Podcasting Made Easy!

Ever wondered what it takes to be a Podcaster, and have your own show? You may be surprised to find out it's easier than you might think, and you can get started for little to no Federal Reserve Promissory Notes at all! If you've ever wanted to have your own show, but didn't know how or where to start, keep reading. If you don't, well, this page just isn't for you.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Firstly, you're going to need a few things to get started!

• A Microphone: This can be an actual microphone you might expect the lead singer of a band to be using, or as simple as a headset with a built-in mic. If you already have a headset or a mic from something like a Garage Band game, you don't need to buy anything!
• Audio Editing Software: There are a number of programs you can use, but at first I suggest Audacity, because it's 100% free, and fairly easy to use - even if you have no previous experience editing audio, you can figure this program out to do the very basics of what you need to do pretty quickly!
• An Audio Hosting Website: You can go as basic or as extravagant as you want here, but I suggest two places to start out at. Chirbit is an audio hosting website that's 100% free with no limits on how much you can upload and store on their server (they claim to give users the ability to submit their audio to iTunes and more, but I have yet to figure out how to do that there). Pod-O-Matic is a website specifically designed for hosting Podcasts of all kinds, gives you stats and a very nice profile page for your show automatically set up to look nice. The only downside to this (and others like it) is that there are limits to how much a free account can upload and store at one time, and eventually an upgraded account will be necessary, but it's a nice start and will give you an XML feed link to submit to places like iTunes, Stitcher and more.

Once you get these three things, you're literally ready to start recording your first episode! Now comes the tricky, but also very fun part of the process - figuring out what your show's going to be about.

NAMING YOUR PODCAST

A name for your show is I think obviously mandatory - and is the first thing anyone will see when they go looking for things to listen to. It's the most important part of your show, because no matter what the content of the program is, if you don't have a name that gets people's attention, nobody will listen to the content within! It really is up to you to figure this part out, and maybe you already have a show name in mind, but if not don't fret...it may take a while but the perfect name will come to you if you're patient enough.

I wouldn't suggest just calling it "The John Doe Show" or something similar, unless you're already a well-known celebrity who's name is all it would take to get people to click on it. For those of us who aren't plastic, fake people, we need catchy, witty titles for our shows to get people interested in finding out what's inside. Make sure to try and fit in what your show's going to be about into the title. If you're a Prepper, putting the word "Prepper" or "Prepping" into the show title will draw in like-minded people, for example.

HOW LONG SHOULD IT BE?

Your show is yours, and there's literally no-one who can tell you the perfect length your show should be - only you can decide that. Mine is around an hour long, and usually goes over a bit but that's OK, because that's what I want to do with my show, and sometimes it's what I NEED to do to fit in everything I want to talk about for that episode.

I've read in a few different places that the ideal length for a Podcast episode is around 30 minutes, just because a lot of people listen to them on the way to work, and the average drive time for people is just over 30 minutes to work from their home, giving them just enough time to listen to a show and entertain themselves how they want without having to cut it short. I, again, find that I just like an hour or so. It's totally up to you; you're the Producer, Director, Host, and Marketing Director for your show - you're the boss! Do what you want to do!

Listen to a few popular Podcasts and see how long they run their episodes on average, and then see what you want to do from there. The Alex Jones Show is multiple hours in length, and people still listen to them fully. Joe Rogan goes for however the hell long he wants to because people listen no matter what. Some people are successful doing a morning show for half an hour every day, and they have tons of listeners, too. It's all up to you, and most importantly, what you're offering to the listener - if they like the show, they'll listen to it no matter how long or short it is.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD I UPLOAD A NEW EPISODE?

This is a tricky one as well, because everyone has varying degrees of free time to spend working on a Podcast episode. The fact is, if you're like me and millions of others out there, you're not going to get rich Podcasting - you're going to do it because it's what you enjoy doing! Sure, if you build up a big enough fanbase, you can cover the costs of having paid hosting on websites for your show, buy your own web address to have for the show as well, and many other things - but the fact of the matter is, that you're simply not going to instantly start getting paid to Podcast. I haven't made a single red cent doing my show so far, but that's OK with me, because I enjoy doing it, and I think it's important enough to get the information out there for people to hear.

I personally upload a new episode every 2 weeks, and it seems to be just about right for me. You might want to do a weekly broadcast, or even a daily one - that's totally up to you! Remember, you're in control of your show and whatever works the best for you is what will work for your listeners. If they like your content, they'll listen whenever a new show comes out.

PROMOTING YOUR SHOW

This is the fun part, for me anyway. There are numerous ways to promote (or market) your Podcast once you have your first episode uploaded somewhere and ready for people to listen.

• Twitter: Make a Twitter account for the Podcast, and start spamming away! Make sure to use relevant hashtags, such as #Podcast #Listen #Comedy #Politics #Prepper #DIY #New and anything else that is a buzz word for your content.
• Facebook: Make a custom Facebook page for your Podcast, where you can update your listeners, and reach new potential fans, on what's going on with the show. You can also attach a Twitter account to this page, so that any updates made here will automatically instantly show up on Twitter as well.
• Blog: Blogger is a good way to promote your show to another group of internet-goers. You can also use Wordpress to promote your show. I prefer Blogger, but that's just because without paying for an upgraded account on Wordpress, you cannot embed from places like Chirbit.

Be creative! I'm sure you can find many more ways of promoting and marketing to people who would enjoy your Podcast if you think about it, but this is a nice start for you.

So that's basically it, you've got your first Podcast episode uploaded and being listened to by whoever happens to find it interesting or entertaining, and it has literally cost you ZERO Federal Reserve Promissory Notes to do all the way to this point! If you found this information helpful and find value in it, please consider a donation relative to the worth you attribute to it!