Speaking to your audience directly through podcasting – Part II

In my last post, I explained some of the basics of podcasting. Today, I am providing more detail plus some ideas to get started.

In my last post, I explained some of the basics of podcasting.  Today, I am providing more detail plus some ideas to get started.  

A person either downloads podcasts and listens to them through a podcatcher (such as iTunes or the Zune Store) listens directly by going to the website where the podcast is loaded and streaming the audio and/or video.  A podcatcher is useful because it automatically downloads the latest episode of each podcast to which you are subscribed.  You can listen to a podcast on your portable media player (iPod, iPhone, Zune, other MP3 player), your computer and many other devices.  You can get podcasts through software, like iTunes (which will download the newest episodes automatically) or on your computer or listen to them directly from Web.

Podcasts are surprisingly easy to create with only a few tools, many of which you probably already own.  Basically, you can create a podcast with a USB microphone, a computer and audio recording software.  A USB microphone cost $20.00 at Best Buy® or RadioShack® and most readers already have a computer that comes with audio recording software.  On a Macintosh computer you have GarageBand.  Even if you have no native audio recording software, you can download the free audio recording program Audacity which works on a PC or a Mac.

The podcast is created by you recording audio about something interesting or helpful, saving the audio and then publishing a “feed” which allows other people to subscribe and listen to the podcast.  Podcasters usually submit their podcast to software such as iTunes so it is available and easy to subscribe to for millions of people.  There is no cost to add a podcast to iTunes and you do not need to own an Apple computer to do so.

You check out Part I of this series here.

Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."