Anybody else doing podcasting?

Locusta

Expat writer in NL
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My husband and I do a biweekly podcast on the same subject as my blog (expat life in Maastricht, NL) and it is a free-form gabfest about what we've been up to. We love doing it and I find that many people are drawn in by the podcast first. I've actually gotten some local buzz because of it and now I want to do more voice work. (linked from my blog at http://maastrichtminutiae.com/about-the-podcast/)

No real tips except to work on getting the best sound quality possible. I listen to many podcasts but if the sound is particularly bad I'll drop it quickly. Opening music is nice too although I don't have something like that on my podcast yet.

On Vlogging, I don't do it because 1) I don't really have good equipment and 2) I don't want to perform visually to keep the vlog interesting. I don't really like watching talking heads and I imagine other people feel the same way.
 

Matt Willard

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I'm working in a middle-of-the-road kind of production. Basically what I'm setting up is a video, but it's a very minimal video. A slideshow, essentially, laid over a podcast. I'm debating whether or not to include it on my site as a downloadable MP3.
 

Hittman

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No real tips except to work on getting the best sound quality possible. I listen to many podcasts but if the sound is particularly bad I'll drop it quickly.

I started podcasting in 2005, when it was fairly new. (http://www.davehitt.com/podcasts/index.html) Way back then you could get away with mediocre or even bad sound if the content was good. No longer. There are tens of thousands of podcasts out there, and at least a dozen covering the same subject as yours. You've got one chance to grab the listeners attention, and if your sound is bad they'll unsubscribe your show in a heartbeat and move on to the next one.

I agree with the oft repeated suggestions that you record your first two or three podcasts as carefully as you can, then delete them without releasing them. Digital audio is as much art as science. Getting it to sound good is like getting a photo to look good in Photoshop – no matter how many tutorials you study, you have to put in the time and crank out some crappy work before you get good at it.