Let’s start with the basics.
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. Wikipedia
In short, it can be anything you want it to be!
When you start podcasting, you become the media. That means you get to decide what you produce, who appears in it, what topics you cover, and how you want to present it.
In the past, it took millions of dollars and legal frameworks to be able to broadcast a message to the public. Today, the only limit is your imagination. Anything you can think of can be created.
At WordPress.com we have listened to podcasts that contain interviews, “how-to” guides, fiction, surreal soundscapes, and meditation experiences.
You could make a weekly show, a daily show, a monthly show, make a one-off series, or even just one groundbreaking 5-hour episode. It’s up to you.
The term podcasting was coined in 2004 by a journalist describing the growth of amateur broadcasters.
People were starting to record their voices on computers and distribute those recordings through iPods. The term “podcaster” (iPod + broadcaster) stuck.
Today, you aren’t limited to Apple devices, of course. Podcasts can be distributed to, and played on, almost any internet-capable device around the world.
That means you — yes, you! — have a potential audience of billions of people. All it will cost you to reach those people is the price of a computer (which you probably already have) and maybe a microphone for maybe 100USD (or equivalent).
Podcasting continues to grow because it’s easy, but also because every niche and possible approach to a topic presents an opportunity for you to cover.
In this course, we’ll be showing you how to become a podcaster and reach all these people with your creativity.
When podcasts first appeared they were only made with audio. There was no video.
There simply wasn’t enough storage space for video in those days, and the internet wasn’t fast enough to carry the data needed to show video.
But as things got faster and the processing power of devices improved, many podcasters began to branch out into video. The lines between a podcast and a vlog blurred.
When you start out, though, our advice is to keep things simple.
You’re going to find that there is a bit to learn at the start, so you’ll want to keep your workload to a minimum. If you do that, you’ll find yourself focusing far more on the core essentials and in turn set yourself up for long-term success.
For this reason, we’ll be focusing on audio in this course. However, everything you learn here will help you expand into video later, if you choose to do so.
Audio has other benefits too!
If you’re looking for an engaged audience, audio actually works better than video.
When people watch a video they tend to skip through things. You have a few seconds to grab their attention and, at best, you might engage them for 10 minutes or so.
If you want people to listen to 30 minutes or even 2 hours of your content, then audio is the way to go.
Most people who listen to a podcast are doing so while doing something else: settling in for a show, washing their car, out jogging, or cleaning the house. Skipping through shows is not their goal.
Audio is also more intimate. It’s in your ear. Instead of seeing someone on a screen across the room, podcasters are literally inside your head, especially if you’re using earbud headphones. That makes for a far more intimate relationship between you and the podcaster.
We’re going to show you the whole process of making a podcast in this course, but let’s look at a quick overview first.
The first step in making a podcast is to record a show. Most often people record their voice on a desktop computer or laptop, but you could do it on a tablet or mobile device.
A microphone, either built-in or plugged in, converts the sounds your mouth makes into electronic signals that appear on your computer.
When you finish recording, you save those signals as a file. The file is no different to an image file you might see on a WordPress site. It’s is a collection of data which, if you share it with someone else, they can open to access it. In this case, opening the file allows them to listen to your recording.
Image files are often called JPEGs. It doesn’t matter what JPEG stands for (you can Google search acronyms if you’re really curious). What’s important is that it’s the extension used to represent the type of file that carries image data. In podcasting, the most common file type is an MP3. Again it doesn’t matter how it works; just think of MP3 as the file type you’ll be using.
Once we’ve recorded all these signals, what happens next? How do you distribute it to those billions of people?
You could email it to them, but there’s a much better way in podcasting.
You put it on the internet so that anyone at any time can access it. Where and how should you keep it online? Most people use a website host or a dedicated podcast hosting platform for this.
All these services generate something called an RSS feed for you. An RSS feed is a small file that contains all the information a podcast app on your phone needs to know about your show, including the logo, the list of episodes, and links to all your MP3 files.
If you want your show to appear somewhere like iTunes or Spotify, you give them the URL of your RSS feed. This URL tells them where to find your RSS feed and they do the rest.
When someone wants to listen to your show, they’ll open their podcast app and search for your show. The podcast app will look at your RSS feed and show them all the information about your podcast.
They’ll obviously be excited, so they’ll click play. The podcast app will then look at your RSS feed again, which will tell the app where to find the audio file you created… and just like magic, that audio file will play on their device.
Suddenly, that show you made in your office, your kitchen, or even your bedroom is showing up, with all its artwork and sound, for anyone, anywhere in the world.
Back to top