Podcasting For Dummies

Many years ago I looked into Podcasting around the time it was exploding on the web. I remember not only finding it complicated but expensive as far as the hardware you needed to buy.Fast forward a few years and I was curious to give it another shot, not only is it simpler, it's incredibly more affordable. Armed with a Samson Meteor USB studio microphone  Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone (Cardioid) a pair of Samson CH700 headphones  Samson CH700 Closed-Back Studio Headphones  and a copy of "Podcasting For Dummies" I dove in. The book is the effortless crash course I needed to avoid the pitfalls and actually begin creating Podcasts virtually immediately.The book is packed with easy to read and quite often amusing to down right funny material that answerers your questions and get's you "live" faster than you may have ever imagined. The authors have made a concerted effort to take any mystery out of Podcasting by doing away with the technical jargon and it reads in a light , conversational, easy to follow way. The book is filled with tips and resources and even includes cheat sheet pages in the beginning for those who want to get right to it. I find I rely on these pages quite a bit for sources and recommendations.One small tip that may help other readers is to make sure you brief yourself on the little icons used throughout this marvelous book. For instance, if something is particularly geeky there's a geeky icon printed by the passage your reading and so on. This adds more fun to the book making it a delightful read.I've also found the book an invaluable guide to return to time and time again. I would suppose for those already familiar with many aspects of Podcasting might use the book exclusively as a reference guide. But regardless if you read from cover to cover or simply use this terrific book as a reference guide you're sure to find Podcasting For Dummies invaluable.Other books have bored me to death and a few have and still remain abandoned in shelves and draws - not the case here. This is a wonderful read that most any Podcaster newbie or advanced will surely find themselves turning to again and again.Highest Recommendation.

I suppose as an introduction to getting your feet wet in podcasting, the second edition of this series is a nice starting point for those that need the foundation and background of the subject.The technical aspects, while good, could have been a little bit better in my opinion, but realizing that this book caters to those assuming they have zero or little experience in the field it's really difficult to judge. There are plenty of fine examples and walk-thru's on various subjects like RSS feeds, FTP posting, exporting files, etc., but most examples didn't get too deep and I had the feeling I was still missing the 'nitty-gritty' in some aspects.There is talk about various equipment including mixing boards and the various types of microphones and available software, but even now technology changes so fast it's hard for any book to stay current. As one example, the talk about freeware Audacity within these pages is already obsolete, as the current version of the software and add-on's have already progressed to the next incremental versions.Other topics include what to look for in hosting companies, how much bandwidth is needed, and configurations for things such as Skype, adding music intros, etc. The authors cover some good subjects that you might not really think of at first, or explore them in slightly broader terms that give pause...all good.My biggest issue with the book however was a few chapters dedicated to what I consider 'fluff'. While some may enjoy chapters on 'How to Interview', and 'How to craft your subject matter and questions' may be nice, I think they are better served in a journalism 'How to' book instead of 'podcasting'. I bought the book to learn the technical aspects of the hobby, not how to conduct or hone my writing skills. There were at least 3-4 chapters within the book that deal with these types of topics and have nothing to do with podcasting one could argue....they have more to do with elementary English classes.That's not to say this book should be overlooked. There is plenty of solid information contained within, and for the price, it's hard to go wrong, but unless you are very technically challenged, you might find some of the content a bit light in areas.

Podcasting for Dummies is a true and honest guide to the world of podcasting. What I apprecited about this reference was that there was no baised software or equipment they perfered. In fact, most of the sugguestions are easy and realtively inexpensive. The best part of this book is the how it helps you with the thought process of what you want to blog or talk about. My show is going on a year and although I purchased PFD it truely has helped my reinvent my recordings to be more ingenius and unique. It's a great start for those who are thinking about starting a podcast.

this guide book is really good.after the first two chapters I HAD so much motivation to start my own podcast that within a week of reading this I had already recorded two interviews.unfortunately there are some outdated links in the book, but that was not too bad.This book is a great place to start for anyone with zero knowledge and wants to know the basics.

As many other reviewers have said it would have been MUCH better if it was a little more up-to-date. Now, having said that I understand that this sort of content is always changing so it makes it tough to stay current. However, I loved the author's style, enthusiasm and wide range of related knowledge. The book gave me a great start for understanding podcasting.

This is a great book for the beginner, and has good tips for those more experienced also. The only issue I have is that they need to put out a newer edition. A lot has happened in this industry since this was published, and an update would be very helpful.

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.

Informative and helpful information for anyone looking to embark on podcasting

Easy comprehensive content which is ideal for newbies. Also useful for those new to vlogging.Kindle version is easy to navigate as well.

This is totally out of date - the medium is moving so fast and this proved pretty much useless to me.

Well this dummy is podcasting