Thread by @SfPRocur

Okay! Let's talk about #Podcasting! What does it entail and how can you get started?
Here is a quick overview over the technical part of podcast production!

When I chose to make the podcast, I was looking for a cheap, low-effort way for long-form communication, that wasn't blogging. And I wasn't disappointed: Podcasting has a very low entry threshold.

"Easy to learn, hard to master" is a saying from the gaming industry that comes to mind ;)

I am assuming that you already know what you want to talk about and maybe even already know what the format should be like. I mean, it makes little sense to seriously consider podcasting without knowing what would be in there.

And there are lots of podcasts - and thus formats - out there to pick from. "Podcasting is the new blogging", after all 😉

So, what do you need to start a podcast?
For equipment, the really basic thing you need is a computer, headphones, and a microphone. I started the podcast with a USB microphone I borrowed from our SciComm department.

I simply put it in the middle of the table (it came with a table tripod), and we'd sit on either side of it and have a conversation. This was the last episode I made this way:
scienceforprogress.eu/4-founding-sci…

I recorded and edited the sound with @GetAudacity, a free program that is quite powerful, actually! I explain how to record your voice using the program in this video:

Basically you plug in the microphone, set audacity so it will listen to it, then figure out how to place yourselves so that the volume is good and hit record! After the recording you save it as a high quality WAV file for later editing.

If you use Skype, you can actually have it even simpler: Skype has a function to record the session! And there are other online systems, like Zencastr, which are actually made for podcast interviews. Worth a try!

Following the recording, you want to edit the sound file. Besides parts of the recording that aren't meant for the podcast, you want to remove all the uhhms and uhhhs. They do "sound natural" but imho make following the spoken word a real pain.

You probably want to record additional intro, and outro, calls to action, etc., because of the 4 basic components of communication pieces I mentioned? ;)
And that could already be it!! Just export it as mono, 64kbit compressed mp3!

https://twitter.com/SfPRocur/status/1156209035961651200

Now you need to host it somewhere. Don't do it on the webspace that you host your website on! That's too unreliable and it's perfomance doesn't scale well if you have many episodes and lots of listeners!

There are options for podcast hosting out there. I use @LibSyn. But I encourage you to make yourself knowledgable. If you use a wordpress website, you should consider @Blubrry.

Now your Podcast is accessible! (-ish)

Well, at least you now have a link that leads directly to the sound file.

Now you need the podcast distributed to all those podcast apps people are using (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify etc). For this you need a lot of things that your podcast hosting service will probably inform you about.

In order to submit your podcast to those services, you need an "RSS feed", which is a machine readable file that contains all the information necessary to display the episode in their services.
Here is ours: scienceforprogress.eu/feed/podcast/

I explain a bit more in this video:

Necessary information for submission include a cover art for the podcast, cover art for the episode, good titles for the podcast and the episode, information about the content, such as show notes, etc.

If you have a wordpress website for your podcast, you should install "PowerPress", which is made by @blubrry, and makes the process of submitting new episodes to the podcast distributors quite easy.

It works with any podcast hosting service that provides you with a direct URL to the sound file, but because it is made by Blubrry it has special integration features.

So, for me: I upload my file to libsyn, then write a blogpost for the show notes, and use PowerPress to add the sound file and create the special podcast RSS feed that is being sent to the distributing services.

When you have at least one episode up, you need to tell a couple of distributors to check out your RSS feed. The registration process can be different for different services. But your hosting services should help you out.

And boom! Your podcast is now discoverable!

Now, all you need is to promote it. As is obvious, I do that predominantly through social media. But you should also just tell everyone you know about it! Well... if it the conversation leads to it. 😉

"Where did he learn all this?!", you ask?

Well, there are podcasts and youtube videos on podcasting! Check them out! A lot of great information out there!