I was looking for information about podcasting for a blog which delivers Egyptology-related news stories several times a week. I wanted to enable it for people with eyesight problems and podcasting seems a great way to go. Often web-based functionality is best read about on the web itself, but in this case I couldn't find a web source that provided all the information in one place so I bought this book on the strength of one of the two reviews on Amazon. It is my first "for dummies" book and is conversational in tone but a lot less anecdotal and quirky than I was expecting, which is a good thing for me. It is aimed squarely at the beginner but doesn't talk down to the reader. Explanations are clear and well thought out. Nothing in the book left me confused.
The book covers the most basic hardware startup challenges like buying the right sort of microphone for the sort of podcast you're aiming for (there are a number of options and there is a terrific description of which sort to choose, with recommendations). I had no idea what a basic mixing board does and why one would need one but the book explained it perfectly.
Software is also tackled. There are recommendations on what sort of recording software and file uploading software to use, from the free of charge to the seriously expensive. There is also a helpful discussion, plus guidelines for use, of the all important role of RSS. The chapter on RSS is really invaluable.
The need to find an appropriate voice and personality for your topic is identified as a particular challenge, and this is discussed along with issues like how long your podcast should be, and how to ensure that your subject matter remains within the law. There's a whole chapter on how to conduct interviews.
Very few recordings are going to be perfect first time and there is a chapter about how to edit a recording rather than re-doing it, and how to add background music to an existing recording. The basics of the technical aspects of converting your recording into a podcast (mp3 compression, bitrates, sample rates and ID3 tags) are covered in a way that makes them easy to understand and apply.
Promoting your podcast is important and there is all sorts of advice about how to go about this, from providing show notes that will be picked up by search engines. There's also a very practical chapter on benefitting from your podcast financially, and another on podcasting for publicity.
There's only one miniscule problem, which is that some of the instructions for software like Audacity and iTunes are slightly out of date. This really is a tiny problem because all the functionality that has been mentioned has been retained in the software and can be found in its new location with a bit of digging around.
In summary this is a great book for introducing the beginner to podcasting, with guidelines about how to get started, how to present and position your show, and how to get it noticed. It is mainly aimed at those of us who want to create podcasts but there is plenty of help for those who just want to listen to them. An invaluable introductory guide.
