

22. Delivering a Podcast
• Plan
• Produce
• Distribute
• Promote
• Monetize (optional)

23. Map the Production
• What is the roll out plan?
• weekly
• monthly
• specific day
• as new content is developed?
• Subscribers like consistency

24. Map the Production
• What is the production plan for
• schedule
• content acquisition
• budget constraints

25. Budgeting Guidelines
• Pay attention to talk radio
• Watch your local news
• Production value needs to be
“good enough”
• Don’t stand out for your
production value

26. The Five W’s for Refining a Show
Concept
• Who
• Who is going to watch the show?
• Who is going to host the show?
• What
• What topics will the show cover?
• What genre or format will it use?

27. The Five W’s for Refining a Show
Concept
• Where
• Where will the show be recorded?
• A studio? On location?
• When
• When will the show come out?
• Daily? Weekly? Monthly?

28. The Five W’s for Refining a Show
Concept
• Why
• Why would a viewer subscribe
• Why would they come back?

29. Determining a Production
Approach for Your Podcast
What format will you take?

30. The Benefits and of Drawbacks of Audio Podcasting

31. The Benefits of Audio
Podcasting
• Relatively affordable
• Much less complex
• Less equipment needed
• Shorter acquisition and editing times
• Lower bandwidth delivery
• Lower cost devices and hosting

32. The Drawbacks of Audio
Podcasting
• Doesn’t use as many senses to engage the audience
member
• Not as many channels for additional distribution options
• Harder to brand
• More background consumption

33. The Benefits and of Drawbacks of Screencasting

34. The Benefits
of Screencasting
• Popular genre
• Allows for educational content
to be easily shared
• Works well for B2B content
• Extremely low costs
• Low bandwidth delivery

35. The Drawbacks
of Screencasting
• Can be hard to consume at
lower bandwidth due to
compression artifacts
• Content is often less polished
• Can be a cluttered genre
• Difficult to standout and brand

36. Outlining a Show

37. Broadcast Clock
• A clock shaped diagram
• Divided up like a pie
• Each piece represents both a programming element and
its length in a typical hour
• Creates the flow of a radio station

43. Setting Up a Studio for
Podcasting
Essential equipment

44. Microphone

47. Acoustic
Treatment

48. Mixer

49. Computer
Input

50. Field Recorders

51. Recording interviews and
screencasts
Capture what you need

52. Interview Techniques

53. Building Rapport
• Pre-interview chat
• Ask them if they have any concerns
• Assure them you will edit
• Let them know they can stop and restart as needed
• Ask them about their interests

54. Audio Interview Techniques
• Ask open ended questions
• Do not interrupt
• Ask followup questions
• Avoid alliteration
• Encourage sips of water periodically

55. Audio Interview Approach
• Keep microphone placed to the side
• Mute microphone in between takes
• Avoid lip smacking
• Wear headphones to closely monitor quality
• Record split tracks

56. Recording an Interview with VOIP

57. Voice Over IP Software
• Skype
• FaceTime
• Google Voice

58. Recording an Interview Remotely
with Skype
• Callnote Premium Call Recorder
• Call Recorder for Mac
• Evaer video recorder for Skype
• Messenger Plus!
• Pamela for Skype
• SuperTintin Video Call Recorder
• Vodburner

59. Recording a Screencast on a Mac

60. Mac Screencasting Software
• ScreenFlow
• iShowU
• QuickTime
• Camtasia for Mac
• Snapz Pro X

61. Web-based Screencasting Software
• Jing
• Screenr
• Screencast-O-Matic.com
• Screencast.com

62. Recording a Screencast on a PC

63. PC Screencasting Software
• Snaggit
• Camtasia
• CamStudio

64. Web-based Screencasting Software
• Jing
• Screenr
• Screencast-O-Matic.com
• Screencast.com

65. Editing a Podcast
Put the pieces together

66. Audio Editors
• Adobe Audition
• Audacity
• GarageBand

67. Let’s edit a podcast

68. Compressing Podcast
Files for Delivery
Optimizing files for delivery

69. Compression Tools
• Adobe Media Encoder
• Compressor (macOS only)
• Cinematize
• MPEG Streamclip
• Handbrake

70. Architecture
• Global family or classification of a file
• Includes MPEG, Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, AIFF
• The ‘big’ picture

