Added benefit of making lots of YouTube. videos is my blog gets a good amount of traffic from YouTube. Maybe we should all start adding a face to those podcasts :P

I definitely think that WordPress and PodPress is the easiest way to get a professional sounding podcast out there (because MyPodcast.com looks and sounds more amateur than karaoke at the rec center). However, I’ve found that I can get better results and have more control over what I want to do by implementing a system of custom keys and custom feed templates, as I did over at my primary podcast network, http://bitwire.tv. It works really well, but really isn’t necessary unless you’re doing multiple podcasts on one blog or want an extreme amount of control over publishing, pingbacks, etc.

As for equipment, I have probably a fairly advanced setup compared to most podcasters, so it’s really not fair to compare. A photo is located at http://tinyurl.com/6lbo2s. I use a Heil PR-40 mic along with a Behringer XENYX 1622FX mixer, a ProCo Short Stop momentary mute switch, an APHEX 204 exciter, and a M-Audio MobilePre USB audio interface, a JK Audio Broadcast Host phone hybrid and various other bits of equipment to get the job done. I also use three different computers: one for recording and playing theme music (some shows I add music in real time), one for Skype and any other communications, and one for reading stories and viewing webpages as I move along with the show. I used to use Adobe Audition for my recording and editing, but I’ve found that a simple open-source program called Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) gets the job done well and it works great.

Again, I don’t think it’s really fair to compare, seeing as in most cases all you need is a $20 mic from Radio Shack and a computer to produce a high quality show. Also, the equipment is only one part of putting together a quality podcast. Audio quality is the second most important thing to think about. The first, and most important thing to remember when producing a podcast is to have good quality content. As John Emm, a good friend of mine and a news radio veteran would say, “You need to have something to say and you need to know how to say it.” Everything else is just extra.

Thanks for the tip about the podcast category. PodPress has been updated to work with the new version of WordPress and is now better than ever. You might want to try it again.

Podcasts can build unique audience of a blog. Depends on the blog, I sometimes prefer to listen to podcast.

A tip: If you mix your podcast within your blog, create a podcast category, so others can subscribe via [yourblog.com]/category/podcast/feed

I messed around with BlogTalkRadio.com and it’s very easy to use – and having the opportunity to take live call-ins and have live chat is spectacular.

This is kind of a carry-over from yesterday’s post…

But: If you’re not live, it takes a heckuva lot of material to do five quality minutes for a blog podcast.

I think most podcasters way over-reach.

Imus, Limbaugh, Keillor, et al don’t make those big bucks for nothing.

Speaking at 200 wpm – you can do the math. I know I’ve never written a 1000 word post. Filling with music is just filling.

I’m not into audio editing, so that would be a new skill and probably a chore.

However, I love it when a blogger I’ve read for a long time, suddenly injects a few minutes of their spoken voice. And I’ve had the same reaction when I did it.

It’s fun to hear the colloquialisms and accents!