– Sex and Podcasting –

Podcasting isn't a mass medium — it is really expensive to reach a large audience. In this show we'll run through the basic math of what it costs to reach people, and explore why podcasting is much better suited to “the long tail” — all of us narrowcasters. Becoming a super-popular mass media podcaster may force you to make choices you don't want to make.

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More in the “refinement of Podcasting 101” series. This show talks a bit about WHY I edit my shows, and HOW you can do it too (if you so choose — it's debatable whether it's a good idea).

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I'm tempted to hype this show like an infomercial… Proven techniques! Have worked for millions! But the truth is I have no clue why you're listening or how much you value these shows. This show tells you how to get your ratings, and then trys to convince you that maybe they're the wrong metric.

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This is it! In this show we'll get your MP3 file all wrapped up in an RSS feed (with enclosures) and generate your first podcast.

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Show notes

Here are links to the sites I mention in this show;

Blogger – a place to set up a blog if you don't already have one (free)

Feedburner – a site that will transmogrify your RSS feed so that it handles the “enclosures” that are crucial to podcasting (free)

Almost done with the Podcasting 101 series – hang in there, I'll take a little break from the “how to” stuff after these are done. This one talks about moving the MP3 file you've created out to the Internet so that other people can download it.

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Show Notes

These are links to the podcast-hosting sites I mention in the show;

Podblaze – free
Slapcast – free

Libsyn – $5/month
PodLot – $5/month
PodBus – $5/month

Continuing the Podcasting 101 series. In this podcast I walk you through getting your voice into an MP3 file — the basic building block of a podcast. This is probably the hardest, geekiest one in the series, so don’t be put off if at first you don’t succeed. If you get stuck, drop me an email and I’ll help you over the hump.

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Show notes

Here are a few useful links to help you through the hardest part (which is getting your mic connected to your computer). You’ll have to come out to www.SexAndPodcasting.com to see the links (they don’t show up in the iTunes descriptions yet).

Mac people can go here (this is a link to a support page on the Apple site that shows how to set up your mic).

PC people can go here if you’re running XP, or here if you’re running Win 95 or Win 98.

If you’re a Linux person, you’re on your own. But I bet you can figure it out.

Cookbook steps

– First, get Audacity ready to export MP3 files. They have a topic about that in the help menus — it differs by computer.

– Plug your microphone into the “mic input” jack on your computer

– Doodle around with the sound control panal until you get the mic “turned on” for recording (this differs by computer, see above for links)

– Fire up Audacity and hit the “record” button

– Hold the mic about a foot away from your mouth, say a few words and hit the “stop” button when you’re done

– You should see blobby blue stuff in Audacity where your words are.

– Final step – go into the “File” menu and select “export as MP3”

Another in this series of “how to do podcasts” podcasts (I'm loving the grammar possibilities). This one is the one that will get you to the point where you have a microphone, which is the all-important link between your voice and the recording. A little over 5 minutes of talk about the two main kinds of mics (dynamic and condensor) plus some shopping advice if you don't have a mic already.

Argh! I left out one crucial component in the shopping tips. If you decide to head out and get a mic, don't forget to buy a cable to connect your new mic to your computer. Tell the person at the store what you're trying to do, they should be able to figure out a “mic to computer” cable. If they can't, I'll include a representative link in the show notes.

SHOW NOTES;

Here's a link to a pretty good $20 dynamic mic — sorry, the link's too long to put in “iTunes visible” form, you'll have to drop by www.SexAndPodcasting.com so you can click on this link to a nice Audio Technica mic at Best Buy. No, I'm not getting paid, it's just a link to the mic i use. Note that this mic comes with a cable that will let you plug it into your computer. Pretty neat.

Here's a link to the condensor mics I use – MXL-2001. Same deal, you'll have to come to the site to see the link, and no there's no commercial connection. Maybe some time soon iTunes will let you follow these links directly.

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This is the first of a series of podcasts that, if you follow along, will get you to the point where you've made a podcast of your own. This episode talks about some really cool (freeware) digital audio software called Audacity. If you actually dig in and follow the steps you should have recorded some digital audio by the end. And even if you don't go through all the hoops I hope you learn a little bit about how to do digital recording.

Show notes;

Audacity software can be found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

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Da voice of da peepul has spoken — y'all thought my “how to podcast” podcasts podcasting idea sounded good. Nice grammar, huh? So I'm going to do a series. This first one is the result of my frantic packing-up to go to the Winnipeg Folk festival tomorrow. 'Fella's got to have a list, so I decided to share it with you. Subsequent shows will trace a step by step path which, when it's done, should result in you having put together and published your own podcast. All in little 5-minute chunks. Each accompanied by a little shot of (BMI) licensed music to take the edge off the good audio geekiness.

I'll post the checklist out on my blog too — the blog's URL is www.safe.haven.com

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