Let’s start podcasting, it’s not hard, and you don’t have to buy anything…except a computer. I’m going to show you how to create a podcast using a couple Free tools that you can get from the internet, and show you have to then add to your blog, and then I will subscribe them to Itunes.

Before we start, here is what you need for the most simple podcast.

• A Working Microphone, A broken microphone will not work in this situation… I tried.
• Sound Recorder - This is a free application that comes with Windows. To access the Sound Recorder go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Sound Recorder
• A blog, or another way to create an RSS feed. If you need to build a blog, go to http://realivent.com/wp-signup.php
• Itunes to play the podcast. You can also play the mp3 directly from your blog, but Itunes will let you see how other will view and subscribe to your podcast. Get this from www.itunes.com. There is also a good explanation of what podcasting is.
  http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcasts.html

Ok, you ready…Sound recorder is very simple, just get your mic and click on record.

If this is your first podcast, I bet you said “testing, testing, 1, 2, 3″ everyone says that the first time. I don’t know why…but I bet you did.

You have to save the file as an mp3…you can’t podcast the default .wav file that sound recorder tries to save it as. Make your recording and then click on save. You have to change a couple setting on the save file box. Change “Save As Type” from “.wav” to “All Files”. Click on “Change”, below “Save As Type”. This will open a Sound Selection box. Use the drop down to save the output as an mp3. Click “OK” and the sound selection box will close, and you can save the new recording as an mp3.

**Make sure you use the full file name. If you only use the filename “podcast” it will still save it as a .wav file. You have to type “podcast.mp3″ to save the recording as an MP3.

Now that you have you a shiny new mp3, you need to get it out to the public. There are millions of people just waiting for your information. The easiest way to syndicate is to add it to a blog. If you don’t have a blog, just go to realivent.com and create a free one. I created pods.realivent.com. To add your mp3 to your blog is easy, just go to the admin section of the blog, write a new post, upload the mp3 using the file uploader, and then send to post. Once it’s in a post, people can subscribe to it, just like they subscribe to your blog. Itunes is able to parse blogs and find only the mp3’s. When a new podcast is available it will not download it, but you can see that there are new podcasts, and then you can choose to download the mp3 and listen.

If you open up Itunes, you can subscribe to my podcast at http://pods.realivent.com/feed

I was hoping to finish this post earlier and continue to talk about enhancing the podcast, but I think I will do that later. There is a very cool music editor that you can use for free called Audacity. I will take my simple podcast and add some background music to it. Then once we get the editing down we will look at using Skype to create podcasts. When you use Skype you can create podcasts with multiple people from all around the world…should be good.

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