71. Compressor/Decompressor
• Algorithm that allows for shrinking of the files
• Some compressors cost additional money to the content
creator
• Decompressors are usually free to improve market share
• Shrinking the file using mathematical algorithms
• Modern compression techniques are significantly more
effective

72. Bit Rate
• How much data per second there is in your file
• The higher the number, the larger the file
• Larger usually means more quality, but codec dependent

73. Sample Rate
• The number of samples captured per second
• Audio CDs are 44.1 kHz
• Digital Video is 48 kHz
• Bigger is higher quality

74. Variable Bit Rate (VBR) Compression
• One of the most effective ways to create smaller files
• Computer analyzes the file before compressing the data
• Encoding this way is far slower
• If you can, choose this method for superior results

75. Batch Processing
• A benefit of many compression utilities
• Set up several files to run
• Walk away and leave a computer working hard
• Ensures consistency

76. Setting up an RSS feed
Needed for sending your files

77. RSS Technology
• RSS – real simple syndication
• A document written in XML
• Usually called a “feed”,and is used to publish frequently
updated content
• Works for blog entries, news headlines and podcasts
• Feeds can be subscribed to using an aggregator or just
viewed

78. XML
• XML – Extensible Markup Language
• The programming language that creates RSS feeds
through use of enclosure tags
• ID3 tags are also present in RSS, thus wrapping the
media with metadata

79. Enclosure Tags
• Allow multimedia content to be attached to RSS feeds by
providing URLs of their location.
• It was the creation of enclosure tags in 2001 that really
fueled the birth of podcasting.

80. iD3 Tags
• A system that allows users to store information, or
metadata, about the piece of media
• Can be embedded within a file

81. https://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html

82. Testing the Feed
1. Open iTunes/Podcasts
2. From the File menu, choose
Subscribe to Podcast or Add a Show by URL
3. Enter your podcast feed URL in
the text box and click OK
4. If you can successfully download and play the episode in
iTunes, then your feed is working and you can submit it to
the iTunes Store.

83. Feed Validator
• Use Feed Validator to test RSS Feeds
• www.feedvalidator.org
• Identifies errors and recommends solution
• Check periodically

84. Hosting Podcast Files
Serving your content

85. Hosting Essentials

86. Popular Hosts
• PodHoster
• Podcasts.com
• Libsyn
• PodBean
• Podomatic
• Buzzsprout
• Cachefly
• Amazon S3

87. http://www.libsyn.com/plans-pricing/

88. http://www.podbean.com/podcast-
hosting-pricing

89. Podcast Directories
• Podcast Alley –
http://www.podcastalley.com/
• Podcast Directory –
http://www.podcastdirectory.com
• Podcasts.com –
http://www.podcasts.com
• iPodder.org –
http://www.ipodder.org/

90. Submitting to iTunes
• You need to pay very close attention to the title, author,
description, and keywords tags at the <channel> level of
your podcast feed.
• This is the information that is indexed for searches. This
is also the copy that becomes your “packaging” in the
store.
• Make your title specific. Apple says, “A podcast entitled
‘Our Community Bulletin’ is too vague and will attract no
subscribers, no matter how compelling the content.”

91. Submitting to iTunes
• Minimize your use of keywords.
• iTunes favors the summary tag over keywords.
• iTunes recommends instead that you use keywords for
things like misspellings of names or titles.
• To prevent the abuse of keywords, iTunes ignores all but
the first 12 keywords you’ve entered.

