Podcasting is one of the many vehicles we can use to get our message across to our audience of readers, listeners, clients and customers. If you're a regular visitor here you probably know about my YouTube channel, but it might come as a surprise to you that I've been podcasting for almost two years. Earlier this week, I made the podcast available to a wider audience and you'll be happy to know that you can download the Ms. Ileane Speaks podcast on iTunes. Yay!
As interest in the audio podcasting format continues to gain popularity, now is an excellent time for you to educate yourself and how you can use it to expand your audience and perhaps grow your business. Take a look at people like John Lee Dumas or James Schramko who are taking the industry by storm, and growing their businesses by leaps and bounds through the use of podcasting.
By definition, (according to Wikipedia) a podcast:
“is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of files (either audio or video) subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication.”
One crucial component to starting a podcast which cannot be overlooked, is getting the right podcasting gear. You might find podcasting gear to be one of the most fascinating and down-right fun aspects of the whole concept of podcasting. And just like anything else, you can take the high road and make a huge investment or you can try to do it on the cheap. I started out using a really cheap headset microphone that picked up tons of background noise and hum. I ended up somewhere in the middle of the road with a USB mic from Samson.
Podcasting Gear I'm Currently Using
I was fortunate enough to meet up with @mediacastguy on Twitter which was a blessing (and one of the reasons Twitter is my favorite social network). When he saw that I needed help with my mic he was nice enough to meet with me on Skype and walk me through all of the settings and explained how each one can be used. Once I got the mic set-up properly and found the “sweet spot” in terms of how far I need to place the mic from my mouth, the sound quality of my recordings was improved 100%.
If you decide to get this mic, let me know and I'll be more than happy to pass along the settings to you. At less than $100.00, this is a great mic if you're not ready to make the huge investment of a professional recording studio and it does a great job of capturing your voice without making you sound like you're in a wind tunnel or an echo chamber.
Podcasting Software
When it comes to software, once again, you can take the high road and invest in professional software or you can take advantage of some of the low cost and in some cases, free alternatives for recording your podcast. I use a two step process, that starts off with Screencast-o-matic and ends with free software called Audacity. I talked about using Screencast-o-matic for recording YouTube videos but did you know you can use it for producing audio recordings also? In this video, I'll walk you through the process and talk more about some other podcasting tools I'm using including the Logitech HD Pro C910 Webcam. Please watch this video I recorded called Podcasting with Samson C03U Mic and Logitech C910 Webcam
What podcasting gear are you using?
Have you started a podcast yet? If not, what's holding you back? If you are podcasting, please let me know what gear you're using so we can compare notes.
Don't forget to subscribe to the Ms. Ileane Speaks podcast on iTunes and give the podcast an honest review and rating in iTunes. I would really appreciate it.