Product Description

Podcasting is like blogging out loud! It gives you a voice—one that can be heard worldwide on computers, iPods, or other MP3 players. You can podcast to boost your business, promote your passion, share your opinions, or just have fun. The point is to say what you want to say to those who want to hear it. With step-by-step explanations, screen shots, and tons of examples, this guide clues you in on recording, producing, and hosting your very own podcast with info on:

• Finding your voice and your niche, whether you want to talk tech, make your own kinds of music, educate listeners, make people laugh, do soundseeing tours, serialize your novel, or invent a new podcasting genre  
• Getting the bare necessities (if you don’t already have them), including a microphone, recording software, and an audio card
• Audio editing software such as Audacity, Cakewalk for PCs, GarageBand for musicality, and Audio HiJack Pro for Macs
• Recording, including understanding dB (decibel levels), capturing or minimizing ambient noise, and more
• Editing with GarageBand or Audacity, adding bed music, and including intros and outros for a signature finishing touch

You want your podcast to be heard. Podcasting For Dummies helps you launch and promote it with info on how to:

• Downsize your audio files with MP3 compression
• Change bit rates and sample rates in Audacity and iTunes
• Create and edit your ID3 tags in Audacity or iTunes
• Post your show notes using Movable Type or Libsyn
• Simplify the RSS 2.0 feed by using blogging software or a podcast-hosting company such as Audioblog.com, Podcastamatic, and Feeder
• Ping for publicity
• Communicate with your listeners on your blog, through online discussion groups such as Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups, or on online forums

Of course, if you want to be a podcatcher (a listener) and subscribe to podcasts, this guide shows you how to do that, too! Complete with a companion podcast—a free weekly audio commentary that will keep you up to speed on the podsphere—this guide helps you get your message heard, loud and clear.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49214 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Review
“…Evo Terra,who wrote the book on podcasting, literally; he was co-author of ‘Podcasting For Dummies’” (Observer, March 2007)

Download Description
Podcasting-recording the equivalent of a radio show and making it available through Web download or an RSS feed-is the next big thing in online communications, with more than 1,300 podcasts currently listed on one directory site This book shows would-be podcasters step by step how to get started, from recording a show to attracting a fan base Topics covered include gathering the necessary software and hardware, recording and mixing a podcast, making the podcast available for sharing, spreading the word, and finding subscribers

From the Back Cover
Got something to say? It's easy with a podcast!

Subscribe to podcasts, put together your own, and build a fan base

Podcasting really is twenty-first century communication, and you can be a part of it! This book gives you the scoop on listening to, producing, and distributing podcasts, points you toward the best hardware and software for creating one, and makes it easy to turn your computer into a recording suite, plus a whole lot more.

Discover how to

• Decide on a podcast focus
• Find and use the necessary hardware and software
• Record and mix a podcast
• Get your podcast online
• Use a little XML
• Promote your podcast

Customer Reviews

Exactly What I Was Looking for in a Podcasting Book
Podcasting is something that just about anyone who has spent a fair amount of time on the internet has at least heard about. I will personally admit to having only listened to perhaps a handful of them myself - at least to this point. I did, though, come into reading Podcasting for Dummies with a basic knowledge of how they were presented thanks to some digging on the internet to educate myself a while back.

Not that it mattered. The book does a great job of outlining all the ins and outs of podcasting. No preliminary knowledge is required. Perhaps more importantly - at least for someone like me - the book isn't so painfully introductory that one with a working understanding of the subject feels like their time and money is wasted.

I picked up Podcasting for Dummies because I've been thinking to start my own podcast and wanted to develop a more complete understanding of it all, and get some hints and tips on ways to make it all more efficient. That's exactly what I got, so I am definitely a satisfied customer.

Answers the curiosity questions
I picked this up simply because I was curious about podcasts as I hear people talking about them more and more.

As with many dummies books; this is a great initiation for those that ask "What is...." This book takes you through the whole process of setting up and publishing a podcast. It even gives advice with equipment, handling interviews, and setting up sites for distributing your podcast.

If you have never worked with the web, there are a couple chapters that might bore you as they deal with RSS and XML. They are more of an introduction but they might bore if not confuse people if they have never seen html.

The book also gives suggestions about content, finding a niche and basically finding your place in the pod world. It even offers some answers to some legal issues that a person could run into if they are not careful such as publishing music.

There are many links offered for further study

Overall, this is a great book if you find yourself asking what's a podcast? It could answer the question "Is podcasting for you?"

For me it's not something that interests me at the moment. However, I know much more after reading this book.

Short Sweet And To The Point
If you know nothing about "how" a podcast is made get this book, even if you don't plain to be a podcaster (I do tho!?) This book will give you a really good idea as to what goes into and what it takes to make a podcast.
Plus its a really easy read, and at time funny.Podcasting For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))