92. Submitting to iTunes
• Make sure you assign a valid iTunes category (you can
browse iTunes for a list of categories).
• This makes it more likely the show will appear in its
appropriate category and makes it easier for casual
browsers to find your program.

93. https://itunespartner.apple.com/podcasts/

94. https://podcastsconnect.apple.com

95. Branding and Promoting
your Podcast Feed
An identity matters

96. Show Artwork

97. Designing Cover Art
• Cover art must be a JPEG or PNG
• Use the RGB color space
• Create at a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels
• Create at a maximum size of
3000 x 3000 pixels

98. Designing Cover Art
• Visitors will see your cover art in varying sizes depending
on the device they’re using
• Make sure the design works at both its original size and
at thumbnail size
• Include a title, brand, or source name as part of your
cover art

99. Designing Cover Art
• For examples of cover art, see the Top Podcasts section
in the Podcasts app or the iTunes Store
• The cover art, and all other podcast elements must be
original

100. Things to Avoid
• Pixelation, artifacts, high-contrast background art, blurry
or hard crops (unless stylistic), or other style issues
• References to illegal drugs, profanity, or violence in the
title, description, or cover art
• Images or language that could be construed as racist,
misogynist, or homophobic

101. Things to Avoid
• Images depicting sex, violence, gore, illegal drugs, or
hate themes
• Third-party trademarks without authorization or
usage rights
• The words “iTunes Store,” “iTunes,” or “Apple Inc.”

102. Things to Avoid
• iTunes Store logo, Apple logo, or the term “Exclusive”
without prior authorization from Apple
• Any visual representation of iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or
any other Apple hardware

103. Promoting Your Podcast

104. How Will You Be Discovered?
• There are three ways a potential viewer can find you
• Search
• Featured Content
• Top Lists
• Understanding the three methods is important if you
want to improve your chances of being found

105. Search
• Results are returned based on popularity and relevance
• Popularity relates to the number of new downloads in a
period
• Relevance is due largely to your video’s description and
keywords
• Be sure to write an accurate description
• You can also use keywords to address misspellings or
additional search criteria.

106. Featured Content
• The iTunes Store routinely features content
• Quality of content is strongest consideration
• Content must have attractive artwork
(which does not include Apple items like logos or iPods)
• Content that is released regularly

107. Top Lists
• Location on page will vary site to site
• These lists showcase the top podcast in each category
• Making these lists is based on new downloads
• Once you are on a Top List, maintain momentum
• Staying on a Top List is very helpful, as it makes it much
easier for browsers to discover your podcast

109. http://bit.ly/vupodclass
FREE
CLASS

112. One Year Access All Classes
• More than 100 classes
• Hands-on exercise files
• Video, Photography, Social Media, and Creative Business
$69Save $30 with code
VLOGU

113. Vlogging Bundle 2020
• One-time purchase
• Pictures that Move Creating Cinemagraphs
• Lighting Techniques for Video Interviews
• Hypersyndication: Maximizing Your Reach
• Live Video Streaming Essentials
• Mobile Apps for Photo and Video
• LED & Compact Video Lighting
• The Art of Video Interviews
• Managing a YouTube Channel
$79Save $170 with code
VUVLOG

114. Social Media Bundle 2020
• One-time purchase
• Pictures that Move Creating Cinemagraphs
• Delivering Video to Facebook Live
• Telling Your Story on the Web & Social Media in 60 Seconds
• Social Media for Photo and Video Pros
• Multi-platform Video Producing
• Telling a Story with Adobe Spark
• Managing a YouTube Channel $79Save $170 with code
VUSOCIAL

117. http://bit.ly/plotavlogu

129. http://bit.ly/plotavlogu

131. Podcasting 101:
Creating & Editing a podcast with Just a
Mic and a Computer
facebook.com/
RichHarringtonStuff
linkedin.com/in/
richardharrington
twitter.com/
rhedpixel